Today started with radical changes. Though nothing was foreshadowing trouble. Having completed my standard morning meditation, which had already become a habit, and having disassembled and reassembled my lightsaber, I thought I'd spend the day trying to figure out what exactly to do with the crystal. And besides — I had Mandalorian armor that would be good to rework into a lightsaber hilt... I remembered a rumor floating around some fan community that beskars, allegedly, didn't react with the Force at all. And the metal wasn't from this world in the first place... What nonsense? Beskar could deflect a lightsaber blade. And that it doesn't react with the Force... Rubbish. Sure, it'd be good to have a master who works with beskar — I think the Mandalorians had some special name for such smiths. Or not? Honestly, I didn't care about this planet's culture for now.
Before getting into diplomacy to survive, you first had to become a good warrior. Why? Because no matter how great a diplomat you were — most sentients of the late Republic era, and the nation was already in the phase of falling into the abyss, only understood strength. And they used force almost always. It was better to develop diplomacy a bit later. So right now, the issue of new crystals for my lightsaber occupied me. Kuro was right when she said my Pontite was no longer cutting it. And it was time to replace it with something else. But I decided not just to change the crystal, but to totally rework the hilt. Make it more practical, you know. Plus beskar, to make that very hilt from. Why? Insurance. There's this wonderful move — Sun Djem. Besides my favorite styles, like my Soresu, though lately I'd lean toward Ataru — it's better to finish a fight quickly with attacks than to dance around defending for minutes... Something like that.
So anyway, besides the favorite fencing styles, there were special moves that could be used during the fencing itself. One such move for me, back when I was a youngling and mainly practiced Soresu, was Shiak. Shiak was a thrust, a fast and merciless finishing blow. My fighting style back then resembled methodical defense, which I'd turn into a fatal strike when the opportunity arose. I couldn't count how many times I caught Cin Drallig with Shiak. Over time, after becoming a Padawan, my style steadily shifted toward Ataru. There I started practicing more slashing strikes coming out of, say, a body rotation, to use the terms from GFFA — Shun (Author's note — a 360-degree spin, sword in one hand). There was also Jung ma, the same thing but with a two-handed grip. I'd memorized all seven fencing styles, in theory ±, but these moves... Anyway, when I remember the names, I'll write them down. Because everything in the draft chapters is described in general terms, and I'm too lazy to dig into the fencing draft and re-read the description of "what he did in the Jedi language" every time...
Though that didn't rid me of Soresu traits in battle, nor of my favorite Shiak. So what exactly was Sun Djem? It was a special move aimed at destroying the enemy's weapon. The Jedi Code commanded you to disarm, not kill... Except I'd been a hypocritical idiot from the very start, considering myself someone who fought for good without fear or reproach. After all, when I got into a fight, the first thing I did was turn my enemy, a sentient being, into kebab. And I kept doing it with the rest. Without any doubt or remorse. But on the other hand, my master was right. There was no point in leaving your enemies alive at your back. Only dead... Though killing was the least effective way to build a bright future. Or was that the remnants of the good-guy personality talking? In any case, I'd only refrain from killing when the enemy was supposed to act according to my plan. And what was my plan?
I didn't know yet... The death of Mila first, and then my master, made me reconsider a lot. And what was I to do? What could I do? I couldn't stop anymore... I couldn't stop being a Jedi — a shitty one or not, it didn't matter. I was a Jedi; that couldn't be changed. All that was left... was to become a much better Jedi, based on my new worldview. I'd read comics, watched movies and shows, played games... Books, well, there was a bit of a snag there. So I was a bit fuzzy on some events described in books... In the literal sense, I couldn't remember everything. But even what I knew was enough to find the right answer... No, whatever answer I found, it would only be right for me and some other part of this Galaxy's sentient beings. Everyone else would oppose us, having their own plans, ambitions, and dreams... But the trick wasn't to find the perfect answer to questions about how the world worked. The trick was to make everyone accept your answer. And those who didn't accept it — either turn them into kebab or force them to accept it. Through diplomacy, strength — it didn't matter.
