Kyla's POV
- A month later -
To say the least, training has been going great. Master Skywalker is an excellent mentor, and I learn well from him. We've become close, closer than Master and Apprentice - we're good friends, and I couldn't be more thankful for such a sensitive, respectful, honest mentor. In fact, we've become so close that he let me in on a secret, something he'd been keeping from the rest of the galaxy. He admitted to being the father of Senator Amidala's twin children, Luke and Leia.
I've met them. Or, seen them. They're still tiny babies, vulnerable and weak, but they're so beautiful. They look just like their parents - the other Chosen One, and the gorgeous Senator Amidala. When I first saw them, I knew they had to be related to him somehow... Luke looked almost exactly like him - the most he could as a young baby.
As training progressed, Anakin became less and less available for meetings and practices... which I completely understood, given he had two children and a loving wife to look after all the time. I didn't tell Obi-Wan of Anakin's reoccurring absences, knowing he might get angry with him. After all, he was given a Padawan being a minor himself, and Obi-Wan, though understanding, would surely be angered with his actions, father or not.
Aside from showing up scarcely, he was also growing more and more tired with each meeting or practice. He relied on me more, being too worn out to do anything major as demonstration. But, to me, this helped. It gave me a way to work with independence, learning from my own mistakes.
However, today, I could sense he was going to show up and wasn't going to be too tired. I believed he told me last meeting that Senator Amidala would be taking the children to Naboo, as they were now old enough for that kind of travel. She wanted her family to meet them, and be on her home planet for a few days. It was very comfortable and peaceful on Naboo, so of course Master Skywalker must've agreed it would be alright for the young senator to travel with the babies.
Senator Amidala had been gone for nearly a day when Master Skywalker showed up to a meeting at the executive building to discuss my lightsaber - something hadn't been working right. Respectively, though, I had something else in mind for today. I was finally going to bring up my parents, and ask Master Skywalker about my midi-chlorian level.
I can hear his boots from afar, clicking down the tiled hallway. I wait in the Council room, lonesome in the circular seats perched in a circle, a perfect view of Coruscant from the surrounding windows.
"Master," I say as he walks in, but we've become so close that I don't need to bow before him anymore.
"Hello, Kyla," he says with a short smile, looking more energized than usual. He approaches me and takes a seat beside me, but I'm already risen. "So... something not right with your lightsaber?"
I unhooked the saber from my belt and ignited it swiftly, as I'd been taught to do. Instantly, the blue blade shot out from the holster, a blinding, incredible blade of hot light. My most powerful weapon. My life. The heat radiates onto my skin, a feeling that is beatable by no other.
"Uh, yeah," I say unsurely, getting the stance perfect as I take a few swings with the blue blade. "Actually... never mind that." I watch Master Skywalker roll his eyes and chuckle.
"You brought me out here for nothing? How inconsiderate," he laughs, beginning to rise. I interrupt him.
"Wait - no. I - I had something else in mind I wanted to speak to you about, Master Skywalker." I let the saber slide itself back into the holster, no longer a severely dangerous weapon, a weapon of the Jedi. I hooked it back to my belt and looked my Master hard in his crystal eyes.
"It's been bothering me for awhile, Master," I say, shuffling my feet beneath me, "but I've been so curious as to how I'm so... strong... with the Force. I mean - my family has been slaves, but not forever. My parents were married on Naboo, like you and Senator Amidala."
Master Skywalker's gaze fell upon me sternly. He wasn't my friend this moment; he was my mentor, and I had to respect whatever answer he had for me. He looked puzzled, the young mentor, but he answered me. "I... That's funny, actually." He crosses his arms and scoffs, almost as if he's trying hard to remember something.
"You're wondering why your midi-chlorian levels are so high, aren't you?" He raises an eyebrow at me and I nod precociously.
"Yes, I am. Is there any way we could find this out? You know, if my family was hiding something?" I regretted my word choice nearly immediately after, but my Master's response put me at ease as we stood in the brightened Council room. He stood a towering figure before me, his dark-shaded tunic resembling mine almost exactly. Looking even more puzzled, Master Skywalker ran a hand through his wavy hair, staring ahead at the door. My mind reflected off his and, like I was able to do perfectly, I saw into his mind. I saw things. I saw what he was trying so hard to remember. I saw his past... his mother, Shmi Skywalker. I saw him, going back for her. Leaving Naboo, an important mission to protect the Senator, to rescue his mother - his enslaved mother, who dies in his arms.
I'm startled by the visions I'm seeing and I stumble back. Not once had Master Skywalker ever said a word regarding his mother, or his former slavery. I knew he was enslaved on Tatooine as a child, but I had no idea about his mother.
