Act 2: Chapter 14 - Galactic History 101: The Old Republic and Jedi Order Origins
A few minutes later, the group is already inside Mikoto and Shirai's room as the box full of books is placed on the small table between the beds. Saten, Uiharu, and Theron are sitting on Shirai's bed while Shirai is sitting on Mikoto's bed with her roommate herself.
"Thanks for letting bringing this in your room, Shirai and Misaka." He appreciates the two Tokiwadai roomates.
"Not at all." Shirai says. "It's much easier to do it here than somewhere else. Plus, the less prying eyes, the better."
"Aside from that," Uiharu begins. "What exactly are those books that caught your eye at the festival's auction?"
"Yeah." Saten agrees as she looks through the pages written in alien language. "I can't read what it says."
"It's in Basic." Theron says in English.
Uiharu and Saten know very little English to understand what he's saying. However, Shirai and Mikoto are fluent in it due to their enrollment in special Tokiwadai courses.
"But your speaking in English." Mikoto points out in English with no traces of a Japanese accent, clearly not understanding why he's speaking it.
"Basic and English are the same thing." He explains. "It's that English is just another written form of Basic, like Basic is another written form of English."
"Great." Saten whines. "Now I have to worry about learning two forms of the same language England and America speak in."
"I can teach you how to speak English if you and Uiharu want." He offers. "It'll help make things go faster under my tutelage."
"Really?!" Saten beams with excitement and relief. "Thank you so much!"
"We'd love to, Theron." Uiharu accepts his offer as well.
"Right." He nods as he takes the book out of Saten's hands to translate for them. "Don't worry, Shirai and Misaka. Once I've taught Uiharu and Saten English, I'll teach the four of you and Konori how to read Basic."
"Very appreciated." Mikoto nods in thanks.
"No problem." The Jedi smiles before changing the subject back to the books. "Anyway, I think we should start with the earliest records of galactic history."
"What does the book read?" Saten asks her crush.
He quickly reads through it and closes it.
"Okay, I think I got it all remembered the last time my master taught me about it." He says aloud before starting from the beginning. "25,000 years ago in my galaxy (25,000 BBY), the discovery of hyperspace travel and first contact with different sentient races became a reality as hyperspace was inspired by the purgil."
"Purgil?" The girls interrupted.
"Giant space whales with the ability to jump into hyperspace. It's how we get around the Galaxy much quicker than old fashioned space traveling." He explains as they have shocked expressions. "Ahem!"
"Soon, a galactic power rose, opening trade and diplomacy to almost any star system in the Galaxy. They were called the Old Republic."
"You mentioned them before. This was before the Galactic Republic, right?" Uiharu recalls.
"Yeah." He confirms before continuing. "Not long after its establishment, the discovery of the Force brought scientists, philosophers, and devotees from all over known space and they dedicate their lives into studying its mysteries, while swearing to protect the Old Republic and the rest of the Galaxy through peace. Thus, the Jedi Order was born. The Jedi relied on the light side of the Force, using it only for defense. Believing that emotions are a distraction to their mission in defending the Republic and the Galaxy, the Jedi forbids attachment and acting out on emotions, good or bad."
"Wait. Are you saying that the Jedi are emotionless? Not even love?" Saten questions in disbelief. "But that's stupid! Having emotions makes us who we are! Makes us human!"
"That's one of the reasons why the light side can corrupt the Jedi just as much as the dark side can do the same thing." He agrees with her argument. "Like the Dark, the light side can make you arrogant. However, instead of becoming power hungry and selfish, the Light makes you believe that you're always right about everything you know and become hypocritical to what you do that's against your morals."
"So the Jedi ars self-righteous, arrogant hypocrites?" Shirai deduces, disgusted with how the Jedi operate.
"Yes. But that was much, MUCH later." He nods.
"Is that why you're not considered as one of them, but you're still Jedi?" Uiharu curiously asks.
Theron sighs and looks down, getting his friends to look at him.
"It's my own damn fault." He says. "My naivete got my master killed when I was only eleven."
"What do you mean?" The Level 0 worryingly asks.
The boy hesitates but decides to continue.
"Remember when I said about how my master and I were never involved in the war? Well... it was during my early teachings. He taught me how the Jedi were supposed to be independent and that we're supposed to loyal to the people of the Galaxy, not just the Republic. But I didn't fully understand him and only believed that the Jedi would never ignore a call for help from neutral worlds while defending the Republic in my time. So I ignored what he said to me. And then... everything changed. The Jedi were accused of treason and-."
