Saleucami
Rather than returning to the Republic base, Bendu led the Jedi on a bushwalk, noisily crushing bushes and knocking down small trees while the Jedi followed slowly behind. Neither Vos nor Stass felt certain about their destination, but they seemed to be going in the general direction of the Separatist lines. For what felt like an hour, they walked in near silence, only broken by particularly loud screams coming from the helmet comm Vos had taken from the fallen Clones.
It was Master Allie who broke the silence. "I sense someone."
Vos closed his eyes, stretching out his awareness in the Force. "I sense two of them. They are—hey, Bendu!"
Bendu stopped, peering over a short tree as he regarded the Kiffar. The gargantuan enigma had shrunk somewhat since his first appearance, but he was still nearly three meters tall.
"We sense two…" Vos paused, continuing to reach out with the Force. The presences were vaguely familiar, but neither was human or Kiffar.
"Two Jedi," Stass Allie finished. "They're in trouble."
"And why should we worry ourselves about that?" Bendu asked quizzically.
"They're our allies," Vos said in disbelief. "Fellow Jedi."
Bendu looked at the Kiffar and the Tholothian with his dead gray eyes. "Maybe I have all the Jedi I need."
Have all the Jedi I need. The remarkable choice of words sent a shiver down Vos's spine.
Stass was already moving in a Force-assisted sprint towards the presences. Vos followed, leaves and branches scratching at his legs in the underbrush. Bendu's noisy footfalls stopped after a while, but Vos was unconcerned. Hell, if that creature had decided to no longer accompany them altogether, Vos would feel better.
A hundred meters or so from the edge of the forest, the Force signatures of the two Jedi in distress resolved themselves in his mind. He could sense both Master K'Kruhk, a Whiphid male, and Master Sian Jeisel, a Devaronian female. He could feel their distress pouring into the Force.
But before Vos and Stass had even reached the edge of the clearing, K'Kruhk and Jeisel's state changed to one of complete shock and alarm. With a tremendous leap, Vos skipped twenty or thirty meters of forest, bounding over the treeline and into the sandy dirt beyond.
Jeisel's white-streaked hair was whipped hard in the wind, as was K'Krukh's blond fur. Lightsabers ignited, both Jedi were squinting at what appeared to be a tornado twisting away from them and toward the two TX-130 repulsor tanks which had been pursuing them.
The Clone gunners of both tanks fired their beam turrets directly into the rolling storm, but it was no use. First one and then the other were pitched into the air, climbing ten, then dozens, then hundreds of meters. When both tanks were so high up and so far away that it was difficult to make them out, the tornado faded, and then they disappeared over the horizon.
"I—Wha…?" K'Kruhk panted, his snout hanging open and exposing rows of tusks and flat teeth.
"I think that was Bendu," Vos grunted, slowly walking up to the two Jedi.
"Who?" Jeisel asked incredulously, wiping off the dirt that the tornado had blown onto her spotted face
"Long story," Stass said, emerging from the bushes behind Vos. "Are you alright?"
"Bendu…" K'Kruhk murmured, not answering Stass's question and instead looking in the direction of the dark cloud coming back for them.
"Four Jedi now," a voice boomed. Rapidly, the cloud shrank, condensing back into Bendu's usual shape. "Four Jedi. Twice as many as I required. I have saved them, Quinlan Vos. Now I require something from you."
"What sort of creature are you?" K'Kruhk asked, his slit-like eyes widening to ovals.
The massive horned enigma landed on the ground with a sonorous thud. "Everyone asks me that. What did I tell you, Quinlan Vos?"
Vos scratched the back of his head, then looked uneasily to K'Kruhk and Jeisel. "He says he's in the middle. Not a Jedi. Not a Sith."
"Well that's hardly reassuring," Jeisel snorted, folding her arms over her chest.
Stass Allie frowned. "It is awfully coincidental that you show up just as the Clones started shooting at us."
