Starlet: Nebula 2 (SW fanfiction p 2.5)

Chapters 14 and 15 of an ongoing Star Wars fanfiction (curses, file size limits)

Chapter 14: Nebulous Encounters
28 BBY, Naboo


It only took another six months for Starlet’s security blanket to be ripped away.
Despite Siri’s stay-in-place method being well known throughout the Temple, a situation had popped up that necessitated a Jedi and Padawan being present on Naboo. Plus, not only were Siri and Starlet the only duo available for the mission, it also involved someone Starlet was familiar with. One of the first people to show her kindness after her arrival on Coruscant.
Siri picked up on Starlet’s discomfort. “Starlet?” she asked her Padawan, seated across from her aboard the transport. “Is something on your mind?”
Suddenly shaken out of her mild daze, Starlet took a few seconds to comprehend what she was being asked. With a sigh, the Padawan prepared her answer. “Last time I saw Padmé, I wasn’t exactly in the best state of mind,” she explained, vividly remembering her first meeting with the disguised Queen of Naboo. “I just hope she didn’t get the wrong first impression.”
“Wait, you’ve met the Senator?” Siri exclaimed in surprise. Even the Jedi Master had never met anyone as high-ranking as Padmé.
Meanwhile, Starlet was taken aback by what Siri called Padmé. “Senator?” she repeated incredulously.
Realizing her apprentice had gone un-updated on the former Queen, Siri chose to mostly ignore the fact that Starlet had somehow met the Naboo royal before her. “Padmé’s final two-year term as Queen just ended, and she was immediately elected Senator of Naboo,” she explained.
“Oh,” Starlet responded simply, not entirely sure how to continue the conversation. “I met her four years ago,” she finally recounted, “not long before…” The Padawan’s voice trailed off, remembering the unfortunate events of that time.
“You really miss Qui-Gon, don’t you?” Siri asked gently. She had known the late Master quite well; his death had been rough on the entire Temple. But she knew that Starlet had more of a… special connection with him.
“Of course I do,” the Padawan admitted, at least thankful that her Master understood. “He’s the one who found me. The first person to show me kindness. The first to really care about me. Why wouldn’t I miss him?”
“I guess you’re right,” Siri replied, although she was mildly concerned about Starlet’s attachment to Qui-Gon. It reminded her of someone else. “Just think of how Anakin must feel,” the Master offered. “Qui-Gon freed him from slavery, after all.”
Starlet rolled her eyes in mild irritation. “I prefer not to think about Skywalker at all,” she quipped, although she did understand what her Master meant.
“Of course,” Siri replied with a smirk, finding an odd sort of amusement with her apprentice’s rivalry. Their conversation was finally interrupted by the telltale signal that the transport was about to leave hyperspace. “Say, we’ve almost arrived at Naboo,” the Master announced, grateful for the excuse to change topics. “I know how much you like watching the ship exit hyperspace. Come to the cockpit with me.”
Starlet’s face broke into a wide grin. “Sure thing, Master!” she said, already dashing to the front of the ship ahead of Siri. Lightly chuckling to herself, the Jedi followed her diminutive apprentice. It was easy to forget that Starlet was nowhere near as young as she appeared to be.

“Well, here we are,” announced Siri as the Master and Padawan duo stepped out of the transport. “The planet of Naboo. Mostly peaceful,” she explained, “especially ever since the Naboo and Gungans stopped hating each other.”
“Gungans?” Starlet inquired with a curious tilt to her head.
“The original natives of this planet,” Siri explained, taking the opportunity for education. “They’re an… interesting bunch, to say the least.” Looking down, she saw Starlet still staring up at her with that same look of curiosity. “If we happen to meet any, you’ll see what I mean.”
“Intelligent?” Starlet asked inquisitively.
