I have a very strange Master (Star Wars/SI) EPI-EPII
- Thread starter shadenight123
- Start date
Night_stalker
Slava Ukraini!
- Pronouns
- He/Him
She's actually canon, have a picture:
She's supposed to be Skywalker's apprentice.
She's supposed to be Skywalker's apprentice.
- Location
- Attempting to cast animate object on a black hole.
Her entire 'hairstyle' is a hollow sensory organ that provides passive echolocation.
Ridiculously Average Guy
I'm you, but stronger
- Location
-
Which is why a headpat feels like someone is poking her in the inner-ears.
That's a picture of her from the later seasons, though. At the moment, she looks more like this;She's actually canon, have a picture:
She's supposed to be Skywalker's apprentice.
A weird little fact to keep in mind; with the accelerated aging the clone troopers undergo to get them mature and battle-ready ASAP, Ahsoka is actually a few years older than every single clone trooper.
She's four years older than Rex, here.
Chapter Twelve
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Twelve
Ahsoka remained in meditation in the hangar for a few more minutes, standing perched atop the tall tower. Her concentration was thrown off however, by a singularly powerful pulse that shocked through her entire core. It was a blindingly strong impulse of hatred and anger with such a cloying thickness that it made her entire being rock back and forth, as she clutched her body and shuddered. It was different from when she had felt frustration, or anger -the admittedly few times she had been angry, she had been angry at some young initiate cutting the line in excitement, or at the amount of homework- or...or anything else similar to it, really. This was pure anger. It was a form of anger only someone who utterly hated, who was utterly a Sith, could ever birth.
And it came from her master.
As suddenly as it had arrived, it disappeared. It disappeared into thin air, as if it had never been there to begin with, as if her master couldn't possibly be that angry, as if that source of hatred couldn't exist inside a human being -and she would have never thought it possible, really, for such a thing to exist. Yet it did.
And not only did it exist, it was...powerful. It was so powerful, it crushed her to simply remember it. She decided to forget it. It must have been a quirk, or maybe it hadn't been her master, but a mere feeling of someone else on the ship, or around the galaxy, and she had unfortunately felt it. Her master had tiny outbursts of emotions, but he had never been that angry. Case in point, when he came back more than half an hour later, he was perfectly serene.
"You may come down now," her Master said, but she simply grinned and remained where she was.
"I'm sorry Master, but I'm up here and I'm going to stay here until-" and then the crates fell to the ground one after the other, the Force disarranging them with ease. Ahsoka yelped as she fell down to her master's eye-level, and her master chuckled and shook his head.
"Let's go, padawan, we're disembarking soon."
Ahsoka grumbled as she dropped off the crate and began to walk by her master's side. It was only when she was halfway through the hallway leading to another hangar that she realized she was still wearing ripped robes.
"Uhm, master?"
"Yes, padawan?" her Master replied calmly.
"I think I need a new set of robes."
"Now, now, it's a good, new look. We're just meeting with the Jedi High Council after all, nothing to be embarrassed about. They won't make a fuss of it."
Ahsoka balked, and halted. "What?! No! You can't let me-it would reflect poorly on you, master, I mean!"
And her Master simply smiled, as the thought of 'trolling' crossed her head and disappeared. Her Master simply smiled, inclined his head to the side, and remarked, "A Jedi teaching says thus 'There is no emotion, there is peace.' Another teaching I personally enjoy is 'You dug your grave, now die in it'." With a hearty chuckle, her Master beckoned her to start moving again.
Ahsoka crossed her arms in front of her chest and thumped a foot on the ground, but finally relented. They didn't immediately head for the hangar however, but stopped short inside a smaller room. "Here you go," her master sighed, taking out a clean robe from one of the drawers. "I'll be waiting outside."
Ahsoka's grin would have probably split the heavens as she grabbed it. Her master was really the best.
Madder than madness itself, but still the best.
When they finally stepped into the smaller carrier, and headed down towards the Jedi temple's port, Ahsoka found herself sitting next to Skywalker, her master in front of her with his arms crossed in front of his chest and an absentminded gaze that every now and then glanced out of the window. She couldn't make the mental image of her furious master coincide with that of the absentminded one in front of her eyes. It simply wasn't possible for such a fury to coexist inside such a calm person.
As they landed, and the carrier's doors slid open to allow them exit, her master stepped out with a peaceful gait. He looked ahead with a resigned look, and Ahsoka followed his gaze to where Great Master Yoda was, apparently in wait for them, with a tranquil expression.
"Master Yoda," Master Kenobi said. "It is a honor to have you welcome us back in the temple."
Master Yoda bobbed its head once in a nod, and then smiled peacefully. Her Master shrunk.
Her master literally shrunk in size as if he suddenly realized he had done something very, very bad. It was no longer her master, but a scared child ready to get his ass slapped by his mother. Somehow, the imagery of an angry Master Yoda couldn't compute -because Master Yoda was never angry- but he did have a sort of 'displeasure' meter apparently, and her master seemed pretty sure it had been filled.
"You and I, a talk need," Master Yoda said, looking up at Master Shade, who had begun to slightly sweat as he scratched the side of his head -his sign for nervousness. "Much to discuss we have."
With a resigned nod, her Master acquiesced and turned to look at Ahsoka. "You're free to go, padawan. I'll have you called for our next training session."
"Yes, master," Ahsoka bowed, and after a last bow to both Master Yoda and Master Kenobi, she walked away. Knight Skywalker had been close by Master Kenobi, so a single bowing had taken care of showing respect to two higher-ranked Jedi. She would have loved to know what her master and master Yoda had to speak of, but as it was, now that she was back in the temple, she could look up about other things.
She entered the Jedi library with a quiet gait, and stopped right next to the librarian and keeper of the place, Master Jocasta Nu. The old, white-haired lady was near a bookshelf, looking at the flickering lights that signaled whenever a Jedi was accessing a specific record, and when the light was off, it meant someone had begun reading them.
"Master Nu," Ahsoka said with a tiny voice -the old lady warranted respect, it just came with her aura. "I am looking for information."
"Padawan," Master Nu replied with her calm voice, a small smile on her lips. "You have come to the right place. How may I help you?"
"I've been assigned to Jedi Master Night Shade," damn if it felt funny to pronounce his full name, "And...I was wondering if I could read something about him?"
Master Nu raised an eyebrow, "I have not caught your name, Padawan?"
"Ah, forgive me, master. I am Ahsoka Tano, padawan learner."
Master Jocasta Nu nodded once, a small smile on her lips. "Of course, then follow me. Your master allowed you access to his personal records since the moment you've been chosen. I was expecting you a long time ago."
Ahsoka faltered on her next step, but quickly recovered. "Oh?"
"Yes," Master Nu continued, "He assumed his padawan's natural curiosity would bring her to look in the Jedi records for a list of potential masters, and by cross-referencing the date a potential master stopped being such, he or she would be able to discover his name."
Ahsoka nervously laughed while glancing sideways. Why hadn't she thought of that when she had first been told she had been assigned a Master?
"Here," Master Nu said, accessing a holographic table and inserting a few codes. "You may read all reports you have clearance for, call for me if you are in need of any more assistance," with that said, the elderly lady walked away, leaving Ahsoka in front of a veritable pile of information.
Her fingers twitched near the keyboard. The first report was that of him being found-no, it said he had walked into the temple at the age of two, asking after Master Yoda. At the age of two. Ahsoka had to re-read the line a few moments to let it sink in. At the age of two she had been...playing with rubber balls, or toys, maybe. Here instead it said her master had the galls to walk into the Jedi temple and ask after Master Yoda. Precocious little guy, she'd give him that, but seriously, that had to be wrong. Maybe he had been five, or six, or ten -a bit late for a boy to start learning, but if Skywalker was an exception, it didn't mean he was the only one.
The next week, her master had become a private student of master Yoda. No initiates classes, no tests on the force, nothing had been done to check him -and his midichlorian count was of course absent from the report- and yet there it was, a week later, his name resulting as a student of Master Yoda.
