The mist swallowed Kai whole as he stepped into the hollow, the edges of reality itself fraying into formlessness. Each breath was thick, heavy, as though the very air was alive, pressing against him.
Somewhere behind him, he knew Yoda waited silently — not to intervene, but to bear witness.
The swamp faded. Sound dulled. Kai felt the tugging, the beckoning of the Force drawing him forward into the unknown.
He walked.
The world rebuilt itself around him.Not the swamp—but a vast, ancient hall of dark stone and dying firelight. Massive, broken banners lined the crumbling walls, depicting warriors with sigils Kai couldn't recognize. Echoes of battles past seemed to bleed from the stone.
In the center stood a lone figure in battered crimson and black Mandalorian armour, helmet tucked under one arm. His face was lined with age and battle scars, his eyes cold, assessing, but not cruel.
Kai's breath hitched in his throat. Recognition struck him like a blow.
The Mandalorian from the visions.Gar Saxon.
But this was no passive memory.
"You've finally come," Gar said, voice low and edged with steel. "It was only a matter of time."
Kai found himself walking toward him, drawn like a ship to gravity.
"Why me?" Kai asked, though deep down, he knew the answer.
Gar Saxon's expression didn't soften. "Because you are my blood."
The words seemed to crack through the vision, making the hall tremble faintly.
"You carry my strength," Gar continued. "My will. But you must also bear the weight of my choices."
The torches along the walls guttered out, plunging the world into darkness—and in that darkness, new images bloomed.
Kai stood now in a war-torn courtyard under a blood-red sky.Armoured figures clashed, Mandalorian against Mandalorian, brother against brother. Fires raged uncontrollably in the distance.
Amid the chaos, Gar Saxon, younger and full of fury, pledged loyalty to a figure cloaked in black—the Emperor himself.A whisper slithered through the scene:
"Strength above all.""Victory at any cost."
The vision leapt again—showing Gar's rise, his conquests, his betrayals. The cost was clear: lives shattered, honor lost, chains willingly accepted.
Another flash—Gar kneeling before a small, dark-haired woman in Mandalorian armor, the same woman from the earlier vision of the Krayt dragon. Her hand rested on her swollen belly—pregnant.
Hope sparked briefly in Gar's eyes in that moment... then was buried beneath grim duty.
And then—Krownest.The betrayal.Gar's death.
Kai felt it all—the rage, the regret, the hollow victories. They surged inside him like a maelstrom, almost overwhelming him. But he didn't collapse. He braced himself, rooted in his own growing certainty.
He was not his father's mistakes.
The scene changed again, but this time, not to the past.
A future—not far, just out of reach—unfolded before him.
He saw himself, a little older, a little stronger. His face was sharper, more sure.The lightsaber he had forged gleamed in his hand.
Beside him stood a woman—not in armor, but in simple, elegant clothing. She held herself with fierce pride and an undeniable gravity, even though her clothes were plain. Her dark hair was braided back, her eyes sharp and commanding, yet kind.
A bond flowed between them—unspoken but real, deep as bedrock. She wasn't Mandalorian, nor was she a warrior by trade—but she had her own battles to fight, battles that mattered beyond the scope of war.
They stood together against a storm Kai could not yet name.
He couldn't see her face clearly—only impressions: her strength, her hope, her undeniable fire. A fire that called to him.
And somehow, he knew: in this future, she would matter beyond reason.
He reached out instinctively—
The vision shattered, and Kai stumbled back into himself, gasping.
The mist thinned, and he found himself once again before the swamp, Yoda still seated on the ancient log, watching him with deep, unreadable eyes.
Kai sank to his knees, heart thundering in his chest, mind racing.
Gar Saxon. His father. His blood.A life marked by chains—and a death born of them.
But Kai... he was free.
And somewhere ahead, a future waited.One he could shape. One he could choose.
Yoda said nothing for a long while.
Finally, the old Master spoke softly, almost as if to himself.
"Strong with the Force, you are. Paths, many you could walk. Heavy your blood may be... but heavier still, your will."
Kai looked up, meeting Yoda's gaze.
"I won't be my father," he said quietly. "But I will honor the strength I come from. And the freedom he never had."
Yoda nodded slowly, as if this was the answer he had hoped for.
"Begun, your true journey has."
And as the mists of Dagobah curled around them once more, Kai knew he had stepped across an invisible threshold.
The past could no longer chain him.
The future was his to forge.