Act One, Chapter One ━━━━
EBB AND FLOW

THE TWIN SUNS OF CHLORIS BURN HOT AND SICKLY YELLOW ON A BED OF GREY-GREEN CLOUDS. Squinting against the unrelenting late-afternoon heat, Eden Nazari mops away the sweat beading on her tattooed brow. Next to her feet on the sunbaked earth rests a weathered wooden bucket filled to the brim with water, waiting to be lifted and carried inside to one of many tents set up just outside the borders of Chlora City. Wearily, Eden eyes the bucket with disdain. Her back is already aching at the thought of picking it up again and it makes her long for simpler times.

When she'd first arrived on Chloris a year ago, the little Mid Rim world had been a dream. No Imperial presence to worry about, plenty of natural beauty to admire in the native flora and fauna, and a population of good, honest people to be found. To Eden, it had seemed like as decent of a place as any to put down roots and begin again; a fresh start for herself after leaving NiJedha behind. Quaint as it was, she'd been content living on Chloris — or at least as close to content as she could be these days.

Then the Empire had arrived.

It hadn't come as a total surprise. As part of Emperor Palpatine's vision for a singular Galactic Empire, there had been a cancerous spread of Imperial power expanding from the Core Worlds outwards ever since the fall of the Republic. Having conquered all the Inner Rim had to offer, Imperial forces set their sights beyond and moved on to subjugating the Mid Rim. One by one, the Mid Rim worlds began to fall in line with the Empire's rule.

And Chloris was no exception.

When the Imperials arrived, the people of Chloris did not put up a fight. Eden couldn't fault them for it. Such a peaceful planet had no means to resist Imperial occupation without facing the consequence of total annihilation, so the regime change was swift and without protest. Old governments were toppled and elected officials were removed from their posts, replaced by a singular Imperial governor and his chosen cronies. Stormtrooper squadrons patrolled the streets to "keep the peace" and enforce the Empire's new rules and regulations. Industrial factories were established on empty land, polluting once clean waters and devastating local ecosystems.

Yet it was still ... tolerable. Or rather: it wasn't bad enough for Eden to tuck tail and run yet. The Imperials weren't there for her. No one suspected a thing about her true identity. And in the years she had spent wandering since the fall of the Republic, Eden had learned that sometimes instead of running it was better to hide in plain sight. Hours of meditation and consultation with the Force about whether to stay or go had led her to the same conclusion: stay put — at least for right now — so she did.

But then things shifted.

It was subtle at first — a case of sickness here, a case of sickness there ... The illness itself was unpredictable, untraceable, and unlike anything Eden had ever seen. There was no rhyme or reason to who became fatally ill and who recovered — although Eden had noticed that, conveniently, none of their new Imperial neighbors seemed to be affected. Whatever the source of the illness was, it was effectively elusive. Contact tracing was inconclusive. Quarantine did nothing to stop the spread of new cases. And it was growing. Steadily.

The Imperial governor insisted upon exiling the sick from the city. Those discovered to have the illness were forcibly removed from their homes and barred re-entry, abandoned by their government and left to die outside the city borders. But many of the good people of Chlora City hadn't been willing to accept that and opted to join their brothers and sisters in self-imposed exile instead.

A field hospital was established just outside the city lines. Volunteers from all sorts of medical backgrounds — and even those who were without any knowledge or formal training, but still possessed a desire to help — ministered to the sick and dying. Eden was one of many amongst their ranks.

She had thought that perhaps that was the reason the Force had guided her to stay on Chloris.

In the seven years she had been on her own, Eden had been searching for purpose; a reason that would allow her to make sense of the fact that the Force had willed it so she lived when so many others had died. Chloris had seemed like an answer to that question, but it quickly became clear to Eden that whatever plague had come upon the people of Chloris, it was far beyond anything she could handle on her own. Yet she had chosen to remain with them all the same, doing what she could to help until it became too dangerous for her to stay.

