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Post by Atlantean on Jul 8, 2014 1:02:16 GMT -5
Name: Aleksender "Ender" Yusanis
Race: Echani
Age: 25
Height: 6'0
Weight: 169 lbs
Appearance:
Ender is a pure-blooded Echani with native characteristics and distinct of such a descent. He is tall and has a relatively heavy natural build compared stock Humans. His skin is pale and heavily scarred, with almost all of them being located down his back, from his lower neck to his upper backside, as a result of abusive slavery. His hair is white like snow, kept at a moderately short cut, even if unkempt at its height, and his eyes are a silver-blue, occasionally glowing into a cerulean-blue when deeply immersed in the Force, specifically the Light Side. In the few instances of his life in the past where he's merged deeply with the Dark Side, Ender's irises have taken the characteristic luminous crimson-gold.
Perhaps the most distinguishing physical abnormality on Ender is the large gash across his throat, where a slaver pirate's attempt on his life left him voiceless, but due to a Jedi healer's impeccably timely intervention, still alive. These facets are seldom noticed at all due to the fact that Ender wears armored Dai Bendu robes and a white Kasuis mask to conceal his face, totally eclipsing his body from any gaze. Ender's robes are sewn of multiple fabrics, predominantly black nanosilk and shadowsilk, together with satin and velvoid, all dyed black. Black too was the centerpiece of Ender's robe, which was armored, as well as his gauntlets and boots.
Personality: Ender's personality underwent several changes at different points in his life, most notably preceding his enslavement, his time as a slave, his being trained in the Jedi Arts, and after his fully coming to terms with his life, preceding his unofficial Knighthood. At his earliest years, Ender was an eager, impressionable, inquisitive and somewhat violent character, partially due to his genetic and cultural disposition toward combat and viewing it as simply a form of expression and communication. Following his capture by pirate slavers, who both used him as a laborer and ultimately sought to sell him to the Sith Empire after discovering his Force-sensitivity, Ender became closed off, highly selfish and almost callous toward others for the sake of his own survival.
By the time he was eventually found by Dai Bindu Monk-turned-Jedi Master Eyl-Zin-Mul and a Republic detachment, during which time he was nearly murdered by the slave master of Esyam, Captain Sylas Luthor of the Crucible, Ender had become a complete shell of his former self. Hard-hearted and full of apathy, Ender became prone to violent outbursts and emotional breakdowns. It was only after his unofficial induction to the Jedi Order that Ender managed to heal, on the emotional, mental and spiritual level, and came to terms with what his life became. Even in that healing process, the full effects took years to produce results in him. Following his metamorphosis, Ender became stalwart "Jedi Knight", nonetheless fully devoted to the Order's ideals of protecting the people of the Galactic Republic, with a special emphasis on protecting those unable to protect themselves.
The most complex aspect of Ender's personality as an adult is his occasional dark leanings. As a result of an abusive lifestyle during his early years - in spite of such tribulations last over only a very small portion of his experiences in life - Ender's persona has become quite possibly irreconcilably scarred. In witnessing those in situations similar to his own, be it slaves or those under a tyrannical sort of oversight, Ender has an unadulterated darker side of himself, exerted toward the abusive or oppressive. Like a struggling addict or habitué, Ender can control his composure when in the company of others and resist his darker impulses, but when alone and with opportunity, without guidance or oversight, the dark core of his damaged persona more fully exerts itself, inspiring him to commit deeds unbecoming of any real Jedi. Deep in his heart, and even from his "healed" point of view, Ender still believes such cruel individuals ruined his life, and struggles incessantly to overcome his dark nature through great effort and sheer willpower.
Birth place: Saleucami (Caelestia Settlement)
Previous Faction: N/A (self-proclaimed Jedi Order)
Mastery Level: Knight (self-proclaimed "Praetorian Knight")
Lightsaber: Double-Bladed Lightsaber (Dawnstar)
Color: Blue (previously green)
Practiced Lightsaber forms:
Shii-Cho 5
Makashi 0
Soresu 0
Ataru 3
Shien / Djem So 0
>>Sub-form Backhanded 0
Niman 0
>>Sub-form Jar-kai, or Dual Wield 3
Juyo 0
Double Bladed Combat 4
Force-Sensitive Abilities or practices:
Telekinetic: 5
Telepathic: 4
Body: 5
Sense: 3
Protection: 1
Healing: 2
Destruction: 0
Specialized Skills: Comprehend Speech (telepathically), Projective/Receptive Telepathy, Inertia
Mundane Abilities: Echani Art (three tiers), Thought Shield (Echani Art application), Battle Precognition (Echani Art application), Agriculturalist (rudimentary), Technician, Salvager, Massan language (post-aphonia; physical aspect only)
Attributes:
Physical Strength: 6
Intelligence: 5
Speed: 7
Leadership: 4
Unarmed: 7
Melee Weapons: 2
Ranged Weapons: 0
Bio:
Aleksender Yusanis' life began decades ago, on the world of Saleucami. A prosperous planet, one of the few that could claim independence in the galaxy, Saleucami was a world of great wealth and many exports, not the least of which were botanicals, medicines and technological services. Away from the urbanized metropolises and industrial centers, in the vast wildernesses of untainted greenery and nurtured foliage, there were dozens and dozens of villages and cities, universally called settlements. It was within these settlements, the Caelestia Settlement, that Aleksender, affectionately called "Ender", was born, descendant of the Yusanis tribe. With his immediate and some of his extended family leaving the Six Sisters for greater freedoms and a less restricted lifestyle, Ender was raised around a strongly-tied family, and even beyond that, a bonded community. With self-reliance both a desire and necessity, settlements were often bound together by trials and common interests, cultivating land and medicinal products for the large corporations which leased the land to the farmers and agriculturists.
In spite of his family leaving to ease themselves of servitude to the Echani Command government, Ender grew up much like a traditional Echani child. From his earliest years, combat and meditation were foundations in his life, much like one would consider brushing one's teeth and washing up after waking in the morning. As Ender grew into a older child, many perceptions about him, either misconceptions or perhaps alternative viewpoints, tended to have him branded as a hyper and aggressive child. Indeed, as a habit of many young boys, Ender habitually got into fights with others, but without malice or ill-will. Being the only Echani youth to have come from his family in the settlement, with the exception of a few newborns, Ender did not have the benefit of sparring with other Echani children, and thus sought combat's expression and communication in others, who simply perceived him as being a violent youth.
Nevertheless, Ender's reputation was not so isolated as such. Like his parents trained him, he was a hard worker in the fields, helping to grow specific crops and plants to be ground up or mixed into medicines and such. In addition, his uncle also found that Ender had a talent for fixing machinery, and taught him to help keep both the farming equipment and cultivating droids in shape. Tinkering with droids was soon discovered to be something of particular interest to Ender, as his ever-inquisitive mind became fascinated with the intricacies of droid parts and programming. Although lacking wealth or significant financial or material means, with Ender not even owning shoes, his life was happy and prosperous. It would be many years from then, when young Ender would reach ten years of age, that his life would take a sudden and brutal turn.
Away from the orbital outposts, secured airspace and garrisoned troops of Saleucami's main cities, spaceports and factories, the settlements in the unadulterated wilds were largely unprotected in proportion. Settlements often had their own militias, their own common laws and policed themselves, preferring non-interference from the larger governments and corporations. However, this "strength" of theirs was soon revealed to be a crippling weakness in the face of extra-planetary danger. Slave traders were always a common and dangerous element in the galaxy, although were most often confined to certain specific regions, such as Hutt Space or Wild Space. Prosperous worlds that benefited governmental powers in the galaxy usually were left alone, out of fear of retaliation by those with an interest in such a world. With the increase in lawlessness in the more tumultuous galactic regions, what became underestimated was the audacity of unruly elements found in the galaxy.
Early in Saleucami's harvesting season, when the morning sun dawned later in the day's start, Ender typically left the bounds of the settlement, leaving into the fields to round up the lantern droids. Among the children there, the droids often doubled almost as pets, and their programming permitted them to simulate playing with each other, remaining active at various periods throughout the night. And like the many mornings of this kind, Ender had left early into the fields to retrieve the droids this day as well. It was only on his journey back, through the crop fields and greenhouses, that the pillars of smoke and distant echoes of screams and outcries finally reached his ears. Even before then, Ender felt a sharp pain. Not a premonition, but a resonate response, translating almost akin to a sharp stab through his skin that almost brought him to his knees.
After recovering from his ordeal, Ender ran back toward the village, eventually finding himself wading through clouds of smoke and ever-louder hollering. An exploding shell detonated behind him from a great distance, but was still strong enough to jettison his small body afar, launching him into the smoldering buildings and bleeding bodies scourging the ground. Indeed, Ender quickly realized that he was plunged onto the corpse of a dead woman, a very woman who had been his neighbor; a short-tempered but well meaning older lady, too critical of his aggressive approach in violence. But no matter her opinion of him, she always would include him when she would bake for the children of the settlement. And now, his hands were warmed in her blood and his eyes burned the image of her lifeless face into his soul. Though he rapidly rose up, running again in a directionless manner until his steps slowed to a crawl, eventually stopping in his tracks. Explosions erupted around him, fires surrounded him, screams enveloped him, and all the while, all he could do was stand expressionlessly as he experienced the Force for the first time, and in the most horrific way imaginable.
With his silvery eyes glowing cerulean blue, Ender's ever-absent mind became open to the Force, empathically taking in the pain, suffering, anger, grief, terror and despair of those around him. He could feel the ill-intent, malice and disdain of those raining down over them, landing in boarding crafts where they were forcefully shoving others inside, shipping them into the skies. The rush and the tragedy of everything flooding in at once caused young Ender to shut down mentally, emotionally, and nearly physically as well, freezing for what seemed like an eternity as countless individuals ran all round about him. By the time Ender had finally come to, his face was in pain, swollen from a blow to the face, and chilled from the bitter cold of the durasteel interior of a shuttlecraft. The young boy scarcely had enough time to struggle to his feet to see out the trasnparisteel window of the burning Caelestia Settlement. Like a nightmarish vision, the entire event overtook him so quickly, and so brutally, the reality of the sudden change that would become his new life would not set in for days to come. The last words he would ever hear on his home world were spoken over an intercom system by a raspy voice of an elderly man, transmitting to all the departing ships a single message; "Welcome to the Crucible."
Between dodging Republic patrols, Imperial sentinels and rival pirating factions, it was many days onboard the tight, cramped shuttlecraft before Ender would ever set foot onto a planet's surface again. Ender had heard the tales of the elders of the Caelestia Settlement growing up, hearing of the mythologies of various cultures and civilizations. One of the most frightening tales he'd ever had the misfortune of hearing was relayed to him by "old man Pavaellon"; that there was a place in the afterlife where the wicked suffered for evil deeds. The Nine Corellian Hells, and the worst of these, where only the most vile of men would be condemned, was the Ninth Circle of Damnation. A burning world of fire and brimstone, flowing blood-red rivers and lakes of blazing flames, where the cries of evildoers gripped the air and poisoned the skies with the blackened skies of endless smoke. And the only break in the endless darkness with the golden-red eye of the ever watching ruler of the nine hells, gazing at his quarry.
As an Echani, Ender's people held their spiritual values toward the moon, gentle night skies as he would take his place among the stars, lighting the long night with his ancestors. However, when the long days had finally come to their end, and Ender took the dreadful first steps off the shuttlecraft and onto the smoldering smog-fill world of Esyam, his only thoughts were of what a harmless old man had told children around a campfire one night. The skies were black, the sun burned a crimson red, and the land was bursting with scarlet liquid-fire. With every struggle of his breath, every singe and scorch to his feet, only one overriding though filled Ender's despaired mind; this was the Ninth Hell. From the time the doors opened, armored men and women of various species stood or knelt in firing positions, almost as if they were waiting for someone to make a move. Others approached the prisoners, locking shackles onto them as they were dragged out to Esyam's surface in chains, led down, deep into the planet's chasms and ore mines.
Unbeknownst to Ender, a powerful ring of pirate slavers called the Crucible had struck Saleucami, taking advantage of the gaps in the planet's security forces, which protected the wealthier, industrialized and prosperous portions of the planet more than the undeveloped wilds. Raiding fast and striking hard, thousands of civilians were dispossessed almost before anyone knew what had happened. And now, Ender had gone from the freedom of an independent world to the bondage of Hutt space, the leaders of which were all too permissive of the methods used to extract valuable minerals, ores and elements from dangerous, but mineral-rich worlds. Ten-year-old Ender was still young, naive, but he quickly came to know what was expected of him as he and the other new "recruits" were welcomed by mandatory lashes to their backs as "good-will motivators" to get them started on working. And work, they did. Mining drills, gasifiers, beam-drills, ion shovels, sonic hammers and even lava skimmers; forced to live and adapt, Ender would work long hours, never knowing if it was day or night, and was expected to quickly learn how to use the equipment. And when he didn't know, or he used it incorrectly, he would earn new lashes to his back until he would get it right.
Survival, and the desire for it over all else, was the permeating theme of every living man, woman and child there. If one would slow down, ease up or fall behind, beatings were their lot. Sometimes the entire crew in the sector would be beaten, which only served to spread the ill-will, contempt, and hatred. In his first month there, while attempting to sleep in a corner deep within a rock chasm cave, Ender was the unfortunate witness of several beatings of slaves by slaves. The ones were couldn't cut it, the ones who couldn't keep up, the ones who made the others face the consequences of their inabilities, were the targets of extreme prejudice. Indeed, the very first beating Ender witnessed, as he watched from a large hollowed ore vein big enough for him to squeeze into, was the beating to death of an old man and woman, whose bodies where then dumped in one of the magma veins deep beneath the mining sites. Every day was torment, fear and combative. Water was more valuable than anything else, and many slaves would kill for greater portions, and had done so. By far the most horrific scene Ender had ever laid eyes on were the alternative to starvation some slaves had taken up; cannibalization.
It was as if nowhere was safe for him, and very soon, Ender began to notice that his early training in the Echani tiers gave him a distinct advantage over many of the malnourished, starving and physically feeble slaves there. Having seen the worst of what has been done to the weak, Ender did everything he could - everything within his power - to keep himself from being in that position. To keep himself from being victimized, beaten, killed... eaten. So he would steal, steal food, steal water, steal whatever he could that would give him an edge, keeping his stash concealed in tight areas where older, larger adults could not fit. As the days and week turned into months upon months, Ender made sure his thirst would stay quenched, his hunger sated, and his strength as whole as he could keep it. He watched the others there, the older slaves and how they interacted with each other. The ones who banded together, forming gangs that picked off the stragglers, and noticed the patterns of watching and waiting they took when making their strike.
It was as if life were a constant battle, not only against the elements or even the Crucible slavers, but against each other. And while Ender could not hope to match them, he did recall his uncle once telling him that people largely never changed, only the scale of actions did. In the Caelestia Settlement, youths feared and ran from Ender after confrontations left them with cracked bones, bruised bodies and shattered spirits. And if it worked then, why couldn't it now? Striking as an opportunist, just as the more experienced slaves he observed did, Ender would beat the other slaves. Not the feeble or decrepit, nor the infamous or notorious. But the ordinary, the moderate. He would make himself appear to be too much trouble to attack, too dangerous. But even so, he was a child, and knew that to be convincing, he had to take his beatings to another level. So he would hurt people.
At random, without warning, but with a savagery that others would never soon forget. His strength would never be lacking, at least compared to the others, and his skill was unorthodox to the commoners, civilians and born-slaves that made up the majority. This, he reasoned, was his only way to survive. No allies, they turned on each other too easily. No friends, for they did not exist here. Just himself, and his own strength. Unbeknownst to the others there, and even Ender himself, was a single advantage he held over the others. He could sense strong ill-will toward him, murderous intent or negative emotions from those seeking to harm him. Like an intuition to him, these feelings would become stronger as they came closer to him - there was no one who could surprise him, no one would could lure him and no one who could ensnare him. Wretched as it was, this was Ender's attempt at life, and would continue to be for the next two years. And by the time of his twelfth year of age, Ender's life would take a drastic turn once again, as the arrival of a wizened old man would mark the end of the tribulations on Esyam.
By the time of Ender's second year slaving under the Crucible's front of the "Esyam Consolidated Refineries" mining corporation, he had indirectly played a significant hand in the death of six other slaves. Of those, half were individuals that had injury to their bones or joints, resulting in poorer performance by them, and execution by the more brutal slaves that culled the weak. Whatever innocence he once harbored had long since evaporated, and in spite of only two years passing, Ender could not even recall the life he'd had before. Where there was once apathy and survival instinct, malice and bile had taken root and festered.
As a sturdy worker among those largely in failing health, Ender was often granted privileges beyond the stock slaves. The surface of Esyam was as hellish as any sight, but was still considered to be more tolerable, on the psychological level, than the caves and caverns beneath the surface. Hazard environmental suits were supplied to "dutiful" slaves that carried out assignments with exception, in order to participate in lava-skimming excavations. Under almost all circumstances, it was the only opportunity any slave would get to see the sky, however dismal it was. At twelve years of age, Ender still lacked the physical fortitude of the older slaves, but his strangely intuitive aptitude as a technician and salvager earned him the privileges all the same.
