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Felucia - Jedi Temple


handofthrawn

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The worn Naboo craft, The Royalest Royalty Racer, as it had now been dubbed and transponder codes tweaked to display, hummed through space, the usual chatter onboard replaced by a solemness that bordered on the unnatural. With only one Squib aboard, the ordinary background chatter  was absent. The remaining Squib was focused on his task at hand. The sooner he deposited these Jedi, the faster he could get back to his brethren.


The Mantis had taken it upon himself to ensure his gear, weapons, and armor were polished to a sheen and in top form. Interspersed with this preparedness he engaged in numerous ritual meditative exercises;  most of which focused on a smooth flow of combat oriented movements with a variety of weapons. He trained with them live. A whirling dervish of a man, he was covered in sweat as his simple training tunic clung to his Corellian body.

 

Leena had ensured that Oprheon was alright. She offered him encouragement and discussed his communing with the force, helping him understand how to easier reach out and access it more as a second nature. It was a talent that took developing and here amongst the darkness of space was as good a place as any; his newfound pet an excellent source of sensing and targeting for nonviolent humane force applications.  She left him with lessons to study and meditations to practice. The girl could sense the crystal Orpheon had found on Ilum as easily as she could feel the sack of healing crystals she routinely carried. She did not mention it though, everyone was allowed some secrets. She did offer patience and reassurance that when the time was right, she w guide him in the crafting of his own lightsaber. Until that time, she encouraged him to carry his sidearm and trust his fellow force users to intervene should something turn violent. In the back of her mind she hoped against hope that this would not be another Mon Cal in the making. The world certainly had the capability for it.

 

Between training, Leena spent time in quiet meditation, focused on cleansing herself and the ship from any tendrils of darkness. If Felucia was indeed plagued, they would need a bastion to operate from. The aged Naboo royal freighter would serve well enough at first.

 

Finally, an excited squeak and shudder about the ship announced their drop from hyperspace. Leena stood with the others, taking in the view of the world. Aside from a lack of traffic overhead, the world looked as normal as anyone could imagine. ‘Just like Mon Cal,’ she mused darkly to herself.

 

It did not take much time to break into the atmosphere of the planet, their Squib pilot sending encoded transmissions out an all frequency hailing any other Jedi or Rebel relief forces that might already be in the area. there was no sense setting up a second base camp if there was already someplace established.

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The travel-weary ship landed on the ancient stone landing platform outside the crumbling, jungle consumed ruins that were once a Jedi Temple. Before they even landed, Leena’s body was tense. She could feel the tug of the dark side. It was strong here, unnaturally so. as the landing gear creaked and grated beneath the weight of the ship, the trio of force users made ready to disembark. Leena scurried to the ship’s supplies, the medical gear they had intended for Ilum, and quickly found several masks and sets of elbow length sterile gloves. She offered some of both to her companions. The Mantis turned them down in favor of the body-sealed armor he already was wearing.

 

Handing some to Orpheus, Leena donned the bulky filtered mask herself. It made her look more like an insect than she would have preferred, but until they knew what they were dealing with. Advanced personal protective equipment was the order. “We don’t know what this illness is yet Orpheus. Be careful. Felucia is full of life but it also harbors some inherent darkness. Even so, the dark side feels strong here. Guard yourself. Remember the exercise we practiced to clear the dark side. Practice it within, frequently. Even your own mind and body may seek to betray you here. We all must watch out for one another and pull our companions back if the darkness finds a foothold.”

 

As the loading ramp for the ship jolted downward with a bang on the stone beneath, Leena made to descend, stopped by the outstretched hand of her companion and protector. The darkness practically was palpable in the air. Beneath his white robes and armored form, the Corellian frowned. Danger was present in greater percentage. What that danger was, nobody knew and where the dark side was concerned, he took no chances.

 

Striding down the ramp first, his body tense and every sense alert to anything amiss, The Mantis surveyed the empty platform for a full

minute before motioning the others down. He grabbed the Chiss apprentice’s arm as the man passed, leaning close to hiss, “Be on your guard. Things will not always be as they seem.” He let go of Orpheus’ arm and backed away into the overgrowth about the platform; practically evaporating from sight and from sense, even the force, before their eyes. 
 

Leena followed down the ramp, offering Orpheus a half-smile that did little to shield the look of concerned determination in her eyes. Her heart was heavy as she felt on a practical metaphysical level the overpowering death and illness that permeated the world about them.  “Ah my guardian angel,” 

 

“Why don’t you go find Master Sarna and tell her we have arrived. See what she wants from us or where she wants us to set up the Ilum supplies. We even have a pair of bacta tanks. I start unloading here.”

 

Leena turned to go back up the ramp, pausing to call out over her shoulder, finally offering a genuinely warm smile; ”Oh, and Orpheus. May the force be with you.”

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It was a simple matter of using the grav sled to wheel the bulky equipment off the ship and onto the pad. It went even quicker with the Squib’s assistance. As soon as the gear was off, he offered a salute to the Jedi and scurried back up the ramp and blasted back into the sky intent on returning to his fellows across the galaxy.

 

Leena stopped for a moment and stood, surveilling the jungles and path that led to the abandoned temple. Orpheus had traipsed off into the overgrowth; a move that had surprised Leena, but she trusted that the force would guide him. He was new to the ways of the Jedi, but seasoned by life. The Healer knew that he could take care of himself. A world like this would serve as an excellent test for the man. It would force the darkness in everyone to the surface. It was a darkness that would either be confronted and driven back or take ahold and attempt to rule each of them. Leena could only trust that the darkness of the storm that ravaged within her apprentice was not too strong. She would watch him; but there were greater needs on this world. Leena needed to focus on them. The thought troubled her. Orpheus could survive if he trusted in the force.

 

Staring out at the silent jungle, Leena could sense the oddity of it all. Life that ought to teem was silent amongst the overgrowth. It was not the silence of a passing predator or disturbing wind. No, this was something different. It was as if death had dug his icy jagged fingernails into the world and began to shake the life out of it starting with the smallest and frailest first.

 

Shaking her head to clear the encroaching fog of darkness loose, Leena diverted her focus back to the task at hand. She had to get this little bit of gear to the temple. It was as good a place as any to set up shop. The sooner the better. As soon as she heard back from Master Sarna and her team, the Jedi healer could get to work. Keying the grav sled, Leena began to maneuver it down the path towards the sprawling ancient stone complex. 
 

In the undergrowth The Mantis followed along silently, his presence masked within the life and death that swirled about the world. Expertly he moved through the brush, barely disturbing a leaf in his passing. His every sense scanning the surroundings on the waves of the force probing for unforeseen dangers.

 

Once inside the yawning tunnel entrance to the temple, Leena activated several glolamps. Their light pierced the darkness with an eerie glow against the blackness.

 

Pausing, Leena placed her hand against the mossy stone exposed exterior. She could feel the residual radiation of the countless Jedi who had passed through this very doorway, the goodness, the training, the hope. This place was good. 
 

Moving further inwards, Leena was able to locate a control panel and turn on the banks of overhead lights, their warm glow driving back the shadows. Maneuvering her supplies, Leena’s footsteps echoed through the halls as she made her way to what was once a an expansive hall, a cafeteria or a training hall of sorts.  The Mon Cal nodded to herself, this would do.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It did not take Leena long to set up the small amount of supplies she had brought; a pair of bacta tanks and several med beds accompanied by several crates of supplies, bacta patches, infusions and the like. It was a hurried job albeit, but there was much that needed done.
 

As the young Jedi Knight hurried back down the wide hallway towards the landing pad, she wondered where Orpheus had gotten to. She hoped he had found Sandy. The apprentice was ok, she could feel it. At least she hoped so. Having trained under so many masters in the Circle of Healing, she really was not sure how the traditional Master-Apprentice was supposed to go. Maybe such a bond needed more work. She had no doubt the Chiss had the potential to become a great and powerful Jedi. There was just a nagging feeling that concerned her. It was the darkness of the storm Orpheon had mentioned. She could feel it. Leena knew that The Mantis, her shadowy guardian could as well. It was something that if the Jedi-in-Training did not come to terms with, Leena could only prevent for so long. The Jensaarai were even less forgiving than the Jedi on such things.

 

Elsewhere in the sprawling temple complex, the arrival of droids and supplies was beginning to become apparent. Catching the message on her comlink, Leena turned and scurried back into the darkened hallways of the mostly abandoned temple. It did not take 10 minutes to run into a handful of droids with their payload. Quickly, the girl directed them towards her makeshift  ward. Wherever Sandy, Orpheon, and the others were, they’d need this place up and functional. The Mon Cal healer longed to go and help on the front lines. She knew better though. It would have been a brief surge of positivity that would only be drowned out by the tidal surge of darkness. This base, a bastion of light and healing, would allow them to take a stand against this dark menace.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Leena was relieved at the arrival of the strange Jedi-aligned droids. She was not aware the Jedi even had access to such . . . war machines, and it concerned her. Their odd vernacular and discussions amongst themselves though made her ponder. They were not like the faceless marching masses of other droid contingents and security forces she had seen or read about.

 

With the help of the droids, a small but well-stocked bastion of healing was completed by the end of the afternoon. The Jedi and Rebel medics soon began carting in the sick and dying, taking advantage of long forgotten cool dark corridors to stack the dead until they could be buried or burned. Speeders, wheeled carts, pull behind wagons, whatever could be found was utilized to bring in those who could not be treated where they were found. Amidst all the organized chaos, Leena could be found, garbed in a protective suit of white atop her white Jedi Healer robes. 
 

