Post by Zarkana on Sept 14, 2012 19:45:25 GMT -5
{Avy Valla; Imperial Era}
How does one live without the Force?
It seemed to be heavier now than it had been during the times she wielded the weapon. Yet now it was nothing more than a relic, a useless tool that marked her as a target. The piece of metal clambered against the other items in the bag, clinking around for a few moments until it fell to its place at the bottom. She had no more use for it, yet it was not something that she could simply throw away, not after the years it had been with her, not after the times it had saved her life. Those were just memories now and bad ones at that, thoughts of losing those she cared about, those close to her once more bubbled to the surface, and yet at time, it seemed as if there were no emotions. It was almost as if she were empty inside, just a mere shell of what she once was. The force no longer touched her as it once had when she was younger, the Clone Wars had changed her, changed her for the worst. She had lost everything at the end, her sense of being, who she was, what she was. All gone, left in the dust with the dead and decaying bodies in the dirt of Praesityln.
When Order 66 happened she was no longer a threat, nothing to be feared or worries about, and yet they still came for her. She was lucky though, or was she cursed? In those fine hours of the morning when the Clones had burst down the door to get to her, those who cared for her pushed her out the back door and into the darkness just before the dawn, that though saw the loss of more friends, more loved ones, and a bit more of herself. She was no longer who she once was, yet who was she now. Was she just an empty shell, a hole in the force that seemed to echo through the galaxy, yet so feint that none would notice unless they listened to the screaming of what had once been there, as she looked up from her bag, after allowing the cumbersome thing filled with items to settle down, she closed the covering of the satchel. Her eyes looking at the holoscreen before her, showing her the arrival time of the next passenger freighter that was bound for the deeper reaches of the outer rim.
Avy let out a heavy sigh as the Twi'lek female stood up from her seat, silently making her way through the small space port terminal until she came to her gate. Others were already boarding, many of them heading to other space ports that would take them from the outer rim, a few like herself seemed to be coming to disappear into the shadows that it cast. Yet she, she didn’t know where she stood on the matter. Was she coming or going, fleeing or standing out? Avy hadn't made up her mind yet, though there wasn't much that for her to choose. She knew that many of her kind were picked up by slavers and sold off, while others were forced to work as dancers to make their way through the galaxy. Avy though had avoided all that, avoided drawing attention to herself as she moved from one small farming planet to the next, staying in settlements for only a few days or so before she moved onto the next world, to her next place of exile. She let out a sigh as she stepped forward, handing the young woman at the stand her slip before she stepped on board the shuttle, finding the vacant passenger room in the corner to claim as her own for the trip. She didn't want to draw attention to herself, nor did she want the attention of others, she just wanted to be left alone, with her thoughts, her emotions, and those memories of a life that should have ended so many times, yet had resulted in her losing those that she cared for the most.
Avy set her bag down on the bed that was provided for the passengers in the rooms, although calling it a bed when it was really nothing more than a few sheets thrown onto a slab of metal never did make much sense. As she stood silently in the room and searched through her bag, she noticed the small child that had found her way to the door of Avy's room. A simple look over her shoulder caused the little girl to run from the door way and rush back to her parents as Avy walked to the door and closed it, shutting it as she stepped back to the bed and sat down. Her hand reaching into the brown satchel as she pulled out a small wrapper, a condensed food bar, something she had become used to eating over the past many years. She pulled the wrapper from it, throwing the trash into a small bin in the room as she took a bite from the bar. The taste, still the same bland nearly wood fiber grit that she had become accustomed to, a heavy sigh filled the air as she opened her bag and looked inside, seeing the robes that she once wore proudly folded up and pushed to the bottom, just as she had relegated the bottom of the satchel to her lightsaber as well.
She wasn't defenseless though, the loss of her connection to the force and her relegated the lightsaber to the dark corner of her bag didn't mean she couldn't defend herself. In her many years of training she had picked up a handful of martial arts, each deadly in their own right. As her mind pulled her back to memories of days gone by she began to lose herself to the past, before she pulled herself back. The memories too painful to think of as her mind forced her into the present, to keep her from remembering the events that had torn the hole into her that she now lived with. Avy sat back in the bed, pushing herself up against the wall, her back pressing against the cold durasteel as she brought her legs up, holding her knees to her chest as she closed her eyes and rest her chin against her knees. A tear slid down her cheek before she wiped it away with her sleeve, a memory having slipped through for a brief moment before she was able to push it back into the depths of her mind.
