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takadasaiko · 2 years

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A Flicker of Light, Chapter Three (a Star Wars fic)

Story Summary: A canon divergent AU in which Luke Skywalker is raised within the Empire to be either his father's heir as a Sith Lord… or his replacement.

Chapter Summary: Mara helps to broaden Luke's worldview and Vader makes good on an old promise.

FFN II AO3

---

Some days it was difficult for him to remember life before the Empire. Before the Dark Side. Before the decisions he'd made that had only worked to fuel the guilt and eventual self-loathing that acted as the spark that ignited the focus to do what must be done. To bend the galaxy's knee. To bring peace. By force, if necessary.

If left to that purpose and left to his own methods, he and his Master likely would have gone on until the older man's death, which would have been many years down the line. Vader was no fool. He knew the Jedi had hidden much from him - Obi-Wan in particular - and Palpatine was willing to teach him. It was grueling, and consistently left him with new scars on the flesh he had left, but he'd made his choice. He'd made the choice to serve his Sith Master. Luke had not.

When Palpatine had ordered him to bring the boy in, Vader had hoped the Rule of Two would save his son, and for a brief moment he thought it had. He'd expected the Emperor - who had had a hand in his own childhood - to push and prod, but he hadn't expected her.

Mara Jade. A Hand in training.

Vader knew what these Hands did. Investigators, assassins. He had no complaint in them if they stayed out of his way and, by proxy, his son's. His Master had made it clear that Vader wasn't to forbid Luke from being near her - not that it would have done much good. He was the son of Padme Amidala and Anakin Skywalker, and forbidding it would have only served to guarantee the budding friendship - but she'd put his son's life in jeopardy in the very way Palpatine had threatened to if Vader didn't yield to him. That couldn't be a coincidence.

Shy of outright killing the child - something he knew he was perfectly capable of - he couldn't keep her away from Luke. He could make it more difficult by filling his schedule, but the moment Palpatine caught wind of that he would add his own task to the training curriculum. A favour, or course, to his protege, to add his own wisdom to build up his own apprentice. Not that it was ever acknowledged that that was what Luke was. Asajj Ventress had been Count Dooku's apprentice, even if not in name. The Rule of Two clearly only cared about what was openly acknowledged. Ventress hadn't been the child of the Chosen One, so as long as she had been useful she was used. Luke's fate was darker. Vader knew that, in the end, Luke's true Master was the one in which he pledged his loyalty to. And he had. He'd initiated a bond typically formed between Masters and Padawans that had only proven stronger with blood. Sidious was trying to break that, and he would use the girl to do it if he was able.

Luke was strong, but he had to be stronger. His father wasn't always going to be there to protect him. He had to learn to protect himself.

The altered battle droid fired with the stun setting and Luke's boot slipped on the marvel floor as he tried to move. He hit the hard surface and Vader could feel the shock run through the boy's muscles as he twitched, trying to move.

"Again."

The droid loomed closer and Luke struggled against the previous pulse. He could do this. He had the raw talent, he just had to find the will. If he didn't, the next adventure Sidious sent him on through young Jade could be his last.

No. Vader felt his blood boil. If it came down to it, it would be his Master that fell. Not Luke. Not Padme's son.

"Father," the boy croaked out, managing to flop over on his back and those blue eyes went wide. "I can't!"

"You must," Vader boomed and felt his breath catch, despite the forced pull of air in and out of his lungs. Luke pushed himself up, almost getting a foot in place to leverage himself upright, but fell hard again. "Focus your fear," his father instructed. "Use it. It should not use you. Nothing should use you."

He watched through the lenses of his mask as the boy - only ten for a handful of standard months now - struggled and failed.

He wasn't afraid and he wasn't angry. Mildly irritated and frustrated, yes, but nothing powerful enough for the Dark Side to use as fuel. He was certain his father would save him, and while every paternal instinct - for what good they ever did him - screamed to stay, he knew that he'd be setting Luke up for dangers when he was away. Which would be soon. He'd put off his duties for months now with only a quick few placating trips to keep Palpatine from forcing him away. The Emperor had never preferred his lingering presence on Coruscant. Eventually, Luke would have to rely on his own wits.

"Again," Vader demanded as he turned, cape licking at the heels of his boots and he felt his son's desperate touch at their bond.

"Fath-!" The cry was cut short as the stun beam hit him again and the familiar presence was lost over their connection.

Vader turned, surveying the scene, before shutting the droid off through the Force. His footsteps, heavy and slow, echoed through the room before he stopped and bent to where the boy lay unconscious. With strangely gentle movements he picked him up and cradled him against his chest. For today, the training was finished. Tomorrow it would start again.

—

"I see training went well."

Luke groaned from his place on the floor, bent halfway over his crossed legs with a cold pack balanced at the base of his skull. Everything hurt, but not so much that he couldn't shoot Mara a glare where she stood in his room's doorway. "Not everyone has dancing lessons for their training."

"Keeps me light on my feet," she countered, twirling a little in a teasing manner before she sank fluidly to sit on the floor with him. "So I can dodge attacks rather than kissing the floor all the time."

"Yeah? You wanna go up against the battle droids again?" Luke grumbled.

"With your dad controlling them? No thanks. The whole palace can hear his again -" she dropped her voice, doing her best to imitate his father's powerful tone - "every time it beats you."

It had been six standard months since he and Mara had snuck into his father's training area and accidentally activated the battle droids he'd upgraded. Since then, Father had taken his lightsaber training to a new level. He was constantly exhausted and sore. Always in new places. "I just wish he'd tell me how to fix what I'm doing wrong, but instead it's channel your fear."

"Again," Mara tried again for her imitation, but snorted a laugh halfway through.

Luke moaned as he repositioned his melting cold pack. "I just want to beat it once. I used to think I was good at it."

He felt Mara's mood shift, as if she were trying to pick up on what she was supposed to say in that situation. Without feeling her presence in the Force soften, her voice did. "You are good at it, Natus. You're the best I've ever seen."

He looked up, the ice pack finally sluffing to the floor. "Really?"

Her expression lit up, as did her presence. "Was that good? My instructor said I was having some trouble with believable empathy."

Not for the first time, Luke found himself wondering just what kind of lessons Mara was given.

Then the meaning of the words caught up. "Hey!"

She flashed him a grin. "You've never seen the Emperor with a lightsaber. You'd understand if you had."

Sure, Palpatine might be powerful in the Force, but it was difficult to imagine he was very quick on his feet, which meant she was teasing him in layers that evening.

Mara settled back against the wall. "Maybe what you need is less to channel your fear and more to overcome it. Put it in perspective. That's what my instructor in Escape taught me. He said if you're not afraid, you can think your way out of nearly any situation."

"Back up. Instructor in Escape?"

"Not important," she waved him off. "My point is that we have to give you perspective. You spend every day in this corner of the palace. Of course you're afraid of droids."

"I'm not afraid of droids. I don't like getting stunned into unconsciousness." He paused, tilting his head a little and regretting it instantly. Why did ice have to melt so quickly? "And so were you. I didn't get hit that hard."

"I'm just saying you need experience. Is your dad going to come up here tonight?"

"No, he's going off-world. Some sort of uprising in the Mid Rim the Emperor wanted dealt with quickly."

The corner of Mara's lips curled up and Luke didn't have time to protest as she reached forward, hauling him to his feet along with her, and dragged him towards her favourite entry and exit: the window.

—-

There was a big, bright world outside of the Palace walls that Natus hadn't seen. The Emperor had said that his dad didn't want him outside. Lord Vader was notoriously paranoid - so she'd heard from the palace staff she'd chatted up when she'd first come across Natus and had looked for more information on him - and there were a lot of rumours on where his son had come from. Some said Vader had killed his mother and taken the boy while others - dreamers, Mara thought with not a small amount of disdain - thought perhaps Vader kept a lover that he didn't dare bring to the capital world. Finally, many of the staff thought Lord Vader had simply stolen Natus away from some unsuspecting family. A child with promise that he'd delivered to the Emperor and asked to take on as his heir. That had been the rumour Mara had given the most credence to right up until she'd actually been in the same room as Darth Vader. Natus was naïve and often softer than she would have expected, but in that moment that Vader had stood in the training room and destroyed his own creation, Mara had been forced to acknowledge it. She hadn't thought that Siths knew how to love, and while she didn't think it was a love she would want directed at her, she was pretty sure Lord Vader would burn the whole galaxy if it would keep his son safe.

Still, Natus hadn't seen much. His father wasn't providing him with the well-rounded education that the Emperor was assuring that she had, so Mara felt a certain responsibility. Despite his absurd naïveté, his reliance on his father rather than himself, and the overwhelming desire for human connection she felt every time she was near him… she was fond of him. Mara didn't find herself fond of people that didn't prove immediately useful. Just him. She couldn't put her finger on why, but she was willing to trust the feeling for now.

He whined the whole way. He wasn't supposed to leave the palace turned into he wasn't supposed to leave the grounds, which eventually shifted to a shrill, panicky feeling as she dragged him onto the street. Her hand started at his wrist, but eventually moved to interlace her fingers with his, which served to calm him a little. Slowly, she felt him start to relax and at some point she started having to drag him along less because he was afraid they'd be caught and more because he was mesmerized by all the sights.

Mara didn't really remember coming to Coruscant. She was sure it'd been in the last handful of years and she was positive she'd lived with her mom and dad somewhere else at some point, but it was all hazy. Why, she didn't linger on. Something inside always reminded her that nothing good would come of it. This was her here and now and this was her life. Coruscant and training and serving the Empire. Serving the Emperor. It was an honour. Someone had told her that along the way.

As she and Natus walked through the streets on the top level of the city she found herself watching him watching those around him with fascination. She was used to coming out into the city to sit and observe, but he wasn't, and because of that he was fixated on every alien race and every new experience. It wasn't until she saw a set of stormtroopers that she realized it was time to go. She might have leeway to wander and learn, but he didn't.

"What about-?" he tried to ask, but she was already pulling him away from the vendor and towards the lift. A quick glance around and she tugged him inside, punching several levels from the options.

"What was that?" Natus demanded.

"Unless you want dear old dad to find out you're out and about, we need to make sure they don't see us," she explained.

"You think they'll tell him?"

"You don't have any clue who he is, so you?"

He tilted his head in the way he did when he knew she knew the answer that he wasn't certain of. "He makes sure there's peace in the galaxy."

"Sure," Mara answered as they hit the first level she'd punched. The doors opened and she tightened her grip on him so he wouldn't leave.

The doors closed and they started their plummet again.

"He does," Natus pressed.

"I'm not saying he doesn't," she defended as they started to slow again. Just a few more levels. "Maybe just not how you expect."

"Like you'd know," he groused.

Something deep in her chest constricted for him. "I see more than you do, probably." He really was hopelessly naïve.

Whatever response was battering around his head was cut off as the lift slowed to a stop and the doors opened to reveal bright, flashing neon lights and all the sights and smells that accompanied the market district level. She glanced at Natus to see his blue eyes wide and the unfiltered sense of utter awe wafted off of him so that she couldn't help but pick up on it through the Force. For half a moment, she considered dragging him back into the lift. All the lightsaber training, all of his ability in controlling the Force wasn't going to do him much good in the end if a few flashing lights stole his attention. She wanted to help him, so she guessed she shouldn't shelter him like his father did.

"C'mon," Mara grumbled as she tightened her hold on his hand and tugged him forward. "Keep up."

He picked up his gait to keep up with hers. Even so, she had to tug him along every time that a cart or a booth caught his eye.

"My instructor in Escape always says that you have to have at least half a dozen distractions when you're learning because there'll be at least three anywhere you go," she explained.

That caught his attention. "Again with your escape instructor…. What is the Emperor training you in?"

She shot him a glare, but continued her original line of thought, ignoring his question. "You're always up against time, capture, and failing."

"Failing what?"

"Your mission."

"Wouldn't getting caught be failing?"

Mara shrugged. "Sometimes that's the best way to get in." At least, that's what Instructor Korbal had said. She hadn't gotten to the explanation of how yet.

Natus frowned, the expression pronounced. "It doesn't matter. The Emperor doesn't let me go on missions with my father."

"You've just gotta prove you can take care of yourself."

"How?"

She flashed him a wide grin. "By not failing."

—

When Mara had declared it a mission to go deep below Coruscant's top level, Luke had assumed she meant more than just avoiding troopers. That had proven to be a task alone though, especially the first few times. Apparently two kids running around the market level just looked like trouble, but it gave Mara a chance to show off all the tricks her instructor was teaching her. For months now, every time his father was off-world they would sneak out for another round.

But his father wasn't off-world that day. In fact, they had training planned for late that evening. Normally that wasn't something Luke could find in himself to look forward to anymore, but this training would be different. Not that Father had said as much, but Luke had sensed the mildest tones of anticipation over their bond. It was rare. So rare, that he knew it had to be something exciting, so when Mara had shown up at the window he had turned her down.

Not that she had taken no for an answer. Instead she'd told him she'd been given an assignment by an instructor and she needed some help with it. She was vague on the details, with the exception that he was expected to be a distraction. Not a big deal. In and out, and she promised to have him back in more than enough time to make his training session.

They went deeper below the top layer of the city than they ever had before, Luke's ears popping as they plummeted further and further down. Finally they stopped and Mara hesitated just past the opening as the doors slid closed behind them. He looked to her and saw her eyes closed and her lips moving, as if she were reciting something. He reached out with the Force, careful not to disrupt her, but caught the anxiety that was slipping through the mental shields that she was getting better at constructing every day. He wondered if the feeling was contagious or if the Force was trying to warn him about something. His father constantly reminded him that, if he listened, the Force could tell him when something was going to happen. He was trying to get Luke to use it in training when the droid shot him with a stun beam, but he knew it wasn't limited to that. Father used it when he was protecting the Empire and its citizens from people that wanted to hurt them. Luke just had to zero in on the cause behind the feeling, which was hard to do when he didn't even know what they were getting into. "What exactly is your assignment?"

Mara cracked a green eye open and offered a glare. "It doesn't matter. I just need you to be a lookout."

"For what?"

"Trouble." She pulled in a breath and started forward without warning.

He scurried to catch up and caught her wrist. "Mara, I have a bad feeling about this one. If you'd just— "

She jerked her hand away and picked up her speed and pushed through a door that could have easily been missed on the street. It led to a grungy flight of stairs and she started down. "You know, you're not always going to get the full story when you get an order."

"This isn't my assignment, it's yours," he reminded her tightly as he followed.

"And that's why I can't tell you the details. It's need-to-know, and lookouts don't need to know."

Luke snorted at that one. "Sounds like—" The feeling slammed into him as hard as if someone had physically hit him and he stumbled, the argument cut off. It was enough that Mara finally stopped a step down and turned to glare a moment before brushing him off and taking the half a dozen steps down towards the door. Luke shook his head, trying to focus on the why behind it, but as Mara wrenched the door open they both saw the why in the form of three massive aliens that turned to look down at the red headed girl.

Mara yelped as Luke used the Force to pull her back and slam the door shut behind her, the thin metal bending against one of the aliens' attempts to pry it back open. Luke held it closed as Mara ran past him, grabbing him by the hand and dragging him with her. As they raced back up the stairs, he heard the aliens break through.

Another flight up and Luke stopped, pulling a startled sound and confused feeling from her as he pulled her towards the exit on that level. "Trust me," he said and with only a fraction of hesitation, she nodded.

They burst through the door and into the back alley of a residential level. There wasn't a trooper in sight, but if the Force had told Luke when to exit, either it or her training showed Mara where to go. It was her turn to take the lead and she tugged him forward, dodging in and around people and aliens alike, even as he heard their pursuers slamming through the door they'd taken to get into this level. She tightened her hand around his and pulled him off to a side alley where there was a pile of trash waiting to be hauled away. She pulled him behind it and they crouched there, neither of them daring to breathe.

A long minute crawled by, then another, and all Luke could hear was the general commotion of a dozen different species packed together in a residential district without room to breathe without breathing on each other. "You think…?" he risked after another long moment.

"Maybe. Give it a second more."

"You going to tell me now?"

Mara frowned and a sigh escaped her. "There've been some rumours floating around that an Imperial officer has been providing help to a gang of smugglers." She pulled a small cam from her belt. "I was supposed to go in, get any evidence I could, and bring it back. None of what my instructor told me made me think they'd have guards. Definitely not at the stairway."

"So what now?"

She tucked the device away again. "I still need my evidence."

"They'll be looking for us," Luke pointed out.

"They've found you," a gruff voice said from overhead.

Both kids looked up to see one of the giant, greenish-blue aliens that had been chasing them. Flat nose, glowing violet eyes, and more hair on his face than Luke thought he'd ever seen. With one swipe of his massive arm, the trash heap they'd hidden behind was scattered and both he and Mara were left in the open. On instinct, Luke started to reach for his lightsaber that was partially hidden by his black tunic, but Mara grabbed his hand and gave him the barest of head shakes. Sometimes the best way to get in is to get caught. That was one of the lessons Mara's instructor had taught her and it looked like that was her plan. Luke really hated that plan.

But, even as the giant alien and his buddies snatched them up, he reminded himself that he trusted Mara.

—-

She really hadn't meant for Natus to get dragged this deeply in. Any assignment she was given, unless told otherwise, was supposed to be handled by her and her alone. A lookout wasn't too far out of the assignment perimeters, especially if no one ever knew he was there to begin with, but he was now square in the middle. It could be a problem, but only if they got out alive.

Mara was okay with getting in trouble for blurring the lines on her assignment if it meant they got out alive.

They were hauled back down to the level she'd been trying to go to, both of them draped over one of the creatures' big shoulders with a hand holding them in place, claws at the tips of their fingers pressed into her and Natus' back to keep them from struggling.