All around her, Leena could feel the force. It roiled like an invisible tempest all around them seeking any crack to wear and break down. In it, the young Healer was a stalwart lighthouse. Innately she broadcast a wave of soothing light all about her, with half her mind concentrated on delving into the source of the mysterious pathogen, the rest of the majority of her mind sought to ease the suffering at hand while feeling out the tendrils of darkness that broke their defenses and driving them back.

 

The girl was not a sin eater or an exorcist, but as a Jedi healer, she was pure of spirit. In that purity lurked an innate aversion to the darkness. It was a trait she had nursed and nurtured since she was a child; one that had been recognized and honed by the Circle of Healers. Here in the furthest reaches of Felucia, Leena was subconsciously grateful, even as she felt the toll wear on her. 
 

Moving from bed to bed, inspecting new arrivals and offering encouraging words to patients and healers alike, Leena sought out any and all force users in their ranks. She encouraged them to stand against the darkness as it pressed in. The more they could spread out the burden, the longer they could work without being overwhelmed. Together, they were stronger.

 

Looking up as she degloved after attending to a particularly sick patient whose boil covered body had begun bursting, Leena paused. Where was her apprentice? She was not used to having one and he had been pushed from her mind in the hustle and bustle. He should have been back a while ago with Master Sarna.

 

Checking her comlink, Leena frowned. No missed messages. She felt the force, it surged darkly. She could practically taste it as it clawed at her consciousness. She was a trained Jedi and she felt the exhaustion. “What have I done?” She pondered aloud with a hint of shock and fear in her voice as she registered just what potential danger she may have sent the untrained Chiss into.

 

Slipping out of her hazardous material getup, Leena rushed for the exit. Flagging down a passing droid who was carting a pile of infected clothing away, Leena explained that she had to go out for a time to find some wayward Jedi. Not having a firm grasp on the force as a mechanized being, the droid confusedly nodded, “roger roger.”  
 

Leaving the temple, Leena found an unattended hoover bike. Reasoning that it was of little use to transport the sick, Leena commandeered it so as to seek out Orpheon and Sandy quicker.

 

Gliding through the jungle at break-neck speed, Leena frowned. She did not particularly enjoy the thrill of dodging death as she zipped amongst the trees and over the undergrowth. The force led her, averting certain fiery crashes several times due to a supernatural reaction or instinct-based twist of the controls. Free of the relative safety of recently erected fortress of light at the temple, Leena felt the full crushing assault of the sickly dark side that permeated everywhere. It took everything she had to keep the bike in one piece and not be overcome by the ethereal forces of evil.

 

Surging forward, Leena’s body tired as time wore on. Charging deeper into the jungles, Leena finally felt it, felt them: Orpheon, Sandy, someone or something girded in the light side standing against the onslaught of evil; even as evil swirled like the embers of a great dark fire all about them.

 

Tearing into the village, the hum of the speeder’s engines broke the silence as the odor of decay reached Leena’s nose. 
 

Slowing to an idle at the village’s abandoned entrance, Leena called out, one hand drifting towards her saber hilt, unsure of what waited within the raging tidal forces of darkness that obscured everything.  “Helllllooooo! Is anyone here? I am a Jedi, here to help. We have a camp set up to treat the sick. I am here to help!”

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Leena sat atop the humming bike. The silence of the jungle behind her as eerily out of place as the seemingly deserted festering death-pot before her. Yet, on the force, glimmering like a beacon of hope amongst the storm-ravaged waves of darkness, she felt Sandy and Orpheon. They were here, somewhere . . . but where?

 

Suddenly, unsolicited by the Jedi Healer a single blood-curdling scream pierced the heavy humid still air. It had come from somewhere in the village. Revving the engine of her speeder bike, Leena shot inwards, only her innate reliance on the force, bred from years of study and dedication, kept her from careening out of control. 
 

The gravitational forces pulled at the Mon Cal’s body as she almost placed the speeder on it’s side coming about a particularly sharp corner; well, sharp at top speed. She nearly put the speeder into the side of a thatched hut as she pulled hard to keep just that from happening. As she looked up, the girl had to forcibly jam on the brakes with all her might, nearly sending the bike toppling end over end in an attempt to avoid crashing into the throng of people that suddenly seemed to have materialized in the village-center.

 

Sitting atop her craft, Leena caught her breath. Her entire focus had been on not crashing as she tried to fid the others while not being consumed by the darkness. For a moment she sat, centering herself in the force as her ragged breathing slowed and she reestablished the mental bulwarks she carried against the call of darkness. Here, those long-established defenses were being put to a great test. Finally stopping to scan the scene before her, Leena’s eyes lit up at the sight of her comrades. “Orpheon! Master Sandy! Wherever have you been?!”  

Leena hopped to the ground, her knees momentarily buckling beneath her before she regained her bearing and lurched forward towards her apprentice. She felt his hesitancy and concern. “This is not natural. The force, the dark side, is at work here. Remember to keep yourself aligned with the light. A Jedi uses their weapons for defense, not attack. These are not our enemies even if they attack us. A greater evil is their unseen puppet-master.” The Mon Cal too felt the urge to keep her weapon close. Usually she had a band of armed soldiers or warriors to keep the minions of evil at bay while she worked to diagnose and mend. It was not so this time. This time it was 3 Jedi amongst the crashing storms of darkness. They would need to rely on one another and the force.

 

Then the boy collapsed. Leena barely shot a glance at her militarily-minded comrades. She knew they would protect her. The healer leapt forward towards the fallen fat one, her hands a blur as they worked to roll his body over and assess what was going on. It did not take long. “Dead.” she spoke aloud, even though it didn’t need said. It was all she could muster before the clawing hands of the others began frantically clawing and scratching at the Mon Cal Jedi, their circle closing in about her. 

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Leena watched with concern as she and her apprentice were separated yet again. Being new at this whole training dynamic she was not sure, but it did not feel quite right. ‘Oh well, at least she has Master Sandy to watch her’ she mused to herself before her attention was swiftly diverted.

 

The plummeting ship that had been her rescue jerked upwards to avoid a collision with oncoming high-standing flora. This sent the healer tumbling backwards into a bulkhead as the shell of the hangar banged shut before her. Any concerns she had were momentarily forgotten as the girl shielded her head with her arms against the forceful tumble.

 

As the ship leveled out higher in the sky, Leena carefully stood up. She used the same bulkhead to now steady herself. Looking around, Leena noted her rescuer, a force-user and a Jedi by the feel of him. She half-smiled at the man as her thoughts drifted from the stranger to her comrades down below. 
 

“Just in the nick of time I’d say. Thanks for the save, uh . . . whoever you might be? Did the Jedi send you to help with the plague? There are two more Jedi back in that village.” Leena pointed back out the hatch where she had boarded haphazardly minutes before. “It might be kinda tight, but I bet you could land this,” Leena glanced about at the heavy visible wear and tear of the vessel as she paused momentarily, fine ship just inside the village perimeter. When I was coming through at breakneck speed I saw what looked like an open area. Probably a spot they were clearing for a couple new huts or something. My friends are down there and need our help. The dark side is strong here and something is very wrong. Will you help me help them so we can help these people? Oh. By the way, my name is Leena Kil, Jedi Healer.” Leena stuck out her hand to offer a brief handshake as she smiled at her fellow Jedi. The force flowed about the young woman like a warm tidal surge of light and energy keeping the encroaching darkness at bay.

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Leena smiled. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance in such a dynamic fashion Jedi Jackson,”  she replied cheerfully sidling alongside the man to get a better view out the viewscreen.

 

The healer nodded at the idea of being ready to deploy. “Sounds like a good plan. Once you join me we’ll go find my apprentice, Orpheon, and Master Sarna. They were in a bit of a sticky spot when you pulled me out. Another light sider would be great. Just make sure you steel yourself against the ravaging tidal surges of darkness that seem to bathe this entire world.”


Leena turned and gingnerly wove her way through the haphazard interior of the ship. It really did look like it had been hauled from a scrapyard. The Healer pondered briefly if Jackson might have had an natural force affinity for the mechanical. How else did he keep this bucket of parts together. 


Reaching out across the tumultuous waves of the force as they churned beneath the grindstone of darkness, Leena felt for her comrades. They were still ok, mostly. Elsewhere, she felt pinpricks of the light that stood as sentinels against the onslaught. She poured the energies of light that bubbled within her chest outwards, strengthening the strands of light throughout the area, their energies mingling to force the darkness back inch by inch.

 

The Jedi tripped only once as the ship’s velocity suddenly changed. She caught herself with a hand on the bulkhead and kept going until she got to the exit.

 

As the ship settled on the ground between the huts and thatched structures, Leena heaved. Her muscled strained as the latch on the exit squealed in rusty resistance before swinging open with a thud against a thatched wall. “Woo. Nothing like cutting it close.” she reflected as she squeezed herself out onto the narrow patch of dirt betwixt the building and the ship.

 

With lightsaber in hand, Leena shimmied along towards the end of the ship. On the ground, the darkness surged even stronger. Catching sight of Orpheon and Sandy, Leena waived Jackson forward, shouting at the group as the child took off into the underbrush. “She is sick. Don’t lose the girl in the jungles!”

 

Scurrying after, Leena did not wait to see if the others followed, only drawing to a sudden stop when it became obvious the girl had vanished and the disembodied voice thundered through the air.

 

Falling into a haphazard defensive position that clearly indicated Leena was more comfortable in a lab or with the force than a lightsaber, the Healer held her deactivated hilt at the ready. with a deep breath, the Mon Cal called out into the shadows, her every word surging with light sunlit power, “Release your hold on these children. You have no quarrel with them. If you seek something, present yourself. We will deal; but this,” she waived her hand back towards the village, “is wrong. I will halt my advance, but so will you.” 
 