Avy looked around the plain room, her attention once more turning to the door that had cracked opened, the child once more standing there peeking into the room as Avy gave a smile. It seemed that there wasn't much that brought her happiness these days, yet a child being nosy still had its wonders to it. She slowly sat up as she picked up one of the bars from her satchel, walking to the door as she pushed it open and knelled down to be at eye level with the little girl. "You look hungry. Here, I have enough of these to share." She smiled to the young Togruta girl, handing the small bar to her. Avy had been saving the fruit bar for a while now, yet she knew that the little girl would enjoy it more as she unwrapped it for her and gave it to the Togruta, seeing her smile brightly before skipping off back to her parents that had come out of their room to find their daughter. Avy smiled to the family, thoughts of loved ones coming back to her mind, to what ifs that ran through her mind, including the possibility of having a family. Maybe she could now, maybe she could find a place in the Outer rim to call her own and settle down. She shook herself from her thoughts as she closed her door, this time locking it to remain undisturbed as she walked over to the bed, laying down on it as she lay on her side.
It was the same routine every time she woke, get up, clean up and remove the more constricting clothing so she could practice. If one listened closely they could hear the wind being cut as she thrust her open palm in a striking motion. Practicing her martial arts to keep her sharp, to keep herself honed and be able to protect her from harm, each practice session after was always followed by a long shower, although she doubted that she would be able to find one of the passenger ships. As she approached the small refresher that was included in the room, she pushed the water to cold, watching for a moment as the shower head sputtered out a rust colored liquid, the water cleaning out the old pipes before it began to run clear. Avy though always took her own precautions when it came to these ships, knowing the possible lack of proper water, or even an out of date reprocessing filter system on board.
As she stepped into the shower she let the water fall along her curves, sighing as she put her hand against the wall and leaned her head down. Letting the water cascade down her back before she jumped, quickly turning around to find nothing but air and shadows. A memory of a loved one’s hand on her back caused the fright, yet that's all it was, a memory of one whom had died many years ago, that still haunted her through her guilt. What if she had been the one that pushed him out the door and not the other way, would he have lived, or would he have been shot down because he harbored her and helped her? So many what ifs, too many for one life time as she turned off the cold water and stepped out of the shower, pulling her towel around her before she leaned up against the wall. Her hands picked up a small bottle she left out, a body lotion with an anti-bacterial sanitizing formula in it. Her way of keeping herself safe of any disease that might come her way through the water. When she finished she just let her towel drop, before she pulled out a set of clothing and pulled it one. It brought back memories, it was one of the few things she had been given before the war, that she kept. A gift from one that she wasn't allowed to love, yet still did, the same one that saved her from her death.
Avy donned the clothing, pulling on the top that seemed to hug her tightly and displayed her already flawless form to be something else. Then again that's what Twi'lek women where known for. Over it she pulled on a long coat, an almost perfect copy of the old flowing over robes she wore during her days as a Jedi, days that had long since gone. Her attention was once more drawn to the towel as she leaned down to pick it up, hanging it in its rightful place to allow it to dry before it would be used again. Although it wasn't likely that it would be used by her anymore. She could feel it in the ship before the ship had even stopped, the humming slowly dying down as the ship dropped from hyperspace, it's first stop just a few moments ahead of it as Avy pulled her satchel over her shoulder, pushing the door to her room open and stepping out as she crept down the hall to wait in the room near the docking ramp, ready to leave the ship for whatever world she would find herself on.
Her foot pressed firmly against the dirt, leaving an imprint as she stepped away from the ramp. Her eyes were first drawn to the looming castle in the distance that over looked the city and its spaceport, her attention drawn back to the dock workers whose four arms were easily going about their task. Munto Codru, a world of forest and mountains, filled with life and the force, yet Avy felt none of it, not a single being could she feel in the force. Her hands came up as she pulled the heavy hood over her head, wishing to remain left alone and unknown as he stepped away from the vessel that had carried her so far from where she had started. It wasn't a thing to worry about though. Maybe she could find some form of peace here in the mountains of Munto Codru where she could be left alone for a time before she would need to move on. Avy after all wasn't one whom normally stayed in a single place for too long, not since the end of the Clone Wars, not since she had lost everything that was worth staying for. She hoped that she was forgotten, yet it probably wasn't the truth, she was sure that the Empire still remembered her in one way or another, yet there was always that little bit of hope that they had forgotten her and would over look her. Maybe it was time for her to finally settle down rather than keep running from the galaxy.
