A Shift in the Force: Chapter Sixty-Seven: To Bespin

AN: There's a lot of love for Anakin and Ahsoka meeting earlier, and you'll see more of them, I promise, but we gotta get through some stuff first. But there is definitely going to be more Sobiwan, I promise!

Obi-Wan awoke slowly to the sound of hushed murmurs and a voice over static.

"Darling," Sabé was speaking lowly, as if trying not to wake him, "I know it's not great right now, but I'll home in—" She checked her chronometer. "—an hour…if it's really that bad, you can stay up until I get home and I'll come check on you, then."

Obi-Wan rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, looking over to where Sabé was sitting up, leaned forward, her comm to her mouth. Her back had that tattoo that he'd first gotten a sight of when she'd been placed in the bacta tank, the symbol of House Renliss in a smooth circle between her shoulder blades. Other parts of her back were warped and scarred from her life as a Shadow and a bounty hunter and a Sith. He'd kissed every scar he could find the previous night, those included.

There was a buzz from her comm that he couldn't make out. "Yeah, I know," Sabé sighed, "but I'll be back soon, and you can nap for as long as you want, promise…okay, I'll be back soon, Caleb."

She shut it off, standing to pull on her clothes.

"Leaving already?" Obi-Wan asked mildly as the pants were pulled into place and the shirt following with it.

"My kid's having a rough night," Sabé said with the tone of an aggrieved parent, which was something Obi-Wan had never imagined her sounding like. There was always something about children that had stopped her dead in her tracks. She was very maternal, of course, and cared so deeply for Talik that she might as well have been her own child…but Obi-Wan sometimes wondered if creating a child and carrying it was something that made her uneasy, though he couldn't be sure of why. "Which is even worse because I can't make him not be afraid, I can't make him not have dreams or visions, the best I can offer is weathering the storm."

She cast him a significant look and Obi-Wan understood her completely. The Jedi were taught not to fear, but fear was a natural part of life, of experience. Obi-Wan had experienced it more than once in life and it was always accompanied by the thought that he'd be kicked out of the Order for feeling such a thing. Sabé, on the other hand, was rather shameless and open, not that that was a bad thing, just that it went against how they were taught. She had always been about teaching Talik to embrace the full spectrum of emotion, including fear.

Then the space between them broke and Sabé leaned down to kiss him softly again. "I love you," she murmured against his mouth. "I'll contact you when it's safe."

Obi-Wan had no idea what Sabé had gotten herself mixed up in, but he had a feeling that it had something to do with the new scar on her cheek.

"You never did say what happened to your eyes," he reminded her with a faint smile.

Sabé's mouth twitched and she sat down beside him. Obi-Wan felt very underdressed with how naked he was under the sheets compared to her. "You've heard about the planet Malachor V, right?"

Obi-Wan paused, and then he stared. There had been talk, of course, about Malachor V. There had been rumors like that from the time he was a youngling.

"You went to the Void?"

That was what it had been called…a place without any presence of the Force. All planets had some amount of the Force running through them, if they were terraformed, that is (Coruscant was an oddity, gaining the Force from all the Force-sensitive individuals that populated it), but not Malachor, not anymore.

"It was…strange, I won't lie…maybe one day I'll go back," Sabé shrugged. "But the point is, I went there and I had to sort of…" She paused, searching for the right words. "Accept who I am and who I was, sort of like finding the balance within myself. But the eyes are pretty, too."

Obi-Wan couldn't stifle a snort and her golden eyes gleamed.

"See you around, darling, give my love to Anakin and Talik!" She gave him a sound kiss to his cheek before pulling herself off the bed and disappearing out the door more silently than she'd entered the previous night.

Obi-Wan laid there and let out a long breath. Years ago, he would've thought leaving the Order for anyone was beyond imagining. He'd considered it once, with Satine, though now he was wondering about what Sabé had said about the ethnocide of the Mandalorians, and if that was true, then he'd certainly dodged a blaster bolt.

But with Sabé…she'd never asked for more than he could give, if even that. If the rules and the laws didn't benefit the people she was trying to help, then she broke them.

