Tempay

[Yue]

Yue now told Delita of his plan.

 

"You see, yes it might be considered vengeful but I belive we can not give on your old light saber, or the chance to slow the sith down at least for a time. What do you think we should do?"

 

He now awaited for his master's and his friend's repsonse

 

 

no Quote today

[Delita]

Delita folded his arm and thought...

 

"well... it's not that big of a deal to make it ok to rush into the sith base..."

 

He looked up at Yue and Nom... He smiled so widely, his lips touched his ears practically.

 

"we'll do my favorite! we'll become the shadows... it'll be more difficult since he can use the force like us, but we'll follow him, track him untill he's away from all other sith... and we'll strike him down. Now while we travel though, i hope that, like i will, you take the time to train yourself and become a better swordsmen, force user, and stragegist than Moric. this will be you battle before mine Yue, after all, it was your first battle, and it was unfruitful. I had the option to leave and live to fight another day. As you can see, I still live, but i still failed, so technically, i'm a ghost. "

 

Delita paused for a second and held his hand...

 

"We will still fight Moric, but must supress our rage, or we will loose whether or not Moric is slayed... Your words on this?"

[Kayla Mhin]

Kayla started to say 'yes' but reconsidered, "I'm not sure." She ran both hands through her hair and sighed; she wasn't sure what had just happened, why was she seeing ... ghosts? The voices she could stand but why did she have to start seeing things too?

[Ary the Grey]

Aryian's ship touches down, and again he hides his presence from his fellow Jedi.

 

Through the force a dark message echoes forth.

 

Oh Ara...Ara-Lai Kaipi...come out, come out, wherever you are...I am waiting for you here...

 

Aryian wears a smug grin, as he walks past a few of his fellow Jedi, who have no idea of what he's about to do.

[Ara-Lai Kaipi]

Ara frowned at hearing the Force message. It was Aryian, but he was...different. Darker. What had happened?

 

I'm in the council chambers, Aryian. Come and find me, if you wish.

 

The sword on her belt began to hum in a chorus of a minor key. She frowned further.

 

"That's not a good sign."

[Ary the Grey]

Aryian quickly made his way to the council chambers, not stopping for anything else, not even to check if his apprentice was still at the facility. There was only one thing on his mind. ((What, you think I'm going to tell you? ))

 

There was a slight pain in his chest as he opened the door, a pressure. Something that Ara had...He released his suppression, and the full majesty of the dark side erupted from his very being, clouding the room except for Ara. The thing she had obviously was doing very well at countering the dark side, and his force was suppressed back to a minimal field around himself.

 

But he wasn't even trying.

 

"Well, well, well. What do we have here. Our little Jedi leader, all alone, and yet far from helpless. Planning more crusades for the Jedi? Hm? Going to throw our bodies to the wind, relying on the fact that through cloning we are invincible? I've had an epiphany lately, Ara, and I've realized that the Jedi order is horribly corrupted. I've come to correct that. The Jedi order would be far better if it weren't at all."

 

Before she could respond to what he was saying, he used the force to seal the doors behind him, blast doors and all. Even for a lightsaber, it would be some time before the doors could be cut open.

 

"Right now, this is between you, and me. You see, Ara, by opening myself up to my past and accepting who I am instead of trying to conform to something I'm not, I've gained powers far beyond what normal Jedi can hope to accomplish in their lifetimes. I almost rival the legendary Gantoris himself in might! And right now, I have come to end your pain."

 

He whipped out his sabers, igniting both twin blades, the crystals from Ilum he had installed making them all the more powerful against any blade.

 

"Come. Come Ara, to your death."

 

As he spoke the last sentence, almost not visibly, his right hand was shaking.

 

"And so it begins."

[Ara-Lai Kaipi]

Ara let out a long breath before pulling out her own sword.

 

"You don't want it to end this way, Aryian. Neither of us do. I don't know what happened, what...epiphany you came to, but I have a feeling that it isn't what you think it is." She stepped forwards one pace, looking Aryian in the eyes.

 

"I don't want to fight you. And I know you really aren't this way, deep down. You don't have to do it this way." Her eyes shone with compassion through her glasses. "Please. You are truly a Jedi, not...not this."

[Prophet K]

Camsie struck out at the final training droid, severing it's legs from beneath itself. As the droid fell, Camsie heard a clang before whipping around, lightsaber still extended. The blast doors were closing! What in the force?

