Star Wars

The Vision Trilogy


Episode I: Trapped


Chapter 2: Survival


As I woke up, I already knew I was injured. It was light and distant at first, but then the pain hit me with all the subtlety of an angry mynock. I groaned in pain for a moment before opening my eyes. My head was sitting in a small pool of my own blood, no doubt from smacking my head into the viewport so hard.

I also noticed it was dark outside, when we had crashed it had been bright. Of course, I knew I didn't know the length of the cycles of day and night on this world, but I guessed at least a few hours had passed. Mostly because I could tell I had been in a Jedi Healing Trance for a while, as the wound in my head was mostly gone.

After a while of practicing that technique, I supposed you got into the habit of using it whenever you suffered major injuries. At least, that was what other Jedi told me. I flexed my body seeking further injuries, it appeared I was mostly intact, but my right arm was broken and I still felt a little dizzy. I tried to reach out with my senses, but found that my dizziness prevented me from extending my senses to the passengers, so I didn't know if they were alright.

Suddenly though, I had a huge feeling of danger. My senses may not have been straight, but I knew then and there that if I didn't move quickly, I would die. Acting completely on instinct, I grabbed my lightsaber in my left hand and ignited it before driving it into the viewport. I made a circle as fast as I could then force pushed the piece of transparisteel out and made to climb through it.

I hadn't been fast enough though, and suddenly there was an enormous explosion from behind me. Suddenly, all I could feel was heat and pressure. I tried to shield myself with the force, but the blast was so strong that in my weakened state this did almost nothing. I was thrown forward more than a hundred standard units, of course, it actually felt like I was tossed a few parsecs into the next star system over… but that was of course not what happened.

Anyways, I felt long tendrils of pain as pieces of metal and shattered transparisteel cut my skin. I also felt my back burn as my robes were set on fire and felt small pieces of metal pierce my robes and hit me like the speeding projectiles they were. But the worst part was probably when a large triangular piece of metal gored my left leg.

At that point, I blacked out again. Luckily, this time, it only lasted a few minutes. I knew this because when I woke up I still felt the pain from every injury I was suffering from. I used the force to block out the pain, and pushed myself up on my left arm so I could look behind me. The shuttle had blown up. Smoke weaved upwards into the sky from the burning wreck.

I didn't even have to extend my senses to feel it… the echoes associated with the passing of many beings into the force. I recalled a quote then… a statement made by the legendary Obi-Wan Kenobi.

"I felt a great disturbance in the force, as if a million voices called out at once and were suddenly silenced."

I knew this was no comparison to what had happened to the planet of Alderaan. But I don't think I really understood the gravity of the statement until that moment. I had been around death before as a Jedi Knight… but never before had I experienced death on this scale. Hundreds of beings had been aboard that shuttle, and I felt a disturbance that marked their passing.

As if hundreds of voices had called out and were suddenly silenced.

Still, I shook this off and focused. There was nothing I could do for them now, and I needed to take care of myself. I knew that I couldn't move as long as this piece of metal was in my leg so I locked my eyes on it and extended myself in the force.

With a small exertion, the piece came flying out and soared to the ground nearby. Even with the force quelling the pain somewhat, I could do nothing to stop the scream that came from what I had just done. It hurt a lot, but still I refused to be distracted. I was bleeding now and I used the force to hold the blood in so I didn't bleed out right here.

My danger sense piqued yet again, and I guessed what it was before I even decided to try and extend my senses.

It looks like they've come to clean up their mess. I thought. I didn't have time to patch up my wounds, and I was in no state to fight. I extended my senses and immediately felt the dark side and the feeling of several men and women approaching from the direction I was facing. My dizziness had apparently evaporated with this need to move.

Still, I lowered myself back to the ground and grabbed at my hip for my lightsaber regardless… only to find it wasn't there. I looked around, luckily the entire clearing I had landed it was illuminated by the light of the fire, and I spotted it not far away as the light glinted off of it.

I extended my left hand and called it to me. It reached my hand quickly, and I heard the crack of a stick being broken by a foot from nearby. I looked around quickly for a hiding spot and spotted some tall grass nearby. I rolled to it quickly and disappeared inside of the foliage just as a bunch of men and women wearing Dark Jedi getups ran into the clearing.

The Dark Jedi Order had been causing us a lot of trouble recently. It was a small but growing group of Jedi Knights who had fallen to the dark side. They certainly weren't the Sith, but that didn't mean they were someone to be trifled with. Certainly not in the state I was in.

I knew they would begin searching with more than their eyes soon, so I quickly diminished my presence in the force as much as I could and waited until the Dark Jedi left. I wanted to look for survivors if there were any, but I knew there was nothing I could do in this state anyways. So I rolled out of the brush and tried to stand up.

It was extremely painful, and I had to hold a scream in as I put pressure on a leg. The last scream of mine had come from what they perceived to be the direction of the shuttle, I was behind them now, and they would know someone was there if I made any noise. I managed to stand all the way up, I didn't know where to go from there.