She watched everything, just like she'd been taught. Every turn, every small marker to show her where they were and how to get back. Clearly they didn't see either of them as much of a threat. Just a couple of kids in the wrong place at the wrong time. It made people easier to manipulate when they thought that.

They entered a building that creaked when the creatures walked, the claws on their giant, bare feet scraping lightly across the flooring. Mara could hear chatter in the distance and it was getting closer. No. They were getting closer.

Mara risked a glance at Natus who was facing the other direction. She reached out through the Force. He was better at connecting to her mind than she was to his - truth be told, he made every new talent learned in the Force look simple when it rarely felt that way to learn - but she tried to communicate her confidence in the idea. They were okay. They were going to be, at any rate. In return, she felt equal parts fear and anger. He felt balanced between the two, like his mind was struggling to decide which to hold onto. Fear was pretty close to winning.

"What the —?" a male voice demanded, clearly startled by the creatures' appearance. Or, more likely, their appearance with their young hostages. "Mallicar. Explain yourself!"

The greenish-blue creature that wasn't holding either Mara or Natus - Mallicar, apparently- cleared his throat. "We commed in that there were intruders and you said to pursue."

"You indicated they were a problem," the first voice bit out. "These are children. Put them down. Now."

Mara slid to her feet, landing with more grace than Natus managed. As he stumbled to gain his footing, his tunic flipped up at his left side, revealing the hilt of his lightsaber. She turned to the owner of the voice - instantly clocking him as Lt Commander Char Ollumbra and the person she'd been looking for - and watched his grey gaze latch onto the weapon. "Come here, boy. What do you have there?"

Well this was a problem. She had hoped she could get a visual confirmation and that would be that, but they weren't so lucky.

Natus turned reflexively away, putting his body between the approaching officer and his lightsaber still connected to his belt and fixing a glare on the man. From Natus' other side, Mallicar snatched it loose and one massive, clawed finger triggered the red blade. All of the colour drained from Ollumbra's face. "The rumours are true," he breathed, but then his face flushed with rage as he turned back to his guard. "Do you know who he is? What you've done?"

"It's just a kid."

"That -" Ollumbra motioned at Natus - "is the Sith Lord's son!"

A darkness passed over Mallicar's face that Mara didn't like. There was a rage that filled the air at the mention of Vader's name, like he'd had a personal run in with the Sith apprentice. "Then we kill him," he growled as he took an aggressive step forward. Mara saw Natus widen his stance a little like he did before they sparred. Except he didn't have a weapon.

"And then he'll kill you and every last person we're trying to get off this forsaken planet!" Ollumbra snapped.

"Well we can't just let him go."

"No, we just have to keep it far away from us. Vader can't trace it back here."

With their focus on Natus, Mara's gaze swept the room. No one had come in after them because no one else was needed. With the large, alien creatures blocking them in, there was no clear path to an exit. They were trapped. Maybe she should have listened to his intuition afterall.

She let her gaze flicker back to Natus who, in turn, stood poised like he was ready for one of his father's battle droids to attack. Every muscle in his body seemed to be coiled and that icy blue gaze was fixed on his red blade in an alien's hand.

Without warning, without moving, she heard his voice in her head. DOWN! he commanded and she hit the floor.

—-

He had never had his lightsaber plucked from his belt before. He'd dropped it when hit hard enough during training, but no other living, sentient creature had dared to take it from him, or even try. Luke felt his any fear from being snatched as they had evaporated in that moment as they discussed how they were going to kill him and Mara, all the while avoiding his father's wrath that would come crashing on them if they did. They thought they had a plan - told themselves they could survive this - and that these children were merely obstacles to be dealt with. Like they weren't being trained by the two strongest Force users in the galaxy. Luke felt his fear harden into anger, each word working to sharpen it into rage.

So this is what Father had meant when he'd said to channel his fear. He understood now.

He didn't have to look to Mara to know that she was looking for and ready to take any advantage that presented itself. DOWN! he thought at her, not entirely sure it would work with anyone he hadn't formed a Force bond with like he had his father, but the instinct proved correct. Mara hit the steel floor under her boots and Luke pushed outward with the building rage and the Force slammed into the three aliens and the man that looked like an Imperial officer dressed in civvies. All four flew back, one of the aliens hitting the wall hard enough that a resounding crack echoed through the room.

Both kids - so easily overlooked just seconds before - flashed into action. Mara drew her lightsaber from deep in the folds of her tunic and the purple blade leapt to life as Luke reached for his own fallen weapon, the red light filling the room.

One of the aliens rushed Mara and she danced out of the way. Dodging and moving until she had an opening, swinging the brilliant purple-white blade at one clawed hand and severing it from the arm it had previously been attached to. The lead alien - Mallicar - drew a weapon and aimed it at her. "Put it down, girl!"

Luke tugged hard at the blaster, sending it flying towards Mara. She cut it neatly in half.

Then he stumbled. It took half a beat longer than it should have for him to realize that the Human behind him had clipped him with a shot. Not with a stun weapon like the droids he practiced against. No, he put together as he caught a glimpse of the way the fabric burned at his left shoulder. This had been a live round. He turned his attention on the man who simultaneously raised a hand as if in surrender and leveled his blast to take another shot. "I don't want to hurt you, boy. Put the lightsaber down."

"No," Luke growled and the Human began firing. Luke clumsily blocked the first shot, sending it wild. The second was more controlled, as was the third, and the fourth ricocheted off the red blade and into his attacker's chest. He dropped instantly and Luke stood ready for a fifth shot, despite what he watched happen. Slowly, reality started to catch up and he eased out of the red-hot rage that he'd channeled to keep himself alive.

"…go! Natus!"

He turned, finding Mara at his shoulder and she touched his arm, careful to avoid burned flesh beneath the still-smoldering black fabric. "What?"

"We have to go," she repeated.

Luke blinked hard, gaze sweeping from the man who lay with pale, grey eyes staring unseeing at him from where he'd fallen to where one of the aliens hadn't gotten up from his initial attack with the Force.

"The other two will bring help," Mara said as she tugged him towards the exit. "C'mon!"

He thumbed the control on his lightsaber and the red blade snapped out of existence. Mara kept pulling him forward by his opposite hand as he tried to wrap his mind around what had just happened. They'd been taken. They were going to hurt them. Kill them. They were…

"Wait," he snapped, slamming to a stop. "Who were they?"

"Traitors," Mara hissed, still trying to move him forward. "We have to go. C'mon!"

Questions folded in on themselves in his mind, too convoluted to make their way out of his mouth. He shook his head, trying to clear it. "I killed him."

"He was going to kill you," Mara countered.

"But he was a person."

"So are you."

He didn't know what to say to that and Mara didn't let him stand there to think on it too long. With a warning of backup and danger, she pulled him towards the stairwell, up a few flights, and then to the lift. It was okay, she promised. He'd done what he had to do.

It didn't feel okay.

—

It didn't come as a huge surprise when his father had delayed whatever special training that he'd had planned. Mara had finally explained that the man that had been shooting at them was a Lt Commander in the Imperial Navy that had been suspected of treason. Turned out those suspicions were right, and while Luke didn't know exactly what they'd been doing or who they'd been working with, his father was the Emperor's go-to man to quickly handle anything that might threaten the Empire or its citizens.

Ollumbra had been the traitor that Mara had been sent to find evidence on. His father's involvement was an added layer of proof that the man had not been innocent, but Luke couldn't shake the image of those pale grey eyes staring at him after Ollumbra had taken his last breath.

He couldn't sleep that night and had gone to the training room to wear himself down against droids that proved far too predictable. Into the morning, the afternoon, the evening…. Every time he tried to stop to rest, he found himself buzzing with nervous energy again, the smell of sizzling flesh filling his nose and shouts echoing in his mind. Then there was the cold. It'd all happened so fast that he hadn't known what to equate it to, but with time he realized it had set in the moment the life had left Ollumbra's eyes. The moment Luke had killed him.

Father didn't fill him in on the investigation and Luke didn't ask. Even so, three days later it was over and done and his father was ready for the training he'd promised his son. By then, Luke was so exhausted that he couldn't imagine any scenario in which this went well.

They didn't go to the training room, though. Instead Father led him up and up and up until the lift emptied them out into the private hangar bay on the roof of the palace. There sat his personal TIE fighter and, for the first time in days, Luke felt the cold, dead gaze recede to the back of his mind with the sudden understanding. Father was going to teach him to fly.

It had been years since Luke had been in any sort of craft. He knew it was a Lambda-class shuttle that had brought them there, but how his father had flown it he couldn't say. At six years old, he'd been more interested in watching the stars streak as they flew through hyperspace than the controls Father had worked to make it happen. This time he watched everything. Black gloved hands moved and he asked questions when his father didn't readily explain a motion that might have been as natural as breathing to him. More so, maybe. There was a pre-check, repulses lifting them up into the air, and the feeling of excitement that he wasn't sure was entirely his own. Father wasn't just teaching him today, he was sharing this with him. For a few moments, as the craft sped up and out of the central city, he felt free. They felt free. Maybe they were.

They stayed well within the atmosphere, Luke watching as his father walked him through every command the craft needed and demonstrated in ways he never had in his lightsaber training. They swung up above the buildings and out towards the mountains, skimming the ocean water and, at last, the TIE came to rest on the same mountain Luke recognized from when they'd first arrived on Coruscant years prior. Father had said someday. Father didn't lie to him.

But he'd been lying to Father.

The craft set down gently and the ramp extended so that they could exit. Wind whipped around them, kicking up off the ocean and cooling before it reached Luke's face. Despite the exhilaration, he felt the guilt weighing on him. "I was there," he said, his words nearly carried away by the wind.

"I know."

Two very simple words breathed out and amplified through his mask, but Luke didn't feel the usual frustration or anger that he did when the battle droids won a round. He would have thought that sneaking out would have been so much worse than a failed exercise. "You're not mad?"

"Did you think I did not know?"

"Sorta," he managed.

"I knew."

"Why didn't you stop me?"

There was a long moment of audible silence, but Luke could feel the conflict over their bond. "The Emperor… feels you are too soft. Too sheltered."

"I killed him. Ollumbra," Luke confessed, and he felt his father's surprise as he turned to look at him through the lenses in his mask. "I didn't mean to. He saw my lightsaber and knew who I was. That I'm your son. He started shooting, and I accidentally deflected one of the bolts right at him." He felt the rush of emotion as he voiced the deed that had kept him awake.

"Did you think you'd always fight droids?"

Luke looked to his father, his vision blurring a little at the idea that he might have to feel this again. "I don't think I want —"

"You are my son. He will not be the last that will try to end your life because of that."

"Will it always hurt?"

There was a long moment of silence between them and a flicker of subdued emotion. Luke saw a glimpse - a memory, maybe - of bodies laid strewn around what looked like the Palace and the overwhelming feeling of rage and sorrow mixed together, but it was gone as quickly as it had come. Father reached out, his hand on Luke's wind-blown hair in what had become a comforting gesture. "I will teach you to use the pain. To be stronger than it," he swore.

Father didn't lie. He'd said he'd bring Luke to this place someday, and there they were. Luke just had to be patient. If he was, he could be strong like him.

---

TBC

Notes: Anyone else see the trailer for Tails of the Jedi? The moment I did I knew that there needed to be a training session for Luke because Vader would 100% train him in the same way as Ahsoka. I'm really looking forward to that show to see even more between those two :D

This was a difficult chapter to piece out, but once I finally got it moving, I'm really excited about the direction it went. Luke's going to be forced to grow up a lot faster in this story than he ever did on Tattooine.

As a side note, I've been toying with who all I want to incorporate from the Star Wars universe into this story as we move deeper into the Rebellion. Obviously Leia, Han, Chewie... I'm hoping to find a way to work Lando in because I love him dearly. A few others that I don't want to spoil, but I've been watching Rebels for the first time from start to finish. I'd seen a handful of episodes and clips (as a huge Timothy Zahn fan I went in looking for a few Thrawn clips to see how I liked him in it a while back), but I just started S4 and I think I found a favourite in Kallus. Give me a good redemption arc and I'm sold. I hadn't planned on having the crew from the Ghost appear in this story, but I'd love to find a way to let Kallus appear even if he didn't have a major role. It could be a lot of fun.

Next Time: Luke learns just how far his father will go to protect him and Mara must make a decision on loyalty.

#Star Wars #Star Wars fanfiction #Luke Skywalker #Mara Jade #Darth Vader

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shatouto · 4 years

Text

another sequel to @obiwanobi's ex-sith anakin au (here and here), and at this rate… yea. yea we’re gonna have to archive this on ao3 (soon)

anyway here’s 2.8k words of tonal inconsistency

et si les étoiles sont cachées

Obi-Wan barely sleeps a wink through the night. His mind turns and whirls as he battles between second-guessing his decisions regarding the former Sith sleeping in his bed and planning on what to do going forward. Anakin knows how to cloak his own signature well enough, that much Obi-Wan can observe, but he will not stand a chance if Masters such as Yoda or Windu search his presence. And then there is the matter of the elusive Darth Sidious’ death, as well - Obi-Wan can only assume that it would be classified information on the Confederacy side, but even then, the Force only knows what kind of hell would break loose once his body is discovered. It doesn’t help that he could barely pull his hand out of Anakin’s without him frowning in his sleep and stirring. He simply has to stay put, with Anakin’s very likely feverish body pressed up against his side in a bed that is only snugly enough for two.

In meditating all of those scenarios, he forgets to account for the hell that breaks loose in his own quarters upon the return of his apprentice.

“Master, what were you thinking?” Ahsoka hisses, eyes darting from him to the closed door of his bedroom, from where the sound of Anakin’s pacing is obvious. Her hand is still clutching one of her lightsabers, alert.

“He was an injured man who crawled to my doorstep for aid, young one.” Obi-Wan sighs. “Surely you cannot expect me to simply turn my back to him, can you? That wouldn’t be the Jedi way.”

“Yes, but…” Ahsoka pinches her own forehead, shoulders dropping in a harsh exhale. “He’s a Sith lord, Master. We’ve all seen what he has done and can do!”

“He was a Sith, Ahsoka. Leading him back to the Light means one less darksider for the galaxy, and no more lives lost. I have always been trying to accomplish this.” Obi-Wan realizes, all of a sudden, that he is trying to convince himself rather than his apprentice. “He came in a moment of need, with nowhere else to go. He no longer wants to remain with the Dark.”

Ahsoka blinks. “And you just trust him? Just like that?”

Well, Obi-Wan wants to say, you didn’t see him on his knees in the hallway with blood covering half his body and bruises the other half; and you didn’t see him hang his head as you took his lightsaber and then his ruined arm off before setting him to bed. Then again, nobody would ever see that: the exact devastation and distress the once-Darth Vader was in last night, at his door. “That is the case, Ahsoka. I would like to trust him, for the time being.”

Ahsoka grumbles something about tried to kill me earlier, didn’t you see that? which of course inspires a twinge of guilt in Obi-Wan - because indeed, this borders on being a foolhardy venture, that his Padawan is dragged into solely by virtue of her sharing quarters with him. She shakes her head and speaks clearly again for him to hear. “...Fine, I get it. Where do you even plan to house him, Master?”

Obi-Wan pauses. He has had plenty of time in the night to consider this, and still he cannot find any better solution than the one he is about to suggest. “I suppose there is no place safer than here.”

“Here? You mean as in, your own quarters, in the Jedi Temple?” Ahsoka stresses on the last few words, incredulous.

Something crashes inside his room, followed by Anakin’s muffled curse. Obi-Wan looks his apprentice dead in the eye as he lets out a sigh, and says, “Yes.”

—

Anakin is strangely good at cooking.

Obi-Wan supposes he shouldn’t have presumed; after all, being a Sith apprentice should probably not interfere with the more mundane aspects of life. But not only is Anakin’s cooking distinctly above average (how did he learn enough skills to make a three-course meal out of the few basic ingredients in Obi-Wan’s pantry, and at what cost?), he also seems to undertake the task with zeal. It’s rather endearing to watch him shuffle around the kitchenette in warm beige pants that barely reach his ankles, and a left sleeve that doesn't need to be rolled up because it's already too short for his long arm.

It’s been less than a week since Anakin first comes to his door. He clearly doesn't like Ahsoka, but with one arm and no lightsaber and Obi-Wan firmly telling him to behave, he eventually, and clearly grudgingly, tolerates her presence, from time to time. The gleam in his eyes is still worrying, from time to time, but the most Anakin does nowadays when Ahsoka passes by is turn his back to her. He seems to be trying his best, which is why Obi-Wan feels immensely guilty for having to preface their meal with a rather somber question.

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan says, as Anakin sets down before him a plate of steak that smells nearly the same as that one luxurious dish he once had while in disguise as a socialite at a prestigious fine dining party. It isn’t the materiality that is distracting, but the efforts that must have gone into it. “I would like to ask you a question.”

Anakin sits down opposite of him, balancing himself. Even with the Force, he’s unused to not having a weight elbow-down on his right hand. “What? Leftover is in the kitchen for your apprentice. If she wants it.” His voice still sharpens at your apprentice, defensive. “I didn’t mean to let her starve.”

Obi-Wan is torn between a smile and a grimace. “No, that isn’t my question, Anakin. I’ve been wondering if you knew of your allies’ plans.”

“What kind of plans?” Anakin’s eyes narrow, warily. “It depends. Dooku knew most. I just did battlefield strategy.”

“You don’t happen to know if there has been recent plans to assassinate the Supreme Chancellor, do you?” It has been on Obi-Wan’s mind ever since he was summoned to an urgent Council meeting days ago. Investigative teams reported that the Supreme Chancellor has gone missing; then midway through the meeting, another report came, and so they ended up discussing how to keep peace while the Senate would break the staggering news of the Supreme Chancellor’s death to the entire galaxy and organize an emergency election. The timing fit too well with Anakin’s arrival, and he doesn’t know what to make of it.

