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Ej-Loo sighs. This is zir last chance. Ze has to stop zir sibling, somehow.
But ze can only fight the artifact for so long.
Ze hopes that this works.
Ze knows how this will end, and ze can’t accept it.
<>
It should have killed her instantly.
Or, if something had gotten in the way, it shouldn’t have affected her at all.
But, somehow, Kelna is still alive.
But, whatever this is, an investigation needs to be done, and Kelna isn’t trained for this. She’ll call the Council and get back to the relief effort.
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Ej-Loo fights the Darkness trying to consume Kelna. Ze has to hold on. Ze has to protect zir sibling.
And, watching zir sibling’s struggles, ze knows that Anakin will need his friend.
For as long as possible.
<>
She gets back to Coruscant soon enough. Anakin feels even more traumatized than usual, and those are definitely electrowhip wounds, but he looks ready to bite her head off, and at least he hasn’t just run away from them.
She can just have Anakin drag Kenobi in here later.
“Are you okay?” Anakin asks. Kelna blinks. Usually Anakin is at least a little bit subtle with his deflection.
Anakin waves a hand at her.
“You’re skin is redder than it should be,” he says. Kelna looks down.
Kriff. He’s right. She’d noticed it a bit, but… kriff.
(She’d been more focused on avoiding Malii and Ria. She’d attacked them out of jealousy, and she can’t forgive herself. Besides, she’d never really turn them in to the Council.)
…No matter. She can ask Akemi to see if there’s anything wrong with her later. Anakin is obviously still hurting.
“Anakin, you’re hurting,” she says. “I’m not blind. Don’t talk to me, that’s fine, but go to Master Kenobi or… someone.”
(Senator Amidala, though she doesn’t say it outright.)
Anakin just shakes his head.
“I can’t,” he says. “Obi-Wan will tell the Council and they’ll add it to their list of reasons to hate me, and… and… what I did was betrayal.”
Wait, what?
“Anakin, what happened?” Kelna asks. Anakin just shakes his head again.
“I… I can’t,” he says. “I’m not ready to talk about it, yet.”
Kelna sighs.
“Okay, Anakin,” she says. “Just make sure to drag Master Kenobi in here!”
Anakin smirks.
“Will do.”
<>
Ej-Loo sighs as ze watches Akemi discover the truth, and Kelna in turn. Ze doesn’t know how much longer ze can hold this up for.
But what choice does ze have?
<>
Kelna is dying. She’s dying.
She doesn’t know what to do with that fact.
“It should have killed me instantly, but it’s killing me slowly, instead,” she says. Akemi smiles, sadly.
There’s so many things that she wishes she’d said, is it worth it to say them now? She doesn’t know.
But she feels it in the air, knows for certain that she’s alive for a reason.
And, hopefully, she can find out why.
<>
Ej-Loo watches as things go down, watches every branching timeline. Happy ones, sad ones, and bittersweet ones alike.
But this core timeline…
How will it end?
Did he actually just doom the Galaxy even further?