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Author	Topic: Jedi Adept: A Path In The Dark -- Ch. 9 08/24/2008
Kidan Title: TFN EU Staff Registered: Jul '03	Date Posted: 7/6 7:03am Subject: RE: Jedi Adept: A Path In The Dark -- Ch. 3 06/29/2008 - Date Edited: 7/6 7:03am (1 edits total) Edited By: Kidan
	Tahi Another awesome post. You capture Jacen's devious, manipulative thinking well. He's so calculating!!! It's really disturbing. Thanks and thanks! Yes, he's calculating, but I think the most disturbing bit of it is, that despite how calculating he was supposedly in profic, he still wasn't good enough to conquer the galaxy.... I like the way you have the two storylines coming together here: Tahiri's rejection of Luke et al, and now Chase and presumable Noelani. Will Noelani be able to save her Mum from being Jacen's pawn? I guess we'll have to wait and see. I like the adjustment in Tahiri's proposed future from Sith apprentice to Hand btw - that's much more interesting. And yeah, the storylines do draw rather closer together here, and I can tell you taht we'll see them slam together after a while and yup, we'll have to wait and see.... You mentioned (or maybe it was Thrawn) those ridiculous tickle torture exercises in DN. They're an example of the misdirected path Luke had taken that's for sure. The best training would be to try and live normally and experience and deal with normal emotions - the huge range of emotions that living in normal relationships engenders. Those silly exercises are far too synthetic to be useful. Unless, of course, they come up against a race of ticklers! Gah - it's so annoying! It's like Jedi just can't be normal - everything is either excessive or repressed. There's no normal happy medium. nods That was my take on it as well. Or as Formbi said, "But I don't see what the Jedi have against laughing" I worry for Tahiri here - but that's good because it means drama is on the way. I'm hoping that what will redeem her if she falls is her mothering instinct, which is very strong. It's good to worry about Tahiri here, she's made some... dumb decisions due to even dumber ones coming from the Council. The new post will be up later this evening! -----signature----- You sadistic Yank!! - McEwok No Krakana - http://nokrakana.wrighton.org Believe in the Constitution? Ron Paul '08
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DARTH_MU Registered: Feb '05	Date Posted: 7/6 8:44am Subject: RE: Jedi Adept: A Path In The Dark -- Ch. 3 06/29/2008
	c'mon, becoming Jacen's 'pawn' as you put it, might have been the best thing to happen to Tahiri in a long time. it allowed Benirianism to become canon. -----signature----- In Nelani's myriad futures he could dimly glimpse good and kind acts, love, perhaps family and children. Kidan's Apprentice EOV I: Despair (Link Lost) Gone, Gone, and never called me author! Lightsaber123's sock. Crewman aboard the goodship Beneha
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Kidan Title: TFN EU Staff Registered: Jul '03	Date Posted: 7/6 5:20pm Subject: RE: Jedi Adept: A Path In The Dark -- Ch. 3 06/29/2008
	DARTH_MU c'mon, becoming Jacen's 'pawn' as you put it, might have been the best thing to happen to Tahiri in a long time. yeah.... whatever ya say Mu.... it allowed Benirianism to become canon. that hasn't happened just quite yet.... -----signature----- You sadistic Yank!! - McEwok No Krakana - http://nokrakana.wrighton.org Believe in the Constitution? Ron Paul '08
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Kidan Title: TFN EU Staff Registered: Jul '03	Date Posted: 7/6 6:11pm Subject: RE: Jedi Adept: A Path In The Dark -- Ch. 4 07/06/2008
	Noelani glumly stared at the monitor screen. Two messages were displayed there, floating side by side. The words flickered on the screen before her, but they refused to make sense. She was finding it hard to relate the symbols on the screen into actual concepts. She read the words once again. The first she had expected and knew about, as it was the official notification from the Council that she had been transferred from being Tahiri's apprentice to being Master Solusar's. That one was fine. She understood it, though she hated the Council for it. It was the second one that was giving her trouble. It was the second one which she could not gleam meaning from. She read the words again. Noelani, By the time you read this, I'll have left the Temple and the Jedi. I'm sorry. I know that we had just found one another, but I can't suffer under Luke any longer. I know