Timeframe: Two days after Cain senses the fracture
Setting: Voh-Tel – Merchant Guild Summit Hall
The Quiet Before
The summit hall was unusually still for a diplomatic gathering. Light streamed in through open skylights, highlighting the polished obsidian floor.
Cain stood off to the side near the windows, arms folded under his robe, gold-on-black eyes scanning the assembled figures.
Senator Har Valon had just taken his place at the central dais.
His face was calm.
But the Force… wasn't.
Cain's breath hitched slightly.
No more ripples. This is a break.
A single point, vibrating in perfect silence, just before the glass explodes.
And then it happened.
Valon reached beneath his robes—and in one blinding motion, pulled a disruptor pistol, aiming not at a rival… but at Master Adi Gallia.
The Shatterpoint Awakens
Cain didn't move.
Not physically.
But the world stopped.
To him—time fractured.
He could see the moment before it happened:
A merchant flinching. A guard stepping left. Anakin not yet seeing it. Seris beginning to shout. Obi-Wan turning too late. Adi Gallia's back exposed.
And then—he saw the fracture.
Not of the shot.
Not of Valon.
But of the decision that led to it.
Cain saw the shatterpoint in the man's mind—a thread of memory and manipulation not his own.
He's not in control. He's being pushed… by someone else.
Cain reached into the Force—not to block the shot, but to break the thread.
Action Unleashed
Time resumed.
Cain stepped forward—not fast, but precisely—and struck the wall with the Force. The shockwave deflected Valon's hand just as he fired.
The disruptor shot struck the floor beside Adi Gallia and melted obsidian into glowing slag.
"NOW!" Cain shouted.
Anakin ignited his saber, vaulting forward to disarm Valon, who screamed in rage and confusion. The Senator's eyes flickered with sickly yellow light, then cleared—like waking from a dream.
"W-where am I—" he gasped, falling to his knees.
Seris spun to the gallery above, catching a shimmer of movement—a hooded figure, retreating into shadow.
She didn't hesitate—she leapt after it.
Cain looked up, locking eyes with Seris for one moment, and nodded.
The Enemy Escapes
Seris pursued the figure through winding halls above the summit chamber, lightsaber in hand, breath focused.
But as she turned a corner—
—they were gone.
All that remained was a cold pressure in the Force.
A whisper:
"He sees too much."
And then silence.
The Aftermath
Obi-Wan deactivated his saber and knelt beside Valon, scanning him.
"He was Force-pressed. Memory alteration, deep-seated."
"Not a Sith?" Anakin asked.
"No," Cain said. "Something older. Something quieter."
Adi Gallia stood slowly, her robes scorched but intact. She looked at Cain with new eyes.
"That moment—how did you know?"
Cain looked down at his hands.
"I saw… the break. Not the one in the action—the one before the thought."
Obi-Wan stepped closer. "Shatterpoint?"
Cain nodded slowly. "It's not just about seeing weak points. It's seeing the one moment everything turns. The point that breaks fate."
Reflection Between Three
Later that night, on the rooftop where they often met, Cain, Anakin, and Seris sat again.
This time, they all knew the stakes were higher now.
Anakin leaned back. "You broke that shot before it happened."
"I didn't stop the shot," Cain said. "I broke the decision to fire it."
Seris stared at the stars. "Whatever's behind this… it's subtle. And smart."
Cain closed his eyes.
And it knows about me now.
"I think this was just a test," he whispered. "To see what we'd do."
Anakin's fists clenched. "Then next time, we hit first."
Cain smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes.
"I'm starting to think next time… we'll have to."