Kanan stood beneath the shade of a ship, listening as Ezra and Tolsa showed Ania around the base. Nearly three days after waking up, the doctors let her up and out of the med bay. After a total of five days, she was about the camp, only doing minimal work, but it was still progress. Kanan turned his head, hearing footsteps approach.
"What's on your mind?" Hera asked.
"Them," Kanan motioned to Ezra and Ania.
"What about them?"
"Hera, I don't need my vision to know that something has changed between them."
"And you don't approve of it?" Skepticism laced her words.
"Yes, no, I don't know. I trust Ania now, but with all the visions and warnings she's been having lately, as well as their link, I'm worried she'll only pull Ezra into danger."
"Kanan, I don't think she would intentionally take him somewhere dangerous if she knew he might not make it out alive. Besides, he's lost enough to the Empire. He needs something constant in his life," Hera reasoned.
"He has us. Isn't that constant enough?"
Hera raised an eyebrow. "I guess I'll just leave then. If he doesn't need her, then you surely don't need me."
"Ok, I get your point, but still."
"Ezra has to make his own decisions. We have to trust him to make the right one and help him if it isn't."
Kanan sighed and turned back to them. "I know."
"Wait, so that's why Agent Kallus became Fulcrum?" Ania asked, disbelief showing in her eyes.
Ezra and Tolsa nodded. "I couldn't believe it at first either," Tolsa said. "It makes sense, though."
"Yeah, it makes sense. I just didn't expect it."Ania blinked, astonished.
"We've received another relief effort transmission. You're up now," a voice crackled through Tolsa's wrist comm.
"Oh, I gotta go. Bye!" Tolsa waved over her shoulder as she ran towards the command center.
"She's becoming pretty important around here," Ania observed.
"Yeah, she really has."
"You know, I've been thinking about something lately."
Ezra looked at her skeptically. "This could be bad."
"No one here is going to be able to help me figure out the whole Mortis issue I've got going on. I was thinking, what if I find someone who can help me? Someone who has been there," Ania said.
"Ahsoka said it was only her, Master Skywalker and Master Kenobi," Ezra pointed out.
"Right, and Master Kenobi is still alive. What if I go to Tatooine and ask him to tell me what he can? He's been there so he'll know more than anyone else right now."
Ezra furrowed his brow, but nodded. "If that's what you need to do, then it sounds like a good plan. When do you think you'll leave?"
"Soon, hopefully. I don't know how long I'll stay with Master Kenobi, so it would be better if I leave in a few days."
"Hera said something about our crew going back to Lothal."
"What about Tolsa? She could come with me, but I don't know if she'd want to."
"Well, you should ask her whenever she gets back." Ezra smiled at her, briefly.
"I will." She nudged him with her shoulder. "But for now, I need to do some training. Want to help?"
"Are you sure it won't reopen your injury?" Ezra paused, crossing his arms.
She rolled her eyes. "No, it shouldn't. Besides, if it's you I'm training with, you'll be extra careful about that."
"Fair point. Let's go." Ezra led her over to a speeder and climbed on. She sat behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist as they took off into the forest.
Ania smiled to herself, watching Ezra concentrate on the path ahead. Something between them had definitely changed. They hadn't told each other anything, and yet, they didn't really need to. Ania thought back to the fear and desperation in his eyes when he carried her back on board the Redemption and the relief he had shown when she woke up. She laid her head on his back, letting the wind pull her lekku out behind her.
They soon stopped just beyond a clearing. They both hopped off the speeder and crossed the few yards to the clearing. Ezra crossed his arms and turned to Ania. "So what do you want to practice?"
"Just some basic dueling. I also want to test something with our link."
"Should I be worried?"
"Not that I know of." Ania drew her lightsabers and Ezra activated his. They circled one another for a few seconds, before launching into their attacks. Ania easily blocked Ezra's attacks, ducking beneath the swinging lightsaber and blocking it with her own. Ezra soon had to revert to defensive movements.
"I'm going to try something now," Ania warned, pressing her lightsabers against Ezra's. He nodded shortly. Ania reached out through the Force, grasping Ezra's presence. She wrapped her mind around it, but instead of controlling him, she allowed his presence to intertwine with hers. Drawing herself back into her own body, she was surprised to see they were no longer fighting.
They were running through several combat forms in perfect sync. Almost without thought, Ania found herself ducking, twisting, and attacking. She let go of his presence, seeing what she needed to. They stopped running through the forms. Ezra blinked as though confused. "What did you do?" He asked.
"Instead of controlling you, I combined your presence with mine. Did you see what it made us do?" Her eyes shone with amazement.
Ezra's sapphire eyes reflected her own. "Yeah! This could be really helpful in an actual battle."
"Especially the synchronization. We would be able to react to each other's movements without having to actually say what we're going to do!"
