Ask Ajan Kloss Can't Rain All The Time

Maxims Tionson

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Ajan_Kloss.jpg

It wasn't raining on Ajan Kloss and that felt weird.

A jungle planet and the site of a recently destroyed Jedi Temple? A place currently awash with Dark Side energies and the looming spectre of death all around? It should be raining but it wasn't. Instead Max stood at the beginning of one of the man winding paths that would take him up to the site of the Temple he had spent the most time training within, slightly annoyed that the weather was beautiful.

Felt wrong to have the sun shining down peacefully on a place so thoroughly desecrated.

Even a kilometre away from the Temple itself he couldn't see it through all of the trees but he could sense it. He could sense the death and the Dark Side and it clashed so horribly with all of his memories of the place. All of his memories had been rather... peaceful. Not all of them had been good but they had all been had with the undercurrent of peace and tranquility.

And now Ajan Kloss was a ruin and he was hesitating when he wasn't even at it's doorstep. Why? There was no fear with the Force as his ally after all... it was with that thought in mind that he started the journey up the steps.


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Sorrow. Ajan Kloss vibrated pain in the Force. Where once Light had beamed into the cosmos, now Darkness celebrated death. It was almost as if the Jedi had never called this world home. Another wound in a long history of war. Jedi Knight Alexandria Thayless Voran walked the jungles of Ajan Kloss. The air was warm, and sun shone through the thick foliage. It felt wrong. The sun shinning when the Force was torn asunder. She barely recognized what she felt. Ajan Kloss was nothing as it was before.

Alex very nearly walled herself into her mind. Withdrawing from the Force, but that would not be right. She needed to feel the sorrow. She needed to understand their failure. Alex had lingered at the meeting held by the Council. It had been much as she expected. Some shouting, some apologizes, and a lot of nothing. The hallmarks of their fracturing Order. The Jedi Knight had sworn she would not run…she would not retreat to the Outer Rim. Alex promised she would stay and fight for what her heart believed.

That was why she had come home. She needed to see for herself what their foolishness had wrought. It was everything she feared. The Sith had placed their black mark on Temple and the world. She could barely bring herself to begin walking towards the Temple. Face your fears. Alex would not allow herself to be pushed away. Sixty years ago, her Master had brought her here…this was her home…the Order's home. She plunged deeper in the Force. A familiarly mind met her there. Alex could feel Max just at the edge of her presence. She reached out in the Force…touching his thoughts. “Max…?” Perhaps the Jedi Master had a similar notion. Come to Ajan Kloss to mourn, and then face the Truth.

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Maxims Tionson

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Max was wandering a lonely road and already he was wishing it wasn't so. He wished that he had a friend beside him, someone he could share the sights and the feelings with. But he was alone on Ajan Kloss as far as he knew and he had left his droid companion in the Tigris when he had landed. The unnatural stillness of the wildlife around the Temple ruins was telling.

To those apologists who argued that Balance was the Light and Dark in equal measure, he would point to the creatures of Ajan Kloss. He would point out how the Dark Side drained them of all life until they merely fell from their perches to die. The Dark Side was a gaping wound that leaked poison into the life around it.

The Balance was Light and Life.

Feeling a familiar mind brush against his own, Max let out a small sigh of contentment at finding his solitude broken by the presence of someone he knew. Someone he had trusted before and trusted now to open his mind to.

"Alex - it is good to feel your presence here."


Standing atop the long and winding steps, Max slowly sat down atop a low stone wall at the crest of the hill to stare down at the Temple below. Walls tumbled down and roofs collapsed into what had once been grand halls of learning and introspection. Throughout the ruin he could feel pieces of the the Order, kyber crystals shattered or otherwise lost, a deep sense of defilement and the abandoned dead.

Somewhere down in that mess of ruined stone and shattered promises was what he had come back for.

"Such a sight it makes Alex... the folly of sentients who thought themselves wise..."