She had known her master was strange, but she hadn't thought he'd be outright impossible. How had he even reached the Jedi temple by foot at two? Where had he come from? Coruscant was a big city, and she dreaded to think what a two year old kid would end up as -probably food- if he braved the underbelly of the city to reach the Jedi temple. And if someone had dropped him off, then why hadn't they come back to get him?
The next report was of him becoming a padawan at age five. That...that again, was short of impossible. Yet apparently Master Yoda had deemed him ready, and he had become his Padawan with the rest of the Jedi high council giving their approval to it.
At age ten, her master had been knighted -again, another impossibility, what the hell do you have to do -or be- to get knighted at age ten? Either her master was one of those ultra smart kids that she had heard the tales of, or he had always been that strong since youth, and that was a scary prospect. Yet she had never heard of him until that moment. Everyone spoke of 'Skywalker', but no one spoke of 'Shade'. Skywalker was the hero of the Republic, or at least, the most influential and famously viewed knight. Master Shade was an impossible Jedi with enough strength to receive his knighting at age ten, and yet no one had spoken about it -not even a peep! not even the slightest hint of a word!
At age fourteen, he became a Master.
A neat list of accomplishments brought it up, and many more came out with each passing year. He had been in the temple relatively little, and yet there was a never-ending list of times he had acted to stop deaths, prevent murders, intervene to stop schemes -by what she was reading, it was as if half the Jedi temple was alive because of his meddling, and that was quite some serious stuff to consider.
Master Yaddle herself -another member of Master Yoda's strange race, although female- had survived a peacekeeping mission to Marwan thanks to his presence there. Really, the more Ahsoka looked, the more it seemed her master had a knack for finding himself in the right place at the right time to save people.
And it made sense. It made sense that he was a sort-of 'seer' if he could do that.
What didn't make sense was that nobody made the connection before. It was as if nobody outright cared about it, or heard of it, or even bothered with it. If she saved all those people, she'd at least expect to be swamped with grateful looks every few seconds, but instead, her Master ate in the mess hall alone. It was...mind-boggling impossible! Of course, Jedi training refused bonds, and of course, it suppressed emotions, but it didn't prevent someone from saying 'hello' and 'goodbye' and 'have a nice day' and 'Oh gosh, maybe we can chat a bit since you frigging saved my life!'
It unnerved and frustrated her. Here he was, written as clear as the day, that her master had saved countless lives. And not one of those souls, not one of those so called Jedi, had even the decency of saying 'hello' to him. It embittered her.
Don't birth strife where there is none, padawan.
Only the insane equate pain with success.
No, she had to keep calm.
Her Master's very first lesson had been about thinking positive, in a nutshell. And the Cheshire Cat's words rung in her head too, as if eerily on the spot. Her master was strange, and mad, and maybe insane. And he had a bubbling something inside his chest, hidden by thick armor of ice and steel and Jedi teachings. She couldn't blame the Jedi. It wasn't in their characters. On the other hand, her Master might have rebuked attempts at friendship to keep clear with the Jedi teachings. It would explain why Master Kenobi and Knight Skywalker sort-of feared him. He'd need quite the level of scathing remarks to pry off the simple desire of friendship of a couple of Jedi, let alone half the Jedi Temple judging by the long list of names.
She closed her eyes and sighed, rubbing her eyelids. The next moment, her montrals twitched.
Something had just moved nearby. It had been a quick action, and very quiet -so much she hadn't heard it with her ears- but her montrals had picked it up, the echolocation waves bouncing off the enclosed space of the library walls.
Something had happened in the back of the library, and whatever it had been, it seemed to prickle up each of her senses. She quickly closed the reports, and stood up, a hand moving to where her lightsaber...
Wasn't.
...
She really was starting to dislike her master now. He hadn't given back her lightsaber! She groaned and bit her lower lip as she began to carefully prowl near a library shelf, trying to keep most of her body hidden as she glanced past the corner, to where Master Nu was apparently looking on with a deep thought. She then proceeded to near a computer screen, and began to input into it. Ahsoka hesitated. If she had her lightsaber -which she didn't- she'd probably feel sure enough to just walk right in front of Master Nu and ask her what was going on. Since she didn't, and since she was hardly wrong, she began to look around.
The source of her echolocation gone haywire couldn't be that far, and in truth, she literally stumbled on it. Master Nu was down on the ground, hidden by a holographic projector, her limp body accosted to the wall. Yet there was another Master Nu standing in front of a computer, looking through it for data. Ahsoka bit her lower lip and cursed her master -seriously, why did he take her lightsaber away!?
She looked around -with her luck, she was of course the only one in the room. Why couldn't there be a randomly passing by Jedi whenever she needed one!? She wasn't asking for much, just a Jedi! Any Jedi would-
And then the doors of the library slid open, as a red-haired woman stepped inside with a bubbling walk and a smile on her face. "Hello there, Master Nu!" the woman said with a grin, catching the elderly matron by surprise. Ahsoka looked on as the fake-Master Nu turned with a fixed smile on her face.
"Hello there," Fake-Nu replied, meanwhile moving a hand to her belt where a lightsaber, probably the real Nu's one, resided. "What can I do for you?"
"She's a fake!" Ahsoka yelled as a warning, just in time to watch as the fake Nu clumsily swished with her lightsaber forward. In the blink of an eye, the ginger-haired woman neatly disarmed the fake, pointing a lightsaber at her neck.
"Thanks for the warning," the woman said with a wink in her direction, "But I kind of guessed when she didn't sigh in defeat, or look on surprised, at my arrival."
The fake-Nu ground her teeth and hissed, trying to take a step back.
"Now, now," the ginger-haired woman said. "My Master was Soara Antana. You don't want to try doing whatever it is you want to try to do. I guarantee it, you won't like the results," she made a small smile. "Come on now, surrender gracefully."
The Fake Nu sighed and slumped her shoulders, before bringing up her bony wrists for 'surrender'. In that moment, a flicker passed through. The ginger-haired girl pushed her lightsaber through the clearly holographic rendition of the Fake-Nu, and Ahsoka herself gasped.
"She's still there! She's hiding in the hologram!"
Whoever said echolocation wasn't useful had never had to deal with people hiding in holograms. In fact, the 'fake' was indeed in the hologram, but more than a good foot shorter, which explained why the lightsaber had merely passed through the Fake-Nu's chest.
Within instants, a strange creature rushed away, or at least tried to. With a powerful jump, the Ginger-Haired Jedi cut her road and slammed a foot on her path, sending her to roll into a library shelf and knocking the lights out of her.
At the same time, an explosion rocked off in the distance of the temple.
"I didn't do that," the Jedi woman said.
"M-Master," Ahsoka blurted out, "What is going on?"
"Thieves, I'd reckon," the Jedi replied. "I'm Darra by the way, Knight Darra Thel-Tanis," she winked, "And you've done great realizing she was a fake. Who's your master, padawan? I'll put in a good word. I've got so much free time around here that-"
"Uhm, pardon me for interrupting," Ahsoka fidgeted, "But...the bomb? The explosion?"
"Oh, don't worry, we're too far for it. Let another Jedi deal with it. I'm bringing this particular intruder into custody. You go help Master Nu up and to the infirmary."
With that said, the woman -Knight Darra, and why was her name familiar- hoisted up the thief, and clasped her hands behind her back. Using relatively little effort, she began to pull the thief along. Ahsoka headed back to where Master Nu had been knocked out, and helping the elderly Jedi up, she wondered just why the name felt familiar.
And then it clicked.
And then she would have kicked herself.
She could ask people rather than read records.
Really.
How stupid was she?
Ahsoka remained in meditation in the hangar for a few more minutes, standing perched atop the tall tower. Her concentration was thrown off however, by a singularly powerful pulse that shocked through her entire core. It was a blindingly strong impulse of hatred and anger with such a cloying thickness that it made her entire being rock back and forth, as she clutched her body and shuddered. It was different from when she had felt frustration, or anger -the admittedly few times she had been angry, she had been angry at some young initiate cutting the line in excitement, or at the amount of homework- or...or anything else similar to it, really. This was pure anger. It was a form of anger only someone who utterly hated, who was utterly a Sith, could ever birth.
