"She lives in daydreams with me."
It was quiet in the small hut, the home of gran-master Yoda. Only the fire was making a quiet popping noise. Aaliyah was sitting on the ground with Oisin next to her. They barely fit inside the small building, but it will do for the time being.
"Hungry, are you?" asked Yoda, and slowly wobbled over to the fireplace with a small pot hanging above the fire.
"I'm not, thank you, Master Yoda," said Aaliyah and Oisin also declined, not really trusting the creature completely.
Yoda was watching Aaliyah and for the first time, Aaliyah could also properly see him. He was not much older than when she saw him last time. But he had more wrinkles, he was tired, worn out. He seemed small, yet Aaliyah knew how much power and strength was hiding inside of him.
"A great darkness you brought with you, young one," said suddenly Yoda in a raspy, quiet voice, when he intensely looked into her eyes. "A great suffering and pain you feel."
Aaliyah didn't need to say anything. It wasn't a question, after all, the wise master was just stating facts. She was standing before him, not hiding any of her emotions, her thoughts. Instead, she was quietly watching him, anticipating, preparing for the truth.
"Always with you, a great danger is," he almost mumbled, clutching his cane with both hands. He looked more troubled than just moments ago.
"He is haunting me," said Aaliyah. There was no point in lying, in pretending. "Darth Vader."
Yoda nodded his head and sighed heavily. "Stop, he won't. Face him, you have to."
One thing was bothering her mind more and more. One question was burning on the tip of her tongue, and she wasn't able to hold it back any longer. "Do you know who he is?"
"Your lover, he was," answered Yoda simply and Aaliyah expected some kind of disappointment from him, but it never came. "Break the Jedi code, he made you."
"No," Aaliyah shook her head quickly. "I did it on my own."
"Hm," he mumbled and slowly nodded his head.
"I didn't know he was a Sith Lord. I had no idea. I knew him before the Empire."
"That, I know."
"How?" asked Aaliyah, who wanted to further explain her actions, but somehow it looked like he already knew everything.
"A mysterious thing, the force is," was his simple answer, but she knew there was more to it. A silent sight escaped the man who was sitting next to her, and suddenly she realized, that Oisin was still here. Aaliyah looked at him and could tell he wanted to say or asked a lot of things but chose not to. He was scanning her with his gaze as if he wanted to read the answers for his unspoken questions.
Aaliyah turned from Oisin to Yoda again. "You called for me."
"Call you here, the force did," said yet again in riddles, without further explanation. "Patient, you must be," this made Aaliyah sighed, but didn't push master Yoda further. He walked further into his hut, his back to them looking out from the small window. "Spreading, the darkness is. Stronger, Darth Vader is getting. Stronger, the Emperor is getting."
"We need your help, Master Yoda," Aaliyah pushed herself forward, but stayed sitting on the ground.
He nodded but never turned around to face them. "Help I will, when the time comes."
After that, everybody was quiet for a long time. For now, Aaliyah was satisfied with his answer. At least she knew he was willing to help. But there was one question, that kept popping inside her mind. She was reluctant to ask it but somehow couldn't help herself. She was curious.
"The force is connecting us. Me and Vader. It's a strong connection. He can send me visions. He can talk to me and I can see him even when he's on the other side of the galaxy," she would prefer to have privacy with Yoda but didn't question Oisin's presence. Instead, she tried to ignore him.
"Rare but not unheard of, bonds like these are," Yoda grunted. "Between two force users with strong relationship," only then he slowly turned around to face Aaliyah. "Careful, you must be. Misleading, they can be. Dangerous. Leading you to the dark side, he could be."
"I will never be like him. I'm not tempted by the dark side," she said stoically, but Yoda only raised one corner of his mouth in a mocking grin. She knew what it all meat. Never say never. Other Jedi fell to the dark side. Stronger servants of the light were pushed over the edge with no way of turning back.
