Chapter Text

Now. Tuanul Village, Jakku. 34 A.B.Y.

Jayce recognizes the feeling that wakes him from his nightmare. He’s felt it before. It’s the suspicion that a chapter of your life has ended. It’s the intrinsic instinct that a dark element looms on the horizon. The feeling is enough to keep him awake. After his eyes refocus, Jayce scratches his beard and goes to sit by his door. Something is coming to shatter the isolated peace he has forged amongst the villagers and the sea of sand dunes. An awakening. A reckoning. He will be ready when it comes.

Jayce has found indispensable kinship in the people who live there, zealots who believe in and worship the unending, all-encompassing energy field of the Force. But they do not wield its power the way Jayce does, they only understand that it binds the galaxy together. Perhaps this place and its people remind Jayce of his childhood, spent surrounded by people so close to the Force. There is comfort in the pale imitation of his storied past.  But the scorching desert planet that had replaced the fields and forests he grew up with had a way of reminding him that it would never be the same. And another reminder is coming.

It comes in the form of a boy knocking on his door. His dark skin glistens with sweat in the starlight, and his stark white hair has started to fall out of its bun. He wears green and orange fatigues modified into a flight jacket, carrying a spherical white flight helmet under one arm. A pilot. One who has come a long way.

“Are you Jayce Talis?”

Jayce doesn’t bother lying. “Yes. You’re with the Resistance?”

“That’s right. Name’s Ekko.”

“How’d you find me?”

“The Chancellor.”

“It’s desperate, then.”

“Yes. The General’s been looking for a long time.”

“For me, or for Skywalker?”

“Skywalker.”

“Good. I have to—”

Jayce feels the rumble of the starships’ engines before he sees them. Ekko’s head also turns with recognition, so he steps outside to scan the horizon with binocs pulled from his belt.

“We got company,” Ekko warns.

But Jayce is distracted by a ripple in the Force. A wrench in its gears. He senses something on one of those ships. Someone. A presence he hasn’t felt since…

Jayce runs to a panel on his wall and enters a special transmit code. “I’ve sent word to someone who will get the Chancellor your map. Go! Now!”

Ekko nods and runs toward the silhouette of his X-wing starfighter in the distance, the shape blocking out the stars. Jayce walks in the opposite direction, toward the center of the town, the shifting sand beneath his feet slowing his speed. The long, boxy ships, visible only by the headlights affixed to their roof, slither toward the humble homes at an alarming speed, coming to rest at the outermost edge. With a whirr and a hiss their mouth-like bay doors lower and vomit troopers onto the dunes. 

The severe white of the Stormtroopers’ armor is framed by gold trim and underclothes. But most striking are the gauntlets and guns they are armed with, each glowing with an unnerving blue light at their center that flickers as the troopers wield them to telekinetically lift the villagers into the air or send forth explosive blasts that turn the sand into glass. Differently dressed troopers raise unsightly arm cannons toward the buildings, the blue glow at their center powering a torrent of blue fire that illuminates the darkness. This is Forcetech, the name a welt on Jayce’s mind. As Jayce trudges forward, the people of Tuanul run in fear as the very thing that they have devoted their lives to lays waste to their village and brings them into custody.

Unwavering, Jayce strides toward the ships as the blue and orange of fire engulfs his vision and surroundings. The troopers approach each person living there and telekinetically throw them into the corral of armored soldiers forming in the center of town. But they ignore Jayce, whose legs carry him toward their looming ships. Perhaps the troopers have orders to ignore him. Maybe his power wards them off. Or maybe they see the fire parting at his step and are afraid.

As the final ship arrives, a shuttle with long, sleek black wings, Jayce stands unarmed and unmoving in front of it. An eerie silence is forced over the village as its door lowers, as if a spell has washed over villagers and troopers alike. The metal ramp clangs as a dark figure struts down it, the footsteps ringing until the sand silences them. Jayce can’t see the man’s face under the hood and the mask, but Jayce knows. It’s him. 

The figure stalls when it sees Jayce and pulls back its hood as if to get a better look. The Sith Lord’s body is tightly wrapped by black robes and his arms and legs are lined with dark metal armor, noticeably unlike the troopers’ plastoid armor. His metal chestplate pulses with the sickly light of Forcetech, as does the top of the staff he holds at his side, a twisted cyclone of bent metal. He has a lightsaber holstered on his belt. It’s slightly covered by his cape, but Jayce can tell it’s a new one he’s never seen before.

The Sith doesn’t lock eyes with Jayce, just studies his features as if looking at a thing and not a person. Not that Jayce can see his eyes. A metal mask matching the rest of his armor occludes his face from view, though the man’s long brown hair falls free behind it. Sharp, bent ridges span up the mask until they reach the glowing blood-red eyes, which finally look up at Jayce’s bearded face. The raging fire, the troopers, and the population of villagers corralled behind Jayce all fall away, until it's just him and the Sith.

“Jayce,” says the muffled growl of a voice with a thick, indiscernible accent. Jayce tries not to flinch. “You look…like the desert has eaten away at you.”

Jayce’s eyes narrow as the reunion he imagined fizzles away. “Something far worse has happened to you.”

“You know what I’ve come for.”

“Do I?” Jayce asks, a challenge as much as it is a question.

“Where’s Skywalker?”

“Is that really all you want from me? ‘Where’s Skywalker?’”

The man paces in front of Jayce, his red cape swishing around him. A bizarre mechanical arm emerges from behind it, affixed to the top of the man’s back. The arm has a glowing Forcetech light at the center of its claw that faces Jayce like an eye as the arm moves. Jayce remains still. In the corner of his periphery, he spots a flash of green hiding behind a sand dune. Ekko. Who for some reason, has not left. The reality of the weapons, troopers, and the horde of innocent people comes rushing back to Jayce. He decides to use it to fuel him, otherwise he won’t make it through this. He’s always been better at projecting confidence when he’s in front of a crowd.

“If you are trying to intimidate me,” Jayce continues. “It’s not going to work. I’m not afraid of you because I know you. I know what’s under that mask. That armor. I know where you came from. Before you called yourself Darth Vex.”