that you'll become a wonderful Jedi one day, and know this; I am proud of you and love you. And I will always be there for you. Love, Tahiri. She rubbed the back of her hand against her eye. There it was. Tahiri had willingly left her. She had run from her, abandoned her and Noelani felt the shattered remnants of her heart crumble and break. Her body hitched as she fought against a sob. Noelani felt tears burning at her eyes, fighting to fall. In the 14 years that she had been alive, she had never felt so alone, so rejected, as she did at that exact moment. In all the years she had spent wondering who her real parents were, she had never felt so abandoned. I wonder if this is how Chase felt. A tear sliced down her cheek, even as a pained smile formed on her face. Conflicting emotions battered at her, brought to life from thinking about Chase for the first time in weeks. His face quickly flashed through her mind's eyes, the wry tilt of his lips, the friendly eyes, and short cropped brown hair. With the suddenness of a summer rainstorm, she was missing him; missing his easy smile, and his simple goodness. A shiver traced its way down her spine, and she sat up suddenly. I'm not going to do this anymore. If Chase can survive out there on his own, then so can I. She grinned, as she grabbed up the small travel satchel which she used on missions. Then she gathered a couple of changes of clothes, and shoved them into the bag. Finally, she stripped out of her Jedi robes, and quickly dressed in the Corellian style of clothing which Tahiri would often wear. She shrugged into her jacket, and snapped her belt around her waist, her lightsaber weighing comfortably at her side. She gathered a few more weapons, placing them on different parts of her outfit and into her bag. She glanced into the mirror, noting that the only visible weapon was her lightsaber, and nodded her head quickly at herself. Then, snatching up her pack, she opened her door, and stepped out into the hallway. A quick glance left and then right revealed no one around, so she turned left, heading towards the bank of turbolifts. She got on one of them, and told the machine to take her to the subbasement. She frowned for a moment when the machine didn't move. Realizing that there was probably some sort of restriction about going to the subbasements, she thought back to how Ben had snuck out of the Temple recently. She starting grinning, as she remembered that he had gone up to one of the upper floors. Ordering the machine upwards, she suppressed a yip of delight when it jerked into motion. Within a few moments, she was in one of the locker rooms, pulling open the laundry dump chute. She knew that this led to the depths of the Temple. She also knew that all those who had tried sneaking out this way had failed. Everyone that is, but Ben. She frowned, and looked around. There was something she was forgetting. Then she remembered, her quarters were watched. If she didn't return soon, then the Temple would be alerted. She lifted her head, and noticed an unmarked door on the far wall. Her eyes lighting up, she rushed to the door and pulled it open. Standing there were four inactive dueling droids. She pushed open the maintenance panel of the first one, and quickly began entering a new set of commands, bypassing the droid's ethical routines. After a few minutes, the droid came to life, its eyes glowing brightly in the dim lighting of the closet, and Noelani snapped the panel close. "I want you to go to room 54Z, lie down on the bed, cover yourself with the blanket and then shut off." "Acknowledged," the droid replied and then trotted off. Noelani grinned as she watched the droid leave the room, and then turned and ran back to the chute. She clambered into it, lodging herself into the air using her back and legs and she used the Force to brace herself, to ensure that she did not fall. The panel snapped shut behind her plunging the chute into darkness. She gasped in surprise. A moment later, a sigh of relief escaped her lips as dim, green emergency lighting turned on. Slowly, she lowered herself, keeping tight control of her movements, inching her way down the chute. Before long, she came to the first ring of sensors, and reached out with the Force, feeling the sensors and how they related to the machinery around them. Then with a flicker of the Force, she fudged the sensors, disrupting them, the way Tahiri had taught her to scramble other monitoring and tracking devices. At that moment, she allowed herself to drop, flashing