A Dark Light
A Star Wars Story
By: Ghost-girl-writes
Chapter 1: A boy in Wayland
As the mid-morning sun slowly reached it's highest point in the sky, a soft sigh came from behind an elderly man dressed in a dull red tunic with battered brown belts strapping it to his body. The older male had greying brown hair and a beard that grew out a few inches from his face. As the man continued walking down the forest path he looked up to see the market place not too far ahead. The man felt for his pack that was on his back a bit, making sure that everything he needed was in there as the two males grew closer and closer to the market.
The street music was what the two travelers heard first, then came the light chattering of people of all ages as they reached the outer rim of the market place. As the other male slid the pack from his shoulder he turned to look at the shorter male that had been trailing behind him ever so slightly. "You best not act up again boy, you hear me?" He asked the shorter male.
The older male's companion nodded his head, though it was hard to tell with the large tattered up cloak that covered most of his body. The article of clothing nearly swallowed the boy whole at it's size and the robe's sleeves stopped a few inches after his fingers. "None of that galavanting and drawing attention to yourself like last time. Unless you want another whipping." He told the boy as he started walking up towards one of the many vendors.
"No, Master Ja'har." The boy said softly as he stayed a few feet back as his master barter with the man running the vendor.
He watched as Master Ja'har took out a few items from the pack and traded the man, receiving a rather large sack of coins in return. After a few more moments of bantering between the two men, the older male came back and untied the pouch of coins, giving it a good shake, and letting the coins clink together for a moment. The younger male then watched his master dip his hand into the pouch and dropped a few coins into the young male's hands. It was like this every time they came to a place like this. His master would sell something for a high price, even though the young boy knew it was wrong. Mainly because the things his master sold to the vendors were fakes. He tried explaining, and even pleaded for his master to stop his tricking, but received a rather harsh punishment after that.
Since then, the younger male never said a word about his master's doing, too fearful of what the other may do to him if he went against his words. "Good," the older man said, taking a look at the shorter male and scrunching up his face as he looked at him, "and make sure to keep that hood of yours down." He said in a bitter tone, using his free hand to yank the younger male's hood down further than it already was.
"Yes Master Ja'har." The young boy said and quickly slipped the coins into the inside pocket of his cloak.
After giving the taller man a short bow, he left his sight, making sure his hood was down as he walked along the rows and rows of vendors and people. He knew that his master did not take a liking to him, and his eyes more specifically. When he had been born, Nero, had very pale eyes. At first, his former caretaker had told him that when his mother birthed him, he had the bluest eye they had ever seen before. But just after a day or two after being born, his eyes started growing paler and paler. Afraid that he had become sick, his former caretaker took him to a medical personnel, who told his caretaker that there was nothing wrong with the child.
A week or so after he was born, Nero's eyes were practically all white, saved from the faint hints of blue when one looked very closely. On top of his pale eyes, his hair was an even paler shade of blonde, his skin did not fare much different either.
As Nero wandered the streets for a while he looked into his cloak's inside pocket where he had stored the coins. He was never given many, just enough for a meal and maybe even a new article of clothing if his master was feeling pleasant. Though, Nero would never want to get rid of the old, worn out cloak, since it was the only thing he had left to remind of his parents.
As the sun moved across the blue sky, Nero found himself in a small tavern where music played softly in the background by a band with various different instruments. He eventually found his way toward the large, circle table that was the bar and moved forward when a human moved out of the way. The male looked around until a server asked him what he wanted. Nero ordered a small Rummy Tonic and a bowl of something warm. The server then excused himself to go make his order.
Nero sat quietly on the chair as he waited, spinning one of his silver coins on the counter to bypass his time. He did just as his master had told him to do and drew little attention to himself, periodically making sure that his hood covered most of his face and didn't look up often. After waiting a while, and starting to hear the rumbles of his stomach start to grow louder, the same server came back over and handed him his things. He thanked him softly and handed over five silver coins.