“Oh, there’s never any.” Anakin shrugs, tension melting out of his shoulder. He begins to cut into his steak without a care.

Obi-Wan frowns. There has been plenty of attempted assassinations before, as well as kidnapping - he himself has been sent to protect the Chancellor on many occasions. He’s loath to contradict Anakin, though, so he asks, carefully: “And you are sure?”

“I’m sure,” Anakin says, swallowing a mouthful. “My mas—Darth Sidious, is Palpatine.”

It takes Obi-Wan a stunned moment, while Anakin just continues to eat.

Well, the Council had their suspicions, but it was never so direct. Some have speculated, very privately, that the Chancellor might be linked to a darksider in some way. Perhaps somebody who is in opposition to Count Dooku, another Master has raised. But for the Chancellor *himself* to be this elusive, mysterious Darth Sidious, seems downright unfathomable.

“You…” Obi-Wan pauses, rewording the sentence in his mind for the seventh time. “I would like you to be serious, Anakin. That was not a joke, was it?”

Anakin, unsmiling, turns his eyes up to him with a look of confusion as if saying What’s a joke? “Darth Sidious is Palpatine,” he repeats. “I’m not allowed—I was not allowed to call him that, though.”

Obi-Wan takes a deep breath. The timing does line up far too well. “Anakin, that means you have... disposed of the Supreme Chancellor.”

Anakin scoffs, scrunches up his nose, and shrugs again. “If you put it that way,” he mutters, slouching down even lower as he pointedly eats his food.

Obi-Wan opens his mouth, then closes it again. He sighs at the ceiling, and picks up his fork and knife. Might as well enjoy a good meal before the migraine sets in.

—

To his own amazement, Obi-Wan is getting used to the way Anakin follows him around like a hatchling, whenever he is home.

During the first few days, it took Obi-Wan a considerable amount of patient explanation to convince Anakin not to sit on the floor at the foot of the door frame until he came back. His reasons ranged from “It’s rather undignified for you” (to which Anakin said, “I’ve done worse,” at which point Obi-Wan had to switch subjects immediately, putting a pin in it for future unpacking), to “You might catch a cold, sitting here for so long” (to which Anakin answered, “It’ll go away on its own,” which prompted Obi-Wan to check his temperature immediately, only to realize that Anakin had been cloaking his fever for at least a day, and - well, that was another pin on the board). In the end, it was only the allowance for him to use the kitchenette that kept the former Sith from waiting at the door like a hound, rather busying himself at the stove instead. It was a great decision through and through, considering how much Anakin improved the quality of their meals.

But otherwise, Anakin still makes no secret of his immediate attachment to him. Perhaps there should be no surprise in that, considering the sort of upbringing he must have suffered through; not that Obi-Wan knows much of it anyway, considering how quiet Anakin remains and how reluctant he himself is to ask personal questions. Nevertheless, from the way Anakin acted - finding his way into the Jedi Temple and declaring his trust to a sworn enemy rather than relying on his own Sith allies - it isn’t hard to infer that this man has had precious little reason to put his trust into anybody in his surroundings. It also aligns with the Sith ways, Obi-Wan speculates - and could only dare speculate, because truth be told he does not know all that much of the Sith outside of his research on ancient texts. Contemporary Sith are few. The Master might just make his own rules, and Darth Sidious - the Supreme Chancellor, Force have mercy - seemed like the type to play cruel games. So he has every reason to understand and empathize. And he truly does extend his most heartfelt compassion to this wayward Force-wielder.

That doesn’t make it any easier to deal with Anakin’s irritability whenever Obi-Wan comes back from a mission.

He’s clearly unhappy about Obi-Wan being away, especially if he discovers that the mission has been with Ahsoka. He only grows more upset and quick-tempered as time goes by; it begins with him upturning the decorative datapad shelves in the living room, escalating to a series of broken glasses and plates in the kitchenette; finally one day Obi-Wan comes back home to knives lodged in the wall, Anakin in the midst of pulling them out.

Anakin has the decency to look sheepish, even just slightly, as he silently puts away all the knives and hides himself in the kitchen completely. He cleans up, at least. In fact, he was almost always in the middle of cleaning up when Obi-Wan caught him in the act, which prompts the question: How many other times has he done this while left alone?

Obi-Wan only sighs. It does border on cruelty to keep somebody alone in these cramped quarters for weeks on end. He also knows that whatever measures he has set up to keep Anakin safe here - from the world, and from Anakin himself, - it would be a fatal oversight to underestimate the ability of a former Sith. He has no doubts that Anakin, even while one-handed and saber-less, could escape if he truly wanted to. The fact that Anakin willingly keeps himself stowed away in a Jedi’s quarters while desperately and entertaining himself through destructive means only to then be embarrassed about it… is a testament to some budding virtue, Obi-Wan supposes. And it only intensifies his guilt: it’s as if he’s taking advantage of Anakin’s trust to confine him to solitude, while he himself pushes back and back the kind of work a true mentor would need to engage in to help Anakin. The fact that he is fighting a war, or whatever is left of it, is no excuse.

It is with resolution that he stands up and heads into the kitchen. Their eyes meet as soon as he steps in; clearly enough, Anakin has been watching him. Anakin’s fingers grip the counter, knuckles blanched. Obi-Wan holds up his hands, moving as slowly and unpredictably as possible, and cuts to the chase.

“I was wondering if you’d like to go outside, Anakin.”

Anakin’s brows shoot up, but he still doesn’t unclench his jaws.

“I believe it’s rather unfair to keep you locked inside,” Obi-Wan explains. “After all, cooking can only do so much to spend all of one’s pent up energy.” He gives a small, gentle smile, inwardly anxious because of the way Anakin still looks at him with his guards up, shoulders squared, halfway between fight and flight. “I am not suggesting anything much, Anakin. Only a walk in the park, if it suits you. The decision is up to you.”

A moment or two passes in thick, awkward silence. Then Anakin, hesitantly: “Will you be there?”

It’s the first pleasant surprise Obi-Wan has had in what felt like an age. His smile grows, unbidden. “Yes, I insist.”

—

Autumn winds reel through his hair before rushing off to rustle in the foliage. The nightly air is crisp on his cheeks, and Obi-Wan doesn’t even think to tighten his robes around him; he enjoys a nice, chilly evening. Silence is alleviated by the song of insects in the grass, as they make their way down the serpentine path, round fountains and beds of flowers. Their robes flutter, and their hands are firmly linked.

It’s nothing that cannot be explained by strict necessity, or so Obi-Wan reasons: He must be able to make sure Anakin never strays from his sight, for safety reasons; and he dislikes the thought of putting any kind of binding or chains or even just a simple tied thread on Anakin. As usual, when all else fails, undertaking by hand is the solution - hence Anakin’s hand in his own, their palms warmly interfacing, their calluses fitting together.

The contact is also enjoyable, but that’s beside the point.

“I like the sky at night,” Anakin says, sudden but quiet. Obi-Wan glances at him to find Anakin not looking back at him for once. Anakin’s hood has long since slipped off because of the way he tips his head back to turn his eyes to the stars. Most of them are shrouded by gathering clouds, but some of them still shine through the dark.

“I see,” Obi-Wan muses. “May I ask why?”

For once, Anakin doesn’t hesitate to answer. “I like to look at the stars. They’re just suns, but far away. Can’t burn you, only blink at you.” Anakin’s hand tightens just a little. A patch of wildflowers gently glows when the two of them pass by. “When you blink back at them, you’re not alone.”

“And what if the stars are hidden?” Obi-Wan gestures, voice light, even as his heart sinks. He knows a lonely child, or one who used to be a lonely child, when he sees one. “What do you do then?”

The sigh that follows is lost in a gust of wind. There’s only the slightest of tremors in Anakin’s fingertips. They fall back into silence, deeper silence this time, as even the insects seem to quiet. The air feels earthy and damp with a coming rain. The sky blackens as clouds roil and thicken, and suddenly it’s dark as pitch and the comfortable coolness splinters into shivers under his skin. When the first drop falls, Obi-Wan reaches over to draw up Anakin’s hood for him. Anakin turns to him, eyes downcast.

“Then I’m alone,” he answers, belated and small.

—

“Maybe you’re right, Master.” Ahsoka picks up her steaming mug of tea, sinking comfortably into her amply cushioned seat on the couch. A strip of morning sunlight draws lazily across the room. “Whatever you’re doing, it’s working. He’s getting... nicer, lately. You should keep walking him.”

Obi-Wan chuckles at the turn of phrase. Walking him… “I don’t think it’s my doing,” he says, pouring a little more tea for himself. Anakin shuffles from one corner of the kitchenette to another, apron strings fluttering behind him. Obi-Wan shakes his head and takes a sip of tea, smiling. “I don’t think it’s my doing at all.”

#obikin #anakin skywalker #obi-wan kenobi #obi wan kenobi #ahsoka tano #star wars prequels #the clone wars #raised as sith anakin #i really did hijack clem’s au #sorry for pinging you again!#why is this so reminiscent of le petit prince all of a sudden #will that story ever stop haunting me? (no)#all aboard the woobify train yay

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likeholymary · 4 years

Text

— one with the force

the phantom menace ii: 4.6k words

AU: What if the Clone Wars never happened, but instead Darth Sidious cast aside the Rule of Two, forging a new way for the Sith and began amassing an army of Sith warriors to overthrow the Jedi and the Republic?

A/N: (not my gif) (excerpt below is from The Clone Wars: Wild Space by Karen Miller, slightly altered to fit the story). hello beautiful friends! the beautiful gif credit goes to @pixelahsoka. this chapter has a LOT of content so just keep that in mind! also, kind of cheesy ending but whatever, hehe. also, yes, to confirm, obi-wan and rhea are a force dyad. however, it will (hopefully) be better than the sequels, bc i felt like it just came out of nowhere. their romance will be a slow-burn to them actually accepting it, with them still being at least semi-romantical along the way, so look forward to that! this chapter is filled with a lot of fluff, and a very angsty ending. this is the last chapter set during the phantom menace, so the next chapter will be set during attack of the clones, where most of the AU aspect will begin to pick up! comment below or send me an ask if you would like to join the taglist and be notified about the upcoming chapters! again, i am so grateful that you are even reading this, and if you feel compelled to do so, please reblog this post so your mutuals can read it as well! i love you all:) masterlist

mentions: death, blood, fighting, MAJOR angst, force connection, sadness.

The Master and Apprentice began their departure from the Jedi Temple on their Naboo, and Obi-Wan did not think it wise.

Not after the Dathomirian man had appeared on that Maker-forsaken dustball with a red lightsaber, which only meant one thing – the Sith had returned.

He breathed in the pale glow of the planet’s moon, not taking time to look up and watch the stars glitter above, instead making short strides behind Qui-Gon, the shadow of the Naboo ship creeping its way across to cover them in more darkness, further darkening Obi-Wan’s mood and attitude towards the continuation of this ill-fated mission.

Having just left the council’s chambers, he felt immense frustration, not only at the council, but at his Master as well. Not only was he ready to face the Jedi Trials which the council seemed to be denying him the right to, now his Master was all too eager to take on the latest lifeform they had picked up on their Naboo adventures, a boy believed to be the Chosen One by his Master.

Not only was the boy too old, but Obi-Wan could sense it just as the council had – a great fear was buried deep within this Anakin Skywalker. A fear that was all consuming, and was growing slowly within him since they had left Tatooine and the boy’s mother behind.

Why could his master not sense it as he and the council did? Did he just assume ignorance for the possibilities to witness the forthcoming of a prophecy? He never understood his Master’s obsession with the old Jedi prophecies. It was an area of interest he sorely lacked, something that he felt put a strain on his relationship with Qui-Gon, something he realized that Qui-Gon probably wished Obi-Wan was intrigued by, but both of them knew that their Master-Apprentice relationship would never be like that of Dooku and Qui-Gon.

Rhea, however, had been Dooku’s apprentice and shared a similar, if not less, affinity for the supernatural and old ways of the Jedi. Perhaps he could pay her a visit once his mission was completed, or even send her a message over their datapads like they used to before they got increasingly more busy as padawans.

Surprise began to grow in him when he saw Rhea standing on the platform beside the ship. She had been waiting on him. As Qui-Gon began to speak to Anakin privately, Obi-Wan ran over to her with a small grin on his face. He should have known she would be here, for every time he simply thought of her, it seemed she was always nearby, as if she were watching over him.

“What are you doing here?” He beamed.

Obi-Wan couldn’t help but notice the blush dusting her cheeks, even in the shadow of the ship.

“I couldn’t just let you leave without saying goodbye, now could I?”

“You said goodbye to me before the council meeting.”

Rhea rolled her eyes, groaning in annoyance before she began to simper quietly, punching him in the shoulder. “Well, yes, but I couldn’t give you this in front of the council, now could I?” She held out her arms, opening them in anticipation for one of their rare hugs. When they were younglings, it was of course more sociably acceptable for them to embrace, however as the years began to pass and after many scoldings from each of their masters, they hid it away for special occasions or the few moments they would ever share alone, which were few and far between.

Obi-Wan buried his face in her shoulder, breathing in the sort of meadowy scent she always seemed to carry, as if she were the greatest meadow within the galaxy, filled with thousands of flowers constantly doused by the warm air and golden sunshine, only to be damped by a cool spring rain. She was a wonder, in his eyes.

Rhea’s arms wrapped around his neck as he lifted his head so he could carefully place his chin on top of her head, ever so sweetly. She equally breathed him in, sighing as she inhaled the overwhelming musk of rain, leather and perhaps even some old oak and a few of his dusty books. He always did become overly invested in his new findings, nose deep in his studies, but she wouldn’t have it any other way.

The two stood there for but a moment, taking every part of each other in as if it were the last time they would see each other, and to Rhea, she felt like it was.

“Promise.. promise you’ll come back?” Obi-Wan pulled away, simpering down at her with a twinkle in his eyes.

“When have I ever not?”

Rhea scowled for a second, her face quickly softening once more. “Just promise me, you idiot.”

“Fine, I promise you, dearest.”

She rolled her eyes at the nickname, breathing out a short laugh, before launching herself further into his arms, her fingers lacing through his shortly buzzed hair. Now for this, well, she wasn’t sure what Master Windu would have to say if he saw her like this, but she knew that it would be a deep scolding. It seemed so stupidly forbidden for her to just be lacing her fingers through his hair, but she paid no mind to the Jedi Code in the moment.

Rhea was his dearest, and he her Ben, and yet, the pain of the loss of her Master still fresh on her mind, reminded her why she could not become attached to this overly-complex relationship the two padawans shared.

It’s time to let go.

And yet, she couldn’t. And neither could he.

╔═━────━▒ ۞ ▒━────━═╗

Obi-Wan Kenobi sat on the Queen’s ship while they flew through hyperspace back to Naboo. It seemed such a foolish idea to be returning to the invaded planet, but he did as he was told just as he always did, and followed the willful lead of his master. They were but a small force, two Jedi, a Queen and a handful of her people. What could they really do? If the Sith really had returned, could they really defeat them as well as an entire army?

The Queen had suggested they call upon the aid of the Gungans, but Obi-Wan questioned if that would work as well. The Gungans seemed to have a deeply seeded hatred for the people of Naboo, as it was obvious that in the past the former had treated the other like insolent fools. He wasn’t sure that he could disagree after spending so much time around Jar Jar Binks.

A light bit of laughter echoed in his mind, and it sounded like Rhea. He must have just imagined talking to her, Rhea giggling at his comments and avidly agreeing while coming up with her own quippy comment.

Obi-Wan could not help but miss the girl.

Alone in his small room aboard the ship, he tried closing his eyes so as to meditate, folding his hands together as he crossed his legs, breathe in, breathe out.

But she was still there.

Get out of my head.

He thought almost mockingly, knowing that she surely couldn’t be listening to his thoughts from such far a distance.

Why don’t you get out of mine, Ben?

Obi-Wan was shaken. There was absolutely no way-

I’m still here. Could you help me get out? You’re thinking about me too much, and I’m a little offended that you’re annoyed of my presence.

Obi-Wan then snapped his eyes open, and there sitting in front of him was none other than his dearest, greatest life companion, Rhea Illyria, with a smile of a thousand stars.

╔═━────━▒ ۞ ▒━────━═╗

Rhea Illyria sat on her bed in her quarters inside the Jedi Temple, breathing in, breathing out, as she performed her daily morning meditation. She knew many other padawans and younglings who hated the act of meditation, but she found it rather peaceful, a time to focus on the energy of the Force, to feel it moving around her and all other life forms.

She, however, became momentarily distracted by the thought of Obi-Wan Kenobi and his departure back to Naboo. She sighed, wishing she could have gone with him. There was something in the Force, something that felt like a warning about the planet of Naboo, and those who invaded. No, not the invaders... The ones controlling the invaders, pulling the strings. Who were they? The Sith? Or was it something... something much greater and evil in all forms and aspects?

Rhea worried for Obi-Wan and his mission, and she couldn’t help the thoughts consuming her not only of the danger of his mission, but of the padawan and their untold and unseen embrace.

However, there was a nagging feeling in her gut. The Force pulling her towards something... No, someone.

She could just reach out, and suddenly her eyes were meet with the galaxy, planets dancing by as the stars glimmered all around her. She was walking among them, slowly, as if moving through the tides of the deepest oceans.

Breathe in, breathe out. What is the Force pushing you towards?

Rhea could see something ahead, a silver shape slowly getting closer as she continued to wade her way through stars and the black dusts of the galaxy.

Someone was thinking intensely. Someone was annoyed.

