Sandy Sarna

Sandy sat, waiting for Adenna to return, twisting a small metal device absentmindedly in her hand. The comm link spun from finger to finger, her thumb hesitating over the activation switch, then failing to activating it, turning the comm again over in her hand to juggle it back and forth as she tried to figure out how to best make the call, or text to her friends in the Empire. Well not just friends, but someone she not only looked up to, someone she wanted badly. Even though she barely knew him, barely even thought he would spare her a second glance, that black hair boy, now imperial knight, haunted her thoughts. It was love. She knew it was, but it was love that was born from loneliness and a crush left to fester in her heart for too long. She was desperately in love with him. No not him, the idea of him. The idea of someone to love her, someone who would softly touch her face and say something, anything nice. She wanted that so badly that her heart had latched onto the first person who had been nice to her on Gala. She stopped her twirling and flipped out the keyboard function on the commlink. She clicked out a swift message, deleted it, typed it again, deleted it, then finally sent it. Then she gasped at her own embarrassment. Shut the comm off and placed it back in the magnetic holster on her belt. She flushed deeply, so that the scars on her face stayed white amongst the swath of red. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and stood. She adjusted her armour, adjusted the underweave and glanced towards the window in the bridge. She could barely see her reflection but she liked what she saw, she wasn't some gangly little girl anymore, though she was still thin and did not have some of the assets men liked, she still considered for a moment that she could be beautiful. Then she glanced the scars on her hands and she spun around cutting out her reflection and her eyes instead found her old master. She stayed where she was, and leaned against the window portal, her long legs crossed at the ankles the where the grey armoured greaves broke into shards that covered her boots. There was business that needed to be done, but she knew Adenna would talk to her when she was able.

The wind whipped against her small frame as Sandy Senya made her way down the long landing platform. The wind was warm and was kicked into horrible gusts by the ignition of capital repulsorlifts and Galofree engines from the transports that launched beside them to refuel them once they burned to orbit. The firing of those massive engines to get the heavy capitals into space was always a marvelous thing to witness. Especially when it beckoned the beginning of the Jedi actually doing something about the threat to the galaxy. Or at least that was what the young jedi knight believed as her emerald eyes took in the Jedi fleet preparing for war. Those green eyes next looked to her old master, and a smile traced itself over her freckled face. She walked forward until she stood behind Adenna, then she bowed, her bright blonde hair falling off the grey imperial pauldrons on her shoulders, to hang shadowing her face. She straightened back up, and with her gloved hands pulled her loose hair back behind her shoulders, and tucked it back into the hood of her white cape, whose green embroidered hems were whipping in the wind. It had been a long time since she had stood next to her old master in such a way, and though they had shared words in the ship, they now stood together as friends. Though Sandy had no doubts that the armour she currently wore would test her master’s patience. With its bright imperial crest sitting at the center of her chestplate, indicating that the young Jedi Knight was ready to go to war, and not only on behalf of the Jedi order. Her lightsaber hung on her hip beside a blaster, and as Sandy adjusted the armoured gloves she was wearing, her voice spoke in its Galan accent. “Master Adenna, thank you for finally seeing this threat. I would ask to join the Imperial Survivors at Nar Shaddaa…” And not just for patriotic reasons, that dashing Imperial Knight also made her heart sing. But her voice reflected the reality she knew would bring her hopes crashing to the jungle floors. “...But I sense you have other designs for me.”

