𝕃𝕖𝕘𝕒𝕔𝕪 - 𝔸 𝕊𝕋𝔸ℝ𝕎𝔸ℝ𝕊 𝕊𝕋𝕆ℝ𝕐

19 - HIM

(Song: Padmé's Ruminations & The Birth of the Twins and Padmé's Destiny - John Williams)

Walking through the portal leads them to a space unable to explain in simple terms. The space around them was completely black like the galaxy, with twinkling stars. There was no end, no beginning. Just time. They stood on a bluish-white bridge, which connected them to the diverging paths. There were millions of different paths to take. All the choice in the world. 

"This is a place where you can see important moments in time," Ezra tries to explain where they are.

"What are these things?" Caleb points to large circular mirrors, that have no reflection. They are black holes.

"Those things will show the events in time. Things that have already happened. We are standing on a sacred timeline. Now, I need to explain something clearly to you now. You can change things here. You can get drawn into moments of importance in your life, and want to fix them. You shouldn't. You can't. When I was 18, I did something. I pulled Ahsoka out of the portal before Darth Vader could kill her before my eyes. I never regretted it, but it made me want to try again, to save someone else. I wanted to save my Master, Kanan. He sacrificed his life for us." Ezra looks from Caleb to Mae. "In here you have to think logically, passively, as a Jedi. A sacrifice must not be undone."

"Yes, Master Ezra," Mae says. His last comment was directed towards her. She turned her head and watched him start to walk down the winding path. She followed behind the men, uncertainty bubbling in her. There were too many moments in her life that she wanted to fix.

"Wow, look at this lightsaber duel, it's incredible! That young guy, he's amazing!" Caleb calls out. He watches one of the mirrors with wide eyes and his companions turn to look too. They watch as two Jedi, wielding blue lightsabers fight on a firey lava planet. Mae can feel the heat through the portal. It's uncomfortable and nauseating.

"Could you duel like that if you had to?"

"No." His innocence about some things always caught Mae off-guard. She didn't fixate on that long, something else caught her eye in the portal. She narrowed her eyes and inched closer to the mirror. Ezra didn't answer, he too was focusing on the faces of the men.

Mae's eyes widen at the realization. No. No. No.

"Do you know what's going on?" Caleb asks Ezra and the master nods.

"Well, that's Master Obi-Wan. He's young here but not looking so sharp. Duels are power-draining, even for masters. The master he's fighting... it's..."

Ezra froze in shock.

"Why would Master Obi-Wan be duelling another Jedi?" Caleb says oblivious and bewildered. He hasn't really been looking at faces, he's been watching their technique. 

Mae steps closer looking at the men fighting in the reflectionless portal. Maybe they really were mirrors that reflected the history engrained in you, that made you, that was killing you, Mae thought to herself.

Obi-Wan Kenobi and the face of Anakin Skywalker were now fighting on a small piece of machine in the middle of the lava river.

"He's no Jedi," Ezra tells Caleb. He puts a hand on Mae's shoulder, stopping her from walking any closer to the mirror. "That's not him. That's Vader," he tells her.

Caleb looks back. "Not who? Darth Vader?"

Mae cringed under those words. Things just weren't so black and white. The world didn't work like that. Ahsoka knew that Mae knew that, Ezra knew that. The dead Jedi were the ones who didn't  Mae ignores Caleb and dares to meet Ezra's glare.