"Oh? That's no coincidence," Bendu said. "It is part of a grander plan. You see, I waited for days, hovering above Master Vos, waiting for that exact moment to unfold. I knew that if I warned you ahead of time of the Clones' impending betrayal, you would not have believed me."
Intense suspicion flooded the Force from all four Jedi, who exchanged glances.
"But I was flying in space when the Clones first attacked," Vos said, trying to poke a hole in Bendu's narrative.
"And I knew you would return to save Stass Allie here," Bendu shrugged, gesturing with one of his huge paws unnecessarily in the Tholothian's direction.
Vos shook his head as if to shake away a distraction. "There's four of us now… Five if we count Bendu. Our first priority must be to find Master Rancisis and Jedi Hett. If the Clones have done this all over the Galaxy, Masters Rancisis and Allie might be the only members of the High Council left."
Stass's eyes widened in alarm for a moment, then she shook her head. "I think I would have felt something if Master Yoda died."
"You felt the convulsion in the Force," Vos insisted.
"Indeed, but it felt like dozens, maybe hundreds of Jedi dying. The Temple on Coruscant must still be standing."
"If this has not spread to Coruscant, perhaps there will be time to warn them," K'Kruhk growled thoughtfully. "Our first priority must be to take the communications array, either at the base itself or from the HoloNet node at Taleucema."
"Must it be our first priority?" Stass asked skeptically. "There are many options you have not considered. Whatever our next move, six will be a stronger fighting unit than four. While any of us can survive a short onslaught from the Clones, none of us can endure hours of nonstop fighting. The longer we wait to rescue Masters Rancisis and Hett, the more likely it is that they will die."
"But if we wait, Coruscant may be caught unawares and over nine thousand Jedi will die!"
"I'm with K'Kruhk," Vos said, then turned to Jeisel, wanting to get her input. "What do you think?"
But it was Bendu who answered. "I, for one, think we should consider surrendering ourselves to the Separatists."
Snap-hisses of igniting lightsabers cut through the air. Within a second, all four Jedi had taken defensive postures around the strange being with Vos standing to the side.
"What makes you suggest that?" K'Kruhk asked, his tone sounding almost casual even though he was holding an ignited blade.
"Answer that question now!" Jeisel demanded. "We don't have time for this."
"Time?" Bendu turned in a half-circle, locking eyes with each of the Jedi one at a time. "I have cleared every Clone away who was attacking you. They have no idea you are here. The truth is, we have a great deal of time."
"You're evading the question," Stass said, pointing her blade towards Bendu's back.
The mysterious horned creature turned again, now staring firmly at the Tholothian. "The Clones are attacking us. Have you not heard the maxim 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'? I would think the logic speaks for itself."
K'Kruhk seemed somewhat satisfied by that explanation, and allowed his blade to lower. Jeisel and Stass Allie were not convinced, and neither was Vos.
Cautiously, Vos took a step toward Bendu. Even if Bendu wasn't going to tell them who he was, Vos had a way of finding out the truth or at least some clues. He reached his hand into Bendu's fur—
Bendu looked to his side, peering over his shoulder. His eyes were now a blindingly bright white. "I would not do that if I were you, Kiffar. You have no idea what fire you are playing with."
Standing there awkwardly with his fingers dug centimeters into the massive creature's back fur, Vos considered this for a moment. On the one hand, Bendu clearly was an extremely powerful Force user who had already performed astonishing feats—feats which even Master Yoda could not have. If he really wanted to stop Vos, he could have. If he wanted to kill all four of them, Bendu probably could.
On the other hand, Vos knew from experience that sometimes manipulating a foe could be far more devastating than destroying a foe. All of this reeked of some sort of Sith plot—Hell, it was even possible that this creature actually was the Sith Lord the Jedi had been looking for. The one pulling Dooku's strings. For the Sith Lord to be this powerful would explain a lot of things. Hypothetically, Bendu could have been floating around on Coruscant taking the form of a cloud, and the Jedi would never know it. He could have been on any planet in the Galaxy, disguising himself as weather—no, even disguising his actions as weather.
