Chapter 5: 5. Chapter

In the next five minutes, I was absorbed in an activity that can be described as imagining, I must say very realistically that sweet moment when I will, and I will, blow up that droid in as many different ways as possible. In the first method, I simply crushed it with the sheer power of the force. The only problem with this method is that I will have to wait for a few years to do it. My physical body would become too drained after exerting such effort, dangerously so. The next was more realistic for the current me, melting it with sith lighting. I could use a few different variants already. Using sith lightning techniques are not as draining as some may think. The main reason is, that you can very finely control, with enough discipline how much force you channel into each burst of lightning. You can choose to slowly cook your target from the inside out, with a weaker burst, or use one short yet powerful blast that kills instantly. The latter is obviously very tiresome, but I think I can do it without dangerously draining my resources. With the basic lightning technique at least, the purple one is much more demanding. There is another one too, a red lightning variant, that drains life essence from its victim, but taking into consideration, that my opponent is a droid I cast it aside.

I couldn’t kill it with my lightsaber sadly, it is much faster and stronger than I am, it would be foolish to get in close range, so I guess the lightning and some force shields, maybe a little speed enchantment had to be enough. Now, the only problem is getting out of here, that is the challenge. Assuming, that this damn droid planned to drop me here in the first place, instead of actually guarding me, well, not that I need much guarding really, I would be just fine without his help. I sat up on my bed to look around one more time, there was a desk, a chair, my bed, and of course a door leading to the toilet most likely. Oh, and there are the cameras, I almost forgot about the always vigilant eyes of the order. Well, it is a prison room, so I should not be surprised…

I guess it’s time to enjoy my new home. Such hospitality is quite nice really, nah, of course, I would be able to open that door with the help of the force, but they took my lightsaber, the one that master gave me. I will play the good girl, for now, I guess. I have confidence in my power, but I am not stupid enough, to think that I am able to steal back my saber and hide from the whole jedi order in their own temple. You know the saying, that individual strength can overcome numerical superiority, well the guy who said it was most likely beaten to death by a mob… I mean in some cases it could happen, there was that crazy guy, Darth Nihilis, he was basically a force wound, a walking black hole with basic intelligence. A pitiful creature that was, his personality and mind long shattered from the endless hunger, controlled by his basic urges in an inhuman way. That state of existence is what I consider hell. One man is not suited to hold that much raw power, aim for balance and be reasonable.

Therefore, I will accept, that I am at the mercy of the jedi for now, they don’t know who I am, and they only saw a girl, with a rare ship, and some force knowledge from an unknown master. Yet, I am interested; will they really adopt me, is that even legal? Well, thinking about it, they are used to kidnapping small children from their parents at a much younger age than I am.  So, probably I shouldn’t question their intent.

Look at that. What master I am, adopted by the jedi out of pity and probably grudge, left behind by my own droid guardian and used as a distraction for him. Even my weapon was taken from me. Looking at my achievements from this perspective, I actually felt somewhat pitiful…

- Damn. I am stupid. Even after this many years of experience. Bah, no reason crying over spilled milk. I am going to think of it as a vacation.

I started to pull off my boots, throw them on the floor then sat up again in a cross-legged position still on my bed.

- Let’s do something jedi like for once, without my console I can only meditate, still better than looking at these boring walls. Oh, I got it, so this is why they don’t have anything in here, to make me meditate. Hehee, you know what, you won this round.

Thankfully, the infuriating side effects of the ritual are almost over, I am not that muddle-headed anymore. So I won’t start and speak out loud without realizing it. That is kind of a big plus. Oh, I got an idea, let’s see, if they can sense me. I am going to use foresight, with partial spirit detachment. This way, I will be able to look around the temple and search for a way out too. To gain enough focus, I will have to enter into deep meditation, but I have to clear my mind first.