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Max’s mind touched her own. Alex remained silent for a moment as she continued to walk towards the Temple. “I doubt I could face this challenge alone.” The Force had put her in Max’s path again, or perhaps he was on her path. Maybe it didn't matter. The Darkness was becoming more oppressive the closer she became to the Temple. The bright Light that was Max kept her moving forward. Her mind reached out again. “We make the same mistakes Max…we spout wisdom we fail to follow.” Alex shook her head. “The cycle repeats and we have failed again.” Her words were tinged with sadness but were not a condemnation. They were simple truth.

She emerged from the jungle at the base of the hill overlooking the Temple. She climbed her way up the steps to the top. Darkness battered her mind. She could almost see the battle. Death fought to grip her heart. The Jedi had paid a terrible price below. Finally, she reached where the Jedi Master sat. Alex moved slowly to join him. Her eyes flicking over his form. In an instant her senses rang with a wrongness…a difference. Max had not escaped the battles unscathed. Perhaps another time she would have remarked on the changes, this was not that time. They had all paid a price, some more heavily than others. She did not completely untangle her mind from her fellow Jedi’s as she spoke.

“What have we done?” Her voice was soft. “A part of me wishes to blame the Council for their failure to foresee our mistake.” She ran a hand through her auburn hair. “But that is a cowards answer. We all share in this.” Alex pointed down below, at the destruction of their home. “We all are responsible.” The Force rang with the truth. She felt that deep in her soul, in her heart. This was a failure for which they all needed to account.

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The Darkness was still so fresh, like a wound that hadn't had a chance to scab over yet and that was beginning to affect him and not just the area around him. It was like blood was flowing around him as he wrapped the Light around himself like a cloak to ward off the cold. Still, he could feel it reaching out as though to stain him with it's taint and it took a moment each time to push it away.

And each time it would retreat before trying again later, at different intervals. It wasn't a living, thinking, thing in the traditional sense so that was about the extent of it's low cunning but it was still something he needed to focus on to avoid. After a long day it was going to be exhausting he knew. It had endless patience and stamina while he did not.

His Light would waiver over time.

Spotting Alex, Max made a point to wave at her with his right hand, wiggling all of the digits both flesh and metal at her. It amused him a little bit to see how people first reacted to his new situation. Most people were more freaked out by the fact that he'd chosen to only go partially cybernetic rather than full.

"What we always do."
he replied with a small, sad, smile, "Rested on our laurels and assumed we were unassailable. Turned our backs on the rest of the Galaxy and cried foul when that same Galaxy breeds our ancient foes once more."

Max popped off the wall and started to walk down toward the ruins, heading in a very particular direction as he did so. He was heading for the quarters, specifically for the one he had called home for the last fifteen years or so.

"If we are all responsible then we must simply be more responsible."
he joked back lightly, playing with the double meaning of the word responsible before his jovial tone fled once again, "And down I must go to retrieve something I thought I would never have to look at again."


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She did not feel lighthearted. Despite Alex’s best efforts the crush of the Darkness was weighing on her soul. Push past it, Alex.Responsibility.” She forced a smile. “Not exactly something at which we excel.” Alex couldn’t help her morse attitude. There were too many Jedi who wanted to be heroes, that was not the right path forward. Not the way this time around. Her feet hesitated as Max popped off the wall and started heading towards the ruins.

“We have to be better Max…but I just do not see the path forward.” Perhaps that was why he was a Master and she remained Jedi Knight. There was no clear path forward. At least no one that felt right. Alex remained on the top of the hill for a moment. The Jedi Knight had absolutely no desire to wander down into the broken Temple. That gave her all kinds of horrible feelings. She started after Max anyways. “What could you possibly have left behind?” A shiver road up her spine.