through the ring of sensors before they could reset themselves. She fell further, and reached for the Force, trying to stop her movement. She jerked to a stop, friction burning her back, the pain slicing through her concentration so fast that she had lost control before she realized it. And she was falling once again. Pain ripped through her as she slammed against the edges of a y-junction in the chute. She clung to it, pushing and pulling with the Force trying to cement her hold. Then as suddenly as her fall had started she was once again anchored. She let out a sight of breath, her body trembling with adrenaline and fear. She closed her eyes, and inhaled deeply, slowly exhaling the breath out. She opened her eyes, and looked around her. The dim, green light revealed the same featureless chutes. She looked down, where her feet hung out over the emptiness, and stretched out with the Force, trying to figure out which direction she should go. At the Force's prompting, she climbed up over the metal lip she held onto, and began crawling down that path. Before long it began to angle downwards at a steeper angle, one just shy of a sheer drop, and she once more wedged herself into the opening, using the Force to keep from falling. She crawled through the chutes for what felt like hours, her back, neck and legs bristled with pain. Then she fell through an opening, slamming hard into a pile of trash. "Eww!" she screamed out as something squished beneath her. She looked around, and saw that she was in a refuse recycling center. A large square room filled knee deep with water, sludge and all sorts of vile and disgusting things. A foul stench came from the water and burned at her nose, making her eyes water. Standing up, her feet slashed through the top layer of filth, and splashed into the tepid water beneath. She winced as the freezing sludge filled her boots, cold slime slipping between her toes, chilling her. Fighting a shiver, she looked around once again, this time finding the door on the far side of the room. She stumbled and splashed through the sludge until she came to the door, and then pressed the activation plate, sighing in relief as it slid open. She stepped through the doorway, and looked around at the underbelly of Coruscant. Quickly she sat down, and pulled off her boots, emptying them of the water. She pulled them back on, wincing at the feeling of wet socks and then stood up. A frown flickered across her face at the dimness of the corridor she was in. Walking forward, she instinctively stepped around the puddles of some unidentifiable liquid, one even more foul smelling than the sludge that still clung to her boots. She rubbed her shoulders, chewing her lip as she wondered if this was the best idea she could have had. ------------------------------- Ulya Tu walked into the chamber that she had claimed for her own. Stone walls, covered by local ivy were surprisingly soothing to her. A bubble-like plant, she knew it was part fungus, was in the center of the room, waiting for her to sit down. Surrounding the cushion-biot were a dozen box plants. On each of the box plants was a holocron. Some where triangles, others octagons; each hideous in their perfect symmetry. Strange glyphs adorned the side; glyphs that Ulya Tu knew from her training under Lumiya to be ancient Sith markings. Sigils of power which told those that could read them which ancient Master had created the holocron. Her hands reached up, and tickled her helmet just below the ear canals. With a hiss, the jaw joint released, and a seam appeared. Ulya Tu lifted the helmet off her head, and set it to the side. She went further into the room, and sat onto the cushion, folding her legs into a standard meditation pose. Her gaze flicked from one holocron to the next as she read the sigils: Nadd, Razzamka, Zannah, Eire, Martal, Parlta, Osar, Xerx, a'Skry, Bik'rya, Venerius, and Thanatos. She despised the evil devices; hated the blasphemy which they represented, but she knew that they were the path to her rise. She had to use them in order to become a Dark Lady of the Sith. To become THE Dark Lady of the Sith. Then she would be able to destroy the Infidels. Then she would be able to destroy the accursed Jeedai. Then she would be able to cast She-Who-Was-Shaped into unending despair, before Ulya Tu took her life as a sacrifice to the True Way. Her lips pulled apart into a ghastly grin, as she reached out towards the holocron in front of her. She noted that it was Martal's holocron, and she ran her finger down