The Masters

[Alhazred]

Alhazred sighed as he laid his head on the ship's bunk, getting himself comfortable for a long night. The small Givin transport vessel was heading out into the unknown regions to analyze what looked like an unorthodox planet. Following his experience involving a star weird, Alhazred had been specificly requested to go along, as both a Jedi and an academic. According to the Givin reports, the planet he was heading towards had a peculiar orbital in its system, and the dual storm clouds that clashed there made it dangerous for most. Alhazred, as a Jedi, would hopefully know if something odd was going on, and would be able to catalague and study the planet in a way only the Givin would prefer.

So Alhazred was on his way. With the ship itself being piloted by droids, Alhazred had long bouts of silence to himself to do whatever he wanted. Alhazred had prepared himself as best he could for the week long trip. Reading, studying, writing, drawing, and the occasional communication to someone back home filled his time, but most of all, Alhazred meditated. It was a comfort for the Nu-Vaal. After his experience with the starweird, the void had become so much more frightening than before, and the best thing that took his mind off the potential of encountering a near-mythical creature of the dark side was meditating. After all, when he focused, he could reach into the Force, and hopefully he would hear anything coming towards him and could respond quickly enough.

A noise stirred the Nu-Vaal. Opening his eyes, Alhazred found himself not on the ship, but standing on obsidian molten ground. Alhazred's skin began to sweat intensely as the heat from nearby pools of magma threatened to boil him alive from the inside. The skies above showed no blue; nothing but grey skies of a rolling morning thunderstorm.

"Where am I?" Alhazred pondered aloud.

A burst of an explosion erupted, deafening the very air. Alhazred had to hang onto his turban as he turned around. Before him, floating on a large plate of obsidian on a pool of lava, a elderly man stood, moving his arms up and down and side to side, his entire body almost behaving like a liquid. Alhazred stared in wonder. The heat here was intense, so much that he himself felt like he could fall over at any moment. But the elderly man, with grey balding head and ripped muscles, was completely naked. His entire body, scarred and burnt from the soles of his feat to his face, seemed unaffected by the heat. Neither sweat nor drink existed near this man.

As Alhazred studied the man, he became aware of the fact that he was not alone. All around him, other, more younger humans gathered, equally naked, but showing signs of over exhaustion and overheating. It seemed the man on the floating obsidian was in some kind of fight, or perhaps a battle meditation. The younger humans brought up their hands and tried to move like the elder, but their movements were more rigid and far less trained. To his amazement, Ahazlred witnessed one of the men punch the air before him. The heat before his fist suddenly erupted in flames and shot out like a blaster bolt towards the elder man.

The elder man responded quickly. Spinning around like some kind of dancer, the elder's hands opened up and trailed just before the fireball. Still spinning, the elder guided the fireball around himself like a comet around a star, and released it in one fluid motion. The fireball went sailing back towards the attacker, and struck him in the face, killing him instantly.

The other men didn't wait to respond. They began their own attacks, throwing fire with deadly intent. But the elder, restricted by his little floating platform, responded to each attack with grace and fluidity only attained by those professionally trained dancers. One of the fireballs the elder litterally kicked away. Another fireball he literally split into two in his bare hands before flinging them at two other younger men.

Finally, there was only one young man and the elder left. The man, Alhazred observed, was far younger than the rest. A teen in human terms, and frightened beyond reason. Still, he stood ready. He had seen what happened to his partners who had used fire against the elder. It had been stupid. Alhazred reasoned the teen was trying to prepare for an attack and would strike back.

The Elder smiled. Alhazred shudderred. That grin was terrorfying to behold. There was a fury but sadistic pleasure in that grin.

"This is what it is to know fire!" The elder shouted, startling both the teen and Alhazred. Until now, he hadn't said a word. "It is energy! It is passion! It is raw power!"

The elder dropped into a split and then rose upwards in another spinning motion. The lava around him burbled and boiled, and with one swift motion from the elder, a literal wave of fire erupted, flying towards the youth.

