Sandy Sarna

Sandy sat with her legs crossed underneath her, one of the few at this temple labelled a Jedi Knight as the rest had gone to war, and she was the only one that was sitting at the Master/Apprentice section of the temple cafe. Normally she would have been feeling completely alone, but after the morning training with her two charges her mind was completely open to the force and she basked in the life that echoed around the temple. It was the first time in a very long time that she felt happy in her own skin. She smiled down at her meal of protein cubes diced in a muja fruit and nerf patte and gingerly dipped a cracker in. It did not look especially appetizing but she tucked in anyway. It was at that point as she tasted the first little bit of patte that she felt a new presence at the edges of her mind. It was no Abelothian daemon from another time, it was a presence wholly familiar yet completely foreign. Though it was likely not what she initially thought she felt she grasped upon the hope that it was and stretched her presence out to Armiena and let a single flash of memory escape that she had been holding onto in her heart. The memory of chucking stones towards the distant waves with that dashing imperial knight. Aidan? Almost as soon as she had let her mind touch Armiena, she knew that it was not Aidan but someone likely very related to him. Sandy’s embarrassment flooded her face and the force. She resisted the urge to restrict her force presence back to the cafe in embarrassment but instead sent a message of welcome. Any friend or family member of Aidans was a friend of hers. Even if he didn’t like her that way. She took another untasted bite and looked up to the two padawans. She waved them over with a flick of her hand. “So what are your thoughts so far? Ready to build lightsabres and slay the sith by the thousands?” She laughed at her joke and took another bite. Her eyes scanning the room for that relation of Darkfires.

Sandy slowly let the gasp of pain that started when her apprentice touched the force and began to leech off of her very body to sustain himself escape her lips. It was a painful sensation that nearly broke her concentration on finishing the healing on Kel. She kept her breathing regular and let the burns of her other apprentice forcibly pass to her, burning skin and flesh below her tunic and across her arms, raising first red welts then darker more hideous burns. This would have broken the concentration of many others, but it had been through such pain that Sandy had truly known the force. With every burned inch of skin she felt the euphoric movings of the force stir in the room. The ebbing tide broke upon her with each burn, sharpening her focus and filling her mind with life. Not exactly a Jedi thing to do. Sandy considered. When finally both of her apprentices were healed she opened her eyes wide and looked at her wooden etched apprentice. Her green eyes bored into him and she smiled softly. She ran a finger across a particularly nasty burn upon her upper arm and laughed. “Not exactly what I had in mind, but the balance of the force was within it, perhaps it would be better next time to draw life from the plants and animals around you instead of your Jedi friends.” There was humour on her voice which broke whatever tension had filled the room. She stood and walked over to Frond and extended her hand. “Rise and think of it no longer, you are learning, and like a baby ronto, sometimes you stumble and fall when learning to walk. Sit beside me you two and we will meditate on what we have learned. Then in time we can see balance in all things that the force does, even in inflicting pain and injury on those that you love you can find the touch of the light. For had I been willing the type of healing Frond portrayed is the fastest and most balanced way of healing. But for now we strive towards the light side of that balance. You did well in your healing Kel, tell me and Frond what you think about this experience after meditating on it. After that we will take a break for a change of clothes, dinner, then more sabre practise.” ((Post meditating, thinking in depth about what occurred, then post your few hours of break before meeting Sandy in the dining commons. Also get yourself some food))

Green eyes sharply watched the sparring combat of the two apprentices as they fought back and forth, first tentatively, then slowly beginning to express their familiarity with the weapon, and finally their attempts at doing damage to each other. This was no brutal sparring match like she had been in against her master from which she still carried several real scars, but it still held its own sense of combat. She watched jedi robes flare into small smoking patched of burned cloth, tree limbs scorched, and finally the Kel Dor being rather brutally eliminated if this had been a real fight. She winced at the cut that tore his robes, burning his flesh, and had just begun to extend her force presence to catch the apprentice when his fellow trainee rescued him anyway. As the two made up and pulled themselves from a pile on the ground she also stood, walking over to them, her bare feet leaving small footprints of disturbed grass behind her. The grass itself felt hot to the touch and was charged with the power of the force, it was amazing how much the force could swirl and change in the aftermath of a fight between its users. She clapped her hands as she strode over to the two of them, looking over their burns and scrapes with a concerned eye. If the council knew that she had just given two blades to jedi acolytes and let them go all force on it she could be in real trouble. But then again, who knew, and the Jedi needed warriors now more than ever. “Do not worry about your other masters Kel, I will take you and your responsibility onto myself, as well with you Frond. It’s time enough I took an apprentice, so why not two?” She laughed and gestured for them both to sit, or uh root themselves. “Now another important part of Jedi training. Healing. Which you both need like right now. Watch me with your eyes and with the force, see how I manipulate the cells with the force, and then try the same thing.” She leaned forwards and placed her scarred hand on the burned chest of Kel, feeling the heat of his flesh and examined the burn through the force. First she fed his body with energy that she took from herself, filling the burned area with her own presence. She fed the cells with energy of the force, allowing them to rapidly rebuild and go through their microprocesses that would normally take days. Cells divided, reproduced, then divided again, filling the burned wound with fresh cells, scabbing over the light burn and finally renewing the flesh beneath. All through the force, which passed from her hand to his chest. After an hour of healing, she sat back, and wiped a bead of sweat from her brow. “I can’t do much for your clothes though. Sorry about that.”

