The Edge of the Universe

L

Anakin's POV

The rebels were either talking or training in the cramped space of Zara's shop, she had disappeared into another room and I knew something weird was going on. She was force sensitive but I didn't understand how she could be since she wasn't a Jedi or a Sith, her force presence was hidden and shielded away so at first I didn't realise but as she talked I sensed something familiar within her. I couldn't place my finger on it but she was definitely hiding something.

Something was calling to me through the force, it wasn't a life form but it was an object, well, that's what I thought at least. It was coming from below me and after I did a quick scan of the edges of the room I noticed a trap door covered by carpet in the corner of the room, I strode over to it and looked around to make sure no one was watching before opening the trapdoor and jumping down, softly closing the trapdoor behind me. 

The room was dark and had a musky smell, I ignited my lightsaber which gave me a bit of light and from what I could see it was a sort of storage room. The boxes closest to the trapdoor didn't have any dust on them and looked fairly new, but as I walked down further into the large basement the boxes were covered in thick layers of dust and cobwebs, some of them dated back until years ago. I reached out with the force and it was guiding me towards the corner of the room, as I approached the corner the pull became stronger until I was standing in front of three large boxes that looked the oldest. I popped open the lid of the first box and found a bunch of ancient guns but that wasn't the thing I was looking for, I looked through the boxes but I still didn't find it. I paused and reached out with the force again, the thing I was looking for was coming more to my right, I moved one of the heavy boxes out of the way with the force and there was a large hole in the wall but at the bottom, there was a lightsaber, it had a slight curve to it and it was quite skinny, a black leather grip covered half of the lightsaber while the other half was the smooth silver. I reached out and grabbed the lightsaber and as soon as I did it felt like my brain jerked forward into visions.

I was watching everything unfold, a large ship was on fire in the middle of space, a sith ship was pursuing it and it kept firing with no intention of stopping. Inside the ship, there were 2 Jedi and one Padawan who looked to be in her mid-teens, she had shoulder-length black hair and dark coloured eyes, her skin was tan and I recognised who it was. The two Jedi Masters were Stass Allie and Korr Sella, they had died a few years after I joined the temple but I never knew how and I had a feeling I was about to find out.

"Get into the escape pod," Stass commanded to the terrified Padawan.

The Padawan did as she was told without a seconds hesitation, as soon as she was in Sella closed the escape pod and the Padawan pressed her hands against the glass and tried to break it, a look of terror and desperation mixed on her face. Sella pressed the button and the escape pod shot off towards the planet of Stewjon only for the ship Sella and Stass were on to explode.

I dropped the lightsaber and took in deep breaths, everything was sort of piecing together but I still had so many questions. I moved the box back with the force and stood up brushing myself off before I hesitantly picked up the skinny lightsaber and placed it on my utility belt. I quickly exited the room through the trapdoor and when I looked around I confirmed that no one had seen me, I place my own lightsaber next to the other one and walked back to where Eric and Owen were standing.

"We're moving to our positions in groups, you're with Zara on the roof so you can try and find out when the bombs are activated so you can deactivate them," Owen explained.

"She changed her mind?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"Zac managed to convince her, he's her brother in a way. They aren't related but they're really close and Zac took her into his family as a younger sister, they trust it each other with their lives," Owen explained, "They kind of remind me of you and Obi-wan,"

I didn't know how to respond to that comment and luckily Zara announced that the rest of us should get into position.

"May the force be with you," I said to Owen and Eric who nodded back.

Everyone headed out of the shop and snuck away in different directions until I was left with Zara.

"I hope you can sneak around and keep up," she said.

"It won't be a problem," I replied.

She rolled her eyes and grinned before climbed up a ladder onto a building and jumping onto the roof, I used the force to jump up and softly and on the sloped, tiled roof. I easily kept my balance as I ran across the ceiling, my feet made no sound as they touched the roof and niether did Zara's. We jumped between rooftops and ducked behind buildings when droids walked past, the moon was shining down on us brightly and it lit up the whole place. It was deadly quiet and even the wind wasn't blowing which made everything seem unnerving, we finally reached our position and ducked down on the sloped roof where the droids were waiting. We watched as Dooku landed his ship and walked inside the castle.

"You were a Jedi, weren't you?" I asked quietly.

"What?" she snapped, "No, of course not,"

"I know what happened Zara," I whispered.

Her look softened and she looked away from me.

"I was selfish, I was only thinking about protecting myself in that moment so I didn't even try and help Stass or Sella. I couldn't go back with that much guilt weighing me down," she confessed quietly.

"You were a Young Padawan, I'm sure everyone else would've done the same thing and there have been Padawan's who have done the same thing. The Council has helped them through it and they're all Jedi Knights now," 

"It was easier to pretend that I had died in that explosion as well,"

"It was easier? Isn't it still easy?" 

"Well now you're here, you'll have to tell the Jedi Council that I'm alive and they'll probably make me come back to the Temple to explain myself or something like that," she argued.

"I don't have to tell the Jedi Council anything, what they don't know, won't hurt them. But, if you keep hiding then you're problems will eventually find a way to follow you here," I said slowly, "My Padawan was accused of bombing the Jedi Temple and the Council was completely against her, her name was cleared though and she left the Jedi Temple for around 2 years but she came back and the Council accepted her back, it took some time but I did as well. You can always come back no matter how long it's been,"

"My Master probably doesn't even remember me," she sighed.

"Who was your Master?"

"That doesn't matter, we've got something to focus on," she said focussing on the droids.

I pulled her lightsaber from my belt and held it out to her, she looked down at the object and then looked away with an almost disgusted look on her face.

"I haven't seen that thing in years, I don't want anything to do with it," she hissed.

I was tempted to argue with her but then Count Dooku came out of the building and walked over to the droids. 

"Start the countdown," Dooku said.

"The countdown has started, everyone be prepared," Zara said into her comm, "Go Anakin,"

I leapt between buildings and rolled along the flat roofs of stores towards the location of the first bomb, I used the force to jump further and guide me towards the location. I saw the first bomb up ahead surrounded by super droids and standard battle droids, I leapt up in the air ignited my lightsaber, I did a flip before landed on the ground sending out a shockwave that pushed all the droids back. I dealt with the few remaining droids before running over to the bomb, it was a standard heavy damage timer bomb, nothing I haven't dealt with before. I slashed an 'x' over the control panel part and the countdown stopped. I looked down at the number and my anxiety rose.

I had 2 minutes to deactivate 3 bombs.