Chapter Text
Agatha was seven when she first felt the shift in the air and heard the whisper on the wind, she was helping her mother in the vegetable garden and as she shivered the old woman turned to her
“silly girl,” she tutted, “you should have worn a cloak.” Agatha nodded and silently carried on pulling the root vegetables out of the soil, she felt connected suddenly as if she were a part of something bigger. She kept feeling it, like a pull towards something that came from no specific direction, but she was only a child and didn’t know how she’d explain it to her mother even if she wanted to. Her mother scared her. So, she kept the feeling a secret and over the following months it built up.
Until one morning, when Agatha’s mother went into her small room in the attic of their house in the middle of village, she was floating. She was asleep with the purple blanket still wrapped around her but she hovered about a foot over the bed. Evanora Harkness knew what it meant instantly and was filled with fear and rage. She woke the girl by pulling her out of the air and dragging her out of the room and into the dusty yard outside, she thrust a broom into Agatha’s arms and yelled at her to sweep the whole space. Agatha, not knowing what she’d done wrong questioned the woman in a scared but confident voice but her mother just raised her hand and slapped her across the face. She hurried through the house and into the village to consult with the women of her coven, leaving Agatha confused and scared with only the sting of her cheek and her watering eyes as she started to sweep the yard.
The Harkness family were part of the religious women of the planet Massach deep in the Bakura System, the coven that Agatha’s mother belonged to, followed the light of the triple moons that orbited the forest planet. The triple goddess, they called them: Mother, Maiden and Crone. Agatha didn’t really understand it, there were other moons in the system, what was so special about theirs? Her mother had scolded her when she asked and told her not to question them.
Over the years as Agatha grew into a young woman, her mother grew crueler and Agatha learned that it was best to keep her mouth shut as much as possible. She sat through the coven's village school and asked no questions and made no friends- the other girls' mothers had told them what Evanora Harkness said about her child. They knew her own mother hated her and so they did too. They left her alone which was ok with Agatha, she liked spending time alone. She liked walking through the forests under the light of the triple moons where the firebugs flew close – she could feel their life and the life of the flora around her. Their life was connected to hers and the rest of the planets.
One day as she was walking back up the path to the house, she found a small rodent like creature injured lying in the dirt, she could feel its life draining away so she reached out almost without thinking and ran her fingers through its fur. She pulled and felt its life leave its body and join with hers. It felt good and as she shivered, the wind whispered to her
“Agatha” she heard, quietly as if spoken by a child
She leapt up quickly and ran into the house, her skirts swirling as she slammed the door behind her. She didn’t know what to do – she knew she was different to the other people in the village, maybe on the whole planet and it scared her. Outside the rodent’s bones turned to dust and disappeared in the breeze.
“You’re late,” her mother appeared at the foot of the stairs and Agatha looked at her feet, still breathing heavily from the fast walk back home
“I’m sorry mother” she said quietly and flinched as the woman walked towards her
“get in the kitchen and pick up the soup bowl, you’re coming with me to see Lumiya, she is getting more ill” Agatha hurried into the kitchen and picked up the cast metal pot full of stew, she carried it carefully back into the hall where her mother was putting on her cloak. She wondered to herself why she was suddenly being brough along to see the old woman. From what Agatha knew she'd been on the verge of death for the entire nearly 19 years of Agatha’s life and she had never met the woman – her mother visited her often though.
They walked through the village, Agatha being careful with the heavy pot so as not to give her mother any ammunition against her, not that the woman needed it, she’d probably beat Agatha anyway. It was best just to avoid doing anything that could make it worse. They got to the front door and her mother pushed it open to reveal a one room house with an ancient looking woman sat on the small bed in the corner. Agatha looked around to see all sorts of trinkets littered around the room and covering the many shelves. Agatha couldn't help but wonder what this woman had seen – by the looks of it, she’d been to other planets and maybe even other star systems. Agatha’s mother didn’t let her go to the town where the space port was but she could watch the ships rising into orbit and jumping away at lightspeed from the attic window. She put the pot down by the fire and followed her mother to the bedside. She could feel the old woman’s life, as she could with everyone else’s, but it was so close to the surface, just like the rodent from the pathway mere hours before. She could feel the dull thrumming of Lumiya’s life, all she had to do was reach out and take it. She ran her hand along the woman's arm, feeling the warmth pulling towards her and before she could think of anything else, she was thrown across the hut along with her mother. The old woman’s life filled her up and as her head hit the wall she passed out, hearing the muffled sounds of her mother’s yells as she slipped into the peaceful darkness; the old woman’s memories swirling in her head. She could see oceans and sand and ancient architecture and...