An aura of righteous energy hummed about the Jedi. The force sent calming waves out into the immediate area, driving back the darkness and soothing the ravaged world about her in a protective shield of purity.

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Leena sighed. Her shoulders drooped slightly. She had hoped that it would not come to this and that some semblance of an arrangement could be reached to avoid further injury to the world and her inhabitants. Deep down, however; Leena knew the darkness would need purged. That was a task beyond one healer. That was a task for the Jedi as a whole. Regardless, Leena had a duty, one many would consider sacred.

 

Turning to the others, Leena queried for their thoughts. “Destruction of a world can be wrong. Taking children for any sins of their parents is wrong. This world is still lush, but there is a darkness that festers here.  It is not wrong to cut this cancer out. Any ideas on how we can find the children before this darkness takes them eternally?”

 

Leena felt queasy at the thought that this dark entity sought to purge an entire generation of children. If this was a sickness, it had taken root deep. It would not be easy to purge. It would take a coordinated effort. Only once the cancer was removed could true healing begin here. For now, they had to seek out the source of this blight, a sentient source no less; that would make it more difficult. They had to find it, negating as much damage as they could along the way.

 

Wringing her hand about her hilt, Leena’s suctioned hands popped and clapped with the movement. Hesitantly she returned the weapon to her belt. This was a job not for just the Jedi but the living force. Inhaling deeply, Leena turned her focus inward. She reached for a deep seated sense of inner peace and light in an effort to center herself, to feel for the strand of guidance that would call them from within the chaos and guide them forward.

 

Opening her eyes, Leena extended her now free hand before her, light radiating forth like a spotlight into the dark undergrowth. 

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Leena tensed as she felt the twisting writhing darkness of the world about them. As her beam of light traced across the dense jungle before them, it fell on the rot-assembled undead creature. The Jedi Healer paused for a moment as she processed what she was seeing. All about them it seemed as if the darkness was manifesting itself in a strange display of twisted life.

 

Shooting a glance from Sandy to the skeletal worm-bound, Leena realized that the newest member of their group, the gray-in-the-force Jackson had somehow become separated from their group. Leena felt the tinge of stress and frustration welling up inside her chest. Orpheon was here with them. He was her apprentice. She felt an inexplicable sense of duty to see that he was taught and not left to face the darkness alone. Sandy was here as well. Leena knew that of all the Jedi she knew, Master Sarna was one of those he trusted the most to stand against the tidal surge of darkness, lightsaber in hand. Did either of them even know Jackson was here on the planet? Her ship-wielding rescuer did seem to possess an odd ability to be  sensory-depriving in the force. If it was an inner darkness, innate ability, or struggle to find balance, Leena did not know. Regardless, she could not leave their fellow lightsider to face the darkness alone either. Turning from the spectral beast, Leena locked eyes with Sandy and nodded towards Orpheon, “Stay with Master Sarna. Help her as you may.” She spoke to her apprentice before closing her hand and plunging the area about them back into the perpetual shadows of darkness. Turning on her heel, Leena reached out for the sliver of light that she could still feel from Jackson.
 

She felt Orpheon. She felt Sandy. They were close. In the distance, she could feel the base camp back at the temple. Dotted throughout the sea of growing darkness were sparks of light. They just needed nurtured, fueled, and they could grow and drive back this dark entity. Leena did not have the ability to fuel this idea; not alone. First though, she needed to help one of these sparks, Jackson.

 

Feeling the Jedi, Leena set off at a run into the undergrowth. She followed the call of the goodness she felt in him. The force was her guide. She ran. Her footsteps fell millimeters from danger as each footfall landed on a solid root or bare patch that had yet to be infested by the writhing masses of darkside spawn. Like in surgery, erring in any direction could prove lethal. She let the force guide her. Like a lithe fish through the waters, Leena cut a spearpoint of light into the darkness plunging towards the solo apprentice. She did not stop until she came to a halt at his side regarding the single young girl before the massive and decidedly out of place pit.
 

Leena watched as the girl raised her hands. She felt the tidal crash of darkness erupt with that single gesture. The Healer could feel the girl’s raw emotion. She could sympathize. The world falling to chaos around her was akin to when she had watched the beginning of Mon Cal’s fall to darkness. She had been ill-prepared for that. This time, the outcome would be different. Feeling Jackson’s spark of goodness in his chest, Leena fueled it, drawing on the light side within herself. Exponentially they grew until a sphere of goodness seemed to radiate about them both, a shield against the waves of darkness and their tendrilled ilk.   

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Leena felt the surge of darkness as it swarmed against her force-powered barrier of light. She frowned as she felt the steely gray of the nearby apprentice buck at the touch of light. It was something she would want to address, but not here; not now. She kept her focus on keeping the planetary surge of evil at bay. Here she held a pocket of light, one that was was more than just light. It was an energized barrier of the force, of purity, of goodness, light, and power drawn from the living force that bound them all together. 
 

Driving her hands forward, Leena nodded in response to Jackson’s suggestion; pushing the vibrating energized aura further beyond until it enveloped the screaming child at the edge of the pit. The blast of dark energy raging against the light as they ravaged one another in a tearing clash of light and dark, good and bad, right and wrong.

 

Leena pushed against the darkness with each step. She drove the storm of darkness back until she was close enough to the terrified girl. She felt the child’s fear. It was something she had felt many times before in the safety of the medical ward. It was fear of the unknown, the fear of an uncertain future. With a touch of her hand, Leena channeled some of the fiery light side energy from the aura about them into the girl, compassionately overwhelming her delicate systems and with a touch, render her unconscious. It was a Jedi healer trick used to numb the body and mind without the need for medications and their side effects, to place the patient in a state of peace while deeper healing practices could be brought to bear. In this case, it was done so as to pull the girl literally from the brink of danger and death. As the child’s form went limp, Leena wrapped her in her arms, pulling her away from the pit.

 

As Leena’s use of the light was diverted, the darkness surged pushing against her shield and throwing itself fully against that of Jackson’s. Leena moved back away from the hot blast of dark air from the pit, pulling the slack girl with her through the muck. Seeing Sandy and Orpheon materialize from the undergrowth she nodded at the darkness belching pit.  “I have her! Lets end this thing!”
 

 

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Leena knelt, cradling the shaking child against her chest. She looked at the others with a solemn nod of understanding and assurance. It was over, for now. The cancer still lingered and would need carved away. Not today though. Today had enough. Today they had beaten the darkness back.

 

————————————

 

Back at the Temple, Leena moved from bed to bed aiding the assortment of healers and medics who were giving their time to helping nurse the residents of the world back to health. The darkness had taken a toll and many children were left orphaned by the darkness. Had the Republic still existed, they would have stepped in to help ensure that those who had lost everything were given a fighting chance, every t to get back on their feet and their lives moving in a positive direction. As it was, such tasks fell to the goodness of volunteers the galaxy over, some by their time and skills, others through their credit accounts funneled through countless donors and fronts to pay for the aid that could not be acquired freely.

 

As she worked, Leena heard snippets about the ongoing chaos amongst the cosmos. More so, she felt it in her heart. It was like a subtle constant ache that pulsed with the flow of pain and life throughout the galaxy. The Living Force was strong here and it flowed freely in the healer’s heart. She knew she had to help.

 

After seeing that her apprentice had safe transit back to the Jedi Temple, Leena joined a group of rebel sympathizers and departed into the stars to lend aid where it was needed most.

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The customized needle ship, a vessel of Squibian build and designed, somberly sliced through space as it dropped from hyperspace.

 

A brief relay of their intents and purpose was all that was needed to gain access to the growing presence on the world about the Jedi temple. The Squibs were known associates of Leena.

 

Within the hold of their ship, the fallen Jedi lay in splendor as only Squibs could muster. Their glow still present, albeit dull, Leena’s healing crystals were arranged carefully about the downed Jedi. Interspersed between them were treasures and mementos of immeasurable value; to the Squib.

 

As the corvette settled down outside the temple, they were met by a delegation of Jedi, many of them adorned in the white robes of the Circle of Jedi Healers, masters of their craft. With a nod to the Squibs who carefully transferred Leena’s body to an antigrav stretcher, the leader of the group, a wizened Kurtzen male, offered a few soft words of comfort and thanks. The girl’s body was whisked away by the white-clad Jedi into the temple.

 

Inside, Leena’s body was transferred to a state-of-the-art surgical suite. Hushed whispers abound in the room as the expert hands examined the fallen form of the Jedi Knight. After several minutes, a trio of healers left the room.

 

One of these healers returned minutes later with an array of exceptionally large healing crystals. Positioning them about the room, several other healers worked to purify and mend the wound through Leena’s chest. Each meditated in the force, one strengthening the other as the whole room glowed with healing power.

 

As they began, the other two healers had gone throughout the Temple seeking other Jedi, healers or no, Masters, Knights, Apprentices, and Hopefuls, any Jedi whose spirit was dedicated to the light; they were each invited to join the hushed healers in meditating on the force to try and discern it’s will. If they could, the Healers sought to recall Leena’s spirit from the Netherworld of The Force.

 

Silence reigned as each member meditated on the truth of the force, of the Jedi Code, as they bound themselves to one another in a healing aura that swelled out above and beyond the confines of the temple. The powers bolstered the healing of anyone it touched even as it was focused within the room that contained the fallen Jedi Knight.

 

For three days and nights a stream of Jedi made their ways into and out of the room. The most dedicated of them, the Master Healers, and anyone with a dedication to see the ritual through never left. For three days and nights the force radiated. The crystals glowed with the energies that they absorbed and amplified. The room was the focal point of these energies.

