Chapter 100: 100. chapter

Hey folks, 

Today I am bringing you an extra large chapter, one with cheese and a large soda to celebrate the reaching of the 100. chapter of a story in a galaxy far far away.

This story is turning out to be quite a fat one.

 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

-From the perspective of Lily.-

I was spending my time in the company of Kalifa and Barriss. We were inside the Hall of a Thousand Fountains, playing a game of dice. It was a simple game, one that you only needed a few dice to enjoy. Even my new companion, the Overmind, seemed to accept it as a useful activity and that was something to be said.

The game looked like this. One of us rolls the dice or dices and the other two tries to predict how many of the five dice the other took and what number they will eventually end up showing. It was a game of prediction, which supposedly honed your supernatural abilities to predict the immediate future.

The one closer to the actual number will have one chance to slap the top of the other one’s hand. That is held out in front of us, from the start of the game. But the other player is allowed to try to pull away her hand. If she fails to, she will lose a life. Everyone has three lives at the start.

It was a fun game that honed the ability of foresight, which was said to be crucial for the jedi, and I could see why it might prove useful. If I had this ability when I was fighting with the zealots, or when I was hit by the shrapnel of a broken bone blade. I would be able to easily foresee it and move out of the way.

Now I genuinely wanted to learn this skill with all my heart. I listened with strained concentration as Kalifa threw the dice after she rolled them around the cup a few times. 

My eyes were closed, as this was the rule for the game. You weren’t supposed to peek at the result, it wouldn’t be fair. I was trying to pry open the door of the future if only for a second to understand this mysterious ability when, instead of the image of several rolled dice, something different blinked into my mind.

I saw hundreds of large spaceships appear outside of the planet, then after a brief moment of shock and disbelief, a sensation of fear spiked through the ether, reaching my body momentarily, overwhelming my mind. Then I saw millions of laser beams shot simultaneously, blasting against the still panicked ships. Many such ships were destroyed in the first wave of incoming one sided attacks.

I could hear millions of terrified screams carrying the undeniable call of death.

The screams of terror, and pain which rang through me started to wear down my mind, I saw the last scene of the vision when the defending ships finally started to react sending back series of blue plasma beams at first they were doing it with an inefficient scattered way then the blue streaks of death finally seemed to organize into a similar shroud as their enemies were, resulting in a complete manifestation of chaos. I was suddenly thrown back into my body, into the present, feeling powerless and drenched in sweat. My brain was pulsing with spikes of pain hammering through it.

I was momentarily shocked by this pain, which was not present before, and winced while eliciting a small groan.

-Auh...

I heard a pair of surprised gasps next to me. I wanted to sit up, as I realized I was lying on my back, but I was immediately pushed back down on the floor with four hands. 

-What is this? Why does my head hurt so much... 

I was immediately scolded by one of the excited voices. It clearly belongs to Kalifa, as she scolded me lightly.

-No, you fool, lie down. You should have told us if you weren’t feeling well. You are such a child, collapsing on us all of a sudden... Are you hungry or what? 

-Hungry? I... I guess, but... 

I heard a pair of smirks, realizing that they were making fun of me... it was one of their favorite pass times activities since I came here. At first I didn’t realize, what they were doing, but after a few days... it was evident, I guess I was starting to understand the meaning of sarcastic humor, and why people were often saying the exact opposite of what they meant or felt. 

It was either from cowardice, not daring to state your genuine feelings, or to intentionally confuse the opponent and make fun of him or her while also entertaining everyone around.

-I knew she was hungry. There is not a single time she isn’t, you see Barriss? I told you not to worry.

There was a lapse of silence, then a brief chuckle came from Barriss as she stated playfully.

-Yes... I just don’t seem to understand how she didn’t turn into a ball of fat that we could roll around in the temple’s corridors. That would be a sight to see... Alas, she is just as skinny as she was when we first saw her. The only thing I feel good about is that she is as flat as a stick bug.

Then, after Barriss’ short monolog, Kalifa whispered to her mock conspiratorially, in other words loud enough for me to hear with a smirk.

-Stop saying that, or she will realize that we are actually envious, her metabolism is just out of this world. But you are right… not that it matters to begin with.

Barriss gave Kalifa an annoyed side glance and said.

-What do you mean? Of course it matters.

Kalifa huffed in a boyish manner in reaction while crossing her arms over her chest. She argued.

