"Things are seldom what they seem." WS Gilbert.
Chapter 72
Anakin attacked in the next moment.
The power he unleashed forward rumbled the foundations of the citadel, the tiles cracked underfoot, a groaning was heard throughout the structure. The dark clouds above simply ceased existing as they were driven away, revealing the unknown starscape.
It was stupendous.
All that telekinetic power crashed on Bogan, seeking to rob him of the Mortis blade.
He naturally wouldn't just let that happen.
His response was a counter-telekinetic wave that was like the power of two oceans suddenly meeting.
The citadel now felt like it was being held in the hand of a titan and it was giving it a good shake.
The floor where the two forces met was sundered instantly, it ceased to exist in a way that should've induced fusion with the combined pressures. Thankfully, we weren't in the normal universe at the moment and were not incinerated by the resultant energy release.
I firmly shook off the fascination and awe at what I was witnessing, then began dragging myself forward.
Stupid knee.
My hand grabbed an unconscious Obi-Wan's booted foot and stopped him from sliding further forward into the narrow chasm that had been eroded by the competing Force Waves.
Both newly cut sides of the citadel were now steadily leaning inward, creating a slowly rising slope as it was grinded away further and further.
I gathered Obi-Wan into a proper hold, threading my arm under his armpits and dragged us backward. Anakin didn't need the worry of Obi-Wan and myself distracting him at this moment.
Every movement was agony on my knee but I fought through it, pulling us both to the nearest place that looked somewhat stable, the remains of a pillar on the right side of the room. I deposited Obi-Wan there. It would keep him safe even if the citadel kept angling over.
I screamed through the pain as I pulled myself to a vertical base using the pillar and supported myself with it.
My eyes fixed on the continuing battle.
I had to do something.
Could I add my strength into the fight? Maybe, but that was not guaranteed to work. I knew Anakin had the power to dominate both Ashla and Bogan simultaneously, but that possible event had not been in the middle of the latter's domain.
"Ah ha, ha, wonderful! More!" Bogan laughed with delight as he unleashed his power in a way he had probably never needed to.
There had to be a way to stop this without just doing a stupid power contest!
Maybe…
Bogan looked at me.
His red eyes seemed to suck me in and gather all my attention and focus.
It was like my consciousness had suddenly tripled.
I knew I was leaning against a pillar on Mortis.
I was also standing in the infinite black void with the stony crystalline floor that I usually experienced when I meditated with the Darksaber. In front of the second me, I saw another me - looking just like Bohsoka in form, but without the characteristics of Dark Side corruption. It was an older me, wrapped in the arms of Padme as we made enthusiastic, passionate love to each other.
My third point of view was in my older self as I was devouring Padme's lips and our hands were roaming everywhere. I felt the delicious sensations, every caress, leaving pleasure burning in its wake that lanced into my being.
Frak, was this Bogan trying to distract me with tempting visions? A form of Dun Möch? Trying to prevent me from interfering in the fight.
The sensations bled over to all three of me. Trying to rob me of rational thought and just give in.
I would not!
I blinked and suddenly it was no longer Padme, but instead Anakin.
The pleasure and pressure kept building, lancing up my spine and into my brain.
'Stop thinking Ahsoka, give in,' Not-Anakin whispered lovingly to my right montral.
All three of me were gritting their teeth and my brain was also trying to manage the multiple points of view being forced on me.
No.
Anakin was gone. Now it was a very hunky, battle-hardened Korkie Kryze. He looked like the quintessential distillation of martial masculinity, along with distinct scars from blade, blaster and even residual, healed burns of lightsabers.
We were now floating in the air, wrapped up in each other's arms and using the Force in a fantastical way that was utterly fantastical and awesome. It wasn't flight, as such, it was as if… we had just told gravity to take a break in a defined area around us.
We were in free fall.
'Isn't this amazing, Ahsoka?' Not-Korkie said. 'Don't you want this?'
I wouldn't answer. Doing so would play right into his hands and increase the grip he had on my psyche.
The crystalline black void vanished.
My outermost point of view, the adult me, went from experiencing the heights of ecstasy and nirvana to a sudden mellow contentment, amusement and an almost painful love.
She was dressed casually with shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt, sitting on grass in a clearing, with a beautiful green forest surrounding it. She was laughing and play-wrestling with two young children of roughly five and six years old who were shrieking with delight and bounding around her.
My second self who was relegated into watching this helplessly, unable to move, could only look on in shock. The boy and girl were human at first glance, but the natural dark blue hair and unique facial patterns told the story - they were togruta-human hybrids - they were my children.
