Post by WikidMonkee on Jan 12, 2016 2:34:51 GMT -5
"Master Sahan...wait..." Zeke groaned as a dull ache spread across his left temple, accompanied by a sinister, broken laughter within his mind, "I...I think I sense something...something Dark."
"I sense it as well," said the aging human male Zeke was accompanying. Master Sai Sahan, Zeke's mentor, master, and the closest thing he ever had to a real parent, scanned the surrounding area as he positioned himself between Zeke and their docked ship. They had been preparing to return to Coruscant from a diplomatic mission on Zeke's home world of Kuat settling a dispute between a pair of wealthy landowners.
Master Sahan was quite tall, around six feet and three inches, with dark skin and greying dread-locks pulled into a thick ponytail at the base of his skull. He was blind in his left eye from where he'd taken a blaster shot as a young man. His body was powerfully built, and his large stature gave him a deceptively intimidating appearance. He reached his enormous hand across his waist to his lightsaber, but waived his other hand back to signal Zeke to stay his.
"Go, prepare the ship for launch, this conflict will not last," he said sternly. Zeke had long since learned that the order was implied in his Master's tone, and obediently turned back toward the ship. No sooner did he take his first step and there he was, tall and unnaturally slender, he dropped down from out of nowhere to block Zeke's path.
Zeke froze in terror when he saw this new opponent. His face was covered by a simply, black, cloth mask, but a single hole was cut out for his right eye, and this was what served to spook Zeke so deeply. It was the same shade of deadly acid green as Zeke's "Inner Sith," and it seemed to bore into his soul in just the same way. Before Zeke could even recover from the shock of seeing it, he heard lightsabers igniting.
"ZEKE! GO NOW!!" Master Sahan roared as he leaped over the boy's head and began clashing with this new, terrifying foe. His Master's voice returned him to his senses and he ran for the ship as fast as his legs and the Force would carry him. Rushing into the ship and starting up the primary engines, he watched from the cockpit as his Master did battle.
The Dark Jedi lunged away quickly to avoid what would have been a killing blow and then seemed to chuckle darkly as he drew a second lightsaber and activated it. He rushed at Master Sahan just as Zeke got the ship airborne. Zeke began maneuvering over the other docked ships to get as close to his Master as he could, giving him a means of escape via the still lowered gangplank.
Sahan got the message and jumped just as Zeke was passing over head, but it would be his last mistake. The Dark Jedi leaped up just as Sahan did, driving his lightsabers deep into the old Master's diaphram. They both landed on the gangplank just as the Dark Jedi deactivated his lightsabers. He stood over Sai Sahan's dying body, pacing back and forth, savoring his latest kill. Any Jedi within a hundred light-years could have felt the seething hatred that emanated from him.
He, however, seemed to have forgotten that someone was flying this ship, as Zeke stepped in and Force Pushed him off the ship with every ounce of focus he could muster. Zeke raised the gangplank and rushed to his Master's side.
"Master Sahan! Say something!" he yelped as he knelt down and began attempting basic first aid.
"Don't bother, my young apprentice," Sai wheezed, his injuries obviously causing a great deal of strain on his ability to speak. "It is the will of the Living Force that I must pass."
"And what about my will?!" Zeke snarled. "What if I don't want you to die yet, old man?!"
"Set aside such feelings, Zeke, they will only bring you pain," said Sai as he smiled up at his apprentice. Such arguments between them were not uncommon. "I understand your attachment to me, having never known a family besides the Jedi, but as I become one with the Force, know that it means I will never truly leave you."
Zeke wanted to scream, to punch something, to tear the Galaxy apart looking for the Dark Jedi who had done this...but Sai was right, these were not the thoughts and desires of a Jedi. He swallowed hard, choking back the tears he could feel coming, and nodded as he watched his Master exhale his last breath. He felt Sai's presence vanish, and it hit him like an ocean wave, clenching his eyes and fists with the effort of suppressing his own emotions.
"There is no Emotion...These is Peace," he croaked through gritted teeth, "There is no Passion...There is Serenity...There is no Chaos...There is Harmony..."
He ran through it a few times, but found that it seemed to give him little comfort, except for the last line.
"There is no Death...There is the Force..." he finally sighed and stood up, taking the ship out of orbit and typing in the return coordinates to Coruscant...
***
That had been three days ago, and now Zeke sat in the Courtyard of the Jedi Temple, meditating alone and awaiting word from the Council as to who would step up to continue his training. He had made no attempts to hide his anger with himself and how he handled the situation, and now feared that the Council might think twice about allowing him to continue his training at all. But the worst of it all was the lingering shock of what he saw in the Dark Jedi's eye, and what it meant to him personally.
