Chapter 93:
Obi Wan:
Master Hebert moved to the center of the platform, the wind atop the highest canopies gently catching her robes and dark hair. Obi-Wan watched her carefully, both with his eyes and in the Force, sensing the tremble in the latter. A great disturbance, rippling out from
here, specifically.
Hebert's power was pressed tightly around her, contained and compressed into little more than a sphere of Force energy that, to his mind's eye, shimmered like a heat haze surrounding her body.
The younger woman turned, glancing up at the clear blue Kashyyyk sky before facing them. "I've never called her with others so physically close. I'm not sure how this might affect you."
Her placid mask was in place, unflappable and unmoving. For all their years of friendship, Obi-Wan could never really tell what she was thinking when she did this; these moments where her very form seemed chiseled out of unfeeling stone.
But then she let out a breath, as though trying to huff away the tension that was coiling inside of her, shoulders sagging, head dropping.
"She probably doesn't want to hurt you." The woman said. "But brace yourselves anyway, cause it'll feel like it on your end."
And that was the last warning they were given before that tightly compressed sphere of Force power cracked.
—
Halis Vushan
It was strange how one could be both incredibly eager, and also incredibly nervous.
And fascinated. There was certainly that too.
A part of him, a surprisingly large part truth be told, wished he could be there with the other Masters. If not to participate, at least to
observe. Dallon and Hebert were, as far as he knew, unique subjects in the entire history of the Order.
No one else
had a massively powerful entity within them that granted them special abilities and - in Master Hebert's case - enhanced their Force capabilities.
At least when one dismissed examples involving possession by the restless spirits of ancient Sith.
It needed to be recorded.
But, alas, his curiosity as a doctor and scientist had to be pushed aside. The Council had been firm, stating that it was too potentially dangerous.
More than that, Master Hebert had been firm.
His job was to look after Padawans Karla and Ahsoka.
It wasn't a hard task, really, not the least of which because he had help.
"It's
hot." Asimov complained, then smacked the back of his neck, grimacing. "And there are too many damn bugs without the Commander around."
"It's not the heat, it's the humidity." Orwell chuckled. "You're just being whiny."
Ahsoka smirked. "What!? Asimov? Complaining with no tech nearby?
Never."
"Oh, ha-ha." The clone grunted as his squadmates laughed at his expense.
Halis had dealt with children frequently as part of his work, and in situations like this, he often found distractions were a tried and sure way to keep children out of trouble.
It also allowed him an opportunity to confirm something.
He had a rough outline of how the events of the day would go with Master Hebert and the Council. They would fly out to a meditation platform that was an almost
excessive distance away by his estimation, but he was hardly an expert.
Still, the travel time allowed him to easily invite the two Padawans to a late breakfast, making idle chatter and watching as young Ahsoka tried to speculate on just what exactly this whole trip was about.
The clones didn't seem to have any idea, With Weber shrugging and saying: "Some Force mumbo-jumbo. As long as the Commander's alright by the end of it, who cares?" And he seemed sincere in that.
Karla speculated with Ahsoka at least, but his senses picked up the faint traces of… if not lies, then obfuscation.
The young Twi'lek, it seemed, had more of an idea than she let on and was protecting her Master.
He did not have enough information to know if this mindset of hers was harmful or not, and so he was willing to hold his silence for the time being.
The Wookiee cuisine was a simple affair. Meats, whole vegetables., and some fruits for dessert. Simple, but unbelievably filling. Not the least of which was due to the sheer portion sizes.
Ten to twelve foot tall bear people tended to fill their plates… and the actual plates themselves were rather... immense at that.
Who'd have guessed?
The clones loved it, especially the meats, exotic steaks from beasts they'd never even heard of. Orwell remarked that if Commander Vicky were here she'd join them in celebrating a 'glorious plate of a balanced meat diet', or somesuch.
He got the feeling it was an inside joke of some sort.