-It’s not that our tits will get much use, anyway. Don’t you remember what happened to Master Skywalker? He got kicked out of the Order because of “Unprecedented per-perversion”. As things are, I would rather eat as much as I want and don’t gain any weight…

Barriss raised her hands in front of her face, trying to hold in a wave of laughter. She evidently failed and started to bawl with uncontrollable laughter, rolling onto her back and shaking from the mention of Anakin Skywalker's trial.

She managed to squeeze out a few words between her rounds of laughter.

-Do you remember… his expression when they brought up… haha… the-the reason for his expulsion?

Kalifa also started to laugh, seeing the ridiculous state that Barriss ended up in.

-Chuckle… of course I do, but he had it coming for him.

Barriss, still laying on the floor, with small bursts of laughter shaking her from time to time. Eventually, she started to calm down. She sat up at last and said to Kalifa.

-All things considered, he still has the rank of General… even if that is partly thanks to the influence of his wife as a senator…

Kalifa smirked again and pounced at the unexpecting Barriss, starting to tickle her side, which resulted in another wave of laughter in the meantime. She scolded her.

-Barriss, Barriss… where is your innocent act hmm? What are you insinuating there? Do you intend to do the same? I thought you were too prude to make such ungraceful accusations and to think of such ideas your master would be disappointed... Alas; I don’t think you are wrong… also he is still thought to be the chosen one. The Council wouldn’t punish him as much, while that possibility is still alive. But that wouldn’t be the case with you, or me… So don’t even think about it.

-Ba-ha-ha-ha-ha! Nooo, okay, I gave up! Plea-please… leave me be! I… I am sorry…

Kalifa made a grimace, while copying the voice of Master Windu as she stated in a comically straining deep voice.

-Sorry is not enough. I want to see results, actions. Spare your words of contempt for those who care about them.

- You… fine… I will give you some of my spare chocolate… if you let me go!… ah…

In the very next second, Kalifa was sitting back in her original place with a contented smile.

Barriss huffed and puffed a few times, and crawled to a sitting position feeling kind of powerless, after such an underhanded assault.

-You… you are evil…

She said to Kali, and pulled her legs up against her chest, seemingly about to clam up for the day. It was one of her habits. She was the silent, brooding type. At least, that was how Kali categorized her… When I asked what she thought about me, she said I was the cute airhead who sometimes turns into a killing machine.

I wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

I rolled my eyes seeing this, a thing that I learned from Barriss which was supposedly meant to showcase your annoyance of certain things or certain persons.

The other two noticed it and looked at me funny. 

Kalifa spoke up first.

-Look at it, she is doing it wrong again... 

Barriss turned towards me as well, and nodded. Then added another few words.

-Yeah, it’s kind of disturbing... I mean, how does she even roll her eyes in completely different directions? It’s kind of creepy...

Oh... so you were supposed to roll them symmetrically? I didn’t realize... I corrected it without a word.

-Eh? She corrected it!

Stated Kalifa. 

-It would seem so. 

Agreed Barriss, with a sigh letting go of her original intention of becoming a human sized clam.

I decided to end their bullying session and forced myself to sit up. This time, they didn’t try to hold me down, as both of them were too submerged in their own little world.

-I wasn’t that hungry... 

Two pairs of eyes turned towards me, not understanding what I was talking about.

-I mean, I didn’t collapse because of malnutrition, and I wasn’t feeling bad either.

I stated this at first, with the intention of clearing up the earlier misunderstanding.

I saw that the girls, finally caught on to what I was referring to, and a vile glint, were mirroring in their eyes. As they exchanged a mischievous glance.

I gulped.

-Sure you weren’t.. 

-Yeah, totally not.

-You… sigh… just listen for once. Please.

It seems I failed. I rolled my eyes again, this time properly, and said with a huff. 

-I believe I had a force vision, of sorts just now.

The two girls tensed up for a second, then Barriss asked me with a serious tone.

-What did you see? 

Kalifa didn’t say anything, but she was clearly interested.

I sighed and said, feeling a bit scared.

-I saw thousands of battleships appear outside of this planet. There is a battle going on already. Lot of death, fear and pain...

The two girls were looking at me frozen, wide eyed, and worried. 

I heard Kalifa’s words, laced with worry but still holding onto a bit of hope as she asked.

-Ah... look Lily, we are sorry for making fun of you; I promise we will stop, so there is no reason to make such a bad jok-... 

As if on cue, a series of warning sirens began to scream around the temple, cementing the cruel reality of the situation. All three of us were spooked by the unexpected noise, and I could see cold worry set in the already paling faces of the girls, my new friends.