Sabé was the closest thing to a broken rule personified, created from the Force itself, and Obi-Wan wasn't even sure when he'd started falling for her, but he was certainly fallen now.

…but had there been something off about her Force presence that hadn't been there the previous night?

Caleb heard her first, and he paused inside his room.

"Heard it went well," came Sola's amused voice.

"Eh." He could just imagine Sabé shrugging.

"Also…that kid is insanely like you, did you know that?" Sola pressed, something layered in her voice that he couldn't quite place.

"Is he? Must be some learned habits." Sabé sounded unconcerned…and evasive.

"Sabé. The kid has your smile, your hair color…you can't tell me you didn't notice."

There was a long, stilted silence and the only thing Caleb could hear was his racing heart. Did she mean—?

"You were pregnant before, weren't you?" Sola pressed.

Caleb could feel Sabé's feelings through the Force…it was a mixture of unease, denial, surprise, and bone-deep pain. He pressed the button to open the door and ran through with a call of "Mom!"

Her golden eyes were briefly startled when he flung his arms around her. "Don't go away again," he muffled into her stomach and Sabé smiled broadly, feeling a warmth in her chest as she wound her arms around him, bending to press her cheek against the top of his head.

Sola disappeared off to the cockpit to leave them alone, shaking her head, and Caleb could feel her annoyance at Sabé dodging the question.

"I'll do my best," Sabé promised.

Cham and Ises were very fervent in their goodbyes (Sabé's lips still tingled) and they, along with every other chief whose child Sabé had helped rescue, had promised that if she ever needed anything, just to ask.

Sabé had given up shaking those kinds of promises off, though she did still think that something needed to be done about Senator Orn Free Taa…hm…Yvanna was a good choice for that…maybe Sabé would drop her a word.

"Come on, darling," Sabé hummed, kissing the top of his head. "Let's get to the cockpit and see what Sola's up to." She didn't comment on the dark shadows under his eyes.

Sola was running diagnostics when they entered. "So, uh, I'm not much of a mechanic," Sola admitted sheepishly. Sabé held out her hand for the screwdriver, which Sola handed over quickly, letting her sister take her spot under the console, twisting the gears there.

"How was Rachi while I was away?" Sabé asked instead, not even looking up from the task at hand.

"Seems to be fine," Sola said with a faint smile, settling into the captain's seat; Caleb was pretty sure that bantering she'd done with Rachi the previous day had been flirting but he kept his mouth shut. "Still moving a bit slow, but she says she's healed, so there's that…so what's the plan now that you're done with your favor for the Syndullas?"

There was a loud click and the diagnostic screen lit up green, indicating the malfunction had been fixed. Sabé slid back out to pull herself into the seat beside the pilot's seat. "Well, getting Rachi off first should be first on the list," she admitted. "The last I heard, the Altisian Jedi had set up somewhere on Bespin, but I'll have to ask…but we should probably—"

Arthree gave a loud number of beeps from where he was recharging, hooked into the console, and Sabé sighed loudly. "Yes, Arthree, I was getting to that." Caleb giggled into his hands. "We'll have to swing by where the ship is, because I'd like to get it fixed…just magnetize the bitch and we'll be on our way."

Sola snorted at the language that Caleb seemed rather unfazed by.

"We can tow you," Sola said, rolling her eyes at herself at the use of 'we' when she was a singular person living in the ship -when sister and company weren't tagging along, that was-. "So, to Bespin to drop off Rachi and then leave you…where, exactly?"

Sabé grimaced, running a hand through her hair. "Ordinarily, I'd say Alderaan, since I've got friends there, but I don't want to overstay my welcome with the Organas." If she'd ever voiced that in front of them, though, they would've violently disagreed. "Unfortunately, Mandalore's got some of the best mechanics and the Duchess owes me for saving her life back on Naboo…so probably just drop us back off over there? I'll have to comm ahead, of course."

"But of course," Sola snorted. "Once I leave you on Mandalore, I'm heading home to see my girls, I've been gone too long."

Sabé smiled broadly. "Give them a kiss from me, yeah?"