She couldn’t help but giggle at the notion of the Gungans being quite unintelligent creatures, or at least Jar Jar Binks, the creature someone was thinking about.

The closer Rhea got to the shape, she noticed it took the form of the ship from Naboo, the ship that carried its queen, the ship that carried him.

Someone was Obi-Wan.

This had to be some dream, she thought. She must have drifted into some sleep while she was meditating. But at the same moment she drifted through space, she breathed in, and could feel the sheets of her bed curl around her fingers, sense the starflower in the corner of her window, could smell the caf she so desperately needed each day after her meditations.

Despite trying to refocus on her true surroundings, Rhea became lost in the stars once more when something pushed back against her.

Get out of my head.

Rhea huffed, and began to more faster, willing the stars around her to move, to allow her closer access to the ship. She continued to wade and move through slowly, yet determined.

Why don’t you get out of mine, Ben?

She could feel his confusion, and despite her own, she couldn’t help but find some joy in this strange place. How she was able to drift through the stars to the other padawan was certainly not a normal occurrence among the Jedi, nor within the Force.

He couldn’t believe she was there either. He was thinking about her, thinking about how he missed her, which tugged at something within her she had never noticed before.

Her fingers finally grace the cool metal of the ship, however, they moved through its surface, and she was able to pass through, allowing the Force to guide her to her dear friend.

At the same time, he became frustrated by her presence distracting him from his own meditation.

I’m still here. Could you help me get out? You’re thinking about me too much, and I’m a little offended that you’re annoyed of my presence.

She was no longer floating within the ship, and instead now found herself grounded, sitting cross legged across Obi-Wan.

╔═━────━▒ ۞ ▒━────━═╗

“Ho-how are you even here? I must be dreaming, there is no way that this could possibly be real. I mean, have you ever read about Jedi being able to communicate with each other over vast distances such as this? This is simply impossible!” Obi-Wan rambled, tugging at his chin, brow furrowed as his mouth gaped slightly at the sight of Rhea.

She however, rolled her eyes, unamused this time by his consistent desire for the knowledge of just about everything. This had to be under the category he loved the least, and she treasured the most – the supernatural ongoings of the Force.

“Ben!” She finally shouted, smacking him on his forehead to get his attention.

This brought Obi-Wan to attention, but also caused both padawans to touch their forehead and hand respectively.

“How did you do that!” “How did I do that?”

Rhea and Obi-Wan were, to say the least, perplexed and befuddled by the situation before them. Obi-Wan, deciding the best course of action was to hypothesize how this anomaly could have occurred in the Force, decided they should each ask one another questions regarding just how this had happened.

“What were you doing when this,” he motioned between them, “happened?” Rhea bit her bottom lip, furrowing her brow just as he had. “I was meditating. It’s morning back at the Temple, so I was doing my morning meditations...” Obi-Wan’s hand remained on his chin, his forefinger rubbing incessantly across his upper lip.

“As was I. Continue, please,” he spoke so softly, she almost wondered if he was trying to be quiet so no one would hear them and come looking.

“Well, my meditations were interrupted by thoughts of you.” Obi-Wan paused his menstruations, his eyes darting to meet hers.

“You were thinking about me?”

“Well, yes–” “Why?” She grew flustered, a growing pain pounding in her chest, sharp and yet harsh. Her hands began to sweat as she started to wring them out like some old tunic on washing day, her eyes swooping to avoid his ever piercing-blue gaze.

“I don’t know, why were you thinking about me!” She retorted.

It was one of the few times Obi-Wan got speechless and she could not help but gleam with pride at catching his tongue. She knew this trait would probably die with age, the older her got the further he became closer to the title of a silver tongued master, however she knew she would look back on this moment and know she had trumped him at his own game.

“I–” However, he never got a singular thought out, as Qui-Gon began to shout Obi-Wan’s name like he were some incessant father trying to find his son after a long game of hide-and-go-seek.

Obi-Wan cursed under his breath, a moment of panic coursing through him, but when he looked back from the door to Rhea, she was gone, and he once again was alone, feeling a strange and overwhelming sense of sadness.

╔═━────━▒ ۞ ▒━────━═╗

Rhea tried to continue her day as usual, but her gut instinct inside of her told her that there was something more to her apparent Force projection than it just being that. No... she knew there was something more to this event that had just occurred in not only her life, but Obi-Wan’s. Everything felt like it was going to change.

Unfocused in her training with Mace Windu, he scolded her throughout the day, noting her lack of focus and charging her with consistent complaints about her lack of balance.

How could she feel balanced? How was she supposed to feel balance after she lacked control over her own capabilities through the Force? How could she feel balance when it had alluded her since the day her Master abandoned her for a life without her as his apprentice?

How could she feel balance without anyone there to guide her? “The Force, guide you, it will.”

Rhea nearly ran over Master Yoda who now stood in the Temple’s halls in front of her, smiling just as knowingly as he had every day she could remember.

“Master Yoda, I didn’t see you there.” “Loud your thoughts are. Many things on your mind, are there not?”

Rhea could not help but feel guilty and caught. Surely though, Master Yoda could be the one to help her. She had so many questions weighing her down, aching to be asked, and yet she felt ashamed to even think them to herself. Now, it seemed that there were those who were listening.

“Master, I just feel so lost.”

Yoda hummed, chuckling to himself as if he held all the secrets of the world to himself and would just become amused by the ongoings of the beings around him.

“Come with me, you will.” Yoda motioned for her to follow him, as he guided her toward the meditation room. He sat down on a small chair meant for younglings, and she sat adjacent from him, not really knowing if a meditation session was going to help. After all, it’s what got her into this conundrum.

“Close you eyes. Focus not on your surroundings, but the Force.”

Rhea breathed in, breathed out, closing her eyes as she began to let go of her surroundings, allowing them to fade away.

“See what is in the Force that troubles you, and tell me what it is.”

She wasn’t sure if she should reach out again. What if she connected with another Jedi like she had with Obi-Wan? But surely, that would not happen. She had been thinking of him, just as she was now.

Images then began to flow through her mind. A beautiful green planet under siege by the droid armies of the Separatists, a cloaked man with a red lightsaber watching over her as she slept, Dooku the day he left her without even looking behind, her connection with Obi-Wan earlier that morning, him falling...

“I see the droid armies invading Naboo.. A Sith watching over me. Dooku leaving the Jedi Order.... and..”

“More there is?”

“Yes..” Rhea whispered, but she couldn’t focus on the grainy voice of Yoda. She kept reaching out, as if pulling the Force towards her like a rope, trying to yank it so it would release all of its secrets it was holding from her.

And into the Force she fell.

Everything around her was blurry, she couldn’t focus on anything except the strength of the Dark Side coursing before her. It was Obi-Wan. And he had given into all of his anger and hatred, an overwhelming tsunami of darkness coating every inch of him and not it began to creep upon her, splashing her with the emotions flowing out of him.

No, he cannot give into this. She thought, watching as he fell into the pool of darkness waiting to swallow him whole.

╔═━────━▒ ۞ ▒━────━═╗

His master was dead.

Obi-Wan watched as Qui-Gon crumpled to the floor, and he screamed in agony as he was trapped behind the laser shield, hopelessly witnessing the death of his Master. And he could not help the growing rage and hatred that began to engulf his entire being, becoming greater with each second as he practically jumped, ready for the laser shield to move so he could slaughter this hunter before him, this Sith, this darkness.

His face twitched, his mouth curling downward into a snarl, complete loathe shining in his eyes which now darkened as he turned his gaze upon the Dathomirian.

The Sith trailed before him like some wild beast waiting for its prey, stalking like some dark creature.

A moment before the laser shields even began to move once again, Obi-Wan ignited his lightsaber, seconds before a red bladed lightsaber was ignited as well. The shields moved, and Obi-Wan raised his saber, going to strike the beast of red and darkness down, going to strike for the kill out of the rage and hatred in his heart.

The darkness was consuming him, but Obi-Wan did not care. How could he care now? His master was dead, and this creature seemed a powerful foe within the Force, something that should be put down for the sake of the Republic and the safety of its citizens.... something that should pay for its crimes against the Jedi, it’s crimes against him.

He blocked every twist and twirl it made with its lightsaber, blocking its attacks by pushing back against it with more fervent and less coordinated attacks. If he could only strike it down...

Obi-Wan lifted his lightsaber, slashing through the center of its double-bladed saber, cutting the pieces in half as one went out. He flipped over the creature, slashing at his center and sorrowfully missing him by an inch.

This creature was quick, but he had to be quicker, he had to be. What would his Master say if he failed him? What would Rhea say if he were to fall, just as Qui-Gon had moments ago? He would not dare break a promise to her.

The creature kicked him in the face, but he did not let it affect him, instead holding out his lightsaber in front of him, looking for the best place to strike him down. As their blades locked, Obi-Wan gritted his teeth as he pushed against the creature, his eyes glaring deeply into those sickly-yellow ones, now pushing down against his blade. Anger filled him, and rage too, however, the Sith lifted its hand, using the Force and propelling him across the room, and into the shaft. Obi-Wan grabbed ahold of a light as he began to fall, holding on for dear life as the Sith once again began to trail above him, stalking like a creature in the night. He watched helplessly as it kicked his lightsaber down into the shaft, the weapon, his life, now falling down just as hopelessly as he felt.

Obi-Wan had to keep on holding on. He had to get back up there, he had to avenge his Master’s death.

No.

As the Sith caused sparks to rain down from above onto him, attempting to get him to lose grip and fall, Obi-Wan could hear her speaking to him.

Do not give into the darkness. Do not give into the anger or hate. Rise above.

A second voice this time came.

Trust only in the Force.

Qui-Gon.

Rise above.

And for a moment, Obi-Wan closed his eyes. Rhea was there, almost floating before him, but he couldn’t see anything around her, only she was in his mind.

I will stand together with you. Rise above.

“It occurred to Obi-Wan then, with a clarity that was startling, given the dark side hurricane howling through him, that Yoda was wrong about the dangers of attachment. Or at least that he wasn’t altogether right. It was true that attachment could weaken a Jedi’s resolve. But it could also strengthen it … as he was strengthened now by his love for Qui-Gon, and Rhea. Without them he would have failed long before this moment. And so, leaning on them, he continued to fight.”

And so, Obi-Wan opened his eyes, using the Force to propel him upwards as he jumped, landing behind the Sith and now focusing his energy, not through the Dark Side, but now back through the Force, allowing it to guide him now. Qui-Gon’s fallen lightsaber now flew into his hand as he landed, and with a swift movement of his wrist, Obi-Wan cut through the Dathomirian man, ending the terrors he had caused, as he fell down the shaft, thus causing yet another fall in the rise of the Sith.

For a moment he stood and just breathed, thanking the Force for his strength found in his love for his Master and friend.

Obi-Wan, sensing his Master’s lifeforce still flickering within him, ran to his side, cradling his head as gently as he could, holding onto some form of hope that his Master could still live.

“It’s... it’s too late.”

“No, no!”

“Obi-Wan..” Qui-Gon croaked, as best he could, the color draining from his face slowly, marking him with death as his lifeforce continued to flicker, dimming with each passing second. “Promise... promise me you will train the boy.”

“Yes, master..” Obi-Wan wept in response. Qui-Gon raise his hand to wipe his tears, and Obi-Wan rested his cheek lightly against his finger, wishing that this wasn’t the end.

“He is... the Chosen One. He will bring balance. Train him. Help him. You and Rhea must help him....”

Obi-Wan now momentarily forgot his grief, filled with confusion at the mention of his friend.

“Rhea and I? Master, what do you–”

“There is more to the prophecy than what you know..”

“What, Master, I–”

Qui-Gon hushed him, before uttering his final words. “Train him.” He uttered his final breath, and Obi-Wan, cradling him, felt as if he were destined for some infinite sadness.

╔═━────━▒ ۞ ▒━────━═╗

Rhea supposed Naboo was a truly beautiful planet, one to behold amongst the galaxy, but it seemed so bleak and somber now with the death of Master Qui-Gon Jinn.

She watched the pyre his body laid upon gather with flames that rose to meet the stars in the sky, the smoke dancing among the small lights glittering above.

Standing beside the young boy from Tatooine who introduced himself as Anakin Skywalker, she listened silently to the loss of sound in the Force that was Qui-Gon’s lifeforce. They all felt it, the small darkness that passed over them at the loss of such a wise Jedi.

Obi-Wan stood on the other side of Anakin, who looking up to him, asked, “What will happen to me now?”

“The council has granted me permission to train you. You will be a Jedi, I promise.”

Rhea still could not believe that Obi-Wan had not only become a Jedi Knight, but had also defeated and killed a Sith lord. How they had come to rise again, was still a mystery, but it caused a shroud of confusion and chaos to flow through the Force.

It was hard for Rhea to muddle through, her mind now more clouded and confused than ever, the events having transpired seeming to all be connected — Dooku leaving the Order, the Chosen One supposedly being found, the Sith returning, her bond with Obi-Wan...

It all seemed too obvious in her mind to not be connected, but Mace Windu continued to tell her to be mindful of her thoughts, even if he didn’t know of her bond with Obi-Wan, he still saw her point of view as a quick jump to conclusions.

As the procession ended and people began to filter out from the area of the funeral pyre, she stayed even as little Anakin left along with the other Jedi, staying by Obi-Wan’s side, just as she had promised.

“You’re still here.”

He said, nonchalantly, not even bothering to turn to face her.

Rhea looked up, turning her gaze to fixate on his face. He looked... tired, almost old, held down not only by exhaustion but by the overwhelming sense of loss and sadness which was now being carried by the duty he felt to honor his masters final wish.

“Just as I said I would always be. Right by your side.”

He sighed, turning to look down upon her, his blue eyes meeting with her darker ones.

“So, you really were there, speaking to me.”

“I suppose I was.”

The two were silent for a moment, simply staring into each other’s eyes as if understanding everything they wished to say. Rhea reached up, cupping his cheek softly as tears began to fall down his face.

She then got up on her tippy toes, being much shorter than him, and placed a slow kiss on his forehead, soft and lovingly and holding every hope she had within her.

Obi-Wan sighed softly, “We can’t tell anyone about this bond. Not until I have figured out what exactly it is.”

“We.”

“What?”

“Not until we have figured out what exactly it is. We’re in this together. I told you this already, but you don’t seem to be getting it through your thick skull. I stand by you. Always.”

