Jedi to be, Jedi within

The Millennium Falcon landed in front of the hangerbay and the three disembarked down the ramp. Han and Leia found Luke standing in the middle of a crowd of crying Jedi. There wasn?t one of them that wasn?t crying or standing somberly off to one side watching their leader as he knelt where she had been, holding the sword he swore he?d finish for her.

Leia stepped away from her husband and knelt by her brother. There was a tear sliding down his cheek. She laid her hand on his shoulder and he looked up as if noticing her for the first time.

"I couldn?t save her? none of us could." He looked down at the sword it?s hilt still open. "She looked up and the beam engulfed her body. She was gone in seconds." He looked out into the jungle like he was searching for answers in the greenery.

"Luke there is nothing more that you could have done. The beam was a genetic finder that was keyed in on her DNA. It was going to take her no matter what we did." She knew that her words didn?t help. "We may be able to find them, though."

Luke looked at her, gathering hope from her deep brown eyes. She touched his cheek in comfort. Han walked over and knelt by Luke.

"We all want her back, Luke. She?s played a big part in our lives and now it?s like missing a family member. We?ll get her back at all costs."

"There?s something I have to do first." Luke said.
********

 

The emotion as the door slid open was one of an evil glee. He allowed himself a small sinister smile as the door revealed his long awaited prisoner. She was on the floor, held in place by the force field.

"Let her up." His command was obeyed immediately. He walked in slowly as she leapt to her feet and backed up against the wall. He could feel the sudden thread of Fear that strung it?s way into her confidence. It felt cold and tight. A feeling he relished in other beings.

She steadied herself and he felt her reach for the Force but the reach was weak, nothing in comparison to what she was capable of. His smile widened. His plan was working perfectly. The farther away the stone was that held her cure the weaker she was, the easier she was to destroy.

He used the Force to slam her up against the wall and a cry of pain escaped her lips. She strained against his control. Her movements were slight. She stared at him, her head turned a fraction to the right and her chin down a trifle. She had to look farther and farther up the closer he got. He must have been a head taller than she.

He saw her look down and breath as she, for the moment, stopped her struggle. Her jaw was working as if inside she were thinking at a rapid pace. A sigh escaped her delicate lips as she closed her eyes and forced herself to calm down but not give in.

He began to chuckle, a dark and brooding laughter that hurt her soul. He reached out and touched her face bringing her chin up so that she looked at the space between the helm and the face guard where his eyes were shaded from sight. He knew she could feel his gaze despite the shadow.

"At last I have you in my presence. At last?you?are?mine."

She closed her eyes at that and breathed a stiff breath.

"I am no ones." She growled through her teeth. She was putting up a desperate fight to control herself and at the same time break his control over her body.

He could feel her urge to scream in a bloody rage. It delighted him no end that he could have such an effect over her. She was nothing now and he could almost imagine that she had never been a threat to his immense power.

He let go of her chin. He stepped closer and leaned near her so that she could almost see the glimmer of hate in his eyes. She turned her head away in disgust and fear, giving him a look at her soft exposed throat.

"Rest assured lovely warrior?you do belong to me know. I?ll make sure you never forget that."
********

 

Jaxton came full awake. He was soaked in sweat and breathing as if he?d been running for miles. He put his hands on his head an gave himself a moment to wake up so he could think clearly.

The images of the dream seamed to be on replay in his mind as over and over again they flashed by his closed eyes. He tried to slow them down and pluck one from the crowd so he could focus on what had shaken him so.

The one image that seemed to dominate the others was a view of Roara held against a gray steely wall. The view was from her tormentor who got very close and said something that visibly upset Roara. She turned her face aside and a thought occurred to the villain. "No wonder he loves to watch her from afar."

Jaxton opened his eyes and looked around at the stones of his room. He breathed a sigh and threw the covers aside. He got up and washed his face. There was a piece of a once ornate mirror that hung on the wall over the wash basin. He dried his face off and when he looked up into the reflective surface he saw, for a moment, the man in armor that Roara had been so afraid of. He blinked and the vision was gone. He threw the towel aside and dressed in a hurry. The cold breeze that whispered through the jungle made the night chill and clear.

Jaxton made his way to the roof. He pulled his Jedi robe closer to him for warmth. The roof had Been Roara?s favorite place and she had even taken up residence up there for a while. He had been standing on the roof often nowadays. Roara had been gone for three days and the plan to get her back was still in council. Everyone agreed that Roara had to be returned and Dathomir notified of her kidnap.

Jaxton stood where he had the afternoon the storm had come and she had stood behind him pulling his hair back and telling him that if he wanted to love her then he should love her and if he didn?t then he shouldn?t. She had been so logical and understanding in a way that he had never known in any one but Master Skywalker. He missed the way she made him feel. The connection they had, even now, burned in his mind like a beacon of strength.

