The Weaving Force: Chapter 154

Chapter 154:

Taylor

I was aware of the world before I opened my eyes.

I could feel the insects that crawled and moved through the earth like a billion little motes of starlight, illuminating the black void of stillness around them.

“Hebert. Can you hear me?”

I recognized the voice, it was close, right beside me, perhaps above me. I had the nearest insects move to check, and my voice croaked before it caught, too dry, too strained. And my whole body racked with pain as my coughs rattled through my bones like a tuning fork pressed against delicate glass.

I opened my eyes, and for a brief second, I almost panicked at the impenetrable blackness, wondering if I’d gone blind and hadn’t even noticed it before I realized, no- it was just that dark. 

There was no light down here.

The bugs skittered and crawled around us, that’s when I realized something else.

“If you keep making them crawl on me, I will drop this mountain on you.”

I’m pretty sure she was only half joking, regardless, I pulled the insects away, the few that remained noted her muscles relaxing. 

Alexandria had no pleasant memories of my bugs crawling all over her.

“Sorry.” I made what I had of my swarm ‘speak’ for me.

“Hn.” She gave a non committal answer, though her body didn’t move even a single centimeter, and for that I was grateful.

The mind numbing enormity of weight that pressed down over both our heads, held up by only her back, arm and shoulders could, and likely would cave in around us, or more specifically around me at the slightest movement. 

“I take it by the sound of your breathing you’re grasping the predicament?” The woman asked. 

“How long have we been down here?”

“Several hours.” She answered. “Perhaps a day.”

I was surprised we had air, that had lasted that long but, feeling the blackened dirt and rock around me, it wasn’t an air tight hollow, small cracks and crags led to adjacent chambers and semi stable pockets of space in this place beneath the world. 

I went to move, reaching for the lightsaber at my belt when I became very very aware of something I probably should have noticed before, my entire limb flaring up with pain as I tried to move.

“Ahh.” I didn’t scream, not really, it was more a startled hiss, surprise more than anything that made me release the sound. 

“I’m sorry.” Alexandria said. “Couldn’t stop it all.”

Now that I was aware of it, the pain radiated outwards from my right arm, where it had been crushed beneath the stone nearly up to mid bicep.

I couldn’t help it. I laughed.

Fighting down the hysteria, because it wasn’t funny, 

It really wasn’t. I grit my teeth. If only to keep the hissing, strange laughs from escaping. 

“It's ok.” I bit out, glaring at the blackness. “I never get to keep the stupid thing anyway.”

I reached with my left arm instead, awkwardly and somewhat painfully, finding the lightsaber hilt still hanging from my belt. Manipulating it, I lit up the blade.

Its warm yellow glow illuminated the room, and I was greeted by the sight of Alexandria’s exposed face staring down at me. Her helmet had cracked off completely at some point, her cape was a tattered mess of half burnt cinders, her clothes, tinkertech, likely bolstered with native tech from this galaxy was in a similar state of near complete disrepair. 

She closed her eyes, seemingly giving herself a moment to adjust to the new illumination and I saw her broken left arm. I’d been distantly aware of the fact that she’d been hurt somehow on my approach, but the fight with Palpatine and the war above had made me dismiss the issue to the very periphery of my consciousness.

Seeing it now, it was a grisly thing, I could almost envision the mangled twist of bones spiraling inside her skin and beneath the muscle layer. 

Still when she opened her eyes she stared right at me. “I don't suppose the Force might have a way to get you out of here safely now that you’re conscious.”

I didn’t miss the specificity. Alexandria no doubt had the strength and flight speed to plow through… pretty much everything between her and the surface, and odds are she could do it in a single deep breath if the worst came to pass and it was a full collapse; with a few kilometers between her and the open sky. 

Me however, I would very much be crushed.

I shut my eyes, taking a moment to focus. It was harder than usual.

Queen administrator was as exhausted as I was, moreso even. We’ve never channeled that much Force energy in a single instance before. Merely a few hours ago, the possibility of igniting the entire atmosphere had seemed almost a paltry effort. 

Right now, it was almost a herculean effort to just concentrate on the whispers of the Force to prevent Corruscant’s destruction. 

I couldn’t even begin to recall everything we, Khepri, had done 

Keeping the atmosphere in place had certainly been one of those things as the planet’s magnetosphere had gone violently haywire. Halting the Mantle destabilization and crustle destruction across the foundations of the planet sized city. “Venting” the Lava flows through one specific area to minimize damage, forcing tectonic plates to remain stable. And that was just the things I could recall off the top of my very addled head right now. 

I’m fairly certain every single droid, system and ancient tech that managed Corruscant’s ravaged Biosphere had been completely destroyed, overloading and overtaxed as they tried and failed to compensate. 

Luckily however, I didn’t have to focus very hard. 