"They'd probably prefer one from Talik, she's their favorite." Neither mentioned their father's declining health, too content to fool themselves into thinking his treatment was going well -which it was- but treatment could only help so much in his case. Denial was a river that ran deep in the Naberrie family.

Sabé's eyes softened at the mention of her former Padawan. "Yeah, she's pretty great, so at least they've got good taste."

Sola rolled her eyes and Sabé turned back to Caleb who was just kind of lingering, not really knowing what to do or if he should interrupt the sisters. "Darling, how about you try for some sleep once we make the jump to hyperspace?"

Caleb blinked a few times, trying to shake off his sleep, and trying not to lean into Sabé when she stood, running a hand through his hair. "Come on, kiddo, why don't you lie down while Sola flies us over."

And then she was steering him out of the cockpit back to the room that he'd been using while she was gone and Caleb couldn't bring himself to complain. Or even think about the growing possibility in his mind.

The Dawning, all things considered, didn't look nearly as broken up as it had when Sabé had first seen the damage, which was probably because she was still in a little pain -lightsaber burns hurt and the Force Strangle hadn't really helped things- and because there was a bit more smoke billowing. Still, it was mostly intact when she removed the reflective sheet to look upon her beloved ship. It would be costly, but Sabé's work as Darth the bounty hunter was lucrative, even if she was getting the repairs free.

Sabé wasn't exactly happy about it, because she knew it would take several days and Mandalore wasn't really a place she liked to go to if she had to. But she'd commed and once the woman in charge of ingoing calls to the Duchess told her that a Sabé Amidala was calling, she'd answered immediately. Sabé supposed she should be commended for paying her debts full and upfront, because she'd agreed to pay for Sabé's repairs and a place for her to stay while they were being completed.

But Sabé still didn't like Mandalore, especially since she was bringing along Caleb, Caleb who had already gotten into so much trouble by merely wandering off and onto a Dark Jedi's ship, and who looked far more like the Mandalorians that had been exiled from Mandalore to any of the planets in the Mandalorian Sector, any one of a thousand planets.

Honestly, Sabé saw far more similarities between Caleb and Quinlan Vos, so, more likely he was Kiffar…but Quinlan's eyes before he'd fallen had been a beautiful teal blue, like Caleb's and like Talik's. It wasn't a very common color, especially among humans -or even near-humans- or Twi'leks. More than a few people had complimented Talik's colorfulness over the years, as lavender Twi'leks were a bit rare and very coveted as slaves -as much as she loathed to admit it- but Sabé had never given much thought to it, because Aayla, Quinlan's former Padawan, had never mentioned how identical the color was.

But she knew that Rachi Sitra was Talik's mother, their likeness and facial structure too alike for them to not be, if Sabé wasn't including how Rachi got when Sabé sometimes mentioned Talik -though she tried not to talk too much about her in public because it still hurt to know that she was so very far away and that Sabé had made her leave her. But one day Talik was going to become an exceptional Jedi Healer and Sabé couldn't help her become that, she was a simple (former) Jedi Shadow and her knowledge of healing was limited; better for her to learn from a master like Vokara Che.

Arthree gave a sad trilling beep as they activated the magnetized locks and prepared for the jump.

"Don't worry, Arthree," Sabé cracked a smile, "the ship will fixed soon and then we'll be off to the stars, as we should be."

Arthree was appeased.

"Putting in coordinates to Bespin would be easier if someone actually gave them to me," Sola admitted, turning her attention to Rachi, who had only just joined them, rolling her eyes as she approached the console with much less of a limp than the last time Sabé had seen her, putting in the coordinates. Bespin was rather publicly known where it was, so it wasn't like it was a secret, but Sabé had only even been to Bespin once, when she was a child, with Yoda. It was an interesting place she supposed; like Coruscant but better.

"How's the blaster wounds?" Sabé asked lightly.

Rachi looked down at herself with a small wince. "Still healing but much better…healing isn't much of my strong suit."

"Must be an acquired skill in your family, I suppose." Sabé wasn't even trying to be subtle and Rachi looked to her sharply just in time for Sola to make the jump to hyperspace. "Caleb, let's see if you can get some sleep on this trip, all right?" He'd laid down for exactly five minutes before coming back up to the cockpit, much to Sabé's exasperation and Sola's amusement.