And it came from her master.
As suddenly as it had arrived, it disappeared. It disappeared into thin air, as if it had never been there to begin with, as if her master couldn't possibly be that angry, as if that source of hatred couldn't exist inside a human being -and she would have never thought it possible, really, for such a thing to exist. Yet it did.
And not only did it exist, it was...powerful. It was so powerful, it crushed her to simply remember it. She decided to forget it. It must have been a quirk, or maybe it hadn't been her master, but a mere feeling of someone else on the ship, or around the galaxy, and she had unfortunately felt it. Her master had tiny outbursts of emotions, but he had never been that angry. Case in point, when he came back more than half an hour later, he was perfectly serene.
"You may come down now," her Master said, but she simply grinned and remained where she was.
"I'm sorry Master, but I'm up here and I'm going to stay here until-" and then the crates fell to the ground one after the other, the Force disarranging them with ease. Ahsoka yelped as she fell down to her master's eye-level, and her master chuckled and shook his head.
"Let's go, padawan, we're disembarking soon."
Ahsoka grumbled as she dropped off the crate and began to walk by her master's side. It was only when she was halfway through the hallway leading to another hangar that she realized she was still wearing ripped robes.
"Uhm, master?"
"Yes, padawan?" her Master replied calmly.
"I think I need a new set of robes."
"Now, now, it's a good, new look. We're just meeting with the Jedi High Council after all, nothing to be embarrassed about. They won't make a fuss of it."
Ahsoka balked, and halted. "What?! No! You can't let me-it would reflect poorly on you, master, I mean!"
And her Master simply smiled, as the thought of 'trolling' crossed her head and disappeared. Her Master simply smiled, inclined his head to the side, and remarked, "A Jedi teaching says thus 'There is no emotion, there is peace.' Another teaching I personally enjoy is 'You dug your grave, now die in it'." With a hearty chuckle, her Master beckoned her to start moving again.
Ahsoka crossed her arms in front of her chest and thumped a foot on the ground, but finally relented. They didn't immediately head for the hangar however, but stopped short inside a smaller room. "Here you go," her master sighed, taking out a clean robe from one of the drawers. "I'll be waiting outside."
Ahsoka's grin would have probably split the heavens as she grabbed it. Her master was really the best.
Madder than madness itself, but still the best.
When they finally stepped into the smaller carrier, and headed down towards the Jedi temple's port, Ahsoka found herself sitting next to Skywalker, her master in front of her with his arms crossed in front of his chest and an absentminded gaze that every now and then glanced out of the window. She couldn't make the mental image of her furious master coincide with that of the absentminded one in front of her eyes. It simply wasn't possible for such a fury to coexist inside such a calm person.
As they landed, and the carrier's doors slid open to allow them exit, her master stepped out with a peaceful gait. He looked ahead with a resigned look, and Ahsoka followed his gaze to where Great Master Yoda was, apparently in wait for them, with a tranquil expression.
"Master Yoda," Master Kenobi said. "It is a honor to have you welcome us back in the temple."
Master Yoda bobbed its head once in a nod, and then smiled peacefully. Her Master shrunk.
Her master literally shrunk in size as if he suddenly realized he had done something very, very bad. It was no longer her master, but a scared child ready to get his ass slapped by his mother. Somehow, the imagery of an angry Master Yoda couldn't compute -because Master Yoda was never angry- but he did have a sort of 'displeasure' meter apparently, and her master seemed pretty sure it had been filled.
"You and I, a talk need," Master Yoda said, looking up at Master Shade, who had begun to slightly sweat as he scratched the side of his head -his sign for nervousness. "Much to discuss we have."
With a resigned nod, her Master acquiesced and turned to look at Ahsoka. "You're free to go, padawan. I'll have you called for our next training session."
"Yes, master," Ahsoka bowed, and after a last bow to both Master Yoda and Master Kenobi, she walked away. Knight Skywalker had been close by Master Kenobi, so a single bowing had taken care of showing respect to two higher-ranked Jedi. She would have loved to know what her master and master Yoda had to speak of, but as it was, now that she was back in the temple, she could look up about other things.
She entered the Jedi library with a quiet gait, and stopped right next to the librarian and keeper of the place, Master Jocasta Nu. The old, white-haired lady was near a bookshelf, looking at the flickering lights that signaled whenever a Jedi was accessing a specific record, and when the light was off, it meant someone had begun reading them.
"Master Nu," Ahsoka said with a tiny voice -the old lady warranted respect, it just came with her aura. "I am looking for information."
"Padawan," Master Nu replied with her calm voice, a small smile on her lips. "You have come to the right place. How may I help you?"
"I've been assigned to Jedi Master Night Shade," damn if it felt funny to pronounce his full name, "And...I was wondering if I could read something about him?"
Master Nu raised an eyebrow, "I have not caught your name, Padawan?"
"Ah, forgive me, master. I am Ahsoka Tano, padawan learner."
Master Jocasta Nu nodded once, a small smile on her lips. "Of course, then follow me. Your master allowed you access to his personal records since the moment you've been chosen. I was expecting you a long time ago."
Ahsoka faltered on her next step, but quickly recovered. "Oh?"
"Yes," Master Nu continued, "He assumed his padawan's natural curiosity would bring her to look in the Jedi records for a list of potential masters, and by cross-referencing the date a potential master stopped being such, he or she would be able to discover his name."
Ahsoka nervously laughed while glancing sideways. Why hadn't she thought of that when she had first been told she had been assigned a Master?
"Here," Master Nu said, accessing a holographic table and inserting a few codes. "You may read all reports you have clearance for, call for me if you are in need of any more assistance," with that said, the elderly lady walked away, leaving Ahsoka in front of a veritable pile of information.
Her fingers twitched near the keyboard. The first report was that of him being found-no, it said he had walked into the temple at the age of two, asking after Master Yoda. At the age of two. Ahsoka had to re-read the line a few moments to let it sink in. At the age of two she had been...playing with rubber balls, or toys, maybe. Here instead it said her master had the galls to walk into the Jedi temple and ask after Master Yoda. Precocious little guy, she'd give him that, but seriously, that had to be wrong. Maybe he had been five, or six, or ten -a bit late for a boy to start learning, but if Skywalker was an exception, it didn't mean he was the only one.
The next week, her master had become a private student of master Yoda. No initiates classes, no tests on the force, nothing had been done to check him -and his midichlorian count was of course absent from the report- and yet there it was, a week later, his name resulting as a student of Master Yoda.
She had known her master was strange, but she hadn't thought he'd be outright impossible. How had he even reached the Jedi temple by foot at two? Where had he come from? Coruscant was a big city, and she dreaded to think what a two year old kid would end up as -probably food- if he braved the underbelly of the city to reach the Jedi temple. And if someone had dropped him off, then why hadn't they come back to get him?
The next report was of him becoming a padawan at age five. That...that again, was short of impossible. Yet apparently Master Yoda had deemed him ready, and he had become his Padawan with the rest of the Jedi high council giving their approval to it.
At age ten, her master had been knighted -again, another impossibility, what the hell do you have to do -or be- to get knighted at age ten? Either her master was one of those ultra smart kids that she had heard the tales of, or he had always been that strong since youth, and that was a scary prospect. Yet she had never heard of him until that moment. Everyone spoke of 'Skywalker', but no one spoke of 'Shade'. Skywalker was the hero of the Republic, or at least, the most influential and famously viewed knight. Master Shade was an impossible Jedi with enough strength to receive his knighting at age ten, and yet no one had spoken about it -not even a peep! not even the slightest hint of a word!
At age fourteen, he became a Master.
A neat list of accomplishments brought it up, and many more came out with each passing year. He had been in the temple relatively little, and yet there was a never-ending list of times he had acted to stop deaths, prevent murders, intervene to stop schemes -by what she was reading, it was as if half the Jedi temple was alive because of his meddling, and that was quite some serious stuff to consider.