That hybridization was even possible naturally was something that most likely came from a genetic legacy that the Rakatan Infinite Empire had left on a large percentage of the humanoid races. In this case, the roll of the genetic dice had given my children hair on their heads, another pregnancy could throw it in the other direction; giving the child montrals and lekku but also eyebrows and body hair with less defined skin patterns.
The playing continued until the boy pleaded for mercy from the tickles. "Mommy! Stop… oh wow, look." He pointed a stubby finger up into the sky.
My adult self looked calmly up, knowing already what he had spotted.
I looked up and another shock hit me.
In the distance, the mountainous forest horizon continued for seemingly infinite kilometers, it was as if the best landscape painter in the galaxy had designed this place and it was not far off from the truth in technical terms. Someone had composed it.
The horizon and blue sky continued, but further it curved bizarrely upward and narrowed…
I was on a Halo-style Orbital!
That wasn't what had attracted my son's attention though. It was the fleet of ships emerging out of hyper and approaching the Orbital.
Most were what I thought were Imperial-II class Star Destroyers at first glance, but no, my adult self knew these were Vindicator-class Star Destroyers, the true successor to the Venator.
They were fifteen of them all clustered protectively around the massive Mandator-II Mothership that had built them.
"Daddy's home! He even said hello in my head," the boy declared with a happy glee.
My daughter settled herself snugly on my lap and also looked up at the ships, "Ugh, I bet if you were the boss of all those ships, things would go much faster."
"Oh, you don't think daddy can handle it?" I asked with amused affection.
"Of course he can, but you can boss ships better. Things will be over faster then and then you'd both be home."
My adult self chuckled, stroked her daughter's hair to tidy it up and kissed the top of her head. "I'm doing just as important a job, raising you two rugrats."
"We're not rugrats, mommy!" The boy objected with a pout.
"Isn't this what you want, mommy?"
My adult self looked down into the daughter's eyes, which had changed to the corrosive yellow of dark side corruption.
No!
"Ahsoka!" Anakin's voice screamed.
Finally, my mental fingers found the odd hold of Bogan's Dun Möch on my psyche and pulled…
I was fully back in the here and now, back in the driver's seat of my young sixteen year old body, facing the battle between Anakin and Bogan in the crumbling Citadel on Mortis.
There was no time… no time for consideration, no time for debate, pros, cons, there was only time to do or do not.
I fell forward into a crouch and planted my hands flat on the rumbling floor.
My will surged through the matter under my palms and I comprehended immediately that it wasn't actually matter as I would define it. I banished my curiosity, even as the revelation that should've been obvious hit my brain in a huge 'Ah ha!' moment.
The floor, wall and throne behind Bogan abruptly shattered into large chunks of the stone-metal that everything built by the celestials on Mortis seemed to be made of.
I didn't give him a moment.
Stone-metal chunks blasted towards his back as if they were shot out of an autocannon.
They smashed into him with enough force that he actually stumbled forward.
Anakin didn't waste the moment I'd bought him.
He took a step forward and surged his power.
Bogan was pushed back, skidding on his feet as he came close to the edge of the ruined Citadel.
I still had ammo.
I sent another volley of stone-metal that smashed into Bogan and now literally broke on him, sending smaller pieces flying off as shrapnel.
Now he was fighting Anakin and fortifying himself enough to survive my kinetic strikes.
The look on Bogan's face was thunderous and wracked with pain as he was pelted by chunk after chunk of stone-metal.
My telekinesis also began recycling the projectiles, picking back up the smaller shrapnel generated and shooting at him again - effectively turning his side of the battle into a stone-metal grinder.
Bogan narrowed his eyes and I felt the Force begin twisting oddly around him, seemingly going in directions that there weren't words to describe.
The celestial dark sider's form seemed to briefly distort - before he vanished.
Anakin and I aborted our attacks as quickly as we could.
We didn't even need to turn our heads to know that he had already reappeared behind us.
The Mortis blade in Bogan's hand was held out like a lance in front of him as he blurred with such speed that I thought he teleported again.
Just how the bastard had managed to use a teleport in the utter turbulence of the Force around us I had no idea.
His face was a rictus of fury and triumph as he charged forward, aiming to run Anakin through with the blade.
The sheer speed of the attack was such that Anakin didn't even bother turning around.
I felt him start to send out a Force Wave to stop Bogan but it was too late!
The celestial stopped dead instantly, the Mortis blade's tip merely an inch from Anakin's back.
Bogan's face lost its triumphant malice and turned blank as he looked down at the blade, then up, his eyes boggling and suddenly I saw anguish in those orbs.
"NO!" he shouted with agony and jumped back…
Leaving the Mortis blade hanging in mid air.