I just had to figure it out. What was that answer? What did I want from the Galaxy? And was it really so important for me to charge ahead with the grace of an elephant? After all, I wouldn't stop being a Jedi just because I stepped aside. I was Sephi! Fay, a Jedi of the Sephi race, had been living for almost a thousand years! Why not just step aside and live for my own pleasure? Suddenly, a notification sound for a text message went off. I opened my datapad and looked at the message. Training? Kuro was writing about wanting to assess my skills in sparring... Perfect, long overdue. The problem was that for the Gifted, their worldview didn't just influence the Force itself, but also their combat style. When I was... not the best sentient — I tried to protect myself as much as possible. As much as I could. Hence Soresu, a certain fear of attacking... Now, as I understood it — I'd rather launch into an attack and try to end the fight as quickly as possible. Pulling my lightsaber to me, I rose from my meditation pose. Scanning the room with my gaze, my room... I hadn't moved into Kuro's quarters, if only because she didn't have her own quarters. She was a Jedi Shadow. And while other Shadows still had their own rooms in the Temple, she was a pure ascetic. Though, I had to admit, she was a beautiful woman. With her own worldview and incredible skills.
Stepping into the corridor, I tried to stay away from the crowd of Jedi bustling back and forth. Coruscant Prime illuminated the Temple's corridors, and the shadows of Jedi going about their various business played on the Temple's walls and floor. There were many sparring halls in the Temple, mostly on the lower levels. The halls were divided into common ones — huge rooms, halls where several dozen pairs could spar simultaneously, usually used for youngling training. And there were specialized ones. There, the space was smaller, but the level was higher. And not every Knight with a Padawan could book such a hall. Was it even necessary? Master Lorm always trained me either on a ship or on remote planets. After all, he gave me knowledge that not every Knight would be allowed access to. Pyrokinesis alone was proof of that. He even managed to quarrel with the Council over that technique. And he still wanted to teach me the Emerald Lightning of the Force, or — Jedi Lightning.
Except I didn't live up to his hopes and didn't prove myself worthy of that Technique. Now my master had lost his life, again, because of my stupidity... Alright, enough reflecting... I reached the hall's door and opened it.
"Ouch!" a steel cylinder immediately hit me in the forehead. I reacted quickly, responding to the pain by instantly applying all my enhancement techniques and preparing for battle. "A training lightsaber?" I looked at the cylinder that had hit my forehead.
The door closed, and I had only fractions of a second to jump away from my spot. Using my cable launcher, adding a Force jump on top of it, I pulled myself to the side. An instant later, at the spot where I'd been standing, Kuro appeared, delivering a thrusting strike after jumping from the ceiling... "Just like some assassin," flashed through my mind as I watched the woman's cloak billow. My gaze inadvertently caught on her developed body.
"Time to reflect?" the woman asked, immediately closing the distance between us. It wasn't her famous teleportation, of course — she'd apparently decided not to flaunt that in front of me yet — but it was still pretty fast.
An icy-white blade of the training lightsaber activated, a movement of my hand, and I deflected her strike to the side. But she simply kicked me, sending me flying.
"We use everything we know, boy," the woman smirked nastily. "Show me what you're capable of. Was Lorm right to praise you?"
So she wanted to test me completely? Well then! Spinning my lightsaber, I charged into the attack. About three meters before our contact, I spun my body with the Force, creating additional inertia for the strike, and delivered a powerful slashing blow to her side — she ducked, letting the blade pass over her, and attacked my left leg. I jumped away from her attack, doing a backflip... Whoa, so she decided to use that weakness that Dooku would later point out: "how to defeat an Ataru adept." Catch him in a backflip during a retreat and cut his spine. Except... my left hand wasn't given to me for nothing. Aiming the cable launcher slightly to the side, I fired the hook and dodged her vertical swing, which was aimed at me. Quickly returning to my normal position — my body literally shot toward her. Kuro managed to block my Shiak aimed at her heart, but I didn't slow down, immediately turning the deflected blow into the next one. Spinning with the Force, I attacked with a slashing strike at the opposite side of her body — she blocked that one too, delivering a counterattack, and a rather unexpected one at that. If not for my Soresu experience, I might have missed it.
Her strike broke my attack tempo, pushing me into defense, and I had to retreat. An instant — that's all it took for me to make the right decision. I assumed a Soresu stance and literally deflected a hail of her strikes coming from all sides. This couldn't go on for long... Where was she? I literally felt her cutting into my back. Teleportation? In combat... I didn't have time to use the cable launcher; I jumped off the strike's trajectory, but she pursued me, my back still turned to her. Seeing no other options, I threw my left leg backward, hitting Kuro in the stomach. The kick was infused with the Force, and she jumped back. Turning around, I attacked her again in the Ataru style. The blades sparked at incredible speed...
