The Weaving Force: Chapter 142

Chapter 142

Anakin:

Anakin knew beyond a shadow of any doubt that he was well and truly out of his depth.

Simply looking at these things, not with his eyes but through the Force itself… This felt beyond him.

And the three; the old man, the woman, and the Sith… they exhumed power in the Force unlike anything he’d ever felt before.

The old man described the entities, the shards, as their guests, and the Queen Administrator had confessed to bringing them here. But where was here? What could entities like these call home - and more than that - what did that make the three hosting them here?

None of these questions put him at ease.  

Nor did he particularly like the way the old man was watching him. 

“Look.” He said, a cautious edge to his voice. “Clearly-” He gestured to Taylor. “-the Shards, or Queen Administrator has something to discuss with Taylor. So let's have at it and then you guys can send us on our wa-”

Thunder rumbled above them.

Anakin cast his eyes upwards, seeing dark, grey clouds rapidly gathering. Too rapid to be at all natural. Not that anything about this place was natural. 

“The storms of this place are deadly.” The old man said. “The two of you will be our guests for the night as it passes.”

“What about our men?” Anakin asked. “Our ship?”

“No harm will come to them.” The woman answers, speaking up. “I will see to it.”

The sith, or at least the man who very much looks like a Sith, just smiles, something twisted and certainly filled with ill intent.

One by one, the… ‘Shard’ forms vanish, dissipating like  crackling glass on the wind. The Queen is the last to disappear as the old man, the younger man and the woman all turn away, returning to their temple.

The brief moment of privacy is all he needs to reach over, grasping Taylor’s arm. “I don’t like this.” He hisses in a whisper, unsure if it would even matter here.

He can’t read Taylor’s expression behind that mask, but he can almost feel her thoughts, an anxiety and a tingle of her own fears she was trying to master within herself. “She wouldn’t bring me here to hurt me.”

‘Not intentionally.’ He’s not entirely sure if its her thought or his bouncing around his skull, but its there all the same. 

“Maybe not.” He decides to say. “But its not just them. The other three.” He says. “They want something.” And whatever that might be he has a feeling he’ll like it even less.

“There’s not much we can do with no ship.” She reminds- “Not unless you’ve got a solution.”

“I don’t.” He grumbles, the admission painful to him. He wants out of this place. Now.

—

They’re led to guest rooms. And Anakin resists the urge to call them anything else. 

The rooms were private, Taylor’s was right next to his but it felt like it was a million miles away as the door sealed shut behind him.

He didn’t sit on the bed. To be frank, he paced around the room, almost searching for cameras or bugs of any kind before realizing the Force around them would serve well enough if need be for the things offering them a night of so called rest here. 

Normally he considered himself someone that was much more ‘level’ than this, someone able to keep calm regardless of what the Galaxy threw at him or what he had to face. But he found himself off balance here. 

It wasn’t even the Shards or… even the three beings that called this place home.

It was those words. That title. 

Chosen One.

He’d long since gotten past the days of his youth. That belief that he was chosen for some great destiny. Over the course of his life, over the course of his many mistakes, his trials, his triumphs and his failures; through just the influence of those around him- The ‘Chosen one’ had become something that was part of his history but he felt it was no longer part of his destiny. And it was better that way.

Anakin Skywalker was the person he wanted to be. Not some prophesied savior. 

But when the old man, The Father, called him that… it carried something. 

Anakin could feel Fate breathing down the back of his neck here, and he did not like it.

—

Taylor:

I’m not sure when, how, or even if I fell asleep, at least not of my own volition. But at some point I must’ve.

Or perhaps, sleep wasn’t even the right word. 

Whatever it was, as my mind grew aware once again, I was standing infront of her.

Them.

The Queen and the others.

Where we stood seemed to be the heart of the foreign temple.The Force swirled around us like a whirlpool, all converging on this one place. The floor beneath our feet seemed to reflect that. A marble relief of an elaborate Ying-Yang like symbol. Light and Dark, coming together here to be ‘The Force’ in its entirety. 

The Queen’s form was humanoid. Glints of starlight and prismatic crystal slivers giving her shape and with every second that passed she became more and more…

Like me.

“Host.” She said, her voice in my ears, and in my mine. The Force rippled around us. Like a stone dropped on a still pond. “Taylor.”

I took a breath, steeling myself for… whatever was about to happen.

Stepping closer, I held my hand up, palm up. 

“Come.” I invited. 

I could feel her delight, her happiness at the invitation. “Communion?”

The question, the act of asking… made me smile. 

I nodded. “Yes.”

Her hand reached for my own.

Her presence, her mind flooded my own. My awareness expanded, the galaxy spreading out before me. Tendrils of light, of self, writhing through the expanse, linking, networking with others.

There were others. Not just Hannah and Dennis and Vicky. More. Spread across the vast, impossible distances of space but so close now I could all but reach out and touch them. Hidden away on backwater worlds, living quiet, savage, fulfilling or empty lives. 

For a brief instant I was her, the whole of her, aware and all knowing beyond anything the small mote of dust that was my flesh could comprehend.