Master Yaddle herself -another member of Master Yoda's strange race, although female- had survived a peacekeeping mission to Marwan thanks to his presence there. Really, the more Ahsoka looked, the more it seemed her master had a knack for finding himself in the right place at the right time to save people.
And it made sense. It made sense that he was a sort-of 'seer' if he could do that.
What didn't make sense was that nobody made the connection before. It was as if nobody outright cared about it, or heard of it, or even bothered with it. If she saved all those people, she'd at least expect to be swamped with grateful looks every few seconds, but instead, her Master ate in the mess hall alone. It was...mind-boggling impossible! Of course, Jedi training refused bonds, and of course, it suppressed emotions, but it didn't prevent someone from saying 'hello' and 'goodbye' and 'have a nice day' and 'Oh gosh, maybe we can chat a bit since you frigging saved my life!'
It unnerved and frustrated her. Here he was, written as clear as the day, that her master had saved countless lives. And not one of those souls, not one of those so called Jedi, had even the decency of saying 'hello' to him. It embittered her.
Don't birth strife where there is none, padawan.
Only the insane equate pain with success.
No, she had to keep calm.
Her Master's very first lesson had been about thinking positive, in a nutshell. And the Cheshire Cat's words rung in her head too, as if eerily on the spot. Her master was strange, and mad, and maybe insane. And he had a bubbling something inside his chest, hidden by thick armor of ice and steel and Jedi teachings. She couldn't blame the Jedi. It wasn't in their characters. On the other hand, her Master might have rebuked attempts at friendship to keep clear with the Jedi teachings. It would explain why Master Kenobi and Knight Skywalker sort-of feared him. He'd need quite the level of scathing remarks to pry off the simple desire of friendship of a couple of Jedi, let alone half the Jedi Temple judging by the long list of names.
She closed her eyes and sighed, rubbing her eyelids. The next moment, her montrals twitched.
Something had just moved nearby. It had been a quick action, and very quiet -so much she hadn't heard it with her ears- but her montrals had picked it up, the echolocation waves bouncing off the enclosed space of the library walls.
Something had happened in the back of the library, and whatever it had been, it seemed to prickle up each of her senses. She quickly closed the reports, and stood up, a hand moving to where her lightsaber...
Wasn't.
...
She really was starting to dislike her master now. He hadn't given back her lightsaber! She groaned and bit her lower lip as she began to carefully prowl near a library shelf, trying to keep most of her body hidden as she glanced past the corner, to where Master Nu was apparently looking on with a deep thought. She then proceeded to near a computer screen, and began to input into it. Ahsoka hesitated. If she had her lightsaber -which she didn't- she'd probably feel sure enough to just walk right in front of Master Nu and ask her what was going on. Since she didn't, and since she was hardly wrong, she began to look around.
The source of her echolocation gone haywire couldn't be that far, and in truth, she literally stumbled on it. Master Nu was down on the ground, hidden by a holographic projector, her limp body accosted to the wall. Yet there was another Master Nu standing in front of a computer, looking through it for data. Ahsoka bit her lower lip and cursed her master -seriously, why did he take her lightsaber away!?
She looked around -with her luck, she was of course the only one in the room. Why couldn't there be a randomly passing by Jedi whenever she needed one!? She wasn't asking for much, just a Jedi! Any Jedi would-
And then the doors of the library slid open, as a red-haired woman stepped inside with a bubbling walk and a smile on her face. "Hello there, Master Nu!" the woman said with a grin, catching the elderly matron by surprise. Ahsoka looked on as the fake-Master Nu turned with a fixed smile on her face.
"Hello there," Fake-Nu replied, meanwhile moving a hand to her belt where a lightsaber, probably the real Nu's one, resided. "What can I do for you?"
"She's a fake!" Ahsoka yelled as a warning, just in time to watch as the fake Nu clumsily swished with her lightsaber forward. In the blink of an eye, the ginger-haired woman neatly disarmed the fake, pointing a lightsaber at her neck.
"Thanks for the warning," the woman said with a wink in her direction, "But I kind of guessed when she didn't sigh in defeat, or look on surprised, at my arrival."
The fake-Nu ground her teeth and hissed, trying to take a step back.
"Now, now," the ginger-haired woman said. "My Master was Soara Antana. You don't want to try doing whatever it is you want to try to do. I guarantee it, you won't like the results," she made a small smile. "Come on now, surrender gracefully."
The Fake Nu sighed and slumped her shoulders, before bringing up her bony wrists for 'surrender'. In that moment, a flicker passed through. The ginger-haired girl pushed her lightsaber through the clearly holographic rendition of the Fake-Nu, and Ahsoka herself gasped.
"She's still there! She's hiding in the hologram!"
Whoever said echolocation wasn't useful had never had to deal with people hiding in holograms. In fact, the 'fake' was indeed in the hologram, but more than a good foot shorter, which explained why the lightsaber had merely passed through the Fake-Nu's chest.
Within instants, a strange creature rushed away, or at least tried to. With a powerful jump, the Ginger-Haired Jedi cut her road and slammed a foot on her path, sending her to roll into a library shelf and knocking the lights out of her.
At the same time, an explosion rocked off in the distance of the temple.
"I didn't do that," the Jedi woman said.
"M-Master," Ahsoka blurted out, "What is going on?"
"Thieves, I'd reckon," the Jedi replied. "I'm Darra by the way, Knight Darra Thel-Tanis," she winked, "And you've done great realizing she was a fake. Who's your master, padawan? I'll put in a good word. I've got so much free time around here that-"
"Uhm, pardon me for interrupting," Ahsoka fidgeted, "But...the bomb? The explosion?"
"Oh, don't worry, we're too far for it. Let another Jedi deal with it. I'm bringing this particular intruder into custody. You go help Master Nu up and to the infirmary."
With that said, the woman -Knight Darra, and why was her name familiar- hoisted up the thief, and clasped her hands behind her back. Using relatively little effort, she began to pull the thief along. Ahsoka headed back to where Master Nu had been knocked out, and helping the elderly Jedi up, she wondered just why the name felt familiar.
And then it clicked.
And then she would have kicked herself.
She could ask people rather than read records.
Really.
How stupid was she?
Ridiculously Average Guy
I'm you, but stronger
- Location
-
Maybe? Or nobody wants to remembr his special brand of insanity. Skywalker is a hero! Shade is IT.
Projectile
Thinking of Rabbits
- Location
- USA
I honestly don't see how Ahsoka was stupid here. I mean, checking the records first allows her greater breadth of information, and she can have a basic understanding of her master when she asks around. Plus, it's probably quite a bit less hassle. I think I misunderstood something. Maybe Ahsoka just isn't a fan of reading?
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
?
My interpretation of the statements made in this is that he reincarnated into Starwars with memories of Earth.
esran
head-cannon
You are not understanding this.
Xryuran
I'm very hard right now... Hard boiled that is.
- Location
- I a sea egg now.
[SoE="Ramenth, post: 3201249, member: 861"]?
My interpretation of
My interpretation of
Then why are people talking about all these other shades
esran
head-cannon
Shadenight has written other SIs stories in the past. The other SI stories are totally unrelated to this one though.
Chapter Thirteen
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Thirteen
Ahsoka Tano had barely brought Master Nu into the infirmary, when another explosion rocked through the Jedi Temple. This one, however, was accompanied by a wave of frustration from her master that made her ground her teeth. She didn't know what had just happened, but whatever it was had pissed her Master off incredibly. Then the 'pissed off' emotion disappeared, replaced with grim determination.
By the time she finally got around to ask what had happened, she was kindly told it didn't concern her. She held back a reply of 'the hell it doesn't' and merely decided to wait and ask her master when she next saw him. She had someone to track down, and this time, she wasn't told to mind her own business.
Knight Darra Thel-Tanis wasn't hard to track down -she mostly had to reach the confinement cells in the depths of the Jedi Temple and wait politely for her to step out. Once she did, Ahsoka grinned and Darra faltered on her next step.