At first, Ender simply accepted the privileged work to escape from the pits he was entombed in, along with the others, and it remained such for the first several times. However, this slowly began to change once Ender had finally seen the face owning a voice he'd heard with hatred for the past two years of his life. Sylar Luthor, Captain of the Crucible and overseer of the "Esyam Consolidated Refineries", had passed the slaves working at the lava rivers in the company of his guards, once while Ender was present. Ignored, either intentionally so or just being beneath his attention, there wasn't a slave on the surface whose feeling didn't flood with murderous intent. Initially believing what he felt was the same "gut feelings" he got from those around him, Ender himself soon realized that the feeling of hatred that he'd felt before was his own. He hated him, he wanted to strike his eyes and gouge his throat. He wanted to see him dead.
At first, Ender passed such thoughts off as impossible fantasies. After all, Sylas was guarded at all times and there was never a shortage of guards. Even if he could find a way to get near to him, find a weapon - like a small vibroblade - to kill him, he would never be able to do so and live. And that much was stronger than his hate; he wanted to live, survive. It was a twist of fate, the following event, as a small shuttlecraft descended to the "Esyam Consolidated Refineries" landing pad only hours after Ender had been tasked to the scene. Reassigned from the lava skimmer equipment maintenance to replacing the interlocking cogs for the magnetic anchor beams of the hanger bay stationed next to the landing pad for interstellar starcrafts, Ender felt a "surge" as a seemingly unassuming shuttle broke the atmosphere of Esyam, causing him to actually look up shortly before the vessel had even begun atmospheric entry. The distraction was momentary, breaking as a guard walked past him, giving him a standardized talk-and-you're-dead warning.
While interested in the unfolding event, Ender refocused on his task at hand as the shuttle descended. Then once more, he averted his gaze. It was a simple shuttle, unarmed and bearing a crest on the side that he'd not seen before. As the back of the shuttle opened, ramp lights lit blindingly as decompression fluids vaporized into a mist around the joints of the landing legs. At first, all Ender could see was a silhouette emerging from the landing ramp, the figure of a man, hooded with a scepter in his hand. As his eyes adjusted to the light and the mist cleared, Ender could make out a beard and crag like wrinkles - the face of an old man, but with a great vitality about him, something Ender had not seen in what felt like a lifetime; not since the Caelestia Settlement on Saleucami. But one thing, more than anything else, drew distinction. Ender could not place what it was, neither in words nor in feeling, but there was something strong, almost awe-inspiring about the elderly man. It was similar to the gut feeling he'd get when others sought his life, but it was so different at the same time, more potent and without the harshness or malice.
It was only after the old man had taken his first few steps out from his ship that Ender saw something else. The Crucible's soldiers, disguised as security details, had continuously held their fingers on the triggers of their weapons. The metaphorical air round about was more tense than Ender had ever felt, and he felt a wave of anxiety, stress and fear almost radiating from the Crucible's troops, all directed toward the old man, who was simply addressed as "Watchman Mul". These men, outnumbering a decrepit old man by a ten thousand-to-one margin, armed to the teeth in comparison to Mul's walking staff, and surrounding him from moment he landed, were in tremendous fear. And it was this alone that struck Ender was greater awe than before; what power could this man have that strikes fear into the fearless? As he walked, the old man continued on almost as if he did not even notice the weapons around him, carrying on to meet Captain Luthor who himself came out to meet Watchman Mul.
A brief greeting ensued, followed by the two, along with a number of the troopers, entering the main building were Sylas Luthor's office was. Although he promptly returned to his work, as the guards were often all-too-eager to punish idleness, Ender could not help but think about the elderly man. Everything about him spoke of humility and helplessness, right down to the way he was dressed. Fine-woven, but simple robes, footwear and trousers. Several small daggers were on his chest, but even Ender could tell they were entirely ceremonial, not made for combat. Nevertheless, it had nothing to do with him, and as the minutes turned to hours, Ender put his curiosity about Watchman Mul aside. It was then, approximately three hours later, that it happened. An explosion without fire erupted, drawing everyone's attention. The sound was like a thuderclap, as Ender looked up, seeing the side of one of the towers burst apart, with almost a dozen guardsmen being projected out along with it.
The sirens sounded off, blaring as the troops rallied toward the main building, storming it with weapons raised. Just as it happened, Ender happened to look up, only to notice the sky had become brightened. Like stars falling from the heavens, more and more descending lights broke into the atmosphere, all clearly aimed from the facility. With the unfolding events making him virtually invisible to the now hectic Crucible troops, all Ender could feel was the great fear spilling from everyone else, and thought how eerily similar this all was to the day so long ago, when the Caelestia Settlement was raided. In the rush of activity, Ender ran inside the main building, finding a side-room to lock himself in. With the air clean and filtered, he was able to remove his breathing mask. Although he no longer needed the lava skimming suits, working for extended periods of time in Esyam's atmosphere was often degrading to one's health, and if anything, the Crucible did not like to damage their more productive slaves.
The storming of the troopers began to cease as the fighting grew outside, and those who did enter the building took part in the battle at the upper levels. Without any windows of security screens, Ender was completely in the dark, only able to sense an influx of high-riding emotions, almost all of them negative in nature. Alone with only his thoughts, it was then that Ender came to a startling, recklessly brash and borderline insane idea. There was never going to be a time as tumultuous and chaotic as this. With an army clearly attacking, perhaps rival pirates - Ender neither knew nor cared - the once abstract idea of finding and killing Sylas Luthor suddenly began to ring as a very real possibility. If he was smart, quiet and fast, Ender began to reason that his dream could very well become reality. At once, he began to tear the room apart, looking for something, anything, he could make into a weapon. Finally, after breaking into a drawer, Ender discovered a small blaster.
His hands paused at first, having never seen a weapon like it so close up before, and then picked the blaster up. Heavier than he imagined it'd be, Ender looked around the room, with his eyes focusing in on a poster, featuring a promotional image of Sylas and the "Esyam Consolidated Refineries". Without hesitation, Ender steadied his arms, took aim, and attempted to fire on Sylas' skull over and over again, only to miss each time. He'd never held a blaster before, and in fact was unfamiliar with ranged weapons altogether. If he was going to succeed, he'd have to rely on what he was familiar with, which meant his own hands, or something like a bladed weapon. Almost as if by divine direction, the moment Ender decided to set out of the room, he noticed another room nearby, and through the window, lied four daggers - the exact same ones the old man had came in with. Assuming it was part of some regulation about having weapons, Ender could not believe his luck, and grabbed the first blade he could reach. Golden in color, crafted from what seemed to be pure aurodium, with carvings of runes in a language Ender didn't recognize, it was still sharp and deadly as any practical weapon.
Hiding the weapon in a pouch on his clothing, Ender proceeded to the higher levels, growing more and more cautious as he started to come across bodies of the injured and dead, with no sight of the old man or Sylas. The only conclusion he could come to was that the old man, Watchman Mul, was responsible, but how an elderly man could cause so much havoc and destruction was entirely beyond him. Continuing his way up, Ender almost froze in his steps when he finally caught sight of old, stone-faced man with short hair. Sylar Luthor himself, hectically fleeing with several other troopers fleeing with him, habitually looking back as if to see - not if they were being followed - but how close someone, or something, following them was. Taking refuge inside a nearby office, Ender hid on the farthest wall away from the door, which came out from the rest of the room slightly, possessing a window that allowed one to see out into the hallway. Almost by fate, Sylas and his men ran into the very same room Ender did, barricading themselves on the opposite wall and the wall farthest to the back of the room.
Frightened, ecstatic and overwhelmed all at once, Ender pulled out the golden dagger, grasping it with both hands as he waited against the wall for an opportunity. His breathing intensified, and it took everything he had to not give himself away - a practice he refined keeping himself hidden when his life was in danger beneath Esyam's surface. As he was preparing to spy again on Sylas, peeking from the corner of his side of the room, his eyes caught sight of a figure outside the window, which froze Ender to his very core. It was the old man, with eyes white and glowing, debris floating around him, and a presence fully intimidating, walking across another hallway. Without even realizing it, Ender's muscles had given way to him urinating himself, having witnessed the most frightening thing he'd ever seen. After he was out of sight, Ender had refocused, having heard Sylas order the remainder of his men out the door to scout out a safe escape route. Seeing this as his perfect opportunity, Ender waited for Sylas to have his back toward him, and then with the dagger in-hand, charged for the Crucible captain.
Then next thing Ender realized was everything going black, finally coming too seconds later as another soldier who had doubled back struck him from the back of the head, knocking him out. Ender could hear voiced, one of them clearly Sylas Luthor's, yelling at his trooper as to why he didn't shoot Ender dead, instead of knocking him out, to which the trooper stated he was told by Luthor only moments earlier to save what blaster gas he could. As he gained more control over himself, Ender finally was able to see clearly, his first sight being Luthor grabbing the golden dagger Ender must have dropped. The moment he tried to get up, a powerful force grasped his neck, pulling him back as the soldier trapped Ender in a one-armed choke-hold. Sylas slowly walked to Ender, waving the dagger in Ender's face while wrathfully and rhetorically asking if Ender really expected to kill him. All his anger and frustration bubbled forth as Ender realized he would never be free, finally manifesting physically.
Luthor's eyes widened and his face broke into a smile as he gazed at Ender's face, watching his normally silver eyes become smoldering red and yellow. After remaking about recovering some of his losses with Ender now, Sylas issued a new order to, not kill Ender, but get him prepped with shackles for their departure. Unbeknownst to Ender, their new destination was now into Sith space, and for Ender to be sold to the Sith as a Force-sensitive, considered an extremely valuable resource to the Empire. It was then that the front of the room exploded again, knocking everyone, from the trooper to Ender to Sylas to the ground, as the figure of the old man appeared yet again. As Ender opened his eyes, he saw the old man extend his hand, and with that motion both Sylas and the soldier were knocked back to the opposite wall with great force. Ender struggled to sit himself upwards, wondering why he wasn't knocked back with them. Slowly, the old man approached an extremely fearful Ender, who knelt down in front of him, simply telling him not to be afraid and that he was safe now. Watchman Mul's hand then rubbed Ender's head, disarming Ender's fears as Mul got up again to head to the hallway.
Ender then staggered up again, asking what the old man's name was. However, before he could finish his sentence, a strong hand had suddenly gripped his head, forcing it backwards just as the image of a golden blade passed before his eyes, and a ripping pain surged through his body. All stamina and fortitude left Ender in that moment as a golden dagger gashed through his neck, stripping his body of all strength as he fell lifelessly to the ground. In his last moments, he could hear screaming by Sylas and another seeming explosion from the direction of the old man. In another flash of consciousness, Ender saw only the image of the old man, kneeling over him with his hands at Ender's neck, bearing an expression of extreme grief and hope, the latter of which was something Ender hadn't felt from someone in a long, long time. Finally, Ender's sight became completely darkened, with his last moments being the hearing of a voice - heard not by his ears - telling him one thing. To live.
Ender faced the Trials of Skill, Courage, Flesh, Spirit and Insight dueling the Dark Jedi berserker, Kharos
Almost ten galactic standard years had passed since Ender first began his tutelage under the wizened Jedi Master, Eyl-Zin-Mul. With robes woven with Alderaanian craftsmanship, the ideal padawan braid and a lightsaber to his name, Ender spent the better part of a decade living as a Jedi apprentice, following his master and letting the Force guide them to where the need for them existed. In that time, Ender had passed many tests and crossed many thresholds, coming into his own as both a Jedi and a person. While his scars still ran deep, he'd been able to bury much of the pain under the self-adopted obligations of servitude and duty. Eventually, the time came where Eyl-Zin-Mul told Ender that he would have to ready himself for taking the next step in his chosen path as a Jedi; the Trials of Knighthood.
While Ender was fully aware that he was not, nor would be recognized or acknowledged as, a true Jedi of the Order, he met the concept with a burning, but controlled, enthusiasm. For most of his life, Ender lived without distinct purpose, either relying of the mentorship and provision of another, or being forced under dominance and control. He'd known of it well, as far as concepts went, but he'd never had the true taste of freedom to control his own destiny, to make decisions for himself. The appeal of becoming a full-fledged Jedi, at least in name only, was like a baptism, being transformed into a new person, a complete person, capable of choice, and of deciding his own destiny. To him, becoming a Jedi Knight would be like giving him the key to choose his own path. Unbeknownst to the young "Jedi" at the time, his "trial" would be forced upon him only days later, and would be such a strenuous struggle that it would shake the young "Padawan" deep to core of his very being.
By the time Ender was twenty-two galactic standard years of age, Eyl-Zin-Mul had often received requests for aid by governments of the sector he watched over. Indeed, one of Ender's first jobs as an initiate was filtering legitimate requests by the degree of the need. During one such routine, Ender noticed that a distress call sent to Eyl-Zin-Mul's console came from an undocumented location. After triangulating the beacon's point of origin, Ender traced the call back to one of the few worlds that never reached out in such a way, was Mastala. A barren and frigid world of the Garnib system, glaciers and frost deserts were all-encompassing on the planet's surface. Most interesting of all, there were no known civilizations on the planet - not even the arctic-adapted Balinaka of the Garnib system resided there. Bringing it to his master's attention, Mul mused over the message, simply sending Ender away while he mediated, eventually emerging to inform Ender that they would investigate.
The shuttle departure to Mastala was cold and atypical, and not simply from the snow storms planetside. Ordinarily, Eyl-Zin-Mul took the time to talk with Ender before a mission, either to suggest to him something in particular to work on or to be especially attentive to an element they would soon encounter. However, the entire trip was silent, with Mul remaining silent for its entire duration. While he remained unaware of the cause, Eyl-Zin-Mul was a master of Farsight and Force Visions, and was strongly tied to the Unifying Force. Gaining impressions from the present and future, near and from afar, were second nature to him. However, he could gain no impressions from Mastala; it was blank. Not that there was nothing to sense, but that something was trying to conceal itself, was hiding. And no matter how far he reached out, how tentatively he meditated, clues as to what he'd face on the planet's surface continually evaded him like water slipping past a stone.
By the time Ender and his master had reached Mastala's surface, the blizzard ravaging the surface had reached their location. However, Ender never noticed the cold on Mastala, he never felt it. One of the many abilities taught to Ender over the course of his training was Tapas, the art of keeping's one body temperature consistent in even the coldest environments. Consequently, Ender and Mul departed in full Jedi robes, fully cloaked and hooded, but without the excessive winter-wear one would have expected. Although there were no foreseeable obstacles, Ender nevertheless held reservations from the beginning. The beacon that had signaled Mul had already died, perhaps being shut off, perhaps destroyed, or perhaps drowned out from the constant blizzards, ultimately meaning they were effectively directionless from a technological standpoint. Making matters more tense, Ender couldn't sense anything abnormal or of distinct planetside at all, meaning he also felt they were directionless even with the Force.
Suffice to say, Ender struggled with keeping himself from believing they were about to wander off into an endless abyss of frost, ice and snow without any guide, map or clear heading. Though he never "uttered" a word, Mul's voice penetrated his thoughts, telling him to soothe his unease and not to doubt the direction of Force-driven instincts. Ender recognized the counsel; "feel, don't think, live in the moment", a common phrase that ultimately was more difficult for him to grasp. The Living Force tethered one to life, all living things, sapient and non-sapient, even the plants, and finding harmony within. In spite of his desire and appreciation for helping others, finding harmony with others was never easy for Ender, and stifled his connection to the Living Force. In contrast, Ender found a much deeper connection with the Unifying Force, the cosmic energies that bound planets and stars, space and time, past and future. "Know the primordial; Seek the advent", one of the tenants Ender memorized early on and resonated strongly with him. Ender had followed his master through all things before, and he'd never been led astray. There was no reason to doubt him now, and if Ender's future was directing him to follow his master into the arctic world, then that's where his destiny awaited him.
Newly resolute, Ender followed Mul for almost an hour through the blizzards, until Ender suddenly hit a mass near his feet, tripping him over into the snowy ground. Telekinetically lifting him back up to his feet, Ender checked over to see what he walked into, only to find a corpse. Extremely well preserved from the winter-cold, it was the dead body of a Balinaka. Observing the corpse for himself, Eyl-Zin-Mul generated the Force within himself and stretched out with his hands, erecting a Force barrier that defied the surrounding storm, creating a bubble like forcefield of the surrounding area. Ender's expression fell further as he saw a sight all-too-familiar in the eeriest sense. Bodies of dead Balinaka, preserved by the cold which held the dreadful final expressions of their lives, perfectly capturing the horror of their demise. Ender searched body after body while his master kept the Force barrier up, noticing the same thing on each of them. Ritualistic markings and savage bruises indicative of beatings. Some were skinned, alive Ender was certain. Some were dismembered.
While not psychometric, Ender had strong empathic powers, and could still feel the pain and suffering present in the area. It was then that Ender wondered why he could not feel such agony earlier, realizing that his master must have sensed it, or something alluding to it, long before him. As Ender took in the area, slowly but surely, he began to notice an aura, like a taint. A noxious presence of something detestable and foul, which by the time of Ender fully feeling its effects, nearly made him vomit. Even Ender could sense it now, a powerful disturbance in the Force. A dark presence was nearby, and it took only a look behind them to see the source. As Mul released his Force barrier and the storm was restored around them, Ender's visibility in the distance became somewhat clearer; a massive monument built into the side of the mountainside. As the two approached, it was fully visible. Columns built high, well over fifty meters overhead, and in rows deep into the structure. But most notable of all, was the eerie presence of the Dark Side of the Force there - not overt or overwhelming - but was there all the same, as if something was trying to conceal it, and was failing.
