Star Wars: Jedi Drow

(Reserved for Jeffinator)



Spiriel strode through the crowded marketplace of the An'anaki village, trying her best to ignore the suspicious stares that followed her. It was her Ra'ikki blood that set her apart and drew those stares. It showed in her dusky greyish skin and her cream colored silken hair. Her silver moon colored eyes and delicately pointed ears also marked her as different.

But her Ra'ikki father has also passed along the other things that made her different. It was one of those 'other things' that troubled her the most in times like these. She could ignore the resentful stares of the An'anaki villagers, but she could not so easily block all of their thoughts.

And most of those thoughts were not to her credit nor her liking.

<What is she doing here?>

<Watch her! She's a thief come to steal our goods!>

<Dirty dark elf! Why do they let her kind in here?>

Her lacy ivory colored brow furrowed in dismay as she frowned, gliding between the booths, not wanting to look back. Better to avoid trouble if she could. And if she couldn't, the long slightly curved sword on her back would discourage any troublemakers. She hoped.

She came at last to the vendor she sought, perusing his wares. She bit her lower lip as she scanned the merchandise, actively blocking the merchant's thoughts. She would have to open to him to make the deal, but she wanted to avoid it until the last moment. She knew she wouldn't like what she sensed there, and didn't want to experience that 'dirty feeling' she so often did when she read them. It was clear that they hated her father's kind, and her by extension. Yet she needed the incense candles for her meditation. The visions were coming more frequently now, and she had to try to discern their meaning.

"How much?" she asked, holding up three of the scented candles. Her foreign sounding pronunciation of the An'anaki tongue once again showed her difference.

"Dirty thief! You can't afford anything I have here. Go bother someone else."

"I am not a thief! I have white obsidian crystals to trade. They come from the Cartus Rim. Surely they are worth something to you."

The merchant paused to consider. White obsidian was rare; far more than the green or black varieties. This Ra'ikki half breed might prove to be a profitable mark. "Let's see your crystals then."

She set the candles down and dug out her pouch, tugging open the drawstring and spilling the little white crystals in the dark palm of her hand. The contrast with her skin color made the crystals seem to shine all the brighter by comparison. Half a dozen pure white crystals about the size of her first joint on her slender dark finger shone in the palm of her hand. The merchant made to grab them and her hand closed even before he moved. She opened her mind to his, watching him in a distracted, day dreamy sort of expression. She knew he would try to cheat her. It was clear in his thoughts.

She selected one crystal and handed it to him to examine. "They are all the same as that one." she said, her tone brooking no argument. She watched as he carefully turned the stone in the light, examining every facet. Though he carefully kept his face neutral, she could sense his heart rate climb, and the excitement in his emotions elevated. "How much for the candles?" she repeated.

"Well, these crystals are of fair quality, 'tis true enough. But my candles are the best in town. I think five such crystals should be enough, if they are all like this one. I'll not be cheated with inferior stones!"

"Hah! Your candles may be the best in this town, but that's not saying much! Two crystals are more than enough for these candles. The crystals are hard to come by, and I can find candles anywhere. Two crystals, no more."

The merchant looked offended, but she could tell from his excitement at the prospect of getting two of the crystals that her offer was more than enough. He came back with a counter offer of four crystals but she held firm to her offer. She had to begin to walk away before he finally relented. He made a show of muttering under his breath about being cheated by a dirty Ra'ikki street rat, but she sensed he was more than satisfied with the bargain.

***************
Perhaps she had paid more than the candles were worth, but her need was great. The visions as they came to her were cryptic, and she needed to experience them in far more controlled circumstances. Now she settled herself, seated on a cushion, the candles lit in a triangular pattern around her. She held one white crystal in her hands, focusing her mind on it in an odd sort of intense, yet relaxed focus. She didn't try to still her thoughts; rather she let them come and go, but focused on the images of the visions she had been having.

The Master from the Sky; not like her at all, but not like the An'Anaki either. He had a smooth steady voice. He would be her teacher, but he was not of this world. The vision of the Master was associated with the coming of a fiery object from the sky. She saw it arcing over her head, lighting the objects on the ground around her. In the vision, she directed her attention to those objects, recognizing them as landmarks.

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

Spiriel came out of her trance state, thirsty as usual. She reached for the waterskin she had laid aside before meditating and took a long draw from it. She remembered the place in her vision, and knew she had to go there. The time was coming soon. She had a long way to travel before then. With a sigh, she gathered her meager belongings and set out on her journey.

(finally did my post, hahaha)




http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o178/TheJeffinator/sean-bean-in-lord-of-the-rings.jpg

Kylar Stern smiled upon his young apprentice, Kat Goran. She had come so far from the hot-headed teenager he had met eight years ago. She knelt before him, as he pulled out one of his lightsabers and ignited the blue-colored blade. Next to him, the hologram of his former master, Rahm Kota shined.

