Ask Ancient Sorrow

[Crix Aran]

Bogano was... not a place Crix had fond memories of.

He had been here with some of his fellow Padawans, fighting off some of the wildlife for the right to use some of the caves as a pseudo base of sorts but nothing had come of it. His friends had forgotten about the pursuit and Crix had written it off as a bad job - there wasn't any actual point in doing it when there were better places. Ones that didn't require him to fight off giant frogs that seemed to enjoy eating things of Padawan-size.

The other memories he had were connected to the Tomb/Vault itself, that he was here to actually see again. His first attempt to gain access to the tomb below the Vault layer had resulted in a vision of the future, a vision of fighting his own Jedi Master to the death decades in the future after a turn. Running a hand over his horns, he sat down at the base of the ramp of his ship.

Waiting.

A Jedi Master had informed him that he had become available and would be heading to assist him with Bogano and Crix just... well he had arrived and sat down at the end of the ramp to await the Master's arrival. He didn't actually know the Master he was going to meet up with but that was to be expected - Crix had spent a lot of time travelling with Hannibal and when he wasn't with his Master?

Well Crix enjoyed tinkering with things and that was hardly a very social hobby. Hopefully he didn't manage to offend this Jedi Master as he had with some of the Jedi he had met in the past.

@Braden Drake

 

[Yvain]

The darkness of space slowly gave way to the grey-green ball that was Bogano. Yvain's customised X-Wing with signature booster seat glided down through the upper atmosphere. 'Spinz' his little astromech beeped and booped about the planets status, life signs and history. Yvain nodded along with the droid as they descended, below he could see the little Padawan he was due to meet and he pulled the fighter to a stop just to the East of the Padawan's own ship.

The cockpit slid forward and the Jedi hopped out, The Force propelling him out of the seat, tumbling through the air before landing a few feet away from the Padawan. "Greetings Young Aran, how are we today?" The old Jedi Master asked as he walked up beside the Padawan a big smile upon his face.

@Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

… that was a very energetic looking old person.

Was the Master even old or did his species just look old with all the wrinkles? Questions for later. For now, Crix rose from where he was sat, patting himself down of dust he had accumulated just sitting in place for so long. He gave the Master one of his many, many, customary grins and waved at the green Master came closer.

“Master Yvain – glad you could join me.”

He hummed a little bit as he eyed the monolith that was the Vault in the distance, having heard the Master’s question but feeling his emotions tug at him to look back at the Vault. How was he today? Well that remained to be seen – it depended entirely on how much his memories and the Vault itself seemed to want to co-operate with him.

“Been better, Master Yvain, but we play with the cards we got, not the ones we wanted.” He answered at length, a slightly morose smirk adding to the effect as he gave a one-armed shrug, “Shall we see about facing the day and all it’s challenges then?”

That was a phrase he’d heard some of the meditation experts in the Temple use from time to time – seemed like it fit here. Made him seem like he knew what he was talking about. Made him seem zen.

@Braden Drake

 

[Yvain]

Yvain sensed some doubt and negativity from the Padawan when he spoke. That was not a good start to anything let alone a deep dive into a long forgotten tomb/vault. Yvain moved up alongside Crix, allowing the Padawan who knew what or where he was going to lead the way.

"What is troubling you young one?" He asked, Yvain did not want bad feelings or historic events to way on the Padawan's mind as they moved forward. He had already seen how many of those young and inexperienced in The Force could fall to such simple things as a bad moods. At least if he spoke about it some of that tension should hopefully release, at worst it meant that Yvain knew what to expect from Crix.

@Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

What was troubling him?

"The past and the future." he joked bitterly, shaking his head ever so slightly, "Sorry, that... yeah..."

Leading the Master toward the Vault, Crix was silent as they made their way closer. Upon reaching the edge of the ramp that led up to the Vault he grimaced a little bit before deciding he didn't really want to mess around with the muddy slope. Reaching out with the Force, he took a deep breath before placing his hands on the ground and exerting his will.

Force Alter was useful but something he was still developing so the stairs that the muddy slope re-arranged itself to be were not as wide as he had intended. Still better than sliding down the hill. He started up the stairs and as he did he spoke, to actually answer Master Yvain this time.