"Hello!" Ahsoka said.
"Hey there, Padawan," Knight Thel-Tanis said. "Didn't think we'd meet again so soon."
"Well, Knight Thel-Tanis," Ahsoka said, "I know this might sound strange, but..." she looked up at her, trying her best wide-eyed 'pretty please' look, "Can I ask you some questions concerning Master Shade?"
And suddenly, Darra Thel-Tanis faltered. It was a simple thing, really. Her bubbling face went kind-of rigid, and she lost much of her color, as if faced with something unpleasant. It was just a brief moment, but the skin of the Jedi Knight was no longer colorful, but ash-grey. She shook her ginger-head, and looked at her with pity.
"There is nothing I can tell you on him, padawan," she replied as calmly as she could. "Why do you even ask?"
"He's...he's my master," Ahsoka replied, frowning as she realized there was some fidgeting rolling off Darra's body -she was hiding something, of that she was sure. "I just wanted to know more about him."
Darra smiled awkwardly, "Have you ever thought about asking him, Padawan?"
"I looked through the records," Ahsoka acquiesced, "He gave me permission, but records are...kind of not the real thing," she added with a hopeful tone, "I kind of thought that since you went on a few missions with him, you might tell me more?"
Darra sighed, and looked around, "We'll talk, but not here." She gazed at the end of the hallway, her mind lost in thoughts. "Somewhere that has seats. We'll both need to sit down."
Ahsoka nervously chuckled as she followed Knight Thel-Tanis through a few corridors, until they came to a halt inside the knight's room. There was a small table with a few chairs -five to six, to be precise- and a few scraps of paper that seemed to hold barbarian-like motifs and drawings. Darra hastily grabbed the papers with the Force, and swiftly hid them inside one of the drawers. It was just a second, but Ahsoka could swear there were dices and a few thick and colorful cartons.
"You saw nothing, padawan," Darra remarked sheepishly.
"I saw nothing, Knight Thel-Tanis," Ahsoka nodded sagely. When she was young, she had taken to bringing back into her room a few pebbles from the gardens after all. It was only natural that a knight might end up bringing back a few sheets of paper and some crayons, and if knight Darra liked to draw, who was she to say no? -The Jedi Code is kind of against personal possessions.
"You're a good kid," Darra said with a soft chuckle, "Please sit. I'd offer you something to drink, but then we'd have to trek all the way to the cafeteria and we just arrived here."
Ahsoka sat down and looked up at knight Darra, who took a seat right in front of her. "So," Knight Darra began, "You want to know about Night?"
The Togruta nodded, her eyes locked now on the surface of the table, that appeared to have been scribbled on -no, not scribbled, etched. Perfectly identical squares had been etched on the metal surface, as if to draw a grid. The willful damage of Jedi property was, probably, against the Jedi Code too. Yet, Ahsoka saw nothing, so she couldn't say anything if somebody asked.
"Well, let me ask you a question then," Knight Thel-Tanis said, "Why do you want to know more about him?"
Ahsoka hesitated. She couldn't say it had been because a cat-like hallucination had told her to find out or she'd die, of course. She had to come up with another excuse, a better one. Something to justify her..."Curiosity," Ahsoka said lamely. "He's my Master, and I should...know more about him. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge," Ahsoka chipped in at last, although she doubted quoting the Jedi Code would work on another unconventional Jedi.
"I can share the feeling," Knight Darra sighed. "When I was younger, I looked up at him. He was...kind of everything I was not. Calm, collected, even a bit charming," the Jedi Knight shook her head. "The fact he saved my life more than once had something to do with it," Darra smiled warmly. "And he brought all of us together, 'The Padawan Team' he called us. He was already a knight by then," here she gestured at the table. "We were kids, and he was our age, yet already an adult. Heck, Ferus and Anakin disliked each other, but with him in the room they both quieted down to acceptable levels," she chuckled. "We used to play together each Saturday night, he called it 'Dungeons and Dragons'. We had to steal scraps of paper and crayons from the classes -do you know how hard it is to find a crayon or a pen? Everything's holographic, so finding one required a bit of luck and some engineering."
Knight Darra chuckled. "He used to say he'd cut down a tree with a lightsaber and make graphite the hard way if it was needed."
"The Jedi Code..." Ahsoka hesitated, what could she say? The Jedi Code didn't prohibit 'playing' or 'having fun'. It prohibited strong emotions. That...was pretty mild.
"Yeah, you see, when you're a kid, you think the code is absolute. 'No Emotions' means 'No Emotions'. It's...not like that," Knight Thel-Tanis said. "The Code is a guideline, not an absolute truth. I mean, Master Ki-Adi-Mundi got permission to marry, and you know how strict they are on the 'Non-Attachment' rule." The Jedi Knight sighed and looked at the ceiling, her arms crossed over her chest. "It all changed with the first battle of Geonosis," Knight Darra said.
Silence settled in the room, as Ahsoka could feel knight Darra's emotion shift through uncertainty and doubt. "We've been told never to speak of it," Knight Darra whispered, "But as his padawan, I think you should know. You're familiar with his condition, I take it?"
"That he has no midichlorians, yet the Force is strong in him?" Ahsoka hazarded. Knight Darra nodded.
"The...Bond, goes both ways," Knight Darra said. "You must have felt it," she added. "When he's happy, when he's sad, when he's angry. He's normally in control, but..." here she hesitated. "The moment we stepped on Geonosis, something snapped. It was...suffocating," Knight Darra clutched her hands together, her knuckles white. "I thought anger was...you know, anger. I never...I never felt a fury, a hatred, a scorn so deep like I felt in that moment," she bit her lips. "When I came back to my senses, I was knee deep in the guts of Geonosian eggs."
She looked up to meet Ahsoka's shocked eyes. "In his rage, he turned us, all of us, all of us who had a bond with him, into murderous machines. Master Yoda was the only one unaffected, and the only one who managed to calm him down. And do you want to know why he got angry?" Knight Darra smiled sadly. "Two hundred and twelve Jedi entered the battle. Only twenty left the planet. He couldn't save them. He toppled the Geonosians' spires, and crushed their egg grounds, but in the end, he couldn't save them." Darra exhaled, "And in his anger, he ensured those who could retreat couldn't. He was directly responsible for many deaths that could have been avoided."
"B-But he saved so many," Ahsoka croaked back.
"He did," Darra nodded. "And yet nobody ever understood that when he saved people, he forged bonds with them. Each of their deaths weighed on him. Each time one of ours fell, he felt their fear at their very last moments. Only a few died peacefully and at ease. Most? Most didn't, and he felt them all," Darra' arms both trembled as she grimaced, looking away from the Padawan. "We no longer spoke after that, and gradually, the Bond came less. It's still there, and sometimes I can feel a vague echo of it, but that is all." Her nails had dug in the palms of her hands, and Ahsoka saw there was a thin line of blood dripping from them. "Just thinking back at it...it's hard, padawan." She took a deep breath. "I usually end up meditating for hours to let go of this. I can't blame him. He just tried so hard, to see everything he worked for spat back at him...anyone would snap."
Bitterly, Darra sagged her shoulders against her chair. "You're lucky, padawan. Your master is probably the kindest and most worthy Jedi you could learn and train under. And yet, you're also unlucky," she smiled softly. "Because of who he is."
Ahsoka asked a few more questions after that, and Knight Darra answered them, but the chill in the room didn't disappear. When she finally left, she was ashamed to admit she walked around the Jedi temple in a daze, not truly realizing where she was going until she came to a halt in front of the same meditation room where she had first met her master. She stepped inside, and her feet looked at the sand patterns and the rocks. The room was empty, and since it wasn't locked, it was probably open for public use. Ahsoka took a step on the sand, and then frowned as she heard it crunch beneath her feet. She looked down.
Why did she look down?
Skulls and bones. Welcome back, Alice.