My mind boggled as I struggled to understand what was happening.
Then after a blink of an eye, Ashla reappeared.
Her magnificent luminous form seemed to fade into existence around the Mortis Blade, until she had fully materialized - with the blade impaled through her abdomen.
My stomach felt like it was being sucked through the Maw and a cloak of despair settled on my shoulders. I wanted to throw up and just…
Ashla merely smiled at her brother with a wan sadness and love before falling over backward like a puppet with its strings cut.
"Nooooo!" Bogan shouted in agony, clutching at his head, his knees giving out as he knelt on the floor. He blurred forward and was now kneeling next to his sibling, caressing her head softly, "Why? Why would you do that? For them?! They don't deserve that!"
Ashla lifted a hand weakly and caressed her brother's cheek, "You wouldn't stop brother and… it's in my nature."
Her hand fell and the luminous radiance of her presence dimmed.
In the Force, it was unmistakable. Where there had been two suns of power, now there was only one in front of us.
Ashla's form discorporated, vanishing into the Force.
"No! No, no, no, no, noooo! What… what… what have I done?" Bogan asked of himself, staring at his own hands.
He surged to his feet, turned into his gargoyle-like form and blasted away with such speed that I was sure he had broken whatever sound barrier there was on Mortis.
Leaving Anakin, an unconscious Obi-Wan and myself on a tower that was groaning ominously.
I summoned every bit of will I had to not fall further into despair and instead fell into action.
I rushed with a limp to Obi-Wan and with a bit of a Force buff to my strength, combined with TK, lifted him up into a fireman's carry over my shoulders.
"Master! We have to go now!" I shouted over the cracking and crumbling of stone.
Anakin was still a bit flabbergasted at what he witnessed, but shook it off and nodded.
Seeing that he was okay to go, I engaged my boot jets and rocketed into the sky with Obi-Wan on my back. I had to compensate for the extra weight using the Force, creating a low level telekinetic cushion around the Jedi Master - effectively getting rid of his weight.
I felt Anakin also engaging his boot jets a moment later and following.
My eyes spared a brief look behind me as the once proud, imposing citadel, now cut in half and structurally on its last legs, gave out completely and collapsed inward, radiating out a massive wall of powderized stone-metal.
Heart still clenching and anger beginning to cloud my mind, I focused hard on the image of Bendu's monastery, pushing it outward into the Force around me.
What the frak, had been that old celestial's plan?
It can't have been this.
It can't.
For what felt like hours we flew over the dark domain of Bogan and was treated to every form of landscape that you could generally call dystopian; deserts, ominous tall pillars of stone that stretched from horizon to horizon, mountain ranges beset with active volcanoes, rivers of lava and ash hanging in the air, petrified forests, bogs and deep marshes that might as well have been ripped straight from Tolkien's Arda.
Of course, with our luck at the moment, Obi-Wan chose this moment to regain consciousness.
"Oh blast," he muttered and I sensed the master's deep seated instinctual fear of flight rushing to the fore.
"Easy master!" I shouted over the rushing wind, using the Force to carry my words to his ears.
Obi-Wan lightly tested the hold I had on him, looking around at the distant ground below. He wisely didn't fight my control and I felt him push away his fear and relax into the grip I had on him.
I next felt him send a mental probe to me, which I accepted, pulling Anakin into the conversation as well within my mind.
'Am I to gather that things did not go well after our unfortunate Tutaminis accident, Anakin?'
'The good news, master, is that we survived the battle and are safe for the moment. The bad news is that Ashla had to sacrifice herself for us to manage that,' Anakin reported grimly. "Snips, we better land and let the boots and armor systems recharge."
'Okay, urgh, we really should've been out of this place already.'
I brought my legs forward to reduce my velocity, releasing a Push to bleed off the rest, then kept my feet to the ground and began reducing thrust.
We landed on top of a rather flat mountain that was the color of black volcanic ash. It didn't have anything in terms of shelter if any electric storms hit, but a quick check of my armor's secondary interface on my gauntlet showed that we would not be flying for at least two hours. We would have to walk from here.
I put Obi-Wan down on his feet and he began limbering and stretching.
"Oh thank goodness," he couldn't help but say.
"Snips, why do you think we should already be out of Bogan's domain?"
I arched a non-existent eyebrow at him and didn't resist the temptation to facepalm. "Skyguy, have you gotten so caught up in our surroundings that you've forgotten the nature of this place?"
"No?" he answered uncertainly. "Give me a break, I'm not exactly in a good state of mind at the moment."
"Argh, no wonder it wasn't working. Master, stop thinking about this hellscape around us and focus on Bendu's monastery, picture it, feel the need to be there and release it into the Force."