Barriss jumped up, her blue eyes set in a permanent expression of worry. Looking around with a haunted gaze, one similar to the ones she made when she jolted awake from a bad dream in the middle of the night. Over these few days, we often slept together, usually choosing one of our rooms for this purpose. The masters of the order were extremely overwhelmed with their work. They couldn’t spare time to teach us now. They had to sort out casualties and bury those bodies which had been brought back from different systems. 

Needless to say that the general mood was not great, not until a mysterious bunch of force wielders arrived at the temple as guests. We didn’t have the chance to speak with a single one of them yet, but we could take a few peeks of them when they arrived here. 

I originally wasn’t that interested, but seeing the commotion made around the entire thing, I also became curious. It was evident to us that the general mood of the temple changed with their arrival, as if every jedi was relived by the new event, giving them something else, something new to speak about, a way to distract their depressed thoughts.

The temple had a very solemn and pristine air, which only grew stronger since the clone’s betrayal. Even more so, than usual, so many passed away, often without a trace, disintegrated in battles, burnt to crisp in waves of heat explosions, ripped to shreds by shrapnels of blown up ships or simply lost among the endless parsecs of space, some yet to be found, while others forgotten never to be seen again.

The waves of disturbingly sharp screaming noises generated by the alerting sirens now were ranging through the air from every direction. The sound waves were constantly changing frequencies, as if wanting to draw even more attention to their existence.

I heard a familiar deep voice inside my head. At the time, I was growing accustomed to it already. It seems there was enough space inside my head for the two of us, after all. Since he stopped causing me pain by looking through my memories, I didn’t mind it that much.

I believe that is exactly what it is designed to achieve. Through your awareness, I could also sense a surprising amount of ships appearing around the planet. A battle raging with such intensity is bound to extend to the surface, one that might endanger the continuation of our mutual relationships. 

I blinked, feeling confused, then asked in my mind, since the Overmind never ceased to scold me when I was talking to him aloud instead of only focusing my thoughts. He didn’t even let me speak about him. I was forcefully stopped, unable to open my mouth if I had the intention of speaking about him.

Naturally, I still tried to, but the attempts resulted in utter failure. Putting me in ridiculous situations. Eventually, I was forced to stop trying. What a mess... Oh, but wait? What do you mean by that? I thought that you couldn’t leave... Were you lying?

No, I can’t. What I meant is, if you die, we can’t coexist anymore.

I... I see, but, wait if I die, ain’t you going to die as well?

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That is indeed the case. 

So... why are you so calm about it? Aren’t you afraid? 

Fear is a new concept for me. I believe that I understand the sensation of fear through your emotions, at least to a certain degree. I am not exactly sure how to feel about it. However, I know that I don’t want to lose my genetic information and memories. That makes me feel disturbed, maybe... Yes, I believe I do feel fear. 

I... Ugh, so we can agree that... neither of us wants to die, right?

Survival is preferable. I agree. 

So... what to do now? 

Based on my observations throughout the days we spent here, I believe we should leave this place as quickly as possible. This alien temple structure is clearly a position of high interest, which likely is a priority target for the enemy that came attacking this planet. This observation was made by analyzing your memories of the event you refer to as the clone’s betrayal.

No! I won’t leave without my friends, especially if what you said is true. 

Friends? I do not understand this concept nor the need for it. I have been trying to analyze the purpose behind your interactions with those female sapients. I thought it to be a misguided attempt at a mating ritual, but I have been proved wrong. Then I believed that you wished to use their knowledge, which seems to be true, but why are you so protective of them now when you have learned what you sought? I find that I cannot wholly comprehend the reasons behind your behaviors. I find myself wondering if you have any such reason to begin with.

Eh? What do you mean... mating? Which part of these looks like mating to you?!

You have been sleeping together more often than not, however I find it baffled that no reproductive organs have been utilized during thi...

Oh, no-no-no! Shut up! I take that back, don’t answer... I don’t want to know... ... ...

There were a few seconds of awkward silence in my mind. Then I started an attempt to clear out the awkwardness and asked.

What is it that you don’t understand about it... I mean, about f-friendship?

I can’t see the purpose behind your actions. What is the goal that you try to achieve by wasting your time in meaningless banter? Is there a deeper purpose which I cannot seem to comprehend? 

Well... I enjoy being in their company, its f-fun.

Define the meaning of fun.

What...? Is there nothing you like to do? Something you enjoy doing is what we call fun... You are so stupid at times...

Fun is what I enjoy? 

Yeah, obviously you dummy! Tell me what is that you like to do in your spare time? 

Based on your given parameters of the meaning of fun, I do believe that I enjoy devouring new lifeforms and expanding my and the swarms’ evolutional choices based on their genetical information. Is that an acceptable answer? 