“The recent battles against the Imperial forces have tested your mind and your body, your courage, determination, and resolve,” Kota began as he looked fondly upon her. “You likely would have passed the Trials, were these the old days of the Jedi Order, before the rise of the Empire. Grand Master Yoda and the High Council would be standing in a circle around you. But today it is just us. Because I am worlds away, Kylar will act on my behalf during this ceremony.”

Kylar raised his lightsaber and then lowered it to just above each of Kat's shoulders as the hologram of Kota spoke. “We are all Jedi. The Force speaks through us. Through our actions, the Force proclaims itself and what is real. Today we are here to acknowledge what the Force has proclaimed. By the right of the Council, by the will of the Force, I dub thee, Knight of the Republic.” When Kota finished his words, Kylar moved to sever the apprentice's braid from behind Kat's ear.

Standing back and nodding at Kat, he waited for her to rise and leave the room in silence, as was custom in the old days of the Jedi Temple. After she was gone, he turned to Kota. “Now our order is another number strong,” he said as he lowered his lightsaber blade and returned it to its holster.

“And, as Yoda would say, another Master, we have,” he replied, implying that Kylar had achieved the rank of Jedi Master now that he had successfully trained a Padawan to Knighthood. “You both are valued members of what remains of our order. But I must take my leave of you now, we will be arriving at Nar Shaddaa shortly.”

“May the Force be with you, Master,” said Kylar.

“May the Force be with us all, my friend,” he replied.

Ending the transmission, Kylar left the meditation room. They were aboard a space station hidden within an asteroid in the Outer Rim, one of the multiple secret bases of General Kota's forces. While the General was on his mission to sabotage a TIE Fighter construction facility above Nar Shaddaa, Kylar was in charge of overseeing a large group of refugees from the Empire that were currently residing on the station. He was also instructed to provide combat training to any of them that wanted to join Kota's private militia.

The next morning, during a hand-to-hand combat training session for some of the refugees, an alarm began sounding and one of the guards came on over the intercom. “We have a breach of security! Breach of security! Heavy Imperial forces are--” his transmission was cut off by a choking sound and then the com went dead.

“Looks like you guys might be able to put those skills to use a lot sooner than planned,” said Kylar, before grabbing his comlink and calling the senior staff and Kat. They met up in the docking bay, his lightsaber ignited, and they began fighting off the dozens of mercenaries and bounty hunters that were pouring out of three small ships and a heavy freighter that had forced their way in. They tried their best to fight off the invading forces, but were pushed back into the station. Changing tactics, Kylar told Kat to lead the refugees to the second, secret docking bay down on the bottom level.

“There are plenty of shuttles down there. You go with them and lead these people to safety,” he whispered to her, then pushed her through a lift door and sealed it shut, locking himself and the few surviving guards on the upper level. Twenty minutes later all the guards were dead and most of the enemies, but two mercenaries and a bounty hunter were still alive, pushed back to one of the small ships where they were firing the large mounted blasters at Kylar every time he tried to get close. He was preparing to try a new approach, when suddenly, the security protocols were overridden remotely, the docking hangar opened, and another ship entered.

I sense a great power... familiar somehow... he thought to himself, and a moment later, a figure in black armor and a matching cape and hood stepped out. His pale, white face looked up at Kylar with red eyes and he flashed an evil smile before igniting a red lightsaber.

“Haha, Kylar Stern...” he said in a dark voice.

“How do you know my name?”

“You don't remember me, Ky? I'm hurt...” he replied with a fake frown.

Kylar thought for a moment, then his eyes grew wide. “Roth! Roth Ursuul!”

“Yes,” he nodded, smiling. “We worked together a number of times during the Clone Wars, when we were just young apprentices.”

“I haven't seen you in over fifteen years. What happened to you?” demanded Kylar.

“As you know, we last saw each other a few months after the fall of the Republic. We had plans to gather a rebellion, but then my master was killed by Darth Vader. I managed to hide from him using a Force-suppression technique my master had taught me. A shame it didn't prove as useful to him.” Roth explained.

“So you... you turned down the Dark Side?!” cried Kylar.

“Not at first,” replied Roth. “I trained hard and went undercover as an Imperial soldier, suppressing my power to appear only mildly gifted in the Force. I made my way into the ranks of the Shadow Guard, closely observing the techniques of Emperor Palpatine and Vader, with the ultimate goal of avenging my master's death by slaughtering Vader when the time came.”

“But you didn't do it?” implied Kylar.