A smile at Kel’s words tugged at the corner of Sandy’s thin lips. “Yes.” Her voice was soft, but carried far through the thick air between them. “If the Sith, Karys, I had been fighting had not slipped and knocked himself out I would have gladly slew him, and thereby saved myself and many of the imperial troops I was with. I would have enjoyed it as well. Though enjoying killing enemies is not something any of us should aspire to.” She looked at Frond, her green eyes boring into his trunk, but there was no emotion in her voice. As if she had already made up her mind and would not be dissuaded, even by a being with thousands of years of knowledge.. “Violence is the way of nature is it not? Though it sometimes naturally finds balance, without intervention a beast can run rampant, overfeeding and starving itself in the process. These Sith are violence and murder incarnate, lusting after suffering, they hunt for the pleasure of it, not to survive. Before we can even start to find balance they first must be cut from the vine of life from which they feed.” She remembered the sickening hunger that she had felt at Onderon. The maw, devouring all before it, the lure and lust of the darkside. World eaters. “I would kill every one of them that didn’t turn away from darkness if I could, and though it would be out of balance, I think the galaxy would be better for it.” She let out a laugh and sprang up beside the two of them. She indicated the two sabres with a sweep of her scarred hand. “Now take those and test yourselves in combat against each other. You are beginners and it will be hard but this is how I learned. Not long dumb classes of swinging against nothing, real applicable training. Hold it in both hands, test a strike or two against the air, then against each other. After you get a feel for the blade we can start learning techniques.”

As the tripartite alliance of the Jedi order, the Galactic Alliance, and the Imperial Remnant ventured into fierce battle over the distant worlds of Onderon, Kashyyyk, and Bespin, Sandy sat in silence with two apprentices. As they threw their harsh light against the Sith and their corrupt allies of pirates and thieves, Sandy sat, all too aware that her heart yearned to be out in the midst of battle. Bringing her sabre to bear on the Sith. But the young needed a guiding hand and there were very few jedi left. She let out a sigh from the bottom of her lungs, releasing the pent in frustration and the old air from her lungs. She took a deep breath through her nose, filling her lungs and reached out again with the force. Extending her presence was nearly second nature now but she still felt a little irritation at her tree like apprentice prickle at the back of her mind. Why couldn’t he just understand that the Sith were the enemies and accept that? They had bloody well already left half the galaxy on fire! Another breath. Peace. Calm. Tranquility. The way of the Jedi. Not the ever aggressive Imperial Knight that you desire to be. But it is time to see how they do with balance in combat. She expanded her presence to the rest of the room until she found a simple wooden rack tucked near a corner of a fountain. She grasped two of the pommels that hun there with the force and pulled them free with the force. Two silver handles, one a hand and a half long and one built like hers with a very long handle she levitated back towards the three of them. She placed the long sabre handle before Frond and the shorter one before Kel. “These are training sabres. They will burn but not kill, ignite them and keep your eyes away from the emitting disk.” She laughed and stood, striding over to the two of them. “We will practise in a moment but for now I want you to feel the weight of it, and familiarize yourself with it. These are not weapons of war, but of balance. When you eventually build your own you should never misuse it to enact revenge or strike down a defenseless foe.” ((Now describe in detail your training sabre, the rust on the hilt, the weight in the pal, the scratches or lack thereof. Then give me your characters reactions to handling one and its weird missbalance of a weightless blade.))

“Injuries heal given enough time, even the visceral pain inflicted in my youth has begun to heal. It just takes a bit of work is all.” Sandy said as she turned from Kel to watch the progress of Frond. He seemed to struggle, fighting through his base instinct to not manipulate the force until the sabre flew into his grasp. Sandy’s breath caught in her throat and she sprang to the other side of the small pond in time for her to grab the lightsabre in his hand and stop it from igniting into his own wooden flesh. The dark side pulsed through the room of a thousand fountains like a wave. Stopping the croaking frogs and nearly muting the trickling of water below its heavy hand. She knew she had likely just screamed ‘Kriff’ at the top of her lungs, but this was now a very dangerous situation. Her hand held the emitter side of the handle and kept it pointed away from any danger as she let the force bathe the two of the them. Her mouth moved, the words silent to the outside world but pouring through the force to the two apprentices. As Frond thrashed and yelled in anger she held his hand tight. Letting the force move between them. It’s all right Peace Calm Tranquility Balance Justice This is the road of the Jedi Order. It is long and arduous but will restore the balance. The sabre fell to the ground and lay there, no longer a beacon of the darkside, but a simple tool, discarded and useless. She stepped back and let her feet bath in the coolness of the water behind her. She opened her eyes and looked into the ancient eyes of the Mind Walker. She did not necessarily agree with his idea of pure neutrality, it was not the way she had been taught by her masters, or seen in the company of the Knights of the Empire. “You have not failed Frond, the darkness is our enemy and we must all rise to fight it, as a flame to illuminate the darkness. You see the danger of the Sith and their allies, the destruction they caste about them. It is our duty as Jedi to stop them. And when you have learned to find your true balance and cannot be easily swayed by the influence of Evil, we will fight it together. For now, however, let us rest for a moment and meditate.” She sat down in the water, letting it flow up to her stomach, the icy cold current testing her mind against the distractions of her skin. “Close your eyes and sit with me, meditate on what you saw, find your centre, then when you are ready we will start a new task.”