Because I very quickly became aware of the Force equivalent of a star not more than a hundred feet away.

“Anakin.”

I only realized I spoke out loud when Alexnadria turned to look at me. “Skywalker?”

I nodded. “He’s here; Nearby I mean.” I gestured up, past my head and the solid wall of rock and twisted steel between us. 

Craning my head as best I could I looked at the barrier separating us. 

We needed to reach him. That, I knew without a shadow of a doubt.

I settled back into a more comfortable position, my eyes trailing over to the right arm crushed under a boulder.

I couldn’t even feel pain in it, just pressure, the pain only started where it wasnt crushed, halfway up my bicep.

It wasn’t impossible to save, not with the medical tech available in this Galaxy.

But crush syndrome was still a thing and would likely be more debilitating than the limb was worth right now.

The decision was simple from there.

“Can you help?” I asked pointedly.

She didn’t need an explanation, one look and she knew what I was asking. 

My eyes were drawn to her broken arm and I couldn’t help but smirk sardonically.

She noticed too, and snorted with something that approached humor.

What a pair we make. 

She reached, taking hold of the lightsaber, pulling it free of my grip and leaning forward. 

“I dont need to tell you this will hurt.” She warned. “Brace yourself, I’d rather you not go into shock. 

I nodded it was fine.

Like I told her before;

I never get to keep the stupid thing anyway.

The Saber came down, one swift, clean strike and the searing burning pain made my mind go blank, but only for a second before it was over. 

My other hand instinctively reached out, grasping Alexandria’s knee with clawed fingers and a white knuckled grip. 

I took deep, slow breaths, using the Force to steady myself, to numb the pain and clear my head.

It was probably a full minute before I was able to ease my mind and steady my heart rate again, opening my eyes before I looked down at the stump that was now my right arm and the charred flesh sticking out of the ground. 

Swallowing to clear the unexpected queasiness at the sight I nodded. “Ok…” I groaned, sitting up. “We need to get to Anakin.”

“I could smash the wall.” She said, but it might cause a cave in, and I’m not certain I can move without this ceiling coming down.

I nodded. Pulling the Force to me. “Give me-”

I stopped, a sudden sound interrupting me, it took me a moment to recognize it.

It was the sound of Earth, moving.

And just like that the wall that I knew had been between us and Anakin parted, dirt flowed like water, boulders rolled aside, just enough space being made to let us through. 

And there I felt Anakin’s presence. A pulsing heartbeat in the force itself.

“Go.” Alexandria said, I’d almost forgotten she was there; what I was looking at in the Force… well… it wasn’t distracting as much as it was awe inspiring.”I’ll move when you’re in the clear.”

I nodded. “I’ll make a bug crawl on your left foot or something to signal you.” 

She nodded.

Stepping forward, I ducked down to fit into the little cubby hole.

The stump of my arm throbbed, a dull pain that I pushed back with discipline and shoving my bodily reactions into the swarm I had left to me down here, but still I tried to keep it clear of any of the surfaces in this too cramped space. 

I could only judge how far I walked by how much distance Alexandria was to the edge of my range.

There was no light, the air was muggy, and hot, I wasn’t sure if I was sweating from the lingering pain, the exertion or the heat.

But finally, after minutes of carefully negotiating my way through- the small tunnel opened up.

Anakin was there.

He knelt in the center, Force energy pulsating off of him in gentle, rippling waves, thick enough that the boulders overhead floated like planets in an orbit, with him as the central body of it all, and I realized that, like Alexandria, he was literally holding up the world above. A literal atlas, suspending billions of tons from descending and crushing us.

And even beyond that more of his energies expanded, reached out. They threaded through rock and metal. He was…

He was…

Suddenly, I understood what he was trying to do.

I had the insect skitter over Alexandria’s foot, just at the edge of my range and felt it when Alexandria began to move. Without “her” support, as she’d expected, the whole structure collapsed, it came tumbling down in a crash and the tunnel behind her began to collapse as well as Anakin ceased supporting it.

As I felt her approach I took a moment to look at Anakin. 

Not in the force, but with my eyes.

He looked, in a word, horrible.

I could see the burn shield covering nearly the entirety of his upper torso and face. The edges of his skin that I could see were still raw, red and in places charred black. And the pain he was in seemed dulled only by his focus in the Force. 

It hadn’t even been two whole hours before my conversion to Khepri on the surface to my confrontation with Sidious. How long had they even been treating him before he pulled himself free to be here? Had they even managed to treat him beyond the bare minimum; If even that?

I could hear his breathing; heavy, mechanical. The automated functions of the burn shield forcing clean, disinfected air down into his lungs.

Alexandria suddenly zoomed to view beside me, the wind kicking up as her speed displaced enough of it to throw up dust and grit. Flight and speed let her cover the distance in less than a fraction of the time it had taken me. 

