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I do NOT own any characters or trademarks from Star Wars, Disney or Lucasfilm. I am in NO way affiliated with any of these parties.

JEDI

Chapter One

Holding her hands firmly to her ears she squeezed her eyes closed and screamed. The guttural cry burst from her throat like a demon unleashed, forcing tears from her eyes as it echoed around her. As the desperation subsided she breathed deeply and dared herself to look at the devastation around her. Even in the half-light she could see the lifeless bodies of her family strewn across the room, carelessly discarded like broken toys. Blood replaced the ornate murals her mother had painstakingly painted on the walls. The large cooking pot had fallen from its place above the central fire, shattering as it had hit the rocks surrounding the flames. The sight of her little brother crumpled in the corner still holding his wooden Starfighter that Father had made brought her to her knees. His face was pale even in the light of the fire. Crawling to him she pulled him up to her chest, weeping heavily. His eyes were empty. Where green had shone brightly before there was no longer any life. Pulling his little body closer to her chest she rocked back and forth willing the Universe to trade her places with him. Tears rolled down her face falling onto him leaving small pools in his hair as her heart broke into a thousand pieces.

A firm hand on her shoulder roused her from her memories and she suddenly became aware that all eyes were on her. All eyes with the exception of the Jedi Master speaking. He continued to speak about the Kyber Crystals embedded in the rock before them. Lifting his palm from her shoulder he moved away urging the other students to follow him. Lowering her head to avoid the curious stares of her peers she followed slowly. She had seen and handled Kyber Crystals before but today was different. Today she was expected to find one that 'spoke' to her and use it to build her own functioning lightsaber. She had dreaded this day. So many times she had feared coming here to find her crystal. Before getting to this point they had all been taught about how powerful the crystals were and how they were attuned to The Force. This made her uneasy. What if she made a mistake? What if she got it wrong?

She had spent years watching other students surpass her and move on to become gifted apprentices but she had stayed behind. She hadn't wanted to move on from the basics. With each new class had come more gifted Force Wielders. They were gifted and eager, she was not. She was afraid of The Force, she had witnessed what it could do. She had been brought to the academy of the New Jedi Order from another system after her village was decimated during the civil war on her planet. She had been rescued by the Order and had lived alongside the Masters for almost 5 years now. She should have been a Knight by now as her tutors kept reminding her, but she was too inexperienced. Her fear of The Force was holding her back and she was well aware of that. Even so she followed the Master and her peers further into the cave.

As the Master came to a halt he motioned for the students to begin searching for crystals. There were plenty to collect but Alarah knew it was not that simple. Finding your crystal was slightly more complicated than just picking one from the ground. In truth you didn't choose the crystal, the crystal chose you. If a crystal 'spoke' to you you were expected to know. Previous lessons had taught her time and time again that the crystals were not mere inanimate objects. They existed in their own right and were in tune with The Force meaning that they were each unique. Allegedly they could 'speak' with one another and interact although Alarah was unsure if that was a proven fact. Never the less the need to rely on The Force to find the crystal intended for you worried her. 3 years she had managed to delay this trip but now here she was, standing in the rocky cave surrounded by glittering shards on all sides.

Daylight from the outside caught the crystals making them shine like eyes in the darkness of the cave reminding her that she was constantly under surveillance. Slowly she moved deeper into the cavern. She passed most of the group as they scrambled around chattering away to one another excitedly about which parts they were going to use for their Saber hilts. As she neared the last two students she stopped. She had never been here before, only read the salvaged journals of old Jedi, but she turned slowly to her left to face a seemingly bare rock face. Moving towards the cave wall she noted how sparse the crystals were here. She glanced at the other students busy filling their pouches with shards. Running her hand over the rocks she dislodged a seemingly large crystal and held it between her thumb and forefinger, turning it in the light. It was strangely beautiful. Not quite clear but never the less transparent. Past her fingers she saw the Master silhouetted against the mouth of the cave. He was watching her carefully. Aware the other students were collecting numerous rocks she quickly placed the stone into her pouch and began to pick at the loose stones wedged in the crevices back towards the light. The Master called for the group to wait outside the cave once they felt they were satisfied with their stones and one by one her fellow students left until there was only herself and one other in the near-darkness. She counted the stones in her pouch. 5. that was nowhere near the number her peers had been collecting in their eagerness. Even so she wanted nothing more than to get out of this cave and back to the Academy. She did not feel comfortable here and she began back towards the group.

