Star Wars Rebels: Paving a New Road Ch. 7

Chapter 7: Mists of Shadows

“There has/is/will be a disturbance

Their choice/s will define our fate.”

- Aoloiloa, a time-stream-sensitive Cephalon

member of the Whiplash cell at an

undisclosed date

    It was like Ezra’s dream from before; thick, grey mists all around, enshrouding the Jedi so much it was almost impossible to see. It was nearly suffocating; Ezra found himself struggling to breathe in the thick fog.

    “Stay close,” Jax warned them sternly. “If you get lost, you may never get found again and end up destroying the timestream.”

    So they did; Ezra and Kanan stuck very closely to Jax as they marched through the mist. As they did, they listened to the peculiar sounds they heard throughout, sometimes hearing distinct voices, even seeing silhouettes of people in the thicker clouds.

    “Don’t pay heed to the noises or figures,” Jax warned. “They’ll lead you away to stray paths, and you’ll be lost for eternity.”

    “Ezraaaaa…” a voice hissed, causing Ezra to shout and whirl around, looking for the source.

    “Especially the voices,” Jax added. “That’s his work.”

    “Who?” Kanan inquired, looking around warily.

    They reached a “clearing”, and Jax stopped abruptly, causing Kanan and Ezra to run into his back.

    “Him,” Jax said slowly.

    Ezra recognized him; it was the figure from his dream.

    “Who is he?” Kanan asked.

    “I,” the figure answered, “am the gatekeeper of this holocron, and thus the timestream through which it flows. I am the facsimile of the one who made this holocron, the Sith Lord Darth Ramage.”

    “Don’t worry about him,” Jax said firmly. “He can’t hurt us. Much.”

    “That’s comforting,” Kanan retorted.

    The facsimile activated its lightsaber, its two blades igniting parallel, leveling them at the three Jedi.

    Kanan and Ezra took out theirs and activated them, but Jax placed his hands on their arms, holding them firmly.

    “There’s no need to worry. This is our stop anyway.”

    “Our stop?” Ezra asked confusedly.

    “Hold on,” Jax replied cryptically.

    “Hold on?? You’re not making any se--”

    Ezra felt a suddenly pull in the pit of his stomach, like an anchor within his body was being pulled up from the bottom of an ocean. He yelled in surprise, then pain when the pull grew harder. The suddenly, he was back in the room, nothing seeming to have changed.

    “What was--?” Ezra began to ask, but then blanched, feeling the sudden urge to vomit.

    “Easy,” Jax told him, placing a steady hand on his shoulder. “The first time is unpleasant. Just don’t move too much and your body will settle. Now follow me.”

    He guided to the two Jedi to an alcove that had been hidden in the shadows, that neither had seen since they had been focused on the holocron when they first entered. It was roomy enough for the three of them to fit comfortably. Jax pressed a hidden button, sealing a door shut behind them, with a small slit in the door to look outward.

    “You seemed surprised to see the gatekeeper,” Kanan remarked as he gained his footing. “Why?”

    “He hasn’t been active in a long time.” Jax replied simply.

    “Active?”

    “I’ve used the holocron in the past, and all I’ve ever seen were the mists and shadows, but I he’s only appeared once or twice. And he only appears when something big is about to happen.” Jax fell quiet, biting his lower lip, as if reminiscing on unpleasant memories.

    “What now?” Ezra asked, breaking the silence.

    “Just wait and you’ll see what happens,” Jax told him. “Come here and look.”

    Ezra stood and looked out into the room; for a minute or so, all he saw was the holocron upon the pedestal. Then the door where they had first came in hissed open; Ezra expected it would be some cell aide looking for Jax, but was surprised by who he saw walk in instead.

    Jax Pavan, Kanan Jarrus, and Ezra Bridger.

    “Is that what I think it is?” Ezra heard the other Kanan ask, as his own eyes widened in shock.

    “Yes,” Jax answered. “Those are us, in the past. We are in another timeline. They will soon leave this one to enter another, and we will take their place, as if nothing has changed.”

    Ezra and Kanan were too shocked to speak; they could only watch as they witnessed their other selves have the same conversation they had had before entering the timestream through the holocron, then merely stood stunned as they watched themselves disappear.

    “You may go sleep now,” Jax said tiredly, sounding far more exhausted than he had earlier. “You have a big day tomorrow. Speak of what you’ve seen to no one.”

    Kanan and Ezra nodded mutely, merely walking out of the hidden alcove and into the elevator, completely silent as they went up. They proceeded in that same silence to their bunks and as they collapsed into their beds. Kanan fell asleep, but Ezra couldn’t help but lie awake, eyes wide open in the dark, wondering about the power of the holocron; to go back through time. The power Jax Pavan had held was truly mighty, and no doubt he had had time to practice wielding it. Yet Ezra wondered at what he had seen and heard:

    Only a Force-wielder could use it. Ezra was a Force-wielder.

    He needed blood to activate the holocron. He certainly had blood.

    In that moment Ezra came to realize that he could potentially have the power to save Sabine.

    But should you do that? A lingering voice in the back of his mind asked.

    Ezra didn’t know.