Krysta : pt 9
Courscant : Present day
The man who was almost as dark as the night surrounding him stood on the balcony of the Imperial Palace and looked out at the constant flow of the world beyond.
He was wondering what was wrong with him.
A day ago he had been revived from a carbon freeze and back into the services of his master. The leader who had saved his life from the Jedi Scum that wanted him dead. While his memories of the past were fragmented at best he knew he should at least be happy.
His life had been saved, and how he was here and being given a chance to help protect the galaxy. So why he felt like he needed answers he did not know. But something was missing and he couldn't find out in his mind what it was.
He turned away from his city and the endless traffic and looked around the palace.
"This is my home." he thought, "This is where I've always been. I should be happy here."
"They saved my life, brought me back from dammed near being dead. I should be content and ready to help the empire protect the galaxy. What am I missing?"
The new Grand Inquisitor coded named Blackout, shook his head in confusion once again and left his brooding spot to wander the palace. Attempting to avoid everyone.
Palpatine, his master and emperor. Yes he was loyal to the man for saving his life and for the second chance. But right now he lacked the motivation to wonder about the enforcement of the laws or the building rebellion he'd been told about.
Vader? Ahh no.. he really had no desire to talk to him either. He knew whom he was, remembered the man under the armor, but held zero patience with him for the moment.
Vader's little pet, the creepy kid with the buzz cut. He didn't want to be around him either. The kid was just plain strange. 19 year olds should just be starting on the path to the sith. He should be years away from golden eyes and a red saber.
That was really the least of it.
All around the man the place was just surreal. He knew it but not as an imperial palace. He remembered it as something else, at least he thought he did.
So trying to place his mind back into order, and make sense of what he was feeling, the grand inquisitor paid every little attention to where his feet had taken him. When he finally looked up he was intrigued by his surroundings.
What it looked like was a dusty old hanger that had not been used in probably the whole time he'd been in carbonite. What might have once been places for ships and droids were now devoid of anything but discarded tools, dust and tarps. This was the state of the whole of the hangar except for one place. In a corner of the room there were several ship births that had green accents on them. One of them that he walked to had green accents accompanied by black in one part of it, and just the plain green accents in a smaller area.
The larger place with the black and green was empty, but it appeared a fairly large ship had been there at some point in time. Next to it however something remained under a cover caked in almost 15 years of dust.
Curious he gave the tarp a tug and it fell easily away. What he uncovered was something very odd. It looked like a heavily customized and modified N-1 star fighter from naboo. The normal yellow was gone, replaced by what might have once been a vibrant pink. The chromium parts had been sanded and painted matte black. All together it was a lovely bit of work that he could see countless hours of loving care had gone into.
He continued to stare at the ship for a few moments and then it hit him. A wave of memories so powerful and so agonizing that the dark man was howling in pain.
Up in what now served as his office, Palpatine was addressing Vader and his apprentice. In the middle of instructing them again to go retrieve Tarkin and then get to Lothal and solve the issues, he paused the moment that he felt the turmoil roil out of the hangar below.
All three of the Sith practitioners stopped for a moment until the emotions subsided and Vader turned to his Emperor.
"Master?" he asked.
The old man looked at him for a moment and then motioned with his hand "You and the Boy go and retrieve him. Then remain behind in case I am in need of your assistance with him."
Both the Sith lord and His Student bowed and turned to the door way to go and find the Grand Inquisitor. They didn't have very far too look.
The doors at the other end of the office flew open and Blackout stood there on the other side, seething with ice cold rage. He marched into the office and stopped right in front of Palpatine's desk.
"WHERE IS SHE?" He demanded, "Where's my wife!? Where's Adrianna !?"
Vader and the boy looked at the Emperor and the man's withered face appeared to fall in dejection as he focused his attention on his new Grand Inquisitor.
"Grand Inquisitor Blackout, " He almost sighed, "Please forgive me for deceiving you my friend. But it was needed until your memories began to recover from your emergency carbonite stasis. "
"What's that mean?" Blackout asked.
