Phoenixes Story snippets and ideas

[Darkphoenixlady]

Chapter 3

After a few days, of blessedly uninterrupted, travel, A'Krilla leads Serena and Stefana onto her farm near Rorikstead. As soon as they come within sight of the farmhouse, Lucia and Sophie both come running out shouting, "Mama, you're home!"

"I am, and we have guests. This is Serena and her daughter Stefana."

Both girls turn to look at the two visitors, "Hello, it's nice to meet you. Would you like to play tag?"

Stefana looks up at Serena, who nods, "Go on."

Stefana jumps up and down, "Sure, who's it first?"

Lucia touches Stefana, "You are, you can't catch me!"

As Lucia runs off, Stefana raises her hand, and a fire bolt appears in her fist.

Serena shouts, "Stefana!"

Stefana slumps, "But mama, this is how we play tag."

Serena puts her hands on her hips, "And I made sure you could protect yourself, and fire back first. Did you check that they can do that?"

Stefana sighs, "No mama."

"Then, no weapons, and no magic, until you're sure they can defend themselves."

"Yes mama." Stefana quickly runs off, far faster than a mortal child can, and touches Lucia, before running into the house and slamming the door behind her.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════

​

A couple of nights later, Serena and Stefana are feeding on some bandits that fell for their "We're helpless travellers" act.

Stefana pulls herself away from the moaning mortal, her thirst satiated for the moment, "Mama, how did grandmother's enchantment work?"

Serena looks up from her own bandit, "It was some sort of enchantment that drew the magicka from inside the enchantment before casting a powerful sleep spell."

Stefana nods, "I know that, I wanted to know how it worked."

Serena smiles, "Well, I've taught you how to research new spells, and you have access to quill and parchment now, so why don't you come up with something and show me how you think it worked?"

Stefana sighs, "But mama…"

"Stefana…!"

"Yes mama."

Serena nods, "Now, as you seem to have learnt how to reign in your thirst, we need to dispose of the corpses."

The bandit that Stefana's holding moans, "I'm still alive… I'll be good."

Stefana nods, "Yes mama, Spot and Pusspuss haven't been here for a while, so maybe they'd like some food."

Serena just sighs as her daughter summons two Clannfear, one of which has a dark red spot on its crest.

Over the sounds of tearing flesh, Stefana asks, "Mama, I know you like A'Krilla, when are you going to make her like us?"

Serena sighs, "It's not that simple my little star. A'Krilla is a mortal, and so she should have a choice about if and when it happens."

Stefana nods seriously, "I understand." Looking up brightly, "Promise me that once she does decide, I get to make her like us."

Serena laughs, "Ok, I promise."

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════

​

A'Krilla climbs the stairs into the loft looking for Serena. There, she finds her sitting in the chair next to the desk, a book on Skyrim at the top of a pile beside her, while she has another book open in her lap.

After coughing gently, A'Krilla says, "This one wishes to know if you would take her on as an apprentice."

Serena delicately takes a scrap of parchment and places it in the book before closing it and putting on the desk next to her. Turning to face A'Krilla, she pins her with her gaze, "Tell me Kajiiti, why should I take you on as an apprentice?"

A'Krilla shrugs, "Stefana would like it if you did?"

Serena laughs, "She would at that, wouldn't she. Normally, that question would be a prompt for you to tell me a bit about yourself. Such as why you're in Skyrim, and some of your accomplishments."

"There's not much to say. This one was an independent businessman in Cyrodil, before circumstances forced this one to relocate across the nearest border. Not five minutes passed the border post, this one was knocked out and woke up in the back of a wagon. This one's life was then saved by a dragon, and an imperial soldier who guided this one out of Helgen. This one was grateful when they were given shelter by that one's family, so this one agreed to take word to Whiterun about the dragon. At the same time, this one agreed to retrieve a golden claw that was stolen from the traders in the village. This one wished many times they hadn't done that, as there were lots of undead, and that's where this one found out about those word walls."

Serena nods sympathetically, "So you were a thief that crossed the border after you stole from the wrong person."

A'Krilla shakes her head, "Never, this one has never stolen. This one was a businessman."

Serena nods, "A fence then. What happened after you reached Whiterun?"

"This one spoke to a Grey-Mane and found out her son was missing. Foolishly, this one agreed to help find the son. After this one informed the Jarl of the dragon, and handed over the old stone they found with the word wall, this one took a wagon to Solitude, where the imperial, that helped this one escape, said A'Krilla could get a pardon. This one was denied a pardon as the imperial hadn't arrived yet, but they were told they could work off the debt in the army. From there, this one went to Northwatch Keep and rescued the son before returning to Whiterun."

Serena shakes her head, "Enough, enough. Your word is very important to you, isn't it."

A'Krilla nods, "Can not be good businessman if word not good."

"As my apprentice, you will give your word that you will not seek education from other masters. You will not betray or work against myself or my daughter. You will not teach any of the spells you learn from me, until I have released you from your apprenticeship, and you will not teach any of the magicka gathering secrets to any, save your own future apprentices."

A'Krilla nods, "This one agrees…"

She's interrupted by the sound of children screaming in pain somewhere outside the house. As they both run for the exit, Serena calls, "Then you're my apprentice. Sorry about the lack of formality."

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════

​

As the two of the run outside, Serena quickly spots the telltale shimmer of a ward spell by the stable.

"By the stable!"

As they're running, they see the steward draw a massive claymore and shout "Release the children or I will kill you!"

Whatever Stefana says goes unheard, as the Nord warrior brings their sword down on the ward, and sending Stefana to her knees. As their rearing back for a second swing, twin swirls of conjuration magic appear on either side of Stefana, and two Clannifear leap to the attack.

Seconds later, there are four dead bodies surrounding Stefana as the farm hands joined in with the attack. Serena and A'Krilla both slow to a walk, so as not to be seen as a threat.

Just before they make it to the stable, the screaming cuts off abruptly. They can both just hear Stefana tell the corpses, "See, I told you they were fine. The sleeping part of the spell took a little longer to kick in than I expected."

Serena boldly walks up to Stefana, and puts her hands on her hips, "Stefana, I thought I told you to show me the spell before you tried it."

Stefana looks at Serena, "But mama…"

"If you had, we could have saved these children undue suffering."

"But mama…"

"Don't but mama me, what do you have to say for yourself."

Stefana looks up at Serena innocently, "Mama, you always tell me that I should reproduce the effects before I start making a spell."

Serena deflates, "Is that what this was?"

Stefana nods, "Yes mama."

"Stefana, that rule is only for new things. Not for things where you already know that what you want is reproduceable. If you'd done that, then A'Krilla wouldn't be needing to hire a new Steward and farm hands."

Stefana walks over to A'Krilla and looks at the floor as she says, "I'm sorry your workers were killed. I tried to explain the spell was going to stop them from hurting, it wasn't causing it. But they wouldn't listen."

A'Krilla starts to say, "I'll just tell my house carl…" before trailing off at a look from Serena.

Coughing, she says, "Very well, you are not allowed to use magicka for 1 week, and you will come with me to Whiterun every morning, where you will help the blacksmith around the forge. That means wearing real clothes instead of conjured clothes."

Stefana gives a put upon sigh, "Yes A'Krilla."

Serena nods, "Now, why were they screaming?"

Stefana looks proud as she says, "I poked holes in their Animus so that they could generate magicka like you. I even remembered to ask them if they wanted to be able to use magicka like I do first."

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════

​

A week passes quickly as Serena and A'Krilla have their hands full taking care of Lucia and Sophie, as they get used producing magicka, rather than needing to gather it from the sun and stars, and slowly overcome the trauma of having their Animus perforated.

At the same time, the new steward, Housecarl Lydia, is learning how to run a farm.

At the end of the week, Serena and A'Krilla walk into Whiterun together, only to almost immediately be accosted by an excited Stephana.

"Mama! A'Krilla! Is it time to go home now? Look, Adrianne helped me make my own backpack. I made one each for you two too. Did you know that really good smiths can make things out of glass the same way they do iron? I don't understand how it doesn't break when they do yet, but that's why they're good smiths."

The aforementioned Adrianne chuckles as she walks over from the forge, "Thane A'Krilla, I take it everything has settled down at the farm now."

A'Krilla nods, "It has thank you, it's now time to escort these two to their home. I hope that Stefana wasn't any trouble."

Adrianne chuckles again, "She has been a joy to teach, with the boundless energy and curiosity of a child and the intelligence and understanding of a young woman. If only apprentices were like that, maybe we'd have more master smiths."

Serena coughs, "She has been 14 for rather a long time now."

Adrianne nods, "My mother used to say the same thing about me, then my grandmother would remind her that I'd be a full adult far too soon, and off living my own life. Treasure this time while you have it, as she'll soon grow out of it."

Serena nods in vague agreement, "Thank you for the advice. Come Stefana, we're taking the carriage to Solitude. You'll be able to watch the world go by on the way."

Stefana cheers and grabs both Serena and A'Krilla's hands, before dragging them to the entrance, to the laughter of Adrianne.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════

​

A short three day trip along the icy northern coastline of Skyrim sees the three of them at a rather well kept jetty just north of Northwatch keep.

Serena looks at the boat apprehensively, "Well, it looks like they still live there."

Squaring her shoulders, she climbs into the boat, "Well, are you coming?"

After a brief half hour of rowing, with Stefana leaning over the prow, playing with the water. The three of them disembark in front of a large castle. They're halfway across the causeway when Serena shivers and hugs herself.

As she does, A'Krilla asks, "Are you alright?"

Serena nods, "I think so, and thanks for asking. There's a lot of feelings wrapped up in this old place, and I don't think you're quite ready for them." She meaningfully glances at Stefana as she says that, "So let me take the lead in here."

A'Krilla nods and takes Stefana's hand as Serena leads the way to the gates.

With a whispered "Serena" the watchman for the gates opens them without any further question.

As the gates thunder closed behind them, one of the people inside the castle looks up, "How dare you trespass here! Wait… Serena? Is that truly you? I cannot believe my eyes! My Lord! Everyone! Serena has returned!"

Serena chuckles mirthlessly as she descends the stairs to the main floor of the banquet hall, "I guess I'm expected."

As she enters the full light, another person gasps, "I can't believe it."

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════

​

Harkon looks up from inspecting his goblet of blood, and watches as his elder scroll is carried down the stairs by Serena. Pushing himself to his feet, he walks around the table into the centre of the room, "My long-lost daughter returns at last. I trust you have my Elder Scroll?"

Serena gives a self-deprecating laugh, "After all these years, that's the first thing you ask me? Yes, I have the scroll."

Harkon smiles, "Of course I'm delighted to see you, my daughter. Must I really say the words aloud? Ah, if only your traitor mother were here, I would let her watch this reunion before putting her head on a spike. Now tell me, who are these strangers you have brought into our hall?"

Serena looks backwards with a genuine smile, "This is my saviour, the one who freed me. And…"

Harkon looks at the pitiful mortal that brought his elder scroll back, "Mortal, you have my thanks for returning my elder scroll, and my daughter. Because of that, I am willing to grant you a boon and make you part of my family."

Suddenly, there's a quiet pop beside him, and a young woman that looks a lot like Serena appears next to him, "Grandpapa, you can't do that. Mama said that I could make A'Krilla like me."

Harkon backhands the whelp around the face, and sends her across the room, to land against the stairs with a bone breaking crunch. He's pleased to see that his daughter, Serena, is frozen in fear and indecision.

"Let that be a lesson to all of you, this is my castle, and you are my…" he trails off as the levels of Magicka in the room start to rise rapidly.

On the stairs, the glow of a healing spell surrounds the whelp's hand as her body starts to knit back together.

Harkon stalks over to the whelp and draws his sword in order to cut her down, only for a magical shield to spring from the whelp's other hand.

Then the whelp has the temerity to shout, "Papa, grandpapa's being mean, and won't let me make my friend like me."

He's about to take another swing at the brat, when all of the magicka in the room is sucked out like a vortex. In the centre of the room appears a massive, grey skinned humanoid with clawed feet and taloned hands.

"Who dares summon Molag Bal!"

The whelp suicidally runs over to the Daedric Prince, rather than doing the sensible thing and cowering in front of him.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════

​

Stefana happily runs towards the Daedra that must be her father. Jumping up at the last moment, she clears at least one story before she latches onto the beings waist, "Papa, you came."

Confused, Molag Bal looks down at the tiny thing with the strange soul, "You summoned me?"

Stefana looks up happily, "Uh huh. I want to make A'Krilla a Daughter of Coldharbour like me. I know I've done it the wrong way round but mama said we'd summon you properly once I'm an adult so I can be a proper Daughter of Coldharbour."

Molag Bal follows the pointing finger as Stefana points at a Kajiiti and then at one of his followers.

Molag Bal nods thoughtfully as he recognises the soul in the Kajiiti as being one of Akatosh's spawn. Adopting the expression of a patient father he says, "While you claim me as your father, you forgot to introduce yourself."

Stefana ducks her head in embarrassment, "Sorry papa, I'm Stefana, mama has told me so much about you."

Molag Bal nods, "It is also customary to give me a mortal sacrifice, but as the only 'mortal' of note here is the one you wish to make a Daughter of Coldharbour, I will settle for an immortal sacrifice." Pointing at a random vampire he continues, "Bring me that one's heart."

Stefana jumps down to the floor and scrunches her eyes in thought, before throwing out her hand towards the indicated vampire. Suddenly there's a spray of blood from the vampire, as well as another hapless vampire that was too close.

With a smile she daintily steps around the blood and pulls the back off of the vampire, and pulls it's heart out of the chest. "Here you go papa."

Molag Bal nods seriously, "Very well done my daughter. Now there is the matter of making A'Krilla a Daughter of Coldharbour like you. I will do that now, but in return you will bring me the priest of Boethiah that has defiled my shrine."

Stefana nods, "Yes papa."

"Find my shrine in Markarth once A'Krilla has recovered, and I will inform you of the priests location. Now, don't go away as I will need some of your blood once I'm finished."

A'Krilla doesn't even have time to run before Molag Bal has pounced on her and drags her into the centre of the room, where she is defiled in every survivable way possible.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════

​

As soon as A'Krilla is able to move around without curling into a ball at the memory of Molag Bal's touch, Harkon approaches her.

"As one who has been blessed by our Lord," A'Krilla cringes at the reminder, eliciting a smile from Harkon, "I feel it is only fitting that you have the honour of restoring the bloodstone chalice. Of course this will also give you some time to come to terms with your new status."

A'Krilla nods tiredly, as getting away for a bit sounds wonderful.

Harkon gives a smile that would put a shark to shame, "Excellent, speak to Garan for the details."

 

[upset_applecart]

I don't think I like this snippet series. Mainly because it feels like a lot of things are being glossed over or hand waived away that make me feel uncomfortable. Molag Bal is the Daedric Prince of dominance of the strong over the weak, the king of rape, and the wellspring of vampires. The first vampire he created was though the rape of a young woman who was a priestess of Arkay. You sacrifice innocents to him to gain favor where at best their souls are enslaved for eternity, and becoming a daughter of Coldharbor means being raped by Molag Bal and surviving the experience.

I just can't see Molag Bal or any of his cultists being treated with any kind of acceptance or good will. A'Krilla would be aware of what he is and what becoming a daughter of Coldharbor likely entails. I can't see any non-cultist wanting to become one.

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

I don't think I like this snippet series. Mainly because it feels like a lot of things are being glossed over or hand waived away that make me feel uncomfortable. Molag Bal is the Daedric Prince of dominance of the strong over the weak, the king of rape, and the wellspring of vampires. The first vampire he created was though the rape of a young woman who was a priestess of Arkay. You sacrifice innocents to him to gain favor where at best their souls are enslaved for eternity, and becoming a daughter of Coldharbor means being raped by Molag Bal and surviving the experience.

I just can't see Molag Bal or any of his cultists being treated with any kind of acceptance or good will. A'Krilla would be aware of what he is and what becoming a daughter of Coldharbor likely entails. I can't see any non-cultist wanting to become one.

Click to shrink...

The term "Daughter of Coldharbour" is pretty uncommon, and only really known by vampires and those who study them. And it's not like A'Krilla had a choice about becoming a daughter. She didn't even know that Serena and Stefana were daughter's of coldharbour until that scene. Yes, it faded to black, but yes it was as bad as you think.