Caleb, whose eyes had been flicking between Rachi and Sabé, trying to gauge what was going on before giving up, realizing he was far too tired to be dealing with that. "Okay," he said, yawning widely, allowing Sabé to steer him back to the bed he'd been sleeping on, tucking him in for good measure.

"You're going to try to get some rest this time around," Sabé smiled as she laid down beside him, crossing her legs as he snuggled into her side. She supposed that had been part of the problem; as Initiates, younglings often slept in piles and Caleb didn't have that. It had been something that both Sabé and Talik had struggled with during the early stages of their respective apprenticeships (Yoda had been far less accommodating than Sabé was, that was for sure).

"Mom," he warbled into her side and Sabé couldn't help but smile.

"Yeah, kid?"

"Can I keep calling you 'Mom'?" he asked, his words slurring together, already so close to sleep now.

Warmth bloomed in Sabé's chest with a sharp edge of pain, and she craned her neck to bend down just enough to kiss the top of his head. "You call me 'Mom' as long as you like, my love."

Caleb hummed something, but then he was fast asleep.

"Push! One last push!"

"You're doing great!"

She gave one last push with a scream and the nursemaid was cradling a squirming, wailing child in her arms. "It's a boy…are you sure you don't want to hold him?"

She shook her head violently, bile rising in her throat. "Keep him away."

Sabé's eyes snapped open and she breathed in and out heavily, trying to regulate her breathing and trying not to remember that day, or even the night nine months prior to it when she'd been reeled in with a coy smile and left with a suppressed memory and a baby growing in her womb.

Caleb was still fast asleep next to her and she had to ease herself out of the bed carefully, slipping away to make her way up to the cockpit, feeling more nauseous than she had in a while. Looking out at the stars had always helped, though.

Sabé had been young and foolish, then and it had still taken her years to recover. All things considered, Quinlan Vos had not been a bad man, or even terrible partner, but, unfortunately for Sabé, that night she'd happened upon him just before he'd Fallen.

So, she'd gotten one great night and nine months of fear and worry because Quinlan had thought the best idea was to attempt to suppress her memories of the incident. Why he'd thought that was a good idea, Sabé still didn't know. What an idiot.

Sabé gritted her teeth together, running a hand through her hair, thinking about what Bendu had said about Caleb.

"I, for one, am curious to see how the both of you grow during this…partnership." It was the way he'd said partnership…like he'd been wanting to say something else, asking her to consider if she kept him with her, rather than returning him to Coruscant, talking about how their paths had converged and how alike he was to her… "Kriffing Bendu," she muttered, crossing her legs in the seat and dropping into a meditative trance almost immediately.

"You knew," Sabé growled when she immediately saw his massive figure, "how did you know?"

"When you get to be as old as I," Bendu replied with that ancient voice of his, "you can see how clearly the Force links beings…you cast away your child and he finds you nonetheless…amusing how that works, isn't it?"

Sabé ground her teeth together, bitter. "I am not the prime example of motherhood."

"No one is," Bendu responded just as easily, "you were not ready then…your memories were suppressed by your child's father…of course you would find it difficult to touch, let alone look at your child when he was born. But you have raised Talik Shala well, and when your son came back to you, you did not turn him away."

Sabé blinked furiously, looking away.

"Your fates have always been interwoven…and you knew there was something different about him when you first met him at the Temple, you just couldn't place it," Bendu reminded. "You thought he was once meant to be your student…you just neglected to realize he was also your child."

She sighed heavily, her head in her hands. "I don't know what to do."

"I have complete faith in you."

"Why?" she asked helplessly.

"Because you always do what's right, regardless of what others think," Bendu smiled down at her.

For the first time in days, Caleb slept without dreams or visions that threatened to awaken him at odd hours and he felt remarkably well-rested when he opened his eyes again. Sabé had gone and her space beside him was empty and cold, but he was used to that by now.

Strange to think that he was used to the morning routine of Sabé Amidala, Jedi Exile, but here they were.