When the server left, the young blonde looked down at his food and smiled softly. It was rather nice when his master and him found a place such as this to stop and spend a night, rather than sleeping out in the woods or near the base of the many mountain ranges that were scattered across the planet of Wayland. It was a nice treat to have something warm in his belly, rather than eating discussing food that his master forced him to eat while they traveled.
The young apprentice, dug into the warm broth of his soup and ate as if he hadn't eaten in three months. The warm liquid heated him up in the most pleasant of ways and sighed after finishing most of it. Nero then went to drinking his drink, closing his eyes at the refreshing taste of the tonic washed away the taste of the broth and replaced it with an exhilarating one instead. He ran his tongue over his bottom lip and started to move to get up when he heard a small comtion towards the back of the tavern. He looked up to see a rather large man, man-handling a woman, as the woman tried to pry the other's hands off of her.
On instinct, Nero's hand reached for his belt, feeling the handle of his lightsaber as he stared across the room but after a moment placed his hand back over on the counter, remembering that he had told his master that he wouldn't cause or draw any attention to himself. Instead, he did something that was less attention grabbing.
The pale eyed male reached out for the force, slowly feeling it around him, like one could feel the wind on their bare skin. His master would beat him for doing something as this, but Nero could not stand people getting hurt. He hated it more than anything. As he felt out for the force, his eye zeroed in on the male, waiting for him to make eye contact with him. It didn't take long of the other feel his eyes on him and when he did Nero whispered softly under his breath.
The man who had been groping the woman suddenly stopped his acting, much to the surprise of the woman. Nero heard the faint apology and watched silently as he stood up and walked out of the tavern. It didn't take the woman long to notice this was a chance and watched her leave through what looked like a back door. He waited a few moments longer before getting up from his seat and leaving the tavern to wander back out into the streets.
A few hours had passed and the sun looked like it was about to start setting in the sky. Master Ja'har had always told him to meet with him on the opposite end of town when they were done doing whatever it was they wanted to do in the market place. As Nero grew closer towards the opposite edge of the large open market place, he felt around for his coins. He had three silver coins left, which couldn't really buy him much. The pale blonde male looked around as he saw a few food stands selling various foods and sweets. Just as he was about to go over and get a treat for himself he felt something behind him.
Nero turned around quickly to see who it was, only to be met with the unbusied street behind him. He stared for a moment before turning back around to go over to the stand. However, the watchful feeling came back and once again, Nero turned around, his eyes narrowing trying to find who was watching him. Though, he couldn't blame anyone if they were staring at him because of his pale features, but he had made sure to keep his head down as well as his hood while he was wandering around so no one could have truly seen him.
He felt a strange sensation in the force, as if someone had plucked a giant string of an instrument, but then stopped it. Nero turned back towards the stand, and instead of buying something for himself, he handed his coins to a young girl who was eyeing one of the sweets hungrily, and started walking again, his pace quicken.
By the time he reached the edge of the market place, he was surprised by what he saw waiting there. His master was sitting on a tiny speeder, and another, much more banged up looking one was hovering beside him, the seat empty. Nero wandered over to his master before he was snapped at for taking too long and to get on the speeder. He wasted no time and hopped on it. It took the smaller male a minute to get the hang of the controls but eventually got it and sped off, trailing behind his master as usual.
Nero had been in Master Ja'har care now for almost ten years, the longest he's ever been with a caretaker. Though Master Ja'har wasn't really a caretaker, he was harsh, unforgiving, sneaky, and greedy. Yet, still to this day he didn't really know why the older man bought him off of his last caretaker. Yes, Nero knew that he could do things the other children couldn't do like, jump higher, run faster, and knew so many things that no one has ever said before in front of the child that many were baffled as to how he knew such things. However, when the unfaithful day came, the day that Nero discovered that he was even more different than he thought he was, was when he grew so angry at one of the children for hitting him constantly, that without really knowing what he was doing, the child was suddenly floating in mid-air, gasping for breath. The young boy had remembered the beating that night, it was one of the worst he ever had. Then, the next day, on his eighth birthday, he was sold to Master Ja'har and was told that the man would help him learn to control his powers.