its side. The Dark Side of the Force flared through her and into the holocron. Deep within the triangular crystal, lights came on, an ethereal red glow which shone through the hooks and barbs of the Sith writing on the crystal's side. An image began to form above the holocron. It flickered for a moment, before resolving into a half-meter high image of one of the Infidels. Its lower body was attached to the apex of the pyramid by a strand of smoke, and slowly the humanoid blinked its eyes, as it appeared to study her. The hologram stared at her for what seemed an eternity, and then nodded. "I am Martel, the Gatekeeper of this Holocron. What do you want Dark One?" Ulya Tu's grin grew larger as she replied, "I want the power to destroy the Jeedai." "That has long been a goal of the Sith," the hologram said, its head shifting to the side slightly. Ulya frowned, and stood up to begin pacing around the small room. "I care not what your long-dead goals are. All I care about is my own power and revenge." "Revenge is good. But power… power is merely a means unto an end. Not the end itself. What do you seek?" the hologram replied. Ulya Tu paused in her pacing and stared at the hologram. The words of her former Mistress flowed through her head, a code that she had been forced to memorize and then recite hundreds of times. Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me. "Freedom," she finally snarled at the hologram. "I seek freedom; freedom from my fears; freedom from those who would subjugate me and my race. I seek the freedom to destroy those who oppose me." Then she turned away from the accursed device, and clenched her fists. A few moments later, Martel's voice sounded behind her. "I see… Fine. Here is your first lesson then." When Ulya turned back towards the hologram, a red beam of lightning jumped out from the device, striking her in the chest. She screamed in surprise, as the lightning frayed her nerves. She snarled, and turned inwards, focusing on the pain and the anger it caused to well up within her. She felt the Dark Side of the Force flare to life around her, the power flooding her senses and awareness. She gasped as the lightning grew stronger; as her anger, pain and hate grew stronger. And then she began to smile. -----signature----- You sadistic Yank!! - McEwok No Krakana - http://nokrakana.wrighton.org Believe in the Constitution? Ron Paul '08
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SWpants666 Registered: Oct '04	Date Posted: 7/6 6:28pm Subject: RE: Jedi Adept: A Path In The Dark -- Ch. 4 07/06/2008
	There it was. Tahiri had willingly left her. She had run from her, abandoned her and Noelani felt the shattered remnants of her heart crumble and break. Poor Noelani. I just want to reach in and hug her "I want you to go to room 54Z, lie down on the bed, cover yourself with the blanket and then shut off." Ooh smart of her. Then she fell through an opening, slamming hard into a pile of trash. "Eww!" she screamed out as something squished beneath her. garbage is scummy She felt the Dark Side of the Force flare to life around her, the power flooding her senses and awareness. She gasped as the lightning grew stronger; as her anger, pain and hate grew stronger. Well now...this should be horribly interesting. -----signature----- ~MTFBWY~ **Holder of the Straw of Disaster** All I want is to be in the light
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Draconarius Registered: Feb '05	Date Posted: 7/6 7:39pm Subject: RE: Jedi Adept: A Path In The Dark -- Ch. 4 07/06/2008
	I'm with SWpants666: Noelani definitely needs a hug. Now all she has to do is find a way to get to Chase before he kills himself running from the GAG. And I suppose we should have expected that Yuuzhan Vong apprentice-thing of Lumiya's to return. This won't end well. Draco. -----signature----- Shattered Mirror - http://boards.theforce.net/beyond_the_saga/b10477/28487856/p1/?1 Proudly A/T and J/J Knighted by the wonderful SilSolo "Damned if I'm gonna lose to you!" "Then damned you shall be!" - my brother and I playing Smash Bros.
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SilSolo Registered: Mar '04	Date Posted: 7/6 8:35pm Subject: RE: Jedi Adept: A Path In The Dark -- Ch. 4 07/06/2008
	Come on, Noelani, get it together for the bigger troubles to come -----signature----- http://boards.theforce.net/beyond_the_saga/b10477/27517284/p1/?11 Like this quick sketch: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/32848083/ ? Then commission me. Prices are negotiable.
