12 Know your place

"Older? You are older than us? Huhu, that's amusing, young one. Even if you use the Force to extend your life and keep your youthful appearance, you can't possibly be my age, much less older than me."

"Ugh, what do you want, not mysterious, two-voices talking, already white-haired, old man?"

"I want you to learn the truth about who you really are. One that maybe you have known all along. One you must believe, in order to fulfil your destiny."

"I wonder ..."

"Yes?"

"... whether I will also start to speak in useless riddles like you one day?"

"..."

"Yeah, I think not. If you use riddles, at least make them informative and a useful experience for me. Haven't you two children? Didn't you teach them anything? Or is that the reason they both disobeyed you?", I ask him.

"What?! What do you know of this?!"

"Eh, never mind that. So, what now?"

...

"It is getting late. You will be my guest tonight.", he says and leads me to some rooms where I am supposed to 'sleep'. I find this little charade amusing. I'll play along. It has been ... never since I experienced this. Funny. 

Instead of sleeping, I begin to meditate as I usually do. Sleep is something that I no longer need. So to get the time over with, I meditate and rather listen to the Force telling me new things. 

However, during the night, someone touches me ... or tries to. Some time ago, I don't know when this started, the concentration of Force energy inside and around me, has started to become so much that it affects the surroundings when I don't control it. During meditation, some of it coats around me and forms a sort of Force barrier. 

However, it is more of a Force bubble since the Force is highly concentrated all around me in a ball-like shape and not just a barrier. So when this 'person' wanted to touch me, he was repelled by the Force surrounding me. 

"Wake up my child ... I must tell you a secret.", the voice of a woman says and I open my eyes. I see a woman standing in front of me with a 'calm and gentle' smile on her face. My expression doesn't change and I even tilt my head. I rise from my floating position until I stand upright. 

"... Who is this supposed to be?"

"It is me, dear ... your mother.", the woman says and spreads her arms as if to invite me to hug her or something like that. My brain stops for a second and I think back ... and then...

"I got nothing."

"Don't you recognise me? Don't you recognise your own mother? Has my baby boy forgotten about me?", the woman asks me. 

"I don't forget anything. But I have never met someone who looks like this. Oh ... I think I understand. You're my mother ... as in my mother in this life ... haha, I get it now. Alright back to the script.

Aaahhh ... oh yes. Shouldn't you be dead or something?", I ask totally nailing my act. I feel a buzz from the Force telling me that it disapproves. Eh, what do you know? I'm a good actor. 

*Bzzzz*

Again the buzzing from the Force. I guess I wasn't as convincing as I thought. 

"Nothing ever truly dies, my son. I have a secret to tell you.", the woman says. 

"Nah."

"Ev- wait, no?"

"No."

"But my son, it is imperative that you-"

"Every time someone asks me whether I want to know a secret, I say 'no thank you' and haven't regretted it yet. So why would I start now? Whatever I need to know, I will be taught by someone who speaks the truth. And you lie the moment you open your mouth. I mean come on, didn't you do your homework? I don't even know this woman, how am I supposed to 'feel' something if I don't know her? I don't want to be picky, but as far as mysterious 'manipulations' are concerned, you still have a lot to learn."

"..."

"..."

"Everything you have done, everything you have known, has led you here."

"So you're just going to continue this charade? I thought we already went over the fact, that this person you are showing me, is long dead."

"And you blame yourself. Your training and research all these years have served you well, but you are more than a researcher and a philanthropist, helping other races. Tell me ... where is your pain, so I might take it away."

"Why would I blame myself? And why would I carry any pain with me?"

"I can feel it. You are in pain about the death of your late wi- KCHKK", he couldn't finish his sentence as I began to Force choke him and raise him into the air, while my arms were still behind my back.

"Yare yare ... you should know your place ... boi. Before I show it to you. I believe that is quite enough. Feelings such as pain, sadness, hate, passion, and anger are all a natural part of life. It is more than normal that I would miss my wife and kids, considering how old I am. However, I have made peace with these things. It is not useful to carry any luggage with me in my lives. 

Now begone, boi.", I say and yeet his body through the wall and out of the room at very high speeds. 

"Tsk, teenagers."

.

I decide to leave the room after this. I see no reason to continue this any longer. It was funny for a while, but these long pauses in between ... they might work on someone young, but now for me. And I have no complex about the death of my loved ones, so that won't work either. I make my way back to the place where the wrinkly old man is kneeling on the ground. 

"Cannot sleep?", he asks me. 

"I was never asleep to begin with."

"No? Then meditation?"

"Indeed. Your offspring has thought is smart to wake me though. You never taught your seedlings any manners did you?"

"Ah, my son, I suspect. He can take many forms. The shapes we embody are merely a reflection of the life force around us. You carry a great sadness in your heart."