He got up, got blasted by the sonic shower that really needed some technical work, and got dressed before heading off to find Sabé. It wasn't hard; she was in the cockpit with Sola.

"—so both Syndullas were your exes and you slept with Obi-Wan Kenobi? Is there anything else I need to be brought up to speed on?"

Sabé snorted. "No, I think that just about covers it." She tilted her head back with smile. "Come on in, Caleb, how'd you sleep?"

"All right," Caleb yawned tiredly. "How long was I asleep?"

Sabé checked the chronometer. "About…eighteen hours."

Caleb's eyes bulged. "Eighteen hours?!"

"Yup," Sola smiled, "Rachi thought you might've died, but she didn't look too concerned."

"Thanks," Caleb said without feeling and Sola's eyes flicked towards Sabé as if to say 'are you sure this kid isn't your secret love child?'; Sabé ignored the look. "Where is Rachi?"

"Asleep again." Sabé rolled her eyes. "I don't think she's as healed as she claimed to be, and sleeping's the best way to heal naturally when you don't have access to a bacta tank."

"You do," Sola pointed out and Sabé scowled.

Bacta tanks were incredibly expensive, even by her standards, but it was a deal she'd struck with House Renliss. If she brought them a bacta tank, they wouldn't require her to be an active bounty hunter anymore, even if she hadn't done any bounty hunting since she'd come out of the bacta tank on Naboo. But Jalindas and Gratina ran a business. Luckily, offering them Tython as a base had earned Sabé quite a bit of clout (really, it should've earned her all the clout, but that was a whole different story), so the bacta tank was just to seal the deal…not that Sabé wouldn't take occasional jobs as Darth, she was, as usual, as morally grey as they came, she just wouldn't have the obligation anymore.

"I'm not messing with that," Sabé said simply, "I bought it, but it's not mine, it's going to House Renliss."

"That's the bounty hunting guild you joined, right?" Caleb asked, taking the bottle Sabé offered him and taking a slurping sip.

Sola arched an eyebrow towards her sister. "Exactly how much about you did you tell the kid?"

"Well, since he's my kid," Sabé hummed and Caleb tried hard not to beam at her, "I can tell him what I see fit." There was something about the way she said it that made Caleb feel impossibly warm.

"You're just saying that because yours is old enough to understand what it means to keep secrets," Sola grumbled under her breath, making Sabé laugh as she pulled herself up smoothly to stand, pressing the back of her hand to Caleb's brow like she was checking for a fever. It was the concern on her face more than anything else that flustered Caleb.

Caleb didn't know what he was doing, not really. A few weeks ago, and he wouldn't have even considered life outside of the Jedi Order, let alone with the Jedi Exile herself. Yet here he was. "You had a fever earlier," she told him, "it broke in the night, but you probably haven't gotten any of your vaccinations yet; the Order doesn't tend to do that until you're apprenticed…we'll have to look into that on Mandalore."

She still didn't look pleased about that. She hadn't been happy about Mandalore since she'd suggested it, but Caleb didn't feel like it was wise to bring it up, not yet.

"But let's get you some food and we'll talk about Bespin…you're not in class anymore, but you're still going to learn something."

She laughed again when Caleb scowled only to jump at Arthree's sudden chortling beep; he hadn't realized he was plugged into the console, making sure everything was functioning after the last time they'd had an issue. She unplugged him and Arthree ran into Caleb's ankles as they both followed her into the galley.

Sabé rifled through the cupboards until she pulled out a fruit that seemed a bit oddly shaped. "You'll like this," she told him, "I've got a whole bag on the Dawning. It's a Starblossom from Alderaan, very tasty."

Somehow, looking at the fruit, all Caleb had was doubt, especially when she cut into it and it squirted blue juice where she cut it. But she bit into her slice without any reservation and Caleb was determined to do the same…only to be pleasantly surprised when it ended up tasting quite good.

Sabé's golden eyes gleamed at the sight of his surprised expression and Caleb tried to save face. "It's all right," he acquiesced.