Thwack The Kirilian cedar pole splintered under the assault, and the next five quick strikes finished the job. Each blow landed and though there was pain from the closed fist strikes, they only focused her more on the task at hand. Sandy’s eyes were narrowed to emerald slits as she fought both the cedar poles that jutted from the training room floor and her own broiling emotions. Though it was unhealthy, the pain brought both into full clarity in her mind, and so she continued her routine, striking the poles like they were the masks of Sith troopers as sweat poured down her face and the salt pained her eyes. One cedar pole snapped and she moved to the next, ducking and weaving as she struck at the pole with her bare knuckles, touching the force lightly to absorb the pain from the blows and unleash it through her strikes. They were angry strikes. Angry at the fate of her friends inthe Remnant, angry that she could do nothing about it. She had been collecting crystals like an idiot as the best hope for the galaxy fell to the shadows of the Sith. The Damned sith. She struck again and finally a knuckle split with a flash of pain. It was only then that she stepped back and fully opened her green eyes. She was covered in sweat and even her short workout clothes were almost waterlogged. She breathed in a painful breath and pulled her bright long hair back over her shoulders, securing it with a tie of silver cord. Her fingers brushing over the long braid that she also tucked behind her ear. A braid covered in beads and tokens from her years as an apprentice. A traditional thing to cut off at the end of an apprenticeship, but she had never thought to do it. It had been there for six years, since she was an angry eleven year old acoyte on Gala. A lot had happened since then, and a lot had been taken from her. Innocence, friends, allies, masters. All had passed like the wind to disappear over the horizon of time. She was likely the youngest knight in the Jedi Order, and it still shamed her, maybe that's why she kept that silly little braid that she had grown and adorned over the years. Or perhaps it was its own little shrine toto something she could never take back. She licked her lips and tasted the salt of sweat and let out a long sigh. It was time to get to work, to train those apprentices, to give them the strength to survive in a galaxy dominated by the Sith. They would need that strength of will to survive in the coming hurricane. She walked on bare feet from the training rings to the locker rooms, stepping gingerly on the tiled floor until she found an empty shower unit. She set her bag of clothes and equipment that she had retrieved from Tobias’s ship outside the range of the water or sonic jets and slapped the activation button in its recessed compartment. Then stripping off the few clothes she had on to begin with, she stepped into the shower. Warm water beat against her tired body, buffeting it, and relaxing her muscles. It had not been very long ago that she had tried to kill herself in a shower like this one, and the thought of it made her grimace and end the shower earlier than she would have. The temptation was always there, to give into those demons, but she pushed them back and drying with a click of the sonic shower got dressed into her jedi tunic and slung her belt, with its sabre, and survival pouch around her shallow hips. Then her eyes glimpsed the flash of grey in her bag and she grabbed it. It was a piece of the armour she had worn at Nal Hutta, and though it was not polished, it still held its imperial grey finish. So she decided it was time to make a statement and got redressed. This time with the uniform supplied by the members of Alpha One which fit snugly over her tunic, mostly obscuring it with the grey of imperial armour. They were mostly sections that covered her vitals, pauldrons, vambraces, sections for her thighs and shins that fit over the green armourweave and brown knee high boots she wore. Also there was something called a kama which was made of leather that fell from her belt to her knees, covering the rear of her legs against shrapnel. Only when she had all of that equipment on, including the Parang stolen from the Sith as well as her lightsaber did she walk to find her apprentices and old masters. The broken circle of the Imperial Remnant emblazoned across her chestpeice in relief green. It was in that armour that Frond found her, and her frown turned to a smile of joy at his appearance. Though her eyes did not smile and her fingers, bright white save the redness around her knuckles and the darker pink lines of vertical scarring twiched with excess energy or anticipation. She listened to him explain his vision and her bright blonde brow turned to furrowed lines as she thought about what to do. “Then if you feel called then you must go. If the force demands your participation in this war I must let you go to it.” She hugged him then, fiercly, showing how proud she was. “Do you wish to go with the rest of us when we finally strike at them or is this a journey you must face alone?”

Sandy ran her tongue along the inside of her lower teeth nervously as she climbed onboard her old master’s ship. The news on the small holoscreen in the entryway was showing repeating images released by Imperial and Sith sources. From both sides the outlook for the remnant was deadly, reports showed star destroyers on fire and drifting while boarding ships landed unopposed on the shipyards themselves. Her nerves were jumpy and her heart ached for those brave and valiant imperials. She knew that the jedi were not there in force and nor were the galactic alliance. Cowards all. She thought, as she said a silent prayer for those imperials who had done the most to fight the Sith out of all the allies. And now they were paying the price. Aidan was paying that price. And she should have been there,, but she was not and he was likely suffering for it. She let a scowl cross her face as she dropped her grey green cloak on the grav couch and walked with her apprentices towards the central compartment. She looked at Kel’s new crystal and Fronds as well congratulated them for their find. “Well done boys! Now we will need to build the lightsabers themselves, so if you get permission from Master Vos you may wish to salvage from the repair bay some large core batteries, conduits, and some focusing lenses which you can get from a blaster. Then we can sit down and begin to build.” ((Begin the finding process for the components, then we will begin the build, and finally we can do some dueling)) She walked to where Tobias and Adenna stood and embraced her old master with a fierce hug. She had missed Adenna and her advice, and she held the hug for a while, letting her aura touch and congeal with Adenna’s letting her feel her apprehensions about aidan and her friends in the Empire. Letting her see how she had grown and developed from her time on Scarif, Nal Hutta, and with her apprentices. She was tied and very worried about the young Imperial Knight and her heart ached for him. She bit her lip and stepped back from Adenna. She blinked back tears and wiped and her nose with the hem of her green sleeve. “I’ve missed you mast- Uh Adenna.” She broke into a peal of teary laughter and when she could finally breathe her face hardened into grim reality. “As my apprentices build their sabres in the cargo hold we should plan our next course of action, it is likely from the Holos that the Remnant has completely fallen. I have few friends in the GA so I advocate helping the Empire should we have a direction. Though I bow to your wishes masters, I believe the Jedi should prepare for war.” Though her demeanor told the tale that she would not abide inaction, as they had done quite enough of that over the last week while her friends died on distant planets.