Alhazred raised his hands in fright and startlement. Instinct had taken over. The youth was unprepared, and would die a horrible death if he didn't act. Without thought, Alhazred's song rippled in the Force and sent a wave of energy. The youth was sent flying out of reach, and crashed into a wall, unconscious.

The Elder looked shocked. He spun towards Alhazred's direction and squinted. Alhazred looked back in confusion. Could he not be seen?

GET OUT!

Alhazred clutched his ears as the booming voice from the overhead storms erupted louder than an exploding star. The next moment, Alhazred was sitting up in his bunk, sweating and panting in shock.

 

[Alhazred]

Alhazred tried to contact the council when he awoke, but to no avail. Most of the knights and masters were busy, and while he was able to leave a message, he was on his own for now. There was no sense contacting the Givin Body Calculus, since they neither had the academic knowledge nor the experience insight that would help him. This was strictly a Force related situation.

On one hand, Alhazred felt nervous about the whole thing. Being out here this deep in space with no one to talk to about this meant he was vulnerable and had little to draw from to gain any insight. Perhaps what he had experienced was just a force vision and nothing more. But if that was so, then why could he affect the vision? He had pushed the young man out of a deadly blast of magma, did he not? That did not sound like a mere vision...

On the other hand, Alhazred was also excited. Perhaps he was blazing a new trail in the Force. Or perhaps his own abilities were growing. Or perhaps he was just in an odd planetary alignment that caused him to witness and affect something light years away. Did not the once master of the Jedi do something similar before his death?

Still, Alhazred wasn't sure what to do about it. All he really could do was go about his day: meditating, reading, studying, writing, and drawing. Hyperspace was a boring place overall. Alhazred couldn't study the planets as they traveled, and nothing really existed at such places.

Laying down to sleep again, Alhazred mentally tried to prepare himself for what awaited him. He recited the prime numbers, a few verses from The Road Home, and drifted off into the aether of sleep.

Alhazred opened his eyes to the sound of crashing stones. Alhazred almost stumbled and fell when he realized where he was at, or more accurately, what he was on. The peak of the mountain top was a tall place, miles and miles above the ocean far below. One ill-timed slip could result a long and deadly roll down the cliff side under the bright sun overhead.

Another clashing of boulders. Alhazred looked ahead and saw a similar scene to the fiery obsidian one before. An elderly woman, this time clad in what looked like heavy armor, showing nothing but her face. Around her, several other armored individuals surrounded her, also armored though not as heavily. The woman stood proudly literally and figuratively higher than the others, a powerful specimen of a human on the very top most of the peak. Despite the poor and narrow footing underneath her, she was an immovable object.

The other humans were charging her. Alhazred guessed this was some kind of variant of the game, 'king of the mountain', as the woman beat off the attackers with her armored fists and feet while keeping a hold of her place on the mountaintop. Alhazred watched in amazement as the woman held her balance and her ground, unwilling to move for anyone.

One of the younger men waved his entire body before slamming the ground. Alhazred fell and held desperately to the ground underneath him as the entire mountain shook violently. Several of the men were unable to hold their ground, and began to roll down the cliffside towards a certain demise. But the woman held her place, neither shaken nor even surprised by the action taken by her 'students'. Instead, she responded in kind.

The woman raised a armored fist and brought it down on the ground. A large chunk of rock erupted several meters away, and shot out, flying with the deadly force of a meteor. The man who had shaken the earth was struck without remorse, and began to tumble down the mountainside like those he had affected earlier.

Alhazred took a sharp breath. Whoever these people were, they prided themselves on their brutality and raw power. They did not mind potentially killing their students in their displays of abilities. They were all very strong in the Force, and in ways the Nu-Vaal did not understand.

A war cry was shouted out from the remaining students. The woman, smiled and held a hand out to them before speaking.

"Is this all you can bring? Is this all you can conjure against me?" She called them out. A student charged and climbed upwards. Unfazed, the woman slamed the ground, and the student was rolling tumbling down after the earth literally pushed outwards underneath him.