Without a word, Mul led the way into the structure, and Ender followed. The inside of the structure was damp, humid and difficult to breath in, in spite of the freezing temperatures outside. With scarce light and broad pylons leading to its interiors, Ender had to rely on the Force to enhance his sight, which in turn revealed the sort of place he'd entered. Faces carved in the stone of the walls, bones decorating the obsidian floors, and ceilings higher than he could see, as if they went up to the mountain's peak. While clearly man-made, the place was clearly ancient, with Ender assuming it was a temple of sorts, the theme around him suggesting gladiatorial or sacrificial rituals. Eyl-Zin-Mul delved into the Force, channeling it into his scepter and causing the Force crystal at its center to illuminate vigorously. As the two progressed deeper, the dark presence felt stronger and clearer, and a strange sensation began to overcome Ender.
Ever since he began delving into the deeper levels of the apparent temple, he continually felt a strange tingle etched at the back of his mind, like a whisper he couldn't quite make out. A voice that he could just scarcely not hear. At times, it would echo, as if it were being spoken from afar. And at other times, it would sound like someone with their lips to his ear, uttering words in a hush slightly to quiet to make out. Ender couldn't tell if what he heard was perhaps mental manipulation or even a warning through the Force, beckoning him to leave, to run away. For all he knew, it could have been either or both all the same. In time however, the whispers gradually faded, being choked out by the distant - and clear - agonizing cries of pain and miserable torment. It struck Ender with a terror not unlike that which he felt moments before, outside the temple, and made him want to run away in a fear so deep-seated, he could feel it in his bones. Ender pressed on regardless, not so much out of his own conviction was it was from confidence in his master's leadership. Mul didn't stop walking, meaning he either didn't experience what Ender did, or it did not affect him the same way.
Ender and his master eventually came to a bright chamber of lakes of luminous liquid metal and ceiling torches. Balinaka of immense proportions were chained below, two thousand strong, but not as slaves or even property. The scent of rotten flesh and charred skin betrayed little, as discarded body limbs and remains of corpses dumped into the lake-vats of molten metals. It was a torture chamber of the vilest sorts, and even as the screams continued to drown in their own noise, the whisper struck Ender's mind again, wracking him with pain. Mul had noticed Ender's struggle, and although was allowing him to endure them on his own, and grow stronger for it, he'd finally seen that it appeared too much for Ender to withstand, both through the Force and on the emotional level. Before he moved to act however, another group of Balinaka hollered in terror as their cage was being brought on a conveyer over another lake of molten metal, which Mul saw as the most immediate concern. As he departed, jumping down into the torture chamber to telekinetically halt the cage's drop, landing it nearby to safety, a powerful impulse of tactile force blasted Ender backwards, into an opposite chamber.
At the same time, the electrobinders that bound the Balinaka deactivated, and in a not-fully-unexpected turn, the Balinaka savagely turned on Mul, who was now in the center of them all, having turned rabid and insane. Meanwhile, Ender's mind shielded itself after contact with a very tangible threat. He'd not felt a power directed at him with an intensity like he just had, but he recognized it all the same. Psychokinesis, tactile force projected through the Force by the will of the mind. Such a thing meant Force user was at work and that was something Ender knew how to fight. As he mentally readied himself, the whispers silenced from his mind, and a new voice emerged. It was frantic, loudly hushed stammering words, incoherent sentences slabbed together in mismatched utterances. It didn't even take Ender eventually seeing a straggly-haired, bloodshot-eyed, physically-malnourished and body-twitching man digging into the ground with his bare hands, bleeding on the mix of broken stone and chilled dirt - he knew far before then that he was facing a Force-wielding lunatic.
Without a word, Ender ignited his lightsaber. He contemplated perhaps talking to him first, seeing if there was another way to resolve the matter, but as his mind raced back and froth from the present to the past, seeing the tortured captives in cages, the only thing Ender could think about was the old Crucible captain, Sylas Luthor. As his eyes focued and sights narrowed, the crazed man looked back at his, and simply stared as Ender held his green double-bladed lightsaber. For those few seconds that followed, Ender's mind raced in what felt like an eternity, pondering if the man would fight back, how he would fight, if he was armed, what would happen if he wouldn't fight back, and so forth. And then in a sudden moment, the man let out a blood-curdling scream that forced Ender backwards several meters, wracking his body with pain. On his back and looking in after wincing from the pain, Ender saw two red cylinders in the sky dropping down over him, as well as two smoldering-red eyes behind them.
Rolling away from the ground, using the Force to enhance the speed of his movement, Ender evaded the first attack. Rising to his feet and reading himself to do battle once again, Ender charged the crazed Dark Jedi, combining Force Speed with his lightsaber form, and engaged the madman in a lightsaber duel. The two fought continuously, without the other giving ground in the conflict of attrition. For every strike to unbalance the Dark Jedi, Ender would be disadvantaged in kind, back and forth. The chief difficulty for Ender was that the Dark Jedi fought with no finesse, no form and no harmony. It was erratic, kinetic and haphazard. He was like a berserker, lashing out without clear intent of mind or clarity or focus. It was only through Ender's training in Echani Art and his ability in reading the muscle movement of his opponents that he was able to keep up in the duel. Finally managing to gain the upper hand, Ender delivered a kick with Force-enhanced strength, knocking the mad Dark Jedi backwards, although it simply skidded him back.
Taking a breath from the break in combat, a voice suddenly cried out to Ender - a voice that shocked him to his core. The voice of his mother, crying out for Ender to help her. Turning his back, Ender's eyes frantically searched for the source of the voice, and his mind snapped back to the realization of his turning his back to the enemy only moments after. In the nick of time, avoiding a deadly thrust to his abdomen, Ender deflected the blow, which painfully grazed his left side. As their duel resumed, the voice came again, this time it was his father, begging for Ender's aid, and for him to aid his mother. By this point, Ender could recognize reality again; he knew it was not his parents, but the sound of their voices still unnerved him to the point that he could not fight through it. Indeed, he almost wished an illusion of their likeness would appear, just so that he could see them again. He wanted to see it so badly, Ender fought harder, and harder and harder, hoping to force the maddened Dark Jedi into a position where he would try to use such a means to his advantage.
As the fight continued, a telekinetic blast from Ender knocked a small blue holocron from a stone-carved shelf, among other things. As the holocron activated, it showed an unhooded robed figure speaking to someone named Kharos Jorrvak, praising him and speaking of his great potential as a Jedi. The message was brief, and the duel continued on it spoke, ending with telling Kharos to never forget the Jedi Code, no matter what difficulties befall him, as well as how it was possible to forget the most vital things when tribulations come. In its conclusion, the holocron recited the Jedi Code: "There is no emotion; there is peace. There is no ignorance; there is passion. There is no passion; there is serenity. There is no chaos; there is harmony. There is no death; there is the Force." Ender choked as he heard the words resonate in his mind, reminding him of what Mul had taught him to move on from, regarding his past. In a way, Ender could not help but wonder if this was a way that the Force, the Living Force, was indirectly speaking to him.
As their fight broke again, with the mad Dark Jedi - apparently the Kharos individual being talked about - Ender took the time he could to center himself. His family was dead, gone, but only in the physical aspect. As the Living Force revealed, all life becomes one with the Force when the physical body decays. And so in a way, there were, and would always be, alive, and with him. In academic terms, he always comprehended the concept, but it never came to life for him before that moment, and he took what comfort he could in that. As Kharos charged for Ender again, the young Jedi Padawan jumped high toward the nearest wall, running up the side until he'd reached the ceiling, and ran across, using Inertia to counteract the effects of gravity on his body. It was an ability Ender specialized in. To his own surprise, Kharos did the same, and their battle reached a fever pitch as the two dueled upside down on the ceiling of the chamber.
The battle was taxing as never before, as the strain from using the Force to keep traction on the ceiling, to heighten his speed, and the focus of lightsaber combat took its significant toll. Every so often, Ender would feel his weight 'slip', as he felt his control wavering. Moving across the ceiling as they fought, shifting the battle back to the wall and ultimately to the ground, Ender finally managed to even the odds and stuck the emitter of one of Kharos' lightsabers, destroying it, and quickly used disarmed Kharos other weapon by taking advantage of the decreased leverage, knocking it away. As Ender moved in to strike for the kill, Kharos ran into the shadows and vanished. He could feel the tingle at the back of his mind again, but there were no whispers, leading Ender to assume Kharos was trying to trick him again, but his mind was still too alert and protected to be deceived.
Then without warning, a sudden blow came to Ender, striking him in the neck and knocking him back. His mind, so focused on the telepathic attacks, forsook the precognitive warnings through the Force. His lightsaber was disarmed following the blow, and Ender was able to see Kharos pull his lightsaber back and slash down through his hilt, causing the hilt to lightly explode near the center and completely annihilating one emitter on it, before tossing the hilt away and vanishing again. In that brief moment, Ender could tell Kharos' intent; he didn't want to simply kill him quickly or cleanly, he was going to beat him to death. A series of powerful strikes came to Ender, with blows connecting to his face repeatedly, as well as his lower belly, his chest and under his chin. It was savage, fast and merciless, as Ender struggled to regain control.
His mind felt clouded, and not simply from Force manipulations. While training with the Echani master, Ysaori Vaten, Ender leaned much about his physiology, including recognizing where particular pains came from. As Ender was knocked to the ground and struggled just to get up again, let alone battle, he recognized the situation he was in from the pains he was feeling. Several of his ribs were broken from sheer thrashings alone, his jaw was dislocated, and possible damage to a lung artery, due to his coughing of blood. Exhausted, bruised and beaten, Ender literally could not summon the strength to get up on his own. As Ender moved his head upward to stare ahead, being face-down, he heard a voice again. And finally, he saw it, his father, in just the same way that he couldn't even remember him. From the same clean-cut hair and soft eyes to the kind-but-unsmiling face he always wore, it was everything Ender wanted to see again. His eyes widened as tears began to slightly flow down his face. His father's image then came closer and closer, stretching out his hand and telling Ender to come to him.
And just as his father came just within a meter's range, Ender suddenly sprang to vitality and life, using Control Pain to negate the effects of his injuries, and while simultaneously telekinetically pulling his damaged lightsaber to hand while igniting and thrusting the good emitter behind him. The image of his father faded away, and Ender saw behind him what he felt through the Force; Kharos' hidden presence. That same concealment that, when focusing on him, was found to never quite be up to par. Deep down, Ender knew he could have delivered a non-fatal blow due to his surprise attack, and he knew why he didn't. Moving beyond the past aside, this was the kill he always wanted out of Sylas Luthor, and he was more than confident that his master would never question him being able to take the man alive. And ultimately, he would soon find that his assessment would be correct.
Ender thrust his lightsaber blade through Kharos heart, pushing it deeper and deeper in as he took in the last expressions on Kharos' face. It was then that Ender, saw a sight he would not soon forget; as Kharos face fell and rose up again to look upon Ender one last time, the face staring through the straggled and greasy hair was not Kharos', it was Ender's. Ender's eyes widened in confusion and horror before quickly understanding what he saw. It was the briefest of Force Visions that had impacted him, but knew what he was seeing was a potential future of himself, within Kharos. While Ender collapsed after the duel, he was quickly found by Mul, who arrived later after defeating the crazed Balinaka, and recovered him. As Ender awoke again in his master's care, he learned that the temple they were in was originally belonging to a kind of cult before it was found by the maddened Dark Jedi, who himself was named Kharos Jorrvak, a Jedi Padawan who had become the victim of his own unbridled curiosity, having lost his sanity when experimenting with the Force while with his Master on Voss. Ender lyingly stated that he regretted not being able to take Kharos alive after relating the events, to which Mul informed him he was unsure if it was fully possible to save him.
After recovering, Ender was told that by Mul's assessment, he'd passed his five Jedi Trials in that one confrontation. Ender was told to had passed the Trial of Skill by defeating the berserker Dark Jedi, Kharos Jorrvak, had passed the Trial of Courage by facing him in one-on-one combat, had passed the Trial of Spirit by witnessing and understanding the Force Vision he'd received upon killing Kharos, had passed the Trial of Flesh by enduring and bearing through the savage physical beating he'd been subjected to, and had passed the Trial of Insight by seeing through Kharos' constant illusions and mental manipulations, and seeing the reality. Presenting him with full Dai Bendu robes as his reward, as opposed to the imitation Padawan robes he'd been wearing, Eyl-Zin-Mul declared Ender a Jedi Knight at heart, but something more in being. He may not be a Jedi as far as the galaxy was concerned, but he would always be a protector and a guardian. A Praetorian Knight, the title of which Ender would keep close at heart in the years that followed.
Ender had departed from Mul in the weeks that followed, beginning with reconstructing his lightsaber. From the founding of a Force crystal that he spent weeks attuning to himself, to spending the better part of the rest of the same year creating a new lightsaber hilt from the tediously-forged Songsteel, so as to protect it from the glaring danger of sun djem. From then onward, Ender had chosen to use his ceremonial Kasuis mask to protect his identity in the case of keeping his anonymity, should the Jedi Order hear of or see him. It was not until almost two years later, as Ender was nearing twenty-five standard years of age, that he chose to take up a cuirass and plated gloves, to distinct himself, in his mind, from the traditional Jedi, and more embrace his nontraditional role as being more than a Jedi Knight; Praetorian.
RP Sample:
"Battle not with evil's monsters; Awaken not the beast
Control belongs to one that conquers; And freedom is their feast
Demons within, demons without; In darkness, they reside
Ally and foe alike shall rout; Damnation, they denied
To slay a beast within our thrall; This is our carnal sin
But monsters live inside us all; In fray, sometimes they win"
A rhythmic tone of beeping and pulsations hummed against the nigh-silence of shifting waters and rising air bubbles. Lulling and gentle, but strong enough to hear and feel to the deepest part of the bones, it continued onward, over and over again, like an eternal symphony. Within a Sith facility, a woman floated comatose in a cylindrical pool of Kolto, connected to over a dozen monitors regulating her health, conscious state, chemical levels in her brain and body, among other things. Her body was ravaged by burns, lacerations and bruising, evident even after her immersion in the healing fluids. As the medical instruments relayed her biological information, over one hundred and twenty scientists, as well as many more security personnel, patrolled the area.
"So... do you know who she is?" said a scientist, gazing into the figure within the Kolto tank. His hair was brown and cut short, but was coiled and curly even at such a length, "I've worked in the Vysus Medical Unit for six years now, and I've never actually been tasked with healing anyone, let alone putting someone - an enemy of all - back together. She's even been listed as a highest priority entity."
"No idea," said a grime-covered technician, halfway inside the lower panel of a nearby wall as she worked on the inner mechanisms of a bioscanning console, constantly trading one hand tool with another from a nearby astromech droid helping her, "Maybe she's some princess they want to use as a political prisoner or something. Y'know, one of them diplomatic type hostages."
"Maybe, maybe," the medical scientist said, obviously unsatisfied with the technician's theory, "But I do wonder... the Sith usually don't tell us much, least of all Lord Scyreus, but somebody has to have the details, right? After all, information about her can't just be what little we've been told, there's got to be more to it. Somebody's gotta know who this woman is."
"Yeah, I know who she is. Right now, she's one of Darth Scyreus' experiments," said a nearby patrolling guard, overhearing the medical specialist and technician, "Don't need to know anymore, and can't say I want to, either. Knowing too much around the Dark Lords gets you killed. That's why I hate these clandestine assignments."
"He's right," another guard said, a sentry guarding the nearby door to an outer corridor, "Experiments like these almost always go bad when you start asking questions. Trust me, keep your eyes focused and your heads down if you want to come out of this unscathed. I know too many friends that disappeared after being put on 'special assignments'."
"That's just military urban legend, isn't it?" the medical specialist replied, chiding the other soldiers, "Insubordinate men and women being court marshaled, is of course another matter. But what you're suggesting; loyal soldiers of the Empire suddenly disappearing from military installations en mass without a trace? Highly improbably."
"It's your neck, doc. And I'm not sticking mine out for yours," the first patrolman said, returning to his route, "You want to end up getting 'discharged' the Sith way, be my guest."
The technician ignored the most of the conversation and the medical specialist simply scoffed and returned to his station. High above the room, at the unlit ceiling of the building, Aleksender Yusanis knelt upside-down, above the facility, using the Force to enhance his hearing to listen in on the personnel, Ender ironically found his information was as scarce as the people working in the installation. Without the Jedi Order's backing, Ender had to rely on gathering information on his own, using underworld channels and information brokers. One of the more persistent rumors was that of an Imperial prison of sorts that was holding some VIP prisoner, someone that fought against Darth Scyreus, one of the more militaristic, as opposed to 'spiritual', Dark Lords of the Sith Empire.