Sandy sat with her eyes closed, letting her force presence evelop the group, listening to the little ripples in the force as each person touched the force and used it. It surrounded Sandy and then it was pulled and jostled all around her. Not from her apprentices, but from the departure of a great many Jedi and their Antarian Rangers in the fleet above. As the great ships jumped away into hyperspace she could feel their apprehension and Sandy could not help but feel it to. War was coming to the galaxy and the Jedi were at last joining the fight. Her heart lept with the idea of joining them in the battle but she knew it was not yet her fate. And so she returned to her concentration, hoping that those jedi would live to return to this world. Returning her gaze to the two apprentices she smiled, though her heart did not. “You both did well.” She extended her presence again in two tendrils to retrieve the rocks from the two of them, letting them hover back until they were over the water, where they dropped slowly beneath the surface. “Frond, I think perhaps some more practice on this might be good, I appreciate your willingness to go against your instincts with the force and use it to flow with your own will, and though the Sith bend and break the force to their will, we can still touch and use it without breaking its will.” She pulled two things from her belt and placed them before her on the rocky surface. The first was a lightsabre made of the stony tooth of a mighty sith battle dog, the next was a frail dagger made of glass, sharper and more deadly than many metals, it had been forged by the Sith and molecularly sharpened. Two trophies as it were from her defeat of the Sith Lord Karys. They were wicked things to behold. “These are two weaponsI took from a Sith Lord on Nal Hutta.” She held up a hand to forestall any protest. “I have exorcised them of whatever demons they hold, but they still hold memories, and these when explored can tempt towards power. Frond and Kel, I want you to extend your presences towards these objects, touch them, envelop them, read them, and finally look past the surface to the memories held there. These were tools of violence, and the memories are likely not kind. However as a Jedi Knight, you will encounter these types of things on the regular. Explore them and if you feel the pull of the darkside immediately withdraw your presence from them, I can assist you if you struggle. And finally when you have completely familiarized yourself with the object, levitate it using the force.” ((Sorry for the long description but what I want you to do here is a type of flow walking that I find useful for descriptions. Frond, take the Lightsabre, Kel, take the Parang. Read this duel between myself and Karys. Sandy has excorcised these objects and has in turn put a large degree of herself into them. When exploring them with the force the memories you should be able to see are flashes of the duel, feelings, thoughts. Describe what you see in detail in your narrative. Your thoughts on the sith, the encounter, Sandy herself. This should take some time and paragraphs. As well as give you at least a glimpse of Sandy, and the Enemy. Then make the weapons float.))

Well at least they know what comes next. She wasn’t irritated that the two of them couldn’t help but forge ahead past her directions to the next task without hesitation. It showed good work ethic, and that was good in a jedi, but what would have Adenna done if she had just ignored directions like that? Probably a swift condemnation and a wrap on the knuckles. She loved her former master, but she did not desire to strive to be like her. They had seen her move the rocks after all it wasn’t like they just had done it out of rebellion or something. She let her smile play across her scarred face and she gestured to the stones, both of which flew to her outstretched palms. Leaving the dark remains of dirt on her fingertips. “You both did well in your own ways, I appreciate your ambition in attempting the task Kel, and your acknowledgement that it was simply simpler to pick it up Frond. I can feel the both of you are trying very hard. THe ripples in the force when manipulated or encouraged can form waves that can move even the largest mountains. But for now we will concentrate on the little. Using the force to take these from my hands and float them back to your own hands.” She extended her presence again to the two beings before her and let calm reassurance flow through the force to touch the two of them. It was ok to take a long time, to fail, to try again. Her voice was soft, nearly drowned out by the gurgling of the fountains. “Let the force flow through you, gather it, then reach out. Touch the stone, embrace it, then bring it gently across.”

They both have seen the force but how do they touch it? She knew little of nature and its cycle of storms except the energy that they put forth that could be used. And she wondered what else the Baron Do did with such power. She knew that she was a Jedi Knight, but the process of teaching another being or person that was older by a magnitude of several hundreds was still daunting. She gestured to the fountains that fed the pond, gurgling statues of scenes from antiquity, a sabre holding monk, a playful child, all carved from marble or stone, with water pouring from them to feed streams and then the pond itself. “Thank you both for accepting me, though I know that you both have much to teach me from your own force traditions.” “I do admit to not knowing anything about the Sages of Doran and very little of the force secrets of your people Frond, so we shall start at the beginning, building our base of knowledge of the force together, approaching it in our separate ways and teaching each other. For first we must touch the force.” As if to accent this, she dipped a finger into the still pond, causing a ripple that sounded out in all directions. “See the flow of the water, how it covers and tides back and forth, flowing with the heartbeat of the planet, even if in an artificial environment like this.” She closed her eyes and took a soft breath. “Close your eyes and see the force flow around you, then like I do, touch it, accept it, let it flow around you. After you do this, then we can focus on something a little less basic.” She let the force engulf her like a wave, flowing around her in its forms. It covered everything in the room, and through the force she could see the presences of the two others, as well as the vibrant life that covered the room of fountains. A frog jumped on a lilly a few metres away, and though its mind was primitive and basic, she could sense its intent. Chasing a flitgnat through the underbrush. She expanded her own presence like a bubble to engulf the area, touching the minds of the Acolytes , then beyond them until she found a suitable rock buried in the sandy shore. She let a tendril of her own presence seize upon it, and let the force cover it. It was granite in nature, and though it was not sentient, it held a deep history. Brought here from Ossus a generation before, away from the planet and system of its birth. Upon seizing it with her own presence she lifted it and brought it before her for the next exercise. Placing it before a second rock, both she planted firmly in the brown loamy earth. ((Since both of you have histories that include some degree of experience with the force, please be very descriptive on how you feel the force, how you touch it, how you concentrate on it.))