The Darkness became more oppressive the lower they walked. Alex tightened her mental walls, pushing the Darkness away. It was harder to find the comfort of the Light. The wound was still too fresh. A familiar phrase burst from her lips. “I have a bad feeling about this.” She would not allow Max to face the horrors of the Darkside alone. The Order was fractured because of their solitary attitudes. Attitudes Alex had all too readily adopted. She would not follow that path again.

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No, he supposed they had a historically bad record of being responsible. Responsible for themselves, their actions and the Galaxy that needed them whether it wanted to acknowledge it or not. It had been the Jedi who had saved the Galaxy from dominion under tyrants time and time again but they had always stepped back afterwards.

They had taken the responsibility to overthrow dictatorships but they had shirked the responsibility to protect the democracies that they had helped grow in their place.

"You can excel in anything, given enough practice."
he countered before smiling ever so slightly, "We live in moments, Alex, and seeing the future has led to nothing but trouble. The path we need will be revealed as we walk it and all we can do is make sure our steps are sturdier, truer, than they have been previously."

Yeah there was that "Master-Level" mysticism that people were always asking him to show more of. So many Jedi were put off by the fact that he was, in so many ways, still the idealistic cop from the Tion Cluster who would shake your hand rather than bow if given any kind of choice. What had he left behind?

This time it was his simplistic nature that won out, not the mysticism.

"My Master fell to the Dark Side during my training - she bled her crystal and when... when she was made one with the Force, I kept it."
he grimaced ever so slightly, "To remind me... to reassure me that I did the right thing back then... it doesn't matter why I kept it anymore. What matters is that I correct the mistake I made all those years ago and kept making every day I didn't purify it."

It seemed so... small.

To be here in the sight of the ghosts of Jedi slain by the Sith and the seeping mass of the Dark Side to retrieve a kyber crystal that he hadn't healed in over a decade. Shadows lengthened and clouds seemed to materialize out of nowhere in the skies above them as Max led them down corridors now open to the skies above. Slashes and grooves in the walls, highlighting lightsaber damage from defender and attacker alike.

The lake of warm water that was his connection to the Light was disturbed by ever-increasing droplets hitting it's surface. Darkness tapping incessantly at his connection, attempting to corrupt it. Render the warm waters of the Force something colder, harsher.


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What had she expected? The Temple to be as it once was? Bereft of signs of the battle left behind? Naïve, Alex, extremely naïve. She had felt the wallowing pain before they descended. What was she to think awaited them as they walked through the Temple? She was old but age did not grant wisdom. The damage that had been wrought was evident with each step. Alex fought against the emotions battling within. That was wrong. Feel the pain and accept the loss. A true heart wrenching ache wormed through her soul. She mourned.

Alex tried to refocus her mind as she trialed behind Max. The Darkness continued to hammer them as they waxed philosophically. “You kept it?” She tried to keep the judgment from her voice. Max’s past pain was not hers to malign. “Max…the weight of that corruption always near…always waiting.” She ran a hand through her hair. “Kriff.” The Jedi Master was far stronger than even she could have imagined. “It is not just the crystal that needs to be set right.” Her heart thumped loudly in her chest. Was this beyond her? Beyond them? “We can’t run away. We have to face what we have done.” She trailed a hand along the wall…feeling the Darkness around them.

“We must set right what was our home.” Alex was unsure how much they could truly change. The pain here was immense. The stain of the Darkside on the Temple felt nearly immovable. Yet, where there was Light you could always banish the Darkness. She knew that now more than ever. Her strength with Max’s could accomplish tremendous feats if they worked in unison. Cleansing the crystal need only be the first step, but not the last. The Temple was their home, it should not be abandoned to a terrible fate.

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Max knew something more had been done to the Temple, something beyond pulling the Dark to the surface and letting it fester. The deeper they went, the more he could feel it, taste it, and it stood out to him just how it reacted to him. His connection to the Force? He characterized it as a lake of warm water and yet every step deeper into the Temple felt like he was stepping deeper into a fast-moving river of near-freezing water.

