Chapter 1: A Starlit Melody
21 BBY, Maridun
Anakin Skywalker opened his eyes and braced himself for the pain he felt in the brief moments of lucidity since the mission in the Quell system, where he and Snips fought a small army of droids to help Aayla Secura escape her damaged destroyer, the Liberty. He remembered containing an explosion with the Force and the pain that followed, though not much else.
It was hard to believe that the Clone Wars had begun less than two years ago. He hadn’t stopped fighting since then, and injuries had become commonplace. Still, despite the tiredness, the darkness that enveloped the galaxy since the war began, a part of Anakin had been happy to finally leave the temple at his own pace, as a true Jedi Knight. He felt freer than he had in his years as a Padawan, free to make his own decisions, even if they were against the will of the Council. After all, they could hardly complain when he returned victorious, the galaxy’s Hero with No Fear.
If only the galaxy could see him now, barely able to stay awake even with the Force, while his Padawan was likely worried sick about him. Ahsoka was never going to let him live it down… ever.
As his thoughts turned to his Padawan, he instinctively reached out with the Force, trying to sense her presence, only to freeze in his tracks when he found out that he couldn’t. Without even thinking, he immediately stood up, worry filling him completely, and summoned his lightsaber in his hand.
It was before activating it that he realised that the pain that he had expected from his injuries was completely absent. He took a deep breath and found that he exhaled without any issues.
Had Snips and Aayla found a way to heal him or something? Anakin had his share of injuries in this war, and this was a pretty bad one. He looked around the makeshift tent around him, feeling his Padawan’s handiwork while she made it, and that alone made him feel more at ease than before. He then took a deep breath, centring himself, and stopping the apprehension for Ahsoka’s safety slowly left him, making him feel more focused as he walked out of the tent.
Of course, the sight that met him was one that he was unfortunately very familiar with, since the Clone Wars began. Anakin was one of the best pilots in the galaxy, but there was no changing the fact that he had been in too many ship crashes for comfort.
But that was a thought for later; for now, he still needed to figure out what had happened and where Aayla and Ahsoka were. His Padawan would definitely not leave him in the tent, and he saw no signs of battle, aside from the destroyed cruiser. Anakin closed his eyes and let the Force envelop him, and couldn’t feel anything that could threaten a Jedi Padawan, let alone a Knight like Aayla.
Still, something made Anakin tense. There was something wrong, a sense of danger that came from someone nearby. It was strange. The Force was warning him, but it was very different from any form of danger he had sensed before. It wasn’t the controlled darkness that lay within Dooku, or even the rage that Ventress radiated. It wasn’t even one that held any sort of malice towards him or anyone, really. And yet, it was, and it was far more unsettling than he ever thought possible.
And so, he activated his lightsaber, releasing a soft blue light around him, ready to face this danger and spoke up, “Show yourself! I know that you’re here.”
Silence was the only thing that met Anakin’s declaration, and that did not really make him feel any better. It was then that he heard a voice behind him, “Nice weapon you got there, huh?”
Anakin turned, feeling completely out of sorts by the fact that he had not sensed the source of the voice in any way, and out of the instincts that he had developed over the course of the previous year of war, slashed with his lightsaber without even looking.
He did not even look to know that his weapon didn’t hit anything, but as he turned, he finally found himself looking at the source of danger that the Force would not stop warning him of.
The Jedi Knight did not know what exactly he had expected. Maybe it was some kind of monster, or a Sith ready to attack him. Instead, there was only a man. He looked remarkably ordinary, maybe somewhere between his and Obi-Wan’s age, but then again, Anakin was horrible at guessing ages to determine any of that. He was dressed pretty oddly, looking more like a smuggler or a bounty hunter. However, he wore primitive glasses, something that Anakin hadn’t really seen outside of very eccentric collectors who liked old things, like paper books and such, or people who wore them as a fashion statement of some kind.
Still, he was probably not a smuggler; his coat was certainly expensive, looking almost like the ones made of Krayt Dragon leather that he remembered some of the slavers in Tatooine wore.
That resemblance alone, as well as the warnings from the Force, made Anakin immediately dislike the man, and he spoke out rather harshly, “Who are you?”
“Come on, there’s no need to be rude here, is there? To think that I went out of my way to help you and your little companion, and to be treated like this…”
Companion? What companion?
Anakin followed the man’s gaze, and his eyes widened as he recognised Rex, who was lying on the ground. How had he not noticed him before?
Immediately, he tensed, turning towards the man who was playing with Rex’s blaster in his hands, “What did you do to him?”
The man rolled his eyes, obviously not taking Anakin’s threat seriously, something that grated on his nerves a lot, “He’s asleep. Sheesh. What is wrong with you? He was hurt by those bird monsters that attacked you while you slept.”
Anakin felt the truth of the statement in the Force and spread his senses, realising that Rex was breathing steadily and didn’t feel injured. For the first time, he actively tried to sense the man. His presence wasn’t particularly strong, but that didn’t explain the sheer danger that the Force constantly radiated around him, which still made him feel cautious.
Still, the man seemed unbothered completely by it, “Oh and before you ask, or something, your companions walked that way,” he pointed towards a certain direction, “They probably were on their way to the locals’ village. They should be fine, from what I’ve seen, the locals are peaceful people, but I’ve never really interacted with them.”
Despite himself, Anakin relaxed, and he spoke up, “You’re not a local then…”
The man nodded easily, “Oh, I’m something of an explorer of sorts, and came here mostly on a whim, though this place is quickly becoming a lot more interesting than I expected. After all, it’s not every day that one sees a spaceship crashing, and a crazy man waving around a laser sword.”