It was a beautiful planet to say the least though, the many colors keeping her attention tuned from one thing to the next as she made her way through the streets of the capital, just wanting to slip away into it all and disappear into the people, to finally find her peace, yet it seemed as if peace never wanted her to find it. Avy heard a commotion, a young woman running from two men, watching as the girl ran straight to Avy and decided to choose her to hide behind of all people. This was a situation she didn't want to find herself in, she had nothing to do with it, nor did she wish to have anything to do with what was going on, yet it was her training, the old voice in the back of her head, her master’s voice ringing through her mind. 'When one is in trouble, help them you must.' Avy sighed as she brought her arm down, her hand touching the young woman's to calm her as the two males approached, taking stock of Avy before looking to the woman.
'You have something that belongs to us hiding behind you.'
'We would be most appreciative if you would hand her over'
Avy could feel the girl trembling, feel her pain and sorrow, yet how was that possible. How could she feel it if she were cut off to the force, how could she feel these emotions as strongly as she did now. For the moment she kept quiet as the two waited for a response, her mind still thinking on what had happened, trying to figure out how, was she once more opened to the force, is peace such a cruel thing that it would deny her itself just by returning the force to her. Avy did not know, it was not until she saw one of the two step forward did her voice ring out, did she speak and remember that it was her duty to protect the innocent, just as she had been taught. "You will not touch her. I do not wish to harm you, yet I cannot stand by and let you harm another." She remained firm in her stance, her hand in her bag as the other remained at her side, waiting and watching, hearing those before her speak.
'Then we will take her from you, and maybe we'll take you along.'
What happened next seemed like a mere instant to those that watched, yet to Avy it seemed like a lifetime, a lifetime of movement, of meditation and wondering. Her hand had come out of her bag with a swift movement, dropping it to the ground as she clutched the handle of the lightsaber, her old weapon, a companion that had saved her many times, it wasn't just a weapon, it was a friend. She had brought it up with a swift movement, the blue blade shimmering once it was activated, her movements fluid as if she were using the force, as if she were once more one with it as she disarmed the one before he, quite literally as the arm the man had reached out with now lay on the floor before the two. Avy looked to the lightsaber, remembering the hue of the shimmering blue that reminded her so much of the fountains of the Jedi temple of Coruscant before she deactivated the blade, the two men running as she then realized what had happened. Without a word she grabbed her bag up from the ground, stuffing the lightsaber within before she quickly ran from the scene, rushing through the people and into the forest.
And so she ran, she ran until she could run no more, until her lungs burned from the heavy breathing and yet she forced herself to continue, only stopping when she stumbled over a root of one of the many large trees that now surrounded her. Avy pressed her hand against one of them, holding herself up as she took deep laborious breaths before standing. She looked around, finding herself alone as she looked to her hands, still trembling from what had happened. It was just a mere instant, only for a second that she once more felt the force, yet why, how. So many questions continued to build, how did she feel the force, why did she not feel it now as she was so far away from the people, was it because of the people that she felt the force once more, if so, they when did she not feel it out in the forest so full of life. Too many questions came to her as Avy leaned up against one of the head trees, pressing her back to it as she slid down until she sat on the ground.
She pulled her knees up, wrapping her arms around her legs as she hugged her knees to her chest. Would she ever find peace, was it even possible, it was bad enough that she had already begun to think that peace wasn't a concept of the light side, that it was a creation of the dark side. It took so many lives to keep peace, so many families torn apart and broken, even how a single person could keep losing all they had just to find it, and her current situation and the events that had just transpired rooted the thought in her mind all the more that peace was a concept of the dark side. If it were truly part of the light side, then why did it cause so much pain and suffering just to get it, even for a brief moment in time. Avy closed her eyes as she let out a heavy sigh, leaning back as she still kept her legs hugged against her, her body shaking from the adrenaline as she tried to calm herself.
