Chapter 13
Chapter 12
Disclaimer: Same as previous chapters
Warning: M/M kissing in this chapter.
Chapter 12
As the ship landed in the fields of Dantooine Anakin was on edge ever since that dream and the words of that woman and he accepted her offer for training. He saw Andrew landing the ship and knew he’d do anything to protect Andrew as he knew Faith would protect Padmé.
The woman said to him that she could train him to be strong enough to defend those he cared for, he walked to the cockpit and saw the grassy oceans of Dantooine and he followed Andrew out of the ship, Andrew walked towards an ancient building.
‘Dantooine,’ Anakin thought, even though it was a name similar to his homeworld the two worlds looked so different from each other: grassy oceans versus the vast deserts of Tatoonine but he preferred this place.
Andrew grinned, “This place is beautiful, isn’t it Anakin?” Anakin nodded and Andrew continued, “I’m going to suggest that the government of Naboo begin to colonize this planet as the soil is good, perfect for farms.”
‘Farms?’ Anakin thought, ‘He’s thinking about farms when he could explore the galaxy,’ he shook his head.
As they walked through the grassy plains to the ruins of the Enclave Anakin began to get nervous as this place was from his dream, the voice of the old woman whispered in his ear, *Do not worry about the Exile right now for both of you are safe.*
Anakin ran up to catch up with Andrew as he couldn’t let him go anywhere alone, he looked at Andrew and muttered, “Why are we going to these old buildings?”
“Because,” Andrew said, “I wanted to explore the place in detail and R2’s going to help me with starting up the computer systems, I want to learn more about what happened here.”
“It’s in the archives,” Anakin said, “Why learn what happened here when it’s already known?”
Andrew frowned, “Because the Jedi, I’ve noticed, sometimes hoard knowledge for themselves, it’s happened in the past, not sure about the present.”
Anakin nodded as they walked to the sub level entrance, the ancient door opened up and Anakin noticed smaller footprints in the thick dust on the floor. Andrew whispered, “Those are mine, the locals don’t come here anymore; first because looters stole everything years ago and now they think that ghosts haunt this place.”
“I see why,” Anakin frowned, “This place feels odd.”
Andrew laughed and pulled Anakin into the dusty corridors, the dust floated in the air causing them to sneeze, Andrew muttered about needing to clean and hopefully the place wasn’t to clogged when they found the computer room.
As they walked through the silent halls Anakin whispered, “I wish I had been here with you the first time.”
“Not much to see,” Andrew said, “After the Exile cleared out the beasts here and helped Dantooine fight off the mercenaries the administrator sealed the place off until the Jedi returned to try to rebuild here.”
“You know a lot of Jedi history,” Anakin said, “I’m impressed, you should’ve been trained by us then I could’ve spent more time with you.”
Andrew sighed, “Anakin, I like the Jedi, I really do but I don’t know if I want to be one.”
Anakin nodded, he’d convince him sooner or later and he knew master Yoda would take Andrew in if he requested it.
They passed by a wall and Andrew froze as he felt something; he remembered opening up a door here and a blonde man stood there and bowed in front of him a courtly bow. He walked to the door and waved his hand in front of a hidden panel.
The ancient door opened up and Anakin ignited his lightsaber ready to defend Andrew when an old hologram activated a handsome man in his late seventies stood in the hologram. It looked at Andrew and did a formal bow.
Andrew walked towards the hologram and whispered, “I know you, Mical?”
“My master,” the hologram said, “I waited faithfully for you and Revan to come back from the dark place you went to. Atton and I both waited so patiently while rebuilding the order, we still haven’t found the holocrons and scrolls Atris has hidden from the order, our last estimate is Dxun, the tomb of Freedon Nadd if you wish to collect them.”
Anakin stared at the hologram, ‘It seems the man knew Andrew,’ he felt a bit jealous at the blush on Andrew’s face from the bow.
“Mical,” Andrew whispered as he touched the Hologram, “I know you.”