"They were all hunted down by the Empire." Mikoto finishes his sentence with dread as she and her friends know about this from him earlier.
He nods while continuing to look down.
"By the time I realize what my master warned me about... it was too late."
"What happened?" Saten asks.
"The Empire founded us three years after the Jedi were hunted down. My master tried fighting back and had the upper hand but... he lowered his guard when seeing me, and was cut down."
The girls see tears dripping down on his pants as he continues.
"I failed. Because I was naive. A fool. I should've died with my master."
"Theron, how could you say that?!" Saten shouts at him. "He gave his life to save you!"
"And what good would it do if I don't know what place I have in life?!" He angrily shouts.
His friends became a little scared at his little outburst, not noticing his eyes turning yellow. Theron realizes that he shouldn't have done that and his eyes turn back to brown.
"I'm sorry." He apologizes before getting up off the bed and storms out of the room.
"Theron, wait!" Saten calls out to him but he was already gone.
...
A few hours hours passed and nightfall has already come. Theron has finished running off, not wanting to face the girls. Not even Saten since he knows that girl likes to push his buttons for the truth. Could he really trust her about his past? About what happened on Mustafar? Or even him?
Shaking his head, he ventures through School District 21's nature park. Theron hears the wind howl by as he walks through the forest of the park, and looks up at the moon illuminating its light down on the Earth before clouds start covering the night sky, thunder rumbling.
The Jedi throws on his hood and pull his neck scarf over his mouth as he continues walking. Then all of the sudden, he senses a disturbance in the Force, stopping in his tracks.
Turning around, Theron is now face to face with a familiar figure, fog surrounding him.
"No." He denies as his eyes widened in disbelief. "Impossible."
Slow raspy breathing echoes in the forest as it is none other than Darth Vader, the Dark Lord of the Sith himself. Standing six feet and eight inches tall, Vader ignites his red lightsaber and starts walking toward the young Jedi.
Theron quickly reaches out and Force freezes the Sith Lord in place. However, Vader easily breaks free from it and looks around, impressed that he's improved.
"Impressive... Theron." He says before walking towards him.
The boy attempts to Force freeze him again. Unfortunately, Vader is still walking towards him as his raspy breathing continues to be heard loudly. Fear was building up in Theron.
Theron unholsters his lightsaber and ignites an unstable red blade and two quillons on opposite sides that made a loud howling sound instead of a hiss one. The boy looks at his blade in shock, and learns that he's somehow in possession of a crossguard lightsaber.
He then looks back at Vader and twirls the flame-like laser sword, and engages him in combat. Their red blades trade blow by blow with the Dark Lord using only one hand, blocking Theron's attacks with ease. Theron continues to attack him, who then easily sidesteps each missed strike and changes catches him with their blades now locked with each other.
Vader then pushes Theron and his blade back, and walks toward him as his shadow hovers over the boy. It's his turn now.
Using his brute strength and the Dark Side, Vader switches to Form V - his primary and most reliable lightsaber form - slams his blade hard on the Jedi's to break his defenses. Their blades are then saber locked and moments later, Vader's blade redirects Theron's into a tree, pushing the Jedi back as his hood fell off.
Theron pulls down the neck scarf over his mouth and watches in the small distance as the tree with lightsaber marks collapses, creating a large cloud of fog that separates the two duelers. It became quiet and Theron keep his guard up, gripping the crossguard lightsaber in his hand.
But suddenly, he was caught off guard when Vader's lightsaber spins toward the boy, and Theron barely deflects the Sith's weapon away which in turn caused him to stagger back, breaking his guard. The Sith's lightsaber turns off automatically, and the hilt twirls vertically back into Vader's hand.
"There is no escape." Vader says.
He reignites his red lightsaber and walks toward the boy. Frightened and angry, Theron grits his teeth and tightens his grip on the crossguard hilt. He swings the unstable blade and Vader retaliates with a saber lock again.
Sparks fly off of Theron's unstable blade as theh continue to be locked in with their lightsabers as Vader directs their blades to his left. Seeing an opening, the Jedi deactivates his blade, causing Vader to lose his balance, and the boy reignites his saber, landing a blow onto the Dark Lord's right durasteel pauldron.
"Argh!" Vader exclaims.
Had enough letting this pointless duel continue, Vader instantly Force lifts him in the air and freezes Theron in place after the Jedi dropped the crossguard hilt.
Vader moves up to him with his hand telekinetically freezing the boy in the air and stops in front of him.