 

Camsie leapt forward, moving for the doors but they sealed shut before he could reach them. The jedi knight glowered at the sealed doors, before snapping his lightsaber off. What was happening? The caamasi had no real answers, so he did the first thing that came to his mind.

 

A comm link that had rested on Camsie's waist found itself into his hands before being activated. The caamasi lifted the comm to his mouth before speaking onto a general frequency.

 

"This is Jedi Knight Camsie, I'm in one of the training rooms and the blast doors are sealed. What is going on?"

[Ary the Grey]

Aryian cursed, the other blast doors were not supposed to be triggered, only the ones outside of the council chambers. He snagged his comm, fast.

 

"This is Jedi Knight Aryian Darkfire, sorry about that. Bug in the system. I was working on this program you see...there. It should be fixed now."

 

Using the force hastily, he reached out and triggered the unlock on the door, moving around the base and catching several before anyone else noticed about them. It was only a moment before Ara saw what he was up to, but it was too late. He used his already strong grip on the force to crush the other two communication systems within the chambers, his own comm being now the only link inside. He tossed it into the corner, bringing back his second saber to bear on the Jedi master.

 

"You have no Idea, Ara. Geki allowed me to see the truth, the light. There is only balance in the galaxy, and equal amount of light and dark forces at work. Some of the light most likely lingers within me, and for now it suits my purposes, for I can use it against your little weapon there. You see, the Jedi have disrupted the balance for too long, and so came Geki into power, trying only to restore the equal amount of Chaos there was left in the galaxy.

 

"He released in me the power, the rage, the anger. It is not you I hate, yet I can focus it at you at will. He...changed me..."

 

Aryian hesitated for a brief second again, the last statement sounding much like the old Aryian, the one who sought peace instead of hatred. But the moment was gone, and still clutching his saber, his hand lashed out, sending out a powerful force blast that knocked the sword out of her hands, sending it skittering to the other side of the room, despite the large amount of dark energy it consumed.

 

"Come on, Ara. Why do you still fight it? Do you even know? Can you tell me? Is it an emotion perhaps, some buried feeling? Is it fear? Persistence? A sense of self-preservation, perhaps? Hatred? Love? Love of the Jedi doctrines for which you have so long held to? Illusions. Illusions created by a feeble people in an attempt to grasp on to what is not. So I ask you again, one final time. Why?"

 

He approached her slowly, closing in on her force presence, choking her abilities. On a clearly visible battle, his hands shakily turned off his sabers, and he sat down across the table.

 

"Why...does...it...fight...with-...within...me...?"

 

He stammered, forcing himself to talk, even though it was clear that something else didn't want him to.

[Scorp Jedi Knight]

Scorp helped her up off the bench.

 

"How about you described what happened? Maybe it is something of relavnce. I felt the force gather around you before you decided to take a trip to la-la land."

 

Editing

 

Scorp then felt something odd as Jedi Knight Aryian walked past. He thought about it before relizing that he hadn't felt Aryian through the FOrce. Suddenly he felt a flash of the Dark side, He dismissed it he knew something was going on something vil however he could feel that he wasn't meant to interfer. Scorp moved his padawan away from the training rooms and the council chambers. HE then began to mediatae he wanted to find out truly what was going on.

[Kayla Mhin]

Kayla sighed, trying to construct a reply to Scorp's question; she had never talked to anyone about the 'voices' before.

 

"I, uh..." She winced, "I hear voices ... sometimes. They usually encourage me, comfort me... This time I saw something--someone, kinda blue, insubstantual-looking..." She hoped she didn't sound as confusing as she thought she did.

 

EDIT:((geez, Scorp, why'd u edit you're post while I did mine? Now I'm talking to somebody who's asleep! ))

[Scorp Jedi Knight]

((Mesa sorry and what do you mean asleep.))

 

Scorp broke his mediation he had gotten a lot of what he needed. Then putting on a happier face.

 

"It sounds like you have ahd a force ghost visit you. Interesting how you passed out from it though. hmmm most interesting. Probably a relative of some sort. Did you know you parents?"

[Prophet K]

Camsie shrugged as Jedi Knight Aryian's force message came through, after all bugs happened. And seeing that the blast doors had opened again, that just added credibilaty to the claim. So the caamasi went back to what he was previously doing. Having some practice with his trusty lightsaber.