Force healing was tricky business and something Eden had learned to be cautious with. Her training at the temple had been woefully cut short, but years of trial and error had taught her that there were certain limits to what she could and could not do as a healer. Using the Force to heal meant taking from herself and giving to others. If she walked the line and tried to give more of herself than she could afford to spare, it would weaken her at best. Cross too far over that line and it could kill her at worst. It made maintaining balance one of her utmost priorities.

And of course: there was still the issue of keeping her identity a secret. She couldn't very well go around performing miracles and raising the dead in broad daylight without attracting unwanted attention. So, Eden stuck to performing a normal healer's duties during the day and waited for the cover of darkness to perform a Jedi healer's duties at night.

It did not come without a cost.

As much as the Force had given her strength, Eden was only mortal and choosing to give away so much of her own vitality on such a frequent basis was starting to take its toll on her. When she overexerted herself (and she had a habit of often overexerting herself) it left her weak and aching. Bruises blossomed on her skin, circles darkened beneath her eyes, and she had learned to anticipate the occasional nosebleed. Mostly, though, Eden was just tired.

"Need a hand, Miss Jero?" A male voice asks.

Eden turns at the sound of her false name, startled out of her troubled thoughts. A few feet away, one of the volunteer doctors — a sweet-faced Keshian male called Haru — is watching her with curious gold-flecked eyes.

"Oh," she replies dumbly, glancing at the bucket near her feet that she'd made no move to lift. "No, thank you. It's fine; I can handle it mys —"

He steps closer and picks it up before she can finish getting the words out, cutting off her protests. "Allow me," Haru says. "You look like you could use the help."

Eden purses her lips at that before forcing a wan smile. "Well, thank you, then," she replies shortly, turning to walk towards the nearest tent.

From the corner of her eye, she sees Haru wince before hurrying to catch up with her; the motion made awkward by the large bucket he is doing his very best not to spill. "That came out wrong," he babbles, keeping stride with her. "I'm sure you're very capable on your own, but I wanted to help. I — I've seen you around before and you just seem so ... well, tired lately, so I thought that maybe I could —" he winces again at her blank expression. "I didn't mean tired. I mean, you do look tired ... but very beautiful as well —"

"You're kind to be so thoughtful," Eden cuts him off, gentle yet firm as she comes to a stop at the end of a row of sick persons lying on shoddily crafted mattresses spread across the dirt floor. Nearby, one of the female nurses, a Tholothian named Juni, is doing her best to stifle a smile as she tends to a sleeping patient. "But I'm alright. I can handle things on my own from here."

"Right," Haru says sheepishly, bobbing his head in agreement. He sets the bucket down with a quiet thump and rubs the back of his neck, face flushed pink with embarrassment. "Well, any time you need me —"

"If such an occasion arises, I'll be sure to ask," Eden finishes, picking up a stack of clean cloths and dunking them into the bucket to soak in the cool water. "Thank you, Haru. I'm sure you have your own patients to get back to."

He folds his hands together behind his back and offers her a short bow. "Understood," Haru acquiesces, accepting his dismissal with grace. "I'll leave you to your work. Good evening, Miss Jero."

Eden doesn't bother watching him leave and instead pulls the soaking cloths from the water, wringing them out slightly before folding them into strips and draping them over the sweat-soaked brows of her most feverish patients. She only looks up once she hears the sound of quiet laughter near her ear. A female figure kneels by her side, taking some of the rags from Eden's hands to assist her with her task.

"I told you he was sweet on you," Juni whispers, nudging Eden with a bony elbow.

"And I told you that I wasn't interested."

Her friend lets out a quietly disgusted noise. "A handsome young doctor is practically tripping over himself to win your affection and you're not interested?" Juni asks, voice filled with disbelief. "Come on, Minara."

Eden rises from the ground, continuing to make her rounds from patient to patient. To her immense relief, she finds that most of the patients in this tent are in fairly stable condition. Their fevers are high and their immune systems working overdrive, but none of them are displaying any of the signs found in more severe stages of the illness — symptoms like vomiting, bleeding, and seizing.

"Look around, Juni," Eden says, gesturing with a tattooed hand. Her healer's marks seem darker than usual against her olive-green skin in the dim lighting of the tent. "I've got bigger priorities right now."