"So sure, are you?" he asked her and to be honest, she wasn't anymore, vividly remembering the times she was attacked by the dark force when Anakin clouded her mind. When she lost her control while spearing with Calista. She was being tempted without even realizing. He was slowly trying to pull her to the other side. Destroy her protection and suck her right into the darkness.
...
Her knees slightly shook, when she looked ahead of herself. She was standing in the swamp looking into the darkest part of the forest around them. The chilling cold was coming out of it and something else. Something unnatural Aaliyah wasn't able to put her finger on.
Aaliyah and Oisin spent the night on Dagobah, in a tent fright in front of master Yoda's hut. And now, she was standing deep in the swamp, where Yoda took her and was supposed to go forward without looking back. "You will know what to look for," said Yoda, when she asked where was she supposed to go and what was she even looking for.
She turned over her shoulder and looked at master Yoda, who was sitting on big rock and Oisin, who was watching her from afar, frowning in concern. He probably wanted to say something but decided against it. Ever since they arrived, he was more silent than ever, just listening to Aaliyah talk to Yoda about things and people he didn't know. The corner of her mouth was lifted in a forced smile, but she quickly turned back around.
With a sight she looked ahead, feeling dread and something else she couldn't quite describe. But it made her stomach clench. "I feel darkness, death," she narrowed her eyes to see better into the distance. It was a cave made out of dead branches, dead trees, twisted roots.
Yoda poked the dirt bellow him with the stick. "That place is strong with the dark side of the force. A domain of evil it is. In, you must go," he rasped at her and Aaliyah immediately turned to face him if he was serious. And he was.
"What will I find there?" she asked. "What's in there?"
"Only what you take with you," was Yoda's only answer. Without wasting time, Aaliyah made the first step towards the dreadful place, that was almost calling her, luring her to enter.
Long forgotten were Yoda and Oisin, when she entered the dark place and goosebumps raised on her uncovered shoulders. Analysing her surrounding, she slowly took step by step deeper and deeper, bending down under the dead branches that almost looked like they were trying to snatch her, grab her and pull her in. She saw creatures slithering around her, under her feet. Disgusting beings that made her spine crawl.
The deeper she went, the darker was everything becoming around her. Until everything went quiet. She couldn't hear the wind, animals, roaring of the water, just an utter silence and her slow breathing. As if somebody pushed a single button and turned off every noise around her. And with it the minimum light shining through.
The dark, dim light was slowly fading into a thick blackness, that was soon all around her. Looking under her feet, Aaliyah couldn't see the dirty ground, just black nothingness. Something clenched inside her stomach again, when a whoosh sound went around her right ear. Quickly turning around, she came face to face with emptiness. Electricity was pricking at her exposed skin because she could feel the presence of somebody else.
Scanning the black void around her, she couldn't see anything, but she soon felt it. Her breath hitched inside her throat when two hands gently grabbed her forearms from behind. A chest was pushed against her back and somebody's breath tickled the left side of her neck. She wanted to turn around and see who it was, but she knew all too well. She always knew. She could always recognize him. His touch, his smell, and suddenly it was all around her.
"I'm here," he whispered so quietly, that if she was standing a little further, she wouldn't be able to hear him. The palms of his hands caressed her arms all the way up to her shoulders and down again. Until he quickly turned her around and she could see Anakin's usually blue eyes were a little darker. His lips were slightly parted, and his chest covered only with thin black material.
From the moment Aaliyah looked into his eyes, she was falling. Everything around her was swirling, twisting, spinning around her, but she didn't mind. Her only constancy was Anakin and his eyes that were never leaving her. His hands that were all around her, and his lips that were formed in a small but gentle smile. For a couple of seconds, everything was a blur for her. She couldn't tell when she put her arms on his chest, or when she got into a laying position, or what was she even lying on. The only thing around her was blackness and Anakin holding himself above her.