So here she sat, in the forest beneath the large trees that let the faintest of light filter through to touch the ground below. Sitting by herself in the wilderness as she pondered for a time on what had happened, how she had once more felt the force as she closed her eyes and took deep breaths. Maybe all that was needed was time, maybe these many years alone in the Outer Rim caused her to begin to open once more to the force. How could she know though, she hadn't felt it since the Clone Wars, since so many that followed her command died before her. It was that day. That day she lost the most in such a little time did she lose her connection, she felt it, felt every last soldiers scream of death through the force before she had collapsed, only to wake weeks later unable to feel or hear the force as she lay in the hospital bed.
It was like that moment all over again, she sat there quietly, once more no longer feeling or hearing the force as she had those many years ago. For the briefest moment today though she had, and now her mind dwelt upon it, questioned it, burned for answers and the knowledge of what had happened to her. It was only rumors that she had heard. Rumors that the Jedi Council were the only ones capable of stripping the force from a being, it was history, known to her from the many hours spent reading, that ages before she came a single Jedi had been stripped of the force by the council, of others that lost the connection through the loss of those around them. Was she to be the next in line of those legends? How could she be though, there was no one know to transcribe the events, no one whom in the future would read about a Jedi that had lost their connection to the force, yet regained it. Nothing was left of the old Jedi order. Perhaps there were a few Jedi here and there, yet that made no difference, they were targets now, nothing more than criminals in the eyes of the galaxy, a galaxy that was blinded by the Dark Side, by the Sith that now ruled it. Why should she care though, she was no longer a Jedi, yet she knew that it wouldn’t stop others from searching for her, from hunting her. She was a Jedi to them still, force or not, she could train others, and maybe, maybe that was to be her peace. Maybe her peace was not to come from hiding away or running to survive, maybe it was to train others in the way of the light, to train a new generation that would not be blinded or corrupted by the Dark Side.
Avy slowly stood up, her confidence coming back to her once more. She had been a Jedi Master, a teacher in her time, and that was when she had the most peace. Her mind was calm, her heart silent, and her spirit still; it was those times in training students that she felt the most in tune with the Force as a whole. It was those times that she had her true inner peace, the peace that now was just out of her reach. A smile came to her lips, the first in many years as she gained a new windfall, a new drive to gain the peace that she had been looking for, for so long. She had decided, she would train others, find them, seek them out and train them in the ways of the force, and maybe, just maybe she would begin to open up to it once more, as she had done so today. She could feel it returning, it was as if someone had turned on a faucet and the water began to slowly drip from the tap. It was the force that she felt, slowly dripping from deep within, as if something had opened a faucet within her in an attempt to begin to fill the hole that remained. She didn't know how to explain it, her senses came back to her, and she knew what had snapped the twig before it even snapped as she quickly turned around to face the young woman that she had saved in the market. A smile on her face as she stood silently, bowing her head lightly as she watched the young woman who seemed hesitant to be in her presence.
"Do not fear. I am not a threat to you." Avy spoke up, seeing the serenity that swept over the girl when she spoke the comforting words. Avy could feel it now, it was much stronger, almost as if the faucet was being pulled open more and more, the force once more flooding into her, as if she were feeding off of the young woman, feeling it through her as it became stronger and stronger. It was time; Avy knew she could no longer hide from the galaxy. She could no longer run across the Outer Rim. She had to step out of the shadows, the shadows that were cast across the galaxy from Coruscant. The galaxy needed a beacon of light, it needed the Jedi now more than ever, and Avy wasn't about to let what was left of the Jedi Order slip quietly into the night. If it was their destiny to fall to the Dark Side, than Avy was going to make sure that they burned their brightest until the final setting of the sun upon the Order. She reached into her bag, pulling out the familiar hilt of her lightsaber, holding it as she rolled her wrist, moving in a fluid motion as she remembered what it felt like. "I've missed you my old friend." She smiled as she placed it upon her belt where it belonged. She wasn't going to hide from it anymore; she wasn't going to hide it from others anymore. She is a Jedi Master, one of the last in the Galaxy, and by the spirits of the Jedi she was going to make sure that the last of the Jedi burned brightly into the spirit world, and would be remembered by all for the ages to come.
