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Luke shivered as he pulled his furs closer around him. Ilum was colder than anywhere Luke had ever been with great mountains of ice and sparse snow dotting the landscape as it usually froze solid immediately.
The Heliost Clan was 11 standard now and were finally old enough to take the trip to Ilum. Master Yoda led them through the barren landscape of Ilum, until they arrived at a soaring cliff. It seemed to stretch on forever, swallowed up by the raging storm.
“Arrived we have.” Master Yoda said, brushing the snow and ice off of a stone insignia built into the ground. The symbol of the Order, it must have been there for centuries and somehow Luke felt warmth as he stood on it.
“But Master, it’s just a cliff.” Rimia said, her headdress slightly skewed by the wind.
“Ah, looks like a cliff it does, young one.” Master Yoda said. “But break through we can. Work together in the force we must.”
Master Yoda reached out in the Force, lifting his hand to the cliff face. One by one the children joined him and Luke could feel each of his clanmates in the force. His sister’s stubbornness, Rimia’s kindness, Tobee’s intelligence, Rinninin’s strength, Claybra’s bravery, Nalah’s quiet confidence, and Alid’s wit. Though he could feel each of his creche mates separately, as they broke through the sheer cliff, he could feel them not only as individuals, but as one entity, breathing, hearts beating, living as one.
The cliff cracked, falling to icy dust, and the group entered an ancient temple. There were soaring statues of Jedi, now long dead, and beautiful stonework. His eyes darted around the room, unable to take in everything at once. He suddenly understood, Tamah qa brok vaversi, ji enoah qa mikodail orhma bika .
“The heart of the lightsaber the kyber is.” Master Yoda said. Luke tore his eyes away from the Temple and turned back to the small Master. “The heart of you the kyber must be. Bring life the kyber must.”
Master Yoda reached out in the force, opening small windows in the side of the cavern. Glittering light from the Ilum sun shone into the Temple, knocking off the center crystal.
“Wizard.” Claybra said in an awed whisper. The rest of the younglings nodded mutely in agreement as the warm light from the sun refracted off the hanging crystal, melting the ice door between two huge statues.
“Go. Find your crystal you must before the sun sets or trapped inside you will be.” Master Yoda said, sitting on the center platform.
The youngling rushed into the caverns, Luke gripping his sister’s hand. The cavern was made of ice and though he couldn’t see any living thing, the Force was breathing life into the frozen caves. He understood now why this was the Jedi’s most holy place.
“We should stay together.” Leia said. “We could get lost and then we’d be trapped.”
“Yeah.” Nalah said. “I don’t want to be alone here.” The rest of them shivered in agreement. Even though the caves had a warmth to them that only Anohrah had, it was… quieter somehow. They knew they were in a sacred place.
“How will we know which crystal is ours?” Alid asked.
“We’ll know.” Rinninin said in his soft voice. “Like a finder.” Luke and Leia hadn’t had a finder but he had heard stories about the warmth and safety that they projected when they found a child. That younglings knew they were safe before speaking to them.
They entered a small, cramped room and Luke’s eyes were immediately drawn to a passage. It was dark and small, seemingly endless. “We should go this way.” Leia said, pointing at another passage, a wider one.
“Leia, I don’t think that’s…” Luke trailed off and turned back to look at his sister, but she was gone as was the rest of their clan. The passage they had gone down was gone, like it had never been there and when he turned back to the small passage, the cavern he had been in disappeared as well, leaving an ice wall behind him.
“Guys? Where are you? I can’t see anything.” He felt tears prickling up in his eyes as he walked through the pitch dark hallway. Suddenly he tripped over something small in front of him and fell on his face. He reached out into the darkness, feeling for whatever he had fallen over.
When he brought the object into the light from the small flashlight he had and saw that it was a helmet, similar to that of the clones during the war, but it was pure white, without any of the markings that the armor so often bore. There was no tee-visor either, just two blank, black eye sockets staring up at him.
That’s when he noticed the blood staining the edges of the helmet.
Luke screamed and threw the helmet along with his flashlight down the passageway. The flashlight disappeared and now the cave was completely dark.
“Please! Someone, help me!” He yelled, stumbling down the passageway. Then, in the distance, he saw a blue glow and felt singing in the Force.
The Force seemed to dance around him, brushing up against his ears and hair, and the tears stopped falling from his eyes.
He walked towards the shining light as though in a trace. When he arrived at the source of the light, he saw a kyber embedded in the wall. It couldn’t have been larger than his pinky finger and it was the only source light in the blackness. At that moment it felt as though it was the only source of the light in the entire galaxy.
As he reached out for the kyber, its warmth spreading throughout his entire body as his gloved fingers brushed against the crystal, he heard something behind him. It sounded like a machine, but not.
It was heavy breathing, but it sounded… wrong. As though the person shouldn’t have lived to be able to breathe this way. As though the person who designed it didn’t do it for the person breathing to be comfortable, but in pain. Every exhale sent a shiver up his spine, the cold of Ilum seeping back into his bones.
And then a voice, from a nightmare mostly forgotten, spoke, “Luke.”
“Master Yoda said we needed to trust in each other.”
“I know Rimia!” Leia snapped. “But Luke’s gone.”