“What is this?” Alexandria asked as she looked at him.

“A Force Trance.” I answered. “A deep one.”

I cast my eyes upward, towards the ceiling, where boulders floated and the cavernous roof of twisted metal was held in place over our heads, like an ocean floating over an air bubble. 

“You should go.” I said. “The ceiling here wont collapse.” I said. “You can try to break through. Safely.”

She looked up. “If you’re wrong, you’ll both die.”

“All three of us will die before long if you dont.” I answered. Even if there was enough air to sustain us down here, there was no water, no food. Some stories claimed Jedi could survive for centuries, sustaining themselves on the Force, but I neither had the desire nor the patience to sit here in perpetuity, waiting for a rescue party that might be centuries old by the time they reached these depths. 

Alexandria nodded. “Alright then… For what its worth. I hope you dont die.”

With a burst of speed she shot up, like a bullet out of a rail gun the sonic boom of her near instantly breaking the sound barrier popped my ears and kicked me in the chest like a mule, instants before she smashed into the ceiling with both fists; a literal unstoppable force. 

I heard a shrieking howl of twisting, tearing metal and the crunching smashes of pulverized rock and stone fading into the distance. 

More steel fell from the ceiling, only to begin hovering like everything else, the hole behind Alexandria sealed itself up as her one woman tunnel collapsed straight away behind her. 

Then. I turned back to Anakin.

It didn’t look like he’d noticed us at all, but he had, even now I could feel his presence stretching out just that little bit more, that one extra tether that was helping to guide Alexandria now, directing her with subconscious nudges and gentle pulls to paths of least resistance, air pockets and empty cavities in the great collapse.

I stepped closer.

As I drew near, I recognized this feeling, this sensation.

It was the same as it had been on Mortis. 

That world that was the purest nexus in the Force. Seemingly the heart of the Force.

Now, I sensed that in Anakin.

It felt like I was standing near a bright star.

But there was no heat. No pain, only gentle waves and currents nearly sweeping me off my metaphorical feet.

But beyond that, I could feel Anakin. Beyond the power, beyond the effort Anakin was here.

I knelt down, my knees nearly touching his as I settled, bowing my head and closing my eyes as I joined him in meditation and touched my mind to his. 

And instantly, I could feel what he was trying to do.

I was almost flattered.

Anakin’s ephemeral hands were reaching out, across the whole of the world, and the stars, his influence in the Force, the sheer all encompassing nature of his essence being so in tune with its energy that they were indistinguishable. He was the Force in this moment, and his will moved it, as a God would command an ocean.

—

“There! Hold it steady!” I could hear Dennis’ voice, feel the grit under his chest as he crawled through the tiny, barely there opening, three knights struggling to hold up the slab, even as Anakin made sure it wouldn’t fall, even as he gave them his strength.

Dennis’ hands grasped at the young Aqualish boy’s pulling him close and tugging at the rope around his waist. “I’ve got him, pull!”

—

“I don't want it; its yours as far as I’m concerned.” I felt Militia’s frustration at the repetition, felt the power, the weight of destiny carried by the blade in her hand. The one she was offering freely to Satine.

I watched Satine push it away, her revulsion, her fear. “No. You cant give it away.” She stressed. “If you do, it’ll just be lighting a fuse all over again!”

“The Duchess is correct.” Aras answered, and I could sense his own unease, his worry for his wife. “To them, you are Mandalore now. If you do not rise to that; they will find another, and this will all begin again.”

“I just want to go home” She didn’t cry, but I could sense her feeling, I could hear it. “Jen, Daryan, Shmi…” even as I felt Anakin nudge her with feelings of reassurance, with subtle visions of her children waiting for her, promises that she would see them again.

“...I know Riduur.”

—

“How many are even left?”

“As of now… of the three thousand Senators, we can only confirm two hundred have survived… some more might be recovered… but-”

I could feel Organa’s despair, his shock and horror.

“We… What do we do? What can we do?”

—

But beyond all of these, beyond the hundreds, even thousands that Anakin was stretching himself thin to save. 

His focus, his goal… was one above all the others.

—

“Status?” Rex demanded.

“Don’t know how she’s doing it sir. But her brain’s recovering. By all rights; she should be a vegetable at best.”

“Senator Amidala’s always been tough. What about… well…”

“The Children? Fine sir. But we might have to remove them surgically. I dont want those toxins to make her neurons misfire and cause complications mid-labor.”

“Keep me informed, I’ll update commander Tano and will be glad to tell General Skywalker when we see him again.”

“You think he’s alive sir?”

“...He better be. Or I’ll shoot him myself.”

—

That’s where his focus was. Where his hope was. Anakin was pouring everything of himself into saving Padme… and his children. 