His thought?s turned to the dream. The villain had been talking about him.

"How could that creature even know about me?"

His thoughts analyzed the dream trying to see beyond it into what it meant. But that had never been Jaxton?s strong suit Stix had always been good at it and Kiara to an extent. Even Roara had seen dreams as clues into ones life. To Jax a dream was a dream nothing more than the minds playing field where idle fantasies took place that meant nothing.

He sighed. There was so much about himself that the others didn?t know. Master Skywalker had known that there would always be secrets that each student held but Jax had withdrawn almost entirely from life. When Luke had confronted Jax about it Jax had said only that he was a very private person.

Jaxton felt lost in a world that he didn?t belong in. He didn?t know where he wanted to go after the academy but he didn?t want someone telling him where to go. He wanted to be someone important but not like one of the Jedi council members who?s lives were entirely dedicated to the service of others and the Force. He knew he wasn?t capable of that kind of self sacrifice.

Jaxton?s mind leapt at the prophecy.

"You have a disease that is rare and was unseen in the days of the old order. It is easily remedied but you must want it enough to give up your life for it. You will find one who is powerful and strong. She has been with you since the beginning. Your destinies lie together and as long as you are apart neither of you will be complete."

His shoulders slumped and he looked out at the wilds of the moon. He had always lived in the moment but now he needed to see into the future. There was no way he could continue to live in the now when it was this empty. Steps had to be taken for the sake of the future. His, Roara?s, everyone?s.

But for the moment, Jax wanted to enjoy the peace of the outside.
********

 

She felt his fingers drift over her face and then grip her chin hard. He tilted her face up so that she was forced to look him in the eye, or the shadow where they would be. The second time he had her staring into his face. She looked at him trying to put steel in her gaze. She felt the intensity of his power flowing through his fingers and into her skin. She breathed hard.

"Yes I can see they will come for you but they will be far too late. Your fate is sealed, unless that ONE can save you. His weaknesses are so simple to see. It?s laughable that he would ever challenge me. We know each other too well."

He released her face and she breathed a sigh. Inside she was screaming like a frightened enraged animal. She wanted to control the impulses that were rambling within but all she could manage was the facade of control. A mask that she hid the turmoil behind. She could feel his thoughts invading her own like hands groping about the hidden places. She used what little Force she could gather to shove his thoughts from her. He would not be so invasive if she had the full Force at her disposal.

She watched the movements of her enemy as he walked away. She quelled her hatred of the actions he was committing. She tried to separate the action from the person but even then she felt he was pure evil. He turned and she watched as without so much as a flinch he used the Force to press her hard into the wall.

Then the Force was gone and his presence was fading. She felt the sting of tears but refused to let them fall. She tilted her head back and began to run through the relaxation technique that Luke Skywalker had taught her. She felt the pale glow of the Force around her. She began to draw it in like a dry tilaxian sponge plant thirsting for water. Slowly she drew the Force to her loosing herself in the glow of life and light. She turned her focus inward. When she had filled herself with the Force she held it for a while. Mere seconds, perhaps? maybe hours? she didn?t know how much time had gone by in that piece of eternity but as the Force healed her wounds and strengthened her resolve she opened her mind to the reaches of space.

Like so many times before she called out to anyone who could hear. She expanded herself until she could feel her friends. Leia was there and Thunder and Luke and Han? She felt them all.

"Help me???"
********

 

This is all I hav so far I am rapidly working on the rest.

There was nothing. The wind, the earth, the entire planet seemed to be still, mourning the loss of a great warrior. Luke held his peace and stayed quiet through the proceedings of the councils decision. They had been throwing ideas around for the better part of a week. The only clue they had were the Falcons last tracings of the warships.

"We don?t have the fire power to spare to fight off four juggernaughts and an armada of one man fighters. The New Republic simply doesn?t have the resources to launch that kind of offensive." Dodanna was saying for the third time. "Rest assured we do realize how important she is to the Jedi and the New Republic. She will be a great asset according to Master Skywalker and Princess Leia."

General Garm Bel Iblis stood again and reiterated his view. "We are talking about standing against one of the mobile empires with the military strength of the New Republic and the old for the sake of one girl who?s worth has yet to be shown. All we have are a single set of coordinates that might be a second jump point. We are out manned, out gunned, and out classed by this military force and the time it would take to get up enough men and fire power to take him out would give the enemy time to do with her as they wish and then kill her. What we are looking at is a military impossibility."

Luke wanted to jump up and retell the story of how they took princess Leia from the empire. A farm boy a Jedi, and two droids walk into a bar to find a smuggler, a wookie, and a beat up ship. That?s what they had to work with.

