Chapter 20: Jedi Steps
Unknown Planet, Unknown Regions
Slowly, Kira's eyes opened. At first she wasn't sure if her eyes were working. It looked like her vision was blocky. She closed her eyes, raised her hands and rubbed her eyelids. Slowly she opened them again. Her vision was still blocky…..no….wait! She blinked a few times and looked left to right. No, that made more sense.
It wasn't her vision that was blocky. She was in a hut that was made of rocks, stacked one on top of the other in a round conical shape. She pushed herself up, grunting. She stopped, frowning. A memory of fire spread across her back and sitting up, she noticed she was topless. But she didn't care, as she turned to look as her back. She frowned at what she saw.
Her back….it looked different. Like a long robotic spine was on her back. Reaching back, she touched it, feeling the cold metal. She bent forward and then straightened. Each motion she could hear the softest whirring of motors. The small clicking of individual robotic plates that made the spine.
She leaned forward, putting her face in her hands. She….she was damaged now. She remembered her other wound and reached to touch it. First thing she noticed that….oh yeah….she was naked! But also, that the wound had been healed. Yet as she looked at it, it was clear to see the scar that seemed to had been dug deep into her shoulder.
Blinking she looked around and saw a pile of clothes folded neatly on a small table next to a small fireplace. The lightsaber was placed on top of the pile. She reached out and grabbed them clothes and unfolded them. They were….well…..different. Light grey almost blue in color, the clothes were in three. A pair of pant, a tunic and a set of robes. A brown utility belt was on the table.
It took her only a few minutes to put them on, and she spotted a pair of boots on the floor next to the table. Grabbing the boots, she slid them on and standing, grabbed the lightsaber. She didn't know where she was, but she wasn't going to stay. Not against her will.
Holding the lightsaber tightly in her hand…..not too tightly, as the masked warrior had told her…..she stepped through the door. There wasn't really a door though. There was merely a torn blanket that hung from the curved entrance. Pushing the ragged blanket apart, she stepped outside, and into a small village. All the huts looked similar to her hut that she had been in, round and conical. Grass grew between bricks on the huts, indicating that they had been there for a long time.
Frog-faced aliens, lumpy and grey moved about the huts. Off-color white robes hung on their bodies and necklaces with a round medallion. They moved up and down a small stone path, uneven from long years. None of them went into the huts though. They plastered cracks on walls, a few were setting up a new ring of stones, perhaps a new hut? A trio walked down the path, a wooden wheel barrel with large branches in it.
She frowned, looking around. It was hilly, the place she was on. She smelled salt and turning, she walked up to the edge of the village and looked across, saw a massive ocean spreading before her. A few islands could be seen in the far distance. Twin suns were rising, their light filtered from clouds that hung to the horizon.
She heard the music. That music that she had followed so many times before. The music that had led her to many places. She turned and saw the ghost of Anakin Skywalker standing next to her. He looked at her with a kind smile, and an approving nod. Dramatically he lifted his hand and pointed towards a path that ran to the right side of the island.
Kira took a deep breath and started walking. She followed the path as it exited the village. The grass was short and springy around the path, and rocks jutted from the left side of the path, leading towards the summit of the mountain. She followed the path as it dipped down. For maybe a quarter of an hour she walked.
She turned with the curving path and soon found herself in a village similar to the one that she had seen before. Yet unlike the first village, this one was completely empty. And unlike the first one, the area between the huts, many dug into the rockface itself, was set with stone.
No one was in the village, but the music propelled her on. The music like a whistling. Past the village she walked, following the music as it propelled her forward. She looked down and saw the Millennium Falcon parked down below on a flat part of the island that jutted out towards the sea. She could see Chewbacca down there, doing who knew what.
She smiled but her attention was turned towards the path. Up the path she went, which now inclined at a steady rate. The path kept going up, and she found that the steps, many broken, were leading to a point between two sets of rock formations. She couldn't see anything but as she walked, something appeared out of her peripheral. She turned and looked towards the top of a ridge maybe fifty yards away.
A white robed figure stood there, a large staff in her hand. Kira nearly stopped but the figure, she couldn't make out the gender at this distance, nor the race. The figure lifted her staff and tilted it so it pointed towards the split between the rock formations. Kira turned to keep walking and she kept on walking. Her legs were beginning to burn. On the other side of her she noticed something and she looked.
A woman, an incredibly beautiful woman sat cross-legged on the ground. No….she was levitating! She wore robes similar to those she had seen on the planet of Illum. Yet they were black leather and skin-tight. The woman had red hair and Kira nearly stopped. Without opening her eyes, the levitating Jedi pointed towards the same location.
Kira kept walking, the music rising to a crescendo in her mind. She came to a part of the path that leveled out, and no more then fifteen feet before her was a figure, wearing light tan robes. The figure was turned away from her. The figure's shoulders rounded as if noticing her. Kira held the lightsaber and placed it before her, ready to activate it if needed be.
The figure turned to her, and she saw the beard and the face of a man. He lifted his hands and grabbing the edges of the cowl of his robe, lifted it. Kira's eyes went wide as she recognized his face. It was….it was….
She held the lightsaber hilt out to him, the igniter pointed towards her. She looked at him, almost pleadingly to take the lightsaber. He looked from her face, down to the saber and back up at her face. He made no move to take it from her and took a deep breath that he let out with a mixture of emotions. Luke Skywalker, the Grand Master of the Jedi Order, and hero of hers, stood before her.
"Who are you?"