The cold metal of the turbolift that seeped through her bare feet caused a chill to run through her body as she listened to the two Acolytes recount, or at least in Kel Koon’s disposition, of how they got to this planet. When they both finished, Sandy kept silent for a few minutes until they had completed their journey into the inner atrium. A fabulous recreation of the room of a thousand fountains from the old Coruscant temple that had been destroyed over a hundred years before. The room was immensely humid and the large reflective panels shone the bright sunlight from outside down onto the disordered rows of plants and trees. Without hesitation she walked down the stone path until they came to a pond and a patch of tilled dirt that was likely to be used for future planting by the herbalist classes. She walked across the dirt and then stepped foot on the water. She didn’t sink into the cool water but merely walked upon its surface, using the force with careful precision until she reached a rocky outcropping in the centre, there she turned and sat, looking at the two males before her a few footfalls away on the shore of the pond and smiled. She waved her hand dismissively. “Age does not matter in this Jedi Order. If we only taught babies and toddlers we would miss the other thousands that could be formed into Jedi Knights. And this would allow the Sith to get there first. Tell me of the Baron Do. What did you learn there? What can you bring from them and teach me?” Her fierce emerald eyes fell back upon Frond. “In time perhaps you can take us on a mind walk beyond the shadows to the font and the pool, though it has been a long time since She has beckoned me there. What can you bring to the Jedi order?” Her voice stopped in her throat for a moment and she cleared it, taking a moment to dip her bare foot into the water, relaxing in its coolness. “The balance is skewed towards the Shadows, and we must all try to right the balance. I can teach you, both of you what I know should you wish it.” The balance was indeed skewed, though she and her masters had done all they could to fight it, it still had pressed ever onwards. Eating world after world, Onderon, Kashyyyk, Tatooine, Scarif. Even Coruscant and Carida the twin bastions of the Galactic Alliance and the Imperial Remnant bore the scars of the Sith and the darkside. She looked back to the Doran then back to Frond. “If you do not object to learning from someone as young as I.”

Well he speaks quite eloquently for uhh a tree. The Jedi Knight thought to herself as she slowly nodded in wonder. Making sure she kept her chin from dropping in surprise. She had heard of his kind a very long time before, when she had studies beside Aidan at Gala and Ossus before he departed for the remnant, and his spirit had turned harder than the tree being before hers bark. But she had changed also, she wasn’t a little girl twitterpated by a daring older imperial with handsome looks and a stylish cut off the jaw. She had served the Galactic Alliance at Thalassia, had her childhood dreams ripped away at the hands of the Togorians, he had been too young to experience what she did, only then to be rescued by the Iron Super Commandos and then butchered by a Sith lord. What a life to have lived at sixteen, and that was only the life she had lived up to a few years ago. After she had die- There. That's where she had felt this tree’s presence before. In the formless void between the stars, between lives, between deaths. Beyond the pale of humanity. “Well acolyte Frond, I welcome you to the Jedi Stronghold of…” she trailed off and then looked at Kel Koon who had thankfully just informed the two of them where they actually were. “...Felucia, thank you acolyte Kel Koon.” She said with a laugh that was full of mirth at her own brainlessness. A real laugh, something that she had not expressed in a long while. She extended a pale, scarred hand to Kel Koon and shook his. Her fingers hand long scars that a hunter would recognize from a flaying. Such was the torture she had endured on Tatooine and Thalassia. “A pleasure to meet you Koon, I am Knight Sarna at your service.” After shaking the Doran’s hand she did not shrink before the touch of the Neti, he was likely sensing her motives and walking in her past, if he wanted to wander those halls of anguish she would let him. “And a pleasure to meet you Mind Walker Frond, I have never encountered one such as you so please tell me about yourself as we enter the temple fortress.” Her head turned back to the Doran as she walked to the door and held down the entrance pad. “And you should as well, tell me what brings you here, and what drives you to walk the Jedi path.” The door slid open with a sharp hiss, and she led them back into the depth of the fortress, her bare feet nearly recoiling at the cold marble tile that they began to walk on. Distantly she wondered if Frond would need artificial lighting like the kind indoor plant growers used on space stations if he was to stay inside for long periods of time. ((Karyu, lets get some in depth posting, describe your surroundings as we walk toward the atrium of the Jedi Fortress. Describe the way you feel in the hall, the colours, any misgivings your character may have, and how each of our characters look in your own words. You are doing great, lets see some more!))