Mon Mathma was once again telling the others that the military wasn?t the only tool here, that it wasn?t a power struggle and that simple infiltration might be used as a key weapon.

The conversation was exhausting. Luke and Leia and Han had given their speeches and so had the other Jedi who attested to Roara?s power over the Force and over her own mind. They had heard from everyone of the padawans and from the masters who had known her well. The only one they hadn?t heard from was Jaxton.

Luke had heard him decline the invitation to speak on Roara?s behalf. Luke remembered trying to talk to him. But it was difficult to catch Jaxton these days. The group had been moved to Coruscant as soon as the temple had been refurbished. The debate had already reached it?s height. The padawans were distracted and tested on the control. Thunder had moped about the garden like he was dying. There wasn?t anything anyone could do and the council was bogging down. Split down the middle as to how to save or if to save the young woman.

Luke reached up to knock for the fourth time. He could feel Jax?s presence on the other side of the door. Luke wanted to wave his hand and make the door disintegrate so that he could get a straight answer from the youth. There was no answer and again Luke sighed in strained patience as he walked away.

"There has to be a quicker way to do this." He said to himself.
********

 

Well I leave in 23 days to go on a mission for the LDS Church. http://www.angelfire.com/co3/jedijunk/MyMissionCall.htmlCalled To Serve Visit my web page if you want... I'm going to the Washington DC South Mission so I'll be computerless for the next 18 months

I'm not so sad that I'm leaving... just that I'll miss my computer... and all of the FanFic Stories that I have been following since I discovered this cursed fourm... but I love them all....

Enough of my sad tale.. on with yours.

 

Luke was in the garden strolling down the rows of brilliant flowers and trees. The life around him pulsed with the Force. He gathered comfort from the life. He had been thinking about Roara and how to get her back. There wasn?t any plan that had seemed safe. The council was still unsure how important this woman was to the republic. They had argued that she held no secrets to the republic in her mind and the "future" though A Jedi foretold it was still uncertain at best and that things could change.

Luke shook his head clearing it of all thought. Nothing was final and nothing was forever save the power of the Force and those things which fed it.

he looked at one of the Cyanth blossoms. They were huge flowers that grew to four feet in diameter. The scent of the plant was light as a feather not too sweet and not too strong. Every blossom was the same diameter the same scent and the same shape but the rainbow of colors were never the same. Chaos contained in symmetry. It was one of Roara?s favorites. Luke reached out to touch the petal when the small whistley sound of Thunder?s moan drew him to the other side of the bush.

Thunder looked as if he hadn?t eaten since they had left Yavin. Luke was concerned and knelt down beside the serpentine neck. His hand lay comfortingly on the ridge of the Filorans neck.

"Poor Thunder. You don?t know where she is either do you?"

The thoughts of the dragon startled Luke as Thunder turned his head to look him in the eye.

"I know that the man in armor took her and I know that she is in a different galaxy. The reason I?m like this is because I can?t eat when I?m thinking of her in trouble like that. She?s going to die very soon if we don?t go and get her and all the council can do is debate the issue?s importance!"

Luke listened intently. Never before had the creature displayed his intelligence to Luke.

"Thunder, do you know anything about the man in armor?"

"Only that he haunts Roara and that there is something very familiar about him. He smells like some one Roara knows but I can?t ever place the smell. I?m never very close to the people she likes but when she comes to me she smells of them. There is one particular humanoid that she is very fond of and that she tries to spend time with but I haven?t been able to get a good whiff of him. All I know is that when ever she has heard the steel man?s voice there is a distinct smell. I know it isn?t Roara and it isn?t that Stix fellow, but there is someone in your school that is similar in scent."

Thunder seemed to be keeping something.

"Do you think that someone in the academy has set this up?"

"No. I have a much worse theory."
********

 

Al the Jedi apprentices were standing in a line in the garden. Each one wishing they knew what was going. Luke was sternly looking each of them over. The masters were firm in stance and stood in a line across from the students. Luke walked down the line not looking at the students but at the ground as if trying to find a way to soften a blow. He sighed and turned to the masters and with a gesture they parted to either side forming a pathway to the students. Thunder came down that pathway and stared at each student.

At Luke?s signal each student came forward and Thunder silently stared into their eyes all the while silently breathing in the scent of the person. He could smell an overall fear in them but it was mild at best.

He went through the entire line of people without so much as a whiff of the one he had suspected. Thunder noticed that Stix wasn?t in the line up and that the girl kiara was missing.

"Luke where are the others?"

"We are looking for them. the three of them just disappeared and we are having trouble locating them."

"Let?s hope we find them soon. I want save Roara as soon as possible."

"As do we all." Luke said as he headed off to the padawans quarters.

