Chapter Fourteen: A Bonfire of Dreams
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Jai smiled, stepping out into the arena from his tunnel for what seemed like the trillionth time to him. The crowd of the Pit cheered for their favorite slave, as the bright Mandalorian sun gleamed on his taut muscles.
After over a year of fighting, the upper half of his orphans robes had been torn off, and his upper body became chiseled. Scars adorned it as lines of battle memories, and the boy activated his most beloved object, his purple blade.
A loud amount of screeching filled the arena as seven tall green Acklays entered the arena from multiple gates, getting ready to pierce the seventeen year old with their claws. He grinned, deactivating his sword for a moment.
The crowd became confused, but the seven Acklays came at him shrieking, trying to kill him.
A shadow of pure rage flew upwards into the sky holding a purple lightsaber that became activated in the air, leaping onto the back of an Acklay. Having slain hundreds of beasts over the past year, the boy had no second thoughts, beheading the beast while standing on its back.
"Rrrraaaaaahhh!"
Growling loudly while venting his rage, Jai leaped onto the head of an Acklay, screeching and trying to bite him while the others attacked. Jai mounted the green beasts head, while his fellows dug their claws into its head, trying to kill the boy.
But the slave just chuckled as its friends accidentally killed it, and jumped into the air again, using his powerful leg muscles. Jai spun in the air while beheading another Acklay, sending its oblong green skull flying into the air. He grunted, falling onto the ground as the remaining four Acklays ganged up on him.
Standing on the ground and moving about, Jai simply sliced off another green claw when it came towards him, making the animals trying to kill him shriek in pain. Merciless in his revenge, Jai leaped into the air again, becoming a black dot in the sun before flying downwards and making multiple purple lines soar around the arena. His lightsaber was moving so fast it appeared it had blurred, whizzing through green Acklay skin so much that the beasts shrieked, not even being able to see the boy cutting them to pieces. When his rage induced slaughter ended, pieces of Acklay laid about the arena.
The bloodthirsty crowd was off its feet, throwing meat to reward the slave for his performance.
"Shol'shya Kyr'amur Par Jai Te Imoya!" (Another kill for Jai the Slayer!) The announcer screamed from his tall box.
Jai bowed to the crowd before picking up another piece of cooked meat that was tossed to him, digging his teeth into it and fueling his growing and defined muscles. Yeawa smiled, his investment just might be paid off today.
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"7900...8000...Hm." Yeawa was sitting in his slave vendors post, counting the credits Jai had made him fighting in the Pit. He rubbed his scratchy chin before looking at the young gladiator in front of him, "Boy?"
"Yes master?"
"Do you know how much money you've made me this past year?"
"8-8000 Imperial Credits?" Jai asked, seeing the pieces of gold strewn about his masters desk.
"Looks like my investment has been made back." He tapped a button on his electronic bracelet, making the ankle cuff around Jai's leg fall off, "You're free now."
"B-but where do I go? What do I do?"
Yeawa shrugged, "Not my problem. I'm sure mercenaries are always looking for good strong warriors like you."
"Hm..." Jai looked aside thinking, "What lies beyond Geewa?"
"The wastes. Nothing more. You might find some mercenary camps there. Or..."
"Or what?" Jai asked.
"Or you could become a volunteer Gladiator. You don't have to be a slave to fight in the Pit."
Jai said nothing, still bare chested after loosing part of his orphan robe in the Pit.
The boy looked downwards at his feet, "I don't know what I'm going to do."
"So what're you going to do in the wastes?"
There was silence, the ankle bracelet that made him a slave had been part of him for so long that it had literally imprinted itself onto his skin. Jai looked to Yeawa, "I have no idea."
Shirtless and looking like he was made of muscle, the spiky black haired seventeen year old began to walk through Geewa for the first time since he arrived there as a free man. His legs began to move out of their own will, their masters mind not guiding them.
Standing at the edge of the Mandalorian city of Geewa, the boy looked down at his scuffed brown boots. Before walking off into the wastes.
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The wastes were really incredibly sandy plains similar to those on Tatooine, only they weren't as hot. Dunes were more common, but the boy kept walking. Jai started to walk as if there was no end, his legs moving forward and forward. He looked into the horizon, bringing it to him.
When night seemed to approach, trouble found the young orphan.
Sand falling off their hulking metal bodies, hundreds of B2 battle droids emerged from the plains around him. He had wandered so far from Geewa that the city was no longer in sight, only plains for miles. The battle droids aimed their fists at him, loud clicking noises being emitted from their arming.
Jai had heard how old Confederate units had been left out in the wastes of Mandalore simply to let them sit there when their use was not needed, as a reminder to the fading Separatists that their rebellion against the Republic was futile and aged. However, there were tales of how a single Confederate commander had reprogrammed them to kill anyone foolish enough to travel into the wastes alone, just to spend eternity ending civilians.
The shirtless and tall orphan looked around, his taut muscles cracking as he flexed, his battle scars from the Pit lining his torso. He gripped his silver blade, the purple crystal activating and hissing as its laser left the sheath.
His eyes seemed to glow white in rage as he roared so loudly his deep voice could be heard across the plains. It echoed across the sea of battle droids surrounding him.
Flying into his attacks, he deflected thousands of red blaster bolts in seconds while growling loudly in rage. He cut apart metal like it was nothing, so powerful were his strikes that purple lines were followed by the explosions of lines and lines of B2 battle droids.
They kept firing, but he kept blocking as they fired, before sprinting at them and overwhelming them with incredible force. A black blur flew between battle droids, moving so fast that he crushed them by cutting downwards, sideways and in so many lines that purple became a resonant color with black among the battle droids, destroying them.