“But you have not seen what I’ve accomplished since,” the man responds, audibly smiling. “You have not seen all the wonders I’ve worked. The power I’ve accrued. The people I’ve…helped.”

“Is this what you call helping people? Burning their homes? Brutalizing innocents without reason?”

“Considering who they were harboring, and the secret you hide, this is mercy. All you have to do is tell me Skywalker’s location and it ends.”

“I’ll never give it to you.”

“Maybe not. But the Sith Evolution will take it nonetheless.”

“The Sith Evolution is a delusion. You have to know that. You have to see that it is nothing but madness!”

“No. It is order. It is progress incarnate. With it, I will lead the galaxy to salvation.”

“The Sith Evolution rose from the dark side. You didn’t.”

“Well if you’d like, Jayce,” the Sith Lord sneers, pulling his unignited lightsaber from his belt. “I can show you the dark side.”

“You can try. But you cannot deny the truth of your past. Of your family. Of your feelings. The truth of our history. You cannot hide that behind a mask, Viktor.”

The Sith ignites his lightsaber, the beam of crimson energy extending forward centimeters from Jayce’s face. Ekko runs out from behind the dune and fires his blaster at Viktor, who throws his right hand and his mechanical arm outward, simultaneously stopping the blast of plasma in the air and freezing Ekko’s body with the Force. He extinguishes and sheaths his lightsaber before pulling Ekko to him with a flick of his wrist. 

“Hi there,” Ekko manages, with a grim smile.

“Did he give you the map?”

“No, I didn’t, V,” Jayce butts in.

Viktor’s claw reaches over and grabs Jayce by the shirt. His red eyes drill into Jayce’s. “Don’t. Do not call me that.”

“Fine, Darth,” Jayce mocks. “I promise I didn't give him any map and he doesn’t know where Skywalker is. Please leave him alone.”

“Promise…” the Sith scoffs as his head swivels to Ekko. “Is that true?”

“Huh?” Ekko responds.

“Is that true? Did he or did he not tell you how to find Skywalker?”

“I’m sorry man, it’s just hard to understand you with the mask and the accent. You should put some holes in that thing.”

Viktor throws him into the arms of two nearby troopers. “Bring him aboard.”

Two troopers grab him by the arms and walk Ekko up the shuttle’s ramp. Viktor’s claw lets go of Jayce.

“As for you, Jayce, I had hoped to do this without struggle. But if you do not start talking, I will make you.”

Jayce remains silent. His eyes run up and down every centimeter of his body, trying to make sense of every detail.

“Fine. Struggle it is.”

With frustration radiating off him in waves, Viktor lifts Jayce into the air and starts to walk up the ramp of his ship, pulling Jayce behind him with the Force. Before he crosses the threshold, his trooper captain approaches and stops him.

“What should we do with the Villagers, my lord? Should we kill them?”

Jayce loses his composure immediately. “No, no, no, no please!” he screams. “Please don’t! They’re innocent! They love and worship the Force like you used to! Let them be, Vi—”

With a pinch of Viktor’s fingers, Jayce’s mouth is held shut with the Force and muffled screams die at the back of Jayce’s throat. Viktor pauses his steps and tilts his head slightly, his genuine consideration evident. With every pained noise Jayce makes, Viktor almost seems to flinch. He steals a look into Jayce’s eyes before walking down the ramp, pulling Jayce next to him like a caged animal.

“Remember your teachings, Jayce. Death is not the end. When we die, we become one with the Force. It is the next phase of life. The next evolution.”

Viktor turns away from Jayce. Darth Vex turns to the crowd. “If you wish to join me, you will be provided for. Come forward and you will be part of the Sith Evolution and the galaxy’s destiny. If you refuse, you will become one with the Force. You will still become a part of my domain and our future.”

A couple steps forward from the crowd and are pulled aside by troopers. The rest of the village stays still. Over a hundred eyes look up at Viktor without fear.

“We will never serve the dark side!” one villager yells, causing the crowd to erupt into cheers.

With his head bowed in disappointment, Darth Vex turns away from the resolute crowd. He nods to the captain and immediately marches up his ship’s ramp.

“On my order,” the captain announces. “Fire!”

Jayce hears the cacophony of blasterfire and death wails and tries to scream, but his mouth is held shut. Instead, he is left helpless as the man he once would’ve died for pulls him into the unknowable darkness of his ship.

“Jayce…” Viktor teases. “You didn’t tell me we had the best pilot in the Resistance on board.”

Jayce and Ekko are strapped onto interrogation chairs in one of the holding cells of Darth Vex’s Star Destroyer flagship. Jayce’s chair is equipped with a piece of Forcetech he’s never seen before, which is making it incredibly hard for him to use the Force. It feels as though it is overloading his senses, like it’s running too much power through one wire. As a further measure, his cuffs electrocute him every time he moves his hands so that he can’t make a gesture.

“I didn’t know.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Ekko,” Viktor says as he approaches Ekko’s chair.

Ekko spits on Viktor’s mask. Viktor tilts his head back slightly.

“Well, thank you for volunteering to go first, Ekko. Let’s see what you know.”

Viktor spreads his fingers and places them on Ekko’s face. Like an unholy possession, Ekko’s body lurches back against the chair, and his entire body tenses. Viktor’s trying to probe his mind with the Force. 

“The-the Resistance…” Ekko stammers. “Will…not be intimidated by you.”

Viktor leans his head in and Ekko groans, before Viktor suddenly pulls away and drops his hand. Jayce can tell from his stance that he found what he was looking for.

“So it’s true,” Viktor states, turning to Jayce. “You don’t know where Skywalker is but you alerted someone in possession of the map. Who?”

Jayce doesn’t respond and averts his eyes. Viktor shakes his head.

“Oh, Jayce…”

He presses his fingers into Jayce’s face. There’s a brief jolt of pain and then Jayce can feel him. He can feel Viktor clawing at his mind. But Jayce is trained in the Force. His mind is barricaded so exhaustively that Viktor is struggling against the invisible wall, his fingers digging deeper into Jayce’s skull. And there’s a really stupid part of Jayce that just thinks Viktor is touching me again.

Viktor pulls back in frustration and paces around the room, his staff clanking on the metal floor.