It was a load of rubbish.
Master Ja'har was a strong man, one who was force sensitive. Nero already had a lightsaber, one that his father before him had used and given to his mother to give to him. After his mother's untimely death however, he was given the weapon when he was sold off to Master Ja'har. Now, at the young age of eighteen, he has yet to truly learn anything about the force or how to master his emotions. The only thing that Ja'har had taught the young male was not to disobey him, and to keep his mouth shut when he was being punished. He never liked being attached to the male and had begged him time and time again to let him go off on his own, that he didn't profit from him since they never stayed in one place for long. But whenever he asked why he didn't let him go, he was always met with the same answer of, "This'll be worth something in the long run. Now stop nagging me and keep walking." Always the same, and whenever he kept pressing the subject, he was then normally answered with a harsh slap to the face.
However, now with the use of the speeder, Nero might just get his wish. He kept his mouth shut for a long time, and didn't say anything until the last of the sun's rays bleed in between the thick forest around them. "Why speeders? Why now?" Nero asked as it looked like his master was starting to slow down a bit.
"What I do is none of your concern." He snapped at him, looking slightly over his shoulder at the young male as they locked eyes.
His eyes were a clouded hues of browns as the sunlight hit them. "It is my concern when it involves me." Nero told him as he looked away from him and turned his eyes back on to the overgrown path ahead of him.
"How many times do I have to tell you not to question your master?" He asked.
"If you would just answer my questions the first time and not dance around all of them, I wouldn't have to question everything that you make us do." Nero said to him, his grip slightly tightening around the handles of the speeder.
"The answer will come to you soon enough boy, and I'll be rolling in wealth." He said as he eventually slowed the speeder to a stop.
Nero looked almost shocked at his master as he dismounted the speeder and got the pack of things from the back of the vehicle and started to untie it. He didn't know what that really meant for him, though he wouldn't be so shocked if it meant that he was going to sell him off, and he just got the speeders as a quicker way to get to the dealer. Though, he guessed nothing was worse than having to spend more time with the lousy excuse of a master.
Once they sent up their makeshift camp, Nero went to go fetch some fallen branches to make a fire to keep them warm that night. He took longer than he needed to gather the pieces of bark and wood, the young blond simply wanted time away from his master, even though he knew he shouldn't feel like this. Nero should want to be by his master's side all the time so that he could learn how to control and use his powers, and yet here he was, knowing barely anything more than what he knew the day he was sold off into this twisted, deformed training to become a Jedi.
Though he knew it was never going to happen, not while he was still tied to Master Ja'har. He had read in an old book while they were traveling, some of the ways of a Jedi knight, and from what he knew, Master Ja'har was a very, very poor master and practically knew nothing, and yet he still showed powers of the force in simpler things. Nero felt like he was stuck between a rock and a hard place, but as he started walking back, he eyed the speeder that rested silently next to their sleeping bags. All he had to do was wait for his master to fall into a deep sleep and he could just leave and never come back.
It wasn't long for Master Ja'har to fall into a drunken sleep. With all the money that he got from selling all those fake and forged items, he got himself a few bottles of some heavy drinks and nearly downed them all himself. Now it was just a waiting game for Nero, and he had waited a very long time to go off on his own and finally be free, a few more minutes would be a breeze. When time continued to move forward, Nero grabbed one of the old packs and started to fill it with food and gear he could use or sell along his way so that he could put as much distance as he could between them.
As he filled up a fair share of goods, he stopped as he watched the elderly man roll in his sleeping bag before muttering some slurred words before falling silent once again. He then walked over to the speeder and quickly fastened some straps to the pack so that it wouldn't fall off and turned it on. It gave a small sputter before humming softly as it hovered in the air. He gave his resting master one last look, to make sure he hadn't waken, before slowly pushing the speeder as quietly as he could away from the makeshift camping site. Once Nero was far enough away, he hopped on the speeder and took off into the night and didn't look back.