The Cheshire cat grinned at her from a nearby rock. Its broad smile made her shiver. The sand had morphed into bones and skulls, and they crunched under her feet as she calmly ignored what she was stepping on as she drew nearer to the center stone.
Ignoring me, Alice?
She ignored the cat. Wherever the cat was, the Dark Side wasn't far away. She climbed on the pillar and crossed her legs, trying to meditate it all away. She had to let go of her turmoil, of her inner emotions. She had to make them go away. She had to be calm, in control, at ease and outright serene by the time her master came back.
You think ignoring me is going to make it better? I'm a cat, Alice. Ignore me, and I'll find a way to make you notice me.
The Cheshire cat's voice was threatening, even as Ahsoka knew he couldn't do anything to her if she just kept her cool. She just had to-three deep gouges opened on her left arm, and Ahsoka's eyes widened as she saw the cat grin from a nearby rock, a wicked paw covered in blood. The cat licked it, and narrowed his eyes at her.
Alice, Alice, Alice, whatever made you think this wasn't real?
Ahsoka clutched her wounded limb, and flexed her fingers. The veins of her arm began to turn a dark blue color, as if an unknown poison had started to spread across them.
You chose a poor spot to meditate in, Alice. Here is where He Hides Us. Here is where you can find our Skulls and Bones hidden beneath the sand. Like a giant litter box. Amusing, isn't it? Aren't you glad? You came into the nest of the monster of your own accord. Now, little Alice, the Jabberwock hungers.
The bones and the skulls rose up with trembling and clacking motions, spiraling off the sand as they began to merge together to form an unholy thing that held no discernible anatomy.
Beware the Jabberwock, Alice! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame.
It had bony wings, and large, four-clawed hands. It stood awkwardly on lizard-like strong legs, and was thrice Ahsoka's size. A long tail departed from its back, and twin wings of bone stretched. It had a long neck, and two thin antennas. Large, beaver-like teeth formed his mouth, and tiny, flaming eyes filled the skull.
The Cheshire cat smiled as he jumped away, disappearing into the sand like a fish in the water. Ahsoka looked up at the Jabberwock, and gasped as a large claw came down with a terrifying roar. She'd ignite her lightsaber and take care of it in a split second, but she lacked her lightsaber because her master hadn't returned it yet, so she screamed as she jumped back, slipping on the sand and falling on her back as the claw passed over her head.
Her body trembled. Her breathing grew hitched.
Beware the Jubjub bird and shun the frumious Bandersnatch!
The cat sang, its head the only thing that appeared in the sand, like a shark swimming where there was blood.
Ahsoka rolled to the side, avoiding a swish of the Jabberwock's tail that sliced through one of the meditative rocks as if it were butter. The sand lifted a small cloud, but a roar of the monster made the cloud disperse nearly instantaneously.
No lightsaber. She needed something else. What had her master taught her? Nothing useful in this situation, of course-wait. The thing was all bones, if she could strike it hard enough with a rock, then she could dismantle it. The problem was the how. She didn't have the time to concentrate with the monster trying to kill her. She needed-
Do or do not.
The Force answers to certainty.
"Oh, very well," Ahsoka blurted out, "But if I die, I'm so coming back to haunt him." Using both hands, Ahsoka stood her ground and roared as she proceeded to lift both halves of the sliced rock with the Force. The effort made her furrow her brows and sweat more than she had ever sweated before, but she succeeded with a triumphant burst of glee burning in her chest. The Jabberwock swung his claw, and as one rock met the claw and held it still, the second rock slammed against the monster's chest with a resounding rumble. The Jabberwock was thrown backwards, but his body hit the wall with a sonorous crash.
Ahsoka moved her hand back, and as she did the rock obeyed, and then she pushed her hand forward as strong as she could, the floating rock mimicking her movement if in mid-air. Then Ahsoka did it once again. And once more. And once more. And once more. Finally, tired and panting, Ahsoka fell down on her knees to admire the crushed monster. The bones had been turned to paste, and what little remained of it had finally stopped twitching. The sand shifted ever so slightly, and the Cheshire cat emerged with a satisfied look, standing on its back with its belly right in front of Ahsoka.
Alice, think you've won?
"I think," Ahsoka whispered as she felt a cold breeze blow, the bones rattling and reforming, "That I understand what hate truly is," she narrowed her eyes into a deathly glare, gazing at the Cheshire cat, "And I think," she said as the Jabberwocky reformed, "That I will make a hat out of your pelt."
The Jabberwock roared as it stood back up, like a slumbering giant woken by nasty, evil adventurers looking for the kidnapped princess. Ahsoka wasn't even going to ponder where that metaphor came from, but simply clutched her knees as she unsteadily rose to her feet. Her breathing was hard, and the sweat was rolling down her cheeks and chin, her entire body trembling from fatigue. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The Cheshire cat disappeared into the sand once more, as the Jabberwock's tail came crashing down an inch away from Ahsoka's face. The tail then rattled like a rattlesnake, and as the lumbering bone giant trudged forth, lifting a claw and bringing it down on her, Ahsoka just stared back at the monster. She stared, and the claw halted as if unsure.
Ahsoka lifted a hand up, and swallowed down her hesitation. "You don't want to hurt me." It was the Jedi Mind-Trick. It was stupid to expect this to work, of course. It was preposterous. "I don't want to hurt you." A bit of a hypocrisy to say that, considering you turned him into toothpaste just a moment ago. "I'm sorry." You think three words are going to cut it?
The Jabberwock narrowed its flaming eyes, and hissed. It craned its long neck down, and clacked its teeth an inch away from Ahsoka's face. It sniffed the air with its skull, and growled through a non-existing throat.
Ahsoka neared her right hand very, very slowly. The Jabberwock snorted, and closed its eyes -more like turned them off, really- before falling into a pile of lifeless bones in front of her.
Ahsoka's eyes opened up abruptly, to gaze at her master's meditation room covered in scratches, half-destroyed, and with quite a bit of damage in-between. The sand had been moved everywhere, and Ahsoka could distinctively feel sand in places she really hadn't thought it possible for sand to reach. As she scratched the inner side of her ears to throw the grains out, she exhaled in relief. She felt at peace. Well, she was never going to meditate in her Master's meditation chamber ever again, that was for sure.
As she took a step away from the rock, she realized her arm was stinging something fierce. It was only when she pulled up her robe that she realized there was a distinctive cat-like scratch where the Cheshire cat had hit her.
Swallowing her nervousness, she rushed out of the room, but tripped on the sand as something caught her foot. Ahsoka gasped, half-expecting it to be a bone, but then frowned in surprise. It wasn't a bone. It was a book.
The title was written in basic, and seemed to show the figure of a blond-haired little girl wearing a bright blue and white dress. The title was 'Alice In Wonderland', and the book appeared worn out from reading.
She grasped it, stood up, and then ran out clutching the book to her chest.
She most definitely wasn't turning as mad as her master. She was still sane.
As the doors hissed to a close behind her, the cold breeze picked up behind her back.
You can leave Wonderland, Alice. But Wonderland won't leave you.
Ahsoka Tano had barely brought Master Nu into the infirmary, when another explosion rocked through the Jedi Temple. This one, however, was accompanied by a wave of frustration from her master that made her ground her teeth. She didn't know what had just happened, but whatever it was had pissed her Master off incredibly. Then the 'pissed off' emotion disappeared, replaced with grim determination.
By the time she finally got around to ask what had happened, she was kindly told it didn't concern her. She held back a reply of 'the hell it doesn't' and merely decided to wait and ask her master when she next saw him. She had someone to track down, and this time, she wasn't told to mind her own business.
Knight Darra Thel-Tanis wasn't hard to track down -she mostly had to reach the confinement cells in the depths of the Jedi Temple and wait politely for her to step out. Once she did, Ahsoka grinned and Darra faltered on her next step.
"Hello!" Ahsoka said.
"Hey there, Padawan," Knight Thel-Tanis said. "Didn't think we'd meet again so soon."
"Well, Knight Thel-Tanis," Ahsoka said, "I know this might sound strange, but..." she looked up at her, trying her best wide-eyed 'pretty please' look, "Can I ask you some questions concerning Master Shade?"
