Ask Yavin IV A Life of Sacrifice, United Work.

Alexandria Voran

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The Light burned through Asminys. Alex never losing focus. She must trust Vahn or risk distraction. Trust was the foundation of the Order. She struggled to always remember that truth. Here…she had no choice. A momentary lapse could end both Jedi. Alex did not relent as Vahn and the shade clashed. She spared no thought for the capable Jedi Knight. Her goal was singular. Burn out the shade. Burn out the corruption. She succeeded. Shade Asminys dropping to a knee and fluttering in the Force. Alex resisted the urge to smile. The work was not yet done. Not even close.

Through the Force; all things are possible. The words rang in her mind as Asminys faded into Oota. She nodded. “Through the Force; all things are possible.” Her spirit shone brightly in the Force. The room around them felt different…lighter. She could sense the Force humming in harmony. One step closer. Finally, Alex realized the sacrifice Vahn made. Her mind was so focused on the shade and then the hope suddenly bubbling in the mentalscape, she had utterly missed Vahn’s disappearing hand. Her eyes widened for a moment. “Are you alright?” Alex’s mind reached out instinctively. She could not heal the wound. Not here. “It is a wound of the spirit…not the physical realm.” Her brow scrunched. She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Vahn. I should have been more careful.” It was true she had become to locked on the shade. She raised hand. “Don’t even try it, this is my responsibility.” She knew Vahn would try and shoulder some of the blame. She would not have it.

“There is still work to be done.” Alex went to talk back into the main chamber, assuming Vahn would follow. This time she picked the door to their right. Waiting for Vahn to join her before pushing it open. They would free the Grandmaster’s saber of this corruption. She knew it.

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Vahn Berand

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Vahn was stunned, motionless for a moment as he saw the crimson saber carve straight through the front of his hand. Briefly, panic caused his eyes to widen. Alex’s voice brought him back to his senses, and then he calmed himself. He eased his mind. This isn’t real. This is a dream, sort of. He calmed his breathing; a strange instinct after remembering that nothing that was happening around him was “real”, so to speak.

“Kriff, I should have been….” he paused as she spoke, and he grinned sheepishly to himself. There was no point arguing. Alex wouldn’t allow him to take the blame even if it were entirely his fault. Instead, he paused, and took another breath. “It’s okay. I’m alright. Strangely…. There’s no pain. Master Voran, I think… I think I could just...”

But if nothing was real, then, couldn’t he just...? Vahn thought for a moment, focusing on the memory of his whole hand. To his surprise, he could see the hand forming back, bit by bit, fading back into reality. Then the pain hit, and Vahn hissed, pulling it in towards his core defensively in reflex. It was like he’d dipped his hand in acid, and his focus was broken. The front of his hand was gone once more, but with it, the pain.

“I’m fine. I’m fine,” he stated, raising his good hand towards Alex to hold her off. “It just hurt. I wasn’t expecting it. I think I could power through the pain.”

He thought for a moment. He could endure the pain if he was expecting it, and he pulled the wounded limb back out in front of him. His thoughts focused once more, before a memory from the back of his mind came shooting forth. His heart sank with this recognition.

“Pain is the Dark Side’s greatest ally,” he recited, and his brow, dotted with perspiration from pain was tense. “This is a place of the Dark Side. If I try to regenerate this hand… I think the pain isn’t going away. And I think we’ll just be feeding whatever it is that’s corrupting this crystal...I don’t think we can afford that,” he explained.

“I can fight one handed. It’ll be fine,” he said to himself, frowning. He preferred having two hands on his saber for control and power, but he could adjust. He straightened his back, and nodded back towards where they had come.

“Door number two, now?” Vahn stated, and he followed Alex into the next chamber.


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The wailing through the Force of the former Grandmaster had quietened to a noticeable level but it was not, by any means, gone. Thankfully for all involved, the adventure through the first door had been a success and one third of the corruptive influences on the saber's 'heart' had been diminished enough to be considered vanquished. Still, two more remained and they would need to be dealt with before it was considered purified.

As the two Jedi made their way to the next door, it opened ahead of them to reveal another room.

This time they stepped through the door to find themselves standing at the top of a stone amphitheater. Benches and steps carved out of the same kind of stone worked their way down until the centre of the amphitheater. As with many arenas in the Outer Rim of the Galaxy, the central section of the structure was flat, level, ground covered in light sand.