A huff leaves her friend's lips. "Of course you do," Juni sighs. "We all do. But Mina ... Haru wasn't wrong: you do seem tired. And I think that maybe having a partner — someone who's looking out for you — could be what you need."

Eden shoots her a wry smile over her shoulder. "Isn't that what I have you for?"

She doesn't miss the way that Juni rolls her starry blue eyes. "It's not the same and you know it."

"Maybe it could have been if you hadn't been involved with Lio when we met," she teases, earning herself a startled laugh and blue-tinted blush on her friend's cheeks.

Juni crosses the room to where Eden is gathering up dirty rags and setting them aside for sterilization. She puts a gentle hand on Eden's shoulder, preventing her from moving away and changing the subject like she had planned on doing. "I just worry for you," Juni admits, no longer teasing and utterly sincere. "You try to hide it, but I have eyes and I can see — you are brave and quiet, yes, but still suffering. All I want is to see you happy."

The kindness in her voice makes Eden's chest feel tight and her eyes prickle with tears before she blinks them away. "I am happy," she replies, lifting her chin defiantly.

It's a lie, but only because Eden is not sure that happiness is something that will ever be in the cards for her again and this unceasing melancholy is the closest she can get to it. She can't explain that to Juni, though, and even if Eden did open up to her and tell her everything, she is not sure that her friend would understand it without having lived through it herself.

"Happy and blessed."

"And a terrible liar," Juni says sourly, letting her hand fall from Eden's shoulder. "You may have fooled yourself, but you haven't fooled me. Why you insist on keeping yourself miserable is beyond my understanding." Her expression softens. "Just ... don't forget to take care of yourself while you take care of everyone else."

Eden stifles a sigh. "Thank you, Juni. I'll keep that in mind."

They spend the rest of their shift working in relative silence until the suns dip low past the horizon and sink beneath the clouds. Shortly after dusk, Juni's companion Lio pokes their head into the tent and flags Juni down to leave with them. Eden waves her friend off with a smile, promising that she will rest soon while having no real intention of doing so.

As she waits for the rest of the camp to retire, Eden paces the length of her tent to dispel some of the restless energy rising within her. Whether it was her conversation with Juni or something else, Eden had been rattled. The Force within her feels unbalanced, like something has shifted, and part of her is afraid to find out what that might mean.

"Maybe it's time to move on," Eden mutters under her breath, disliking the idea while knowing that it is the most logical course of action.

She'd gotten too comfortable on Chloris. People were starting to take notice of her and that was the sort of thing that could be dangerous, depending on who was doing the noticing. Perhaps the wisest thing for her to do next is begin making arrangements to leave the planet and start again somewhere new... not tomorrow, but soon.

When the moons have risen high in the sky and the rest of the camp is still and quiet, Eden puts those thoughts aside for later and allows herself to close her eyes. Inhaling deeply, she sinks to her knees on the dirt floor inside the tent. Hard earth digs into the skin of her palms, grounding her as she slows her breathing and calms her pulse. With every mindful breath she takes, it becomes easier for Eden to sense the presence of the Force dwelling within her and her surroundings. She feels Chloris — a planet once so full of vibrant life — and how it has become as sickly as the people surrounding her; feels the citizens inside the walls of Chlora City, filled with uncertainty towards the future of their world; feels the patients inside the tent, drifting in and out of their restless fever dreams. Her eyes open and Eden is steadier than she had been before, ready to begin her work for the evening.

Her feet move almost of their own accord, leading her to the sickbed of a sleeping human child. Quietly, Eden kneels beside the girl and places a gentle hand on each side of her burning forehead. As she reaches out with the Force, she can feel the fever coursing through the girl's bloodstream. She closes her eyes and inhales deeply before drawing on the Force to leach the fever from the child and pull it into herself. Her own blood burns hot and she pushes back against it, allowing the Force to fill the places full of hurt with healing that washes over damaged cells and makes them new again.

