Zane Arclyte

OOC: Damn goldfish brain of mine...Sorry I'm gettin' ahold of the scene here.

IC: Zane looked over at the training saber, feeling the surging energy overcome the inner workings of the weapon. He couldn't react in time to drop it, and it baked his hand in the explosion.

It seemed as though he wasn't out of challenges yet. Crystal shards seemed to be coming in from all directions, miniscule missles that threatened to rip apart his already wounded body. He gritted his teeth and surrounded himself with strongly repulsive Force energy, the nails of stone pinging off of it. A couple got through, but not nearly as many as were coming before.

Through the pain he said to the sith apprentice, "I don't fear you, Sith. I know this cave is full...of Dark Side energy...I could be talking to myself for all I know...but let's get one thing straight...I am Jedi...No matter how hard you try and hit me, I will not faulter in my conviction...My...will..."

It was becoming too painful to speak, even with the control he had learned during his training. Even a few daggers of glass sticking in his flesh would do that. Instead of talking the Sith down, he concentrated one more time on bringing his focus as high as he could get it. "I am, and always will be a Jedi. As long as that's true, Master Kenobi...I have not failed you..." He gripped the purple lightsaber, holding it ready to absorb lightning or take down the Sith apprentice.

The whole scene seemed rather blurry. He wondered if it was blood in his eye, or just the precursor to losing his focus.

Zane ducked to the side, spinning around to face his new attacker, brandishing the purple lightsaber conveniently placed upon the ground. Time to do what I came here to do: conquer the fear the Sith will try to instill in me. Conquer the doubt, the anger...

"Keep talkin', and you'll miss the show." He choked up on the lightsaber's grip so he could wrap his other hand around the lower half, and clashed his saber against that of the apprentice Sith. They struck and blocked and parried each others' attacks, but soon Zane got the upper hand and knocked the Sith down with a straight vertical, force-backed strike. He pointed his lightsaber at the Sith with one hand and Force-Pulled the Sith's lightsaber into his other hand.

"Stay down, both of you." He gestured the red lightsaber towards the master Sith. "I've got a lightsaber crystal to harvest."

Zane backed off half a foot more out of re-balancing himself than fear. He brushed the blood off his lip, attempting to focus past the pain. He would heal himself later, once his opponent was gone. His training saber, he felt, would be a temporary defense and ignited it, holding it in front of him, the tip arcing occasionally over the minute space between his and the Sith's saber. He didn't intend on using it for very long, just enough he told himself. "'M not gonna repeat myself. Back away." Zane focused the Force in a burst to push the lightsaber wielder off his balance several feet away. Not blinking for a moment, he kept the Sith directly in front of him, ready to defend against any coming threat.

The apprentice advanced on the Sith, never letting him out of his sights.

He turned around to see a gruffy looking man bullying a woman, this was something that went against Zane's values, when he approached the two to do something, the woman became familiar, he felt like he was shot and paralyzed. His face than twisted angrily; it was his wife the man was bullying.

Zane would have understood instantly what this place was seeking to do to him. He would have listened to the feelings he had outside, that told him there was something wrong with the cave. He would have harkened back to the holocrons that told him that Ilum was strong with dark side energy, and was always intent on tricking lesser Jedi come to collect crystals. He would have let his logic talk and known what was before him to be an illusion, for his wife was safely back on Corellia.

Zane would have known these things. That is, if the illusion wasn't amazingly complete. So complete it was real to him.

Real enough to make him lash at it, to defend his "wife". He held forth his hand at the raised fist of the "goon" poised to strike her again, and used the Force to hold it locked in place, binding it. "That's not a nice thing to do," he said to the goon, "pick on someone who can't defend themselves. You're going to stop what you're doing and leave here now." His other hand was balled up tightly to keep it from trembling, to keep his mind in the real world not just the illusory one.

There was more to the illusion...

The chill air of Ilum bit Zane's skin as soon as he and his master exited their respective craft. He had gotten one of his heavier coats from the back of his ship in preparation, along with some gloves.