About an hour later, I was finally able to cast those force spells. They were very hard to activate as a child, but after casting them successfully it was easy to use them even at the same time. The partial spirit detachment was a very high-level force technique, normally it was used in the middle of a fight to confuse highly force-sensitive enemies. The force presence of the technique can be easily confused with the real body of the user. This way creating a perfect opportunity for a decisive surprise attack, using it against not force sensitive people is useless since there is no physical body to be seen or to actually hurt someone, only a force presence that the caster can control. Obviously, this force presence cannot actually see, but if I use my foresight spell on it, I will create the perfect spy. Now mind you, it cannot really go that far to be used as a typical spy, but it is still far from useless, I think that I can walk around most of the jedi temple with it easily. Now let’s see, I will walk through that wall, okay. I will try to hide the presence of the technique as much as possible, but constantly using three of these spells is very demanding, to be honest. My forehead is already wet with perspiration; this may stretch my current abilities a bit. The technique was created with the purpose of radiating force presence; therefore it was very hard to hide it since it was going against its original purpose. Yet, I can’t cast whole spirit detachment, and even if I could I wouldn’t! That technique is just stupid, you can see and sense through the eyes of your detached spirit, even fight with it, sounds good right? No, because you can die just the same too, and using it drains you constantly, not even mentioning that to activate it you will have to burn a big chunk of your force pool or mental fortitude if that sounds better, and it will drain even after that! That means you basically start the fight half drained and if the enemy realizes what you do, it can simply drag out the battle until you are too drained and simply disappear, or die from a surprise attack. Not so good after all, right? Oh, and if you overextend without dispelling a spell even after you are too drained to normally use it, it will feed on your life energy until there is no more, then you will die, such a charming technique. The only positive part is that you can teleport with it to places where you have been before, but again with bigger distance comes greater strain on the body. With my momentary abilities, I could probably use it to appear in my base on Hoth, then a few seconds later my real body would disintegrate. Eh, I have to admit, I could not use this technique effectively even as an adult. It is hard to admit, but there are a few sick force techniques that actually need an astonishing amount of midi-chlorian count. Those are for the lucky ones I guess, like Revan. Then a smirk appeared on my face.

- Ah, just as the saying goes, with a big nose comes great responsibilities. 

Anyway, you can use your creativity and knowledge instead of raw power. You know what, my combined use of different force abilities has zero risk of death! Well, they also have obvious restrictions. Like the distance, after going too far from my body, it simply dissipates. Oh, and if someone senses it, it can be destroyed by siphoning the force presence with some basic dark side techniques, but who would do that in the middle of a jedi temple? Hah! Well, it can also be dispelled forcefully, but that isn’t as effective because you can simply move out of the way, while you can’t really run away from a siphoning attack, since it attaches itself to the force presence. The smart thing in that situation is to dispel it instantly, you lose the spell, but at least didn’t let your enemy gain power from siphoning it.

Oh, in the meantime I was looking around the corridors, If I remember correctly the council was somewhere this way, let’s check on them at first. A few minutes later it turned out that I remembered correctly, when I walked through the door of the council room, it was closed but I am a force presence so who cares! The moment I entered, I immediately felt the need to facepalm, by the force, they were also spying on me through the cameras, our habits are too similar for comfort. It was projected to the central holo-projector. Well, at least I won’t have to feel bad for spying on them, not that I would. Thankfully foresight doesn’t only include vision but voices too. So, I was able to hear what they were talking, oh the skinhead was in the middle of his usual tirades.

- I am telling you, this girl means only one thing, trouble. You can’t really think about letting her into the jedi order, especially not as a padawan learner. Becoming a jedi is a special privilege, not something we gave away to someone who breaks into our temple and steals from our archive! She was purposefully holding back information, shamelessly throwing around the fact that she will not cooperate.

Okay, master hairless is officially on my blacklist from now on, no pun intended. Oh now the other guy actually started to argue with him, what was his name? Kenobi, yeah that’s it.

- Master Windu calm down please, it was only a theoretical possibility we were mentioning.

