Past the corridors underneath, Eve and Ahsoka were now lost wherever they were.
In fact, doors seemed to close behind them, blocking them from accessing the room they were entrapped in. As if a illusion was there, the corridors were strange and incredibly confusing to traverse.
"Where is the way out of this place?" Ahsoka said this to no one in particular, just thinking out loud as the two were trying to find a way out.
"I thought that this would lead us somewhere, but it is clear that this is untrue..." Eve replied, looking around at the metal walling. This place was untouched, and it was underground, meaning that there may be more to this place than what meets the eye.
Power was still working, miraculously it was still on, up and running as this place provided light for them to see, oxygen for them to breath, not that they need it. Their suits would enable to do so even without these essential things for the living.
There was some lights spread throughout, but no sense of direction would lead them in any right direction. If anything, the two of them were heading in the opposite direction of where they wanted to go.
"It seems we have come to a crossroads." Eve stated as the two of them were now face to face with a decision of what direction they should take. There were two places.
"I take one, you take the other. I have a feeling that these will both lead us to our locations." Ahsoka replied, as she was determined to reach Anakin, and while it might seem silly to split off now, they are short on time.
"That seems to be the best plan... however, I am unsure if either will even get us anywhere." Eve walked towards the right side as she said this.
"It's ok. I know that we will reach him." Ahsoka replied as she took the left seeing Eve take the right, even if she was unsure, they would both go their own ways. It didn't matter who arrived first, what mattered was whether or not they would reach him.
As Eve went off into the right side, Ahsoka went into the left.
'I wonder what is down in this place anyway.' Ahsoka thought as she travelled this corridor for a few minutes, by herself and would come across a clearing. An opening that wasn't where she needed to be, but she would come across something strange.
The room was huge. Huge enough to fit many, many people, many, many starfighters within. The smell in the air was off, like the rotting of corpses, while there were these tubes holding bodies within.
"What is this place...?" She was confused, but most of all a bit horrified by the monstrosities within such tubes. There were bodies among bodies.
All stacked in their tubes that were keeping them afloat.
"With the same genetic structure plus a flash-learning pattern taken directly from the template, a clone should theoretically be completely identical to the original person. But despite that, they're never exactly the same. Maybe some of the mental subtleties get blurred over in transition, or maybe there's something else unique inside us that a flash-learning reader isn't able to pick up." A hologram showed up, startling Ahsoka.
It spoke of cloning and its capabilities, but their flaws in what they try to do. "Well, isn't that good to know...?" Ahsoka said to herself, before walking up to one of the tubes that held someone within.
'Where have I seen one of you before...?' She questioned within, scrutinizing this persons features and they were similar in appearance to someone she knew.
There were two sections, one where there were completely randomized looking people within, no doubt clones, but the side Ahsoka was one held many, many near identical, if not perfectly identical people within.
In order to create a clone, samples of genetic code had to be drawn from a subject's cells, duplicated and implanted into donor cells.
These donor cells would then grow, divide and, eventually gestate in artificial wombs, filled with nutrients and organic catalysts. Altering the nutrients and catalyst solutions that the cells received could influence the physical attributes and maturation rates of the resulting clone.
The most aggressive mixtures of nutrients and catalyst solutions produced fully formed adult clones in several weeks, but forced growth acceleration often led to mental instability in the clone.
Some cloners, however, discovered methods to avoid this phenomenon. The genetic material donor was generally referred to as a prime clone. Using the subject's template, it was possible through many different techniques to create exact physical replicas.
This process was not only capable of producing a single copy, but also multiple versions of the original subject. Furthermore, genetic engineering could further modify the clone to augment or subdue specific traits.
Although mass cloning was considered useful because of its military applications, individual clones generally lacked the personality of the original. As such, they often needed to be educated during the process of their development.
Staring at the clone, Ahsoka knows that she has seen this person before. 'They are pretty young. Wait a minute...' The face was that of Sheev Palpatine, a.k.a. Darth Sidious. "No way..." Ahsoka was now freaked out, as there were literal thousands of them.
Turning around, Ahsoka ran to the other side to check up on all the other clones. "These are..." The faces were similar or familiar, and Ahsoka remembered seeing a lot of these people when fighting against the abominations that Palpatine had created.
'So this is the place they all came from...' Ahsoka was a bit saddened by all of this suffering, but now was not the time to panic. However...
"Look who we have here." A voice startled her, and as she turned around she saw a much more seriously malformed version of Sidious standing there, bent over as his back was misshapen. "You shouldn't be here..." His eyes glowed eerily, but Ahsoka was unafraid.
"Quiet! I saw destroy you." Ahsoka activated her lightsaber, before going into action and slicing the poor, defenseless man down. Quite easily at that as well, leading to Ahsoka starting to wreak the place before moving on.
She would take a very long time to finish with everything she was doing here, destroying everything within which would be the end to many lives.
"I'm sorry." Ahsoka whispered, before activating the makeshift explosive device at the place she had entered, setting off a chain reaction and destroying all of those clones within.
She immediately headed towards the area that would be her escape from this place, getting in and getting herself to go upwards. An elevator shaft that she broke down and went up herself, not willing to wait it out and go as fast as she could.
