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When the droid's offensive picked up again, Obi-Wan was down the line with Cody, rather than with her master as she probably should have been.
"Commander Kenobi?" One of the men ducked down with them asked.
"Yes, Riches?" She replied, calm and smooth as though they weren't taking direct fire.
"Don't Padawans have braids?"
"I do have one." She picked up an inconspicuous line of braided together flowers.
"Isn't it supposed to be hair on humanoids?"
"My hair can't be cut." She replied. "The buds can be, however, so they will stand in. They're braided around a steel chain."
"Is this really the time, Riches?" One of the younger brothers asked, frantic.
"There's always time until there isn't, Aster." She answered. "Make the most of the time you possess."
"The droids are approaching range." One of the brothers on Cody's side reported. "What do we do, Commander?"
It was a no-win scenario, really. With the shield up, the canons would be useless and the brothers could only fight from behind cover for so long until the massively overnumbered enemy was on top of them.
"Can droids' visual receptors be overloaded by flashbangs?" She asked.
"Yes, but that doesn't do us much good."
"I'll need your assistance, Commander." She took off her helmet, revealing that angelic face with her crystalline complexion, then began stripping apart her coverings on her arms and legs.
"What are you doing?"
"Turn up your sun visors all the way, because this is going to get bright very, very fast." She replied, having him tear off her sleeves and most of her leggings.
"All the way is strong enough to observe stars."
"Exactly." She equipped her lightsaber before shedding the belted-on skirt and ptreuges*. She pulled the boots back on, but they only covered up to her knee. "Wish me luck, gentlemen."
They didn't have a chance to argue, but Cody abruptly understood exactly what her goal was.
"Cover fire!" He shouted, popping up in time to see her 'sabers ignite yellow, the droids notice the new foe on the field, then all of her exposed skin go supernova.
A low murmur of awe swept over the comes, the droids all loudly complaining.
She didn't wait for them to get themselves together, just charged across the battlefield, plowing through them as easily as she passed through air. Shimmer was left in her wake, sizzling like sparklers.
A second layer of vision from inside his mind overlayed Cody's eyes and he saw her clearly. She glanced back at him with a wink, and he realized she had done it, and done it purposefully. She wanted him to be able to see her, unaffected by the dazzling display she was putting on.
They don't call us Starchildren for nothing. Her voice echoed in his mind. Want to see another trick?
He didn't know how to say yes, but she seemed to sense it easily enough. She extended her hands and all the glitter in the air rushed forward, spreading to float amongst all the droids.
She snapped her fingers and the glitter exploded.
It was like each little sparkle was a dozen grenades, all combining their force to blow away a target. White-hot shards of droid went everywhere, sending the back lines into disarray.
In seconds, she had destroyed half a platoon.
She dashed forward again, up onto a tank, leaving a smear along the body of glitter, before she snapped again and that, too, went up in flames.
"By the makers." One of the brothers breathed. "What the hell do they need us for when they have her?"
"They didn't know they had her." One of the 501st retorted. "She was in a bunker somewhere under their Temple. Came up five years ago."
Cody had fractured the glass five years ago.
"It looks like she gives off heat, too." Riches commented, watching her even as he was killing droids not distracted my the massacre going on.
"Obi-Wan, pull back." General Jinn ordered, but her comm unit was her with him, on her bracer.
"Whoops." Wooley swallowed.
He glanced back up at her, able to see her easily even without his helmet's sunshade, and focused on that image of her.
Come back.
She snapped one last time, disappearing in the confusion to reappear as she hopped back over the walls, grinning at the men. She was only glowing dimly, no longer fully illuminated.
"How about that, hmm?"
"Can all Jedi do that?" A shiny asked, breathless.
"No, just me. Unless there are more Starchildren that survived." She started pulling her tattered clothes back on as best she could, finishing with the helmet.
"That's amazing."
The enemy shield began to fall away, and they knew that Skywalker and Tano had been successful.
