Family by Heart - REWRITE(a Star Wars Rebels story)

Dwindling Smoke

Mild swearing and violence in the book. I don't own Star Wars, just my stories/ideas.

Please comment/vote! Thanks!

***

It was dark and cold. No warmth left.

A haze of smoke surrounded the hallowed body of the girl. Merely a shell of a human. No more, no less.

Kanan sat just a couple meters away from her - him on his meditation chair and her on his bottom bunk, curled in a motionless ball.

His hands twisted and churned, trying to calm them with the motion. His elbows on his knees and his eyes down to the floor, every once and a while glancing at the girl.

They had already left Earth and were back to the fleet now. The medical droid could do nothing. This wasn't a physical death. It was deeper than that. Deeper than what Kanan could even fathom. The fire within her soul was beyond a charred piece of coal. Her fire was burnt out and the smoke was dwindling away.

Hera entered the cabin, looking to the male Jedi. "Anything yet?"

He shook his head, "Nothing. Absolutely nothing." he scoffed in what seemed to be disbelief and almost anger. "As soon as Second Brother talked to her - something snapped."

"What happened out there?" She put a kind hand on his shoulder, knowing that something had shaken him up.

"Something that I've never seen before," Kanan looked to Hera then back to the girl. "Something...not right. Something I really can't explain."

Hera kept looking at him, trying to pry any more out of him. He saw this and blinked for a moment as he sighed again.

"Second Brother - Jalo - said he knew our mother. He said that she had gone to Earth to give birth to Athena, but it was a mistake. There's a demon trapped in the planet, Abeloth, and she apparently has been latching on to Athena since her birth," he looked over to the unconscious girl, eyes closed and breathing softly as she lied there with no soul. "When we were walking to the rendezvous, she chased after her shadow. The shadow..." he shivered. "It defied logic. It detached from her. Then it grabbed her. She snapped and went into this crazy powerful state. She created a storm and killed it. Eventually, she calmed down...but then she snapped again when Second Brother was talking to her."

"I...actually wanted to talk to you about that. Second Brother," Hera began. "We started investigating back here at the fleet and..."

"He might be related to me and her?" Kanan dismissively said. "Yeah, we figured that out when we were captured."

She gave a small rub on his shoulder and smiled, "Well, I'm just glad you're back with us."

"For the most part," Kanan sighed and looked to Athena. "I'm not so sure where she really is other than gone."

She gave a reassuring squeeze on his shoulder, "Hey, she's a tough kid. It'll be alright. Plus, you brought us another little Padawan. I guess you have a knack for finding Padawans on Earth."

"I just hope she comes back alright," Kanan dismissed her statement. "I don't know what's going on. Not a clue."

"Do you think Ahsoka knows anything about all this?"

"I'm not sure. This is all so complex," he gazed over to the sleeping girl. "Nothing about this is normal."

She gave the male Jedi one more assuring squeeze before leaving him in there by himself - to watch over the empty shell of the human girl.

What Jalo had said to Athena...it made no sense.

"Find whatever remnants of the Ones you can."

The Ones were dead.

"Don't go to the Light, you'll be too weak. Don't fall to the Dark, we will all die. Find the middle and gain strength and stability."

Jedi have always found strength in the Force - the Light. This girl... she was once filled with Light.

Then again, maybe not all light is good. Jalo had a point. Flames of rage aren't the same as flames that bring soothing warmth.

It's about moderation.

Balance.

That's what he meant.

The balance of the Force.

The Jedi were taught to stay loyal to the Light and only the Light. But, this girl was not a typical Jedi. Light didn't exactly translate to good. Only balance could do that.

She had an overwhelming amount of darkness clinging to the soles of her feet and a fire burning within her soul for so long. She had two opposing forces surround her entire life. She needed to find the middle. The balance.

Before Kanan could divulge much further into his thought process, Ahsoka knocked on the door. He responded and she entered the room.

"I heard what happened out there," she spoke in a soft voice - as if not to wake the dead girl. "That girl, Rachelle, she told me about her powers out there in the desert. I- I never knew-"

"Anything less than a god could do that?" Kanan remarked, standing now. "I've only heard of the Gods of Mortis possessing such powers."

"Actually..." Ahsoka trailed off for a moment, pausing. "That's exactly what I was thinking. As you know, I met the Ones on Mortis all those years ago."

"And she reminds you of them?"

She shrugged, "Sort of. She's not nearly as powerful. But, then again, she's a kid and those were full-fledged Gods."

"Ahsoka, do you remember the stories of Abeloth?" he looked to the togruta with slightly worried eyes. "Second Brother mentioned something about her. I thought she was dead. But then..."

"You felt her presence on Earth. I felt a menacing presence there as well"

"Yeah..." he trailed off and looked to Athena. "I think she's aiming at Athena big time. I'm weary as to trust Second Brother's word...but he said that Abeloth was planning on using Athena as a host in order to destroy the universe."

"That seems a bit radical," Ahsoka stated with raised eyebrows. "Then again...the tales of Abeloth do not paint that creature as anything less."

"This is far beyond me," Kanan sighed. "The Jedi never mentioned anything like this."

Ahsoka pondered for a moment. For a Jedi Order being thousands of years old with infinite wisdom, they sure didn't know much about things like this- or at the very least tell her, that's for sure. "It makes you wonder."

"You met the Mortis Gods once," Kanan looked to Ahsoka. "Do you have any idea if there are any 'remnants' of them?"

She shook her head, "None that I can think of. Once we left Mortis, the entire planet disappeared." she paused, remembering the Daughter's sacrifice for her. Her last bits of life Force given to her on that planet.

"Then all we can do is wait," Kanan sighed, shifting his eyes to the girl.

"You should have killed the girl when you had the chance." a voice whispered in their ears. A sound that was more distressing than nails on a chalkboard. A shiver sped down their spines as the voice murmured those words. Cold. The words felt cold as they rang in their heads.

With wide eyes and a hitched breath, Kanan looked to Ahsoka who had a similar expression on her face. "Did...you hear that?"

She slowly nodded.

Nothing was making sense anymore.