It was adapting to how he connected to the Force, doing it's best to disrupt it. To taint the connection to the only thing that could challenge it even here - the Light. Nothing so simplistic animal-like intelligence of the Dark Side would be able to do that... this was directed.

He raised a hand to signal for Alex to stop as he did the same. Freezing up on the spot, he took a deep breath, feeling the air and the way the Force flowed through it. How it was directed through it... kark.

"There's something here."
he told her in a quiet whisper, "Something left behind by the Sith."

As he was speaking he was reaching out into the Force, searching for a safe route, when it happened. He had been trying to merely feel around it but with an actual intelligence behind it, it knew.

And it Saw.

"Kark it knows we're here."
he spoke more urgently now, standing back up, "Stealth isn't an option any longer Alex - come on!"

He wouldn't waste any time, breaking out into a sprint as he raced down hallways he had long since memorized toward the Masters' housing section of the Temple. Less because of the crystal now and more because he needed a place he was more intimately familiar with.


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Something brushed her mind. Alex’s mind snapped shut reflexively. A shudder crept up her spine. Focus. She had to be imagining things. The Darkness was playing tricks on her mind, pushing insecurities forward. Alex had stretched her mind across the Temple before entering, there were no being left behind. Her step hitched. The Morellian Jedi Knight barely heard Max’s words. Foolishly her mind was riding forward on the Force…huntingsearching. She had felt something like this only once before.

The Force could manifest in unusual ways. Perversions of life could leave scars in the Force, scars that might find their way to a life of their own. Alex raced across the waves of the Force. Her mind pushed against a growing presence. What was that. She should have heard Max’s warning. She should have started running, but she was entirely too focused on what she felt. “Oh…aren’t you interesting.” Alex recoiled in shock. Her soul flinching as the oiling presence touched her. Her mental walls grew higher, but it was too late. Run Alex, follow Max.

She took off running after the Jedi Master. Horrible thoughts pounded in her mind…assailing both Jedi. Waves of Darkness hammered against them as they ran. Images of the slaughter in the Temple followed forth. The death of the Grandmaster. The death of the Councilor. The death of so many. “Give up little Jedi…there is no hope here.” Alex’s feet slowed as her heart raced. There was so much pain. A feeling of utter hopelessness descended on the Temple. Focus on the Light…come on Alex…focus. The feelings of despair grew louder in her mind. She reached out for Max seeking to tether her mind to his. She needed a life line, anything as the Darkness around the Temple began to swell.

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Moving was becoming more difficult and he could feel it as the Dark Side began to more actively seek them out. Feel it like a fog closing around him to cover his vision and a thick sludge to slow his movement, to drag him to a halt. It had it's agenda but he had his own, lashing out with the Light that remained within himself to push it back.

To break free of it's clutching hands.

It felt familiar in a sleazy, disgusting, kind of way. Felt like the Dark Side had felt on Dathomir during his time there, somewhat refined but through mysticism rather than regimented training and art like the Sith. Dark Side manipulations that gave the Dark Side character, agency and the drive to seek it's ends.

As they ran through the Temple, Max could feel Alex lagging behind him. Against his natural survival instincts, Max slowed down to let her keep up. His hind-brain screamed at him that there were easier ways to commit suicide but he didn't listen, he called out to her.

"Alex - we must keep moving."
he urged her, "It's sapping our will to keep moving..."

It was sapping their will to keep moving because they were right where it wanted them. Max cast his gaze around the area they had entered, unable to say how they had arrived only that they had. Without a hint of hesitation he knew that this was the place the Grandmaster had been slain. Where the creature formed from the curse of the Dark Side made it's home.

Running wouldn't work here.

Turning to face his ally, Max reached out to Alex both with the Force and physically. His connection to the Force, to the Light, entwined with her own as it had done before on Chandrilla. Reaching out, his right hand, half metal and half soft flesh, reached out and cupped her left cheek. He stared into her eyes.