The lord of the empire again sighed dramatically and sadly, "It seems the injuries inflicted upon you by the jedi did more than just damage your body, my friend. It appears that they have taken a toll on your mind as well. I had hoped to spare you this pain as long as possible."
"Keep going," the man told his Emperor.
"Lady Halcyon died giving birth to your and her daughter my friend," Palpatine rose and crossed to the man, "She was a jedi but I know you loved her. I am sorry."
"what?" He finally managed, "Adri's..."
"Gone I'm afraid," Palpatine shook his head.
The inquisitor swallowed, "What.. what about my daughter...? Vaylin? what happened to her?"
Now both of the older sith looked away as if they didn't want to share this information with the Grand Inquisitor. He took a step closer and demanded an answer.
"Where is my daughter?"
Now it was the boy, Vader's Apprentice, Who spoke. His own voice hollow with his own grief.
"She is dead as well your Excellency," The boy told him softly. "I'm... sorry...I... " He stopped.
"Who are you son?" The inquisitor asked a bit more gently.
Vader answered him, "This boy is the son Of Kento Marek, and my apprentice."
"your Kento's son?"
The young man nodded to the Grand inquisitor and looked at Vader and Palpatine.
The old man emperor nodded, "Continue young man. His Excellency has the right to know the truth."
The boy looked down but continued, "The jedi found out about her.. that she was half sith. They didn't believe that she would be able to remain on the path of the jedi. Remain with the light side of the force. I tried to stop them, protect her. I promised my father I'd protect her. I loved her like a sister, but... She... They ... They put.."
Vader placed his hand on the young mans shoulder, "That is enough."
"Yes master," The young man nodded and fell silent.
Now the Grand inquisitor looked at the other three Sith in horror, "your telling me the jedi killed my daughter because... because she was part sith?"
Now Vader spoke, "Forgive me. I could not stop them. They feared she would follow your path. Between your sith blood and being one of the scions of the Valkorion's bloodline, the child was destined to have great power. They feared this, I could not get to them in time."
The Grand Inquisitor Blackout looked at the other sith for a moment and then seemed to freeze. He turned away from all of them and walked back the way he had come.
A few moments later all of the sith in Palpatine's office could feel the whole of the palace shake with the rage that the dark man, The Grand Inquisitor Blackout, now unleashed.
afterward, drones would report to the emperor that nothing in the hanger had been spared save the pink n-1. This, and also that the dark man had emerged from the room changed. Eyes now more blood colored than gold, face hell bent on revenge on the people he now knew had taken away his family, twice.
Present day: Rebel Fleet.
Star's POV:
I was hoping to locate the girl I had spoken to the next morning after that Mad Doctor woman released us.
What happened when I finally woke up was nothing of the sort, at least not immediately.
First thing I noticed when I did finally come to was that Juno was still sleeping and very heavily at that. Curled up on the end of my bed I decided to let her stay there and rest because all of this mess had to have taken a toll on her. She had to deal with all of this with out the benefit of the Force to call on, so I decided it was better to just leave her be for the time being.
The next thing I noticed was that there was a bandage and a bacta patch on my left hand. This could mean only one thing, the doctor woman had removed the Kamino id from my hand. I had to stop and think about that for a moment or two, because that meant now Vader had no way to make sure it was me. No way to confirm I wasn't just another person in the galaxy.
The last connection to the empire was well and truly gone, and I was in fact finally totally free.
I still had no idea how to feel about that, but I suspect that this was from having no idea how to feel about a lot of things due to what had happened to me. So I decided the best course of action was to integrate my self back into the alliance I had helped forge in my first life.
That meant going out there and facing it.
Fortunately The Doctor from the night before had seen to it that everything I would need to face it had been ready.
A fresh flight suit, boots, and even undergarments were all laid out along with my sabers. I stopped for a second and clicked them on to make sure this all wasn't a dream or another crazy hallucination Vader was putting me through.
No, they were still blue. Pure, white cold blue. That meant all of this was in fact real. I was with the rebellion, and I was free to help it defeat the empire. I had juno and there was at least one other force sensitive around.