There was an overall sense of confusion as the students bustled about trying to pull their lives together. After the structural damage had been repaired the padawans had been moved in and had to unpack and figure out what things had been changed and move to a new room if they wished. It was a little chaotic but through it all the masters had been supportive.

Luke walked to the turbo lift and went four levels up to the lab where he thought Kiara might be. He found Giser and Sati standing over some of the metallurgy findings. They had always been soothed by the structures of science.

"Have either of you seen Kiara, Stix, and Jaxton? I?m having trouble locating them."

Sati stood. "I am afraid I have not seen them today, Master Skywalker. If you like I will help you look."

"Wait," Giser said in a cheerful voice. "I saw Kiara heading for the auto defense practice hall and I think Stix said he was going to the meditation chamber to see if the Force would give him a clue as to Roara?s whereabouts. But I haven?t seen Bastille since yesterday afternoon in the mess hall. He seemed depressed and reclusive. He didn?t want to talk much."

"Very good, Giser. You?ve been a great help." Luke turned to leave.

"Wait do you want Sati and I to go with you and look?"

Luke paused before turning to look over his right shoulder. "I think this is something that I need to tend to alone."

The two students nodded.
********

 

Stix was staring at the walls trying to concentrate on the Force flowing weakly through his limbs. He remembered the way he felt around Sati and Roara. They were two of a kind. They had never talked much but the respect had been unmistakable between the two of them. Stix had enjoyed being with them, feeling the power they radiated. The Force felt warm around them, with an intense strength that had always drawn people to them. Sati had a still warmth, like a quiet, over cast day. Roara had this eye-of-the-storm feel to her, a center of power.

Stix closed his eyes once more to try and meditate. He tried to clear his mind but images kept coming of Roara and then way she had battled a disease that she knew might be her death, she had befriended every padawan and taught them something about a Jedi. Stix remembered the day Tara had gotten stuck in a ganja tree, It?s vines had tangled themselves around her, pulling her up to the tallest part of the tree. Tara had a fear of heights and began panicking. Stix had been the first to spot her kicking and screaming. Roara had sensed the mass panic and come at a dead run. She had gently calmed Tara and untangled her with the Force. She then helped Tara with her fear of heights. The would stand on the different levels of the ziggurat going higher and higher.

Stix cleared his thoughts again, out of habit this time. More images came to him. Images of the secret place Roara would go. The first time he had seen it he had been at peace. She had been excited about finding the prophecy.

Stix began to see beyond the memories and into something different. He saw Roara, her form was still as if time were frozen. It was just her the rest of the surroundings were blacker that the center of a black hole. He watched as he got closer and closer, finally he saw only the brown of her eyes. He seemed to be falling into the color. With a start he opened his eyes to find himself sitting in a meditative position in the clearing that Roara had shown him. But something felt very off. He felt almost nervous, afraid. There was something with him but he didn?t know what it was.

"It?s just a vision." He reassured himself, "I?m back at the Temple meditating." He rose.

find me

The voice startled him and he turned. Nothing was near him, no one was there. He stood straight and still, looking around at the foliage.

Find Me

The voice was coming from the direction of the ziggurat. Stix slowly headed in that direction. The voice called over and over again. He stopped at the obsidian temple of Exar Kun to listen. He heard a sinister laugh and Exar Kuns voice.

"foolish mortal! There is a much stronger Force at work than I?"

There was a scream that cut through the voice and the jungle noises. Stix ran towards the temple. What he saw when he got there was a nightmarish image. He knew he would never forget it.

Roara was on the top of the temple. Suddenly Stix was up there with her, witnessing the torture. Roara was being held by the Force, her body pressed up against a steel wall. She was breathing hard. Bruises marred the white skin and the fatigue was apparent in her eyes and in her manner. A man in shining armor stepped closer to her and took out a ceremonial dagger. Stix looked to the right and saw Jaxton standing there, doing nothing to stop what was going to happen. The dagger plunged towards Roara?s right wrist?

Stix awoke. He was staring at the ceiling. He sat up swiftly.

"HUH!" He yelled, relieving some of the stress from the vision. He was breathing hard and sweat drenched his face. The door to the meditation chamber opened and Master Skywalker stepped in.
********

 

Luke touched Stix shoulder. The young man looked as though he had been through three hours of Ty ku training. Stix looked up at the Master.

"What did you see, Stix?" Luke asked calmly.

Stix began going through each step of the vision. He shook while telling it. Luke listened.

"The armored man was in the motion of putting the dagger through her right wrist when I woke up. You came in shortly after?.. Master Skywalker we have to find her or she will die."

Luke took Stix by the hand and helped him to his feet.

"I need to find Jaxton, Stix. He is swiftly becoming a key part in this."
********

 

Roara felt the disturbance in the Force. She was glad she could still feel the Force. She had been sleeping fitfully but at the last moment she had felt Stix and some of the other padawans looking for her. She missed them. She missed all her friends. Would she ever see them again?