Siri rubbed the back of her neck nervously. “Depends on the Gungan,” she replied, suddenly desperate for an excuse to end the conversation. That excuse presented itself as a familiar eyepatch-equipped man and an astromech droid rounded the corner. “Ah, greetings, Captain Typho!” the Jedi said cheerfully.
“Greetings, Master Jedi,” responded Gregar Typho. “And Padawan,” he added, nodding slightly toward Starlet.
The blue and white astromech droid let out several friendly beeps. Starlet bent down ever so slightly to address it. “Well, hey, little guy!” she greeted the little droid. “I’m Starlet! What’s your name?” She was answered by a very specific series of noises. “R2-D2, huh? Well, nice to meet you!”
Siri looked at her Padawan in shock. “Wait, you can understand that thing?” she inquired, rather curious as to when exactly Starlet had found the time to learn astromech binary.
“Yeah?” Starlet responded, surprised that she seemed to be the only Force user around who could understand R2. “You can’t?”
“No,” Siri admitted, wondering exactly how a girl who could still barely read Galactic Basic could understand an astromech droid. “Huh. Always more surprises from you.”
The odd reveal of the girl’s hidden talent was interrupted by a voice from around the corner. “Did I just hear…” Finally, the former Queen herself stepped into the common area, happy to hear a familiar voice. “Oh, hi, Starlet!”
“Padmé!” Starlet shouted, already sprinting toward her old friend and jumping into a hug. Perhaps with a bit too much Force, as Padmé stumbled backward a few steps.
“It’s been too long!” Padmé exclaimed, returning the hug from the tiny Jedi-in-training. “So, you’re a Padawan now, huh?”
“I sure am!” Starlet replied proudly, finally breaking off the extended embrace.
Siri smiled warmly. While it was true that Starlet was actually twenty-four years old, she certainly had a tendency toward more childish behavior. “Greetings, Senator Amidala,” she said, bowing deeply to the Senator. “I am Jedi Master Siri Tachi. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
“You can drop the formalities,” Padmé suggested with a smirk. “They’re so… stifling. They take too much time, anyway.”
This was certainly not something Siri had expected, but she was pleasantly surprised by the Senator’s laid-back disposition. “Oh, I think we’ll get along just fine,” the Jedi quipped as the group began walking along the street. “So, how far has your investigation gotten?”
“Well,” began Captain Typho, taking charge of the conversation, “we don’t have any clues as to the assassin’s identity, but we’ve narrowed down an interception location.”
Starlet opened a small sliding panel on her cybernetic arm, revealing a miniature computer terminal that had been added the month before. “I can download the coordinates,” she offered.
As the data was downloaded into the arm’s database, Siri noticed an odd look on her apprentice’s face. It was like she had sensed something. Something even the Master was unaware of. “What is it, Padawan?” she asked, wanting to quickly get to the bottom of whatever was bothering Starlet.
“Whoever we’re looking for,” Starlet began quietly, “I get the feeling that they want me to be here. Who recommended us for this mission?” she inquired, a theory forming in her mind.
“It came directly from the Chancellor,” Siri answered, already figuring out and dismissing Starlet’s theory. “No way he’s colluding with the assassins.”
“I suppose not…” Starlet was a bit disappointed that her theory had seemingly been thoroughly debunked in two short sentences.
“So,” Siri began, trying to perk up her disappointed Padawan, “if this is somehow a trap, what’s your next step?”
A few seconds went by as Starlet considered the question. Finally, her thoughtful expression twisted into a practically wicked grin. “Spring the trap.”
Siri chuckled to herself. Starlet had passed the mini test. “Good answer. Now,” the Master continued, turning to Padmé and Typho, “if you’ll excuse us, we have an assassin to catch.”
“Good luck,” Padmé said with a bow. “And may the Force be with you.” With respectful bows from each, Master and Padawan began following the directions from Starlet’s arm.

“Okay, this should be about the right place,” Starlet announced as she and her Master approached an archway that led to a common area. There were surprisingly few people around, all things considered.