Frigid wind blew across the vast ice-covered landscape, whiting out anything past half a mile with purest white. It was therefore ironic that Zane felt somehow unwelcome, as though the place was reminding him of something sad or regretful. An astoundingly beautiful place, mired down with a sad aura.

He crossed his arms, shoving his hands into his armpits tightly to brace against the cold. He walked to Dhan-Jaroe, close enough to be heard over the wind. "Master, just out of curiosity, but are there any other crystal-harvesting planets you know of? I'm not sayin' I'm not going to make my lightsaber, just...

"This place...it's like an illusion, no matter how beautiful it is, it feels wrong."

Zane had a hard time hiding his glee, given the cheshire cat grin on his face at the thought of seeing his initial training coming near completion. "Ahem," he coughed after a moment, trying to straighten his face, "Thank you for the complements, and I am ready to go in search of my lightsaber crystal an' everything else. I've been reading up on it a lot, that and training.

"I'm all ready to head to Ilum, Master, if you are." Even without the materials, Zane was building and re-building his lightsaber in his head already.

Zane dropped out of hyperspace above Chandrila after running Aryian's ship back to Rafa V and scanned for a good landing site near his master's location. Upon finding Dhan-Jaroe's ever-moving transport, the apprentice landed not too far from him and exited.

"Hey Master Kenobi," he greeted DJK, "glad to see that smiling face o' yours again. Are you in the middle of something important?"

Sweet, what a deal! Zane ridded himself of the rest of his lunch and headed outside to find Aryian's ship. It wouldn't be too hard to set up the necessary programming between the borrowed ship and Crash Wildfire.

All right boss. You started me down the path, now I'm fixin' on movin' on up that road I'm on. He took off for Ithor.

What a life a Jedi leads, Zane thought as he ate the cafeteria food. He had spent the last however long - time had blended together into one long, hard training session - becoming stronger in the Force, developing friendships and surrogate masters since his own had to leave Rafa V. He drowned his wishes to be with his wife once more in the Holocrons: learning the Code, making it part of him, learning the history of the conflicts of the Jedi and the Sith, learning the mechanics of a lightsaber and the artistry of the lightsaber forms. He had an interest in the laser-like precision of Form II because of its focus on ending a battle quickly, but the philosophy of Form III, built around creating an impenetrable defense, was closer to his own beliefs on war. Zane had practiced with his telekinesis and became quite skilled in both the fine manipulation and the "heavy lifting" of the ability, and enjoyed the advancements he was making. Still, there was much more he had to learn, and he had to get his lightsaber if he was to ever become a true Knight.

He came to the conclusion that he had to find his master once again. Stowing his urge to see his wife again behind the personal promise to make Knight rank so he would go see her, he brought his food tray with him as he approached the Knight Aryian Darkfire.

"Master Darkfire, if I may ask you a favor, I need a quick lift to Ithor. I need to reclaim that ship of mine. Can you spare the time, or is it a bother?"

Zane couldn't help but let his master's words bother him. His mouth dropped open, and the rocks he had been levitating dropped from the air with a thud. Even though he figured everyone around him could hear his thoughts, he thought them anyway. "On her own"? "Not enough resources"? But we're Jedi, we're supposed to be protecting and helping people, especially our own. If we don't, they get killed, or worse, turned. Then we have more problems.

She has to at least know there's hope, and I guess so do we. If we don't have hope, then no one will.

Zane shook his head and tried to concentrate on his telekinesis. I'll have to get myself stronger so no one I interact with will lack hope again...

Zane listened to the discussion around him, about riots and meetings with Sith and negotiations in secret. The Jedi had so many problems from so many factions, and not enough people to handle them. He felt that, if he could learn more of the Force's secrets, he would be able to lend a hand to his compatriots.

He tried to lift up some of the rocks, using his mental analogy of wrapping his thoughts around the rocks. It wasn't as easy to lift and control things as it was to stop them, to avoid them, or to sense them. He felt like he could move them but not as fast or as intricately as he felt he could.