Eyelids opened slowly, the right one first, followed by the left. Revealing the bright green unfocused eyes behind the lids. Slowly the pupils refocused into dots as the 2-1B flashed a bright LED into each pupil to test reaction times. Distantly through the fog of the barely conscious, Sandy could hear the word it spoke to an unknown other droid. “Sarna has awoken in good health, the biological tissue sample is showing good results, and as advised her spirit seems to have returned in good order.” Sandy sat upright at those words, in protest her stomach seemed to revile the move and sent her into a vomiting session in which she threw up no food at all but merely a clear gel like fluid. She had done this all before. On Ossus. She was in a clone’s body. As the 2-1B scrambled to check her vitals, she looked at her arms. The scars were still there, the long gashes of self harm and the torture of slavers on Thalassia. She saw her sabre and tool belt beside her. No doubt brought back by the Jedi Expeditionary force that had helped on Scarif. Kriff me. She stood and stumbled over to the footlocker and shrugged on a tunic top that covered everything down to her thighs. It was made of a rough green materiel watch grated at her skin. Perhaps it was an outer tunic, and not meant to be worn close to the skin. She brushed her scarred hands down over the cloth and wiped some of the tank fluid off her thighs which themselves were covered by long curving wicked scars. Where am I? She didn’t think to ask the medical droids who were simply staring incredulously. She brushed off the droids and stumbled out of the room, leaving wet foot prints as she made her way to the the outside. The temple was a maze of stone and metal, all welcoming, though the faces that stared at her as she passed were possibly less so. She eventually discovered the front door when she saw a group of padawans eagerly discussing a tree that had just appeared in front of the doors. Some saw it as a sign, some worried if it was a Sith plant. Sandy merely slapped her hand on the outer door access panel and stumbled into the bright sun. Her unfocused eyes slowly began to adjust to the brightness, and the nearly rejoices at the feeling of the grass and dirt between her toes. She sighed and let the sun begin to dry her hair and skin. Distantly she could hear the security door slam closed behind her, but she was in no mood to consider it. She took a few deep breaths and let her spirit touch the force. At first, as it always seemed to be, it overwhelmed her. She let it wash over her like a scarif tidal wave, refreshing her muscles and clearing her mind. More effective than the strongest ‘Caf. When she blinked again her eyes were focused and her breathing was stilled. She took one last breath and smelled the wonderful scent of pine. It was then that her eyes caught sight of the sapling near the gates and she was taken aback that there was a presence emanating from it. Suddenly embarrassed by her relative lack of clothes and weapons, she simply bowed towards the presence within the sapling. Her voice was hesitant when she spoke. “Hello, I am Sandy Sarna. Who may you be?”

The thought and fear thousands of miles of open ocean surrounding her as she dove, holding millions of dangerous creatures began to creep up her spine as she rustled through her recovered pack. She found a flimsifoil package still unpunctured and after reading the fine print, tore the package in half, revealing a small mouthguard like device. A rebreather. A marvelous little device that would pull oxygen from the surrounding ocean for up to ten hours. Even more if she used some conservation techniques. Though she had distracted herself a little, the Thalassophobia that came creeping back came with avengence. She could feel her breathing tick up in speed and a tightness in her chest as she walked to the waters edge. Concentrate you idiot. It's just fear, and that can all pass away. You have a planet to save anyway. She gulped down another breath of air and then tightened her leather belt around her waist. Covering the long curving scars with a scrap of leather and cloth. Her mind began to wander again until her bare feet touched the cold water. It instantly sharpened her mind and she let a nervous smile creep across her heavily freckled face. She looked at a large group of islanders and waved to T’ali’au. She didn’t want to ask the girl to come along, it could be suicidal after all, but she definitely didn’t want to go forth alone into the blackened lagoon. She ran her hands across her weapons belt and made sure the glass dagger she had purified was there, alongside a glowrod and her sabre. Nothing else would help her where she was going.

Sandy woke with a start when Tali gave her a firm but strangely loving hug. Sandy smiled softly, even with the sudden wake-up it still had been one of the most restful sleeps of her recent memory. Though her back did ache something terrible from laying on a hard surface for so long. She groaned and stretched her arms above her head, “Please check away, I’m a bit sore from the position I slept with but I think the nanites, your medicine, and the healing trance I put myself into did their job. I’ll meditate away while you check Doc and identify the origin of the Blight.” She stripped off her tunic and crossed her legs beneath her as she meditated.The scars that covered her body from both torture and self harm were pink and visible against her freckled skin. Her voice was slow, singsong and methodical as she concentrated. “I was born on a distant world, child of a poor pair of unlucky, unwise, and foolish parents. They were addicts you see, and to feed their addictions they had me steal. Until I was caught and then they stopped loving me all together.” She let a small sigh escape her lips and she grimaced. “They beat me and abused me until I lashed out in my mind and killed them, using dark power that I didn’t know I had. I ran into the arms of the jedi order who redeemed me and gave me a purpose, and though I have struggled a long time to hold to the path, I know I am where I am supposed to be. Fighting for good against evil wherever it is.” There, in the ruins of a fallen metal carcass, meters below the surface of the water was the agonizing darkness that polluted and destroyed. The most dangerous thing she had ever glimpsed in the force. Her emerald eyes snapped open. “I know where it is. But I would need to dive far…”

As the Jedi shuttle emerged over the planet of Scarif, their sensors picked up large pulsing waves of radiation coming from the ruined remains of the once powerful Imperial Star Destroyer Persecutor. Submerged a hundred meters below the surface of the archipelago in the deep crater formed from the single core ignition of the first Death Star, the damaged antimatter core was beginning to degrade at an alarming rate. The entire planet’s ecosystem was under threat, and if the core degraded much further it could enter a catastrophic meltdown. The force and the darkside were stirring heavily on the planet. The crashed shuttle of Sandy Sarna was empty however and showed signs of looting from the local populace as well as a substantial amount of blood in the main cabin. If they were to find the young Knight, the local villages would be the first place to check.