"Snips, I know the Force Teleport skill exists, it's an extremely rare feat to achieve and even those who manage it find it's not worth the cost of just moving a limited distance at best-"
"No, no," I interrupted him with exasperation. "Do exactly as I say, we're going to walk that way," I pointed to my left. "When we do, we're all going to focus on that monastery, the need to get there, release it into the Force. Got it?"
Obi-Wan stroked his beard for a moment, "I think I see what you're getting at Ahsoka."
"Good, Skyguy?"
"No, but I'll do it anyway."
I grabbed both men by the arm, threading my own through theirs, standing between them.
"Ready? Focus… and step…"
We made four painful steps before, between one blink of an eye and the next, we were standing abruptly before the vast steps that led up to Bendu's monastery.
"And that's how you do that," I said with satisfaction, let go of them and gave Anakin a pointed look before limping up the steps.
Mortis was a realm of the Force, once you fully embraced what that meant, everything became flexible.
The massive doors parted open automatically on our approach and beyond Bendu was kneeling on his meditation perch in the massive room, like nothing had happened at all. As if he hadn't just lost his daughter.
Now that I didn't have to worry about leaving behind Obi-Wan and Anakin, I focused and released my will into the Force.
I took a forward step and was instantly in front of the serene Bendu.
"Well done, Ahsoka," he complimented me.
"Screw that," I spat, feeling the rising anger take hold briefly. I took a deep breath and passed it through. "What the frak was that?! Was that your brilliant plan after everything I warned you about?"
He took a few moments before opening his eyes and a burning anger simmered there. "No, it was my daughter's idea. I am many things Ahsoka Tano, but one of them is a father. What father would ever want their own daughter to sacrifice themselves? I would take her place in a femtosecond if I could, but the honest truth is that my death would not affect my son in the way that is needed. Deep down, buried under the Dark Side that he allowed to fester, Bogan still loves Ashla and always will. She realized instantly when she saw the true depths that he had sunk to, that it would be the only way to reach him and return him to a measure of equilibrium. Her love for him and selflessness wouldn't allow for any other course of action."
"What of the coming of the Mother?" Obi-Wan asked as he and Anakin approached. "Did she not think of that?"
"She did. The future is always in motion, young Master Kenobi. It is a distant thing. In the here and now, her brother was suffering and threatening everything she held dear, which includes all you three. I'll admit the fight against the Mother will be a more perilous task now without Ashla's knowledge and strength, but it would've been a disaster if it was attempted with a fully corrupted Bogan at our side. Left unchecked, he would've also tried to free the Mother early to fight her right now with Ahsoka at his side, at the cost of millions of lives. Even if that plan succeeded, what would follow would be even worse for the galaxy."
"So she chose the only path that was within her nature to accept," Anakin said flatly, clearly not happy and even angry at himself that he had not soundly beaten Bogan, so that the sacrifice wouldn't be necessary.
Bendu picked up on that instantly, "Don't take that responsibility on your shoulders, Skywalker. Chosen One or not, you would never have defeated him. Not in any way that mattered. Even if you were to dominate him martially or with the Force. It would've just left him bitter, resentful and seeking revenge against you. That is not a mindset we want in him when it comes time to face the Mother. Killing him with the Mortis blade was also never a realistic scenario. I gave it to you to make you a credible threat in his eyes, a distraction. Both my offspring secretly desired it, even Ashla, because it would be an Idiot's Array in any dispute or confrontation, even if they would never truly use it on one another."
"The true issue remains," Obi-Wan said, folding his arms. "Can the Mother be defeated with only Bogan, Anakin and Ahsoka? You indicated that you will not live long enough before that point is reached."
"Time is another factor, yes," Bendu nodded. "If the Mother's escape is delayed long enough, then it might even be up to the next generation to confront her. An eventuality you must also plan for."
"Then we must learn to make holocrons as a matter of urgency," Obi-Wan scratched his beard in irritation. "Something this war is not going to make easy, the possibility is there that all three of us may become one with the Force before we can pass on this knowledge."
"Remember, Master Kenobi, where you are," Bendu gestured outward. "To your perceptions, perhaps three standard days have passed. Ahsoka, how much time have you experienced?"
"It feels longer than three days to me, my fight with my darkness felt… I can't even give you a number," I grumbled.
"Yes, much like you've seen, distance is very malleable in Mortis, time is as well. Depending on your reference frames and perceptions, you could spend years here and when you leave, no time will have passed from the point of view of the normal universe."
"That is amazing and useful," Obi-Wan admitted. "Though our aging is not halted here, I assume?"
"Correct."