Quickly scaling the ceiling, using the Force to make his movements silent as his feet raced across the metallic plating, Ender leapt into the corner of the room, behind a series of bulky hulks of machinery. From the vantage point therein, Ender gazed into the Kolto tank for a better view of the 'VIP prisoner', only to find that is was a poor barely-alive woman. The Force was strong with her, but her connected was deeply scarred, like a sculptor developing arthritis. But most distinguishing of all, Ender saw that a great deal of her body was repaired with cybernetics. Her arms, her chest and abdomen, her neck and lower face, even parts of her legs were augmented by cybernetics. From the Kolto tank, numerous cords came out of her back, extending into a power generator. It was a form of life support, that much Ender could perceive, but there something... off, about it. Something was unnatural, even by the standards of a thing so artificial in nature. And in the end, the only thing he felt he could do was rescue her. After all, no one deserved captivity, least of all in such a horrific manner.
As Ender devised the best way to rescue her, the uneasiness he felt about her grew more and more. There was something about her that was dangerous, although he couldn't perceive what it was, or why it was. True to his own nature, Ender couldn't bring himself to leave one that was defenseless, even if of a shady nature, but at the same time, he was not one to act without knowing what he was getting into. To that end, he sought what he believed to be the safest method of divination.
Retreating to the ceiling again, Ender closed his eyes and meditated as he sat, focusing on the penetration of the mind of the woman in the tank. Surprisingly, even unconscious, the woman's mind was strong, as if it was trained in such a way. Tearing through the barrier around her thoughts, Ender entered into her mind to sense her identity and her nature. Her mind was full of turmoil and conflict, rife with unbridled passions and aggression, but also grief. Ender could see what he believed to have been her world, what she appeared to look like before, and saw comets lighting up the sky at dawn. Comets that were landing pods, releasing hordes of Imperial troops and Sith. Fighting against them, the woman slew many, until she eventually came across a being with chalk-pale skin, eyes like darkness of black holes and with several lightsabers hanging from his waist. In the briefest of battles, she was defeated in battle, launched into the fuel cells of a landing craft, causing it to explode. Incredibly, she survived the ordeal, looking up as her last moments of consciousness was the sight of the deathly-looking man's face.
"EEEEEEEYYYYYAAAAAHHHHHHH!!"
The woman's mind burst open, awakening her as she let out a blood-curdling scream through the Force, unleashing a telekinetic and telepathic explosion. Her Kolto tank burst apart, and the personnel nearest to her were killed almost instantly, being pulverized by the Force energies erupting from her. Ender fell almost instantly, his mind having been directly connected to hers at the time, but managed to pivot himself feet-down during his fall. Landing on his feet, and now protecting his mind from the telepathic aspect of the blast, Ender looked down to see himself standing over a woman with a deadened expression on her face, her mind having been torn asunder.
"Stop! Calm yourself!" Ender yelled out to her, telepathically attempting to appease her
His 'words' fell on proverbial deaf ears as her hand rose from Force gripping two security details, choking the life from them as her hands tightened into fists, cracking their necks. With her next motion, her left arm flung behind her toward the source in the Force that contacted her, and a blast of sustained Force Lightning spiraled forth from her fingertips just as Ender pulled his double-bladed lightsaber, Dawnstar, and ignited it just in time to block the blast.
Not entirely cybernetic then, he contemplated, realizing some of what was done to her was augmentation, not replacement.
"Listen to me! I know you can hear me, you're not in danger anymore," Ender 'said', reaching out to her mind again to calm her down, "Look around you, they're dead. You're safe, and I'm not hear to harm you. I'm here to help you, if you'll let me. So please, let me."
The woman now turned around as her golden-red eyes, immersed in the Dark Side, now focused in on Ender.
"Where... is.. he? Where i..is, s... sck... Scy..reus?" she managed to utter in a mechanical, staggering voice.
Scyreus, the Sith Lord Ender had believed to be in charge of the facility. Without a doubt, her motivation was likely revenge. A sentiment Ender could understand, but also sobering how frequently such a theme has been spread acorss the galaxy. So many wronged, so many wishing for vengeance.
"Yes, Darth Scyreus. Is he the one that did this to you?" Ender asked, attempted to disarm her.
Her Force Lightning still continued on, but to a steadily deceasing intensity. Her eyes paced back and forth as she appeared to be collecting her thoughts.
"Look at me, Tekea," Ender said, having gleamed the name from her mind before, "That is your name isn't it? You were Tekea Azatar."
A Death Witch..., Ender thought. Her lightning stopped completely now, as her hands grasped her head, but Ender knew enough about the Krath to know they were a Sith cult. With their leaders wiped out, they scattered, but apparently whatever world she came from descended from that society. Sith prisoner or not, she was dangerous in her own right. Still, Ender could not figure out why she was being kept alive.
"I am... Te... kea," she said, struggling to formulate sentences. "Tekea... Azatar."
"Yes, remember your name. You're Tekea," Ender said, reaching out his hand, while removing his mask in an attempt to put her more at ease, "Take my hand, and we'll leave, Tekea."
Whatever she was, her mind was soft now, malleable and vulnerable - either by damage or by design. While he would still be cautious, right now she was easily influenced enough, almost akin to a child. On that, Ender didn't feel he needed to kill her should she drop her defenses. As she slowly reached out to take Ender's hand, a blaster bolt fired out, striking Tekea by grazing her right shoulder. Immediately she let out a roar as she rapidly turned around and fired another blast of Force Lightning, charring the lone soldier on the ground who attempted to kill her. In a surge of confusion and agitation, Tekea then let out a repulsive wave of telekinetic energy, launching Ender back into several machines and causing the dust to circulate the air.
A few seconds later, as the dust cleared, all that was left were broken machines, broken people, and blood. Getting up and telekinetically pulling his mask into his hand, Ender mounted it over his face again as he sighed. The more of the galaxy he saw, the harsher and harsher place it seemed to be. With every victim that survives, often a new oppressor is born. And Ender couldn't help but wonder, if he ever saw her again, what she would be. A Sith, a Darksider, or even merely a shattered woman without a place in the galaxy. As he walked over to leave, a lone scientist gagged in pain. Many of his bones were broken, some of his joints twisted, but he was alive. Ender walked over to him as he attempted to get up, as his legs still worked in some capacity, and kicked him over. Surprised, the scientist gagged as Ender placed his foot on the man's throat and pressed his heel down, choking the man until his thrashing ceased. The galaxy was full of monsters, and those who appease them. And now, by his count, there was one less in the galaxy.
Race: Echani
Age: 25
Height: 6'0
Weight: 169 lbs
Appearance:
Ender is a pure-blooded Echani with native characteristics and distinct of such a descent. He is tall and has a relatively heavy natural build compared stock Humans. His skin is pale and heavily scarred, with almost all of them being located down his back, from his lower neck to his upper backside, as a result of abusive slavery. His hair is white like snow, kept at a moderately short cut, even if unkempt at its height, and his eyes are a silver-blue, occasionally glowing into a cerulean-blue when deeply immersed in the Force, specifically the Light Side. In the few instances of his life in the past where he's merged deeply with the Dark Side, Ender's irises have taken the characteristic luminous crimson-gold.
Perhaps the most distinguishing physical abnormality on Ender is the large gash across his throat, where a slaver pirate's attempt on his life left him voiceless, but due to a Jedi healer's impeccably timely intervention, still alive. These facets are seldom noticed at all due to the fact that Ender wears armored Dai Bendu robes and a white Kasuis mask to conceal his face, totally eclipsing his body from any gaze. Ender's robes are sewn of multiple fabrics, predominantly black nanosilk and shadowsilk, together with satin and velvoid, all dyed black. Black too was the centerpiece of Ender's robe, which was armored, as well as his gauntlets and boots.
Personality: Ender's personality underwent several changes at different points in his life, most notably preceding his enslavement, his time as a slave, his being trained in the Jedi Arts, and after his fully coming to terms with his life, preceding his unofficial Knighthood. At his earliest years, Ender was an eager, impressionable, inquisitive and somewhat violent character, partially due to his genetic and cultural disposition toward combat and viewing it as simply a form of expression and communication. Following his capture by pirate slavers, who both used him as a laborer and ultimately sought to sell him to the Sith Empire after discovering his Force-sensitivity, Ender became closed off, highly selfish and almost callous toward others for the sake of his own survival.
By the time he was eventually found by Dai Bindu Monk-turned-Jedi Master Eyl-Zin-Mul and a Republic detachment, during which time he was nearly murdered by the slave master of Esyam, Captain Sylas Luthor of the Crucible, Ender had become a complete shell of his former self. Hard-hearted and full of apathy, Ender became prone to violent outbursts and emotional breakdowns. It was only after his unofficial induction to the Jedi Order that Ender managed to heal, on the emotional, mental and spiritual level, and came to terms with what his life became. Even in that healing process, the full effects took years to produce results in him. Following his metamorphosis, Ender became stalwart "Jedi Knight", nonetheless fully devoted to the Order's ideals of protecting the people of the Galactic Republic, with a special emphasis on protecting those unable to protect themselves.
The most complex aspect of Ender's personality as an adult is his occasional dark leanings. As a result of an abusive lifestyle during his early years - in spite of such tribulations last over only a very small portion of his experiences in life - Ender's persona has become quite possibly irreconcilably scarred. In witnessing those in situations similar to his own, be it slaves or those under a tyrannical sort of oversight, Ender has an unadulterated darker side of himself, exerted toward the abusive or oppressive. Like a struggling addict or habitué, Ender can control his composure when in the company of others and resist his darker impulses, but when alone and with opportunity, without guidance or oversight, the dark core of his damaged persona more fully exerts itself, inspiring him to commit deeds unbecoming of any real Jedi. Deep in his heart, and even from his "healed" point of view, Ender still believes such cruel individuals ruined his life, and struggles incessantly to overcome his dark nature through great effort and sheer willpower.
Birth place: Saleucami (Caelestia Settlement)
Previous Faction: N/A (self-proclaimed Jedi Order)
Mastery Level: Knight (self-proclaimed "Praetorian Knight")
Lightsaber: Double-Bladed Lightsaber (Dawnstar)
Color: Blue (previously green)
Practiced Lightsaber forms:
Shii-Cho 5
Makashi 0
Soresu 0
Ataru 3
Shien / Djem So 0
>>Sub-form Backhanded 0
Niman 0
>>Sub-form Jar-kai, or Dual Wield 3
Juyo 0
Double Bladed Combat 4
Force-Sensitive Abilities or practices:
Telekinetic: 5
Telepathic: 4
Body: 5
Sense: 3
Protection: 1
Healing: 2
Destruction: 0
Specialized Skills: Comprehend Speech (telepathically), Projective/Receptive Telepathy, Inertia
Mundane Abilities: Echani Art (three tiers), Thought Shield (Echani Art application), Battle Precognition (Echani Art application), Agriculturalist (rudimentary), Technician, Salvager, Massan language (post-aphonia; physical aspect only)
Attributes:
Physical Strength: 6
Intelligence: 5
Speed: 7
Leadership: 4
Unarmed: 7
Melee Weapons: 2
Ranged Weapons: 0
Bio:
ORIGINS
3625 BBY
3625 BBY
A young "shellshocked" Ender during the Razing of Caelestia, experienced his first immersion in the Force
Aleksender Yusanis' life began decades ago, on the world of Saleucami. A prosperous planet, one of the few that could claim independence in the galaxy, Saleucami was a world of great wealth and many exports, not the least of which were botanicals, medicines and technological services. Away from the urbanized metropolises and industrial centers, in the vast wildernesses of untainted greenery and nurtured foliage, there were dozens and dozens of villages and cities, universally called settlements. It was within these settlements, the Caelestia Settlement, that Aleksender, affectionately called "Ender", was born, descendant of the Yusanis tribe. With his immediate and some of his extended family leaving the Six Sisters for greater freedoms and a less restricted lifestyle, Ender was raised around a strongly-tied family, and even beyond that, a bonded community. With self-reliance both a desire and necessity, settlements were often bound together by trials and common interests, cultivating land and medicinal products for the large corporations which leased the land to the farmers and agriculturists.
In spite of his family leaving to ease themselves of servitude to the Echani Command government, Ender grew up much like a traditional Echani child. From his earliest years, combat and meditation were foundations in his life, much like one would consider brushing one's teeth and washing up after waking in the morning. As Ender grew into a older child, many perceptions about him, either misconceptions or perhaps alternative viewpoints, tended to have him branded as a hyper and aggressive child. Indeed, as a habit of many young boys, Ender habitually got into fights with others, but without malice or ill-will. Being the only Echani youth to have come from his family in the settlement, with the exception of a few newborns, Ender did not have the benefit of sparring with other Echani children, and thus sought combat's expression and communication in others, who simply perceived him as being a violent youth.
Nevertheless, Ender's reputation was not so isolated as such. Like his parents trained him, he was a hard worker in the fields, helping to grow specific crops and plants to be ground up or mixed into medicines and such. In addition, his uncle also found that Ender had a talent for fixing machinery, and taught him to help keep both the farming equipment and cultivating droids in shape. Tinkering with droids was soon discovered to be something of particular interest to Ender, as his ever-inquisitive mind became fascinated with the intricacies of droid parts and programming. Although lacking wealth or significant financial or material means, with Ender not even owning shoes, his life was happy and prosperous. It would be many years from then, when young Ender would reach ten years of age, that his life would take a sudden and brutal turn.
Away from the orbital outposts, secured airspace and garrisoned troops of Saleucami's main cities, spaceports and factories, the settlements in the unadulterated wilds were largely unprotected in proportion. Settlements often had their own militias, their own common laws and policed themselves, preferring non-interference from the larger governments and corporations. However, this "strength" of theirs was soon revealed to be a crippling weakness in the face of extra-planetary danger. Slave traders were always a common and dangerous element in the galaxy, although were most often confined to certain specific regions, such as Hutt Space or Wild Space. Prosperous worlds that benefited governmental powers in the galaxy usually were left alone, out of fear of retaliation by those with an interest in such a world. With the increase in lawlessness in the more tumultuous galactic regions, what became underestimated was the audacity of unruly elements found in the galaxy.
Early in Saleucami's harvesting season, when the morning sun dawned later in the day's start, Ender typically left the bounds of the settlement, leaving into the fields to round up the lantern droids. Among the children there, the droids often doubled almost as pets, and their programming permitted them to simulate playing with each other, remaining active at various periods throughout the night. And like the many mornings of this kind, Ender had left early into the fields to retrieve the droids this day as well. It was only on his journey back, through the crop fields and greenhouses, that the pillars of smoke and distant echoes of screams and outcries finally reached his ears. Even before then, Ender felt a sharp pain. Not a premonition, but a resonate response, translating almost akin to a sharp stab through his skin that almost brought him to his knees.
After recovering from his ordeal, Ender ran back toward the village, eventually finding himself wading through clouds of smoke and ever-louder hollering. An exploding shell detonated behind him from a great distance, but was still strong enough to jettison his small body afar, launching him into the smoldering buildings and bleeding bodies scourging the ground. Indeed, Ender quickly realized that he was plunged onto the corpse of a dead woman, a very woman who had been his neighbor; a short-tempered but well meaning older lady, too critical of his aggressive approach in violence. But no matter her opinion of him, she always would include him when she would bake for the children of the settlement. And now, his hands were warmed in her blood and his eyes burned the image of her lifeless face into his soul. Though he rapidly rose up, running again in a directionless manner until his steps slowed to a crawl, eventually stopping in his tracks. Explosions erupted around him, fires surrounded him, screams enveloped him, and all the while, all he could do was stand expressionlessly as he experienced the Force for the first time, and in the most horrific way imaginable.
With his silvery eyes glowing cerulean blue, Ender's ever-absent mind became open to the Force, empathically taking in the pain, suffering, anger, grief, terror and despair of those around him. He could feel the ill-intent, malice and disdain of those raining down over them, landing in boarding crafts where they were forcefully shoving others inside, shipping them into the skies. The rush and the tragedy of everything flooding in at once caused young Ender to shut down mentally, emotionally, and nearly physically as well, freezing for what seemed like an eternity as countless individuals ran all round about him. By the time Ender had finally come to, his face was in pain, swollen from a blow to the face, and chilled from the bitter cold of the durasteel interior of a shuttlecraft. The young boy scarcely had enough time to struggle to his feet to see out the trasnparisteel window of the burning Caelestia Settlement. Like a nightmarish vision, the entire event overtook him so quickly, and so brutally, the reality of the sudden change that would become his new life would not set in for days to come. The last words he would ever hear on his home world were spoken over an intercom system by a raspy voice of an elderly man, transmitting to all the departing ships a single message; "Welcome to the Crucible."
ANATHEMA
3615 BBY
Captain Sylas Luthor of the Crucible, overlooking the forced-labor mining operations on the Hutt world of Esyam
3615 BBY
Captain Sylas Luthor of the Crucible, overlooking the forced-labor mining operations on the Hutt world of Esyam
Between dodging Republic patrols, Imperial sentinels and rival pirating factions, it was many days onboard the tight, cramped shuttlecraft before Ender would ever set foot onto a planet's surface again. Ender had heard the tales of the elders of the Caelestia Settlement growing up, hearing of the mythologies of various cultures and civilizations. One of the most frightening tales he'd ever had the misfortune of hearing was relayed to him by "old man Pavaellon"; that there was a place in the afterlife where the wicked suffered for evil deeds. The Nine Corellian Hells, and the worst of these, where only the most vile of men would be condemned, was the Ninth Circle of Damnation. A burning world of fire and brimstone, flowing blood-red rivers and lakes of blazing flames, where the cries of evildoers gripped the air and poisoned the skies with the blackened skies of endless smoke. And the only break in the endless darkness with the golden-red eye of the ever watching ruler of the nine hells, gazing at his quarry.
