Act 2: Chapter 15 - Meditation Training
August 3, 2023 (Earth Calendar)
Academy City
Saten is waiting outside of Theron's front door. She looks left and right, hoping that she has the right address he gave her. She is now wearing her favorite four leaf clover short sleeve shirt and pants that are just below her knees but above her ankles along with a pair of running sneakers. She even has her chest length long black hair let down this time.
"I hope I have the right place." Saten comments to herself. "IF this is the right place."
The door opens and Theron stands before her.
"Glad you can make it." He says. "Nice shirt, by the way."
"Thanks." The girl smiles at the compliment.
Theron lets her inside his home and Saten looks around at the condition of the place.
"This place is a mess." She comments with slight disgust as she looks at the piles of debris in a corner along with a small hole in the ceiling.
"Yeah. Been like this since R4 and I found this place. We just don't have the time or money to renovate the place."
"But don't you have those pearls you used for the auction yesterday?" She points out his rich status.
"I need the remaining pearls for other things that are more important than a hangar, Saten."
"You should still look into renovating your home then since you illegally are living here."
"This place is abandoned. It's not like anyone's gonna make a big deal about it." He casually says. "But you do have a point. I'll look into it if I have the time."
"So anyway," Saten changes the topic. "We're here to continue my training on how to use the Force?"
"Yes." He nods as he walks over to a table and picks up his master's holocron. "Here."
He quickly tosses the cube to Saten and she immediately catches it in her hands.
"Good reflexes." He comments. "Impressive."
"Well those extra classes at school helped me out a lot." She admits while looking at the holocron. "But what's this?"
"A holocron." He simply answers.
However, this confused the girl even more.
"Huh? A holo-what?"
"A holocron." He repeats but the girls is still confused due to her face and he sighs frustratingly. "It's a storage device used by the Jedi that houses information such as historical records, star maps, lightsaber and Force techniques, and other secrets that are off limits to other Jedi besides the high ranking members of the Order. The only way to access a holocron is by using the Force."
"Ohhhhhhhhh." She says in awe. "That's pretty cool. So you want me to open it up then?"
"Yep." He says as he sits on a chair to watch. "Close your eyes and clear your mind."
Determined, she obeys and closes her eyes as she outstretches the holocron in her hand while clearing her mind. Moments later, the holocron begins levitating from her telekinetic usage of the Force and the holocron opens up to show Obi-Wan's hologram recorded message.
"This is Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. I regret to report that both our Jedi Order and the Republic have fallen."
As the voice of the Jedi Master continues talking, Saten opens her eyes and gasps at what she just did.
"I did it!" She shouts excitingly.
"Nice job, Saten. You might have more potential than I thought."
"Aw, that's very sweet of you." She says with a wink and a giggle, earning a blush from Theron. Saten then notices the hologram. "Who's this? He literally looks like that famous actor."
"Obi-Wan Kenobi. A Jedi Master before the Purge." He explains. "One of the greatest lightsaber duelists in galactic history."
"One of the greatest duelists?" She repeats his phrase.
"He's a master of Form III, aka Soresu. And he's a really damn good practitioner of this form."
"Soresu." She mutters to herself with curiosity in her voice. "What does it specialize in, Theron?"
"It focuses more on defense than offense." He explains. "Mostly due to the growing use of a blaster throughout the old Galaxy."
"That's awesome!" She beams before realizing something. "Wait. You said Form III. There's more than one?"
"There's seven in total. But we can talk about it later. Today, we're going to be mediating."
"Wait, what?" She questions in confusion.
"What? You expect me to just show you the techniques on the fly?" He mockingly asks before chuckling. "Ah, Saten. You have much to learn."
"I thought I was going to learn about the cool stuff that you do." She grits her teeth in slight anger.
"Well first of all, you have a ridiculously HUGE amount of anger and jealously within you. And secondly, your mental barriers are weak against attacks on the mind so you're vulnerable to being brainwashed, memory wiped, etc." He bluntly points out. "Shall I go on for you?"
Saten felt really offended by his words. She so wants to punch him so badly for that. However, if she does that, then she won't be able to get anymore training from the Jedi himself. Sighing frustratingly and impatiently, she gives in.
"Fine." She mutters.
"This way." He says.
...
Inside his bedroom, the two have taken their shoes off and are on opposite ends from each other as their legs are crossed while sitting on a large meditation mat.
"At least your room is so clean." She says while looking around as the sunlight peers through the windows of his room.
"Focus." He interrupts her who immediately goes back at looking at him as his eyes are closed. "You need to be less distracted from your surroundings. Be mindful of them."
