Chapter 11 – The World Between Worlds

All was darkness for a moment, and then the stars began to show up. One by one small point of light popped into existence. It was by their light that the guests to Mortis were first able to make out the world around them. They saw circular portals above and beneath them, and from each of them a translucent blue path emerged, connecting them all. The two of them and the Father stood together on one of those paths, and by the time the Father opened his eyes Rey and Anakin could see that the path seemed to go off forever in all directions.

"Where are we?" Rey asked.

"Mortis," the Father said. "Or say rather, the realm in which Mortis is hidden."

"A world outside of time," Rey said in wonder.

"But connected to it. It has, in a way, a time of its own. Your bodies, to the extent they still exist, will not decay here as they would in the physical world, but for your mind time will still pass. It is dangerous for those such as you to stay here too long, untethered from the physical world that is your home. Your minds are made for that world, not for this one," the Father said.

"These doors, where do they lead?" Anakin asked.

"Wherever and whenever you wish them to," the Father answered.

"We can go into the past?" Rey said hopefully.

"In a way. Those who will change nothing that has already happened can enter and leave. To do as you intend, that I do not know. It may be that if you enter the past and attempt to change it the Cosmic Force will simply not allow it, and you will doom yourself to reliving what has already come. Or perhaps the worlds you enter will exist only for you, and you may do as you wish," the Father said.

"If that is so, then how will we know if we succeed?" Anakin asked.

"I do not know. No one has done what you are attempting. I can say only this, that through the Cosmic Force what you intend should be possible. You will learn things in the attempt that I will never know," the Father answered.

"Is it dangerous?" Rey asked.

"You will find no enemies in this place, for none live here. It is a meeting point, a place where all time comes together, the point at which it vanishes. You will, I should think, be quite safe here. For him, beyond the doorways, who can say?" he said.

"I don't mean for us. I mean for everyone else. Is there a risk that will destroy everything? If we manage to unmake our time, will we unmake everything else?" she asked.

"The time for such doubts was before you set out on this quest, before you came to Mortis. I will say only this, that I trust the Cosmic Force to preserve that which must be preserved, and I do not doubt its power. I do not believe you will be able to destroy anything other than yourselves," the Father said. "I will leave you now."

"Wait!" Rey yelled. "Why did you help us?"

"You wish to know if I agree with you and your aims? I do not. The course of wisdom would be to leave the past alone, to learn to make do with the world you had. But while perhaps I might have steered you back to reason, I knew I could do nothing with him," the Father said as he pointed at Anakin.

Anakin, who had seemed to be ignoring the conversation between Rey and the Father while he stared at the nearest portal, turned his head slightly at hearing himself spoken of, but did not speak.

"And I wanted him gone from my realm," the Father continued. "In his brief time there he had already unbalanced my son, and I did not want to see what would come of further conflict between the two."

"I could tell you what will become of him," Anakin said without turning to face the Father.

The Father looked at Anakin's back for a moment before answering, "You are a cruel creature. You have convinced yourself you are balanced, that the darkness holds no sway over you now, as I sense it once did, but the cruelty is there, deep in your spirit. I know that you know me, as I will be in the future. I know that you know the answers to the questions that haunt me now, of the fate of my children. You know that I cannot allow myself to know those answers, but you tempt me, nonetheless. You force me to turn away from the knowledge that might save them, and so you torture me. Why? Do you take joy in it?"

"Perhaps, if we are successful, what I know will not come to be," Anakin said.

"Mortis is of this world. It will not be changed," the Father said.

"Mortis can be changed by those you allow into it. And I can change the fate of the man that you will one day let in," Anakin said.

"Say no more! Let me have my time with my family! Darken my world no more!" he yelled. Then, after a slight bow in Rey's direction, the Father closed his eyes and faded from view.

Rey closed her own eyes and grimaced out of frustration. She turned to Anakin and said, "What was the point of antagonizing him?"

"What?" Anakin said, as though she was distracting him from what was truly important.

"Don't you think it would have been valuable to have him with us, in case we had questions?" Rey asked.

"He already said he didn't really know anything," Anakin said. "We are the pathbreakers here Rey. There are no guides, no trail to follow. It is all up to us."

Rey thought about what he said for a while, trying to quiet the worries she had felt since their arrival in Mortis about a suddenly more aggressive Anakin. He stood staring at the portal, lost in thought, and she wondered whether this had all been a mistake. Myra and the Father had both made clear that they thought so. The founder of the Jedi Order and what was likely the oldest, most powerful being in the galaxy had both told her to turn back, and yet here she was, with this man she had grown to trust over the years, despite what we had done. That trust was breaking now. Was it the return to a bodily form that explained his change of behavior? Was it the prospect of finally getting what he most wanted?

"Anakin…," she started to say before he interrupted her.

"It starts with me," he said resolutely before realizing she had been about to speak. "Sorry Rey, what were you saying?"

Rey sighed and said, "Nothing. What do you mean, it starts with you?"

"I am where everything went wrong. I have been thinking about it for decades. I used to blame Palpatine, used to think he broke the galaxy, but he couldn't have done any of it without me. I was the Chosen One. The decision was up to me. So we need to start with my life, figure out where to intervene in my life. We don't really know enough about Palpatine anyway, and we have to go back to a time when I was alive," he said.

Rey nodded and said, "So what are you thinking? Before or after?"

"Before or after I became Vader?" Anakin said darkly. "It's the right question. Before. Once I was Vader it was too late. The disaster was already set in motion. We need to stop the Empire and the Emperor, before it can get its hooks into the galaxy. Once it does there will always be little would be dictators who will want to keep it alive, always fools for the Sith to gather up. Besides, I am not sure what will happen if I go back to when I was Vader."

"Not sure whether you will see the task through?" Rey asked.

"Yeah. He was…I was so filled with hate, I don't know that the real me will be able to break through, take control," Anakin said.

"So when?" Rey said.

"The moment of decision. The day I killed Master Windu, the day I sacked the Temple. I go back then and let them kill Palpatine. The dreams about Padme dying were a lie anyway, a trick. I just stay in the Council chamber, like Mace told me to," Anakin said with hope and excitement in his voice.

Rey, who felt far more trepidation about what they were about to do, wondered at that for a moment. Did he not worry about the danger? But then it occurred to her that he was about to see his wife for the first time in decades, and she understood. She smiled at him and he smiled back, like a child waiting for a present.

"I can't go with you, but I will wait for you here," she said.

Anakin bowed low and said, "Thank you Rey, for helping me get here. I promise I will set everything right." He then turned back to the portal and reached out his hand to touch the inky black substance within its circular frame. When he touched it light rippled out from his fingertips and as the portal lightened a picture began to appear. Rey could see a young Anakin Skywalker pacing back and forth impatiently in the Council chamber of the Jedi Temple as the sun set in the windows around him. She watched as her companion stepped through the portal and wished him, and the galaxy, luck.