As an Echani, Ender's people held their spiritual values toward the moon, gentle night skies as he would take his place among the stars, lighting the long night with his ancestors. However, when the long days had finally come to their end, and Ender took the dreadful first steps off the shuttlecraft and onto the smoldering smog-fill world of Esyam, his only thoughts were of what a harmless old man had told children around a campfire one night. The skies were black, the sun burned a crimson red, and the land was bursting with scarlet liquid-fire. With every struggle of his breath, every singe and scorch to his feet, only one overriding though filled Ender's despaired mind; this was the Ninth Hell. From the time the doors opened, armored men and women of various species stood or knelt in firing positions, almost as if they were waiting for someone to make a move. Others approached the prisoners, locking shackles onto them as they were dragged out to Esyam's surface in chains, led down, deep into the planet's chasms and ore mines.
Unbeknownst to Ender, a powerful ring of pirate slavers called the Crucible had struck Saleucami, taking advantage of the gaps in the planet's security forces, which protected the wealthier, industrialized and prosperous portions of the planet more than the undeveloped wilds. Raiding fast and striking hard, thousands of civilians were dispossessed almost before anyone knew what had happened. And now, Ender had gone from the freedom of an independent world to the bondage of Hutt space, the leaders of which were all too permissive of the methods used to extract valuable minerals, ores and elements from dangerous, but mineral-rich worlds. Ten-year-old Ender was still young, naive, but he quickly came to know what was expected of him as he and the other new "recruits" were welcomed by mandatory lashes to their backs as "good-will motivators" to get them started on working. And work, they did. Mining drills, gasifiers, beam-drills, ion shovels, sonic hammers and even lava skimmers; forced to live and adapt, Ender would work long hours, never knowing if it was day or night, and was expected to quickly learn how to use the equipment. And when he didn't know, or he used it incorrectly, he would earn new lashes to his back until he would get it right.
Survival, and the desire for it over all else, was the permeating theme of every living man, woman and child there. If one would slow down, ease up or fall behind, beatings were their lot. Sometimes the entire crew in the sector would be beaten, which only served to spread the ill-will, contempt, and hatred. In his first month there, while attempting to sleep in a corner deep within a rock chasm cave, Ender was the unfortunate witness of several beatings of slaves by slaves. The ones were couldn't cut it, the ones who couldn't keep up, the ones who made the others face the consequences of their inabilities, were the targets of extreme prejudice. Indeed, the very first beating Ender witnessed, as he watched from a large hollowed ore vein big enough for him to squeeze into, was the beating to death of an old man and woman, whose bodies where then dumped in one of the magma veins deep beneath the mining sites. Every day was torment, fear and combative. Water was more valuable than anything else, and many slaves would kill for greater portions, and had done so. By far the most horrific scene Ender had ever laid eyes on were the alternative to starvation some slaves had taken up; cannibalization.
It was as if nowhere was safe for him, and very soon, Ender began to notice that his early training in the Echani tiers gave him a distinct advantage over many of the malnourished, starving and physically feeble slaves there. Having seen the worst of what has been done to the weak, Ender did everything he could - everything within his power - to keep himself from being in that position. To keep himself from being victimized, beaten, killed... eaten. So he would steal, steal food, steal water, steal whatever he could that would give him an edge, keeping his stash concealed in tight areas where older, larger adults could not fit. As the days and week turned into months upon months, Ender made sure his thirst would stay quenched, his hunger sated, and his strength as whole as he could keep it. He watched the others there, the older slaves and how they interacted with each other. The ones who banded together, forming gangs that picked off the stragglers, and noticed the patterns of watching and waiting they took when making their strike.
It was as if life were a constant battle, not only against the elements or even the Crucible slavers, but against each other. And while Ender could not hope to match them, he did recall his uncle once telling him that people largely never changed, only the scale of actions did. In the Caelestia Settlement, youths feared and ran from Ender after confrontations left them with cracked bones, bruised bodies and shattered spirits. And if it worked then, why couldn't it now? Striking as an opportunist, just as the more experienced slaves he observed did, Ender would beat the other slaves. Not the feeble or decrepit, nor the infamous or notorious. But the ordinary, the moderate. He would make himself appear to be too much trouble to attack, too dangerous. But even so, he was a child, and knew that to be convincing, he had to take his beatings to another level. So he would hurt people.
At random, without warning, but with a savagery that others would never soon forget. His strength would never be lacking, at least compared to the others, and his skill was unorthodox to the commoners, civilians and born-slaves that made up the majority. This, he reasoned, was his only way to survive. No allies, they turned on each other too easily. No friends, for they did not exist here. Just himself, and his own strength. Unbeknownst to the others there, and even Ender himself, was a single advantage he held over the others. He could sense strong ill-will toward him, murderous intent or negative emotions from those seeking to harm him. Like an intuition to him, these feelings would become stronger as they came closer to him - there was no one who could surprise him, no one would could lure him and no one who could ensnare him. Wretched as it was, this was Ender's attempt at life, and would continue to be for the next two years. And by the time of his twelfth year of age, Ender's life would take a drastic turn once again, as the arrival of a wizened old man would mark the end of the tribulations on Esyam.
DIVINE INTERVENTION
3613 BBY
Dai Bendu Monk-turned-Jedi Master Eyl-Zin-Mul, the liberator of the kidnapped slaves of Esyam
3613 BBY
Dai Bendu Monk-turned-Jedi Master Eyl-Zin-Mul, the liberator of the kidnapped slaves of Esyam
By the time of Ender's second year slaving under the Crucible's front of the "Esyam Consolidated Refineries" mining corporation, he had indirectly played a significant hand in the death of six other slaves. Of those, half were individuals that had injury to their bones or joints, resulting in poorer performance by them, and execution by the more brutal slaves that culled the weak. Whatever innocence he once harbored had long since evaporated, and in spite of only two years passing, Ender could not even recall the life he'd had before. Where there was once apathy and survival instinct, malice and bile had taken root and festered.
As a sturdy worker among those largely in failing health, Ender was often granted privileges beyond the stock slaves. The surface of Esyam was as hellish as any sight, but was still considered to be more tolerable, on the psychological level, than the caves and caverns beneath the surface. Hazard environmental suits were supplied to "dutiful" slaves that carried out assignments with exception, in order to participate in lava-skimming excavations. Under almost all circumstances, it was the only opportunity any slave would get to see the sky, however dismal it was. At twelve years of age, Ender still lacked the physical fortitude of the older slaves, but his strangely intuitive aptitude as a technician and salvager earned him the privileges all the same.
At first, Ender simply accepted the privileged work to escape from the pits he was entombed in, along with the others, and it remained such for the first several times. However, this slowly began to change once Ender had finally seen the face owning a voice he'd heard with hatred for the past two years of his life. Sylar Luthor, Captain of the Crucible and overseer of the "Esyam Consolidated Refineries", had passed the slaves working at the lava rivers in the company of his guards, once while Ender was present. Ignored, either intentionally so or just being beneath his attention, there wasn't a slave on the surface whose feeling didn't flood with murderous intent. Initially believing what he felt was the same "gut feelings" he got from those around him, Ender himself soon realized that the feeling of hatred that he'd felt before was his own. He hated him, he wanted to strike his eyes and gouge his throat. He wanted to see him dead.
At first, Ender passed such thoughts off as impossible fantasies. After all, Sylas was guarded at all times and there was never a shortage of guards. Even if he could find a way to get near to him, find a weapon - like a small vibroblade - to kill him, he would never be able to do so and live. And that much was stronger than his hate; he wanted to live, survive. It was a twist of fate, the following event, as a small shuttlecraft descended to the "Esyam Consolidated Refineries" landing pad only hours after Ender had been tasked to the scene. Reassigned from the lava skimmer equipment maintenance to replacing the interlocking cogs for the magnetic anchor beams of the hanger bay stationed next to the landing pad for interstellar starcrafts, Ender felt a "surge" as a seemingly unassuming shuttle broke the atmosphere of Esyam, causing him to actually look up shortly before the vessel had even begun atmospheric entry. The distraction was momentary, breaking as a guard walked past him, giving him a standardized talk-and-you're-dead warning.
While interested in the unfolding event, Ender refocused on his task at hand as the shuttle descended. Then once more, he averted his gaze. It was a simple shuttle, unarmed and bearing a crest on the side that he'd not seen before. As the back of the shuttle opened, ramp lights lit blindingly as decompression fluids vaporized into a mist around the joints of the landing legs. At first, all Ender could see was a silhouette emerging from the landing ramp, the figure of a man, hooded with a scepter in his hand. As his eyes adjusted to the light and the mist cleared, Ender could make out a beard and crag like wrinkles - the face of an old man, but with a great vitality about him, something Ender had not seen in what felt like a lifetime; not since the Caelestia Settlement on Saleucami. But one thing, more than anything else, drew distinction. Ender could not place what it was, neither in words nor in feeling, but there was something strong, almost awe-inspiring about the elderly man. It was similar to the gut feeling he'd get when others sought his life, but it was so different at the same time, more potent and without the harshness or malice.
It was only after the old man had taken his first few steps out from his ship that Ender saw something else. The Crucible's soldiers, disguised as security details, had continuously held their fingers on the triggers of their weapons. The metaphorical air round about was more tense than Ender had ever felt, and he felt a wave of anxiety, stress and fear almost radiating from the Crucible's troops, all directed toward the old man, who was simply addressed as "Watchman Mul". These men, outnumbering a decrepit old man by a ten thousand-to-one margin, armed to the teeth in comparison to Mul's walking staff, and surrounding him from moment he landed, were in tremendous fear. And it was this alone that struck Ender was greater awe than before; what power could this man have that strikes fear into the fearless? As he walked, the old man continued on almost as if he did not even notice the weapons around him, carrying on to meet Captain Luthor who himself came out to meet Watchman Mul.
A brief greeting ensued, followed by the two, along with a number of the troopers, entering the main building were Sylas Luthor's office was. Although he promptly returned to his work, as the guards were often all-too-eager to punish idleness, Ender could not help but think about the elderly man. Everything about him spoke of humility and helplessness, right down to the way he was dressed. Fine-woven, but simple robes, footwear and trousers. Several small daggers were on his chest, but even Ender could tell they were entirely ceremonial, not made for combat. Nevertheless, it had nothing to do with him, and as the minutes turned to hours, Ender put his curiosity about Watchman Mul aside. It was then, approximately three hours later, that it happened. An explosion without fire erupted, drawing everyone's attention. The sound was like a thuderclap, as Ender looked up, seeing the side of one of the towers burst apart, with almost a dozen guardsmen being projected out along with it.
The sirens sounded off, blaring as the troops rallied toward the main building, storming it with weapons raised. Just as it happened, Ender happened to look up, only to notice the sky had become brightened. Like stars falling from the heavens, more and more descending lights broke into the atmosphere, all clearly aimed from the facility. With the unfolding events making him virtually invisible to the now hectic Crucible troops, all Ender could feel was the great fear spilling from everyone else, and thought how eerily similar this all was to the day so long ago, when the Caelestia Settlement was raided. In the rush of activity, Ender ran inside the main building, finding a side-room to lock himself in. With the air clean and filtered, he was able to remove his breathing mask. Although he no longer needed the lava skimming suits, working for extended periods of time in Esyam's atmosphere was often degrading to one's health, and if anything, the Crucible did not like to damage their more productive slaves.
The storming of the troopers began to cease as the fighting grew outside, and those who did enter the building took part in the battle at the upper levels. Without any windows of security screens, Ender was completely in the dark, only able to sense an influx of high-riding emotions, almost all of them negative in nature. Alone with only his thoughts, it was then that Ender came to a startling, recklessly brash and borderline insane idea. There was never going to be a time as tumultuous and chaotic as this. With an army clearly attacking, perhaps rival pirates - Ender neither knew nor cared - the once abstract idea of finding and killing Sylas Luthor suddenly began to ring as a very real possibility. If he was smart, quiet and fast, Ender began to reason that his dream could very well become reality. At once, he began to tear the room apart, looking for something, anything, he could make into a weapon. Finally, after breaking into a drawer, Ender discovered a small blaster.
His hands paused at first, having never seen a weapon like it so close up before, and then picked the blaster up. Heavier than he imagined it'd be, Ender looked around the room, with his eyes focusing in on a poster, featuring a promotional image of Sylas and the "Esyam Consolidated Refineries". Without hesitation, Ender steadied his arms, took aim, and attempted to fire on Sylas' skull over and over again, only to miss each time. He'd never held a blaster before, and in fact was unfamiliar with ranged weapons altogether. If he was going to succeed, he'd have to rely on what he was familiar with, which meant his own hands, or something like a bladed weapon. Almost as if by divine direction, the moment Ender decided to set out of the room, he noticed another room nearby, and through the window, lied four daggers - the exact same ones the old man had came in with. Assuming it was part of some regulation about having weapons, Ender could not believe his luck, and grabbed the first blade he could reach. Golden in color, crafted from what seemed to be pure aurodium, with carvings of runes in a language Ender didn't recognize, it was still sharp and deadly as any practical weapon.
Hiding the weapon in a pouch on his clothing, Ender proceeded to the higher levels, growing more and more cautious as he started to come across bodies of the injured and dead, with no sight of the old man or Sylas. The only conclusion he could come to was that the old man, Watchman Mul, was responsible, but how an elderly man could cause so much havoc and destruction was entirely beyond him. Continuing his way up, Ender almost froze in his steps when he finally caught sight of old, stone-faced man with short hair. Sylar Luthor himself, hectically fleeing with several other troopers fleeing with him, habitually looking back as if to see - not if they were being followed - but how close someone, or something, following them was. Taking refuge inside a nearby office, Ender hid on the farthest wall away from the door, which came out from the rest of the room slightly, possessing a window that allowed one to see out into the hallway. Almost by fate, Sylas and his men ran into the very same room Ender did, barricading themselves on the opposite wall and the wall farthest to the back of the room.
Frightened, ecstatic and overwhelmed all at once, Ender pulled out the golden dagger, grasping it with both hands as he waited against the wall for an opportunity. His breathing intensified, and it took everything he had to not give himself away - a practice he refined keeping himself hidden when his life was in danger beneath Esyam's surface. As he was preparing to spy again on Sylas, peeking from the corner of his side of the room, his eyes caught sight of a figure outside the window, which froze Ender to his very core. It was the old man, with eyes white and glowing, debris floating around him, and a presence fully intimidating, walking across another hallway. Without even realizing it, Ender's muscles had given way to him urinating himself, having witnessed the most frightening thing he'd ever seen. After he was out of sight, Ender had refocused, having heard Sylas order the remainder of his men out the door to scout out a safe escape route. Seeing this as his perfect opportunity, Ender waited for Sylas to have his back toward him, and then with the dagger in-hand, charged for the Crucible captain.
Then next thing Ender realized was everything going black, finally coming too seconds later as another soldier who had doubled back struck him from the back of the head, knocking him out. Ender could hear voiced, one of them clearly Sylas Luthor's, yelling at his trooper as to why he didn't shoot Ender dead, instead of knocking him out, to which the trooper stated he was told by Luthor only moments earlier to save what blaster gas he could. As he gained more control over himself, Ender finally was able to see clearly, his first sight being Luthor grabbing the golden dagger Ender must have dropped. The moment he tried to get up, a powerful force grasped his neck, pulling him back as the soldier trapped Ender in a one-armed choke-hold. Sylas slowly walked to Ender, waving the dagger in Ender's face while wrathfully and rhetorically asking if Ender really expected to kill him. All his anger and frustration bubbled forth as Ender realized he would never be free, finally manifesting physically.
Luthor's eyes widened and his face broke into a smile as he gazed at Ender's face, watching his normally silver eyes become smoldering red and yellow. After remaking about recovering some of his losses with Ender now, Sylas issued a new order to, not kill Ender, but get him prepped with shackles for their departure. Unbeknownst to Ender, their new destination was now into Sith space, and for Ender to be sold to the Sith as a Force-sensitive, considered an extremely valuable resource to the Empire. It was then that the front of the room exploded again, knocking everyone, from the trooper to Ender to Sylas to the ground, as the figure of the old man appeared yet again. As Ender opened his eyes, he saw the old man extend his hand, and with that motion both Sylas and the soldier were knocked back to the opposite wall with great force. Ender struggled to sit himself upwards, wondering why he wasn't knocked back with them. Slowly, the old man approached an extremely fearful Ender, who knelt down in front of him, simply telling him not to be afraid and that he was safe now. Watchman Mul's hand then rubbed Ender's head, disarming Ender's fears as Mul got up again to head to the hallway.
Ender then staggered up again, asking what the old man's name was. However, before he could finish his sentence, a strong hand had suddenly gripped his head, forcing it backwards just as the image of a golden blade passed before his eyes, and a ripping pain surged through his body. All stamina and fortitude left Ender in that moment as a golden dagger gashed through his neck, stripping his body of all strength as he fell lifelessly to the ground. In his last moments, he could hear screaming by Sylas and another seeming explosion from the direction of the old man. In another flash of consciousness, Ender saw only the image of the old man, kneeling over him with his hands at Ender's neck, bearing an expression of extreme grief and hope, the latter of which was something Ender hadn't felt from someone in a long, long time. Finally, Ender's sight became completely darkened, with his last moments being the hearing of a voice - heard not by his ears - telling him one thing. To live.