Perhaps not empty enough. “Hold, Starlet,” Siri ordered, holding her arm out in front of her apprentice. She felt something. “Do you sense that?”
Starlet closed her eyes, reaching out with the Force. Just around the corner, there was an immense wellspring of power compared to anything else around. “Yes,” she admitted. “Someone powerful.” Focusing more on the being, she realized that she knew exactly who it was. “I know that presence,” she groaned. The Padawan had been trying her best to avoid this exact scenario.
“Oh, too bad,” came a voice all-too-familiar to Starlet. It was basically her own, after all. “I was hoping for this to be a bit more of a surprise.”
“Nebula.” Starlet’s utterance was more of a confirmation for herself as she watched her estranged sister saunter out from behind a pillar on the opposite side of the clearing.
Padawan and Master crossed their arms in unison. “That your sister?” Siri inquired, although she could clearly see the resemblance.
“Sure is,” Starlet replied, already sensing another hostile presence nearby. “And I don’t think she’s alone.”
“Sure ain’t.” A low, gravelly voice matched with the tall figure approaching from a nearby street. A deep blue skin tone and large, fully red eyes gave away his Duros heritage, and the wide-brimmed hat was certainly a distinguishing feature.
“Cad Bane,” Master Tachi identified the newcomer. “Legendary bounty hunter.”
“Flattered,” Bane drawled dryly, expertly drawing his dual blasters. “We have a job to do. You take the runt,” he ordered Nebula. “I’ll deal with the Jedi.”
A wicked grin formed on Nebula’s face as she reached for her weapons. “With pleasure,” she sneered, igniting her twin red blades.
With a sudden lunge, Nebula began quickly closing the distance between the sisters, with Starlet barely able to ignite her own lightsaber to block a dual strike. At the same time, Cad Bane took off with a jetpack, helped by two ion jets attached to his boots. Siri drew her purple blade, Force leaping up to a nearby rooftop to meet her opponent as Starlet and Nebula clashed on the street below.
While Nebula certainly had the advantage of wielding two lightsabers, Starlet had been training with Master Kelleran Beq for this occasion. She tried to dig into her dark twin’s mind, trying to find the source of her anger. The reason for her hatred. And yet, she was met with an impenetrable wall, preventing her from learning anything. Clearly, Nebula had trained her mind to resist such attempted invasions.
Strike after swing after lunge, Starlet held off her sister. The air crackled with the combined heat of three lightsabers clashing together repeatedly. The Padawan held back her energy for the time being, knowing that given enough time, she could easily outlast the wild, unfocused Nebula.
An otherwise unavoidable scissor-like motion prompted Starlet to leap out of the way, sailing through the air and landing gingerly on an awning nearby. With Nebula momentarily confused as to the Padawan’s whereabouts, Starlet decided she wanted information. “Why do you want me dead so badly?!” she shouted, intentionally revealing her location to her frustrated sister.
Nebula turned her head to her hated twin, her face twisting in rage. She readied one of her lightsabers for a move of desperation. “I was supposed to be the only survivor!” she shouted as she threw her blade in a Force-guided arc, forcing Starlet to flip repeatedly to avoid the whirling death blade. “I was special! Unique! And then, what should I see four years ago but you, flipping around Coruscant without a care in the world!” Her thrown blade returned to her hand, Nebula looked around frantically to find Starlet.
“Seriously?!” Starlet shouted incredulously from behind a conveniently-sized pole, trying to catch her breath. “Just because we happen to be identical sisters, you want me dead?” Even to the little Padawan, the reasoning seemed awfully childish.
Nebula turned around, growling in pure anger. She held out her hand, focusing intently on the structural pole that Starlet was hiding behind. Cracks began to form in the limestone pillar. “You have no idea what I’ve been through!” the rage-fuelled girl roared as the pillar suddenly exploded into splinters of stone, narrowly missing Starlet as she bolted from what was once a safe haven.