 

Another pair of training droids were activated on Camsie's command. The two droids circled, their attached blades shining slightly in the light, and the welded blaster cannons whirring silently as they came online. Camsie brought his lightsaber into a simple guard, that presented plenty of openings to the droids.

 

The first droid to attack had a blue paint job on it's shoulders, and came forward with it's blsater cannon firing at the caamasi's thigh. Camsie shifted his leg out of Blue's line of fire to be brought into the red painted droid's.

 

Red opened up, his laser bolts tearing through the air headed towards Camsie. The jedi leaped upwards, dodging the trailing blaster bolts of Blue before twisting in mid air, dodging a more powerful blast from Red.

 

Down came Camsie, his momentum throwing him towards the floor according to the gravity's law. Camsie made a cusion out of the force, landing with no real damage to himself. He then spun his lightsaber, reflecting one of Blue's blaster bolts followed by one of Red's.

 

These one's are set to a higher intelligence setting than those others. was Camsie's last thought before dodging to the left as a barrage of blaster bolts was sent his way from the two droids.

[Ary the Grey]

Aryian smiled briefly, breaking his look at Ara. His ploy had worked, and there was nobody coming to her rescue, should she need one. (suprisingly)

 

He turned his attention back to Ara, still awaiting her reply.

[Kayla Mhin]

Kayla shook her head sadly, "No, I don't remember them. I was told that they abandoned me, but I'm not so sure that it's true." She didn't want to believe that whoever her parents were would have just abandoned her... She couldn't believe it.

[Jurha Kahn]

Jurha watched as the sticky substance from the cloning chamber drained through a grate in the floor.

 

Failure and utter defeat. She bashed her head and fists against the tank in anger.

 

"I am -- Such --- a loser!" she cried pounding against wall. She slumped down to the sticky floor and sobbed.

 

"No wonder they threw me out," she choked, "I can't do anything."

 

She replayed in her head having the dart strike her in the back of the neck and dying before she even realized what had happened. Completely robbed of dignity.

 

Jurha struck her fist against the tank, this time it crashed through causing the tank to shatter. She instantly ceased crying.

 

Her hand was bleeding... The scar she had gotten from playing with her father's knife was gone from her left palm... She looked down at her naked body. The scar across her chest from Haruun Kal was gone, and so was the scar from where Zeb had struck her with a rock.

 

"Who the hell am I?" she said and she began crying again.

 

 

After ten minutes of pathetic whimpering Jurha climbed out of the tank to dress her self.

 

Complete failure. She had failed Airleas and she had failed her self. Weak. Failure.

 

Jurha washed her face to try and hide the fact she had been crying. My ship is back on Tatooine and my lightsaber is probably gone forever. She remembered the crystal she had placed inside the saber. Her most prized possession. She ducked her face into the water to keep from crying.

 

She stood staring at the mirrior over the sink for several minutes before she realized she was done washing her face.

 

"I guess I should go talk to council... Tell them I screwed up..." part of her hoped for sympathy and guidance, but Jurha was beinging to feel sympathy was only something your mother gave you and she died a long time ago.

 

Jurha walked barefoot to the council chambers and stopped infront of the door. Why would they have the blast door shut? Wouldn't shutting the regular door have given them enough privacy?

 

"Uh, hello?"

[Ara-Lai Kaipi]

Ara remained calm, despite her sword being on the other side of the room. Aryian was obviously fighting whatever Geki had released, which meant there was hope for him yet. She stayed where she was as she spoke softly.

 

"It fights because it knows it is what right, what's just. It's your true nature. What Geki showed you--lies, deceit, his own propaganda to mold you into what he wanted you to be, his own puppet." She tapped into the Force and slowly pulled the sword to her hand. Holding tight to the hilt, she stepped forward.

 

"Why do I fight? It isn't any emotion, although emotions rule us all. I fight because of truth, because of knowledge. I may be young, but I've learned a lot with all I've been through." Another step. "I've lived without the Force, being cut off from it completely, I know what it's like. Worse than ysalimiri, pain all the time..."

 

She was only a couple of feet away from Aryian now, and ready if he made a sudden strike. "I suffered, but I learned from it. I'm better for it. Please, Aryian, you know what you are. Remember it. Come back to the Light."