“My mind is too fortified, Viktor. You know that won’t work on me.”

“Viktor?” He hears Ekko whisper in confusion.

“Maybe not, Jayce,” Viktor admits. “But would you want me to use torture? I’d rather not. It’s so…uncivilized.”

“Go ahead,” Jayce challenges. “Do it. There’s nothing you can do to torture it out of me, and there’s no pain that I can’t withstand.”

Viktor sighs. “Oh, Jayce. Always thinking about yourself. I didn’t say I would torture you. But since you offered the invitation…”

Viktor reaches out his hand and Ekko screams, his body thrashing from Force-inflicted pain. “Tell me where it is and I will gladly stop. Remain quiet and I will do this until he becomes one with the Force.”

Jayce’s mind races and his eyes dart from the wailing Ekko to Viktor’s emotionless masked face. He can’t let the boy suffer. And he certainly can’t let him die.

“Elphrona!” Jayce screams.

“Nice try, but we’ve already searched Elphrona many times.” Ekko’s screams grow louder.

Jayce hopes Ekko can hold on a few seconds longer as he turns his head back and forth between the boy and the mechanical monster. He has to sell it.

“Hyperkarn!” Jayce cries. “It’s my homeworld. It’s with my folks there, I swear.”

Ekko’s screams cease. Jayce lets out a small sigh of relief.

“See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Viktor gloats. Without another word, he marches out of the room, the heavy metal door sliding shut with a shuddering bang behind him. No stormtroopers enter to guard them. Viktor’s smart enough to know it’s too much of a risk that Jayce will use the Force to mind trick them and make them do his bidding.

“Are you alright?” Jayce asks.

“Yes,” Ekko huffs. “But you shouldn’t have done that. I hope your people can get to the Resistance first.”

After a few minutes of silence, Ekko perks up. “So you two, like, know each other?”

“Like you wouldn’t believe.”

Ekko grunts. “Well the good news is I’ve already got one arm free,” he announces.

“What?”

“I’m good with technology.”

“Me too, but I can’t do that,” Jayce admits. “Can you teach me?”

Ten minutes of Ekko trying to teach Jayce and him utterly failing later, the door slides open, revealing a white and gold stormtrooper. The trooper presses the release button on a wall panel and opens all of Ekko’s restraints, but immediately slaps stuncuffs on him. They do the same thing with Jayce.

“Follow me,” they order the prisoners.

“What’s going on?” Ekko asks.

“Follow. Me,” they repeat. The pair stumbles behind the trooper.

After parading them down the hallway with their blaster pointed at both of the prisoners’ backs, the stormtrooper whispers “In here” and shoves them both into a side closet. With no one around, the stormtrooper removes their helmet, revealing a woman with a swoop of bright pink hair.

“Listen carefully,” she demands. “You do exactly as I say and I can get you both out of here.”

“What?” Jayce sputters.

“This is a breakout, I’m helping you get the hell out of here.” She turns to Ekko. “Can you fly a TIE fighter?”

Ekko studies her with skepticism. “Are you with the Resistance?”

“What? No! I am breaking. You. Out. Can you fly a TIE fighter?”

“I can fly anything,” Ekko responds, but he still seems unsure. “Why are you helping us?”

“Because it’s the right thing to do.”

It hits Jayce all at once. He turns to Ekko. “She needs a pilot.”

“I need a pilot,” she agrees.

“Kid, I think we should go with her. You in?”

“Not a kid, but yes,” Ekko responds. “But also, a TIE fighter only has two seats. You two fine sharing?”

“Why can’t you share with him?” the stormtrooper suggests. 

“I’m the one flying the thing.”

“Fine,” she groans. “Let’s move.”

Jayce and Ekko bow their heads as the stormtrooper parades them into a vast and populous hangar. A blue force field spans the entire height and breadth of the far side and fills Jayce’s entire field of view, a shimmering portal into the interminable void of space. The flat, hexagonal wings of TIE fighters line the slanted walls on either side of them, like the ridges of some gold and black spine. The stormtrooper leads them toward the row on the left, faceless troopers and aloof officers milling about them but paying them as little mind as a grain of sand in an endless desert.

After climbing stairs alongside the fighters up to the top of the nearest one, the stormtrooper woman presses a button to open the hatch. Ekko discards his stuncuffs and climbs into the pilot’s seat. Jayce discards his, and the stormtrooper gestures to the ship.

“After you,” she offers.

“No, after you.”

She shrugs and pulls off her helmet before jumping in. Jayce tries to climb in carefully using the rungs, but slips, landing right on top of the woman.

“Oh, void, get off me!” She yells, shoving him to the side, a disoriented Jayce thrashing in response and almost kicking her in the face. She shoves his legs away, right into the console. When Jayce tries to pull his legs down to the floor, something his feet touch sends two bolts of green energy shooting out of the fighter’s cannons, which explode the side of the hangar.

“What are you two doing back there?” Ekko yells.

In less than a second, all of the soldiers in the hangar have turned to face them, their blasters locked on them.

“Uh, we should probably get going!” the woman responds.

Ekko touches something behind them and the fighter takes off, slowly moving toward the center of the hangar. With a lurch, the stormtrooper is thrown on top of Jayce as a line tying the fighter down catches.

“Dank farrik,” Jayce swears.

“Uh, I can fix this!” Ekko insists as a hail of blaster fire starts raining down around them.

“One of you know how to shoot?” Ekko asks. 

“Yeah, I do,” the trooper responds, pushing her way into the gunner chair and shoving Jayce on the floor completely.

“Well then shoot back!” Ekko orders.

She starts mashing buttons on the handles and consoles, sending constant pulses of green energy into the hangar around them and blowing half of it up. She keeps going as more troopers rush in, but these are Forcetroopers, wielding Forcetech.

“Uh, Ekko, are you handling that line?” Jayce inquires.

“I’m looking!”

“Let me try something.” Jayce shuts his eyes and lifts his hand, sending a signal into the Force to find the line, the warmth and whirring he feels acting like echolocation. When he locates the latch holding onto the line, practically able to feel it under his fingertips, he flicks his wrist and the fighter lurches across the hangar as it’s set free. 