"You disappoint me, Theron." Vader says with no remorse before deactivating his lightsaber and holstering it before turning around, looking away. "Perhaps you are not as strong as I hoped. Now your failure has leaves me with no other choice..."
He turns his head back at him.
"...but to destroy you." He finishes.
Vader slowly faces toward Theron and proceeds to Force choke him. The boy couldn't move as the Sith's freezing technique is so much stronger than his own, and that Vader is easily choking the life out of him with only his thumb and index finger. He's just too strong for him.
"It is pointless to resist." The Dark Lord says as he presses his thumb and index finger closer to each other, tightening his Force choke on the Jedi and slowly crushing his throat.
Theron notices the crossguard lightsaber hilt behind Vader, and he hasn't noticed what the boy's attempting to do. Using whatever willpower he has left, Theron uses his mind to lift the hilt and fly towards the Sith, igniting the unstable red blade and impaling him from behind.
Then there was silence. Vader looks down and sees that the blade has impaled him from behind. Dropping onto his knees, Vader releases his hold on the boy, who then gasps for air as he is on his knees trying to regain his energy.
Meanwhile, Vader's raspy breathing has changed as he struggles to breathe properly with the lightsaber still lodged into him from behind. Theron gets up and Force summons Vader's lightsaber in his hand as he goes behind the severely injured and beaten Sith Lord.
Theron looks at the hilt and lifts it up, igniting the stable red blade that illuminates his face with red. He then looks at the Sith Lord and without hesitation, the boy raises the blade and decapitates him, and the headless body collapses onto the grass.
The Jedi drops onto his knees and pants.
"Are you okay?" A familiar voice asks him.
Theron looks up and turns around to see it's Saten, who has been looking for him since the entire afternoon. Wait. She doesn't notice Vader's headless corpse.
He quickly turns around to where thd body and head is, but is shocked to find out that it's not there. And what's left is Theron's own lightsaber hilt instead of the crossguard variant. He then looks in his right hand and sees that Vader's lightsaber is no longer there as the boy's hand is instead clenched into a fist.
"It was just an illusion." Theron dedices in his thoughts.
"Theron?" Saten asks him again, now worried.
"Yeah." He answers without looking at her as he calls his hilt back into his hand and holster it. "I'm fine."
"You're not." She says. "Your emotions were signaled in my thoughts. It's how I I found you since your communicator was off."
The boy gets up and looks at her with a shocked expression.
"You can... read my thoughts?" He questions.
"Not... entirely." She nervously explains. "You still have your mental barriers up, but it ssnt out what you were feeling about."
"How long has this been happening?" He asks.
"For around two days. Why? Is it really important?"
"Saten..." He begins with shocked tone in his voice. "I think we just formed a Force bond."
...
"A Force... what?" She asks him again.
They are on a train for School District 7 as they sat next to each other. It was already past curfew and Theron needs to take her back to the district before heading home in the city outskirts. During the train ride, Saten brought along the books he left back at the Tokiwadai dormitory and gave them back to them.
"A Force bond." He begins explaining to the girl. "It's a link between two Force users that allows them to influence each other. It allows communication of feelings, thoughts and images across distances and could even grant greater coordination in battle."
"That's so cool!" She says in awe before realizing something. "Wait. Is that how you heard my thoughts all over the place?"
"Yep."
Saten nods as she understands some of what he's talking about. But she becomes concerned about what happened earlier before he ran off.
"Theron, about what happened earlier, I-."
"You don't need to apologize. I shouldn't have yelled at you and the others like that."
"Okay." She understands again. "But you're not alone in this. And about my decision of wanting to learn how to use the Force? My answer's yes."
"Are you sure? If you do this, there's no backing out."
"Yes. I want to learn the ways of the Force so I can use it to protect my friends." She answers with determination.
The train then stops at a station in School District 7 and Saten exits the train. However, she turns around and smiles at Theron standing by the door of the train car.
"I had a wonderful time today." She admits. "I hope we can do this again soon."
"School District 23, my place. In the city outskirts up north. Your training starts tomorrow afternoon."
"I'll be there."
"Good night then."
"Night."
Saten then turns around and runs off to her apartment as the train takes Theron home.
"That was really fun." She says to herself on her way home. "Looks like things are going to be different soon."
...Theron opens the door to his home and enters inside to see that it's a complete mess.
"What the hell happened here?" He mutters aloud.
Just then, he sees the little green infant holding tightly to his leg, cooing for attention.
"Great." He sighs as he picks the baby up and carries him into another room before coming back to start cleaning up the mess the child made. "R4's got a lot of explaining to do when I'm done here."
To be continued...