"I got you," he whispered and without giving her time to say something herself, he bends down and captured her lips with his. It was slow and gentle at first, but it quickly turned into something wild, passionate and almost sloppy, teeth, tongues colliding in a rush as if to not waste any more precious time. A heavy sight dragged out of her lips, when his hands brushed over her collarbones, down to her chest. His hands were heavy and left her skin burning whenever they touched her.
But she couldn't care less. She was overwhelmed and intoxicated by Anakin's presence and in this blissful moment, she wouldn't be able to distinguish between left and right. Her ears were ringing, and her head was spinning, but he was holding her down. Holding her sane to not absolutely lose her mind, when his bare chest touched hers. Burning fire lit up inside her body and the only remedy for it was Anakin. Only he could make sure she would not melt and disappear right inside his arms.
"Don't leave me," she whispered into his hair when his face was bent down to her chest, giving special attention to the overly sensitive skin of her breasts. Tugging her in closer, he raised his head to look her into eyes.
His smile was gentle and beautiful to Aaliyah. "No, never," he said, and with newfound passion run his tongue right across her collarbone. Pulling her up, Aaliyah's legs rested on either side of his hips, leaving all her weight on him. And if it was a fire before, it surely had to be an inferno now, when she felt every piece of his body on hers. Yet somehow it never was enough.
Soon, they settled a pace, rhythm satisfying both of them and the silence was cut off by loud, shameful noises escaping their lips. Aaliyah nor Anakin tried to muffle them because everything else around them just disappeared. The galaxy was no longer, the stars were just unimportant dots of light appearing and fading in the line of their visions and any danger was not irrelevant enough to think about now, when their whole beings are crumbling down in ecstasy.
The movements were gentle yet rushed marked with a bitter taste that was left by the idea that this moment will soon end. The temperature of Aaliyah's skin rising, and this time it was not a metaphor. She was hot and covered in a layer of swear just like the man that was wrapped around her. It was at this moment when his hand touched her naked thigh, her body jerked under the icy cold touch. It's when she realized, that only one of the hands touching her was soft and warm. The other was cold, hard, steal. Looking down at their bodies, she understood as soon as she saw that his whole forearm was made out of dark grey metal. Looking back up at his eyes, she kissed him wildly yet again to muzzle the sounds threatening to escape her mouth. But also, because she wanted to let him know, that even if both of his arms were robotic, she would never shy away from his touch.
Her eyes were tightly shut, and her face almost fully buried into Anakin's neck and the soft curls that tickled her forehead. She was clutching him around his shoulders because at this moment he was the only force holding her together. She couldn't feel her limbs, her muscles were shaking and her head spinning, when Anakin quickened his movements and drove her closer and closer to the approaching state of euphoria.
And when it came, the blackness around her shone a hot whine colour, as if every star in the galaxy exploded at the same time. Not being able to hold back the cry of pure pleasure, Aaliyah threw her head back, and her body shook violently, only Anakin tightly holding it in place. And just as everything was loud and chaotic before, suddenly it all went quiet, her heart still beating against her ribcage directly against Anakin's own heart. They were synchronized, beating at the same fast pace.
Forehead to forehead, deep and loud breathing, they were both trying to contain their sanity while slowly coming down from the heights they climbed together during this act that brought them once again closer. Because after all, they were one body, one beating heart, one breath, one desire.
"I got you," Anakin repeated hoarsely, and his hands were running up and down her back covered in sweat. She heard his words clearly, but somehow, they brought her to the reality she forgot even existed. She couldn't put a finger on what just happened. She was sure, that he was not here with her, he couldn't be it wasn't possible; therefore, a weird feeling settles down in her stomach, replacing the butterflies. She already went through something like this, already experienced it. Not as intensive as this, but she had a moment when the force connected them and allowed them a physical contact even when they were planets away. "I got you, forever."