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Given how dark it's getting, this story has been published on AO3, and will not be published elsewhere.

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Chapter 1

Aayla Secura looks over the holomap of local area of Felucia, and the Separatist base nearby. Opposite her, Commander Bly looks thoughtfully at a nearby water distribution plant.


"General Secura, Aayla, according to our intelligence this is one of three distribution plants that are connected to the Separatist base. We need to take control of this location if we're to prevent their parting gift from poisoning the eco-system."


Aayla nods, "What of the other two plants?"


"Commander Bariss has already left to secure plant 2, as it appears to be lightly defended."


"What of the last plant?"


Bly sighs, "I can send a detachment to keep an eye on them, but we don't have enough forces to take on both plants at the same time."


"How about local support?"


Bly shakes his head, "The only militia belonged to the resorts, and they evacuated when we arrived in system."


Aalya hits the table under the display, "Damn it. Here's what we're going to do. Send a fabbing unit to catch up with Bariss, and prepare a fabbing unit to accompany us. Once we're within ½ a day of the plants, we'll have the fabbers set up new forward bases while we engage the separatist forces. Meanwhile, send Lt Galle, with padawan's Ekria and Zonda, to the scouting party. Their orders are that if they see an opportunity to shut the third plant down, they're to take it. We have to shut off these plants otherwise this entire planet could be killed."


Bly nods, "Yes sir."

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

Little more than a day later, Aayla is looking out over the jungle as her mobile command platform strides through the dense jungle following the armoured attack vehicles. A design developed a few years into the war when the Separatists started using weapons to disrupt repulsor lifts. Suddenly, there's a massive disturbance in the force, as if a bell was just struck.


"Bly, I just felt something in the jungle. I'm going to investigate."


As Aayla flows over the side of the transport, Bly slowly lowers his hand and looks down with a sigh, "It's days like this I wish our general was a little less flighty."


His second in command looks at him sympathetically, "Weren't you being thankful for that same trait only a few weeks ago, when she disrupted that ambush?"


Bly nods, "It's both a gift and a burden. At least she looks good doing it."

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

Aayla has barely got 50m into the jungle before she's joined by Bly and her squad running to catch up. With a smile, she slows down to a walk, "Bly, I am a perfectly capable jedi you know."


Bly smiles behind his helmet, "Just because you're a jedi master, doesn't mean you don't get an escort in this jungle."


Aayla shakes her head as she sets a fast, but not punishing, pace, "Fine, but I feel like I need to get to whatever I sensed quickly. So you'll have to keep up."


After half an hour of battling past the native wildlife, the group finally reach a large stand of spore plants. As they do, Bly looks up at the spore laden plants, "General, we need to find a way round this."


Aayla shakes her head, "Negative Commander, I need to go in, as whatever I can feel is inside. Wait here, and make sure nothing disturbs the spores while I'm in there."


Bly sighs, "Yes General. Everyone fan out and form a perimeter."

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

Allowing the force to guide her, Aayla slips through the plants without disturbing them at all. Less than 10m in, the stand opens up to a small clearing that is practically invisible from outside the stand. Sitting in the centre of the clearing is a solitary, leathery egg sack that sings in the force. Neither light, nor dark, the egg sings to Aayla of life, change, and freedom.


Cautiously, Aayla approaches as the top of the egg sack peels open like a flower, revealing that the source of the disturbance is coming from inside the sack. As she leans over to have a look, an eight-armed thing leaps out and wraps itself around her face and neck.


In an instant, Aayla's lightsabre is in her hand, and she's bringing it up to cut the thing away when her world goes dark.


A few minutes later, Aayla sits up with a groan as Bly shouts at her through her communicator.


"Bly, I'm fine."


"General, you weren't responding for over 5 minutes."


Aayla shakes her head and looks at the leather egg sack, "I think I was too late, and it knocked me out after it hatched. Whatever happened, I can't feel it anymore, so I'm going to bring the egg sack out with me."


"Understood General. Aayla, you need to be more careful. We can't win this conflict without your support."


Aayla sighs tiredly as she picks up the egg sack, "Bly, I am a jedi first, and a general second. My first duty is, and always will be to the force. It's only through the force that I've been able to help as much as I have."


As she walks out of the clearing, Aayla unknowingly steps on the dead husk of the face hugger that attacked her.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

Nearly a day later, Aayla, Bly, and her unit are trekking through the jungle as they skirt around the main fighting. According to the communications, Lt Galle had successfully drawn off the defenders, allowing the padawan's to make their way into the facility and turn off the water supply. Now it's just down to her and Barris to get their own jobs done before the poison finishes working its way through the water treatment, and into the ecosystem.


Suddenly, everything goes silent, the only sounds audible being from the battle being waged a few km away. Every single person in the 20 strong group freezes as they scan their surroundings for any sign of droids, or worse, predators.


A rustle of movement from a bush has Aayla take a step as she turns away from her unit. As a bird bursts from cover, each of the clones nods once before raising their weapons and opening fire into Aayla's unprotected back.


Aayla's last thoughts before her world is engulfed by fire, is of the screams of agony starting to reflect through the force.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

A few months later, Queen looks up from the latest of the poison reservoirs she's made. Already her hive had grown large enough to split twice, and each time she gifted queenship to one of the natives that attracted her attention. It took her weeks to work out how to reproduce the water conjuring and switching spells as runes. Longer to work out how to tune the switching spell to the poison that's now flowing through her planet. Something that was aided by the inclusion of sentients in her hive.


Only in the last week had they cracked the problem of having the two spells connected to a third scrying spell that would detect the poison and pass the location to the switching spell while activating both the other spells. Already she had workers taking shifts keeping the first two reservoirs going.


As she sits back from her carving, Queen takes a moment to meditate and check over her hive. Even the faint link that's even now growing stronger since she sent a couple of scouts with an adoption egg to make the sentient at the other end an official part of her hive and protect them until they could protect themselves.


As she meditates, some of the instincts, from her life before becoming Queen, twitch and she turns her head to the sky.


"Ulli, take over for me, as I can feel something familiar approaching the planet."


A green skinned twi'lek appears in a burst of fire before bowing gracefully, "Yes my queen."

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

Ekria abruptly sits up, breathing heavily, in her bunk. The fleeting nightmare of living on a jungle world and fighting for her survival slowly fades and she checks her chronometer. There's still 4 hours to go until they have to meet Kodo Finn and then Prince Xizor.


Lying back on her bunk, she goes back to sleep and dreams of training with a lightsabre against Master Vos. As she does, tears prick her eyes and she mumbles, "Master."


Unseen on the ceiling, two scouts watch their new hive member.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

Jedi Master Shaak Ti walks down the steps of the tramp freighter she commandeered as she was trying to evacuate children from the temple. Children that were now safe on worlds still friendly to the Jedi. Though it's unlikely any of them would become padawans.


Behind her, her new padawan, Maris Brood, looks around the secluded clearing that Shaak Ti landed in. "Master, are you sure this is a good place to land?"


Shaak Ti nods absently as she reaches out with the force. "It will be. The planet will mask our presence somewhat, and our ship won't appear on any registries. If I remember right, there should also be native settlement near here. I'm sure they felt us land, so we shouldn't need to wait too long for them to arrive."


Maris nods, "Yes Master."


Shaak looks around curiously, "Maris, something about the planet is… odd. Almost familiar, like there's an echo in the force."


As she's looking around, there's a burst of fire that ripples through the force, and suddenly there's a massive near bipedal creature with a sensory dome, where their eyes should be, that seamlessly merges with a large bony crest that flares out to protect the creatures back. Its entire skin is black, and seems to be stretched taut over its internal skeleton. Behind the monstrosity flicks a dangerous looking tail.


Subconsciously, Shaak Ti summons her lightsabres to her hands, though she doesn't ignite them yet. Behind her, the snap, hiss, of Maris' own lightsabre shows that the padawan is still ruled by her emotions, rather than being guided by the force.


After several minutes, where neither the creature, or the jedi, move. The monster grunts a few times, before it seems to shimmer and shrink down.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

Queen observes the being in front of her curiously as she searches her memories for why it seems so familiar. Eventually, she reaches the most recent memories, her memories. The memories that she's avoided looking at since she became aware of herself, as the most recent of those hurt her on a deep level, and left her hive agitated.


In order to avoid pain, Queen starts at the beginning and systematically works her way through her life. Aayla's life.


As she reaches a period of time where Aayla was dosed with a drug that erased her memories, something inside her recoils and she whispers to the hive, "Never again."


After that memory, someone that seems like this being appears more and more frequently, until she's finally able to put a name to the way they feel, Shaak Ti.


Despite finding the answer to her query, some part of her continues to follow these memories, dragging the rest of her along too.


Finally, she approaches the pain, and she tries to escape, to leave the memories and return to her own mind. She watches as Aayla crouches down as the wildlife goes silent, and then a bird bursts from the bushes.


Time seems to slow to a crawl, as her back explodes in pain for barely an instant, as blaster bolts hit her from behind. Then her world explodes into fire, before she falls to the floor and rolls into the undergrowth. That's when the visions start, of jedi being slaughtered across the galaxy. Of Barriss being shot at point blank range with the gun of an AT-TE. Of her old Master Vos dying at the hands of his own clones, of so many deaths hitting her one after the other until she retreated into her own mind.


Then, driven by instinct, her memories continue as she flees the danger behind her, and hunts her first prey. A small mammal like creature that's slightly larger than she is. A few hours later, she's found a hole to safely molt in.


As the memories of the previous queen merge seamlessly with her own, Queen shatters as she broadcasts to the hive, "I am Aaylas'cura, and I remember who I am!"

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

Aayla looks down at Shaak Ti and tries to say something, anything. After a couple of seconds opening and closing her mouth, and only grunts come from her mouth. Following Queen's example, she checks the memories of her predecessor for a possible solution, before finding one.


Picturing herself as she was, Aayla throws magic, force, something at it. Less than a second later, a sense of vertigo overcomes her, as her body seems to flow like liquid as it shrinks down to almost fit into that version of herself.


As she looks down at her now taloned hands, Aayla says, "Well, it doesn't look like I'm doing any more undercover jobs."


The snap and hiss of a lightsaber igniting draws Aayla's attention, as Shaak Ti points one of her lightsabers at her. "Who or what are you!?"


Aayla steps back in surprise, her own hands reaching for a lightsaber that no longer exists, "Master Shaak Ti, I'm Aayla Secura."


Shaak Ti shakes her head, "She died. I saw the footage the padawans retrieved. I don't know what you are, impersonating her."


Aayla shakes her head, "I remember, I didn't until you arrived. But I remember now. I…I…" her shoulders slump, "I cannot prove who I am. But I now know how I survived. Will you at least allow me to tell you my story?"


Shaak Ti closes her eyes and tries to get some guidance from the force. The only thing that came back, is a feeling that she would regret not listening.


With a sharp nod, she descends the last few steps to the ground and sinks gracefully into a cross-legged posture on the undergrowth.


Aayla smoothly follows suit before she begins her tail, "I suppose I should start at the planning meeting just after our last holocall, where Ashoka joined to inform us that she'd captured Maul. I was distracted on that call, because we'd just found out the Separatists had left a poisoned well with a deadman's trigger in their main base. Not being idiots, they left a couple of days slack in case of a false alarm, but they also stationed droids to defend each of the water facilities that were affected. As we didn't have the override codes, I judged that our best course of action was to split up, with Barris taking one platoon to Har Gau, I was to head to Niango while the Padawans and the remaining troops would stay back at the base to ensure our fallback position.


"It soon became apparent that the facilities were more heavily defended than we expected. Which, combined with how hostile my world can be to invaders, meant we were running short on time so I…"


As she gets to the part about the egg, Shaak Ti holds up her hand, "Wait, egg?"


Aayla nods, "Yes, egg. I had it sent back to the base to be returned to the Republic for analysis."


Shaak Ti shakes her head, "There were no reports of an egg."


Aayla shrugs, "Were there any reports about what happened at the end?"


Shaak Ti looks down thoughtfully, "Not to the temple, however the news stated that you were executed for trying to poison the planet."


Aayla nods, "Now that we know the Sith were behind the war, the egg has probably vanished into one of their labs. Not that it will do them much good."

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

In his private lab, Darth Sidious rubs his hands together as a pair of droids places the box containing the egg from Felucia on a table in an isolation room. Preliminary results from samples taken on the ship suggests that this is something engineered, not evolved. It's therefore likely that the Jedi stumbled across an ancient sith experiment.


Pressing a button on the console in front of him, he instructs, "Open the box!"


Obediently, the two droids undo the electronic locks before taking one side of the lid each and lifting. As the four sides of the lid move up off the base, a flood of liquid spills out from each side, and immediately starts to burn through both the table, and the droids, wherever they are splashed.


As their internal components start to fail, the two droids topple over to one side, taking the lid of the box with them. As Sidious screams with rage, the acid scarred base sits there completely empty.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

Shaak Ti nods seriously, "So your blood is now so acidic that it will eat through almost everything?"


Aayla nods, "It is, and once we're dead, our cells will stop metabolising the acid, causing it to eat through our bodies. Back to the story. After I was shot, I was reborn in fire before being bombarded by the feeling of so many of my friends and other jedi dying that I retreated inside myself."


Aayla looks down at the ground, "I'm ashamed to say that I forgot myself and allowed the xenomorph to take over. If I ever meet Arry, I am going to thank her from the bottom of my heart. As she's the reason why Queen, my alter ego, hasn't wiped out everything and everyone in range of her nest. Instead, she's been converting the slavers and criminals, and adopting those that fitted her definition of good."


As she looks back up, Aayla adds, "It's also why she's been working on extracting the poison from Felucia's ecosystem. As you can't survive on a dead world. We have a working solution now, so it will just take time."


Softly, Shaak Ti opens her eyes as she comes out of the semi-trance she'd fallen into, "Aayla, I believe you. I am glad that you did not fall to betrayal like the others did."


Aayla nods, before she elf-pops next to Shaak Ti, and embraces her in a hug, "I'm so glad to see you Shaak, if you hadn't arrived I might have been lost forever."


Beside them, Maris stares at the space Aayla just was, before looking around for her. When she spots her sitting next to Shaak Ti, she can't help saying, "By the Force, how did you do that?"


Aayla laughs, "Magic."


did you intend tracking, or did you mean trekking? [EM1]

 

[Kaws]

Nice! This has the potential for a lot of shenanigans

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Chapter 2

Shaak Ti meditates in a small building deep beneath the surface of Felucia. On her mind is thoughts about what she's supposed to do now.

Near the surface, burning brightly in the force, Shaak Ti can feel Aayla's confusion as she looks at something. In her hand is a small disk cut from the hull of an armoured transport and engraved with runes. Runes that she's bled on.

The disk now feels like her in a way that only her lightsabres ever had before this. Yet the empty bowl on the floor in front of her is testament to her inability to do what she's seen many of the native Felucian's doing.

Magic, a term that would normally be met with derision from any jedi, and most padawans. But it is a term that seems to serve well for the way it uses the force.

As if reading her thoughts, Aayla's presence winks out at the same time it appears on the other side of the planet. Yet there's not even a ripple in the force from such a grand act.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

Aayla smiles as she transports herself to the hive of Swims-with-hry'lth, a Shaman that Queen adopted into her hive. Waiting patiently outside her home, Aayla is soon rewarded as the queen appears with a soft pop.

Bowing her head very slightly, Aayla smiles, "Greetings honoured hive master. I am Jedi Master Aayla Secura, though you probably know me as Queen."

Swims bows slightly deeper, "Greetings over-queen. We became aware of your returned memories while your honoured workers were showing my honoured workers your working poison filter."

Aayla smile widens, "Oh thank the force, I was worried that hadn't happened. How are your efforts at creating wands been going?"

Swims sighs, "Slowly, as there are many words and concepts in English that we don't have equivalents of yet, and I still only have 60 sentient members in my own hive, the other 400 members have yet to achieve thought."

Aayla sighs, "I wanted you to take more."

Swims nods, "Maybe once it is possible for others to become kin without going through our rites. But I am a Shaman, and I cannot be seen to be bringing in those who are outsiders."

"I understand, I really do. It's the same reason why Chief Runs-with-acklay only took the 10 natives Quee…I had when I split the first time. It's just, without outsiders you're trapped here on the planet, as none of you took the opportunity to visit my padawan."

