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Scarif


Ary the Grey

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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.”

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Calix Meus Inebrians

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T’ali’au took a moment to consider her answer before responding.

 

“It’s like feeling the world breathing. In the morning the world inhales, and we take in the heat from the sun and the rocks and we feel the rush and the glow of life. Everything is vivid, and it is a time for doing and feeling and dancing. As the sun sets and the world exhales, activeness is replaced with thoughtfulness, motion gives way to stillness, and the throbbing tension of life dims enough that one may reflect on the choices of the day, and on the choices yet to come. Each state nourishes the other and I don’t think that without the one that I would fully appreciate the other.

 

I can’t share the physical feeling of it with you, but we do have thought exercises to help the young accept the cold mind when they are too young to know the value of it. I could teach you those while you tell me of your Jedi teachings. As long as you can multitask anyway, I want to go fishing and gathering so that we can have some options for food. Besides, the world is inhaling and it’s time for doing.”

 

T’ali’au grabbed her fishing spear and her kopere as she waited for a response from the girl.

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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.

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Calix Meus Inebrians

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T’ali’au led the girl to a jagged line of smooth black rocks that extended past the beach into the ocean. She dipped the Kopere’s quiver into the water and it drank deeply before separating the salt from the water and freezing the water into bolts. They probably wouldn’t need the Kopere, but just in case something large and hungry approached the rocks, T’ali’au wanted to be ready.

 

Pulling some bait out of her satchel, the priestess casually tossed it into the water before readying her spear and taking a relaxed preparation stance.

 

“The anchor exercise teaches one how to root themself in the now, rather than what has happened or what might be. The root of it lies in focusing on the subconscious routines of the body, such as the beating of the heart or breathing. Think only of the act and the sensation, clearing away any thoughts not pertaining to these things. Surrender your mind to the natural order rather than rebelling against it, so that you may receive its blessings.”

 

Fish began to gather around the bait, nipping at it frantically before finally biting off larger chunks. T’ali’au lined up the throw, her breathing relaxed and natural.

 

“It’s instinctual to hold your breath when you need fine control of your body, but the absence of air only causes your mind to panic and rush the action. Embrace the motion of the world, make a careful accounting of it, and follow through on the action. Replace instinct with wisdom.”

 

In a smooth motion T’ali’au released the spear into the water and it struck true on a fish. She pulled the line, returning both the spear and the first catch of the day.

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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.

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Calix Meus Inebrians

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T’ali’au put aside her spear and readied her kopere, scanning the waves for dark shapes. It took some time, but at last she spotted the outline of the creature. It was a Blighthive feeder organism, essentially like a three foot salt water salamander with the head of a lamprey and a skin that excreted paralyzing neurotoxin.

 

The priestess selected a frozen shaft from her kopere’s quiver, and placed it into the kopere’s energy field. Making a drawing action with her right hand, the shaft slightly receded in midair and began to spin with frantic intensity. With a release gesture, the shaft tore forward with a howling whistle that cavitated the water upon impact. The feeder spun violently from the first impact as the shaft caught a hind leg. T’ali’au did not release a second shaft immediately, instead waiting for the chaos in the water to find some resolution and the merciful killing shot to present itself.

 

For the first time since Sandy had arrived, T’ali’au “spoke” in Lanu, the visual language of pulsing and rapidly changing skin tones. The sun was hitting the rocks well and carried her message of sinister reds and firm cobalt blues quickly to others in the village. Others came with cloth for handling the feeder and a sandspun urn for holding it until Ta’avale could come to claim.

 

“That was a feeder beast for a larger threat, a tumor of twisted flesh that floats from island to island consuming life and corrupting nature. Ta’avale use the neurotoxins from these creatures for their weapons, restoring power stolen from Loloto to the cycle. It’s like when a villager gets a Pe’a, the pain of the process representing the hardship of the experience, and the art representing how the person grew.”

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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.

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Calix Meus Inebrians

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  • 2 weeks later...

T’ali’au surveyed the situation and the girl with a great deal of apprehension, but as easy as it was to see only a frail young woman that needed protecting, T’ali’au remembered that she was a warrior, and a champion of the light. It wasn’t easy, but the priestess let the Toa Paia pass unhindered. She couldn’t explain the bond she had with the newcomer, but she felt like it carried the weight of a greater meaning.