'I am coming...!'
[]
Eve walked into the right corridor relatively unharmed and out of harms way. However, unlike Ahsoka, she was a bit slower, allowing her to notice that things collapsed back in on herself. Now she couldn't go backwards again.
There was no sign of an explosion, and she hadn't even moved that far away from the split off point from where Ahsoka and herself had gone their separate ways.
'Never mind this now. I feel as if I cannot remove the debris.' Eve had tried to remove the things in the way so that she may go back to find Ahsoka, however that was not going to happen anytime soon.
Instead, she turned around made her way in deeper, and faster than Ahsoka there was nothing in her way to reach a place she may exit.
In fact, she was taken into a hangar bay that was fully open and exposed her to the corruption done by Abeloth. Many corpses were dried up among this place, with strange energies present within the air.
Bodies were completely pale, or some even reduced and exposed their skeletal forms. "I got out quickly. May the Force be with you all." Eve said this, even knowing that these people are probably no more, not even in the Force would they have a presence.
Even the Yuuzhan Vong corpses left behind were of no use to Abeloth, and their numbers were probably not enough to satiate her desire for lifeforce. She was reforming her body and Eve knew she needed to get there soon, even if Anakin was facing her.
For some reason, Ahsoka was worried about what is going on. 'Thankfully, I am not stupid.' Eve thought quite highly of herself in this moment, easily being able to reprogram one of the leftover ships and gain control of it.
In doing so, she would need to become a pilot now and get herself over towards the area she knew Anakin and Abeloth should be at.
Getting into the rather basic and out of repair ship, Eve knew that this is all she has that could be gotten to work. Starting it up, she exited the hangar bay and went towards where Anakin and Abeloth were supposed to be.
Instead, once arriving there was nothing. No Anakin and no Abeloth. 'Where did they go...? Anakin didn't get hurt, did he?' Eve was starting to fear the worst now.
That was when she felt a disturbance in the atmosphere, and looking above she was barely able to see two figures having gone so high up that most people wouldn't survive. 'Up!' She thought, not really needing the ship to fly herself, so she transformed into her griffin like form.
A green glow emanated from her form and off into the air she went, making sure to check what is going on up there. Before she went up however, she managed to leave a note for Ahsoka within the ship left behind.
Telling her that Anakin, Abeloth and herself had left the planet and were instead battling it out outside of the planet.
Approaching, even if she needed air to survive, the suit was destroyed now and she had to rely on her current form. It also exposed her to the negative effects Abeloth was creating, giving her 'mother' some ground to mess with her.
That is if she were not powerful enough to resist her now.
Upon getting closer, she noticed that the two were not really battling it out and instead it seemed like they were only going further and further away from the planet.
Instead, the two of them were approaching the supermassive black hole and were achieving this by going at quite frightening speeds. Speed that the current Eve would be unable to catch up to, but she had at least gotten their destination.
Whatever it was happening, Eve had a bad feeling about this.
Going through space like this however, it was hard. By herself, Eve would not be able to defeat Abeloth, and she wanted to help Anakin as well.
It would seem however that she would need to keep going closer so that she may catch up faster.
Soon enough, she caught up as Anakin and Abeloth had stopped. She didn't say anything, she couldn't say anything and the only way to converse right now is through the Force. 'Anakin!' Eve thought to Anakin.
'Eve. You've come.' Anakin replied, looking towards herself in her current form. 'You shouldn't have come like this.'
'I know, but I couldn't come any faster. You know it is dangerous be to here.' Eve responded as her griffin form looked towards Abeloth.
'Don't worry. Everything should be under control.' Anakin responded as he was facing Abeloth, and Abeloth was not facing them.
Eve was surprised that she was actually able to do it. To actually recreate her body and form despite everything that has happened. 'My daughter. How nice of you to join us.' Abeloth spoke through the Force, and she didn't only say this to Eve, she was speaking as if on a microphone.
She projected herself throughout the Force so all those near may hear what she is saying. The space-time distortion of this area was no doubt making it harder to do anything related to communication through the Force.
'I am not your daughter any longer, you forget.' Eve responded as Abeloth looked at her with an expression of love. Whatever Abeloth was now, there was no doubt some form of love existed for her children that were not her children.
She didn't even create or give birth to them, Abeloth was not her mother. Even when she was, she was not at the same time. In fact, she never knew her actual mother herself, so it makes sense that Abeloth was the only female figure to draw her own way to develop from.
It was partially the reason she was as stuck up as she was. Even now, she didn't even like being in the presence of others that was not Anakin or those close to him, through the bond or otherwise.
'But you are my daughter. My precious daughter whom shall share her lover with her mother.' Abeloth's lips curled into a smile, one that seemed to taunt Eve, but she held herself back from such taunts.
'I think that we have reached the end game now...' Anakin said through the Force, as he handed Eve the Mortis Dagger.
'Right...' Eve narrowed her large griffin forms eyes, taking the dagger and preparing herself. It would also seem that behind them, Ahsoka was making her way over as well.
'This is the end, is it?' Abeloth said, the Force resonating with her, pulsing outwards and sending a strange feeling throughout.