Unlike many arenas in the Outer Rim, there was only one figure within the entire arena; a hooded and black robed figure that sat in the center of the arena with a small fire in front of them.

The figure didn't move to acknowledge them and the sickly green flames of the fire were uninterrupted by their arrival.


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Alexandria Voran

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“Door number two.” Alex echoed Vahn. She could feel his shifting concern, and yet, he stood beside her, an anchor in the Force. Vahn had his flaws. Flaws some believed dangerous. Alex saw more clearly. Whatever one might say of the brash Jedi Knight...he cared. He was unfailing loyal to those around him, and he cared for those close to him. Any mistake he might make was driven by compassion and loyalty. She could think of worse traits in a Jedi. In that moment, as the second door slid open that was exactly what she needed. Compassion and Loyalty. She had stupidly lost perspective fighting the Shade. Her focus on too fine a point. Vahn paid for her mistake. Still, he supported her.

The Morellian Master shoved those thoughts aside when they walked through the door. Now was not the time. She needed to focus. The room around the Jedi resolved into a stone amphitheater. Alex and Vahn stood at the top. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the figure in the center of the arena. The robbed visage did not move. Unnatural green flames danced before figure. Alex began to walk down the steps. She kept her senses spread wide. Asminys had immediately been aggressive, but not all corruption in the Darkness was the same. Not all purification took the same path.

She raised her voice as she walked down. “Hello?” The Force still beat strongly in her chest. She would not risk being caught unawares.

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Vahn Berand

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Vahn was used to travelling in dark places. Ever since Master Vetan had died he’d wandered the stars almost entirely on his own. He’d been alone so long that he’d forgotten what it was like to have someone at his back. Someone that he trusted Moreover, someone that could help guide him back from those dark places. It was selfish of him, but it was something he valued. Perhaps more now than ever, with a resurgent Sith threatening the galaxy, Vahn needed this. He knew his own shortcomings; his own passions. He needed other people to give structure to his life.

He lingered on these thoughts only momentarily as he followed Alex into the next chamber, his head on a swivel as he looked around, keeping track of any potential threats. Then he saw the robed figure, and he focused his attention.

Vahn took two steps away from Alex’s side, just enough to give her ample space, but close enough so that he could defend her if need be. He tightened his hand around the silver and black saber in his grasp. The Force pulsed in his veins.

“We intend no harm,” Vahn stated. Even if this being was another dark side spectre like before, if there was a chance, any chance they could talk instead of battle he would take it. There had to be a way other than constantly tearing each other apart, generation by generation.


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The figure in the center of the arena didn't move or react to their presence at first but it was moved to react to their words. A small, feminine, chuckle as the figure looked up at them. Through the hood they would be able to see a small smile and pale skin.

"What you intend and what you do are at odds then, Jedi."

Her voice was whispered but it carried across the distance between them all, sounding like it was being whispered right beside their ears. As she was doing this, the figure rose to her feet, stilling by the green fires that rippled as she held out her hands as though to warm them by the fire.

Neither Jedi would be able to feel any kind of warmth from the fire, however. If anything it seemed to be making the entire arena colder.

"With tongues that preach peace and hands that grip weapons, is it any wonder that the Galaxy at large would rather trust a Sith than a Jedi?"

Reaching up, the figure pulled the hood down to reveal a Dathomiri female that was recognizable to the two of them. The woman who would become Queen of Dathomir, her appearance frozen in place as it had been when the Grandmaster had fallen.

"When you step into the dream, the dream learns of you. Sees through you." she explained, her smile quirking ever so slightly into a smirk, "Seems I have done rather well for myself in the interim."


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Alexandria Voran

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She knew that face. Memories of Byblos flashed. They had taken Manat but another had retreated, sending pulses of green energy in her wake. That was the face she stared at now. Another Sith who had claimed the Grandmaster's life. Alex continued her walk towards the center of the amphitheater. As the flames danced, the room grew colder. A false feeling. Her body was safe and warm in the Temple.

She listened closely as she grew closer to the Sith. She could feel Vahn slightly behind her, always vigilant. Alex debated what to do next? Was there any point in debating a shade of corruption? Would she really convince the Darkness it was somehow incorrect? She doubted that. But…it felt wrong to attack…wrong to simply strike out at the vision. That wasn’t who she was and so it was not how she could act.