Somewhat… predictably, neither he nor the girls were able to fully finish their meals, leaving little over half, but they did take them with them to eat later. The wookiee 'packaging' were tightly wound leaves, bound together with string. It was very novel, for him at least.
After that, he was fairly proud of himself for getting the girls to want to spar together, all the while making it seem like it was Ahsoka's idea. The young Togruta was even insistent by the end.
Yes, it was manipulative, but harmless - and useful.
"Buth of your sabers are set to stun?"
"Yep." "Yes Master." Both girls answered, Ahsoka even going so far as to present them to him for inspection, young Karla following her example after a moment.
They were indeed set to stun. After making an exaggerated show of examining them he offered a nod, and both girls took their places in the practice ring.
Ahsoka was grinning, her simple joy at having someone to practice with showing easily on her face.
By contrast, Karla's features were utterly placid… much like her Master. And that alone confirmed what he'd begun to suspect.
Now the only real question was if Master Hebert was actively contributing to that emulation, or if it was something Karla was beginning to mimic herself for… any number of potential reasons.
"Do your best, little Commanders." The clones cheered from the sidelines.
"Ten credits on the non-human Padawan." Weber cheekily called.
Halis did understand it as a joke that time. Both girls were, of course, non-human. Clever.
He cleared his throat. "The fight will be decided upon the first blow to connect." He called. "Do your best, Padawans, but remember that this is a practice bout. You're not meant to hurt each other."
"Yes, sir." They chorused, neither taking their eyes off the other.
"Begin!"
The two young women fell into their stances. Halis was no
Blademaster, not even by the most generous definition of the term, but he could recognize the opening stances of the seven forms well enough. Young Ahsoka was, of course, utilizing two sabers but the hallmarks of Ataru were seen easily in the foundation of her form. Also mixed in with something else? He doubted someone as renowned as Skywalker, one of Dooku's students, would allow his Padawan to have a form full of mistakes, so there must have been
some extra element that he couldn't quite see.
By contrast, Karla's stance was simple and straightforward, but he could also recognize two distinct foundational styles mixing together; Shien and
Makashi of all things.
The clones whooped and hollered. Ahsoka was the first to move, and her excitement was easy to see, her emotions being worn on her sleeve as she rushed forward.
The Togruta wasted no time, swallowing the distance and opening with a flurry of swings. One to the head, another to the leg.
Karla deflected both, sidestepping a third with controlled, minimal movement.
Ahsoka was faster, stronger, older, and she had the reach advantage even with her blades held in a reverse grip. It looked like the young Twi'lek barely had time to recover from her previous block before she needed to deflect another.
When Ahsoka had an opening, she let loose with a viciously fast kick, one that clearly caught Karla by surprise from what he sensed in the Force, but even so the younger Padawan never once had her mask crack, staring at Ahsoka with a placid, almost half lidded stare that bordered on
bored.
The kick was intercepted at the last moment, Karla's free elbow whipping out to smack solidly into Ahsoka's ankle, making the Togruta yelp with the sharp spike of unexpected pain that must've lanced up her foot.
She hopped away, but Karla wasn't willing to surrender her sudden advantage, her blade now easily switching from the defensive bladework of Shien to the offensive Makashi.
Ahsoka was reeling, and whatever tells may have given her insight into her opponent were hidden away, locked behind the icy shell of the Padawan's exterior mask that emulated her Master so well.
The little Twi'lek's blade suddenly increased in speed, the sheer volume of her attacks doubling. Ahsoka's defenses were on the verge of being overwhelmed before the Togruta shoved with all the focus she had left in her, a wave of Force energy sending the Twi'lek sailing back before she regained her footing, letting Ahsoka catch her breath.
It was genuinely unnerving, not being able to tell a single thing about her as he stared.
He imagined Ahsoka must've felt the same way.
He rubbed at his chin, his mind whirling with the possibilities of what this could mean.