 

Her stomach knotted up and did back flips as she watched helplessly. In some ways in brought to mind a similar time in her past, but that memory was more… complicated. There was a desired victor to this fight. The girl seemed so tiny compared to the encroaching darkness, and T’ali’au’s heart dropped and shattered when she saw the darkness encroach upon her and then through her. Nausea tore through T’ali’au’s stomach and tears blurred her vision as she watched the darkness consume her new friend.

 

*********************

 

“You shouldn’t tell her such stories, people don’t just find happiness through hoping for it. She needs to know that success often means working hard, and sometimes even the righteous fail. I don’t want my daughter getting herself killed because she doesn’t believe she can fail.”

 

“And I don’t want her running away from the righteous path just because the destination is obscured. Besides, it’s just a story that she likes.”

 

“Stories have power, take some damn responsibility for how you raise our child.”

 

“This isn’t my people’s way…”

 

“It’s my way, and I warned you of that from the start. If you can’t handle the responsibility I’ll just take her with me next time I leave.”

 

*********************

 

Fire and a light that was felt within rather than seen emanated from the girl like a glorious new dawn, and consumed the blighthive whole with its purity. Tears of loss gave way to tears of joy and relief as T’ali’au watched the girl overcome the monster with her own inner light. As the sickness was burned away, the priestess saw her friend once again, wounded but with a look of exultant satisfaction on her face.

 

Now that the evil was gone, T’ali’au rushed to the girl, who was heavily wounded, and gathered her up in her arms to take back ashore to recover. She was so warm, like a sunkissed rock, and T’ali’au didn’t want to let her go when she got her back to village infirmary, but the Jedi’s wounds needed treating. The priestess began the grueling process of treating each laceration for infection, embedded stingers, and toxins, a constant concern with any wound from a blightborn creature. The work was slow and meticulous, and eventually she gave the girl an opiate to help with the pain as the surgery began to drag on past sundown. T’ali’au had reached full coldmind by the time she had finished the entire affair, and the communal sleeping rock felt like a million miles away.

 

Both timid and hopeful that this was okay, she curled up next to the girl to absorb her warmth and express how grateful she was for what the Jedi had done today. The girl was probably passed out by now, but just in case T’ali’au whispered in her ear.

 

“You were magnificent today. Now rest up and if you find yourself in dark dreams, call for me, and I will be right there with you.”

 

T’ali’au suddenly had the realization that she had never told the girl her name, and in fact did not know the Jedi’s name either.

 

“My name is T’ali’au,” she whispered softly.

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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?"

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Calix Meus Inebrians

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A Jedi shuttle winked out of hyperspace over Scarif and began circling the planet. Both the electronic sensors of the shuttle itself and the Force senses of Jedi Knight Osiral stretched toward the surface, trying to pinpoint the exact origin of the distress signal broadcasting from Jedi Sarna's lost ship. After several orbits, the Knight located the beacon and homed in on the proper stretch of beach. She then performed the first successful landing on the planet by a Jedi in recent history about a hundred meters away from the crash site.

 

As soon as the shuttle touched down, the four apprentices that made up the rest of the shuttle's crew (including Joelle K'smet, with her temporarily inherited canine companion, Tyue) swarmed out and ran toward the wreckage. It had already been days since the other shuttle had gone missing; if Sandy Sarna was still entrapped inside, there was no time to lose!

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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.

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Calix Meus Inebrians

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“Mmmm, we can take the fish home after we harvest the areca nuts.”

 

T’ali’au hugged the bundle of warmth a bit tighter before her eyes fluttered opened and she suddenly realized that whatever dream priority she had no longer mattered. Her scales turned pinkish in embarrassment as she apologized.

 

“Sorry, weird dream, I’m awake now. Most people think that the Blight comes from the corpses of the metal beasts that fell from the sky, but the elders of my elders say that it was a corrupting energy that came from an evil moon. Something Other to the sacred light you used to unbind the Blighthive. Loloto’s energy is meant to sustain all things, but the Blight stills and binds it, so that only it may use it. Even the Ysbridion Stormcallers and their angry sky gods war against the blight and call it unnatural, and they believe that all is permitted. But to answer more directly, yes there are more.”

 

The priestess saw light coming into the chamber and could feel the world breathing in, it was time to be moving again. She did not want to end the warm embrace, it was like holding the sun in her arms, but she needed to get up at some point, and she needed to check on the Toa Paia’s wounds. Reluctantly, she untangled herself to start the day.