Sandy dreamed dreams of darkness as she thrashed in silent agony on the operation table. Though she had purged the darkness some of it clung to her, like a grey film over her heart. She drifted in and out of consciousness as she battled the shadows of her own mind. Mother? A leering face peered down at her, the eyes pale orbs of white and blue. A face she had not seen for years since her time on Gala. A face that should have loved her. The horrid face peeled back to form a giant mouth, filled with rotting teeth that stunk of old meat and cheap ithorian liquor. There was no mistaking the smell. It had to be her. But how did she find her, here on this forgotten world? You killed my chances at a life you little bitch A common insult that had been thrown at her like careless shards of glass which cut and maimed her heart with every word. But near the end she had let them fall like water off her back, until the end. The face’s eyes rolled back and the mouth hung open, blood spilling out beside its wretched tongue. Blood that stained her arms. The next moment she could feel the lactic acid burn at her calves and thighs as she sprinted through cold rain to the Jedi enclave. Wiping at the blood furvently that had stained her palms. The next face was of a Togorian. Wickedly smiling, bits of spittle and blood flecking his yellow brown teeth. His eyes shining with lustful intent. Sandy wanted to scream but her voice caught in her throat. His large hands gripped at her waist and- I have defeated this already. I was supposed to be beyond it. You will never be beyond your pain. The Togorian snarled, as his claws began to cut into her tunic and the soft white flesh beneath. Her scream finally boiled forth and the face changed again. To the stern disapproval of Adenna. Get out! The Togorian was back, and his full wrath was upon her like it had been years before. She stumbled after, bare feet tripping on flagstones in a damp and dark dungeon. Tears mixing with blood and other fluid to drip in puddles on the floor. Get out. No matter how many times i’ve lived these moments they have no power over me. Two jade green eyes appeared in the cell before her. Reflected in the firelight of a crackling torch the guard held. For even in the darkness I had light. I had friends. I had support. The loving arms of that Iron Mother Ad’Goran. The darkness settled into sleep as she could feel those loving arms embrace her. When she awoke, her fever had passed but the embrace had not. Though she no doubt was covered in sweat and not very much clothing it was the most She smiled and hugged T’ali’au in return. Her voice was a whisper, "I'm Sandy Sarna, at your service." She hugged her back again and let it linger. It was good to get a hug and though it wasn't the man of her dreams, she still could feel a connection to the older girl. She risked a glance to her legs and winced. Her voice sounded very tired. "And to think that there are probably more of those out there eh?"

Sandy watched as the Falleen hunted with a grace not seen in modern warfare, it was amazing how beautiful and artistic the use of such a weapon could be compared to a blaster rifle. The language of this Falleen subsect was gorgeous, and though Sandy never wanted to have scales, she did find herself strangely jealous of the whole affair. Though she considered that hiding her feelings would be much harder if her skin shifted hues more than the usual blush that washed over her freckled cheeks on a daily basis. The other villagers arrived to help collect the dark and deadly fish, Sandy waved at the villagers and some of the children of the tribe eyed her with suspicion which Sandy took as an ill omen for her time on this planet. The falleen spoke in her halting tones and left Sandy even more confused. “A uh Peeyah eh? I have more than a few artistic designs myself.” She figured the self harming humor would probably be lost on the other girl but it never hurt to make a joke plus the humor would deflect any self doubt Sandy had. At the lack of laughter in the response she looked down at her pale arms and legs, which had begun to tan in the bright heat and showed the long lines of torture and self harm in a harsh scarred pink. Disgusting. She rubbed at them with her scarred hand and strangely regrown one. She could never seem to hide that shame, no matter how hard she tried. She cinched her belt tighter around her waist and pulled at her tunic to cover more of her body and then gave up. The villagers already had seen quite enough of her close up probably while she was getting dragged from her shuttle. She let her eyes close and stretched out her sphere of influence again, searching for the darkness, probing the waves and the depths. She almost cried out in shock, It was there, roaring towards the island as fast as it could, leaping and churning towards the one that had killed its bait. While she concentrated her hands flew over her belt, releasing necessary equipment and setting them down on the rocks below her, protein cubes, survival blaster, the sith lightsabre of Karys, parang, and finally her own sabre. All she left on the rocks as she walked the edge of the shallows, her bare feet barely making a ripple as she moved. Soon the water silked up her bare legs to the tunic at mid thigh and then to her hips. Covering her leather belt, covering the loops that would normally carry weapons. There she stopped, buffeted softly by the waves and tides and outstretched her arms into the clear blue water, summoning the force to her. Suddenly the darkness was there, lapping at her ankles, and slithering below her feet. A cancerous monster of shadow, demonic in its primal urge to consume and devour. She held out a hand towards T’ali’au in warning. Should she try to attack or intervene. This was not a fight for bows or brave warriors. This was her time. The time of Jedi. Fear spiked in her heart but Sandy let it and then released it. A natural urge and a natural cycle fear was, but she could endure it. Even profit from it. Nature was cyclical and this ecosystem was so far out of balance that it needed a change that only the force could bring. This was no fight to be had with a blazing sabre in hand, it was fight in the spiritual realm as well as the physical. Her sabre and the parang would do her no good against this beast. She was silent a while, meditating in the tides as the darkness accosted her. Slithering tentacles burned at her legs but recoiled each time. Revolted by the touch of light fire. The creature did not breach the surface of the water. Seeming to any that could see a shifting dark tide gathered around the pale Jedi girl with hair as bright as melted iron. Though for any that were a least bit in tune with the force they could feel the tremendous gale around the girl. The force moved and surged around Sandy Sarna as she practiced the techniques taught by both the Imperial Knights and the Jedi Knights that followed Revan in the Mandalorian Wars. Sin eating. Taking the darkness upon herself and purifying it. She did not purge the darkness that surged up from the depths to burn her legs and fingers, but instead took it upon herself, running it through the sieve of the lightside to return to the depths. Burning away the darkness and retrieving the good. This was a creature that lived off the pain it caused, it grew with each cry for help and each island it devoured. Living for years and decades off the destruction of such a colony of men and women. It broke her heart that it could not be redeemed. However it had gone too far this time. Sandy was no pure blooded exorcist, but she knew enough to try. This creature was evil embodied, and it had to be stopped. Not only for her sake, but for the hundred people who lived on the island. Sandy wove the force around the creature as it attacked her, absorbing its darkness and expelling it into the water from her fingertips. Tendrils of white light that cut at the dark like a vibroblade curled around the creature at every attack it made at the pale jedi. Within several minutes the tendrils of light had become ropes, and the sweat that had covered Sandy's face had turned to rivulets of blood from the colossal effort. But it was time. “Begone!” Her voice rang out over the tide, and the force moved like a tumbling mountain. With a pull at the tendrils, the force surged in a fire that consumed the creature like it had consumed a thousand islands before. Loloto, or the Force returning the cycle to a balance it had not seen in a generation. The black tide dissipated as the clear blue ocean reclaimed its purity. Leaving an exhausted young girl, shivering and shaking from the effort in the waves. But she was smiling. Grinning even for the pain and the blood that leaked from sweat glands and multiple wounds on her legs. For she had finally done something worthwhile.

