The Children of the Stars

Voices in the Dark

Allana dreamed she was underwater. She wasn't drowning— there was peace, here, in the dark fathoms. She felt no struggle, no fear. Just existence, in the balance between the dark and the light.

Perhaps it would have been a good dream if that was all. But that was not all.

In the dark waters, she could hear voices all around her. Muffled, she could not discern individual words or languages. But she could understand the urgency behind their words, that they were calling for her. Desperate, begging her to help. Voices that belonged to both the light and the dark of the Force, and the array that was in-between.

Then the calls became more concise, one word that she could understand—

"Allana!"

She now recognized the voices. It was Jaina, screaming it as a death cry. It was Jacen, begging her to stay with him when they rescued him from Darth Keera. It was Anakin, terrified when they woke to a house in flames.

It was Valin, begging her to save him. It was Tenel Ka, warning her to stop. It was Nellith, giving a command in battle.

Hands started to grasp at her from the dark, gently tugging at her hands, her arms, her hair, her clothes.

So many people needed her to be so many things. And yet she could not help them all, or save them all, lest she herself drown under the weight of an entire galaxy's sorrows.

Then one cry broke through it all, causing the hands to retract, allowing her to kick her way to the surface—

"Allana!"

Her eyes flew open and she sprang out of bed injected with new life and urgency at Kyp's cry.

She summoned her saber hilt to her hand as she scrambled out of bed and ran down the corridor of the Millennium Falcon to the lounge.

There, Valin held Kyp down in a chokehold, and had ignited his lightsaber above him. Valin's eyes were hauntingly Sith yellow, glowing in the relative darkness.

"No!" Allana willed the button on Valin's saber to depress, for the silver light to extinguish. She then pulled back, sharply, and the saber clattered to the ground.

It was enough time for Kyp to kick Valin. Valin went reeling back. Kyp sat up, his black curls in wild tangles, and he reached for his own lightsaber.

"No—" Allana reached a hand over Kyp's. "He's not himself— can't you feel it?"

"I don't know if you've noticed, Your Worship, but none of us have really been ourselves since stepping foot on this planet," Kyp hissed as Valin stumbled into the wall.

"No, this has been happening since before—"

Valin suddenly went quiet, catching Allana's attention just a millisecond too late.

Her lightsaber flew out of her hand, and she was slammed against the wall and pinned by an invisible fist clenching her throat.

She tried in vain to pry it free, both physically and in the Force.

But Valin suddenly had a lot more power than she anticipated. His expression was icy cold.

"Who are you, and what have you done with Allana Skywalker?" Valin demanded.

"What?" Allana tried to wrestle free, to find a shatterpoint. "Valin, no, it's me— what are you talking about—"

Then, just as Kyp tried to rush Valin, he was also thrown back and now held frozen, hovering in midair.

"You're an imposter, just like him, just like everyone else!" Valin snarled, tears in his eyes. "What did you do to my friends?"

"Valin, I'm telling you the truth," Allana cried. "I don't— please, end this—"

Then his eyes shifted— hazel again. His power was gone, and both Kyp and Allana fell to the floor.

"Allana? What—"

"Don't touch me," she hissed savagely as she felt her throat. There wouldn't be bruises, but she thought to expect them anyway.

"I— I'm so sorry," Valin whispered. "Maybe. . . Something's wrong with me. Something is inside me, or maybe it was always there, but the Observatory made it wake up, and I'm scared."

"Imagine how we feel." Allana's voice still softened as she said it, as she sat up. "But we need all the help we can get to find Mum. We're so close."'

"Are we, though?" Kyp dusted himself off as he stood up. "Let's face the facts, Skywalker— Rey also left a holocron like this on Jakku, didn't she? And in another temple here on Korriban?"

"What are you getting at?" Allana demanded.

"This could all be some wild nerf-chase," Kyp reminded her. "Or at least, it could be a while before we find what we're looking for."

"He's right." Valin's face was pale. "You need to take me back to Master Solo. We need to figure out what this is, what's happening to me. I don't. And I don't want this to happen again."

"Neither do I," Allana agreed, placing a hand on his arm as the last of her anger faded, for the time being. "But we can't back out of this now, not when we're so close. Besides, Mum might be able to help you."

"Maybe." Valin didn't look so sure of that.

"Let's see how he does once he's away from Sith auras and all of that," Kyp finally said. "Maybe it's that stuff."

"Maybe." Valin didn't seem to believe that either.

"We'll figure this out," Allana promised as she took his hand into hers. "I promise."