SECOND GENESIS
3613-3612 BBY
3613-3612 BBY
Eyl-Zin-Mul's grim Force Vision of a broken Ender becoming "something terrible", if left without guidance
By the time Ender had awoken, his body was too weak to physically move, save for slight motions with his hands and his head. As his eyes opened and adjusted, he saw he was in a very dark, dimly lit room. A soothing, amber glow was the only source of light, warming the room wherever the light shined. Another strange logo was imprinted on the ceiling of the room; a crest Ender had seen before, when he looked upon the shuttle carrying the old man to Esyam. It was then that Ender suddenly had a rush of realization, remembering the last things before his black out. His attempt on Sylas' life, his capture, the old man who rescued him, all ending with a seething pain that preceded his blacking out.
Ender quickly sat up in the bed he was placed in just as a sharp throbbing pain eclipsed his senses. His head wracked with pain and his throat burned with a sensation he'd never felt before. Forcing the air through his nostrils, Ender had assumed whatever happened before he lost consciousness made it difficult to breathe. Slowly, he took small, calm breathes through his mouth, trying to ease himself back into comfortable breathing. While still greatly painful, Ender was able to, albeit in slow pace, breathe through his mouth, but he quickly realized something was different. In such a strange place and unable to move, Ender's first response was to call out, either for help or even just throwing out the simple "hello?". To his astonishment and horror, whenever Ender would try to utter a word, only guttural convulsions, like the gagging of someone choking, came forth. He couldn't scream, couldn't speak, not even a whisper. His voice was gone.
It was then he heard a somewhat familiar voice coming from the end of the room, apologizing for being unable to properly save him, followed by asking if he was alright. While confused, Ender had his senses together well enough to recognize the voice, and the figure; the old man from Esyam, Watchman Mul. Reflexively, Ender attempted to speak again, only to respond with agitated gagging. Reaching for his throat, Ender felt a long bump-like manifestation on his neck, beneath bandages. The old man sat down next to him, placing his hand on Ender's chest in order to motion him to lay back down, as he told him it'd be okay. Confused and grieved, Ender began to weep bitterly, with tears flowing profusely but unable to utter any moans or wails. Moments passed, and eventually another figure entered into the room, a Kallidahin - a species Ender had never seen before - and approached the two.
The Kallidahin then looked up at Ender, and then he suddenly began to hear something, but not with his ears. It was like a sound coming from inside his head, but it was not his own thoughts. The voice was strange, but calming, and told Ender to be at peace, he was safe and that he was there to help him. Ender's eyes widened, partially in fear and partially in intrigue, as the Kallidahin, unbeknownst to Ender being a Jedi Master, telepathically communed to him. The two, both Mul and the Kallidahin, then got up and proceeded to leave the room, but not before the Kallidahin turned to Mul, and moments later, Mul turned to Ender. At that, the old man then revealed to Ender than his name was Eyl-Zin-Mul, a Master of the Jedi Order, and that "Master Jsaori" had told him the question of who Mul was had been on Ender's mind.
Ender then passed out, falling asleep in the Healing Crystal therapy room. Indeed, Ender slept in the room for nearly four days before he'd finally awoken again. Food was brought to him regularly, and the Kallidahin, Master Jsaori, regularly visited him, slowly teaching him the physical aspect of Massan sign language, which could be easily enough translated by most in the galaxy, with a standard personal translator. Over time, Ender's room began to shift more and more into a class room setting, as he was taught by Master Jsaori how to sign, lest he be completely helpless after leaving. His throat was too damaged to be fitted with an artificial cybernetic, at least at the time, and he was too young to be expected to manage on his own without aid. By halfway's time through the fourth month, Ender was considered to have accomplished physical Massan, as they were careful not to educate him in the telepathic aspects.
Ender was twelve years of age, almost thirteen. Not only was he too old for ideal training, but he was easily identifiable as unstable, especially after such trauma. Being trained in the Force seemed, at least outwardly, would have been like paving the path for him to eventually fall to the Dark Side of the Force. And it was a decision Eyl-Zin-Mul agreed with, having carefully decided where Ender should be left, and ultimately concluding an orphanage in a sector of Coruscant with a great many Echani residents. The night before Eyl-Zin-Mul had prepared to take Ender to the orphanage, his dreams were haunted by a frightening image of a Darksider wielding evil power and wrecking havoc wherever he went. By the time the morning came, Mul consulted with the Jedi Council, convinced that without Jedi oversight, discipline and tutelage, Ender would regress and become "something terrible". The Jedi Council mused cautiously over the dangers of teaching one with unstable tendencies, and even after an argument of the processional treatment of fallen Jedi was brought forth, they ultimately rejected his induction, deeming it too risky to rely on the basis that Mul could repair Ender's fractured psyche.
In the end, it was decided that Ender would be returned to his homeworld and be placed in their care, and that Mul would return to his duties as a Jedi Watchman. However, Mul could not shake the disturbing vision he'd experienced of what would become of Ender without direction. It was then that Eyl-Zin-Mul came to a resolution regarding the young Echani boy. Ender had long lacked any form of attachment in his life, except ones forged by hatred or anger. Around him, Mul could sense a great deal of exhaustion and weariness, but also a spark of optimism that wasn't there before. Ender may not have known where his life would be leading, but being away from Esyam alone was enough to reignite the fires of hope within him. In spite of his potential to fall, Mul could also sense his potential as a Jedi Knight, and at the very least desired to give him a chance at something aside from what the bitterness of the Dark Side would offer him.
When Eyl-Zin-Mul finally came to Ender with the offer of becoming a Jedi, of finding a purpose and fulfilling life, Ender accepted, although with an incomplete heart. There was still a part of him that saw only the potential for pain, betrayal and abandonment, and it clung deeply to him, buried deep beneath the surface. For a great deal of time onward, Ender was still to remain within the Jedi Temple, although hit time to leave the Jedi Temple was quickly approaching, ultimately arriving roughly one galactic standard week later. On the shuttle ride back to the galactic region of the Six Sisters, a false stop before heading back to traversing the sectors the Jedi Master was assigned to patrol, Mul quickly began to initiate Ender's tutelage. So accumulated to the tropical warmth of Saleucami and the harsh heat of Esyam, Ender constantly found himself shivering, untried by the frigid cold of space. Indeed, one of the first abilities taught to Ender was Tapas to help regulate his body temperature and keep warm in spite of any coldness around him, although initially was only accessible to him via meditation. Even more pivotal training came alongside his other lessons, however.
With Master Jsaori providing the educational basics, Mul began teaching Ender a purer method of communication; telepathy. To both get him adjusted to the process and to keep him from feeling the pain of the loss of his voice, Mul would only commune with Ender through his thoughts. At first, Ender could not produce any words, and could only relay feelings; projecting affirmation, confusion, acceptance, rejection, acknowledgement and the like. To Mul's surprise, it took Ender only a few months to find his affinity; Ender had a latent talent with his sensory Force abilities, particularly his empathy and telepathy. He had a unique leaning toward sensing the state of others, and matured it into receptive and projective telepathic ability. By the time he was past his thirteenth year, Ender had become relaxed and natural enough in his ability to use it over signing, although he still had deep-rooted conscientiousness about his disability, especially when he was around other sapients who had full vocal faculties. From the beginning, Ender had begun training in the traditional Jedi arts, from the learning of Shii-Cho to simple meditations, but found a particular affinity with combat. Fighting always came more easily to Ender than anything else, and often brought him a sense of calmness and serenity due to it reminding him of his family and the Caelestia Settlement.
For Ender, it was not fighting for fighting's sake, nor was it an intermittent desire for conflict. Combat was a form of expression, both self-expression and understanding others in a way even hours of communication could not produce. As a child, Ender had regular access to such intimacy by his Echani family, but felt a great void ever since the Caelestia Settlement was destroyed. Mul had sensed such loss in Ender, and in an effort to help Ender find an inner peace, solace, and a sense of wholeness, Mul took Ender for the first time to the Six Sisters Echani world of Bengali, were an Echani Art Master stationed there was of Echani heritage. Named Yasori Vaten, Eyl-Zin-Mul kept Ender on Bengali to continue training him, while simultaneously permitting him to train with Master Vaten in Echani Art. While he still longed for his family, the aid of Master Yasori Vaten helped Ender recover immensely, and for many years, he continued to train with both Master Vaten and Mul.
Finding that he lost some of his fortitude in the two and a half years of his captivity, Ender was dually trained to control the sensation of pain through his body, allowing him to persevere and strengthen his body while steadily increasing his pain threshold and strength of mind. He even learned to apply what he knew in martial arts and conjoin it with his Force abilities, including his recently discovered affinity with controlling his body's inertia. Ender progressed rapidly, having stayed accustomed to fighting on Esyam, and after three years, had mastered the three tiers of Echani Art. While still needing refinement of a true master that only experience and many years could, Ender was deemed a full practitioner of Echani Art, and as both a reward and parting gift, was given Vaten's decorative and ceremonial Kasuis mask. In the pantheon of Echani religion, Kasuis was the god of honorable combat, inner and external strength, veritas and the hunt, and his mask was often passed to apprentices who have begun the first stages to being masters of Echani Art.
The departure from Bengali was, deep down, a painful experience for Ender, although he kept such feeling well hidden due to his Echani training. Due to the meditative and spiritual nature of the Echani, Ender found himself grasping many of the Jedi's concepts well, although had more difficulties in their approach to violence, which was often in contrast with the Echani way he was taught as a child. Nevertheless, his affinity for lightsaber combat was remarkable. Particularly, Ender favored the design of the double-bladed lightsaber, which challenged him on his performance for finesse and control, pushing him to remain greater awareness of his movements, surroundings, and the actions of others. While rudimentary and simplistic, as first lightsabers tended to be for Padawans, Ender's lightsaber was ultimately efficient and effective. Along with Shii-Cho and double-bladed combat, the basis for all his instruction, Ender was also trained in Ataru to make up for the often-grounded style saberstaff-wielders take, and to aid him should his weapon be rendered into two.
Ender continued training with Eyl-Zin-Mul for many years, traveling from world to world, and learning more and more. Nonetheless, as much as Ender attempted to hide it, it was clear to both him and Mul that his spirit, for all the reconstruction and mending it had undergone, was still fractured, broken at its core. There were still elements of Ender's life that he struggled to reconcile with himself, and he still had difficulty coming to terms with some of the Jedi's teachings and principles that stood in contrast both with Echani teachings and his own, deep-rooted desires for revenge against those who wronged him. Thus, Ender's training was often manifest as a test of wills moreso than that of knowledge, and Mul spent a great deal of his time teaching Ender also attempting to teach him to let go of the past pains in his life, lest it destroy him, transforming him into the very things that he hates and despises. Great strides were made in this regard, and great struggles occurred, with Ender facing emotional crises on more than one occasion as he slowly began to let go of the ghosts haunting his past. However, it not be until Ender would face his "trials" that he would truly slay his inner-demons, and overcome his nature with strength of will.
By the time Ender had awoken, his body was too weak to physically move, save for slight motions with his hands and his head. As his eyes opened and adjusted, he saw he was in a very dark, dimly lit room. A soothing, amber glow was the only source of light, warming the room wherever the light shined. Another strange logo was imprinted on the ceiling of the room; a crest Ender had seen before, when he looked upon the shuttle carrying the old man to Esyam. It was then that Ender suddenly had a rush of realization, remembering the last things before his black out. His attempt on Sylas' life, his capture, the old man who rescued him, all ending with a seething pain that preceded his blacking out.
Ender quickly sat up in the bed he was placed in just as a sharp throbbing pain eclipsed his senses. His head wracked with pain and his throat burned with a sensation he'd never felt before. Forcing the air through his nostrils, Ender had assumed whatever happened before he lost consciousness made it difficult to breathe. Slowly, he took small, calm breathes through his mouth, trying to ease himself back into comfortable breathing. While still greatly painful, Ender was able to, albeit in slow pace, breathe through his mouth, but he quickly realized something was different. In such a strange place and unable to move, Ender's first response was to call out, either for help or even just throwing out the simple "hello?". To his astonishment and horror, whenever Ender would try to utter a word, only guttural convulsions, like the gagging of someone choking, came forth. He couldn't scream, couldn't speak, not even a whisper. His voice was gone.
It was then he heard a somewhat familiar voice coming from the end of the room, apologizing for being unable to properly save him, followed by asking if he was alright. While confused, Ender had his senses together well enough to recognize the voice, and the figure; the old man from Esyam, Watchman Mul. Reflexively, Ender attempted to speak again, only to respond with agitated gagging. Reaching for his throat, Ender felt a long bump-like manifestation on his neck, beneath bandages. The old man sat down next to him, placing his hand on Ender's chest in order to motion him to lay back down, as he told him it'd be okay. Confused and grieved, Ender began to weep bitterly, with tears flowing profusely but unable to utter any moans or wails. Moments passed, and eventually another figure entered into the room, a Kallidahin - a species Ender had never seen before - and approached the two.
The Kallidahin then looked up at Ender, and then he suddenly began to hear something, but not with his ears. It was like a sound coming from inside his head, but it was not his own thoughts. The voice was strange, but calming, and told Ender to be at peace, he was safe and that he was there to help him. Ender's eyes widened, partially in fear and partially in intrigue, as the Kallidahin, unbeknownst to Ender being a Jedi Master, telepathically communed to him. The two, both Mul and the Kallidahin, then got up and proceeded to leave the room, but not before the Kallidahin turned to Mul, and moments later, Mul turned to Ender. At that, the old man then revealed to Ender than his name was Eyl-Zin-Mul, a Master of the Jedi Order, and that "Master Jsaori" had told him the question of who Mul was had been on Ender's mind.
Ender then passed out, falling asleep in the Healing Crystal therapy room. Indeed, Ender slept in the room for nearly four days before he'd finally awoken again. Food was brought to him regularly, and the Kallidahin, Master Jsaori, regularly visited him, slowly teaching him the physical aspect of Massan sign language, which could be easily enough translated by most in the galaxy, with a standard personal translator. Over time, Ender's room began to shift more and more into a class room setting, as he was taught by Master Jsaori how to sign, lest he be completely helpless after leaving. His throat was too damaged to be fitted with an artificial cybernetic, at least at the time, and he was too young to be expected to manage on his own without aid. By halfway's time through the fourth month, Ender was considered to have accomplished physical Massan, as they were careful not to educate him in the telepathic aspects.
Ender was twelve years of age, almost thirteen. Not only was he too old for ideal training, but he was easily identifiable as unstable, especially after such trauma. Being trained in the Force seemed, at least outwardly, would have been like paving the path for him to eventually fall to the Dark Side of the Force. And it was a decision Eyl-Zin-Mul agreed with, having carefully decided where Ender should be left, and ultimately concluding an orphanage in a sector of Coruscant with a great many Echani residents. The night before Eyl-Zin-Mul had prepared to take Ender to the orphanage, his dreams were haunted by a frightening image of a Darksider wielding evil power and wrecking havoc wherever he went. By the time the morning came, Mul consulted with the Jedi Council, convinced that without Jedi oversight, discipline and tutelage, Ender would regress and become "something terrible". The Jedi Council mused cautiously over the dangers of teaching one with unstable tendencies, and even after an argument of the processional treatment of fallen Jedi was brought forth, they ultimately rejected his induction, deeming it too risky to rely on the basis that Mul could repair Ender's fractured psyche.
In the end, it was decided that Ender would be returned to his homeworld and be placed in their care, and that Mul would return to his duties as a Jedi Watchman. However, Mul could not shake the disturbing vision he'd experienced of what would become of Ender without direction. It was then that Eyl-Zin-Mul came to a resolution regarding the young Echani boy. Ender had long lacked any form of attachment in his life, except ones forged by hatred or anger. Around him, Mul could sense a great deal of exhaustion and weariness, but also a spark of optimism that wasn't there before. Ender may not have known where his life would be leading, but being away from Esyam alone was enough to reignite the fires of hope within him. In spite of his potential to fall, Mul could also sense his potential as a Jedi Knight, and at the very least desired to give him a chance at something aside from what the bitterness of the Dark Side would offer him.
When Eyl-Zin-Mul finally came to Ender with the offer of becoming a Jedi, of finding a purpose and fulfilling life, Ender accepted, although with an incomplete heart. There was still a part of him that saw only the potential for pain, betrayal and abandonment, and it clung deeply to him, buried deep beneath the surface. For a great deal of time onward, Ender was still to remain within the Jedi Temple, although hit time to leave the Jedi Temple was quickly approaching, ultimately arriving roughly one galactic standard week later. On the shuttle ride back to the galactic region of the Six Sisters, a false stop before heading back to traversing the sectors the Jedi Master was assigned to patrol, Mul quickly began to initiate Ender's tutelage. So accumulated to the tropical warmth of Saleucami and the harsh heat of Esyam, Ender constantly found himself shivering, untried by the frigid cold of space. Indeed, one of the first abilities taught to Ender was Tapas to help regulate his body temperature and keep warm in spite of any coldness around him, although initially was only accessible to him via meditation. Even more pivotal training came alongside his other lessons, however.