[Nom Anor's avenger]

"I'm still not convinced," Nom said with a shrug. "Your talking about stalking a Sith Lord and taking his lightsaber. I doubt he will ever be alone either. If he's not with the order, than he would be with a padawan. If we are going to do this, its going to be with a lot more Jedi. Heck, if we attack the Sith, we could slow them down. Which is never a bad thing. But before we can do anything, we must speak to the council about this. I'm sure Ara would want to throw in her two cents."

 

Nom made his way to the council chambers with Delita and Yue following closely behind him. Something wasn't right though. It seems the closer got, the more he sensed the presence of the dark side.

 

The Jedi Knight wasn't suprised to see the council doors closed although he should have been. Why would they close the council doors? And why did Nom sense the presence of the dark side in the room?

 

Another Jedi was waiting near the doors. She looked familiar but Nom couldn't remember where he'd seen her before.

 

He aknowledged her presence with a nod as he approached the computer terminal next to the entrance to the council chambers. He punched in a few numbers but nothing happened.

 

"Hmmm, it won't open. What's going on in there?" He asked that to himself more than anyone else.

 

He studied the faces of the three other Jedi Knights around him. Delita and Yue looked just a confused as he was and Jurha looked the same. She must have just arrived.

 

He turned to face the giant plates of steel now blocking his path. "Something is wrong. I can sense the presence of the dark side in that room as well as two people. Now Ara-Lai Kaipi was the leader of the Jedi last time a checked and the other person....." Nom closed his eyes and fell into the Force. He would be able to tell who was in that room, that was something the blast doors could not stop."..... is Aryian Darkfire, yet I can sense dark side in him. He has fallen."

 

Nom opened his eyes again and faced the rest of the Knights standing before him.

 

"Ara's in trouble, she needs our help."

 

With that, Nom ignited his lightsaber and shoved it into the center of the blast door motioning for Delita, Yue and Jurha to do the same.

[Scorp Jedi Knight]

"Well that what did these Force Ghosts look like?"

 

Scorp had an idea of what was going on but he would need a few more details before he made his judgement.

 

"Could these ghost pass as your parents?"

[Ary the Grey]

For a moment, in his eyes, it looked like he actually believed her, that he wanted to be a Jedi again. It was his own chioce back on Ilum to release his hatred if only to kill the one thing that was massacreing his own kind. That was used against him, and could have been one of the gravest mistakes he ever made.

 

And then, the nanites gripped all that harder, and Aryian's face went as hard as stone. Lightsabers ignited behind him, his force tingles told him, people were alerted to his presence. But he was not done yet. All the lightsabers shut off simultaneously as his giant wave of dark energy attacked them, and as they pulled them out to examine them, each snapped from their master's grip to ignite in midair, each blade at a Jedi's throat.

 

"I'm sorry, Ara, but I was never part of the light to begin with. You really don't know who I was, what I did, those 200 years ago...I was in the Jedi order, much like this, a padawan of a master Jedi. Corun Harel. I was one of the best they had at the time of peace, and was assigned to an exhibition duel with another fellow padawan to entertain visiting ambassadors. You see, I was not only the best force user of my ranking they had, but I also devoted all my time to the art of the lightsaber, a trait of which I am still very proud of.

 

"Tehrin Moss was the padawan I was to duel, one of my oldest and best friends in the order. Purely by accident, he was the first person I ever have slain in battle, and I remember his shocked face as his torso tumbled to the floor, and the weeks of agony afterwards, as he haunted my nightmares. Of course, I was expelled from the Jedi order, but my former master and I kept in very close secret contact, allowing me to further my education in the force. At the age of thirty, I had ascended to the rank of Jedi master unofficially, and was finally accepted to become an ambassador for the Jedi.

 

"Two years later, the Sith made themselves known to our part of the galaxy, attacking and killing the Jedi guards at the base I was assigned to. I again took up the lightsaber, and killed both of them, but not before sustaining major wounds. They could not save me. I died, Ara, I died for your order on more than one occasion, and how I came back the first time is beyond me, a gift from the force I have always assumed. I have never recieved anything in return, only the satisfaction of defending an order who cared little to nothing about me.

 

"You want truth? There is no truth in this galaxy. That is only a general assumption made by the mind when presented with evidence. Logic is the greatest fallacy of all. What is true? What is real? What you see? What you touch? The force? Electrical impulses interpreted by the brain, that's all. I know that one well. All I know now is that I have a mission Ara, a mission I have yet to carry out."