... Ugh, that sounds like work to me... and you are not nice at all! 

Define the exact meaning of nice in this particular context.

You... ugh... you never seem to run out of questions, do you?

Asking questions is the second most efficient way to seek out knowledge. In my current state, I cannot do the first one.

Which is? 

Absorbing their genetical information, naturally.

I felt baffled by the answer. You! You bastard, now I see why the other zergs wanted to screw me so much! It was you all along. This type of thinking is the very reason why they were attempting to cut me apart all the time! And its root was you all along, your lazy ass behavior! YOU, damn you! I don’t want to TALK to you any LONGER! 

... I am inside your mind. You cannot ignore me.

Just watch me!

That is exactly what I meant. You can’t stop thinking, and I can read your thoughts. It’s a misguided attempt born of frustration and stubbornness. Something that is deemed to fail. 

Naah! Stop it, you are just a bully! You have no right to lecture me!

I am your creator. I have every right to lecture you.

NO! I won’t listen to you!

I just described the reasons why you can’t stop listening to me. Could it be...? No, I don’t feel any structural disturbance in your brain. You should be capable of understanding what I spoke about.

You... why you little, stop insulting me... you are so annoying, just leave me be, for now... please... 

Strong emotional fluctuation has been detected. I will retreat and cut direct mind connection until you calm down. Your emotions are too overwhelming for me. 

... coward!

I could beat the crap out of this annoying bastard!... Only if... that wouldn’t mean beating myself up in front of a mirror... damn... 

While I was submerged in the fast-paced internal dispute, which only lasted for a few seconds in real time, I found my arm being grabbed and pulled up by the two girls. I was quickly pulled along to move in search of either one of their masters. My promised practice session with Master Windu was still being postponed, with an uncertain amount of time, too.

I suppose that will be stretched out even further based on what directions the events seem to take now.

We were running through the corridors, searching for any master to give us some directions, what to do, what was happening around. 

Finally, we have heard a familiar voice, the voice which belongs to no other than Master Yoda. He was speaking with someone in an empty corridor. We decided to move towards the direction of the voices. While also sparing some energy to listen to the conversation. Based on the voices, he was speaking with another padawan, a girl. She likely sought him out, with the same intention as us.

That was what we thought, but as we got closer, we realized that the girl’s voice was filled with the confidence and pride of someone in an equal position. It was different from how a padawan was expected to speak with the Grandmaster of the Jedi Order. 

And for that reason, we decided to stop and listen to the conversation. Kalifa was especially acting strange, hearing the voice of the unknown girl. Did she know her from somewhere? Based on her grimace, which showed she indeed recognized her voice, the answer was probably yes... I will have to question her later.

Anyway, all three of us decided to hide in a crook of the corridor’s wall behind the heavy curtains, while listening intently to the particular conversation as the targets of our eavesdropping were too submerged in their discussion to notice our presence.

The unknown girl’s voice. 

-I have ordered the Dark Seeker to act in support of the orbital positions. 

Master Yoda’s voice.

-We appreciate the thought, but what could one battleship achieve against such numbers? I would rather wish you stayed out of it, as the destruction of your ship could result in... unforeseen diplomatic outcomes.

The girl’s voice answered in a somewhat coy tone.

-Usually, nothing. However, I believe that you will find this particular one different in this regard. 

-How so?

Asked a harsher, but also just as familiar, voice, this time belonging to Master Windu. There was a moment of silence, then the girl spoke explanatorily.

- Only half of that ship is an actual ship. The entire midsection, including the bridge, is nothing else but a huge meditation chamber. I believe you are familiar with the concept of battle meditation? 

There was a surprised gasp as Master Windu hastily asked. 

-Don’t tell me... you have someone who is able to expand their mind to cover an entire battlefield of such magnitude? 

 The girl spoke in a triumphant voice, seeing the evident surprise of Master Windu.

-The whole battlefield? No, it will be more like the entire planet and the surrounding space. 

There was a few seconds of silence, then Master Yoda spoke solemnly. 

-I will admit, to have such talent among your people is unexpected, but it is certainly a relief. Battle Meditation is a finicky art that is rarely practiced among our people, at least not anymore. It needs a particular sort of talent, which is rare to come by. I am afraid that over the long years of peace; we have almost entirely stopped the practice of this art, that solely focuses on battle situations. We might have to reintroduce them to younglings. I believe that some of the more eccentric masters, who came back from their self exile and missionary journeys, still have sufficient knowledge to teach it.

The girl answered calmly. 