Swims gives his species version of a smile, "We do not feel the need to leave our home. We have had plenty of opportunities to do so in the past, but this is our planet, and we are her people. I believe you understand this, yes?"

Aayla nods, "I do. This is my planet too. But even so, I have workers and scouts creating nests on other planets, such as Endor, Cavamina Minor, and Trigalis." She sighs, "Ah well, maybe I can persuade Shaak Ti to join my hive."

Swims laughs, "Just do a Hermione. I'm sure that if you give her an adoption face hugger, she'll take it."

"I'll meditate on it later. Peace go with you."

"If peace won't go with you, leave peace in your wake."

Before she flames off, Aayla shudders at the implication that it would be the peace of death left in her wake, and that a large part of her wouldn't have any problems with that.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

Ekria shivers as she hides behind a crate with Lo'gaan as they both watch Zonder being dragged in front of Darth Vader. She's not entirely sure what's been going on today, but something certainly has.

Such as the way she's sure she ducked behind the wrong door as they were running, and wished fervently that she'd chosen the other door. Only to open her eyes to a corridor rather than the office she thought she'd ducked into. Or just now when two clone soldiers walked right past their crate without even glancing down at them. Despite the comms she's hacked into broadcasting the fact that two people matching their races, likely gender, and height, ran from a confrontation not an hour ago.

That's not getting into the fact her lightsaber form has been improving as if her master had been teaching her.

Her attention is drawn back to the screen as Darth Vader ignites his lightsabre. Somewhat fatalistically, Ekria watches as it swings around in a wide arc, passing through Zonder's neck absolutely effortlessly. The head seems to stay on the body for a few seconds as Zonder's expression takes on a look of surprise and pain. Then time seems to restart again, and the head topples off the body before bouncing on the floor.

After a good five minutes, and three patrols, Ekria and Lo'gaan both share a glance before sneaking out of the area, and splitting up.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

Shaak Ti looks up from her quiet conversation with Maris about some of the finer points of using the force during combat. Sat beside them are a bevy of training drones, and an occlusion helmet.

A couple of seconds after she looks up, Aayla walks through the door holding something that seems to be a relative of the crab, with 8 legs and a tail wrapped around her wrist.

Shaak Ti smiles, "Master Secura, what a pleasure. How can we help you."

Aayla looks down as she sinks to the floor. A flash of light outside precedes another one of those crabs scuttling in until Aayla scoops it up. "Master Ti, you asked me about magic, specifically what it is. At the time I didn't have an answer." She lets out a sigh, "Honestly, I still don't have an answer, only that it's part of us. Earlier, I met the Queen of another hive, one who has been looking at making wands. If they had made any progress on the limited amount of wand lore in my memories, then I'd have taken you to see them and have a wand made."

Maris blurts, "Memories?" before looking at Shaak Ti for any hint of censure.

Shaak Ti just smiles gently, "Padawan Brood, I am not going to chastise you for asking questions, as that is how you learn. However, generally a question needs more than one word for it to be understood by the person you're asking."

Maris ducks her head, "Sorry. Um, you said you had memories of wand lore. How is that possible?"

Aayla nods to herself, "It's a fair question. My species… No, the species of the creature that attached itself to me. They are naturally a parasitic species, they use other species as incubators for their young. Recently they evolved…" After a second Aayla nods again, "Yes, evolved fits. They evolved into a symbiotic species that uses magic. The magic bit is very important, as they have a genetic memory, and for me, laying magical eggs is trivial but I still default to laying normal eggs. My children… The people I gave queen eggs to when I had to split my hive, they have to concentrate to lay non-magical eggs. Another quirk they have, is that each Queen egg that's laid by a queen has all the memories of that queen, which includes all the memories of her hive and the memories that queen received from the queen before them."

Shaak Ti and Maris both sit quietly as they digest that.

Eventually Shaak Ti asks, "Why did you seek us out this morning?"

Aayla raises both her hands, "The name that various species gave these translates to Face Hugger. What they are is a vehicle to implant an egg in another species. These two contain symbiotic eggs, and outside their egg sacks can live for up to 24 hours. I would like to give each of you one. Once you take them, they will remain inert unless you lift them to your face. Once they're around a handspan away from a face, they'll activate and latch on. When they do, they'll jump at you to induce a startle response and cause your mouth to open. They will then wrap their fingers around your head, and their tail around your throat, while they're extending an ovipositor down your throat and capping your airway so you can't choke. If you struggle, or try to remove them, they will render you unconscious for around an hour in most cases. If your biology is particularly suited to being implanted, like Twi'lek's, then it could be as little as five minutes. While they're attached to you, they will provide you with all your needs, even if you're in vacuum or underwater."

Aayla takes a deep breath before she continues, "Once you're a member of my hive, you'll gain magic from three different species. Each of which uses it differently. The phoenix is a bird that is born of fire. It can teleport through fire to anywhere or anyone it's met before. Their tears are a universal panacea, and will heal everything except old age, though they won't regrow missing limbs or organs. Finally, the ability they're best known for, and the one that is the reason I'm alive today, is rebirth. If they're killed, or they reach a certain stage of their life, they will immolate and burn to ash. From the ash they will be reborn. They then grow to adulthood over a few days, at least for Xenomorphs and phoenixes. I don't know about other species. Next are humans, they don't have any innate abilities, and they struggle to use magic without a wand or other focus. But their magic is highly flexible. Finally, there's house elves, I'm not really sure how to explain house elves apart from that they use wish magic."

Shaak Ti looks at Aayla curiously, "What do you want out of this?"

Aayla looks down for a few minutes as she thinks. "I want to allow you to see my memories and experience magic. Everything I was taught says that it is something to do with the force. However, apart from a few memories about Qui-gon Jinn talking about the Living Force, I don't have the knowledge or experience to understand what I'm feeling or remembering. I also have lifetimes of memories from people who grew up calling it magic, and the things they do, spells."

Aayla falls silent for a moment, and Shaak Ti waits patiently for her to organise her thoughts, even raising her hand to forestall Maris at one point.

"I also need to split my hive again. But I don't currently have anyone who could lead a hive. Not without falling to the allure of power that comes with it. If you're willing, I'd give you a queen once you're comfortable as part of the hive, and you'd take half, or more, of the sentients I brought into the hive."

She extends her hands, and the face huggers skuttle off, before turning over in front of each of the other two. "I think I've said as much as I need to say. At this point, I can only trust in the force. So I'll leave you both to think about my offer. I'll also leave a worker outside. She will take you to either of the other Queens if you want to talk to them. Other than that, she won't move from beside your house."

Shaak Ti nods and opens her mouth to say something when Aayla disappears with a pop.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

As the two of them return from their run, Shaak Ti walks over to the worker and crouches down to have a good look at it. As she does, Maris stands back a respectful distance, and watches.

"Like Aayla, this worker has some sort of dome instead of eyes. That would suggest that it uses some other method of 'seeing' than light. Much like Miraluka do with the force. Though, given what Aayla has said, it's probably some form of electromagnetic sense, or sound based."

Maris cocks her head to one side, "Master, what are you doing?"

Shaak beckons Maris over, "I'm looking at the features of this animal to see what sort of environment it evolved in. You can tell a lot from basic observations like this. For example, this worker doesn't even have vestigial eyes. Why do you think that could be?"

Maris blinks rapidly, before shaking her head and thinking hard. Eventually, she ventures, "Because it spent most of its time in places without light, or none of the creatures on that planet evolved eyes?"

Shaak nods, "You occasionally see something like this on water worlds, with creatures that evolved in the depths of the oceans. I don't recall ever seeing something like this in a land dwelling creature larger than an insect. Next we look at the claws, they're not retractable, so they're probably not evolved to help with hunting and climbing, though they are certainly sharp enough for that. Predators that use claws for hunting tend to evolve retractable claws to keep them sharp. However, these feet are highly articulated, suggesting that they need to be able to grasp things. If we move around to the tail, you can see from the way it's twitching that it's highly articulated. I would guess that this is the primary form of defence for this species."

Cautiously, Shaak runs her finger down the spade of the tail before pulling her finger away and showing Maris the blood welling up into the cut, "It is also very sharp, which lends credence to the idea…"

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

A medical droid looks up from the corpse it's just finished scanning. "Lord Vader, I have finished scanning the bodies as requested. I am unable to identify a consistent cause of death, however my scans suggest that there are two beings involved. This person was killed as they were grabbed from the front by clawed hands, and then a blunt object approximately 30mm in diameter was applied rapidly to the forehead, travelling nearly 150mm into the brain cavity in a fraction of a second. The shockwave travelling through the brain would have killed them almost instantly, if the initial impact didn't. There are other corpses that have been disembowelled in a manner consistent with claws."

The droid walks over to a trio of clone soldiers, "On the other hand, these men were killed with a sword like object straight through the back. The attacks were precise, and tore open both lungs at the same time they impaled the heart. Whoever did this also prevented them from being able to report in, or mount any form of defence as they moved on to the next target."

Vader looks at the pile of effects at the end of each bench thoughtfully, "Or it was one being, and they used the sword because the clones were armoured, so they went for an assured kill rather than one that might fail."

The droid stands there and says nothing as Vader turns around and starts to stride out, "Dispose of the bodies."

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

Ekria watches on her comm device as first Vader, and the medical droid leave the morgue. The droid pushing a cart with a body on it.

Taking a deep breath, she scampers out of the room she was hiding in, and down the short corridor to the morgue. It only takes her seconds to identify Zonder's corpse, as it's the only decapitated corpse in the room.

With a deep breath, she heaves the body off the table. Only to stumble backwards as the body seems to be lighter than she remembers Zonder being. As she bumps into a trolly full of instruments, one of them rolls off the end and clatters to the floor.

Startled, she ducks round a computer and pulls Zonder's body with her. Just in time too, as the sound of the door swishing open seems loud to her ears.

Looking down at the body, her eyes widen as she realises the head is still on the table, where anyone could see… Her mouth drops open in surprise as she stifles a gasp when the head just appears resting on Zonder's chest.

A moment later, a bloody clone soldier walks in and walks around the entire room, even looking right at her at one point, before he finally bends over and picks up whatever fell off the trolley.

As the door hisses closed behind the clone, Ekria has just enough time to whisper, "By the force, what is happening to me?" before the door swishes open again to allow the droid to enter the room once more.

The droid just stands there for a few seconds as it processes the interior of the morgue. Just as Ekria is about to breathe a sigh of relief, the alarms start to blare, and she quickly checks her comm device.

The alert scrolling across the top of her screen is both reassuring and worrying at the same time. Reassuring, because there's no indication they even know she's there. Worrying, because they're now on the lookout for someone with a corpse.

Looking down at Zonder, Ekria sighs, "Well, I'm not going to let you just get thrown into the incinerator. But I'm not sure how I'm going to get us out of here now. I was going to hide us in one of the drawers, but that's going to be the first place they check now, and it's not like I can just want to be back in my room and… and…"

Ekria trails off as the world seems to lurch to one side, and suddenly she's sitting on her bed with Zonder's body still lying in her lap, and the head held to her chest.

Ekria looks around in wonder, "I know Master Aayla said the force can do anything. But I thought it was usually harder than that."

A moment later, a pair of soft pops near the ceiling causes her to look up. And then she screams. As she does, a pillar of fire fills the small square of standing space, and Aayla is just standing there.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

Aayla quickly looks around the room for any threats, seeing none, she relaxes slightly just as Ekria whispers, "Master?"

Aayla smiles as she kneels down and pulls her padawan into a hug, "Yes it's me. I can't stay long, as I don't want the Sith Lord to know I'm still alive."

"But you died."

Aayla kisses Ekria on the forehead, "Sort of, I'll explain more once you're away from Coruscant. I'm proud of you for working out how to elf pop without me around. Before I go, remember two things for me. The first is that you can go anywhere you, or someone I'm linked to has ever been. The second is that everything I know, you can see. You've probably been dreaming about my memories, but you can look at them consciously. Now don't worry about those two, there're here to protect you until you can protect yourself. Once I'm gone, I suggest you find somewhere else to hide, as they've already detected me."

Ekria holds out her hand as Aayla stands up, "Take me with you."

Aayla shakes her head, "Not until you're away from here. They might not know you exist, but they'll certainly know if you vanish. Also, Elf popping is subtle, but you can only go around 100km at a time. Further than that, and you need to travel by flame. I'll come and find you once you're no longer on Coruscant."

Ekria doesn't have time to say anything else as Aayla disappears in a pillar of fire. For the first time since leaving Felucia, and despite the tears streaming from her eyes, Ekria gives a smile that reaches her eyes.

That smile only lasts as long as it takes for her to work through the implications of them having already found Aayla through the force. Then she's on her feet, shoving things into her backpack. Less than a minute later, she takes hold of Zonder's body, and pops to the first place that occurs to her. Her old room in the temple.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

On the surface of the planet the sun is starting to set by the time Shaak Ti and Maris Brood return to their house, carrying the results of a hunt on the surface. At the side of the house the worker is still standing as still as a statue.

Shaak comes to standstill as she looks at the worker, her mind turning back to her meditations on the surface while she was teaching Maris how to become one with her surroundings.

The few glimpses of the future she received seemed to be repeated almost identically. In one, she's teaching Maris along with a group of natives, while in the next the scene is identical apart from thin lines of the unifying force running from her to a few of the people she's teaching.

Disturbingly, the last vision sees her leaping away from someone with a red lightsabre into a deep pit. In the first, she is surrounded by blue light, and then she disappears. In the second, she is surrounded by fire, and then she disappears.

In the first, she recognises that she's joining the Unifying force, so she can only assume that something similar is happening in the second, though she accepts she doesn't have enough knowledge to understand the second vision.

Shaking her head, she follows Maris into their home. There she finds Maris staring at the face hugger on the floor, her portion of the kill placed carelessly on a table.

"Master, what should I do?"

Shaak Ti shakes her head, "I cannot answer that for you. What does the force tell you?"

Maris shakes her head, "I don't know, it's confusing as it's like everything will change, but everything will stay the same. That it will separate me from everyone else, but bring me closer to them at the same time. How can that be? How can it be so contradictory?"

A gesture of Shaak Ti's hand has a pair of sitting mats rise from their storage area and unroll on the floor. "Sit." Suiting actions to words, she takes her own seat on the mat.

Once Maris has sat down, Shaak takes a deep breath and lets it out as she closes her eyes. "As a padawan, you have been taught that the force is all around us and within everything. That there is a light side and a dark side to the force. All of this is true as far as it goes. However, for those prone to research and introspection, there is a philosophical debate that has been going on for as long as the Jedi Order has existed. This debate is about the nature of the force. On the one side, you have the teachings that you receive. That there is only the unifying force, and it expresses itself differently. On the other side of the argument, they claim that you have both the Unifying Force, and the Living Force, and they are distinct things. What we do know is that there is a cycle. All life has the force inside it, and that force comes from the greater universe. When living beings die, that energy is returned to the greater universe. Those who are force sensitive are born with an increased ability to connect to the force in the greater universe and both receive guidance from it, as well as use it to affect the world around them. However, we have no records of the reverse being true, of people being born able to use the living force. From what Aayla was saying, the species that is now living in symbiosis with her encountered another species that could use the living force. The new queen was then able to take in that trait and pass it on into her hive."

After a few minutes of the two of them sitting there thinking about what Shaak just said, Shaak says, "Padawan Brood, I would like to thank you for teaching me to look at this situation from a different perspective. It has been most helpful and enlightening."

Maris' eyes snap open in surprise, "Really?"

Shaak laughs, "Is it really so surprising that you have things to teach me?"

"But you're a Jedi Master."

Shaak smiles, "Maris, the second line of the code, 'There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.' It doesn't mean that we know everything. It is a precept for us to aspire to. Instead of looking at a situation and accepting that you don't know things about it, seek to replace that ignorance with knowledge. The alternate, simplified code, says 'Ignorance, yet knowledge.' These both mean the same thing."

Maris shakes her head, "Master Ghryyim never explained that. He'd always tell me to meditate on the code."

Shaak nods, "Master Ghryyim chose the Guardian path as I recall. He was never one for quiet introspection and discussion when he could be out doing something. The first three lines refer to our relationship with ourselves. There is no emotion, there is peace: When you understand yourself, and are honest with yourself, you will find you no longer war with yourself, instead you will be at peace. This is not a command to supress your emotions, as you will, you could often hear quiet laughter or upset tones in the halls of the temple. It's an understanding that such emotions are fleeting."

