The Path of the Lost (Collin's Training)

[Trakon]

Collin had lost his way. The only path he could see was a dark one. Full of darkness. He had found his new home. A beaten and abused former Jedi was taken in as a prisoner. After Collin tried to advance his position by telling them that he no longer wanted to be a Jedi and to be a Dark Side Crusader, they considered it. They were going to stick him with one Master, one that he may already have seen before, at the sacking of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant.

He sat, legs crossed Indian Style, freezing with no shirt or shoes in a stone room.

 

[Ols]

Nescius entered the room, a cold stone chamber with the cold winds of Ando Prime rushing through its drafty reaches. He was dressed in the stereotypical blacks, today trousers, boots and a close fitting, lightweight long-sleeve t-shirt. No weapons hung at his belt, not even a lightsaber. The High Lord of the Bogan was completely unrecognisable as the Count of Serenno on Ando Prime. Both physical disguise and the force was used to preserve the secrecy of his dual identity. The Jedi, even if he knew the face of Arathilion Icquilu well, as he might being of Serennan descent himself, would not recognise the Count and Nescius as being one and the same.

"Why, Jedi?" his voice rang out before he had crossed the threshold. He continued, in a clear, loud voice, "why do you wish to forsake your former life? Why do you wish to embrace that which you have surely learned to abhor? Why-" he broke off, frowning quizzically, "...why on earth are you dressed like that? A frozen student would be completely useless."

 

[Trakon]

"Because your friends deemed it wise to do this to me."

 

[Ols]

Nescius sighed exasperatedly.

"I did ask you another question before that," he said scathingly, "I expected an answer."

He paused a second, "This is strike one, by the way."

 

[Trakon]

Collin shook his head.

"I chose to leave the Jedi because I had seen things. When you sacked the temple on Coruscant, I was touched by some darker entity, she made me see things. I nearly died that night from it, but I began to have my doubts. If we, the oh-so-mighty Jedi couldn't see you and stop the attack from ever happening, why are we the ones who are 'right'? These doubts led me to you."

 

[Ols]

"So you want to be 'right'? You want to be in control. I'm sorry to disappoint you, there are very few in a position to dictate such positions to the galaxy. I've been told by numerous present, both Jedi and Bogan, of the atrocities that occurred that night. Quite spectacular stories have made their way out of that attack, but the Jedi's failure is not a simple indication of their weakness, they weren't expecting an attack," he paused, "it was a show of grand opportunism. And let that be your first lesson, you must be an opportunist to succeed. If you always try to stick belligerently to the plan you will be nothing but a grunt. A part to play, a tiny cog, but a grunt nonetheless."

"You are nothing, you are a failure of the Jedi. Now you beg for me to mould you into a success," Nescius words were harsh, perhaps unnecessarily so, as he goaded the apprentice, "you should really have died in attack. You appear of little use to me, especially if you are foolish enough to undress in the cold for the pleasure of acolytes at this temple. How the Knight has fallen."

 

[Trakon]

"I didn't. They did." Collin looked up with anger in his eyes. "Is there any robe or some clothing I can take? Since I'm such a deadbeat fool, maybe warming up would help some."

 

[Ols]

"No," replied Nescius curtly, "you're stupid enough to let teasing morons undress you, you can bear the consequences. And don't flatter yourself," he continued, still goading the younger man into action, "deadbeat fools have more life about them than you do."

 

[Trakon]

Collin's eyes continued to burn with anger. He rose, his body somewhat shivering, but it all but stopped when he reached full height.

"What do you want me to do?"

 

[Ols]

"I want you to react!" Nescius bit back, "you're being a Jedi about whatever I say. You call them weak, yet you still swallow your emotions. Bury them. Hope they go away. That is not what it is to be Bogan. You will learn to control them, but not to ignore them, as the Jedi teach. But I need you to be raw, shapeless in order for me to mould you into something terrifying. You're pathetic."

 

[Trakon]

"Shut it!" Collin said. His anger boiling inside of him, he started to pace. "I came to learn a new way, to become something different, more. And you won't do it!" Collin Force Pushed into the wall, creating a dent. He turned his anger to the other person in the room, pulling an arm back as if to strike.

 

[Ols]

Nescius did not flinch, simply looking, the arm raised by the apprentice. it was a struggle not to laugh, just considering what he would do to the ex-Jedi if he dared to attack on the very first day.

"Well I suppose you've proved you have emotions," he said, adding, "so we've got something to work. Now I'm hoping that in the time you were awaiting me you were diligently researching the Bogan, our teachings and beliefs, and weren't arrogantly sitting there staring at the walls with your shirt off?" he paused, hearing the emptiness of his words as he said them, adding, "never mind."

He walked to the exit of the room and walked out, down the corridor and outside into the Ando Prime night. In the dark, the snow was freezing. Nescius garb was warm for being lightweight, designed as much extreme gear was to keep one warm in the cold, and cool in the heat. He would be a little chilly, but nowhere near as frozen as his apprentice would be when he arrived, as of coruse the master expected him to follow. Nescius crunched forwards on the snow to bring them out of the shadow of the temple and onto an icy, whist plain. He stopped dead.

"It's quite peaceful out here, don't you agree?" he said, his breath condensing before him and a swift gust of wind rattling through the bare trees, "before we begin, do you have any questions?"

 

[Trakon]

Collin had indeed followed Nescius out the entrance. Along the way he saw a jacket, which he stole. He looked up and heard Nescius' question just in time.

"Peaceful. Yes, surprisingly, especially considering it's inhabitents." Collin waited a moment.

"Why did you become a Bogan?"