"I was here before with Master Sati and when I was here... the Vault showed me a vision of the future. A future." he admitted quietly, "I fought my own Master to the death."

It hadn't been a fun experience.

@Braden Drake

 

[Yvain]

The ancient structure was beautiful to behold, Yvain could tell by the radiant Force around it that this had once been a great mystical and physical power within The Force. Those that built it extremely talented Force individuals, he let the residual energy bask over his little form, filling the little pockets of his soul with energy and happiness.

The Padawan still seemed apprehensive and on edge, not a good sign for someone who was about to head into a Force dense zone, so Yvain kept a good eye on both the physical and spiritual side of the Padawan through The Force as they descended. "You are a talented one." Yvain said as he took the newly created muddy stairs. "Hmmm, the future, it is never written in stone. It is always changing, take these stairs, how absent handily did you pick your right foot over your left?" He waited for a moment not for a physical answer but for him to quickly think it over. "Depending on what you chose at that moment depends on what foot finishes first at the bottom correct. But what if I ask you to stop, you may change which foot goes first, so the last step will change."

Yvain smiled at the young Zabrak, he thought it was a good analogy for the moment. "Many Jedi, older and more powerful than us both have tried to glimpse and understand the future. None have been successful and most have lost there minds and souls to such pursuits." They were just about to reach the bottom and he wondered if the young one would even pay attention to which foot came off the stairs first. "Concentrate on the here and now, it is the only thing you can change. To dwell on the Past or the Future only wastes away your life little Crix."

@Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

The advice was welcome, something he kind of needed when it came to the vision of the future. He simply refused to try and discuss the events with Hannibal - there were just so many things wrong with the idea that he would bring it up with Hannibal. It was a terrible thing to try and tell someone you looked up to that you had seen a vision of the future where they were everything they stood against.

It was entirely another thing to tell them how you had been almost possessed by the future version of yourself.

That he had felt the bitter thrill of satisfaction running through himself as Hannibal's eyes had widened when realizing that Future Crix had never intended to win in a fair fight. Blowing the two of them to kingdom come had been his best option, he believed, and he had followed through on it.

He had died taking his Master with him and it weighed on him but Yvain was right. It was a possible future of too many possible futures to possibly be able to actually count. There was no right or wrong future, there was only what he could control.

The moment.

Crix let out a soft sigh as he ascended the stairs he had made and stepped into the Vault with Yvain. He smiled a small, rueful, smile.

"Do you just get a book with all this Master-like wisdom when you get the rank?" he teased gently, "Or do you really need to work on it? Cus you're good."

Standing in the Vault, Crix eyed the polished bronze of the wall that stood in the middle of the Vault at this level. He placed a hand against the smoothed metal before reaching into it with the Force.

"Master... we need to rotate it. Together on three?"

@Braden Drake

 

[Yvain]

The Padawan knew where he was going so Yvain followed diligently as he made his way through the temple towards there destination. He giggled a little when he mentioned his apparent Master-like wisdom. "If you can live to be two hundred and sixty two, I am sure you can pick up a few things to Crix." He said in a humorous tone. Though his long life was much of the reason for his level headedness it was also because of the tragedy he had felt and seen during his lifespan, that kind of pain gave one a sought of wisdom.

The Jedi Master cocked his head to one side as he approached the polished bronze wall, he could feel some ambient energy coming from the wall, the reasoning coming clear with Crix's statement. Pulling the mythical power into himself Yvain concentrated upon the wall before acting on the Padawan's count. With that he pulled the wall one side revealing the passageway behind. "I hope there are no creepy crawlies down there" He joked before following the Padawan in.

@Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

Two hundred and sixty two eh? Well he couldn’t pass up the opportunity, even if the joke itself was lame as all hell.

“You don’t look a day over two fifty, Master Yvain.”

Terrible joke but, really, expected of him at this point he felt. If he hadn’t said it aloud, he would have still been thinking about the answer after all so why the hell not say it aloud? Be proud of your terrible jokes people.