Yoda also spoke with solemn words.

- Obi-One is right, Windu, and you are over exaggerating, don’t forget, that we were the ones, who invited them into our temple, hum. The girl could be a victim of circumstances too.

Obi-One continued.

- I agree, and I didn’t sense any hostility from her towards us, even after I told her that many fabricated felonies she supposedly committed.

- Hu-humph! Said Yoda, creating the impression of stifled laughter.

- She obviously didn’t know, that possessing a lightsaber in itself is not a crime, using it is an entirely different matter, said Kenobi with a somewhat guilty smile.

- Oh yes, that was a very diplomatic solution, I must admit said Windu at last letting his pent-up irritation go.

Then he continued.

- Making her activate the blade before the council made this into a strictly jedi case since it also involves our sacred weapon. Otherwise, it would fall under the jurisdiction of the Coruscant police. It would be a worldwide commotion, unknown possibly separatist droid breaks into the jedi archives then escapes in daylight. We should not let any of this information get into the hands of the media. We have already enough problems to deal with, as the clone army, demilitarization factions grow bigger every day.

Obi-One reacted first.

- Thank you master, but please don’t mistake my duty towards the jedi for enthusiasm in this situation. I am not exactly proud that I lied and exploited a child that had no detailed knowledge of the current laws.

Windu raised his hand to indicate that he understands.

In the meantime, Yoda closed his eyes as a troubled expression slowly settled on his face, with still-closed eyes and a very dejected voice he started to speak.

- Dark times we live in, that even the masters of our order have to sink to this level, to even lie to the children. No lasting system was ever built on lies. This war took more from us than we could ever possibly realize. Sometimes I wonder, even if we win the war, what will be left of our order, of our philosophies and teachings.

There was a solemn silence in the room, everyone was thinking over the words of the grandmaster while looking at my unmoving form in the middle of the hologram.

A few minutes later, Kenobi broke the silence also changing the direction of the conversation.

- She looks like a bright child, yet she talks like an old man holding thousands of small grudges, she also has a unique aura and clearly knows her capabilities, able to adapt swiftly to new situations. Many traits that are rare even for jedi knights nowadays.

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After hearing Kenobi’s opinion, Windu also shared his thought, even if somewhat reluctantly.

- Rash, too honest for her own good, proud and disrespectful at the level of Skywalker, and one Skywalker is already more than I would wish to handle. He carefully thought over his next sentence. Then he finally continued.

- Yet I must admit that precise control over her force aura is an obvious sign of incredible talent or the result of years of hard work, knowledge, and experience. Taking into consideration her age, it should be the first one.

Hearing the evaluation of the two masters Yoda's ears slowly started to rise as a small grandfatherly smile appeared on his wrinkled face. At last, he opened his eyes to look at the image of the girl before him.

- She knew, that we would sense if she lied, but she could not tell the truth from fear. That was the reason why she didn’t answer, it was not meant to disrespect us. Quite the opposite, in fact.

That sentence surprised the other two masters. Their gaze also wandered to the girls meditating form in the holoprojector.

Yoda continued to state his observations, while the other two masters carefully listened to every word.

- Her eyes, hmmm, are not the eyes of a child, no, those eyes, carefully hidden under the façade of a youngling are not ones of innocent curiosity. They are deep with raw knowledge. How to explain this, I know not.

After another minute of silence, Kenobi asked the next question.

-  What kind of meditation practice is this? She is sitting without any movement yet she became almost entirely drenched from perspiration in the last few moments.

Yoda focused on the girl straining form, something was strange, and he opened himself slightly to the flow of the force. A warning came immediately, there was something, someone hidden here, but he could not locate it, therefore he tried another approach. He said it loudly.

- Show yourself.