“No,” Roth replied slowly. “He was able to detect my dark thoughts of revenge. Vader was about to kill me, but the Emperor stopped him at the last moment, instead electing to try and push me the rest of the way over the edge, into the Dark Side... and it worked. I was brutally tortured for months before being set free on a refugee camp to to unleash my anger. It felt so good... Killing, destroying, finally releasing all my pent up rage and power. At least a thousand people lost their lives that day. I loved it. I was addicted.”

“You... You have indeed fallen from the path, my friend...” said Kylar sadly.

“That was nothing!” Roth laughed. “It's been years since that day. I am now one of the highest ranking Shadow Guards in the Empire, and the only one to use a real lightsaber. I have personally ended the lives of at least a dozen Jedi, hiding like pathetic cowards. Just like you. I jumped at the chance to lead this mission, hoping I'd find you here, still curled up under Kota's shadow.”

“Is there no chance of turning you back?” Kylar asked.

“None,” Roth replied.

“Then let's end this.” And with that, Kylar leaped into battle with his former friend. Their sabers clashed and after a few minutes of leaping and flipping around, Roth was overpowering Kylar, until another lightsaber came flying towards them and the Dark Jedi just barely managed to deflect it. His eyes followed the saber back to its owner – Kat. Kylar was disappointed that she did not escape, but nevertheless was appreciative of the assistance.

“Get out here and help me, now!” Roth yelled to several other Shadow Guards that were waiting in the Dark Jedi's vessel to be summoned, plus the three goons hiding in the other ship. As they ran towards the fight, he reached out with the Force, grabbed Kat, and threw her at them. “Deal with her while I say goodbye to an old friend!”

The battle raged on, until ultimately, Kylar and Kat were forced to flee. Through a series of lucky breaks, they were able to get a ship, the Eban Dragon, off the asteroid.

“Are you sure, Kat?” he demanded.

“Yes, Master!” she cried. “All the refugees are off the station!”

“Okay then,” he said, then turned and remotely activated the self-destruct sequence on the base. “Can't have them stealing any of our intel.” Just moments before the entire station exploded, Roth's ship, the Nightwing, came rocketing out of the hangar. Kylar could sense Roth, the bounty hunter, and two Shadow Guards on the vessel. As soon as they were clear of debris and had the coordinates locked in, the Eban Dragon made the jump to hyperspace, but the Nightwing had just launched a few tethers and connected to the back of the Jedi ship, and so they were pulled into hyperspace as well, but as the two spun around in the corridor, their ships slammed into each other and then were ripped back into realspace by multiple gravity wells, thanks to a cluster of stars with abnormally high numbers of orbiting planets and gas clouds.

Quickly scanning the planets, Kylar found one that could support life, and made a beeline there. He told Kat to jump on a gun and start firing at the Nightwing and the tethers, while he tried his best to avoid a direct crash. Roth fired back, there was a huge explosion between the two ships, and they shot in different directions. The Nightwing would crash somewhere in the snowy north, while the Eban Dragon was going down over a forest.

“A day will come when you leave this world to become one with the Force,” Kylar said to Kat as he got up and grabbed the back of the seat for support. “But that day is not today. Let's go.” he led her to the escape pod.

“Master?” she said.

“May the Force be with you always, Kat.” he said, before shoving her into the pod and sealing the door shut. Despite her protests, he launched it, then ran to a gun chair and began firing Nightwing, which was still close enough that it could shoot down Kat's escape pod. He sent her south towards the swamps and continued firing at Roth until they were out of range to distract him.

“Well, here we go!” he said as the Eban Dragon flew over the top of a forest before crashing into a clearing and skidding to a stop, leaving a long trail behind it and quite a few uprooted trees. He turned south and sensed Kat for a moment, but then her reading got weaker and weaker until it vanished completely. Thinking she must have died on landing, he bowed his head in a few moments of thought for her before beginning to search the clearing. He sighed as Roth's signature vanished too. “He's probably suppressing his.”

Kylar suddenly felt a strong entity in the area, and discovered a young girl with white hair standing there staring at him. She probably would not know his language, so he reached out with the Force and said to her in a way she could understand, “Hello. I come peacefully. What is your name?”

Spiriel awoke in the early pre-dawn with a feeling. She wasn't sure what, but something was not right. She'd been camping in the little forest for nearly ten days and nights now, and her natural instincts had categorized each sound, smell, and 'feel' native to the area. She looked carefully around, her fingers wrapping the hand-and-a-half grip of her sword. There seemed to be a certain apprehension in the air, palpable, like the very place and everything in it was expecting...anticipating something.

