Darkness swallowed everything.
Kaelen floated in it, weightless, with no sense of body, breath, or time. Only a hum — a faint vibration moving through him like a starship engine far away.
Then the darkness split open.
The Vision
Kaelen stood on a world he had never seen.
A vast, gleaming metropolis of gold and steel rose around him — towers shaped like spears, bridges that hung between the clouds, and pathways lined with floating lights. Yet beneath all its brilliance, a coldness lingered.
A world of beauty built on stillness.Order.Control.
A single word echoed in Kaelen's mind:
Zakuul.
Kaelen frowned. "Where… am I?"
His voice echoed in the empty city.
Then a figure stepped forward.
A Jedi — or someone who used to be.Tall, armored, scarred from countless battles. His presence radiated calm strength, but also deep exhaustion — a life stretched across too many wars.
Kaelen had never seen him before.But the Force whispered one name—
The Outlander.
The man studied him with piercing eyes.
"You don't belong to my era."
Kaelen inhaled sharply. "I don't know you."
"You're not meant to."
Kaelen stepped back. "Why am I seeing this?"
The Outlander's expression softened — not with pity, but with recognition.
"Some destinies echo across time. Even when worlds forget them."
A presence materialized beside the Outlander — a woman with pale skin, sharp eyes, and platinum hair. Elegance wrapped in steel.
Lana Beniko.
Kaelen felt something in his chest twist — déjà vu mixed with a strange familiarity he shouldn't have.
But he did not know her.
Not yet.
Lana regarded him calmly.
"You walk a difficult path, Kaelen Shan."
He stiffened. "You… know my name?"
"Names are only one piece of you," she replied. "We speak instead of destiny."
Kaelen shook his head. "If this is about my bloodline—"
The Outlander cut him off.
"Not your blood."
Lana stepped closer, voice soft but firm.
"Your choices."
Lightning flared across the golden sky. The city darkened; shadows stretched toward him like living tendrils.
Kaelen's pulse hammered.
"What do you want from me?"
The Outlander's gaze grew distant — as though he were watching Kaelen from across centuries.
"Remember this, when the time comes…"
Lana's eyes glowed faintly in the darkness.
"Your path leads not backward into legacy…"
Lightning struck again.
The city crumbled.
"…but forward into your own legend."
Kaelen reached out —"Wait!"
The world shattered.
Impact
Kaelen jolted awake with a violent jerk as the escape pod slammed into something solid. The impact threw him against his restraints, knocking the breath from his lungs.
Screams. Metal shrieking. Loose equipment flying.
Ahsoka shouted, "We're going down!"
Anakin braced himself against the wall. "Hold tight!"
HK-47 gripped a railing with mechanical ease.
"Cheery Warning: Brace for catastrophic crash event, Master!"
Kaelen blinked hard, the vision still fogging his senses. "I—what—?"
The pod spun, hurtling downward through Maridun's thick atmosphere. Flames licked the windows. Storm clouds swallowed them whole.
Aayla Secura's voice rang sharply:
"Stabilizers aren't responding!"
Another explosion rocked the pod.
Anakin gritted his teeth. "We're riding this out!"
Kaelen forced his mind to clear — breathing deeply, anchoring himself in the Force. His hands glowed faintly as he steadied the pod's interior gravity.
Ahsoka glanced at him. "Kaelen! Are you okay?"
He swallowed.
"I… had a vision."
HK leaned in.
"Diagnostic Query: Of your death?"
"No," Kaelen muttered. "Something worse."
The ground rushed up to meet them.
Anakin yelled, "Brace!"
The pod slammed into the forest canopy, snapping trees like matchsticks. Branches tore at the hull. Metal screamed. The world turned upside down.
Kaelen cried out as the back end ripped free.
Aayla shouted, "Everyone hold—!"
They hit the ground.
Hard.
Everything went black.
Silence
Kaelen lay still, the world spinning around him. His ears rang. His ribs ached. Smoke filled the cracked pod.
Slowly, voices pierced the haze.
Ahsoka coughing.Anakin pushing debris.HK humming a strangely cheerful tune that absolutely did not fit the moment.
Kaelen forced his eyes open.
Sunlight pierced broken cracks in the hull. Vines drooped into the pod from the forest canopy above. A thick, humid air replaced the cold vacuum of space.
They had survived.
Somehow.
Anakin looked over. "Kaelen, you with us?"
Kaelen nodded slowly. "Yeah."
Aayla Secura helped another trooper to his feet. "We need to regroup and assess the wounded."
HK stepped out of the pod first.
"Observation: The planet is primitive. Overrun by foliage. A perfect place for ambushes, predators, and other delightful hazards."
Ahsoka groaned. "Great…"
Kaelen's breathing steadied — but the vision burned behind his eyes.
Zakuul.The Outlander.Lana.
Destiny.
Not blood.
He didn't understand.But he knew the Force had shown him something important.
Something that would matter.
Soon.