Saten nods and takes a deep breath before closing her blue eyes. A few minutes later, they're finally in a meditative state as they are inside each other's heads.
...
Saten opens her eyes and she gasps at her surroundings. She is literally walking on a field of clouds in an endless blue sky.
"Whoa..." She says in awe while looking around. "This is so amazing!"
"Indeed." Theron says, who is now standing next to her.
"Aahhhh!" She yelps in fright.
Theron starts laughing at how he spooked her. This made Saten angry again.
"Damn you." She pouts in a real cute way.
"That's for scaring me on the train." He says with a smug grin on his face.
"I'll wipe that goofy smug look off your face, Theron!" She says in annoyance.
"Good luck with that." He rolls his eyes. "Come on. Follow me."
The two walk through the field of clouds as they decide to explore due to being both adventurous and all. Saten then notices something in the clouds.
"Hey, what's that over there?" She wonders as she runs toward it, leaving Theron behind.
"Saten, wait!" He calls out and follows her.
When they enter the clouds, they are no longer in the endless sky. They appear to be inside a Japanese household.
"Wait a minute." She says while looking around. "I know this place."
"Huh?"
"This is my home." She says. "Yeah. I'm home! Oh, I've missed this place."
Just then, a little girl with pigtails run passed the two teens.
"Uh, is it me or was that little girl that just passed by us look like you?" He asks.
The two got curious and found the girl in the next room who is with her little brother and parents.
"You're gonna a be an Esper, Sis! That's so cool!" The brother says with excitement.
The little girl laughs with pride. She's so excited in living in Academy City and becoming an Esper with powers. However, her mother is concerned for her daughter's well being.
"Sweetie. I need you to know that I'm not totally on board with this." She says to her daughter.
"Mom's a big worry wart, huh?" The father chuckles while reading a newspaper.
"I'm just concerned about her. I don't want them messing with her head."
"It's not like that at all, mommy!" The girl argues with her mother, believing it's safe.
On the sidelines, Saten looks down in sadness and shame as she watches her own childhood replayed before her.
"How could I be so naive and stupid?" She says to herself. "I should've listened to my mom."
"Saten?" Theron asks her when he notices her tears falling on the floor.
But Saten leaves the room, sniffling. Wanting to find out from her, he finds the teenage girl sitting by the wall hugging her own legs and hiding her face.
"Saten?" He asks her again and sits next to her. "Do you want to talk about it?"
She didn't answer as she continues to sniffle to herself.
"Saten!" He calls for her again, only he raised his voice a little louder.
"What's there to talk about?" She scoffs without looking him in the eye. "My mother warned me about Academy City. About them messing with my head and all."
"Saten, you were only a child. There was no way you could've known the risks and-."
"But I didn't listen to her!" She angrily yells at him, looking at the Jedi with tears in her eyes.
Theron notices that her eyes have turned red before switching back to blue. However, he paid no mind to it right now as he needs to comfort the depressed girl.
"It was last summer. July." She begins her story. "I was so jealous of having powers and I was so tired of being a Level 0. Then I found a song called the Level Upper. I was so excited that I get to have powers but at the same time I was scared of using it on my own, so I shared it with my other friends at school. And then, I finally became an Esper. I was so happy! But then... all of the sudden... one of my friends collapsed. It was like I was having a nightmare."
Theron was shocked to hear this from a girl who is cheerful on the outside. But on the inside, her heart is filled with pain, suffering, regret, shame, and sadness. He senses this great pain coming from her.
"But it wasn't a nightmare. It was real." She continues. "I got dragged into something so dangerous that I hurt my friends in the process. I thought that Uiharu and the others helped me moved past that but... all of it is coming back to haunt me! And now that I have the Force, I should be happy to have powers again but now... I'm so ashamed of myself that I don't know if I can really move on!"
She then let's it all out and starts crying. Theron could no longer see her cry for something that's not her fault.
"Saten..." He begins. "We all make mistakes. My master once said to me that struggling throughout our lives makes us who we are. That we have a chance to move on and not make those same mistakes again."
Saten looks up at Theron again and listens closely.
"For me... I don't know if I'll ever move on. But that's beside the point. The point, Saten, is that you can't blame yourself for something that wasn't your fault. I know you're struggling with being traumatized, but that's all in the past and you need to move on. All I'm saying is that you need to let go. If not for me, for your friends and family. Please."
Once again, Saten was moved by his words. He really is kind, knowing that she is struggling with her past and is willing to do what it takes to help her let go and move on.
"I... I don't know how you do it." She says. "But... you seemed to have found a way of cheering me up, huh? T-Thank you."