I couldn't have asked for anything else to make my existence complete.
So I finished getting dressed and headed out to find the girl, Krysta. I had a couple of questions that I didn't get answers for last night.
I was walking down the hall and spotted the Doctor, Celine, I believe was her name. I almost ducked back into my room to get away from this woman I was convinced at this point had some slight mental issues.
However she wasn't paying much attention to me and was reading off a data pad as she walked by.
"your welcome." She told me flatly, "oh and if your looking for the girl her master just got back. So she's probably talking to her."
I just stopped and stared, wondering if the girl was right about this woman being a force sensitive but keeping it quiet.
"Down the hall, to the left." She motioned as she continued to walk away, "Do me a favor and Keep your self and Your Teacher OUT of trouble."
I had to grin a bit over that one and told her back, "You should know mam, I cant make Kota do anything."
"I know," She waved her hand at me, "Shoo brat. The grown ups are busy."
Then took off around the corner.
That I was NEVER going to get used to. Still she was a very kind person, and that had been a rarity in my life so I gave up and decided to just enjoy it.
I made my way out of the ships med center like she told me and headed in the direction I had been shown.
There was in fact a meeting going on there. The girl from the night before was standing talking to a russet skinned togruta woman.
"Listen to me okay Krys?" She told her in a serious tone, "I am 99.9% certain that Darth Vader has some connection to my old master. I need to make sure of some things, In the mean time We need to keep you away from him and The Emperor. "
"Master... Ahsoka... I can't just hide. Neither can you or Ezra, Master Jarrus, The General or Star." She shook her head, "I'm not afraid of Vader."
Ahsoka sighed, "This is Anakin's revenge," She shook her head, "If that's even possible. Just be careful ok?"
The girl nodded, "I'll do everything I can master but.. " She stopped and cocked her head to one side then looked directly at where I was standing and smiled.
"Star! " She motioned with her hand, "come meet my teacher Ahsoka."
"Star?" Ahsoka asked.
"Well his real name is Something else but that's what he wants to be called, " She motioned again and I gave in and walked out to join the two women.
"Mam," I bowed to the older woman.
She stared at me for a few seconds and shook her head, "OH.. Him."
Krysta smiled up at me again, "how are you today? How's your shoulder? Did you sleep ok?"
"Ahh.. Fine, Healed, and yes." I replied.
She got a flat look on her face and then grinned, "Some ones picked up the General's monosyllabic speech pattern."
The woman I knew now was called Ahsoka suppressed a snort of laughter and then smiled at me, "Glad to see that she's making friends."
The girl smiled too, "Well were all in this mess together now right? "
Ahsoka nodded, "Excellent point. Now I have to go get yelled at by Kitiyara for leaving you with the General, So if you would like to go practice some I believe Kanan and Ezra are down in the cargo bay."
Krysta nodded, "I need all the practice with that thing I can get. One of these days I'm going to have to make my own."
"Own what?" I had to ask.
"My own saber," She motioned to the one she had, "This one belonged to my mother. But one of these days I'm going to have to get a crystal of some kind and make my own."
I had to blink at that, "how... "
Now the older woman smiled, "Well krysta comes from Corellia. The jedi tradition there often had fathers and mothers handing sabers down to their children as family heirlooms."
I blinked, "there were jedi that... had children?"
That thought gave me a bit of pause, even though my own birth parents had been jedi that had child and relationship.
Now Ahsoka Smirked, "Yes I do Krysta's grandfather, Master Halcyon, put his fist through Master Windu's nose for calling him a heretic over that." She winked, "Get Kanan to tell you the story. Pretty sure he saw it."
The girl got a slightly mortified look on her face and Ahsoka smirked.
"But like I said," She finally continued, "I have to go get screamed at but I will catch up. You can go on down and practice with them if you like."
"Ok," Krysta smiled then turned to me, "Do you want to come with us or do you need to go find the General?"
"Ummm.." I had to stop and think about that.
