|| Uninvited || An Anakin Skywalker Story

Chapter Thirteen

My mind was racing as we weaved our way through the city back to the temple.

Anakin and I stayed at the Manari peak for an hour. Our time consisted of me asking questions and Anakin doing his best to offer an explanation or theory.

Here is what I have established thus far:

I am force sensitive.

But, so far, it has only manifested in force empathy. I am able to physically sense other's emotions. And with enough training, I can manipulate and control them.

However, because I am untrained, I unknowingly project my emotions with reckless abandon for all those who are force empathetic to feel. So far, only Anakin and Yoda seem to possess that skill at the temple.

I need to learn how to put up mental blocks, allowing me to shield my emotions from others (and to stop torturing Anakin with my emotional warfare).

Anakin believes my ability was triggered by physical contact with another force empath, himself, and then exasperated by Payto's death.

When I brushed his arm that night in the dining hall, it opened some sort of emotional channel between us that he hasn't been able to shut down...in fact, it's getting stronger as each day passes. Despite him knowing how to mentally cut off his emotions from everyone else, I am able to bypass those blocks for an unexplained reason.

This has allowed me to subconsciously tune into emotions that Anakin usually keeps tightly controlled. And he didn't say it out loud, but I could tell this makes him uncomfortable.

Emotions are a powerful thing and being able to project onto others is a skill I shouldn't take lightly. Something like this has the potential to destabilize the entire Jedi foundation if my ability falls into the wrong hands. This thought caused a sense of unease to spread throughout my gut. I didn't like the idea of inflicting damage or causing potential problems.

And that's when I landed on my current thought: I wished I could go home and confide in Payto about this. He would know what to say.

Tears began to prick at the corner of my eyes as the grief flooded back into my system. My heart had been distracted for long enough by this new revelation, the hurt was seeping back into my body. I squeezed my eyes shut in an effort to keep the anguish at bay, but it was to no use. I turned my head to the side as tears began to fall down my cheeks, quickly drying into salty streaks thanks to the wind. I was grateful Anakin had his eyes focused on the skylane in front of him as we sped back towards the temple.

That's when I felt a familiar sense of warm calm settle over my heart.

"Don't...please." I said, snapping my head in Anakin's direction. I knew he was trying to help, or save himself from feeling my grief, but this was something I needed to process...needed to feel.

"Sorry." He mumbled, and just like that, the pain of loss seared through my chest again. I couldn't help but wince in response. I noticed the muscle in Anakin's jaw flicker as he gritted his teeth.

I felt guilty that I was impacting him like this. I hated the idea of him taking on the burden of my broken heart and fractured emotions. A burden he did not consent to.

"I'm sorry." Now it was my time to apologize.

"We'll get this sorted out." Anakin said in a cold tone.

We spent the rest of our journey in silence. And although there was a lack of conversation, I knew Anakin was privy to how I was feeling. Just as I was able to sense the frustration and unease from him.