Anakin doesn't even have time to finish taking in the scene before she's noticed, this time.

Something shifts in the other Anakin - unintentional, Anakin knows somehow, but the other her is startled and responding by reflex - something dark and intense and vicious flicks into place, the light parts of her slipping behind that shield. She turns to face Anakin, expression hard, hand hovering near her lightsaber as she reaches out searchingly in the Force.

She's - another Anakin, still, in many ways, one filtered through the dark side as the last one was. But she's also not in many others - a subtle, uneasy distinction Anakin can only barely grasp the edges of.

Eeeep!

None of the others have looked like they want to stab her, and Anakin probably can't be stabbed in a vision but she has no idea for sure.

She... Tries to backpedal. It isn't very effective. Doesn't even dump her out of the vision properly, though the world wavers a bit around her.

Perhaps a second swell of dark power rising from the woman who looks like Elesse will serve to give her the push she needs.

What!!! The!!! Fuck!!!

It does, in fact, give her that push.

Anakin's thoroughly into an overwhelmed spiral when the world bursts around her. She needs - a moment of stability, a place to regain her feet, just - a rock in the storm, nothing more.

This world is... quiet. A young teenager, probably not that much older than Anakin, holds a baby in her arms. She hums, rocking the baby gently. As she does a half-turn, her hair falls away from her face and-

She looks a lot like what a young Elesse could be imagined to be.

Anakin's just going to sit down and start crying.

The baby-her's getting a bit fussy, picking up on the wash of the older Anakin's emotions.

"Oh no, no, don't cry. Please don't cry, Anakin."

...Nnnn. But she wants to cry. She wants Elesse to hold her.

But if she's upsetting the baby - and she's getting the wash of that vague coziness, the safety of Elesse's arms -

Anakin takes a few deep breaths, trying to meditate and re-center herself. Trying to tuck away her emotions where they won't wash into the baby, at least. Separate themselves a little.

...Wait. She squints at the baby.

Looks over where Anakin is crouched.

"Who are you?"

" - You can see me?"

She's - pretty sure none of the other versions of Elesse have, though maybe the one who was very mad at her did. (Oh no now she wants to cry again. But she's already started centering herself, and - it's possible to keep going, keep soothing herself.)

"Not- exactly. You're not from here."

"I'm not."

This world feels - weird, now that she's in it and paying attention. Weird in ways similar to the lonely her's world, but... Honestly she didn't get a good look around in most of the others, either.

"I - I was in the crystal caves, on Ilum, and I picked up the crystal for my lightsaber, and - I've been seeing other me's, but not normal visions - "

And some of those worlds are terrible.

"Are you... another Anakin?"

"Yeah."

"I - you're Elesse, right?"

"Yeah."

"You didn't have me until I was nine," she says, closing her eyes a little. "But - you're the best thing that's ever happened to me."

She's... Glad, she thinks, that there's a her with an Elesse even as a baby. It's probably the best of any of the worlds she's seen.

"...I'll remember that."

She looks down and makes a funny face at the baby.

She and the baby both giggle.

"Want advice?" Anakin asks. (She still very often volunteers to work with tiny children - before and since coming to the Temple. The creche is nice. And she knows herself, too.)

"I won't say no."

She grins, and starts giving a mix of 'baby care' and 'Anakin care' advice - Anakins get very laser focused on shiny people, make sure she has other friends, she's very adventurous with food so sorry in advance about when she's old enough to start shoving random plants in her mouth, she gets emotionally unstable when she doesn't have attachments and also runs her moral sense in part through 'making random attachments to everyone,' so she thinks it's better to provide her with lots of small attachments and teach her to handle loss and to judge things fairly even if she's attached (and recuse herself when she can't) than to encourage her not to get attached, some of this might be influenced by how she grew up? But a lot's fundamental to her, she thinks, maybe... (The story of her not joining the Jedi right away because her Shmi and Elesse thought she wouldn't handle being isolated from friends and family well also surfaces early on, though not very much of her own life before and after Elesse.)

Anakin - isn't sure, exactly, when the world starts to fade out, become less real. She's content, and having fun sharing this stuff (even the painful parts), and hopeful, and it's almost like falling asleep while cozy.

She notices before the world dissolves, though.

"I - think I'm moving on," she says, abruptly. " - Good luck, Elesse, and - "

"Thank you."

"Goodbye, Anakin."

"May the Force be with you."

And she closes her eyes -

And opens them with her lightsaber crystal in her hand, cold air around her, firm ground under her feet.

Anakin takes a few deep breaths, and then makes her way back to her Elesse.

She's waiting for her padawan with a warm blanket and a hot drink.

"Welcome back.

She'd like hugs with that warm blanket, actually.

Talking to the younger Elesse helped, a lot, but - Anakin still needs a hug, and a shoulder to bury her face in, and the Elesse that's hers. 

She can have some hugs.

"Was it hard?"