-Yes, believe me, I know how annoying it is to actually achieve any result. I myself practice the art, but I am unable to expand my awareness farther than a few kilometers. At least for now.

-That is already a very admirable level. Some would even call it mastery.

Praised Yoda. 

-Yes, well, at least until they witness the real thing. 

Said the girl, a small level of frustration entering her voice.

There was a momentary silence, then the girl added mischievously.

-I believe that you, Masters, have some unusually curious visitors coming by. And I wouldn’t wish to stand in the way of pleasant conversation, not any longer than absolutely necessary. I will join the rest of my escort in my appointed quarters. Battle meditation or not, our enemies’ numbers are overwhelming and a ground invasion is unavoidable. Reinforce the defense of the temple, and the Senate, both of them are crucial points. Losing either of them will greatly affect overall morale. Which could lead to significantly different outcomes. Call us if you need help with something.

Master Windu answered with annoyance.

-You have done more than we could impose upon you. Also, we have already ordered reinforcement of those positions. Your advice is unnecessary, but still... welcomed.

He added that last bit after Yoda whipped him across the back of his leg with his crooked walking stick.

There was an extremely awkward silence for a while. 

The girl’s voice broke it, eventually. 

-...I guess I will go now. See you later...

 

As we heard the light steps of this mysterious person getting closer to us, we hastily stepped out of our hiding space, and acted like we were simply walking by. Which also turned out to be pretty awkward as the person clearly knew that we were eavesdropping on them. 

Just when we managed to “uncurtain” ourself in wild panicky movements since my wings naturally stuck on the fine material, adding a few unintended cuts and holes to it... I was really feeling sorry for the damage... The girl who the voice belonged to stepped out of the corner and we could see each other at last. 

We were staring at each other, while she walked by with elegant grace, nodding to us politely. That lightness and elegance of how she held herself simply looked out of place at a girl of her age.

I also realized that Kalifa immediately started to fidget next to me as her eyes met with the girl’s glare. Her face even turned a bit pink, while she was staring at the ground, finding it more interesting than anything else in the world.

Barriss looked at the strange girl with abundant curiosity. She was clearly curious about her and seemed to even admire the way she held herself. She was clothed in a nicely designed cloth in the different shades of gray, white and brown and gold in a small amount. 

The cloth was similar to a jedi robe, but there were interesting differences. It was more modern, in design, and it wouldn’t really stand out in a crowd. The robe was able to maintain a solemn atmosphere while still holding onto its practicality.

Or... maybe the robe was nothing special, and only the way the person wore it gave it a sense of solemn air.

Our eyes met with the stranger. She was looking at me a lot longer than the others, but I wasn’t bothered by it since I got used to people staring at my eye color with suspicion. It was a daily occurrence... the Jedi didn’t like my eye color. It reminded them of their old enemy. The enemy that was likely behind this particular attack.

Our staring competition was broken by the dry cough coming from our flanks. 

All three of us jumped slightly as we turned to face an angry Master Windu. He was ready to scold us, but still held it in because of the presence of the important guest.

He gave us a deeply offended glare, which promised that this was not over yet, and asked in a dry tone. 

-What do you want? 

Hearing this, Barriss, who was the most favored by the masters among us, stepped forward and described my vision to Windu and Yoda, who also appeared in the meantime. His legs were a lot shorter and only arrived now... Then he asked what to do. 

We have been told to stay out of trouble and wait inside the temple. Only if the temple is attacked, in the worst-case outcome, were we allowed to take part in the defense! We have also been told that the younglings who weren’t capable of defending themselves were led by a few knights to the underground storage rooms. Ones that were only opened after the last attack on the temple. They were created with evacuation purposes leading to hidden places outside of the temple, but many of them were out of commission, functioning as mere storage rooms for so long that they needed heavy repairs.

The time that went by since the last attack was only enough to clear and reinforce a few of those secret corridors. However, it was enough to escape the temple and search for refuge outside. We are not going to be trapped inside of our temple once again.

A very annoying voice seemed to resurface from its short exile.

Since when did you start to believe that you actually belonged to this order of psionic entities? They only intend to use you. I would know since we are similar in this regard.

No, you are back again... Oh wait... are you scolding or praising them right now?

It is praiseworthy of them to realize one of my children’s endless potential. However, they are greatly misguided if they believe that their meager efforts can control my zerg.

Are you saying that I am out of control?

Yes! Even my extremely sophisticated mind control only had so little effect on you. Their much weaker attempts at making you feel favorable towards them are nothing more than a desperate attempt.

I don’t even know what you are talking about…

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