The Force Betrayed: Cal Kestis x OC

24.

Sakana turned to look at the holocron with curious eyes, but the chill down her spine hadn't left. If anything, it had gotten stronger.

"So you're the Jedi Cal Kestis picked up along the way," a familiar female voice echoed through the vault. "I had thought our raid on Kashyyyk would have been enough to make you turn your back on Cal, but I suppose you're not as dedicated as your mother."

Sakana's blood ran cold. No one except her mother and her father knew of her existence outside of the Wookiees, and even then, not many outside of her village had even met her. It hadn't occurred to her that the Empire could possibly have connected the two, but now that she thought about it, she felt like an idiot for not having seen it coming.

"Strike a nerve?" the Inquisitor teased, raising the tone of her voice to mock her. "Did you think that because you didn't exist in any Imperial records, we wouldn't notice you?"

Sakana ignored her jabs and turned to face the Inquisitor, her heart pounding in her throat. Her mouth was dry and her feet felt cemented to the ground, but she wasn't just going to sit there and take it.

"I would never turn my back on my own kind," Sakana spat, staring at the Inquisitor as she removed her helmet. Her skin was the color of shaved Wroshyr wood, and her eyes were a piercing green that burned through Sakana's skull as she stared back at the Jedi. Her black bob cut off halfway down her neck and hung loosely around the left side of her face.

"Oh? Is that why you left the Wookiees to face the Empire alone?"

"Stop it. That's enough, Trilla," Cal interrupted, surprising the two women. The holocron was the only thing separating them, and Sakana was eyeing it nervously.

Trilla. The name echoed in Sakana's head as she remembered the story of Cere's padawan, who was now an Inquisitor and standing right in front of her.

"Or what?" Trilla sneered, taking a step towards the holocron. Cal all but leaped forward as he tried to put himself in front of the holocron and Sakana, widening Trilla's vile grin.

"You don't scare me," Cal said, igniting his lightsaber.

Trilla let out a short, sarcastic laugh as she ignited her own double-blade and stared back at Cal, squinting her eyes in anger. "How does it feel to know that you have both brought an entire galaxy of Force-sensitives right into the palm of the Empire?"

"I don't intend to find out," Cal shot back, and before Trilla could say or do anything else, he charged at her.

Sakana froze for the first few seconds of the fight as Cal launched himself at Trilla, their lightsabers clashing with an all-too-familiar sound. When she realized what was happening, she attempted to Force-pull the holocron towards herself, but Trilla was quicker. The holocron shivered midair as the two women pulled at it from opposite sides, neither faltering.

Trilla's angry eyes were shifting between Cal's saber and the holocron still suspended above the keyhole as Sakana put all of her focus into pulling the holocron back towards herself. It was almost too late when she heard the tiniest CRACK! come from the holocron; it was beginning to feel like it was going to shatter if someone didn't let go. She couldn't let Trilla have it, but she also couldn't break the object that could determine the fate of the galaxy. The one object she still believed could bring her back to her father.

The split second of hesitation that rattled Sakana's mind was enough for Trilla to gain the upper hand as the holocron flew directly into her open palm.

"I won't let you take it!" Cal yelled as he shoved his blade towards her, barely shifting her focus. Sakana ignited her blade and tried to run towards Trilla in a desperate attempt to recover the holocron from her, but with barely even an inch of motion from Trilla's half-closed fist, Sakana was thrown across the vault.