I reached out to the force, and trusted it to guide me to somewhere safe. It urged me in a direction, and I limped off in the direction it urged without question. Eventually, I reached a cave, and the force in addition to my own instincts told me that I should hide inside. I sensed no danger inside, but my danger sense wasn't the most acute of the Jedi Knights.

I cautiously took my lightsaber in my left hand and ignited it as I limped inside the cave. I used the light from the blade to see deep inside, it appeared empty. I reached out in the force, and I sensed nothing. Finally admitting the safety of the place, I found a large rock and fell to my knees on top of it with a grunt. I lay my hands at my side and took a deep breath as I reached out to the force.

I quickly ran through the internal motions that signified entrance into another deep Jedi healing trance. As I did this, I also submerged myself deep in the force and started to reach out. I had heard feats of communication at incredible distance, and I hope I had it in me to replicate those feats here.

"Master…" I whispered, reaching out to try and touch the mind of Grandmaster Graun. "Nicolas… I'm in danger…"

There was no response, but I kept trying, until finally the healing trance pulled me into complete unconsciousness. In a healing trance or in Jedi Hibernation, it was hard to feel a sense of time passing by. Everything felt so unreal, and the real world seemed to cease to exist. All I could feel at least this deep in submergence was the fragile threads of the force that linked me to everything and everyone around me.

Sometimes, images would pass through my mind. Images I didn't understand, of planets I didn't recognize, of people I did not know… It could be the past, the present, or the future, I did not know. I only knew that these were things the force was showing me for no apparent reason. Not that the force ever made anything clear.

Suddenly, after what seemed to me to be anywhere from seconds to years, something awakened me from my slumber. I didn't quite know what as I opened my eyes and was nearly blinded by the sunlight. I wiped the sleep out of my eyes as I stood up and assessed my current state. My injuries hadn't been fully healed, all of my cuts and bruises were mostly gone, but my arm was still broken.

The pain was significantly less than before, but merely attempting to move it pained me greatly. I could also feel that several burns crisscrossed my back, and the places where my cuts had healed were only thin layers of skin that were barely adequate enough to keep my blood in my body. My Jedi Healing Trance should not have ended with me in such a state, I should've been completely healed, but I was not. So something else must've driven me from my sleep, and finally, my danger sense spiked.

I called my lightsaber to my left hand and ignited it before swinging the blue blade in front of me. I managed to catch a furious storm of lightning on the blade, but I had barely been prepared, and I was thrown far backwards until I hit the wall and slid down it. I had hit my head, but I used the force to keep my concentration and stood up as I looked at the cave entrance towards my assailants.

There were two, both with their single bladed red lightsabers already lit and both already poised. I reached out to the force and let it guide my movements as I vacated the spot I had just been standing as another bolt of lightning surged through the air. I was in little condition to fight, as heavily injured as I still was, but I had no choice.

Using a combination of instinct and the force, I sprinted forward and brought my saber on a downward slash towards my left opponent. Luckily, I had trained in the use of my lightsaber in either hand, so my inability to use my right hand for battle didn't affect the power behind the strike. The Dark Jedi was caught off guard by the ferocity of the strike and gave up ground with a few steps backwards.

I quickly turned my attention to the right and unleashed a push of the force with my mind towards my other opponent. He was thrown into the wall grunting and dropping his lightsaber as I turned my attention back to my first opponent. I started hitting him with a flurry of strikes and blows, which he blocked, but my ferocity quickly made him fall backwards, unable to hold position under the onslaught of my attacks.

I finally got him out of the cave as my second opponent recovered and sprinted at me from behind with a battle cry and a slash of his lightsaber. My danger sense went off and I ducked below his blow, causing his blow to hit his partner's lightsaber and drive the man off balance. His partner tried to recover, but it was too late, and I managed to drive my saber directly through his heart.

After that, I used the force to push the man off of my lightsaber while simultaneously backpedalling into the one behind me before he could bring his lightsaber back to bear. I slammed into his elbow hard, causing us both to fall backwards. He dropped his lightsaber as he hit the ground and I managed to roll and grab it with the fingers of my right hand. I then used the force to propel me back to my feet.

The other man stood up to confront me. It seemed that he had slammed his head as he fell, as he grasped the back of his head and withdrew it to find blood on it. He grinned before looking at me with his cold yellow eyes.

"Surrender, or I will kill you." I said. Lifting my lightsaber to his throat and powering down his lightsaber in my right hand. He laughed in response. It was loud and booming, him raising his head to the sky. "This is no laughing matter."

"I disagree. You will not kill me, I am without a weapon Jedi. Would you kill a defenseless opponent?" He asked.

"You were a Jedi once, just as every member of your order once was. Why are you doing this?" I asked. "You are right that I will not kill a defenseless opponent, but it is a shame that you would. It's a shame that you would go further than that and kill innocents. I beg you, please… turn away from the dark side. It has corrupted you, turned you way from the light!"