She slowly turned in place. Her silver moon eyes scanning the area in the infra-red spectrum, reflecting the slightest light from her tapetum lucidum in twin orange spots, glowing in the dark like the embers from last night's fire. She could see the shapes of the few animals in the area that made the night their preferred time to rustle about. There was no harm that they represented to her, but their unusual stillness was ominous in itself.

Suddenly a low base rumbling throb, like thunder ripping the sky apart, peeled across the night vista. Spiriel looked up, her eyes narrowing to slits as the streak of fiery light split the darkness above, penetrating the arboreal cover of the tree canopy overhead. It strobed across the foliage like lightening. Her keen hearing tracked the passage of the god-like thunder as it traversed the sky. A moment later, she was knocked to the ground, flattened by the shockwave that followed in the wake of the noise. She was stunned.

Moments later when she gathered her wits and got to her feet again, she realized the similarities to her vision. He has come, she thought. But her vision didn't come with sound effects. As she looked around at the wreckage cause by the shockwave, she marveled at the force it must have taken to lay the trees flat in a tangle of limbs and trunks. She tried to find her tent and belongings, only to realize they were somewhere under the tangled mess. She shrugged. She hadn't had much to begin with. Such was the life of a Ra'ikki vagabond. Most of what she had of value, she wore or carried on her person.

Besides, the Master would take care of her.

She looked along the path of destruction left by the fiery streak. At least it would not be hard to find this 'Master'. With a shrug, she began to follow the trail in a light loping run, navigating the downed vegetation with the natural grace and agility only the forest born could manage.

She began to slow to a more cautious pace when the great furrow in the ground began to deepen into a truly impressive gouge. Earth and trees were torn up for a path nearly as wide as she could throw a stone across, like some river of destruction had passed through the forest. Smoldering stumps of trees burnt black with the passage of the fiery streak lined the big ditch.

But it was not the awe inspiring damage done to the landscape that caused her to slow her pace. It was the growing awareness within her of a feeling she sensed. As she neared the glow that marked the resting place of the fiery chariot she'd been heading towards, the feeling of 'otherness' grew stronger. It was as though Spiriel was feeling grief, a twinge of sorrow, yet she knew not why she should. She'd had nobody to lose. A nagging little voice in side her suggested that it was not her feelings she sensed, but those of another.

Spiriel had never had much control over the abilities that came along with her Ra'ikki blood. She could barely screen the thoughts of others when she actively tried. And when she was distracted, like now, she could often be overwhelmed by the strong emotions, sensations, and feelings of others nearby. It was difficult to separate what was her own feelings and what belonged to another. She hoped that this 'Master from the stars' would help her learn to control her abilities. For now, her head was starting to hurt from her efforts to shield herself from the 'other's' emotions.

She topped the rim of the small hollow where the glow seemed to be originating and paused in her tracks. There below was some sort of metallic looking structure. She could tell it was damaged, but it was still impressive, larger than the largest of buildings in the An'anaki village. There were large tubes extending from the end closest to her, and as she began to circle the rim to get a better look, she realized she felt suddenly weak in the knees. Her body fairly thrummed with the sense of anticipation and excitement she felt. This was it! This was the thing that had streaked through the sky! And it was some kind of structure. So the 'Master' she saw in her vision could very well have come from within it.

She began to descend down the side of the bowl shaped depression towards the large object, eager to see if there was anyone inside it. The sight of a hooded figure rounding the side of the large metal structure stopped her in her tracks. Her silvery moon eyes locked on the figure, who seemed to be looking right at her now from under his cowl. As her hand crept slowly towards the hilt of her sword, his hands answered the movement by coming up to push back the hood, revealing a man who looked similar to an An'anaki male, but taller and with strangely rounded ears. As she peered closer at his features, she also noticed his eyes were smaller than hers, even smaller than an An'anaki. She knew her own eyes were shining in the darkness, reflecting back the available light from the still smoldering fires around the bowl. But his eyes seemed almost flat. They did not shine, though there did seem to be a certain glint of interest within them.

As the two of them each looked over the other, Spiriel heard the speech coming from the stranger. It was not a language she recognized, but somehow she heard the words in her mind as clear as if it were her own language. And she understood.

"I am called Spiriel Ti'arnnien. I've been waiting for you for many months. At last you've come!"

OOC: I don't know where my apprentice has gone too, lol. I really don't want to move on without her, since I worked so hard to work her into the backstory.

But, regardless, I think I should tell you that I have retired from RPing. I work best in group threads, and the only group RP I can keeping going is my Young Justice RP over at Roleplayinggames.net, but the players are all guys and so with no female players I am growing bored of that game. So I have decided it is time for me to move on and put RPing behind me.

((Well, I don't think she plans to join us after all, so that's why I posted again. But in any case, it's all good. We'll let this one slip away. My workload is overbearing anyhow, and I have little time to write lately.))