At a loss for words, I stare at him, the images of his past replaying themselves in my mind on a loop. I was understanding my Master more day by day, and at this point, I had realized and seen what broke him. Going back for his enslaved mother. Then I remembered back to my last days on Tatooine, months ago, the promises I made to Desmond and my father - I'd be back. And I would do anything to rescue them for the pains of slavery.
Now, I knew I was going to have to go back. I had to. I was going to ask my father questions, but in the long run, I would save him. He deserved to be saved, didn't he? Whether he was keeping things from me and Des all along, he was my father - and I was going to rescue him.
Master Skywalker still stands before me, arms crossed, glaring ahead, thinking hard. I assumed he was unaware I had hacked into his mind like I did frequently, but when he cranes his neck to look at me with narrowed eyes and knit eyebrows, I knew he might have reckoned I had done it.
"Kyla, you're playing a dangerous game," he heaves. "If you're saying we go back to speak to your family on Tatooine..." he turns his gaze away and shuffles his boots.
"That is what I'm saying," I blurt randomly, trying not to irritate him nor anger him. I only want to seem reasonable about this. "Please, Master. I - I saw in your head, flashbacks. I know you probably think going back for them is completely irrelevant and simply stupid of me, but I don't have a choice. I have to know why the Force comes so easy to me, Master. I have to. And this... this is the only way I will." My eyes plead for him to agree, and he looks within me to see this.
He shakes his head and stares at his brown boots. "You're ridiculous. There is no way you're... going back for them, Kyla."
"No! No, Master." I calmed myself before continuing. "That's not what I'm asking of you. I want to go back, sure, but there's no way I can rescue them. I just want to know why I'm extremely capable of so much power, Master. My family must have been hiding something."
At my begs, Master Skywalker turns his gaze towards me again and sighs. "This is insane," he says, but by his facial expression, a new thought occurs to him. "But... I don't have someone to tell me the ways anymore. I don't have anyone to boss me around, to take control of me... If I wanted to help you, my Padawan, I assure you, I could!" I see something in his eyes: the vengeance he once reigned, the power he yearned for and has yet to receive. He was like me. A yearning for power.
I spoke again. "Then why don't you?"
My smile lit up as the other Chosen One nodded slowly. "You're right. You deserve to know your history, your ancestry. The Force really is incredibly strong with you, and I'd like to know where it originates from too." He chuckles at his wittiness and perhaps a little bit of my manipulation. "Fine, I'll take you to Tatooine. But we're speaking to your family and leaving, you got that?" He sways his body to face me and points a gloved, mechanical finger in my face.
At his answer, I was overjoyed. I was going to see my father and Desmond again. I was going to talk to them, to feel them in my arms again, to see them, to surround myself with them and their energy. I nodded quickly, nearly giving myself a headache. "Got it. Oh, Master, thank you so much. How could I repay you?"
He doesn't even have to think. "Watch my children for me sometime. They're more work than taking you anywhere will ever be," he laughs, and I realize these are the moments where I greatly cherish our friendship.
Anakin's POV
I was wrong. Taking Kyla back to Tatooine was the worst mistake I've ever made, I realize now. She is very manipulative, that Padawan of mine, and I can't let it take ahold of my naïve ways. As we sit here now, in my Starfighter, she holds her head within the strong grip of her hands, sobbing. "What have I done? Master, what have I done..."
It pains me not to, but I don't comfort her; she must learn to control her sadness and not let her personal feelings get in the way, as my Master once told me. After the events of tonight, I'm not sure comforting her would do any good. She's changing, and I have to be the one to change her back - if possible.
But she was young. She would learn eventually. She had much to inquire within little time, but nothing could explain why she acted out. It was simple to begin with; we landed on Tatooine to find out about her past. About who she is. We show up, and we discover her old slave owner, a nasty-looking grubby Hutt by the name of Gibius. He's surprised at her growth, at her being a Padawan, but is nice about it seeing me beside her.
"Take us to her family," I said tonelessly, which immediately snaps the creature out of his nasty mood towards Kyla. He then reluctantly leads us to a little hut behind a cantina revealing Kyla's family, a buff-looking brother and her father, a mysterious broody man with dark hair and dark eyes.
After questioning, we found out that her father was a former Jedi Knight who turned to the Dark Side before marrying her mother. At this juncture, their marriage was unable to be kept a secret, and he was therefore imprisoned in Naboo and banished from the Jedi Order, stripped of all his Jedi items, left with only a few items to help him remember his Jedi days. From Naboo, he was taken as prisoner to Tatooine.
When I first heard about this, I couldn't help but picture Padmé and I, concealing our love from the rest of the galaxy, excluding Obi-Wan and Kyla.
But Kyla overreacted. She was furious with her father; after screaming that he was a liar numerous times, she broke almost everything in her old house, claiming her father was to blame for her slavery and bitter life she had before Obi-Wan retrieved her.