How does one live without the Force?
It seemed to be heavier now than it had been during the times she wielded the weapon. Yet now it was nothing more than a relic, a useless tool that marked her as a target. The piece of metal clambered against the other items in the bag, clinking around for a few moments until it fell to its place at the bottom. She had no more use for it, yet it was not something that she could simply throw away, not after the years it had been with her, not after the times it had saved her life. Those were just memories now and bad ones at that, thoughts of losing those she cared about, those close to her once more bubbled to the surface, and yet at time, it seemed as if there were no emotions. It was almost as if she were empty inside, just a mere shell of what she once was. The force no longer touched her as it once had when she was younger, the Clone Wars had changed her, changed her for the worst. She had lost everything at the end, her sense of being, who she was, what she was. All gone, left in the dust with the dead and decaying bodies in the dirt of Praesityln.
When Order 66 happened she was no longer a threat, nothing to be feared or worries about, and yet they still came for her. She was lucky though, or was she cursed? In those fine hours of the morning when the Clones had burst down the door to get to her, those who cared for her pushed her out the back door and into the darkness just before the dawn, that though saw the loss of more friends, more loved ones, and a bit more of herself. She was no longer who she once was, yet who was she now. Was she just an empty shell, a hole in the force that seemed to echo through the galaxy, yet so feint that none would notice unless they listened to the screaming of what had once been there, as she looked up from her bag, after allowing the cumbersome thing filled with items to settle down, she closed the covering of the satchel. Her eyes looking at the holoscreen before her, showing her the arrival time of the next passenger freighter that was bound for the deeper reaches of the outer rim.
Avy let out a heavy sigh as the Twi'lek female stood up from her seat, silently making her way through the small space port terminal until she came to her gate. Others were already boarding, many of them heading to other space ports that would take them from the outer rim, a few like herself seemed to be coming to disappear into the shadows that it cast. Yet she, she didn’t know where she stood on the matter. Was she coming or going, fleeing or standing out? Avy hadn't made up her mind yet, though there wasn't much that for her to choose. She knew that many of her kind were picked up by slavers and sold off, while others were forced to work as dancers to make their way through the galaxy. Avy though had avoided all that, avoided drawing attention to herself as she moved from one small farming planet to the next, staying in settlements for only a few days or so before she moved onto the next world, to her next place of exile. She let out a sigh as she stepped forward, handing the young woman at the stand her slip before she stepped on board the shuttle, finding the vacant passenger room in the corner to claim as her own for the trip. She didn't want to draw attention to herself, nor did she want the attention of others, she just wanted to be left alone, with her thoughts, her emotions, and those memories of a life that should have ended so many times, yet had resulted in her losing those that she cared for the most.
Avy set her bag down on the bed that was provided for the passengers in the rooms, although calling it a bed when it was really nothing more than a few sheets thrown onto a slab of metal never did make much sense. As she stood silently in the room and searched through her bag, she noticed the small child that had found her way to the door of Avy's room. A simple look over her shoulder caused the little girl to run from the door way and rush back to her parents as Avy walked to the door and closed it, shutting it as she stepped back to the bed and sat down. Her hand reaching into the brown satchel as she pulled out a small wrapper, a condensed food bar, something she had become used to eating over the past many years. She pulled the wrapper from it, throwing the trash into a small bin in the room as she took a bite from the bar. The taste, still the same bland nearly wood fiber grit that she had become accustomed to, a heavy sigh filled the air as she opened her bag and looked inside, seeing the robes that she once wore proudly folded up and pushed to the bottom, just as she had relegated the bottom of the satchel to her lightsaber as well.
She wasn't defenseless though, the loss of her connection to the force and her relegated the lightsaber to the dark corner of her bag didn't mean she couldn't defend herself. In her many years of training she had picked up a handful of martial arts, each deadly in their own right. As her mind pulled her back to memories of days gone by she began to lose herself to the past, before she pulled herself back. The memories too painful to think of as her mind forced her into the present, to keep her from remembering the events that had torn the hole into her that she now lived with. Avy sat back in the bed, pushing herself up against the wall, her back pressing against the cold durasteel as she brought her legs up, holding her knees to her chest as she closed her eyes and rest her chin against her knees. A tear slid down her cheek before she wiped it away with her sleeve, a memory having slipped through for a brief moment before she was able to push it back into the depths of her mind.