And suddenly, Darra Thel-Tanis faltered. It was a simple thing, really. Her bubbling face went kind-of rigid, and she lost much of her color, as if faced with something unpleasant. It was just a brief moment, but the skin of the Jedi Knight was no longer colorful, but ash-grey. She shook her ginger-head, and looked at her with pity.
"There is nothing I can tell you on him, padawan," she replied as calmly as she could. "Why do you even ask?"
"He's...he's my master," Ahsoka replied, frowning as she realized there was some fidgeting rolling off Darra's body -she was hiding something, of that she was sure. "I just wanted to know more about him."
Darra smiled awkwardly, "Have you ever thought about asking him, Padawan?"
"I looked through the records," Ahsoka acquiesced, "He gave me permission, but records are...kind of not the real thing," she added with a hopeful tone, "I kind of thought that since you went on a few missions with him, you might tell me more?"
Darra sighed, and looked around, "We'll talk, but not here." She gazed at the end of the hallway, her mind lost in thoughts. "Somewhere that has seats. We'll both need to sit down."
Ahsoka nervously chuckled as she followed Knight Thel-Tanis through a few corridors, until they came to a halt inside the knight's room. There was a small table with a few chairs -five to six, to be precise- and a few scraps of paper that seemed to hold barbarian-like motifs and drawings. Darra hastily grabbed the papers with the Force, and swiftly hid them inside one of the drawers. It was just a second, but Ahsoka could swear there were dices and a few thick and colorful cartons.
"You saw nothing, padawan," Darra remarked sheepishly.
"I saw nothing, Knight Thel-Tanis," Ahsoka nodded sagely. When she was young, she had taken to bringing back into her room a few pebbles from the gardens after all. It was only natural that a knight might end up bringing back a few sheets of paper and some crayons, and if knight Darra liked to draw, who was she to say no? -The Jedi Code is kind of against personal possessions.
"You're a good kid," Darra said with a soft chuckle, "Please sit. I'd offer you something to drink, but then we'd have to trek all the way to the cafeteria and we just arrived here."
Ahsoka sat down and looked up at knight Darra, who took a seat right in front of her. "So," Knight Darra began, "You want to know about Night?"
The Togruta nodded, her eyes locked now on the surface of the table, that appeared to have been scribbled on -no, not scribbled, etched. Perfectly identical squares had been etched on the metal surface, as if to draw a grid. The willful damage of Jedi property was, probably, against the Jedi Code too. Yet, Ahsoka saw nothing, so she couldn't say anything if somebody asked.
"Well, let me ask you a question then," Knight Thel-Tanis said, "Why do you want to know more about him?"
Ahsoka hesitated. She couldn't say it had been because a cat-like hallucination had told her to find out or she'd die, of course. She had to come up with another excuse, a better one. Something to justify her..."Curiosity," Ahsoka said lamely. "He's my Master, and I should...know more about him. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge," Ahsoka chipped in at last, although she doubted quoting the Jedi Code would work on another unconventional Jedi.
"I can share the feeling," Knight Darra sighed. "When I was younger, I looked up at him. He was...kind of everything I was not. Calm, collected, even a bit charming," the Jedi Knight shook her head. "The fact he saved my life more than once had something to do with it," Darra smiled warmly. "And he brought all of us together, 'The Padawan Team' he called us. He was already a knight by then," here she gestured at the table. "We were kids, and he was our age, yet already an adult. Heck, Ferus and Anakin disliked each other, but with him in the room they both quieted down to acceptable levels," she chuckled. "We used to play together each Saturday night, he called it 'Dungeons and Dragons'. We had to steal scraps of paper and crayons from the classes -do you know how hard it is to find a crayon or a pen? Everything's holographic, so finding one required a bit of luck and some engineering."
Knight Darra chuckled. "He used to say he'd cut down a tree with a lightsaber and make graphite the hard way if it was needed."
"The Jedi Code..." Ahsoka hesitated, what could she say? The Jedi Code didn't prohibit 'playing' or 'having fun'. It prohibited strong emotions. That...was pretty mild.
"Yeah, you see, when you're a kid, you think the code is absolute. 'No Emotions' means 'No Emotions'. It's...not like that," Knight Thel-Tanis said. "The Code is a guideline, not an absolute truth. I mean, Master Ki-Adi-Mundi got permission to marry, and you know how strict they are on the 'Non-Attachment' rule." The Jedi Knight sighed and looked at the ceiling, her arms crossed over her chest. "It all changed with the first battle of Geonosis," Knight Darra said.
Silence settled in the room, as Ahsoka could feel knight Darra's emotion shift through uncertainty and doubt. "We've been told never to speak of it," Knight Darra whispered, "But as his padawan, I think you should know. You're familiar with his condition, I take it?"
"That he has no midichlorians, yet the Force is strong in him?" Ahsoka hazarded. Knight Darra nodded.
"The...Bond, goes both ways," Knight Darra said. "You must have felt it," she added. "When he's happy, when he's sad, when he's angry. He's normally in control, but..." here she hesitated. "The moment we stepped on Geonosis, something snapped. It was...suffocating," Knight Darra clutched her hands together, her knuckles white. "I thought anger was...you know, anger. I never...I never felt a fury, a hatred, a scorn so deep like I felt in that moment," she bit her lips. "When I came back to my senses, I was knee deep in the guts of Geonosian eggs."
She looked up to meet Ahsoka's shocked eyes. "In his rage, he turned us, all of us, all of us who had a bond with him, into murderous machines. Master Yoda was the only one unaffected, and the only one who managed to calm him down. And do you want to know why he got angry?" Knight Darra smiled sadly. "Two hundred and twelve Jedi entered the battle. Only twenty left the planet. He couldn't save them. He toppled the Geonosians' spires, and crushed their egg grounds, but in the end, he couldn't save them." Darra exhaled, "And in his anger, he ensured those who could retreat couldn't. He was directly responsible for many deaths that could have been avoided."
"B-But he saved so many," Ahsoka croaked back.
"He did," Darra nodded. "And yet nobody ever understood that when he saved people, he forged bonds with them. Each of their deaths weighed on him. Each time one of ours fell, he felt their fear at their very last moments. Only a few died peacefully and at ease. Most? Most didn't, and he felt them all," Darra' arms both trembled as she grimaced, looking away from the Padawan. "We no longer spoke after that, and gradually, the Bond came less. It's still there, and sometimes I can feel a vague echo of it, but that is all." Her nails had dug in the palms of her hands, and Ahsoka saw there was a thin line of blood dripping from them. "Just thinking back at it...it's hard, padawan." She took a deep breath. "I usually end up meditating for hours to let go of this. I can't blame him. He just tried so hard, to see everything he worked for spat back at him...anyone would snap."
Bitterly, Darra sagged her shoulders against her chair. "You're lucky, padawan. Your master is probably the kindest and most worthy Jedi you could learn and train under. And yet, you're also unlucky," she smiled softly. "Because of who he is."
Ahsoka asked a few more questions after that, and Knight Darra answered them, but the chill in the room didn't disappear. When she finally left, she was ashamed to admit she walked around the Jedi temple in a daze, not truly realizing where she was going until she came to a halt in front of the same meditation room where she had first met her master. She stepped inside, and her feet looked at the sand patterns and the rocks. The room was empty, and since it wasn't locked, it was probably open for public use. Ahsoka took a step on the sand, and then frowned as she heard it crunch beneath her feet. She looked down.
Why did she look down?
Skulls and bones. Welcome back, Alice.
The Cheshire cat grinned at her from a nearby rock. Its broad smile made her shiver. The sand had morphed into bones and skulls, and they crunched under her feet as she calmly ignored what she was stepping on as she drew nearer to the center stone.
Ignoring me, Alice?
She ignored the cat. Wherever the cat was, the Dark Side wasn't far away. She climbed on the pillar and crossed her legs, trying to meditate it all away. She had to let go of her turmoil, of her inner emotions. She had to make them go away. She had to be calm, in control, at ease and outright serene by the time her master came back.
