Chapter 2
Ok here is the second installment of Jaded warrior, I know I kinda rushed through the eleven years but honestly I didn't feel like writing the training. But anyway, here is the disclaimer, I do not own the star wars franchise, that would be Disney and lucasfilm.
Now enjoy my story.
3 Years later 0 BBY
I was meditating in the home Master Kenobi and I shared, when Master Kenobi came in with Luke Skywalker, the boy we had been watching over all these years. I nod to him and Master Kenobi introduced us.
"Young Luke this is Zaro Jade, and Zaro this is Luke Skywalker." He says and I offer my hand.
"Pleasure to meet you Luke." I say
"Likewise, Zaro." He says taking my hand and shaking it.
The two begin talking as I go back to my room and turn on the R-4 unit that I had been building.
"Hey R-4, we have guests, why don't you go make nice with the R-2 unit that is out there."
This is greeted with a large series of grunts and beeps.
"Hey, don't blame me, there is no need for that type of language, now get out there and be nice or I will deactivate you and turn you into a lamp stand."
Several more beeps and whistles.
"Well then I will get a lamp just to spite you then, now go out there and be nice" I say exasperatedly rubbing my head, I know I wanted a Droid with personality, but not this much personality.
As I came out I heard Luke say, "No my father didn't fight in the war, he was a navigator on a spice frigate."
"That is what your uncle told you, he didn't uphold with your father's ideals. He thought he should have just stayed here and not gotten involved."
"You fought in the Clone Wars?" Luke asks
"Yes he did, he is a Jedi knight like your father was, and like I am training to be." I say with a smile.
"I would have loved to have known him." Luke says
"He was the best star pilot in the Galaxy, and a cunning warrior, I understand that you have become quite the pilot yourself." Master Kenobi says, looking like he was remembering something fondly, " And he was a good friend, which reminds me," He says getting up and walking over to a chest we kept in the corner, and opened it taking out Anakin's lightsaber, "Your father would have wanted you to have this, when you were old enough, but your uncle wouldn't allow it, he feared you might follow old Obi wan on some damn idealistic crusade, it's your father's lightsaber."
" Now master," I say with a joking tone, "We haven't gone on any idealistic crusades in days, he can't hold us to that."
This brings chuckles to Luke and Master Kenobi, but R-4 then beeped and whistled at me again, "Of course I am joking, we haven't been on a crusade ever. Yesh, remind me to check your sarcasm detector."
Luke and Master Kenobi start talking, while R-4 beeps at me again.
"R-4, I meant remind me later, not remind me now."
He beeps and whistles at me again.
"Oh pipe down, I don't need to be specific, I will carry out my threat of turning you into a lamp."
He beeps at me again coyly.
"Huh, I said lamp stand earlier, well I like the new idea better."
A holographic image appears from the R-2 unit, of some woman of authority, she then goes on to speak, "General Kenobi, years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars, now he begs of you to help us in our struggle against the empire, I regret that I am unable to present my father's request in person, has become under attack and my mission to bring you to alderaan has failed, I have placed information vital to the survival of the rebellion into the memory systems of this R-2 unit, you must see this Droid safely delivered to my father on Alderaan. This is our most desperate hour help me Obi wan Kenobi you're my only hope."
The hologram fades and I stand up, "Final we are going to get off this rock."
Master Kenobi turns to Luke, "You must learn the ways of the force, if you are come with us to Alderaan."
"Ooo, someone else to train with exciting," I say looking at Luke.
"Alderaan, no I am not going to Alderaan have got to get home it's late I am in for it as it is." He says
I leave the room to pack what I will need, I pack some of the clothes that I had here, the Holocron, my sabers, the A-180 blaster pistol I had, let's say acquired, and the holo I had of my family.
I come out with my rucksack on my back as we are loading up into Luke's speeder.
We drive along Luke asks me, "How did you get the scar over your eye?"
I look at my master, seeing if it was ok to tell, and he shakes his head in a not right now type of way.
"Well Luke that is for me to know and you to find out at a later date, if you decide to join us." I say smiling
I am smiling, untill we see a ruined Jawa transport, the the dead Jawa's all over the place.
Luke stops the speeder and I hop out examining the area around the transport, noting the gaffe sticks, which first made me think sand people. Luke was of the same opinion and he started vocalizing this. I examined the ground and blast marks closer, seeing side by side tracks, and the hits were to precise to be sandpeople, only imperial Stormtroopers were so precise.