Jai leaped into the air again, but the Force responded to his rage fueled will, and he hit the ground so hard that the ground warped under him, sending defeated battle droids flying away. More followed, firing red bolts at him with impunity.
He just did a high front flip in the air flying over them before landing behind them.
Summoning all the volcanic earth shattering rage inside him, Jai growled baring his fangs like an animal and clenching his fist, pausing thousands of shots while still in the air. Jai released them , sending them flying back towards the black B2 battle droids that sent them.
Waves of B2 battle droids fell to his rage, flying through them with furious strikes, his purple blade becoming a blur like him, cutting open battle droids so quickly that he appeared to be moving in one fluid motion, somehow cutting apart dozens of them at the same time.
Red pinpoints appeared in the battle droids vision, seeing a black haired blur of rage sprint towards them. He growled, spinning three hundred and sixty degrees and slicing through thirty of them in a single blow, explosions filling the air as their upper halves flew into the air.
Only twenty of them remained, and the boy decided to sheath his blade, and use his strength to beat them to pieces. He punched one in the back so many times its circuits were destroyed, he jumped over it and landed behind its deactivated carcass, using it as cover before summoning the power of the Force again, sending the battle droid flying towards his buddies.
Three of them crumpled together, before Jai launched into the air again and landing between two battle droids. He punched them both so hard, that his fists flew through the layers and layers of metal, punching out their circuits in seconds. Jai tore off the arms of two battle droids and beat them into heaps of scrap metal in what appeared like one single second.
When he was finished unleashing his rage, steaming piles of defeated battle droids laid about, in piles of dozens. Now he had crushed hundreds of battle droids channeling his pool of rage through his amazing power, with the help of the force.
Jai wiped aside some sweat, having done so much movement that any other person would've collapsed.
He watched as mercenaries appeared around him, aiming their guns about wildly, trying to find a single battle droid to fire upon. Only there were none, all had been crushed.
Jai looked around, seeing them approach in their gear.
One of them asked a question, "What happened?"
"I...I was walking and these things came up and tried to kill me. So I just..."
"All of them? Every single one of them?" A Mandalorian mercenary asked in disbelief.
"Y-yes."
The looked at each other in shock, lowering their rifles.
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He was taken to their camp, a large collection of brightly illuminated tents sitting at the bottom of a massive sand dune. At the top of the dune laid a small hill, where Jai blinked, watching the camp from above it, seeing the lights of hundreds of mercenaries below him.
A girl approached the lone warrior at the edge of the dune, wearing a brown dress, long blackish brown hair and a pretty smile, "H-hello."
The orphan said nothing, resting his elbows on his knees while his lightsaber sat between his legs.
"My name is Sylvian Tico. What's yours?"
"Jai."
"Just Jai?"
"Jai the Orphan." He murmured in his deep voice.
"Oh. Well I was just here to try and recruit soldier for..."
Jai blinked, saying nothing while staring out over the camp.
Syl shook her head, standing behind him on the tall dune that over looked the camp, "I heard about what you did. You defeated hundreds of battle droids, all by yourself."
"I did so because I had to."
"You did?" The pretty girl asked, "Why?"
"There was no other way, its just in my nature to fight with my sword."
Syl stood behind him, seeing the many scars that marked his sculpted torso. All that he was wearing was the old dark brown trousers that were part of his orphans robes. He blinked again, "I'd rather fight with my sword than run away."
"So you destroyed hundreds of battle droids, because its not in your nature to run away?"
Jai looked back at her, seeing her pretty face for a moment before turning back to admire the camp, "Yes."
He began to speak, "But defeating all those battle droids has no purpose. My sister, Eela, whom I admire very much, roots herself in logical ideals, to attain a purpose. What do I have? A will. Eela's actions have a weight to them, more powerful than my random acts of rage."
"Jai. I-" Syl stopped speaking, looking aside.
"Some view huh?" Jai asked, looking over the camp, "I've never met a mercenary before. I am afraid that seventeen years in either a blood Pit or an orphanage hasn't given me much of that er...outside interaction. But looking out over all those lights..." He trailed, looking over the huge amount of electric lamps, "I can hear my sister's words again. About destiny, about fate, and...dreams."
Syl looked into the huge dune that held the mercenary camp, "Like a bonfire of dreams..."
Jai smiled back at her over his bulging muscular shoulder, "Wow, that was beautiful. You almost sounded like my sister."
The girl looked aside, ignoring the comment.
He gripped the silver blade between his legs, before activating it, the purple crystal powering his will, "This. This is my will. To fight, because I know nothing else. What my sister has, a purpose to become wiser and more knowledgeable about the galaxy isn't just something she shared with me. Rather it is something that allows her to be granted something beyond just fighting for no reason, it gives her a reason. A purpose. After a year of fighting in the Pit of Geewa, I understand now that I know nothing else except how to fight. Nothing else, except to pursue my destiny. I don't want to join a mercenary band, or sign up for the Rebellion or join the Imperial ranks. All of that gives me a purpose, but not the one I understand...Which is to fight for myself."
"The rebellion could use you."
"I'm the only person that needs myself. And the only one who matters in this galaxy. I never met my parents, I'm not like Princess Iana, granted eternal prosperity because of my fathers connections, rather I am my own man, created by my own actions. Fate led me to where I am now, and there is no one to blame for where I am, but myself. And I will exercise that until I die."
"So..." Syl stood up and looked at the spiky black locks on his head, "Where will you go?"
"Wherever my blade takes me. Wherever I can, fighting for myself." He deactivated his sword and tucked it into the pocket of his brown trousers, standing up and beginning to walk away, "I'll meet you again. Syl Tico."
Jai walked off into the night, letting his will take him where he needed, the pretty blackish brown haired sixteen year old girl looking off after the shadow that walked alone.
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