“Hang on!” Ekko warns, flying them through the blue barrier and launching them face-first into the darkness of space, hugging the bottom of the Star Destroyer.

“How’d you do that?” the trooper asks Jayce. “Do you have Forcetech too?”

“No,” Ekko responds for him. “This guy’s a Jedi.”

She whips her head around. “What?”

“Not exactly, but I can use the Force, yeah.”

“A Jedi? No shit.”

As if trying to prove it, Jayce immediately senses something and yells “Cannon! To the left!”

Ekko drifts the fighter as Jayce leans over and grabs the gunner handles before he can even think, turning them on instinct and blowing up a cannon jutting out from the bottom of the massive capital ship.

“Nice shooting, beard boy,” she compliments.

“You too…pink hair woman,” Jayce fumbles. “Do you have a name, trooper?”

“EN-5162,” she replies. “They call me five-one.”

“What?” Ekko asks.

“That’s the only name they ever gave me.”

“Well I’m not using it,” Ekko decides. “You deserve a name.”

“Five-one, huh?” Jayce thinks aloud. “Um, what about V-I, like High Galactic Numerals? Vi. Can I call you Vi?”

“Vi,” She smiles, testing its weight on her tongue. “Yeah, I like that. Vi.”

“I’m Jayce, Jayce Talis. That’s Ekko back there. It’s nice to meet you, Vi.”

Jayce is still squeezed in the corner of the floor and it doesn’t look like he’s moving out of that spot soon. Ekko dives the ship down, but they are immediately rocked with the sound of cannon fire. 

“I can’t dive any lower without the cannons being able to hit us,” Ekko explains. “If I make a run for it can you guys shoot them before they shoot us?”

“We’ll try,” Vi offers.

“You’d better,” Ekko responds.

Jayce points and Vi shoots as they dive in range of the turrets, the ones closest to them exploding quickly. But there’s more lining the bottom of the entire ship, and all the ones Jayce can see are pointed at them. Some plasma bolts escape the cannons before Vi can shoot them down, but Ekko easily dodges them, none managing to reach them before Vi blasts a remaining row of turrets in quick succession, leaving nothing but blown-apart twisted metal.

“Whoo!” She cheers. “Did you see that? Did you see that?”

“I saw that,” Ekko and Jayce say simultaneously. Ekko’s dive is taking them far away from the Star Destroyer now. They’ll be home free soon.

“I’ll get us back to my base soon enough now, guys,” Ekko announces. 

“No, no, no, I need to get back to Jakku,” Jayce says.

“We can’t go back to Jakku!” Vi yells. “We need to get out of this system.”

“Ekko, I was lying to Viktor,” Jayce explains. “Sorry, Darth Vex. I have a piece of the map hidden in my place, we have to go get it.”

“No map is that important, we can just go anywhere and figure it out from there,” Vi insists. “We go back to Jakku, we die.”

“It’s a map to Luke Skywalker,” Ekko reveals.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” Vi half-screams.

Ekko switches course to head down toward the massive beige eye sore of a marble beneath them called Jakku. They sit in silence as the sphere grows with every second, but before they get too far, all of Jayce’s hairs suddenly stand on end.

“Ekko! There’s something coming!” Jayce warns. Then he spots them, three missiles headed from the Star Destroyer straight toward them, blue trails streaming through the black void behind them. Ekko tries to pick up speed, but there’s no outrunning them.

“These are homing missiles. I could shake one but I don’t know that I–”

Ekko’s words are cut short by the explosion. For a second, Jayce is falling. And then he blinks and he’s floating in a sea of stars and Viktor’s floating there too, in his armor and mask. He reaches out and rubs his hand along Jayce’s side and Jayce leans into it. He wants Viktor to pull him in closer. But then Viktor’s touch starts to hurt, but it doesn’t feel like fingers or a blade. Jayce blinks and he’s lying on his side on blood-stained coarse sand, his entire body feeling like it’s been stabbed with lasers. 

He sits up as his body screams. His voice soon follows.  His arms thrash around for a while before summoning the strength to sit up. He swivels his head around to gauge his surroundings, his vision blurry and blinded by the unrelenting sun. Aside from a twisted heap of metal wreckage and a woman in white armor screaming his name a few paces away, there is nothing but sand around them. Endless seas of beige in every direction. They have no ship, and they could be anywhere.

They’re stranded. Panic sets in, quickly joined by desperation and loneliness. But Jayce knows this feeling. He remembers this feeling, as tangibly as he feels the sand beneath his fingertips. This situation is not new to him. He’s been lost in the sands of Jakku before.

Then. Jakku. 12 A.B.Y.

When Jayce was a boy, he spent his life on the run. When he was seven, they’d chased him for as long as he could remember, his life a series of uprootings from any planet or starship he could ever call home. But his fleeing slowed to a slow trudge over the dunes of the planet Jakku as he shielded himself from the sandstorm that raged around them by huddling in his mother’s arms. He tried to ignore that the howling wind was reminding him of his father’s screams. He forced himself not to imagine his father’s death.

Jayce was wrapped in many layers, the insulation allowing Jakku’s heat to drain him of his strength. But without his hood, his wraps, and the protection of his mother’s body, the blowing sand would have eaten through his skin.

His desperation to escape the storm and his father’s fate grew with every step. When his mother’s steps slowed even more, he looked up at her red and sweat-covered face. If they didn’t make it, his father’s sacrifice would have been for nothing. He had died so they could get away in that escape pod, so they could find somewhere far away and safe. Instead, they were only on Jakku, near no settlements and trapped in the scorching desert. Jayce’s vision wavered. They couldn’t survive this for long.

Then, without warning, his mother collapsed onto her side. Jayce cried out for her and rushed to her side, but his attempts to wake her didn't work. 

“Help!” He screamed, his voice surely drowned out by the wind. “Please, someone, help us!”

As Jayce’s last shreds of hope were blown away and he collapsed onto his mother’s lifeless body, a figure appeared in the haze of sand, slowly walking toward them. Jayce feared that they had found him, but when the person reached his side, he noticed they did not resemble their pursuers. They were wearing elegant gray robes, their face was shrouded by a hood, and they walked with a massive wooden cane or staff. In the darkness, the hidden eyes of the person—a man—almost seemed to glow. But Jayce was most mesmerized by the glowing crystal in the man’s outstretched hand. When it started to float, Jayce fell backward in shock.  It was the Force.