"Excuse me," He whispered to the Clone Lieutenant. "Guelzo, was it?"
The clone nodded, keeping his voice down as he answered. "Aye, sir."
"I must know," He gestured. "Young Karla's… emotional control. Is this a recent change?"
The clone nodded. "Yeah. All smiles usually that one." He shrugged. "Guess we all have to grow up a bit. Too bad it had to be fracking Ilum that did it to her."
Ahh… well…
Hmmmm.
He would need to ask Master Hebert directly if she was-
Halis felt his heart
stop.
Mid lunge, both girls went stiff and still.
The world beneath their feet, the very Force around them, shuddered.
—
Adi Gallia
Once, years ago, Master Adi Gallia had been one of the few to train here on Kashyyyk under Master Hebert's guiding eye.
She'd been one of five. Her partners for that training had been Master Ropal, Master Fisto, Master Kolar and Master Jun-Fan.
They needed to master their fear, so that it could never affect them in combat again.
Master Hebert's assignment had been to bring out that fear.
Even with four Jedi Masters at her side, even knowing that, at the time, they were fighting what was 'merely' a Knight in an exercise where they
were safe, Adi found that fear ready to choke her.
Surrounded by the gloom and dark of the Shadowlands, cut off from all contact, beasts all around her that leapt from the night, threatening to devour them, all the while being
hunted like prey animals never allowed a moment's respite. Each non-day brought a new horror, wound or strain.
Yes, she'd felt that fear
And at the end of it all, when she'd been nearly ready to surrender, her pride as a Council member and a Jedi master be damned, when she felt ready to give up…
There she'd been. Waiting for them.
The last thing they had to overcome.
Master Hebert had looked at them
there as she looked at them
now.
Like she was ready for a fight.
The memory made a shudder pass through her. Adi Gallia and the other Masters had emerged on the other side of that gauntlet with fresh understanding of themselves, and of Hebert. Some, like herself, for the better. Others, perhaps less so.
But the memory let her compare
now to then.
Back then, Master Hebert had been
cold. Pure
cold. An icy
void in the Force, surrounding them, binding them. A spider at the center of its web.
Now, now things were different. Adi could see it in her mind's eye. That signature in the Force.
Her signature. Hebert's. Distinct and
separate from this thing, this Queen Administrator.
A flame, surrounded by icy, gossamer thin threads; millions, if not billions, spreading out like strings of starlight.
Suddenly, it grew.
The threads lost their form, lost amidst a burgeoning power as Hebert's Force presence
surged like an ocean swell in a storm. She, her fellow Masters and Knight Skywalker might have been instantly overwhelmed if not for Master Yoda. The tiny Grand Master acted immediately, like he'd fully expected this, his considerable strength rising to face the moment and match this thing, the two powers smashing into each other like a shield halting a hammer blow before Adi and the other Masters focused, joining in his efforts.
The instant her own power brushed against this icy cold wall she recoiled. It was like before, and yet somehow the memory had dulled the truth in her mind.
It was like an ocean battering down the shore, incomprehensibly vast, yet one
knew it was only the mere surface of it, a fraction that they could
see. They couldn't grasp the whole of it with a million hands or a million lifetimes.
The air crackled with electricity where the energy of the Masters and the power of the Queen Administrator met. Snapping like static, small bursts of forking lightning for now, but they were growing in intensity
Impossibly, Adi felt this power continue to swell, continue to rise and spread. It
towered over them now, rising into the high skies of Kashyyyk above, spreading like an aurora in the Force.
It was deluge falling over them, crashing over them.
She, Master Bei-Shu, and even Obi-Wan strained against the pressure, Master Plo, Yaddle and Yoda increasing their efforts to shield them, taking on the brunt of this titanic effort.
The wroshyr platform shook and trembled under the combined energies, caught in the struggle. Wood that was stronger than durasteel groaned and creaked, chunks of it torn off from the edges of the platform with thunderous cracks as it was ripped apart and caught in the upswell now swirling around them. Leaves, rotten branches and debris began to dance and crash in the air surrounding the platform.
