The Legend of the Jedi Queen

70. Palpatine's Observatory

Flames licked at the underbrush of the deep forests. The heat singed her hair, making it frizz and poof, but that was the last priority at the moment. All she could do was pump her arms faster, lift her knees higher, praying that she could outrun the fire.

Tallis was right by her side, keeping up with her stride in a perfect mirror image. She only stole glances out of the side of her eyes. He never looked at her. Yet he kept up with her perfectly as the inferno behind them roared and whirled around, consuming all in its path.

The Force was screaming out at Nellith. First-hand, she felt the agony and suffering of the ancient forest burning around her, as if she were burning herself. She screamed for the pain of it, and that was when Tallis looked at her. He stopped, extending his arm so she would stop.

That only made it worse. With no distraction like the flight for her life, she felt the burning more intensely. She clutched at strands of her hair, wrenched her eyes shut and fell to her knees, curling them up to her chest as she fell to her side.

Surely she would die of this pain, if not the fire that was closing in on them all.

Tallis tapped her shoulder, trying to see if he could undo the damage he had unwittingly caused, but Nellith writhed away from his touch. She didn't want to feel anything anymore. Death, or severance from the Force. . . That would be better than the suffering.

Tallis looked around wildly. The flames were withstanding only inches away from the two of them. Then he outstretched his hand, and the fire withdrew into one ring. The flames stretched to the sky, and Tallis brought his palms down to the ground. The fire obeyed, and quelled itself in a single, final blaze. Exhausted from the effort, Tallis fell over next to her.

Nellith slowly propped herself up as the last of the pain faded. Her ears were ringing, her voice hoarse. Her body felt like it was a thousand miles away. She was no longer here. Everything was disconnected. Confused, she looked to Tallis. She couldn't tell if he was dead or alive. She felt nothing.

Slowly blinking back to consciousness, Nellith realized that the Millennium Falcon had exited hyperspace. She looked to Chewbacca, who was asleep himself in his chair. Using the Force, she gently woke him, and they navigated the craft to the coordinates they found within the Imperial archives.

Remnants from Scarif revealed the location of the observatory, and it was far from any known settlements. According to activity logs as well, it looked as if no one had visited since the Emperor himself had died.

From the atmosphere, Nellith couldn't spot it. According to her records, there was some sort of cloaking device that made it blend into the endless desert of Jakku. She punched in the specific coordinates, and the map on the Falcon's console regenerated, showing the new location in relation to them.

"I like these new upgrades," Nellith admitted.

Chewbacca roared his assent.

Nothing was there to stop them, other than the cloaking device. No anti-aircraft blasters, no guards from the Second Order. . . Nothing.

Nellith stood outside of the Falcon, landed safely on the dented, rusted landing strip. The cold wind blew her dress so it billowed like the cloth strips on her mother's clothes. She stared at the lifeless horizon, remembering the similar landscape of Tatooine.

Once, in the Kenobi house, when she had built her first lightsaber, her mother had told her a myth about Jakku. How it had once been green before some cataclysmic event involving twins.

Seeing the cold desert of Jakku now, Nellith wondered how anyone could believe that had once been true. Sure, there were small clumps of spiky green plants here and there. But there was nothing bigger than that. Not a single oasis. There were large rivers, but nothing grew near there.

The more she stared at it, the colder Nellith felt. Like the cave on Anch-To, Jakku radiated pure death. Except for one place— the observatory. There, she could feel light, as strong and brilliant as the sun.

How could that be? Nellith wondered as she turned around to face the abandoned facility. Why would Palpatine be interested in the light, if he was a Sith Lord?

Shivering, she finally decided to enter. There was no point putting it off. She had made a promise to Tallis. Hopefully, he would keep his to her. Tentatively, she pushed a sheet of metal to the side that functioned as a door, and entered.

The sands of time on Jakku had not been kind to the observatory. Sheets of metal had fallen off and the insides were covered in grit and sand. All the technology that had been invested into this location had weathered away to nearly nothing. None of it was recoverable.

As someone who had once loved making droid creatures from spare parts, it saddened Nellith to see so much go to waste. Then again, maybe some of it had survived. The scavengers were all over Jakku, after all.

Reminding herself why she was there, Nellith pressed on, ascending the staircase to the upper level, where all of the winds forced themselves through the breaks in the observatory walls. She pulled open a door, and inside saw Tallis sitting in an old chair. He stood, sudden.

"You came," he said breathlessly, as she stepped forward.

"No weapons," Nellith said. "Chewbacca is staying in the Falcon. No one knows I'm here. I've done everything you've asked. Will you end the war?"

"Of course," he murmured, drawing closer. "It's all over. It will be, anyway."

"I've never had any interest in carrying on Andromeda's silly war anyway," a chilling female voice said.

Nellith and Tallis turned to see Abeloth, inhabiting Andromeda Hux's body, step forward.

"What do you mean?" Nellith asked, looking from Tallis to Abeloth, and then to Tallis. "I thought you willingly joined with Andromeda."

"Oh, she just happened to be an easy host, one I can discard once I get what I want," Abeloth said with a chilling laugh. "If there is any of her left. I suspect Andromeda Hux is quite dead."

Nellith realized the cold wasn't jut due to the Jakku winds. It was the evil in front of her. She had never liked Andromeda— had even tried to kill her, a few times. But the total annihilation of her soul wasn't something Nellith would've wished on her. Not on her worst enemy.

Nellith swallowed. "What do you want, then?"

"Simple," Abeloth said, as Andromeda's blue eyes turned completely black and twinkled with mischief. "I want my children."