Pale green eyes reflected blue from the glittering light of the cave system before her and she watched silently as Tobais escorted the freed captive to the shelter of their ship. Her eyes next fell on the forms of her two apprentices, well one, as it looked like Kel had wandered far. And Frond busy doing tree like things that Sandy did not have the mental capacity to understand. She reached a tendril of the force to snake around the caverns until she located Kel who seemed to be looking for a suitable crystal. Sandy took an ice filled breath and walked forward to the hesitant Kel Dor. Though it took her several minutes and she was downright freezing when she arrived, her voice was soft in the stillness of the crystalline cairn they now inhabited. “Kel, let the force flow through you, a crystal that is attuned to you will show itself in the force, it is that crystal that you must choose. When you have one, join me back on the ship.” ((Explain in detail your process of finding a crystal, what you feel in the force, what the crystal looks like in both the force and physical realm. THan join your fellow apprentice back with me.) She strode next to Frond and jumped at the sound of a ship crashing outside, and stood beside him. Reaching out in the force to read his intentions, to see what he had learned from this trip so far. She spoke to him next. “What do you feel Frond, what beckons to you in this place?” ((our journey is wrapping up on this planet, please end your next post with us all aboard ship after informing Sandy of what you feel. And if you desire to recover Fic we can also do that. But we have things to do and other storylines to get to.))

As Sandy walked through the hallways of crystal, her breath turning to icy clouds that stung her face, her bright eyes caught the figure in the centre of the room. The woman hung suspended in crystalline ice and a voice shattered the stillness of the cave. A prisoner. Tat was what this girl was, a prisoner of some ancient race, perhaps the Rakata? Or whatever they were called and the outrage of it seized the young girl from the slums of Gala. Whoever these beings were that decided to encase a girl in crystal for no reason deserved whatever fight Sandy was about to stir up. It was the actions of the Imperial Knights perhaps, a rash attack against perceived injustice, that seized Sandy Senya and brought her lightsabre up in a spitting pillar of white light. No thought was in her mind as to why the girl was encased, or whatever demon that was going to affect them afterwards. Tobias would recognize it as the rashness and self righteousness of not Jedi order, but of the Greys, or those that used the force in red armour and served an empress. She extended her hand and pulled the force to her, focusing it into a sphere of power that she released at the pair of eyes. A solid wind of the force that would grab hold of the beast and hurl it into the rows of sharp crystals. And in the eyes of the young Jedi Knight, white hot light reflected. Her voice echoed in the cavern as she started forwards, holding her lightsabre at an angle above her head in the style of Vom Tag. “Release her, no prisoner deserves that fate.”

Sandy walked behind her eagre apprentices, her green eyes scanning and taking in the sights as she did, every breath turning into an icy mist that gritted against her skin and flushed her pale freckled cheeks. The persistent biting cold was an irritation, but the nanites kept most of the effect away from her and avoided frostbite on her face. But beyond the cold, the force whispered in her ear. Emotions, sadness, regret, woe, it all came flooding in through the force in a nexus of bitterness. Though the crystals were a sight to behold, she did not spend much time looking at them other than to try to sense if there was danger nearby. Faustian soldiers had long lain in the icy muck of their destruction. Entrails frozen in matted pools of crystalline blood. Their last thoughts leaving their faces horribly grotesque in death and Sandy felt pity for them. To be left to die on such a planet was the worst of fates for men that sought riches and honour, and she wished their abandoned families well, though she did not mourn the deaths of any Faustian soldier or Acolyte. They deserved any death that came upon them. When she next looked up her apprentices were scattered about, collecting crystals. “Be careful boys, there is much here that we do not know.” ((Sorry for the short crap work post))

The force moved so oddly on this planet. Its tides brought a cacophony of voices that seeped past her mental barriers to whisper in languages unknown to her ears. Sandy wrinkled her freckled nose as she stepped off the transport and her boot slid on the slick granite beneath the landing ramp. She caught herself on the ramp’s lower piston and growled her discontent at the wind. She ignored the voices for the moment, she had learned long ago that she was susceptible to them when the force was strong and its eddies deep. She reached down with a hand and checked her lightsabre hilt, ensuring that it was still dangling from the quick release cord at her wais, before she pulled her hood over her thin face. The cold was biting to exposed skin, and it pierced the loose fabrics of her tunic like an arrow. Chilling her to the bone before she fully wrapped herself in the nerf fur coat and pulled its fluffy hood over her eyes. She placed a hand on Frond’s wooden back. As if to reassure him that she was still there as they began to walk, or to stumble there way to the caves and the temple that stood there. “If you find the voices overwhelming, I can assist you, if you feel them begin to strike at you call out, we Jedi will help.” Her emerald eyes slid from front to Kel then to Kota Ni. She laughed as he pulled his coat around himself and her breath turned to fog before her mouth. “It happens to everyone Kota, don’t worry about that. Modesty is always good but you needn't be embarrassed around us. Ok?” She stumbled again as her body began to readjust against the cold and she pulled herself back up to standing before helping Adenna up from where she had tripped. Sandy could feel the warmth of Nanites beginning to heat up her body and she was for the first time grateful for those micromachines. If one looked close enough, the veins in her arms and forehead emitted a soft glow of yellow orange light, from the Nanites heating mechanisms.