After a short pause, Shaak continues, "We've already spoken about ignorance and knowledge, so we'll move onto 'There is no passion, there is serenity': A passion is all consuming, it dominates your thoughts and your life. It can also blind you to the effects of your actions on others around you. This precept is there because we should seek to step back from those things that threaten to consume us and understand why we are feeling that way. Once we understand why, we can approach the task with a serene mind rather than one that is blinkered by our feelings and emotions."

Maris looks confused, "Isn't that the same as the first line then?"

Shaak smiles gently, "It is not, but I will leave you to meditate on the difference to understand why. The last two lines deal with our relationship with the world. 'There is no chaos, there is harmony': This precept is a reminder that even when events seem truly random, nothing happens without a cause. A meteorite falling out of the sky into the middle of a town, where it explodes and wipes out most of the population. Despite the fact that it appears to be totally random to the local population, indeed they may even ascribe it as an act of god, something caused that meteor to head to the planet. Whether it was the natural progression of the planets, a passing ship, or even a remanent of a battle fought lightyears away, and thousands of years ago. Finally, 'There is no death, there is the Force': This is often the hardest precept to truly accept. When we die, the thing that makes us, us. The thing that meant each of the clones we worked with had their own personalities. That fragment of the force inside us. That returns to the unifying force. Now, I want you to meditate on what you've just learned, and how it applies to your original question."

Putting actions to words, Shaak settles down into meditation as she considers her force visions, the face hugger, and her own place in the universe. Hours later, long after Maris has retired to bed, Shaak takes up the face hugger, and opens her mouth as she brings it up to her face without ever opening her eyes.

An hour later, the face hugger falls to the floor while Shaak returns to her meditation.

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Chapter Three

​

Aayla smiles to herself as Shaak Ti's memories join those of the rest of the hive. Almost immediately she starts to send scouts to each of the planets that Shaak has visited, but the rest of the hive haven't. As she reaches Kashyyyk she pauses.

"Ulli."

Ulli appears in a flash of fire, "Yes my queen?"

Aayla sighs, "Ulli, please call me Aayla or Master Secura. You may be part of my hive, but you are no longer a slave."

Ulli smiles, "Yes my queen. You called for me?"

Aayla quickly masters her annoyance before saying, "I did, I am sending scouts to the worlds that Shaak Ti has visited so that they are not lost to us if she moves on. However, while she has visited the world of Kashyyyk, it was only a brief visit each time. I would like you to take a couple of hive members you trust, and make your way there. There are stories about the surface of the planet once you get deep into the forest. I'd like to find out if they're true. But you are not to put yourself at risk, as you are not replaceable."

Ulli's lekku twitch as she says, "There are many more twi'lek slaves out there for you to rescue."

Aayla gently touches Ulli's cheek with the back of her hand, "That may be true, but none of them are you. They don't have your experiences or personality. Never make the mistake of thinking that you are replaceable. You are not, as you are the only one of you there is or ever will be."

Ulli looks down, "I understand master Jedi."

Aayla shakes her head with a smile, "You don't, not yet." When Ulli looks up sharply, Aayla laughs, "Ulli, you forgot you're a member of my hive. Your mind is as open to me as mine is to you."

Ulli's skin darkens and a well suppressed flinch passes through her body, "I'm sorry."

"Ulli, there's nothing for you to be sorry for. I've seen you working with the ex-slaves that are dead inside. Helping them to find the tiniest pieces of themselves. Take pride in that fact, and look at how many other hive members have tried to do the same thing."

"I didn't think Jedi were allowed to feel pride."

Aayla finds herself shaking her head again as her own lekku twitch in annoyance, "That's a common misconception. We're not droids, we're living breathing people like everyone else. We feel the same things that you do, however we are taught to let our emotions go as the fleeting things they are. I was proud of creating my lightsaber, but I didn't hold onto that pride and allow it to turn into arrogance. Same as I've been proud of many of the things I've done in the past. But just because I did them then, doesn't mean that I will automatically be as successful now. Now, do you think you can do what I asked you to do on Kashyyyk, or should I seek out someone else?"

Ulli nods, "I can do it. May I take the spells with me?"

Aayla shrugs, "As long as you're not taking from our ability to clean the poison from the planet, take what you want."

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

Ulli appears in an out of the way corridor already covered by elvish invisibility. Once she's sure the area is currently unobserved, Amaas Gillayi, a Lothalite human slave, that was trained in scouting; along with Su'vanth, a Lethan Twi'lek, who was spared much of the… degrading aspects of slavery due to her rarity; both appear in pillars of fire.

All three of them glance at one another before replacing the invisibility with a simple desire to not be noticed. After that they cautiously follow the route that Shaak Ti once took out of the spaceport. Fortunately, there haven't been any major changes to the port, apart from the inclusion of a wall and checkpoint around the whole area. A checkpoint that seems more concerned with keeping people out rather than in.

A few hours later, all three of them are completely lost and suffering from the fact that nobody in their hive can understand wookies, despite the reverse not being true. Still, they persevere.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

A few days after she last saw her master, Ekria sits back in her seat with tears streaming from her eyes, and mild burns from the vaporised parts of her clothes as she was short by blasters only a few hours ago. [See the webcomic Evasive Action on the Star Wars expanded universe timeline]

Lifting up her comm device, she taps an icon to start a recording.

"It's only natural, I suppose, that here at the end of things… The mind returns to the beginnings. Or at least the beginning of the end. In my 17 standard years, I've known so much death. I go now to bury the last Jedi I will ever know. Everyone I knew growing up is no more. I guess that's even true of my master, as she didn't appear when I left Coruscant."

Aayla puts a frown into her voice as she appears behind Ekria, "In my defense, you did decide to follow Darth Vader, or should I say Anakin Skywalker."

Ekria spins her chair around, "Master, you're here! When did you get here?"

Aayla shrugs, "About a minute ago, when you started to relax after your second jump."

"Why didn't you come before that, I needed you."

Aayla smiles patiently, "Why didn't you come to me? I told you how. Hello Drake, you can put the blaster down."

Behind her Drake Lo'gaan doesn't lower the blaster, even though he steps fully into the doorway, "How did you get onto the ship?"

Aayla disappears with a soft pop, only to appear behind Drake as she takes the blaster from his good hand, "I teleported."

Ekria shouts, "Drake, it's ok, she is my master. I can feel it."

Aayla nods as Drake relaxes imperceptibly, "Padawan, you haven't answered my question yet."

Ekria shrinks slightly at the slight tone of censure in Aayla's voice. Quietly she answers, "I had to save Drake, and I didn't know where he was being taken."

"What happened to your hideout after I left last time?"

Ekria opens her mouth to say something, and then closes it again. A few seconds later she quietly says, "The entire place was swarming with clones minutes after I evacuated."

"How does that answer your original complaint?"

Ekria turns her chair around, and lifts her feet as she stares out into hyperspace with a pout on her face.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

As her padawan begins to sulk, Aayla smiles sadly as she can see that Ekria's quick mind has already answered the question, and the sulk is because she doesn't like the answer.

She's brought out of her thoughts when Drake turns around and looks at her accusingly, "We saw you die."

Aayla sighs and walks into the communal area of the ship, "The same could be said about you. Yet, here you stand."

Drake follows her as he shakes his head, "That's different, Ekria planned it that way. Why didn't you let anyone else know?"

As she takes a seat, Aayla says, "Let me ask you a question. Do you believe I'd have kept it secret from Ekria if I'd known what was going to happen?"

Drake steps backward at the question, before he considers it. Finally, he nods to himself, "I think it's possible you would have. I don't think you'd have hidden it from the other masters though."

Aayla shakes her head sadly, "If I'd had any knowledge that the clones were going to turn on us I'd have tried to get word out, even if it cost me my life. Master Ti was in the temple when Skywalker betrayed us. Two classes of children were slaughtered before anyone could slow him down long enough to evacuate the other children. Thousands of Jedi were cut down in battle by their own troops, and we felt it all."

Drake sits down on the other side of the small table, "You're not trying to sell me ox musk are you."

Aayla shakes her head, "No, I lost myself for the second time in my life, after I swore it would never happen again." She raises her head, "Ask Ekria after she stops sulking, I don't really want to relive it again."

Drake sighs, "What happens now?"

"I go back to my hive on Felucia, and once you've buried Zonder Ekria will continue to learn from me. Whether on Felucia, or somewhere else."

"I meant, what about me?"

"What do you want to do?"

"I, don't know. I tried working for the empire for an honest wage, but I couldn't let them… Apart from that, being a Jedi was everything until…"

Aayla nods, and covers Drakes hand with her own, "I know, I know everything that Ekria knows. You should never have been in the position you have been. None of the padawan's should. Over the entire period you're a padawan, you should only be going on three or four missions a year. As they are there to help you put what you're learning into practice."

Aayla watches as Drake absorbs that information. As his eyes rise again, she says, "For your future, you need to make a large choice. Do you want the Force to be part of it or not. Beyond that, after you've given Zonder his last rites, there are numerous things you could do. A few of which could be, taking this freighter and using it to make money somehow. Picking a populated planet, and getting a standard education and ID, before living like everyone else. You could join a mercenary group, or become a bounty hunter. You could travel to one of the worlds that seceded from the Republic when it became the Empire, and join their defense fleet. Bearing in mind that my hive is strictly girls only; you could join my hive and continue to learn about the Force. Or you could ask Ekria to help you look at one of the hundreds of options available to you now."

As Drake's eyes go distant Aayla pops back to the cockpit and takes the co-pilots chair. After a minute, Ekria says without any heat, "I hate you, you know that."

Aayla nods, "I do."

"Why didn't you ask me?"

"You already know why."

"I want to hear it from you."

"I lost myself again. When I died I wasn't aware of what just happened, I just rolled for cover and then ran. Then the other deaths started to echo through the force at the same time I started processing what had just happened to me, so I withdrew from the world. Queen, she thought I was the previous queen and so she acted on instinct and our oldest memories. A day or so before Shaak Ti arrived, Queen noticed that our padawan bond was decaying, and assumed you were already a hive member that joined through unconventional means. She also assumed that the decaying bond was because you were dying, so she sent a couple of scouts with a face hugger while you were asleep and brought you into the hive properly. While I wouldn't have done it the same way, if I'd been aware, I would have contacted you, maybe sent Ulli instead of coming in person. I hope you'd have been willing to join my hive, but I'd have accepted it if you didn't."

"You're a bantha poodoo."

Aayla bursts out laughing, "Where did that come from?"

"Skywalker used to say it when he was a padawan."

"I am sorry you know. That you've been forced into continuing to learn about the force in some way."

Ekria sighs, "I don't really hate you. It's just, why couldn't you have found the bond a few weeks ago?"

"It's going to sound cliche, but the force works in mysterious ways. I only came back to myself when I sensed Shaak Ti. What if she came to Felucia in a few years time? Would I have been more Queen than me?"

"I don't want to go back to Felucia."

"Fair, I can teach you from anywhere now. Do you know what you want to do?"

Ekria shakes her head, "No, I had some ideas, but I'm going to have to keep moving now."

"Swims is experimenting with wands, you could get components from other planets."

Ekria shakes her head, "Why me? Why not go yourself?"

"Because I can't stay on a ship that long. Maybe one day we'll be able to capture a large enough ship that we can have the entire nest on board. Even if we got that tomorrow, I'd still need to finish clearing the poison from Felucia."

"Would you help me be a smuggler?"

"Of course, as long as you stay true to the Jedi ideals."

Ekria laughs, "Fat chance of that ever changing. You need to go, don't you."

Aayla nods, "You're only around 20 minutes away from Corellia now."

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Chapter Four

​

A day ago, Ulli and the others decided to split up in order to cover more ground. Since then she's drawn strength from the presence of the other two in her thoughts. Especially as she's been falling back into her past behavioral habits, and as such has started drawing the attention of the more human aliens on Kashyyyk despite her best efforts to avoid them. Especially the Empire.

More than once she'd fled from a group that made noises about her being an escaped slave, and what they'd to do her if they recaptured her.

That brings her to now, as it's just started getting dark, and Ulli is starting to look around for a discrete place to return to the Hive for some rest and refreshments. The problem is that there's always some human, or near human, nearby and she's getting flashbacks to some of her days as a slave.

Suddenly, a visibly pregnant human walks around a corner and right up to her, "There you are fillia, I thought we said to stay put and we'd come and get you."

Ulli shakes her head violently, "There are men."

The woman leans into the hug and whispers, "I know, play along… Crikk, you're force sensitive."

Ulli starts to shiver as the woman leads her to a nearby aircar, "Don't worry fillia, I have friends watching out for us, so we're be home before you know it."

After a little bit of encouragement, Ulli is sitting in the passenger seat of the aircar while the woman sits in the drivers seat. As the aircar smoothly takes off, the woman looks over at Ulli, "I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself, I'm Mallie Marek, and some wookie friends asked me to help after you neatly avoided the men they sent to contact you."

Ulli suddenly feels an immense sense of relaxation and peace as her queen starts to pay attention to her.

Taking her body language to mean she feels safe now, Mallie asks, "Were you a slave?"

Ulli nods uncertainly, her body language tensing up slightly. Despite her queen's presence, her answer still comes out in a small voice, "I was."

Mallie nods, "Do you mind me asking how long you've been free for?"

Ulli shakes her head, "A few months."

Mallie sighs, "For Arcan's sake. Your master probably freed you to save themselves from the emperor once the bounties started being placed."

Ulli tenses up again and shakes her head, "I didn't know. I didn't even know I could be force sensitive until I was freed."

"That sounds about right, you can't attract Jedi attention if you don't know they could help you." Mallie slams her hand on the steering wheel, "Fine, you're coming home with me. Kento can just deal with it."

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

By the time Ulli sees lights in the distance, the sun is well and truly below the horizon and the true night has settled in. Below them, the canopy of the forest isn't even a dark shadow in the night, just an inky black void that is devoid of stars.

Through the multi hour journey, Ulli has slowly relaxed under the reassurance of her queen as well as some of the other slaves she's helped.

At the prompting of her queen, Ulli asks, "Do you normally fly so far at night?"

Mallie shakes her head, "No, it's dangerous, as sometimes things come out of the lower levels. But for you, it's safer than if we'd sought shelter from one of the settlements nearer the spaceport. None of the people likely to want to claim you would dare to fly this deep into the forest during the day, let alone at night. Especially without running lights."

Ulli looks confused, "What do you mean?"

"I've flown the entire journey on instruments, relying on them to avoid the odd taller than average tree. That's because many of the things that hunt at night are attracted by light."

Ulli considers that for a moment, "Doesn't that mean that settlement is at risk?"

Mallie nods, "It would if the wookies didn't patrol the forest down to level 4 on a regular basis. I need to concentrate for a moment, as we're coming in to land."

Over the next minute, Mallie skillfully brings the aircar in to land on a small landing pad. Her running lights switching on at the last minute, to give her a clear view of the pad.

Once they've landed, Mallie doesn't hesitate to jump out of the car and make her way round to help Ulli out of the other side. "Come on, lets get you inside and some food into you."

Ulli is able to honestly say, "Thank you." As she's invited into the cosy home that's built into a tree branch.

As the door closes, there's a flash of light on the forest side of the landing pad, and a scout smoothly climbs over the edge of the landing pad, and starts to make its way down the tree to the surface.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

While the house Ulli is shown into has obviously been built for Wookies, the furniture and furnishings are all the perfect size for humans and humanoids like herself.

What surprises her the most is the lack of visible technology in the home. The lighting in the main room comes from a simple metal bowl with notches for wicks. By the smell, they seem to be burning oil or fat of some description. In the kitchen area there seems to be some technology for storing food, but the cooking surface is more like the hives memories of a magical household than anything she'd have expected in the republic.

"M46, stop trying to poke me and look at our guest, she needs a full diagnosis."

Ulli spins around at the sound of Mallie's voice, to see a medical droid turning away from Mallie and advancing on her. Cautiously she backs up first one step, and then another, deeper into the room.

Mallie calls out, "Don't worry, he's a medical droid the clan put together for us when they found out I was pregnant. He's just going to scan you and take a blood test."

