Chapter 1 - Sucked Through Reality
Plot: As the reality in 1602 falls apart, Wanda calls in another warrior she believes is strong enough to save their world. A savior from another universe, Anika Skywalker.
"I can't believe the war's over." Ahsoka leans against the rail, overlooking the massive, sprawling city of Coruscant. It's still in chaos, the Senate building still smoking from where the fight took place, leveling far more floors of the building than Anika cares to be proud of.
She smiles down at her sister, arm draped over her shoulder despite the pain in her heart. "It's jarring for all of us, but Fives was right, and we were able to stop Sidious before it got too far. He killed a lot, but... the work is done. I guess you won't have to train your padawan to be a fighter, after all."
It's something Ahsoka had always struggled with, feared, but in the end, Anika knew she would always be something more.
She was meant to be. Born to be. And she will carry it through. She's part of a legacy, the best link to them all, the greatest continuation of their lineage any of them could ever have asked for.
"I'm thinking about recommending you for the trials."
Ahsoka laughs. "I'm not sure I'm ready."
"Ah, you'll be fine. You're more prepared than I was at your age. You're amazing, Snips."
"You, too, Skygirl."
Anika laughs at the stupid nickname. "I cannot believe you called me that on our first meeting. You were barely up to my elbow, and I was your master."
"You were being really annoying."
"Yeah, I'm good at that." Anika laughs, backing away from the rail. "Come on. Let's go check out with Rex and the boys before they're sent on another 'bring peace to the galaxy mission.'"
Ahsoka follows her as they head down the hall to the hangar, for their speeder. She still walks with a spring in her step, the same as when she was younger, even if it's slower now, more matured. Anika will never not remember the adorable little girl who met her on Christophsis. Ahsoka might be almost a legal adult now, but in her mind, she's a child forever.
Danger is flickering in the Force, despite all the chaos being over. Something's... wrong.
"What's gonna happen to them?" her padawan asks, "They're not going to have to be fighters all the time anymore."
"There will always be battles to fight," Anika reminds, "If we can grant them citizenship, they should be able to leave or go wherever they want. Padme and Riyo are still working, though there's a lot of pushback in the Senate. Refugees need to be cared for, too, and..."
She freezes, looking down as a red shimmering glow appears out of nowhere beneath her feet. "Uh, Snips? You seeing this?"
Ahsoka gasps, whirling, padawan braid swinging. "Anika!" She dives for her, fingers reaching nothing as the floor gives out beneath her, and Anika hits the ground, somewhere... else. The sky is dark. Everything is dark, and the Force feels... different. It was settled. Here, this isn't war. This is death, the ultimate destruction of everything alive, a reality taking it's final, dying breaths of life.
All Anika knows is that she's suddenly somewhere else. She looks up, her eyes landing on the girl standing over her – she looks like she's around twenty but that's not what stands out to Anika. She's strong in the Force, and she's glowing red. It doesn't feel like Night Sister magic. It feels like the Force, but that doesn't make any sense, because the Force doesn't glow.
The girl holds out a hand to her, as though she's not just the one who portaled her into another place but –
She must not be hostile, at least.
Anika reaches out warily, taking her hand as she stumbles to her feet. "Who are you?" she demands, looking around wildly.
Actually, where is she? What's happening?
There's another woman present, with an antler-like crown on her head. She feels dark in the Force, even if not necessarily of the Dark Side. It's just... dark, and the entire world here feels wrong. It's caked in death, not even like what she learned in the Clone Wars. There's a blonde haired man next to her, and –
Someone else who looks suspiciously like Windu except for an eyepatch. Not thinking about that.
"My name is Wanda Maximoff," the glowing red girl replies, "I am called the Scarlet Witch. And I summoned you from beyond this reality."
This – this is a different reality?
That would explain the portal. And why everything looks and feels so different. Everything is shaded darker than it ought to be. And it feels like – she's well accustomed to the feel of death and she can feel is strongly now, lights blinking away into the Force. It feels like something's being ripped apart. Like the Force itself is being ripped in half. What's wrong with this place?
"She is our sorceress," the crowned woman says, stepping forwards, "She said you were a great warrior who saved your own reality from what she has seen."
