DISCLAIMER: I do not own Star Wars, or any other media belonging to Disney or George Lucas
Starling
o0o
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…
During an era of relative peace, an object of tremendous power has surfaced, a crystal known as the Shikon Jewel.
The Jewel's presence has divided the Jedi Order, and forced them to send one of their own to hide away with the object, preventing a civil war.
The defeated Sith lay in wait, scattered across the galaxy in covens, but news of the Jewel has spread far and wide, and many are hunting it with the hope to restore power to the Sith Order.
But, with no leader to rally them, the Dark Jedi remain powerless in this new age… for now.
Thus, the fate of the galaxy rests in the hands of the one given the task of protecting the Shikon Jewel, a young Jedi woman named…
Kagome.
o0o
A short five months had passed since Kagome's arrival on the long-abandoned planet of Senuku. The earth was overgrown with wild jungles and giant mountains with snowy peaks. The Force was stunted in these lands, the flow caught in a net of roots and leaves, or dispersed in the cold air of the white mountains.
It was the perfect place to hide the Jewel.
The Jewel could channel the Force in unfathomable ways—some even believed the Jewel was the origin of the Force. Should it fall into the wrong hands… it could mean colossal destruction.
But it wasn't just pure power for the wielder: it could also be used to heal, to soothe, to purify. For those reasons, the Order wanted to keep it themselves, to be a tool for cleansing tainted energies.
But other Council members were afraid of the Shikon Jewel's presence in their temple on Dantooine. They feared the Jewel's power would be too tempting, even for the Order, pinnacles of the light side of the Force. There was such disagreement over this fear that it was finally decided one of their own would take it far away from the conclave, to a location unknown to the Order and Dark Jedi alike.
Kagome was called to the Council Chambers when the decision was made, and there she learned she was to be entrusted with the Jewel. Kagome was known in the conclave as a healer, not a fighter or strategist—the Council could think of no better protector for the Jewel, and Kagome accepted the role with humility and devotion.
That morning, she watched the last golden sunrise over the plains of Dantooine, swearing to commit it to her memory for the rest of her days. After saying goodbye to her friends, her acquaintances, and those she had healed in the past, Kagome boarded a ship the Council had filled with supplies to sustain her until she found a place for herself, well out of the public eye.
Kagome ended up finding a place quickly. She'd sped to the outer reaches of the galaxy, towards planets and space stations of old and decay.
There, she found Senuku.
At first, she missed the rolling hills and valleys of Dantooine's golden grasslands, the easy weather, and the gentle cathounds she often sang to—but as she built her own temple, enclosed within one of Senuku's many mountains, she saw the beauty of the wilds around her. She felt the humid heat on her skin, the way it bathed her in hot, fragrant air that smelled of tropical fruits and exotic flowers. She heard the wildlife echo in the jungles, singing songs that no one had heard for thousands of years—her own voice joined them on occasion, calling back to the beautiful nature around her.
Kagome hunted and foraged, designed and built—all on her own, with the Jewel hanging around her neck, giving off its soft pink glow. She could feel the strength within it, and it often called to her, begging her, as if it needed—as if it wanted. It would reach within her, past the wall of her control, and it would tug at her desires.
So easy, it would say. It would be so easy…
Some days, she had to take it off, setting it on the small metal trivet she'd fashioned for it, and then she would just stare at it for hours on end.
The Shikon Jewel was a pretty thing: a perfect sphere that fit perfectly in a closed fist, polished until it shined like spring water, and what looked like glowing pink clouds swirled within it. Legends said that the Jewel could change color depending on the emotions that affect it, should it be tainted with them; it could become a darker pink, a foggy purple, or even a bold red. Kagome had witnessed no such color changes, thankfully, and she intended to keep it that way.
The Force had helped her build her small temple and home in the center of one of the smaller mountains she'd seen on this new planet. The mountain itself was hollow and open in the center, its rocky walls surrounding a private jungle oasis. The temple was designed like the ones of her home planet, Yshin: open and flat, with little to no tech; everything was made of stone and wood, with only touches of metal here and there. She'd constructed a temple of stark white stone, shining red wood, and emerald green roof tiles that helped disguise her new home in the towering jungles above it.
The home surrounded a large spring of crystal-clear water that Kagome would use to drink from and bathe in; morning or evening, she found her dips in the pool inspired peace within her, in a way that Dantooine never could—not anymore.
Not without him.
In those moments at dawn or dusk, Kagome would remember the times she spent with him—the joyful afternoons they had running in Dantooine's tall grasses, panting until their lungs burned. She remembered stumbling, falling, pulling him with her. She remembered their laughter, and the look in his eyes, the one that haunted her since that day. She remembered the tingle in her spine, the flush to her own skin…
She remembered the kiss.