Avy looked around the plain room, her attention once more turning to the door that had cracked opened, the child once more standing there peeking into the room as Avy gave a smile. It seemed that there wasn't much that brought her happiness these days, yet a child being nosy still had its wonders to it. She slowly sat up as she picked up one of the bars from her satchel, walking to the door as she pushed it open and knelled down to be at eye level with the little girl. "You look hungry. Here, I have enough of these to share." She smiled to the young Togruta girl, handing the small bar to her. Avy had been saving the fruit bar for a while now, yet she knew that the little girl would enjoy it more as she unwrapped it for her and gave it to the Togruta, seeing her smile brightly before skipping off back to her parents that had come out of their room to find their daughter. Avy smiled to the family, thoughts of loved ones coming back to her mind, to what ifs that ran through her mind, including the possibility of having a family. Maybe she could now, maybe she could find a place in the Outer rim to call her own and settle down. She shook herself from her thoughts as she closed her door, this time locking it to remain undisturbed as she walked over to the bed, laying down on it as she lay on her side.
It was the same routine every time she woke, get up, clean up and remove the more constricting clothing so she could practice. If one listened closely they could hear the wind being cut as she thrust her open palm in a striking motion. Practicing her martial arts to keep her sharp, to keep herself honed and be able to protect her from harm, each practice session after was always followed by a long shower, although she doubted that she would be able to find one of the passenger ships. As she approached the small refresher that was included in the room, she pushed the water to cold, watching for a moment as the shower head sputtered out a rust colored liquid, the water cleaning out the old pipes before it began to run clear. Avy though always took her own precautions when it came to these ships, knowing the possible lack of proper water, or even an out of date reprocessing filter system on board.
As she stepped into the shower she let the water fall along her curves, sighing as she put her hand against the wall and leaned her head down. Letting the water cascade down her back before she jumped, quickly turning around to find nothing but air and shadows. A memory of a loved one’s hand on her back caused the fright, yet that's all it was, a memory of one whom had died many years ago, that still haunted her through her guilt. What if she had been the one that pushed him out the door and not the other way, would he have lived, or would he have been shot down because he harbored her and helped her? So many what ifs, too many for one life time as she turned off the cold water and stepped out of the shower, pulling her towel around her before she leaned up against the wall. Her hands picked up a small bottle she left out, a body lotion with an anti-bacterial sanitizing formula in it. Her way of keeping herself safe of any disease that might come her way through the water. When she finished she just let her towel drop, before she pulled out a set of clothing and pulled it one. It brought back memories, it was one of the few things she had been given before the war, that she kept. A gift from one that she wasn't allowed to love, yet still did, the same one that saved her from her death.
Avy donned the clothing, pulling on the top that seemed to hug her tightly and displayed her already flawless form to be something else. Then again that's what Twi'lek women where known for. Over it she pulled on a long coat, an almost perfect copy of the old flowing over robes she wore during her days as a Jedi, days that had long since gone. Her attention was once more drawn to the towel as she leaned down to pick it up, hanging it in its rightful place to allow it to dry before it would be used again. Although it wasn't likely that it would be used by her anymore. She could feel it in the ship before the ship had even stopped, the humming slowly dying down as the ship dropped from hyperspace, it's first stop just a few moments ahead of it as Avy pulled her satchel over her shoulder, pushing the door to her room open and stepping out as she crept down the hall to wait in the room near the docking ramp, ready to leave the ship for whatever world she would find herself on.
Her foot pressed firmly against the dirt, leaving an imprint as she stepped away from the ramp. Her eyes were first drawn to the looming castle in the distance that over looked the city and its spaceport, her attention drawn back to the dock workers whose four arms were easily going about their task. Munto Codru, a world of forest and mountains, filled with life and the force, yet Avy felt none of it, not a single being could she feel in the force. Her hands came up as she pulled the heavy hood over her head, wishing to remain left alone and unknown as he stepped away from the vessel that had carried her so far from where she had started. It wasn't a thing to worry about though. Maybe she could find some form of peace here in the mountains of Munto Codru where she could be left alone for a time before she would need to move on. Avy after all wasn't one whom normally stayed in a single place for too long, not since the end of the Clone Wars, not since she had lost everything that was worth staying for. She hoped that she was forgotten, yet it probably wasn't the truth, she was sure that the Empire still remembered her in one way or another, yet there was always that little bit of hope that they had forgotten her and would over look her. Maybe it was time for her to finally settle down rather than keep running from the galaxy.
