Chapter Text
Images flashed through my mind. I saw echoes of memories of things and people I couldn't describe. Memories flashed through my mind that I had a hard time grasping.
A boy in a desert world. Growing up under two burning suns. A faithful meeting with a man who had freed the boy before dying. Training and life with another man who was something between an older brother and a father figure. Then conflict, years of conflict, and the loss of someone close to him. An empire consuming the very galaxy he had lived in. My memories as I realized.
More memories started hitting me. More coherent than these ones. Of flames burning a body and a mask. My son is celebrating the defeat of my former master. Yes, my son and my daughter. These memories were mine.
A boy growing up on a desert planet under twin suns. Leaving to join an order of Knights. Adventures under my teacher in their ways. A great war waged across the galaxy. Ending in my submission to the will of the soon-to-be Emperor and destroying the order of Knights. Burning on a world of lava, and living in a suit of armor until death.
Skywalker. That was my name. It was the name my mother had. It was the name I had, the name of my son, and the name the galaxy had learned.
A name one person had not been able to take in life. I remember trying to find her, to apologize, to tell her everything that had happened. Even if what the Jedi thought was true, and her individuality was gone, I had to tell her. I had searched for her Force essence and finally found her when something had happened.
A Burning Flame and a Glowing Light. A bolt of lightning cutting through the space between them.
A gasp of air came out of my lungs alongside a cry. My mind tried grasping at the full knowledge of who I was, but it felt faint and sluggish. It was all there, but I couldn't pull on it at all. Information that was just at the very edge of my mind, but I found it hard to pull on.
I heard voices speaking about me in a language I couldn't speak. Wait, wasn't there something to allow me to understand them? Thinking about it made me realize something that I had. A fleeting bit of understanding about a Force Presence being reborn.
My memories are too much for my new mind. It will just drive me crazy unless I can control it. “Anikin.”
Wait, I could make out something. A woman with porcelain-like skin, raven black hair, and blue eyes. What was unnatural was the two slender horns coming from out the top of her head. My new mother in this life?
There was a feeling of shame and a tiny bit of anger as I asked that. No, I don't have time to deal with my past memories as of right now. What I can get is that my mother was around with other women who all had similar features that were of whatever species this was.
Anikin. She said it again, and I think I can make out what it was. A name, my name. It was similar enough to my original name for a strange reason. Regardless, I had loved my life under two different names, and I wouldn't forget either.
Anakin Skywalker. Darth Vader.
In a year, I had slowly started to make out the meanings of words at least until I had used the Force in some minor way to make out the words. Not enough to be able to speak the language but enough to get some idea about what was going on. My new mother was someone of high class, a strange change compared to being born to a slave woman. Her name was Tomomo.
I had seen my father. He only confirmed my suspicions about my new status in life. A slightly more human skin tone, red eyes with longer horns. His hair, though, was dark blond. His name, if I recall, was also Anikin, who I was named after.
As I got older, I learned something else that I should have realized. Two of the playmates I had were my half-siblings. Twin sisters born of my father's second wife. Yes, second wife. My own mother was his third wife. I also had an older half brother burn from his first wife. The surprises didn't cease as I had learned I had an older sister and an older brother.
My only frame of reference for siblings was my stepbrother and my time with the Jedi. Having actual siblings was a change I hadn't expected would happen to me. I tried to remember their names.
At three, I finally understood more as to what my family was. Why did my father have three wives and a few concubines? Because he was royalty. With that came the peaks but also several issues, as I had learned mere weeks before my fourth birthday.
My brother was dead at age twelve, as had both of my stepmothers, and my other sister. All by an attack that was purely politically motivated, or had something to do with a power struggle. I didn't know, and I had found that I didn't care for their motives.
My family was in danger, and I felt so limited in what I could do. When they came to kill my new mother and me, I raised my hands and let the Force out. The power had felt dull, years on not using it, and years still of the rebirth in this strange world. Our attacker was sent flying out the window, screaming as they had.
It was too much as I had started to black out from the strain of what had happened. My vision went black as the strain was just too much. The last thing I could hear was my new mother's screams, “Anikin?!”
.
.
.
“I'm telling you… hold out his hands and with… flying!”
Slowly, consciousness was returning to me. A conversation between my mother and someone else was speaking in the room. “Are you sure that was what had happened?”
As my eyes opened, what was talking was my mother with a man I recognized. My uncle had a fresh scar over his face. Obviously having been attacked by whoever had come to kill so many. “I am sure, and I can't explain it in any other way.”
Silence came over them both as my father walked in with a sword in his hands while wearing a gauntlet that he always did. “Brother, what happened here?!”