The beach was exceedingly beautiful, and reminded Sandy of the many she had only seen on the holonet and it reminded her of skipping rocks on the beach with the Darkfire boy. What a fool she had been, glomping on to the poor man like a needy little girl. Even thinking of it made her sick. She flushed red in the bright sun and shunted the rise of embarrassment away in the force. She had been an idiot and she needed to accept that. She needed to accept that she knew only about love from the holonet and her strong imagination that she let obsess about things until she thought that her imagination was reality. She crouched down in the sand at the edge of the water and let the sand bunch up around her knees as she settled down. She was such an idiot, and those actions were haunting her every night before bed. Bitterly she ran her fingers in long raking motions through the warm white sand. Her fingers uncovered a shard of transparisteel and she picked up the water warn glass that sparkled in the light cast by the star at the heart of the Abrion sector. There had been a great battle here many decades before, and the land itself showed the scars. But even the darkness she felt in the force echoing from the heart of the planet couldn’t drown out her sickening feeling of uselessness. Useless in love, useless in life. Her heart ached in the old familiar way and her hand was drawn to the shard of glass. Not sharp now, but with a blow against the rocks it could be, and it could free her. No not again. I'm not supposed to, i’m beyond that. Right? No voice echoed back to her in her thoughts and Sandy sat the shard of glass down in the white sand and raked a pile over it. Hiding the temptation. It was beginning to be clear in Sandy’s mind that her relative seclusion in the Jedi Order under Adenna and Tobias had not been in her favour. I’m supposed to be a Jedi knight and rescue the galaxy when I can’t even talk to boys without obsessing like a piece of bantha shit? She looked out at the Falleen fishing away with a spear, and she sighed softly. At least here she was away from it all. What is wrong with me? Just confront your problems you stupid bitch. Easier in the long run right? Grow up a little and then think about Him. Don't regret the past. She laughed and stood and walked to the Rocks where her new friend was fishing. She let her problems fall away and she stretched her feelings out to feel the harmony of the place. Fish, and predators, an circular environment, healthy except for the seething darkness at the edge of it all. “There is a darkness here, lurking below us. Waiting to strike on your next throw…” Something dangerous, modified by the great darkness that seeped into the planet from the heart of a Star Destroyer’s decaying core. An irradiated beast.

Sandy nodded as she listened, the ideas that the lady put forth sounded very much like some of the philosophy that had been put forth during her time at the Galan Temple under Master Jesj. It gave her pause to think that she did not much know what the Jedi philosophy was currently and wondered if she could even persuade the Falleen of her own beliefs. She swallowed the last bite of her meal and stood. “Yes lets go, I would wish to experience this world as much as I can before we get to the dangerous stuff!” She tied her belt and sabre around the tattered remnants of her tunic and set off after the Falleen, no reason to get fully dressed if they were going swimming. She kept her senses on the creeping danger as they walked.