The pale eyed force wielder continued to ride the speeder for a while before he rested for a moment and decided to take a short nap, assured that he put enough distance between him and where his master was for now. He climbed off the speeder and used his pack as a pillow and slowly rested his head against it.
However, before he could settle into a comfortable, short sleep, he suddenly felt the force around him stir. It was enough for him to sit up and look around, and again feel as if something was tugging at a string, only this time with more vigor and power. The power behind it almost scared him but instead he stood up, brushing the moist mud off of his cloak and slung his pack back onto the speeder and hopped back on it. He revved the engine of the small, narrow speeder before he took off in the direction he could sense the pulling from.
It was a while before he saw anything and for a few fleeting moments thought it was just his tired mind playing tricks on him before he saw it off in the distance. It was hard to see it in the thick, darkness of the forest, but he saw the faint, lights coming from it. From where he was at the moment, Nero couldn't see exactly what it was, but he did know that it looked big. The outline of the thing was ginormous, and what seemed like the top of it looked to be at least one hundred feet tall.
As he got closer he slowed the speeder down until it came to a halt. Slowly, Nero slid off the speeder, reaching with his right hand to rest it against the handle of his lightsaber. The surrounding trees that were near the thing were all torn down and smashed into a million pieces all over the forest floor. Then, as Nero finally moved from the treeline and into the big opened clearing, he finally saw what the huge thing was.
An Imperial ship.
More specifically, an Imperial Light Cruiser. Nero started at it for what seemed like forever. He wandered how no one could have found this by now and didn't say anything to anyone?
The blond looked around to see if anyone was in sight. It was just him, and yet he still felt the pulling sensation of the force, much stronger now, wanting to pull him towards the crashed ship. As he got closer, he could see the emblem of the Galactic Empire on the back of the ship where the two hangar doors were blown open. Again, Nero looked around as he entered the abandon ship, slowly looking around. The blond noticed the holes of various sizes littering the top of the ship, letting some of the moon light into the open room. Exposed wires and rubble were all over the place, but from what he could sense, that was it, no other lifeforms were in the ship, and yet he still felt the pull of the force deeper into the ship.
The pale eyed male didn't know if he should go any further in, but dismissed the thought when he was sure that nothing could be inside the old, broken ship. He walked further into the ship's hull, and as he did so, slipped his lightsaber from his belt but didn't press the button that would light the crystal inside of it.
He kept walking, being mindful of the rubble that was scattered around the floor. He kept moving to where he felt the force pulling him and suddenly felt like his nerves were running wild, so much so that he felt his heart rate spike and even started to feel the cold sweat against his forehead. Though, he kept moving forward until he finally entered the command station of the ship. Ever so slowly he stepped inside and wandered around. Nero could see the miles of forest that jutted out in every direction from the broken glass panels that lined the huge section of the ship. Nero walked slower to the huge line of control panels so that he could look out of the shattered windows and up into the night's sky.
'I wonder if anybody else knows that this is here?' He thought to himself.
As soon as he thought that, he turned around as he heard a creaking sound and then something falling off in the distance inside the ship. Though, he wasn't distracted for long when he suddenly felt the force give one last tug forward. Nero spun around and suddenly the urge to look back up at the sky filled him and leaned forward on the control panel. 'It's so strange.' He thought, 'I don't see any bodies...maybe they all got off?' He pondered for a few moments, and barely noticed that the force had suddenly settled itself, like a calming river.
That was when Nero stepped back from the control panel and felt the hilt of his lightsaber jolt something on the panel. Then, all the button from the panel started lighting up on their own. The sudden event shocked Nero and stumbled backwards, feeling his hood slip from his head as he caught himself on one of the other panel control boards behind him. He quickly straighten himself out as he stared at the controls lighting up.
He had no clue what to do at this point and quickly looked around for an exit, not wanting to get caught or possibly have someone see the lights turning on, especially his master. As Nero turned around to leave the control room he heard clanking coming down from the hall that he had walked through to get to the control room. He froze as he heard the mechanical sounds of footsteps drawing closer and closer to the room and finally saw the source of the noise. A wrecked and half missing Super Battle Droid entered the control room. It's hand locked out in front of him, pointing the gun that was attached to his wrist at Nero.