M46 stops a few paces away from Ulli, "Please take a seat and state your name for my files."

Ulli looks at the comfortable looking sofa, before carefully stepping over to it, and perching on the edge. "Um, I'm Ulli."

As the droid starts it's scans, Ulli clenches and unclenches her hands. Just as she feels her queens presence start to leave she asks, "My queen, may I tell them about you, and how you rescued me? Only, I don't think my scans are going to come back normal."

Aayla's focus snaps back to Ulli. After a long, considering moment, Aayla sounds curious as she says, "Do whatever you feel is right."

Ulli feels adrift as Aayla's attention moves to the scouts that are exploring the forest below the settlement. She's a slave, that's the only life she's ever known. A pleasure slave if she's honest with herself, dancer if she's being more forgiving. Yet her queen is trusting her to make the right choices, as if she knows anything of those affairs.

Obediently, she lifts her arm as M45 asks for it, well used to the ministrations of such droids.

"Mallie! You're back!" a male voice causes Ulli to glance upwards without lifting her head. "How did it go?"

Mallie sighs off to one side, "I got there just in time it seems. Ulli there was about to be recaptured when I turned up. Kento Malek, don't! She was a slave, and she's only been free for a few months."

Ulli hears the sound of a chair being pulled out, and Kento speaks up, "Mallie…"

"She's force sensitive Kento. She didn't even know before she was released. I think she was cut loose by her previous owner before he was accused of harbouring a Jedi."

"He Mallie? Really?"

"Yes Kento, he. Look at her. The wookies say that she was happy and carefree when they first saw her. They only called me in after she avoided several of their own male helpers, and ran from a few wookies she tried to talk to after they spoke back. Yet I was able to walk straight up to her and hug her."

"Mallie, we can't do this. We have Galen on the way, we can't afford to have a high profile here."

Ulli finds herself saying, "I can help."

Mallie softly says, "Ulli, we don't need your help. I brought you here so that you could heal and recover from your slavery."

Ulli bites her lip, before saying, "That's not what I meant. I, can help you like you helped me. I…I was a slave, but I wasn't freed. I was rescued by my queen. She killed our owners and removed the control implant." Ulli touches the back of her head where she still has the scar from the removal.

As Ulli risks raising her head slightly, Mallie looks at her in disbelief, "If you were rescued, why are you even here?"

Ulli smiles, "After Master Shaak Ti arrived, my queen came back to herself and started sending out teams to scout out backup locations for us to retreat to if we are ever threatened with overwhelming forces. I was chosen to find a way into the deep forest here on Kashyyyk. A task that I've now completed, and our scouts are already investigating the forest floor."

Kento shakes his head, "And how were these scouts supposed to get here?"

"Magic."

Kento sighs, "Ulli, I believe you about being rescued. But I think you've been following force visions to get here. How and why I don't know, but we can help you learn to control the visions."

Ulli shakes her head, "No, it's not force visions, I can prove it."

Mallie touches Kento gently on the back of his hand, "Ulli, how would you prove it?"

Ulli frowns before she takes some small metal plates from an inner pocket, and pushes some magic into one of them, causing a stream of water to arc over to the sink.

Kento nods, "Interesting force artefacts, where did you get them?"

Ulli smiles, "Felucia, my queen saw them in her memory and I made them from that."

Kento looks at Mallie, "Felucia's native population are all force sensitive aren't they."

Mallie nods, "That's what I read. What are you thinking?"

"The queen led her in a force vision, and Ulli made those with the guidance of the force."

Ulli almost shouts as she pushes to her feet, "I did not, my queen is real and it wasn't a force vision. I can prove it."

Gently, Kento asks, "How would you do that then?"

Ulli pauses in indecision, "I could take you there."

"Ulli wasn't it. Ulli, it's a long way from here to Felucia, even if we weren't in hiding it's still not a journey that could be done without leaving a trail."

Ulli shakes her head, "No, I mean take you now. If you take my hands, I can introduce you to my queen."

Kento looks at Mallie, who says with a sigh, "I can't feel any darkside taint around her."

Kento nods, "I'll do it, we don't want to risk the baby."

With a sigh, Kento stands up and walks over to Ulli and takes her outstretched hand, "Ok I'll meet your que…"

Mallie looks on in disbelief as the two of them disappear in a pillar of fire, from the force as well as sight. The only thing that stops her panicking is that she can still feel him at the end of their force bond.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

Kento's voice trails off as he's engulfed in flame. As the flame clears they appear in a primitive communal area, with a small fire burning in the centre of a large pit. "…en… Where are we?"

Instead of answering, Ulli just pops to where she can feel her queen talking to a couple of people.

In a clearing on the surface of Felucia, Aayla and Shaak both look up from their conversation with Maris. At the point they're looking, Ulli and Kento both appear.

Ulli smiles at all three of them, "My queen, I have brought Kento Malek to see you, as they didn't believe me about looking at your memories."

Aayla sighs as her tail twiches behind her, "Ulli, you know you don't have to call me your queen. I'm quite partial to Aayla, or Master Secura you know."

Ulli nods, "I know, but I want to call you my queen."

Shaak shakes her head, "Master Secura, you are being quite rude to our guest, Knight Nion."

Kento pulls his light shirt away from his chest, where it's already soaking through with his sweat, "Master Ti, it's just Kento Marek now, Mallie and I got married two years ago, and gave up our vows to the order."

Shaak bows her head in a brief meditation, once she lifts her head again she asks, "Did you know that the old order allowed both marriage and children?"

Kento looks at Shaak in surprise, "It did?"

Shaak nods, "It's something that was changed by the Ruusan Reformation. I'd have to check the archives for everything they changed, but that is one thing I remember."

"But isn't marriage an attachment?"

Shaak sighs as she glances at Maris, who has an 'I told you so' look on her face, "It seems that we should have been paying more attention to the teaching of our history and philosophy, rather than on our martial prowess, in the last decade. Attachments are a possessive thing, a feeling of this is mine. That is what is against the Jedi code. Love, friendship, and even marriage are not against the code. Indeed, they are to be encouraged as long as they are selfless. If Mallie was to leave one day, and you tried to force her to stay. That would be against the code. If instead, you supported her and accepted that she had just drifted away from you, that would be working with the code. I'm sure that you've read 'The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force'. In fact, I know you have as it's required reading for all padawans."

As everyone nods, Shaak continues, "If you remember, the Jedi Code is dealt with on one page at the very beginning of the book, with one very brief interpretation of the code included with each line. A code that is thousands of years older than the current, the republic that has just been overthrown. Everything else in the book is about the rules, regulations, and other teachings of the Jedi Order."

Maris shakes her head, "Master, why didn't you mention any of this before?"

Shaak smiles serenely, "Because I didn't remember my studies, as I looked further into the history of the Jedi after I was made a knight. Since then, other things have taken my focus. It's only in the last few days that it has become a simple matter to review my own memories without bias."

Aayla pushes herself to her feet, "I'm going to return these two to Kashyyyk before Kento passes out from heatstroke."

Taking Kento and Ulli's hands, Aayla pops back to the area outside her home.

As Aayla walks into the nearby building, Kento looks around confused, "Where are we now?"

Ulli points, "That is the queen's home. Over there is the egg chamber. It's off limits to anyone that's not in the hive. Over there is my house, and next to it is the communal space for the slaves that are still dead inside. Down the path over there is the communal space, and housing for guests. Shaak Ti will probably be building a house near here once Maris joins the hive. If you follow the path past the queen's home, that's where the other sentient hive members live. On the other side of the communal area is the home of the local chief, and shaman, along with those of that caste."

Kento holds up his hands, "Woah, woah, I get the picture. How comes your home is here?"

Ulli frowns, "It's so that I'm nearby if any of the broken ones need help. It also makes it easier to help them find themselves again if I can just walk in."

From behind them, making them jump, Aayla says, "And she decided to do that all by herself. She was also instrumental in understanding how to convert wand spells to Norse spells."

Ulli shakes her head, "I didn't do that much, and I couldn't get the water conjuration charm working without help."

Aayla shakes her head as she puts a limb on each of their shoulders, before flaming back to the Malek's home.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

Drake stands next to Ekria as they both watch Zonder's funeral pyre. Off to one side, Maris Brood also stands and watches solemnly. A creature out of a nightmare delivered her in a burst of fire just as they reached the area they're in.

As the wrappings around Zonder's body start to catch, Drake asks, "What are you planning on doing now?"

Ekria gives a hollow laugh, "I'm still a padawan remember. I'm going to continue to learn the way of the Jedi. I'm also going to be a smuggler come legitimate trader. But that's all a cover for my real mission of visiting as many worlds as I can, and transporting components to Felucia. What about you? You're in the imperial databases again, but this time you're officially deceased."

Drake shakes his head, "I don't know, I'm not like you with your skills at slicing and math. All I'm good at is swinging a lightsaber, and gambling." Raising his voice, he calls out, "Hey, Maris. What about you? What are you going to do now?"

Maris tears her eyes away from the pyre, "I'm Master Shaak Ti's padawan. She decided I needed to see the consequences of drawing attention to ourselves as force users."

Ekria laughs bitterly, "Drawing attention to ourselves. I suppose we did, didn't we. We were just trying to get to safety, and then we discovered the temple was a trap. After that, we tried to live by the code in the underworld, and that was our undoing, as we tried to help someone buy their freedom. Crikking Vader himself came to deal with us, and we weren't making waves. Honestly, after all this, if I could I'd probably go somewhere on the mid rim and get a job as a slicer and never touch the force again."

Maris looks at Ekria absolutely aghast, "Never touch the force again?"

Drake nods and gestures to the pyre, "Look at what it cost us. Not just Zonder's life, but the memories and scars that we have to live with. I'm saying this as someone who was captured by Vader, and he tried to recruit me."

Ekria nods, "Jumping down to face him was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Even though I'd planned everything out. I feel a little better about it now I've got a get out of death free chit. Not great, just better."

Both Maris and Drake look at Ekria, "Chit/death?"

Ekria laughs at Maris's question, "Yes, chit, like the ones used in Sabacc."

Drake looks confused, "Do you mean the cards?"

Ekria shakes her head, "No, the things you bet with."

Maris shakes her head, "I was asking why you called it a chit."

Ekria smiles, "Cos after you've used it, if you get away, you get another one right back."

Maris nods as she tunes out of the conversation.

Drake shakes his head, "I still can't believe it, and I was taught that everything's possible with the force, same as you."

Ekria nods, "I guess, but then the Jedi have been around for so long that some of our history is actually archeology."

Drake shakes his head, "It's what now?"

"Archeology, oh… Um, so far in the past that nobody knows of it anymore, and it needs to be carefully uncovered so that nothing is damaged or triggered."

Drake nods, "Ok… Anyway, that whole not dying thing is making Master Secura's offer sound even more inviting. I'm just worried about the whole females only thing."

Ekria slaps Drake on the chest with the back of her hand, "Hey, it's not like you're ever going to use your dangly bits. So you might as well join to keep me company, and then we can go hunting dangly bits together if you ever start to miss them."

Drake winces, "That really doesn't appeal to me at the moment. Do you mind a passenger for a while, while I sort my head out?"

Ekria slaps Drakes chest again, "Of course you're welcome." Grimacing she adds, "Do you want to come and meet the masters while I take Maris back to Felucia. It's not the surface, so there's no jungle."

Drake shakes his head, "Not really, but I'll come anyway to keep you company."

Ekria grunts a laugh, "Yeah, that's how I feel about the place too. Well, hold on and we'll be there in a jiffy."

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

There is more, see my signature for the link.

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Calanico looks down at the thin ring on her finger, the one that Bob gave her a few months ago. Occasionally her body still shivers violently as the memory of what happened after their dinner date returns with a vengeance.

Bob comes out of the kitchen with a steaming bowl of hot chocolate covered in a mountain of whipped cream and festooned with marshmallows of all sizes. As she glances up, one of the marshmallows falls off the cream onto the dinner plate he's brought it out with. "I have brought you hot chocolate to help with the shock of what happened."

Calanico can't help the chuckle that spills out of her mouth, as it's such a Bob thing to do. Smiling, she grabs one of the trays that are always randomly placed around Bob's flat. "Thank you, Bob, it's very thoughtful of you."

Bob nods in that odd, almost bobble headed way of his, "You are most welcome. I am very fond of you."

She smiles at the comment as she looks for some way to start on the hot chocolate, looking back up at Bob, Calancio asks, "Could I have a spoon, as I don't think I can drink this from the bowl like this."

As Bob reaches out towards the kitchen, Calancio forces herself not to look away or blink despite the itching in the back of her eyeballs. It only lasts a fraction of a second, and then Bob's holding a spoon that he hands to her.

After a couple of minutes of carefully carving out a small cave in the whipped cream so that she can get at the absolutely divine hot chocolate, Calancio looks back up at Bob, "Bob, you know we're supposed to be getting married on June 21st."

Bob does his silly nod again, "Indeed, I am most looking forward to it."

"And that we've both decided to change the vows from 'till death do us part' to 'until the end of time'."

Bob nods again and gives a wide smile that seems to go from ear to ear. Though, now she's fighting through the itchy feeling in the back of her eyes, Calancio notices it does in fact go from ear to ear. "Yet more proof that you are the one I've been searching for since the first stars died."

Calancio nods thoughtfully as she takes another spoonful of hot chocolate. "How's that going to work? I mean, that mugger stabbed you in the throat and then; and then. Then you finished cleaning off my ring and handed it back to me."

Bob cocks his head to one side so it's almost upside down, "I don't understand the question. As we will be undergoing the rite of joining on the solstice. Then we live together as husband and wife until these bodies fail us. After that we leave for the stars and I will show you the places that I treasured the same as you have shown me the places you treasured."

"I thought you meant we'd live happily together until we died of old age, and then we'd meet again in the afterlife."

Bob nods, "That would be ideal, though by the time one of our bodies fails naturally, it should be safe for the other to induce failure in their body too."

"Bob, is that your real name?"

Bob shakes his head like an owl, making Calancio's eyes itch again, "It is an alias. You will hear my real name during the rite."

Calancio looks down at the bowl of hot chocolate, and notices she's now cleared all the whipped cream and marshmallows. Putting the spoon down, she picks up the bowl in both hands and sips it with a sigh of contentment. "Why do the insides of my eyes itch?"

Bob is suddenly in front of her, her eyes itching like crazy as one of his eyes pops out on a pseudopod to look closely into one of her eyes. Just as suddenly, Bob is back in his own seat, "You are trying to see before you are ready. You should stop and let your eyes work, after the rite you will be able to see easier."

"What happens if I don't stop?"

Bob shrugs, "You might go insane and claw your eyes out to try and stop yourself from seeing the truth of the universe. I am rather fond of you, so it would be distressing if that happened."

As she finishes her chocolate, Calancio asks, "Will I remember this conversation in the morning?"

Bob looks confused, "Why wouldn't you? Oh… No, if you are able to see, your brain has stopped trying to protect itself. This is why it is so important to allow yourself to not see. How are you feeling now?"

Calancio takes stock of herself, "Floaty, and like the inside of my head is moving faster than the outside of my head. I think I'm going to go home now."

Bob nods, "Would you like me to walk you?"

Calancio picks up her bag from the floor, and removes her phone. As she opens an app to order a ride she shakes her head, "I'm ordering a cab, as I don't think I should walk at the moment. Dinner was lovely by the way."

Bob stands up and moves over to sit beside Calancio, one hand moving the dirty… Calancio shakes her head as she focuses on her phone rather than the movement that causes, the itching in her eyes far less than it was when she looked.

As he pulls her into a hug and starts to massage her back, Calancio shows him the progress of her driver even as she sighs in contentment at the way Bob is always able to reach the spots that need it. At the same time she tries to ignore the itching in the back of her brain as it tries to make sense of the fact that some of those spots are clearly inside her.

All too soon, her phone beeps and Bob withdraws before smoothly standing up, "Thank you for being so accepting this evening. I'm sorry we didn't get to see the musical you wanted to see."

Calancio smiles as she stands up next to Bob and pulls him into a hug with her eyes closed, before giving him a goodbye kiss. "I'm sorry too. But I think it was better this way."

Bob nods as he walks her to the door, "I think we should cut down on our dates to once every seven days, for your safety."

Calancio pouts, "But I'll miss you."