“I’ll focus on trying to make it to twenty two though.” He admitted with a small shrug, “Especially with how the Galaxy seems intent on making the life of a Jedi one of near constant danger.”

Even Rangers had a better life expectancy on average.

Using the Force in concert with the Master was probably overkill in terms of just how much raw power was actually required to rotate the wall given that it was on gears that meant it was supposed to rotate. But doing it together serve another purpose, granting the building a taste of both of their Force powers. It felt strange to ‘see’ it through the Force but he was able to tell that the building was almost soaking in their use of the Force.

Tasting or testing them he wasn’t sure.

“Just some killer robots and traps, I’m sure.” He teased the Master as the passage opened and he stepped forward, finding it was changed, “This is a different passageway to the one that leads to the vault on this level…”

The same doorway leading to a different corridor? Force-related shenanigans were definitely involved. As he proceeded, he paused as he reached what appeared to be… the top of a giant bronze slide that descended into the darkness.

He couldn’t help himself.

“Last one down has to give Master Voran a backrub!”

And threw himself down the slide feet-first.

It was a rapid ride in almost complete darkness but it was everything he had expected from some kind of theme park ride. He let out a whoop of enjoyment before the slide began to level out and he skidded across the now level floor to slam foot-first into something. Looking up the bronze pillar he had slid into, Crix blinked.

It wasn’t a pillar – it was a leg.

The Jedi looked up at the Zeffo tomb guardian as the ancient droid looked down at him.

For a second the two were silent and still, before the guardian lifted it’s foot to squash Crix and Crix rolled off to the side, pulling himself up into a crouch with his lightsaber in his hand.

“Found one, Master.”

@Braden Drake

 

[Yvain]

He gave the Padawan a chuckle at his little joke before the door moved and revealed the passageway beyond. Yvain paused when the Padawan commented on the entrance, he seemed puzzled if not concerned about the change of events and even though the Jedi Master had centuries of experience on the boy, he had not been to this planet or this place so he was relying on his expertise as much as Crix was relying on his.

He spotted the slide a moment before the Padawan shouted his absurd comment about Master Voran before launching himself down the slide. Yvain not one to be beaten in silly games such as this rushed after the Padawan, though with much more style and grace if he did say so himself. Surfing down the tube on his nailed feet, it was a rush and he picked up a fair decent speed as he came to the end almost catching up with the Padawan.

The dim light of the room ahead just about lit the outline of the Tomb Guardian, Yvain had only a split second to react as the metallic monster began to glow as it tried to squash Crix. Pushing forward The Force propelling him through the air, Yvain ignited his lightsaber sending a green glow across the room. He diving, attack was aimed straight for the shoulder of the guardian. The green blade biting deep into its armoured shell.

@Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

Well even being almost crushed by a giant, ancient, droid wasn't enough to dampen Crix's mood too much - he had worked too hard on reaching the state of being he had to let something like this slow him down. Crix had long since decided that how he would shield himself against fear, hatred and the temptations of the Dark Side was laughter. Now, rising from his kneeling position, he flicked his lightsaber into his right hand and ignited it's bright, pale, blue blade.

"We only need some of it intact, Master Yvain!"

There was a lot they could learn about the damned droids just by having their parts after all. Crix wasn't a fan of killing droids because of his own experience with them, seeing them as just sentients in metallic bodies. But droids like the Tomb Guardians lacked that ability to learn, to grow into sentients.

Throwing himself forward with the Force, he swung hard at the Tomb Guardian's head. He cursed a little bit as the Guardian moved to one side slightly, evading the attack entirely, before swinging an arm to brush Crix aside like a fly. Spiraling in the air, he pushed off that same hand with his feet, his lightsaber lashing out as he launched himself off of the droid, slicing through the fingers of the hand that had been attempting to swat him.

Recovering from the tumble, he spun back round to face the droid, assessing it.

"Try for the limbs!" he called out to the Master, "I think I want a closer look at the core..."