“No,” Anakin said as he pulled Andrew’s hand away from the Hologram, he stepped in front of the Hologram and looked at Andrew worriedly.
Andrew looked up and whispered, “Why did you do that? He’s Mical Disciple, he’d never hurt me, he loved me or he said he did.”
“No,” Anakin said, “That man is over four thousand years old and dead, you can’t know him, it’s impossible,” he picked Andrew up and carried him out of the room.”
Andrew yelled, “R2, download the data from that computer and Anakin, put me down damn It!! I’m twenty years old, I can walk.”
R2 beeped as it began to download everything.
Anakin ignored the kicking and screaming and when they were outside Andrew stared at him angrily, “Why did you carry me out of there like I was a baby, Anakin?”
“Didn’t feel right,” Anakin murmured as he looked at Andrew’s angry face and it was incredible, he had never seen Andrew angry. He hugged Andrew and whispered, “Sorry, please forgive me Andrew.”
Andrew’s anger faded, ‘Anakin was hugging me? It felt kinda good to be hugged; only Padmé had hugged me.’
Anakin smiled as he felt Andrew hug back, he tilted Andrew’s head up and gently kissed Andrew, he was right Andrew had soft lips. He pulled Andrew deeper into the kiss when an image hit them both.
There was a woman wearing white robes and silver hair and she was looking at a woman in disgust, he focused on the woman and saw Andrew appear in the place of the woman.
Andrew looked up and said, “Atris? What are you doing here?”
The woman sneered at Andrew, “So, why did you come back here?”
Andrew looked at her and whispered, “The Jedi, I came to find them; the Sith are back and we need to fight them.”
“Jedi?” Atris said confused, “There is only one Jedi here and I’m her, you were banished for joining Revan.”
“No,” Andrew shook his head, “You banished me for doing the right thing, the Mandalorians were killing innocent people.”
Atris’s sneer turned more arrogant and said, “Still so brash. The Council only asked for time to investigate why the Mandalorians were attacking.”
“And while the Council debated innocent worlds were being broken,” Andrew growled, “But enough, I haven’t come to discuss details about my banishment.”
Anakin broke the kiss and shook his head, ‘What was that? What did I just witness? What was the Force trying to show me?’ he thought while Andrew looked shocked, ’But the kiss was nice.’
“Are you alright Andrew?” Anakin asked, “I’m sorry, that was wrong of me to do that.”
“Umm, didn’t mind it that much,” Andrew said, “As a kiss goes it was pretty nice.”
Anakin brightened a bit and said, “Anyways let’s go back to the ship, I want to check something with the Archives on Coruscant, Andrew.”
As they walked to the ship R2 beeped and Andrew whispered, “You got the data?” It beeped happily and Andrew smiled, “Anakin, we do have to go the ship anyways.”
They moved through the grassy fields when the sky began to darken and Andrew frowned as the storms on Dantooine were bad, they began to pick up speed towards the ship when a bolt of lightning hit the ground in front of him.
Anakin felt ill, ‘This is almost like my dream,’ he thought when he heard the raspy voice from his nightmare, the man got up and looked right at Andrew and, in a raspy voice, said, “Exile, so what the woman said was true; you have changed.”
Andrew gulped as the man walked towards him, he looked horrible: white scared skin and half of the man’s face nearly made him vomit.
“My name, if you forgot,” the man whispered, “Is.”
Anakin snarled, “Darth Sion, right?”
Sion looked at Anakin and snarled, “You boy, I feel her teachings in your skull, you’ve listened to her haven’t you?” Anakin stepped in front of Andrew and ignited his lightsaber.
“So,” Anakin growled, “If you want him, you go through me.”
“Don’t try it boy,” Sion almost laughed, “For four thousand years I waited for my chance at revenge on him, the Force changed everything about him so I wouldn’t recognize him but I still know your face. Those eyes are what I remember; I think I’ll cut them out.”
Anakin got ready to kill this thing, sure it looked like a man but it was a thing now.
“Why are you after me?” Andrew asked nervously.