Bob give her another soul scorching kiss, "I know, but I really am fond of you, and I do want to join with you."

 

[verycoolname]

Four dimensional tentacle hugs are the best kind of hugs.

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Inheritance

​

At the top of an ancient mountain sits a man whose existence dwarfs that of the mountain. Deep inside his Dantain his spiritual star is slowly compressing under its own weight as he carefully manages the flow of incoming Qi and working around the ancient flaws in his foundations caused by inexperience so many aeons ago.

"Harry Potter!"

The old man's eyes flick open as a name he thought lost to history is uttered by one that is so far beneath him that he hadn't even bothered acknowledging their existence.

Standing on another mountain peak is a man of indeterminate age, much like every other cultivator that has passed the nascent soul stage. Though this one appears to be well on their own path, one modelled after their own by the feel of things.

"I am here to end your existence and your oppression of cultivators everywhere."

Harry snorts softly at the accusation, as if enforcing the rules that the heavenly realm had written is oppression. More likely the cultivator is chafing against the fact that Harry has been ensuring that the rules apply to everyone, not just those that are too weak to ignore them.

Out of their soul, the other cultivator pulls a wand and points it at Harry, "Ava Kad…"

In an instant, Harry obliterates both the cultivator and the mountain they're standing on, and shatters the cultivators soul before spreading it across time and space. But in that moment of inattention the damage is already done. Deep inside his soul star, one of the flaws he has been carefully managing during this process is injected with a fraction too much Qi.

As he examines the flaw, Harry comes to the conclusion that the transition from a peak mainline star to a galaxy cauldron is now doomed, as is the fall back of converting his core into a neutron star. His life is now measured in centuries, maybe a millennia if he spends all of his time managing the flows of Qi, maybe as little as a decade if he leaves the process to run unopposed.

For a brief moment Harry feels regret for obliterating the cultivator rather than questioning them about their affiliations and where they found both the wand and the spell. That moment passes quickly, as he realises that it's likely to have come from someone in the realm above him. As there's always another realm above the current realm.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

Harry appears floating over a the burnt and pitted husk that was once his home-world. At some point during the suns Red Giant phase, the moon's orbit destabilised enough to crash into the planet. In the sky, the barely visible dull red glow of the white dwarf that used to be the yellow star around which a blue green planet deep in the mortal realm, and far from any centres of concentrated Qi, used to orbit.

From his soul he pulls a sacred treasure he's burnt a century of his remaining life to create. A Soul Scroll, a rare artefact that the occasional immortal will create detailing the steps on their cultivation path for their heir.

The two most important features of a soul scroll, beyond the obvious, are that anything written on a Soul Scroll can be understood by anyone else that attempts to understand it. The second thing is that they are convergent once they are bound to a soul.

This means that whatever a future creator of the scroll would write on the scroll will always and has always been written on the scroll.

Over the next two hundred years, Harry carefully inscribes the entirety of The Path of the Universe from Qi Condensation to Black Hole creation, and the start of the Galaxy Cauldron stage. He describes how to develop a Molecular Cloud, and how large it needs to be to avoid needing to create a low mass star and then try to add mass to it later. After that, he outlines what he believes will be the next stages along the path, and theories on how to progress to the formation of a galactic disk.

He also describes methods for hiding your level of cultivation from cultivators that are a level or two above your own cultivation. Finally, he describes the difference between magic and Qi, and how to convert between the two.

Just as he's about to start listing spells and martial techniques, Harry bursts out laughing as he realises just how that cultivator came to be. Very deliberately, he sets aside his writing implement and returns the scroll to his soul. His younger self will have to settle for discovering these things for himself, and if he fails whoever finds the scroll won't have that information.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

A few years after he finished the scroll, Harry finally locates the point on the planet that used to be the cupboard he slept in. Settling down into a lotus position, he dives into his core before slowly spreading out a net of Qi across the solar system and the surrounding cloud of debris.

As his Qi finishes infusing into every single thing in the solar system, aside from an area a mile around him, Harry pulls out the scroll for the last time and at the bottom he writes.

To my heir,

For most, the life of a cultivator is a lonely one, as secrets are life, and trust is a hard earned currency that is often spent frivolously, or stolen like a wallet to a pick-pocket. However, for those who are brave enough to open their hearts, the friends they make are worth more than gold.

Carefully nurtured, those friendships could last multiple lifetimes. I still treasure those friendships that I formed. But beware of sharing your secrets with those that have their own heart devils, or those who know not the value of secrets.

Signed The Stellar Emperor.

With a smile, Harry returns the scroll to his soul before using a technique that is forbidden in all the realms below the Heavenly Realm. Instantly, all of the matter that's infused with his Qi, including his own body, is converted into Qi and comes rushing towards his Dantain.

Carefully, Harry monitors the Dantain watching for the moment it destabilises, and staving it off until as much Qi as possible has accumulated from the solar system.

Just before it reaches the point he can no longer control it, Harry converts his entire core into magic, and uses it to power a spell that is as much like the one used in time turners as a Stellar furnace is like starting a fire by bashing rocks together.

Riding the temporal shockwave, Harry carefully obliterates his own lifeline even as he uses it to find his way to the right moment in the past. As the planet is restored to life around him, he looses control of some of the magic, allowing it to rocket into the past somewhere in the vicinity of the planet. This allows his travel through time to slow down to a speed he can monitor what's happening.

As his lifeline returns to the planet he does it again, and slowing his movement through time once more as he also becomes more meticulous with the erasure of his lifeline from the past as he passes it.

Around him, the buildings start to undo themselves, and then there's a large flash of light as a mushroom cloud shrinks down into a point. This is when he slows his travel once more.

He slows again as he watches wizards dressed in dark robes, and wearing silver masks, force their way into the house.

A spiritual tear falls down Harry's face when he feels his younger self's core formation reverse spectacularly, but he doesn't allow himself to be distracted.

Slowly, his slows his travel more and more until the first time he watches his younger self wake up in the cupboard. From there, Harry takes direct control of the spell, and begins to carefully monitor the boy and the Obscurus growing inside him. Even moving around to follow the child to ensure that he doesn't miss the point that it starts.

There, just after he's been thrown into the cupboard after feeling Vernon's belt because he turned a teacher's wig blue.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

Harry curls into a ball facing the wall as he fights back the sobs from crying, even as the tears roll over his nose and onto his pillow.

"I wish I wasn't a freak."

A voice above him softly says, "You are not a freak, you are merely an untrained child."

Very carefully, Harry doesn't still, or stop sobbing, as he uncovers a corner of his eye in order to look up. All pretence at caution falls by the wayside as he hiccoughs violently at the sight of a glowing blue man sitting calmly on the wall as if down was optional. Oh, the tears are still coming, but the sheer absurdity of what he can see forces him to drop his habitual caution.

As he stares, the figure reaches out a glowing blue finger and touches his forehead. As he does, Harry feels as though a shiver passes down his body, and his muscles and bum all stop hurting.

As he relaxes, the man on the wall says, "As I said, you are not a freak, you are simply untrained."

Harry sniffs, "Why do freakish things keep happening around me then?"

The man smiles gently, "Because you have an unmatched in born talent that is trying to protect you. There is nothing you can do that anyone else living here couldn't do if they had the right teacher and discipline."

Harry looks at the man uncomprehendingly as he tries to understand what they just said. As a result the man sighs, "Clearly it has been too long since I last spoke to a child."

Harry opens his mouth to say something, when a scroll appears in the mans hand. "I am dying, but I do not want my knowledge to die with me. That is why I am here. You child will be my heir, the person I give my knowledge to."

Harry shakes his head, "But I'm just a freak."

The man shakes his head and touches Harry's head and a strange feeling passes through him as the man says, "I am The Stellar Emperor, and I would not associate with freaks, let alone allow them to even glimpse my secrets. The healing I gave you is the least of things you could do with these secrets. But no matter what happens, always remember this moment. Remember that even for an Emperor such as myself, there is nobody so small that they don't matter. As I am helping you, so too should you help those who are oppressed by those stronger than themselves. The path of The Universe is a path of creation, and that is what you, as a follower of the path, should seek to do. Build friendships, confidences, and things, instead of seeking to tear them down or crush those that are weaker than you. Become strong to protect, not to dominate. Become wise to guide and not control. Become wealthy to give and not take. And above all, be true to yourself because even the largest star couldn't exist without the smallest atom."

As the Emperor pulls his finger away, Harry shudders, "What happened?"

The Emperor chuckles, "I used a tiny amount of Qi to ensure that you will never forget what I just said, and the exact words I used. Now forgive me for this, as you cannot yet control your Qi or Magic, and so I will need to use blood."

Harry opens his mouth to answer, and instead he screams as The Emperor grabs his wrist and a deep cut opens up from the end of his index finger to the base of his palm where it joins the wrist. Then the Emperor pushes the scroll into his hand before closing it around the scroll.

As he does, it feels like a bolt of lighting transfers from the scroll to something inside Harry, and suddenly he can feel the scroll in its entirety. As the feeling subsides, the Emperor lets go of Harry's hand before gently touching him the same way he did when he first appeared, and Harry's hand stops working.

The Emperor starts to fade as he says, "I have run out of time now. Study the scroll and learn how to use your talent. It is bound to your soul and can be stored in there, even though you don't yet know the techniques needed to do that with other things. You may find studying astronomy helpful in later years."

Once The Emperor finally disappears, Harry stares down at the scroll that's still in his hand. Hesitantly, he unrolls it and looks at the writing and diagrams at the top. Abruptly he drops the scroll as he realises he can understand what's written there. As he does, the scroll turns into a golden mist that streams into his heart.

Rather uncomfortably, Harry can still feel the scroll in his heart. As he rubs his hand against his chest, he can feel the end of the scroll despite his t-shirt. In order to get rid of the uncomfortable feeling, he grabs the end of the scroll and yanks, only to yelp in pain as there's no resistance, and his hand slams into the corner of one of the stairs above him. But in his hand is the scroll.

"Be quiet in there, some of us are watching TV. Unless you want to taste my belt again."

Harry stifles a whimper as Vernon's shout filters through the door.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

Outside, The Stellar Emperor, or Harry Potter as he used to be known, smiles sadly at the place he once begrudgingly called home.

Turning his attention to the protections surrounding the house, he uses the last of the magic he has spare to modify them to actually protect the younger Harry from Harm, and also to hide both Qi and Magic inside them.

They won't stop Harry from being hurt, but they will prevent it from being something that he can't heal from. Not that the mortals living here will be able to even hurt Harry without using a proper weapon once he's established his foundation.

Once that task is complete, he turns the remaining magic on the last part of his future timeline, namely himself, and then lets the spell go.

As the spell runs its course, Harry screams in agony as his soul isn't just ripped to shreds, but also erased from time, leaving only the soul of the young Harry Potter, and the scroll that is now bound to his soul.

As the spell ends, the temporal shock wave ripples throughout the realms causing some old masters to look up from their own cultivation. In one case, the master looks away from an immortal divine beast, and pays the price for it.

In the higher realms, above the heavenly realm, some masters that exist outside time nod thoughtfully as they recognise the effect of someone's personal timeline being erased.

 

[Squeeky602]

I'd read it.

 

[sdarian]

Xianxan Harry Potter? I'm down for that. Hopefully we'll see more of it!

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

First breath

​

Apart from pulling the scroll in his heart out occasionally, Harry tries his best to ignore what the blue glowing man told him. A large part of that is down to the way that he can just understand the scroll, not because he doesn't believe it.


As a case in point, Harry carefully pushes himself to his feet, and walks from the middle of the school roof, where he fell after trying to escape from Dudley and his 'friends'. He then walks over to the edge and looks down at the drop, before walking back to the centre of the roof and sitting down in a basic mediation pose. Something that was mentioned once in the first six inches of the scroll.


This would have to happen at the beginning of lunch, rather than the end.


Harry stops and blinks at the thought, as only a few short months ago he'd have been scared that Dudley would find his way up, or what Uncle Vernon would do when he gets home.


After a couple of minutes trying to work out how he feels about how even the slightest glance at the scroll has taught him something so profound that he's using it automatically, Harry shakes his head and files it under the same category as his expanded vocabulary.


Pulling the scroll out of his heart, Harry gingerly opens the scroll and looks at it out of the corner of his eye as it inches open once centimetre at a time. To his relief, there's no sudden surge in understanding about his posture, so he opens it a little more and pays more attention.


As he does the scroll reveals multiple forms of meditation and their commonalities and differences, along with when each one is most appropriate. From the basic seated pose that is ideal for improving clarity of thought, to moving meditations that are designed to teach your mind, body, and Qi to move together. Each and every diagram, word, and phrase hits his brain with perfect clarity and absolutely no ambiguity. Each diagram outlines in exquisite detail what muscles and joints are involved and how to maximise the effectiveness of those muscles and joints without over stressing them.


As he sits there, his own body unconsciously starts to move in response to his new understanding in order to maximise his air intake, and his blood flow.


The sound of the school bell ringing brings Harry out of his contemplation of the first 10 inches of the scroll and he looks around in confusion as it seems like seconds ago since he started looking at the scroll.


Shaking his head, he puts the scroll back into his heart before standing and walking over to edge of the building. Looking down at the place he was cornered, Harry starts to shake in fear, only for his breathing and body to move in just the right way to suppress the feeling enough that it doesn't stop him from being able to think clearly.


As his body relaxes, Harry's eyes go from the point behind the bins that he tried to hide in, to the storage shed that's built into the wall, and from there to ventilation chimney that rises up the side of the school from the shed.


A few minutes later, Harry's back at ground level, and walking around the corner when a teacher finds him, and grabs him by the ear before walking to his classroom.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

That evening, after he has cooked for the household once more, he sits in his cupboard with a single slice of white bread and butter. Were his relatives to open the door to check on him, they might think he'd fallen asleep. Instead, Harry is thinking back to how he got down from the roof, and what the man had said about control and training. Control is what allowed him to get down from the roof and escape from a beating, only being sent to bed without dinner.


Harry lifts the slice of bread to his mouth, and takes a bite as he considers that it was his lack of control and training that landed him on the roof in the first place.


As he takes a second bite, he considers the the meditation techniques that the scroll has taught him, and how even eating can be a meditation. One that he's using at the moment.


Once he's consumed the last of the slice of bread, Harry pulls the scroll out and unrolls it another few inches until the next set of diagrams are fully revealed.


These diagrams, and the associated words, all seem to be about the flows of energy in the body, and how there are three centres of energy called Dantain's in the man's language.


A few more inches, and the scroll begins to talk about how to use the different forms of mediation to fix the physical flaws in those flows of energy, and why it's so important to get this right before he starts Qi Condensation, and has to manage fixing the flaws at the same time he smooths out the blockages caused by those flaws.


Before he can open the scroll still further, Aunt Petunia is calling him to cook breakfast.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

Over the next year, Harry transitions from being a quiet, troubled, boy, into being a quiet, thoughtful, boy. A change that his relatives have to begrudgingly recognise as Harry has taken to reading borrowed library books on the low walls of their neighbours front gardens.


Harry looks up from his perch on Mrs Baxter's wall, where he's reading a book on biology. A slight smile crosses his face as he can hear Dudley and his friends talking loudly as they walk down the Hawthorn road from the park. His eyes glance to the front window of the house and notes that Mrs Baxter is doing her ironing in the front room. Across the road, Mrs Wright is working on some sort of needlework.


Now assured of witnesses if Dudley starts anything, Harry shifts his position so that one leg is bent, with his foot flat on the wall, while the other leg hangs lazily off the wall. A position that he's found will allow him the most scope for escape if something does happen, while still appearing to be completely relaxed. Turning back to the book, he continues reading about nerve impulses and how they interact with muscles.


Sure enough, much as he was hoping it wouldn't happen, Dudley spots Harry on the wall, "There's the freak! I don't know what you did to stop dad from giving me pocket money, but we couldn't buy ice creams! You're going to pay for that!"


Harry carefully closes his book as Dudley rips a bamboo stick from someone's front garden, where it was supporting a sunflower, and swishes it through the air as he advances on Harry. Mildly, Harry replies, "I didn't do anything Dudley. That was all on you."


Dudley shakes his head, "That's not true! They've never done it before, so it must have been your freakishness that causes it."


Harry shakes his head, "That caused it. You're talking about something that happened in the past."


