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Her world is on fire.
It licks up her limbs and spine, searing her to the bone. It claws at her soul, tearing bits off at a time until she feels less and less whole, and more bits and pieces of her float away on the wind. It saps her energy from her body, leaving the gravity of the earth to drag her down into its embrace like a brained droid, only a shell of what once was there.
And worst: it sets her bonds aflame. All the glowing threads that stood out when she closed her eyes, the multicolored lights that glittered like stars with their individuality, they all were dim and gray. Her men— what happened to them? She had to do something, had to save them—
Bly. Where was Bly?
She can’t feel him anymore.
Bly is gone, and there is no future— not for her— that isn’t by his side.
The fire burns away her resistance.
Aayla lets herself sleep one last time.
The world is different here.
She floats. She’s not sure how far or for how long.
She’s alone.
I am one with the Force.
If all returned to the Force, then surely Bly should be here? Is even this endless fate of hers destined to be without him?
The Force is with me.
She feels their whispers tingle across her, through her.
We made it quick. Traitor. Orders. She treated us well. Orders are orders. She didn’t feel pain. Good soldiers follow orders. Execute execute execute order—
She’s violently yanked back, as if on an elastic string that had stretched too far.
Bonds tie beings together. But what of snapped bonds? Did they wholly cease to exist, or were remnants left behind, ghosts to taunt her with the words of her men— her friends?
Was she to be trapped here (nowhere) forever as punishment for breaking her promise to Bly?
We’ll remain together after the war. We’ll have the rest of our lives. We’ll make it through.
We.
She can’t break that promise. She can’t lose that tie to the universe— to her universe.
The force encourages her to let go and be at peace.
Aayla grips tight and chooses to feel.
There is nothing but pain here.
She experiences things in fragments, coming in and out as if a weakened radio signal in a thick fog. Sometimes she can see and not hear. Sometimes she can hear and not see.
The one thing that remains constant is Bl—
Not Bly.
What used to be Bly.
She can still feel him under the relative blankness that is CC-5052. CC-5052 is silent, and so are his thoughts. She can feel how his programming pushes anything individual aside, can feel how CC-5052 knows something is wrong.
She can feel Bly fighting beneath it all. He’s still in there: the commander that chooses to be quiet and professional in public only to let his guard down around her and his closest brothers, the soldier who would readily sacrifice himself to save another at any cost, the one who reminded her of what they fought for on the darkest days.
She knows now there was no way out. The Force whirls like a black hole around Coruscant and the Sith monster at its core. All becomes one with the force, and thus Aayla sees all.
She chooses to remain with Bly.
He has never shown her any ability with the Force, but CC-5052 clamps down even further on his senses. He cannot see her, cannot hear her, does not know she still remains a silent watcher by his side.
But in his sleep, his defenses are weak. As he begins to dream again, she knows Bly is still fighting to be free.
And so in his dreams, she gives him something to fight for.
She becomes practiced at remaining constantly beside him. In time, she finds speaking to him helps. It lets her pretend she is still flesh and bone, protecting his back. It keeps her grounded instead of drifting apart and following the natural flow of the Force.
This is not natural. This is the price she must pay for her attachment.
The feeling of fire has never left her veins. She fights the urge for it to tear her apart so she can further haunt herself with the living ghost of Bly. She refuses to become nothing but stardust. She made an oath to him. Is he not as worthy as others who are sworn great vows?
The inferno does not vanish, but Aayla no longer feels suffocated by its smoke.
Time is different here.
It ebbs. It flows.
Aayla simply is.
She hopes he knows he is fighting for himself, not just for her.
Just because she can not live doesn’t mean he is condemned to death.
She tells him such when he asks.
Live, love. Protect the innocent.
“Please don’t leave me,” he begs.
She would do anything he ever asked of her.
But she is a selfish creature now. She’s harnessed the Force firmly enough to finally sit at the reins. She comes and goes at will, and she can breach any laws of the universe that try to keep her from him.
She has control, but she will never leave him.
Never , she promises.
I will never leave you.