 

“I need to check how your body is recovering, but in the meantime you can tell me the story of how Sandy’Sarna became a Jedi.”

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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…”

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Calix Meus Inebrians

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  • 1 month later...

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.

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Calix Meus Inebrians

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  • 2 years later...

“We lost a good Jedi Knight on Mon Calamari.” Her voice was soft. “And for what reason? If you were a better fighter there Leena would you have been able to fight against the hordes of stormtroopers? Could you have saved Mjan? I think not.  You would have died with the rest. Part of our training is to know when not to engage. Mon Calamari will be retaken, I think, though it may be years until the sunlit seas see the light of a democracy.” Though she was not sure that the idea of Democracy carried anything good other than a false sense of security. “We must not concentrate on what might have been Leena.” She frowned and did her best to look into both of the girl’s eyes. “There is a place for you here in the order and you do not need to be a good soldier to stay. Do away with that idea, train to fight so that if you should need to defend and take a life that you can. But do not think that the only place for a Jedi is the front lines.” 

 

She waved towards the viewport where the lines of stars were materializing into a solid sphere of an archipelago world. The large expanse of shallow ocean dotted with sandy beaches and a large crater that seemed to mark the world with a giant ring of mountainous terrain, surrounding a deep pool of dark water. 

 

“There is place enough in this galaxy for a healer and medic. This world will show you why.” 

 

And they had arrived at last to the small world, whose orbit still carried some debris from an ancient battle. Sandy inputted coordinates for where she was sure that the Village of Tali still existed. 

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Calix Meus Inebrians

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T’ali’au hated space travel. She had withheld judgement the first trip, on account of it being her only time in space, but now she was certain of it. The constant coldness of the void played havoc with the natural rhythms of her body, leaving her feeling exhausted and lethargic. It certainly did not help that the events of Dac weighed heavily on her mind. The Jedi there had seemed resigned to defeat, burdened by a despair so heavy that they would rather give up than continue to carry it. The priestess was by no means delusional, she knew that the current did not always go where one wanted, but she still believed that evil could be challenged, that lives could be protected. She hadn’t given up on hope.

 

There was something inside of her, an intuition, a mad musing from the ether, that even though the poison had triumphed at Dac things were not entirely lost. A sourceless yet reassuring comfort.

 

Her thoughts were interrupted by the captain buzzing in over the ship comms, informing her that they had arrived at Scarif and were on descent. The ship buckled and shook as it entered atmo, but otherwise remained intact as it approached. Familiar presences danced along the periphery of T’ali’au’s senses, not just the familiar swirls and eddies of the people of her village, but lights that brought renewed optimism for tomorrow. As the ship approached her village, she saw another already adjacent to it, miraculously not on fire or otherwise destroyed. The Jedi had a reputation among her people for their… questionable piloting skills, having littered the island with the wrecks of their personal craft in the past.

 

Once the ship landed and the ramp extended, T’ali’au froliced out onto the dearly missed beach sands and welcomed the warmth of the sun like an infusion of much needed energy. Like waves upon the shore, yesterday’s path was washed away and with it the pain and sorrow.

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Leena smiled at Sandy, “Thank you Master Sarna. You are right. Of course you are. I am still a Jedi, regardless of what has happened or would have been. If this world needs healing and hope; then I am here for them. I hope my skills will be of more use and less explosive this time.” 
 

The ship shuddered as it broke atmosphere and descended towards the watery world below. Standing, Leena went over to the viewport, a gasp escaping her as she smiled. “It is very beautiful. Much like Mon Cal, only . . . different. The dark presences just do not permeate like they did back on the world I cane from. Someday, I would like to return there, when I am better prepared for the evils that lurk there, and make things right.” Leena steeled herself, turning her attention towards the future and the world that loomed ahead of them outside.

 

As the ship settled, Leena quickly sat to remove her white plastoid boots and rush out to the warm sands outside. Her toes crunching it between them as she paused, letting the tides wash over her feet. A sense of happiness enveloped her. She was where she needed to be and in spite of what had happened, the force was with her. Reaching out, the girl let her worries and cares be swept out with the tides. Each lapping wave carrying with it the warmth of the glow of the force’s comfort and guidance; a warmth she let wash over her soul. Whatever was here, this was where she belonged.