She remembered his tongue, the heat of his breath.
She remembered when they were naked together, making love in the grove, bathed in the golden light of evening.
She remembered everything about him: his beautiful brassy eyes, his pale, unblemished skin, his silky hair the color of starlight… but most of all, Kagome remembered the rich depth of his voice as he spoke sweet words in her ear.
But then, as Kagome would leave the pool of water, she would always remember after. She would remember her grief, and how hard she wept when he left, for years.
He made his choice.
Kagome made hers.
o0o
The Outer Rim was cold, desolate, and utterly black—'the true dark,' as his father used to call it. Darkness never scared Sesshomaru, and in fact, he thrived in it. As a child, he had loved exploring the dark caves on his homeworld, Yshin, and would immerse himself in the shadows until he couldn't tell which was forward and which was back.
Even now, lost and wounded, flying a ship he'd barely escaped in, Sesshomaru refused to let fear into his heart.
But he should have known his relationship with the Sith wouldn't last, that the Dark Jedi would betray him eventually—it was their nature. They were the hungry, the misfits, the angry, the rejected… There was always a struggle for power, for dominance, and it was like that all over the galaxy, in the little pockets of Dark Jedi hiding out from the Republic.
Sesshomaru had hopped from coven to coven over the years since he'd left Dantooine—they were never hard for him to find (and easy to manipulate, for a time). They recognized the look in his eyes, and would take him in as one of their own. He would stay until he needed a change of scenery, until the visions of her came back.
Then the questions would come, and the doubts—and finally, the longing.
At that point, he would always run to a new place, a new life, all just to forget her.
He could still feel the softness of her lips, taste the sweetness of her tongue.
He could still hear the soothing songs she would sing when they were alone.
He could still remember the first time he saw her.
They both were from Yshin, yet the entire time they lived on their homeworld, they were on opposite sides of the planet. The Order came to Yshin when they were of age, and both had shown promise with the Force, thus the Jedi gathered them on their ships—the boys on one, the girls another.
They were trained separately for five years, until they were eighteen, almost ready to become full-fledged Jedi. The Order held a banquet one night on Dantooine, to celebrate the last stages of their training, and for the first time, the separated groups would become one.
…and that was when he saw her.
Kagome.
She was laughing at something another had said, and Sesshomaru could hear it clear as a bell across the humdrum of the banquet hall. Her hair was tied up at the back of her head, but strands had come loose, framing her face in wispy curls. When her crystal blue eyes flicked across the room and met with his own, Sesshomaru's breath caught, and the world around him disappeared, all except for her.
Their bond was instantaneous, and for the remaining year of their training, they hardly spent a moment apart.
It was forbidden for Jedi to be intimate with one another, and it was said that sharing flesh was a dangerous lure to the Dark Side.
It was preposterous to Sesshomaru—what he had with Kagome couldn't have been farther from the dark. They were happy, there was peace.
…but then came the time for the ceremony, for their training to end and to say the vow that would make them Jedi.
They knew what it meant. They'd always known it was coming. Yet the night before the ceremony, they had wept in each other's arms.
We'll run, Sesshomaru told her, holding her beautiful face in his hands. We'll find a ship, and we'll run. No one can stop us—not if we haven't said our vows.
But our duty, Kagome countered. We have a responsibility with our training, my love.
Damn the responsibility, he said, pressing his forehead to hers. Damn the duty. I need nothing else as long as I'm with you. Run with me, Kagome. Meet me tomorrow, in the grove, and we'll start our own life, together.
But when morning came and Sesshomaru arrived in their grove, he was alone.
Sesshomaru couldn't help but think of that fateful morning as he flew his sputtering ship on the edges of the Outer Rim. He clutched at the bleeding wound in his side, wondering if he would die out here in the cold black nothing.
"How fitting," he murmured, sweat dripping down his brow. His vision was blurry, and he heard the ship's controls fussing at him, but as always, Sesshomaru didn't let fear enter his heart.
He merely thought of Kagome, and the life they could have lived.
She made her choice.
Sesshomaru made his.
o0o
When he came to, all Sesshomaru could hear was steam escaping from somewhere in his ruined ship, and the frantic beeping of the nav controls. From the looks of it, the ship had gone into emergency landing mode once it was close enough to a planet—a feature that very well could have saved his life (or ended it, judging from the jagged tree limb that had pierced the windshield and narrowly missed his face). It had sped off into the unknown planet's atmosphere, slowing down enough before the ship hit the ground, skidding through trees and rocks.