How do they know that? "I wouldn't take all the credit for that," Anika objects, heart still hammering even as she tries to stay calm. She just got sucked out of her reality. How is that even possible? "What do you want from me?"
"Our reality is falling apart. Storms are raging across my kingdom, sucking through whatever lies beneath," the woman replies.
"The entire planet is at risk of becoming inhabitable," the Windu-lookalike interjects "We don't know how much longer it will be before there is nothing left at all."
Anika frowns. This is not something she has any idea of how to deal with, but it's obvious these people desperately need someone's help, to have pulled her in from another reality. This isn't like a war or a regular mission where people's lives are in danger. It's an entire reality of literally trillions. She never had a reason to consider that the multiverse was a thing. Never really thought about it until right now, actually.
Alright.
She'll just take this one step at a time the way she has always had to do on a mission.
Is there a way for her to get home? There has to be, right? If Wanda was able to somehow bring her here in the first place? She'll think about that later – she's here and she can feel the death and she does want to do something to stop it.
Everything here feels so strange. It does feel like it's dying.
She can feel her bonds but they feel like they're muted, almost too far away to reach. And – she can't sense Qui-Gon's ceaselessly lingering presence. "Can you tell me everything you know about this situation?"
"Yes," the woman replies, "But I believe we've forgotten introductions. I am Hela, queen of the United Systems of Asgard. And these are my brother Thor and Nickolas Fury."
"Anika Skywalker, Jedi and General," she introduces herself, nodding to her. Anika is also going to completely ignore the ridiculousness of those names, because she needs to be focusing on the mission right now, not how honestly hilarious United Systems is as a country title. Or planet title, whatever it is.
"I will show you the situation," Hela says, motioning for her to follow.
They're outside a building that must be the palace and Hela moves a few paces away, gesturing up at the dark sky above. She follows her gaze. Far off along the horizon, she can see ripples of green that flash and then fade out. The Force surges almost as though it's being ripped apart, but what stands out most of all is the death.
"Those are the storms?" Anika asks, staring. It would be a lie to say she's unnerved that this is even possible. How can a reality just die? She didn't realize that was possible. "Do you know where they open to?"
"That, we have never found but no one who goes through them ever returns," Hela responds, "And places near the edges of the kingdom are beginning to have so many, no one can venture near them anymore."
That –
Is bad, to say the least.
She feels hopelessly out of her league, not that she's going to say so. She's only half certain why these people picked her in the first place. Wanda said it was because she saved her reality and she did that by killing Sidious. Who was also the only person who stood with her all her life, when she just desperately needed someone. And now she's never going to see him again. Never even going to get to ask him the one million questions she very desperately wants to. And...
What is she going to have to do here, to save this universe? Who else is she going to have to kill? She doesn't mean to feel cynical over it, but she can't help it. Seeing Palpatine dead, no matter who he was or what he'd done to her and the entire galaxy, had torn a hole in her heart that she knows is never going to be filled. Not by Obi-Wan, not by anyone, because no one could ever be him, and he was the only one who encouraged her to have a family when everyone else tried to take that away.
Everything he taught her kept her alive.
"You have an immense heart, Anika. Don't let the Jedi take it from you."
And she re-paid that bond, that love, that belief by killing him.
She breathes in sharply at the sheer intensity of the tearing in the Force again, as she sees another rift in the sky. And mostly, at the sudden intensity of the death. It's worse than many times it was during the war, which is saying a lot.
"You can feel that?" Hela inquires, looking over at her.
Anika nods. "I sense the death of anyone nearby."
"The Force?" Hela repeats, a bit dryly and almost amused, "Who chose a name such as that for seidr?"
"Who chose to call it seidr?" Anika repeats, a tinge of her own amusement creeping into her voice, even if it dies fast because this situation is serious. But Hela feels bright in the Force, even if it's in a dark way, and that means..."You have it too, don't you?"
Hela laughs. "Darling, I'm the Goddess of Death. I feel the lives of everyone. I feel the deaths of everyone."
She's weird.
Anika kind of likes it, though.
"It must be overwhelming to feel it here so constantly," Anika murmurs. Especially never knowing when you'll be next. The fear of that would be – even worse than it is in war, honestly.
"All I have ever felt is death," Hela replies, "But before it never meant the end of my kingdom."
