Midnight Moon ☽ Sabine Wren [Star Wars Rebels]

xvii.

Chapter Seventeen;

Soleil didn't know how the next morning was going to fan out, but she wasn't expecting to wake to Ahsoka cooking a large breakfast, a warm smile on her face.

"Eat first," she'd said, pushing the bowl into Soleil's hands. "We'll talk after – you'll need your strength."

Soleil barely tasted her meal as she ate. She had to admit, she was a little nervous. A part of her wondered if she was ready. Two months seemed like a really insubstantial amount of time, compared to the many years that the old Jedi spent training.

When she finished, Ahsoka took the bowl from Soleil's hands, and activated a map. Soleil gazed up, entranced, taking in the numerous different planets that shone like a cluster of blue stars in the cave.

I could go to any of them, Soleil realised, eyes wide. It was possible. She wasn't bound anymore. Any of those planets was free to her – apart from ones under heavy Imperial control, that was. She doubted she could slip into Coruscant unnoticed.

"This is how I found my crystals," Ahsoka said softly. "Close your eyes. Reach out with the Force. The crystals want you to claim them – they'll call to you."

Soleil frowned, a little unconvinced, but nonetheless did so.

What if her crystals were on the other side of the galaxy? Would she still feel them?

Don't doubt the Force. Kanan's voice echoed in her ears. It is with you. It will call out to you.

Soleil reached out.

For a heartstopping few seconds, she felt nothing, only the dark emptiness of space and the despair of those suffering under the Empire. But she had learned how to push past that with Ahsoka. Ahsoka had admitted she'd had difficulty meditating directly after the Empire took over, for the emptiness and coldness of the Force. But she'd overcome it, and taught Soleil how to leap that hurdle as well.

Soleil sunk deeper and deeper into mediation, until she felt a yank of something in her gut, like someone had secured a hook to her stomach and was reeling her in. Soleil gasped and followed that line, until she stood before something that hummed with life – a second part of her.

Her crystals.

Soleil opened her eyes, and instantly turned the map around until a planet jumped out at her.

"I found them," she declared, as a single planet came to rest between them. She raised her head triumphantly. "Devaron. The Temple of Eedit."

Soleil didn't know any of those places, but somehow the words slipped easily from her tongue, and she knew them to be the right names.

She grinned, immensely proud with herself. It felt right, going to this planet, she could already feel it. This was where her future as a Jedi awaited her – that was the place she was going to turn everything around.

Ahsoka, however, was frowning. "Devaron?"

She sounded cautious. Soleil bit her lip and took the bait.

"What's wrong?"

Ahsoka sighed. "It was taken over by the Separatists during the Clone Wars – by Dooku and his apprentice, Savage Oppress. We must be cautious."

Soleil had to press her lips together to refrain from groaning aloud. Seriously? she wanted to scream at the universe, but knew that would accomplish nothing but make her throat hurt.

Instead, she grimaced. "Right. Because when were things ever easy?"

Ahsoka laughed. "Right indeed."