 

Very carefully Leena’s wounds closed covered in fresh scar tissue. Moment by moment life seemed to return to the room. The girl’s color flushed as blood began to flow once again through her veins. After three days, the Jedi Knight’s eyelids began to flicker.

 

Slowly, Leena sat up. She had been clothed in a fresh robe, her modesty preserved. Slowly she looked around confused at what she saw. Still, the force flowed strongly about her and it was a warming comfort.

 

Looking down at her chest, Leena saw the pink scar tissue in the center where the Sith’s saber had impaled her. It was soft and tender to the touch; but it was her. It was living. It was real. It was Leena.

 

“Where am I?” she asked cautiously.

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It took several hours of explanation from the healers in attendance, along with a hearty warm meal and a meeting with her Squibian companions before Leena could even begin to grasp what had happened to her on Trualis. Darth Mavanger, The Sith temple, the duel, the rain; it all came back to her in flashes. They were not a chronological screenplay of what had happened. Still, she understood something of the matter.

 

Scraping the remnants of some sort of locally sources stew from her plate, Leena licked the spoon dry before depositing her plate, bowl, and cutlery in a bin in the base’s cafeteria.

 

Walking out into the warm sunlight of Felucia, Leena felt the rays of the planet’s star streaming down through the cracks in the canopy. It brought a smile to her face. She ran a finger along the fresh scar tissue in her chest. It was still sensitive. Exhaling, Leena reached out on the force. She was grateful to be alive again, chosen by the force to continue her work in it’s service, the service of a Jedi Knight. Yet it was different somehow, a prt of her heart had been tinged by the dark blade of the Sith. It was a wound that could not be healed physically, it was a darkness of uncertainty. If she had been doing the right thing, how had she been killed.

 

Leena questioned herself in countless ways as she walked the worn stone perimeter of the temple, the sun pressing down. Had she done something wrong? Was she not in touch with the force? Did something divide her from it, a wedge of unseen darkness? Had she not dedicated herself to her training enough? Should she have studied the forms of lightsaber combat more? Maybe it would have kept her alive? But what about all the lives she had saved? The hours spent pouring over the most forgotten and obscure healing texts from across the galaxy, studying the applications of the force to heal and not destroy.

 

Leena walked, her mind roiling as she pondered what she could have done, should have done; in the battle, in life. She second guessed everything. Even the force that flowed around and through the healer so naturally reflected this. She had looked death in the eye countless times, held the hands of the dead and dying, fought to deny the reaper. Yet here she was, touched by the very thing she stood against. She had been detached, professional, surgical. The blade of the Sith had cut that all away. It had touched her now, deeper than she had ever allowed it too.

 

And as she walked, she thought. She barely looked where she was going beyond where her next foot would fall. She nearly ran into Sandy Sarna, drawing up just short with a breath of surprise. 
 

Oh! Master Sarna!” she stammered. “I’m sorry. I was not paying attention. I, well, nevermind. How are things here?” she asked, desperate to turn her mind and any discussion away from her ravaged mind and hoping the master did not sense the turmoil the girl felt.

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Leena winced. The Jedi Master had not taken her bait. Why should she have? Would Leena have done so? She doubted it, but then again she doubted herself. Maybe she would have been the fool.

 

She did not resist as the slightly older Jedi master pulled her into a tight embrace. Even as she stood there rigid for the moment the act started to soften something within until Leena found herself gingerly, hesitantly, returning the gesture.

 

Glancing to the bench, Leena pondered it a moment. Her muscles ached to move, to work out their restless energy. Being dead for the better part of a week and coming to to find yourself alive and not in some great beyond, life after life, had a strange effect on the sinews of one’s body, not to mention their mind. So placing a hand on the bench, Leena leaned shifting her weight from one foot to the other as she began to speak.

 

She was hesitant at first, but as her tongue got moving she found it was easier to speak, even about the areas where she questioned her judgement. She spoke of the call of the force and of finding herself on Kessel of all places alongside a band of rebels, how she felt a part of them because they were so much like the countless soldiers she had patched up in her short life. Leena told, somewhat sheepishly of agreeing to go along with the rebels to Trualis, wanting to help but being unsure of facing off with the Sith. She told Sandy about going to surface, challenged by Darth Mavanger and of dueling him in the rain outside the crumbling temple. She talked about the battle, what she could remember of it, of not wanting to fight, going so far as to cast her saber away to prove the dark sider’s hubris and foolishness. Through it all, Leena spoke of the force, how she felt it guiding her, protecting her even as the Sith’s blades were repelled by it’s power. And as she spoke, Leena got excited and frustrated. Frustrated that she could not remember. Excited to tell of the power of the Living Force. Still, she fought to hold back her wmotions, because in it all, left unsaid, Leena could not find the words to vocalize how the force could have failed her that day.

 

When she spoke of dying, it was with as little detail as possible; only telling of the dark warrior’s saber being plunged through her chest as she showed Sandy the scar. 
 

Leena spoke of what lay beyond, a serene sense of peace, oblivion, and a strange knowledge of painlessness wrapped in a warm unseen embrace. As she repeated this several times, the girl began to calm, although the knot in her chest remained, unspoken, what had she done wrong? Why had the force failed her?

 

She talked about the strangeness of awakening to her own body, of life flooding back through her deadened limbs, of the peace that accompanied the return; the chaos of it muted and salved by the presence of so many force users and the radiance of the light. She hinted at how she could barely stand to remain in such a warmth, needing to get out, to move; but she stopped short of saying it was because she felt like the force had failed her and somehow it had been her fault. She had done something.

 

And before her prattling rush of words came to cease Leena let slip one question: If the force had failed her and she had failed the force, “Why? Why did I come back? Why did it bring me back?” The girl looked at Sandy, tears welling in her eyes. She did not know and unlike all the other times she did not know when she knew she could count on the force, she did not know where to turn.

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Leena nodded as she listened. A weak smile crossed her face. It felt good to not be rejected when she was feeling such a thing was deserved. The girl felt like a failure, even if Sandy said she wasn’t. Still, the master’s words offered encouragement and Leena let it flood her soul like a soothing balm.

 

At the mention of food, the Mon Cal’s stomach gargled audibly and her hand flew to it instinctively. “Ugh. You will have to excuse me Master Sarna. I just came from the cafeteria. Coming back from the dead really takes it out of a body. But I’ll happily come with you while you eat! Maybe after that I can go find a practice room. I think that my lightsaber skills could use some practice; especially if we have to keep fighting the Sith all over the galaxy.” 
 

If the force had brought her back for a reason, Leena wanted to be sure she’d live to fulfill it. The force would be her guide. She would serve it. She had heard the call of the Sith and did not want to be found wanting again. The force was her ally, her protector; but it gave her the tools. It was up to her to put them into practice.

 

As the duo wandered towards the cafeteria, Leena smiled, her old bubbly self popping through. 

 

“Did you know that the force can absorb lightsaber blows and NOT wind up getting a limb chopped off? she asked excitedly.

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Leena chuckled as she hesitantly made a fist and swung it haphazardly at Sandy’s chest. Suddenly she felt the flow of the force envelope her fist. It was if a thick goo had enveloped her hand and was forcing it to slow. The more she pushed, the harder it seemed to move. “Huh.” she raised an eyebrow in surprise and wonder. It was more an obstacle than a shield, but Leena had no doubt it had it’s uses. She could already see where such a skill would have been of great use in her last skirmish with the darkness. She shuddered as she thought about it. Being struck with a lightsaber , even if the bulk of it’s power had been dissipated in flashes of soft light, was less than pleasant.

 

Leena redirected her focus to Sandy who was still speaking. She did not hear all her words though, the shock of an invisible wave of the force grazing her abdomen catching her off guard.

 

“Well then,” Leena responded pondering the information she had just been shown. “I wish we didn’t need to do all this. Why can’t we just live in peace? We are Jedi after all! I’d rather help the sick and dying. Barring that I guess I’d prefer keeping our guys in the fight.” Leena looked down at the saber hilt clipped to her waist. “We are Jedi, not soldiers. Combat shouldn’t be our first option. If it comes to that, then, like you said, death is the last option of the last option.”  She spoke these last words with an air of confidence as she reassured herself of the same as she spoke.

 

Leena inhaled deeply, drawing the calmness of the air and the temple about them inwards allowing it to nestle within her soul before exuding it out exponentially from her very pores. Even if she was not quite sure of herself, Leena knew the benefits of force meditation. She was a whiz at it. Even as they spoke Leena subconsciously exuded gentle tidal surges of light as she regained her focus on the light. She still had doubts, but Sandy had reminded her of some of the goodness that was the force. Away from combat, in familiar surroundings, Leena felt comfortable. She felt safe.

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Leena pondered the words in silence for a few minutes before she opened her mouth to respond looking from Kadi to Sandy. “Of course you are right. How can I stand for what is right and true if I allow evil to persist unchecked. Still, we cannot fight evil with lighter shades of it. We must remain fully in the light in all that we say and do. That is easier to say than do sometimes. Even well intended actions can have dark outcomes.” she thought about what had happened back on Mon Cal the last time she had been there. “The dark side is a wiley foe and it is against that that we fight. Not against mere mortals.”

 

The girl turned and for the first time since setting out on her walk offered a genuine smile to Kadi. She extended her hand in greeting.  “Hello Miss Kadi, I am Jedi Knight Leena Kil, a member of the Circle of Healers.” Lowering her voice, she whispered, “Does Juro roam the temple freely?” a look of genuine concern flitting across her face at the idea that such a fearsome creature might disturb the patients healing within or the younglings studying by it’s mere presence.