All of these people asking me what I wanted to do was something totally different. I was used to just being ordered to go here, there or some place else, or simply finding my way on my own. Choices were still something I was going to have to get used to.
"Well I would like to meet This Ezra you mentioned Krysta. As well as his teacher if that's ok with them." I finally admitted.
"Ok," She smiled at me again, "We'll walk down to the cargo bay where we train at sometimes. If they are there you can meet them, if not maybe you can help me see what I'm doing wrong with my swords man ship."
I nodded.
"Ok then," Ahsoka told us, "I will catch up with the pair of you later."
She turned and walked deeper into the ship and the girl Krysta, turned and walked in the other direction.
"So," She said as she walked, "When did you find out you were a Force Sensitive?"
"Ummm.." I really wracked my brain for some way to tell her with out going into all of the gory details of my "Training" with Vader, "I guess I've pretty much known my whole life."
"That's good," She folded her arms behind her as she walked, "I didn't know until about a year ago, Maybe a bit more. I think I nearly gave Kittyara the shock of her life when she found out."
"I can imagine," No not really but I was attempting to be polite.
She stopped and grinned at me, "you know you don't have to pretend on my account. I can feel how awkward this is for you."
"Sorry, I need to get used to being around a lot of other people."
she started walking again, "That's ok, I wasn't around a lot of people either growing up. We lived out in the middle of no where on Corellia. It was nice though, Lots of fields and trees and green wide open places. "
"It sounds wonderful," I told her honestly.
"maybe we can go visit some time," She snickered, "The house is HUGE. "
"Id like that," I finally smiled back.
"Maybe Ezra can come too," She got a slightly far off look in her eyes, "I'd like to spend more time with him."
By now we had reached the lift and rode it down to the cargo bays in comfortable silence, then finally emerged into the open area.
Turns out we did in fact find two more people that I could instantly tell were force users. One grown man and a younger boy about the same age as the girl.
They were in the process of going through what looked like most of the forms for Soresu . No where near as aggressive as Ataru or Shien but very effective in the right hands.
The two of them stopped and looked up at us as we walked over.
The girl beamed at the younger boy, "Hi Ezra!"
The boy smiled back at her and his master nodded, "Miss Krysta?"
"That's me," She told them, "its good to see you up and around Master Jarrus. I was really worried about you."
"Please," he smiled, "Call me Kanan. I never got the chance to thank you for helping my self and Ezra."
She bowed politely, "It was my pleasure sir."
Then he turned and looked at me, "And Your General Kota's student?"
"Yes," I nodded, "My name's ... Star."
He nodded at me, "Nice to meet you Star." He turned and motioned to the other boy, "This is Ezra Bridger."
Ezra pried his eyes away from Krysta and turned to face me, I couldn't help but feel a jolt. Just like with the girl, some how, from some place I knew this boy.
"Its nice to meet you Star," He held out hand to me and I took it.
"Thank you," I nodded back, "its nice to be here."
Krysta turned back to the older jedi, "So you guys were practicing Form 3?"
"Yes," Ezra told him, "Id like to learn some of the others ones eventually but Starting out with this one seems to work well."
She nodded, "Ahsoka says that a lot of the other forms are built around this one."
"She's right," I suddenly felt compelled to add, "If you master this one learning all of the others will be a lot easier. I had to learn this one first too."
"Do you practice Jar'Kai?" Krysta asked.
"How did you know? Empathy again?" I looked a lil apprehensive.
I wasn't to keen on having someone feel the emotions I was just now rediscovering.
Her face went flat and she pointed at me.
I looked down at my belt, "Oh."
both of my sabers were still strapped there.
"its Kinda obvious," She grinned again, "you don't need to be able to feel emotions for that."
The older jedi tried to hide his smile and So did the other boy. I really didn't know how to react. Id never had a lot of other force users around me, now suddenly here I was with three.
I had to grin back, used to it or not, this interaction felt wonderful.
"Yes," I finally admitted, "I do in fact know Jar'Kai."
"So does my teacher," She continued, "Id like to learn it if I can ever get my hands on another crystal and make a second saber."