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The sand was lovingly comfortable against her bare feet, the warm grains of sand imparting their heat with every deciding step. She glanced up into the bright sky, shading her pale face with an equally pale hand until she could pick up the dot of an approaching shuttlecraft. She took a deep breath, letting the force flow through her to enhance her senses. The smell of the sea hit her first. Familiar along with the distant draw of the darkside that tugged at the edges of the sunlit coast. The familiar presence in the approaching shuttle brought a grin to her face and Sandy watched until the shuttle had set down firmly, its howling engines finally cutting out before she turned to the rest of the Jedi crew. 

 

“Keep unloading the supplies, Leena, with me. It’s time to meet a very old friend.” 

 

She waved to the cluster of villagers who some of the crew were already conversing with and walked towards the settling shuttle and the woman who stood beside it. In the short swimming outfit that Sandy wore, the red line that marked where she had her own arm replaced by these villagers could be seen. And she used that arm to wave excitedly to the other woman. Who she greeted with a grin.


“T’ali’au! I knew that the force would give us another opportunity to meet. Though I regret that our coming took so long.”

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Calix Meus Inebrians

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Smiling, Leena turned at the sound of her name. Hurrying over to fall in step with Sandy, the young Jedi was just happy to feel a sense of peace about her. The whole place just seemed, peaceful. 

 

The woman Sandy waved at gave Leena pause as she felt an unsettling familiarity carried on the waves of the force. The Mon Cal’s eye went wide as she stared unblinking for several seconds. As soon as Sandy finished speaking Leena opened her mouth to speak. “She wasn’t waiting here for you the whole time Master Sarna,” she whispered. “I think she was . . . no. It couldn’t be. Could it?” With her eyes still focused on Sandy’s friend, Leena spoke a little louder; blurting out without any introduction, “Were you in Mon Cal too when the Sith attacked?”

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T’ali’au couldn’t believe it, not only had Sandy returned, but one of the Jedi from Dac was with her. Finally having the opportunity to see the Jedi directly, she realized that the woman was a Mon Calamari. She must have slipped away during the chaos and swum out the same way that T’ali’au had.

 

“It is so wonderful to see both of you again! Yes, I was on Mon Cal recently, my people sent me to try and enlist the Mon Cal’s aid in dealing with our troubles, but when I had arrived everything was already in chaos. I tried to do what I could, but regretfully I was outmatched. Perhaps in time once the ocean is healed my people can aid yours in saving your world from the Poison.”

 

T’ali’au hugged both of them deeply, both because she was not familiar with the concept of personal space and because they were ridiculously warm and it was fantastic. Seriously, hugging warm blooded species was like being wrapped in a sun baked blanket on a cold day.

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The smell of the sea was heavy on T’ali’au, and Sandy was comforted by its scent as she gratefully accepted the hug. It had been years since she had seen the other woman, but their friendship seemed as fast as they had kept in touch during the intervening years. It was an embarrassment that she had not been back sooner, but though she could likely list a hundred reasons why as an excuse, it was nice to see that her friend bore no grudge. 

 

She released the hug and let a frown cover her face for a moment before she let it slide away. 

 

“I wish that I had been on Mon Calamari, but the force did not let me, and it appears that even if I was there I could not have stopped the grievous losses we incurred. Tell me of your people, how are they faring and the reactor?” She kept a hand, the hand that had been replaced by T’ali’au, on the woman’s shoulder, her emerald eyes looking into the violet expanses of the Falleens. “I brought the help that I could, and from the smell.” She took another breath, basking in the force. “We came before complete disaster. ” She gestured to the sea where the fallen destroyer lay. Its dark presence beckoning to her. 

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Calix Meus Inebrians

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Leena tensed slightly as the woman moved to embrace her. She did not resist, but her mind raced as she tried to comprehend everything. This woman had been on Mon Cal with her. Sandy indicated it had not been a fight that she could win. Maybe she was right. Maybe together they, three Jedi women, could return someday to Mon Cal and right the wrongs wrought there.

 

Offering a smile to T’ali’au Leena stepped back to take in the distant derelict that was apparently the source of their mission; to stop some looming disaster.

 

“What happened out there?” The girl whispered aloud. “This world is so beautiful, so peaceful. How did that thing come to spoil it?”

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  • 2 weeks later...

"The ancestors of my ancestors recorded that once there was a great battle between humans here and other outsiders, and at some point two of the ships were brought down and crashed into our ocean. You know them as Star Destroyers. Within the last few years containment was breached somewhere within at least one of the ships' inner workings, and now poison is being spewed into the ecosystem. Everything here is connected, and if the ships were to deteriorate further it could have wide reaching consequences for the planet. Some villages are already facing food shortages and sickness on account of the poisoned waters.

