Orbiculatus

One

She knows the moment it happens, can feel tension in the air during the lead-up to it. No one has to tell her: she can feel herself torn in two. She clutches at her pendant and weeps. The room feels cold, the oppressive kind of cold that happens when there's a leak in the hull and the dead vacuum of space begins to creep in, slowly suffocating everything it touches.

This wasn't supposed to happen. She and Paige were a team , she was the only family she had left. Rose was never too far from her sister, and when she was, she felt a string bound across galaxies back to her, a tug directly from her heart that could lead her home from anywhere. She stares at the grave necklace, once a piece of hope, and feels anger seep into her grief like the oppressive cold of the room.

" This isn't how it's supposed to go! " she cries, the rage of injustice seeping into her tone as well. The hull of the ship seems to weep inward with her, the air tensing even moreso. She clutches her pendant with all of her might, the Haysian smelt digging into the callused flesh of her hand.

The Force seems to agree with her.

She's still crying when she feels herself wrenched from her time and place in the cosmos and dumped in the dark sands of some despotically hot desert planet. She looks up to the sky, stars shining just brightly enough for her to see what's in front of her and not much more. She glances around still, pulling her necklace over her head and wiping at her eyes and nose with a sniffle.

"Who are you?" a small voice asks.

She jumps in surprise at that, turning to meet the sandy-haired boy. She smiles; it isn't this kid's fault that she's been thrown about by a Force beyond her control. "I'm Rose," she replies honestly, looking him over, the anger that arose in her earlier now simmering in the front of her mind as she realizes what this child is. "Who are you?" she asks back, kneeling before him and watching his eyes carefully.

"I'm Anakin—" he begins, the name shaking something from her. Some distant, malevolent voice whispers, " Vader ," and she realizes, somehow, what's happened and it doesn't seem right. Darth Vader; he can't have been — he wasn't just some — wasn't he always? Her train of thought is cut off as the child repeats himself. "Did you hear me?" he asks, voice that of a whiny child, and she suddenly feels like crying again.

"I'm sorry, what?" she asks as nicely as possible.

"I asked you where you came from," he huffs, pouting.

"I'm from Hays Minor," she begins, hand subconsciously pressing against her pendant. "But that's not all, I'm part of The Resistance too," she explains, taking off her ring and sliding the shutters open, the insignia revealing itself.

"Resistance? Against what?" he asks.

"You'll know soon enough," she replies, trying her best to smile. "But we take care of people like you, we protect the galaxy. When the First...when my planet was destroyed, all I had left was my sister and they helped me. I became a mechanic for them. You can be whatever you want."

"I want to be a pilot," he admits, and Rose can't help but tear up.

"My sister did, too...she got to be one," Rose assures, even as she feels a few tears begin to bubble at the corner of her eye.

"Was she any good?" he asks, and Rose can't help but laugh at that.

"Best in the fleet," she manages to chuckle out, turning her head away just in time to hide the falling tears. She hears a woman call the child's name, and he quickly glances back to her before skittering off. She waits a moment, drying her eyes before the thought occurs to her to make chase. By the time she rises to do so, she feels herself torn from reality again.