With Master Jsaori providing the educational basics, Mul began teaching Ender a purer method of communication; telepathy. To both get him adjusted to the process and to keep him from feeling the pain of the loss of his voice, Mul would only commune with Ender through his thoughts. At first, Ender could not produce any words, and could only relay feelings; projecting affirmation, confusion, acceptance, rejection, acknowledgement and the like. To Mul's surprise, it took Ender only a few months to find his affinity; Ender had a latent talent with his sensory Force abilities, particularly his empathy and telepathy. He had a unique leaning toward sensing the state of others, and matured it into receptive and projective telepathic ability. By the time he was past his thirteenth year, Ender had become relaxed and natural enough in his ability to use it over signing, although he still had deep-rooted conscientiousness about his disability, especially when he was around other sapients who had full vocal faculties. From the beginning, Ender had begun training in the traditional Jedi arts, from the learning of Shii-Cho to simple meditations, but found a particular affinity with combat. Fighting always came more easily to Ender than anything else, and often brought him a sense of calmness and serenity due to it reminding him of his family and the Caelestia Settlement.
For Ender, it was not fighting for fighting's sake, nor was it an intermittent desire for conflict. Combat was a form of expression, both self-expression and understanding others in a way even hours of communication could not produce. As a child, Ender had regular access to such intimacy by his Echani family, but felt a great void ever since the Caelestia Settlement was destroyed. Mul had sensed such loss in Ender, and in an effort to help Ender find an inner peace, solace, and a sense of wholeness, Mul took Ender for the first time to the Six Sisters Echani world of Bengali, were an Echani Art Master stationed there was of Echani heritage. Named Yasori Vaten, Eyl-Zin-Mul kept Ender on Bengali to continue training him, while simultaneously permitting him to train with Master Vaten in Echani Art. While he still longed for his family, the aid of Master Yasori Vaten helped Ender recover immensely, and for many years, he continued to train with both Master Vaten and Mul.
Finding that he lost some of his fortitude in the two and a half years of his captivity, Ender was dually trained to control the sensation of pain through his body, allowing him to persevere and strengthen his body while steadily increasing his pain threshold and strength of mind. He even learned to apply what he knew in martial arts and conjoin it with his Force abilities, including his recently discovered affinity with controlling his body's inertia. Ender progressed rapidly, having stayed accustomed to fighting on Esyam, and after three years, had mastered the three tiers of Echani Art. While still needing refinement of a true master that only experience and many years could, Ender was deemed a full practitioner of Echani Art, and as both a reward and parting gift, was given Vaten's decorative and ceremonial Kasuis mask. In the pantheon of Echani religion, Kasuis was the god of honorable combat, inner and external strength, veritas and the hunt, and his mask was often passed to apprentices who have begun the first stages to being masters of Echani Art.
The departure from Bengali was, deep down, a painful experience for Ender, although he kept such feeling well hidden due to his Echani training. Due to the meditative and spiritual nature of the Echani, Ender found himself grasping many of the Jedi's concepts well, although had more difficulties in their approach to violence, which was often in contrast with the Echani way he was taught as a child. Nevertheless, his affinity for lightsaber combat was remarkable. Particularly, Ender favored the design of the double-bladed lightsaber, which challenged him on his performance for finesse and control, pushing him to remain greater awareness of his movements, surroundings, and the actions of others. While rudimentary and simplistic, as first lightsabers tended to be for Padawans, Ender's lightsaber was ultimately efficient and effective. Along with Shii-Cho and double-bladed combat, the basis for all his instruction, Ender was also trained in Ataru to make up for the often-grounded style saberstaff-wielders take, and to aid him should his weapon be rendered into two.
Ender continued training with Eyl-Zin-Mul for many years, traveling from world to world, and learning more and more. Nonetheless, as much as Ender attempted to hide it, it was clear to both him and Mul that his spirit, for all the reconstruction and mending it had undergone, was still fractured, broken at its core. There were still elements of Ender's life that he struggled to reconcile with himself, and he still had difficulty coming to terms with some of the Jedi's teachings and principles that stood in contrast both with Echani teachings and his own, deep-rooted desires for revenge against those who wronged him. Thus, Ender's training was often manifest as a test of wills moreso than that of knowledge, and Mul spent a great deal of his time teaching Ender also attempting to teach him to let go of the past pains in his life, lest it destroy him, transforming him into the very things that he hates and despises. Great strides were made in this regard, and great struggles occurred, with Ender facing emotional crises on more than one occasion as he slowly began to let go of the ghosts haunting his past. However, it not be until Ender would face his "trials" that he would truly slay his inner-demons, and overcome his nature with strength of will.
PRAETORIAN KNIGHT
3603-3600 BBY
3603-3600 BBY
Ender faced the Trials of Skill, Courage, Flesh, Spirit and Insight dueling the Dark Jedi berserker, KharosAlmost ten galactic standard years had passed since Ender first began his tutelage under the wizened Jedi Master, Eyl-Zin-Mul. With robes woven with Alderaanian craftsmanship, the ideal padawan braid and a lightsaber to his name, Ender spent the better part of a decade living as a Jedi apprentice, following his master and letting the Force guide them to where the need for them existed. In that time, Ender had passed many tests and crossed many thresholds, coming into his own as both a Jedi and a person. While his scars still ran deep, he'd been able to bury much of the pain under the self-adopted obligations of servitude and duty. Eventually, the time came where Eyl-Zin-Mul told Ender that he would have to ready himself for taking the next step in his chosen path as a Jedi; the Trials of Knighthood.
While Ender was fully aware that he was not, nor would be recognized or acknowledged as, a true Jedi of the Order, he met the concept with a burning, but controlled, enthusiasm. For most of his life, Ender lived without distinct purpose, either relying of the mentorship and provision of another, or being forced under dominance and control. He'd known of it well, as far as concepts went, but he'd never had the true taste of freedom to control his own destiny, to make decisions for himself. The appeal of becoming a full-fledged Jedi, at least in name only, was like a baptism, being transformed into a new person, a complete person, capable of choice, and of deciding his own destiny. To him, becoming a Jedi Knight would be like giving him the key to choose his own path. Unbeknownst to the young "Jedi" at the time, his "trial" would be forced upon him only days later, and would be such a strenuous struggle that it would shake the young "Padawan" deep to core of his very being.
By the time Ender was twenty-two galactic standard years of age, Eyl-Zin-Mul had often received requests for aid by governments of the sector he watched over. Indeed, one of Ender's first jobs as an initiate was filtering legitimate requests by the degree of the need. During one such routine, Ender noticed that a distress call sent to Eyl-Zin-Mul's console came from an undocumented location. After triangulating the beacon's point of origin, Ender traced the call back to one of the few worlds that never reached out in such a way, was Mastala. A barren and frigid world of the Garnib system, glaciers and frost deserts were all-encompassing on the planet's surface. Most interesting of all, there were no known civilizations on the planet - not even the arctic-adapted Balinaka of the Garnib system resided there. Bringing it to his master's attention, Mul mused over the message, simply sending Ender away while he mediated, eventually emerging to inform Ender that they would investigate.
The shuttle departure to Mastala was cold and atypical, and not simply from the snow storms planetside. Ordinarily, Eyl-Zin-Mul took the time to talk with Ender before a mission, either to suggest to him something in particular to work on or to be especially attentive to an element they would soon encounter. However, the entire trip was silent, with Mul remaining silent for its entire duration. While he remained unaware of the cause, Eyl-Zin-Mul was a master of Farsight and Force Visions, and was strongly tied to the Unifying Force. Gaining impressions from the present and future, near and from afar, were second nature to him. However, he could gain no impressions from Mastala; it was blank. Not that there was nothing to sense, but that something was trying to conceal itself, was hiding. And no matter how far he reached out, how tentatively he meditated, clues as to what he'd face on the planet's surface continually evaded him like water slipping past a stone.
By the time Ender and his master had reached Mastala's surface, the blizzard ravaging the surface had reached their location. However, Ender never noticed the cold on Mastala, he never felt it. One of the many abilities taught to Ender over the course of his training was Tapas, the art of keeping's one body temperature consistent in even the coldest environments. Consequently, Ender and Mul departed in full Jedi robes, fully cloaked and hooded, but without the excessive winter-wear one would have expected. Although there were no foreseeable obstacles, Ender nevertheless held reservations from the beginning. The beacon that had signaled Mul had already died, perhaps being shut off, perhaps destroyed, or perhaps drowned out from the constant blizzards, ultimately meaning they were effectively directionless from a technological standpoint. Making matters more tense, Ender couldn't sense anything abnormal or of distinct planetside at all, meaning he also felt they were directionless even with the Force.
Suffice to say, Ender struggled with keeping himself from believing they were about to wander off into an endless abyss of frost, ice and snow without any guide, map or clear heading. Though he never "uttered" a word, Mul's voice penetrated his thoughts, telling him to soothe his unease and not to doubt the direction of Force-driven instincts. Ender recognized the counsel; "feel, don't think, live in the moment", a common phrase that ultimately was more difficult for him to grasp. The Living Force tethered one to life, all living things, sapient and non-sapient, even the plants, and finding harmony within. In spite of his desire and appreciation for helping others, finding harmony with others was never easy for Ender, and stifled his connection to the Living Force. In contrast, Ender found a much deeper connection with the Unifying Force, the cosmic energies that bound planets and stars, space and time, past and future. "Know the primordial; Seek the advent", one of the tenants Ender memorized early on and resonated strongly with him. Ender had followed his master through all things before, and he'd never been led astray. There was no reason to doubt him now, and if Ender's future was directing him to follow his master into the arctic world, then that's where his destiny awaited him.
Newly resolute, Ender followed Mul for almost an hour through the blizzards, until Ender suddenly hit a mass near his feet, tripping him over into the snowy ground. Telekinetically lifting him back up to his feet, Ender checked over to see what he walked into, only to find a corpse. Extremely well preserved from the winter-cold, it was the dead body of a Balinaka. Observing the corpse for himself, Eyl-Zin-Mul generated the Force within himself and stretched out with his hands, erecting a Force barrier that defied the surrounding storm, creating a bubble like forcefield of the surrounding area. Ender's expression fell further as he saw a sight all-too-familiar in the eeriest sense. Bodies of dead Balinaka, preserved by the cold which held the dreadful final expressions of their lives, perfectly capturing the horror of their demise. Ender searched body after body while his master kept the Force barrier up, noticing the same thing on each of them. Ritualistic markings and savage bruises indicative of beatings. Some were skinned, alive Ender was certain. Some were dismembered.
While not psychometric, Ender had strong empathic powers, and could still feel the pain and suffering present in the area. It was then that Ender wondered why he could not feel such agony earlier, realizing that his master must have sensed it, or something alluding to it, long before him. As Ender took in the area, slowly but surely, he began to notice an aura, like a taint. A noxious presence of something detestable and foul, which by the time of Ender fully feeling its effects, nearly made him vomit. Even Ender could sense it now, a powerful disturbance in the Force. A dark presence was nearby, and it took only a look behind them to see the source. As Mul released his Force barrier and the storm was restored around them, Ender's visibility in the distance became somewhat clearer; a massive monument built into the side of the mountainside. As the two approached, it was fully visible. Columns built high, well over fifty meters overhead, and in rows deep into the structure. But most notable of all, was the eerie presence of the Dark Side of the Force there - not overt or overwhelming - but was there all the same, as if something was trying to conceal it, and was failing.
Without a word, Mul led the way into the structure, and Ender followed. The inside of the structure was damp, humid and difficult to breath in, in spite of the freezing temperatures outside. With scarce light and broad pylons leading to its interiors, Ender had to rely on the Force to enhance his sight, which in turn revealed the sort of place he'd entered. Faces carved in the stone of the walls, bones decorating the obsidian floors, and ceilings higher than he could see, as if they went up to the mountain's peak. While clearly man-made, the place was clearly ancient, with Ender assuming it was a temple of sorts, the theme around him suggesting gladiatorial or sacrificial rituals. Eyl-Zin-Mul delved into the Force, channeling it into his scepter and causing the Force crystal at its center to illuminate vigorously. As the two progressed deeper, the dark presence felt stronger and clearer, and a strange sensation began to overcome Ender.
Ever since he began delving into the deeper levels of the apparent temple, he continually felt a strange tingle etched at the back of his mind, like a whisper he couldn't quite make out. A voice that he could just scarcely not hear. At times, it would echo, as if it were being spoken from afar. And at other times, it would sound like someone with their lips to his ear, uttering words in a hush slightly to quiet to make out. Ender couldn't tell if what he heard was perhaps mental manipulation or even a warning through the Force, beckoning him to leave, to run away. For all he knew, it could have been either or both all the same. In time however, the whispers gradually faded, being choked out by the distant - and clear - agonizing cries of pain and miserable torment. It struck Ender with a terror not unlike that which he felt moments before, outside the temple, and made him want to run away in a fear so deep-seated, he could feel it in his bones. Ender pressed on regardless, not so much out of his own conviction was it was from confidence in his master's leadership. Mul didn't stop walking, meaning he either didn't experience what Ender did, or it did not affect him the same way.
Ender and his master eventually came to a bright chamber of lakes of luminous liquid metal and ceiling torches. Balinaka of immense proportions were chained below, two thousand strong, but not as slaves or even property. The scent of rotten flesh and charred skin betrayed little, as discarded body limbs and remains of corpses dumped into the lake-vats of molten metals. It was a torture chamber of the vilest sorts, and even as the screams continued to drown in their own noise, the whisper struck Ender's mind again, wracking him with pain. Mul had noticed Ender's struggle, and although was allowing him to endure them on his own, and grow stronger for it, he'd finally seen that it appeared too much for Ender to withstand, both through the Force and on the emotional level. Before he moved to act however, another group of Balinaka hollered in terror as their cage was being brought on a conveyer over another lake of molten metal, which Mul saw as the most immediate concern. As he departed, jumping down into the torture chamber to telekinetically halt the cage's drop, landing it nearby to safety, a powerful impulse of tactile force blasted Ender backwards, into an opposite chamber.
At the same time, the electrobinders that bound the Balinaka deactivated, and in a not-fully-unexpected turn, the Balinaka savagely turned on Mul, who was now in the center of them all, having turned rabid and insane. Meanwhile, Ender's mind shielded itself after contact with a very tangible threat. He'd not felt a power directed at him with an intensity like he just had, but he recognized it all the same. Psychokinesis, tactile force projected through the Force by the will of the mind. Such a thing meant Force user was at work and that was something Ender knew how to fight. As he mentally readied himself, the whispers silenced from his mind, and a new voice emerged. It was frantic, loudly hushed stammering words, incoherent sentences slabbed together in mismatched utterances. It didn't even take Ender eventually seeing a straggly-haired, bloodshot-eyed, physically-malnourished and body-twitching man digging into the ground with his bare hands, bleeding on the mix of broken stone and chilled dirt - he knew far before then that he was facing a Force-wielding lunatic.
Without a word, Ender ignited his lightsaber. He contemplated perhaps talking to him first, seeing if there was another way to resolve the matter, but as his mind raced back and froth from the present to the past, seeing the tortured captives in cages, the only thing Ender could think about was the old Crucible captain, Sylas Luthor. As his eyes focued and sights narrowed, the crazed man looked back at his, and simply stared as Ender held his green double-bladed lightsaber. For those few seconds that followed, Ender's mind raced in what felt like an eternity, pondering if the man would fight back, how he would fight, if he was armed, what would happen if he wouldn't fight back, and so forth. And then in a sudden moment, the man let out a blood-curdling scream that forced Ender backwards several meters, wracking his body with pain. On his back and looking in after wincing from the pain, Ender saw two red cylinders in the sky dropping down over him, as well as two smoldering-red eyes behind them.
Rolling away from the ground, using the Force to enhance the speed of his movement, Ender evaded the first attack. Rising to his feet and reading himself to do battle once again, Ender charged the crazed Dark Jedi, combining Force Speed with his lightsaber form, and engaged the madman in a lightsaber duel. The two fought continuously, without the other giving ground in the conflict of attrition. For every strike to unbalance the Dark Jedi, Ender would be disadvantaged in kind, back and forth. The chief difficulty for Ender was that the Dark Jedi fought with no finesse, no form and no harmony. It was erratic, kinetic and haphazard. He was like a berserker, lashing out without clear intent of mind or clarity or focus. It was only through Ender's training in Echani Art and his ability in reading the muscle movement of his opponents that he was able to keep up in the duel. Finally managing to gain the upper hand, Ender delivered a kick with Force-enhanced strength, knocking the mad Dark Jedi backwards, although it simply skidded him back.
Taking a breath from the break in combat, a voice suddenly cried out to Ender - a voice that shocked him to his core. The voice of his mother, crying out for Ender to help her. Turning his back, Ender's eyes frantically searched for the source of the voice, and his mind snapped back to the realization of his turning his back to the enemy only moments after. In the nick of time, avoiding a deadly thrust to his abdomen, Ender deflected the blow, which painfully grazed his left side. As their duel resumed, the voice came again, this time it was his father, begging for Ender's aid, and for him to aid his mother. By this point, Ender could recognize reality again; he knew it was not his parents, but the sound of their voices still unnerved him to the point that he could not fight through it. Indeed, he almost wished an illusion of their likeness would appear, just so that he could see them again. He wanted to see it so badly, Ender fought harder, and harder and harder, hoping to force the maddened Dark Jedi into a position where he would try to use such a means to his advantage.