"Alex. Breathe."
he whispered to her quietly both aloud and through the Force, "We are the Light - it lives in us for we are luminous beings, not our crude matter. Stand with me because we are in it's nest now... and it is time for us to remind it that this is our Home."

Dark fog and swirling mists rushed around the edges of the room as the presence began to grow stronger and closer.


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Darkness. Cold. Unrelenting pressure on her mind. Alex struggled to keep the worsening thoughts at may. She fought to remain herself. Her very mind hammered again and again. What have you done? How could you let this happen? Foolish girl…to think this time would be any different. What a terrible mistake you have made. A deep hardened depression began to settle on her mind. Oh Alex, you fool. She tried to fight back but decades in isolation had not made her fit for this moment.

Awareness slapped into her mind. A blossom of Light as Max touched her face. Alex’s eyes snapped open. A small portion of the darkness retreated. She raised her hand to his, running her fingers across the metal. This was real. Max was real. Her eyes snapped opened as she searched for ground beneath her feet. The Darkness is not you. One deep breath…two…three. Alex poured her awareness into the Light. She drank in as much of the Force as she could stand. The Darkness in her mind began to retreat as mists grew heavier in the room. “We are One with the Force…the Force is with us.” An old but effective mantra. She held tightly to Max in the Force, pouring the Light around them.

A horrid voice echoed in their mind. “This is all you have? Words long forgotten and meaningless.” The feeling of overwhelming helplessness grew heavier in the room. “You are not strong enough…worthy enough.”

The visions assaulted them anew. Horrific scenes ripped from the very memories of the walls. Alex steeled her mind. Her left hand shot out, light balling between her fingers. “They won’t have it Max, they have taken so much else…they cannot have this.” The Light grew stronger between them as they pushed against the encroaching darkness. She would not leave the Temple so defiled.

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She connected back with him, their Force connections joining and intertwining as they stood amidst the whirlwind of darkness surrounding them. It sought to suffocate them, to drown them and their Light out but the trouble with the Darkness was that even a candle could hold it at bay - and they were far more than a candle. They were individually strong and stronger still together, the Light flowing through them.

It wanted to return to this place, it wanted to take back the Temple from the Dark thing that had taken up residence there and they would make sure it happened.

Flashes of memories that were not his own tried to force their way into his mind but he stood firm, focusing on the Light and his connection with Alexandria. Alone? Alone he might have faltered, seen the scenes as something approaching truth rather than the falsehoods they were. But they weren't real. He, Alex and the Force were real and in this moment they were something closer to one, singular, thing than a disconnected trio.

By instinct he reached into one of the pouches on his belt and withdrew one half of his shattered kyber crystal, broken by Sith lightning but still so connected to the Force, to the Light. His right hand remained against her cheek and his eyes never left her's even as he raised his left hand in tandem with her. Light began to shine from the crystal shard, bright blue and warming as it hovered somewhere between their two hands.

"We cannot send it all away - Darkness will persist."
he spoke softly, knowing there was no need to speak louder for Alex would hear him and Know every word on the same level he did, "It wants a home. We shall give it a home."

The Force twisted around the crystal shard as it hummed, seemingly in acceptance of Max's plan. To sacrifice the crystal, to taint it with the spirit that haunted the halls of Ajan Kloss. It was akin to bleeding a crystal only on the basic level; it wasn't the act of a Sith to defile something for their own gain. No, it was with the full acceptance and knowledge of the Crystal, of the Force that flowed through them, to remove something without destroying it.

To destroy was not the Jedi way but that did not mean allowing the evil to persist in it's defilement of the Temple.


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Dark winds battered against her mind, but Alex held firm. She had found her strength in the Light with Max as her guide. Her mental barrier battened tightly as the Darkness roared around them. Painful memories belonging to the dead continued to pour forth. A horrible voice, a cacophony of the lost, roared around them. It screamed with the agony of the fallen. Their brothers’ and sisters’ spirits twisted to this dark purpose. The Light blossomed against the growing sense of dread. Alone, Alex would have fallen as the other Jedi had. Alone, she would have faltered. But, together they were a shinning beacon in the Darkness.