"This is the way of Terra!" The woman proclaimed. As she spoke, Alhazred picked himself up. "This is the way of the ground! Strong and enduring! We are the rocks of the galaxy! Unbeatable! Unmovable!

"And most of all..." The woman continued. Alhazred gasped. Behind her, in her blindspot, a young man was sneaking up the mountain. Despite his armor, he moved as stealthily as a Tooka Cat hunting prey. Alhazred recognised the young man. It was the same one he had saved from his previous vision.

"Unsurprised by anything!" The woman shouted. The ground beneath her suddenly seemed to shift underneath her, allowing her to spin around without moving her feet. The young man had no chance, unable to foresee what was coming as the elder woman's fist connected with his head and sent him flying.

This couldn't be a coincedence. Alhazred reasoned. The same young man in a deadly situation twice? And he himself had the ability to save him? No, this was neither a coincidence nor a choice.

Alhazred raised his hands and twisted his webbed fingers. The Force resonated and trembled. The song became a perfect chord. The young man, inches from rolling toward the mountain, suddenly slowed in the air as the Force wrapped itself around him. Alhazred's body trembled as he pulled at the young man, slowing his descent so he could catch himself.

Like before, the woman looked surprised and shocked. She looked around, unable to see Alhazred. The young man seemed surprised as well, not as unconcious as Alhazred first believed.

"Unclean!" The woman shouted as the young man was dropped onto the ground in a safer place. "You are tainted by otherworldly spirits!"

The young man shook his head and denied the fact. He claimed he did not know what happened. He claimed he had no workings with unclean spirits and had no idea what happened.

"Get out!" The woman continued to shout, unheeding the young man's words. "And never return! Leave! Now!"

LEAVE NOW!

Alhazred clutched at his ears again as the woman's shouts become a cacophony of other voices, issuing the same command as before. The world around Alhazred shook violently. A sudden boom like thunder sent the Nu-Vaal flying through the air. Through space, Alhazred flew until he crashed off his bed onto the ground.

 

[Alhazred]

Panic had begun to set in.

Panic was the wrong word to describe Alhazred. He had experienced panic and terror before, most notably when dealing with that starweird void spawn. This was not panic. But it was the closest word Alhazred had at the time as he picked his dripping body of fearful sweat from the floor. If Alhazred had to describe his emotional state, it was a roiling stressful mess of chaos. He was out of his depth. These visions, if they could be called that, were way too strong, and way too weird. After all, weren't visions supposed to be temporary, one off things, and unable to be influenced while the vision was occurring? What were the rules for visions in the Force? And if this was a vision, was it the past? The present!? The future?!? What was going on!?!

Alhazred tried the communications. It failed. The droid pilots advised Alhazred that at some point during the trip, the ship had encountered 'celestial objects' that had damaged the communications array. It would need to be fixed when they got to their destination. Until then, Alhazred was on his own.

Alhazred's stress piled up. The cold darkness of space was already a haunting place. He had dealt with one of the monsters of the void. Was he dealing with another? Alhazred tried everything to guarantee his own senses were working properly. He pinched himself. He gave himself a medical examination. He drank warm liquids. He exercised while hooked up to a health monitor. He double checked his previous book readings, making sure nothing had changed. He had the droids examine himself again, making sure nothing was out of the ordinary.

Everything came back fine. Every test showed he was normal. Every calculation said he was alright. Perhaps he could use some sleep, but everything was normal for the Nu-Vaal.

Alhazred rocked back and forth on his heels, shaking his head in confusion. When you know there is something wrong or weird, and cannot find the source, your mind does not let you rest.

Rest....rest... Alhazred needed to rest his mind.

Alhazred took several deep breaths. Perhaps if he meditated and calmed his mind, an answer would reveal itself. Yes, meditate on the Force. Find an answer there.