The man turned away, and for a second Jayce thought he was going to abandon them. Instead, he threw his hands out to the side, compelling the flying sand to part around the three of them at his command. It was like the man was pushing the storm back, or an invisible wall had been erected around them.

The man’s finger twitched and a circular device floated up from his belt into his palm. The crystal descended into the center of the device and locked into it, triggering mechanical whirring and an eerie hum. As a pulsing blue light emanated from the clicking and turning device, his staff started to share in the blue glow. And then an impossible beam of blue plasma extended from the top of the staff. He waved the staff and its laser blade in the air as if drawing a shape. Blue symbols appeared and hovered around them as a shield of blue energy started to surround them. When the clicking and whirring and humming coming from the man’s device reached a tipping point, the man lifted his staff and Jayce and his mother started to float in the air until suddenly a flash of blue light and green smoke occluded Jayce’s vision.

Then Jayce and his mother were flying upward through a magical black-and-white corridor as blue light crackled out of their bodies. For a second, Jayce saw the man holding the device in his hand, but the crystal was now a desert planet haloed by a white ring of symbols. And the symbols changed and the planet changed with it, into one that was lush and green.

Jayce opened his eyes. He was lying in a grassy field, with blue butterflies flying from flower to flower and the faint sounds of birds chirping. He stood and looked down at his mother, who was starting to wake up. A small pile of sand haloed the place where Jayce and his mother had landed. As distant mountains faded into view, so did the man, who stood facing away from the two of them like a statue.

“How?” Jayce asked.

The man wordlessly turned around and stepped toward them. He popped the crystal from the device and held his hand out, dropping the shimmering gem into Jayce’s outstretched hands. Jayce looked up at the man with wonder and appreciation, his face still shrouded in shadow.

Jayce’s face turned to his mother and he wondered if they'd found it. The place where they could be safe, where they didn’t have to run. He turned back around and the hooded man was gone.

The planet, it turned out, was called Ossus. Mountains shaped its horizon, but grassy plains dominated the surface. It had sprawling bamboo forests, though wooded ones could be found. If you were lucky, you could find a field consisting entirely of vibrant flowers. It had raging rivers and sluggish streams. It also had a Jedi Temple. And unlike every other Jedi Temple in the galaxy, Ossus’s was occupied.

When Jayce first spotted it, he thought it was a mirage. They had been walking for hours and had chosen their direction based on a feeling that pulled at Jayce’s mind. But as he and his mother hiked ever closer, the textures and shadows of its stone and wooden structure belied its impossible reality. Jayce and his mother were too exhausted to run, but they were no longer in a rush anyway. Jayce was sure that they were free.

The temple, it turned out, was run by a Jedi Master named Luke Skywalker. For so long, Jayce had no way of knowing if the Jedi were anything other than myth and wishful thinking. But after the man showed Jayce his Force powers and placated his skeptical mother, there could be no doubt that the man was really Skywalker, the hero of the old war that ended a decade before Jayce was born. He had cultivated the temple as a school, teaching children powerful in the Force in the hopes of bringing the Jedi back from extinction.

Jayce attempted to explain the circumstances of their arrival to Skywalker and the other teachers—who were noticeably not Jedi—but was met only by skepticism. Jayce hoped they would be more open to his tale or even offer an explanation. He offered up the crystal the man had given him as proof. Skywalker quickly identified it as a kyber crystal, explaining that they were connected to the Force and at the heart of every Jedi’s lightsaber. But it alone was not proof enough, and his mother had not seen the man in the robes. She could not vouch for him. Someone suggested that their ship had crashed there, leaving them with head trauma that muddled their memories. This was quickly accepted, though there was no evidence of a ship or wreckage. A child’s mind is often dismissed, even in a place of miracles.

Jayce, it turned out, was strong in the Force. This was proven by a test in which Skywalker displayed images on a screen that Jayce could not see. He was able to divine what the images were every time. After that, his mother stayed a few weeks longer to help him settle in, but she and Jayce knew she didn’t belong. She was eventually personally escorted by Master Skywalker to a colony on the moon Yavin 4, where the Jedi Master knew she would be safe. The tearful goodbye was dulled only by her promise to find a ship and visit often. She kept her promise. As Jayce began his training and settled into a routine, Ximena Talis visited on one of his free days every few weeks, which was more than the teachers would’ve preferred. Every time, Jayce would happily launch into a long speech detailing everything he had done and had learned since he last saw her. She was enthralled every time.

The other kids were kind and welcomed him immediately. They taught him as much as the teachers. His favorite teacher was Enyo, an orange-skinned Twi’lek woman who taught them exercises and defensive moves with wooden training blades. He excelled at that aspect of training. His other talent was helping to take care of the very young children, who were only between one and three years old. One of them, a blue-haired and blue-skinned Pantoran girl named Caitlyn, latched onto him immediately. As the years passed, he began to see her as his sister. 

The only student who Jayce did not mesh with was the one who did not give Jayce a chance to. Skywalker’s personal apprentice, a boy only a few years older than Jayce, never trained with the other kids and never talked to them. He had a mop of brown hair and striking pale features, and he walked with a noticeable limp. He was mysterious and alluring and therefore was entrancing, with Jayce often going out of his way to catch a glimpse of him, like he was some rare phenomenon. Jayce frequently tried to imagine what his private lessons were like. Tried to figure out what the boy did all day. It gave his mind something to occupy itself in the dull moments and gave him a chance to concoct his own explanations. It took over a year before Jayce even learned the boy’s name.

It happened during a swordsmanship training session with Enyo out on the lawn. Jayce was performing well until he noticed the boy walking behind Enyo. Jayce was mid-swing and was distracted enough for his uncontrolled weight to send him face-first into the grass. The small number of other students with Jayce giggled.

“You have to keep your focus,” Enyo warned as Jayce sat up. “What were you looking at?”

She then turned and followed Jayce’s gaze, spotting the other boy. “Oh! Hello, Viktor.”

Viktor.

