Evabe

"You have to promise me," Evabe said. "I'm so sorry, Euruia, but I need you to swear that when the time comes, you will bind Vaylin."

"I don't have a choice, do I?" Euruia said bitterly.

"Of course you do," Evabe said. "I may have come with ulterior motives, but they go beyond you. I once thought my fate was to destroy the universe. Then, I realized I was meant to save it, to set things on track. But I can't do that by myself. The universe is too large to respond to the will of a single person, no matter how much I try. So I studied, I learned everything I could. Do you know what I learned?" she asked rhetorically. "You. You were the missing key, Euruia. Without your actions, without your interference in the Emperor's plans, everything is lost."

"What do you mean?" Euruia said. "I don't understand--and what does any of this have to do with Vaylin?"

Evabe sighed. She didn't have a choice--she needed to convince Euruia, but she couldn't know what would happen... She made up her mind, setting her plan before she took action. "Where I come from--when I come from, the past is... in flux. You are the piece that changed."

"But why--" Euruia started. Evabe held up a hand to stop her, and she fell silent.

Evabe continued, "In one version of my time, your future, Peli has taken the throne. She rules in a mix of Republic and Imperial ideals, but she is benevolent, and the galaxy is better for her peacekeeping. She sides with neither the Republic nor the Imperials, but offers a third option for those who fit in with neither.

"In the other version, Peli has also taken the throne, but only her name, her image. Behind her eyes lies the Emperor--Valkorion, Vitiate, Tenebrae... he discards all those names and takes on another: Apeliotes."

"Peli would never let that happen," Euruia said.

"She did not," Evabe replied. "The Emperor destroyed her mind in the moment she sat on the Eternal Throne. She fought, I assume, but his will was stronger. Or, as I suspect, the combination of his will and Vaylin's. You see, the only change I can make out between these two futures, the only thing that seems to make any sense, is that you are not present in the battle against Vaylin."

"So without me there..." Euruia started.

"The Emperor binds his daughter to his will," Evabe finished. "Or so I suspect--it is extremely difficult to confirm these sorts of things when the timeline is in such flux. But if you are the one to bind Vaylin instead, Valkorion cannot use her power, and she can lend her strength to Peli."

"That's what it is, then," Euruia said. "I am a container to keep Vaylin away from her father."

"No more than any of us are just containers for the Force," Evabe said sadly. "No more than I'm just a pawn of the timeline, compelled to go where the Force wills me or suffer through the slow destruction of everything I love."

Euruia closed her eyes. "Fine. Teach me the ritual."

***

"Will I know when to use it?" Euruia said. Her uncertainty shown like a beacon in her eyes.

"It will be obvious when the time comes," Evabe said. I hope, she added in her mind. She didn't need to give Euruia her doubts, not when she had so many of her own. "Then, you will do it? You swear that you will bind Vaylin, and follow Peli when she claims the Throne?"

"If that's what needs to be done," Euruia said. "I promise."

Evabe smiled. "Thank you, Aunt Ru," she whispered. "I'm so sorry... but you can't remember this."

Without warning, Evabe reached out to hold Euruia's forehead. Euruia tried to resist, but Evabe reached into the Force and knocked her to sleep before she could truly struggle.