Sesshomaru stumbled from the wreckage, hauling himself out of the ship. He hissed as the motions aggravated the wound in his side—not to mention the others he'd earned in the emergency landing. Pulling himself to his feet and bracing himself on a tree, he took in his surroundings.
The planet was humid and fragrant with earth and flowers he'd never seen before. Shade from the impossibly tall trees protected him from the intense sun, which he was thankful for; with the tangling vines and lush jungle that looked like it hadn't been disturbed for some time, this planet had to have been abandoned.
But as he made the thought, something prickled at the back of his neck. It was difficult to sense through the web of wildlife around him, but it was definitely there: the Force.
A Jedi, he thought—and yet… there was something off about it, something that was just more. Sesshomaru didn't know if it was a good or bad thing—but it was his only option now, so he chose to follow his senses.
They weren't far, whoever they were—whatever they were—that much he knew. So Sesshomaru pressed onward, slow and steady. His head hurt, his side was still bleeding, but he continued through the unfamiliar territory until he found a break in the trees and the open base of a mountain sat before him.
It was a strange sight—almost as if the mountain was a partially cracked egg, and more jungle filled the remnants of the rocky shell. Though this jungle strangely looked lived in—a sign he was headed in the right direction.
As he made his way down the foot-beaten path, another clearing came into view. The trees parted to reveal one of the most gorgeous homes he'd ever seen, in the style of manors that were found on Yshin; and between he and the manor was a pond of crystal-clear water that spanned the length of the home, shaped in a near perfect oval.
The Force was obviously spilling from somewhere within the manor, and Sesshomaru stopped to peer inside.
But it wasn't long before the owner emerged from the sliding wooden doors, making his stomach drop and the wind blow from his lungs.
"Kagome…"
She was just as beautiful as the last time he'd seen her. Her ebony hair fell in lazy curls around her shoulders. The white of her robes were ever immaculate. But even across the pond, her eyes stood out to him the most: wide, cerulean, and full of wonder as she looked back at him.
This isn't real, his mind spoke to him. This isn't real. This is trickery, an illusion, a cruel trick of some kind.
The vision moved forward, slow and deliberate—cautious, from the look on her face. Immediately, Sesshomaru got a chill, and he tried to shake it away. He watched her assess him from their opposite sides, and he felt her eyes settle on his wound.
"You're not well," the vision said.
"You're not real," Sesshomaru replied, his eyes narrowing.
She shook her head, "I am as real as I ever was, Sesshomaru."
His own vision blurred slightly, but he fought for consciousness, his hand going for the lightsaber at his hip. "You're not real," he repeated, half-growling it out to her. The words sounded particularly harsh as they echoed between them, bouncing off the rippling pond and towering mountain walls.
"You would raise your saber to me?" the vision asked, sounding despondent.
Sesshomaru huffed, "I don't know you."
The vision Kagome shook her head lightly, disappointed, "Nor I you, my dearest. You wear the garb of a Sith."
It was true—Sesshomaru didn't need to look down at his clothing to know he looked the part of a Sith, wearing black leather boots, and the gray uniform the Dark Jedi were often seen wearing throughout the galaxy. He even wielded a red lightsaber. But it was all for blending purposes—he had never once considered joining the Sith, not that it mattered when he was nearly dead anyway.
"I am no Sith," Sesshomaru spat. "I belong to no one." With his last word, he snatched the saber from his hip and activated it, the mean red glow highlighting half of his face.
The vision squared her shoulders and took a deep breath, "So be it."
She produced her own saber, a beautiful weapon made of white steel. Unlike Sesshomaru's saber, when she activated it, the light columns came out from either end of the hilt—a double-ended lightsaber. Also unlike Sesshomaru's weapon (and any other lightsaber he'd seen in his life), the glow of the light columns was a soft pink, almost white.
He had little time to admire it before they both lunged across the pond, towards each other. Their sabers met in a sharp, sparky clash, each blade dangerously close to their faces. The heat from the lights caused sweat to form on their faces, and they pushed back against each other, flying backward onto the bank once more.
"You're not well!" Kagome called to him, her voice still as sweet as he remembered. "Let me heal you!"
Lies, a voice within him accused. She will kill you.
Sesshomaru lunged forward again, leaping towards Kagome's side of the bank. She held up her saber to block his blow, grunting under the weight of it.
"Listen to me!" she cried desperately. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she stared up through the red-pink glows. "Please!"
Kill her.
Sesshomaru pushed harder, remarkably strong considering his wounds, and he shoved her backward, sending her stumbling to the ground.
Kill her!