 

Impossibly fast, Aryian's blkade shot out, catching her sword and deflecting it to the side, while his other came up, again knocking it out of her hands with enough force to send it slicing into the ceiling, where it stayed. Two massive bolts of pain from where the blade had 'touched' him shot up his arms, sending both his sabers to the floor. He fell to his knees, momentarily dazed.

 

Momentarily.

 

He was up again, the same stone cold look on his face, sabers called back to his hands and ignited. A tear gracefully adorned his face now, even though his expression was exactly the opposite of one that would cry.

 

"Forgive me..."

 

Again his voice sounded like that of the old Aryian's. He walked forwards, both sabers pointed at her throat. She didn't move, for some strange reason, fear, perhaps, or faith, but the fact was she didn't move.

 

The sabers stopped an inch from her throat. The dark presence in the room shrank a little, as the Aryian inside began to fight for more control. The sabers again shook in his hands, and almost simultaneously, they turned back off.

 

It looked as if he struggled with himself for a moment, all the muscles on his body tensing up, sweat beginning to crown his forehead. Slowly, and yet surely, his right hand began to drop, and then his left, both still equally tensed up. His right didn't stop though, it kept going, aiming the blade for his stomach.

 

"For...the...Jedi..."

 

He was almost there, and it was clear that he would ignite the blade and kill himself before being forced to take out another Jedi. Another tear rolled out of his left eye as he looked at Ara, an innocent look of a child in his expression.

 

 

Her move.

 

((My masterpiece is finished! Took me a whole friggin hour!!!

 

))

[Kayla Mhin]

"Well that what did these Force Ghosts look like?"

 

Kayla bit her lip as she thought about it for a moment, "I only saw one, she was tall, had blonde hair..." She frowned, "I can't exactly remember all the details..."

 

"Could these ghost pass as your parents?"

 

She looked up sharply and opened her mouth, but then didn't say anything. "I--I don't know.... Maybe, why do you ask?"

[Ara-Lai Kaipi]

Ara listened calmly, not at all fazed when Aryian again knocked the sword from her hands. She had never known this much about him, about what had happened, but she could feel the good in him yet, that light that was still fighting whatever Geki had told him or done to him.

 

As he dropped one blade towards his stomach, Ara knew what he intended to do. It was something that she couldn't let him do, something she could never let anyone do, light or dark. Her mind racing, she did the only thing she could think of.

 

She swiftly used the Force to knock the two sabers from his grasp, throwing them across the room, where they clattered against the blast door before falling to the ground. In the same moment, she tackled Aryian to the ground, pinning his arms and torso to the floor so he couldn't move.

 

"No Jedi would ever let someone kill themselves, Light or Dark." She spoke softly but sternly, like a mother to a defiant child. He struggled and tried to kick her, but she kneed him in the side, a move which would leave a large bruise and not much else. "You fight even now for the Light."

 

Ara slowly drew her sword back to her hand, and raised it above Aryian with a grim look.

 

"Forgive me, Aryian...this is going to hurt quite a bit."

 

Staring at him, she stabbed the blade into his chest with a sickening crunch. He struggled against the sword, pain flowing throughout him, but Ara knew this is what had to happen.

 

The Light in the Force-forged blade began to work its way through Aryian's body, like a cure to the dark that ran through his veins. Blood flowed openly from the wound, all of it a midnight hue. Ara continued to watch as his face contorted, and she wondered what was going through his mind.

 

Finally, the convulsions stopped, and Aryian lay on the floor, a stain of black blood on his robes, looking dead. Ara closed her eyes for a moment and murmured something, wherein the sword began humming loudly, light emanating from the blade in Aryian's chest. She slowly pulled out the blade as it sang, healing his remaining wounds as he lay on the floor.

 

With a final pull, the blade was free of Aryian's body, the dark expelled from his body, the wounds both emotional and physical healed. The sword let out a final ringing note as Ara sheathed it.

 

She knelt by Aryian's body and whispered, "Live again, Aryian...become the Jedi you always were once again."

 

 

 

OOC: How's that?

[Scorp Jedi Knight]

(( ))

 

"I ask because your parents might have been trained in the FOrce and could be trying to contact you. There has been tales of this happening through out the Jedi before. Relatives who were force trained reaching out to their own flesh and blood. Perhaps the same could be happening to you."