But the result was that she knocked the saber out of my right hand, scorching my arm. And she wasn't planning to stop! Swinging her saber, she intended to continue her attack on an unarmed opponent! I intercepted her hand, ducking under the saber strike...
"I see surprise in your eyes, boy," she grinned. "Tch," she spat in my face, making me lose my bearings and let go of the saber, jumping back. "The one who relies on principles of nobility in battle," she closed the distance between us again, "dies first. Deceive, trick, use any means to defeat your enemy. And remember the main lesson..."
I intercepted her strike again, this time aimed at my legs. I simply didn't have time to pull my lightsaber to me with the Force.
"A Jedi is a weapon in themselves," she grinned.
"Is that so," I replied to her smile. "Then, don't blame me for this," my right hand held her saber, and my left... my left was starting to heat up. She noticed my left hand, but it was too late. I headbutted her in the face, shoved her, and then, concentrating, even too much — I hit her with a small fireball of pyrokinesis.
That was all I was capable of in that area. For now. The ball wasn't fast, small, but unpleasant. She deflected it with a Force Barrier and immediately used teleportation to get behind me.
"Repeating yourself," I noted when she brought the lightsaber to my neck.
"Am I?" the Dark Woman grinned nastily.
I slowly pointed behind her with my left index finger.
"You are," I said calmly, as an activated training lightsaber — the one she'd knocked out of my hand — was aimed directly at the Dark Woman's back. I was holding it with Telekinesis.
"Impressive," she said in surprise. "You can do it when you want to. Lorm wasn't lying when he praised you. It's just that your vision was clouded by stupidity and naivety," she deactivated her lightsaber.
I wasn't in a hurry to put mine away.
"Hmm," Kuro spread her arms and stepped aside, followed by my gaze. "It seems something made too big an impression on you, boy. You could say — you're already on the path to becoming a real man. At least, some would already call you a Knight. In my opinion — you're almost ready. All the better. I won't waste my precious time on you. I'll finish your training, in memory of Lorm. And it's good that he taught you so much."
I finally deactivated the saber.
"Lorm mentioned," Kuro continued, "that you prefer Soresu. But now I saw a fairly strong Ataru level."
"Many in the Temple, when I was still a youngling, noted that my body was literally built for Ataru," I explained to Kuro.
"And they were right. You're not tall, fairly developed. Your body is literally made for vaults, pirouettes, constant movement. If you were a two-meter closet, you'd use Shien, with that muscle development. But you're small and agile. Everything Ataru needs. Oh, and an incredible potential in the Force," she pulled two bottles of water toward her with the Force and tossed one to me. "Honestly, I prefer teaching from scratch, not finishing someone else's training. You're already formed... well, almost. For you to fully become my student, I'd have to break your foundation... Considering all the upheavals you've been through in this period — that would be difficult, irrational, and would only ruin the potential that Lorm developed. I have my own view of your abilities and talents, different from Lorm's. But to realize it, I'd have to retrain you from scratch, not just finish your training."
"So, what are we going to do?" I took a sip from the bottle.
"The same as today, Light," the Dark Woman answered calmly. "I'm going to drill everything into you through sparring — you'll learn to fight, shed some doubts. I'll make a Knight out of you with this method. I think a couple of months will be enough. You're fifteen already. People became Knights at an even younger age. When I think it's enough — I'll present you for the Trials. But until then, a couple of things await us. And the first thing for you will be — finding a Crystal for your lightsaber," she pointed her finger at me. "Here's your assignment, while the ship isn't repaired. Go to any comfortable place for you and meditate! Meditate until you find it!"
* * *
I'd been in the Hall of a Thousand Fountains for nearly six hours... and was in a fairly deep meditation. I generally loved this place — a kind of natural paradise in the middle of the vast ecumenopolis of Coruscant, where outside you could hear the hum of millions, no exaggeration, of speeders, if not tens of millions. When you're in a huge city, you value the moments of silence and peace the most. And not the city's silence, but nature's. Lately, I'd been meditating for quite a while. What was that connected to? At least to the fact that the Dark Woman, my new master, had deemed my other skills satisfactory. My skills were deemed satisfactory by a Jedi Shadow, who, by her own admission, had cut down more dark-siders than I would ever be years old, considering that I was a long-lived Sephi and, if nothing interfered with my life activities, was destined to live at least four hundred years. Or maybe more — I shouldn't forget that I was also a fairly strong Force-user.