"You don't want to do this," Bendu repeated, this time waving his hand.
The Kiffar felt this overwhelming will press its way into his mind. Bendu's fur suddenly felt like pure fire, and Vos reflexively jerked his hand back with a gasp. "I don't want to do…" he mumbled, deactivating his lightsaber and taking a step back. "I don't want to—no. I have to." Reaching back into Bendu's fur, he gripped an entire fistful and yanked.
About one percent of Kiffars possessed a Force ability which allowed them to glean information by touching an object. In some circles it was called psychometry, in others postcognition, while the Caamasi name for it was tai vordrax. Quinlan Vos was one of the most adept users of psychometry in the entire Galaxy.
While Vos was incapable of performing psychometry on living beings, he could find out quite a lot about someone by touching a severed strand of hair, a plucked feather, or even a lost scale. A fistful of fur was more than enough for Vos to glean some information, at least under normal circumstances. These were not normal circumstances.
A sharp electric tingle pulsed through the Kiffar's body. Next thing he knew, his sense of self had completely changed. He was surrounded by many beings of Bendu's strange gargantuan species. Whatever planet they were on was so strong with the Force that stones, trees, even rivers were floating in the air. All of the life on the planet seemed to be so in tune and connected with the Force that levitation was just commonplace. The terrain ebbed and flowed with every pulse in the Force, and there were many unfamiliar creatures which were analogous to birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, insects. They weren't merely connected to the Force, but they clearly used it, pulling nectar out of flowers, dropping massive boulders on nuts—and there were strange carnivorous plants that preyed on most animals.
But nothing preyed on Bendu's species. They lived without fear in what Vos could only describe as floating habitations, living quite apart from nature like almost any sentient species.
Before the Kiffar could even get his bearings, he experienced a lifetime of memories. He learned, had a mate, had children, experienced his parents growing older and more gray-furred, then passing away. Then his wife grew old similarly and passed away. His children had children of their own, and their children had grandchildren, and all of them were quite conspicuously living, growing old, and dying.
Everyone was slowly dying, and soon everyone Bendu had ever known had died. Bendu still had some connections, but slowly, Vos felt him start to care less and less. What had been familiar and comforting became onerous and irritating. Bendu left everyone behind and moved to a cave on the planet's surface, and there he explored.
Until Bendu found himself in a dark expanse, laced with pathways zig-zagging in every direction. When Bendu approached the first of the lights, what Vos thought was a star turned out to be a portal of some sort.
In what felt like an instant, Vos's sense of self changed again. It expanded into a vast all-encompassing awareness of the Galaxy. Vos felt like he could go anywhere—see anything. And he, or rather Bendu, did.
Bendu went everywhere, to so many places that it all went by like a whirlwind. Still slowly, but surely, Bendu became bored. That was until humans came.
Or at least what Vos thought looked like humans. They were different though, with pointed ears, more colorful hair, and extremely vibrant presences in the Force. They built vast structures, making the Galaxy more interesting for Bendu again.
Bendu stood on what Vos recognized with astonishment as the planet Selonia, amongst the bipedal, feline, otter-like locals. The Selonians busied themselves by the sea, cracking clams on rocks with their muscular tails, while Bendu sat on the sand, looking up at the sky in fascination. Up above, the swirls of hyperspace twinkled over the clouds, creating a display in the sky so strange Vos felt he might go mad from just witnessing it. Remarkably unperturbed by having their entire planet moved, the Selonians completely ignored the display in the sky, though a few did stare curiously at Bendu.
After this bout of entertainment in the Corellian system, eons and eons went by again, and Bendu became ever more disconnected and apathetic. At first, knowing so much information made the Galaxy extremely predictable, and Bendu began anticipating things would happen before they did.