Master Kenobi told Luke of this and he then voiced my thoughts.
"Why would Imperial troops slaughter jawas?" Luke asks and I scoff
"What reason? Because they can, because they feel powerful, and because there is no one to stop them." I say angrily remembering the day they slaughtered my parents, and stole my sister.
"If they traced the robots here then they would have found out who they sold it to and that would lead them back, Home!" Luke said and raced back to his speeder
"Wait Luke, It's too dangerous." Master Kenobi says as Luke rushes away in his speeder.
"Well we couldn't have stopped him even if we tried," I tell Master Kenobi
"If he dies, It would not be good, for any of us,"
"All is as the force wills it."
"You have grown wise my young padawan, I fear now that there is nothing more for me to teach you."
I look at him confused.
"Kneel my padawan," He says
I kneel in front of him and he ignited his lightsaber
"Zaro Jade, By the right of the council, By the will of the force, I dub the jedi knight, warrior of the force, Rise Jedi Knight Jade." He says putting his blade above both my shoulders and then de ignites it.
I stand up shocked, something that I had been working for, for eleven year I had finally accomplished.
"Th-thank you master, I will not disappoint you," I say and then neither of us saying a word, we piled the jawa's bodies, then lite them in fire, returning them to the force. Luke comes back after about an hour, looking depressed. Mast- ben went over to him and consoled him. I just re-loaded the droids onto the ship.
As Luke came over to the speeder, I put my hand on his shoulder, "I know how you feel Luke, The Empire killed my parents and took my twin sister, she now is a servant of the Emperor, but you can get through this, your aunt and uncle are at peace finally, and we have an Empire to tear down."
Luke looks at me and smiles and we enter the speeder and head to mos Eisley, when we get into town i hear a noise, much like when I was younger, when I first met Ben.
"Stop." I say as Luke stops us in front of the slave markets.
"What is it?" Luke asks
"I hear the force, it is like when I first met you master" I say and his eyes widen
"You think that a force sensitive could be in there," He says nodding to the slave markets."
"Yes, I am going in, If I am not back in twenty minutes, wait a little longer, then if i am not back I am probably in trouble." I say jumping out as they park the speeder close by.
I enter the place and I immediately feel disgusted, walking through the poor souls who were chained up. I keep walking the sound getting louder and louder. I find the place i was looking for, in a cage is a human girl, about my age, with violet hair, I couldn't see her eyes, because she was unconscious, and there was a blanket covering her body.. But I knew this was who I was looking for. I called over a slaver.
"Oh good sir, you do not want this one, she is very troublesome, she killed her previous master." He tells me when I ask for her.
I smile the using mind tricks, "Well she is to troublesome to sell, you will just give her to me."
"In fact she is to troublesome to sell, I will just give her to you."
"And you will remove the slave chip inside her."
"And I will remove the slave chip inside her."
The slaver does as I say and when he goes to remove the slave chip I notice that she is very badly beaten and she has very little clothing on. After he removes the chip I pick her up bridal style and put the blanket over her again, she remains sleeping. I turn to the slaver, "You want to go home and rethink your life."
"I want to go home and rethink my life." The man says and leaves
I walk out of the market carrying the girl to the speeder, when Luke and Ben saw they had appalled looks on their faces.
She will be ok, I think, but the psychological damage will be severe, but when she wakes up, we need to make her feel safe, and let her know that she belongs to no one, and that we are going to take her with us to help her." I say to them as we start moving again. As we start moving the girl starts to come around. By the time she wakes up fully we arrive at a cantina and I motion for Luke and Ben to leave, she starts thrashing about as they leave,
"Woah, woah, easy there I aren't going to hurt you I got you out of there."
The girl turns her brown eyes to me, "Yeah saved me so that you could be the one who owns me."
"No, you are free, I freed you and got you out of that gundark nest," I say putting my hands up as her eyes turn to disbelief, "I am not someone who would partake in that abhorrent practice."
"Really and why should I believe you," She asks me, but I could hear a hopeful note to her voice
"Because," I look around to see if anyone is nearby, then I lower my voice, "I am a Jedi"
He face turns incredulous, "Nice try slimo, but the Jedi are all dead."
"Not all of us," I say, showing her my lightsabers, "Now let us get you properly clothed, I don't think you will want to be in those rags any longer than you have to."
"I guess you are right, what is your name?" She asks me looking distrustful still
"Zaro Jade, and yours my lady," I ask offering my hand to her
"Dianna Caldav," She say taking my offered hand.