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Leena smiled at the others. Of course the doubts were not gone, but to dwell on them was futile. She had faced the darkness, on Scarif, on Felucia, Coruscant, Mon Cal, and more and never found the force wanting. It had been facing another being, corrupted by the darkness, that had caused her to stumble. She had even thrown her lightsaber aside in hopes of saving him. It had been futile and as much as she could not stand the idea, there was truth to the statements her two fellows were speaking. She, they, had a responsibility as Jedi. Sometimes that responsibility called on them to purge the darkness. Unfortunately, that was rarely pretty and while Leena succeeded in one aspect of it, direct physical combat was another area of that same purging. The same side of the same coin. It was why she carried a lightsaber. She was a Jedi.

 

“I’d like that very much Master Sarna.” She responded at the offer to practice. To try and develop and hone her abilities outside the presence of a clawing darkness would be akin to treating a wound that was not imminently seeking death or to practicing a new technique in the lab so as to better serge her patients. It was something of a familiarity to the Mon Cal, and in that she took some comfort, even as they entered a large training hall and she rolled her deactivated saber hilt in her hand. She looked down at it, her mind flashing back to how she had thrown it away in her battle with Darth Mavanger, how only in the last moment had she activated it. She shook her head, returning her focus to the present. She could not change the past, but she could shape the future by her action now, in the moment.

 

Inhaling deeply, Leena embraced the force. The calm goodness that was multiplied by her fellow Jedi. She let it flow through her, pushing the bulk of her concerns from the forefront of her mind. She flicked the switch on her saber and a teal pillar of light materialized with a energized hiss, it’s power dulled to a training level. The girl focused on the blade itself, holding it at her waist, ready. “Please teach me. I only know the basics.” 
 

She felt the force deep in her soul. It’s purifying energies warmed her and comforted her. She exhaled. The force was her ally. Even if she did not understand it’s will. She was a servant of the force. And still, something lingered. Staring at her saber, Leena knew, hoped, she could do this.

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Leena was surprised at Sandy’s sudden surge forward, recoiling backwards in surprise, her lightsaber cracking with the collision of their two weapons. It was a clash of force-fueled instinct as the girl’s body naturally recalled the learning she had in basic lightsaber combat from earlier in her training. It had been ground into her along with other Jedi younglings during those aspects of their traditionalist Jedi upbringing.

 

Leena heard the master’s words and tried to listen as she renewed her focus to her task at hand: in this case, literally the saber in her hand.

 

Placing her second hand on her hilt, Leena moved to try and deflect the onslaught of blows, stepping backwards with each swing of Sandy’s saber. Her mind raced, trying to calculate the unfolding battle that was before her. She barely could keep up with the flurry of precision strikes, the force was her only saving grace. It whispered to her. It moved with her. Before she could think. Before she could comprehend. It was the force.

 

Leena felt it flowing through her. It was almost like she was on the front lines again, tending the wounded as they were rushed inside their makeshift field hospital. She had to feel, not think. Be in the moment and allow her instinct, training, and the e force to guide her. This was not that though; and with each blow she faltered less, but gave way bit by bit.

 

Then as Sandy swung, her white saber clashed with Leeba and sent it swinging wide in one hand held tightly, leaving the Healer exposed.

 

Leena felt the flow of the force, the surge of it’s power as it urged her along with Sandy’s words. Bringing her free hand up, Leena called upon the force, thickening the very air before her into an invisible form of gelatinous consistency to catch the next blow, flipping over in a backwards somersault , landing out of range of the Jedi Master.

 

Leena’s feet hit the ground and she canted her head to regard Sandy. This was training, but she assumed like the medical field, one trained to the real thing. So she stood for a second before sweeping her hand in a open-handed slicing motion towards Master Sarna’s feet, a surge of telekinetic energy seeking to take her fellow Jedi’s feet from under her.

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Leena offered a warm smile as she embraced Master Sarna. She continued to appreciate the Jedi Master and the wisdom she offered. Clipping her now deactivated saber to her belt, she released her fellow Jedi as she sensed the presence of the grandmaster. 
 

Turning, Leena offered a slight bow of respect for the leader of their order, her warm smile trying, and failing to revert to a stoic appearance. The grin still tugged at the corners of her mouth and played across her eyes. “Grandmaster. It is truly joyous to have your presence among us.” 
 

And as they stood, four bastions of light, Leena frowned. She was not a naturalist, not as in touch with the natural world all about them as Kadi; but she was a healer, a Jedi trained to find the slightest malfeasance of darkness within a body, the ticking time bomb of destruction within a ward of sick and injured. The force flowed through her, the light amplified as it passed from her very pours back out into the world around them in a soft invisible aura of light that sought to strengthen, energize, heal and protect all who were encompassed by it’s soothing waves. Yet buffeting against it was more than the worldly darkness of this place, more than the darkness that irradiated a battlefront hospital fraught with killers, killing, and killed. No, there was something else, something different, something dark, something strange yet vaguely familiar. It was a presence far off that seemed to tug at the doubts she  sought to control. The Healer could feel them as if they were pricked by a pin. They struggled to surge forward, contained by the girl’s confidence amongst her fellows and knowledge knowing she possessed the ability to fight the darkness in medicine and in combat. Yet it was there, it’s tendrils touching the waves of light, a disturbance that rippled across the forests. 
 

And Leena frowned. She nodded along with Kadi. “A darkness ripples in the very air masters. If I may, I will recuse myself to the sick and injured, tend their wounds and stand stalwart against this fog that may seek them harm.” Leena inhaled, her eyes turning to Sandy with a nod as she focused her mind, reaching out to the others, to bolster their own reserves and seeking to push back against the first lapping tidal crests of darkness. 

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Leena scowled as she listened to the Grandmaster as she addressed Sandy. Could she go? Should she go? Something felt off and there were injured that needed tended to. Then the Grandmaster turned to her and spoke. The Jedi’s words were unnerving, almost harsh. The look on her leader’s face concerned Leena and her eyes squinted into a wince as the woman turned her feigned indignation on her. Yet the young healer stood. She had faced down harsher words from that Sith and braved his saber, this paled in comparison and Leena would wether it. Still something felt off about it all.

 

Then, before she could interrupt, the Grandmaster’s face broke, and the jest was revealed. Leena’s eyes grew wide as the Grandmaster spoke. Was this part of the joke too? She did not know and she was hesitant to ask. Thankfully Sandy seemed to confirm the haphazard promotion. 
 

Leena had never imagined making it this far in her path. The desire to bear such a title was not there, she just wanted to help. It was an honor though, and given her doubts, Leena hoped that she would be worthy of such a mantle.

 

The darkness continued to push at the fringes of her senses. Something, somewhere, was off; a cancer seemed to be lurking. Then it surged. In her freshly healed heart, the Healer felt a pain seer suddenly through it as the darkness seemed to pulsated before it was contained by the collective power of the light. It was death. It was something Leena knew all too intimately. She gasped, her wide eyes looking to her three fellow Jedi. 
 

“Th-thank you all,” she stammered, hardly the most fitting first words for a Jedi Master, “But I, death! They need me.” she sputtered, hurrying off with Kira opting to depart at the same moment. She was not going to the infirmary though. Neither was Leena, not anymore. No, this surge of cancerous destruction came from the jungle. It was not the darkness of before, the entity; this felt more malevolent, wonton and evil.

 

Hurrying through the halls of the Temple, Leena spotted a gaggle of blue and green furred squirrels pawing through a pile of what a normal passerby would dismiss as junk. These were her companions; the Squibs. Each was arrayed in a mishmash of gear from bandoliers and helmets to armor and oversized boots, toting everything from ion blasters to heavy blaster pistols, to launchers of the homemade variety. She waved to them as she hurried by them. “Come on. Something’s causing trouble in the jungle!” The Squibs exchanged looks of shock and surprise before bursting into a chittering blur of fur after their friend. They had thought she was dead. Was there anything the Jedi could not do?

 

Hurrying from the Temple, Leena and company found a stable of varying speeders, swoops, and bikes. Leaping upon one herself, the Squibs piled in haphazardly across several others and they set off into the undergrowth unintentionally following a parallel path to that of Kira.
 

Leena pushed the bike as fast as she could, following the surge of pain that radiated like a beacon somewhere ahead. She let the force guide her, slowing slightly so as to emanate a protective guiding aura about her and her companions. There was no sense losing the diminutive space scavengers in the undergrowth. They were a force for good. They were her friends. They were ferocious allies when the time arose.

 

In the distance, smoke rose above the treeline and Leena could tell that was where the sigil of death had been born. Looking up through the smoke, a shuttle could be seen lifting off, flying low across the jungle. Nearby, the Healer could feel Kira and her massive companion. They moved much more stealthily than her own entourage; but at this point, stealth was not what Leena was after. 

 

Another advantage of having Squibian counterparts was their fascination with all things tradable, information, air, tech, gear, whatever it was if they found value in it one could gamble they would find a way to exploit it. As the speeders purred to a pause, several of the squirrelly beings were already directing feeds of the belching smoke and flames coupled with the departing ship back along a hodgepodge array of their own holonet system of receivers and transponders back to their ship and fellow tribesmen. It would not be long before such information was bartered to the rebels and Jedi back at the Temple. The Squibs remaining there scurrying to secure whatever treasures were there and ferreting them and anyone that might barter passage or they feel be in need of their assistance, to be paid back later on some loose ill-defined terms, to safety aboard their eclectic fleet of vessels; a flotilla that looked more like a Ryn convoy than any sort of fighting force. 