“Well why don’t we all just go together and make it easy? That way I don’t have to go buy a ratty old ship, everyone can get crystals and have a blast together!” She smiled back at Kota as he explained his history, when he had finished she reached forwards and grasped his red hand with her own scarred and pale hand. The freckles showing in the harsh backlighting of the cantina. “You are very brave to have escaped slavery and made it this far Kota. And when the time comes I hope you can count on me to help rescue your sister. No one should live in slavery or withstand their torment. You will make a brave Jedi Knight and I look forward to seeing you knighted by the Council.” She grinned. He was definitely an attractive specimen and she could feel a flush heat her face before she withdrew her hand to grasp her water which she downed nervously. After they had eaten and conversed further she looked at her chrono and to the rest of the group, then to her old master. “When should we head to Ilum?”

Sandy let her gaze drop from Tobias’ face to be drawn to the red and white face of his new apprentice. Since she had opened herself to the force she could vaguely feel his emotions overflowing and his apparent attraction to her. She let a soft smile cover her face as she sat down across from him and she accessessed the datapad attached to the table and ordered herself a plate of fried and battered bantha cheese. Why would he be attracted to me? Why me? She smiled widely at both Tobias and Kota in an attempt to keep her thoughts away. She was a Jedi knight now and entertaining that kind of thought about an apprentice was like kick worthy. But still he had very handsome features and his jawline was well defined. “Yes Master Tobias as Frond said we are heading to Ilum to get lightsabre crystals for sabre construction, I intend to harvest some to build my own lightsabre as well since I have only ever used the one given to me by Relmis.” Then her emerald green eyes sought Kota’s. “Tell me about yourself Kota, what brings you to the life of the Jedi?”

The cantina was hushed as Sandy darted in behind her berobed wooden apprentice, the presence of her old master was alluring, though she knew it was not likely they could tarry long. As her wide eyes adjusted to the darkness of the cantina, Sandy’s nose also began to pick up the distinct smells that came with a dingy offworlder bar. Bleach, a quick, cheap cleaning solvent, and stale alcohol that had long ago permeated the wooden chairs, benches, and tabletops. She let her breath out through her nose and peaked around Frond, her bright blonde hair falling in a river across her shoulders. “Hey Tobias!” She grinned widely and giggled before coughing and bowing. “I mean hello Jedi Master Tobias Vos, may I introduce my two apprentices, Frond here and Kel.” She pointed first to the tree like apprentice then to the Kel-Dor. She grinned and stuck her hand out towards Kota, a somewhat attractive male of her own age, the sleeve pulling up to reveal long scars. “Nice to meet you too by the way.” Then she blushed, the blood running into her pale cheeks to flush them red, save where white scars made thin lines. “Oh gods I totally interrupted something important.”

Jedi Ace Brittany Va’ne, a Lorrdian and a Jedi knight pulled her V-9 torrent in a tight curve around the sensor buoys that laid out the test course that she was running for fun while waiting for something interesting to happen. As one of the few survivors from the battle of Onderon, Brit’s heart was gladdened to be put here on recovery flying while a new flight took on rotation aboard the Mon Cals. It gave her time to recover, maybe write Jason a nice holo letter to see if her was still interested…. “Hawkbat one, control.” She pulled the V-9 into another steep port sided turn with a twitch of the controls and a push on the rudder pedals. “Go ahead control.” “Seers have identified the Ewing coming from grid 2-1 as a possible threat, we have given him clearance, but follow him down and investigate, he could just be a hopeful.” Brit rolled her eyes and took off after the E-Wing, heading towards the main docking bays of Felucia, it took about an hour to navigate the buffeting winds of the stratosphere and finally down to the city below. SHe pulled her V-9 up and locked out the struts with a flick of an overhead switch. When the Torrent had settled, Brit pulled her lithe form out of the cockpit and climbed down. She stretched her sore legs and waved at the pilot of the Rising Sun which she had set down next to. “Welcome to Felucia friend! What brings you out this way?” ____________________ Brittany Va’ne -Jedi Ace

Sandy slowly walked off the boarding ramp into the pen spaceport of Iridonia. Her legs were sore from the tight confinements of waiting several days with little exercise and she was glad to be able to stretch. She took a deep breath and took to coughing almost immediately, the planet stunk of briney sulphur and though it was not deadly to breath in, it still irritated her lungs something fierce. She finished her coughing and took a gulp of water before donning her air filter mask from her utility belt and taking several deep, filtered breaths. Then she reached into the force and let her presence drift out away from her to find… Tobias Vos? She was nearly startled from her concentration by the shock of sensing her old master here on Iridonia of all places before she reached out with a probing touch and informed him of her location. She looked at her two apprentices, “We will find a private rental for several thousand credits, sadly we don’t get issued much credit wise by the Order, though maybe my old master, Tobias Vos may be of assistance in this matter.” She beamed, “Since it appears he is here as well!”