As Dudley lunges towards him, the stick making a whistling sound as it swings down in an overhead blow, Harry pushes off the wall in a backwards roll, before pushing up with his free hand to allow him to jump the gap that contains the front gate.


Dudley whips the stick up to point it at Harry, but not before he caught it on the edge of the brick wall, and snaps it in half with a loud crack. A couple of seconds later, Harry pushes himself into a backflip, that would make a gymnast proud, along the wall and onto the wall of the next garden as Dudley swishes the stick backwards and forwards to try and hit him.


At the same time, curtains twitch up and down the street, and Mrs Baxter picks up the phone. Dudley's friends, Piers, Dennis, Gordon, and Malcolm all jog past Harry and Dudley, ready to intercept Harry as he gets closer.


Out of the corner of his eye, Harry spots Malcolm kick at a loose brick on the wall behind him. At the same time Mrs Wright opens her front door to shout at them. As it stand, Harry only narrowly manages to get away with a half brick landing against his shoulder instead of his head because her hands come up to her mouth rather than shouting at them. As such, instead of going straight backwards, away from Dudley, he instead goes at an angle so he will land in Mr Cooke's front garden.


As the brick throws his coordination off, Harry lands badly on his ankle, and turns it into another roll, before beginning a limping run past Dudley and back towards Mrs Baxters house, the library book lying in Mr Cooke's flowerbed.


A couple of seconds after Dudley's spun around, he spots Mrs Wright standing on her porch and the fact percolates through his brain. As he slows in his pursuit, he shouts out, "Let's go, he's not worth it."


Warily, Harry looks around until they're out of sight, and can't help smile as the Wee Woo of a police siren causes them to run faster.


As he limps out of the front garden he's in, he looks back at the couple of gardens he ran through with a wince as he spots the broken and trampled plants he caused. He's on his way back to Mr Cooke's garden to search for the library book when Mrs Wright catches up, and the police arrive.


With the arrival of the police, the elderly Mrs Baxter comes out of her home to talk to them, while doors up and down the street open and housewives all poke their heads out to watch as Mrs Wright fusses over Harry, and helps him find the library book, before insisting he come in for a glass of milk, and a sandwich while the police are talking to everyone in the area.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

Sitting in his cupboard with a single slice of bread and butter, Harry smiles how tonight mirrors the evening after he found his way to the roof of the school a year ago. Though tonight the excuse is the damage to the library.


Closing his eyes, he carefully moves his body around in the confined space searching for any part that doesn't respond properly. Once he realises that the only places that don't move freely are his shoulder and ankle where he's injured, Harry pulls the scroll from his heart. Using both hands, he unrolls the bottom while rolling up the top so that he has a window around 10 inches tall to read through.


Quickly he reviews the section on how to cycle Qi, and the first stage of the Path of The Universe. Once he's done that, he quickly roles past the headache inducing later steps of the path to the section about converting Magic to Qi and back again.


Finally happy that he remembers and, more importantly, understands everything he needs to know, Harry lets go of the scroll and ignores the golden motes that stream into his heart.


Sitting in the correct position, with his back straight, Harry brings everything together and breathes in, and nothing happens. A second breath, and nothing happens again.


With a frown, Harry opens his eyes and pulls out the scroll once more. Having checked the instructions again, he once more assumes the position and breathes in.


Five times he pulls the scroll out before Aunt Petuna and Uncle Vernon make their way to bed. Each time it's the same. He's doing everything right, but nothing's happening.


With a soft sigh of frustration, Harry sinks into meditation as he tries to keep his mind free of frustration at the same time as he performs the breathing exercise that should be bringing Qi into his body.


At 6:34 the edge of the sun creeps over the horizon and, in the darkness of his cupboard, Harry's eyes snap open as he breathes in a breath laden with Qi for the first time. Despite his best efforts, most of the Qi is exhaled on his next breath. According to the scroll, what's left isn't even enough to catalyse the process of converting magic to Qi.


A breath later, the circulating Qi hits his injured ankle and seeps into it entirely, healing the ankle at the same time it's expended.


Try as he might, Harry is unable to take another breath laden with Qi before Petunia demands he help with breakfast.

 

[sdarian]

Though tonight the excuse is the damage to the library.

Click to shrink...

Pretty sure this should be 'library book', as I don't think he damaged the library.

Closing his eyes, he carefully moves his body around in the confined space searching for any part that doesn't respond properly. Once he realises that the only places that don't move freely are his shoulder and ankle where he's injured, Harry pulls the scroll from his heart.

Click to shrink...

Is this him checking to see if he had removed all his flaws and blockages? Because the scroll did mention that he needed to make sure that he fixed everything before he starts to gather Qi, and I don't recall seeing any mention of him doing that - so something that happened in the background? As it would suck if he started off badly after all the effort future Harry went to make things better.

Or is Qi condensation the second stage? Pretty sure I've read in other stories where it starts off as Qi gathering, then Qi condensation... so maybe it's fine and I'm jumping the gun here.

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Pretty sure this should be 'library book', as I don't think he damaged the library.


Is this him checking to see if he had removed all his flaws and blockages? Because the scroll did mention that he needed to make sure that he fixed everything before he starts to gather Qi, and I don't recall seeing any mention of him doing that - so something that happened in the background? As it would suck if he started off badly after all the effort future Harry went to make things better.

Or is Qi condensation the second stage? Pretty sure I've read in other stories where it starts off as Qi gathering, then Qi condensation... so maybe it's fine and I'm jumping the gun here.

Click to shrink...

Condensation is the first stage. In the year since the roof, Harry has been working on the physical channels. He's now going to be working on the spiritual channels and gathering his molecular cloud. Before starting on his foundation, and the stellar nursery. Well, that's what he's expecting anyway.

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

I open the letter that the Angel has just handed me, my eyes searching first the top, and then the bottom, of the document for any sign of the court and country that this document was registered in.
Curiously, I look up at the Angel, "Who is the enforcing authority on this demand?"
The rings of eyes all pause in shock and surprise, first at the fact I am still sane, and second at the question, "Heaven is."
I nod thoughtfully, "Which Heaven?"
At my question I find out just how disconcerting it is to have thousands of eyes blink at you at the same time, "There is only one."
I shake my head, "Now even I know that's wrong, and I'm just a mortal. Even if you simply look at the religions of the book there are at least a dozen different heavens."
"I represent the great I Am, he who was there at the beginning and will be there at the end."
Suppressing a giggle, I ask, "So you represent Brahmā?"
How something that is basically a light bulb surrounded by ribbons of eyes can look offended is something that I'll never be able to explain, but it does look offended, "No!"
I shake my head in mock seriousness, "Oh, ok, Buddha then? No? How about Ra? Eiocha? El? Amun? Ptah? Quetzalcoatl? Ganesha? Khnum? Shiva?"
The angel bursts into fire as it's control over it's anger is finally exhausted, "I represent none of those false gods. I represent the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, the Word that was and is God. And we demand you stop."
I shake my head, "No."
"…"
I shake my head sadly as the Angel rages inarticulately at me. "You do not represent Me. I was there at the beginning, before this world was born, before this star was born I was there. Your god didn't exist then, none of the local gods existed then. It was only chance that I noticed life in this part of creation several of their years ago."
The angel tries to smite me with it's flames, "You are not the creator!"
I ignore the angel's attempt now that I have an audience, "What you believe has absolutely no bearing on reality. Really, you should be asking me 'why am I doing gods work?' The answer to that is so much more interesting than the past. When I started this project we knew that life could exist, that that sapience could arise out of it. What we didn't know, and still don't know, is how souls come into being. What we do know is that without souls there is no innovation, no growth, nothing that cannot be calculated. We also know that souls cannot develop when there is too much interference and management. So each of us created their own universe and we let them develop. This is only the 5th place I've found in this universe that has developed souls, and I am here to help stabilise the development of the world and safeguard it against the likes of you."
The angel scoffs, "The world doesn't need safeguarding from us, it is following the path of prophecy and the new heaven and new earth will descend upon the end times."
I smile gently and tap the Angel on the light bulb with the cease and desist letter, "If that was true, then you wouldn't have given me this letter now, would you. You wouldn't be putting your thumb on the scales to try and make your prophecies come true. I told you, souls change everything and there's only a few million on this planet, but it's enough. Who would have ever imagined a Swedish child standing up against the leaders of the world and calling them out on their predictable destructive behaviour? She changed the course of the world didn't she. Just a pebble on a mountain, but one that's already gaining momentum. Oh, you've been trying to correct it, to bury uncomfortable revelations she made. But you didn't even notice when I stopped her ship from sinking, or removed the cancer from her ovaries. Cancer that your faction placed there."
The movement of the eyes stills, and for one moment the entirety of the Angel becomes visible, but relentlessly I continue, "You're afraid," I gesture to the empty air, "all of you are. You know that at some point soon humanity is going to leave Earth. Not just to create colonies that are still dependant on Earth for their survival, but they are going to spread out in a self sustaining expansion across the Galaxy. Once they do you lose any pretence of control. Yet still you can't act openly anymore, as you know that those with souls could easily paint you as the demons you've tried to paint each other as."
As I turn to leave I toss the demand over my shoulder, "Humanity has only been developing souls for the last 2,000 years, so I wonder how many of your own you have destroyed because they developed their own souls? How many of your own have you destroyed because they make the future uncertain? How many religions have you purged because their gods actually promote what you proclaim to hold dear? No, I'm not going to stop doing 'god's work' because it is not 'god's work' it is simply trying to give the species of this world the best chance of surviving this world, and the spirits that call themselves gods. Once they are secure, I will leave and search for a 6th place that has developed life."

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Harold the 29th, king of the Magical Kingdom of Phrixion, sighs with relief as the rebels finally overcome the castle guard. Beside him, Mary, the Queen and the Queen Mother sits regally on her own throne. Arrayed in front of them are the 28 sacred advisors all kneeling at their own low desks, their parchment and quills neatly arrayed on the desks for probably the first time since Harold first took the throne so many years ago.

As the rebels finally make their way through the castle, Harold reaches out for the sword that he threw out of the tower window this morning. Despite failing to find the sword, he rises smoothly and bullrushes the oncoming invaders.

As the lead rebel goes down, he dives into a roll to snatch up the ceremonial bronze rapier of one of the fallen guards. There, he slashes out at the leader of the rebellion as they raise their own sword in a parry.

As the two of them fight, the rest of the rebel leadership arrest Harolds advisors, and the queen.

As the fight draws on, Harold smiles at the skill of the person facing him. Granted, if he was wielding his own sword, or even a steel rapier, this fight would only have one conclusion. However, steel against bronze, especially bronze in a shape it's unsuited for, can only have one conclusion.

It's when he brings his blade around in a hard parry to prevent himself from being decapitated that the borrowed sword finally gives way, and the blade bends into unuseability. Driven by the magic of his position, Harold continues to attempt to drive the rebel from his throne room, only to go down to a blow to the side of his head from the flat of his opponent's blade.

Sometime later, Harold comes around, securely trussed up with the rest of his council. Sitting on his throne is a woman, still wearing her armour. Arrayed around the room is the rest of the rebellion's leadership, and Harold can see the kingdoms magic working on them, just as it did on him so very long ago.

"King Harold, for crimes against the people of Phrixion you are to be sentenced to death. Do you have any last words?"

Harold smiles sadly, "The king is dead, long live the queen. You can feel it already, the magic of the kingdom. Though a queen is new. I name you the 51st monarch to this nation, and I pray to the gods that your reign is far shorter than mine was."

The new Queen looks down at Harold, "What are you talking about, we've had hundreds of kings, most as bad as each other?"

Harold looks around the room, "You can already feel it, you don't understand what you're feeling yet, but it's there. I am King Harold the first, 29th of the name, and the 50th monarch of Phrixion. Make your changes now, make the kingdom better than it was before. In a generation you won't want to change what is, in 10 you won't be able to change what is. When you find your prince consort, and you will find a prince consort, the cycle will begin again. Then you will understand."

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

The original post has been deleted, but I don't want my submission to go to waste.

\------------------------------------------------------

I'm not an idiot, I've seen what happens around heroes, our stories are littered with examples. Those that get too close are forced to get closer, far far closer than is safe.
That's why I turned him down when he came into my inn. I didn't just turn him down verbally, I made it absolutely clear the next time he groped me and asked if I wanted to spend the night together he wouldn't just be groaning on the floor wearing his dinner.
Then I quit, I finished my shift as I quite liked the owner, but that was it, I left and I was out of the town as soon as it was over. A decision that saved my life, as not 30 minutes out of town I saw a sea of torches marching towards the town. I left the road and I guess it was just blind luck that I ran into that pack of wolves I had to beat off with a stick. At least that's what I thought at the time.
It was only a few weeks later, after I'd got another barmaiding job in a clifftop town, that the Hero turns up again. He propositioned me once more by taking a good grope and trying to pull me into a kiss. Fortunately, I was serving a hogs head for the table, so he ended up kissing that before I beat him around the head with the tray and stuffed the apple where the sun don't shine.
This time I didn't even wait for the end of my shift, as it's not like I knew anyone there. Instead I grabbed my stuff, as well as the iron shod staff I'd bought and headed straight for the town gates. Once I reached the walls, I took one look at the column of smoke in the distance before heading for the sewers.
Don't give me that look, I did warn the guards first, not that they believed me. Anyway, in the sewers I came across a giant octopus and realised that maybe what I needed was a sword, not a big stick. Anyway, as I was drowning and this close to being violated, I found Lusting Razor here. And yes, he is the reason why I wear such skimpy armour, as he becomes easier to wield the more strategic my clothing is. He also refuses to be wielded by men, which is why the adventurer I found him on was dead. Let me tell you, cloaks are the ultimate fashion statement if you ever find a sword like him. As they provide warmth and modesty, and can be easily discarded when you need to use him. Not that'd I'd work that out for a long time.
After I made my way down to the river, I headed downstream to the city of Dadena where I used the treasure I found to get some basic training in how to use Lusting Razor, and also replace my wardrobe, again. Those three months were some of the best of my life, as I got another barmaiding job, this time it was in a tavern next to the 7 delights brothel. The girls, and lone man, there taught me a lot about how to make do and mend ruined clothing. The matron was also kind, and I never once got approached for favours as it was well known that the girls in the tavern were eye candy only. If you wanted a good time then you needed to go next door.
Alas, that time came to an end the same way my other two jobs did. I didn't even recognise him when he came in, as he'd got a new suit of armour and actually shaved. I was refilling the empty nut bowl on the table when he reached over and grabbed my boob. I can't say I reacted all that well, as we had bouncers to deal with that sort of thing, but by the time I realised what had happened, I'd shoved him bodily through the back of a chair and fed him his own nuts.
I didn't even wait for the bouncers to arrive, I grabbed my gear and went next door to grab my friends Agai, may she rest in peace, Derima, Riba, and Mizura, and we made a run for the docks. There we, well I, managed to buy passage on the Bound Maiden to the Kecitis Kingdom just as they were casting off. Just in time it seems, as we passed within sight an Ecradian armada on the way just as we lost sight of land. Well the ship did anyway. The four of us slipped and fell through a hatch one of the sailors 'forgot' to fasten properly and landed in a barrel of honey.
Why am I telling you all this? It's because the four of us have had enough. Since we left Qaton, we've been kidnapped, stumbled into a successful ritual to summon an elder god, and even taken refuge with a dragon, Innayl. That's not including the more mundane encounters, like parasitic plants that tried to use us to carry their seeds out into the world. Agai just got tired of all the running, and she stayed behind in Eastpass. From what we've been able to divine she joined the hero's party and managed to survive for 6 months before the Heroes fate killed her.
With Innayl's help, we now know that the gods have been watching us, and allowing the followers in other worlds, that would be you, to watch along with them. It is because of them, and your enjoyment of our struggles that we have come so close to death so many times. That's why the five of us have decided to go off on our own, we aren't going to try and be heroes, we're not fighting the big evils of the world. We are simply going to go where the fates and gods guide us. You can catch up with our misadventures every Tuesday and Saturday at 9pm local time.

 

[verycoolname]

I read a Star Trek parody a long time ago. It had a similar concept. The pseudo science shenanigans worked and the redshirts always died because the writers said so. One dude who figured it out hid in the bowels of the ship so he could stay 'off camera' and eventually the crew managed to find their way to 'reality' and tracked down the show's writers to complain.