"Ooo hoo hoo hoo...! It's maddening, isn't it?" came an all too familiar voice from within the depths of his mind. "I might actually be a real, flesh and blood person. I might be the man who killed your Master while you hid in the cockpit of your ship like a frightened child! Doesn't that make you angry? Don't you just HATE me for that?"
"It would be difficult to hate you without hating myself," Zeke thought as he found himself in the mental shadow where his "Inner Sith" resided, "and though I am angry with myself, it shall pass."
"Sure it will, how could you be expected to react any other way, right?" He sneered as he stepped into view, his sinister, unflinching smile widening as he moved into the light of Zeke's imagination. "Don't kid yourself, boy, you've just taken your first step to becoming me!"
"Hardly! True I failed to keep my emotions in check, but all that has accomplished is to show me where I must focus my training and meditation," Zeke chided.
"So you don't want revenge?" He hissed. "You don't want to hunt down that Dark Jedi and feed him his own heart?"
"Even if I did, the Council certainly would never allow it, so what would be the point in pursuing it?"
"Oh pah! A bunch of senile old fools squabbling among themselves like a gaggle of hens. What do they know?"
"A great deal more than I do, and I trust in their wisdom."
"You would, clinging to their pacifist ways like a youngling to its blankey."
"And you would have me hunt down a man whose true identity is unknown and slaughter him without so much as a fair trial. That's your idea of justice? Even if I found him, he bested a Jedi Master, what chance would I stand?"
"Hmmm, I guess you're right, he probably would gut you like a hungry gundark." His smile faltered now, not in the sense of becoming something other than a smile, but it was certainly less pronounced.
"His justice will come at the hands of more experienced Jedi, my focus must be on mastering my emotions...on master you!"
"Mastering me?! HA!! I wish I'd have thought of that one first, that's a good one!!"
"Laugh all you like, monster, but so long as I draw breath, you will never have full control."
"Ah but, I could have partial?"
"Well...I certainly can't attest to being perfect...but in an ideal world, no, not even partial."
"And that's where you're logic crumbles...because there's no such thing as an ideal world."
Zeke's eyes snapped open as he felt an approaching presence. He wondered how long he'd been sitting there having that internal argument with himself. Then he looked up and saw a young man approaching the from the direction he associated with the Council Chamber. Could this be it? Was he finally about to learn what fate the Council had in store for him?
"I sense it as well," said the aging human male Zeke was accompanying. Master Sai Sahan, Zeke's mentor, master, and the closest thing he ever had to a real parent, scanned the surrounding area as he positioned himself between Zeke and their docked ship. They had been preparing to return to Coruscant from a diplomatic mission on Zeke's home world of Kuat settling a dispute between a pair of wealthy landowners.
Master Sahan was quite tall, around six feet and three inches, with dark skin and greying dread-locks pulled into a thick ponytail at the base of his skull. He was blind in his left eye from where he'd taken a blaster shot as a young man. His body was powerfully built, and his large stature gave him a deceptively intimidating appearance. He reached his enormous hand across his waist to his lightsaber, but waived his other hand back to signal Zeke to stay his.
"Go, prepare the ship for launch, this conflict will not last," he said sternly. Zeke had long since learned that the order was implied in his Master's tone, and obediently turned back toward the ship. No sooner did he take his first step and there he was, tall and unnaturally slender, he dropped down from out of nowhere to block Zeke's path.
Zeke froze in terror when he saw this new opponent. His face was covered by a simply, black, cloth mask, but a single hole was cut out for his right eye, and this was what served to spook Zeke so deeply. It was the same shade of deadly acid green as Zeke's "Inner Sith," and it seemed to bore into his soul in just the same way. Before Zeke could even recover from the shock of seeing it, he heard lightsabers igniting.
"ZEKE! GO NOW!!" Master Sahan roared as he leaped over the boy's head and began clashing with this new, terrifying foe. His Master's voice returned him to his senses and he ran for the ship as fast as his legs and the Force would carry him. Rushing into the ship and starting up the primary engines, he watched from the cockpit as his Master did battle.
The Dark Jedi lunged away quickly to avoid what would have been a killing blow and then seemed to chuckle darkly as he drew a second lightsaber and activated it. He rushed at Master Sahan just as Zeke got the ship airborne. Zeke began maneuvering over the other docked ships to get as close to his Master as he could, giving him a means of escape via the still lowered gangplank.