“You’re right.” Her voice remained calm and measured. “We have made terrible mistakes. Mistakes you see in our memories.” Alex shook her head slowly. “But we are more than the sum of our faults and strive to be better.” She kept walking. “We will be better because we guard and protect all life.” Her words were unmistakably true. They were what Alex believed in her heart of hearts. She had never taken a life, Sith or otherwise, and she would never take a life. She was under no delusion of the sacrifices Vahn made. He dirtied his hands so hers could remain clean. Death was not inherently of the Darkness. He was a good man and a good Jedi. She knew he would not falter.

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Vahn Berand

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Vahn allowed his arms to lower, his saber hand crossed over the other in front of him as he listened. He kept his senses, sharp, his eyes fixed on the being before them with apprehension. He kept himself close enough to Master Voran that he could physically shield her from any harm that might show itself. Otherwise, his posture was surprisingly relaxed.

“You’re right on the face of it. It does seem odd to carry weapons while professing peace. I would much prefer not having to fight. The galaxy is more beautiful with a cup of tea in your hand as opposed to a saber. But, as I’m sure you know, not everyone will play along. Sometimes there is no option but to fight.” Vahn knew the shade they spoke to wasn’t a true Sith, but perhaps there was still something to learn? He had only scant meetings with actual Sith, and only scraped at the surface of how they viewed the world, how they internalized their religion. He needed to know more about the Sith if he was going to find a way to break this eternal grudge match where generations of Jedi and Sith endlessly rip each other to pieces.

He tensed as the newly revealed shade spoke through a face he recognized. His shoulders squared in reflex. Then, his eyes widened in brief panic as the truth of her words sunk in. The corruption within the crystal could see him as clearly as he could see it; and his memories were not sacred. His losses, his victories, moving from battlefield to battlefield. He had killed in battle. He would kill again, but he had also saved lives. Rishe. Drastus. Felix. He wouldn’t be, he couldn’t be ashamed of that. His glance then turned to the side, and the calming presence of the veteran Master eased him. Becoming better. Could he? Could he tilt the balance point? Should he even try? Did the Order...did Alex need someone like him, that was willing to walk in the dark places, to face foes again and again? He bit back such thoughts. He couldn't make the stand she could. He didn't have the right. There was one thing he could do, however.

“You're not her, you're not truly a Sith. I know that. But you are of the Dark Side. It's possible we may be able to learn from you just the same. I... we are willing to talk so long as you are. There has to be a way we can move past this war. I just want to talk. To learn."


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The Sith that awaited their approach merely waited in silence as they continued to come closer, though a small touch of surprise would grace her face for a second or two before it could be controlled. It was not the norm that a Jedi, let alone a pair of Jedi, would attempt to actually speak to someone of the Dark Side.

It said as much.

“How peculiar you are.” It cooed slightly, tilting its head to one side slightly, “To try and talk to someone such as I. Something such as I… oh my oh my, interesting indeed.”

The gaze switched to Alex.

“The Councillor who ran and hid for years…”

Onto Vahn.

“And the Master so willing to dip his hands in blood…”

The memory of the Sith leaned back slightly and viewed the two of them as it weighed their memories and what they had done since entering the dream. Slowly, green light began to glow around the form of the Sith as it began to float ever so slightly off of the ground. The eyes of the Sith began to pulse the same, sickly, green light of the Nightsister magics.

“Are you capable of anything but blindly swiping at your enemies I wonder? Is the strength of your convictions found only in your sword?”

As she spoke of a sword, the green magics began to form up within her right hand, forming a spectral sword of the same sickly green light as before. It slowly pointed the sword in their general direction but in a less-than threatening way.

“A trade. I will leave this place, to be banished forever, upon a sacrifice. One memory from each of you; cherished and sacrificed to do ‘good’ without violence.”


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Alexandria Voran

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Alex and Vahn walked in unison. Their minds of a single purpose. They would be better. They could be better. Violence was not the only path. If there was a way to rid the Darkness without raising a blade, the Jedi would take it. Alex knew Vahn would do what was necessary…to shield her from the Darkness. She would not ask that of him. Alex could play the shield as well.