It is only once she feels the fever ebbing away that Eden sits back on her heels and removes her hands from the girl's temples, brushing the back of her knuckles over her forehead to measure her temperature. She finds the skin cooler than it had been before and damp with sweat — a telltale sign that her fever had finally broken. Exhaling softly, Eden allows herself a half-smile as the girl stirs in her sleep, rolling onto her side before settling again. She waits a few moments before rising from the ground and moving on to the next patient.

Most of her efforts are geared towards patients who have not yet reached the most severe stages of the illness. When she had first begun her healing sessions, Eden had thought it best to help those who were furthest along and showing the worst symptoms from the illness, but painstaking experience she had taught her that many of them were beyond help and there was little she could do to save them without risking serious damage to herself. So, Eden had adjusted and began focusing on those who had not yet crossed the point of no return, finding that she could do more good for more people that way.

Her neck is stiff and her back is aching when she rises from the ground a final time, having healed as many people as she dares for the night. Juni and Haru had been right about one thing — Eden was more tired than usual — and pushing herself any further into overexertion would only prove their point. Folding her hands together, she closes her eyes and stretches out the cramped muscles of her arms and shoulders, rolling her neck to chase away any lingering stiffness.

An odd feeling washes over her and Eden's eyes shoot open. That same unsettling ripple in the Force she'd felt earlier returns, stronger now than it had been before. A prickling sensation makes the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. It's a feeling that Eden has come to recognize as the Force. Reflexively, one of her hands creeps towards her thigh, where she can feel the reassuring shape of the saber strapped to her leg beneath her skirts. She hadn't dared to use it since the fall of the Order — and even before then she had never been one to relish in physical combat — but it gives her comfort all the same.

A Jedi's weapon is their life, she had been taught as a youngling by her crèche masters and the lesson had stuck.

During her earliest days on her own, Eden had considered throwing the blasted thing away; resentful of the memories that it held and the danger it could bring her if discovered by the wrong person. In the present, she feels immensely grateful to have kept it because something is coming. It doesn't feel like danger or darkness, but it still sets her teeth on edge. The approaching presence is foreign yet familiar in a way that Eden can't explain. A low sort of ringing sound echoes in her ears and Eden balls her hands into fists, standing her ground as the presence grows closer and closer until it is nearly upon her.

Her back is turned from the entrance of the tent when it flies open. The ringing comes to an abrupt stop and Eden whirls on the intruder, eyes narrowed and arms crossed protectively over her chest. Her gaze settles on two figures: a green-skinned Twi'lek female wearing a pilot's flightsuit and the dark-haired human male she is supporting with one of his arms slung over her thin shoulders. From a single glance, Eden can tell that the man has been infected. Sweat glistens on his tan skin and the veins on his neck that peek out from beneath the collar of his shirt are a dark shade of black that she'd seen in patients who had reached the furthest stages of the illness.

"Please," the Twi'lek woman says, voice strained. "He's heavier than he looks."

Eden rushes forward. She doesn't need the Force to tell her that the man is about to drop and she braces his other arm over her shoulder, easing some of the burden from his Twi'lek companion. The man's head rolls back, exposing the sweaty hollow of his throat and more of the sickly looking veins on his neck as he turns his fevered gaze upon Eden.

Even in the dim lighting of the tent, his eyes are the brightest shade of teal that Eden has ever seen. It sends a shock straight up her spine like a bolt of lightning has struck her and suddenly Eden feels like she can hardly breathe. She watches the man's brow furrow as he stares back at her, scanning the scattered pattern of diamond-shaped tattoos staining her cheeks. Even in his feverish state, something like recognition dawns on his features and his lips part with disbelief.

Eden is certain that she looks just as dumbfounded because she knows those eyes. Could never forget them even if she tried. The last time she'd seen them, she'd been standing on the steps of the Jedi temple, watching a young Padawan boy go racing off to war. She doesn't want to let herself hope; doesn't want to even consider the possibility when she knows that it probably isn't him. All the Jedi are dead — Eden knows this — and yet ... could it be him?

"Caleb?" She dares to breathe, voice shaking with tremulous hope. "Caleb Dume?"