As always, he was gone as soon as he came.

Focus seemed to be a recurring issue for Jayce, and not only when Viktor was around. However, Viktor’s monthly appearances still knocked Jayce off guard, even though he’d gotten better at keeping his balance. For the meditation and spiritual lessons, Jayce could never keep his mind from wandering, devolving into entire dialogues in his head or absent-mindedly solving math problems. He never felt more connected to the Force afterward. And he never felt more connected to the world around him either. 

He started to wonder if the teachers were making the whole thing up, until the other students started to get it. They claimed that they could reach out and feel so much, even feel things happening far away. Jayce could only feel the Force if he put in enough effort or was in a situation where he really needed it. He saw it as a series of interlocking gears spreading from person to person and planet to planet, each turn affecting the others in almost imperceptible ways. He always felt it while dueling, and could anticipate his opponent’s moves, but that was in the moment and immediate. Waiting around for something to happen was not the same.

But the main thing Jayce loved occupying his time with was visiting the forge and the connecting garage and shop. He would play with the gears and droid parts while watching the hulking Artiodac named Guid mold metal with the rhythmic strikes of his hammer and the melting heat of the furnace. Everything in the remote temple had to be made from scratch, hence the forge and Guid’s constant work. 

Jayce had gotten good at assembling little toys and structures with the parts and metal. Eventually, Guid noticed and asked him to help him fix broken devices around the shop. Most of the other children were scared of Guid because of his towering stature and his permanently scowling scrunched-up face, and were thus hesitant to visit the garage. But Jayce liked him. He was always kind to him. 

Eventually, Guid allowed him to try smithing with the forge, though it started as tiny useless pieces that Guid was just giving Jayce to entertain him. But as his skill improved, Jayce started to be able to make things like hooks and flat metal plates and put them together to make crude dioramas that were always surprisingly sturdy.

“You’ve got a knack for this, kid,” Guid growled with smiling eyes. “I didn’t learn this fast as an adult. Is it ‘cause of your fancy magic powers?”

Jayce shrugged his shoulders with a grin. It was most likely just because Jayce was strong for his age and quite good at math. He could measure and calculate how big pieces needed to be in his head. Jayce’s math teacher, a three-eyed Gran called Dr. Enard, had taught Jayce well, even making extra problems just for him. When Dr. Enard’s lessons ran long, Jayce sometimes caught a glimpse of Viktor, who was in a more advanced math group that had lessons after Jayce’s class. Jayce wanted to be in that group.

Sometimes, when Guid made or brought in whirring devices, or when Jayce was repairing the inner parts of droids, or learning how to connect wires, or fixing commlinks, he thought about the device that the man who saved him had used. Every time Jayce palmed the kyber crystal the man gave him—which he always kept in his pocket—he wondered if he could ever build something like that one day.

The repair shop was where Jayce first spoke to Viktor. He was there alone one night, much later than he should have been, trying to replace the power source on a speeder so it could run better. He heard Viktor’s lopsided stride against the cobblestones before he saw him. Jayce jumped up and knocked over his toolbox, meeting Viktor’s wide eyes. He clearly had been expecting the place to be empty.

“Hi!” Jayce yelped a little too loudly. “Uhh, welcome? I’m Jayce. Jayce Talis.”

Viktor gave Jayce a tired smile. “My name is Viktor.”

“I know who you are,” came out of Jayce’s mouth a little too eagerly. He hoped it didn’t seem as blunt and awkward as it sounded.

“I’m just looking for a tool in here,” Viktor explained. He spoke with a satisfying-sounding accent that Jayce didn’t recognize. “I thought no one would be here. I’ll go if—”

“No, no it’s good. What do you want?” It again sounded too harsh. 

Viktor just ignored him and bent down to pick up one of the tools that spilled across the floor. A wrench of some kind. Jayce had only seen him wearing Jedi robes. In the garage, he wore a casual tunic and trousers that hung loosely off his tiny frame. The casualness of it scared Jayce.

Viktor sat on a stool and pulled up his right pant leg, revealing a leg brace over another pair of pants underneath. That explained the limp. Viktor pressed the wrench to a bolt and started to tighten it.

“I can help if you want,” Jayce offered.

“I’m fine,” Viktor insisted.

Jayce almost asked what hurt his leg but decided not to, considering it was probably a sore subject.

“Did you make that yourself?” Jayce asked. The brace seemed to be made out of spare parts and was dented and damaged everywhere.

“Yes. I had help, but yes.” 

Viktor set down the wrench and stood to leave wordlessly.

“Oh uh, bye!” Jayce called after him. “It was nice to meet you.”

Viktor’s silent response was a quick nod and a generous smile. Then his clipped, uneven strides heralded his departure. Jayce was left unable to even remember what he was doing before he walked in. Instead, Jayce grabbed a stylus and a datapad. He’d always had a good memory and had developed quite an eye for shapes and mechanisms. Jayce sat at a table and began to sketch Viktor’s leg brace, his head bursting with ideas.

Now. Jakku. 34 A.B.Y.

Jayce’s eyes sting with an assault of sand and sun as the white-armored Vi reaches out her hand and pulls him up. So many parts of his body are trying to cry out in pain at once that the signal feels jumbled, leaving his limbs numb. Jayce sees the green zip-up flight jacket Ekko had been wearing clasped tightly in her other hand.

“Ekko?” Jayce asks.

Vi shakes her head. “I woke up and…nothing. I don’t know how long I was out.”

Jayce’s face falls. He didn’t feel Ekko’s death in the Force, but he had been passed out. Ekko had been so young. So talented and full of fight. Jayce saw a version of himself in Ekko. He dreaded the idea that he died because of him. He hated that so many people did. He hates that so many people around Viktor did.

Jayce steps forward and his leg erupts in pain, sending him falling on his side. He could feel the bone shift in his leg.

“It’s broken,” he says. “Very broken.”

“Listen, I’m strong, but you’re a big guy. I don’t think I can carry you very far. You should try to make a splint.”