The door to her cell opened and she composed herself as much as she could. Fear made her veins turn to ice. In walked the man in armor. She hated these visits.

"And how are you today?" His voice was smooth and steely.

She used all her effort to turn her head to look right at him. She put as much defiance in her eyes as she could muster.

"Good. You are slowly wearing down. Soon you will be nothing more than a puppet." He backed away from her face and walked about the cell. "I wanted to let you know that we are within a few days of our destination." He turned sharply, like a hawk spying pray. "Once there the ritual can begin."

As he stepped closer she felt his desire to kiss her. It disgusted her and she turned her face away, pressing her chin into her right shoulder and looking at him out of the corner of her eye. She closed her eyes and waited. She could feel his breath through the cloth face guard that he wore today. She looked at the wall she now faced and then down at the floor searching for some escape.

"I?m sure you will enjoy the surface after being confined in this cell for a week."

She could feel his gaze burning into her skin. She wanted to be with her friends, back at the temple, with Thunder playing in the garden. She felt his fingers grip her jaw and demanding without a word that she look at him. She opened her eyes and stared into the blackness that she knew mirrored his heart. She looked up at him with a defiance that was stronger than even he had expected. She knew he was displeased with her reaction when his grip tightened.

His mouth was mere inches from her own and she could feel the words he spoke.

"It will be a great delight to me to break your spirit."

With incredible speed he turned from her and was walking away. The cloak he wore swirled about him as he left and the guards shut the door after him.
********

 

Luke had just reached for the doorbell when Jaxton opened the door. Luke had finally found him but Jaxton looked as if he had been through a war.

"Oh, Master Skywalker. I was not expecting you this evening. Please, come in."

Jaxton seemed overly proper but Luke walked in and stood in the middle of the practice floor.

"Am I interrupting your practice?" Luke asked as he saw there was a half drained bottle of water and a towel on the kitchenette counter.

"No I?I just finished." Jaxton motioned to a seat as he sat down. Luke obliged and sat but kept his eyes on Jaxton?s tall figure.

"You weren?t in the garden with the rest of the padawans. Why?"

Jaxton liked his lips and clasped his hands on the table in front of him. He sighed and then looked at his master. "There is no excuse for my actions, Master. I apologize."

"I don?t want to hear mantras, Bastille. I?m hear to find out the truth. You haven?t been yourself since she came here." Luke paused watching his student. "Jaxton, you need to tell me what is going on. If there is something you know that might help us find her you need to tell me."

Jaxton?s dragon green eyes began to pale to an icy jade. "I cannot give you any help. All I can tell you is that she is in great danger."

Luke frowned. "Bastille, You and Roara have a connection through the Force that could be used to help find her. I have tried to ask you about it before but you have avoided the question." Luke focused on him, his blue eyes deepening in color. "She cannot die like this. She needs your help, no one else has the same connection with her. You have a responsibility to help us find her."

Jaxton?s eyes turned into a vibrant dragon green, the emotion in them smoldering.

"Luke I can?t help you. I?I can?t understand what?s been happening with me but it?s been getting worse. I can?t tell anyone what?s going on because I don?t know myself." He looked as though his emotions were going to spill over. His eyes deepened in the color, like green snow trees in the dusk. "Luke I?ve always been able to stay out of everyone?s way. When I was young I dreamed about her and figured she was just a dream. When I came here we found out I had that condition. When I found here I felt as though my life were complete. But Kiara was hurt and then Roara displays the same disease only worse. Then as things get worse she ends up in trouble. There is a prophecy that was told to me when I was little."

"The old man that used to keep the chronicles took me as an apprentice. I was putting away the scrolls when one of them fell from the top shelf. It fell open and when I reached down to pick it up but I was drawn to read the words printed on it. It was an old language but I had been taught how to read it as part of my apprenticeship. It was talking about me. It was my prophecy. Much like Roara?s book. Stix told me she had found a prophecy in it a few days ago. It read like a story book written some thousand years in the future. It talked about everything that I would do and everything that would happen until now, even the disease was mentioned. There was a decision that would be made here and now that would affect the outcome of my future as well as that of my friends. There was an allusion, though, of a splitting. There was also an allusion to a woman that would change my life. Our destinies are twin and that only when we are together will our full powers be revealed to us."

Jaxton pulled a slip of paper from his robe and unrolled it, handing it to Luke. Luke read the words of the prophecy.

"You have a disease that is rare and was unseen in the days of the old order. It is easily remedied but you must want it enough to give up your life for it. You will find one who is powerful and strong. She has been with you since the beginning. Your destinies lie together and as long as you are apart neither of you will be complete."