“You are right Kel!” Said Sandy cheerily as she yawned and stretched in the room they had reserved onboard the passenger liner. It was lowerclass as the Jedi were not keen on dishing out a thousand creds a pop on seating just for comfortable sleeps. Luckily they had been able to reserve a whole room with four beds, though it was a cramped a smelly mess with a single refresher and no kitchenette. So Sandy opened her luggage and retrieved three small satchels she had procured from the temple mess hall before leaving. She tossed one of the flimsifoil wrapped packages to Kel and began unwrapping the other. “I scored some MRE rations from the kitchens before I left..” She pulled the cord on the package for Frond and the waterlike mixture inside began to froth as she added a small accompanying package to it. “And some fertilized nutripaste for you Frond.” She opened a small cylinder and cracked it over her knee before she handed it to him. It was a UV chemlight and would be enough for several hours of recharge for the planet like apprentice. “I have a few more of these and I think they are available for purchase from the vendor on level 43, but im not so sure I trust a Jawa.” She popped open another MRE and began to eat the contents herself, pausing to wrinkle her nose at the protein heavy slugs that were roasted in garlics and muja. “Our next stop is Iridonia where we will find a shuttle for Ilum. No one charters transport there from the midrim so we will have to find a smaller private vendor.” ((Next post we will land on Iridonia, so post there.))

“Young apprentice. No sorry they keep telling me you are a Knight, but frankly I don't believe that either!” The doctor of the Jedi facility was known for letting his opinions be worn on his sleeves and blessing everyone around him with whatever pile of chip dust he kept on his shoulders that day. Though there were no doubts about his abilities in the healing realms, Sandy did not enjoy the lecture that she was now being handed. “…Why anyone would Knight such a young girl who has not shown in the slightest her maturity is beyond my comprehension, why it only makes sense that Adenna would rashly make you a Knight. She always seems to show her grey side when it comes to her actions. I will have to have a talk with the council about your lack of responsibility in your masterhood. Not only did you put your apprentices lives at risk, you used a power taught by those extremists at the Imperial Knights on one of them?” Sandy stirred a little at that, but he continued. “Using techniques taught by those Revanchists is treading close to the dark side, and we know what will end up with those imperial knights, they’ll become sith because they are rash and foolish as thousands before them. You need better role models like Darex or Starlisk instead of Kyrie kriffing Eleison. At least they showed what a Jedi should strive to be! They seek to bring harmony with the dark and redeem those that follow it, not purge them from the galaxy.” “You bring up a mass murderer and a ineffectual master that let the Sith build their forces unmolested until they breached the Core worlds as your defense of Jedi Ideals?” Not the smartest thing to say to someone that was used to sharing and hearing only his opinions. “What! How dare you, that smacks of arrogance and the dark side you little-” Sandy hopped down from the exam table, grabbed her torn robes and threw them on. “And now our fleet returns utterly defeated because of that inaction. There are some Jedi like me that will not let the Sith build completely unmolested. A sith master is currently trying to smash a moon into the capital of the Galactic Alliance and my brothers and sisters who fell on Onderons body’s are being paraded through the streets. ” He began to sputter “The Sith and their allies are beyond redemption and it is time that the Jedi went to work to end them, not redeem them.” She held up a hand to stop another sputter of protest from the Jedi Master. “And not by dropping rings packed by civilians into planets, or sinking cloning banks of innocents into dark Kaminoan seas. We have learned that lesson.” She turned and strode from the room, applying the bactaphage patch to her wound on the way out and only stopping briefly at her room to toss her sparse belongings into a rucksack and change into a fresh set of clothes. She paused for a minute before adding the plastoid armour the imperials had given her to the rucksack and booking a passage on the Courtland to the distant world of Ilum. Well not directly, it would get them close enough, stopping at Iridonia where Sandy would buy a personal transport. FInding her apprentices, she ushered them towards the landing bays where a planetskipper would take them to the Courtland, a modified transport ship which would in turn take them through many planets until they reached Iridonia. After their first jump, they would change into normal clothes and store their sabres aboard their luggage. ((Next post in space, explain boarding the transport, your thoughts, and your meditations. Also for those reading this, the thoughts towards Jedi masters Onderin and Darex are IC not ooc ))

As the Jedi fleet returned to orbit over Felucia, Jedi Knight Sandy Sarna sat in the arms of the tree like apprentice Frond outside the cave from which her apprentices had just drug her. As the apprentices continued their trudge to the entrance of the temple, Sandy guided them, using the force to route their steps. “You both did very well and you confronted demons that I didn't think you would have to face just yet. When we get to the temple we will have a full day of rest before we set route for Ilum to start a training mission to gather crystals for your sabres.” She sighed as the gates appeared, looming through the mists. “And here we are, no Frond if you could deposit me at the medical station, I think we all need a bit of rest as I book us a flight there.” ((Take this time to describe your meditations on what happened in the forest, as well to backfill what you would like.))