"Is that truly what you feel, or is it what you want me to think you feel? Because there is no sadness in my heart, whatsoever. So if you want to play this game, you should try harder."

"My children and I can manipulate the Force like no other. Therefore it was necessary to withdraw from the temporal world and live here as anchorites."

"I agree with you. You do indeed manipulate the Force like no other. And I am unhappy about that. Manipulating the Force means taking something from the Force. And no one has ever taken more from it than your children have."

"We never took anything from the Force."

"But you did. Your son had an affinity to the Dark Side of the Force and your daughter to the Light Side. And their power flowed through you, as you three were connected together. For a time you lived together in peace and harmony.

You told them never to drink from the Font of Power or bathe in the Pool of Knowledge. However, your son in defiance of you, drank from the Font of Power, an act that corrupted his nature and recreated him as a sort of essence of the dark side. At least that is what you believe. And to an extent that is indeed the case. 

The fall of your won was swiftly followed by your daughter's rebirth as your son's opposite, a symbol of the light side, the result of her bathing in the Pool of Knowledge, also in defiance of your will.

As with the light and the darkness, the two siblings developed a rivalry and competed against one another for dominance, causing them both to divide this planet between their respective dominions.

Horrified by your family's descent into discord, you became the balance between them yourself, through your attempts to curb the growing conflict between your wayward offspring.", I revealed their secrets and their true origin. 

"How do you know all this?! Who are you?!", the two voices from the Father became louder and he tried to intimidate me and pressure me with the Force. But that wouldn't work on me. 

"I am myself. Every few millennia, I appear as someone else, but I stay the same. I am the Listener, the Observer, the First One and the One who remains. For I will see the end if I so wish."

"Too much light and dark will destroy the life in the Universe as you know it. I am the one who controls my children, I am important and necessary."

"Not really. There is a much simpler way to solve that problem ... isn't there?", I ask him. 

"How would you know such secrets?"

"I already told you ... I am much older than you. And even though you think you know the Force, you do not. As you stated, you manipulate the Force, but you don't know it. There is a fundamental difference."

"Preposterous.", he says and then begins to use the power of the Force to pressure me. But once again it didn't do much. I could feel his power was great, but nothing to be proud of all things considered. I didn't move from my spot and simply let him play around. When he saw the floor and the room in general cracked and shook, but I didn't, he stopped. 

"So it is true. You are the Chosen One."

"Oh my, this is stupid."

"You believe it to be a myth?"

"I don't care about it."

"You must!"

"I must nothing! I do what I want, that is my freedom. You don't get to decide anything!"

"Then you will have to die, for you have seen us and might spread this knowledge.", he says and then extends his hand at me. I could feel the pressure building on me as he used the Force to try and crush me fully. This time, he got a reaction out of me. I was sick of these games. 

I am just about to retaliate when the Force decides to do it for me. A powerful wave permeates the surroundings coming from me and throws the old man's control off. Then he is suddenly Force choked and his body slowly rises into the air. I watch this happen in amusement and surprise. The Force itself has retaliated without me saying anything or making my will known. Fascinating. 

The doors are broken down and in come the two children. Flying in their beast forms. They both screech at me and try to attack, but now I am the one doing something. I will both of them to stop and just before they reach me, they freeze in the air. This is similar to Force Stasis. Both of them are frozen in space and time. I have not full control over this yet, but it is getting stronger.

Then I put pressure on them. The Father has been released by the Force meanwhile and I only focus on the two in front of me. They begin to screech again as the space around them is being pressed together. Using my will, I have them transform back into their humanoid forms. 

Then I point my hands at each of them. My right hand at the Son and my left hand at the Daughter and then ... I release Force Lighting. I use Force Lightning imbued with the Dark Side on my right hand and hurt the Son with it, and I use Electric Discharge imbued with the Light Side energy and hurt the Daughter with it. 

"AAAARRRRHHHHH"

"AAAARRRRHHHHH"

Both of them scream in pain and after a while, I stop. I look at all three of them and then imbue my voice with the Force again. 

"Kneel!", I say with a deep voice and their reaction is immediate. They kneel in front of me, smoking from the lightning and with their heads bent. 

"And now you see who you truly are. Only the Chosen One could tame both my children. Don't you feel your destiny? When I die, you will have to replace me."

"I think I told you ... to kneel.", I say without turning around. The pressure on him also multiplies and he obeys the command as well, kneeling in front of me. 

"What i-is ... this? Please ... this is serious ... take this s-seriously.", the Father says while he is struggling against my will. I narrow my eyes at him. 

"The only matter I do not take seriously BOI ... is you three. Your words and tests bore me. Your demeanour is that of a pouty child. Stop playing those games and get down off your pedestals. Use the gifts you were so graciously given wisely. I will watch your actions and the effects your actions have on the galaxy will show if you are worthy to live. And I will return ... for judgment."