"Are you satisfied?" the Master spoke softly.

"Yes," she nodded.

The last student ran past her and the group started back towards the Star Cruiser but she could not move. Her feet seemed to be part of the ground beneath her, as though she were literally rooted to the spot. Something wasn't right, she couldn't leave. The Master turned back towards her. His mouth uttered no words but his eyes spoke volumes. He knew why she couldn't leave. Breathing deeply she closed her eyes briefly before turning back to the sparse rock face. There wasn't much there to choose from and her eyes examined each visible crystal searching for the reason for her inability to exit the cave.

"Do not try to find it," the Master called. "Let The Force guide you."

She didn't want to let The Force guide her. She didn't trust The Force. She couldn't, she was afraid. Willing herself to move she turned back to her tutor. As she stepped towards him her boot caught on a rock and she tripped, falling to her knees in the dirt. Pain shot into her right wrist as she broke her fall with her hands. Sitting back on her heels she lifted her palms to inspect them. There, embedded in the soft flesh of her hand, was a crystal. She pulled it slowly from the wound and looked at it. It was almost flawless, and it was comfortingly warm.

The Master left and she quickly picked herself up to follow him, gripping the flawless crystal tightly.


"Line your stones in front of you,"

The other students quickly began pushing their crystal hauls around the tables before them. They were buzzing with excitement. Each individual had spent the last 4 days carefully piecing together their own Saber hilt and now it was time to place their crystals into them.

Alarah was less than enthusiastic. Since leaving Ilum she had been having the worst nightmares and the past 4 days had been hard work. She had chosen parts she liked and created what she thought was a fairly stylish hilt but looking around at the other students she was no longer so sure. They had all chosen more ornate fixtures compared to hers. Her anxiety was getting the better of her and she knew she had purposely refrained from adding adornments in the event something went wrong. She was convinced that she would make a mistake, that her crystal would be faulty in some way, that The Force had misled her.

She tipped the 6 crystals onto her desk and spread them apart. They were all fairly similar. All had the 'not quite clear' transparency with the single exception of the one she had pulled from her palm. That stone was perfectly clear. Now she had the opportunity to examine it in the light she saw there was one imperfection running along one side of it. A small vein of what appeared to be rock ran through the crystal along one of the narrower edges.

"I will show you how to remove that without damaging the Kyber itself," the Master smiled as she turned the stone in her fingers. "It is a beautiful shard."

Alarah placed the crystal back down before examining all the others. Each one was beautiful in its own way but not one of them evoked the feeling the first stone did. Closing her eyes she mixed the stones and re-examined them. Again the crystal from her wound seemed to stand out. Something about it seemed familiar. Like an old friend she hadn't seen in years or a beloved childhood memory. She watched intently as the Master instructed the group how to clean and improve their crystals. She followed the instructions slowly, gently working away at the Kyber until the small vein of rock had been cut away. The crystal was not much smaller now but was slightly concave on one side. She ran her thumb over the newly exposed surface, turning it in the light.

"If you are confident," the Master spoke to the class, "place your Kyber Crystal into the chamber of your Saber hilt and seal it. Do not ignite the Saber."

One by one the other students did as they were instructed and Alarah followed suit. This was the furthest she had ever come since beginning her training at the Praxeum. Since the attack on her village had destroyed all faith she had in The Force she had done all that she could to not progress. Regardless of being told repeatedly that she could learn to use her own sensitivity to The Force for good her past experiences with Force Wielders had destroyed her confidence. She had always been gifted, as had her younger brother. Whether it be premonitions or the ability to speak to one another without using words they had never felt threatened by their gifts. Not until the village was attacked did she fear The Force and the destruction it could bring. Not until her own gift was rendered useless did she lose faith in herself. Now here she was alone in the Universe, part of the New Jedi Order, building her own lightsaber.