"Don't make me do this, Sesshomaru," Kagome begged, tears falling freely down her cheeks. She held up a hand—not her saber. "You loved me once! You loved me!"
Sesshomaru held his saber above Kagome, slowly walking towards her. There was a strangeness in his gait, a limp. His vision blurred again, and he stumbled slightly in the dewy grass.
KILL HER! NOW!
The words Kagome spoke—yes, they sparked anger—but mostly they spoke to his sorrow, and before he could reach out to touch her hand, the world went black…
o0o
Wind chimes woke him some time later, and Sesshomaru grunted in pain that pulsed in his head. His hand reached up to hold his forehead, and he found a newly-wrapped bandage on his arm. Confused, he furrowed his brow at it, and he looked at his surroundings.
He was laying on a bedroll in the center of a room of fresh, finished wood, inside the manor he'd seen before, but he didn't remember much else beyond that. In his dreams, she'd haunted him still—though these dreams were new. She was older, experienced, and fierce—wielding a double-ended lightsaber, of all things.
A significant amount of the day was gone, if the golden light of the sunset was any indication. It cast a lovely sheen over the pond outside, and the nature surrounding it. Sesshomaru couldn't help but sit up and stare at it, his mind going back to a grove of tall grass and warm kisses.
"Ah, you're awake…"
Sesshomaru knew the voice like he knew his own face, like he knew the scent of rain and the feel of silk through his fingers—his heart lurched. Slowly, he turned from his view of the pond to find her, carefully kneeling on a cushion beside him.
"How are you feeling?" she asked gently, her haunting blue eyes filled with warmth.
His mouth opened, but no sound came out at first. Sesshomaru swallowed, "Kagome?"
She breathed a sigh of relief, "I had hoped that outburst from earlier was from the fever. Your wound was infected."
Instantly, he was horrified at himself, "I… That wasn't a dream?"
Kagome shook her head, her smile understanding, "No." She pointed out the other bandages on his person, "I'm sure your crash didn't help your confusion either." She held the bandaged arm in her gentle hands, and from the inside of her robes, she produced a small crystal, glowing bright and pink.
"The Shikon Jewel," Sesshomaru breathed in disbelief. He looked at her, "You found it?"
Kagome shook her head, removing the necklace and wrapping it around the bandage on his forearm. "No–it was given to me," she told him. "Trusted to me."
With those words he understood, "The Order."
"Yes."
He watched as she closed her eyes and concentrated her healing abilities into the crystal, and slowly, his arm began to glow. The dull pain that had been there subsided in mere seconds, and aches that Sesshomaru wasn't even aware of began to fade. When Kagome began to unwind the necklace, he got a better look at the legendary pendant.
"Is it… broken?" he asked her, noting it was a jagged hemisphere, when legend told it was whole and perfect.
Kagome nodded, "Yes. One piece around my neck, and one in my lightsaber. One heals, the other protects."
"I see…"
Silence followed, thick and heavy with tension. The question raised itself, hanging between them.
"You left me," she said.
"You never came," he said at the same time.
"Our duty—"
"Was decided for us when we were younglings," Sesshomaru interrupted. "All we ever knew was what the Order taught us, nothing more, nothing less."
Kagome nodded, "That's true. But when we showed we were sensitive to the Force, our path was set in motion."
"The Force and the Order drove us apart, Kagome," Sesshomaru said bitterly.
She looked at him earnestly, shaking her head, "But without the Order, we might never have met. Trillions of people on our homeworld, Sesshomaru, and we could have led entirely different lives if we didn't go with the Jedi." Kagome leaned forward, touching his forearm, "And the Force didn't drive us apart, my dearest—it brought us together. You know this to be true."
Sesshomaru couldn't deny that, and he looked down at her hand on his arm, "Then where does that leave us, Kagome?"
Her soft hand touched his forearm again, moving upward to lace her fingers with his, "That night, you said we could run and build a life of our own."
He looked into her eyes, seeing the glittering of tears shining over them, "Where would we go?"
"Here," Kagome told him, squeezing his hand. "Here is where we'll live, Sesshomaru. I was told to leave the Order and never return, to hide the Jewel in a place where no one could find it—and here, on Senuku, we'll have all we need." Tears fell from her beautiful eyes, "Don't you see, Sesshomaru? Don't you see? The Force… it brought us together again."
For the first time in years, Sesshomaru felt something bloom in his heart: hope.
He reached for her, cupping her cheek, his long fingers tangling in her hair with the familiarity of long-lost friends.
Sesshomaru spoke, borrowing words he remembered from before, "You loved me once."
"Once?" Kagome asked, giving a laugh through her tears. "My love… I never stopped."
o0o