It was a beautiful planet to say the least though, the many colors keeping her attention tuned from one thing to the next as she made her way through the streets of the capital, just wanting to slip away into it all and disappear into the people, to finally find her peace, yet it seemed as if peace never wanted her to find it. Avy heard a commotion, a young woman running from two men, watching as the girl ran straight to Avy and decided to choose her to hide behind of all people. This was a situation she didn't want to find herself in, she had nothing to do with it, nor did she wish to have anything to do with what was going on, yet it was her training, the old voice in the back of her head, her master’s voice ringing through her mind. 'When one is in trouble, help them you must.' Avy sighed as she brought her arm down, her hand touching the young woman's to calm her as the two males approached, taking stock of Avy before looking to the woman.
'You have something that belongs to us hiding behind you.'
'We would be most appreciative if you would hand her over'
Avy could feel the girl trembling, feel her pain and sorrow, yet how was that possible. How could she feel it if she were cut off to the force, how could she feel these emotions as strongly as she did now. For the moment she kept quiet as the two waited for a response, her mind still thinking on what had happened, trying to figure out how, was she once more opened to the force, is peace such a cruel thing that it would deny her itself just by returning the force to her. Avy did not know, it was not until she saw one of the two step forward did her voice ring out, did she speak and remember that it was her duty to protect the innocent, just as she had been taught. "You will not touch her. I do not wish to harm you, yet I cannot stand by and let you harm another." She remained firm in her stance, her hand in her bag as the other remained at her side, waiting and watching, hearing those before her speak.
'Then we will take her from you, and maybe we'll take you along.'
What happened next seemed like a mere instant to those that watched, yet to Avy it seemed like a lifetime, a lifetime of movement, of meditation and wondering. Her hand had come out of her bag with a swift movement, dropping it to the ground as she clutched the handle of the lightsaber, her old weapon, a companion that had saved her many times, it wasn't just a weapon, it was a friend. She had brought it up with a swift movement, the blue blade shimmering once it was activated, her movements fluid as if she were using the force, as if she were once more one with it as she disarmed the one before he, quite literally as the arm the man had reached out with now lay on the floor before the two. Avy looked to the lightsaber, remembering the hue of the shimmering blue that reminded her so much of the fountains of the Jedi temple of Coruscant before she deactivated the blade, the two men running as she then realized what had happened. Without a word she grabbed her bag up from the ground, stuffing the lightsaber within before she quickly ran from the scene, rushing through the people and into the forest.
And so she ran, she ran until she could run no more, until her lungs burned from the heavy breathing and yet she forced herself to continue, only stopping when she stumbled over a root of one of the many large trees that now surrounded her. Avy pressed her hand against one of them, holding herself up as she took deep laborious breaths before standing. She looked around, finding herself alone as she looked to her hands, still trembling from what had happened. It was just a mere instant, only for a second that she once more felt the force, yet why, how. So many questions continued to build, how did she feel the force, why did she not feel it now as she was so far away from the people, was it because of the people that she felt the force once more, if so, they when did she not feel it out in the forest so full of life. Too many questions came to her as Avy leaned up against one of the head trees, pressing her back to it as she slid down until she sat on the ground.
She pulled her knees up, wrapping her arms around her legs as she hugged her knees to her chest. Would she ever find peace, was it even possible, it was bad enough that she had already begun to think that peace wasn't a concept of the light side, that it was a creation of the dark side. It took so many lives to keep peace, so many families torn apart and broken, even how a single person could keep losing all they had just to find it, and her current situation and the events that had just transpired rooted the thought in her mind all the more that peace was a concept of the dark side. If it were truly part of the light side, then why did it cause so much pain and suffering just to get it, even for a brief moment in time. Avy closed her eyes as she let out a heavy sigh, leaning back as she still kept her legs hugged against her, her body shaking from the adrenaline as she tried to calm herself.