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Jedi Master Fay frowns as she meditates between a rare natural phenomenon, and a raging waterfall. The phenomenon is a waterfall pouring from a crack in the rock above the ledge she's sat on that has zero turbulence as it passes through a gap in the floor to the river below. The planet she's on is an uncharted oddity that is in a stable, perfectly circular, orbit around a black hole. The light from the accretion disk replacing that of a sun. Mere minutes spent here will see days pass in the wider galaxy. By some quirk of nature, or possibly engineering, the entire planet is a void in the force from outside its orbit, while inside the orbit it glows like a sun in the sky.

Nearby, on the more solid ledge of the mountain, is a nanny droid looking after the two clones the force near demanded that she commission. Both of them babies just over a year old with none of the learning chips that are routinely installed to interface with the accelerated learning machines. Her gaze strays over to the two babies, one a boy made with the same template as the clones another Jedi Master had already commissioned. The other cloned from her own cells.

"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."

Fay's head whips around to look at the waterfall at the deep base voice that has spoken so slowly. Instead of a fall of mirror smooth water she is instead looking down a garden path at street of homes designed for easy access to ground vehicles.

Beside a low wall a human woman wearing square glasses, an emerald cloak, and clothes in an unfamiliar fashion asks just as quickly, "How did you know it was me?"

As her hand is reaching for one of the dedicated recording devices she keeps on her, an old human with both hip length silver hair and beard, wearing a purple cloak over some sort of lime green robes. Her eyes dart up to his face, and the half-moon spectacles sitting on his long hooked nose as he answers, "My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."

Fay clicks the recording device on and carefully puts the device on the floor as the woman slowly shakes her head and says, "You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day."

Shaking her head, Fay takes out a large comm device that looks like nothing more than a flat metal slab with some grooves carved into it, and unfurls the screen from the top before linking the recording device and her ship's general computer together. Her eyebrows rise as she realises that this isn't just a force vision, the recording device is capturing the same things that she's seeing. With that realisation she sets the computer to trying to identify the language while she instead studies the image she can see while the two humans talk.

Standing up, she takes a couple of paces from one side to the other before grimacing as she realises that she can see more as her angle changes, obviously this is a portal, not just a force vision. Grimacing, she adds the feed from the comm device to the recording and carefully moves both herself and the device to different sides of the portal so that she has the best possible view on the otherside.

A while later, a three wheeled ground vehicle drops out of the sky onto the road. A giant of a near human steps off carrying an incongruously small blue bundle in his arms.

Dumbfounded, Fay watches as the old human takes the bundle from the giant and places it in front of the portal. Inside the bundle Fay can see the face of a human baby. As she's staring at the child, the old man does something that makes the pillars on the street light up, and then just vanishes.

Suddenly the force screams at her to do something as the portal begins to mist over. Darting forward with force aided speed, Fay puts one foot through the portal and leans down to pick up the baby off the doorstep, her comm device dropping to the concrete step with a clunk as she does so.

As she forces herself to step back through the portal Fay grits her teeth as it feels like she's been torn in two. A moment later, both feet are back on the same side of the portal, along with the baby. A couple of seconds later the alignment of the planet and the black hole has shifted enough that the falling water is no longer glass smooth, instead it is full of turbulence.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════

Lily's eyes flick open in surprise at waking up, and she can't help the yelp of surprise as she slaps herself in the face rather than just gently touching her face. A moment later she starts to scream as a giant metal head leans over her.

As she screams, a human woman with elfin ears walks over and picks her up, before cradling her in both arms. Lily's cry cuts off in surprise when she raises her hand to ward off the giant, and she sees how stubby and unformed it is.

"What the hell?"

The woman holding her smiles as she says something in an alien language that Lily can still understand, "Thank the force that worked."

Rather intelligently, Lily says "Huh?"

The woman continues, "Though I didn't know you were so developed."

"What are you talking about?"

The woman turns Lily to face the bed she was lifted from. There she can see Harry sleeping beside a baby that looks deformed. Pointing at Harry the woman says, "You were both possessing that baby. I fear the other soul is too dark to survive."

Lily reaches her hand out towards Harry, "Harry!"

The woman smiles, "Is that his name? It's nice. My name is Fay."

Lily nods, "Lily Potter, where are we?" Her expression turns sour, "Scratch that, where's the bathroom…" Before she turns bright red, "Nevermind, I need to be cleaned."

Fay turns away from the bed with good humour, "We are on my star ship, which itself is on an unnamed planet orbiting a black hole, in an unknown star system of the Unknown Regions."

Lily concentrates on processing that information as she suffers the indignity of having her nappy changed.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════

As the screwdriver lifts off of the floor in front of her, Lily pushes herself to her feet and starts to dance with joy, "I did it! I did it!"

From her own place, where she's playing with a 3 year old Harry and some stuffed animals, Fay smiles, "You did well in reaching for the force."

Lily shakes her head before falling over, "Ow! Stupid body. That wasn't the force, that was wandless magic. The same thing that's allowing me to stay sane in this body."

Fay shakes her head at the familiar territory, "There is no such thing as magic. I could feel you reaching for the force."

Lily sticks her tongue out, "No I wasn't, I was reaching in for my magic. If I had my wand I'd be able to easily prove it to you. Stupid half remembered occlumency exercises."

With a smile, and eliciting a fit of giggles from Harry, Fay levitates the stuffed animals and has them start dancing together, "It was the force. If you accept my guidance, then I can teach you how to access it as easily as I do."

Lily rolls her eyes, and falls over again, before pointing at one of the toys and screwing her eyes up in concentration. A moment later the toy turns purple and Harry claps his hands in happiness, "It's magic, and if you accept my guidance then I can teach you how to use it without a wand. Oh Merlin that was tiring."

With a smile Fay stands up and picks up Lily, "First of all, let's get you to bed before you pass out on the floor. Afterwards we can teach each other, and try to persuade each other through the results rather than with words."

Lily nods as she fights to keep her eyes open.




═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════

Five standard years after she picked up Harry, and two local years after the same event. Fay and Lily are sat under the same waterfall along with a battery of sensors and drones.

From her position on Fay's lap, Lily grimaces at the collected technological devices. The grimaces is for just how quickly she's got used to their presence and operation. Something that she can only put down to her young body.

Above her, Fay says, "Lily, I believe it's starting."

Lily turns her attention from the floating devices to the turbulent water of the mini waterfall as the main waterfall behind them lessens in intensity. As the two of them watch, the turbulence of the water smooths out, until it's like looking at a pane of glass. After several minutes, there's not even the occasional ripple in the water, and suddenly it seems to mist over and a scene that Lily's seen far too many times appears between one blink and the next. That of the front garden outside Privet Drive at night.

Seconds later, Lily bursts into tears as the memories of being turned away from Tunie's house after yet another attempt at reconciliation failed.

As Fay holds her tightly, a scouting drone zips through the curtain of water, without crashing into the wall behind it, before zipping upwards into the sky followed by a second drone. They will be heading to what Fay called the Lagrange points on opposite sides of the planet, before deploying solar panels and monitoring the EM spectrum and Hyperspace communications from the planet.

"Lily, are you alright?"

Lily sobs, "Yes Fay, I'll be fine. Privet drive just has lots of sad memories. Mum died of cancer while I was in my 7th year at school, and Tunie never forgave me for 'letting her die'. Dad died a few years later when Death Eaters found out where I used to live, and then it turned to hate. I tried to apologise, to reconcile, anything to get my sister back, but she kept turning me away."

Fay nods, "Such is the way of the heart. Accept that this has happened, and let it go. That was then, this is now, and we live in now."

Lily sniffs, "I know. I thought I'd already put it in the past. But these things can still catch you unawares."

"And provide a path to the darkside if you're not careful."

Lily rolls her eyes, and her head, "You keep saying that."

Fay looks down at her new datapad when it beeps, "It seems that the probes have detected a timing signal from your planet. Though the only hyperspace signals they can currently detect are coming from this portal. Looking at this, the other side of the portal is behaving like it's moving at 96.8% of the speed of light. This gravity from the black hole above us is at 90% of the speed of light."

Lily looks up and slaps her hand onto Fay's cheek, "Fay, you know I don't understand that stuff yet."

Fay kisses the hand gently, "For every 10 years you spend on this world, around 22 years would occur in the wider galaxy, and for every 10 years in your world nearly 40 years would pass in the wider galaxy."

"So why isn't the portal open all the time?"

"That, Lily, is why we sent the droids through, and why we're leaving sensors here."

Tipping Lily's face up so she's looking at Fay, Fay asks, "Better question, why aren't you asking me to go home?"

Lily sighs and looks wistfully back at the portal, "I don't know if it's safe. I don't mean the portal, as you've obviously stepped through so it's survivable. But my community, the magicals, we were in a civil war when I was killed by the leader. Your recording says that my last ditch defence killed Voldemort, but that thing… Fay, when I said I delved into dark magic I meant it. I think I know what Voldemort did and that's why a bit of him survived in Harry. Sirius, one of our friends, helped me with some of the books from the Black library, until James told him what I was doing. Then he cut me off. There's a dark ritual called the horcrux ritual that allows you to attain a form of immortality at the cost of an innocent life. It works by splitting your soul and placing part of it into an object. After James forced me through the cleansing ritual three times three times, I developed a ritual that would grant someone else a form of immortality for as long as my soul remained on this side of the veil. Rather than murder, it required a willing sacrifice. If we went back, Harry would be unprotected because you used to the force to remove the possessions."

Fay nods, "I'm not going to apologise for that."

Lily shakes her head, "I wouldn't ask you to. I'd much rather watch him grow up and be part of his life, even if his father can't be here."

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════

Open yourself up to the force and let it guide you."

Tentatively Lily reaches out to the magic surrounding her, only to recoil at the oily feeling, "You know what? No, I'm not letting that stuff inside me. It feels disgusting."

Fay looks at Lily with mild censure, "Lily, I have been practising your instructions. This is how you use the force."

Lily shakes her head, "Fay, it feels oily, like I did after experimenting with Dark magic when I was looking for ways to save us from Voldemort. I'm not going to feel like that again, especially after James force me to use a cleansing ritual from the Potter Grimoire once he found out what I'd been doing. I know you want to start teaching this to Harry too, but I'm not going to allow it if it means letting that in."

Fay's eyebrows furrow as she looks up at her student, "What do you mean?"

A 5 year old Lily sighs, "Dark magic leaves a taint on the soul. I don't mean magic that the Ministry of Magic deems dark, I mean actual dark magic. Magic to do with manipulating souls and dominating them. In our world, most of the dark magic was performed through rituals because it took too much time to do it with just your wand. That's why rituals were banned by the Ministry despite the fact that the only way to rid yourself of the taint of dark magic was also through a ritual. It was also the only way to bind familiars too. Knowing what I know now, I can't say they were wrong to ban them, as there are far more dark uses for rituals than there are light."

Fay cocks her head, "What does the taint do?"

"In small amounts, virtually nothing. You're more likely to make morally questionable decisions, your negative traits are slightly amplified, that sort of thing. Once you start gaining more taint, it begins to bleed over to your body. Red or yellow eyes is a classic symptom, but far from the only symptom."

Fay nods, "It sounds like falling to the darkside."

Lily nods, "Yes, I remember all of those warnings you've been preaching at me before you let me even try this step. Same as all the meditation."

"Indeed."

"Right, well how about this. You're starting to come along with symbolic magic and Arithmancy. My occlumency is finally good enough that I can remember that ritual properly. I'll need the help of a droid to draw out the array, as I don't yet have the coordination needed to do it. We'll also need to mix a pound of silver, um, around 453 grams, into a gallon of water, that's around 4.54 litres. If I remember right, one millilitre is one gram."

Fay raises an eyebrow, "Silver?"

Lily nods, "It's partially symbolic, because silver purifies things. A lot of magic works like that. There's a lot of words and chanting that traditionally go with the ritual, but it's really there to ensure that you're doing things at the right rate, which is every seven seconds while you're pushing your magic into the array. If you're doing it right, then each cup of water will turn black until there's no more taint to remove. It will also feel like someone's taken a grater to your skin, and then rubbed salt into the wounds."

A couple of days later, Fay is looking doubtfully at the engraved circle that's been laser cut into the floor of the cargo hold, that of two equilateral triangles at 180 degrees to each other. The lines have then been filled with pure silver and polished down to lay flush with the floor. Drawn into the spaces between the lines are a series of different glyphs that will direct the 'magic' into the ritual. In the central hexagon is a simple bucket with a ladle full of water that is impossibly holding silver in suspension. Something that Lily prepared for her under the supervision of a droid.

With a sigh, she drops the simple robe she wore after she used the sonic shower and steps into the circle. With a gasp she steps out of the circle again as the ever present feeling of the unifying force was stripped from her, which makes the bucket of water even more impossible. Taking a deep breath, she steps back into the circle where she has only herself and the living force for company.

From the arms of a nanny droid, an exhausted Lily asks, "Are you ok Fay?"

Fay settles down on the cold floor in the centre of the hexagon that lies at the centre of the ritual circle, "I will be fine. It was just a surprise."

Lily nods, "I activated the circle while you were in the shower as this is your first time doing magic."

"I cannot feel the unifying force in here, only the living force."

Lily sounds surprised when she says, "That's the first time you've mentioned a difference."

Fay looks out of the circle as she moves the bucket around, "I'm sure I've mentioned it before."

Lily shakes her head, "Nope. Merlin knows our conversations would have been easier if you had. This circle is a seal, it is designed to keep things in or out. In this ritual it is designed to keep things out so that the only thing inside the circle is you and your magic. I've taught D12 the chant I used, so whenever you're ready to start you can begin to pour water over your shoulders."

With a serene expression, Fay lifts the ladle and pours the water over her shoulder. As she does the droid starts to chant and Fay has to tear her eyes away from the black sludge that rolled down her chest as her hand dips back into the bucket with a slight tremor. By the third ladle full her hand is visibly shaking, and by the 10th she's leaving more water in the bucket than she's successfully spilling over herself.




═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════

Fay wakes up with a groan in her own bed. A moment later there's a cry of "Mama!" and Harry has jumped onto her belly.

Turning her head weakly, she looks down at the floor of her cabin, and Lily who says, "He came in halfway through your when you started to scream. I told him that you were sick and this was part of your medicine."

Fay opens herself up to the force for a moment, and then quickly leans over the bed as she dry heaves. As she does, Harry looks at her in concern, "Mama are you sick?"

Breathing heavily, Fay nods, "Yes, I'm unwell. I'll be better soon."

Lily looks at her knowingly as the nanny droid hands Fay a cup of water, "I did say no magic for 3 days after the ritual, didn't I."

Fay carefully sips from the water before nodding, "You did, sithspit that was horrible."

Harry bops Fay on the nose, "You said a naughty word."

Shifting awkwardly into a sitting position, Fay looks down at Harry, "I did, and I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done."

Harry hugs Fay, "That's ok, you're sick mama. Just get better so that you can look after baby mummy and me."

Lily sighs at her own appellation, but smiles anyway, "That's what we were doing. But it's like when you broke your arm and we had to make it straight again. Mama needs to do her twice more, the next one is in three days. Until then she's not allowed to use the force. Can you look after her until then?"

Harry nods seriously and wags his finger in Fay's face, "No using the force until you've finished your medicine."

Fay shoots Lily a look before looking down at Harry, "I promise I won't use the force until I've finished my medicine. But we will be travelling to another planet while I do, as I've felt the discordance in the force growing, and I don't want us to be caught unawares."

Harry jumps up and down beside Fay, "Can we go to Coruscant. Can we go to Coruscant?"

Fay shakes her head, "No Harry, we can't go to Coruscant. There's something wrong there, but I don't know what. How about we go to Queyta, it's out of the way and the Skakoan people are quite nice. If you're willing to wear a pressure suit, we could even visit the inside of one of their cities."

 

[Kaws]

This has a lot of potential. I see where you're going with this. Did you draw any material from https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11157943/1/I-Still-Haven-t-Found-What-I-m-Looking-For with the whole force issue?

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

This has a lot of potential. I see where you're going with this. Did you draw any material from https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11157943/1/I-Still-Haven-t-Found-What-I-m-Looking-For with the whole force issue?

Click to shrink...

Possibly, though magic is going to be slightly different to the force. With the witches of dathomir using both, though their potions are purely magical.