Aaliyah looked him in the eyes but words she wanted to say got stuck in her throat, almost choking on them. Rather, she stayed silent and just enjoyed this moment for as long as it lasted.
"Come back to me," Anakin said and brushed a couple of stranded hair out of her eyes. "I will give you the galaxy. I will give you the stars. Whatever you want."
"I only want you," was her simple answer, when she cupped his face in the palms of her hands.
"You have me, for eternity and longer," he said while smiling at her. She wanted to believe it so bad, but a nagging feeling was whispering a single word to her over and over again: 'lies'. Telling her that she could never really have him because they were simply not meant to be.
"You are a traitor, Aaliyah," he said suddenly, and his voice was dark, and the smile turned into a malicious grin. Frowning her eyebrows, she looked at him and saw something change inside his eyes that were soft just seconds ago. She noticed a red gleam inside them and immediately pushed off of him, falling backwards on suddenly hard ground.
She looked down on herself and saw that she was not naked anymore but wearing her normal clothes. Looking up again she saw Anakin standing before her in all his glory and his regular black suit and cloak. "You can't run."
Quickly rising to her wobbly feet, she did exactly what he said she can't do, wouldn't be able to do. She ran or at least tried to, but there was somebody blocking her path. "How could you do that, he is an enemy," said Obi-Wan and twisted his face in a grimace of utter disappointment and disgust.
"You betrayed us," whispered feminine voice that normally talked to her softly but now it was angry and hard. Looking to her side, she saw Padme standing there without moving until she jerked forward, and her hands flew up to clutch her throat. "No," she whispered, and Aaliyah understood, that an invisible hand was wrapped around her delicate neck, choking her.
She wanted to run to her and help her, but Obi-Wan's booming voice stopped her. "Traitor," he said and ignited his blue lightsabre. He went straight to Aaliyah, but before she could even comprehend what was happening, he groaned and bend over. It looked like something has sliced him across the chest, making him fall lifeless to the ground.
"No," Aaliyah cried out and wanted to leap herself to him, but quickly realized she wasn't able to move. Her feet were literally stuck to the ground. "Obi-Wan," she called his name, but her old master remained laying on the ground.
"It's your fault," she heard and turned to her left side to see Ahsoka standing there and pointing a finger at her in accusation. Anger was only thing noticeable in her light blue eyes and Aaliyah wanted to hide from the stare. "He's dead because of you," she spits the words out like venom. "Traitor."
"Traitor," repeated Padme from the other side of her and Aaliyah did the only thing that came to her mind. She put both palms on her ears and tried to silence the insults that were thrown at her. But they only grew louder, mixing together, almost sounding like a chanting the more she focused on them. "Traitor, traitor, traitor, traitor," over and over again without stopping.
Screaming at the top of her lungs, Aaliyah fell down on her knees, painfully squeezing her head in her hands. "Stop," she screamed, and it did. It really listened to her and went quiet, the sounds of the forest replacing it.
Slowly opening her eyes, she saw that her knees were buried in the soft dirt of the swamp. Aaliyah was in the cave, back on Dagobah and that was the only thing she needed. Without thinking she got up and ran out, swearing she would never come back to this place again.
When she ran out of the cave, Yoda was still in the same place as before and Oisin was sitting under a tree, playing with his blaster. But he quickly got up from the ground and looked at her with wide eyes full of concern. She must have looked crazy, stumbling on her own feet, cheeks burning, eyes wet from tears that never spiled on her face. "What happened?" he asked and came to stand in front of her and when he wanted to put his hands on her shoulder, Aaliyah stepped back.
She looked at master Yoda and asked for help without actually saying anything. He hummed and put his weighed on the cane. "How to block him, you need to learn," he said and turned his back on her. Whether he knew what exactly she saw was unclear to Aaliyah, but he surely knew that the darkness got to her once more.
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Just...just going to leave this here.
P.S.: I updated my Mandalorian fanfic, a little introduction if you will.