Alex anchored her mind with physical touch. She needed the reminder they fought through her together. Her eyes shifted briefly to the crystal in Max’s hand. Broken and shattered but still whole in some way. A small smile began to form. In the heart of this swirling storm the Force still found a way to speak to them. The Jedi were broken, fractured, but still of the Light. She nodded slowly. The Force spoke through them. It knew what was required…the sacrifice which they would ask. Alex reached out around them. She could feel the Darkness swirling and building as their plan began to form.

They would not fail today. Alex began to push at the Darkness, hammering back at the edges. The crystal began to glow brightly as the Force worked through them. A low hum began to admit from kyber crystal. The very song of life…the tones of the Force. The Light built in her hand as the Darkness began to be pulled into the crystal. Still, the terror in her mind began to grow. As the Darkness fought back the pain grew ever more real. She could feel the deaths of her fellow Jedi. The burns as sabers pierced bodies. The sadness as their souls joined the Force. “Together…we end this.” Alex mind lashed out. She poured images of hope and perseverance into the Force. Time with Maiko and with her own Master. Even her mission with Max. There was hope in the galaxy and it would always be stronger than the Dark.

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Maxims Tionson

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Every second was a struggle to stay upright as the Darkness around them battered at him both physically and through the Force itself. The cursed spirit that had been left here and the Nexus that had been polluted, they raged against the Light that lingered. Light that had not been destroyed despite everything thrown at it. Jedi, creatures of the Light, endured beyond deaths of loved ones and torn down homes and the Darkness, born of obsessions and passions driven to extremes, could not tolerate it.

It seethed and it roiled with hatred as it lashed out at them time and time again. Pain lanced through Max's mind as every terrible, disgusting, memory he had ever held was dredged up to the forefront of his mind. The pain of those he had lost would never go away and he knew that - and the Nexus and it's curse pulled them up, tugged at his heartstrings to weaken him, to draw him into his memories and the pains they held.

But he didn't go anywhere because he was right there, right where Alex needed him and she was right where he needed her as well. If his connection to the Force was a lake in his mind's eye she was the island of calm in the middle of the water. She was the tether and she was the Light, as he was for her.

The storm battered against them but they had their connection and it was strong.

Light pulsed out from the two of them, hitting the sickly green fingers and claws of a being never meant to exist as it tried to end them. The Nexus had no physical form and it's energy, it's poison, was being pulled from the wound in the world they stood on, drawn into the crystal held by both Jedi. The Nexus was weakening, more and more of it being folded and folded and squeezed ever tighter into the crystal.

Max smiled wider at Alex, never taking his eyes off of her even as the desperate attacks against his mind pulled up traumas long since forgotten. Tears streamed down the side of his face as everyone he loved was killed, brutally, within his mind as he focused only on Alex and the Light, willing the pain aside for now. The Light healed all things and it would heal them aches and pains when they were done.

All they had to do...

"... Endure."
he spoke through the tears and the smile, "We endure and we live and we grow beyond this. Together."

Every word, every pulse of the Light, was accompanied by more and more of the Darkness being compressed within the Crystal. The Nexus, the connection to the Force that started naturally as pure Light, began to appear as more than just inky blackness to their senses. There was Light waiting to break through, waiting to burst through and help them finish cleansing every part of their former home of the invader - they just had to break through the Darkness that capped it, that held it back.


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There were no easy paths. No shortcuts. Alex could not close her eyes and avoid the images flashing in her mind. She could only endure. There was only one way they could store the Temple. They had to face the evils assaulting their minds. Journey before destination. This was a test of the two Jedi, not of their minds but of their hearts. The Darkness howled, raged, and taunted. This was not a test of the curse left behind. No. It was so much more. The very Force itself pressed them. Were they worthy of the Light? Were the Jedi worthy to carry on? The answer was no easy. Alex could feel the years of isolation boiling beneath the surface.