A dull ache nudged at her temples. Ania lifted a hand to her head. Ezra did the same. "I don't think you meant for this to happen," Ezra said breathlessly. Ania reached a hand towards him as his eyes rolled back and he fell to the ground. She took a step forward, before falling as well.
Red lights flashed before his eyes. Ezra struggled to focus on the objects around him. He heard breathing, loud, familiar...Vader's. His sight cleared and he was in a hallway, running. Vader stalked behind, crimson lightsaber glowing ominously. The walls began to tilt. Ezra cried out as he was swept off his feet and plummeted.
He landed before a massive citadel. Ania lunged at him, lashing her lightsabers at his face. Her skin was gray and cracking and her eyes glowed with an unfathomable rage. "Ania, snap out of it!" He shouted, blocking her attack. An apparition appeared behind Ania. The woman was tall with green hair. She punched a hand into Ania's back and another apparition was forced out of her. The gray man with bleeding tattoos. Ezra raised his hands as the dark spirit flooded his consciousness.
They were at the top of the citadel now. Ania looked up at him, serenity in her gaze. In her hand, a duel bladed lightsaber thrummed to life with white energy. Ezra examined his own blade. It was black and activated into a burst of red. He saw himself, suddenly. His eyes were red and yellow, Sith eyes.
He was kneeling before an Imperial compound. Ania was across the yard, being held by several stormtroopers. Tears streaked her face as she writhed in their grip. "I don't know where she is! Please, you have me! Just let him go!"
"If he is no longer useful to us, then he will die!" Vader growled. Ezra lurched forward as a lightsaber blazed through his chest.
He collapsed, gasping for breath. A white glow surrounded Ania and the ground beneath her cracked. He felt her grab onto his presence. "No!" She screamed. He had never heard a sound more terrible. Numerous voices echoed their might through her. Her head snapped back and her eyes began to glow vividly. With a pulse of light, her power tore through the compound. Ezra closed his eyes as it flew over him.
Ania hit the ground beside Ezra. She struggled to fight off the growing pull of the Force. Already, Ezra was muttering strange words, likely things he was seeing in his vision. Ania gasped as her eyes rolled back and she became one with the Force.
She saw the citadel, again and again. The vision replayed. She was attacking Ezra, then an unseen person punched her back, forcing the dark spirit out of her body. Ania reached for Ezra as the dark spirit manifested inside of him. Again, she stood before the two tombs. Ezra opened the tomb of the tattooed man and an inky blackness spilled out of it. They never opened the second tomb.
Ezra was kneeling across an Imperial yard. Vader stood behind him. He said nothing. Ania lurched forward as Vader's blade stabbed through Ezra's chest. A terrible wave swept through her, knocking down everything in its path. The ground beneath her cracked and she began to glow. "No!" A thousand voices cried through her. A wave of light and the Force tore through the yard, leaving stormtroopers nothing but smoldering remains.
Ania was hit with a blast of lightning and flew into the wall of the Emperor's palace. She gasped for breath. The Emperor cackled as he drew near, blasting her again. "I have great plans for you, young one," he sneered. "Great plans indeed."
The pronged throne rose up behind her. Ania found herself chained to the stone table with hooded black faces drifting over her. She struggled against the chains as ominous chanting began. She looked to her side and screamed. The tattooed man's body lay next to her, almost as though he were asleep.
The Emperor drew closer to her, drawing a large whispering dagger. "The time has come for the Sith to rise again!" He declared. The chanting grew into a deafening roar. "With the death of Ania Bonteri, the Son, our fallen prince of darkness, is reborn!" The Emperor plunged the dagger straight into her heart. Ania screamed, feeling her own life slip away.
They sat up, gasping for breath. Ezra found Ania's hand, gripping it tightly. "I think," he rasped, "we need to figure out how to control this."
Ania felt herself shaking. In her mind, the visions were replaying. She couldn't stop watching as the dagger fell, again and again. Ezra grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "Ania, are you listening?" He turned her face towards him. She subconsciously let an image of the dagger falling drift towards Ezra's mind. Horror filled his gaze and he wrapped his arms around her, not questioning how she had planted the image there. "What did you see?"
"The same things as before, but this time." She shook a little. "I think the Emperor is going to kill me. That dagger I showed you, it's got to be related to Mortis somehow. I think I'm beginning to catch on to who the tattooed man is, too."
"Who?"
"The Son. He was the Daughter's counterpart. I should've guessed it before, when Ahsoka talked about him." She paused and turned her head, looking at Ezra. "I think the Emperor wants to use me to resurrect him."
"How can he do that?" Ezra furrowed his brow.
"I don't know."
Ezra let go of her and stood. He pulled her to her feet. "I'm not going to let that happen. You have to go to Master Kenobi. He's the only one who can help you right now."
"What about our link?"
"Maybe he can help with that too. I think this is more urgent, though."
Ania bit her lip, but nodded. "You're right. I need to figure this out." She looked at him. "For both of our sakes. I can't let these visions come true. If they come true, it...we...could destroy everything."