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L0B0 Registered: Jan '08	Date Posted: 7/7 5:15am Subject: RE: Jedi Adept: A Path In The Dark -- Ch. 4 07/06/2008
	I sympathize with Noelani and it is understandable that she she feels the way she does about Tahiri's departure. Hopefully, they will not be apart for too long. But I think the worst part is this: She frowned, and looked around. There was something she was forgetting. Then she remembered, her quarters were watched. If she didn't return soon, then the Temple would be alerted. Seriously, this is the Jedi temple we are talking about here, correct? For star's sake, you would think it was Kessel, what with the way the council treats her more like a prisoner than the treasure that she is. Just like her mother, I don't blame her one bit for sneaking off like this. She is the daughter of two extraordianry Jedi, and an apprentice herself - still, they don't trust her. Unfrackingbelievable... *** An so, enter the Force-sensitive Vong/ Sith wannabe into the mix. I hope she kicks nearly everybody's arse. -----signature----- Check your Six! ---> http://www.talonintelligencesquadron.com/index.htm * Mando'ad draar digu... * Self Appointed FADA Acolyte
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Jade_eyes Registered: Aug '04	Date Posted: 7/7 3:23pm Subject: RE: Jedi Adept: A Path In The Dark -- Ch. 4 07/06/2008
	Super update. Wow--Noelani broke free too... Ulya Tu--I think we've run into her before--but I thought she was "toasted" by Tahiri LOL Can't wait to see Noelani's further adventures -----signature----- Luke/Mara, forever bound. I'd love to give them time in a bottle Wootness--drabbles are coming! Irish, Myriad, ginchy, diva--nummy as Dove chocolate More addictive
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Kidan Title: TFN EU Staff Registered: Jul '03	Date Posted: 7/10 12:38pm Subject: RE: Jedi Adept: A Path In The Dark -- Ch. 4 07/06/2008
	SWpants666 :( Poor Noelani. I just want to reach in and hug her good, that was what you're supposed to feel for her. Ooh smart of her. she is Tahiri's daughter garbage is scummy without a doubt Well now...this should be horribly interesting. fear not, I have plans for Ulya Tu Draconarius I'm with SWpants666: Noelani definitely needs a hug. [color-darkblue]nods she definitely does...[/color] Now all she has to do is find a way to get to Chase before he kills himself running from the GAG. fear not, they'll see each other again... And I suppose we should have expected that Yuuzhan Vong apprentice-thing of Lumiya's to return. This won't end well. heh... of course you should... that's why I had us poking our noses into what she was doing in an earlier story SilSolo Come on, Noelani, get it together for the bigger troubles to come nods she's reacting rather than thinking tho... L0B0 I sympathize with Noelani and it is understandable that she she feels the way she does about Tahiri's departure. Hopefully, they will not be apart for too long. fear not, Tahiri and Noelani will run into one another before this story is through. But I think the worst part is this: She frowned, and looked around. There was something she was forgetting. Then she remembered, her quarters were watched. If she didn't return soon, then the Temple would be alerted. Seriously, this is the Jedi temple we are talking about here, correct? For star's sake, you would think it was Kessel, what with the way the council treats her more like a prisoner than the treasure that she is. Just like her mother, I don't blame her one bit for sneaking off like this. She is the daughter of two extraordianry Jedi, and an apprentice herself - still, they don't trust her. Unfrackingbelievable... I'm glad that this somewhat invasive concept of the Jedi was caught by someone. An so, enter the Force-sensitive Vong/ Sith wannabe into the mix. I hope she kicks nearly everybody's arse. oh, don't worry about that.... grins Jade_eyes Super update. Wow--Noelani broke free too... Ulya Tu--I think we've run into her before--but I thought she was "toasted" by Tahiri LOL Can't wait to see Noelani's further adventures thanks! And yes, Noelani broke free.. As for Ulya Tu, yes, she was the Force Sensitive Vong from Greater, and no she wasn't toasted by Tahiri. -----signature----- You sadistic Yank!! - McEwok No Krakana - http://nokrakana.wrighton.org Believe in the Constitution? Ron Paul '08
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TelannaTani Registered: Jun '05	Date Posted: 7/10 1:11pm Subject: RE: Jedi Adept: A Path In The Dark -- Ch. 4 07/06/2008
	Poor kid. shakes head That's certainly an unforeseen consequence. You can tell Tahiri hasn't been a mother very long - she's not thinking like one. I could never abandon my son. I'd take him with me. Ulya is very interesting. This is gonna be good. -----signature----- John 8:31-32 Callsign: "Voz" Padawan to BigFatty