“You?!” Starlet yelled, her own anger starting to bubble up within her. “I survived alone in the forest of Batuu for eighteen years with nothing but my own wit!” She shouted at her opponent while laying on a volley of saber slashes, forcing Nebula to go on the defensive. “Whatever you’ve been through, so have I, if not worse! And clearly, we’re nothing alike outside of our appearance. Why are you so worried about not being special? You already are! Even with me being alive, and possibly Luna as well, there’s no one else in the entire galaxy like us!”
“Wha…” Nebula stammered. She had only considered things from her own perspective. Now questioning her convictions for the first time in her life, she continued defending herself from her sister’s onslaught. Fully unaware that Starlet was now tiring just as much as her.
Starlet soon realized that Nebula wasn’t putting in as much effort as she had been before. She hadn’t made any offensive moves since the little lecture. Seeing an opportunity, the Padawan cut off her attack, leaping backward to put some distance between the two sisters. Landing gracefully, she saw that Nebula still wasn’t pressing the attack. With a deep breath, she turned off her lightsaber.

High above the fight between sisters, Siri was locked in her own battle against Cad Bane. Any advance she made was met with a jetpack blast and a dual pistol shot. He didn’t actually seem that interested in fighting per se. Even so, the Master could tell that he knew exactly how to combat her abilities. “You’ve clearly fought Jedi before!” the Jedi finally shouted.
“Not often,” Bane replied in that same deep drawl. “Just enough to be interesting.”
A break in the fight allowed Siri a moment to check on the battle below. The Jedi was rather shocked to see Nebula standing stationary across from Starlet, who had turned off her lightsaber. “Bane?” she shouted, catching the bounty hunter by surprise. “There’s something going on down there. I’d very much like to see what it is. Truce?” she suggested. She knew it was a long shot, but she also knew that Bane wasn’t really trying to kill her. He probably would have succeeded by now if he was.
Bane glanced downward. Sure enough, Nebula was standing still. Why was she disobeying her orders - again? “For now,” he growled, leaping off of his perch and igniting his ion boots to slow his descent. Siri turned off her lightsaber and jumped, letting the Force guide her to the ground.

Starlet was distinctly aware of the two new observers as she looked into her sister’s eyes. They were still the same yellow-and-red combination, but they weren’t burning with hatred like they were before. And was that a tinge of blue trying to come through the yellow irises? Clearly, the Padawan was getting somewhere. “Just because there’s two of us doesn’t mean one of us has to die,” she pleaded with her opponent. “You don’t have to do this, Nebula.”
Nebula hesitated. She very much didn’t want to fight Starlet anymore. On the other hand, she had her orders. And she had been thoroughly warned about what would happen if she tried to run away. “You don’t know the consequences of failure,” she said finally, her voice breaking slightly. “I don’t hate you anymore, but you’re in my way.” With that, she raised her lightsabers once again, reluctant but ready.
Starlet was disappointed, but she understood where her sister was coming from. Nebula didn’t really have a choice at this point. “So be it,” she said simply, reigniting her lightsaber, the purple blade humming with energy.
The sisters clashed once again, quickly closing the distance in between. Whirls of red and purple sliced through the air, the combatants expertly showcasing their talent with their respective weapons. Starlet noted that Nebula was being more aggressive again, though she still seemed rather reluctant. Even so, she knew she needed to match the aggression if she was to survive this encounter.
Siri and Bane watched the two intently. It had become obvious that this was the girls’ battle, not theirs. The sisters were evenly matched, perfectly balanced in every way. One, wild and aggressive. The other, calm and well-trained. Both were trying to strike the other down, but neither wanted to. It had become a ballet of clashing lightsabers wielded by tiny acrobats. Until they slipped.