"That was told to me by the old man I was apprenticed to. I have kept it all these years as a secret. But the rest of the prophecy is lost to me."

Luke handed the paper to him.

"Jaxton if you bel

 

hm..... very interesting that is....

 

sorry for the delay I've been busier than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. here's what I have.

 

There was a distinct sense of fear in the air as Thunder breathed in the lingering scent of Jaxton?s clothing. Thunder felt the fear of the man that stood before him. Stix had been in the clear to begin with but in all fairness Thunder had sniffed at his robe. Kiara had also been through the test. It was Jaxton?s turn.

Jaxton stood straight looking at the creatures eyes. The first time Thunder had stuck his nose right into Jax?s chest. Jax remembered the strange look Thunder had given him. Now Thunder looked odd. The expression was one of confusion, as if whatever he had expected had only half come true. Thunder turned his head, gazed at Luke for a second and then turned to stomp through the bushes. Luke followed him closely.

Thunder walked over to his favorite spot of the garden over by the cyanth bush. The huge blossoms scented the air.

Luke could sense a mental sigh.

"Roara?s favorite." Thunder had curled up so that he was much smaller. He stretched his muzzle closer to the flowers. He turned his muzzle to Luke.

"I was afraid I was right."

"Right about what?"

"Jaxton is the one that smells closest?but he isn?t the man in armor. There?s a strange likeness between the two scents. Luke, I have a terrible thought and if it?s true then I feel there may be nothing we can do to help her."

"Please explain." Luke said not quite sure what the reptile was talking about.

Thunder shifted on the ground.

"It?s not common on any other planet except Dathomir, and even then it isn?t common to see it happen. It?s one of those once every thousand years when every detail is just right. From the strength of the wind to the smell of the grass. We Filorans were thought to be the only victims but I am guessing we were wrong.

"It?s called a splitting. And it is what it sounds like. A being is split symmetrically by a powerful burst of energy. I have only seen it once and it was a terrifying sight. The Filoran was near the mountain that is mind for the precious ore. The power was intensifying and so all of my kind had decided to leave our home near the mountain. One of us was missing. We went to search for him and found that he was near the mine opening. A storm had been gathering above the mountain just as the power within it. He was struck by lightning. As we watched he was split down the center a blue streak of light separating the two halves. He then changed into two of the same Filoran. Not clone or twin or copy. We fled the mountain. We hadn?t time to deal with the problem until we found a new home and then it was too late. The pain of the separation left each half with a part of the original personality, but without the rest of it the Filoran was changing. It is unnatural for one to be so divided against its self. One half was filled with al the anger and hatred but also had the reasoning and decision making abilities. The other was indecisive, pleasant but in a pinch it was just too much. Both creatures were finally destroyed." [/I]

"We?Filorans?have never executed or banished one of our own and when we did the clan changed. We had always been able to move together as a team but after that each Filoran had to decide for themselves what to do next. We meet once every three cycles? to destroy any of those who have been split. None of us can live that way."
********

 

Leia delivered the news to Han and the two of them began working on plans to get Roara back. Han had seen the plans for the original Juggernaughts and knew that General Garm Bel Iblis would know where to get them.

Han began working on "some old friends that owed him favors" to get up a sizable amount of back up cover fire should they need it. Leia spoke to the Jedi Masters and got them to find the best Jedi pilots they could find to help run the mission. The Masters on the council had all felt Roara?s importance. They could only take a few but with the help of the Force they might be able to get through the defenses of the behemoth ships.

Only a few x-wings and y-wings were to be lent to the pilots. All Leia had to do now was to tell Luke.

She had tried several times to find him in the Temple but it was proving impossible to catch up with him. She was about to give up when she saw something out the large windows that over looked the gardens. Thunder and Luke were sitting near the Cyanth bushes. They seemed to be talking.

Leia raced to one of the turbo lifts hoping she could reach him before he left that spot.
********

 

"Thunder, is there any way to confirm that this is what happened?"

"I?m almost certain that is what has happened to this young man. But it may have happened at an age to far gone for him to remember. Perhaps even during birth or before birth. Do we know the boys parents?"

"He?s an orphan."

"Then there is no way to tell. Humanoids can handle a lot more than any other creature." [/I] Thunder sighed. "Since that is the case only Jaxton can rescue Roara?"

"But from who?" Luke asked puzzled.

"From himself."
********

 

His lips brushed hers in a soft kiss. Then they pressed closer in a passionate kiss. He embraced her his body warm and gentle. Roara could feel Jaxton?s heart beat through the cloth. She sighed.

"This is bliss." She enjoyed the kiss and the way he held her. She could smell the jungle mixed in with the smell of his skin.

He pulled back to look into her eyes. She could see how much he loved her in the way he looked at her. She looked at the reflection in his dragon green eyes.

