Battle for Earth - REWRITE(A Star Wars Rebels Story)

A Strange Awakening

It was quiet. Not a deathly, cold, tortuous kind of quiet. A peaceful quiet. The kind of quiet you could nap to without a care in the world. She remembered those naps from her youth. Finding a patch of nothing to lay on and drifting to sleep in solitude. There was no greater solace than a lonesome nap to her. She wondered if this was death - everlasting peace and nothingness. Closed eyes, numb body, and peace.

She heard voices. The chatters in the distance. The children screaming and laughing with youthful joy. The tweets and chirps of passing birds. The wind caressing the grass ever so gently.

Athena's eyelids were heavy and everything was so bright, despite her eyes squinting near shut. It was a bright haze of everything and nothing. Some green was added into the mix. She didn't want to open her eyes, that would mean the peace would go away.

Then a distant blast. A blast of a horn. Was that...a car?

She blinked, unsure what kind of dream or hallucination could include her Earthling vehicle's honk.

A field of grass. Children chasing after each other as they giggled. Families sitting on blankets and eating from woven wooden boxes underneath a tree. Red, brown, and black rectangular buildings just beyond the trees bordering the end of the meadow. The sounds of cars occasionally honking at one another.

This can't be real, Athena thought to herself. She couldn't be on Earth, let alone here of all places on Earth. The girl began to regain feeling in her body and knew she was on a cold, hard bench. Indents of the planks imprinted on the side of her face. There was a baggy piece of cloth on her torso. She picked up her head and swiveled it around.

A man was sitting at the end of the bench by her feet, casually reading a newspaper. His blond hair swaying with the unpredictable breeze as his eyes scanned over the newspaper in his hands. One leg casually crossed over the other.

Athena quickly sat up and patted her belt for her lightsaber, only to find it wasn't there as she kept her eyes dead center on the man who was no stranger.

"Best not to grab for a lightsaber," he gently lowered the newspaper and looked towards the field in front of them. His voice had the slightest accent - similar to that Grand Moff she had met in custody. "Earthlings don't react well to seeing those kinds of weapons."

"Why are you here? Why am I here?" she questioned, keeping her voice low but threatening. "Tell me!"

He looked to her and the girl was agasp to see the man's eyes were no longer mean. Nor were they brown. The former Inquisitor had blue eyes. Light blue eyes.

"Come on, Dume. Figure it out. Why would I bring you back to Earth?"

The girl exhaled a breath and focused for a split second on Jalo's mind, frantically searching through it like a file cabinet.

"Abeloth..." she found what she was looking for. An expression of fear across her face as she realized her fate was closer than she ever imagined. At first, she was planning on overthrowing the Empire after she grew in power before she went on to face the Bringer of Chaos. She was hoping for years, possibly decades of training with the Ones before even being close enough to being prepared for the fight of the millennia.

"She's about to escape," Jalo let out a heavy sigh as he looked back to the meadow. "The balance of the Force shifted and now Abeloth is on her way out to destroy us all."

"Where- how- how do I get to her prison?" she sensed no lies from the former Second Brother. Only fear. "When is she...how-"

He let out a regretful sigh as he folded the newspaper on his lap into a neat rectangle. "I don't know. Just soon. Whatever happened with you and those trainees on Lola Sayu - it shifted things big time."

The girl froze. Lola Sayu...Lola Sayu...She remembered every single torturous day there except the last. Ezra, Kanan, Rae...Ahsoka...they were in the Lothal Temple when she tried to warn them. It was too late, from what little she could remember. Vader knew exactly where to find them.

And then it was all blank.

The corner of Jalo's mouth frowned as he looked at the girl's face. "Do you not remember? The final moments you were on Lola Sayu?"

No matter how much she searched her own brain, she simply could not recover her final moments there. She remembered nothing of her atrocity. She remembered none of the rage, the hate, the suffering. None of it.

Jalo seemed to swallow his words and turned to the field of grass and people. "So, will you fight? Abeloth?"

"I'm not sure I have a choice."

Jalo stood and turned to the right, offering a wave over his shoulder as he began to walk away. "I wish you the best of luck."

"Wait!" she bolted up off the bench. She had to walk briskly to keep up with him as he continued to walk away. "Where is she? Where do I fight her? How do I fight her?"

"I am simply the messenger," Jalo replied, keeping his eyes forward as he continued to walk away. "All I know is you need to be on Earth to fight her."

"Where on Earth?"

He remained silent as he walked away.

She was getting frustrated. So many emotions were bubbling in her gut. She wanted so many answers, but didn't know what questions to ask.

The girl stood still on the cement pavement of a walkway as Jalo continued to walk away, newspaper tucked under his left arm. She called out, "You knew my mother"

Still walking away, the blond man replied, "I'm not your father, I'll tell ya that much."

"I know" she called as he continued to walk away, furthering the distance between the two. She balled up her fists. "My father was Onthant Solarburn."

She could hardly remember the name of her father. The name that rodian on Coruscant informed her and Kanan of. The faintest memory of his picture still lingered in her mind - almost all of it just being Kanan's face.

That made him stop. About twenty yards away now, Jalo kept his back to the girl as he now stood under the shade of a tree.

"You knew my father." she said.

"I knew everyone." and he walked away.

She was left alone again. In the city bustling with life, a city with over eight million people. She was once again alone. Standing in front of Central Park's East Meadow, she was in the center of the largest city in the United States. The city she was originally found in. The city she was first abandoned in - she stood alone once again.

New York City.

Athena turned back to the bench she had been asleep on and saw a lump of cloth underneath it. She approached it and found it to be a black bookbag. Sitting on the bench, she unzipped the bag to have a look inside.

She paused first, realizing she was now wearing a hoodie. She looked at her legs and saw she was still wearing the grey pants and red boots she was given on Lola Sayu. The girl pulled the front collar of the hoodie out and looked down to see she was still wearing the same top as well. Jalo must've just put a sweatshirt on top of her shirt - knowing the strange-shaped article of clothing would attract attention onto her.

Continuing on with searching the bag, she found a pair of sneakers, a couple pairs of pants, a couple shirts, a water bottle, a folded map, a knife, some granola bars, and most importantly, her lightsaber in the main pocket. In the front pocket, the first thing that caught her eye was a wallet. There were no cards in it - just cash. She quickly flipped through the green paper, estimating it to be about $500 in total. Next, she found a new toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush, hair ties, some winter gloves, and sunglasses. The side pockets just had socks and chapstick.

She put the folded knife into her hoodie pocket and zipped up the rest of the bag before putting it on her back and standing.

She had some money, she had some food, she had a weapon, yet in reality she had nothing.

She was finally free of that hellish prison, but there was no one to hold in a celebratory embrace. There was no one to tell her that it'd be alright, that her pain was no more.

Instead, it was just beginning.