The other two masters were taken aback by this sudden warning from the grandmaster. Each of them jumped up from their seat instantly igniting their blades, looking around carefully, and simultaneously sensing the area with the force. I was also surprised as I got too immersed in their conversation. Without hesitation, I hastily dispelled my force avatar then my vision jumped back into my body. My eyes opened wide, as I begin to feel the waves of exhaustion suddenly crashing me, I started to forcefully breathe in big mouthfuls of air. Damn, this combined use of different force abilities really took their toll on my body. My clothes were totally drenched… Breath. Damn, breath… I dropped on my back and tried to control my breathing, it was hard, but I succeeded. To my slight horror, my somewhat trembling arms started to feel awfully cold. A clear sign of drained vitality. I lay down on the bed completely stopping any force use, some would think that channeling healing energies to heal your exhaustion is a good idea. It is generally true, but if you are exhausted your mental powers to a level where it started to drain your life force, even if just a little, doing that could be categorized as a suicide attempt. At this moment normal rest was the only possible solution or asking another force user to heal you. 

Back in the council room, Yoda's ears started to droop a bit while the other two masters were carefully looking around the room, trying to sense the presence of this intruder. Master Windu and master Kenobi were also able to sense this foreign presence after the grandmaster's warning, but only for a split second, as it suddenly dispersed.

Yoda was about to fall back into his deep and troubled thoughts, there were many things, many mysteries arising one after the other. Before he could get back to his meditation, his eyes cached a sprawled out and heavily breathing form of one of those so-called troubles. He was about to let this thought slide, then the realization came. Why would he hide anything from their fellow council members, they were his friends and family after all. Is it possible, that he did not trust in their judgment, or was he too proud? No, it was something else, he was afraid, afraid of failure as a grandmaster of the order. Fear often bound his decision-making, to lose the respect of the council, his fellow jedi. They often looked at him with reverence of someone all-knowing, all-powerful, but only he knew truly how false and misguided those thoughts were. Sometimes it was easier to act on this belief, to act as if it was true, that he was all-knowing. This made him more confident, but this confidence already started to shadow his judgment, I am too proud, to see unlikely possibilities. This behavior must be changed he decided; let's take small steps at a time, the other masters were waiting for him to end this council meeting. Instead, he purely acted on his instinct for the first time in years.

- Obi-Wan, project the seed of one camera in the council room, together with the camera in Nizzal’s room. Synchronize their time and rewind it back about two to five minutes.

Obi-Wan was very surprised by the uncharacteristic request from the grandmaster, master Windu also raised one of his brows. Nonetheless, he followed his request without a second thought, after a few seconds of manipulation over the activator buttons everything was ready. He started the videos, side by side when they reached the part where the grandmaster’s warning happened, all of them even Yoda was somewhat shocked. It was in the exact same moment when the girl suddenly awakened from her meditation, that the force presence they sensed ceased to be.

After the initial shock Windu, voiced his thoughts.

- This, is way too perfect to be a coincidence.

Kenobi whistled heartily.

- Well-well, I have to say that we highly underestimated our little guest. Now, I am truly curious who her master is. 

Windu watched the utterly exhausted girl. Than said. 

- From what I have seen, it could be your former padawan Kenobi. Who else would have the stupid confidence to spy on a council meeting. 

Kenobi reacted with the charming smile of a politician, as he said. 

- Oh thank you, but I heard master Windu, that you are not one to talk in this regard. 

Windu's head whipped with a horrified expression towards the seat of the order's grandmaster. 

Yoda reacted to this by saying.

- Each of us, were children once. Forget this, we must not.

Hearing this, Windu stood up from his seat and began to walk out of the council room, without waiting for the grandmaster to officially end the meeting. Before he left, he said one last sentence. 

- I will send a healer to that youngling before she chokes on air. 

The door closed behind him automatically. The other two masters left behind were smiling stupidly to themselves. In that flash of a rare moment, each of them looked much-much younger as their powerful yet happy force presence slowly expanded around the temple every force-sensitives began to relax. That day even the force itself seemed to smile around the temple. Creating a small, peaceful island in the middle of the chaotic city-planet called Coruscant.  

 

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