The Force Betrayed: Cal Kestis x OC

28.

The same dread that pushed her throat into her stomach came out of her lungs in a quiet breath of relief. It had been a long shot when Cal had first introduced the holocron on Kashyyyk, and somehow, she knew that it was for the better. Maybe this was the Force telling her that it was a stone better left unturned, and that maybe, after how reckless she'd been, this was her sign that it was time to reign herself in.

Still, she couldn't help but feel a tug in her heart as she thought about her father. The journal was destroyed, and any hope she had in understanding what went wrong was gone. But then again, he'd never come back to Kashyyyk, and her mother had never left. What if the Force was trying to protect her?

"Oh," was all she could say, but the sound mostly came out as disappointment.

"Maybe it just needs time to upload, I'm sure—"

"Cal," Sakana said, shaking her head. "It's okay. I think," she sighed, forcing her lungs to take in adequate air as she continued, "I think the Force is trying to tell me something."

"No," Cal responded, turning around to fully face her. "You agreed to help me because you thought you might be able find him—"

"'Might,'" she repeated, stepping closer to him, "but that's not why I helped you. It was my way of repaying you for freeing the Wookiees."

Cal wasn't satisfied by either reason as he turned back towards the data-pad, letting his hands hover over the keyboard. "What about a last name?"

"I don't know," she half-lied. It didn't matter anyway; if there was no Luke on the holocron, there was no Luke Skywalker. "Maybe it's just incomplete," she added, walking over to the holo-table.

"No, it came from the archives. Cordova was entrusted with it just before the Purge," Cal said as he continued typing something Sakana couldn't see.

Before the Purge.

It had been a long shot before, but now it was simply impossible. Luke Skywalker didn't exist to anyone else in the galaxy, and for now, Sakana would keep it that way.

"Wait," Sakana said, shaking her head. "Eno Cordova got the holocron from the archives?"

"Yeah," Cal said, once again turning back around. "Every Force-sensitive child known to the Order before the Purge is on this list."

Sakana nodded slowly while she tried to think of at least a half-true and believable explanation. In the end, it was entirely true.

"It makes sense why he's not on there, then," Sakana sighed, looking up at Cal. "I don't think the Order knew about him. I think my father taking him into hiding was some kind of personal favor, but I'm really not sure. My mother mentioned the child in the journal, but...that's where I stopped. I couldn't get any further; it's gone. There was more that I will never read because I couldn't trust in the Force. I was too afraid, I...I failed."

"We're going to find him, Sakana. The journal is still intact—"

"I don't think that's going to work," Sakana replied sadly, still unable to fully grasp the reality of what losing the journal meant. The last entry she'd seen had already been corrupted somehow, and she couldn't imagine the damage a lightsaber stab would've done to the contents.

Merrin quietly left the common area and retreated to Sakana's quarters to retrieve the journal. It was sitting on top of Sakana's robes that she'd neatly folded on her bed, and with careful hands, Merrin grabbed the journal and returned just as silently to the room.

"Master Tapal once told me that we are vessels of the Force. Maybe the journal is just a vessel for the Force in the same way that we are. I mean, it couldn't hurt to try, right?" Cal asked, his soft eyes somehow boring a hole into Sakana's skull.