"Then we're limited here to a relative year, two at most."
"How do you figure that?" Anakin asked.
Obi-Wan gestured to me. "Ahsoka is sixteen, her togruta physiology means that her lekku and montrals will grow substantially in the next few years. When does it stop?"
"Usually at twenty-two, sometimes even twenty-five years," I answered, beginning to see the problem.
Obi-Wan sighed and gave Anakin a look, "We would need to explain how Ahsoka so blatantly got older in such a short amount of time. There's also the matter of what we're going to report to the Council about what happened. We cannot say anything that could clue Sidious in on the existence of Mortis, Bendu, Bogan and the Mother. I can't even imagine that would lead to anything but dire consequences."
I looked at Bendu and tapped my head, "Please?"
"Are you certain, young one?"
"It's a pain in the ass, but it's necessary."
Bendu nodded and with no gesture or theatrics, suddenly my full Prescience slammed back into me. It was as if an arm had been binded in a very awkward position and was suddenly released. I had to hurriedly throw down anchors to keep my perceptions rooted in the present and my sight opened and stretched. I swayed a bit as I struggled to keep my balance.
"Ahsoka!"
Anakin was there and kept me upright.
I took a deep breath and focused, working to regain my equilibrium.
"I'm okay- yes- fine," I breathed hard, gripping onto his shoulder as both a physical and temporal lifeline. "Yeah, Sidious would try to control Mortis and if he can't, try to destroy any access or purge any knowledge of it. Bogan he would initially try to ally with, only secretly he would be plotting to find a way to kill him. He's a Banite and can't accept any rival in the Dark Side, the battle between them destroys Coruscant, sterilizing it of all life as Sidious tries to use the secret Sith shrine under the temple and every single life essence he can gather to empower himself. No, just no… I can't look further at that probability line."
"Please don't," said Obi-Wan, looking very disturbed. "What of Bogan? If we stay, won't he eventually try to finish what he started?"
"Ashla's sacrifice is something that weighs on his very essence now, every part of him," Bendu explained. "There are no mere words to describe this properly. She gave her life for you three and to stop his madness in pursuing his foolhardy plan, saving the lives of countless souls. To act against that… he'd sooner kill himself now before he does that and given how vain he normally is, that is saying something."
"I hope you're right, Bendu. However, in the event he does-"
The old celestial halted Obi-Wan with a raised hand and from behind him, produced the Mortis blade, which he rested on his lap.
"Then I will act, Master Kenobi and push you out of Mortis before the end."
I leaned against the window of my newly minted quarters in the monastery, staring out at the wild mountainous landscape, daylight shone brightly as if a sun was high overhead.
It was a relief to be out of my armor, now dressed in my comfy Hapan attire.
Bendu had transported and materialized the Emissary in one of the monastary's lower levels, which was adapted in size to make it akin to a hangar bay. With access to our ship and luggage, we could finally change into a fresh set of clothes and dump the old into the ship's clothing 'fresher.
We took a standard day to get ourselves sorted out, with Obi-Wan and Anakin gaining their own quarters from Bendu, which he made from scratch out of the structure of the monastery. Then a full night's rest according to our own body clocks. We would keep ourselves to Coruscant time as much as possible, despite the erratic day-night cycle, weather and seasons outside.
A knock on my front door interrupted my woolgathering.
"Come."
Obi-Wan entered first, dressed in a more traditional Jedi robe, minus his armor pieces, followed by Anakin who was wearing his own typical Jedi outfit, which was looking ever closer to the style he'd have by the war's end.
I gestured at the table in the center of the room, filled with a sumptuous breakfast straight from the food pantry. "Have a seat, masters."
"I was looking forward to trying out my own pantry after our meeting," Anakin smiled.
"Traditional togruta breakfast, you won't regret this," I grinned in reply, taking my seat.
"It's rather… meaty," Obi-Wan commented after taking his own seat and looking at the fare on offer.
"Akul meat steak, a spicy sausage made of kybuck, fried torr eggs, steamed sheorian vegetable - very delectable and acan juice to drink. All of it is perfectly digestible by humans," I explained, pointing to each part of the dish. "I figured we should always at least have our breakfasts together, take turns making it for a communal setting. If we're going to remain here for long…"
Obi-Wan nodded, seeing what I was getting at. "We only have each other out here, we're effectively a very detached Jedi chapterhouse at the moment."
Anakin picked up his cutlery and began tucking in. "So what is our first order of business? A holocron? As far as I'm aware, you get training in that after attaining Master rank."
"Yes, there are a few prerequisite skills that I will have to teach you both first, we're lucky the Emissary has a decent fabber on the technical side," Obi-Wan said after drinking a long gulp of juice.