But the reflection wasn?t hers it was the armored man?s visage. She found herself chained to an invisible wall on top of the massassi temple.

"Oh! Didn?t you know he and I were one and the same?!" his laugh was cruel, harsh to her hearing. She looked at Jaxton who stood very still behind the villain. He licked his lips and swallowed hard. His eyes, filled with angst and longing. He watched as the armored man stepped forward with a jeweled dagger and raised it above his head.

Roara gasped as she opened her eyes, her back arching painfully off the wall. She was staring into a metal helm, into eyes she could not see. She was breathing hard and fighting desperately against the panic and sheer terror of the nightmare. The adrenaline that was pouring through her veins boosted her strength so that she pulled off the wall and even took a step. Her arms held out in the same position eyes wide with fear.

Suddenly her body flew forward and she fell like a rag doll into the man?s arms.

"No, you can?t be." She whispered.

"Can?t be what?" his voice sounded like Bastille?s. Soft and gentle she lay against the strength of her enemy knowing who he was to her. Her strength was gone.

"you can?t be you just can?t be." She breathed.

"Can?t be the other half of your beloved." His voice was still gentle but the moment of disillusion was over. Roara gripped his fore arms tight and began crying, no, sobbing against the metal.

He used the Force to gently lift her body and to put her back against the wall. But as she lifted a single tear landed on his chest plate. Her tears poured down like rain. Roara knew he could feel the pain in her head and in her throat. She knew he felt it spreading but she couldn?t bring herself to care. She just wanted to die. To relax into eternal sleep so that it would end.

She pulled air into her lungs. "You win? I am broken."

"No, my dear, in you still runs the blood of defiance." He put his hand on her face and Roara leaned into the caress hungering for the warmth. "What you feel now is the connection between me and my brother and you yearn for the touch he gave you even though you know you were starving in his presence." His voice turned dark.

Another tear slid down her cheek.

"I am the missing link in his life, not you! You my dear will serve a duel purpose. You will give me the power I long for and bring my second half to me at the same time."

He turned and left and Roara looked at his back as the door shut.

********

 

The door slid shut and a scream of torture erupted from behind it. He smiled at the horrible sound.

He went all the way back to his quarters smiling. But behind the closed doors of his quarters he looked down at the tear still on his chest plate. He pulled off his gloves and with his bear hand wiped the tear from the metal. He looked at it for a moment, then put the tear to his lips.

It was salty and sweet at the same time. He could taste the pain, the sorrow. How she could hurt so much and still have the will to live was beyond him. Sure she had wanted to die today but in a few minutes he would feel her mind change. He felt so close to her thoughts. They were very much like his own. He could understand why his other half loved her so.

He removed his armor and his robes the stale lifeless air that ran through the filters touched his bear back. He wore a pair of shorts and reached for a light weight shirt but decided against it. He remembered the smell of the jungle and the scent of her hair when she had first come aboard. It was an intoxicating smell freedom and spiritedness. Roara?s spark and strength drew him like a moth to a flame.

Yes, he was evil. He admitted that, but he had been right. She had starved for Jaxton?s touch and the kind words she knew he was capable of. He stood at the broad window. The expansive view was beautiful, but cold. Much like Roara was now. He knew that he could give her the attention she needed but he had no capacity for love with in him. His goal was to become whole but without that sniveling excuse of a second half.

In the beginning, He had smiled at the idea of becoming the first half humanoid to take over the universe. How childish. Power was the only thing that concerned him now. Cold, impersonal, power, that would make him whole again without having to become weak. Though there was a nagging feeling. He remembered the prophecy and for a second wished that he could make Roara a partner instead of destroying so beautiful a?..

He dismissed the thought. He would toy with her, draw his second half in, destroy him and the girl, and gain their power by doing it in the ancient ritual of his ancestors. That was the end of the story.

But a small part still wondered?. If he ignored that part of him that wished to love, would he ever truly be whole?
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This story's great. Keep up the good work. Also, please read my story. It's called "Secrets of the Heart." I'll check back in soon!

 

why thank you starwarsgirl! I'm glad you think so.I will definately check out you story.

 

The darkness had been covering his dreams for weeks. Jaxton got up and looked at the chrono. To early to do anything. He sighed and tried to meditate.

The Force seemed too far away to reach. He didn?t dream, he couldn?t meditate, he couldn?t keep from thinking.

He remembered how he had stayed away from her. She had been so successful in the academy. Roara had done in only a year what he had not done in all the time he?d been there. She had won the friendship of many, achieved a tutor status with them, gained the trust of the people in the palace and in the temple. Even Luke?s niece and nephew?s had adored her. She was well liked and prosperous, something he felt he would never be with people like her in the universe. But at the same time he had like the way she thought and the work she put into every move she made. She struggled against a disease that he had only trifled with and she had come farther than he had.