"Why is it you Jedi always feel the need to preach?" He asked. He grabbed something from his hip. I sensed no danger from the action and put my lightsaber closer to his throat.

"Put your hands up! Now!" I said. I was becoming desperate. Even if I did take this man prisoner, what would I do with him? I needed to escape and get off this planet, and this man would only slow me down. At this moment, it was more about survival then my ideals… but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. The killing of the defenseless was not the Jedi way.

He smiled and turned away from me before continuing to pull out whatever he was grabbing. I felt no danger, so it couldn't be a weapon. Instead, he pulled what appeared to be a distress beacon and started to go for the switch.

"Drop it! Stop!" I yelled. He didn't listen.

Instantly, I couldn't wait anymore and my instincts took over… I stabbed him through the stomach to stop him from hitting it. He dropped the item as looked down at the blade poking through his stomach. He grimaced in pain before dropping to his knees. I pulled the blade out of him, horrified at what I had just done.

He turned his head to look at me.

"Maybe… you… are not much more of a Jedi then I am…" He whispered with a final grin… before collapsing to the ground dead. I felt his spirit fade, but I was a Jedi, and even with my instinctual reaction, I had done something wrong. I knelt down and tried to cover the wound, to save him even though I knew it was too late.

Eventually, I decided it was a lost cause. Conflicted feelings hit me from all sides.

"Oh my god… what have I done?" I asked myself. I hadn't reached out for the force to guide me, I had let my primal fear of the end of my life take control, and I had killed a defenseless opponent in cold blood. I had done it save myself. I dropped the man's lightsaber before stumbling backwards into a tree.

I looked down at my own lightsaber. It seemed unreal somehow, like I didn't deserve to have it. I almost through it from me, but instead I calmed myself and slid down the tree trunk into a sitting position. I reached out to the force for calm, there would be time to think on this later, to discuss what I had done.

There has to be… I thought. Dark thoughts flooded my mind, and suddenly the headache that precedes my visions emerged in my head. It was one of the worst I had ever experienced, and I grabbed my head and suppressed a cry of sudden pain.

Images crossed my mind suddenly, not a vision, but memories of the vision I had before. I had been slaughtering other Jedi… I had been prostrating the values of the Dark Side… Could this one seemingly insignificant action have been the turning point to the me I had seen in the visions? Had the Dark Side already corrupted me?

"That's not me!" I yelled out. I was talking to no one, just myself. I had to remember, through the physical pain of the vision, and the emotional pain of the memories.

I remembered Grandmaster Graun, back when he was still just a Jedi Master, holding me close to him after my father, a Jedi himself, had died in battle when I was still a child. I had visions then, that my feelings of rage and sadness would take me. That I would fall to the Dark Side and exact revenge on the men who had killed my father, and in turn become them myself.

But he held me through the visions, my Master… no… more than that… my father after the death of my biological father… He had guided me through the feelings of pain and turmoil. I remembered the words that had saved me from the darkness of my own mind then.

"Remember Gabrielle, your father died in pursuit of a greater purpose. You don't have to reduce yourself to the level of those who killed your father, you control who you become. The future is always in motion, always clouded, and nothing you see is certain. You can't let those visions dictate who you are, the only one who can do that is you. The only one who can control who you are is you."

Those had been words I'd lived by nearly my whole life. I had to live by them now, to believe that I could pull myself back from whatever darkness I fell into. So, through all of that pain, I stood up straight and I grabbed my lightsaber before clipping it to my belt. The vision came in flashes then, as I walked off into the forest.

I was standing in the middle of a great chamber. It was teeming with the Dark Side of the force, dominated with it. I could see people standing around me, but I was focusing on one. There was a woman before me, her lightsaber ignited. I couldn't see her face, I could only stare deep into the core of her lightsaber and understand.

Once, I had heard of the legend of the Valley of the Jedi. Only, it was no legend, but truth. A place teeming with the force, able to grant the user power in the force. It had been lost in time, intentionally buried so that no one would be able to find it and use it for their personal gain.

If that was the Valley of the Jedi, then this was the Valley of the Sith. A place so filled with dark power that they could use it for greed far greater than any Dark Jedi who had tried to find the Valley of the Jedi. As the vision faded, I understood. That was what they were here for, to find this Valley of the Sith, and use it to acquire such power as no Dark Jedi had ever wielded, to bring about the return of the Sith.

I knew now that my objective was no longer to escape. I had to stop them from getting what they wanted, whatever the cost was. So I walked with renewed determination, reaching out to the force for guidance, while also trying to coax more out of it.

"Why did they stop our ship?" I asked it. "Why? If they are here for the Valley of the Sith, what would they need with a simple passenger shuttle?"

The force was not forthcoming, it told me nothing more.

Still, I had no choice but to trust its guidance as it drove me forward towards wherever it thought I needed to go. I turned myself into a conduit for what the force thought was best, because even after all I had told myself, I still didn't trust myself to make the right decisions.

Only time would tell whether or not I was right to do so.