"That's good, master. I don't think we can truly source any raw materials from Mortis and take it with us back to the galaxy, not unless we ask Bendu to make us some," I quickly swallowed a bite of sausage. "If we tried, the stuff would either stop existing, lose potency or even explode depending on what it was."
"So holocrons, anything else? There's a ton of stuff I want to go through with Ahsoka now that we have the time, we have to keep up our lightsaber training, develop it further, with all this time we can make huge strides with your mastery of Jar'Kai," Anakin pointed out.
"There's a ton of my own projects that I can work on now as well," I pointed a fork at him. "Not just related to the Force. We have to also think about Sidious. The war has us gallivanting across the galaxy, filling our minds with the rigors of a military life. We can barely stop for a day at Coruscant, before some emergency calls us out again."
"Yes, no doubt by design," Obi-Wan sighed. "The Fulcrum network is a good foundation, it will have to get a lot bigger though before the end. If we want to depose Palpatine in a way that will not end in disaster."
"Fulcrum is about more than just Palpatine, Master Kenobi," I said intently. "He is a grave threat, yes. He is also the symptom of a problem that has played out in this galaxy for nearly 25,000 years, since the original schism which gave birth to the Jedi."
"That is quite ambitious, Ahsoka," Obi-Wan looked amused. "Do you think the Jedi have not been trying to solve that particular problem?"
"Given the track record of the last thousand years?" I retorted. "Until Darth Maul emerged, the Jedi had considered the war won. All that was left was the pesky Sith holocrons strewn all over and policing sentient nature itself. Only it turns out the war wasn't won, it changed completely and the Jedi didn't have a clue. Even if we defeat and kill Sidious permanently, I foresee a mere twenty years before we see the rise of another Sith, following the example he set or arising from a disillusioned, fallen Jedi still suffering from the trauma of this war. That doesn't even count a number of other more exotic threats that I won't elaborate on now."
"And what would Fulcrum's approach be?"
"Every major war of the last ten thousand years has had at its core, the conflict between Jedi and Sith, whether through direct force of arms or proxies. The Jedi look at the problem and say, 'We must destroy the Sith and everything related to them. Then we will have peace and balance.' The Sith see the problem as a feature and want to always destroy the Jedi Order and dominate the galaxy. On a number of occasions they nearly succeeded, but there was always that one Jedi or group of Jedi left in the galaxy to keep the hope alive and stop the domination of the Sith. The true answer to the problem is one neither Jedi or Sith would ever consider."
I cut another piece of steak and ate it carefully, looking at both Anakin and Obi-Wan alternately.
"Don't leave us hanging, Snips," Anakin gestured to me with a piece of egg speared on his fork, before eating it.
"Reunification."
Obi-Wan scoffed, "Ridiculous, utterly impossible. There is no way, Ahsoka. Too much history. We could never…"
"I have to say, Snips, that's…" Anakin sat back, clearly failing to imagine it. "Would you trust someone like Ventress? Sleep in the same temple?"
"Obviously not," I answered archly. "You must remember that currently the Banite Sith are two. If both are dead, Sidious' contingencies blunted-"
"Then the next Sith will come from the next generation of Jedi," Obi-Wan concluded.
"If things go that far, yes. The only thing that will stop it, is if the Jedi Order stops their view that the Light Side is the only natural side for a Force Sensitive to exist in."
Obi-Wan pulled in a deep breath to begin a vigorous rebuttal, his eyes widening at what he was hearing. "Ahsoka, I question the Jedi Academy's worth. If you can entertain the idea that any dabbling in the Dark Side won't lead to disaster. That's something that should've been-"
"Brainwashed out of me," I interrupted him.
"Educated to you," he retorted.
I gestured to the door, "Down that hall is a being that would have a word or two to say about both the Jedi Order and the Sith. He could throw the most vicious Force Lightning ever seen and in the same breath he can heal an injury with the Light Side. We don't see him wracked with Dark Side corruption, nor is he trying to kill us or take over the galaxy. He just frakking watched his daughter sacrifice herself for us and respected her choice enough to not stop her from doing it. He is living proof that there is something wrong with the Jedi approach to the Force."
Obi-Wan stared hard at me, then returned to calmly eating, "So you would see the Jedi adopting the ways of Darkness as well?"
"I would see the Jedi acknowledging that there must be true balance in the Force, not just their own biased interpretation of it. Currently, you're all foisting the responsibility onto Anakin's shoulders. That he will somehow magically make everything better, that he will destroy the Sith and that will achieve the 'balance'. When in fact, the balance must be achieved by every Force Sensitive in the galaxy, now and in the future."