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gffa · 5 years

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I was asked by @grasswatcher for fics that explore STAR WARS’ Jedi culture and this is one of those subjects that’s dearest to my heart, because I constantly crave more exploration of what it must be like to be a Level 100 Space Psychic in touch with an ancient, unfathomable energy field that creates feedback loops in your head and connects you to all living things and can overwhelm you so easily if you don’t have your shit together, just as much as I want to know about Jedi traditions and Jedi artwork and Jedi philosophy and Jedi stories and Jedi language and all of it. There have been some pretty stellar ones out there, sometimes deep dives, sometimes just weaving bits into the background and I love them all and want a thousand more immediately! STAR WARS FIC RECS - JEDI CULTURE: ✦ The Mathematics of Repair by panharmonium, obi-wan & anakin & cast, 4.6k For raw teachers and rough-edged students building in the rubble: tiny steps are enough, provided they carry you in the right direction. Immediately post TPM, in short snippets. ✦ In All The World by Ammar, obi-wan & anakin & cast, 76.6k wip The story of how Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi tamed each other, from Naboo to Anakin’s early days at the Temple. ✦ Supreme Chancellor Obi-Wan Kenobi by stonefreak, obi-wan & anakin & padme & ahsoka & palpatine & cody & cast, ~30k wip or: “Obi-Wan’s Life Gets Worse (Though It’s Not As Bad As It Could’ve Been)” ✦ Cataclasm by dendral, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka & waxer & cast, 51.9k wip For reasons unknown to all but himself, Obi-Wan Kenobi has left the Jedi Order in the midst of the Clone Wars, taking with him a single clone. Anakin Skywalker has been unofficially tasked by the Order to find Obi-Wan and bring him home. Unfortunately for Anakin, it seems his former master is always ten steps ahead of him. ✦ Remedial Jedi Theology by MarbleGlove, obi-wan & anakin & mace & palpatine & cast, 51.3k Let us consider the fact that the Jedi Order is a monastic religious organization based out of a temple, with five basic tenets of faith. ✦ We Will Abide by naberiie, plo & shaak, 10.3k Light. Dark. Balance. Beneath the Jedi Temple, far below the chaos of Coruscant’s Galactic City, ancient halls and corridors sleep in silent darkness. Padawans Shaak Ti and Plo Koon are determined to explore them. ✦ The Living Force; Parables for Padawans by glorious_clio, obi-wan & cast, 6.1k Since infancy, younglings are taught the Jedi Code, “Emotion, yet peace. Ignorance, yet knowledge. Passion, yet serenity. Chaos, yet harmony. Death, yet the Force.” Obi-Wan Kenobi learns these tenets backwards and forwards again. But even as a child, he is interested in nuance. And so his teachers tell him parables. ✦ Lineage by ruth baulding, obi-wan & qui-gon & xanatos & cast, 35.9k AU!Jedi Apprentice. Book I: In which master and apprentice meet for the first time, enjoy a disastrous adventure courtesy of Xanatos DuCrion, and reap the fruits of patience and fortitude. A fanciful retelling of the original. ✦ Lineage II by ruth baulding, obi-wan & qui-gon & cast, 40.9k A year or so has elapsed since the last time we saw our heroes. BOOK 2: In which master and apprentice investigate an evil brainwashing plot, attend a boisterous wedding, and battle the enemy within. ✦ Lineage III by ruth baulding, obi-wan & qui-gon & dooku & xanatos & bant & cast, 49.4k AU!Jedi Apprentice. Book III: Master and apprentice face an important rite of passage, grapple with a traitorous plot within the Temple’s walls, and discover the limits of obedience and intuition. Appearances by Bant Eerin, Xanatos DuCrion, Yan Dooku, and others. ✦ Lineage IV by ruth baulding, obi-wan & qui-gon & siri & adi gallia, 39.3k Master and apprentice endure a stint with the Agri-Corps, and find that trouble has a way of coming home to haunt them. Featuring a pile of bantha poodoo, a tentacled carnivorous plant, a desperate escaped convict, and a highly provocative young woman. ✦ Lineage V by ruth baulding, obi-wan & qui-gon & tahl (& some qui-gon/tahl) & dooku & cast, 50.7k An evil scientist wreaks havoc when she captures Jedi Knight Tahl Uvain for purposes of obscure research; Qui-Gon Jinn and his Padawan rush to the rescue, only to be embroiled in further trouble; and Master Dooku joins in the hunt with characteristic aplomb. ✦ Lineage VI by ruth baulding, obi-wan & qui-gon & cast, 66.2k Master and apprentice undertake a risky undercover mission to expose conspiracy in a far-flung sector; a comedy of manners abruptly transforms into a nightmare when their cover is blown; and a desperate escape gambit strikes deep at the foundations of trust. ✦ Lineage VII by ruth baulding, obi-wan & qui-gon & siri & adi gallia & some obi-wan/siri, 74.5k Sent to the aid of their fellow Jedi on a disastrous mission to New Apsolon, master and apprentice contend with brainwashing, genocide, conspiracy, and the perilous realm of the heart. ✦ What Is My Heritage? by Marnie, qui-gon & yoda, 7.7k Qui-Gon, age 13, tries to find a place to belong. ✦ Coming Home by Marnie, qui-gon & yoda & dooku, 18.1k A story telling how Qui-Gon comes to be Dooku’s apprentice. ✦ Snakefic by esama, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & yoda & cast, 6k It was only the matter of time before the egg hatched. ✦ Shadows of the Future by stormqueen873, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & cast, 129.3k ObiWan lost the duel on Mustafar, but instead of dying, he finds himself on a ship leaving Tatooine, with his old Master and a familiar young boy. As events begin to unfold, can he stop the future he knows from occuring? ✦ The Ice-Breaking Game by sharkcar, padme & ahsoka & rex & cast, 7.1k After contracting the Blue Shadow virus, Ahsoka Tano is quarantined in Theed, along with Senator Amidala and Captain Rex. They are three very different people, but they all share a restlessness that leaves them unable to endure their confinement. To pass the time, Padme suggests they play a question game, each telling stories about personal experiences. As all three share a humorous discussion, they learn about compassion and the importance of knowing perspectives different from their own. ✦ When Darkness Seems to Hide This Place by IllyanaA, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka & kanan & ocs & cast, 94.9k wip After killing three of the Jedi Order’s best and brightest, Palpatine’s fight with Jedi Master Mace Windu goes shorter than expected. Afraid he’s lost his chance at recruiting a new apprentice, Sidious unleashes Order 66 across the galaxy, but, per their programming, the Clone Army is not to harm Anakin Skywalker. After witnessing the most painful loss he’s ever experienced and injured at the hands of his captors, Anakin is ready to die like the rest of the Jedi, though not before getting his vengeance. ✦ A Long, Long Time Ago by ruth baulding, dooku & qui-gon + qui-gon & obi-wan + obi-wan & anakin + anakin & ahsoka, 5.8k A wisdom tale handed passed down through the generations poses troublesome questions for a line of masters and Padawans, from Dooku to Ahsoka Tano. ✦ Adi Gallia, Master of the Order by Perspicacia, adi & obi-wan & anakin & mace & cin & ahsoka & riyo & rex & cast, 7.2k Ashes in her heart, she had left the younglings and the elders and the wounded for her duty to the galaxy, choosing to stop the Sith instead of protecting her people. ✦ The Apprenticeship by Nny11, ahsoka & yoda & anakin & cast, 31.4k wip The doors only open when a Master opens them for their Padawan, a subtle reminder to them that a student needs a teacher’s guidance and that teachers must let them go. The force thinks it’s rather funny when it alters history by forcing Master Yoda to take on a very young Ahsoka Tano as his Padawan. ✦ Goreblood the Terrible by BloodyMary, jedi & cast, 1.7k It has occured to me that so far we lack any sort of folklore/storytelling tradition for the Jedi. So I set out to remedy this. Behold, for Goreblood the Terrible was the result. ✦ “The Padawan Chooses The Master” by lurkingcrow, obi-wan & anakin & cast, 3.6k prompt: AU - The Jedi say “The Padawan Chooses The Master” Qui Gon lives, Obi Wan is very preoccupied, and Anakin is put into the creche as an Initiate to learn what he can until Qui Gon wakes up from his coma and gets yelled at by the Council. In the meantime, Anakin meets other Jedi Masters and when the Council asks him who he wants to be his teacher, his answer isn’t Qui Gon. Instead it’s *insert your fav Jedi here* ✦ Brothers (working title) by Charity_Angel, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & padme & shmi & yoda & cast, 22.7k wip In which Qui-Gon has a very near miss on Naboo, Obi-Wan is very stubborn, and they end up breaking a lot of rules accidentally as a result. All because of that kid they picked up on Tatooine. ✦ Under a purple sun… by Perspicacia, obi-wan & ahsoka, ~1k Ahsoka hadn’t been happy when Skyguy had left her with Master Kenobi for this mission, but it was still good to spend time with her Grand Master. ✦ Hondo Kenobi by StarWarsSyl, obi-wan & hondo & cast, 2.6k It’s not every day the pirate Hondo calls Obi-Wan in to give him a baby. ✦ Duet by Silver Sky 1138, oc & cin, 2.3k Asha Scarsi, the Jedi Padawan who feels the Force through music, isn’t half as good at lightsaber combat as she is at singing and mindtricks. So she’s a little nervous when Battlemaster Cin Drallig calls her to the training room after class. ✦ The Only Home We Know by ReneeoftheStars, katooni & petro & ganodi & byph & gungi & zaft & cast, character death, child death, 2.4k The Jedi Temple is under attack. Determined to fight for their home, younglings Katooni, Petro, Zatt, Ganodi, Byph, and Gungi make their way to aid the Jedi Masters in defense of the Temple. But the situation is far graver than they expected. ✦ The One Where Anakin Tries to Be Serious by GirlwithCurls98, anakin & ahsoka, 1k Even though they’re fighting a war, Anakin finds the time to lead his apprentice through one of the Jedi’s sacred ceremonies. ✦ Obi-Wan and the Force by AwayOHumanChild, obi-wan & cast, ~1k One of the first things Jedi Initiates learn is that everyone experiences the Force differently. ✦ All That I Have Seen by Felilla, ocs & ahsoka & anakin & obi-wan & yoda & cast, time travel, 35.3k wip She died in the Temple, staring into the face of a man that she once looked up to, a man that she once thought to be a great Jedi. She awoke in the Temple, years before that event took place. Years before everything went wrong. And she decided to make it right. ✦ Knightrise by Deviant_Accumulation, obi-wan & ahsoka & satine & rex & cast, 19.4k wip “Strong enough to fight the Sith Lord, you are not.” “And you are?” ✦ Markings by wabbajack, plo & ahsoka & bultar & cast, 1.6k In which it is revealed that Master Plo Koon has always had a difficult time putting his foot down when faced with his Little ‘Soka. ✦ Night Shift at the Temple by ReneeoftheStars, oc jedi & cast, 1.8k A Jedi Temple Guard sees all, speaks to few, and has attachments to no one. One must be prepared for any threats that may arise, especially at night, while most of the Temple sleeps. ✦ Jedi of Light by Sannah, obi-wan/anakin/padme & mace & yoda & plo & even & jocasta & cast, 9.4k wip Out of irritation with the war and with permission from the Council, several talk show hosts create a show that airs weekly about the Jedi. They name the show *Jedi of Light,* and go around following Jedi and asking them questions. ✦ Supreme Chancellor Obi-Wan Kenobi by stonefreeak, obi-wan & anakin & padme & palpatine & bail & cast, 29.2k wip By an old Republic law, all members of the Jedi High Council are senators in the Galactic Senate, and can thus be voted in as chancellor. ✦ The First Trial by Raven_Knight, obi-wan & qui-gon, 2k Accompanied by his Master, Qui-Gon Jinn, young Obi-Wan Kenobi undergoes his first trial and rite as a Padawan Learner on the frozen planet of Ilum. ✦ Arrival by CJinn, obi-wan & yoda & cast, 2.6k Little Obi-Wan was only a few days old when he was brought to the Jedi Temple. His arrival caused some confusion among the Jedi. ✦ Found Clan by silvergryphon, boba & ocs & obi-wan & anakin & cast, 18.4k wip After the Battle of Geonosis, a Jedi Healer discovers young Boba Fett mourning the loss of his father. Not about to leave a ten-year-old boy on his own, she promptly adopts him with the full collusion of her Padawan. ✦ Tipping Point by Ria Talla (ronia), adi gallia & finis valorum & eeth koth, 3.3k “I believe that if what’s happening on Naboo is allowed to continue, the other member systems will wonder what they owe to a Republic that can no longer protect them.” ✦ A Personal Touch by DragonHoardsBooks, obi-wan & anakin, 6.2k New jedi padawan Anakin Skywalker realizes that there is more to being a jedi then he tought. Discovering a completely new culture will take time and effort, but maybe he’ll make some friends along the way. ✦ Master by CJinn, obi-wan & anakin, 27.5k Obi-Wan Kenobi had always wanted to become a Jedi Knight. What he didn’t expect was to become a Master merely days after his own Master died. Adapting to his new role as the mentor and Master of the quite unusual Padawan Anakin Skywalker became a bumpy road. ✦ The Orchards by Raven_Knight, obi-wan & qui-gon & cast, 3.6k When young Obi-Wan Kenobi is injured on a previous mission, Qui-Gon Jinn refuses to accept further off-planet missions until his Padawan’s recovery. Yoda assigns the pair an in-Temple mission of utmost importance while Obi-Wan heals. Master and Padawan welcome the change of pace. ✦ Starrunner by rinzukodas, obi-wan & jedi & oc, 80.2k wip In what would have been the year 17 BBY, Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine is found slumped over his desk, dead to rights and emitting a foul odor. The coroners declare the body victim to a heart attack and the smell a result of a lack of a timely embalming—a bit of bowels humor, the head coroner says with a nervous laugh when interviewed by the Galactic Enquirer. ✦ The Spire by skatzaa, obi-wan & ocs, 2.4k The galaxy was on the brink of war, and Obi-Wan Kenobi had been assigned a new room. ✦ Room Arrangements by skatzaa, obi-wan & anakin, 2.2k Anakin has some concerns about room arrangements at the Temple. Obi-Wan does his best to reassure him. ✦ Swimming Lessons by devilinthedetails, obi-wan & anakin, 2.1k Obi-Wan decides Anakin must learn how to swim. ✦ The Uses of a Sandwich by Laura Kaye (laurakaye), obi-wan & qui-gon & oc & cast, 17.6k A few months after being taken as a Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi faces a challenge: meeting his Master’s first apprentice. FULL DETAILS + RECS HERE!

#jedi #jedi order #obi wan kenobi #anakin skywalker #ahsoka tano #qui gon jinn #fic recs #star wars fic recs

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piermanwalter · 6 years

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Star Wars Army Swap AU Part V: Condensed History of the Droid Wars

Due to my ipad dying, Part 5 is coming out before Part 4, and there are no arts. Sorry about that.

In a galaxy where the Confederacy of Independent Systems went super into biotech instead of mass industrialisation, and the Jedi’s secret deal with the Kaminoans fell through so they had to create a different army, the Republic soldiers are droids and the Separatist soldiers are clones.

SUPER SUMMARY: Darth Plagueis makes some contingency plans in case he dies. Nobody could have predicted how far the ultimate plan of galactic domination of the Sith spiralled out of control because of that. Palpatine is in denial about how uncooperative and dangerous the Separatists are and eventually gives up on controlling anything further than the Mid Rim.

Before the War

After millennia, the Sith, once though to be extinct, begin plotting to take over the galaxy by splitting it in two, forcing the sides to fight, then seizing control of the galaxy after they wasted their lives fighting each other.

Darth Plagueis uses his industry contacts of his public identity as Magister of Damask Holdings to slowly shift the huge corporations from mass manufacture to biotech in order to further his goal of immortality by skimming lab data off their work. He sets up the foundation for a fully fledged clone army.

His apprentice, Darth Sidious, uses his political clout as Senator Palpatine to increase resentment of the Outer Rim planets towards the better funded and protected Core, and eventually gets elected as Chancellor of the Republic. Right after the day of his election, Sidious kills his master. Unbeknownst to him, Plagueis planned so if he ever died, nobody could control the galaxy in his place.

After the death of Plagueis, there is no one to keep an eye on the experiments he secretly planned, and the biotech of the galaxy is able to advance unchecked. Made-to-order organs become nearly as cheap as cybernetic replacements. Cloned celebrities and war heroes are mass produced and sold illegally to crime syndicates as slaves and enforcers.

Count Dooku abandons the Jedi Order as Darth Sidious’s new apprentice. His first mission is to procure an army for the demilitarised Republic to fight the biotech clone armies of the newly formed Confederacy of Independent Systems. Erasing Kamino from the Jedi Temple archives, he sends fellow Jedi Sifo Dyas to order the Kaminoans to produce another clone army. A squad of Dwarf Spider clones from the vehemently anti-Jedi Commerce Guild managed to kill Sifo Dyas before he could get to Kamino, so Dooku is forced to commission the army himself.

The Techno Union is able to isolate a strain of Force-sensitive single-celled algae from the Dathomiran Water of Life, and are trying to find medical applications for it as a lucrative bacta replacement. SoroSuub Luxury Consumer Products releases a line of extravagantly expensive anti-aging creams filled with deactivated midichlorians. Count Dooku is incredibly concerned about these new developments, but Darth Sidious dismisses them as false advertising and mad science that is scary to the weak-minded, but will ultimately go nowhere.

Five years later, Dooku visits Kamino to discover legions of well-trained clone cadets, but an enormous mistake was made. All of them were being indoctrinated to serve the Confederacy. The Trade Federation hacked into his comm lines to discover Dooku, the head of the Separatist Council, ordering a massive secret clone army. Assuming the new clones were for them and not the Republic, as any sane person would, Viceroy Nute Gunray sent vast shipments of food and supplies to Kamino in thanks, leading to the Kaminoans believing that they were the true clients. Dooku is unable to correct himself without everyone knowing he is playing both sides.

The galactic civil war is put on hold for six months so Dooku can sort out this unmitigated disaster. Instead of two equal armies to fight an endless stalemate, the CIS gets a colossal super army, and the Republic gets no army. Eventually he is able to commission Kuat Drive Yards and Cybot Galatica to put together the best droid army they possibly could at short notice. Five years had already been wasted. The Battle of Geonosis, the first conflict of the Droid Wars, begins two years behind schedule.

Now, finally, rebellion stirs in the Outer Rim.

Early Droid Wars

Following this truly embarrassing series of insubordination, Sidious orders the entire Separatist leadership together and electrocutes hundreds of them, including Dooku, in a single devastating wave of Force lighting. Threatening them all with the terrifying legends of the Sith of the Old Republic, he tells them all that the Sith will rule the galaxy again and there is no way to stop them.

The Confederacy ruins the mystery of the Sith by announcing everything they learn about them on public broadcast. Once arcane Sith legends like Bane, Nihilus, and Plagueis become household names.

The Trade Federation disobeys because their cloned ysalamiri renders them immune to most types of Sith attack. The InterGalactic Banking Clan disobeys because they hold too much sway over the galactic economy and the clone army itself. The Techno Union disobeys because Foreman Wat Tambor has threatened to release the entire Sith data archive left by Darth Plagueis in Tambor’s estate on Hypori.

The Confederacy of Independent Systems officially announces its rejection of Sith control. The Jedi have no idea how to react, but are pressured by the rest of the Republic to keep fighting. Many Jedi, such as Bariss Offee and Pong Krell, abandon the Republic to fight for the CIS.

Without a firm leadership, the Separatists dissolve into in-fighting, clone rebellions, and near-constant treasonous conspiracy. Republic propaganda mocks them as being dysfunctional and unfit for government, whereas the CIS itself views the successful revolutions and constantly shifting balance of power as a true example of Separatist spirit. If anything, since the CIS never had a centralised leadership to begin with, all it does is make them even less predictable.

Count Dooku still keeps in contact with the Separatist council, even leading clone armies by himself, partially to maintain some semblance of Sith control, partially to keep tabs on these dangerously subversive alien freaks at all time, and partially because he is legitimately proud of what the Separatist cause has become, but Sidious doesn’t need to know that. One morning, he wakes up to check the holonet and receives a message about Wat Tambor cloning himself 600 times, listens to three minutes of a two-hour paranoid rant from Admiral Trench about how everyone wants to kill him, a report from a spy droid about Asaji Ventress’s death cult, a report about the Republic droid troopers turning sentient, and a message from Sidious threatening to dismantle him chromatid by chromatid if he is unable to get the Separatists to spend much more money on the war, then he goes back to sleep because that’s just the way things are now.

Late Droid Wars

Leading machines to fight against living beings is beginning to take a psychological toll on the Jedi commanders. The Grand Droid Army of the Republic splits in half by leadership, with conflicts of Jedi-led armies being more for show and protection while the Jedi try to negotiate peacefully with enemy leaders, while conflicts of non-Jedi-led armies are the most brutal in history, as many human Republic military leaders do not see their cloned enemies as sentient beings. Republic news castigates the Separatists for using child slaves as soldiers, while the Separatists argue that Jedi Padawans are also child slaves.