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Kidan Title: TFN EU Staff Registered: Jul '03	Date Posted: 7/12 12:59pm Subject: RE: Jedi Adept: A Path In The Dark -- Ch. 4 07/06/2008
	TelannaTani Poor kid. shakes head* That's certainly an unforeseen consequence. You can tell Tahiri hasn't been a mother very long - she's not thinking like one. I could never abandon my son.* Aye, she is a poor kid, and Tahiri is reacting without really thinking things through. She doesn't quite understand yet what it means to be a mother shrugs I'd take him with me. nods but despite Tahiri's issue with the Jedi, she still thinks it's a good thing to be a Jedi. She's been trained to believe that, so she does... Ulya is very interesting. This is gonna be good. Thanks! Hope it lives up to your expectations -----signature----- You sadistic Yank!! - McEwok No Krakana - http://nokrakana.wrighton.org Believe in the Constitution? Ron Paul '08
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Kidan Title: TFN EU Staff Registered: Jul '03	Date Posted: 7/13 5:53pm Subject: RE: Jedi Adept: A Path In The Dark -- Ch. 5 07/13/2008
	Jacen stood in the shadows, wrapping them tight around him as he watched the traffic slide past. With an intensity born of utter darkness, he stared at the foyer of an apartment building, waiting for someone to emerge; knowing that she would appear sooner or later. Finally, his patience was rewarded, and he began to grin as Tahiri Veila stepped out of the doorway, her feet customarily bare. She was dressed in dingy clothes, worn and dirtied. Her hair was unkempt, and her cheeks sunken and shallow. She appeared almost grey and lifeless, and he frowned at the stark change in the younger Jedi. He remembered her laughing and happy, even when she was covered in mud and ash from a Chiss fire-bomb. He dispelled the shadows and walked closer towards her, falling into step behind her, yet keeping his Force presence pulled tight and close around him. Suddenly she stopped, and without turning around, said, "What do you want, Jacen?" He chuckled, and loosened his Force presence slightly, allowing a bit of amusement to leak out through his shields. "How did you know I was here?" She laughed bitterly as she turned to face him. "I heard you. And… and you smell like Anakin. Now, what do you want?" He grinned at her, knowing it made him look like his father, like his brother, and he noticed the way it seemed to cause her to recoil from him. "Can't I just want to see an old friend?" She shook her head slightly. "You don't have any old friends anymore. We're all pieces on a game-board to you." She gave another of those harsh laughs. It sounded almost demented, and for a moment, Jacen wondered if he'd made the right decision. "It's not that unlike your uncle, actually." He arched an eyebrow, and wondered, when did she get so bitter? As fast as that thought flickered across his mind, another raced after it; but I can use that. He shrugged his shoulders. "Actually, I just wanted to give you a present; something that I have in my power to give now. That is if you want it…" She shook her head, lowering her eyes to look towards her feet. Her voice was soft and filled with bitterness. "There's nothing you can give me that I want." He watched as she turned away and began to walk again. He allowed her to get a dozen paces away, before he replied. "I can give you Anakin's final kiss." She stopped dead in her tracks; her body and Force presence suddenly taut and electric. He could taste the fire, the desire and the anger that radiated off of her. Grinning, he thought, I have her now. Slowly, she turned towards him, and he wiped the grin from his face, resetting his expression into one of deadly seriousness. Ben used to call it his Jedi face. With slow and deliberate steps, she made her way back to him. Her body seemed to shake from the barely suppressed anger, and it was all he could do to keep the glee from his face and Force presence. "What do you mean by that?" she hissed out between clenched teeth. "I meant exactly what I said," he replied, happy at the way she had responded to his bait. "I can give you the chance to give Anakin that final kiss." Then he drove the hook in deeper, ensnaring her firmly. "Don't you remember? It was the one that you denied him." The fire of her emotions collapsed, replaced suddenly by a deep pain and regret, but Jacen knew that the anger was there, he could feel it, just beneath the surface, ready to spill over at any moment. An anger that was ready to burst into an inferno which would burn the Jedi to the ground. Her shoulders slumped, and she nodded her head. "How?" He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, like they were old friends, or maybe family. Then he turned her in the direction of the Guard headquarters and began walking. "Come on, I'll explain on the way." Her body hesitated against the pressure he