Sandy pulled herself to a sitting position as Kel returned to his senses. Her abdomen screamed in protest and she could feel an expanding pool of blackened blood soaking her undergarments. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, gathering her strength. She reached out a hand and firmly grasped Kel by the scruff of his tunic, balling the fabric between her strong fingers. “Kel, I don’t have much to say but I want you to hear this.” She leaned towards him at the same time dragging him closer to her scarred but pretty face. “Get over your self pity, right the kriff now. If every jedi apprentice quit because they did something wrong there certainly would be no Order left. Take a step back, breathe, then begin to use what I taught you on how to heal.” Her grip loosened a tad. “You did ok Kel, you will learn from this.” She took another breath and looked out for where Frond would be. Hopefully he could carry them to the surface because it was getting so tiring to be here. So tiring...

Sandy reached out a reassuring hand in the force to her tree like apprentice, she could sense his fears even through the thick darkness of the Felucian night. She let her calm touch his mind and reassure him. But for now her other apprentice needed her help more. His mind felt confused and beleaguered as she began her push towards him. Stepping over thick vines and pools of cold thick mud. Then she came upon him suddenly and though she could not clearly see his face, she knew he was in deep trouble. Die A Possession? The thought of it brought tingle of fear up her spine as the young man ignited his lightsabre in an unfamiliar flourish. Definitely a possession then. The darkside is so thick here that it clings to his very bones. Why did we build a temple here if this risk was so close? Sandy narrowed her gleaming green eyes and reached out with the force to prod the unfamiliar presence that covered her apprentice. When she touched it with her mind it left very little doubt of what it was. It was time to use her training from Kyrie. man vajadzēja nāvi, lai izdzīvotu Ah an exorcism it is then. Sandy let her eyelids flutter closed as she summoned the force to her. Focusing it through herself, through her old victories over pain, through her joy. You will not have him. She sprang at her apprentice, letting the sabre pass by her and placing her hand upon the dome of his head. She only slightly misjudged and the sabre burned a deep furrow through her side, scorching the pale skin black as she seized the presence in his head with the force. She could feel the tip of the plasma blade cut and gash through her abdomen, burning a tunnel through her guts to emerge from the other side, sputtering as it turned a rush of blood to steam. Sandy ignored the pain and kept hold of the presence, wrestling with it in the force until she was able to rip it clear, root and stem from Kel and cast it out. Her hand glowing white with the exertion of the force. Begone. And when Kel was free Sandy slumped to kneel in the mud, exhausted and wounded.

Sandy glanced down at the giant sinkhole covered by dark mists and felt her mouth go dry. “What were you both doing out here? This place is dangerous!” She shook her blonde head and analysed the situation. She could see the faint glimmer of water in the mist below and she kicked off her boots and stripped down to her undergarments. She held her sabre in her hand and glancing to her wooden apprentice, motioned for him to follow as she dove off the cliff into the watery cave below. The water was ice cold to her skin when she hit the surface, and she quickly bobbed up and gasped a breath. She held up her unlit sabre and scrabbled to the edge of the rocky cove and winced as the sharp stones dug into her skin. With a snap hiss the white blade shone through the darkness and she called out. “Kel?” As she projected her presence like a beacon in the night. Then she found him in the force and began making her way through the dark to his fearful presence. "Kel!" She called out to him again.

Emerald eyes narrowed to viridescent slits behind bright blond eyelashes. Sandy’s breath became a slight hiss as she drew it through tightly clenched teeth. Biting back any retort that would show her true feelings about executing slavers. In her own mind, the evil in the galaxy was lessoned greatly by each other their deaths. Damn the lot of them, and if she could be there on Kashyyyk with her sabre she would be doing the same. “Ahhh, yes, well you should know that Jedi are given free access to the Imperial worlds and can find sanctuary there…” Her bright blonde head whipped back and forth as she surveyed the cafe and did not find her apprentices. “Well, say hello for me when you find him, and if you need anything at all just give me a call!” With a flick of her datapad she sent her comm number to the woman’s, and Sandy sprang to her feet. And with that she said her goodbyes to the mother of Aidan and departed the temple to find her apprentices. Sandy expanded her presence to encompass the temple grounds, and the surrounding kilometers, probing the area with the force, searching for the presences of her apprentices. What she found was mainly the thick blight of the darkside, which hung like a fog over the Felucian landscape much like it had for eons before the Jedi ever arrived to erect their temple. She could sense the two of them like two little candles in a vast storm of darkness and Sandy made her way in due haste to them. The tree she saw first as she drew her blade to provide light against the shadows. “Frond! What are you doing? Where is Kel?”