Piecing together old lab data left behind by Darth Plagueis, the CIS tries to make their next generation of new soldier strains Force sensitive, with partial success. Strange supernatural occurrences begin to appear among the battle clones. Commando Tup is able to sneak across an active battlefield and shoot two Jedi one after the other. An Aqua Clone survives a hull puncture of a Mon Cal space station by somehow swimming faster than water being pulled into the vacuum of space. An injured pilot-class B2 regrows an entire lung in one week without medical attention. General Kraken sends Dooku a heartfelt video thanking him for such useful electromagnet arms, levitating a metal blaster between his new mechanical hands. The cybernetics do not contain electromagnets.

Asaji Ventress, Savage Opress, and other Sith acolytes are terrified of this new development. The Force powers that once made them so indispensable are now being thrown around by lab-grown barely sentient meat. They leave to the Unknown regions to start a death cult together before their masters realise how obsolete they are.

General Grievous attacks Coruscant, the capital of the Republic, and managed to kidnap Chancellor Palpatine. Sidious intended to let himself get captured on purpose while remaining completely safe at all times, but at this point, he can’t be sure anymore. Although Palpatine was later rescued by Kenobi and Skywalker, the residential district near the intended target, the Jedi Temple, was destroyed when half of Grievous’s flagship crash-landed into it, killing over a million people. Count Dooku dies in the process.

Anakin Skywalker is rejected from becoming a Jedi Master and joining the Jedi Council because of the many needless deaths in the Battle of Coruscant. He is extremely angry at this verdict. It was Obi-Wan’s fault as much as his, but he still gets to be a Master. If it weren’t for the Super Tactical Clone Tey-Zuka punching them both while they were trying to steer half a ship and seizing the controls, nobody would have died.

Darth Sidious orders the Separatist Council to meet on Mustafar. Naturally, none of them listen to him and they all disperse to random corners of the galaxy.

Darth Sidious enacts Order 99, not as the capstone of a perfectly executed plan, but out of desperation. There are no other choices for him. Turning against their leaders, the clones gunned them down, then each other.

Chancellor Palpatine, in the middle of the greatest wave of Republic victories in the Droid Wars, suddenly shuts down the Grand Droid Army. The Jedi, fighting easy battles against confused and leaderless opponents, find themselves without soldiers and are slaughtered. Mace Windu survives and leads a Jedi team to assassinate the Chancellor. Skywalker fights them off, but not before Palpatine is disfigured.

Anakin Skywalker follows the intel trail and goes to Mustafar, but nobody was there. Sick with rage, he massacres the native Mustafarian miners until Obi-Wan and Padmé Amidala try to stop him. After Anakin killed Padmé, Obi-Wan kills Anakin and disappears. His current whereabouts are unknown.

Order 99 had limited effectiveness, since the low standards of manufacture meant that not every clone was implanted with a brain chip, and the higher level clones with more willpower were able to intercept the signal anyway. Many Separatist leaders are still at large. Sidious sends his mysterious new apprentice Darth Vader on a mission to kill them all. This takes two and a half years.

In the meantime, the Jedi Temple, heavily damaged by the debris from the Battle of Coruscant, loses funding and support from both the Republic’s government and its citizens. The newly discovered Sith faction is much more effective than the Jedi in fighting Separatists and the Jedi are blamed for the civil war stretching on for so long. Some Jedi with good foresight were able to evacuate, but when Darth Vader assaulted the Jedi Temple, he left no survivors.

Beginning of the Galactic Empire

Palpatine announces that both the Republic and the Confederacy were weak and corrupt because they both rejected the teachings of the Sith. The remains of the Republic are reforged into a Dark Side theocracy, the Galactic Empire.

The Death Star is finally completed, bringing much stability and pacification to the newly formed Galactic Empire. In a shocking move, instead of destroying any of the dangerous Confederacy-aligned planets such as Skako or Kamino, the first planet to be destroyed is Alderaan, a peaceful low-populated planet with no military, simply for their leaders possible ties to the Rebel Alliance.

Under control of Order 99, the human Commando Clones are incorporated into the Imperial Army. Supertac Tey-Zuka is finally captured in the Coruscant underlevels on the opposite side of the planet he crashed on. All Banking Clan assets are taken by the Empire, including their private army of IG-Strain Assassin Clones. After brainwashing and threats, many previously Separatist clones now work for Palpatine.

The Empire cuts off all transmissions in a radius of 40,000 light years from Coruscant. There is nothing beyond it. All of the Separatists are dead. All of the Jedi are dead. Good obedient Imperial citizens have nothing to fear. The old maps with so many planets in Wild Space are wrong. They are Separatist propaganda to make their territory look bigger than it truly was. Anyone who claims to come from a planet that does not exist, such as “Tattooine”, “Felucia”, or “Utapau” is lying. Report them. We should not worry about Separatists when there are space accidents to worry about. The asteroid storms are getting worse and we are losing more ships than ever. Do not waste time and energy reporting Jedi or battle clone sightings to us. All of them are dead, except for the fortunate few we rescued and reformed. You have nothing to fear.

A PIRATE SIGNAL BREAKS THROUGH THE FIREWALL!

Once again, rebellion stirs in the Outer Rim.

Many anti-Imperial organisations were able to form outside the jurisdiction of the Empire, but it was a real challenge for any of them to communicate with rebels within Imperial territory. Travelling freely from the Outer Rim to the Core is borderline impossible. Instead of directly aiding the Core Rebels, the Outer Rebels indirectly fought against the Empire by disabling signal blockade satellites, smuggling datachips, and other ways of spreading subversive information.

Despite Imperial propaganda, entire communi of battle clones and droid troopers can be found all over the galaxy. With the clones seeing the Empire giving up entirely on controlling the Outer Rim as a Confederate victory, and the droids seeing the Empire’s absolu control of the Core as a Republic victory, the two armies were to reach a compromise. Although some small skirmishes between droids and clones still occur, they are nowhere nea the scale of the conflicts of the Droid Wars. wever, many clones and droids still do not believe the war has ended and ntinue fighting the each other, the Empire, and the rest of the galaxy.

eral Kalani, a Separatist Super Tacti Clone, is confirmed to still be in operation. e Empire turned a blind eye to his actions, since most of his attacks seem e gainst he cell of Rebel terrorists led by Saw Gerrerra.

Many clones nd droids found ne jobs as bounty hunters. IG-88 is obv ously an unauthorized indepen IG-Strain ssin Clone. Boba Fett, regarded as the greatest bo in the galaxy, is rumored by some to a Separatist Commando Cl , and by othe to be an ARC-Class Republic droid troope

Jedi sightIngs abouND in the Outer Ri ee from the tyranny of the Empire, have jo ned th ebellion, whi some re content to live in peace bscurity. A few new Temples

Ahsoka Ta , Jedi n Rebe Core Rebels, the Ghost influen oid trooper Captain Rex he wAs a Padawan when possi l smuggli connections wi w Gererra ered Kalani small but dangero nough to the Empire that arkiN, the Inquisi Vader, and Palpatine himself.

h Sk r Bai Lars l are, in fact, the childre nakin Skywalker s ei ed t g h wa c

#star wars #army swap au #darth plagueis #palpatine #count dooku #this is actually fanfiction #in this setting the sith instead of being mysterious and all powerful to everyone #they are seen as potentially interesting test subjects and that is terrifying #long post

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stellapulviis-blog · 6 years

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verses //

❝ your fight burns brighter than twin suns. ❞ ( verse 001. ) verse timeline: childhood through to the end of the phantom menace/knighthood

❝ this is it. ❞ ( verse 002. ) verse timeline: from knighthood, all through the clone wars, right up until the end of revenge of the sith

❝ can you heal these wounds. ❞ ( verse 003. ) verse timeline: from the end of revenge of the sith/exile on tatooine, until his death

❝ it’s better to burn than to fade away. ❞ ( verse 004. ) sith verse 1 verse follows the idea that after qui gon’s death, obi-wan falls to the darkness. overwhelmed by grief, he starts to understand why people fall. he keeps his promise to train anakin, but all the while is learning everything he can about the power of the dark side. he wants to take down whoever was responsible for qui gon’s death, and it is while on this path that he encounters count dooku, learning that he is a sith lord and is the apprentice of a powerful sith. the two meet up a fair amount, but not too often. they have communication and obi-wan learns more through him, but still tries to juggle his ‘jedi’ life and keeping up appearances within that world. it is only when satine dies, that obi finally snaps and murders people in anger, and finally leaves the order.

❝ you had a reason it killed you like diseases. ❞ ( verse 005. ) sith verse 2 qui gon lives, and anakin becomes his padawan. this is something that tips obi-wan over the edge he had spent so many years training himself to walk along. jealousy, anger, heart break. it cannot be repressed, and in his fury at being cast aside, he ends up murdering ‘innocent’ people in the dark lower levels of coruscant. again, in this verse he encounters dooku who senses the darkness that is surrounding obi-wan and he further helps him, pushing him into the darkness. he tells him of sidious’ plan for anakin, and while obi-wan doesn’t support it, he plans to take advantage of it. anything, to hurt anakin. the one he blames for his master abandoning him.

❝ no force in the universe could stop me. ❞ ( verse 006. ) fix it verse that see’s obi-wan try harder with anakin-- he doesn’t give up and actually saves him. he takes anakin away from everyone to tatooine in order to help him recover from everything.

❝ a tender sort of curiosity. ❞ ( verse 007. ) modern verse headcanon post here. ben went to an english boarding school, and spent his summers back home with his mother in scotland. he grew up well off, but not overly spoiled. going on to study at oxford due to family connections, ben made his mother proud by studying english literature with the aim to become an english teacher. he becomes a university professor, while also being a successful author of children’s novels, and then eventually, teen/adult novels. ben is also well traveled, and has spent time teaching in foreign countries.

❝ walk like you’re a god. ❞ ( verse 008. ) mob verse details change/can be multiple types of au’s but the default see’s ben as a mob boss, having taken over from his adoptive father after he was murdered before his eyes.

❝ i’m meaner than my demons. ❞ ( verse 009. ) hunter verse ben is part of a group called the rieker organization-- a group of supernatural hunters who have been around for centuries and defend the world in secret from those creatures that would hurt them. ben is a skilled hunter, with extensive knowledge and field experience from working alongside his teacher, qui gon jinn. however, when jinn is bitten by a vampire on a mission, and the strict code calls for him to be killed, ben takes a step back. for years, he doesn't go into the field and works only behind the scenes, studying, learning, teaching new initiates. in part, he has lost faith in the establishment he works for, but refuses to leave out of loyalty. but having to kill his teacher broke him. however, when a string of brutal murders seems unsolvable, ben is brought back in. this, is when he reunites with old friend... anakin skywalker.

❝ you built up a world of magic. ❞ ( verse 010. ) harry potter verse. post with details here.

❝ a thousand silhouettes. ❞ ( verse 011. ) force ghost verse.

❝ nobody comes to save you now. ❞ ( verse 012. ) hunger games verse. growing up in district 2, obi-wan was a career tribute who trained for his entire life to volunteer in the hunger games. surrounded by many who wanted to grow up to be peacekeepers, obi-wan instead wanted to volunteer, and win the games, in order to provide for his mother in the hopes of keeping her safe. at fifteen years old, obi volunteered for the games and then won! his mother was so proud, overwhelmed to have her son safe, and obi felt complete because he had done everything he set out to. the people adored him, but perhaps a little too much. obi's character in this verse is inspired by finnick odair in a few senses, and his story of being forced into prostitution is one reflected in obi's story. additionally, obi-wan is drawn to and wants to side with anakin when they are thrown into the quarter quell.

❝ the strings you pull. ❞ ( verse 013. ) detective/killer verse

❝ my touch is black and poisonous. ❞ ( verse 014. ) sith’ari verse

❝ go make a legacy. ❞ ( verse 015. ) duke obi verse

❝ fall to rise with stardust in my eyes. ❞ ( verse 016. ) interstellar verse

❝ can you be my ghost? ❞ ( verse 017. ) older obi with past anakin on tatooine verse

❝ play it and make it sincere. ❞ ( verse 018. ) padawan obi verse

#verses

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nightsisterasajj · 7 years

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Fractal Point: Chapter One

{Dark Obi AU//Obitine fic}

Summary: Following the death of Anakin Skywalker, a grieving Obi-Wan had turned. He had turned for guidance, for purpose. He had turned, in the only way he’d ever known how; he had turned to his lineage. He had turned to Count Dooku… and eventually, to the Dark Side.

He’d avoided Satine after that, ashamed of what he was, even as he took care to make sure she was safe. But when his new Master begins to fear that old feelings are conflicting with new purpose, everything suddenly changes, and he is forced to act lest she be destroyed. To save her, though, he must face her once again…

//chapter one under cut//

Obi-Wan Kenobi stared out the viewport window of his personal shuttle, deep in meditation. The Unifying Force swirled and ebbed in his vision, stretching out into the stars beyond, weaving past and future alike into its universal fabric. Out and below, the planet of Mandalore glistened like fresh-fallen snow, a fractal point of memory long divided by conflict.

Once, he knew, he had looked upon this very place with a different set of eyes; younger eyes, bluer eyes, happier eyes unburdened with the harsh realities of war. He had been so naïve, then. So willingly blind… How strange it was, he thought, that he could still see their light despite the darkness that had fallen over him… that they had remained so much the same even after everything had changed! It was true, he realized, that some stars must have been born since then; that others, like himself, had been overcome by darkness. Such was the nature of finite life, he knew, even for the brightest of stars. But although they shifted, and faded, and formed anew, they always formed the same pattern - that of the dark and the light, locked in their eternal dance. And always, time is there to connect them, bringing history back to the place where it began… The endless cycle of renewal and destruction, of beginnings and endings and life and death. And so, he supposes, it makes sense that he has found himself back here again after so long, even if it is just to destroy his old self one last, final time.

Obi-Wan’s thoughts were interrupted by the beeping of the holoprojector, its blue light drawing his gaze from the planet below. Usually, a call from his Master would be nothing to be concerned about - his relations with Tyranus had always been civil enough, and his performance left little to be desired. But today, he felt a certain apprehension as he strode to the projector pad, an uneasiness that he could not shake from his mind despite his considerable discipline. Still, he had been the Count’s apprentice long enough to know that he must not reveal his doubts. Dooku was perceptive when it came to such matters, and being a master of manipulation himself, he was difficult to deceive.

As Obi-Wan activated the projector, he was careful to keep his head bowed, a few wayward strands of auburn falling into his gaze. The traditional gesture was one of respect, but today it gave him a few more precious moments to school his face into the proper obedience and calm before addressing Tyranus more directly.

"Ah, Ben.“ His old codename slid off his master’s tongue with a flourish, a simple memory embellished with more meaning than it should have held. Surely he couldn’t know… or did he? Was this intentional, meant to rattle him? "I trust you have something to report.” One elegant white eyebrow raised expectantly beneath the dark folds of Tyranus’ robe, serving both inquisition and judgement. But what that judgement might be…

“I do, Master. The faction here that calls itself Deathwatch has been most cooperative, but they are a young movement, and hardly so bold as they claim…” Kenobi stroked his beard thoughtfully, wondering how he should proceed. I don’t want him to think continued involvement here is worth it. But how to convince him… “I do not think that there is enough resistance here to turn events to our liking. Perhaps a planet with a weaker neutral stance would…”

“No… I sense that Mandalore is the key. A planet with such a violent past is sure to harbor dormant resentment, which will work to our favor. Remember, Kenobi, that I wish to be directly involved as little as possible… Appearances are most important if we are to rally more neutral systems to our cause.” His master’s dark eyes narrowed dangerously, and Obi-Wan knew that he was bordering ever closer to the invisible line that had thus far remained unbroken. But still, he had to try, because her life depended on it.

"No government here lasts long, Master… I fear that even if we are successful, eventually we may have to intervene to keep it in our grasp. Surely…“

"Mandalore may take some effort to obtain. However, if the Duchess Satine falls, it will go a long way in aiding our cause. Without her leadership, the Council of Neutral Systems will quickly crumble, and more and more worlds will become ripe for our taking.” Dooku’s hologram flickered, then steadied again, the stars shining brightly through his transparent image. And her name, spoken so easily, so damningly from his master’s lips, traveling through space and time to haunt him once more… A shiver ran down Kenobi’s spine, threatening to overtake his steely composure, but he soon clamped down on the impulse, and the memories were as quickly gone as they had occurred.

“But Master…” Obi-Wan protested, only to be cut short once more by Dooku’s holoimage.

“Do not forget, my apprentice, that Sidious’ plot depends upon the current balance.” The old man’s voice was a clear reprimand, but he was not angry - at least not yet, Obi-Wan mused. In fact, he sounded tired, Kenobi realized, and not just of their conversation; today was one of those rare instances where Obi-Wan could actually see the Count’s age, where the façade between them crumbled and the almost grandfatherly bond that existed between them became evident. Days like these, one saw an old man, and the youngest of his legacy, bonded by the whisper of a ghost, shared memory thick with sorrow. Qui-Gon. They never spoke of him; and yet he was there, always, the binding link between them…

“If we are able to shift the war in our favor, Sidious will become more vulnerable - and that is when we will strike. Remember why you joined me, Obi-Wan…” Dooku’s voice was softer now, and Obi-Wan knew that he was thinking it, too. Qui-Gon. "…together, we can end this terrible war and seek justice for those lives he has destroyed.“

“Yes, Master,” Kenobi answered, almost apologetically, “I will be more mindful.” But surely, there must be another way. I cannot destroy her…

"See to it that they are unaware of our influence in this matter. I want no complications when it comes time to recruit more systems to our cause,“ Dooku reminded him, the stony façade returning in full force, “And keep in contact. I expect full updates on your progress.” As the hologram flickered out at last, Kenobi found himself releasing a breath he wasn’t even aware he had been holding - this whole ordeal had him deeply unsettled, and he still wasn’t entirely sure why. Some of it, of course, had to do with her, but there was something else, too, something elusive… He would have to meditate on it later. For now, he would do his duty.