 

We have a general idea of where the crash site is, but it may be best to use your ship's technology to pinpoint its location and fly there, otherwise we're talking about a long journey through toxic waters."

 

T'ali'au hoped that they could leave immediately, feeling like her own delay in returning had already held them up enough.

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Sandy flagged down one of the flight officers of the light shuttle they had taken who was currently overseeing the relief being unloaded. His grin told her that they were nearly finished and her request was taken with little concern. The shuttle had rudimentary scanners, but based on the reports Sandy had given the Jedi Order a year before, they knew the general area to start the search. He was nice enough to provide them all with diving equipment should they need it, but with both of the other women being aquatic breathers, Sandy Settled on a simple rebreather and an utility belt that she clasped around her thin waist.

 

She climbed aboard, and while the cargo door was kept open, the trio flew in a search grid pattern until the flight officer informed them that they were over the general location of the crashed destroyer. The shuttle paused in its flight pattern and came to a hover over the listless sea. 

 

Sandy looked at the two other women, shrugged, then dove headfirst into the dark ocean.

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Calix Meus Inebrians

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Leena cocked an eyebrow, slightly confused. The ship did not look that old, to be speaking of ancestor’s ancestors. She kept the thought to herself though as she hurried aboard the ship with the others, anxious to get to work.

 

As they neared the hazardous zone, Leena could feel it. Not only could she taste and just plain feel a change in the air as the poisons radiated out into the world around them, she felt it in her soul. There was sickness and death here. An unnatural blemish on the facade of life that needed washing away. 

Slipping out of her white healer’s robes, Leena carefully folded them and placed them on her seat. All she had on now was a white form-fitting second skin body glove; something she had taken to wearing since serving as a medic in the field hospital’s of Coruscant. Robes and scrubs needed changed often, having something on underneath allowed her to do that faster. Taking her sash-like belt and tying it about her waist, Leena assured herself that lightsaber and other gear was carefully affixed. Still. “Wouldn’t do me any good to loose it on the jump now would it.”

 

Taking a rebreather, Leena popped it into her mouth, offering a goofy reassuring smile to the reptilian woman beside her with a thumbs up. Then she stepped to the edge of the ship and looked down. Her fingers tightened on the edge of the doorway into nothingness. Taking a deep breath, Leena silently reminded herself that she was a Jedi, she was here to help. Closing her eyes, the Mon Calamari girl let go and allowed herself to fall forward into a dive.

 

Like a bullet hitting the water, the fishy girl shot through the surface and down into the seawaters below, a wake of bubbles trailing behind her. She felt it even more now. Even though the water was warm, the unnaturalness of the pervading toxins hung on every droplet. It was a cancer that need expunged.

 

Orienting herself, Leena looked around. Seeing Sandy nearby, she paddled over, offering a goofy rebreather filled grin in greeting. It was time to go to work.

 

 

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T'ali'au brought the embrace of Loloto around her as a mystical protection against the toxins. Her presence would not purify the water, that was a job for advanced water filtration systems, but the poison would not pervade her system or cling to her body. She extended the protection of Loloto over the others, as a supplement to their gear. All Falleen could adjust their skin tone, but her people had long ago evolved to add bio luminescence to their patterns and coloration, a silent form of communication while underwater. The priestess lit the way as she led the Jedi to the rumored entry breech. Once inside, it would be up to them to lead the way, since T'ali'au knew nothing about Star Destroyer interior design.

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Sandy took a breath through her rebreather, feeling the escaping air bubbles whisper around her face as she breathed back out through the mask. The water was illuminated, at least for the first dozen meters, by the overhead sun which crashed down onto the warm water, giving it a strange and deceptive feeling of safety. That was until she tapped into the force and the shiver of danger sense spun up her spine like a senderike eel. It was ugly in the waters of Scarif, and that old enemy was lurking in the depths. She took another breath through the rebreather and let the force flow through her. 

 

The radiation leak into the water was severe, but not severe enough to kill a master of the force. Even if she did not believe herself to be one. Another breath and she focused on the force as they swam, filtering away the harmful Ray's from her body until they made their way into the star destroyer. 

