The Children of the Stars

The Star Maps

Nellith's dreams haunted her into waking. Images of maps in planets that were all as familiar to her as a memory, they remained with her even when her eyes were open.

She found herself looking to the stars the next night as she crawled into her hammock, trying to connect the routes that were there, right behind the vision that was physical and tangible.

Of course, this resulted in her falling out of said hammock with a crash.

"Nellith!"

She sensed her brother and father before the footsteps came as she scrambled to her feet.

"Are you alright?" Jacen asked.

"Just distracted, sorry." Nellith tucked a curl out of her face. "It's nothing— I wouldn't worry about it. I just keep thinking about these dreams. . ."

"Dreams?" Ben's voice was quiet, but it still cut through the night like a vibroblade.

"Of these maps." Nellith turned to arrange her things on the windowsill, right in front of the rapidly-cooling transparisteel. "I keep seeing them, on these old consoles. I touch them— it's as clear as a memory, as if I'd been there and found these maps—"

Jacen and Ben exchanged a look.

"Do you think you could have been there?" Ben asked.

Nellith shrugged, looking to Jacen. "You'd have a better idea than I would."

The light in Jacen's eyes faded, and something dark and cold flashed over his face. The microexpression was gone as soon as it came, as fleeting as a shadow.

"You were gone a lot." He was quieter, his tone flat, the words rushing out, as if they had to go, or else— "You could have gone looking for some maps or treasures."

"I wonder why it's coming back to me now." Nellith ran a hand through her hair, absent-mindedly pinning the dark curls to the side of her head.

"It must be important, if it's breaking through the job Zekk pulled," Jacen said. His eyes were lighter again, as he folded his arms over his chest and smiled. Yet the smile did look a little forced. . .

"We can pursue this in the morning," Ben promised. "I'm not trying to dismiss this—"

"No, I understand." Nellith let her hair fall back around her face like a curtain. "I just— I wonder if when I dream, I'll remember more of what happened."

"I'm sure you will." Jacen said it as if it were a good thing.

But even when Nellith had first awakened from the box in Hapan space, she knew that it wouldn't be.

She could also see that Ben knew that, too, in his brown eyes. Her father's gaze softened.

"Get some sleep." His voice was gentle. "We'll figure out what to do in the morning."

When Nellith drifted off, however, she found that Jacen's words were prophecy.

Nellith Skywalker's boots crunched on the twigs of the underbelly of Kashyyyk. The branches snagged on the rough fabric of the pants she wore, scratched at her face, tugged at her hair.

And yet she paid it no mind. As if bewitched, under a trance of some sort, she felt no pain in pursuit. It was not one that involved running and chasing.

Oh, no. This involved stalking her prey. Even though that prey had not moved once in a thousand generations, as it was a piece of machinery, an ancient artifact with Sith magicks of some sort.

Then again, one should always keep her guard up when dealing with the Sith. Even if she was now an ally to them, unwillingly. For the Sith are betrayers at heart.

Inside, a part of her screamed and railed against the movement of her body, ceaseless and unrelenting as she continued forwards.

There she stood in front of the ancient console. The craftsmanship revealed painstaking detail, the screen cracked— but still useable, Nellith decided, in a quite mechanical manner. Detached from the part of her trying to break free from her sister's grip—

Then Nellith knelt down to where lay a mask— one that resembled the one in the holos, that her father used to wear. This one was older— and also recognizable, to many historians on Corellia and elsewhere in the galaxy.

The word was on Nellith's lips as she awakened, linking her past and present together in a shared moment of time. 

"Revan."

Nellith's eyes flew open, and she heard the name she mumbled, unsure for a second of what it meant. Revan was a familiar term to her, that was for certain.

She'd known what it had meant in the three forgotten years. For all her trouble, straining against the invisible iron walls around her memory, she could not break through.

Then again, she realized as she sat up in the hammock, she might not want to remember.

Not for the first time, a part of her wanted to remember those years. Even though the thought of the guilt and responsibility that would be on her shoulders sent her heart racing, she knew it would be better if she could be accountable for what her sister forced her to do.

But she might never truly move on, if she fully remembering the intervening years. Already, it was so hard to even attempt a facade at her own self. Others who had joined her on the journey to rescue Jacen knew that.

But the majority of the Order? Even though they knew the truth about Nellith, they were willing to believe that she was a plucky Skywalker heroine again.

She wanted to believe it, too. She just had to find a way back to that girl.

She would have to leave that girl behind completely, however, if she were to recover any of her memories of the lost years.

Nellith looked to the stars. They'd shifted in position to the twin moons from the cycle of the night. She sighed and lifted her datapad from where it lay face-down on the window shelf.

She couldn't sleep, so she might as well look it up.

So she did, finding quickly the archives of historians. Specifically, Jedi historians that were not members of the Order.

Those still did exist. And with a figure like Revan Shan, it was no wonder that there were those without the Force that studied and remembered him still.

She had been looking for something of great importance that was associated with the figure of the light and the dark.

Whatever it was, Nellith realized, she had to do everything in her power to make sure it did not remain in the hands of Darth Keera.

When the twin suns rose on Tatooine the next morning, Nellith was the first to approach her father.

"I want to put together a crew."