was exerting for a moment; but just one. ------------------------------- Luke Skywalker sat at his terminal, carefully wording the invitations to his wife's funeral. He suppressed the dark pain that welled up within him every time he considered what had happened; every time he thought of her body, so cold and broken in death. He had long thought that there was no one who could beat her in a fight, fair or not. Yet someone had. Someone had ripped through her defenses, and killed her. A simple poison. Then after she was dead, whoever had killed her had desecrated her body. Used a lightsaber and carved away at her face and body, denying Luke even the small comfort of being able to see her whole one final time. Finally satisfied with the wording, he looked over the guest list: all the Jedi, half a dozen politicians, twice that many smugglers, and then his broken, scattered family. He made a note that Leia was to be asked to speak at the funeral, and then signed off on the list, leaving it in a queue that R2-D2 monitored so that he could take care of finalizing the arrangements. That chore finally done, he signed off the terminal and then stood up. He walked into the hallway, and looked down the hall towards the room that he had shared with her. For a moment, he almost walked that way to sleep in his bed. Instead he turned towards the living room, deciding to sleep on the couch yet again. ------------------------------- Chase opened his eyes. He found himself lying in a pile of refuse; his head tilted back looking up towards the sky. It seemed small and distant; a small patch of blue-grey so far above him, blocked out almost entirely by the towering buildings. He lifted his head up, and then twisted it side to side, looking to the left and the right. With a slight shock, he realized that he was deep in the underbelly of the city. Glancing down, he saw the trash that coated the ground, piled up against the side of the building by the wind. He shifted, and the movement caused the pile to crumble around him. The movement must have disturbed something because he could suddenly smell the trash: rotting food, decomposing plastics and bio-materials. It stank. He stank of it. Grimacing at the stench, he leveraged himself up, and more of the trash skittered to the ground, the noise echoing back to him. Freezing in position, he strained to hear, wondering if anything out there was coming. He had heard horror stories of the creatures that wandered the under-city. First were the dangerous predators brought to Coruscant as pets or zoological specimens, and then released into the undercity when they grew too large or were unable to be kept for whatever reason. Then there was all the vonglife that still wandered around down here, eking out a living among the foundations of the giant city-planet. The final terrors that haunted the undercity were the mutants and the ferals. The former were once sapient beings, who had slowly devolved until they were nothing more than animals, living and acting entirely on instinct. The latter were the remaining slaves from the Yuuzhan Vong occupation, driven insane and dangerous from the pain of their coral slave seeds and the death of the World Brain. Hearing nothing, he slid the rest of the way to the ground, and paused in a crouch, listening once more. This was unfamiliar territory to him. He had never before ventured this far beneath this surface, this far away from the people, and the civilization of Coruscant proper. Down here the walls were dappled with mold, and pock marked by scratches from some unknown creature or other. The ground had puddles of sludge at irregular intervals, and a stream of slime-encrusted water ran down the middle of the walk way. Crouched low, he crept forward, straining his ears to hear if anything was approaching him. Satisfied, he straightened and looked around, wandering exactly where he was. He knew two things: he was near the Jedi Temple, as that was where he had been heading when he was cornered by the Guard, and that he was deep in the undercity, probably close to bedrock level. If not lower. He crept forward, and then heard something; a whirling noise. Pausing, he turned around slowly to see a utility droid appear. It approached the first street lamp, and its top half shot into the air on a mechanical lift, stopping just beneath the lamp. A manipulator arm reached out unscrewed the bulb and placed it into a container, then reached into another container and screwed a new bulb in. A light bulb that was as dead as the one that the droid had just removed. Chase frowned at the scene, and watched as the droid repeated the process at the next street light. There was something disturbing in the ultimate futility of the process which the droid was going through. Something disturbing in the fact that for who knows how long, that droid had gone through this area, changing those