She had not chosen to join the Order. Far from it. After news of the civil war on her home planet had reached the remaining Jedi they had dispatched Knights to help bring peace back to her people but they had arrived too late. The planet was devastated by war, whole villages slaughtered on both sides. Men, women and children had been murdered all in the name of The Force. The destruction of the Death Stars in nearby galaxies had shifted the balance between the Light and Dark and many people had begun to panic. Her planet had not been the only one to revolt against the seemingly dying Empire but it had been one of the few to slaughter its own people in the process. Few people had survived the war by the time the Jedi Knights had arrived and those who had were either too traumatised to keep living or were to young to understand. Alarah had fit somewhere in between. She was barely into her teens when she was rescued; all she had known was war. Traumatised, it had taken her a while to trust the Knights who found her but somehow they had convinced her to leave with them and take refuge at the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4.

In her time here she had seen the numbers of Jedi-in-training grow. In the beginning there had been very few new students but slowly the numbers had doubled and doubled again. There were probably almost 50 Jedi at the base now counting the Masters, Knights and students alike. Many of the Knights were off base, elsewhere in the galaxy trying to bring some kind of peace to the people spread throughout the cosmos but a few had remained to teach the newer recruits. Until now there had been little need for the Knights to spend much time off base however recently there had been talk of a new threat to the galaxy and their numbers were slowly dropping. Small groups of Knights would leave on missions for only a couple to return. The Masters had been forced to push the recruits harder, faster. They had pushed her harder giving her no choice but to comply.

With trembling hands Alarah firmly closed the chamber in her Saber, listening for the distinctive click as the lock engaged, and placed the weapon carefully on the desk. Staring at the black and chrome hilt she waited for the Master to assess each and every Saber before replacing them before their respective creators.

"A nice weight," he remarked as he took her Saber in his hand. Turning it carefully he checked the seals and placed it back on the desk, his hand lingering for a moment. "I like the black. It's different. Distinctive."

She smiled, "Thank you Master."

"Ok," he turned back to the group, "Bring your Sabers and follow me."

He led them into the main training area, a large hangar-like room built into the rock of the mountain. It was the upper most level of the old Rebel Base and was often used for combat training.

Motioning for the group to spread out in front of him the Master began to explain the possibilities of misfiring Sabers and incompatible crystals. A list of warnings and instructions followed before one by one he instructed the training Jedi to step forward and ignite their Sabers. Although the Kyber Crystals had no colour themselves each one would channel the power of the laser into a controlled beam of coloured light. At least this was the plan. Because the crystals had 'chosen' their keepers the theory was that each one would probably burn a different colour regardless of the laser in the housing.

One by one the group ignited their new weapons. Blue, purple, blue, light green, white, blue again...The Master began to explain the differences in the colours, not that it made much difference. He told them how before the rise of The Empire Padawans would face great tests before creating their lightsabers. That their ability to pass these tests forged unique relationships between the crystals and their keepers. These relationships, amplified by The Force, had an affect on the evolution of the stones and in turn their colour. He went on to point out that with the increasing tension in the galaxy and the unexpected shift in The Force the Order had been forced to progress far quicker than in the past. There was no longer the time or opportunity for Padawans to tackle large quests and that many crystals would fracture in the chamber as a result, creating an unstable and volatile Saber. So far all but one of the lightsabers had ignited safely. The one that had failed belonged to a young Nautolan and had sparked wildly before the laser cut out.

Now it was her turn. Stepping forward Alarah tried to steady her hand as she raised her Saber in front of her. Closing her eyes briefly she took a deep breath before igniting the laser. She was sure her Saber would spark and fail like that of the Nautolan but instead she heard the distinctive kick of the laser as it hit the Kyber Crystal followed immediately by the steady hum of a stable beam. The excited chattering of her fellow students fell silent and she quickly became aware that everyone was looking at her. Opening her eyes she stood motionless staring at the uniform blade of energy buzzing before her.

"What did I do wrong?" she whispered, barely able to speak.

"Nothing," the Master reassured her, the tone of his voice betraying his words as he rounded her. Never taking his eyes from the blade he instructed the rest of the group to leave before continuing. "Come with me."