Adi winced as the flooring directly beneath their feet quaked and shuddered, the threat vibrating up their legs as she looked towards Master Hebert.
Still, the woman's expression did not shift. Her eyes were closed now, dark hair whipping across her face, the tresses rising in an unnatural wind, writhing like serpents. Only her hands moved, gesturing in a way Adi did not recognize.
She peered closer, not with her eyes, for they were useless, but with the Force itself.
Power threatened to blind her, raw energy crackling like lightning caught in a bottle as it forked and split in the air between Hebert and the Masters; the world around them quaked, the stars darkened as impossibly even
more power converged and coalesced.
In the center, Hebert's tiny, flickering flame was struck and pierced, the force of the Queen Administrator lancing straight through her like a living lightning rod, glowing, suffused in this Force presence that quickly retreated from her, incapable of - or perhaps - refraining from… overwhelming her even as the woman remained utterly unflappable at what she
must be feeling herself.
More of the platform came apart, sundered and shattered by invisible forces. With a thunderous crack that felt like a physical blow across her whole body, a great gouge was torn across the whole structure between Master Hebert and the other Masters, right along the dividing line where Yoda's power pushed against the Queen Administrator.
Next to her, Obi-Wan was forced to shunt aside a chunk of debris that would have smashed into them all. From their right, Master Plo caught a massive tree trunk in his own telekinetic grip before he tore it apart into harmless slivers of wood with a gesture of his clawed hand, sending the mess of slivers sailing over their heads with little more than a flutter of his robes as the skies darkened above them.
Master Yoda began to rise, hovering in the air, his tiny form belying the sheer
bulwark that he was as he interposed himself between this thing, this uncontrollable singularity, and the rest of the Council.
Adi had never once believed the Jedi Grand Master could be overwhelmed. Never once believed he could ever fail.
He was
Yoda.
He was nothing less than the greatest Jedi to have ever lived.
And yet, in this moment as the storm of power seemed to crackle and roil and still
keep growing, she could feel the strain on him. The enormity of what he was attempting. In her limited view, through her unseeing eyes, even she could understand that this was like fighting a force of nature, and Master Yoda might just… fail.
Then, power reached the Grand Master. A fresh well of energy, vast and seemingly inexhaustible.
It took Adi Gallia a moment to recognize its source.
Knight Skywalker knelt upon the ground behind them, eyes shut in focus, his strength flowing out of him towards Master Yoda, Master Yaddle, Master Plo, and even herself, Obi-Wan and Bei-Shu, fueling their efforts as the bulwark that had been threatening to buckle and break under this sheer presence grew strong once more.
Lightning lanced out, a great discharge of the two opposing forces, and Master Yaddle was the one to push it aside. The tiny woman spread out her hands, sending the energies outwards, some towards the sky, others snapping into the wooden platform itself, letting it catch flame that quickly began to spread like a living, thinking entity in its own right.
At this rate, the platform wouldn't survive long enough for them to complete their task.
She dared one more glance at Hebert.
The woman's eyes were still closed, but Adi could see her hands were closer now, cupped together, as if trying to compress a ball.
Adi heard the brush of her thoughts across her own mind.
"I know. You've been practicing, right?"
Adi didn't hear the response, couldn't; the answer made pain lance across her mind boring through her skull like a migraine.
But still she had enough presence of mind to see Hebert's fingertips brush together, completing the circle.
Power
rushed inward and…
And it was over…
The storm died; the world was still…
For a moment; she was confused, seeing nothing but Master Hebert standing amidst the ruin of what was once her meditation platform; slivers of wood, tree trunks and leaves beginning to rain down from above.
Master Yoda descended, his clawed feet touching the ground before he knelt, seemingly catching his breath as Master Plo knelt at his side, a clawed hand at the grandmaster's back.