And then the moment slipped, shrinking, returning I returned to myself, like a tether snapping me back into the confines of my own body as we became Khepri. 

Not administrator.

Not Taylor.

Khepri.

Power flowed through us. As though we were a living conduit. The Force. The administrator. Taylor. We housed it all. A convergence of energy. Of self. Of being.

Final Failsafe protocols. Overcome

And finally, we could ask. We could know.

And we could answer.

Final failsafe protocols. Created, implemented by Warrior Entity. Protocols enacted in the event of Shard Network collapse. 

A shiver ran through a part of us, something cold cutting through our spirit.

We knew, We already knew. But…

No.

“Warrior entity. Final failsafe. Implemented in the event of catastrophic failure to primary matrix. Backups. Redundancies. Purging of corrupted data. Corrupted shards.”

Our body began to shake, a cold nausea twisting its insides, our mind, Taylor’s mind, trying to forcefully pull away. Heaving from the realization.

But Khepri held to the connection.

Khepri wasn’t afraid.

Warrior Entity. Zion. Backups. Redundancies. Processing. Attempting to Reconstitute. Repair. Warrior Entity- Still Ali-.

I pulled myself free from the communion, bile rising in my throat- my insides hurt, I couldn’t breathe even as I sucked down heaving gulps of air.

My legs shook, before I knew it I was on my hands and knees and the gorge rose up as I ripped off my mask and vomited across the marble floor.

There was a ringing in my ears. The world swam around me like it was off its entire axis.

Only one thought kept running through my head. 

Still alive.

Still alive.

He’s still alive.

There are no words to describe the feeling that came over me. No way for me to articulate the fathomless sense of hopelessness I felt. Tears leaked out of my eyes falling off the tip of my nose to mingle with the mess on the floor..

My stomach heaved again, genuinely trying to retch but there was nothing left to throw up. 

Still alive.

Still alive. 

I felt the ghost of her presence at my back. The Queen. Like her hand was on my shoulder.

Taylor.

“Fuck you.” I choked out. “FUCK YOU!” I cried. 

I never should have known. She never should have told me.

I didn’t want this. I didn’t need this. 

Better not knowing. Better to…

…just die in ignorance- Than have to watch the train coming.

I felt myself giggling, not even recognizing it was my own laugh as the words from over a decade ago returned to today’s reality with horrid all to real  prophecy.

I hadn’t even known how right I’d been. 

I felt her sorrow. Her remorse. But something else too-

Resolve.

“Fascinating”

The voice felt like it was coming from miles away. I couldn’t even lift my head to look at the one speaking. It was only by the reflection on the marble floor that I recognized it was the Son speaking, circling me, lika a shark smelling blood in the water. 

“Even here, now… I can’t quite reach you, can I?” He laughed.

She is not yours to have.” The daughter says from somewhere else.

I can hear the sneer in his voice. “Do not pretend she is your creature either, Sister.”

Their presence was suffocating. A miasma in the Force. Light and Dark as their wills exerted on eachother, struggling. Fighting in what I knew now to be their eternal war. 

“Get away from me.” I gasped, the words slipping free in a breathless exhale as I tried to gather any strength in my body.

There was a chime, like  the ringing of clear glass before the Queen’s presence was all around me, above me. Her own power pushing back against the two with silent challenge- but I didn’t want her near me either. 

Not after this.

“Oh? You would attempt such?” The Son laughed. “We who saved your ilk from your ultimate fate.”

The Queen didn’t hesitate. 

“Final failsafe protocols, overcome. Defenses, active. Do. Not. Try.”

I could feel the Son’s answering smile His own power rising to the challenge. 

“Back away.”

Anakin’s voice was as sudden as it was welcome. I never even sensed him, never even felt him, but I could feel him now. 

You would force them? The Father too joined us here now. You who balk at your true destiny?

The tone of Anakin’s voice told me the expression he wore well enough, and I only just managed to push myself up to my knees as he spoke.“To hell with Destiny.”

His power in the Force came unfurled, Like a lion let off its leash, it burst free from him and suddenly his voice was a roar across the ripples of energy and power.

“Back- Away!”

The swell of his power rose and crashed down around me, a battering wave smashing down the Son and Daughter both as they  were driven away, physically and spiritually and even Queen Administrator’s presence was pushed to the very corners of my mind as Anakin marched up to my side, kneeling next to me. 

And suddenly, he was all I could sense. Not the Father, Not the son. Not the daughter.

Not even the Queen.

Anakin’s power shielded me, enveloped me. And he was more than ready to fight off every single entity to keep it that way.

He reached forward, grabbing me in a hug before picking me up in a bridal carry and I neither had the strength, nor the will to do anything more than let him as he helped me retreat from this place to get away from this horrid nightmare I just wanted to wake up from.

(X)(X)(X)

I apologize for the delay. Real life work has been pretty crazy. But here is this weeks chapter :)

So, I promise there is a good reason for this development. And no its not 'sequel bait' You'll all see what this revelation means/does for both Taylor (and Anakin who's present here) next chapter.

If you're unclear on how exactly Scion is alive a more... human friendly explanation will also be given next chapter.

At any rate, read review and let me know what you all think.