 

Scorp then thought about his homeworld for a brief moment before changing his thoughts.

 

"I will mointior you all the more closely now however I must say you have indeed grown in the Force. Now if we could just refin it enough so that the force will become your ally. Do you want to try the robot again?"

 

Scorp suddenly felt the lightside strongly he figured it had been concluded.

[Kayla Mhin]

Kayla nodded, "I guess I could try the droid thing again..." She said, standing and looking around. She'd thought she'd felt something earlier... but now, it was gone. She shrugged it off and started practicing.

[Scorp Jedi Knight]

Scorp walked off as she began to practice once more. He was thinking of her next stage of training. Then deciding on his next step he ignited one end of his saber and looked at the glowing blade before deactivating it and going to his ship. Boarding his ship he took off and flew in low orbit looking for a good place. However he mainly saw hills. HE would have to take her off world. For another stage for now he would work with the force with the basics as soon as she was done with push. HE would teach her pull, jump, and speed. Then he would move back into sword and body traing before taking her off world for a more dangerous training. He came back in for a landing and went to the training room to see how much his padawan had improved since his short flight.

[JasonMB]

Jasyn sat up quickly from where he'd been meditating on the serene, grass-covered hillside, something had alerted him... Something he'd felt... He couldn't identify it but it was a vague, familiar feeling. Something he wished wasn't so familiar.

 

He stood and brushed off any grass that might have clung to his pants then started back towards the Jedi temple, thoughts bouncing around inside his head. He frowned and banished most of them, his memory hadn't all come back yet and had come back was fragmented into so many pieces that it made him even more confused.

 

As he walked, he became aware of a presence nearby and stopped, looking around cautiously. "Who's there?" No one replied and he reached for the blaster strapped to his thigh, his eyes searching the surrounding area for any sign of danger.

 

"Easy there, I'm not going to hurt you."

 

Jasyn spun around to face the voice, his blaster coming up between the figure's eyes. It was the ghost ... Ben Starkiller. "I ought to shoot you know just for scaring me."

 

The ghost smiled and stepped aside to sit on a stump, "Go right ahead, nothing's stopping you."

 

Jasyn frowned and slowly lowered the blaster, "What do you want now?"

 

Ben shrugged and lifted his hands, "It's not what I want, Jasyn... What do you want?"

 

"Oh for..." He growled and turned to walk away but paused when the man spoke again.

 

"Come, have a seat."

 

Jasyn slowly turned and cast Ben an incredulous look, "I don't think so." He turned back and walked away again ... almost walking straight through Ben. His eyes widened and he jumped back, "Holy... How'd you do that?"

 

Ben smiled softly, "I'm a ghost ... one with the Force."

 

"Right..." Jasyn covered his forehead with a hand, "I think I might have drank too much of that stuff..."

 

"Jasyn," Ben said sternly, "Remember why you are here ... remember what you have learned. You know what is true, stop running from it."

 

"I'm not running from anything!"

 

Ben frowned at Jasyn for a moment then turned and walked away, motioning to Jasyn, "Follow me, then."

 

Jasyn hesitated a moment then rolled his eyes and did as the ghost said. What did I do with my day? He thought sarcastically, I followed a ghost over the hill and through the stream.

 

"I want to show you something..." Ben finally said, turning and motioning Jasyn to take a seat while he stood over him. "Close your eyes and relax. Let yourself go, I want to show you why the Jedi fight, what your destiny here must be."

 

As Jasyn silently did as he was told, he slipped away into a deep Force trance. Suddenly he was no longer on Tempay, he was on a sandy, yellow planet. Dust swirled around him as he squinted in the bright sun -- make that suns.

 

He sensed someone behind him and grabbed his blaster, spinning around to face -- Ben. "You like doing that don't you."

 

Ben didn't respond, he merely looked out over the sandy landscape, a sad look in his eyes. "This is where I died." He motioned out at the sand and rocks before him, "Many Jedi have fallen as I have, to protect the innocent." Jasyn followed the old man's gaze as he spoke, "The way of the Jedi..." His voice trailed off and Jasyn was sure he saw a tear roll down the man's dusty face.

 

"Prepare yourself." Ben spoke suddenly; Jasyn heard a distant noise and reached for his blaster for the third time that day. The rumble increased in volume until it was almost deafening.