The man shudders in her grasp at the sound of his name, jerking his head away from her. "The name's Kanan," he slurs before lurching forward and violently retching the contents of his stomach onto the ground. His female companion grimaces, wrinkling her nose at the foul smell. "Caleb ... Caleb is dead."

His eyes roll back into his head and his body goes limp as his legs give out. He only remains upright thanks to the grip that Eden and the other woman have on his shoulders as he sags against them. From across his slumped figure, the Twi'lek woman pokes her head out to get a better look at Eden. There are a million questions in her curious stare, but she only asks one.

"Are you a doctor?"

"A healer," Eden corrects out of reflex, even though it's a meaningless issue of semantics that doesn't matter at all. Her head feels like it's spinning. She can barely force her lips to form words. "When ... when did he get sick?"

When did he get here? Where did he come from? How is he alive?

"He's not sick," the woman replies with a terse shake of her head. "He's poisoned." She gestures around the room. "They all are."

"Poisoned?" Eden repeats dumbly because none of this is making sense. Part of her wonders if she's finally succumbed to the illness herself and this is all just a bizarre fever dream. "By what? By who?"

A humorless laugh escapes the woman's lips. "The Empire — who else?" Her face softens as she takes in Eden's shell-shocked expression. "I can explain more later, but can you help him?"

Eden's eyes flit back to ... to Caleb. Caleb Dume. The boy who'd made her smile at a time when she'd thought all her smiles had died. Could she help him? Eden almost laughs; the hysterical giggle trapped within her throat. She would help him or she would die trying if that's what it took.

Clenching her jaw, Eden nods determinedly. "Yes," she says and she means it — never mind the fact that she is already bone-weary and that Caleb is far sicker than any patient she's successfully managed to heal thus far. Failing him isn't an option; Eden will not allow him to die. Not him. Not Caleb. Not when he might be the only other surviving Jedi left in the whole galaxy.

Not when she'd only just gotten him back.

"He's going to be fine," Eden continues, more for her sake than the young woman's. I'll make sure of it even if it's the last thing I do, she adds to herself. "But we need to move him to my tent. It's too exposed here."

The Twi'lek studies her with something that isn't quite suspicion, but her stare is cautious nonetheless as she regards Eden with her level green-eyed gaze. "Alright," she finally agrees and the two of them begin the slow, painstaking task of dragging Caleb's unconscious form out of the tent towards the area of the camp where the volunteers reside.

Eden's head feels like it's been submerged underwater. She can hardly believe that the towering man slumped over her shoulder is the same person she'd known years ago. The stranger at her side hardly resembles the inquisitive little boy with a thousand questions on his lips. Then again: she too was much changed from the girl she used to be. They'd both been forced to grow up too fast.

Eventually, they make it to Eden's tent and the Twi'lek woman helps Eden lower Caleb down onto her bedroll. His eyes are still closed, rolling restlessly beneath their lids as his body twitches ever so often. From her experience working with other patients, Eden knows that he'll start seizing as the sickness progresses through his body. If he were to reach that point, there would be little she could do to help him — if it wasn't too late already.

Falling to her knees on the ground, Eden crawls behind Caleb's unconscious form and places both her hands on his temples like she'd done with a dozen other patients earlier that evening. He burns hotter than any of them as his body throws everything it has into fighting off the poison coursing through his veins. In the back of her head, Eden thinks that explanation makes so much more sense than any illness — but it unsettles her more than anything to know that the Empire had engineered such evil and unleashed it on the innocent people of Chloris.

Beneath her palms, Caleb lets out a strangled gasp and Eden shoves all thoughts of poison and the Empire away for a later time. She closes her eyes and breathes deeply in an attempt to slip into a centered state of mind. Her breathing is nearly level when Caleb groans and twitches, head snapping to the side as he heaves blood into the dirt. Any sense of calm that Eden had managed to obtain before vanishes in an instant and her eyes fly open.

"What's happening?" the Twi'lek woman demands, leaning over Caleb's figure before shooting Eden an anxious look. "Why aren't you doing anything? He's dying —"

"I'm trying to heal him," Eden snaps, her voice uncharacteristically shrill as she tries to keep her rising panic at bay. "But I need to focus."