 

[Ols]

Nescius turned around following the question. When he saw Collin outside wearing the jacket that he had stolen from the empty corridor of Nescius' private quarters, the high lord's face became as though made of stone. He reached out and ripped it from the apprentice and threw it away.

"If I had wanted you to put a jacket on," he said, speaking through his teeth, "I would have given you one." He inhaled deeply, "this is strike two. Strike three means you die."

He waited a second before punching Collin squarely in the chest. The blow was extremely powerful and would knock the younger man to the ground, possibly cracking ribs.

"I became a Dark Jedi so I could do that when idiots try to steal from me," although he was not shouting, Nescius was angry. He had never taught an apprentice like this before.

"Follow me," he said, not looking around to see if the former Jedi. He walked across the icy fields to stone formations ahead. In the rock faces were many caves and tunnels. Nescius found the one he was looking for, a dead ended cave that lead about forty metres into the rock wall. Walking around thirty five metres down, he knelt facing the dead end and gestured for the apprentice to sit opposite him, with his back to the rock wall.

 

[Trakon]

Collin stood up from Nescius' punch and followed him. Strke three? I'd hate to be me, Collin thought.

Once at the cave Collin sat as directed.

 

[Ols]

"No peace, only suffering.
No knowledge, only instinct.
No serenity, only passion.
No harmony, only chaos.
No life, only death."

Nescius recited the code, pausing after each line to let the words sink into his apprentice's mind.

"Think about these words, what each line might mean, how they come together in the grand scheme of things and I shall return when you understand," before waiting for a question, about the code, about where he was going, Nescius stood on the balls of his feet and raised his right hand, using the force to slam the apprentice hard into the far wall of the cave. Before the apprentice could react, he raised his arms and began to pull the ceiling down before him. With crunches and crashes, a a wall of rock soon occupied the space between Nescius and his apprentice. The apprentice was trapped in a small enclosed space. He had no food or water, but he would suffocate a long time before starving. Of course, being buried alive by the master was a test, to see if he understood what it took to become a Dark Jedi, and a test to understand the code. If he passed, he would live, and Nescius would continue his training. If he failed, he would die alone in the small, ill-crafted chamber he now occupied.

 

[Trakon]

Collin's scream echoed in the small area. His frustration at being alone and cold was coming to a point. His pain was evident at the cold in his feet. Collin began to pace, trying to come up with ideas to get out. But all was for not. The pain continued to control his mind. His instincts yelled to him, GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT! What could he do? Collin Force Pushed the wall behind him, putting in a small dent. That wouldn't work.

He put his mind back to the Code that Nescius had spoken of before crashing the cave down upon him. "No peace, only suffering." Collin spoke aloud to himself. He looked around. Clearly he was suffering, and there could be no peace from this experience. He thought back to the times when a former Knight loved him much, but he feeling the Force wouldn't let him, ignored her love. This trail of thoughts brought back intense regret and sadness. His anger rose, anger at himself, anger at the galaxy, anger at this place. Collin punched into the wall. Again, there was little damage done.

His suffering continued, Collin thought of the next line. "No knowledge, only instinct." Collin knew that he couldn't get out of here. This cave was too deep and too stable for him to bust out. But his instincts said to live. He knew he would die, but he couldn't die now. Not after all this. Collin stomped his foot into the ground, and a resounding thud resonated in the small room. He screamed at a sudden shot of pain from his foot. It was cold, but he continued to feel.

That led to the next line in the Code. "No serenity, only passion." There could be no doubt about this. There was no serenity, Collin had seen that in the eyes of his former Knight, she loved him with such a passion. There was only him in her eyes, and he ignored her. She died because of him. Collin began to feel the passion for this dead one. The lust, his mind raced to all the possibilities. All the possibilities that couldn't happen because she was gone. His suffering increased with the furthering of his knowledge of life.

A tear rolled from his eye. "My former harmony has been broken, only to see the true chaos behind everything." Collin said. Collin couldn't control his emotions any longer. He wouldn't. Because it cost him a lifetime of love and lust, of heart break and togetherness, and of death and life. He would live only to continue to remember his loss.

"No life." Collin stopped and looked around at the empty cave. "Only death." His tear from each eye had frozen on his cheek. He reached up with his hands and ripped each away, leaving a raw spot on each cheek. "Death reaches all things. Life is passed to those who don't care."

((EDITED))

 

[Ols]

((The caves are in a goddamn cliff face. Escape is impossible. Obviously the point of this isn't to escape. If it was, I would have said it was a test to escape. As it is, I've said it's a test to "survive and understand the code".))

 

[Trakon]

((Edited Ols. Any better?))

 

[Ols]

"If you don't shut up and do something you'll run out of air," Nescius voice seemed to be coming from everywhere at once, though reverberating in the very head of his apprentice. Obviously the apprentice had it in his head that if he rushed through things it would mean he would progress quicker. How wrong he was. He was playing a dangerous game, trying to do all at once. He had lost valuable seconds of air. Obviously Nescius would have spell out survival to this allegedly trained force sensitive.

"Stop crying. Tears are for the weak. And to be Bogan you must cast off weakness." Again the voice echoed around the younger man's head.

Now, to get back to the task at hand. In order to survive, the apprentice had to do a number of things. Nescius wouldn't steam in and rescue him, it would take time to remove the layers of rock and unless Collin did something soon, Nescius would feel his apprentice pass into the force and give up his search.

"Kneel," The single word in his cold voice, "Close your eyes. Breathe deeply and feel the force."

The apprentice was almost there. He had recognised that he was suffering. But he had not acted on it, other than foolishly punching and kicking the rocks.

"No peace, only suffering."