He witnessed empires rise and fall, wars break out, new sentient species awaken, other species go extinct. Yet, after a while, the dark space between the portals changed. Other beings, including the strange near-humans, but also weasels, wolves, sentient spiders, and creatures Vos had thought were only myth shared the space. The paths cracked, portals changed locations, the very flow of time itself changed—Not once, not twice, but at least four times.
Bendu's memory became more fragmented, more foggy. With each change in the timeline, Bendu recalled previous timelines more and more poorly. Yet, he and the others continued witnessing everything, becoming more careful over time. They developed stricter and stricter protocols, limiting contact with Force users in the Galaxy.
But these measures failed. Another Force user, a Togruta whom Vos recognized as Ahsoka Tano, traveled into the World Between Worlds and changed the timeline again. At first, this was exciting to Bendu and the other witnesses. It was the first new thing that had happened in eons. Until they found the body of Morai.
Vos felt a great debate rage, and for the first time in hundreds of thousands of years for Bendu, fear. Bendu's reflexes of survival had faded like the memories of old timelines and divergent universes. For hundreds of thousands of years, Bendu had been beyond anything even resembling a threat. He called forth the Council of the Cosmic Force—all of whom were a great deal younger than him. He listened to them debate, analyze, and opine on how to respond. For the first time in millenia, the dark World Between Worlds was crowded again as nigh immortal beings ran about in a panic, with the only solution they could agree on being to observe the timeline.
Another immortal was snuffed out, with the Loth-Wolf Vitner skewered by a man in a dark cloak. Vos looked closer and recognized him, to his horror, as the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic. Something clicked in his head, and the alarm he had felt permeate the Jedi superconscious right before the Clones attacked suddenly made perfect sense.
Bendu responded with fear, anger, and hate, blasting portals—cauterizing time itself to stop the threat, or at least quarantine it. Things continued falling apart, time reacted very negatively to being attacked in such a way, and Vos experienced Bendu's pain as he was struck by lightning.
Flash-forward, and Bendu was here. On Saleucami. The erstwhile apathetic bored witness to all of history now panicked—quickly working out a plan. Vos was necessary for it, but every other Jedi was expendable. Bendu didn't care about anything but the survival of himself and the other borderline-immortal beings he shared the Cosmic Force with. They were afraid, and now the entire universe was in grave danger.
"VOS! VOS!" Stass yelled.
The Kiffar felt pressure on his shoulders as he was shaken back and forth. He opened his mouth to explain everything he had just experienced. To explain that Bendu wanted them to surrender to the Separatist, so they could convince the Separatist Senate to call for a ceasefire, which would end Palaptine's control over them.
He wanted to tell Bendu that this was a good plan, but it had some holes they needed to work out. He wanted to tell Bendu that he understood where he had come from, but that he also felt great amounts of apathy, darkness, and hatred. He really didn't quite trust Bendu, but as long as their goals aligned, so long as Bendu promised to help him save the Jedi Order, he'd cooperate and guarantee the cooperation of Masters Stass Allie, Sian Jeisel, and K'Kruhk. He wanted to say he wouldn't do this at the mercy of the Separatist—as their POW—but rather as a diplomat.
He wanted to say all of this, but instead all that emerged from his mouth was a horrified animalistic scream of terror. Blood now poured from his eyes and ears. Still clutching a fistful of Bendu's fur, the Kiffar collapsed to the ground, writhing in inconceivable pain.
"What have you done to him?!" Jeisel cried out, pointing her saber at Bendu's chest. Vos wanted to say he was okay. He wanted to tell them to stand down, but he was completely helpless as he lay on the dirt, and all three of his companions began swinging their lightsabers at an extremely powerful being who was older than Galactic civilization itself.
The last thing Vos saw before he passed out was a portal opening in the cluster of Cake Trees behind Stass. A silver-furred Loth-wolf jumped out, eyes glowing as he tackled the Tholothian to the ground.