The Force stirred again.
Not with a crash like before—not with the sharp, rippling shock of the planetary pulse triggered by the node network's activation.
This was deeper. Older. More intimate.
And across the galaxy, those attuned to its currents paused—each sensing something different.
Not a warning. Not a summons.
But a call.
Coruscant – Jedi Temple, High Council Chamber
Master Yoda sat motionless, eyes closed, ears tilted toward nothing—and everything.
The chamber was still, but the Force was not.
"It moves," he said softly. "Differently."
Mace Windu stood nearby, arms crossed. "You feel it too."
Yoda opened his eyes. "Felt the last wave, we did. Loud, yes. Widespread. This… this is not the same. Alive, it feels. Rooted. Personal."
Plo Koon adjusted his breather mask. "Not darkness. Not light. Just… depth. As though the Force found something it had forgotten."
"It has weight," Ki-Adi-Mundi added. "As though something beneath our understanding has shifted."
Yoda's fingers tapped the side of his chair. "Not a tremor. A foundation. Something begins."
Coruscant – Senatorial Apartments, Office of Palpatine
He had been meditating.
Quietly. Carefully.
Feeling through the currents of possibility—shaping his rise, watching the threads align.
Then came the pull.
Not visible. Not traceable.
But potent.
His eyes snapped open.
Palpatine stood, hands clasped behind his back as he walked slowly toward the window. The skyline glimmered with serenity. But the Force no longer did.
"Something has moved," he said aloud.
He reached again—carefully, quietly—and still could not find the source. The shroud he had been weaving still held. But now, there was a tremor beneath it. Not disruptive.
Yet.
"It must be hidden," he whispered. "Or destroyed."
Corellia – Temple of the Corellian Jedi
A circle of masters stood in silence beneath the vaulted skylight of their sacred hall. They spoke no words. They didn't need to.
The Force had bent subtly around them all at once.
Master Dran broke the silence. "It's alive, wherever it is. Not simply a presence. A world. A soul."
Another murmured, "I felt no threat."
"Nor did I," said a third. "But nor did I feel peace."
Dathomir – Nightsister Territory
The central altar flared with green flame, unbidden.
A circle of sisters stepped back, surprised.
The eldest among them, her face painted in symbols of ancient rites, raised a hand toward the fire.
"No spell called it," she said. "No voice summoned it."
One of the younger witches whispered, "Then what is it?"
The matriarch stared into the flame, voice trembling.
"The Force has remembered something… and is reaching to reclaim it."
Outer Rim – En Route to Serenno
Count Dooku stood in quiet reflection within his private chamber aboard a diplomatic vessel.
He had felt the planetary pulse before.
But this was different.
No thunder. No broadcast. Just a thread—thin and persistent—pulling at the edge of his perception.
He pressed his hand to the viewport, watching the stars blur past.
"No master calls me," he said.
"But the Force... has not finished speaking."
Elysiar – Garden Platform Overlook
Mara sat cross-legged beneath a newly grown tree—one that hadn't existed the day before.
The leaves shimmered faintly with magelight, and the ground beneath her pulsed in rhythm with her breath.
The Force was louder here now. Too loud to ignore. She'd felt it ever since the nexus stabilized—but now it had changed again. It wasn't speaking to her.
It was speaking to someone else.
Adam approached from the lift, quiet as ever.
"Anything new?"
She looked up at him. "It's started pulling. The same way the nodes pulled you to them. Only now… it's not calling to just one person."
He frowned. "So who's it calling?"
Mara looked back toward the horizon.
"I don't know. But I think they're waking up."
Elsewhere – Deep Beneath the Soil
Stone cracked softly in the dark.
A slow exhale stirred dust untouched by time.
Fingers twitched. Not biological—but not mechanical either.
The Force coiled in a circle around something long buried. Not evil. Not pure.
But powerful.
And ready.