"You did this!" She yelled at the top of her lungs as she clashed her lightsaber through various articles of furniture. "You're a liar! My childhood was a disaster because of you, and now my future is damned too!"
I tried to stop her, but it was too late. She completely acted out and in her rage, murdered her former slave owner. I watched her saber clash through creatures, living things, things her saber should've never met contact with. All the while, watching her, I couldn't move. I couldn't speak, couldn't stop her. I saw myself, freaking and murdering the entire Tusken Raider tribe. I saw the same anger in her eyes; and I couldn't do a thing.
I was speechless, watching her tear through things as if they weren't living creatures, or objects she once relied on in this hut. My head pained me, consuming me into my past, placing me into a world I escaped from.
Stay with me, mom!
I love...
I saw her fall limp in my arms. I looked up, the hatred in my blue eyes. The same hatred I see in my Padawan. But I saved myself. I rescued myself and my future from the wrath of what could've been. I had to stop Kyla, somehow... but the images were too strong. Too hurtful. All I saw now was my mother, limp in my arms, her last words still lingering on her dry lips...
They're like animals, and I slaughtered them like animals!
I hate them!
Kyla thrashed around endlessly. Her brother stood in awe, staring at her angering ways. I was on my knees a safe distance away, watching my Padawan destroy her good reputation.
Not just the men, but the women, and the children too...
By the end of Kyla's rage, every slave owner in Tatooine was left dead.
I knew what started this. Her brother. He got in a screaming fight with her. He claimed she was damned to the Dark Side just as their father was, and at this point, I had to interfere. I was insulted; this was my Padawan, my learner. My apprentice. How dare he say something regarding her training and her future. I interfered by telling her we had to return to Coruscant, we had business to cover. She didn't listen.
"I told you I would kill every last slave owner if it meant getting you out of this hell, Desmond," she snarled, circling him, "and that's exactly what I'm going to do. Except, I'm not getting you out of here. I can't."
The fear in the boy's eyes is almost horrifying; the sister he knew is gone. My heart sinks, noticing the way he glances at me for any last sliver of hope. I yell to Kyla, to stop, to cease this, but she doesn't. She tears her lightsaber through everything in the house minus her brother, slashing through furniture and sand walls. She exits the hut, and I run after her, but I was too late. I exit the hut just to see bodies, bodies everywhere. There were... so many of them.
The night of Tatooine is eerie, it brings back the remaining haunting memories; the Tusken Raiders, their bodies cascading the land just as the slave owners' are now.
It was all too familiar. My head was spinning. History was repeating itself.
As Kyla turned around, I saw the hatred in her eyes. Vengeance. Fear. Trying not to hack a cough, I screamed after her to stop; I knew she wouldn't listen. I yelled after her even when she entered her hut again, prominently angered.
"Kyla! Stop this NOW!"
I ran into the last bedroom of her hut, just to see her father's final moments as she pulls the lightsaber from his still body and watches him collapse to the floor.
Now we sit in the cockpit of my speeder. I watch Kyla sob, head in her hands, punishing herself. "I killed my father," she moans, "I'm a monster."
"It's alright," I assure her, "everyone gets those moments." I soften my voice and my gaze as I lean in closer to her, listening to her sobs lessen.
"Your father wasn't a good man, Kyla. Listen to me."
"I killed him! Whether or not he was a good man I killed somebody!"
"I know... it's not the Jedi way..."
"I killed my father!" she screams, taking her hands from her face and leaning back against the seat, her face red and damp from all the tears. She sniffs, and covers her face again. "I'm a monster," she repeats, "I'm... so sorry, Master Skywalker."
"No, don't apologize to me. Apologize to your brother," I sigh, leaning back in my own seat. "You discovered your past, and you can't help it, but you can help your future."
She says nothing, her face buried in her petite hands. She then looks at me, gaze hard, and sighs. "My future is already screwed up, Master Skywalker. The Council is going to hate you, your Padawan freaked out and murdered a dozen creatures. Living creatures."
Reluctantly, I laugh. "Well, no, my Padawan" - I raise an eyebrow to greater the effect - "if they knew what you did, that would mean they'd know I took you to Tatooine. Technically, I can't do that."
She sniffs again. "Then - then why'd you agree to take me here?"
"You begged," I say, messing with my mechanical hand, "Couldn't resist my Padawan."
I know she doesn't want to laugh, but she chuckles, turning away from me. "Just... start the speeder. Let's go back to Coruscant."
As I start the Starfighter, I remember something exclusively and make note of it. "Padmé returns today," I say, "with Luke and Leia." I chuckle, and glance at Kyla as the Starfighter leaves Tatooine's atmosphere. I mumble under my breath, "I hope they haven't grown much in the few days I haven't seen them."
She says nothing yet again.