As a result, after a decent fight, using everything — training lightsaber, the Force, my body, the environment — she just praised me and said I was almost worthy of becoming a Jedi Knight. Another few months, maybe a year, and they'd let me take the Trials. They just wanted to see me in action, restored in form and nerves after the shock I'd been through... Indeed, that shock made me think about a lot of things. But that wasn't what I should be worrying about now. Before the trials, a lot awaited me. Namely — finding a crystal, and after that Kuro promised to show me what Jedi Shadows lived like. After the fight with Kuro, I also ordered myself new clothes, preferring the light-colored robes of a Jedi, with a hood. Pompous and foolish, perhaps. I just looked at myself when I put on my "full" outfit, so to speak. And there was something to see. The hood concealed my face, and from a certain angle it was hard to make out. The main clothing helped me fight, fitting tightly to my body, yet not hindering my breathing.
A little later, I planned to use elements of Teyron Jarps' armor to protect myself. Though the main requirement was maintaining mobility. So I wasn't planning to completely encase myself in armor. My style, after all, was now predominantly Ataru. That meant I needed so-called light armor...
In any case... I was sitting cross-legged, trying to concentrate on finding a Crystal for my lightsaber. Somewhere in the distance, water rustled from the fountains. Many Jedi were meditating, others were telling something to their Padawan or even a group of younglings. That didn't concern me much, because my consciousness had literally been hooked by the Force... It led me, first through Coruscant's clouds, which were fairly rare... Then stars, planets flashed before me. And then one planet, with two stars in its sky. A planet that resembled a yellow, dirty ball suddenly approached me. I saw... endless sands for thousands of kilometers and two shining stars...
What planet was this? The Force immediately gave the answer, simply showing me a settlement that was familiar to every Star Wars fan. Tatooine, that's what the planet was... How did one blogger put it? The universe always leads its adepts along the path of references... Same here, the Force literally wanted, showed me, that I had to go to Tatooine. I wanted to get a new crystal for my lightsaber. And it existed on Tatooine... Except I didn't remember any crystal deposits there. Behind me, I felt a familiar presence. Standing up, I found Rela not far away.
"Light," the Twi'lek girl smiled. There are some girls who definitely know how to smile. Rela was one of those: slender, cheerful, and beautiful. Her green skin only enhanced the exotic girl, though there were those who considered Twi'leks, Togrutas, even Zeltros — hideous! Tsk, cretins were everywhere.
"You didn't distract me, Rela, why did you even think you were distracting me?" I asked the girl.
"Weeeell, you always reacted sharply to those who interfered with your studies," my friend lowered her gaze. "I heard what happened on Gizelum," she said sadly. "I'm sorry."
"Me too," I nodded, "but nothing can be done about it, all sentient beings are mortal (Beta's note — Vitiate choked on a cookie)," I uttered the truism in a sad voice. "Anyway, you don't have to keep reminding me about it, Rela."
"I didn't want to offend you, Light!" the girl exclaimed. "No! I just wanted to... Well... Ask... Maybe you need help with something? You see, our group has completely fallen apart — Versaria and Maru died. Gol left the Jedi... Feemor is almost never in the Temple, and Cin is simply unbearable."
"Help?" I asked Rela. And I clearly felt what this girl felt for me, but after Mila... I wasn't too keen on that kind of interaction. And here? In the very heart of the Jedi Temple? No... For now, I didn't even know what to answer to such feelings. I didn't even know what I was going to do. For what and for whom in the future. "I do need help, Rela. Do you know if there are Kyber Crystal deposits on Tatooine?" I asked her. "You see... After everything that happened, mine doesn't quite suit me. And my master said we'd look for a replacement. The Force, in response to my meditations, showed me Tatooine..."
"And how did you know it was Tatooine?" Rela asked. "You've never been there, I think..."
"The Force," I shook my head, not about to tell her that I clearly remembered those landscapes from movies from another Galaxy.
"Hmm, there really aren't any crystal deposits on Tatooine, Light," the girl said thoughtfully. "But there are krayt dragons there. In their stomachs, there are pearls that many Jedi used for their lightsabers."
"What?" I asked, mentally hitting myself in the forehead with Palpatine's Force Lightning. I'd played Knights of the Old Republic! All the games! And I remembered that Revan could get such a crystal. And why was I worse? Well, I was worse than Revan in many ways. But getting a crystal... "Rela! You're a genius!" I hugged the girl, then quickly let go.
Six hours of meditation, trying to concentrate, and it was practically a trap... All I saw were the sands of Tatooine. But I wasn't supposed to search among the sands, but among the inhabitants of those deserts and sands. I just needed to get there!