Sandy could feel emotions rolling through the force with all the subtlety of a kaminioan thunderburst. She could feel frustration, dissapointment, and a thick cloud of exhaustion. Sandy extended her scarred hand and placed it gingerly on the older woman’s. “It’s ok, he is well cared for, he is the apprentice of Kyrie Elison, the right hand of the Empress. He could not be in better hands or in a better place.” She admired the ex-Jedi Knight, who now led the Imperial force users. With a well practised hand, Sandy whipped out her datapad from her belt while keeping her other hand on Armiena’s emaciated hand. SHe thumbed through old messages and holo reports her pad had auto cached. “Welllllll let’s see, the Imperial Knights and the Imperial Fleet are known to be on Kashyyyk, and after that they are due to return to Kuat for R and R. Or at least that’s what Kyrie told me when she invited me to be a part of operation Jade Dagger.” A pale blonde eyebrow raised slightly above emerald eyes. “But I doubt you could really get to him without going to chain of command. Heck I almost got gunned down for sneaking aboard one of their shuttles. So be careful, and if you see him say hi for me. Or don’t, I don’t think he likes me all that much.” Sandy blushed again and looked down at her hands and set the datapad down. “I think he is going down the right road. He seemed like he was doing the right thing in the Imperial service.” Danger prickled the back of her neck, and she could feel a distinct lack of her apprentices near by.

Well at least she isn’t openly hostile. That’s a good start. Come to think of it, her neutral opinion of Sandy was probably a better opinion than Aidan had of her. Gods she had been dumb. A fresh flush hit her face, darkening her freckles and leaving the scars on her face pure white. But then Sandy saw her arms. The poor woman must have just been rescued from some kind of prison camp to be so thin. She kept her opinions to herself however and let her eyes drift back up to the matching emerald pair across from her. She knew she had to be honest, this woman was a Jedi master, and lying to such a person was never a good idea. She leaned forward, placing her hands on the table and letting her gaze linger down to her feet as she responded. Trying her best to avoid embarrassment, but getting overwhelmed by it nonetheless. Her Galan accent tripping over itself in her rush of words. “I apologize Master, I just got so excited, but that's just me being dumb. It's a bit of unrequited love and i’ve been crushing on him since we were in the temple together like ten years ago. I think he actually quite dislikes me though to be honest, which is kinda sad. He’s a very important Imperial Knight now in the service of the Imperial Remnant. He is very strong in the force now, and in body too.” She flushed and carried on quickly. “We fought together at Nal Hutta, and I was very impressed at his and the IK’s ways. Nothing like the old empire. Except the executing slavers bit, which I didn’t mind.” She looked up and grimaced. “Sorry I am blathering on, what exactly do you want to know?”

Sandy’s emerald green eyes caught the sight of Master Draygo the moment she walked into the cafe line. A precursory check of the force in the room gave her no respite and her embarrassment flooded her cheeks a tinge of crimson again before she forced herself to concentrate on the two padawan’s before her. She smiled slightly and took a bite of her now cold food before pushing it aside. “Luckily for us, the obstructionist council that existed back then does not exist today. Darex and Jaina are some of our most powerful warriors, we don’t need to exist outside the order to strike against the Sith like the revanchists did in their day. I think when you both are Jedi Knights, we can make quite the difference in the wars to come.” Her emerald gaze flicked back to the woman sitting a distance away, and Sandy gulped down the last drop of her Limillian tea. The woman’s face was overly familiar, other than sharing some characteristics with Aidan’s, she had seen it carved in stone in the temple at Gala. SHe had aged since then, and was a hell of a lot thinnner. But her spirit was strong, if conflicted. She was an old grand master from the galactic civil war. “Gentlemen, as you may have no doubt felt in the force, I have someone to talk to, you may accompany me if you wish, but I would like it if you both stayed, finished your meal, and researched the planet called Ilum. Where we will go to find your lightsabre crystals.” Sandy stood and walked around the table until she she strode up to the table where Armiena Draygo, a powerful Jedi Master and one that had slain many enemies sat, staring into her coffee. Nervousness tickled at the corners of Sandy’s mind as she bowed before the woman. Suddenly very self conscious of her scars, not only on her face, but the ones that lined her bare arms in cruel gashes. Some obviously from self harm, others in the lines of a flaying from the Togorian Slavers. Those had been the most painful, cruel senseless torture from which Sandy was still recovering. Not a great first impression for a mother of her crush to see. But they showed the history of Sandy Senya, Jedi Knight. And she would not hide from them, even if they embarrassed her to seven hells. Her voice was hesitant and embarrassed as she spoke in a rush. “Master Jedi, I apologize for disturbing you earlier.”