 

Off to his side he saw Ben ignite a lightsaber and lower himself into a fighting stance. Jasyn immediately started to back away, his nerves tingling with apprehension. "Ben?" The man briefly glanced back at him.

 

"This is the battle in which I died... Many times have I relived it such as I now am."

 

Jasyn's eyes widened and he gripped the handle of his blaster even tighter, his eyes darting out across the sand. "It's not real, right?" He glanced to Ben, who didn't answer. "Right?!" He swallowed nervously, it sure felt real enough...

[Kayla Mhin]

She had continued to practice for another hour while waiting for Scorp to return. When he didn't come back soon, she decided to practice levitating the droid instead of just pushing it around. She was surprised at how quickly she was learning all this, just a month before she was trying to decide what to do with her life.

 

She had considered being a pilot, shipping spice back and forth as Rhobert had; she had even thought about becoming a bounty hunter but felt that that was not what she really wanted to do. She didn't feel like hunting people down, possibly even killing them, just so she could have some extra money in her pocket. So, here she was ... with the Jedi, in training...

 

She glanced up at the floating droid and grinned, "How ya doing up there, little buddy?"

[Ary the Grey]

Aryian screamed as the sword penetrated his flesh, an unholy scream, much like the one heard on Dathomir. It was deafening, enhanced by the force to cause shockwaves through it. It embodied all the pain and anguish he had ever experienced, inside the Jedi order and out.

 

And then, it was gone. He gasped a few times as the sword withdrew, and the dark energy that was inside him with it. Blood pooled around the floor as it bubbled from the wound, as she had nicked his heart. His heart...how ironic that this was the focal points for many beliefs, many on love and hate. Hate. He had hated Geki, and the things he had stood for, so much that he dared take a stand against him. Love. More loyalty than love, Aryian had defended the order with his life on two occasions.

 

His focus turned from the ceiling to Ara's face, a look of suprise and sadness was there. Great pain haunted him, and it would probably haunt him his whole life. He had drawn on this pain often, remembering it in battles, using it to his advantages. That was not the Jedi way.

 

Aryian, the real one, now was in full command of his body, and he lifted his hand to see his own blood. A part of him still wanted to die, but he would only live again, reincarnated by the Jedi cloning cylinders to serve and protect. It was his job. Preserve peace.

 

Even though he was afraid, he reached out anyways, touching the force. The light side. It felt cold, and yet oddly comforting, vastly different to the heated battle rage the dark side instilled when used. The force reached out, healing his heart, his wound, and slowly pulling all the nanites out into his bloodstream, where they would be filtered out of his body by the kidneys.

 

The lightsabers at the other's throats outside the blast doors turned off and dropped to the floor, and the blast door itself seemed to heal itself, glowing hot again and re-forming itself back into its original shape.

 

Aryian stood, the flow of blood now beginning to clot, restricted now to the layer of skin where the wound was, the heart having already sewn itself back up. He looked to the floor, retrieving his sabers, when he noticed a slight afraid look on Ara's face. He turned to face her, slowly, trying for words.

 

"I-...I am a danger to the Jedi order. With your permission, master...I would like to leave. Something like this must never happen again, and indeed I am my own worst enemy when it comes to emotion. It would also seem that...I am the Jedi's enemy...yet again."

[Ara-Lai Kaipi]

Ara shook her head. She put a hand on one of Aryian's shoulder and said quietly, "You were never the enemy, Aryian. What happened to you was unfortunate, as is what happened to me. But I'm not going to let it beat you."

 

She forced him to look her in the eyes, blue and full of light. "Nothing happened here, as far as I am concerned. What you just did...you were going to sacrifice your own life to protect what you truly believed in. That, Aryian, is the mark of a true Jedi." She took off her glasses to look at him better. "Even when filled with darkness, you still fought, and ultimately, the true you prevailed."

 

She held out one of her hands, inviting him to take it in a handshake. "I won't let you go, Aryian. You're too good of a person, too kind, and..." Ara smiled. "...despite the bit with the sword, I hope you'll remain my friend. I think after having overcome this...you truly are a Master Jedi."

 

"Please...stay."

[Ary the Grey]

Aryian bowed his head.

 

"Understood. But...does that mean...? Are you mastering me? Not after this, surely not..."

 

He looked away, out of shame.