Sahan got the message and jumped just as Zeke was passing over head, but it would be his last mistake. The Dark Jedi leaped up just as Sahan did, driving his lightsabers deep into the old Master's diaphram. They both landed on the gangplank just as the Dark Jedi deactivated his lightsabers. He stood over Sai Sahan's dying body, pacing back and forth, savoring his latest kill. Any Jedi within a hundred light-years could have felt the seething hatred that emanated from him.
He, however, seemed to have forgotten that someone was flying this ship, as Zeke stepped in and Force Pushed him off the ship with every ounce of focus he could muster. Zeke raised the gangplank and rushed to his Master's side.
"Master Sahan! Say something!" he yelped as he knelt down and began attempting basic first aid.
"Don't bother, my young apprentice," Sai wheezed, his injuries obviously causing a great deal of strain on his ability to speak. "It is the will of the Living Force that I must pass."
"And what about my will?!" Zeke snarled. "What if I don't want you to die yet, old man?!"
"Set aside such feelings, Zeke, they will only bring you pain," said Sai as he smiled up at his apprentice. Such arguments between them were not uncommon. "I understand your attachment to me, having never known a family besides the Jedi, but as I become one with the Force, know that it means I will never truly leave you."
Zeke wanted to scream, to punch something, to tear the Galaxy apart looking for the Dark Jedi who had done this...but Sai was right, these were not the thoughts and desires of a Jedi. He swallowed hard, choking back the tears he could feel coming, and nodded as he watched his Master exhale his last breath. He felt Sai's presence vanish, and it hit him like an ocean wave, clenching his eyes and fists with the effort of suppressing his own emotions.
"There is no Emotion...These is Peace," he croaked through gritted teeth, "There is no Passion...There is Serenity...There is no Chaos...There is Harmony..."
He ran through it a few times, but found that it seemed to give him little comfort, except for the last line.
"There is no Death...There is the Force..." he finally sighed and stood up, taking the ship out of orbit and typing in the return coordinates to Coruscant...
***
That had been three days ago, and now Zeke sat in the Courtyard of the Jedi Temple, meditating alone and awaiting word from the Council as to who would step up to continue his training. He had made no attempts to hide his anger with himself and how he handled the situation, and now feared that the Council might think twice about allowing him to continue his training at all. But the worst of it all was the lingering shock of what he saw in the Dark Jedi's eye, and what it meant to him personally.
"Ooo hoo hoo hoo...! It's maddening, isn't it?" came an all too familiar voice from within the depths of his mind. "I might actually be a real, flesh and blood person. I might be the man who killed your Master while you hid in the cockpit of your ship like a frightened child! Doesn't that make you angry? Don't you just HATE me for that?"
"It would be difficult to hate you without hating myself," Zeke thought as he found himself in the mental shadow where his "Inner Sith" resided, "and though I am angry with myself, it shall pass."
"Sure it will, how could you be expected to react any other way, right?" He sneered as he stepped into view, his sinister, unflinching smile widening as he moved into the light of Zeke's imagination. "Don't kid yourself, boy, you've just taken your first step to becoming me!"
"Hardly! True I failed to keep my emotions in check, but all that has accomplished is to show me where I must focus my training and meditation," Zeke chided.
"So you don't want revenge?" He hissed. "You don't want to hunt down that Dark Jedi and feed him his own heart?"
"Even if I did, the Council certainly would never allow it, so what would be the point in pursuing it?"
"Oh pah! A bunch of senile old fools squabbling among themselves like a gaggle of hens. What do they know?"
"A great deal more than I do, and I trust in their wisdom."
"You would, clinging to their pacifist ways like a youngling to its blankey."
"And you would have me hunt down a man whose true identity is unknown and slaughter him without so much as a fair trial. That's your idea of justice? Even if I found him, he bested a Jedi Master, what chance would I stand?"
"Hmmm, I guess you're right, he probably would gut you like a hungry gundark." His smile faltered now, not in the sense of becoming something other than a smile, but it was certainly less pronounced.
"His justice will come at the hands of more experienced Jedi, my focus must be on mastering my emotions...on master you!"
"Mastering me?! HA!! I wish I'd have thought of that one first, that's a good one!!"
"Laugh all you like, monster, but so long as I draw breath, you will never have full control."
"Ah but, I could have partial?"
"Well...I certainly can't attest to being perfect...but in an ideal world, no, not even partial."
"And that's where you're logic crumbles...because there's no such thing as an ideal world."
Zeke's eyes snapped open as he felt an approaching presence. He wondered how long he'd been sitting there having that internal argument with himself. Then he looked up and saw a young man approaching the from the direction he associated with the Council Chamber. Could this be it? Was he finally about to learn what fate the Council had in store for him?