The Children of the Stars

Cassiopeia

Allana's steps finally slowed as she reached a part of the island she didn't recognize. She stood on the cliffside ledge, watching the water recede from a hole with moss climbing out of the sides.

She'd never seen this part of the island in all her explorations as a little girl. Then again, she wasn't one of the ones that did a lot of exploring. That was more Jacen and Jaina.

The thought of her siblings made her dig her painted fingernails into her palms.

Now that she was faced with the reality that her father survived, it was completely different. Rage, like an ocean right beneath a durocrete dome, threatened to seize her.

How could he? How could he spend all this time on Ahch-To and never realize that they weren't coming? He was supposed to be one of the strongest Force-users ever, right alongside her mother in all the history texts.

And yet he couldn't sense her or her mother or her siblings when they were scattered among the stars?

She had to keep getting away, before her anger grew too powerful. For while she was without the Force, history had seen what happened to a Skywalker who didn't keep their anger in check.

That was easier, Allana supposed, when she approached the cliff, when she was younger. She didn't have nearly as much to be angry about then.

She jumped down in the hole— and was surprised by the water. She kicked, quickly resurfacing and spotting the shore. Rocky and smooth, it was made of a more refined version of the stone that made up the mountain and the temple and huts.

She pulled off her cloak, and set out her commlink and blaster. Suddenly, she was grateful that the commlinks had been water-proofed after Vanya pushed her in the pool the previous summer on Madrassa.

As for the blaster, it would dry out eventually. As she stood up, however, she was surrounded by cracked mirrors and darkness.

Allana glanced back down at the blaster, and decided to take her chances. At the very least, she supposed she could bludgeon someone with it, if any monsters hid inside this mirror cavern.

"Allana!"

She heard a shout and turned around, holding up the blaster over her shoulder, a remnant from her training as a small child. Ben had called it uncivilized, but Rey reminded him that the children were around weaponry every moment of every day, and the least they could do was make sure the children shot them properly, if nothing else.

Perhaps it wasn't that funny of a joke, but Allana was grateful for it nonetheless.

"Who's there?" Her voice did not shake or tremble, sounding as icy as Tenel Ka's tones.

"Allana! Please!"

It was the sound of her mother's voice. She ran through the maze of mirrors, trying to track it, to find her mom— Rey was in trouble—

Then she came across them. Rey, defenseless. Her blaster broken on the rocks beside her, the saber-staff in the hand of Darth Keera, cloaked and holding her own red lightsaber.

Rey was looking behind Keera, straight at Allana.

"Allana, please, stop her— Allana—-"

Allana shook her head, clarity finally coming through. "You're not my mother. She'd tell me to run." Allana swallowed thickly. "She did. She did tell me to run."

Then Rey vanished, leaving Darth Keera there. The Empress of the Imperial Remnant threw back her hood as she turned to face Allana.

Darth Keera was dark and beautiful, Allana decided. Her heart broke, for far too many of her beloved sister's features remained in her face. She wore red and gold jewelry, accenting her black cloak with intricate black embroidery, her yellow eyes and red saber.