“I’ll do better than that. Give me your leg armor.” She does, and Jayce places the white sheets of plastoid around his muscles before reaching out his hand and searching for what he needs in the unrecognizable wreckage. Sturdy but thin metal rods fly into his hand, and he sets them down before pulling circular hinges and a handful of screws to him. Jayce then reaches down and grasps his leg with his hands, the pain shooting up like fireworks. He steadies his breathing and closes his eyes, before gently resetting the broken bone into place. He screams. And then he gets to work. 

Jayce rips off pieces of his jacket so he can use them to wrap everything together as he forces the rods into the hinges and latches the hinges to the armor pieces with screws. Vi stands over him silently, patiently waiting for him to finish and closely watching to make sure nothing goes wrong. He finishes it quicker than he thought he would, because of course he does, he could do this in his sleep. He could make a leg brace with his eyes closed. With any parts. Because of Viktor. 

Now that the brace is finished, Jayce finally lets himself think his name. Viktor. He lets himself understand that the image in his head he was referencing to build his brace was the image of Viktor’s brace. He can see it so clearly it might as well be lying in the sand in front of him. He knows what the metal feels like, what the skin beneath it feels like, what sounds it made every time he took a step. For the past six years, everything and anything has reminded Jayce of Viktor. A featureless rock could remind him of Viktor. A stick could remind him of Viktor. But this, this is a cruel, visceral, impossible to ignore reminder of Viktor and Jayce bursts into tears.

“Are you alright?” Vi bends down and asks, meeting Jayce’s eyes.

He forces himself to hold in the tears, wills them away as much as he can. He can’t afford to lose water in the desert.

“Yes,” Jayce lies. “It’s not my body it’s…” He gestures to his head. “Up here.”

“I get it.”

“Help me stand?”

She does, and this time, Jayce can actually take a step. The pain is still there, but he can handle pain. He tries not to remember him saying that to Viktor just hours earlier. Viktor who was actually there, standing in front of him. Looking at him. Speaking with him.

Well, Jayce can handle pain in his body, anyway. He just needs to walk. And he needs somewhere to go.

Jayce keeps his eyes open but reaches out his arm as he searches the Force. Vi watches him with a concerned and almost skeptical expression, but knows not to disturb him. Eventually, he feels it. Like a fire burning on the horizon, or the faint sound of a starting engine, Jayce can feel a city in one direction.

“There’s a city, or outpost or something, not too far away,” He reveals. “We should head there.”

“Good enough for me,” Vi nods, starting to rip the pieces of white armor off of her dark gold undersuit. She throws Ekko’s jacket on too. It’s too small for her, so she leaves it open.

“It’s always better to try and blend in,” she explains. “Which way?”

He points and she nods.

“We find a ship. We get my map. And we get the hell off of Jakku. You with me?”

Vi smiles. “Lead the way, Jedi.”

As Jayce walks, the sound his braced leg makes on the sand is faint, but recognizable. It sounds like Viktor is walking alongside him again.

Then. The Jedi Temple, Ossus. 13 A.B.Y.

The week after he first spoke to Viktor, Jayce spent more time using the forge to smith than he ever had before. Guid was gracious in letting him take a lot of durasteel for his project. He was careful not to waste it, though he couldn’t always prevent it. He was inexperienced and often accidentally made rods and plates that were not nearly sturdy or strong enough, but he refused to quit.

Guid didn’t want him to use the forge when he wasn’t there, but at night Jayce would go to the garage and work on the parts of the project that only needed regular tools by himself. He would almost always stay up too late and end up with hardly any time to sleep before he had to meet for breakfast in the morning. Master Skywalker even noticed Jayce dozing off in his ancient history lesson one day. When he wasn’t in the forge, Jayce was in the temple’s modest library searching through medical holobooks, ensuring he had all the correct components and specifications.

When Jayce finished it, he had asked Guid to look over it for him. He made a few adjustments based on similar ones that he had seen before, but didn’t find much wrong with it.

“Well I’m mighty impressed, kid,” Guid complimented. “But what do you need a leg brace for? You seem alright, and it’s much too small for me.”

“It’s for a friend. I wanted to help and wanted to practice, so…” He shrugged his shoulders, hiding the excitement bubbling in him.

After dinner, Jayce looked around for Viktor, but as usual, came up short. He approached Master Skywalker instead.

“Do you know where Viktor is?”

“Is everything alright?” Skywalker questioned, his eyes scanning Jayce’s face. 

“Yes, it’s just, I want to give this to him.”

“I can deliver it,” he offered, his observant gaze turning confused as Jayce presented the brace. “Where did you get this?”

“I made it,” Jayce muttered.

“Well, that was very kind of you. I’m sure he’ll be very grateful.”

Jayce’s relief broke his nervous smile. “Oh and take this wrench! So he can adjust it.”

After getting some much-needed rest, Jayce had a much more productive day. He didn’t see Viktor at all until dinnertime, when he spotted the small boy sitting far across the room from him. When he was halfway through his Duraden soup, he noticed Viktor staring at him the way Jayce stared at math problems he couldn’t solve. Jayce smiled and waved, which almost seemed to startle Viktor, but he still smiled and waved back.

They went on like that for two weeks. After his next math class, Jayce waved to Viktor. He waved back. A couple of days later he saw him walking alongside Master Skywalker outside. Jayce waved at him. Viktor snuck a wave behind Master Skywalker’s back. Another day, Viktor caught Jayce’s attention while engrossed in a holobook at the library. If Jayce didn’t know better, he would have thought Viktor angled his path in Jayce’s line of sight. When he finally noticed him, Viktor just stared at him, as if he was waiting for Jayce to do something. Jayce waved. Viktor waved back.

Jayce started to wonder if his limited connection to the Force was getting better when he sensed Viktor walking by while wearing blinders. It was during a lightsaber and Force sensing lesson, and it was only Jayce’s second attempt at using the training lightsabers instead of the wooden ones. While Jayce tried to block harmless lasers shot by a floating remote, he suddenly felt Viktor’s living signature in the Force. Forgetting about what he was doing, Jayce waved in the direction he thought Viktor was in, the distraction allowing the remote to shoot him three times.

“Focus, Jayce,” Enyo said, which had become somewhat of a mantra.

As Jayce turned back to his training, he couldn’t be sure, but he swore he felt Viktor wave back. 