 

It was there that she quickly passed the young Mon Calamari her datapad which contained an approximate map of imperial-I class star destroyers from the era. She took a steadying breath and pulled on the force. Pushing a field of protection that surrounded the trio of young women, it was not something she could maintain indefinitely, but it was enough to drive the radiation away from them. She could feel a trickle of sweat forming along her seawet hairline. 

 

"Hurry if you can Leena."

 

Her voice was soft and strained. For such a field was neither her forte or an easy thing to maintain. It was exhausting. 
 

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Calix Meus Inebrians

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The irradiated poisons that pierced the water ground their invisible maws against Leena’s body, pressing in against her very spirit. The adulteration of nature all around Leena were the same as the truths that had been twisted to create the darkness on Mon Cal. It felt similar in so many ways. Both darkness perverted the true nature of things all around her.

 

Feeling the glow of light in her heart that had carried her thus far, Leena exhaled a trail of bubbles, focusing herself on her task at hand as they swam into a jagged tear in the vessel’s side. Up close, it was ginormous. 
 

Taking the datapad, Leena stared at it, trying for several moments to make heads or tails of the numerous pages and diagrams. It was like an x-ray of a great metallic beast that she had never laid eyes on. The pounding that was beginning to throb in her head from the ever constant dark mutations around them made it even harder to focus; that is, until suddely, it subsided.

 

Renewing her focus, Leena swiped through diagram after diagram, her eyes darting back and forth, taking in every detail she could. After several minutes, Leena thought she knew where they were. With a fierce inhalation through the rebreather, Leena took in lung fulls of air and let the living force that still swirled amongst the chaos touch the light she carried within.

 

Pointing deeper into the darkness, light illuminated from the girl’s palm and she set off. Her feet and legs powerfully propelled the fishy girl through the waters, creatures that had taken up residence in the dark appearing and vanishing at the fringes of the conical light she cast before her. Pausing only long enough to see that her comrades were behind her and following, Leena pressed on. Somewhere inside this skeletal frame lay a cancerous demon that needed cleansing and severing.

 

Swimming deeper and deeper, Leena led the group, pausing only once to consult the maps and disgrams, towards the main reactor chambers. She only stopped when a battered set of blastdoors barred their way. Here, even beyond Sandy’s protective bubble, Leena could feel the unnatural cancer of death growing steadily stronger, carried on the waters to the world outside.

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The swim was exhausting, but they steadily made their way through the deep ocean depths towards the reactor module. As she kicked and swam the air in her lungs that passed by her tongue began to taste metallic. The shield was holding, but it could not contain everything. Soon she knew it would be time to change tactics, and to prove her worth as a jedi master. There could be no recovery salvage operations at this depth, and from the absolute wasteland of ocean life that was around them, if it wasn’t for the force their datapads would have been shouting about roentgen a dozen meters back. 

 

She took another deep breath of metallic air and looked at the looming hulk in front of them. It was very obviously a star destroyer, even as broken up and silt covered as it was. They swam by the scattered bulkheads, the crumpled remains of one of the great beasts of the old empire. And she dimly reflected that not everyone in the hull would have been dead when they hit the surface. Had it been a horror? Had it been a swift death? Would they have drowned knowing that they had died for no reason? She shuddered and kicked harder, glad that she had not brought much to wear, for even the depths of the sea were unnaturally warm. 

 

She blinked. 

 

For there in front of them was the huge lettering of the ship’s designation. 

 

KDY-SD-000235

 

She was not sure if there were more numbers or if there was a name after it, for a grey-brown silt had covered most if not all the bulk of the ship. This star destroyer had lain in its grave for over a hundred years, but it was not a silent repose, and as they drew closer to the ship a hissing could be heard. They were not at crush depth for a star destroyer hull, or even a human body, but they could hear the hissing of an exposed source touching the water deep in the hold of the mighty ship. And as they drew closer, the hissing almost became a roar and the silt around them took on a greenish hue. 

 

“Get behind me Leena. Stay there and learn. Your body does not have the power to face this alone. I will need you to use your healing and natural powers.” She looked over to Tali and gave a soft smile. Sandy would need both of their power to accomplish this task. If they did not all perish in the task. And when the Mon Calamari was back with them Sandy took another long breath on her rebreather and let her green eyes flutter closed. “Lend me your aid, as you have it.” Her voice was slurred by the rebreather but she accented it as she drew her bare legs under her and placed her feet upon the corroded metal hull. It was hot to the touch, but she held herself fast. The force would not fail her now. She pulled her lightsabre off the thin belt that circled her bare stomach and ignited the blue blade. The sabre formed a chaos of bubbles as it reacted with the sea water but she held firm. It would last, the battery would last at least an hour. Or at least she hoped. 