“He used to do that a lot when we were little.” Alid said, rubbing at xir lekku, like they always did when xe was nervous. “He’s fine, right?”
“ Haj dai .” Rinninin said, resting his hand on Leia's arm.
“Well I’m going back after him!” Leia said angrily. “He’s my brother.” She pulled away from Rinninin and sprinted back down the passageway, calling for her brother.
She tore through the dark caverns, her small flashlight the only light guiding her. She saw a light other than hers past a bend in the icy walls, which she recognized as a flashlight, like the one she had in her hands. “Luke!” She cried out, but as she turned the corner, all she saw was an abandoned light laying on the floor, coated in a thin layer of frost.
“No!” She cried, kneeling down in front of the flashlight. She held the light in her hands, before tucking it into her jacket.
She blinked the tears out of her eyes and kicked the ice wall in frustration, not noticing the cracks that were spreading.
With one final kick of the wall, she heard a loud snapping noise, and the roof of the cave started to fall down on top of her.
Time seemed to slow and she shoved herself into the large crack she had made in the wall. The fall ice seemed like the loudest thing she had ever heard and it filled the small cave she had been in in seconds. Her entrance was blocked, but the small passage in the ice that she had squeezed into, seemed to continue on, just barely wide enough for her to go through. Through the semi-transparent ice, she thought she saw a blue glow.
“I’m coming, Luke.” She said, shimming her way towards the blue light.
The tall, black suited man came closer to Luke, cornering him with his kyber just out of reach.
“What are you?” He whispered, his voice working on its own accord.
The figure didn’t answer, his wheezing breathing was the only sound. He stepped closer to Luke, barely 6 inches away from him, completely trapping him.
“Do you think you deserve this?” The black suited figure asked. “You are weak, even for a Jedi.”
“Get-get back!” Luke yelled, his voice shaking as he pressed himself into the wall, away from the sii , which he knew the man was.
“In another universe you could have joined me. We could have ruled side-by-side.” The figure said, ignoring Luke entirely. “But you were weak then as well. Maybe now you will know the power of the darkside and understand true power!”
“No!” Luke yelled, staring up at the figure that seemed 8 feet tall. “I’ll never join you, imkai'an .”
“Then you will always be weak.” The sii was angry at his words, the cavern shaking.
“No! Xari always fails! The darkness only consumes.” Luke was gaining confidence. “You have no sense of love or compassion. You only take.” He raised his hands, pushing out in the Force, shutting his eyes. “Now go!”
The cavern was silent. He opened his eyes, looking around for the figure, but he was nowhere to be seen. Like he had never existed. The kyber in the wall seemed to glow brighter than before and Luke walked up to it, brushing his fingers along its edge.
The ice around it seemed to melt, freeing the crystal. It fell into his hand and seemed to sing as he tucked it into his pocket.
He glanced around and saw that the shut off entrance to the passageway was now open, bringing him back to the cavern where he lost his clan.
He started his way back to the main Temple area.
Leia struggled her way down the narrow crack in the ice, the cold seeping into her bones. The light seemed to get stronger now, but that wasn’t what mattered. She had to find Luke.
She exited the passage, which opened up into a souring cavern, filled with twinkling crystal. She glanced around looking for an exit but there was none, and when she turned around to where she had entered, it had frozen over.
“No!” She yelled and threw down her flashlight. “I have to find Luke!”
“Your brother will be fine.”
She whirled around and saw a beautiful woman that she half recognized sitting regally on a low sheet of ice. She was wearing a fancy dress that was not at all suitable for the cold weather.
“Who are you?” Leia questioned, suspicion in her voice. She held her fists out in front of her in the defensive pose that Waxer had taught her.
“That doesn’t matter my dear.” The woman said, sliding off the ice she had been sitting on and gliding over to where Leia was standing. “What matters right now is you getting out of this cave. You’re the last one left. The rest found their crystals and are waiting for you.”
“Even Luke?” Leia asked hopefully.
The woman laughed. “Yes, even your brother. He’s a lot more capable than you give him credit for.” Then her face turned stern. “You almost crushed yourself trying to save him when he didn’t need saving. You left your friends behind Leia.”
Leia felt her face turning red. “He’s my brother!”
“Yes, but you abandoned your friends and almost got yourself killed.” The woman chided. “Would Luke want that? Do not let your love for your brother get in the way of his safety.”
Leia rubbed her eyes. “‘You must let go of all you fear to lose’ I can’t put my brother above everyone else. His life is not above the lives of everyone else.”
“Yes, Leia.” The woman smiled at her. “Now go! The door is freezing again!”
The woman disappeared and Leia wasted no time. She grabbed the crystal that was where the vision had stood and ran for the doorway that had appeared in the side of the wall. She ran through the caves, not stopping as she reached the quickly freezing ice door. In the foot of space that had yet to be frozen, she slid under the door, the ice closing behind her.
“Leia!”
She felt a body run into her, crushing her in a hug.
“I’m okay Luke.” She said, kissing the top of his head. She pulled out her kyber to show to Master Yoda. “I found what I was looking for.”
“And learned something you did. Yes?” Master Yoda said, smiling softly at her.
“Yeah.” She said, placing the kyber in the pocket above her heart. “I think I did.”