⭐
On the other side of the galaxy, on the planet Coruscant, Master Lilia Calderu felt a disturbance in the force. She was meditating alone at sunrise in one of the botanical gardens when she felt it, a life force taken by another force user. She stood up and pulled her cloak tighter around her body, before hurrying out of the gardens and into the vast foyer of the jedi temple to look for her padawan. She hurried over to the twins who were leaning against an ancient statue. They stopped leaning on it as she approached.
“Have you seen Rio?” she asked them, choosing not to scold them about their disrespect for the architecture, Billy and Tommy Maximoff where skilled padawans themselves and where friends of Rio’s from the Acadamy. They looked at each other then back at Master Calderu. She noticed the glance and deduced that Rio had been up to no good the night before, more often than she cared to admit to the council she found herself hunting down her own padawan and she really wasn't in the mood
“what?” she asked “what did she do this time?”
Tommy stifled a laugh and Billy elbowed him
“Good morning Master Calderu,” Billy started and she gave him a death stare “The Princess’ royal party arrived yesterday and Rio was running the training course because the servants of the royals are easily impressed by padawans with muscles and...”
Master Calderu rolled her eyes as Tommy laughed again. Of course Rio happened to running the training course that went past the front path right at the time a group of very attractive young women happened to be walking past. As she left the twins laughing in the foyer and crossed the courtyard to the Acadamy building, Master Calderu cursed the council for saddling her with the most reckless, ego driven padawan she’d ever seen- of course Rio was also one of the most talented force wielders, skilled fighters and naturally gifted pilots Lilia had ever seen too, but that was beside the point. She rushed down the corridors of the Acadamy to Rio’s quarters and hammered on the door before bursting in. The double bed had three young women lying in it, wound around each other and the sheets. The girl lying in the middle was lying face down, a tan, toned arm around either of the girls curled into her sides. She had a passage from the ancient texts tattooed down her spine and her dark hair was all over the place. Master Calderu rolled her eyes and shouted
“Morning, everyone!” The two blond girls on the sides woke up quickly and covered themselves, their faces going red at the sight of a Jedi master at the end of the bed
“I think you’ll find the princess will be waking up around now, requiring your services” she said not unkindly and the two girls quickly pulled their dresses back over their heads and slipped out of the room without looking back.
Rio rolled over and pulled the sheets tightly around herself before stretching languidly and cracking her neck
“Morning,” she greeted her Master, not disrespectfully but with an arrogant lilt in her tone that annoyed Lilia
“Did you all have a fun night?” Master Calderu sarcastically asked, pointing to the door behind her, already knowing the cocky response she’d get
“Obviously,” Rio grinned and gestured to herself. Master Calderu rolled her eyes and threw Rio’s robes at her that had been hung up on the back of the door
“Get dressed and meet me outside the council room in ten minutes” she said and Rio sat up straighter
“You’ve felt something” she deduced and her Master nodded. The older woman left her padawan to get dressed and headed back towards the main temple, planning what she was going to tell the council. She had a knack for stumbling across young force users in niche parts of the galaxy that needed guidance but with the Princess visiting the temple, she was definitely needed here; she hated all that royal political business so she was hoping they’d grant her leave to find the child herself. A perfectly good excuse for missing her political obligations, she thought as she climbed the spiral stairs to the council rooms.