@Braden Drake

 

[Yvain]

The blade bit deep into the armoured shell though the momentum of the little green Jedi forced him to pull it free before he could do too much damage to the hulking metallic brute. Landing behind the droid, he looked over at the Padawan as he was smacked aside, it seemed Crix had dealt with these before. So Yvain followed his lead and aimed for the limbs.

Leaping back up he aimed his green blade for the opposite side of the right shoulder he had already injured. The ancient droids armour gave some resistance as he attempted to carve the limb free, though after a moment he was able to pull the blade free detaching the arm from the torso. Yvain fell with the limb just out of reaching of the grasping left hand, landing just behind the creature and rolling backwards out of the way of an incoming stomp. "One down little one."

@Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

The Tomb Guardian did something that Crix had not been expecting because he seriously was not aware that the damned things were actually capable of doing so. Charging in again from the side, Crix readied his lightsaber and prepared himself for a slashing-run attack on the droid's elbow joint of the surviving arm.

He was absolutely not expecting the droid to turn to face him and for it's core to come to life and emit a pulse of energy that caught Crix entirely unprepared in the center of the chest.

Feeling like he was being hit by a continuous stream of kicks to the breastbone by Hannibal, Crix was flung away from the droid at speed, until he reached the end of the weapon's range. His lightsaber flew from his hand as his back hit the an unforgiving stone wall.

His back made unhappy clicking sounds as Crix fell forward, catching himself slightly as he did so... enough to cough up blood into his left hand.

"Oh that's not good..." he muttered to himself, shaking his head slightly, "That's supposed to stay on the inside..."

@Braden Drake

 

[Yvain]

Yvain was thoroughly chuffed with his exploits already against the massive droid, with one arm removed it surely must already be getting ready for either himself for the Padawan to take... Oh, maybe not. He watched the core of the creature rotate and appear facing the young Zabrak, before quickly removing him tot he back of the room. Yea that was not what was planned in the old Jedi Masters mind. "Crix." He called out as he used The Force to leap over the head of the giant machine landing between it and the Padawan.

Disengaging the lightsaber, he brought both of his hands close together above his chest, pulling in the surrounding Force energy before letting out a massive wave of power. He expected the machine to go flying across the room, though the best he got was a stumble backwards onto one of its knees. "Umm, you good kid? You sure you want it alive, it doesn't seem to want you alive?"

@Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

Groaning a little bit, Crix pushed himself away from the wall. His legs wobbled underneath him at first but as he eyed the ancient droid, he took a deep breath despite the ache it brought to his ribs. Taking a shaking step forward, he forced the shakes to slow before stopping entirely through sheer willpower as he grunted once more and took a second step.

He grinned at the Master with blood-stained teeth – probably made him seem a little bit manic in hindsight but he wasn’t focusing much on it.

“So… like literally every other enemy we face as Jedi then?” he teased the diminutive Master before holding his right hand out to the side, “I think we can endure.”

The pain was… distracting but he was aware it likely would have been worse for others. Due to his own species, Crix had a somewhat higher tolerance for pain than humans or other species. Both of his hearts were pumping blood round his body in an effort to keep him, quite literally, pumped up with the adrenaline that had been produced from the battle so far.

“That said, we only need the core.” He declared as he recalled his lightsaber to his right hand, “From my readings, the logic processors are still located in the head unit even if the power is from the core in the middle. One of us as a distraction, the other can latch onto it and use technopathy.”

The droid began it’s advance again and Crix ignited his lightsaber.

“I’m very distracting Master – go to the side, I’ll keep it’s attention.”

@Braden Drake

 

[Yvain]

Though he was a little brash the kid was smart, Yvain like smart kids and smart Padawan's made his life ten times easier. Crix recovered quickly which helped bring Yvain's own heart rate down, last thing he needed was to try and explain to Voran how the Padawan died on his watch. As the Zabrak began moving off to one side to distract him the Jedi Master leapt into action.

He kept his lightsaber disengaged as to seem like less of the two threats and he began moving towards the opposite side of the giant machine. The little green Jedi began pulling The Force within himself enhancing his reflex's, speed and power. As soon as the machine moved towards the Padawan, Yvain moved, like a giant green ping pong ball he bounced from left to right building up seed and keeping his movements random encase it turned to face him. The final bounce pushed him off up the ground towards the machines' head, the snap-hiss of the blade reached his ears as he drove the plasma blade into the base of the head. He shifted the blade from side to side hoping to hit the logic processor within its metallic skull.

@Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

Distracting.

Okay - he knew well enough that he could be distracting as all seven of the Corellian hells and he was about to make damned sure that everyone in the damned vault knew it. Making sure his lightsaber was ignited, Crix moved away from Yvain and made wide movements with his lightsaber.

"Come on then!" he gestured to the droid with the blade, bringing it's attention to him as he 'threatened it' with a deadly weapon, "Yes yes over here you over-sized tea kettle! Come a little closer why don't you? I can't kick your ass when you're all the way over there!"

The words were mostly for him he would admit but they also allowed the Jedi Master to know when he was taunting/distracting the droid through the verbal cues. Crix held his arms wide to his sides as though to invite the droid to attack him and this time he caught it when the droid started charging its core for the attack that had almost slammed him through a wall.

This time he was ready but he needed to give Yvain a chance to get into the best possible position before the droid could try and counter their plan.

So he let it take its shot just as Yvain jammed his lightsaber into the neck of the droid and started to hack and slash at it's insides. The blast rocketed forward regardless and Crix jumped as it traveled, using the Force to guide his leap to be just over the attack as it rushed underneath him, his body horizontal to avoid catching the attack to any limbs.

After the attack passed by, Crix extinguished his lightsaber and rushed forward as the droid tried to reach up and swat at Yvain with increasingly uncoordinated swipes. Reaching into himself, Crix slammed both of his palms against the core of the droid. The Force surged out into the droid and Crix's eyes flashed as he shouted his command at the droid.

"01000100 01101001 01110011 01100101 01101110 01100111 01100001 01100111 01100101!"

Disengage.

Not the whole droid because that would take too long, no. He commanded the core itself, the power source of the droid, to disengage and it obeyed, going dark as it cut the power and the droid's swipes at Yvain immediately stopped as the droid became as a statue once more. Breathing heavily, Crix tried to let go of the droid as his connection to the machine threatened to overwhelm him with information.

"It's... beautiful, Master..."

@Braden Drake

 

[Yvain]

It was like holding onto a bucking Bantha as the metallic beast tried to remove the little green Jedi from its back. Yvain was tempted to shout 'Yee Haa' as he tried to hold on but the fact the machine was desperately trying to murder him and the Padawan stopped him from being to stupid on this occasion. Crix made his move towards the machine and started mumbling some kind of weird gibberish. That definitely wasn't Zabraki, was it doird? Yvain pulled a weird face as he dropped off the back of the machine as it fell the ground devoid of power.

The machine was threatening to fall on top of the now exhausted Padawan, quickly clipping his lightsaber on to his hip, he reached out with The Force grabbing hold off both the machine and the Padawan allowing both to fall slowly to the ground laying them side by side. "Is this what you were looking for little one?" He said stepping up next to the Padawan his eyes locked on the core of the machine lying next to him.

@Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

Wobbling in place, Crix allowed the Force to take him under Yvain's direction and he laid down on the ground beside the ancient droid that had tried so very damned hard to try and murder him. He didn't hold it against the droid but he would have very much preferred it if this whole episode had involved a lot less attempted murder - he was a nice boy who never tried to harm any droids and they had very much not taken a similar approach to him.

Groaning a little bit, he just laid there as the adrenaline started to fade and his body's protests of pain began to register better. He might be in less pain than some other species might have been from the same level of damage but that didn't mean it didn't still bloody hurt.

"Master Yvain - respectfully requesting permission to pass out." he declared, half-joking as his eyelids drooped slightly, "This has been one hell of a trip."

Forcing his eyes open, he focused back up on the core that the Master was gesturing to. It would have been a terrible waste if they had fought so hard for something that turned out to be worthless but, in the end, it did look like they had accomplished their mission.

Crix raised both hands tiredly.

"Yes it is - victory is ours!"

And then he passed out.

/End Thread

@Braden Drake