"You are speaking of a radical systemic change in the Jedi Order, Ahsoka."
I nodded, "Yes, to swing this back round to Fulcrum, I see it acting as its name implies. A point around which change can happen. The Jedi Order must adapt and course correct, if it does not, then the Force itself will make it happen, in a way that no one with the exception of Sidious will be happy with or enjoy."
"What of the… let's call them the orthodox groups in the Order? Sooner or later, they will begin objecting to reforms and we could end up with another schism."
"As long as they don't go militant or crusader, then they should be free to leave or stay in the Order."
Obi-Wan looked at Anakin with narrowed eyes, "You've been rather quiet. Not going to take responsibility for your padawan?"
Anakin was chewing on some sheoran veggies, swallowed and shrugged, "You have to admit she has a point regarding Bendu."
"He is a blasted celestial," Obi-Wan dropped his cutlery. "His experience and wisdom stretches across eons as he is an inheritor of his race's entire memory. It is one thing for him to achieve this balanced state in the Force, but we have not reached that level. Our lifespans are too short, we are children compared to him."
"Then perhaps we should ask him about it," Anakin pointed out reasonably.
Obi-Wan folded his arms and nodded, "Very well, though I get the feeling we're going to have many difficult debates in the coming year."
"Ouch! Frakking-"
I cut myself off and sucked on my cut finger.
My eyes ranged over the many parts of my first attempt at a holocron, strewn across a workdesk we had installed in the fab bay of the Emissary.
After a month of Obi-Wan's tutelage, it was very clear to both Anakin and I why building one was something that was usually left to masters.
The patience required and time investment was ridiculous.
In terms of technical complexity, it was like building a nesting doll, combined with an intricate multilayered and faceted, fractal puzzle box, with non-standard parts that you had to fashion and refine using your hands and the Force itself. Any mistake at any point, would potentially damage other connected parts, creating a snowball effect of damage and ruin the entire holocron.
Then came the mystical Force elements and the part where you were effectively copying your own essence to make a 'twin' of yourself that would reside in the thing, acting as a guardian and interface for the knowledge you imbued into it.
Even Obi-Wan was having trouble with it and we had started consulting with Bendu on anything he could offer to help streamline the process.
"Hey Snips, how's it going?"
I turned around and glared at Anakin, who was currently dressed as if he had just come from a long run; white shirt, tight gray exercise shorts and shoes that he had designed himself to cater to the variable terrain around the monastery. We couldn't go on long jaunts considering the danger of the electrical storms, so we had to make do with laps around the rugged terrain surrounding the place.
"Yes," I said shortly, willing the first piece of holocron to float in front of me. The blood staining it was pulled off and congealed into a tiny blob and I chucked it away with a thought.
I was using crystal glass and beskar from a small ingot I had taken from the Vizsla Clan vault. Working with beskar in the limited facilities we had was very problematic and I was liberally cheating with Prescience in my experiments with it. Enough that I had pieced together a rudimentary forging process that could work.
Rather frustratingly, I couldn't really do the same with building the Holocron. I could parse a hundred probability lines of my construction of the pieces, yet when it came time to actually do that in the present, I was thrown an entirely new result. It was like the Holocron was a mystical RNG machine.
"How long have you been working?"
"If I answer that you're going to drag me into a workout, just when I'm finally riding a wave of inspiration on how to properly build this blasted thing."
I willed another piece into the air and fitted them together.
"By the way, I figured out how we're going to explain your 'growth'."
A third piece rose into the air, fitting into the combined slot made by the first two coming together.
"Do tell, Skyguy."
"We're going to fake the Emissary's hyperdrive having a malfunction in proximity to a strong singularity field that the Mortis pyramid will generate. Bendu kindly agreed to simulate it for our ship. To the Council and by extension, Sidious, we'll have been trapped for a relative year or so on the ship due to a time acceleration effect created around the pyramid, but from the galaxy's point of view, no time will have passed."
"What about the on-board computer systems and recorders?"
"Those only have so much memory, a month or so before we leave, we'll move into the Emissary and live from here, any other inconsistencies will be covered by an overload from the hyperdrive bleeding into our computers and wrecking longer term memory."
"Could work," I said absently as a fourth piece hovered into place. That was the central core done, now to work on the next layer interlock.
It hovered up from the table and joined the core.
As carefully as I could, I willed the combined mechanism to move, rotate and revolve.
One rotation, revolution… YES!
Second…success!
I heard a slight tingle of glass as something broke and everything promptly fell apart and clattered onto the desk.
My shoulders slumped in defeat and I had to carefully pass my frustration and anger through me.
"Nicely done."