Thanks to @legobiwan, who inspired me to post this (admittedly sort-of self-indulgent) fic here on tumblr dot com… at least I know of one person who enjoys these two as much as I do ;)

#obi wan kenobi #obitine #Duchess Satine #satine kryze #Count Dooku #star wars #star wars the clone wars #star wars au #dark obi wan au #dark obi wan #star wars fanfiction #fractal point

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doorsclosingslowly · 7 years

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Lithops

Kycina didn’t meet Sidious, the day she decided to smuggle her son off-planet and into freedom. Thirty-four years later, Maul is a dedicated Jedi Knight, and he’s content to ignore his unfortunate beginnings. The appearance of another Dathomiri zabrak on the battlefields of the Clone Wars makes that considerably harder.

Jedi Maul; Witches of the Mist AU; 6.5k; read on AO3

Drought

The comm system flashes insistently, just when Scimitar is about to begin her slow long dive over nightly Kooriva. An uncommon enough sight in and of itself, the incoming calls signal, but it’s especially worrying now, when Maul was just about to disable every system apart from life support in order to drift down undetected. Being contacted shouldn’t happen. It doesn’t figure into the plan. It shouldn’t even be possible, really, after the myriad precautions they’ve taken, including a complete scrubbing of Scimitar’s telecommunications facilities.

The mission’s delicate: Padawan Gwyolduhbeccu has secured an unpaid internship in the Trade Federation’s local office, and Maul himself is infiltrating Senator Passel Argente’s home staff and investigating possible Sith ties, without drawing any attention. Without notifying him—notifying the traitor Dooku, notifying the Galactic Senate—of the Jedi Order’s suspicions.

It’s dangerous, and more than slightly illegal. It requires extreme discretion.

That’s why they sent Maul, after all.

(His infiltrations may be called dark, by those who value looking pure over Jedi lives, but the Council knows better. Maul knows better. The good of the many outweighs a Knight’s image.)

This mission is delicate. No-one has this frequency. No-one, apart from select members of the Council.

Padawan Becs is just as unnerved, apparently. She moans in agitation. Her claw pauses over the console, and waits to poke it until Maul has given his permission.

Maul glances at the chronometer and sighs. This is unwise. The Trade Federation could be scanning the space around Kooriva for any type of signal. They certainly have the credits for data mining centers with sophisticated algorithms and an army of sentient overseers; the collection of ridiculously large quantities of irrelevant data should provide no deterrence. However, weighing the slightly increased risk of discovery against the certainty of lecturing, when they return home after the scheduled month of communications blackout… The consequences are nowhere near comparable, but he truly does not enjoy being accused of not taking the Council seriously. He authorizes the call and says, “Good afternoon, Master Windu.”

“Re-route immediately.” No time for politeness, then. Just as well.

“I apologize, Master Windu, but this current mission is extremely time-critical and above all, requires stealth,” Maul says, even while he brings the engines back online. Three months of intel gathering, weeks of prep, the soft Koorivan inflections they’ve trained into their accents. The internship application, with its carefully calibrated set of competences and loyalties and naïveté, and the pitiful story of a wookiee orphan, so far from Kashyyyk, just yearning for a chance to prove herself. The complete overhaul and ghastly repainting of Scimitar. All for nothing.

He pulls the ship around and guns the engines.

Carefully, Maul breathes out his irritation before he adds, “Flying this close to Kooriva could possibly alert Senator Argente—”

“Re-route. I’m sending the exact coordinates now.”

“But, Master, that’s just… empty space?” Gwyolduhbeccu asks when she’s set the navcomputer.

Maul repeats the question in Basic.

Master Windu shakes his head. “It’s the location of a Separatist frigate. The projected location, based on realspace travel at constant speed without altering its trajectory. It should be accurate for at least half an hour, so hurry. Master Kenobi and Skywalker have tracked Savage Opress there, Dooku’s new apprentice. He’s murdered the Toydarian king and abducted the corpse.”

“So, this is a reinforcement?” Maul remembers meeting Dooku in person, dimly, when he was a new Padawan and Dooku hadn’t yet turned traitor. He was an impressive swordsman, and cold. Maybe he just didn’t like Master Windu.

He’s never met the new Sith—his own modus operandum is infiltration and plausible deniability in service of all beings that live in the galaxy, not sudden mindless carnage, and so their paths are not likely to cross—but he has heard of Devaron’s fate. Of the slaughter of the Jedi there. Increasing their numbers on the frigate is prudent, regardless of Obi-Wan and Skywalker’s undeniable skill.

It’s flattering that Master Windu has recognized Maul as a match for the Sith’s apparent brutal strength, but… “Was it necessary to terminate my mission? Surely there are other adept fighters in the vicinity.”

“There are no zabraks in close proximity.”

Maul’s glove creaks. “Master—”

“Dathomiri hybrids are a very tribal people,” Master Windu says, as if Maul didn’t know this, hadn’t researched and rejected the planet that spat him out. As if he hadn’t been watched like a farlus hawk as a baby, after the desperate Nightsister that may have been his mother had chanced upon a travelling Jedi and handed him over, her parting gift nothing but life and the markings that wind around his body and stink of dark magic. Nightbrothers are tribal, Master Windu says, as if it was new information. As if Maul hadn’t been watched, not just for the darkness of his blood but for the so-called inborn need for affection.

The meticulous research he did on the Sith until Master Nu tossed him out of the library, the way he studied the pitfalls of the dark side that he was going to avoid—luminous beings are we, and Maul will be a great Jedi, it is his choice alone and biology is nothing—it’s always been taken as a marker of something indelibly sinister.

The missions he takes provoke whispers of a congenital darkside taint he cannot escape, when they truly are nothing but evidence of his utter dedication to the Jedi Order. His reluctance to order his Padawan into battle is not prudence, apparently. It isn’t even classed as ambition, although training a youngling to knighthood and therefore receiving the rank of Master is certainly easier if the Padawan isn’t shot dead. No. It’s being tribal.

He pointedly does not seethe. It’s hard.

“He will recognize you. Opress has murdered many of our most capable Knights and Masters, but he’s still a nightbrother. I do not believe he would attack his own kin the same way.”

This is too much. Maul loses his grip on serenity. “You’re terminating my mission because of my biological species.”

Master Windu sighs. “Knight Maul—”

“I am one of the only Jedi who could challenge this new Sith on my own and win, and you know this. I am disciplined. I am powerful. I have completed every mission you have ever sent me on.” Every mission, apart from Kooriva, now. Blast it all.

“Maul—”

“Few Jedi have mastered Vaapad, and I am one of them. You trained me yourself. You trained me. You were proud of me, you said. And now, you are sending me into this fight because both me and the Sith happen to have horns.”

“I did not say that.”

Really? Maul raises a single contemptuous eyebrow. He makes sure his left hand is in full view of the holocom lens before he waggles index and middle finger and enunciates, “Opress ‘would not attack his own kin’ is how I believe you phrased it.”

The miniature blue Master Windu looks at him, completely unimpressed.

Kriff. And in front of Gwyolduhbeccu, too. “I apologize, Master,” Maul says. Not, ‘I don’t know what came over me.’ That would be a lie, and he’s been enough of a bad example today. Not, ‘I was wrong.’ Still, he shouldn’t have complained. He feels his anger, and then he lets go.

“Accepted.” Master Windu’s face comes closer. He’s bending over the holocom, now, for some reason. It’s as if he’s whispering a secret. Maul doesn’t want to be more curious than angry, but he is. “I am not just sending you because you are born of Dathomir, Maul. This is a shatterpoint. I have felt it. Somehow, this fight with Savage Opress will matter. I trust you will treat this situation with the gravity it deserves. Do not listen to your pride. Listen to the force.”

“ETA five minutes for the rendezvous with the frigate, Master. May the force be with you,” Maul says, and switches off the holocomm.

Becs grins.

“It is beyond me why you’re so elated, Padawan. We’re flying into an active war zone. This is a code esk mission, now, and you’re going to keep your feet in the ship, your eyes on the comm and the engines hot, in case Kenobi and Skywalker need sudden evac when I find them. You may gun down any approaching droids.”

“Don’t be grumpy, Master,” Gwyolduhbeccu moans. “Master Windu loves you too.”

Maul shakes his head in mock despair, and then he stretches out his arms as well as he can behind the steering wheel. There’s no time or room for proper meditation, but still, it is better than nothing, and he should be calm. He should be loose-limbed, not cramped from hours of flight and bad news and the conversations about Dathomir he cannot seem to escape.

Savage Opress is not to be underestimated. Their unfortunate biological connection has reawakened criticisms Maul thought were laid to rest long ago.

This fight will matter.

Water

Scimitar bombards the Separatist frigate’s door security system with signals and access requests until it is completely overwhelmed. She swoops into the frigate’s belly and sets down in a corner, quietly. There are no battle droids around, which is a pleasant surprise, since they can just cloak the ship and hide if no-one has observed their arrival. The less damage to his ship, and the less danger for Gwyolduhbeccu, the better.

The landing bay is far enough away that the battle is nothing but distant screams, subtle wafts of burnt flesh and, weirdly, electric static.

Maul doesn’t bother contacting Obi-Wan: it’s clear where he’ll find the other Jedi. He follows his nose.

He stalks towards the fight leisurely. There’s no need for undignified panting when surely, Kenobi and Skywalker will last another minute. A running fighter won’t impress his enemies, after all, and even though his disguise for Kooriva doesn’t feature a cloak to flare out dramatically behind him—there was no time to change—he can at least try to impress. Aesthetics have never won a battle on their own, but neither do they hurt.

It’s a good decision, although for a very different reason.

The battle is not quite as he expected.

To begin with, neither Obi-Wan Kenobi nor Skywalker are involved. Instead, there is the Separatist leader, completely focused on a harsh fight, his back against the wall and his lightsaber on the floor. Dooku is facing Asajj Ventress, and Savage Opress who appears to have betrayed him as well. Sith lacking in honor! It doesn’t come as a surprise. As far as Maul is concerned, they can wipe each other out in peace.

There’s no reason to risk uniting the warring Sith against a common foe. Let the fight run its course, and the innate weakness of their philosophy be their downfall. He’ll deal with the leftovers.

Maul ducks behind the doorframe and watches.

“Finish him… now,” Ventress is snarling at Opress, and the massive zabrak advances on Dooku. Maul grimaces. This is painful. As if it wasn’t bad enough that the count gave his zabrak apprentice a saberstaff… Opress is clearly half-trained and unsuitable. He lacks all necessary grace. He is almost offensively clumsy with it, opting for slow strikes with too much power behind them and leaving openings in his attacks that would be nothing short of deadly, if Dooku still had a weapon.

Well, Dooku doesn’t even need a weapon, apparently: he raises his hands and blasts Opress against the wall with Sith lightning. His victim curls over and groans in pain, and Maul’s nostrils are flooded with burning flesh. So that’s the smell that led him… How long has this been going on…?

Ventress takes over. She’s much better, although not yet Dooku’s equal. As soon as the zabrak has recovered enough, he rejoins the fight with yet another inept swing and no defense whatsoever. The electricity hits him again. And again.

“Get up! We must defeat him,” Ventress exhorts her co-conspirator. Dooku has reclaimed his lightsaber, she must be starting to worry. “Get up!”

Another lightning strike.

“Kill him! Kill him, you fool!”

Opress is electrocuted yet again. He stays on the floor this time, whimpering and panting. “I can’t. He’s too powerful,” he grinds out.

Maul silently congratulates him on his grasp on reality. Better late than never. It has always seemed irrational that a Sith Master would train their apprentice to the best of their ability, when the apprentice is supposed to eventually kill them. The reasoning is almost as alien as the thought of wanting to kill his own Master. (It’s reassuring, the opaqueness, in its own way.)

Apparently Dooku’s found his own solution to the conundrum: it’s plain to see that his students are but weapons, cultivated with a very limited skill-set. Hurting Opress is like shooting an oversized skirm turtle that’s been turned on its back. Useless hard top shell and soft exposed belly, and it can’t even flee. This is honorless. Not a fight but a game, toying with his opponents. It’s becoming obvious, now, that neither acolyte will ever manage to defeat Dooku.

They can’t, but Maul might. This must be why the force told Master Windu to send him to this place. This is Maul’s chance to end the war. He ignites his blades.

Asajj Ventress doesn’t want to believe in her defeat just yet. She hisses at the cowering Opress, “Your weakness will not be my downfall!”

Dooku smirks. “A failed apprentice makes for a foolish Master.”

The shockwave is so strong that Maul loses his footing. It bowls him over, and when he’s scrambled up again and braced for an attack that isn’t coming, he sees Ventress and Dooku raised up in the air and being strangled, and then bashed against the wall. The words must have triggered something in Opress, some hitherto unthought idea. It’s a reservoir of internal strength Maul wouldn’t have credited the zabrak with.

A reservoir that’s ultimately useless. It’s lost to simple stupidity, because Savage Opress doesn’t press his advantage. When he attacks again, it’s with his lightsaber.

Predictably, the Sith lightning hits.

This time, Savage Opress doesn’t get back up.

Dooku attacks Ventress and jumps down a vent; Ventress follows.

Maul wonders whether he’s just watched them kill their apprentice, their tool, and whether he should have intervened. Whether he should have cared. It’s not tribal loyalty. It’s perfectly legitimate generalized compassion, awareness of even the lowliest beings. The zabrak was a Sith, but he was also, plainly, not a good Sith. His fate was sealed the moment he joined the fight. He never stood a chance.

The pity was ill-judged, it turns out quickly.

Improbably, Savage Opress isn’t dead yet.

He growls and runs up to the closed vent in search for the enemies who have deserted him, having shrugged off the volts that hit his chest as if they were just an inconvenience. As if he wasn’t a person, a being who can be hurt, but just a murderous machine. Does he actually want to fight more, when they nearly killed him? Does he know he almost died? Does he care?

The strange invulnerability—if that’s what it is, and not a death wish—quickly becomes a more pressing problem. Savage Opress turns around, and he spots Maul. He freezes. In a loud, hoarse voice, he asks, “Brother?”

Maul should be tracking Count Dooku. He should hurry. There’s nothing of any importance left in this room: Savage Opress is but an inept pawn.

Still, the Sith has noticed him. Maul won’t be able to leave without a fight, and so he raises his saberstaff. Pity is superfluous now. Savage’s brush with death shall become an advantage. A Jedi is kind, but he also knows true kindness is protecting the many, and not mourning the one. Let this pretender see how a real fighter uses his weapon.

Then, the word penetrates his mind, or maybe Opress just says it again. “Brother?”

Brother?!

Maul should be tracking Count Dooku.

Brother.

Maul should be gone already. He should be cutting off the damnable head of the Separatist leader, ignoring this mystery. He must choose: an end to the war, or whatever this is. His service and dedication could be recognized by the entire Jedi Order. Or, he could talk to Savage.

In the end, he doesn’t make a choice. He hears the clunk of an escape pod detaching.

The opportunity was there, and he missed it.

When Maul looks up, his eyes meet Savage’s again, and the massive zabrak takes a tiny step. To him, at least, Ventress and Dooku’s flight is apparently forgotten. The fight, the blaster bolts hailing down on him from Separatist battle droids that enter the room, the plumes of smoke on his armor—forgotten. His head jerks left and right, and then he looks at Maul again. His arms drop by his side and dangle, and the ignited blade starts burning a hole into the durasteel. He lurches forward, dragging the weapon along and it cuts a path through the ship floor, and through the corpse of the Toydarian king that lies there. The stench makes Maul gag. Opress doesn’t appear to notice.

He stumbles. He goes down on one knee—another blaster bolt impacts against his shoulder—and when he pushes himself up again with both hands, he forgets the saberstaff on the ground. He abandons it. His eyes never once leave Maul.

“Please, Feral,” the Sith begs. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Another helpless, unsteady step. Even less fluid than his movement during the fight, Maul notes distantly.

Is this trickery? The Sith are not above underhandedness and deceit, and this move certainly threw Maul off guard. Who is Feral? However, no-one this atrocious at wielding a saberstaff could possibly outwit Maul. Savage Opress appears to be genuinely distressed. He doesn’t look capable of more than brute strength, and this doesn’t look like a trick.

The Sith is still approaching, mesmerized by Maul’s face and oblivious, drawn like a moth to a flame. A water-starved dinko to a well. A gormless Sith to a Jedi with an ignited lightsaber.

Count Dooku’s escape pod is long gone. Ventress isn’t here. It’s not just fighting that wins the wars, though, it’s also intelligence, and who knows what information Savage Opress may have picked up during his unfortunate months as Dooku’s acolyte. Facts that he might not even be aware he knows, but Maul is a skilled interrogator. Maybe he hasn’t totally wasted the opportunity Master Windu gave him.

Usually, there’s no point in capturing enemy combatants. They’re droids, and they can be shut off and wiped remotely. This is different.

“Feral, please. Help me,” Savage Opress begs.

New leaf

Opress is of no help whatsoever on the way back to the ship. He is limp and hanging over Maul’s shoulder, barely managing to drag his feet up at the required times. He’s taken scores of blaster-bolts and lightning strikes with little visible reaction but the occasional howl of rage, and Maul would have almost expected him keep shrugging it off forever, but that was apparently all it took to slump him over: it’s as if Maul’s appearance has finally cut his strings. Or maybe, he was due a collapse for weeks. Maul’s seen it—he’s been it, although not very often—a survivor clinging on by a thread until the danger finally passes.