The order came over the comms for the batteries to open fire and the cannons did just that, obliterating lines of clankers in a similar manner to hers, pushing the droids into retreat.
Cody could feel how affected Obi-Wan was by the men's morale boost, could practically see her smiling. She reached out and took his hand unconsciously.
"Oh." She jerked back, sheepish. "Is it alright if I touch you, Commander?"
He'd never been asked such a thing. "Yes. Feel free."
She grasped his forearm - a much more neutral location - and held tightly. She leaned in, as though she was discussing a secret. "It's just so strange that you're here and you're real."
"What do you mean?"
"I've known you forever. And now you're here-" She shook her head, overwhelmed. "I'm so glad I got to meet you, to know you."
"If this is some Jedi thing, you'll have to explain it to me. I don't understand."
"Aboard the cruiser, then." She squeezed his arm again, standing as General Jinn approached.
In Cody's dreams that night, Obi-Wan was there, standing in the middle of an icy cave in only bare linens. She was covered, but only enough for modesty's sake. She was standing amongst a hoard of crystals, looking at them.
"Where are we?" He asked, surprised that he didn't feel the bite of the cold.
"Ilum." She replied, serene. "My homeworld."
"You were born here?"
"Something like that." She gestured to the crystals. "Which one?"
"Pardon?"
"I know you can't come here yourself, so I'll go in your stead. I need to know which one."
"Can you do this with any location?"
She winced. "No. I know the crystals because we're the same."
"The same?"
"What made the kyber made us." She explained. "We're connected, and most planets with kyber reserves produced Starchildren. This planet produced me. This is also the planet the Jedi use to harvest the kyber crystal inside of their lightsaber. You need one too, as a dyad."
"I'm a clone, Obi-Wan."
She raised an eyebrow. "And?"
"I'm not allowed to be your other half."
She frowned, like he was speaking another language. "No one decides a dyad pair, they just happen. The Force doesn't create accidents."
"That's not a choice I get to make. They'll decommission and destroy me if they find out I've got this power."
Her expression broke, horrified and livid in a breath. "Over my dead body! I've been in statis for millennia waiting for you to find me. No blasted regulations-" She spat the word, "- are going to keep you from me. They're not allowed! We're dyad."
Her convictions were so strong, he felt had having to break it to her. "We're not people to them, Obi-Wan. We don't get rights."
Her whole presence soured, as though those words had offended her to her very core.
"Sentients are sentients are sentients. I'll make them see, if they're forgotten so quickly." She shook herself, releasing more sparkles and pushing away the negative feelings. "Regardless, you need to choose."
He sighed; she wasn't going to let this go. "How do I choose?"
"Concentrate, and follow the thread of the Force like you do when you connect to me. One or two will call to you."
He settled down, taking a calming breath, and closed his eyes. He felt Obi-Wan dim herself down to help him concentrate.
The crystals felt strange in his mind. Alive, but not sentient. Powerful, but stagnant. All potential wrapped in a buzzing layer of kinetics, they all hummed in his head. Above him, the humming sounded oddly familiar, and he reached for it, straining to listen.
"How lovely." She murmured, catching the shard in her hand, examining it. "What a beautiful hue."
He opened his eyes. "We're not really there, are we?"
"No, buth of us are aboard the Endurance, but I know what I need to retrieve." She walked over to him, pressing the shard to his chest. His eyebrows rose when it melted into his bare skin. "It will feel like you now. You're bound to it, and I'll be able to find it."
"Is that a good thing?"
"We're dyad." She said, as though that explained everything. Maybe to her mind, it did. "Regardless of what the Order has lost along the way, I remember. I know who and what we are. And there is no power in the whole galaxy that can overcome us."
He wanted to believe her. Everything she said just felt right.
She touched his face, right against his scar, and his whole body lit up in a miasma of sensation.
"I will earn your faith, Cody." She said. "For now, sleep."