The woman sinks her teeth into her lip. "Okay," she says quietly. "Just ... just please help him."

Eden nods, closing her eyes again as she resumes her steady breathing. There's no time for her to sink into the deep sort of meditation that she'd achieved earlier that evening, but she has another trick that might be enough to get her to where she needs to be — one she'd learned during her stay on NiJedha. Though there were no Jedi living in the city, the disciples who guarded the Temple of the Kyber had taught Eden much about the Force and she had learned many things from them.

"I am one with the Force and the Force is with me," she murmurs, repeating their mantra with every inhale and exhale that she takes. "I am one with the Force and the Force is with me. I am one with the Force and the Force is with me."

A soft sound of recognition escapes the Twi'lek's lips as she realizes what Eden is attempting to do, but the noise is muffled and far away as Eden sinks further into the guided meditation. Everything else seems to fade into nothingness save for Caleb's feverish skin beneath her palms and the stirring of the Force that lives inside both of them.

Please, Eden prays silently. Please, please, please. I've never asked you for anything, but let me have this. Let me save him.

A rush of pure energy flows through her and Eden feels the Force working through her hands. It washes over her like the tides of an ocean, ebbing from her and flowing into Caleb as it mends the parts of him that had been damaged by the poison's toxins. Outside of herself, Eden is dimly aware of the fact that her hands are shaking. A faint ringing noise is grows louder in her ears and the salty taste of blood fills her mouth as it drips from her nose and past her lips.

"Wait," an alarmed voice says, sounding a thousand light-years away. "You're bleeding. It's hurting you —"

Eden knows it is, but she can't stop. Not until she knows that Caleb is going to make it. She's lost too many people in her life and now that the Force has somehow returned one of them to her, she's not about to lose him. Her whole body trembles violently as spots dance at the edge of her vision, growing darker and darker with each breath she takes. Knowing that unconsciousness is nearly upon her, Eden gives one final push with all she has left before pulling back from the Force with a strangled gasp.

Whether or not it will be enough to save him, Eden is unsure. Her head is swimming as her body sways and she keels over towards the dirt. The ground rushes up to meet her, but before she can hit her head someone catches her. Dazed, Eden blinks slowly and finds herself staring up into the face of the Twi'lek woman as she cradles Eden's head in her lap. The woman says something that Eden can't hear and she turns her head away from her, reaching blindly towards Caleb's unconscious figure.

Her hand makes contact with his skin and she finds him cooler than he was before. A tentative probe with the Force confirms that his fever has broken and he is no longer in danger of slipping away. Eden sighs with relief then, allowing herself to cave to her body's demands and rest.

The last thing she sees is a pair of pretty green eyes staring down at her before everything goes black.

a/n: [matthew mcconaughey voice] alright alright alright 🤠 hellooooo everyone welcome to the official chapter one (1) of kismet. so, so excited to share this with u!!! your guys's response on the last chapter was incredible and you warmed my heart with your lovely comments, so THANK YOU all being such amazing readers and friends. i am very lucky to have u 🥺💓 hopefully you guys enjoyed this chapter too! i'm working on being less info-dumpy/exposition-y with my writing but for now it sort of is what it is! 🤷‍♀️ feel free to share ur thoughts if u feel to do so. i always love hearing what you guys think!
↳ a few quick notes: chloris is a fictional planet i made up and does NOT exist in canon. the force-healing i've described in this chapter does exist in canon (as seen in tros and other outside material like the novel the approaching storm) BUT there's not a huge amount of information on ~how it works~ and ~what it's limitations are~ so i've sort of played around with it and established my own rules. like it, love it, hate it — what i've described here is how things are gonna roll in this book, so do what u will w that!
as always, thank you so so much for reading! leave a vote/drop a comment if you enjoyed and i will see you all in CHAPTER TWO for some reunions and perhaps an investigation into what on earth the empire is up to on chloris!!!! 🧐✨💓✨💓✨🧐