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Through the gray haze of heat, humidity,  light and dark sides of the force, amongst the long shadows of the jungled overgrowth, Leena could feel her fellow Jedi and her massive companion moving towards the tear in the energies of the living force where the desecrated village had stood. The ship overhead had been noted and relayed back to Squibian allies. With a wave, Leena urged her companions forward, their craft zipping expertly through the trees guided by the growing aura of the force.
 

As they neared the village, Leena’s hairless brow wrinkled in disgust, she licked her lips. The foul taste of death hung heavy amongst the humidity, soaking the master healer’s white robes as surely as her own sweat. Idling into the village, Leena drew her purring bike alongside Kadi; wary about disturbing the great beast that accompanied her. Leena’s comrades hung back about the fringes of the village, almost superstitiously wary of the place. Even without force affinity, they could taste the darkness of the air. Death hung over this place like a fog.

 

Astride her hovering craft, Leena nodded in agreement with the Jedi Knight. Even here, in the heavy air, the force still swirled. As long as they lived, the light surged still and would not give the darkness that all-consuming victory it desired.
 

Elsewhere about the world, a cloud seemed to descend. The still air about the Jedi seemed to chortle in glee at the arrival of forces of destruction and devastation on the land. This village had been just the first sign of a cancer yet to manifest. They had not stopped it in time and the cancer was now here. Regardless, Leena felt the innate goodness and purity of the natural world subtlety pushing back in it’s own turn. Even here, in the shadow of the dark side, light would, and did, find a way.

 

Leena, usually full of words, did not need to speak. She simply nodded in agreement, drawing the slivers of light inward and radiating them back out as surely and steadily as she breathed; offering a warm encouraging embrace of the soul to her fellow Jedi before she took off.
 

As the acklay and it’s rider made the jungles once again, Leena turned, waving to her companions. In unison , their engines flared back to life. Whatever darkness had done this to this village was, to Leena, a cancer that needed cured or carved. To the Squib it was more simple; this dark presence, these murderers, were but rabid dogs that needed put down. Theirs was not the Jedi way, for while they served alongside Leena, indebted to her and enjoined by the bonds of friendship; these squirrel-folk were of a different stock, good, but different.

 

With a dull throbbing hum, the swoops and speeders tore back into the jungles, arcing a wide path paralleling the naturalist and her steed. Leena could taste the dark path that trailed from the murderous agents of the Sith and their craft. It tainted them, the blood of the innocent crying out in pain at life cut short. From their minutes in the village, the craft was still visible descending into the jungles beyond. They gave chase, targeting where the ship had landed and departed. A dark evil touched the soil there and needed cleansed.

 

The swoops, bikes, and speeders moved quickly through the jungles, over rocky outcroppings and downed trees, swerving and zipping with force-imbued surety. The fluttering white robes of the healer flickered and flipped on the heavy air as it flowed past her, carrying on them an embracing aura of goodness and protection that enveloped the group. 
 

As they neared, the dark presence that advanced through the shadows, Leena slowed in coordination with Kadi’s movements. The Squibs continued circling wide as they moved. The hum of their craft drowned the clearing in a cacophony of noise that purged the silent stillness until they all suddenly fell silent as the Jedi Kida spoke.

 

As Kadi and Juro materialized before the Sith forces, Leena stepped into the edge of the clearing following half a dozen paces behind the Knight. Each step she took towards the clearing, Leena drew upon the force, finding the natural light that radiated from the life-filled world, life that stood in contrast to the endgame of darkness. She drew it in and exponentially radiated it outwards in  calming tidal surges of light and hope that sought to drive back the darkness. The Jedi felt it in her soul and so would other users of light as a meditative stillness befell the clearing, energizing the Jedi and seeking to hamper the forces of darkness. Purity and light would carry this day.

 

Nevertheless, a crack and hiss joined the thrum of Kadi’s saber, Leena adding her own teal hue to the scene.

 

“Please stand down. Let us help you.” she spoke, her voice cheery yet serious. “Else,” Leena inclined her face towards Kadi and her saber before jerking the top of her head towards Juro; a clear indication that she would stand alongside the words spoken by her fellow Jedi. This was the Sith’s chance at a peaceful settlement; but unlike on Trualis, there would be negotiation. The Sith were arriving in force and such a cancer needed amputated before it could spread.

 

Nestled amongst the trees and undergrowth the guerilla-minded Squib kept a watchful eye on the scene from a variety of angles. They held their hodge-podged  array of weapons expertly, each experienced in their usage. All that need happen was for a sign of aggression to come from the Sith forces and the diminutively sly and cunning squirrels would descend on the troopers of the Sith in rabid fashion, allowing the Jedi to handle any mass-murdering force users to be found amidst their ranks.

Edited by Leena Kil
Kadi not Kida.

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The light side surged around Leena, blanketing the battlefield in a crackling field of tingling energy. She focused on the purity that oozed from the life-filled world about them, drawing the inherent goodness forth into full blossom. With saber in hand, Leena let the light side manifest itself on the battlefield. It flowed outwards from the Healer in tidal surges of empowering energies to heighten the awarenesses, the reactions, and perceptions of the forces of light. The living force flowed in and through the Jedi; making her a conduit for the powers of good, a beacon of the force on the field.

 

______________________

 

The battlefield had erupted in a cacophony of sounds as the Jedi’s squirrel-like companions erupted from the undergrowth to engage the Sith troopers. Armor and weapons did not matter to them, their array of weapons spit energized bolts, explosions, fire, and destruction as they ducked and wove through the dense foliage engaging their foes, these would be oppressors. They had seen first hand the justice and judgement these jack-booted terror goons brought with them and they wanted nothing to do with it.

 

______________________

 

The roars of the creatures as they faced off signaled that this pawn of darkness had no intentions of standing down. The tendril of shadow that bound the armored witch to the raging rancor trembled in the healer’s vision. It’s corrupting power an abomination in the force that could not be left to stand unchallenged.

 

A surge of dark rage and painful suffering buffeted the Jedi’s mind as it sprung forth from the witch. It clawed at the Jedi Master’s psyche, slowed and weakened by the aura of light that flowed about the battlefield . Leena felt it. It tugged at the deepest recesses of her mind, trying to draw forth the most secreted away of pains the Jedi held in her chest. In a flash, Leena could practically feel Darth Mavanger’s blade piercing through her body, the life leaving her form. She could feel the emotional turmoil of pain and death as if it were called forth from the bitterness of the past. Such emotions sought to overwhelm the Jedi and sap her reserves of life and energy. It would have prevailed had it not been for the free flow of living energies if the force that grew exponentially as it passed from the Jedi back into the world. These energies met and matched the craving darkness and stood in where mete mortal could not.

 

Leena threw herself into holding off the buffeting waves of dark energy, drawing from the light side energies of the battlefield to push back at the surge of darkness. With the Sith’s attention split three ways, between the mind-linked rancor, the surge of energy-hungering darkness, and Kadi’s charge, it was simple enough to do more than push back. Forcing the visceral emotional response the darkness sought to elicit back inwards, soothed by the comforting waves of the force that exposed the evils to the light of truth, Leena pressed back. She had died; but yet, she lived. The force had willed it so. She had seen and tasted death and destruction, and yet knew that such horrors of war served a purpose as much as the duel they now engaged in. They would stop the darkness in it’s tracks and carry forth light and peace and freedom to all that these Sith sought to oppress and destroy.

 

The light side surged. Leena surveyed the unfolding chaos like a frontline surgeon assessing the wounds of a patient fresh from the battlefield. The cancerous growth of the dark side shone like a grotesque interloper, personified by the armored witch, her tendrils of death lancing out in every direction seeking a chokehold with which to grow and corrupt and destroy. With deft movements. Leena circled the edge of the clearing, keeping her eye on the clashing weapons of her friend and foe and giving the beasts and combatants plenty of space. Calling the light like a scalpel, Leena directed it’s healing power in a surgical strike towards the dark shadowy practitioner at a 90 degree angle from where Kadi sought to engage the servant of evil. If they were going to purge the darkness from this witch’s soul, she would need subdued. The light side energies sought to bypass the witch’s armored form and to render her sightless, her eyes unfocused and her mind no longer processing the images it received. If she could not see, the fight would be over quickly and with much less bloodshed. The ravenous rancor could be sent back to his own, the troopers captured that they might not bring more destruction; taught the error of their ways, and the witch, she could be subdued so that she might not spew the hatreds of the Sith. If all went well, they could reclaim her shattered soul from the skeletal claw of darkness.

 

The light side was alive, touching the hearts and minds of the Squib, of the lush world about them, Kadi and Juro, Leena, and whatever slivers of light could be found in the troopers and the witch. It sought to blossom these glimmers of light and truth like flowers, blooming and growing as surely as the jungles around them. Where there was light, there could be no darkness; for the light would cast out the darkness.

 

((1))

 

 ((-Continuation of battle meditation, bathing the battlefield in light side energies and seeking to drive back the dark side, empowering the forces of good and giving them an edge in combat (them being Kadi and Juro. All effects for the NPCs are just flavorful).

-Was buffeted by Quela’s mental/dark side assault drawing up painful memories and emotions, but used the distraction of multiple focus points to press back in an attempt to blind Quela.

-Drew on the light side and sought to blossom it in an attempt to weaken the dark side further and disrupt Quela’s connection to it and her connection to the rancor.))

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The living force was a calm current, nearly an undetectable power, that surged beneath the surface even as the dark side raged in a maelstrom overhead. Instead of thrashing about ineffectually, the light side surged where it was needed, a riptide of life energies that went where it was needed. At the center of it, Leena poured herself into this tidal force against the explosion of emotions and dark side energies that spewed forth from the witch.