So here she sat, in the forest beneath the large trees that let the faintest of light filter through to touch the ground below. Sitting by herself in the wilderness as she pondered for a time on what had happened, how she had once more felt the force as she closed her eyes and took deep breaths. Maybe all that was needed was time, maybe these many years alone in the Outer Rim caused her to begin to open once more to the force. How could she know though, she hadn't felt it since the Clone Wars, since so many that followed her command died before her. It was that day. That day she lost the most in such a little time did she lose her connection, she felt it, felt every last soldiers scream of death through the force before she had collapsed, only to wake weeks later unable to feel or hear the force as she lay in the hospital bed.
It was like that moment all over again, she sat there quietly, once more no longer feeling or hearing the force as she had those many years ago. For the briefest moment today though she had, and now her mind dwelt upon it, questioned it, burned for answers and the knowledge of what had happened to her. It was only rumors that she had heard. Rumors that the Jedi Council were the only ones capable of stripping the force from a being, it was history, known to her from the many hours spent reading, that ages before she came a single Jedi had been stripped of the force by the council, of others that lost the connection through the loss of those around them. Was she to be the next in line of those legends? How could she be though, there was no one know to transcribe the events, no one whom in the future would read about a Jedi that had lost their connection to the force, yet regained it. Nothing was left of the old Jedi order. Perhaps there were a few Jedi here and there, yet that made no difference, they were targets now, nothing more than criminals in the eyes of the galaxy, a galaxy that was blinded by the Dark Side, by the Sith that now ruled it. Why should she care though, she was no longer a Jedi, yet she knew that it wouldn’t stop others from searching for her, from hunting her. She was a Jedi to them still, force or not, she could train others, and maybe, maybe that was to be her peace. Maybe her peace was not to come from hiding away or running to survive, maybe it was to train others in the way of the light, to train a new generation that would not be blinded or corrupted by the Dark Side.
Avy slowly stood up, her confidence coming back to her once more. She had been a Jedi Master, a teacher in her time, and that was when she had the most peace. Her mind was calm, her heart silent, and her spirit still; it was those times in training students that she felt the most in tune with the Force as a whole. It was those times that she had her true inner peace, the peace that now was just out of her reach. A smile came to her lips, the first in many years as she gained a new windfall, a new drive to gain the peace that she had been looking for, for so long. She had decided, she would train others, find them, seek them out and train them in the ways of the force, and maybe, just maybe she would begin to open up to it once more, as she had done so today. She could feel it returning, it was as if someone had turned on a faucet and the water began to slowly drip from the tap. It was the force that she felt, slowly dripping from deep within, as if something had opened a faucet within her in an attempt to begin to fill the hole that remained. She didn't know how to explain it, her senses came back to her, and she knew what had snapped the twig before it even snapped as she quickly turned around to face the young woman that she had saved in the market. A smile on her face as she stood silently, bowing her head lightly as she watched the young woman who seemed hesitant to be in her presence.
"Do not fear. I am not a threat to you." Avy spoke up, seeing the serenity that swept over the girl when she spoke the comforting words. Avy could feel it now, it was much stronger, almost as if the faucet was being pulled open more and more, the force once more flooding into her, as if she were feeding off of the young woman, feeling it through her as it became stronger and stronger. It was time; Avy knew she could no longer hide from the galaxy. She could no longer run across the Outer Rim. She had to step out of the shadows, the shadows that were cast across the galaxy from Coruscant. The galaxy needed a beacon of light, it needed the Jedi now more than ever, and Avy wasn't about to let what was left of the Jedi Order slip quietly into the night. If it was their destiny to fall to the Dark Side, than Avy was going to make sure that they burned their brightest until the final setting of the sun upon the Order. She reached into her bag, pulling out the familiar hilt of her lightsaber, holding it as she rolled her wrist, moving in a fluid motion as she remembered what it felt like. "I've missed you my old friend." She smiled as she placed it upon her belt where it belonged. She wasn't going to hide from it anymore; she wasn't going to hide it from others anymore. She is a Jedi Master, one of the last in the Galaxy, and by the spirits of the Jedi she was going to make sure that the last of the Jedi burned brightly into the spirit world, and would be remembered by all for the ages to come.