You think ignoring me is going to make it better? I'm a cat, Alice. Ignore me, and I'll find a way to make you notice me.
The Cheshire cat's voice was threatening, even as Ahsoka knew he couldn't do anything to her if she just kept her cool. She just had to-three deep gouges opened on her left arm, and Ahsoka's eyes widened as she saw the cat grin from a nearby rock, a wicked paw covered in blood. The cat licked it, and narrowed his eyes at her.
Alice, Alice, Alice, whatever made you think this wasn't real?
Ahsoka clutched her wounded limb, and flexed her fingers. The veins of her arm began to turn a dark blue color, as if an unknown poison had started to spread across them.
You chose a poor spot to meditate in, Alice. Here is where He Hides Us. Here is where you can find our Skulls and Bones hidden beneath the sand. Like a giant litter box. Amusing, isn't it? Aren't you glad? You came into the nest of the monster of your own accord. Now, little Alice, the Jabberwock hungers.
The bones and the skulls rose up with trembling and clacking motions, spiraling off the sand as they began to merge together to form an unholy thing that held no discernible anatomy.
Beware the Jabberwock, Alice! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame.
It had bony wings, and large, four-clawed hands. It stood awkwardly on lizard-like strong legs, and was thrice Ahsoka's size. A long tail departed from its back, and twin wings of bone stretched. It had a long neck, and two thin antennas. Large, beaver-like teeth formed his mouth, and tiny, flaming eyes filled the skull.
The Cheshire cat smiled as he jumped away, disappearing into the sand like a fish in the water. Ahsoka looked up at the Jabberwock, and gasped as a large claw came down with a terrifying roar. She'd ignite her lightsaber and take care of it in a split second, but she lacked her lightsaber because her master hadn't returned it yet, so she screamed as she jumped back, slipping on the sand and falling on her back as the claw passed over her head.
Her body trembled. Her breathing grew hitched.
Beware the Jubjub bird and shun the frumious Bandersnatch!
The cat sang, its head the only thing that appeared in the sand, like a shark swimming where there was blood.
Ahsoka rolled to the side, avoiding a swish of the Jabberwock's tail that sliced through one of the meditative rocks as if it were butter. The sand lifted a small cloud, but a roar of the monster made the cloud disperse nearly instantaneously.
No lightsaber. She needed something else. What had her master taught her? Nothing useful in this situation, of course-wait. The thing was all bones, if she could strike it hard enough with a rock, then she could dismantle it. The problem was the how. She didn't have the time to concentrate with the monster trying to kill her. She needed-
Do or do not.
The Force answers to certainty.
"Oh, very well," Ahsoka blurted out, "But if I die, I'm so coming back to haunt him." Using both hands, Ahsoka stood her ground and roared as she proceeded to lift both halves of the sliced rock with the Force. The effort made her furrow her brows and sweat more than she had ever sweated before, but she succeeded with a triumphant burst of glee burning in her chest. The Jabberwock swung his claw, and as one rock met the claw and held it still, the second rock slammed against the monster's chest with a resounding rumble. The Jabberwock was thrown backwards, but his body hit the wall with a sonorous crash.
Ahsoka moved her hand back, and as she did the rock obeyed, and then she pushed her hand forward as strong as she could, the floating rock mimicking her movement if in mid-air. Then Ahsoka did it once again. And once more. And once more. And once more. Finally, tired and panting, Ahsoka fell down on her knees to admire the crushed monster. The bones had been turned to paste, and what little remained of it had finally stopped twitching. The sand shifted ever so slightly, and the Cheshire cat emerged with a satisfied look, standing on its back with its belly right in front of Ahsoka.
Alice, think you've won?
"I think," Ahsoka whispered as she felt a cold breeze blow, the bones rattling and reforming, "That I understand what hate truly is," she narrowed her eyes into a deathly glare, gazing at the Cheshire cat, "And I think," she said as the Jabberwocky reformed, "That I will make a hat out of your pelt."
The Jabberwock roared as it stood back up, like a slumbering giant woken by nasty, evil adventurers looking for the kidnapped princess. Ahsoka wasn't even going to ponder where that metaphor came from, but simply clutched her knees as she unsteadily rose to her feet. Her breathing was hard, and the sweat was rolling down her cheeks and chin, her entire body trembling from fatigue. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The Cheshire cat disappeared into the sand once more, as the Jabberwock's tail came crashing down an inch away from Ahsoka's face. The tail then rattled like a rattlesnake, and as the lumbering bone giant trudged forth, lifting a claw and bringing it down on her, Ahsoka just stared back at the monster. She stared, and the claw halted as if unsure.
Ahsoka lifted a hand up, and swallowed down her hesitation. "You don't want to hurt me." It was the Jedi Mind-Trick. It was stupid to expect this to work, of course. It was preposterous. "I don't want to hurt you." A bit of a hypocrisy to say that, considering you turned him into toothpaste just a moment ago. "I'm sorry." You think three words are going to cut it?
The Jabberwock narrowed its flaming eyes, and hissed. It craned its long neck down, and clacked its teeth an inch away from Ahsoka's face. It sniffed the air with its skull, and growled through a non-existing throat.
Ahsoka neared her right hand very, very slowly. The Jabberwock snorted, and closed its eyes -more like turned them off, really- before falling into a pile of lifeless bones in front of her.
Ahsoka's eyes opened up abruptly, to gaze at her master's meditation room covered in scratches, half-destroyed, and with quite a bit of damage in-between. The sand had been moved everywhere, and Ahsoka could distinctively feel sand in places she really hadn't thought it possible for sand to reach. As she scratched the inner side of her ears to throw the grains out, she exhaled in relief. She felt at peace. Well, she was never going to meditate in her Master's meditation chamber ever again, that was for sure.
As she took a step away from the rock, she realized her arm was stinging something fierce. It was only when she pulled up her robe that she realized there was a distinctive cat-like scratch where the Cheshire cat had hit her.
Swallowing her nervousness, she rushed out of the room, but tripped on the sand as something caught her foot. Ahsoka gasped, half-expecting it to be a bone, but then frowned in surprise. It wasn't a bone. It was a book.
The title was written in basic, and seemed to show the figure of a blond-haired little girl wearing a bright blue and white dress. The title was 'Alice In Wonderland', and the book appeared worn out from reading.
She grasped it, stood up, and then ran out clutching the book to her chest.
She most definitely wasn't turning as mad as her master. She was still sane.
As the doors hissed to a close behind her, the cold breeze picked up behind her back.
You can leave Wonderland, Alice. But Wonderland won't leave you.
Oh Shade...you tried. You tried so hard.
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Wut?!
There's nothing sad, is there?! It's already happened!
So it's not like I wrote it!
It's in the background! The back-story!
See!?
No sadness in this story! At all! There's nothing sad in here!
You can try to leave the angst, but the angst will never leave you.
AckermannFxn
Muffins?
- Location
- East USA-ish
Dice is already plural (singular is a die), and I'm pretty sure you meant cartoons.
Would Basic be capitalized, since it's a language? Also, "little human girl" might be a nice flavor thing, to emphasize that this is pre-Empire, and from a non-human perspective.
Ridiculously Average Guy
I'm you, but stronger
- Location
-
Hah, she plays D&D.
*reads rest of update*
Well this is just depressing. Also, explains the desire not to make any bonds. It's also telling that she kept the D&D stuff, she fears him but also misses the old times.
Last edited:
- Location
- Australia
I hoped so hard that this wasn't going to be a mindfuck.
Unfortunately, as it always is with Shade, hope was actually really just the first step on the road to angst, madness, incredibly fucked up things, something that basically amounts to insane levels of masochism, coffee addiction, and my own disappointment.
Goddammit.
Unfortunately, as it always is with Shade, hope was actually really just the first step on the road to angst, madness, incredibly fucked up things, something that basically amounts to insane levels of masochism, coffee addiction, and my own disappointment.
Goddammit.