I take her to a clothing market where she picks out some clothes that would fit her. I take her to some changing rooms and she goes in, then comes out Looking slightly better.
"If you come with me, I can teach you to become a jedi," I say leading her back to the speeder.
"A jedi… Me… are you joking?" She ask me in disbelief
"Yes you, you have strength in the force, like me."
We arrive back at the speeder and I sit on the hood, "The force is an energy field that surrounds all living beings, it binds us, penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together."
"So, jedi could use this force, to grab things?" She asks looking, scared
"Well yes, it could be used to do that, why do you ask?"
"I think I have used the force before, to kill someone."
"Oh, well, we just have to make sure you don't do it again, I am sure you didn't mean to, If you come with me, I could show you how to better manage your emotions and control the force." I say offering my hand to her. She takes it and shakes my hand.
"So, where ya goin?" She asks me
"Alderaan, we have something for the rebellion."
"You work with the rebellion?"
"I very much doubt that they even know we are coming, but we are enemies of the Empire being Jedi and all, and any enemy of the empire is welcomed into the rebellion".
"Hopefully so, I have a planet sized grudge against the empire."
"As do I, Dia,"
"What did you just call me?
"Dia, i don't feel like saying Dianna all the time, Dia is shorter and easier."
"You call me Dia and i will kick your ass." She says with a glare
I smile as Luke and Ben come out of the Cantina, in a conversation.
Dianna tenses up beside me and I look at her and say, "It's ok, the old guy is a jedi as well, and the other is a farmboy who is force sensitive, they won't hurt you."
Ben comes over to me and Luke takes the speeder over to a lot to sell it.
"We have found a ship that suits our needs." He says to me and then looks at Dia, "Hello there, My name is Ben Kenobi, and you are?"
Dia Takes a deep breath then says, "Dianna Caldav"
"So, what docking bay do we go to after Luke sells his speeder?" I ask
"Docking bay Ninety four."
So Luke sells his speeder and we head for the docking port, R-4 complaining all the way.
"Well, I am sorry you have sand in your gears, but can i do anything about it, NNOO." I say getting annoyed
Dia laughs at this, as does Ben and Luke.
"Well If the ship we are taking is as fast as the pilot is boasting, then we are in luck."
We turn a corner and see a wookiee, who leads us to this really old YT-1300 freighter and luke voices my exact thoughts.
"What a piece of junk!"
"Exactly my thoughts" I say despairingly
"That is an Insult to junk." Dia says looking mildly disgusted
A human man, probably the pilot looks rather offended, "She'll make point five past lightspeed, she may not look like much, but she has got it where it counts kids I have made a lot of special modifications myself. So we are a little rushed we can all just head aboard and we will be right on our way."
I get on the ship, Dia following right after me, with Luke trailing and Ben and the droid right behind him. Just as we were settling in we hear blaster fire, and see our pilot run into the ship, "Chewie get us out of here," he yells
Threepio is sitting at a table saying, " Oh, my I forgot how much I hate space travel."
We take off and the ride gets bumpy, I try to relax in the seat I was in, and failed rather miserably. Luke and Ben head to the cockpit leaving the droids and Dia for me to handle. The ship shakes as we were hit with laserfire.
R-4 Beeps frantically in the corner
"No we are not going to die," I say strapping myself into a chair.
Dia straps into the chair next to me, "You don't seem very convinced about that."
"Of course I am convinced, The Empire isn't going to destroy us, that will capture us, then take us prisoner. So I am quite sure we will not die." I say holding onto the arms of my seat.
Luke and Ben rush back and strap themselves in, as soon as they sit and start strapping in the ship makes the jump to lightspeed.
"See, I told you that we would be fine." I say as we all unlatch from our positions.
"Luke come over here, we are going to work on your lightsaber skills," Ben says with a devilish grin.
"Dang it, that is our only training remote," I say giving him a pointed look
He smiles at me and shrugs, then I turn to Dia, "Well, since he is teaching him that, I will be teaching you meditation, which is helpful for stress and emotional stability." I say kneeling on the ground, and dia follows and copies my position, "Close your eyes, and breath, let go of the present and let your mind wander." I say going into my meditation, "Can you feel it, the light, feel if surround you, let it free you from all distress," I say and for several minutes I am very calm but then in the force i felt millions of voices cry out in terror, and then all was silent, and then the darkness came, like a loan candle blown out causing a room to fall into darkness. This jerks me out of the meditation, I lurch forward breathing heavily, Dia is doing the same thing, I look over to Ben, and he looks like he had been sucker punched.