Both girls whirled around, aiming for stabbing motions. Their movements were in near-perfect unison, as if they were on opposite sides of a mirror. They turned to meet each other, and…
Starlet was met with blinding pain. She stopped in shock, and noticed that Nebula had done the same. Looking down, the Padawan saw her sister’s twin blades sticking through her abdomen, just as her own lightsaber pierced Nebula’s. The two slowly met each other’s gazes again, their weapons deactivating at the same time. Their wounds were severe, but not necessarily life-threatening. This wasn’t the end. “We’ll be fine,” Starlet assured her sister, even with darkness creeping into the edges of her eyesight. “I know we will.”
A small smile crept its way onto Nebula’s face just before the sisters collapsed in unison, crumpling unconscious to the ground.
“Starlet!” Siri shouted as she dashed to her apprentice. Bane was running to retrieve Nebula as well, but the Jedi hardly cared. She gently picked up the little Padawan and cradled her in her arms. “Starlet, you’re gonna be okay,” she assured the unconscious girl as she frantically activated her comlink. “This is Jedi Master Siri Tachi. I need a medical team for my Padawan at these coordinates immediately!”
“We’ll be there right away!” came the reply from the medic assigned to the Force-wielding duo.
Siri breathed a sigh of relief. She turned around to address the bounty hunter. “As for you, Bane…” The Jedi hadn’t expected that she wouldn’t be able to find him. “Bane?” She looked around, trying to find any evidence of the other two’s presence.
Cad Bane and Nebula had disappeared.







Chapter 15: The Burden of Knowledge
28 BBY, Coruscant


Starlet was floating in darkness. Well, not complete darkness. Or was it? Wherever she was, light seemed to somehow be a foreign concept. Now that she thought about it, this felt familiar. She had only felt like this once before. This was a vision.
She found herself in a place she had seen in her last premonition. It was a gigantic room with countless hovering platforms along its edges. Each one had one to three beings inside it, all of whom had their attention in one place. In the center of the room, an old man in a black cloak and hood was addressing everyone present. “In order to ensure the security and continuing stability,” he began, his voice crackling with obvious evil intent, “the Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire! For a safe, and secure, society!”
Empire? Who would even have the authority to do something like this? Starlet knew that the voice sounded familiar, but she couldn’t quite figure out why. Besides, she had already been whisked away to a different scene.
This was another place she had seen in her last vision. A river of boiling lava cut through a blackened, charred landscape. Different this time was the man on the bank of the lava river, just barely out of reach of the molten rock. Starlet tried to figure out who it was, but he didn’t look familiar at all. Fairly long hair, dark clothing, and a mechanical hand reaching out. His eyes burned with pure hatred, just as the recently-amputated stumps of legs began sizzling from their proximity to the lava. It looked like his other arm had been similarly slashed away.
Standing further away from the shoreline was another man, this one much more recognizable to Starlet. He had different hair, and had grown a beard, but this was absolutely an older version of Obi-Wan Kenobi. He looked exhausted, physically and emotionally. “You were the Chosen One!” he shouted, his voice nearly breaking. “It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them! Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness!”
Starlet was quite shocked. She had heard this ‘chosen one’ term being thrown around in connection to Anakin. What were the chances that the man laying by the lava was…
She was suddenly in a very different place, breaking her train of thought. Starlet was in a medical center, with a very familiar woman being cared for behind a viewing glass. The older version of Obi-Wan was comforting Padmé, who appeared to be in a lot of pain. She looked like she was barely holding on to life. “Obi-Wan?” the Senator said, her voice weak. “There’s good in him. I know. I know there’s… still…” Her voice trailed away, and her head slumped to the side.
Before Starlet could process what had just happened, she was already somewhere else. She was inside an underground temple of some kind, darkness cloaking the surroundings and obscuring any identifying details. It was all vaguely pyramid-shaped. And there was an imposing man in a black suit of armor wielding a red lightsaber. Across from the intimidating man was quite the opposite: A boy, probably still a teenager, wielding a green lightsaber with an unusual hilt. It was obvious that the boy was vastly outmatched.