Taking a seat, Alhazred closed his eyes and began to recite various mantras and verses. Slowly, the force's song began to whelm the Nu-Vaal, filling his very soul with a peace that could be found no where else. Alhazred breath deeply. He stretched his mind. He listened. He waited.

He opened his eyes to a new scene.

This time, Alhazred felt slightly more at home. The soothing tides of an ocean before him, the sound of waves crashing on the shore, the smell of salt hitting his face, the warm waters wrapping around his webbed feet.... it felt like a home Alhazred never knew.

Too bad he couldn't enjoy it, as the sound of waves of water came crashing down nearby took his attention.

Alhazred turned and saw a group of people fleeing from a singular elderly man. Like before, the man was fighting the 'students', and bore the scars of a long life of fighting, stress, and hardship. The body was so salt-licked and sun-burnt. The skin was loose, permanently pruney, and ill-fitting for the man who wore it underneath his wet robes. And his eyes...his yellow anemic eyes and the dagger in his hand spoke madness.

However, the man moved with a speed and drive that belied his age. He waded through the water like he had lived in it all his life, and with the determination of the fiercest predator of Mon Cal. His students, as strong and young as they were, could not hope to get away from the man, as their own bodies struggled against the choppy waves the ocean dealt to them.

The Elder laughed as he charged. The waters around him surged and roiled with each of his steps. He raised his hands and brought them back. A sudden wave rose up before the students and drove them closer to the crazed man. One of the students was unfortunate to get too close. Without hesitation, the elder brought the dagger down and inpaled the student's chest.

"Did not see that coming?!?" The madman giggled as he sent the still moving body away into the waters. "You should've! This is the way of water, hahaha!"

One of the students turned and waved his arms in a dancing motion. The water nearby churned and reversed, becoming a 10 foot wave of hydropic force. The man laughed and charged into the wave. Alhazred watched in amazement as the madman, with a mere wave of his hand, opened the wave around himself as if it was nothing.

"It is change! Change!" The madman shouted, spittle flying as his dagger found its mark in the student's leg. Another wave of the hand, and Alhazred witnessed the elder literally seize every single water droplet on the student's body to fly off, and become whip like object striking at another student.

"Change! It adapts! It bears down! It guides others to its will! It bonds and it breaks!"

The student who was struck discovered the 'breaking' aspect of the madman's spiel, as his skull split open from the sheer force of the attack.

Alhazred looked at the other students. Within moments he found the one he was seeking. The student from the previous visions. He did not look so well. His body was burned and bruised and broken and practically drowned. The previous experiences had done damage to him that Alhazred had not witnessed.

The Madman glanced in the young student's direction. Alhazred's stomach dropped. Would he save the young man again? Should he? What was the right answer? He didn't save those other students after all, why should he save this one? Was it his place to save the young man?

The Madman charged the young man. Alhazred shook his head. He couldn't sit idly by and let the student get hurt. The Madman dived into the water and swam like a fish. Despite the young man's attempts, the water waves he conjured did nothing against the elderly expert of water.

Alhazred raised a hand, gripped, and pulled to the left. It was like fighting the ocean current itself, trying to pull the madman away from the student. But pulled Alhazred did. The man under the water looked surprise. He flailed and floundered, trying to get free of whatever invisible force that was restraining him. Alhazred's mouth twisted into one of determination. He would not let the young man be killed by this madman for something as meaningless as training or whatever this...

Alhazred caught a glance from the young man. He looked angry but sad, like he was observing a memory. This look confused Alhazred. Why did he look that way?

Alhazred lost control. The madman emerged from the waters and tackled the young man, taking both into the briny waters.

Alhazred shook himself awake. He had fallen asleep on the floor. Or had he experienced another vision? Either way, he was on the floor of the ship. The stars were still racing by wildly in hyperspace. The comms were still broken. The droids were still beeping to each other, confirming their codes and projectories. The madman was still leaning over his head, leering like a shark who-

"LEAVE ME ALONE!!!"

The Madman screamed in Alhazred's ear, blotting out all other noises.

