Chapter Text
Introduction
Thus must you understand that love alone
Is the true seed of every merit in you,
And of all acts for which you must atone. – Dante, The Divine Comedy Volume 2: Purgatorio
Anakin found himself in a forest.
It was raining. Despite no sun(s) being visible – though he thought he could make out some sunlight behind the clouds -- the rain felt hot, like it used to on the rare occasions he remembered it raining on Tatooine, and the drops of water smarted when they first hit his skin, but felt good rolling off, and left him feeling slowly but surely cleaner. He stepped out into a clearing and held his palms upward to catch some of the drops, the way he used to when he was a child.
He spotted several blue butterflies hovering nearby him, on the trees and plants. Around him, he could hear various noises, including animal sounds. He froze when he heard the distinctive call of a Krayt dragon, and his hand went instinctively to his side, only to find that his lightsaber wasn’t there. He checked both sides just to make sure, before he remembered he was already dead, they couldn’t do anything to him. But what if there were other people here? Just then, he heard the scream of a corridor ghoul. This was followed by the call of a veermok. Anakin had once killed one that had attacked him and Padme while visiting Naboo, only to be even more violently attacked by its mate. This was followed closely by the call of a gundark, then an acid lizard. Just what kind of planet was this? It didn’t seem like the sort of place a Krayt dragon or an acid lizard could survive.
At that moment, a large bat flew at Anakin and landed on his shoulder. Startled, he tried to wave it away, but it held on tight. Anakin tried to yank it off, but it only dug its claws in deeper.
“You cannot be rid of it.”
Anakin turned, to find himself facing a man with dark hair and blue eyes. Anakin noted the lower half of his face was scarred with what he recognized as lightsaber burns. He looked vaguely familiar, but Anakin couldn’t place where he recognized him from. “Hello, Anakin Skywalker,” the man greeted.
“Do I know you?” Anakin asked cautiously.
“You know me by the name Ajunta Pall,” the man replied.
Anakin blinked. He had heard of him. The story went that he was the first Sith Lord. It was a cautionary tale he had heard growing up in the temple on Coruscant. Supposedly, Ajunta Pall had been a Jedi Master exiled from the Order with several followers for studying Sith teachings. Anakin was a little fuzzy on the details, but he remembered that they had then declared war on the Jedi, and that had started what was known as the Hundred Year Darkness, a war that had lasted a century and ended with Pall and his followers being forced into exile, but then conquered Korriban, the original Sith home-world, and this was how the Sith came into being. All this had been around seven thousand years ago, so it was difficult to be sure how much of it was true, and the stories weren’t always consistent. He thought there had been at least one Jedi Knight who had killed his former Master involved, but he didn’t think either one had ever been named in the stories.
“Do you know what this place is?” Anakin asked the other man. “I heard a Krayt dragon and an acid lizard, and they should not be able to survive here.”
“We call it The Cleansing,” came the reply. “It is a place within the Force, where one comes to be cleansed of one’s wrongdoings.”
That made sense, Anakin supposed, although he wondered how Krayt dragons, corridor ghouls, veermoks, and bats could help cleanse anyone of wrongdoing. “Why are you here?” he asked Pall.
“I am to be your guide through this realm.”
“And the animals?” he asked. It didn’t make much sense for animals to need to be “cleansed of wrongdoing”, Anakin thought, though he supposed if any animals did need such a thing, Krayt dragons would certainly be it.
“They are not truly the creatures you hear them as. They are something inside of you, taking on a form you are familiar with.”
“Um, okay? What – what are they, then?”
“That, you must learn for yourself.”
“How do I do that?”
“You must face them, Anakin Skywalker.”
Anakin blinked. “You mean, I have to fight them?”
“Everyone must face off against their own demons, Anakin Skywalker.”
“Right,” Anakin muttered. He glanced at the creature on his shoulder. “Do I have to fight him, too?”
“Him, you can never fight off.”
Anakin blinked again. “You’re telling me I can beat a Krayt dragon, but not a bat?”
“We cannot only defeat pieces of ourselves, Anakin Skywalker, never our whole selves.”
“Okay,” Anakin muttered. The other man was making less and less sense by the minute, he thought. “So, am I fighting the other animals now?”
“You are not yet ready for that fight, Anakin Skywalker.” The man gestured for him to come closer. “Come. Walk with me.”
Puzzled, Anakin complied. The path through the forest was narrow, just barely wide enough for the two of them to walk side by side and still maintain just enough personal space to be somewhat comfortable, and the stones were worn and loose, so that he found himself stumbling often. It was still raining. The bat had mostly settled on his shoulder now, though he was still shifting and flapping around quite uneasily, mirroring how Anakin himself felt. The same blue butterflies which he had noticed earlier fluttered around him, and he found them oddly calming and welcome, even when they landed in his hair and on his shoulders. No, especially then. In addition to the more dangerous animals, he could also hear friendlier ones – banthas and eopies, which he had of course heard often during his childhood on Tatooine, crown finches and song sparrows, which he knew well from his years at the Jedi temple on Coruscant, tusk cats, which he recognized from his visits to Naboo, and various types of dogs, which he had encountered on many different worlds, including the ones he’d called home.
“You will encounter many people here, Anakin Skywalker,” Pall explained. “Some will have been known to you. Some, you may know by reputation. Others, you will have heard of. Others still, you may have no knowledge of. The trials you go through on this journey will be difficult, and at times, painful. But they are necessary in order for many to obtain healing, yourself most of all.” He met and held Anakin’s gaze steadily. “Do you understand, Anakin Skywalker? Are you prepared to face what lies ahead?”
“I… understand,” Anakin said. Then he met the other man’s eyes levelly. “I am prepared.”
Ajunta nodded. “Then, let us begin your journey.”