As the fight continued, a telekinetic blast from Ender knocked a small blue holocron from a stone-carved shelf, among other things. As the holocron activated, it showed an unhooded robed figure speaking to someone named Kharos Jorrvak, praising him and speaking of his great potential as a Jedi. The message was brief, and the duel continued on it spoke, ending with telling Kharos to never forget the Jedi Code, no matter what difficulties befall him, as well as how it was possible to forget the most vital things when tribulations come. In its conclusion, the holocron recited the Jedi Code: "There is no emotion; there is peace. There is no ignorance; there is passion. There is no passion; there is serenity. There is no chaos; there is harmony. There is no death; there is the Force." Ender choked as he heard the words resonate in his mind, reminding him of what Mul had taught him to move on from, regarding his past. In a way, Ender could not help but wonder if this was a way that the Force, the Living Force, was indirectly speaking to him.
As their fight broke again, with the mad Dark Jedi - apparently the Kharos individual being talked about - Ender took the time he could to center himself. His family was dead, gone, but only in the physical aspect. As the Living Force revealed, all life becomes one with the Force when the physical body decays. And so in a way, there were, and would always be, alive, and with him. In academic terms, he always comprehended the concept, but it never came to life for him before that moment, and he took what comfort he could in that. As Kharos charged for Ender again, the young Jedi Padawan jumped high toward the nearest wall, running up the side until he'd reached the ceiling, and ran across, using Inertia to counteract the effects of gravity on his body. It was an ability Ender specialized in. To his own surprise, Kharos did the same, and their battle reached a fever pitch as the two dueled upside down on the ceiling of the chamber.
The battle was taxing as never before, as the strain from using the Force to keep traction on the ceiling, to heighten his speed, and the focus of lightsaber combat took its significant toll. Every so often, Ender would feel his weight 'slip', as he felt his control wavering. Moving across the ceiling as they fought, shifting the battle back to the wall and ultimately to the ground, Ender finally managed to even the odds and stuck the emitter of one of Kharos' lightsabers, destroying it, and quickly used disarmed Kharos other weapon by taking advantage of the decreased leverage, knocking it away. As Ender moved in to strike for the kill, Kharos ran into the shadows and vanished. He could feel the tingle at the back of his mind again, but there were no whispers, leading Ender to assume Kharos was trying to trick him again, but his mind was still too alert and protected to be deceived.
Then without warning, a sudden blow came to Ender, striking him in the neck and knocking him back. His mind, so focused on the telepathic attacks, forsook the precognitive warnings through the Force. His lightsaber was disarmed following the blow, and Ender was able to see Kharos pull his lightsaber back and slash down through his hilt, causing the hilt to lightly explode near the center and completely annihilating one emitter on it, before tossing the hilt away and vanishing again. In that brief moment, Ender could tell Kharos' intent; he didn't want to simply kill him quickly or cleanly, he was going to beat him to death. A series of powerful strikes came to Ender, with blows connecting to his face repeatedly, as well as his lower belly, his chest and under his chin. It was savage, fast and merciless, as Ender struggled to regain control.
His mind felt clouded, and not simply from Force manipulations. While training with the Echani master, Ysaori Vaten, Ender leaned much about his physiology, including recognizing where particular pains came from. As Ender was knocked to the ground and struggled just to get up again, let alone battle, he recognized the situation he was in from the pains he was feeling. Several of his ribs were broken from sheer thrashings alone, his jaw was dislocated, and possible damage to a lung artery, due to his coughing of blood. Exhausted, bruised and beaten, Ender literally could not summon the strength to get up on his own. As Ender moved his head upward to stare ahead, being face-down, he heard a voice again. And finally, he saw it, his father, in just the same way that he couldn't even remember him. From the same clean-cut hair and soft eyes to the kind-but-unsmiling face he always wore, it was everything Ender wanted to see again. His eyes widened as tears began to slightly flow down his face. His father's image then came closer and closer, stretching out his hand and telling Ender to come to him.
And just as his father came just within a meter's range, Ender suddenly sprang to vitality and life, using Control Pain to negate the effects of his injuries, and while simultaneously telekinetically pulling his damaged lightsaber to hand while igniting and thrusting the good emitter behind him. The image of his father faded away, and Ender saw behind him what he felt through the Force; Kharos' hidden presence. That same concealment that, when focusing on him, was found to never quite be up to par. Deep down, Ender knew he could have delivered a non-fatal blow due to his surprise attack, and he knew why he didn't. Moving beyond the past aside, this was the kill he always wanted out of Sylas Luthor, and he was more than confident that his master would never question him being able to take the man alive. And ultimately, he would soon find that his assessment would be correct.
Ender thrust his lightsaber blade through Kharos heart, pushing it deeper and deeper in as he took in the last expressions on Kharos' face. It was then that Ender, saw a sight he would not soon forget; as Kharos face fell and rose up again to look upon Ender one last time, the face staring through the straggled and greasy hair was not Kharos', it was Ender's. Ender's eyes widened in confusion and horror before quickly understanding what he saw. It was the briefest of Force Visions that had impacted him, but knew what he was seeing was a potential future of himself, within Kharos. While Ender collapsed after the duel, he was quickly found by Mul, who arrived later after defeating the crazed Balinaka, and recovered him. As Ender awoke again in his master's care, he learned that the temple they were in was originally belonging to a kind of cult before it was found by the maddened Dark Jedi, who himself was named Kharos Jorrvak, a Jedi Padawan who had become the victim of his own unbridled curiosity, having lost his sanity when experimenting with the Force while with his Master on Voss. Ender lyingly stated that he regretted not being able to take Kharos alive after relating the events, to which Mul informed him he was unsure if it was fully possible to save him.
After recovering, Ender was told that by Mul's assessment, he'd passed his five Jedi Trials in that one confrontation. Ender was told to had passed the Trial of Skill by defeating the berserker Dark Jedi, Kharos Jorrvak, had passed the Trial of Courage by facing him in one-on-one combat, had passed the Trial of Spirit by witnessing and understanding the Force Vision he'd received upon killing Kharos, had passed the Trial of Flesh by enduring and bearing through the savage physical beating he'd been subjected to, and had passed the Trial of Insight by seeing through Kharos' constant illusions and mental manipulations, and seeing the reality. Presenting him with full Dai Bendu robes as his reward, as opposed to the imitation Padawan robes he'd been wearing, Eyl-Zin-Mul declared Ender a Jedi Knight at heart, but something more in being. He may not be a Jedi as far as the galaxy was concerned, but he would always be a protector and a guardian. A Praetorian Knight, the title of which Ender would keep close at heart in the years that followed.
Ender had departed from Mul in the weeks that followed, beginning with reconstructing his lightsaber. From the founding of a Force crystal that he spent weeks attuning to himself, to spending the better part of the rest of the same year creating a new lightsaber hilt from the tediously-forged Songsteel, so as to protect it from the glaring danger of sun djem. From then onward, Ender had chosen to use his ceremonial Kasuis mask to protect his identity in the case of keeping his anonymity, should the Jedi Order hear of or see him. It was not until almost two years later, as Ender was nearing twenty-five standard years of age, that he chose to take up a cuirass and plated gloves, to distinct himself, in his mind, from the traditional Jedi, and more embrace his nontraditional role as being more than a Jedi Knight; Praetorian.
RP Sample:
"Battle not with evil's monsters; Awaken not the beast
Control belongs to one that conquers; And freedom is their feast
Demons within, demons without; In darkness, they reside
Ally and foe alike shall rout; Damnation, they denied
To slay a beast within our thrall; This is our carnal sin
But monsters live inside us all; In fray, sometimes they win"
—Echani High Protector Nekast Lsu IV, 1023 BTC
A rhythmic tone of beeping and pulsations hummed against the nigh-silence of shifting waters and rising air bubbles. Lulling and gentle, but strong enough to hear and feel to the deepest part of the bones, it continued onward, over and over again, like an eternal symphony. Within a Sith facility, a woman floated comatose in a cylindrical pool of Kolto, connected to over a dozen monitors regulating her health, conscious state, chemical levels in her brain and body, among other things. Her body was ravaged by burns, lacerations and bruising, evident even after her immersion in the healing fluids. As the medical instruments relayed her biological information, over one hundred and twenty scientists, as well as many more security personnel, patrolled the area.
"So... do you know who she is?" said a scientist, gazing into the figure within the Kolto tank. His hair was brown and cut short, but was coiled and curly even at such a length, "I've worked in the Vysus Medical Unit for six years now, and I've never actually been tasked with healing anyone, let alone putting someone - an enemy of all - back together. She's even been listed as a highest priority entity."
"No idea," said a grime-covered technician, halfway inside the lower panel of a nearby wall as she worked on the inner mechanisms of a bioscanning console, constantly trading one hand tool with another from a nearby astromech droid helping her, "Maybe she's some princess they want to use as a political prisoner or something. Y'know, one of them diplomatic type hostages."
"Maybe, maybe," the medical scientist said, obviously unsatisfied with the technician's theory, "But I do wonder... the Sith usually don't tell us much, least of all Lord Scyreus, but somebody has to have the details, right? After all, information about her can't just be what little we've been told, there's got to be more to it. Somebody's gotta know who this woman is."
"Yeah, I know who she is. Right now, she's one of Darth Scyreus' experiments," said a nearby patrolling guard, overhearing the medical specialist and technician, "Don't need to know anymore, and can't say I want to, either. Knowing too much around the Dark Lords gets you killed. That's why I hate these clandestine assignments."
"He's right," another guard said, a sentry guarding the nearby door to an outer corridor, "Experiments like these almost always go bad when you start asking questions. Trust me, keep your eyes focused and your heads down if you want to come out of this unscathed. I know too many friends that disappeared after being put on 'special assignments'."
"That's just military urban legend, isn't it?" the medical specialist replied, chiding the other soldiers, "Insubordinate men and women being court marshaled, is of course another matter. But what you're suggesting; loyal soldiers of the Empire suddenly disappearing from military installations en mass without a trace? Highly improbably."
"It's your neck, doc. And I'm not sticking mine out for yours," the first patrolman said, returning to his route, "You want to end up getting 'discharged' the Sith way, be my guest."
The technician ignored the most of the conversation and the medical specialist simply scoffed and returned to his station. High above the room, at the unlit ceiling of the building, Aleksender Yusanis knelt upside-down, above the facility, using the Force to enhance his hearing to listen in on the personnel, Ender ironically found his information was as scarce as the people working in the installation. Without the Jedi Order's backing, Ender had to rely on gathering information on his own, using underworld channels and information brokers. One of the more persistent rumors was that of an Imperial prison of sorts that was holding some VIP prisoner, someone that fought against Darth Scyreus, one of the more militaristic, as opposed to 'spiritual', Dark Lords of the Sith Empire.
Quickly scaling the ceiling, using the Force to make his movements silent as his feet raced across the metallic plating, Ender leapt into the corner of the room, behind a series of bulky hulks of machinery. From the vantage point therein, Ender gazed into the Kolto tank for a better view of the 'VIP prisoner', only to find that is was a poor barely-alive woman. The Force was strong with her, but her connected was deeply scarred, like a sculptor developing arthritis. But most distinguishing of all, Ender saw that a great deal of her body was repaired with cybernetics. Her arms, her chest and abdomen, her neck and lower face, even parts of her legs were augmented by cybernetics. From the Kolto tank, numerous cords came out of her back, extending into a power generator. It was a form of life support, that much Ender could perceive, but there something... off, about it. Something was unnatural, even by the standards of a thing so artificial in nature. And in the end, the only thing he felt he could do was rescue her. After all, no one deserved captivity, least of all in such a horrific manner.
As Ender devised the best way to rescue her, the uneasiness he felt about her grew more and more. There was something about her that was dangerous, although he couldn't perceive what it was, or why it was. True to his own nature, Ender couldn't bring himself to leave one that was defenseless, even if of a shady nature, but at the same time, he was not one to act without knowing what he was getting into. To that end, he sought what he believed to be the safest method of divination.
Retreating to the ceiling again, Ender closed his eyes and meditated as he sat, focusing on the penetration of the mind of the woman in the tank. Surprisingly, even unconscious, the woman's mind was strong, as if it was trained in such a way. Tearing through the barrier around her thoughts, Ender entered into her mind to sense her identity and her nature. Her mind was full of turmoil and conflict, rife with unbridled passions and aggression, but also grief. Ender could see what he believed to have been her world, what she appeared to look like before, and saw comets lighting up the sky at dawn. Comets that were landing pods, releasing hordes of Imperial troops and Sith. Fighting against them, the woman slew many, until she eventually came across a being with chalk-pale skin, eyes like darkness of black holes and with several lightsabers hanging from his waist. In the briefest of battles, she was defeated in battle, launched into the fuel cells of a landing craft, causing it to explode. Incredibly, she survived the ordeal, looking up as her last moments of consciousness was the sight of the deathly-looking man's face.
"EEEEEEEYYYYYAAAAAHHHHHHH!!"
The woman's mind burst open, awakening her as she let out a blood-curdling scream through the Force, unleashing a telekinetic and telepathic explosion. Her Kolto tank burst apart, and the personnel nearest to her were killed almost instantly, being pulverized by the Force energies erupting from her. Ender fell almost instantly, his mind having been directly connected to hers at the time, but managed to pivot himself feet-down during his fall. Landing on his feet, and now protecting his mind from the telepathic aspect of the blast, Ender looked down to see himself standing over a woman with a deadened expression on her face, her mind having been torn asunder.
"Stop! Calm yourself!" Ender yelled out to her, telepathically attempting to appease her
His 'words' fell on proverbial deaf ears as her hand rose from Force gripping two security details, choking the life from them as her hands tightened into fists, cracking their necks. With her next motion, her left arm flung behind her toward the source in the Force that contacted her, and a blast of sustained Force Lightning spiraled forth from her fingertips just as Ender pulled his double-bladed lightsaber, Dawnstar, and ignited it just in time to block the blast.
Not entirely cybernetic then, he contemplated, realizing some of what was done to her was augmentation, not replacement.
"Listen to me! I know you can hear me, you're not in danger anymore," Ender 'said', reaching out to her mind again to calm her down, "Look around you, they're dead. You're safe, and I'm not hear to harm you. I'm here to help you, if you'll let me. So please, let me."
The woman now turned around as her golden-red eyes, immersed in the Dark Side, now focused in on Ender.
"Where... is.. he? Where i..is, s... sck... Scy..reus?" she managed to utter in a mechanical, staggering voice.
Scyreus, the Sith Lord Ender had believed to be in charge of the facility. Without a doubt, her motivation was likely revenge. A sentiment Ender could understand, but also sobering how frequently such a theme has been spread acorss the galaxy. So many wronged, so many wishing for vengeance.
"Yes, Darth Scyreus. Is he the one that did this to you?" Ender asked, attempted to disarm her.
Her Force Lightning still continued on, but to a steadily deceasing intensity. Her eyes paced back and forth as she appeared to be collecting her thoughts.
"Look at me, Tekea," Ender said, having gleamed the name from her mind before, "That is your name isn't it? You were Tekea Azatar."
A Death Witch..., Ender thought. Her lightning stopped completely now, as her hands grasped her head, but Ender knew enough about the Krath to know they were a Sith cult. With their leaders wiped out, they scattered, but apparently whatever world she came from descended from that society. Sith prisoner or not, she was dangerous in her own right. Still, Ender could not figure out why she was being kept alive.
"I am... Te... kea," she said, struggling to formulate sentences. "Tekea... Azatar."
"Yes, remember your name. You're Tekea," Ender said, reaching out his hand, while removing his mask in an attempt to put her more at ease, "Take my hand, and we'll leave, Tekea."
Whatever she was, her mind was soft now, malleable and vulnerable - either by damage or by design. While he would still be cautious, right now she was easily influenced enough, almost akin to a child. On that, Ender didn't feel he needed to kill her should she drop her defenses. As she slowly reached out to take Ender's hand, a blaster bolt fired out, striking Tekea by grazing her right shoulder. Immediately she let out a roar as she rapidly turned around and fired another blast of Force Lightning, charring the lone soldier on the ground who attempted to kill her. In a surge of confusion and agitation, Tekea then let out a repulsive wave of telekinetic energy, launching Ender back into several machines and causing the dust to circulate the air.
A few seconds later, as the dust cleared, all that was left were broken machines, broken people, and blood. Getting up and telekinetically pulling his mask into his hand, Ender mounted it over his face again as he sighed. The more of the galaxy he saw, the harsher and harsher place it seemed to be. With every victim that survives, often a new oppressor is born. And Ender couldn't help but wonder, if he ever saw her again, what she would be. A Sith, a Darksider, or even merely a shattered woman without a place in the galaxy. As he walked over to leave, a lone scientist gagged in pain. Many of his bones were broken, some of his joints twisted, but he was alive. Ender walked over to him as he attempted to get up, as his legs still worked in some capacity, and kicked him over. Surprised, the scientist gagged as Ender placed his foot on the man's throat and pressed his heel down, choking the man until his thrashing ceased. The galaxy was full of monsters, and those who appease them. And now, by his count, there was one less in the galaxy.
