The Children of the Stars

Plagueis the Wise

"I'm sorry about that," Aya said as she applied an ice pack to her head. "I didn't think that would happen."

"Seriously?" Dr. Tharen raised an eyebrow. "That was one of the main protocols we had in place, Aya— that we don't touch Sith objects without having a Force-sensitive person check it over for a residual dark side aura."

Dr. Tharen's frown then deepened. "Stars, Aya, you're Force-sensitive, even if you're no Jedi. You've run checks on that kind of thing before—"

"I couldn't get a read on it," Aya said defensively. "I thought it would be fine— might have been the rest of the temple."

"The scepter itself would be fine, it's just that Ragnos's ghost isn't going anywhere," Tash explained. Her words pointedly emphasized the bit about the Sith ghost. "I guess those are real, after all."

"I concede that the Jedi texts are wrong, although that will make several Jedi historians in the Corellian History Society quite angry." Dr. Tharen sighed. "At least there was no lasting damage and the tomb can still be recovered. We'll figure out how to deal with that later. You got what you were looking for?"

"Yeah." Allana held the square in her hand.

"Well, open it," Tahiri said eagerly. "We've taken too long waiting to find Master Rey as is."

"I guess so." There was a degree of anticipation behind this. This holocron would have the answer to one of the questions that had plagued the entire Skywalker family over the last three years.

Where had Rey gone?

"Alright." Allana let out a quick exhale, her extra shot of courage. "Let's do this, I can do this."

She could feel everyone's eyes on her, feel their emotions in the Force.

Soon they would know. And yet a part of her wanted to hold onto the time before, just a little extra second longer. . .

She lifted her hands over the holocron and focused on opening it with her mind, opening her own heart to whatever secrets it held.

Her heart pounded as her eyes opened. The holocron opened, revealing the translucent blue figure of Rey.

The same freckled face, the same hair pulled partially back, half up and half down, the same fierce hazel eyes. She wore the mother's ring that belonged to Leia and her own, and wore a tunic set underneath a Jedi robe.

Intrinsically, Allana knew the tunic and leggings were green, for her mother wore green as often as possible, it being her favorite color.

Allana swallowed, her breaths becoming shallow. Time seemed to slow down, the chrono ticking that much more slowly. She had to choose her next words carefully. The anticipation around her threatened to drown her.

"Mum?" Allana sounded like a little girl again, begging her mother to slice up the monsters under her bed with a lightsaber, before she truly understood the legend of Rey Skywalker. This wasn't just the savior of the galaxy. It was her mother.

The holocron picked up on her sentimentality. A Jedi could never know what a holocron was programmed to respond to. After all, at the end of the day, it is merely knowledge and a simulation of personality— not the actual person.

And in that distinction came the unpredictability an actual person could carry, or the minute nuances that could add up in to contrary action.

Holocron-Rey smiled warmly. The brightest smile that she only reserved for her children and husband. The one that not even her closest and oldest friends received.

This was it. She was about to speak— tell them where she was, that she missed them—

"Where are you?" Allana whispered urgently.