Sandy furrowed her brow as she listened to T’ali’au speak. “I like your philosophy, I would like to learn more about your religion while we travel together if you are willing, and I can teach you a bit about the Jedi too if you wanted.” Sandy expanded her presence to concentrate on the older Falleen. When she concentrated she could feel the faint but distinct breath of the force from the woman. That brought a smile to Sandy’s face and she relaxed as her temperature and pulse were taken. “I don’t know quite how to describe it but it sure is nice for heat maintenance during space voyages. That is if you wear a lot of layers.” She laughed softly. “What is it like to not be as warm blooded? I always figured you would feel chilled all the time, but I suspect that is not the case.”

Upon hearing that, Sandy dove back into her food, only speaking between bites. “My master taught me ways to protect myself from that kind of stuff, but you are right, I will wait until this thing regrows.” She took another heaping bite as she shrugged on her tattered tunic. She paused at the next questions. “Yes, I would say they are likely very close. When I was young I worshipped a God that would speak and manifest itself to me, I later learned that it was the Force. Does Loloto give you powers?”

As the woman spoke, Sandy reached out in the force to sense of what she was speaking. An ancient war. Her eyelids fluttered closed and she could sense the old terror, the old seeping destruction, permeating the ocean coming from a central source. A glowing green aura. Antimatter Toxins. A core of a ship? She withdrew her presence and looked at the woman. Her emerald eyes sharp. “The force is an energy field that surrounds us, fills us, around every living creature. If you want I can tell you more, but for now…” She reached out her hand to where her pile of clothes and lightsaber lay and they sprang to her hand over the ten foot gap as quick as an arrow. She smiled at the lady and Sandy selected the lightsaber from the pile and showed it to T'ali'au. She ran her fingers across the silver hilt. Careful not to depress the switch on the side. “This is a Lightsaber, the weapon of the Jedi order. The weapon that we hold back the tide of evil with.” She smiled thoughtfully and took another bite of food. “If you want, we can journey together to this wreck and I can see what I can do? Our order is slowly regaining its strength, and I am happy to help you.” ________________________ The comm from Jaina reflected off the broken comm link and went to the shipboard comm that the handheld device was paired to. All that would return to the Jedi Master was the automated distress signal of a downed ship.

A flash of sudden disappointment drew across Sandy’s face at the thought of not getting another draught of the delicious alcohol. She glumly grabbed the bowl of eggs, cream, fish, and veggies. The first bite of the mixture brought her eyes fully open and she grinned. It was delicious! She shovelled down the mixture as she examined the lump on her arm. She wiped her brow with her good hand after setting the bowl down and awkwardly tied her hair back to keep it out of her eyes. “Then I will eat as much as I am able. This is some very cool stuff you have applied. As for the Jedi? There is no battle, my hyperdrive seemed to take a mind of its own to bring me here and spit me out over this world. Perhaps the force brought me?” She thought for a moment and extended her feelings around her. An old danger prickled at the edge of her consciousness. Cold and unfeeling. Decades old and seeping into the planet itself. “Is there something here that needs a Jedi’s help?”

Oh kriff this She bit down on the scrap of what tasted like nerf leather, but was likely the local equivalent of nerf, and its bitter aftertaste that clung to the roof of her mouth was what she decided to concentrate on as the surgeon began her bitter work. Sandy let her eyelids flutter closed as the fell into the force as the waves of pain began to wash over her from her now reopened arm The nanites did their best to stem the flow of blood but the coral decided to devour any that was destined for the floor or table. Sandy suppressed most of the pain, but allowed herself to feel a great amount of it. Basking in the pain, letting its waves wash over her and clear her mind from the grogginess of the crash and it allowed her to watch the operation with little detail missed from scrunched up eyes or screaming. As Sandy did neither, and simply watched, her emerald green eyes taking in every stroke of the blade and every spray of blood. The force was a powerful thing, and relying on it so was exhausting, so when the surgeon was done Sandy drank down the elixir offered. The colour drained from her cheeks, leaving her face pale and covered in the dark spattering of freckles and scars. She suppressed vomiting and hacked back a cough. SHe had never tried alcohol before, and from the taste and dizziness it was rather strong. “Wow I...” She sputtered off a cough again and laughed at the dizzy feeling that overwhelmed her senses. “Do you have another bottle?”

When Sandy gained consciousness she found herself lying on a table, cool to the touch, though not as cold as a morgue table. Her skin seemed to stick to it, perhaps a mix of blood and antiseptics. She was keenly aware of her nakedness and lack of weapons but she kept her eyes closed as she could sense people in the room, talking back and forth. She could sense one concerned presence of what was likely the doctor of whatever place she had crashed on. Scarif was it? Hyperdrives were the kriffing worst, no doubt some degree of Faustian sabotage or just pure luck. She happened to be one of the .0002333 percent of hyperspace users to encounter a fatal error. In this case not fatal. But damaging? She bit her lip and opened her emerald green eyes and looked about the room. She could feel the harsh stitches in her arm stub and the pain throbbed up into her head for a moment before she willed it away. Covering herself with her good arm she sat up and looked about the room her eyes catching what appeared to be the Falleen doctor she spoke, “Thank you for the fix up doc, what do I owe yah?” It was a joke of course, but with primitive cultures one could never be sure. Plus the pain from her injuries were overwhelming her normal 'calm,' 'reserved' self. She was suddenly self conscious that the Doctor had likely seen the multitude of self harm scars that covered her legs and remaining arm. And her face flushed red.