“I don’t fear you,” the boy claimed, though even Starlet could sense the uncertainty in his words.
The armored figure didn’t budge as he spoke. “Then you will die braver than most,” he replied coldly, clearly unamused by this boy’s supposed bravery.
The scene shifted slightly, staying in the same location, though the armored man faced a different adversary. Although the newcomer, a Togruta woman, was definitely an adult, Starlet could recognize Ahsoka’s facial patterns anywhere. Although she looked… angry?
“Revenge is not the Jedi way,” the armored figure suggested, almost tauntingly.
The older Ahsoka assumed a combative stance. “I am no Jedi,” she spat, igniting her twin brilliant white lightsabers in a backwards hold. What did she mean by that?
The scenes were shifting a lot faster than in her first vision, as Starlet now found herself in a metallic room, open on one side to a large hangar. The armored figure was still present, his red lightsaber was ignited and ready, opposite an elderly man who looked like an even older version of Obi-Wan. His own lightsaber was ignited, the cyan-blue blade contrasting sharply with his opponents.
The armored man spoke up first. “The circle is now complete,” he said, sounding almost patronizing in his confidence. “When I left you, I was but the learner. Now, I am the Master.”
“Only a Master of evil, Darth,” the elder Obi-Wan retorted calmly. His voice had become wise with age.
As the scene transitioned again, Starlet realized that the scenes were actually getting less dark in nature. As if hope was winning out. She found herself in a large throne room, the cloaked old man from earlier sitting in a seat of obvious power. A young man had just thrown his lightsaber to the side, looking down at the armored man from before. The helmeted figure was missing part of an arm, wires sticking out instead of flesh and bone. “Never,” the young man uttered, defiance in his voice. Starlet kind of wished she knew what he was responding to. “I’ll never turn to the Dark Side. You’ve failed, Your Highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me.”
The cloaked man twisted his face into a look of disappointment mixed with rage. “So be it. Jedi.”
The scene changed once again. Starlet was now outside on Naboo. It looked a bit different now, as if years of war and decay had taken their toll. But now, there was a huge celebration taking place. Humans and other species, particularly an odd aquatic-looking one the Padawan didn’t recognize, were gathered in the square and beyond. “Wesa free!” one of the amphibious beings cried out in their native dialect. Despite all the darkness she had seen before, everyone now looked incredibly joyous. Something monumental must have happened recently to prompt a festival like this. The scene changed again, and…

Starlet was met with darkness. She could feel her surroundings, as if she was suspended in a fluid of some kind. As she heard her own breathing through an apparatus of some sort, she realized that her vision had finally ended. Slowly, the Padawan opened her eyes. They were met with fluid, but it didn’t bother her at all. Figuring out that she was in a bacta tank, she slowly curled the fingers of her left hand into a fist, trying to signal to anyone around that she was conscious.
She heard a voice, muffled almost beyond recognition, yet unmistakable to Starlet. “Doctor Yirel!” she heard her Master call out. “She’s waking up!”
“Finally!” shouted a far-off voice, just as muffled as the first, but still recognizable to Starlet as the kind Doctor Yirel. “Here, let’s get you out of there.”
Starlet found herself being lifted upward, seemingly mostly by her breathing tube. Breaking the surface of the bacta, the apparatus was removed from her face. She took several loud, deep, raspy breaths as fresh air entered her lungs. Arms wrapped around her, lowering her into a sitting position on a nearby bed. “Easy, easy,” Siri said gently to her shivering Padawan, already reaching for a towel. “You’re alright. I’m right here. Let’s dry you off.”
As much as Starlet tried not to act like the child she appeared to be, the groggy Padawan was finding the towel - and her Master’s presence - immensely comforting. “What happened?” she asked, not entirely sure how she got to the medical wing on Coruscant from where they had been on Naboo.
Siri wasn’t overly surprised at the question. It had been about a week since the Naboo mission, and Starlet had just woken up. “Well, what do you remember?” she inquired, careful to keep her voice low.