The next night, Jayce was at the shop working on the mechanics of his new project: a small motorized boat. He was having trouble getting the motor and the inner wiring to work in such a tiny area, deciding to just put it aside and ask Guid about it tomorrow. But the door slid open before Jayce could push the button, revealing Viktor on the other side. Jayce just stared at him in shock. Eventually, Viktor waved. Jayce waved back.

“I want to talk to you,” Viktor explained. “If you wanna leave, I can come–”

“No,” Jayce blurted out. “Come in.”

Jayce wandered back over to the table where he was working on the toy boat. Viktor sat next to him and met Jayce’s gaze. Viktor’s amber eyes glittered in the low light.

“Thank you,” Viktor breathed. “For the brace. It’s great.”

“Are you wearing it?” Jayce asked. He had thought Viktor had just ignored the gift. He didn’t expect this.

“Yes.” He pulled up his pant leg and revealed it, sitting and fitting perfectly on his leg. “Why did you do this? Make it?”

“I saw you needed some help with it. That the other one was being difficult. So I helped. It’s what Jedi do, right? No big deal.”

“It’s a big deal, Jayce.”

He remembered my name, Jayce thought.

“You didn’t have to,” Viktor said. “Thank you. You were right. The old one was…not good.”

Jayce loved the way he spoke, and not just because of his cool accent. It was like every word he said meant something.

“You know, you shouldn’t be scared to ask a grown-up. You could’ve gotten a new one way sooner.”

“It wasn’t a…focus,” Viktor intoned. “There are other problems.”

“It’s your leg, why wouldn’t you focus on it?”

“I didn’t want to bother anyone.”

Jayce frowned. “Well, it didn’t bother me.”

Viktor smiled, his eyes landing on the table. “What are you making here?”

“It’s a boat,” Jayce groaned. “But I can’t get it to go.”

“Hmm. Can I see it?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Viktor looked into the open panel on the top of it. He poked around and examined, his eyes scanning precisely like a droid.

“You don’t need this wire,” Viktor noticed, pulling it out. “And if it’s gone then you can move this gear. And then you can make it go.”

Viktor finished his alterations and pressed the button. The tiny paddlewheels on the side of it turned. Jayce looked up in awe, not at the boat, but at Viktor.

“How did you do that?”

“I have a lot of parts in my room. I like machines.”

“Me too.”

“So now what?” Viktor stood.

Jayce furrows his brow. “What do you mean?”

“Do you wanna test it?”

“Where?”

“At the river. Outside.”

Jayce tilted his head. “But everyone’s asleep.”

“We’ll sneak out. Come on. I know a way.”

Before Jayce could even process what they were doing, Viktor swept Jayce away through a passage he had never been in before, with Jayce cradling the boat in his arms. Viktor carefully slipped out of an opening in the wall, Jayce mimicking his path. They were going slow, but Jayce’s heart was racing like he was chasing after him. They trekked over the grass fields surrounding the temple, the night lit only by Ossus’s moons. Jayce had never done anything like this before. He was not even sure why he went along with it. But the night sky was beautiful, and this was the most exciting thing Jayce had done in a while. He accidentally giggled to himself. Viktor looked back at him with a sly grin.

When they broke through a sparse forest into the clearing the river carved through it, Viktor gestured for Jayce to come closer. He could see their reflections in the slow-moving water. He had to admit they looked a little crazy.

“You ready?” Jayce asked. Viktor nodded decisively.

Jayce gently placed the boat on the water and pressed the button. For a second too long, nothing happened. Jayce sighed. Then the boat took off, the paddlewheels pushing it faster than Jayce could have ever expected. Possibly too fast.

Jayce ran after it, sprinting up the side of the river, while Viktor tried to follow. Jayce was getting closer and closer to the boat, but he saw that the river became fast and rough up ahead. He had to catch it before that or he wouldn’t get it back. He needed to go faster.

“Jayce, I can’t keep up–”

Jayce looked behind him and saw Viktor trip and fall, landing face-first in the dirt. He lunged to his side immediately.

“Viktor! Are you okay?” Jayce grabbed his hand and helped Viktor sit up.

“I’m fine,” Viktor insisted, looking back at the river. “But your boat…”

“It’s okay. I’ll build another one.”

Jayce sat down next to Viktor, their feet facing the water. “With your help, obviously,” Jayce added. The forest and the sky peeking through it created a dazzling scene. It was calming.

“This is probably the prettiest planet I’ve been to,” Jayce decided.

“Me too.”

Viktor still looked a little sad, so Jayce reached down and splashed him with water, a giggle escaping his mouth.

“Hey!” Viktor yelled, but the corners of his mouth were pointing up. He splashed river water back at Jayce, drenching his face.

Jayce retaliated, the two going back and forth with bigger and bigger splashes, both laughing every time. Viktor eventually used the Force to telekinetically pull a ball of water from the river and send it flying into Jayce’s chest.

“Hey! No fair! Using the Force is cheating.”

“The Force is a natural part of all life,” Viktor replied, quoting some teaching.

“Alright,” Jayce relented, rolling his eyes but grinning. “You win.”

“Hey, Jayce?” Viktor asked, nervousness in his voice.

“Yeah?”

“Do you want to see my collection of machine parts in my room?”

“Of course!”

Viktor almost looked surprised. He nodded in the direction they needed to go and Jayce helped him up. Viktor led him to a hut somewhat disconnected from the rest of the complex, the two slipping in silently. Viktor found a towel hanging up in the corner and they both dried off. Viktor sat Jayce down next to a chest on the floor and started pulling out all manner of parts while Jayce watched in awe, asking questions about every single one. There were actuators and joints and motors and circuits and plasma cells, plus several holoprojectors that Viktor rigged to display games and designs. By the time Viktor got to the last of the tech toys he made, both of them were nodding off.

“I think I need to go to bed,” Jayce yawned.

“I do too.”

Jayce stood. “Thanks for all of this, Viktor. This was so great.”

“Thanks for coming. And thanks again for the brace.”

“Yeah. Bye, Viktor.”

“Bye, Jayce.”

Jayce walked back to his room and passed out on his bed with a smile on his face. He didn’t see Viktor again for another year and a half.