Alhazred awoke again, panting in fright.

These visions...

They were getting stronger...

 

[Alhazred]

"Turn us around!" Alhazred demanded of the droids.

The droids beeped at him in disapproval. Mission parameters had not been fulfilled. There were no threats to anyone on board, and coming out of hyperspace too early could result in the destruction of everyone. To stop and turn around mid jump would need approval from someone of knight level or above. Alhazred did not fulfill those conditions, an oversight that would need to be addressed later.

Alhazred groaned and complained as his repeated command fell on deaf sensors. Blasted droids. They had no place issuing commands or following orders that Alhazred could not overwrite. He had neither the rank nor the technological experience to disable the droid and as such, was sentenced towards whatever he was going to. Or maybe it wasn't the destination? Perhaps it was just Alhazred connecting with someone. But how was that possible? He did not know this youth he encountered in the visions. He had no bond with him, like the legends of what Palpatine enacted on Rey and Ben. And these visions were in different times... each one chronologically after the previous, and judging the youth's change in appearance, by several years. And yet, in each one, Alhazred affected the vision directly. How?!? How was this possible?!?

Alhazred threw his hands up in frustration and left the cockpit area. To the void with this. The ship needed to stop and repairs to the communication system needed to be done now.

Even if he had to damage the engines themselves.

Alhazred worked his way through the ship's interior towards where the engines laid. Finding them was easy enough. Spending days on end in this almost claustrophobic box with an engine. Soon enough, Alhazred was face to face with the complex conglomerate of machinery that resulted in the ship breaking into hyperspace. Alhazred felt like he was looking at pure magic. He was no technician. He was a scholar of the force and of the planets. The little he knew was enough to enter information and whatnot. The gap of knowledge between him and a common smuggler was like a canyon.

Still, Alhazred knew he needed to stop the ship. Raising a hand, Alhazred began to open his mind and focus on one of the moving parts. He didn't need to do much, just enough to get the droids to break hyperspace for repairs and...

A gust of wind knocked the Nu-Vaal sideways. Crashing into the wall, Alhazred was addled momentarily as he regained his senses.

"I seeeee youuuuu" A feminine voice cooed menacingly.

Alhazred shook his head. Before him in the corner of the room, a tall lithe figure crouched on the floor. Her limbs, long and gangly, stretched from her body in impossible contortions, giving her the appearance of a spider caught in its own web. Her bald head shined with dew and water that dripped down her leering, sagging face. Her teeth, rotting, broken, and yellow, glinted underneath her unaturally large cloudy eyes.

"Yes, yes, i seeee youuu" The woman giggled as she crawled forward.

Terror filled Alhazred's mind. Within moments, he was up and moving, scrambling like a madman towards the door. The woman giggled and shrieked as she pursued her target, crawling on the floor after him with unnatural agility. All the while, she cooed and cawed at Alhazred like a mother wanting her child.

Alhazred turned a corner. Down the narrow corridor, he could see the door to the cockpit. There, he could get one of the droids to aid him. But just as his hands were about to brush against the doorpad that would lead him to safety, he was pushed back. No, Alhazred corrected himself. He was pulled back. The very air around him suddenly moved backwards. This vortex in the hall began to drag him towards the engine room. Even as his hands gripped the floor, desperate to find a grip, Alhazred was pulled further and further as if the vacuum of space was behind him.

Unable to gain a handhold, Alhazred flew and crashed into another wall. Picking himself up, he came once again face to face with the gangly giggling woman. Her giggling echoed in the cave system he was in, becoming a cacophony of terrifying laughter. Slowly, she raised herself up on her legs. Alhazred looked up in fear, as her head nearly touched the ceiling.

"Help!" Alhazred began to shout out, his voice much stronger than it usually was. The woman smiled and raised a hand and clutched it into a fist. His shout echoed once across the cavern, then instantly silenced as the air became as still as a painting.