Anakin almost recoiled at these words, “It is called a Lightsaber, and I am Anakin Skywalker, a Jedi Knight of the Galactic Republic, not some crazy man attacking people.”
The man hummed, “The Galactic Republic… How interesting… At least, it’s nice to put a name to the face. At least, I don’t have to call you crazy laser sword guy in my head anymore.”
One of the Jedi’s eyes twitched at that, and he took a deep breath, releasing his emotions into the force, and centring himself once more, “As you can see by the wreckage, we didn’t exactly come to this planet voluntarily. How about you?”
“Oh, I came mostly on a whim. For the plants. My wife loves them, especially unusual ones, and the ones here are very interesting, to say the least. It’s unusual that plants grow that large on a planet with a gravity like this one… There has to be something that’s helping them grow like that… I was planning on getting one of the pods back home for my wife, maybe some soil samples too. Don’t get me wrong, I love Daphne more than life itself, but recently, she’s been a little… temperamental, and hopefully, this should keep her busy.”
The man was almost shuddering near the end, enough that Anakin chuckled slightly at that, and that was, of course, when the man continued, “At least, that was the original plan. Things are certainly more interesting than I expected… A lot more interesting… Like this thing, for example.”
The stranger reached to take something from his jacket, and before Anakin could see what it was, he was on guard. After all, he immediately sensed the heavy presence of the Dark Side suddenly emerge. First came the cold rage, the fear, the hatred that was spreading.
For a moment, he thought that the stranger was planning on attacking him, only for him to stop, as his mind tried to grasp what the man had taken out of his jacket. It was a glass dome of a sort, but that was hardly what was most troubling; it was what was confined inside it that was.
It was the fragment of something black and crystalline, jagged like a broken fang, suspended in mid-air. Anakin immediately recognised what it was, for it resembled something that he had been intimately familiar with in the Jedi Temple in Coruscant, a Holocron, or at least, a broken fragment of one, but in this case a Sith Holocron, given the traces of the Dark Side that it emanated.
However, the Holocron fragment continued pulsing crimson light, and continued trying to push through the glass, specifically towards a certain direction. Despite Anakin’s horror, the man looked almost proud, “Pretty nice, isn’t it? I found it while I was taking soil samples. It was surprisingly tricky to put it in the glass container, let me tell you, but I’ve been following where it wants to go.”
“You were following where it wants to go,” Anakin repeated slowly, almost as if he was trying to make some sense of what he was seeing, mainly the ridiculousness of a man trying to use the fragment of what was obviously a dangerous artefact, a Sith Holocron, even, as a compass.
The man seemed almost proud of it, “Of course. It’s not every day that you find something like this. Who knows where it would lead? Could it be the remnants of a super-advanced civilisation? Could it be a great treasure that someone hid thousands of years ago? The possibilities are endless, Anakin.”
Anakin looked at the enthusiastic look in the man’s green eyes and wondered if the sense of warning that he got from the Force was because he lacked any form of self-preservation. The device in his hand was pulsing with hatred and violently trying to escape its containment, and yet, the man was hardly even bothered by it. Perhaps this stranger, this ‘explorer’, was a danger with his presence alone, and so, the Force sought to warn him. He wasn’t sure at all. This entire situation was quickly out of his comfort zone.
Of course, the insane man spoke up loudly, “Why don’t you join me? I could certainly join the company, and you could tell me all about being a Jedi Knight of the Galactic Republic. Besides, I’m dying to know what this little beauty would lead us to…”
Anakin knew that he should probably wait for Aayla and Ahsoka to return, but the Force felt like it was pressing on him in a way that it hadn’t done before. It was practically urging him to come with the madman.
He tried to resist the pull, especially as he saw Rex lying on the ground, and before he could say anything, the man continued, “Your friend can come too, if you want. He should wake up soon, but I am keeping the gun. That’s non-negotiable.”
Anakin rolled his eyes but decided to follow the will of the Force. After all, he was currently stuck on this planet, and Ahsoka and Aayla shouldn’t be in danger in a peaceful village, and the Force was practically screaming at him to do it.
He had his suspicions as to why, especially with the presence of a fragment of a Sith Holocron. After all, that meant that other Sith artefacts might be nearby, and with the Republic looking for them, the Separatists wouldn’t be much behind, and he really didn’t like the idea of Dooku getting his hand on ancient Sith artefacts. He’ll leave Snips and Aayla a little message so that they don’t get worried.
The Jedi turned towards the man, and he spoke up, “Very well. Rex and I will come with you.”
His new companion practically clapped his hands in excitement, “Wonderful. Oh, and the name is Harry, Harry Potter, and I have a feeling that this will be a very informative little adventure.”
AN: Phew, here it is, the first chapter of the third volume of Enchanting Melodies. I was thinking of calling it ‘Melodies of the Force’, but I’m not attached to the title. Feel free to give me other recommendations if you don’t like it.
I have never written a Star Wars story before, so I’m sorry if anything feels off. I’d really appreciate it if you had any comments about this chapter, that I’d keep in mind in future episodes.
Anyway, the story starts in the Clone Wars Era, specifically in an episode called “Jedi Crash”, if I remember it correctly. I used it mostly as a baseline to get started, and did it out of memory, so I might not have gotten every detail correctly, and as you noticed, things will be going very differently than before. Some of you may have noticed that Harry is prying at things, trying to figure out what's going on in the galaxy.
Also, feel free to let me know if you have any things you'd like to see in that story. SW lore is pretty expansive, especially Legends stuff, and there's a lot that I'll probably miss, so I'm counting on you guys :)
As usual, I don’t mind rewriting this chapter depending on your feedback, so please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.