Chapter Text
Luke came awake all at once, and immediately regretted it.
He groaned, bringing a hand up to his throbbing head. He felt around the back of it, stopping when he nudged the painful knot and the throbbing pain got worse.
He let his hand flop back down to the - ground. He was laying on the ground. Why was he laying on the ground…?
Fragments of memories came back to him - saying goodbye to Grogu, the cave, the winding tunnels underground, the secret door, the glowing artifact, Din reaching out - Din. Where was Din?
Luke sat up as slowly as he could, trying to ignore the pain in his head, and, as he was beginning to notice, in his entire body. His bones ached, like he had been thrown off a speeder and then also stepped on by a bantha.
He blinked several times, trying to focus in the low light. As far as he could tell, he was still underground, though this didn’t look at all like the cave he had found the artifact in. This room still had stone walls, but the stone was rougher, redder, and the room itself was much larger. He scanned as much of the room as he could, eyes catching on a rough shape about ten meters away from him.
Din was lying on the ground as well, unmoving. Somewhat alarmed by the lack of movement, Luke forced himself to his feet and managed to lurch over to where Din was lying. He dropped heavily to his knees by Din’s side, and gave Din’s shoulder a little shake.
“Din. Are you okay?” Another shake, a little harder this time. “Wake up.” No response.
Luke sat back and considered his options. He really didn’t want to remove Din’s helmet when they were in an unfamiliar place, where theoretically anyone could walk in, but if Din wasn’t waking up because of a head wound…
Before Luke could do anything drastic, Din drew in a gasping breath, then started coughing, the sound coming out in bursts of static through the modulator. Luke clutched at Din’s arm, incredibly relieved that he was awake.
“...Luke? Where are we?” Din’s voice was soft, a little rasping, but he sounded mostly coherent. Luke ran the fingers of his flesh hand through his hair.
“Um. I actually have no idea.” Luke frowned, and glanced around the room again. “I don’t think this is the room we were just in, the one with the artifact.”
Din groaned. “Please don’t tell me we were just teleported because you couldn’t keep your hands off a fucking Jedi artifact.”
Luke sniffed. “Fine, then I won’t tell you that. And now that I think about it, it was probably a Sith artifact.”
“Great. That makes it so much better.”
Luke narrowed his eyes at him. “And based on the fact that you’re here too, I assume you also touched the artifact. So you’re one to talk.”
“...you don’t remember?”
“Remember what?” Luke asked.
Din tilted his helmet towards Luke. “You were wandering around the room, and I guess I wasn’t paying attention, because the next thing I know, I look over and you’re holding the stupid thing, in a weird trance, surrounding by glowing blue light. I tried multiple times to wake you up, and then I just tried yanking the thing out of your hands, and then everything went dark and now here we are. I thought you knew better than to grab glowing artifacts off of pedestals.”
Luke scowled. “It had a really interesting Force signature - you know what, I don’t have to explain myself to you. Let’s just figure out where we are and then get out of here.”
“Great idea.”
Luke stood up, wavering a bit, then held out his hand to help Din up. Din seemed similarly affected, though Luke didn’t remember either of them getting injured. Maybe it was a side effect of the…teleporting?
The room appeared to have two exits, both fairly large tunnels of the same red rock. Luke was just about to head towards one when he heard faint noises coming from the other side, growing louder. Growing nearer. It sounded like footsteps, multiple sets.
Luke looked around again, but there was no cover in the room - it was entirely empty space. He faced the sounds and pulled his lightsaber off his belt, thumbing the switch but not yet turning it on. Din slid his blaster out of its holster.
They waited.
Lights bounced off the tunnel walls, and the footsteps drew nearer, until the beings rounded the corner and Luke could see…stormtroopers?
But they didn’t fire on Luke and Din, and Luke got a better look at them. There were six of them visible, and their armor looked like a cross between stormtrooper and Mandalorian. WIth orange accents. The one in front, who appeared to be the leader, leveled his blaster at them and barked out, “State your name, intruders!”
“I am Jedi Master Luke Skywalker,” Luke said, trying to stay calm. Orange stormtroopers?
The leader lowered his blaster a little, seemingly taken aback. “ Skywalker ?”
“Um. Yes?” Luke tried not to be alarmed, and was debating switching on his lightsaber. Din was silent but tense next to him, his blaster aimed directly at the armored leader.
The leader lowered his blaster even further, but the others still had theirs trained on Luke and Din. The leader turned halfway back to the tunnel, then called out, “General! You’re going to want to see this!”
Two more armored men filtered out through the tunnel’s opening, joining their compatriots in lining the room’s edge. Then another figure entered, and -
“ Ben? ” Luke’s jaw dropped.
It certainly looked like Ben, with the brown robes, but his hair was red and he looked much younger. He also had a lightsaber clipped to his belt.
Ben approached them warily, until he was about halfway across the room to them. “I’m sorry, have we met?” he asked politely.
A younger Ben, who didn’t recognize Luke, orange stormtroopers, and a teleporting artifact…
Oh, Force. Leia was going to kill him. At least, if Din didn’t first.
“Uh, no, no we haven’t met, at least…not yet, I think,” Luke said, ignoring the way Din was staring at him.
“Um, Ben - or, Obi-Wan, I guess, uh - what year is it?”