 

The force exuded from the girl’s pores, light side energies blanketing the area and lashing against the dark energies that sought to overwhelm the area. It tingled, it twinged, reacting to the natural bodily tendencies of the combatants and the world around them. Nothing was hidden from the will of the living force. As such, Leena forsaw, if but by a moment, the lobbed gas grenade spewing forth it’s caustic irritants as the winds picked up in an unnatural form, whipping the air about them, carrying the particulates of the grenades in a dust devil of burning mucus-inducing suffering; rustling the leaves in a chaotic audible haze of noise about the clearing.

 

Leena braced herself against the onslaught of wind and suffering; her eyes began to water, her vision blurring as tears flooded her eyes and mucus and snot ran from her nostrils. Sensing the incoming weapon, the Mon Cal instinctively inhaled before it got to her. Able to hold her breath for an extended period of time, the Mon Cal Jedi’s lungs remained protected.

 

Even as she struggled to see, the force was the healer’s ally. She was but a vessel for it’s will and where her body failed, the force would carry the day. She blinked her eyes heavily, squeezing her eyes shut against the onslaught even as the wind whipped the particulates away, blowing more in a fresh and constant attack. With her eyes closed, they still burned; but Leena ignored it as she gave herself over entirely to the force. Leena relied entirely on it’s will and guidance, remembering the lessons of her youth, pulling them to the forefront of her mind against the dark memories that still lingered from the Sith’s last attack. This was but a training exercise with higher stakes.
 

She sensed the incoming blade before it struck. Sheathed in a cloak of darkness as it snaked towards the gassed healer, the force warned of the attack. With an instinctual force-imbued leap Leena arced over backwards in a somersaulting motion, bypassing Kadi midair as if they were acrobats working in tandem. The Sith’s atomic-honed weapon trailed a line of blood down the Jedi’s leg as it carved a trail through her skin until it caught on the healer’s trooper boot tugging at the weapon as she moved.

 

Landing in a crouch, Leena kept her blade-clutched hand angled towards the Sith witch hoping to tangle it defensively if needed. Blood dribbled from the cut in her leg. The Jedi Master’s free hand touched the soft soil of Felucia, allowing the force to flow up and through her. In an instant, Leena directing it outward in a 360 degree arc of telekinetic power that rippled through the air in an outward tidal wave of power that toppled nearby trees careening them into the forest just before Kadi landed, their roots arcing upwards into the air. 

 

((2))

 

((Leena continued to pour herself into the force, empowering and growing the light side.

Sensing the incoming grenade Leena held her breath. Her eyes watered and she closed her eyes and gave herself over to the force, leaping backwards to try and avoid the spear attack. It traced a brushing injury down Leena’s leg catching on the girl’s boot.

Landing, Leena sent a force shockwave out in every direction.))

Edited by Leena Kil
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Standing from her crouch, Leena felt her leg pulse gently. The wound reminded her that she too was mortal, but a servant of the power that grew in and around her. The light and darkness crashed together as the Sith launched a final desperate attempt. Her powers called forth the intricacies of death, manipulating them beyond that which nature intended crafting it into a whirlwind of destruction.

 

Even as the winds tore about, growing in power, Leena opened her eyes to a squint. The wind tore at her robes, pulling the particulates of the gas away from her before they could take grasp. Her eyes still burned as tears blanketed her lashes, but they protected her from the whipping assault of the wind’s cargo. She could see, some; but even in the growing cacophony of the force maelstrom that grew around them, she could feel the dark mistress. The evil presence drew her like a wound or cancer on a patient to a point that needed her healing attention. The dark vortex about the woman’s heart, a cage that wailed it’s presence with vulgar pride to the world shone like a beacon of devilish intent.

 

Feeling the force, Leena followed it’s guiding. Deactivating her saber, the girl allowed the winds to sweep her from her feet. Tucking her arms to her side as she was carried up on the swirling airs of the twister, Leena pointed herself, straight and arrow like. It was if she was diving into the training pool from on high again, only in reverse. The gassy particles whipped by her, repelled by a protective layer of light side energies that sparked and crackled with each minuscule impact. The force was her ally and her guide. She went where it directed and followed as it called. Here, in this moment, she gave herself completely over to it’s power. The healer’s body twisted and arced with the wind, the slightest movements directing her lithe swimmer’s body along the currents of the wind. Lightning cracked and spewed about the girl. She clenched her eyes, letting the force be her guide.

 

Left and right, up and down, the more powerful the maelstrom became, the more the living energies of the force surged, for they were present in both life and in death, even the unnatural deaths called and honed into an unnatural weapon by the dark side. The more the light side grew, the greater precision Leena had. A bolt of lightning seared through the air, igniting the woman’s sleeve in a burst of superheated air. Leena winced as the force buffeted some of the pain of the blow, a surge of adrenaline dulling another edge of the pain. Still, it burnt her arm, charring her outer layers of fatty fishy skin into a crisp, smoke trailing behind her as her sleeve smoked; the flames extinguished by the winds.

 

Angling herself towards the ground, Leena rolled, coming to a standing stop behind the Sith sorceress her momentum timed with the force to put her just out of saber’s range and the onslaught of Kadi and Juro. With her deactivated saber clutched in her burnt arm, hanging at her side. Leena lashed out with her free hand, forcing it forwards towards the Sith with a casting outstretched upward palm. She drew upon the true neutrality of life and death, the power of the living force empowered by the witch’s own doing, the light side glowing and cracking alongside each bolt of lightning as it directed their paths away from certain doom. From her outstretched fingers careened a wedge of force power, pure white in intensity as it carved it’s way towards the Sith’s tattered and withered soul, ensnared by the evil of the dark side and false teachings of the false prophets of the darkness. It sought to sever the hold the corruption had on the  Sith’s heart and soul, to disconnect her from her magical attachment to the force until she could be purified of the noose about her conscious.

 

((3))

 

((Buffeted by the winds and struck by lightning (burning her arm, but buffeted by the force and adrenaline) as she flew through the air guided by the ever growing power of the living force, Leena rolled to a stop behind Qaela and lashed out with her good arm with a wedge of pure light side power in an effort to try and severe Qaela’s connection to and ability to use the force.))

 

((Great duel both of you. Travis, you make an excellent opponent. Thank you!!))

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The living force surged through the Jedi Healer as her will and it’s own coalesced as one. The dark storm that ravaged overhead suddenly lessened in intensity as the healer struck. The living force glowed about the battlefield, illuminating the lives of Jedi, man, beast, and plant; driving back the darkness in it’s path forwards and outwards

 

The power of Leena’s attack struck the Sith with full intensity, bypassing her armor and defenses as it drove it’s way through metals and flesh without hindrance or damage until it struck at the root of the problem: the evil that was intertwined about the witch’s heart. It struck with the power of a hammer, driving like a nail against the darkness until the darkness shattered sending a shockwave of dark energy echoing the battlefield; hurling Leena, Kadi, and the acklay backwards to the ground.

 

The witch, at the center of the vortex of light, collapsed. The metaphysical power that sought to purge her soul became physical; the tendrils of energized light chased after the darkness as it sought to flee flooding the wake of darkness with a warm glow of comfort and life, forcing the storm up and away from the combat that was beginning to wane all about them. 
 

The explosive internal battle of the light and dark sides of the force was powerful enough that it tossed Qaela through the air, above the trees and into the sky, only for her body tumble haplessly back towards the ground. The entire time, the living force surged and purged, seeking any crevice that the darkness might hide in and exposing it’s content to the blazing light. Even the Sith’s skin glowed, piercing through the cracks in her armor, as she rushed past limbs and leaves, slowing slightly as she became entangled in the swinging vines and brush, coming to a stop just before she struck the ground, cradled and entwined by the foliage of the planet. Her glowing form would not extinguish back to normal until the last vestiges of darkness were cast out. The force raced through the slack Sith’s form, tracing along nerves and blood vessels, bones and muscles, tissues and tendons. Not a cell would be left untouched. Darkness was removed and the bit of light that could be found bolstered. The healing energies of the Jedi rejuvenating the woman’s decrepit flesh and worn body erasing years of dark side drainage in moments.

 

When it was done, the light that radiated from Qaela’s skin would fade, leaving her feeling refreshed and confused. Her life was returned to her; but her mastery of the force was gone. The world about her would be as unto any other, a place of life and wonder with an odd sense of something out of place in the jungles of Felucia. Gone would be her connection and control of the force, her manipulations of and by the dark side severed by the light side of the force. As with much of medicine, the final outcome rested with the will and strength of the patient. After three-ish days, the shunt that prevented the Sith from touching the force would dissolve, as would the healing it offered. Only by a continuation of will by Qaela herself, and a rejection of the darkness, would the healing become permanent. Similarly, only by her own mental block would the Nightsister’s hampering of the force continue beyond. It was all Leena could do to save a life that many would have ended.

 

The healer had little more time to concern herself with the Sith as the attack was no longer pressed. She had her friend and ally to think of and the remnants of the storm driven high above to contain as it’s fuel source was extinguished. 

 

Even as the living force swirled about her, churning into a froth of tidal energy as it radiated through and from the Jedi, Leena turned her laser scalpel focus back to the chaos at hand. The Sith’s powers had ravaged the environment and even as her arm ached against the scorch of lightning, so too did her comrade-in-arms require aid. As the surge of light side energies ebbed from their onslaught, Leena gently pressed them, echoes of calmness radiating about the clearing. She turned, looking for Kadi and warily eying the green-shelled acklay from a distance. 