No sooner had he spoken than my uncle gave a bow in his presence. My father's gaze was one of controlled fury as he glared at my uncle. “I apologize. They had managed to hide themselves amongst the servants, my lord.”
My father grabbed my uncle by his horns and pulled him up, looking him in the eyes. “You better tell me who did this, who killed my wives, my children, and tried to kill me! Your duty is to be the head of the palace guard! Do you have any idea who has done this?!”
“We managed to capture one of them and are integrating them right now.”
“I want the names of who so I can kill them for daring this attack,” My father let go of his horn and let out a sigh as he turned to my mother. “Tomomo, you and my second son are alive and well.”
I watched him pull her into his arms, his voice caring as he did so. The deaths of so many had its toll on him. Especially given my brother had been almost fourteen when he ended up dying. “Anikin, my son, your brother…”
There were tears in his eyes as he looked at me. However, he closed his eyes and fought back the feelings he was feeling. Meanwhile, both mother and uncle turned to me, noticing I was awakening at last.
From there, the incident with the Force had been forgotten. The next year was more turbulent as the sudden death of so many had led to a purge of those responsible.
Nine-year-old Crown Prince “Anikin” sat within the library of the Royal Palace. Here amongst the books and datapads, Anakin was reading everything about the world and its people. The planet's name was Sanzu, a watery, mountainous world. Its landmass was mostly islands, jagged small continents, and the like. Great forests lined many of these lands, alongside several plains, and in the largest continents there were even deserts.
The people of the world are known as the Kishin. Their oldest records are a bit of folklore talking about their origins. Old tales of beings from the Stars who traveled to the world and created them. Gifting them basic knowledge of the world and left a few relics behind that helped their civilization develop. This part of their history did have relics left over long ago and even a few fragmentary records.
What caught Anakin's attention the most was one bit about the history of the world. An invasion from ships from beyond the stars. At that point, they had been primitive, and these invaders had tried to subjugate them. This brought a conflict that threatened to end their lives if it wasn't for a defense device left on the world.
Whatever it was had been taken out by the invaders but not before it had caused their ships to crash into the planet. Many bits of relics and technology had been taken from the many ships. The technology that they had taken from the ships had been studied and slowly replicated over the next few centuries.
‘The technology and invasion hadn't immediately united the world, but it did push the beginning of an Age of Expansion,’ This bit revealed everything from the first ships in orbit to the colonization of the other world in the system that was habitable. Outposts across the system, and finally they reached out to other systems.
“The Age of Expansion came to a close with the Unification Wars of Senzu.”
“Well, I see you're here reading again?” Emperor Anikin, the ruler of Senzu, whose throne by birth Anakin was to inherit. “The Great History of Senzu.”
Anikin read the title of the book that his son had been reading. His attention turned to the datapad, which contained readings on the invaders of old. Their ships, and some understanding of their technology. “You've been looking into the technology of the Invaders a lot recently.”
Thinking about it, Anikin had noticed that his son had been playing around with machinery. He was seemingly a natural at it despite not knowing much about the technology at first. By all accounts, it seemed that the prince was blessed by the Heavens with a gift for it. Anikin thought about some of the things in the ancient vaults that had still not been touched. Relics leftover from the Messengers of the Stars.
Though there was one thing that they had from the invaders. Something whose secrets had been hard to unlock after all this time.
The Fortress of Johto, built into the mountain range that shared its name. Father had explained that this was the place where the lead ship of the Invaders had crashed into the planet after being taken out by whatever the Messengers had left to defend the planet.
Hardly anything of the ship remained, though the fortress remained over it. Having once long ago been a place of research. It was now a place that existed more so as a post for those looking for retirement in the military. At least on paper.
All around us was a strange mixture of traditional stonework and modern technology. Well, the modern technology of this world. Many of the soldiers held swords with them but also the Pulse Rifles. A weapon that reminded me of a blaster in some ways, given it fired a condensed energy blast.
“As you know, son, most of the relics and technology of the Invaders have been studied, torn apart, and the like, but one thing still hasn't revealed its secrets to us,” Several guards saluted us with a hand to their chests as a reinforced large metal door was before us.
The door opened, and in the room were a few computers lining the walls. Most were covered in dust from how old they were. What was in the center of the room was a large circular defense with a ring of symbols all around it. In front of it was another object that had symbols just like all around a crystal-looking semi-sphere.
“This was recovered within the ship, and its workings are a complete mystery to us. Nothing of the recovered data from the crystals on board tells us whether it was even made by the Invaders, or if they even did.”
We walked up to the circular device that was before us. My hand reached out and touched the device in question. “Is there a name for it?”
“The Invaders made reference to it in their database. They called it the Chappa'ai.”