Hmm...Practice makes perfect, of course. While they're all having the important conversations, I'll do just that. Don't want to be a distraction. He fiddled with the rock in mid air, turning it, lifting it up and down, experimenting with the speed and the control of his abilities.

Zane equipped the blindfold. Insert comment about "How am I supposed to defend myself if I can't see anything?" here...

Just like sabacc, don't know what's coming until you draw.

All of the little cuts and stings were a distraction but he knew that would be coming. He didn't sense a pattern to the stones' strikes, but he did start to sense when and where they were coming. Once he "saw" them, he used the trick for slowing them down, starting with the ones around his head. They started to fall from their miniscule tempest around him, but a thought entered his head.

Wait...What if I... He stopped catching each one individually, and thought a second on their spiraling patterns. He felt one zing by his cheek, and another by his hand, then he felt the next stone slow as it passed his other hand. Other stones around him slowed as well, some even to a stop.

He let go of his hold on the stones, and he became "aware" of the same powerful female Jedi that had been talking to Kenobi before, the one who had dragged his master off before. "Hey there miss," he said to her. "What problems are you having again?" He left the blindfold and his concentration on.

Zane figured his tests would have to do with avoiding being injured, and he was ready. A rock would be simple to avoid, compared to a blaster bolt.

Zane focused his mind as he did when he healed himself before. Instead of wrapping his thoughts around his body, he wrapped them around the blunt missle. The rock slowed down from it's unnaturally quick travel from his master's hand to his stomach, but not all the way; with a quick thought, he made it swerve out of line, and it landed nearby, a foot or so to the side.

"Huh. That worked pretty well, actually; didn't know I could do that." Zane was proud of himself for not trying to dodge it, not relying on physical reflexes. He imagined it wouldn't be the last rock he had coming at him, so he remained ready.

Zane had been waiting patiently for Kenobi to return, or as patiently as he ever did anything. When the experienced Jedi did return, he seemed ready to actually sit down and TEACH his beloved apprentice something.

"You bet, boss!"

"Sounds good to me," Zane said to Ara. "Long as I can keep my feet on the ground for more than a minute before being tossed into the back of a ship again...wait, which reminds me..." Zane looked behind him.

That damn ship of mine, how does it CONSTANTLY get itself lost?! I'm really surprised someone hasn't destroyed it yet. Unless it did during this blacked out part of my memory...

"I do have a question though, for you miss, and go ahead and tell me if this is out of line: why are the Jedi having so many problems with keeping order amongst...well, the Order? I mean, the last time before being here that I remember a bunch of Jedi together, there was some relatively heated ideological arguing going on. I'm just curious, like what is it that everyone is arguing about? What sparked it, or has it always gone on?"

Zane was used to people scrambling away on "some damn fool crusade" by now, so he waved off Kayla and found Kenobi and the female Jedi that even he could tell was quite powerful.

"Hey boss," he greeted Dhan-Jaroe. "And hello to you too miss," he added towards Ara. "I take it we're supposed to be holding down the fort here while they all charge out into the universe?"

"Now that I think about it..." Zane looked around to the new ship as well. "...I really don't know where 'here' is. I mean, last thing I really recall was being on Ithor, telling Kenobi he needed a vacation. Now I'm here, and the Jedi are scraping together again.

"What exactly is this planet, anyway?"

Zane felt like he had missed a day or so out of his personal history. It was disconcerting to say the least.

Zane streched his arms up behind his head. "I'm basically looking to do something more meaningful with my life than be a pro gambler and smuggler. Don't get me wrong, I love that life, but I'm growing up an' stuff. Besides, I've got someone I love who I owe a better life to.

"When I played cards, I always got this sense for longshot bets that would pay off. I KNEW when I was gonna get a lucky card or how much to bet, that sort of thing. It felt like something I heard on the Circuit, called the Force. I didn't think much about it until about a year ago when I started going after the goal of becoming a Jedi. It just clicked, y'know, it just felt like the right thing to do.

"It's been a weird ride so far but if I can do some good it's worth it."

Zane chuckled. "Yeah I know how that is. Least you can say that too, you really want it and you still do through the adversity.