Just before the droid could fire a lethal shot at Nero, his lightsaber came to life, flashing a red glare across the room as he blocked the shot and quickly sliced the droid in half, leaving it in a twitching mess on the floor.
With his heart racing in his chest now, he looked around to possibly exit through one of the broken windows, just in case more old droids were still in the place, but instead of finding a window in front of him, Nero found a hologram instead. He froze in his spot and felt his throat try and swallow around the lump that has slowly started growing in the back of his throat. He could see that the hologram was of a man, sitting behind a control panel somewhere that was not this ship.
"Hello? Is anyone there?" He heard the scrambled voice of the man, who Nero could see was dressed in some sort of uniform.
The pale eyed male didn't say anything and watched as someone came up behind him and looked to be staring right at him. "What's wrong over here?" The male that had came over asked him.
"I don't know, I got a distress signal from...this isn't right. Something must be wrong with the programming." The male from before said.
"What's wrong with the programming?" The second man asked.
"It says I'm getting a distress signal from an Imperial cruise ship." The man and he looked to be doing something with all the buttons and switches on the panel in front of him.
"I'm going to try and access the video control." He said and as he said that, the hologram twitched and spurted a bit before becoming clear again.
As it did so, he saw the two men staring yet again, and this time, Nero knew it was at him. He had been so shocked by what was going on that he hadn't been thinking. "Holy shit, it's a-" Nero swung his lightsaber above his head and brought it down on the transmitter, cutting off the signal.
In a panic, Nero quickly fled the ship as fast as he possibly could and quickly got back on his speeder. He revved the engine once and rode off as fast as the speeder could go back into the woods, and away from the ship. Nero knew that there was a town that they had stopped at not too long along, and with the help of the speeder he could get their before morning and hide there for a while.
Morning came all too soon to the young male. The sun peaked out from behind the trees and leaves as he rolled on his side and propped himself up on his elbow, letting his body slowly wake up.
Nero had driven all night all and finally had to stop before he ended up crashing into a tree he was so exhausted. After a moment to get his bearings of everything he sat up and reach for his pack to grab a half filled canteen of water. The young blond swallowed a few mouthfuls before getting up and brushing himself off of the dirt. Nero had settled himself a few yards away from the main road that was taken from town to town and from the looks of it, he was rather close to it. After he broke off a piece of some sweet bread that he had taken from Master Ja'har, well ex-master now, he piled his things back on the speeder and started it up. He headed towards the main road, which was paved by flatten out mud and dirt and turned the speeder northwards and rode off that way.
It took less than an hour to reach the town and as he did so, parked his speeder outside of a tavern where others had parked there. He didn't have any money, but some of the things that he took from Ja'har could be sold, but for now he wanted to simply walk around and clear his head as to what he had just done. Escaped from the man that has done nothing but caused him suffering for more than ten years, rode off into the woods to find an Imperial ship, kill a droid, and made contact with...with the First Order. Nero hadn't realized it last night, but as he started to settle in for the night he had realized that he had seen those uniforms before when he had traveled with Ja'har to a ship that would take them and others to another planet that his master didn't want to tell him. When they were getting ready to board the ship, his master pulled him out of line and saw those men, along with two stormtroopers walking up and down the lines. His master had told Nero that he had changed his mind and instead wanted to explore Wayland more and now he was here.
He felt a chill run up and down his spine at the thought of the getting on the First Order's radar. Granted, he knew that they were more focused on taking out the Rebellion and such, but if they caught wind of a Jedi, hell he wasn't a true Jedi, not with his lack of experience, along with the lack of an actual master to teach him the ways, but still, he could be viewed as a threat.
Nero hoped that the transmit that had been sent had been forgotten, or maybe passed on as a prank of some sorts. He also hoped that the audio and video quality was low because of the damage the ship had took. 'Yeah, maybe they just saw a bunch of blurry lines and thought it was a ghost or something.' Nero tried to rationalize his thoughts, even if it was to just simply calm him down.