“The Councillor who ran and hid for years…”

The words hit her ears, ringing like a slap across her face. Trust quivered in her soul. Alex had spent decades running from responsibility. Decades away from the Order. She had thought herself an outcast…no she had thought herself better than her family. She had wanted nothing to do with the heart of the Jedi. She was different now. That frightened Jedi Knight was gone, replaced by the confidence that beat in her chest. Alex earned the position she held now because she admitted those mistakes. The journey shaped the Jedi she became. She was not ashamed of what had brought her here. Her eyes snapped back to the apparition, Sith magic forming up all around them. The Morellian Jedi heard the trade. In an instant, she decided. She heard Max in her thoughts…a Jedi’s life is sacrifice. “You must make the choice yourself.” Alex would not force this on Vahn. In here, they were equals.

Memories flashed in her mind. Her master, Maiko, Max, Indy, Vahn, Yvain. A thousand happy times since returning to the Temple. She had a family she never thought possible. Her resolve hardened. It was for them she made this choice. A part of herself for the future of the Jedi. She hurt so those around her would not. “Deal.” The witch was not here but Alex spoke anyways. “So that you may see we are what we claim to be.” She was a Jedi. Her life was sacrifice.

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The memory of the Nightsister so feared across the Galaxy had what she needed. As a shade of such a powerful magic and Force User, the challenge set forward by the creature was linked to it's continued existance. It knew, in a way that the other projections within this shared dream did not, that it was not so much a guardian or a person as it was a test.

A test that even this slither of the Sith it represented was certain that the Jedi before her would fail. Thankfully for the shade, it was connected directly to the Force rather than the Sith it was created in the image of and that meant it had access to things that the original did not.

Self-awareness of itself helped.

Reaching out, the Sith smiled as it tapped Alex's forehead.

"Suffer."

The twist that the shade had pulled off on Alex wasn't to steal away one of her memories. No, instead what the shade did was pervert one of Alex's memories of someone she cared about. A favorite memory of Maxims Tionson that Alex found herself thinking about often would, every time she thought on it, continue past the end of that memory.

Into another that she had not been there for. Every time Alex's mind would wander to that memory it would be followed, without fail, with the death of that same loved one. Let down by his allies, dying alone in a street like human garbage. Of course, Alex herself would then know that he was subsequently beheaded, with his head paraded around as a grotesque trophy.

All to add to it.

All to see her suffer and to see her anguish turn to hatred, to see her vaunted Jedi morals fail her.


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Alexandria Voran

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She remained still as the Sith approached. That one word echoing in the chamber and in Alex’s mind. Suffer. She did not resist. Alex kept her word as the Sith magic gripped her memories. She saw Max…she had known she would see Max. What else could the Darkness take from her but memories of the man who set her on this path? There was no Alexandria Voran without Maxims Tionson. She remembered that night out in the jungle of Yavin. How she feared what the curse on Ajan Kloss had unlocked. Alex cherished everything that represented. The Sith’s magic took hold, worming deep into the memory.

Without control, her mind flipped to the feeling in her chest when Max had died. Her heart squeezing in unrelenting pain. The images that flashed as Stolas took his life and treated him like a trophy. His body never made whole. His soul never fully returned to the Force. The Shade’s magic was powerful. Alex’s own mind betraying her by feeding the pain. Stolas on Taris. Her chance to rid the galaxy of him. Her desire to strike him down. Alex covered in blood, staring at the Sith muttering the same words over and over again. “I don’t care.” She thought of that moment with Max and all the same pain followed. The memory was poison. Ruined. Tattered. Destroyed.

Her anger was real. She wanted Stolas dead. The searing pain in her chest had never really left, just been covered up. Alex dropped to her knees. Hate roaring in the Force. But the Shade had made one mistake. It did not fully understand what Max had meant to her. It did not fully under the breadth of their journey. One memory was not all they were. Alex was mad, Alex wanted Stolas gone but one thing held above all else. What Max had taught her as a Jedi. She stood slowly, setting her pain, anger and hate aside. All she felt was love. Alex met the Shade’s gaze. “I suffer. My life is sacrifice…it is not my own. I am angry, I am hurt, but I am so much more. My love for my family cannot be taken…no matter what you do.” Her voice was hard as she spoke. “Keep you bargain, Shade. Release the Grandmaster.”

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It could feel it, feel the anger and the hate that Alex held in her heart for the one who had killed that other Jedi. The shade could feel it growing with every second and it wanted to smile, it wanted to smirk and crow about how the vaunted control of the Jedi was nothing more than a pathetic mask, dropped at the slightest sign of trouble.