Revanchist Keely brought her robed arm up to hold her ghostly palm before them. She was a cathar Jedi, and her light fur rippled with repressed emotion. For in this time of the galaxy the Mandalorians had conducted the Cathar Genocide, and it was the wholesale decimation of her people that had finally stirred the youngest knights and masters to follow Revan into the outer rim to fight in the Mandalorian War. Her voice was but a purr but it carried to each of their ears with soft adamance. Her yellow-green slit pupils narrowed as she spoke. Her voice was a singsong and wove the tale of the young Revanchists of which she was a member. “I feel that the jedi order from which you beckon has begun its first steps in finally reacting to the threats before them. For us it was the Mandalorians, for you the Sith. Councils of enlightened beings are slow to action for they quest to do what is right. For them, balance of the force is a razors edge, stray a little and you will fall fully in the embrace of one or another. To intervene in war is to bathe yourself in the darkside, a path they believe you may never recover from. This was the lesson that they decreed upon us, forbidding us to go and join the erstwhile Republic in its midrim wars. They sat in endless debate as countless worlds burned and populations were exterminated to serve Kad Ha’rangir the mandalorian god of war. If we had been proactive in this conflict, before Serreno, Cathar, Taraasanct, we would have faced the Crusaders openly and defeated them. But our delay fractured the republic and trillions died screaming for the Jedi to save them. “We had been deceived you see, by ill teachings of purity. For is it not our duty to wade into the dark to find the light that hides within it? That is how we were formed young Jedi, to sacrifice ourselves and our purity on the altar of war. To save trillions from Kad Ha’rangir at the cost of us few thousand. I do not regret our actions, even with thousands of years to reflect. I would die here again a million times to save those in the core. Though we are tainted by the final fall of our leader.” She looked silently as Haliin who nodded approvingly. Then she spoke again as the lights in the corridor turned a deep amber then red. “We strive to fight in the darkness to save the innocent. Revanchism is a lonely life, as your quest will take you far from the safety of the temples and farther still from diplomacy. You would live by the sabre and die by it. A watchcircle to protect the core from the Sith and their allies.” She held a hand out to stop any questions before she continued, hefting her lightsabre as the corridor shook and armoured figures appeared. “Watch and learn young jedi, you cannot intervene and this is a tragic tale no matter how it is spun.” The trio of Old Republic Revanchists charged into battle, pulling heavily upon the force to force their opponents to stop. The jedi used a mix of older fighting styles to defeat incoming blaster bolts, of which the apprentices could glean, but it was in their fighting in close quarters with the Mandalorians that they shone. Battle of Jaga's Cluster took place over thousands of warships, but the outcome was written in the battle of this lonely corridor. Three Jedi and a handful of Republic troopers against a storm of Mandalorian Iron. The already tired and battleworn jedi fought well and kept the corridor in Republic hands for over an hour. Almost a hundred mandalorians were felled but combat could only last so long. The Jedi drew heavier upon the force as their bodies failed them, quickening muscles to reflect, or strengthening them for a blow. Soon it was only the force itself that kept them in the fight. It was a palatable change in the fight. The Jedi moved faster, sometimes faster than Sandy’s eyes could track as they surrendered themselves to the force. Their bodies breaking with every move. In the end it was not mandalorian blasters that felled them, for their bodies broke and one by one the jedi fell lifeless. Master Haliin Kal-Kriv was last and slew the Field Marshal of the Mandalorians in single combat, blood streaming from her pores as the force itself tore her apart. In the end she collapsed upon a mound of lifeless iron and breathed her last. Returning to the force. Sandy muttered something and they were back in the present. In a cafe filled with life. “What did you learn?”

“You are right Frond, there is a time for balance, but for now when the Sith threaten the core itself we cannot tarry and find the balance. The Imperial Knights do not and they have found success in this war, perhaps we can learn from them in that. Revan did not wait until balance could be found, he acted and saved the galaxy. Speaking of Revan actually... ” She reached into her satchel and withdrew a small palm sized hunk of black crystal. Crudely carved and hewn from a wall millenia ago it radiated the darkside though Sandy kept its influence contained. This was a shard of the wall of Antenora, from the ruined planet of Dromund Kaas, a Sith stronghold that dated back at least six millenia. It was one of the artifacts attached to the Library and slated for destruction due to its persistent presence in the force. The carvings on its blackened surface shone with reflected light of a trio of Jedi with blades upheld in the Battle of Jaga's Cluster. She sat it down upon the table between them. “There is much to be gleaned from the past, and through a technique that Imperial Grandmaster Kyrie taught me, we can walk through history itself. ” Adenna had always said the best way to lean was to jump straight in right? She grabbed their hands and closed her eyes. It was a violent thing to pull the force from such an artifact, but the spirits trapped were always happy for company and surrendered themselves gladly to it. Around the three of them there was no longer a cafe but a stark white hallway of a republic heavy cruiser, and three Jedi sitting beside them, their ghostly forms crouched as in prayer. The Cafe was no where to be seen and the force was heavy upon them. They were in a vision. The three before them were obviously jedi with long experience in battle, and their demeanour carried with them the weige of many deaths. The woman jedi, their leader dressed in black robes with a stunning crimson under tunic that was smeared with dirt and blood was the first to speak. Her eyes seeing the trio of Sandy, Kel, and Frond and she smiled. “I am Master Haliin Kal-Kriv of the Jedi Revanchists, and these are my companions, Knights Firenz Del-boda and Jen Keely. You have come across the ages to walk with us in our final hours, before the missiles and gile of the mandalorians leave us in utter ruin. Rejoice that such times are not yet upon you.” Her hazel eyes glimpsed Frond and she smiled. “I have seen you at the pool of knowledge little tree, I welcome you here to see the final acts of the first Revanchists, before the Jedi stirred to action. We were the sword of the republic, crying blood tears, so that the core would not suffer the fate of Serreco. Do you wish to learn this?” She extended the invitation to the three young jedi.