"When you use this... seidr, are you using the Dark Side?" She's just curious mostly because Hela feels so dark. But it doesn't really feel like the Dark Side either. It feels different.
"Another ludicrous name of your reality?" Hela asks, a bit amused, "We have no such thing here. But many would say what I have used my skills for was dark, yes."
She frowns. "What... do you mean?" Personal details about her are probably not important, but she's intrigued.
"In my youth, Odin only cared for war and I was his executioner. But now he is gone, and his kingdom is mine." She sounds bitter. There's some kind of history there. Anika chooses not to ask.
"Do you know of anywhere I can start?" she inquires because she's good and truly lost. The Jedi aren't a thing here and she can't go back to ask the Council if they have ever heard of this before.
"My youngest brother, Loki, is well-versed in realities, but he may be inclined to carry on a long conversation about it."
Her eyebrows raise. "Why?"
"Meet him once and you won't ask that again. But regardless, he has found no solution either."
Okay, now she's even more curious.
"Something caused this," Anika points out, "I think what we need to know is what that was. Do you have somewhere quiet I could go?"
"I will have you escorted to a room," Hela assures, calling Fury over.
**w**
Anika tries meditating. But finding a sense of calm is hard when it's just drowning her in the sheer suffocating-ness of the death here. It's almost too much for her to handle feeling. It hurts, truthfully. A physical ache in her chest that's growing harder and harder. Maybe meditating wasn't the wisest idea after all. And she still hasn't gotten any clear answers on what's causing this.
She shifts out of meditation when she senses someone else approaching.
It's Wanda, standing in the doorway watching her.
"Your magic is strong," she speaks first, "Even stronger than I sensed before."
"I have always been told I am strongest in my reality," Anika replies, offering her a smile. Even if she doesn't begin to mention how much of burden that truly is. It was her destiny to kill the Sith, she has always been told, and now she did and – She doesn't know how to feel that her destiny was to kill one of the only people who's been family to her. Even if she knows there was no other way to stop him. It doesn't change what she did and the guilt of it refuses to fade. "But how does yours work? You use the Force, but... it glows?"
"Yours doesn't?" Wanda asks, a bit intrigued.
"No. I didn't know that was possible. In our reality, we have Nightsisters and they have magick that glows, but that's different. It's not the Force. It's – the energy of chaos, when you feel it. Yours doesn't feel that way."
"Between different realities, the energies of different universe are different," Wanda replies, "I think that would affect our connections to it."
"I never considered that before," Anika admits. Also something she's never thought of until right now. "My reality feels much brighter than yours."
"This one used to also," Wanda replies, a bit subdued. Probably, she can feel all the death as much Anika can. "But... what does the Force feel like for you?"
"It's like – " She tries to find a way to put it into words. "Like a fire. It's so bright and I feel so much but when I visualize it, it's like endless of grass, because it's also so peaceful."
Wanda nods. "I know what you mean, even if that is not quite how I would put it. It showed me you when I searching for someone who could help us so I don't doubt that you will find away."
Anika smiles, even if it's a bit tight. "I hope I can succeed. I cannot say that I view what happened in my reality the same way as you."
"What do you mean?"
"The person I had to kill to save everything was... He was almost family. He was close to a parent." That label unquestionably goes to Obi-Wan too but it doesn't change that Palpatine also guided her so much as well.
"Oh," Wanda breathes, horror flickering across her face, "I'm so sorry." She can feel Wanda'sgrief suddenly too. It feels personal. "I know how it is to lose a parent. I can't imagine having to kill one."
"Was it from the storms also?" Anika wonders, because it's easier to ask that than focus on the grief and guilt smothering her.
She shakes her head. "It was long before. A farmer named Stark was selling illegal farming equipment, and there was a farming accident that killed both my parents."
Illegal farming equipment?
If it were anything else, she'd outright laugh, because honestly, what does that even mean? But that would be unspeakably insensitive. "That must have been hard," she offers quietly.
Wanda nods, expression distant. "I must say," she says finally, "That I think what you were able to do only speaks more for how you were the hero of your reality."
She thinks that's a compliment.
It would mean more if this weren't part of the same cursed prophecy that has hung over her, her entire life here. "But I don't think that's something I could do again."