“Not much,” Starlet groaned just before clarity came back to her. “Just me and my questionably evil twin sister accidentally brutally stabbing each other. Then darkness.”
“Well,” Siri began, “Bane disappeared with Nebula. Then you were rushed back here to Coruscant. Are you feeling okay?” she asked, noticing the relative paleness of Starlet’s face. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“I don’t know about a ghost, but…” Starlet’s voice trailed off, trying to gather her thoughts about what she had seen while she was asleep.
Siri immediately clocked what Starlet was getting at. “Another vision?” she asked, adding a bit of caution to the question. She knew how badly the last one had gone. “What did you see?”
“Partially the same thing as before,” Starlet admitted. “Darkness. The end of the Republic. But sometime after… Light. Happiness. Peace. Celebration.”
Master Tachi considered what her apprentice had revealed. “So, a time of darkness followed by a time of light? Possibly even greater than what we have now?” Starlet nodded in response, looking thoughtful. “Any other specifics you want to share?”
“Um…” Starlet wasn’t sure what to say. Sure, she knew a lot of specifics, but there was also a lot she didn’t know yet. And besides, what would happen if she divulged some of these details? If the time of darkness was prevented in some way, the time of light afterward might also be prevented from happening. Was she really comfortable with that possibility? And was it really her responsibility to report something like this?
Siri had a feeling that she knew what was going through Starlet’s head, and made the quick, easy decision to support her Padawan’s choice. “Sometimes, foreseen events are best left untouched,” she suggested, affirming the girl’s thoughts. “It takes a great amount of wisdom to realize that. I will not report this to the Council. I leave that to your discretion.” A dinging noise sounded out from a nearby display, and Siri took in what it was telling her. “You’ve been cleared to move around,” she informed Starlet, surprised they had already made that decision. “You should go for a walk. No destination; just wander. Allow yourself to think. Let the Force guide your actions.”
Starlet nodded, and watched as Siri began to leave. Suddenly, she felt the urge to call out. “Master?” she called, her voice still not very strong. “Thank you. For believing in me.”
A warm smile crept onto Siri’s face. “Just doing what any Master should do,” she replied softly before exiting the room.
Silence settled throughout the room, and the little Padawan was left with nothing but her own thoughts. The information she had received through her vision could be instrumental in preventing the destruction of the Republic. On the other hand, she also knew that this future ‘Empire’ was doomed to fall, ushering in a new age of light. An age Starlet wasn’t too keen on preventing. Could she really keep the rest of this secret? What if the Council asked her about it? Would she slip up, or keep it quiet?
Starlet hadn’t been fully aware of her actions while she thought, so she was rather surprised to hear a familiar noise in the room she found herself walking past. Inside, Anakin was having a training match with his Master, probably going too far with his aggression as usual. If Anakin really was this ‘chosen one’, the burning man on the edge of the lava river… was that really him? What was going to happen that would culminate in that scene? Sure, she wasn’t exactly fond of the boy, but he certainly wasn’t a bad person. Could he really grow up to be that sorry specimen?
A term that Siri had taught her about earlier came to mind. ‘The burden of knowledge’. Starlet was aware of future events that no one else was, and it was entirely up to her whether or not she would reveal what she knew. A responsibility she wasn’t sure she was ready for. She knew what would eventually happen to Anakin. She knew that the Republic would become an Empire. She knew that the Jedi Order would be destroyed. But she also knew that everything would turn around in the end, which meant only one thing.
Starlet couldn’t tell anyone what she knew. She would have to keep all of this information completely to herself, allowing it to fester in the back of her mind for the foreseeable future, until the events she had seen inevitably came to fruition. And she couldn’t trust a single other being with what she knew. Not the Jedi Council. Not her own Master. Not even Ahsoka, her best friend. And she would certainly never be able to forget what she had seen. All she could do was keep quiet, and wait.