"How'd you get sucked into all this, iffen you don't mind me asking? You look young enough to have been born into the job."

Zane had to think of the answer as he went along. He had heard great legends and such, but stories are just that. Some of the time he spent in hyperspace while following Dhan-Jaroe around was spent on reading Jedi teachings. "Well," he started, "as I understand, we're supposed to be helping push back the corruption and such that the galaxy has found itself under the thumb of. We get abilities limited only by faith and imagination, and in turn we spend lifetimes to defend and heal others.

"From what I've seen and heard, though, there's been too much in-fighting, too much politics, too many high emotions among the ranks to really get stuff done, to really help anyone else but ourselves, and we even aren't doing that right. Maybe if we got off our high-horses about being Jedi, didn't worry so much about chain of command and station, and got down to business we'd make the galaxy a better place a little bit at a time.

"I dunno, I'm not about to give up hope just 'cause everything isn't fantastic. I like a little bit of challenge to my life, I get lazy otherwise. And I know that somewhere along the line, the order will get their act together again, and you and I actually get to get trained instead of being dragged across eight star systems on a whim.

"Why, crisis of faith or somethin'?"

As Zane approached, Kenobi took the guy Jedi aside and started to talk, excluding the young female Jedi. He figured they had "grown up talk" to deal with so he left Kenobi alone for the moment.

The tall, thin blonde seemed somewhat off-put by being left behind. "Isn't it great, that feeling of being included?" he said sarcastically, smirking. "Name's Zane Arclyte, the trainee of Master Dhan-Jaroe Kenobi." He extended a hand in greeting.

Zane's sleep was more or less restful, his dreams simple and pleasant, his body at peace. Some part of his rest, his dreams bothered him, though; something akin to a voice muttered unintelligibly in the background, details were missing out of his images of himself. The self-image of his eyes in particular were blurred over, and his fingers appeared webbed. As he moved throughout his dreamscape, he saw more and more warped things, the background voice becoming more pronounced, and the events - people being burned alive for instance - were very disturbing.

His characiture of himself turned around, and the blur over his eyes fell from his face, revealing bright white eyes, almost blinding intensity, and he heard his mout move in unison with the background voice.

It said two words in a thunderous, bass voice: "Redeem him."

Zane bolted upright on the cot, and looked around. He was on Kenobi's ship again. Wow...weird dream...He didn't shoot me again did he? He checked himself over for more blaster wounds - noticed he was in Jedi padawan robes, off-white and dark brown, instead of his favorite gambling jacket - and found none. Nice threads, I guess. He got up and went in search of Kenobi.

When he got outside the ship and noticed the very red, very dusty, very non-Ithorian Garden scenery, he said under his breath, "(Now where did we have to run off to? And from what?)" Zane started towards his master, who was standing near two other people he imagined were Jedi.

Zane smiled. "I'll punch the coordinates in myself, long as we make a quick stop or two along the way. I tell you what, you'll feel a thousand times better once you've walked through those jungles. I found out the hard way to NEVER do anything to their plants, even for a souvenier; those crazy Ithorians, they seem like pacifists but wow, the claws come out." Zane and his master headed back onto the Rogue I and Zane set the computer for Tempay so he could reclaim his ship. Once that was out of the way, they headed for the planet of Ithor.

"Maybe you need a vacation? Like, if all this responsibility is being too much for you, you should find some place to hide out awhile."

Zane thought a moment. "Yeah why don't you find a vacation spot, somewhere to get focused again. The Ithorian forests and such are great for that I've found; that's where I went on my honeymoon, and I would love to see it again myself.

"I'm sure Talon will survive until you can get refocused."

"Giving up never solved anything." Zane said it so quickly, he didn't realize he said it. He had heard that so many times in his own life, it was a reflex.

"Er..." He scratched the back of his head. "Yeah. But it's really true. I've lived my life playing the game, win or lose, I keep playing. That's all anyone can do, is play, accept their winnings and losings as they come, and play again.

"I guess I'm trying to say what I said before, which is no matter how many times you fall down, you gotta not give up."