Should she just give up? Give in and walk away? She could hide out for a time, maybe live a few more years. That was her own weakness. She knew that. “There is no chaos…there is harmony.” Alex pressed her forehead to Max’s, her eyes staying locked on his. Her mind melded further with the Jedi Master. They were an island in the raging storm. The curse grew ever more desperate. The attacks on their mind collapsing. Biting cold winds, impossible to imagine on Ajan Kloss, ripped at their robes, biting into their exposed skin. Alex stood firm as the power between the Jedi grew. She could feel the Darkness screaming as it was slowly drawn into the fractured crystal.

The glow around her hand grew ever larger, as the light began to pulse around the Jedi. The Darkness hammered against them again and again. Alex could keel the skin on her hands and face cut as the Dark wind tore at her. She could feel exhaustion gripping the edges of her mind. It mattered not. The Morellian Jedi Knight had one focus…one singular goal. To put an end to all of this. The Darkness clawed and clawed as its essence was pulled into the crystal. They were so close…nearly there. “We are the Light that burns out the Darkness.” Almost there.

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He was not alone and the Darkness was.

Darkness was so very much alone and it often didn't realize it. The Darkness was a singular thing, a mass in the night, but the Light was not. A thousand candles could be the light that broke through the gloom of the night and there was nothing that could stop them. Even if a candle was extinguished, it could be relit again and again until it's life ended... by which point more candles had been lit by it's flame.

Well here they were, two candles in the storm winds refusing to go out. Whenever he faltered, Alex would be his rock and whenever she did, he would do the same for her. With their foreheads touching they were barely inches apart, eye to eye, and he could see it in her eyes. He could see the same determination that was in his own. The determination that this perversion of such a loving, bright, place would end today because they would not allow it to continue.

The Light swelled within her hand and it resonated deeper with the crystal shard he held in his own hand. It began to violently shake as they drew the Darkness, like poison from a wound, into the crystal. The crystal began to shake almost uncontrollably but Max kept it together, pumping more of the Force, the Light, into the crystal to counteract the Darkness in it's attempts to shatter the focus before it could be sealed by it.

His free hand moved to gently cup the back of her head, his fingers threaded through her hair. Their foreheads pressed together slightly harder and he smiled wider. The tears were still there, the fears and the pains still being dragged up over and over again... but he smiled and just looked her right in the eyes.

"It's almost over."


And it was.

Every second it was being depleted, diminished, and there was seemingly nothing it could do about it. It was attacking them in the only way it knew how and it was gradually beginning to... shrink. The overwhelming weight of the Dark Side was beginning to slowly lower as more and more of it passed through the Light and the crystal to be purified.

He... he knew what it was going to cost him.

And it was okay.

"Alex... don't stop. No matter what happens? You can't stop. It'll be alright."



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Alexandria Voran

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Their lives were meant for sacrifice. The Order did not always remember that singular truth. It was easy to forget their gifts were not for them, but for the galaxy. The Force allowed them to be heroes. In those moments’ ego warred against this true nature. So often the Order became a society focused on those gifts instead of why the Light bestowed them. They were meant to save those who could not save themselves. When they forgot, the Darkness would rise and offer an all too stark reminder. Her nerves calmed while Max spoke.

“I’m here…we won’t stop.” Her skin was ripped and torn. Her mind a frayed mess from the assault of fractured memories. Sheer force of will was all that kept her standing. Will and the Light. They endured. The Darkness funneled faster in the crystal. She could feel the sacrifice of the kyber. It grew darker within as the rooms became lighters. The Darkness continued to hollow but the batter was over. Their Light enveloped the Darkness. Pushing. Her hand radiated pure white luminescence. One final breath…one final push. A small followed by her heart breaking.