I threw him a disgusted face at the compliment, "Nicely done? Two rotations?"
He chuckled, "Snips, I've barely managed to fit my core pieces together. My stuff keeps exploding because I just don't have the fine control yet. Come, get dressed and we'll do some unarmed drills in the secondary hold."
I nodded as he left. I got up and stretched, before walking out of the fab bay to my tiny bunk quarters, pulling on some random pair of white shorts over my panties and a tank top over my boob tube underwear.
That done I hurried to the hold to see Anakin already doing his warm up and getting lactic acid buildup from his run out of the way.
"What about the ship's food?" I asked as I walked to the center of the room and began my stretches.
"Good question, we left with a six month consumables supply," he pulled up his right leg. "With rationing that can be stretched to nine, maybe ten months. I'll get working on converting a cargo bay into aeroponics, using the seeds from some of the food to grow more."
"We'll also have to actually eat only that food for at least the last two months, any bioscans or tests will look inconsistent otherwise," I said as I stretched my left arm.
"You think they'll go that far?"
"Skyguy, we're going to be hounded by flunkies and archivists from the Council of First Knowledge. From their point of view, we'll have been stuck in an entirely unique phenomenon created by a large unknown artifact that just screams 'celestial'."
"True," he grumbled.
"Best to just cooperate, get it out of the way as fast and painlessly as possible," I stretched my other arm as I sent my senses outward, feeling for where Obi-Wan was. Yep, still in meditation with Bendu. "Skyguy, how are you coping?"
He limbered up his back muscles and frowned at me, "With what?"
"It's been a month and it's going to be a lot longer before you see Padme again."
His eyes grew pensive and he blew out a breath as he mastered his emotions, "Yes, it's not going to be easy. I just grew used to our being able to securely communicate and see each other so relatively often, now I won't even have that."
"Just make sure you come clean when you see her in a secure place, otherwise she's going to be… confused about your clear enthusiasm and longing emotions," I said delicately, smiling and waggling my brows knowingly with twinkly eyes.
He chuckled at my teasing and nodded, "I'll remember."
With our warmups done we squared off and fell into our own adapted stances from Djem So.
Fighting without a lightsaber was rarely done, but it was taught as the Jedi was well aware that 'shit happens'. Either being disarmed and in some cases the saber might even be damaged during battle.
The unarmed version of Djem So, had the hands forward and in something like a classic karate stance, ready to aggressively react and intercept incoming attacks, whilst dealing damage with strikes and Force Pushes. If the Jedi was well versed in Tutaminis, it even allowed you to slap away blaster fire whilst closing the distance to your opponent.
I still wanted to meet up with a Matukai master though. HK had that as a backburner project to track down where the nomadic Order was currently.
Anakin blurred forward, throwing a strike at my chest, but it was a feint.
His leg attacked and tried to sweep me off my feet.
I hopped over it and threw a Force Push that managed to catch him slightly with its speed before he could cancel it out.
I stepped forward in its wake, throwing strikes high and low, which he deflected before flowing into a punch to my stomach.
It hit successfully, but I blunted its effect with a Force Push released from there.
My hand came down and tried to latch onto his protruding fist, so I could transition into either a throw or some grappling, but he retreated, clearly not in the mood to experience my creative forms in that department.
We kept going back and forth in this fashion, always trying to get the upper hand. His strength and longer reach gave him natural advantages, but I was faster and more precise.
After a long and sweaty hour of this, he finally called a timeout.
"20 to 12, not bad, Snips," he said, then drank deeply from a water bottle.
I could only nod, breathing hard as I sat in the middle of the floor. A point was scored for every grapple or strike which would in true combat conditions lead to a knock-out or a disable.
Thank goodness he had called it at that point, because the sight of him getting all sweaty with his clothes now sticking to his frame… Then there were the grapples… The memory of the visions Bogan had shown me… Not to mention the clusterfuck that was my hormones at the moment. Yeah, I needed to get out of here.
I stood and waved as I walked out of the hold, "Thanks Skyguy, hitting the 'fresher."
It was just a walk down the corridor and I locked the cubicle sized room behind me, stripped, not caring if my clothes were gonna get wet on the floor and blasted myself with cold water from the sprayer heads, bearing it stoically.
What made it worse was that Anakin could clearly sense it and even closing down the bond didn't help really when you were in close proximity and your other senses could pick up on it.
I was just thankful he had the tact to not really bring it up and gave me the space to deal with it.
Maybe Bendu had some solution from the distant past when the celestials were still dual gendered beings?
Oh, what a fun conversation that would be? I thought to myself sarcastically.
One month down, frak knows how many more to go.
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