Jaxton shook his head and went to stare out the large window. He sighed. She was the better padawan, and she would be the better Jedi. It was too uncomfortable a situation to get into with her. He didn?t want to be constantly in her shadow? but he did love her?or he thought he did. He sighed again. He hadn?t had to think this much before she had come. Roara had changed everything around him and now he wanted things back to the way they were. He felt as if those around him favored her above him.

Jaxton went into the kitchenette and poured a glass of water. He went back to the window. He had heard the talk when he?d first gotten there. because of his height and gangly look people had thought him ugly. Later on they had thought him reclusive because he didn?t make friends very easily. The real blow came when he had heard the Masters speaking of him. They didn?t think he had the discipline to handle the responsibility of being a padawan much less a Jedi.

He knew that his stubbornness was to blame. At least in part. The rest had been an unwillingness to put forth the effort. He couldn?t count the exercises that he had only did because it was required of him. Because of this he had done them poorly, not having put the time into practicing. Roara, on the other hand had worked hard to get there and so each exercise she tried to recreate perfectly. She would practice the drills she had the most trouble with first and then, only after hours of work would she go through the ones she that came easy.

"How is it?" he thought "That I can admire and love and loath her all at the same time?"

He had stayed away from her brilliance to avoid the comparison but he knew that it would be made anyway. He slumped into a chair and leaned his head back. What to do know?
********

 

Luke and Leia found enough pilots to fly. But something was bothering Luke. Leia set down the data pad she had been staring at over lunch.

"Luke?" she asked. He seemed to be staring off into space.

"I?m just wondering about something Thunder said."

"The Filoran?" Leia mused.

"He said that it?s most likely that Jaxton was part of some split and that he is the only one that can save Roara. He?s up against something I haven?t ever had to face. He would be fighting himself." Luke shook his head. He remembered the day he had gone into the cave on Degobah. He had thought he was fighting Vader but the mask had revealed his own face.

"Leia I don?t think there is any way we can help Roara. Tell Mon Mothma that only a few of us are going and that we won?t need the escort."

"But why?"

"Because we are dealing with Jaxton?s other half. Tell Han to get the Falcon ready. I think I know where he might be taking her."
********

 

Han had the engines primed and ready when Luke, Leia, Kirana Ti and three padawans boarded the vessel. It would take them time to get there but they could do it. Thunder was in the cargo hold being very still. Stix, Kiara, and Sati were waiting in the main room of the Falcon.

Jaxton, Alla, Shema, and Zanteth were piloting a few select x-wings.

It took four days to reach a section of space where the ion trails were still fresh. The Juggernaughts were not far. The trails led to a secluded spiral galaxy two hundred light years from the outer rim galaxies. There was only one seclude little planet that slowly plotted a course around the small dwarf star in the center.

 

The Behemoth stayed on course to the little secluded planet. Once more He visited her cell before landing.

The cell door opened and inside she slumped from the wall the only thing holding her in place now were the four metal manacles directly attached to the wall.

He looked at her hopeless form for a moment.

"Such suffering, such pain." He walked to her and towered over her. She didn?t move. His voice hardened as he barked to the guards. "Has she been fed!"

"Yes sir, unfortunately she won?t eat enough to keep herself alive. She eats less and less each day. The physician has requested that a sustainer be brought up and some fresh needles put on it."

"No!" He barked again. "I?ll not have her contaminated. The request should have been made to me first." The dark threat in his voice brought Roara around.

Her head lolled to the other side and she moaned. Her eyes were blood shot, her hair was coming undone from the lovely warriors plait she had put it in days ago. Her skin was pale white as if she had never seen sunlight. She looked as if she truly was broken? until he saw the cold defiance in her eyes.

He chuckled, a deep, sinister chuckle.

"Bring me some thing to feed her." His voice was gentle and kind and when he lifted her chin it was with the tenderness of a friend. In Roara?s weakened condition she could feel the Force clouding her mind but had no strength to fight back.

The cold armor melted away and the dark ugly cell disappeared. Instead she was sitting in the grass of her favorite spot and Jaxton was across from her. Stix entered with a picnic basket and the smells of heavenly food drifted toward her. She shook her head trying to see beyond her eyes, through the illusion. There was nothing she could do to see the truth.

"Care for some?" Jaxton said as Stix left.

Roara turned her head and then shook it no.

"Oh, come now. I made it my self just for you. I was hoping you would have an appetite. Oh, well." Jaxton was so disappointed. Roara told herself again that it wasn?t really him.

"What about something to drink? He waved a mug beneath her nose. A delicious smelling aroma filled her and she breathed in the scent of home. He felt her home sickness. He could feel her body ached to feel the air of Dathomir.
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