"I don't think fixing our reality would come to that," Wanda says, subdued again, "But I – understand. That this... isn't easy for you. Thank you for agreeing to help us at all."
Anika nods, mustering another smile. That will have to be enough and she needs to focus on the mission.
**w**
Hela comes to take Anika to go meet Loki afterwards. Thor is there too, trailing. The walk through the palace gives her a much better view of the world, and everything here looks so old-fashioned. The guards literally all have spears and swords. She doesn't see any blasters at all.
"Loki?" Hela asks, after knocking on a bedroom door and hearing a muffled reply Anika doesn't catch. "There's someone here to meet you. The warrior of another reality."
"So cease your idle activities and come out here," Thor grumbles.
Anika eyes him, raising an eyebrow.
That was just rude, even if she has no idea why he's saying that.
The door opens almost a second later, by a boy who looks very much like Hela in appearances. He looks a little younger than Anika.
Her eyes dart past him into this bedroom – it's covered in a mess of papers, though the piles do look like they're organized in their own way, and there's a feather and ink on his desk.
...Is that how they still write here? How far behind is this reality? She thinks she may have heard that was still a thing, some ten millennia ago in her own.
"So, you're Loki?" Anika inquires.
She feels something touch her lightly in the Force. It does remind her a little of the Nightsister's magick, but it doesn't feel like a dark kind of chaos, the way theirs do.
"I am." He studies her. "You're really do feel of another reality."
"You can tell that?" she asks, intrigued. Though she has to say, everyone here feels of a different energy frequency than what she's used too, too.
"Of course," he replies, "And you're coming here actually give me an idea for another play."
"No, not another one," Thor grumbles, "Your last one was positively horrendous."
...Oh.
So that's what all the papers are for. He's a writer?
"Do you refer to the one of Romeo and Juliet?" Loki asks. He's grinning mischievously.
"To what else would I refer?" Thor scowls, "I still would like to know why her name sounds so much like Jane's."
"It would not be my doing that I got such an inspiration," Loki smirks.
Thor flies at him.
Actually flies at him and Anika blinks, hand half raised to try and make him stop because how is this punch worthy, but he's shoving his little brother up against the wall with a wordless growl.
"I will not have you slander my and Jane's names with this madness," he growls.
"Cease squabbling," Hela interjects loudly, irritated, "You're raising my ire."
Neither of them look in their sister's direction.
"I assure you, brother, I had no such intentions," Loki says, a playful smile on his lips.
Thor shoves him again, as though he can even move in the first place.
"I think this is unnecessary," Anika interjects, finally stepping forwards, trying to make Thor actually look at her. She has no idea what he's going on about, but attacking his sibling over something so senseless is – Well, not alright. But. She has seen the same with her boys sometimes, so...
"Stay out of this," Thor growls, "I will deal with my brother. You're here to– "
Hela grabs Thor by the back of his shirt, jerking him backwards. "Enough," she orders, "Thor, you have other matters to be attending."
"So does Loki," Thor scowls as he moves for the door.
"Ah but I'm the youngest so I need not join the fight over the throne as you used to," Loki tells him sweetly.
Thor glowers at him before stalking off and Hela steps back out into the hall. Anika lingers in the doorway, uncertainly.
"My brothers are tiresome," Hela grumbles, "But you need not trouble yourself with that."
"Don't worry," Anika assures, "I know boys can be a handful." She had to deal with only several million, after all.
"Did you have brothers?" Hela asks.
"Sort of. Mostly adopted." It's hard to decide what to label a lot of the clones, when some were also still children when she first met them, but... brother is probably the closest term.
Hela nods, turning to go, finally giving Anika the chance to talk to him alone.
She hesitantly goes back to the doorway.
Loki's since gone back to his desk. For all that he was acting flippant about this, he feels hurt. Anika wouldn't even need the Force to feel that much.
"Is it alright if I come in?" she asks.
"By all means. And I should like to ask you about this reality of yours, if you do not mind." He pushes a few papers aside, picking up one that's entirely blank.
Is he planning to take notes?
"So you can get a more accurate portrayal for your play?"
"Well. Yes."
"I'd be happy to tell you anything you want to know," Anika promises, "I must say, Thor doesn't seem very... nice."