Kanan nodded, "Well maybe you can find one on Lothal if we can get back there sometime. "
"That's a possibility, " She replied, "Or maybe back home or some other place. You never known."
"Or you could make one," I told her, "Finding the right one might be hard so you could make a custom one. "
"You can make them?" Ezra asked.
"its hard, but yes you can, " kanan confirmed, "Though the order didn't really approve of them. But some of the stranger colors came from custom made ones. "
"that's pretty fascinating," Ezra said, "I may have to keep that in mind."
"In the mean time, " Kanan motioned to the younger ones, "Why don't you and krysta run through the forms and let us see if we can catch anything. I admit I was out of practice for a while," He motioned to me, "But I bet he's not."
"Works for me, " the girl nodded.
Ezra nodded too and the two of them lined up with each other and went through all the basic forms at about half speed, slowly picking up more as they warmed up.
I watched them and could see that despite the fact that they needed more polish they were both excellent.
"They are very good," I told Ezra's teacher, "For a pair that started training so late they are frighteningly good."
Kanan smiled, "I've noticed that about Ezra, and I can see it in the girl now too. Its pretty amazing."
I watched both of them, "I thought she said that she was bad at it?"
"She's probably self conscious about it," Someone said from behind us.
I turned and saw Kota walking towards us.
"General," Kanan nodded in respect, "Nice to finally meet you."
Kota smiled back, "Nice to meet you too officially." He turned and grinned at me, "Nice to see you not hiding either."
I shrugged, "I couldn't really hide from this now could I? I do owe that girl my life."
"Pretty sure she wont tell you that, or ask for anything in return," He turned his face to the two padawans sensing as they picked up more speed, "I'm glad your here Son. These kids need someone besides all of us old farts."
"Who you calling old?" Kanan grinned at him.
"Us," Someone else chimed in as she walked up. "How are they doing ?"
I turned back to watch them again , "Very good," then turned back to Ahsoka, "Both of them have the potential to be very powerful jedi."
I could hear the grin in Kota's voice when he made the next comment, "They do. A jedi that's already ridiculously powerful helping them learn would add a lot."
I was about to say something when he caught me off guard and force shoved me right out between the two of them. Jedi or not, the man's sense of humor is pure evil sometimes.
Of course exactly what he planned on happening happened.
"Hey are you ok?" The girl stopped and came over, "Did you trip?"
I almost told her that "no I didn't trip, I got set up." , but decided to refrain from that.
"Ah no.. I guess I just wasn't paying attention." I gave a brief glare over my shoulder at the grown older jedi, all of whom just smirked at me.
"would you like to help us out with our saber forms, " Ezra asked, " I get the impression you have a LOT more experience than either of us. I know I'd be grateful for any help."
"Same here," Krysta agreed."
I stopped for a moment and thought, there were those choices again. As well as a chance to be around people closer to my own age, that were neither agents of the empire or cursed with any preconceptions of me. As far as they knew I was nothing more than Kota's student matured to a full jedi.
I felt that strange connection again and the dream from last night flashed in my head. A baby girl jedi with big grey eyes, and another knight waiting to be born. There were questions about this I wanted to know. So right then I put that new found freedom of choice to use and chose to interact with these other two young force users.
"It would be my pleasure," I felt my self smile at them and saw them smile back.
If I was going to be a part of this rebellion, it was time to start being a part of it. Ezra and Krysta had potential and had teachers. I could be aloof and stand back from them or I could fly in the face of everything that had been my life.
I remembered it now, clearly my former masters words to me about someone I once loved...
"In time boy," the man looked down at him, "You WILL learn to obey me with OUT question. YOU your self will hunt them down and impale them on your own blade. In the mean time, If I cannot have them. NEITHER SHALL YOU."
I had to find out if this girl and this other young man were the ones from what I had seen. I knew the only way I would know would be what I was doing now, being around them.
As I started talking to them about various forms and what they needed to do to get better at them, I thought about choices again. Only time would tell if this was the right one.