Alhazred began to react with instinct. In the past, force pushing things seemed to help, if momentarily. Throwing his hands forward, Alhazred called on the Force into a mighty shove. The woman, surprised, was flung back. But instead of hitting the wall, she simply breathed in and out and screamed. Her scream reverberated directly towards the wall and shot backwards towards her. Spinning through the air, she flew past Alhazred's head and landed on her feet behind him.

"Hehehe, this is the way of air forbidden one..." The woman giggled. Alhazred couldn't react fast enough, as she waved her hand and another gust of wind swept upwards from under him. She continued to speak as Alhazred fell downwards after crashing into the ceiling.

"This is freedom. This is un-tether-ment. Even confined to the dirt below, I cannot be restrained by you or any other power imagined."

Alhazred, crumpled on the ground, lashed out. Throwing is arm out again, hoping to catch this woman off guard, he sent another wave in the force. The woman's feet left the ground. For a moment, Alhazred thought he suceeded, cause he couldn't see her feet land anywhere.

Then he noticed the air around him was vibrating the stone underneath him.

Turning over, the woman was inches away from his face, literally floating in the air.

She smiled. He screamed. She threw him aside like a toy ragdoll. He tumbled and rolled for what felt like forever.

Finally, Alhazred came to rest over a puddle of water. Alhazred gasped as his reflection gazed back at him with familiar and unfamiliar eyes. The face there was not his.

It was the youth from before, aged to an elderly man.

Before Alhazred could react, two hands emerged from the water, and grabbed Alhazred. Within moments, Alhazred was dragged into the abyssal water, to the sound of someone screaming in rage.

 

[Alhazred]

Alhazred didn't know where the beginning started or the ending stopped. There was no descension. There was no lateral spatial movement. There was no temporal passage. There was nothing Alhazred could identify in that confusing place. He couldn't taste the space between his fingers, he couldn't smell the colors in his ears. All Alhazred could tell was...he wasn't where he was. He was not here in a ship, he was not there in a vision... He was somewhere else, between reality and hallucination.

Alhazred's essence shivered and writhed. Something was calling him. No, something was grabbing him. Tendrils had reached through the chaotic abyss and seized him and were dragging him. He had no control. He had no point of reference. Up, down, forward, backward...concepts lost in the waves of nothing. And yet, he was being dragged. And something was screaming at him. What was...

Alhazred opened his eyes to the vision of stars overhead. Beautiful stars. Stable stars, not speeding by in kaleidoscopic view of hyperspace, but stars that, to the naked eye, appeared still and comforting. Alhazred breathed in and out. His head felt lighter. His reality felt stable again. Whatever he had just experienced, it was done, and now he was...

Alhazred paused his brain. The stars were out of alignment. Yes, even now, Alhazred could see small errors that only a Givin and a well trained astrologist under Givin tutelage would notice. He could spot some familiar patterns: the burning snake constellation. The Bantha's eye. But they were off! And not in ways that were terribly off either! true, he may have been on a unfamiliar planet, but he was a Nu-Vaal, a student of the celestial bodies. He could tell the proper position of Coruscant Prime whether he was on Yag'Dhul or on Tatooine! But these stars were off ever so slightly.

Alhazred pulled himself up and looked around. This was certainly not the ship. Nor was this any place he recognized. He was in the center of an open air stone structure atop a mountain in a desert. A monument of some kind perhaps; several jagged stone slabs with intricate carvings arranged in a pentagonal fashion and wooden poles, burnt to the core, connecting the stones. Layered circles of seasalt centered around three small geysers producing sweet smelling incense.

Alhazred breathed in deeply and exhaled. This place was powerful. Perhaps it was a nexus in the Force itself. A focal point where the mysteries of the galaxy could be accessed and manipulated with great effect.

Alhazred stopped. There was a figure sitting between the geysers. While its form was withered and worn by time and experiences long past, with hair ripped out and burns and scars covering the body, it was undeniably the youth subject of the visions.