Alex found have fallen if not for Max’s grasp on her. The Light had gone out from her hand. The broken kyber crystal a terrible dark shade. Her body screamed in protest as her muscles seemed to cramp at once. “It’s over.” She shook terribly. “Max it is over.” Alex could barely force the words from her mouth. She could barely feel the touch of the Force. She had spent every ounce of energy she had. Every little bit of herself had nearly been poured into their effort. Their lives were meant to be sacrifice. They were meant to do the things others could not. They were meant to heal the wounds left behind.

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Maxims Tionson

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Sacrifice…

It was the Jedi way and Max had been a Jedi for almost as long as he had been anything else. He’d come to the Order later than some but not all, a man grown and a police officer besides. Duty had been his life before he joined the Order so it wasn’t something he questioned, it was something he lived so it didn’t come as a surprise to him.

As the Darkness receded from the area around them it lashed out with one, final, curse. Out of spite or a last ditch effort to stop from being sealed away, he wasn’t sure. What he was sure about was that it was barely aimed, flung at the two Jedi with the intent to get at least one of them. A green flash as the Darkness was sealed within the crystal, once a vibrating hum of the Light replaced with the shaking of a prison container a Dark prisoner.

Duty was something he had lived – sacrifice was something he had to learn.

His left arm had moved without any conscious thought but even if he had had hours to think about it? Max knew he would have done the same thing. The green flash of the curse impacted his closed left fist, the one wrapped around the crystal, and he felt it as it began to take effect. A withering curse from the combined Dathomiri and Dark Side energies.

The two Jedi slumped where they knelt in the ruins of the Temple, holding onto each other for support just to stay upright. Their foreheads still pressed against one another and their eyes still locked.

“Alex… it’s going to be alright.” He whispered to her, softly, the fingers of his right hand loosening their grip on the back of her head, “Thank you for helping me do this Alex.”

His eyes drooped as he felt more of his energy being drained from him, aggressively, as his left hand started to darken in colour. Vitality, life, was being drained directly from his left hand and through it the rest of his body. Already the skin of his left hand was blackened and shrivelled beyond life, the effect slowly but surely spreading up his arm.

And Max just smiled.

“Yeah…” he looked up at the sun shining down through the roof of the Temple, breaking their embrace slightly to do so, “…it’s going to be alright…”



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Alexandria Voran

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She barely heard the words. They were a whisper against her battered mind. Her eyes fluttered shut as Alex fought to stay awake. The Force felt like a distance memory. This was an exhaustion far deeper than her body. A small voice in the back of her mind whispered she could let go if she wished. She could flow outward with the Light. A tempting offer, but it was not yet her time. The pains of the physical world had not yet finished with Alexandria Voran. Her mind was only brought back as she felt Max weaken.

She still saw with some mix of the Force and her eyes, even as the power of the Light left her. The crippling curse left behind shook her vision. Alex lashed out what little power she had left in the Force, the crystal went skittering a few feet away from the Jedi. She was too slow. The corrupting was already rooted in Max. Alex reached out with the Force again. She found nothing waiting. Every last scrap of her strength had been spent, she was barely remaining alive. Even if she had managed to reach back into the well of the Force the Jedi Knight doubted it would have made a difference.

The curse ran deep and was powerful. Her skills could never have hoped to contain it. Thankfully, the Darkness had been weakened as it fell. It would take what it could from Max, but he would live. It was her turn to support him. “We’re fine…you’re fine.” Alex resisted the urge to look at his arm. “Come on, the Force isn’t done with you yet.” She managed to gently untwine herself from the Jedi Master. With immense effort she stood. Her headed tilted skyward as the sun shone down on them. Come on Alex. She reached down to haul Max to his feet. Her whole body screamed in protest. “We are making it through this…we’ve lost enough here.” She couldn’t stop the curse, but she could get Max home, patched up, and well again. Well enough anyways.

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