Apparently, Maul’s presence is enough to render safe an entire battlefield. It’s a massive inconvenience, considering the zabrak’s ludicrously tall and heavy frame, compared to every Dathomiri hybrid ever recorded, and the battle droids that Maul must fend off while carrying him. It’s also weirdly flattering.

Maul drags his prisoner up to Scimitar’s cargo ramp. He puts him down so he can open it.

“Master, let me help!” That’s Gwyolduhbeccu, right next to them and not in the ship anymore, needlessly endangering herself counter to his express instructions. She looks down at him and his burden, and then she looks at Maul’s left hand, the one that’s steadying Savage’s head. Her eyes go wide: the grip’s too loose for restraint, and she knows that, too. “What’s going on? You brought him here? That’s Savage Opress? I can help, Master, he’s only about as big as me!” True, and irrelevant.

“Cockpit… now,” Maul gasps out, and then he scowls. That wasn’t very authoritative. He’s actually out of breath. Damn that oversized zabrak. And damn Maul himself for whatever he’s doing right now.

Luckily, he’s managed to instill a modicum of obedience in his Padawan, at least. She’s gone within seconds, and when she talks to him again, it’s over the speaker system and after he’s dragged Savage into an empty corner inside Scimitar. He would have put him into his own berth, but Maul’s arms already hurt.

“Where are we going? Where are Skywalker and Kenobi? Do you need a medcenter? Does he?”

“No…” Maul replies. “At least… not yet. Take off, destination irrelevant.” The engines whirr, and he runs a gentle finger along the root of a broken horn when the other zabrak flinches at the sound. They packed no shock binders for the Kooriva mission but, somehow, this should be sufficient.

Savage’s eyes clear slightly and he mumbles, “Brother…”

The speakers release a high-pitched, warbling scream. “Brother? Master, what’s going on?”

“Contact Master Windu. Tell him, ‘Extraction complete.’ Dooku and Ventress fled the ship. Nothing else. He was right, obviously, as ever. Ping Obi-Wan’s comm. Master Kenobi. He did not join the battle. Then, shut off Scimitar’s communications systems and homing beacon. Downgrade mission to code nern.”

“Master?”

“He’s… remarkably docile.”

“So he’s not actually a Sith?”

“Probably. Inconclusive.”

“Master Kenobi says hi, he and Skywalker are fine. I left Master Windu a message. Are you sure we shouldn’t head for Republic space? Oh, right, I see. You want to present the intelligence yourself.” As usual, Gwyolduhbeccu carries the bulk of their conversation, while Maul mostly nods. It’s a lazy but effective substitute for code, provided the third party does not speak Shyriiwook. “Do you need me to do anything? Random hyperlane jumps to prevent tracking? Good Jedi, bad Jedi? Food? Talk to—”

“Not yet. I will treat his injuries first.”

The key to gaining intel is establishing trust. Biology—and looking like whoever ‘Feral’ is—appears to have given Maul a boost, but taking care of the zabrak’s wounds should help the process. Besides, the electric shocks must have hurt.

Maul takes off Savage’s vambraces, and there is no protest. No reaction of any kind. He finds the rivets where shoulder and upper arm armor attach, and drops the heavy dented metal onto the floor. A loud clang, and not even a blink. The boot armor comes off, and the boots follow. The belt. He zips open the leather vest.

There are holes in the soft undershirt. Sickly green light wafts in and out of them, as thick and soft as smoke. This bears investigating. He’s never heard of anything like it, although admittedly, Maul has never met a Sith before today.

“Can you lift your arms?” Maul asks, and then repeats it impatiently. Savage must have either drifted off, or he’s assumed that the words weren’t meant for him.

When he’s finally got rid of the undershirt, Maul hisses in sympathy. There are large burns and scabs all over Savage’s body, concentrated at the shoulders and arms, where the electricity must have heated his armor until it melted through leather or skin. It’s where the weird light is coming from, too, those spots where the skin is broken. A stray thought. Not Sith, Dathomiri…

They’re probably painful, Maul decides, but not lethal. The burns are of varying ages, some old and badly healed and suppurative, some obviously from today. If they haven’t killed Opress yet, they probably won’t.

More worrying are the shallow gasps that Savage takes, and the invisible damage the current has done to his brain and heart.

There’s no bacta tank on Scimitar. It was removed in preparation for Kooriva, deemed much too suspicious. There are field medkits hidden behind select wall panels, though, and with a careless flick of his wrist Maul unscrews the panel next to his berth and gently lets it drop to the floor. He floats the medkit into his hands. There: painkillers, bacta, and the blood testing kit that’s capable of genetic fingerprinting. Bacta first. It’s not a bacta shake, unfortunately, but a gel for topical application. This is going to taste even more dreadful, but it’s what they have, and there’s internal damage to treat. Maul chooses the one with a thin plasteel tube as an applicator. Maybe Opress will manage to avoid his taste buds.

“Drink this.”

Savage obeys. He isn’t careful enough with squeezing the gel into his esophagus. Gets something into his mouth. He grimaces and sticks out his bloody tongue, flicks it back inside, then rubs it against his incisors as if he could scrub off the taste. It’s the first normal expression he’s had, neither menacing nor suffering nor blank, and despite himself, Maul smiles.

“It will help, I believe. Here, take this one as well. You were subjected to electric shock several times. You didn’t go into cardiac arrest, but there are other likely consequences. Calcification. Muscle spasms that break your bones, and you were thrown into the wall as well. You have difficulty breathing. You likely have broken ribs. There’s also… Brain damage. Memory problems. Difficulty regulating your emotions. Do you want to be in chronic pain?” Really, he should be in medcenter. But Maul cannot let a Sith loose on the galaxy, and this is better than nothing. This will cement his trust.

Savage wraps his arms around his chest, and winces. “But Master Dooku…”

“He tried to kill you,” Maul says.

“Master Dooku… He said it helped… I needed to… connect to my hatred. Strengthen my connection to the force.”

“He has electrocuted you before?”

“He told me that… anger was my strength. And it was so. I could obey him better, I could lift the… columns.”

“Convenient.” Maul deliberately softens his tone. “It’s strange, don’t you think? He used Sith lightning to teach you, and then he tried to kill you with Sith lightning. It is the same means, and the same outcome. Pain. Why should those actions be different? He hurt you twice, not once.”

“You are wise, brother,” Savage says.

The word’s a reminder. Kneeling down, Maul gently takes Savage’s wrist and pokes the index finger with the needle from the blood testing kit.

“It’s just another test,” he reassures Savage. Comparing genetics, to be precise, and he’ll look at the results later.

No time for his curiosity now, because this conversation is moving towards a breakthrough: Savage appears to have grasped that his fall was a mistake. That Sith training is abuse. It should be easy to flip his allegiance. Too easy—why would he join them, if he knows what Maul does? Greed for power? He didn’t appear at all powerful, in that fight. If he fell for strength, it must have been a sore disappointment. Naïveté?

“Brother, I am so grateful, but…” Savage pulls the hand whose wrist Maul is still holding, gently, until it slides out of his grasp. “How are you here?”

Blast. The strange convenience of ‘Feral’ has possibly run its course.

Time to improvise.

“Why shouldn’t I be here with you, brother?” So Savage and his kin were separated, it seems. Savage obviously cares for him, and it’s likely the affection is mutual. Maybe Savage left him when he joined the Sith… How would Maul feel, if Obi-Wan suddenly left the Order? Unlikely as that is. “I was worried about you. I missed you, and so I searched for you.”

“Brother, I killed you!”

What.

“I broke your neck with my own hands! I felt the life ebb from your body and I didn’t—”

“You killed me?!” Maul suddenly realizes how close he is to Savage. To his hands, which apparently… He’s been lulled into a false sense of security. He’s never put much stock in biological Dathomiri loyalty, but he must have believed it about Savage Opress. He doesn’t even have a lightsaber here, just this blood test needle.

He scuttles backwards.

Savage doesn’t follow. He doesn’t even look. He just breaks down in tears.

“Brother, I’m so sorry. I can’t—” Savage chokes on his tongue. “I tried to protect you, please… Please believe me. I followed the Sister so She wouldn’t take you… I didn’t know… There’s something wrong with me, something She did, and I couldn’t disobey, I couldn’t…” Snot runs out of his nose. His breath isn’t just labored anymore, it’s fast and shallow. Hyperventilation. It takes a few minutes until Savage can speak again. “I wanted to die and then I didn’t, I didn’t think anything and I forgot… I…”

“What happened to you then?” Maul asks quietly.

“The Mother gave me to Master Dooku,” Savage says. “I passed her test. I didn’t think I would see you again. I thought you were dead. I thought…” He wraps his arms around his mottled, burned, bruised chest, and he cries and cries.

Maul sits down next to him again. He lets Savage lean against his shoulder.

It takes a long time until Savage has exhausted himself, until his pain’s run out of his eyes and nostrils and made Maul’s shirt uncomfortably sticky. It takes hours, and Maul’s leg is asleep for most of it, but he doesn’t dare move. He doesn’t talk. He says something once, after the first hour has passed, tells him it wasn’t his fault. It feels stupid. Inadequate. Irrelevant. He doesn’t do anything to alleviate his boredom, apart from running his finger down Savage’s horns occasionally. He remembers the gesture from his time as a youngling. It was comforting, then.

When Savage is finally asleep, Maul heaves him up onto his sleeping berth and covers him with a blanket, and then another. He takes the bantha wool comforter from the other berth as well. It can’t hurt. He’s read that Dathomir has a warm climate.

Before he leaves for the cockpit, he takes one last look at his… prisoner, and then he picks up the blood testing kit.

“99.99% probability of genetic match. Congratulations, you have a twin brother,” it beeps.

Bloom

When Maul wakes up, Gwyolduhbeccu is long gone, but that’s normal: It’s probably noon on Kashyyyk right now, as she likes to tell him whenever she wakes him with her energetic fresher singing. Less expected is the crick in Maul’s neck, from sleeping in the captain’s chair. Why are they still on the ship, shouldn’t they be on Kooriva… Danger. Sith. Victim. Brother. Twin. Sith, here, runs through his mind while he jumps off the seat and runs and draws his lightsaber. No matter what he is—bringing Opress onto the ship was a mistake.

A tinny voice rings out of the cargo hold, where the sleeping berths are. Where the Sith is.

“—fighting for the Separatists?” it asks, and he calms slightly. His Padawan is safe. Alive, anyway. She must be, if she’s repurposing Scimitar’s speaker system to translate her Shyriiwook.

Apparently, she’s putting some of his lectures on interrogation methods into practice. She’s clumsy and rough with them, too obvious in her intentions, but that is more Maul’s fault than hers. He should have questioned the zabrak last night, and instead he just listened. Besides, she doesn’t have much practice, due to a very basic fact Maul failed to consider before training her: in many of echelons of society, it’s difficult for a wookiee to have a casual conversation. Few have the patience for listening to text-to-speech tools, or respect for those with vocal chords unsuited to Galactic Basic.

Maul’s close enough that he can see Gwyolduhbeccu now, relaxed and still in her red-black tie-dye sleep tunic, kneeling next to Savage on the floor. Two empty cups next to them. The smell of chocolate.

The zabrak looks much worse now than he did yesterday. His left eye has swollen shut and his lip turned purple from bruising. The bare torso is still littered with small burns that Maul should have taken care of yesterday, if he hadn’t been focused on the more urgent internal injuries. Focused on the trauma. He’d have treated them, if his head hadn’t been spinning with the utter weirdness of this Sith.

Savage’s running his finger down the back of Gwyolduhbeccu’s paw again and again, apparently mesmerized by all the hair. He’s taking a very long time with his answer, but what he settles on is, “I don’t… know.”

Becs types something into her wristcomm, and the speaker system says, “That’s okay, Savage. I understand. You fought against Count Dooku yesterday. Do you remember why you did that?”

“I… The Sister… She touched my head, and then I could think of nothing but obeying Her. There’s—there’s something wrong with me, I didn’t… but I…” Savage winces. He runs his tongue over his lower lip. Wafts of something sick and green slip out, too, like they did last night. The miasma.

It’s a wonder that Savage’s still speaking this well, was as articulate yesterday: even from the doorway, Maul can see the gore.

“Your tongue, it’s…” Becs roars, and her volume makes the ex-Sith flinch. She whacks her right hand, the one Savage isn’t holding, against her face. Switches to speakers. “A chunk of your tongue is missing.”

“I think I bit it.”

“Electric shock, right? Are you sure that nothing is broken? That can happen easily you know, because of the muscle spasms.” Something Maul did check for, yesterday, but he won’t begrudge his Padawan her compassion. “I didn’t train as a healer. I could have been one, though! I’d have focused my campaign of attrition on Master Che next, if he hadn’t caved and accepted me as his Padawan.” Maul remembers the months of being followed wherever he went, when he couldn’t even sneeze without an earnest wookiee youngling warbling at him. He didn’t even understand her yet. “But I know a couple of things, anyway! I fixed up my Master pretty often. Don’t worry, you’re in good hands now, uncle Savage.”

Blast. Maul really should have known this was coming.

He can’t even disabuse her of the idea: she and Savage may have the wrong data, but apparently, somehow, the conclusion is correct.

“Is it alright if I call you uncle? Only you’re Maul’s brother, and he raised me, so… I will definitely be offended if you say no.”

Savage Opress laughs. It’s a loud sound and it echoes, and he startles himself so badly he hides behind his hands, which sets Gwyolduhbeccu off. Her undulating wookiee roars amuse him, apparently, and he joins back in with big roaring guffaws. Maul allows himself a snort.

“Master?” Becs turns and looks up at him.

“Brother,” Savage greets him, and although he’s the polar opposite of Maul’s Padawan in physical terms, considering her many braids and tousled facial fur, they look almost identical. Two-meter younglings on a sleepover. Awake too early. Wide happy grins, tinged with only a smidgeon of guilt, as if they’d just been caught gossiping behind Maul’s back.

Savage’s grin disappears quickly. “You look different. You aren’t Feral.”

“No, I’m not,” Maul agrees. The bacta must have fixed some latent brain damage, he decides. Eye damage. Or maybe Savage was too hysterical to pay attention yesterday. “Although I did save your life and treated your wounds. I am friendly. Besides, you’re on my ship. Any attack would be ill-advised.”

The warning is unnecessary, truthfully. Savage Opress doesn’t look angry. He looks devastated.

It does shock Gwyolduhbeccu. She scrambles up and advances on Maul.

“Master, what are we gonna do?” she warbles, so fast her vowels tumble over each other, but Gwyolduhbeccu doesn’t look the way she usually does when she’s distressed. She isn’t embracing herself, her shoulders aren’t crooked. She doesn’t look like she’s coming to Maul for advice, for direction, the way she’s standing now: straight and bullheaded and her paws balled into fists. Maul realizes that he can’t currently see Savage. He’s completely hidden behind her broad, nightshirt-clad back. “What are we going to do? He’s a slave. He’s a slave, Maul. The Sith… The Council will want to interrogate him, but he doesn’t even know what the Separatists are fighting for. I tried asking, but… nothing. He’s confused. Mind-controlled. He doesn’t know anything. He was tortured!”

“Trained,” Maul corrects her, softly. Bruises, burns, and terror. Dooku’s contempt. “He was trained.”

The argument doesn’t impress Gwyolduhbeccu. It doesn’t even truly impress Maul.

“Exactly,” she moans. “He was trained. We can’t hand him over to the Council. This is final.”

She stomps forward and then past Maul in a flurry of righteous teenage anger, probably to the engine room where she can tinker and regain her serenity. Not to rethink her position—he’d never expect that—but she’s been taught young that she’ll only be taken seriously when she is calm.

Savage is still sitting on the floor, and he looks up at Maul calmly. Blankly. Does he know what’s at stake, Maul wonders. Does he know they are deliberating his future right now, right in front of him, without asking for his opinion or even letting him understand half their words? He remembers the zabrak saying, “The Mother gave me to Master Dooku,” and decides that yes, he does know. If he doesn’t yet, he certainly wouldn’t be surprised. He is a slave, after all.

His force presence is cracked with darkness. Wounded. When Savage is brought before the Jedi Council, they will see it, and they will do what is necessary to protect the galaxy from the Sith. They are wise beings, not spies. They aren’t used to asking. Savage is a darksider, and he is just one person. They will breach his mind, and they will imprison him, or he will die. It won’t matter that there was no choice involved. He’ll be regrettable collateral, maybe. Nothing more.

He was hurt by his Master until he lashed out in his desperation to protect himself; he was trained as a Sith.

There is no difference between these statements.

Once fallen, the path of the dark side will forever dominate his destiny. Savage Opress is a Dathomiri zabrak, a nightbrother slave. He fell, but he was born dark. You need only look, people used to tell him, at the dark magical markings that wind over his face, at his yellow eyes and sharp teeth, and see: this is an evil creature. His fate was sealed the moment he was conceived. He never stood a chance.

Well, that’s what they said about Maul too, and he turned out alright.

They’ve got a whole month before the next scheduled contact with the Jedi Council. Yes, the Kooriva mission was aborted, but… that doesn’t have to change their timetable. It probably isn’t widely known yet that the mission fell through. Obi-Wan and Master Windu will give them time. They don’t have to decide anything, yet.

A month is a decent enough time to heal and talk. It’s time to head to Dathomir and find out what that genetic test meant. It’s time to meet his new… family. They might even fit in some lessons in Shyriiwook.

He offers Savage his hand and says, “I am Maul. Please tell me about Feral. Our little brother.”

#aka 'Savage finally gets a hug' tbh #Savage Opress #Darth Maul #dimtraces makes things #silly wishfulfillment AU

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