“Because you made me feel things other than hate and pain,” Sion yelled, “And in my weakness I let you convince me to let go but she saved me, she allowed me to retain my hate. Together we escaped from the world and in our hate united we hid from both Sith and Jedi to gather our strength.”
Andrew looked down and whispered, “Are you talking about Darth Traya?”
“No, her whispers no long crawl through my skull, she is gone,” Sion snarled, “She is gone!!”
“Then who?” Andrew asked.
Sion shook his head and whispered, “No Exile, you shall not know who my partner is and when I deliver your head to her she will look into your lifeless eyes and laugh and then we shall make our plans to take down the Jedi.”
Anakin suddenly screamed, “NO!!” and started to attack Sion.
“You have much anger boy,” Sion growled, “It’s too bad you aren’t on our side, you could do anything you want. Maybe after I rip out the boy’s carcass I’ll train you.”
The rage building in Anakin began to burn hot, ‘This creature is not going near Andrew,’ he began slamming his lightsaber hard, the anger leading him when suddenly a voice whispered into his ear, *Sion is a stupid beast; all that sustains him is rage and hatred, use them against him.*
Anakin froze, the voice was right: the thing was angry. He turned off his lightsaber and sneered, “Your partner must be fairly pathetic to rely on you.”
Sion’s eye darkened and yelled, “Boy, you have anger but it is nothing next the hate I feel, so don’t test me boy.”
Andrew fumbled into his robes and pulled out his lightsaber, he didn’t like using it but the Ithorians made sure he would at least know how to use it.
Anakin looked back surprised at the silver lightsaber Andrew was using, it was just further proof that Andrew needed to be with the Jedi.
“That lightsaber,” Sion snarled, “It’s the one you used on me, so you do remember.”
Sion forced pushed Anakin out of the way and Andrew sighed as he felt the old rage building in him, the feeling that Gano Sunshadow made him feel. He took a deep breath and screamed loudly.
As the force scream hit Sion the Sith lord was impressed: four thousand years and the Exile’s fire hasn’t changed, his partner was mistaken about that and if that was true then the girl’s powers must also remain.
Andrew rushed towards Sion followed by Anakin, who wondered if Andrew could teach him that Force Scream. Andrew’s lightsaber hit Sion’s side followed by Anakin’s.
“Impressive,” Sion rumbled, “You two move as one. My partner was wrong about a great many things about you Exile and the so called ‘chosen one.’
Sion blasted both of them a massive pulse of the Force and snarled as it rushed towards them.
R2 sneaked past them as they fought onto the ship, beeping worriedly as it worked on the Rancor’s Rage’s computer and the ship lifted up towards them.
Andrew looked up and said, “Anakin, let’s go, R2 got the ship ready.”
“No!!” Anakin screamed, “We can’t let this thing stay alive, it’ll keep coming after you.”
*Run you blind young fool,* Anakin heard the voice say, *You cannot defeat one such as him yet and you do Andrew no service by being dead.*
Anakin shook his head and leapt onto the open ramp and the ship left Dantooine behind them. Andrew looked Anakin over and sighed, he was alright. Anakin whispered, “I promise Andrew, I won’t leave your side, ever,” and touched Andrew’s hand slightly.
As Sion watched the ship leave he snarled, he heard a voice yell, *You fool, are you going to just let them leave?*
Sion shook his head, “No, I’ll hunt the Exile down wherever he goes and besides, they’ve earned this respite, for now. What about yourself, where’s Revan’s head? You hate her more than I.”
The voice snarled, *Revan and our little Exile will be dead soon enough. Just be careful, if Sidous and these new flawed Jedi find us we’ll be in trouble.*
“Sidous is a fool,” Sion snarled, “He uses words to kill the Jedi when he should be slaying them in person.”
*Yes but,* the voice cautioned, *We cannot face him yet, in time we can but not yet.*
TBC
Who do you think Sion’s partner is? How do you think Sion’s presence will affect the timeline?
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