Chapter Text
When Sara wakes up, it’s to cold stone beneath her back and a headache like her head’s been clamped in a vice.
And to whispers. They wrap around her almost possessively, trying to get under her skin. When she tries to concentrate on what they’re saying, the pounding in her head gets worse, and she blacks out again.
The next time she comes to, she’s jostled awake by someone. She’s still lying on the cold floor, but the whispers are gone. They’re replaced by a single voice that radiates urgency-worry, and it takes her a moment to peel her eyelids open and realize it’s coming from the figure kneeling over her.
They’re asking her something, but then the whispers are back and she can’t understand the question through them. All she can do is whimper at the barrage of noises in her ears.
The figure seems to take this as an answer itself, and carefully lifts her into their arms. The noise explodes in her ears. She cries out and clamps her hands around her ears. The voice above her starts again, this time trying to exude calm-peaceful, but the noise is too much, and she passes out again.
—
The final time she gains consciousness, it’s quiet. At least, quieter. The strange whispers are still there, but now they’re merely a calm murmur in the back of her head, like rushing water in the distance.
She lets it flow over her. It’s soothing to sink into, like sitting in a creek, letting the water wash away all your worries. But like how escaping from reality in the woods only works until someone comes to get you, her quiet is shattered by the sound of mechanical doors opening.
“—indicitave of trauma to the head. We’ll have to wait until she wakes to assess the full extent of the damage,” a female voice says. “I’d suggest holding off on an interrogation until after such tests are done. We don’t know yet how stable she will be upon waking.”
“I suppose we can put it off until after she’s deemed safe. Is she alright otherwise?”
“Other than the head trauma, she’s physically untouched.”
“But?”
“But…” Here the woman hesitates. “But her force signature seems different. Not necessarily tainted by the Dark Side as suspected but… changed.”
“Intriguing.”
“Quite. We’ll keep an eye out for any signs—“ the conversation is cut off by the sound of another mechanical door.
The silence now is deafening. Her thoughts are roiling in her head. Force signature? Dark Side? Those are both Star Wars terms. But the context makes no sense, why are they using those terms in a serious context? If she could just explain that there’s been some sort of mix up and she can go home—
Her eyes fly open. She makes no note of the calming blue-green shade the room is painted in or the way sunlight floats down from high windows. She sees nothing as grief, anxiety, fear all scrape through her at once.
The sunlight becomes red-hot flames and smoke starts to choke her as the whispers grow louder, becoming a waterfall that tries to douse the flames, sweep her away from home—
“Ceira!” Everything stills. A girl, no older than 15 has pulled back the curtain Sara hadn’t realized surrounded her bed. “You just had to go and get yourself in trouble right before I left! Couldn’t even wait until after I left. Are you trying to get me to stay behind with you?” She stares at me with an accusatory eye. I stare back blankly, unsure of how to respond to someone who is clearly mistaken on who I am. “Well? What happened?”
“Padawan Ardwin.”
“Master Che!” She whirls around and drops down into a sheepish bow. I blink up at the ‘Master Che’. She has blue skin. Blue. And twin ‘tails’ leading down from her head. Master Che is a twi’lek.
“I hope you aren’t bothering my patient. Especially because she is not currently allowed to have visitors.”
“I was just, um, checking up on her, Master. I didn’t want to leave without seeing for myself that she was okay!” Master Che sighs. And is a twi’lek. And no one but Sara is blinking an eye at that fact.
She misses the rest of the conversation as she stares at Master Che. That solves one question. She’s somehow in the Star Wars universe. She’s in the Star Wars universe while Master Che is alive, and the Order hasn’t fallen yet.
Which means she’s in the Star Wars universe before the Clone Wars happen, and she’s a part of a race that is about to get wiped out with no warning.
She passes out again.