“We are alive and the threat has passed my friend. Come, let me aid you in your healing.” she offered, reattaching her saber to her belt, sensing in the distance that though their fight may be over, the onslaught of darkness was not.  She reached  down to pick up the fallen spear of the witch, eying it momentarily before stabbing it into the ground.  That could be dealt with in a moment; but for now, it was not a threat. They would need to be at their best to help the locals, contain any captured foes, and combat any other Sith that might present themselves a threat. “I suspect that the Mistress of Darkness will no longer be a threat to us for a time. I hope that this battle will be a turning point in her life and that she might begin coming back to the light.”
 

The storm clouds tumbled and surged overhead, their power torn from them by the natural wind currents of the planet; their lightning unable to reach the ground as it rose higher and higher, weakening in the light of the sun. 


In the dense undergrowth all about them, the Squibian allies of the healer had an advantage. Small and lithe they could slip over and under vines, brush, and branches in the shadowy environment. Outnumbered and outgunned the squirrelly beings engaged in a sort of hit and fade style of guerilla warfare, drawing the Sith forces deeper into the jungles before vanishing and attacking from another angle and vantage point. In groups of twos and threes, the worked tirelessly, descending on the soldiers of the Sith Empire as soon as they fell from view of their comrades. Those that surrendered were quickly bound and stripped of their weapons. Those that did not were extinguished in balls of explosive flame, blaster fire, and gnawing teeth.  Not all of the Squibs faired well. Some of their own succumbed to the assaults of the enemy. Bolstered by their Jedi comrades and the will of the force as it surged in what they could only describe as ‘magic’, the Squibian forces carried the day. As the storm overhead dissipated, they marched a tired and worn group of Sith soldiers, their hands bound about their heads, into the clearing. Many of the diminutive creatures sported a variety of gear and weapons striped from their prisoners. All about them was an aura of gritty confidence. The day was not over, but for now, they had won. What these w had was by all rights their to claim, their lives, the Squibs’ to barter with. It was not the Jedi way; but Leena knew better than to question it. They were not Jedi and she was not a Squib. Yet they remained stalwart allies.

 

 

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Leena offered a brief warm smile towards Kadi, “I am sorry that you feel that way. Sometimes to live is a fate worse than death. To live and to die is the will of the force. Regardless, I sensed some good in the dark sorceress. I touched it, amplified it. She cannot use the darkness anymore. Somehow I think the Sith will find her more a liability than an asset now. Regardless, she has been given the chance we all hope for when we stumble, a chance to be be forgiven. Her fate is in the hands of the force. You will have to suffice yourself with that. I will not stoop to the level of our enemy. Ours is the cause of righteousness. Let us not taint it. Let me tend to your wounds” 

 

As she spoke, Leena moved closer to the Jedi, reaching out a cool hand to guide the healing waves of the force as she probed the naturalist’s wounds and urged her body to begin anew purging any foreign contaminants and beginning to knit themselves back together at an accelerated rate.

 

“Many of the Sith’s soldiers, some pressed into service, some not knowing any different life, and others controlled by fear and lies, have been captured. If you would please escort them back to the Temple. We can yet help them as well. Their fates will be determined by the authorities. I will go seek our foe. If she can be found, she too will be brought to stand trial.” she spoke as she mended the worst of Kadi’s injuries so as to allow her and her acklay companion to move freely. When she was finished, she offered a hand to Kadi in friendship before nodding to her Squibian companions. They would not part with their charges readily; but would help ensure that they remained relatively unharmed. To negotiate with them was for the Alliance. Right now, other darknesses needed the Healer’s attention.

 

Setting off into the jungle, Leena began to search for Qaela, reaching out on the waves of the living force, finding good where it might glimmer and amplifying it; surrounding herself in light side energies and forcing the darkness back wherever she moved.

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The Sith were falling back. The captives were delivered to holding cells at the Jedi Temple to be processed and transported where they would best be of service and could be redeemed. The Squibs had pocketed a decent sum in exchange for the troops and a bulk of their equipment. They then returned to the forest. Their friend had died once on their watch. They were not keen on it happening again.

 

Leena, meanwhile, set about urging the life energies of the world all around her to surge and blossom with light. Energies radiated all about her as she walked and she opened her mind up to the force, letting it flow unhindered through her body, cleansing any taints of darkness the battle may have bestowed upon her. Her mind turned to Kadi and her comments. She prayed that the force would envelope Kadi in it’s warm embrace and show her the truth of the greater will of the cosmic force. Walking through the overgrowth, Leena sang softly to herself, reciting ballads of Jedi-gone-by and sing-song lessons on the force from her childhood. All the while she made her way closer and closer to the village that had been decimated by the forces of evil.

 

She moved freely, her steps were not hidden, and her way not a secret. As she moved, the force moved too flowing out in soft waves of purity, pushing back against the darkness, both natural and unnatural, wrought upon the lands. She drove the darkness back by the power of the force and her melodious voice. Overhead the storm was dissipating and the light of the sun shone down. It trickled through the dense foliage and peppered the ground in patterns of light and hues of green. It was warm and cheerful and bright.

 

Leena’s voice suddenly tapered off as she exited the jungle into the clearing that held the devastated village. The smell of burning timbers and homes was still present on the air. The press of death hung low even as the light of the day pierced and weakened it. All about the village there was stillness. It was unnatural. 
 

Steeling herself against the dark shadows that radiated about this place, Leena set her shoulders. Taking a deep breath, she pushed the force outwards, cleansing crashes of healing energy pressing into the village. Death was here but it did not need to scar this place. Stepping inward, Leena moved further from the jungles and into the devastation. She focused on the force, the light, blanketing the area in a soft fog that billowed outwards from her tattered robes; healing energies mixed with the humid air and the power of the light.

 

And as she walked, Leena heard something. Making her way towards the village center, she found them. Villagers who had been away at the time of the Sith incursion had made their way home. Their pain was real. Their whole worlds were lost. Yet here they were, trying to piece it all together. They were moving bodies, preparing them for their death rituals, patching the desecrated village back together so they could start recreating some sort of life.

 

Leena did not have to say a word. The weight of sadness in the force said it all. Wordlessly she picked up a shovel and began to dig. After about a half hour, Squibs began materializing from the woods. Over the day more came as did villagers from nearby settlements. They all set about helping. Soft words of sympathy were shared, a security perimeter set up, food shared. Even the squirrel-folk were noticeably silent. There was no way to undo what evils had been done; however, there was nothing that stopped them from trying to do what was right by these people moving forward.

 

Here, even amongst death, the seeds of life lived and swirled with energy waiting to boost forth into glorious blooms of light and life.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Leena worked tirelessly alongside the locals, volunteers, rebels, and the few Jedi who materialized in the decimated village. First honor was given the dead, burials en masse commenced. Those less effected stepped in to provide food and arrange shelter and supplies for the devastated community. The squibs scurried about lending their aid as they might; their great troves of oddities and randomness a welcome bit of reprieve, and relief when they brought in a hydrostatic powered luminosity fuel cell generator that allowed for work late into the night.

 

Through it all, Leena kept working; her elongated brow glistening beneath the heat and humidity. She was abnormally quiet; like a sail, she was quietest when working the hardest.

 

The labor continued for days. Leena made her place amongst the devastated people, working hard, healing where she could, rejuvenating spirits as she may. Through it all she remembered the dark presence that had preceded the invasion. She pondered at the possibility of connections and of the sudden Sith withdrawal. She wondered if the darkness had any similarity to that which had preceded the Sith devastation of Mon Cal. So as she worked, Leena collected samples where she may, some from the dead, more vials from the living, and still more from the world all about them. She might not be a botanist; but the healer knew enough to know that even these living beings carried with them the scars of that darkness that had washed over them.

 

Days later, with the village stumbling back to it’s feet, Leena left the jungle-shrouded palisades and made her way back towards the temple. There was plenty of aid still pouring in, with more and more relief workers and Jedi arriving daily. 
 

__________________
 

Along with a few of her diminutive furred companions, Leena set off in a supply speeder back to the temple. Arriving at the outskirts of the temple, she was tired, dirty, and stiff from the ride. Gingerly hopping to the ground, the girl winced momentarily.

 

The burns on her arm had begun healing nicely, abnormally quickly. The trick and trait of a healer. Still, her robes were tattered and their once pure white dulled to grays, browns, and earthen tones. Still, back here amongst the Jedi, carrying the light to the world, energized the deepest core of the Master healer. She smiled cheerfully even as her eyes drooped with exhaustion. Making her way towards and into the temple, Leena noticed her fellow combatant, Kadi slumped over taken by the calming embrace of sleep. The force could empower the tired and weary, but even Leena knew the best fix for an exhausted mind and body was natural rest. With a gentle push of calm, Leena urged the force towards her comrade, willing a sense of peace to accompany her into the world of dreams and chase out any remnants of the darkness that could plague Kadi’s troubled mind.

 

Pressing onwards, Leena felt the swirling emotions of doubt and negativity. She stopped, her eyes drawn to the center of the energies, a green skinned Jedi in waiting. Like a surgeon drawn to pain and wounds, the girl was drawn to the chaos of the emotions. They were ones she had felt recently as well. Ones she had been forced to reckon with as well.

 

Diverting her path, Leena slipped the parcel of samples from her shoulder handing them off to the squibs who were with her requesting they deliver them within the temple before carrying on their way. Leena made her way to the Jedi. She had seen him before; though their age differences had prevented them from much training together. Still, as a lifelong Jedi, she recognized one of her own. 
 

Leena stooped to offer a hand up and smiled softly. “Hello friend, I felt your emotions. Are you ok?”

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