The Youth was looking directly at Alhazred. Not through him, as if there was someone behind the Nu-Vaal, but directly at Alhazred. He could not only perceive the alien as Alhazred could perceive him, but the two could even feel each other's presence in the very force itself, and understand they themselves could be sensed by the other.

Alhazred stood frozen, unable to think properly. He tried to form words, but his whispers died in his throat.

Thankfully, the elderly Youth didn't seem surprised. Instead, he gestured to the ground to sit. Alhazred obeyed. For what felt like hours, the two simply sat and observed each other.

"I didn't think it would work..." Youth stated. Alhazred gave a confused look. Youth picked up on the look and explained.

"Summoning you. The interloper of my destiny"

Alhazred tried to speak again. Again, his voice died in his throat. Why couldn't he speak?

Youth glared at Alhazred, visibly annoyed at the silent treatment the Nu-Vaal gave off.

"Answer me spirit...why did you interfere with my fate?"

Alhazred opened his mouth, trying to make any kind of noise. Every attempt was in vain. It was clear, whatever was calling him to this place was not allowing him to speak.

Youth groaned. "It figures you won't answer me. You got the nerve to interfere with my life, my destiny, and you won't even tell me why"

Alhazred raised webbed hands and shook his head trying to indicate confusion. As if in answer, the scene around the two shifted and morphed. Suddenly they were sitting on the lava fields. Nearby, the two could see the 'training' battle from Alhazred's first vision. The sadistic and furious pyromancer was easily beating his students without mercy.

"I was foretold to be the most powerful of my clan..." Youth stated as Alhazred watched the training. "The Shamans said my potential was greater than any being to have ever existed. That I was chosen for great things beyond comprehension..."

Alhazred saw himself appear near the battle and reach out to protect the past Youth. The Nu-Vaal squinted. Something was off. He couldn't place it, but something felt off.

"I went to the greatest teachers. I went in knowing the pain that awaited me, but I was ready. I was even ready to encounter death if I needed to." Youth continued. The scene shifted again to the mountaintop. The Terrekinetic master, in all of her weighted glory, fought off her students and sending them crashing down.

Again, Alhazred witnessed himself forming from nothingness, and stretching out to save the Youth from falling to his doom. Alhazred's forehead wrinkled as something still felt off about the vision.

"And then...you..." Youth stated, his voice filled to the brim with venom and hatred. "you interfered with my lessons. You made them cast me out"

The scene changed to the coastline. Alhazred's ghostly self was already there, restraining the mad hydrokinetic master from attacking the youth. But this time, Alhazred saw himself vanish and the after effects. The madman tackled Youth and began to choke him under the brine while screaming bubbles of air into the salty waters

The scene shifted one last time. It was the caves. Alhazred rubbed his eyes. What he was seeing was hurting his mind. Somehow, both the youth and himself were occupying the same place in the vision during the battle with the old woman, the final master trainer who would help aid Youth's learning.

"And because of that, I lost my destiny. I wandered. I practiced on my own. And then I came here. If there was any chance of getting revenge on you, you damnable spirit, even if only in words, it would be here."

Alhazred looked back at Youth and raised a hand. Youth looked actually surprised, but that didn't concern Alhazred. The words spoken made something click in his brain.

The Force reverberated in response to Alhazred's wordless will. The scene shifted and rewound like some prerecorded holofeed. The two bodies in one fighting the gangly lady. The flippant use of the Force by the combined forms of Alhazred and the elderly Youth. Alhazred pointed at the combined forms and focused his mind. There was an inaccuracy and Alhazred realized it. How could two bodies take up the same space? possession?

No, that wasn't it, and it became clear. Before the two's eyes, Alhazred's form in the scene vanished, and all that was left was the past Youth fighting the woman alone.

The Youth glared at Alhazred. The scene shifted again. The madman in the water swimming after the Youth. But instead of Alhazred reaching out to hold the madman back, the Youth was reaching out, and drowning the madman instead, using a form Alhazred recognised as Force Stasis. After shifting of the scene. The woman on the mountain. No Alhazred was there to save Youth from falling to his doom. This time the Youth was saving himself by pushing against the stone with his own thoughts. No ghostly interventions against destiny. Simply a man utilizing a simply but powerful force push, but instead at the ground, it was on himself.

