Lost Girl

The Fuse

There is a strained silence that settled around the room. At first, the masters stared at her as if she was about to bust out laughing, slap the back of the nearest master, tell them she was just joking with them and proceed with the truth, but after two entire minutes of her just staring back at them without even the slightest twitch of her face in a joking manner, dread fills the Force around all of them.

Ahsoka's eyes are blown wide, staring at Rey as if trying to convince her to say it was a joke, then the dread starts to fill the Force, and her orange skin starts to lose all color as horror begins to set in. Her long, thin fingers twist and curl at her sides, as her anxiety finds a way to physically manifest itself. The rest of her body remains motionless.

Everyone starts looking around at one another, using their eyes and a deep rooted connection with one another, to speak without using any words or releasing anything too alarming into the Force. The dread is there and is quickly trying to pull back into themselves to cloak it, or perhaps they are regaining control of their surprise. An eerie emptiness is left there in the Force from the Masters, trying not to alarm the guards outside and those close by of the unease within the chambers and cause a panic.

Rey feels something that she can only describe as rationality, or something relaxing at least, flood into the Force. It comes from the small green Master, and it seems to sooth the others. There is age in him, Rey doesn't need the Force to tell her those lines on his face aren't just stress related. It's got to be from a long life, too. And his ability to control the room... Rey has only become aware of the Force recently, but there is few that she knows of able to do such a thing without saying anything at all. There is a lot of trust and respect in this Master.

But there was a lot of confusion and worry funneling into the Force, though, from two people. The strongest of which -

"What?"

Rey looks over at Anakin to see his steel blue eyes are blown wider than even Ahsoka's. But he's staring right at Rey, probing both with his eyes and through the Force. He isn't trying to peak into her mind, just using is presence in the Force to bear down on her. Like a heavy pressure is settling over her and pushing hard. She recognizes this feeling from the one time she dealt with Kylo Ren. He was trying to peak into her mind to see the map leading to Luke, and was using his power in the Force as a way of "throwing his weight around".

With Kylo, she felt the pressure, even though she didn't know about the Force inside her, but with Anakin, it's like the entire planet of Coruscant is weighing down on her shoulders. Anakin isn't just strong in the Force, he's unbelievably powerful in it. He's stronger than even Luke! It's like his power is completely endless and eternal. Rey didn't really know who was Anakin Skywalker, but in that instant, she knew he would be an invaluable ally. A man of monstrous strength in the Force and convictions to match.

"How?" Anakin asks. "What happened to all the Jedi?"

"Anakin," Obi-Wan starts but stops when one of the other masters - Mace Windu? - shakes his head. He wanted an answer for that question too. Rey isn't sure she knows how to answer that question in a way that'll make them happy. But maybe that's where the dread comes from. From their perspective, if what she says is true, then something terrible is going to happen.

Rey thinks about those younglings. Wanting to be like them. Be here in the Temple, learning how to be a Jedi. Having Masters and fellows to learn with. To be part of something. To be able to belong to something. To have people in the exact same boat as you.

But that means that probably none of those younglings survived. And if they did, they were hunted down by Vader, or killed by some other means, or were turned to the Dark Side, or simply fell between the cracks of the galaxy. Too afraid to make a noise. Too afraid to draw the attention of someone unwanted. Hiding who they were and where they came from. Survival over all else.