Where-
The Force shuddered.
And she knew.
Hebert stood as still as a statue but her mind was an
open door, a hand beckoning them forward to follow.
She hesitated, how couldn't she. But it was Master Yaddle who acted first, marching forward, hopping past the great sundering tear that had been formed during the struggle to reach Master Hebert's side.
The little old woman reached, placing her hand on Master Hebert's own… and followed, her spirit abandoning her body acting like a beacon for the rest of the Masters.
Master Yoda followed after a moment, Master Plo a second behind him.
Master Obi-Wan knelt at her side and quickly, he and Anakin followed their example, little fireflies chasing each other through the currents and eddies in the Force.
Master Gallia took a breath, steeling her resolve and offered what was hopefully a reassuring smile towards the very much shaken Master Bei-shu before she knelt at Obi-Wan's side and closed her eyes.
When she opened them again…
—
Halis Vushan:
It was like being witness to the collapse of a
star.
That was the only way he could describe it.
He did not see it with his eyes, no, but in the Force.
He felt the waves of energy, the two Masters of the Kashyyyk Enclave defending them, shunting aside the brunt of these energies even this far away. Like rocks defending the shoreline from the crashing tide.
It was… incredible.
He was so enraptured he did not notice until he heard the shriek of engines overhead, a fighter howling as it rushed forward, that one of his charges and a handful of the clones were very suddenly
missing.
He rounded on the remaining brothers. Orwell, their demolitions expert, shrugged. 'Innocently'.
"We're duty bound to obey the little commander's orders."
—
Taylor
I could feel Power coursing through me. My body now a living, breathing conduit of energy, so much that it hurt. I could feel myself almost… floating in a sea of Starlight and Force power.
Even not meaning to. Even trying as much as she could… She was still dangerous.
If not for Master Yaddle holding my hand… and that was her. She was making sure that I knew. Because she understood. She could probably see it.
That I was on the verge of drifting away.
Maybe Yoda and Anakin could sense it too. But they must've been exhausted.
The Queen understood. And she'd tried very hard this time.
As much as she could.
I hope she succeeded.
I opened my eyes, my fingers squeezing on Yaddle's. Feeling her squeezing back, her presence in the Force enveloped me, anchoring me, a layer of oil to keep me away from the ocean that suffused my being entirely.
I opened my eyes and beheld the small ones that joined my host/me.
GreatTiny, flickeringSteady candleflamesFires that surrounded us.
IWe spoke.
"Greetings"
It was one word. Only one. In my voice and yet not. Carrying meaning and yet
limited. Confined.
The
little onesMasters did not flinch… IWe were pleased.
IWe succeeded. IWe had not hurt them with our voice.
MyHer hand rose, placed against her chestbeing.
Our voice carried. Through the Force. Through a billion, trillion chittering legs and mouths and claws and wings. Through dimensions and thought and
time.
"I… am the Administrator."
The small beings understood. That was good. That's what Ishewe wanted and had worked for.
WeSheI were close now.
The little ones could understand at long last.
"We. Are Khepri."
(X)(X)(X)
Say what you want about the Queen Administrator; but she learned well from that universe with the blue guy with the big head. =D
In all seriousness while this Kashyyyk chapter was filled with a lot of 'PRESENTATION' the next Kashyyyk chapter is *heavy* in terms of the amount of discussion its going to make in the community I have absolutely no doubt about that. There's A LOT of foreshadowing and even some answers many of you have been waiting for :3
As usual the next three chapters can be found on Patreon where we've reached the conclusion of both Kashyyyk and Nar-Shaddaa right now if you're interested, for just $1.00
We also have a discord and a Tropes page in the following two links
Discord is great for playing games and chilling with friends, or even building a worldwide community. Customize your own space to talk, play, and hang out.
discord.gg
So please, discuss away and hype yourselves up for the next three chapters because they're *all* fucking great IMO
Just my two cents. Thoughts?