After a while of walking around and stopping to look at some of the merchandise that was being sold, the young, cloaked male went back to his speeder and got a few items from his bag that he could sell to someone. He got a few random parts that may be part of an older model of a speeder and went to go look for a mechanic to sell them too, and hopefully get a good price for them.
It took a while of looking around, but he eventually found a used parts store. He stepped inside, and looked to see a Besalisk talking to a Rodian, who seem to be bantering over an engine that sat in between them. Nero waited towards the front of the dusty shop for the two of them to finish whatever bargain was going on. Eventually the Rodian, snatched the small coin pouch the Besalisk was waving at him and stormed passed Nero and out of the shop.
"Something I can help you with?" He said as he walked over to him.
He was a tall humanoid, four big arms coming out of his side and he wore an apron that may have once been a clean shade of white, was now muddled with different shades of grease and oils. "Yes, I'm looking to sell these parts." He told him and gestures to the three parts he had carried in his hands.
e watched as the humanoid picked up each part and looked it over carefully. Nero didn't know what to make of the other creatures soft humming and looking back and forth. He hoped the parts together were at least good enough for a meal or two, knowing that he couldn't live off water and sweet bread forever.
After much looking, the Besalisk finally handed the parts back to Nero. "Those two are worth ten coins each, and that fuse box I'll take it from ya for twenty." He said, to which Nero quickly said, "Deal." and with that left with forty coins in his pocket.
He quickly got a meal from the tavern and got back on his speeder to try and find a place to stay for the night. Nero found an inn a few streets over who were very happy to have a customer. Once he settled in and glad to have an actual bed to rest in, Nero fell asleep quickly and peacefully.
General Hux couldn't believe what one of the control operators was showing him. The image quality was atrocious and the sound was muffled but he could still see what exactly was going on in the transmission. After rewatching it for a few minutes he left his spot at the control center and exited the room to find the one person who knew how to handle this.
It didn't take the General long until he found Kylo Ren, in the room that he stored the mask of the dead Darth Vader. He slowly let the door open with a soft hiss, and saw the black cladded man staring at the ruined mask from behind his own.
"What is it?" He asked, voice muffled and mechanic from the mask.
General Hux held out the touch screen pad for the other to take, "You need to see this." He told him as the General watched the other take the device from him and pressed down on the screen, seeing the transmission appear on screen.
The transmission was shades of dull blue and grey, signaling the other that this message might have been very old. When it actually started to play, both men watched as the blue form of a small man's back appeared to them. The faint clanking sound in the background could be heard, and in the faint corner of the screen, the leg of a droid was shown. It seemed as if Kylo was about to turn it off, bored with it, when the unmistakable sound of a lightsaber flashing could be heard and seen on video. He watched as the male sliced the droid in half with one quick motion of his weapon.
He watched as the man slowly turned around to face the transmitter, a look of shock on his blurred face. Kylo could heard the conversation two of their men were having as they were receiving the signal. Then, he watched as the small swung the lightsaber, cutting off the message and the screen turned to static. After a moment, Kylo replayed the video and paused it on the part of the young male's shocked face.
"Where did this message come from?" Kylo asked, standing up to his full height.
"From an old, forgotten Imperial ship that seemed to have crashed landed on the planet of Wayland towards the outer rim." General Hux said as he took back the device.
"Send out a small troops to scout the area and report back to me what they find." He said, as he walked pass General Hux.
"And if they find the Jedi?" Hux asked him as he walked behind him.
"Bring him to me, alive."
"Yes, sir."
A/N: Hello everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter of A Dark Light! I'm a big Star Wars fan and i wanted to share this with everyone else! Hopefully you enjoyed it and i would love feedback about it! (Good or bad) And also i wanted to let everyone know, who are following my other stories, they have not been abandon! I'm in my senior year of high school so free time is hard to come by, but hopefully I'll have some time on my hand once spring break and summer comes around! Thank you all who have read my stories and have reviewed them and as always, happy writing!