Luke looks at all of us, "What is it, what is wrong."
"I felt a great disturbance in the force, as if millions of voices cried out in terror, the were suddenly silenced, I fear something terrible has happened." Ben says
"I felt it too," I say getting up
"As did I," Dia says
Well Dia, when we finally get you a lightsaber, you will need to choose a form that suit you the best." I say, trying to change the subject, taking out the holocron, to which both luke and Dia take an interest to.
"What is that?" Luke asks
"This is a holocron, it is a store of jedi knowledge, this one contains quite a lot of information, since apparently Ben here hooked it up to the jedi archives and put all the data into the holocron." I say opening it with the force and moving it to lightsaber forms. The two read in fascination at the different forms as I went to Ben
"I have read the histories, and the only thing that describes exactly what we just felt was when there was a planet killer, the Empire must have one." I say in a whisper
"Or it could have been an asteroid impacting on a planet," He replies unconvincingly
Just then our pilot walks in and says, "Well you can forget your trouble with those imperial slugs, I told you we would out run them, Hi Han solo." He says extending his hand.
"Zaro Jade, how are you."
"Well we should be at alderaan in 0200 hours so,"
I hear a roar from the wookie as I realize that the wookiee first mate, R-4, R-2, and threepio are playing a game on the game table.
"It was a fair move, screaming about it won't help you," He says
Han says, "yeah, but is isn't wise to upset a wookiee."
"But, sir nobody worries about upsetting a droid."
"That's because droids don't tear people's arms out of their sockets when they lose, wookiees have been known to do that."
"I see your point sir, you two I suggest a different strategy, let the wookiee win."
The two astromechs almost kill each other to get the the socket first, which causes me to laugh. Luke got bored of reading and went back to his exercises. As Ben began to teach him, I walk over and find Dia studying Makshi.
"So you wish to use form two Dia."
"Well form two sounds great, i would like to combine it with form four." She says looking at me
"Well I think we can do that," I say unclipping one of my sabers, "Here you can use one of mine until you can get your own."
I hand her the saber and we walk to another less crowded part of the ship, and I begin teaching her the forms for Makashi and ataru, and explaining the weaknesses and strengths of each form.
"What forms to you use?" She asks me
"Me, well I use the Interesting mix of Juyo and Soresu, All offence and all defence,"I say smiling
"How does that even work?"
"Very carefully," I say as Han comes in and says, "We're coming up on Alderaan."
"Well we are about to join the ranks of the rebellion." I say to her as she hand me back my saber.
"We'll get you a saber soon, but for now keep mine," I say handing it back to her
She smiles then Clips the saber onto her belt. Suddenly the ship is hit by something, and we rush to the cockpit, meeting everyone but the droids there.
"What's going on?" Luke asks
"Well our position is correct, except no Alderaan," Han says
"What do you mean where is it?' Dia asks
"That is what I am trying to tell ya kids it isn't there, totally blown away."
"It was destroyed, by the Empire, Kriff, I hate being right." I say rubbing my forehead
"The entire star fleet couldn't destroy the planet, it would take thousands of ships with more firepower than I have seen."
The scanner starts beeping,
"There is another ship coming in," Han says
"Maybe they know what happened," Dia says as luke opened his mouth to speak.
"Its an Imperial Fighter." Ben says
To blasts hit outside the cockpit
"They followed us!" Luke says panicked
"No It's a short range fighter." Ben says
"There aren't any bases around here, where did it come from,' Han says irritably
"He sure is leaving in a hurry, If they Identify us we are in big trouble." Luke says
"Not if I can help it, Chewie jam Its transmissions," Han says flipping a couple switches
"It be just as well to let it go, It is too far out of range," Ben tells him.
"Not for long,"
"A fighter that size couldn't get this deep into space on its own." I say puzzled
"Maybe it was part of a convoy and was left behind." Dia says curiously
"Well he ain't gonna be around long enough to tell anyone about us."
"Look he is heading for that small moon." Luke says pointing
"That's no moon," I start
"It's a space station," Ben finishes
"It's too big to be a space station,' Han says
"I hate being right," I say smaking my head against the wall, because we were right, and as we got closer, the giant space station caught us in a tractor beam.
"Well they won't get us without a fight," I say pulling out my saber and blaster
"I second that kid." Han says
"We can't win, but there are alternatives to fighting," Ben says