Loki's expression flickers. He seems a bit surprised and – she can't tell what else. "He has little love for my writing."
"I can't imagine anything you write could warrant that reaction. What do you normally write?"
He brightens almost visibly.
And then launches into a long string about a bunch of things that she barely follows.
Something about a Henry and a Hamelet and a – Actually, she's losing tracks of the names. But they sound cool. Something she thinks Obi-Wan may be interested in, actually.
"Those all sound interesting to me. Maybe while I'm here, I could check a few of them out," she offers. Reading has never really been her thing but maybe that's because she could hardly read until she was ten and by that point, she had to rush through her schoolwork as fast as she could and focus on missions the rest of the time.
Loki looks so hopeful it almost hurts. "I have the completed drafts right here," he says, snatching up a pile of papers of one of them, handing it to her. "But it would have more meaning if you were to attend when I act them out."
"You act them out?" she asks, a bit amused. "How do you play as so many people?"
"I can cast illusions," he replies, "No one can tell what is real and what is not."
"That – that's impressive," she admits, "Hopefully at least someone other than your brother likes them?"
His expression dims. "A few do. Most of the time, no one's interest is held very long." He feels lonely. Hopelessly lonely and she knows that feeling herself so well. She just never expected to feel something like that on a prince.
"I don't understand why," Anika says, as she skims over the page briefly, "This... looks good. I think you'd be an amazing writer."
He seems sort of –
At a lack for words, honestly. "Thank you," he says at last, the words awkward and weighted as though he's spoken them rarely.
"I have to say, I know what it is like to be alone," she says finally, looking up, "And I can see that that's how you feel too."
Loki's quiet for a pause. "I used to think someone would eventually find interest in my writing. That it would change eventually. But now – this is what keeps me company instead."
She winces, reaching out to pat his arm. "When I was a padawan – "
"A what?"
"A Jedi apprentice. Jedi pick up children when they're too young to remember a life before. I did. I came there late and... no one let me forget it. I never fit in with them. I could never be like them because I always wanted things I was not supposed to and I could never follow the rules the way I was expected to. I didn't have friends for years. When I started getting older, I made a few, but I lost nearly all of them before long. I missed them even after they were gone but they... they had already moved on."
"I had a few like that," Loki says quietly, "Usually, they were distracted with Thor before long. He's the one who everyone has always wanted to befriend."
"I can't understand why," she replies, "He's... well, I'm sure he has a nicer sound but he doesn't seem like the kind of person you would normally choose as your friend."
"Most don't see it that way. Usually, they tire of things that interest me and then they tire of me."
Ouch.
"I get that." She sighs quietly. The days she was a padawan are never something she wants to think about for this exact reason. "Being alone all the time isn't easy."
"It is not." Loki's quiet for a pause, but then he smirks. "But at least it gives me ample time to work over my plots. And irritate my brother."
"Well, most hobbies are far more fun with another to share them with, but looking at the positive side of every situation doesn't hurt." She tried too. It often didn't work.
"What was it the Jedi wanted you to do that you couldn't?" he queries.
It doesn't sound like an accusation. It doesn't carry the you should have been better undertone that statements like that so often do. That makes it much easier to talk about it. "The Jedi have rules about attachments," Anika starts slowly, "We're supposed to be detached so that we can always be objective and only focus on our mission. But I was raised by my mother and I could never let her go."
"They ask you to just not care?" Loki repeats, "It is little wonder you could not manage that. My mother was lost years ago but I could never forget her either. I do not see why anyone ever should."
"They say it distracts us. They aren't all wrong, but I can't – "
"That is not something they should ever ask you to do," Loki objects, "It is no wonder you were different. And that you were... alone if that is what they teach you are meant to be."
She sighs, nodding.
It's relieving to actually hear someone say that even if she still respects the Jedi way and tries to follow it as well as she can. It still makes her feel a little less like she's going insane. She might hardly know Loki, but even to hear this, she already sees him as a friend.
"Well, I guess we can be with one another so long as I'm here," Anika supplies. "But – I actually first came here to ask if you have any ideas about how to stop the reality from falling apart. Maybe after that, I can... read some of those." She motions at his papers.
Loki perks up instantly.
This is going to be a long conversation. But it's one she's actually really looking forward to.
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