My mind touched his. 

‘Go’ I whispered. “Let me help you this time”

I felt his gratitude, and slowly, he handed me the reigns of this power, his power. 

He’d been emulating me, But he was still only one mind, one human mind.

He wasn’t me.

My mind spread through the tendrils like blood through veins. Touching every other across the world, knowing who needed help, where I could help. 

In seconds, rescue workers and first responders knew where to go, radio operators found communication channels, pilots discovered new landing zones or SOS signals. I imbued operators with feelings of where to dig. I channeled drips and drops of water through the crags and cracks so it could reach survivors and help them hang on for just that little bit longer. 

In the galaxy beyond, Jedi Masters knew to come to Corruscant, friendly planets cut through the bureaucracy to send aid immediately and hostile powers decided to ‘wait and see’ before they moved.

But even I had people I wanted to save. And so, invariably, my eyes turned… to them…

My mind stretched out, a piece, the largest piece, but a piece nonetheless. Sifting through the rubble, through the dead.

And I sensed…

What is that?

It was… light. 

A curtain of light, beneath the rubble of the temple. Beneath Master Fay who knelt at its outskirts with her ancient primordial strength and slowly excavated the site, lifting slabs and ruins with a thought, directing knights and Masters like an orchestra in harmony. 

I drew closer, The light was so bright it was blinding even as it was soothing. I couldn’t sense them, My Padawans, my team. But they had to be there.

Because if they weren’t there…

Then I couldn’t sense them anymore

And I didn’t want to accept that. 

So I drew nearer and nearer towards this strange light, this thing I’d never felt before and yet it still felt, familiar. My spirit digging through rock, marble, metal and all other things.

There, close, so close I could almost reach out and touch it.

‘Master?’

I nearly cried. The relief I felt was ice water through my veins. My physical body shuddered even as my mind finally reached out and touched hers. 

‘I’m here.’ I promised.

I tried to look, through the force, through my insects as I stretched my consciousness to that range. 

I needed to see, what was this light.

And then… I saw it.

Because it had never been hiding. 

It had just been tucked away, waiting for when it knew it would be needed.

Angelica?

I could see her, the tiny living mushroom, cradled there, atop Karla’s chest, pulsing and glowing Trying to help, trying to heal and sustain.

And another, next to Iskt.

Another, next to Master Allie. Three more, beside the clones.

And more still. Hundreds. Thousands of little Angelicas, crawling through the rubble. Looking to help as they, the light, always tried to help. 

“There!” I heard someone call above. “I see them! Just a little more General Fay!”

“What are those things?”

“Don’t harm them.” Master K’Khruk barked. “They’re probably why so many survived.”

A piece stayed there. A piece watched. A piece held Karla’s hand as Iskt pulled her out, enough rubble lifting to let him rise. A piece stayed to watch clones and Jedi rush into the pit to save as many as they could;

A piece watched and stayed. 

Another was already moving, already searching.

I did not have to search for long.

When I saw Victoria, I felt my heart break just a little. My Vicky lay in a bed, hooked to machines and tubes, droids and clones hovering around her.

But her mind. Her mind was at ease.

I felt a sudden warmth then. The warmth of a hand at my shoulder. Of kindness. Of pride and even love.

A whisper tickled my mind, so faint I could barely hear it.

But I did hear it.

“Thank you. I’m proud of you; Taylor.”

And it was gone. Gone as quickly as it had come and even here, with all this power, with everything at my disposal, I couldn’t recapture it, couldn’t see it. It was like I was trying to recapture… a ghost.

I felt tears burn at my eyes again, and my spirit, this small sliver, still marched to Vicky’s side, it still sat there, waiting as it held her hand as best it could.

“I’m here” I promised, whispering into her mind, and felt her worry ease, just that little bit more even now. 

“I’m right here my love.”

And I heard her whisper back.

“That’s right.” I affirmed. “Always.”

“You and me against the world.”

(X)(X)(X)

And that's it!

That's all for the aftermath.

There's just the epilogue left!

We've made it! We finally made it!

I'm damn near crying right now.

If all goes well, the epilogue should be posted next friday/saturday, but; Thanksgiving week and all that things might get a little hectic, so there MIGHT be a slight delay til monday depending on how busy/hectic thigs get with the family.

But we're here friends!

We've reached the end!

Once more I want to thank every single one of you who's been with us here on Patreon for so long and have helped make this story what it's become. I'll continue to post advance chapters ahead of time for everyone who remains regarding future works. When the epilogue is posted I'll also be posting the first chapter of what will be my next work (which will be a much shorter piece than this one) and expect more stories from me for those of you who want to stay around.

I wont take up anymore of your time. Thank you all again, and the Epilogue is coming next week. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone of you :D