Ahsoka felt the dark side energy leaking out of Millisyn gradually disperse under her own impact. Millisyn slowly came to as well, the painful emotions swept away in an instant.
"So good…" Ahsoka murmured.
She stepped forward, lifted Millisyn—who still wasn't fully awake—and carried her toward Amir.
"What happened here?" Ahsoka stared at the wrecked, messy floor and asked in surprise.
"I got carried away. I really got carried away," Amir said, smiling a little awkwardly.
The remaining dragon slugs in the room had all fled through another door in the corner.
"No injuries?" Ahsoka asked.
"No, no. I threw the lamp stand in first—most of them were running," Amir said.
After putting a filter on Millisyn, Amir looked at the girl, who seemed a bit weak.
"Amir! Heeheehee," Millisyn giggled foolishly the moment she saw him.
The dark side energy inside her was very calm, but Amir knew that might only mean it had gone dormant.
"I used the Force inside me to dilute the concentration of Millisyn's dark side," Ahsoka said. She looked a little weak too—what she'd just done carried a real burden for her.
"Dilute? How do you even 'dilute' it?" Amir asked, confused. He couldn't do that himself.
"My Force is… a little different…" Ahsoka searched for the right words. "More than ten years ago, my Master and I went to a strange hidden realm. It was a Force world—Mortis. Three beings lived there: the Father, the Daughter, and the Son."
"The Daughter was bound to the light side—pure, kind, without selfishness. The Son was bound to the dark side—evil, cunning, always trying to escape Mortis and bring disaster to the galaxy. They were unimaginably powerful. The only reason they were contained was because the 'Father' kept them in check, holding them on Mortis."
"But the 'Father' was dying. To keep the balance, he wanted our help. And only the Chosen One of legend could control both the light and the dark."
"During that struggle, I was controlled—corroded—by the Son's dark side. The Daughter saved me with her purest light-side power. After that, I kept learning to use that gift."
Millisyn, seeing Ahsoka pause, asked from Ahsoka's arms, "And then? And then!?"
Ahsoka laughed. "Before all that, my Master used his own strength to control both the 'Daughter' and the 'Son,' proving the prophecy that he was the Chosen One."
"Wow… the Chosen One," Millisyn said, eyes shining. "That sounds so awesome."
Ahsoka laughed again. "Of course. He's a very powerful Jedi."
She slipped into memory, pride filling her eyes.
In his heart, Amir quietly sighed.
Ahsoka might already have her suspicions about what happened back then, but she still didn't know the truth—that Darth Vader was her Master, Anakin Skywalker. The day she learned it would hit her like a crushing blow.
Would Obi-Wan tell her? Maybe. Either way, Amir wasn't going to be the one to say it.
On the way, Millisyn clung to Ahsoka nonstop, begging her to tell more stories about the Chosen One. Amir listened along with real interest. During the Clone Wars, Ahsoka had been Anakin's apprentice—Master and student, and also comrades-in-arms. They grew together in war, survived life and death together, bound by an incredibly deep emotional bond.
She would have a very hard time accepting that the Master she trusted and respected had become the brutal Sith Lord Darth Vader.
Amir didn't interrupt their warm story time. He stepped over the scattered remains and went to No. 32, whose shiny bald head was fully exposed again.
"Why were you affected by the hallucination too? You don't even need to breathe!" Amir demanded.
No. 32 looked a little embarrassed. He scratched his head and said, "I… don't know."
"Maybe it got carried along the nutrient-fluid circulation route and reached your brain," Amir said. "How do you feel now? I'm worried you'll slip into it again."
"There was… electrical stimulation…" No. 32 said with effort.
"Oh!" Amir remembered. Back when he and Kahralman had installed No. 32's body, there had been an emergency system: if No. 32 became muddled or lost consciousness, it would automatically trigger electrical stimulation to the brain to help him wake up.
He hadn't expected it to come in handy here—yet that was exactly why No. 32 had been able to wake up on his own.
Amir picked up the lamp stand from the ground. The fragile pillar had been battered into a sorry state in the earlier chaos, but it still stubbornly emitted light. Only now did Amir begin to properly study their surroundings.
"This is a side chamber," Ahsoka said, pointing to a depression in the floor at the center of the room. "It probably stored something—but whatever it was, it's gone now."
"The floor patterns are very similar to Gudrian," Amir said, kicking aside a still-twitching severed piece to get a better look. "There are recesses meant for Massassi crystals too. But the crystals are gone."
"Let's keep going. That dark side presence is still deeper in," Ahsoka said. By now, Millisyn had recovered her energy and stood back up.
"Eww… sticky!" Millisyn said, disgusted as she looked at the floor. The slime had dirtied her new shoes!
"Let's get to the next room," Amir said, leading the way with the lamp stand held forward.
The next room was almost identical to the last. The floor was also covered in complex lines—like an ancient ritual diagram drawn by long-dead Force mystics—yet it still lacked the Massassi crystals.
"Either the builders took them away, or someone came here before," Ahsoka said.
Amir nodded. Centuries had passed—this place could easily have been looted.
And even if no one had ever come, a temple meant to store—or even seal—things might naturally have its owner remove the crystals if it was going to sit unused for a long time.
Amir kept walking without much hope. The crystals he carried in his pack were all taken from Gudrian, and there definitely weren't enough. If they didn't find anything unexpected, this trip might end up being for nothing. They'd have to wait until they collected more crystals before returning to run more tests.
In the distance, they could still hear dragon slugs moving, but as the group's footsteps drew nearer, the sounds retreated farther away. Clearly, Amir had scared them badly.
"Vwoom-vwoom-vwoom!" Millisyn swung Ahsoka's icebreaking hammer like it was a lightsaber, making sound effects with her mouth as she worked herself up.
Amir couldn't help laughing.
"What are you laughing at!" Millisyn pouted, irritated about missing the fight. "You were battling monsters and you didn't call me to… watch. Hmph!"
"You're the one who fell asleep. That's not on me," Amir shot back.
"I don't care! I'm going to become the Chosen One. Hah—hah—then I'll beat up all the bad guys!" Millisyn kept "practicing" her sword forms.
So that was it—Ahsoka's story had gotten her all fired up.
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🌌 Star Wars: Relics of the Past
📢 The Force Calls! 📢
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