"You saying I did those things?!? You lie!" Youth snarled. "I am a shaper of Kro Var! Such feats are vile to us!"

The scene shifted back to the lava field. Again, no Alhazred. Just the youth leaping to safety, utilizing instict, and a touch of the Force enhancing his jump. Alhazred's answer was clear: Youth did these things, not him.

The scene reverted back to the stone structure under the starry night sky. Alhazred looked at Youth. The glaring hatred was palpable in those eyes. Alhazred almost withered under the gaze. But it was the only answer. Those visions happened throughout an entire lifetime. Alhazred witnessed each event over the course of days. The Force was strong, but how could he affect an event in the past?

Youth did not seem to want to accept this. He roared in anger.

Alhazred woke up with a start, as the protocal droid prodded his side.

"Sir, we have arrived" The droid beeped at the waking Nu-Vaal.

Indeed, out the window, Alhazred could see the ruins of a broken, shattered planet.

 

[Alhazred]

Abda-Vaal Alhazred
Mission Starview
Final Report For Jedi Order

The Planet itself is a broken world, shattered by what appears a massive meteor. The droid's analysis of the planet's debris indicates the meteor itself must have been made unrefined form of Beskar. Unfortunately, it appears miners came and already retrieved all useful materials. Testing of what remained indicates the meteor must have struck between 100 and 300 standard years ago.

Remarkably, the remains of the stone structure survived on the far side of the planet from the incoming meteor. While the structure was partially destroyed, I was able to identify it by sight alone when landing on the planet. Without an atmosphere to preserve life, the structure was perfectly preserved. It was like stepping back into my visions; dreamlike. However, due to the very same lack of atmosphere, there is no life on the shattered world, and in turn, very little presence of the Force on the planet. And yet, in those ruins there were traces of the Force, indicating that at one point the place was a powerful Nexus.

The remains of the individual designated as 'Youth' were found amongst the preserved ruins. Judging by the level of decay the body did suffer, it looks like he died approx shortly before the meteor struck the planet. Thankfully, his personal effects survived the ordeal, mostly preserved in the same way the structure was preserved. From some of the small journals and some of the trinkets he kept on himself, we can identify that he was an exiled member of the Shaper's of Kro Var. It appears he was exiled off of Kro Var following his repetitive use of the Force that did not utilize the elements. Youth identified himself as a prodigy of the elements, despite his exile.

Indeed, his slightly degraded works revealed an unnatural understanding of the Force, the practices of the Kro Var, the elements, and himself. His most notable work, titled 'My Torment', does veer into levels of unorthodox practices, including ways of artificially enhancing the Force, but in theory most of his ideas are sound.

It is worth noting that 'My Torment' is addressed directly at myself. While slightly burnt and frayed, the book's cover includes an image of a Nu-Vaal, and several times in the work he describes a 'damnable spirit, interferer of destinies and the vilest of space scum. It is uncanny. Despite the fact that this being lived and died before I was born, he was utterly convinced that I interfered with his trainings with the 'greatest shamans of Kro Var'. He even goes as far as describes the final vision we shared, where I 'attempted in vain to deceive him of all truths'. He described it perfectly, down to my exact actions.

It is impossible, is it not? It is impossible to reach backwards through time and alter events, even with the powers of the Force. But what can explain this situation? Did I receive visions of a past event, and deceived into thinking I acted through them? Did Youth see visions of the future and was able to describe identically in the way I can? Visions that I only had a day before, but he had centuries ago.

With permission from the council, I will keep the book on hand for further study. In addition to the ravings of a madman, Youth's insights into the Force and the diverse forms of Kinesis bear need for further study. I will be making myself available to other, younger, Jedi on the teachings of kinesis and the Kro Var.

THREAD COMPLETE