lightbulbs, in a futile effort to stave off the decay that was evident all around him. The droid had moved to the next light, and shot once more into the air. He frowned, watching the droid as it unscrewed the lamp. An intense surge of empathy slashed through him. He understood futility and wanting to change something, but always ending up with the same results. After watching the droid change a final light bulb, Chase turned away from it and started walking once more. Heading in the direction he thought the Jedi Temple should be in. ------------------------------- Tahiri watched as Jacen's Star Destroyer, the Anakin Solo, loomed closer through the viewport of the shuttle. Its matte black hull glittered with a myriad of lights from its thousands of viewports. They drew ever closer, and son she was able to make out distinct markings, and the hangar bay which Jacen was aiming the shuttle craft towards. She cast a quick glance at Jacen where he sat behind the controls, calmly piloting the craft. She wondered for a moment if she liked the fact that there was a Star Destroyer named after Anakin. If having a warship named after him would have been the type of memorial that he would have wanted. She sighed, as she realized that it was not. That he would have thought it egotistical and absurd. She looked over at Jacen again. "So tell me, just how am I going to get this kiss?" Jacen's eyes sliced towards her for a moment, and something about them scared her. She looked closer, and realized that they were still the same brandy-colored eyes they had always been; just not quite as warm as they used to be. "Have you talked to my Mother or uncle about me sending messages across time during the Killik Crisis?" Startled, Tahiri shook her head. "I don't think I've heard anything about that." Jacen grinned and pain lanced through her heart. "I didn't think so," he replied. "It's a trick that I learned from the Aing-Ti called Flow-walking. What it means is that you are able to use the Force to push yourself up or down the flow of time, and able to view the past. See it, touch it, and conceivably even change it, though you risk temporal paradoxes that could wipe out existence doing that." "Oh," she replied dumbly, staring at him. "Oh…Oh!" Her eyes widened as realization of what he was saying slammed through her. Hope flared bright and fierce in her heart, and she leaned back in the co-pilot's seat staring up at the ceiling. She shook her head, her blond hair slicing side to side with the movement. "But," she said, looking up at him, noticing the stillness he watched her with. It reminded her of a vua'sa right before it pounced on its prey. "We can't risk a temporal paradox by going and doing something like that." Jacen shrugged his shoulders, and tossed her another grin. "That is true. How about this then, we just go look and see him." Her brow knit together in a frown. "I, I guess that wouldn't hurt." He smiled brightly, and though she could feel warmth at the surface of his Force presence. Despite the warmth he was showing, she couldn't help but shudder at his smile. She looked out the viewport and noticed they were sliding through the magcon field, Jacen being guided towards his landing spot by the deck crew. He glanced at her, before returning his attention back to landing. "Great. Let me pick a few things up, and then we'll head on out to Myrkr." -----signature----- You sadistic Yank!! - McEwok No Krakana - http://nokrakana.wrighton.org Believe in the Constitution? Ron Paul '08
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DARTH_MU Registered: Feb '05	Date Posted: 7/13 7:13pm Subject: RE: Jedi Adept: A Path In The Dark -- Ch. 5 07/13/2008 - Date Edited: 7/13 7:13pm (1 edits total) Edited By: DARTH_MU
	primus whatever will poor Jahiri do now. face_sob -----signature----- In Nelani's myriad futures he could dimly glimpse good and kind acts, love, perhaps family and children. Kidan's Apprentice EOV I: Despair (Link Lost) Gone, Gone, and never called me author! Lightsaber123's sock. Crewman aboard the goodship Beneha
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Draconarius Registered: Feb '05	Date Posted: 7/13 7:41pm Subject: RE: Jedi Adept: A Path In The Dark -- Ch. 5 07/13/2008
	Hmmm... sticking to canon, I see? I know this has been said before but this is a far better explanation for Tahiri becoming Jacen's apprentice than in LotF. Will probably be a better redemption scene, too (assuming, of course, that Tahiri is going to become Jacen's apprentice and that Noelani is going to bring her back). Can't wait for the next one. -----signature----- Shattered Mirror - http://boards.theforce.net/beyond_the_saga/b10477/28487856/p1/?1 Proudly A/T and J/J Knighted by the wonderful SilSolo "Damned if I'm gonna lose to you!" "Then damned you shall be!" - my brother and I playing Smash Bros.
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