Of course it was not to be.

Alexandria Voran pulled herself out from the depths of her anger and hatred by accepting that they existed - accepting it and moving on regardless. She stepped out of the emotion and reached that level of control again as had always been the case with the greatest of Jedi in the past.

The brilliance of a great Jedi, a Good Jedi, was not that they were never challenged but that they continued to rise above every challenge. Even as Alex stood and face it once again, despite the anger and the sacrifice she had been forced to endure... she stood as a Jedi before the Dark Side once more.

"A bargain struck, the price paid."

Without emotion, the shade spoke as it's body began to fade away at the edges.

"A shade obeys, the deal once made."

There was no warning.

One second the Shade was fading away, the next both Alex and Vahn were violently ejected from the shared dream world, rocking back where they were stood (or sat) as pain wracked their minds. Before them sat the crystal - the lightsaber itself vanished - bare in the light.

A bright and vibrant white.


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Alexandria Voran

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Alex watched the monster closely. It upheld the bargain. Without warning her mind was sent spinning from the mindscape. Searing lances of pain raced up and down her spine. A torrent of agony swirling in her thoughts until she stood in the mediation chamber. Her breaths came in ragged pained gasps, her heart racing. Alex took a few deep breaths. She reached for the Force…the Light flooding into her body. Slowly, she calmed. The Jedi Master resisted the urge to reach for that memory of Max, to test the magic of the shade. It was foolish. The shade had not lied. That memory was poison, she knew it was surely as she felt the ground beneath her feet.

Finally, Alex’s eyes drifted to the dais. The saber was gone and, in its place, rested the Grandmaster kyber crystal shinning brightly. A perfectly pure white glow cascading from the kyber. Peace resonated in the room. The peace of the Grandmaster being put to rest. The kyber being freed. Now, the hard part. Vahn had liberated the Grandmaster’s kyber from the Sith Lord. Vahn had brought the crystal here, but she knew he could not yet have it. Alex walked forward the gently cup the crystal in her hand. It was warm to the touch, ringing in her mind with a welcome hum. She met Vahn’s eyes.

“I want you to have this…” Her voice cut through the silence in the room. “But not yet. The blade that this kyber creates must be one of peace. It can never know death.” Sometimes, you hurt the people you cared for most. “You know what the war will ask of you and how you will answer.” Vahn made that choice for the good of the Order. “I will keep it safe until you are ready…when you are ready.” Alex walked towards the door, grabbing the tall Jedi by the shoulder. “He would be proud of you, just as I am.” She squeezed and swirled out of the door. There was more work to be done.

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OOC: Exit thread

 

Vahn Berand

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Vahn had hesitated. In battle, locked in life or death struggles he had always been active; decisive. But now this was different. His very memories were on the line. Instantly he thought of his past. What was he without those memories? The lessons he had learned from Master Vetan. The laughter and joy he had experienced with her and Arias? A realization came to him then. It was easy to risk one’s life. It was easy to risk one’s body. He had considered himself brave, but this was an entirely different challenge. One that cut to the core of his self-image. For the briefest moment he was reduced back to the scared kid back on Taris.

A block of ice formed in his chest and he was left paralyzed. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t risk the only things he had left of them. He knew he was going to fail in that moment, but then Alex saved him by taking a stand he could not. She stepped forward where he could not, and she took the burden. He raised a hand in protest, but then he saw white, and he was thrust back into the stunning reality.

Vahn stumbled in place as he found his legs; his real legs. He flexed his hands, feeling his fingers once more. Shame and regret blossomed in his mind and he looked askance. He couldn’t look at her; no less could he look at the pure white kyber crystal laying on the table before him.

Alex spoke, and Vahn listened.

She saved him once again. Alex’s words left him stunned. He knew she was right. He wasn’t ready to carry such a thing; he needed to walk in the dark places, and he needed a beacon to guide him back to the light. He grasped at the crystal dangling from his neck. Master Vetan’s own kyber crystal hung there from a leather thong like a lead weight. Then, as now he remained the student. One day he would be ready. She believed in you, so you should believe in yourself. For four years the thought had hung in his mind. How had he earned the right to be able to say this once again?

"I'll never stop trying to be worthy," he promised as the Councilor left the chamber.


OOC: Thread exit

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