 

She opened herself fully to its embrace and let the shields slip away where her feet touched the hull. The pain of it was intense, first the radiant heat of the corrupted metal, then the coursing, pulsating radioactive elements being spit out by the core. Which was behind the subsided section of bulkhead she was standing on. The pressure of the water at this depth slowed her movements and She could feel the numbing tingling of death briefly tug at her emotions before she shunted them away. For radiation, just like blaster bolts, were a source of energy that she could draw from. So she centered herself and accepted the power that bubbled beneath her feet. Instead of resisting it, she drew upon it. 

 

She plunged her lightsabre down into the bulkhead and a blast of heat bubbled from beneath her fingers The molten metal burning the water into steam, and the water itself crashing down as the bulkhead buckled, onto the exposed core. 

 

She channeled the destructive power of the core through her body, gathering it in its pulses. As it sent its DNA destroying energy through her. The tearing death becoming a part of her fully. She had never felt such a power, it was intense and uncontrollable, and wild. It burned into her like nothing she had ever felt. It needed to be channeled, it couldn’t be stored, she could not hold onto such a power, or it would burn her into a husk. And she could feel the deadness in her legs already. 

 

Shakily, she let go of the lightsabre and extended her hands on either side of her, releasing the energy into the sea around them. Bubbles formed on her bare arms, then rapidly began to boil off her. If she could somehow give the energy to Leena and Tali, then perhaps they could heal the world and fix the radiation problem as well. The voice that came from her was guttural, and dying. 

 

“Draw off of me.” 

 

Her mouth made the words as she concentrated. But there was a truth that was beginning to creep into the back of her mind. If she opened her eyes it would be death. Her fingers were burned through to the bone, and likely her feet were beginning to fair the same. But she was channeling it. She was drawing on it. She was fully in the force.

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Leena kicked backwards at Sandy’s command, pushing herself behind the master. She could feel the corrupting nature of the very world around them, twisted and torn asunder from the way nature intended it. As Sandy’s shield faltered and fell, the full weight of the radiating power swept over the young girl, causing her to gasp; drawing a tidal wave of water about the rebreather in her mouth.

 

Allowing the light that she was casting to fade to black left the trio swathed in inky blackness, Leena reached forward to grasp at Sandy’s shoulder. Even now, she could feel the heat radiating upwards through the woman. 
 

And then Sandy’s saber ignited, bathing the area in an otherworldly light that matched the bottomless hunger that ate away at everything.


Leena could feel the radiation eating away at her own body, and at the bodies of her associates; especially Sandy as she allowed the radiation to course through her. Instinctively, Leena drew upon the silvery glow of light that bathed her soul; pushing back against the power that sought a chink in her defenses.

 

Inhaling deeply, Leena spit her rebreather out, the unnaturally warm waters burning her lungs as they drew the oxygen away and into her body. Reaching her free hand out for T’ali’au Leena reached out on the force, drawing on the natural goodness of her companions, of the world around them, and of the reserves of light she carried within. Channelling the slivers and fragments of light together, Leena urged the embers of light to grow until their glow was palpable within her chest. It swelled and grew until her chest was tight.

 

With a direction of thought, Leena pressed the glow of light side energies surging forth from her very soul into Sandy’s rapidly withering form as a wave of healing energies. Their purpose was to bolster and sustain the essence of life in the Jedi Master’s form. Leena felt the energies clashing and battling against the radiation’s power within Sandy. Still, Leena drew forth the light and poured it into the battle until Sandy began to jettison the power of the radiation out of her hands into the boiling water. 
 

Feeling the corrupted power continue to grow about her, Leena fought to force the healing powers of light against it. She drew off the light of whatever she could sense. Leena urged Sandy’s own body to fight back against the death that coursed through her body. From the fish and creatures of the sea, from the underwater plants, the microscopic sea life, the water, the air, the seabed, the sky, if Leena could sense it she drew from it and amplified it’s power before sending forth the healing glow into Sandy.

 

The corrupting power of the radiation washed over Leena’s body as she let it wash past her into the darkness. All that mattered in this moment was the force and the life that it sustained. She was a healer and her fellow Jedi her charges. She would not fail them, not this time.

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