Master Calderu sat on one of the ornate wooden benches in the corridor and waited to be seen. After five minutes, Rio rounded the corner in a whirl of energy with her boot laces untied and her tunic not tucked into her trousers. She plopped down next to Lilia and leaned back as the older woman rolled her eyes
“Sorry, Master Calderu,” she cringed, the full extent of her hangover hitting her all at once
Lilia gave her a pat on the shoulder
“Think of the hangover as universal karma for mentally scarring me this morning,” Rio blushed slightly, all sense of arrogance gone and nodded
“Tuck your shirt in and tie up your boots you idiot, wouldn’t want you to trip on your face in front of the council” Master Calderu laughed and Rio leaned down with a huff, lacing up her boots
As she sat back up, the door opened and Lilia stood up
“c'mon then, time to try and get out of politics,” she laughed and Rio hurriedly tucked her shirt in as they walked into the room, heads bowed
Rio had only been in the council room twice before, once when she was eleven and had been bought to the temple by a jedi who’d found her sobbing alone outside her dad’s mechanic shop after the accident – she didn’t really remember that time. The second time she’d been here was just under eight months ago on her 20th birthday when she’d stood in the middle of the circle of chairs, been granted the rank of padawan and assigned to Master Calderu (Lilia had groaned and argued for someone less ‘difficult’ then but Rio suspected she was growing on her Master over time). The room looked the same, the vast high ceiling and grand arches that housed the 12 most powerful jedi in the galaxy, reeked of luxury and the force. Rio was filled with the same feeling of dread as she struggled to avoid eye contact with all of them at once – that was hard when they were sat in a circle around them. While Rio had been reveling in the moment, Lilia had launched into a plea to be excused from their duties at the temple in order to search for the child on the planet Massach. That caught Rio’s ear: Massach was a weird religious planet in the back end of nowhere, she actually thought she might prefer to sit through all Master Calderu’s boring summits and meetings this week than drag them across the galaxy in a battered jedi starfighter just to sit behind her master and watch as she did whatever she was going to do.
“Send the girl then,” a voice cut through Rio’s chain of thought and she looked over to Lilia
“what?” she asked quickly
“She’s been your padawan since the summer now, it could be the perfect opportunity to send her to complete a task whilst you deal with your responsibilities here – she'd be no use to you politically, let her do what she seems to excel at; flying.” the master continued
Rio stared blankly at Lilia as the master carried on. Massach suddenly sounded a lot less boring
“All she’d have to do would be find the child, and bring them back here, along with dealing with any family fallout that may occur and trying not to kill anyone”
Lilia turned to Rio who had shut her mouth and was nearly jumping for joy at the chance to do something on her own. She muttered a small ‘hmm’ and thought it over, it would get Rio out of her hair whilst the democratic tasks where being done
“Ok, I like it, Rio do you understand what you need to do?” she asked carefully
“Yes Master Calderu: find the child, explain to their parents why they need to come with me and bring them back”
“and don’t do anything stupid” Lilia butted in with a harsh warning tone that Rio was on the receiving end of rather a lot
“yes Master,” she agreed, too excited to roll her eyes at the jab
“Ok It’s decided then,” the council member concluded “Vidal will go to Massach. Thank you for bringing this to us Master Calderu, you are both excused” Lilia and Rio bowed deeply and hurried out into the corridor where Rio jumped about three foot in the air
“woohoo!” she yelled and Lilia laughed
“That cured your hangover quickly, you’re going to have so much fun in the middle of nowhere” she laughed but Rio didn’t care – she was ready to go out into the universe alone and do something interesting with her training.
The next day Rio got dressed into her all black padawan robes and put on her emerald green cloak, she clipped her lightsaber to her utility belt and shoved a pack of protein squares into the belt pocket. She bummed a lift with a porter on a speeder to the jedi space port and ran into the hangar where she was meeting Master Calderu before she left. Her Master was waiting by her well-loved yellow space fighter with a small smile.
“Master, Hi” she said with a grin she couldn’t hide. Lilia knelt down and tied up Rio’s boot lace, that she hadn’t even noticed come undone. She stood up and put her hands on Rio’s shoulders
“You piss me off kid. But I’m happy for you, don’t do anything silly, there's a tracker on the ship, I’ll know if you’ve been speeding in the hyperspace lanes” she started and Rio stepped forward quickly and hugged her
“See you in a few days,” she said and jumped into the cockpit. Lilia watched as she went through the takeoff procedures and slid on her vintage resistance helmet, it had been her dad’s, Lilia knew it was one of the only things Rio had brought with her from her dad’s mechanic shop. She chuckled as Rio gave her a wave and took off. Master Calderu watched her padawan’s ship into orbit and then with a wing wave that definitely wasn’t regulation procedure she punched the hyperdrive and disappeared across the galaxy. Lilia sighed, in for a boring week of politics whilst she let her apprentice complete her first task as a padawan.
⭐
Agatha Harkness woke up in the basement of her mother's house with a pounding headache. She rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling listening to the voice on the air,
“Hang in there, kid,” it seemed to say, a light whisper echoing around her head. She reached out with her mind
‘help me’
She hoped the stars would answer