"Sure, kid, whatever you say," she leaned down to pat Arthree's domed head. "Arthree, project an image of Bespin."

Arthree tootled as his holo-projector blurred to life, revealing the image of a planet, though it was hard to tell the difference between other planets when you saw them projected alone; they all looked the same to Caleb.

"This is Bespin," Sabé told him, "it's a gas giant, do you know what that means?"

Caleb shook his head, tucking into his fruit and listening and wondering if this was what it was like to be her student. Maybe that was why Talik Shala spoke so highly of her master, despite all the rumors and the negativity, she'd raised Talik well and taught her the best that she could, combining her mothering nature with her excellent teaching. So many had wondered how Talik had turned out so well when her master had Fallen so far (while the other half wondered when it went wrong, when Talik became too much like Sabé, questioning everything), but Caleb thought the point was that she was a very good teacher, not stifling her student with making her be the Jedi that Yoda had wanted Sabé to be.

"A gas giant is a kind of planet that is usually almost completely made up of gas. Sometimes it's hydrogen and helium, some have methane, and some have oxygen-rich layers within their atmospheres which make it possible for species that require oxygen to live -humanoids like us, for instance- on those gas giants…are you following?"

Caleb bobbed his head before making an iffy gesture.

"Well, think about Ryloth, it's terra-formed, which means it can support life…Ryloth is a bit more unusual because it's a planet that never turns so one side of the planet always faces the light and another is always in darkness, but you can live on either side, some places with a bit more difficulty, but there's flora and fauna and people…unlike Coruscant which is not terraformed."

"It's not?" Caleb gaped in surprised.

"It used to be," Sabé had to concede, "but after a while, the rivers dried up…somehow the inhabitants thought it was smarter to build their civilization atop platforms instead, which I never understood, but everything about Coruscant is artificial."

She'd never explicitly said why she didn't want to go back to Coruscant, even if it had been just to drop off Caleb -which she'd barely been okay with doing before he'd said he was okay with staying with her for a while- there was something almost visceral about her refusal to return to the planet…she'd mentioned something once about a Sith Shrine, but had never explained it.

She snorted suddenly. "It's very ironic to me that the Jedi set up shop on a planet that is entirely man-made, where the Force is downed out, yet the first time a Jedi saw my artificial arm, I was told to 'cover that up'."

The mere thought of saying that insensitive to someone who had lost their arm dueling a Sith startled Caleb. "I think your arm is cool," he told her and Sabé spared him a smile, remembering how he'd traced the patterns and divots in the metal and watched her flex her fingers and see how everything fit together.

"Anakin was always fiddling with it, too," she said fondly, ruffling his hair with her prosthetic arm. "But I'm getting off topic. Bespin isn't terraformed but it does possess colonies of civilization. Cloud City is an example of that, it's a lot like Coruscant because it's a city built on platforms, but it's a single structure, sleek and refined."

Caleb thought she didn't like things that were refined with how rough around the edges but she was probably comparing it to something else. "How do people live there if it's just gas?" he asked.

"You mean make a living?" Sabé guessed, snagging a slice of fruit from him. "Mining. Bespin's a major source of tibanna gas."

"And Rachi lives there?" Caleb could remember Rachi talking to Sabé about someone named 'Altis' that she wanted Sabé to meet when she was still leery of the idea. "With those Jedi that the Order don't approve of?"

Sabé smiled faintly. "She does."

"Like in a temple?"

"Not like the one on Coruscant," Sabé shook her head. "Though that one's more like a palace if you ask me, and focusing all your Force-sensitives in one place is historically a bad idea but—" Caleb hid his amusement, noting how she tended to go off on tangents when she talked about things about the Order that annoyed her. "—But it's more of an enclave, sort of like a sacred area that they've claimed as their own. I never knew that one was on Bespin, but apparently this one moves around." She shrugged. "Just as long as no one tries to kill me, we'll be good."

"Why would they try to kill you?" Caleb was a bit thrown off. "They're Jedi!"

"You never know," Sabé said sagely, "Jedi have tried to kill me before."

And all had failed.

She just hoped no one got as lucky as Maw did.

AN: As always: Please Review!