"No problem."
Suddenly, Saten hugs him tightly. He was taken aback by this sort of action from her and he hugs her back as well.
"No matter what, as long as I'm here, I'll do what I can to protect you. That's I promise I hope to keep."
"And I'll do the same for you, Theron." She says with a smile.
She then kisses him on the cheek as another 'thank you'. Her cheeks were red just like the flustered boy's.
"Uhhh..." He says while rubbing his kissed cheek. There were small traces of lip gloss from the girl's precious lips.
"Don't take this the wrong way. Think of it as a small reward from me." Saten says while doing her best in avoiding eye contact with him.
Theron chuckles.
"Whatever you say."
"Now that we're done going over my little nervous breakdown, let's go look at your memories." Saten changes the topic again while standing back up on her feet, excited to see something good from him.
"Yeah, but- huh?!" Theron spats out in confusion.
"Oh, don't be such a big baby. It can't be that bad." She says without paying no mind to him.
"Look I don't know-." He argues.
But the bubbly girl wouldn't listen as she grabs his wrist and pulls him up off the floor.
"Alley-oop!" The girl laughs while dragging him down the hallway.
"Hey! Wait!" He says while trying to break free to no avail. "Damn it, she's got a really tight grip on me!"
Saten giggles at this and continues to pull him down the hallway even further.
...
Their surroundings have changed and they are no longer inside Saten's family home. Instead, they are inside the halls of a gothic themed fortress.
"Huh?" Saten looks around in confusion. "I don't think this is the right place."
Theron's eyes widen as he recognizes the memory they're in.
"Saten, we need to pull out of our meditative states."
"Why?"
"Don't argue! We need to leave! Now!"
Just then, raspy mechanical breathing his heard. This caused Theron to shake in fear and his eyes to widen again. Saten, on the other hand, hears the unfamiliar breathing and becomes scared of it as well.
"T-Theron?" She questions him, now becoming scared of hearing something so terrifying in her life.
The breathing got closer and louder, resulting in Theron to use the Force and shatter their entire surroundings. And then, everything went white.
...
Saten opens her eyes and gasps, awakening from her meditative state. She then looks at Theron in front of her and sees him shaking and sweating. It's like he knows who that breathing noise belongs to.
"What the hell was that?" She demands. "That awful breathing sound-."
"It was a mistake trying to show you some of my memories." Theron interrupts her.
"Who did that raspy breathing belong to?"
"Forget it, Saten." He says. "Damn hell I'm gonna tell you who that sound belongs to."
"Bu-!" She begins to argue.
"NO!" He shouts at her.
She flinches, realizing that he's really sensitive about the topic.
"Maybe it was a mistake prying into his memories without his permission." She wonders, regretting at what she did earlier.
"That's enough training for today." Theron says, snapping her out of her thoughts. "I feel like this whole thing's gone on long enough for both of us."
"Huh?" She says and notices the time on his alarm clock. "It's already noon? Jeez, how long have we've been doing this?"
"Since 9 in the morning."
"Three hours?!" She exclaims in shock. "But it felt like we've been inside our heads for only a few minutes!"
"Eh. You'll get use to it." He casually waves his hand.
Just then, his comm link goes off and he immediately answers it.
"Yes?" He asks. "Yomikawa?"
There was silence for a few moments.
"Yes. Alright, send me the address." Theron continues before hanging up.
"What does she want?" Saten asks him.
"Yomikawa wants me to head on over to her friend's lab in School District 7. Says something about my opinion on the technology they're studying from that Star Destroyer wreckage that's still standing in School District 23."
"Alright if I tag along?" She asks.
"Sure."
...
The two left for School District 7 as they walk down the hill where Theron's home is. Unbeknownst to him, the little green child pokes his head out of the Jedi's backpack and goes back to hiding inside.
...
School District 6
The Inquisitor is on the city rooftops as he continues his search for the Jedi and his side objective that's none other than the child.
"Where are you, Jedi?" He impatiently snarls aloud. "You can't hide forever."
The Inquisitor jumps off the rooftop and uses the Force to slow his fall, landing on the concrete floors of an alleyway. Getting back up from a crouched position from when he landed earlier, the dark side user walks out of the alley and looks around to see that he's at Academy City's known amusement park. Fortunately for him, there are lots of people that he could take advantage of to get draw the Jedi out of hiding.
"When out in the open, there's only one way to get the attention of the Jedi." He continues as people inside the amusement park he's in are looking at him. He then pulls out his lightsaber hilt.
"Slaughter of the innocent. Mercilessly and without compromise."
The Inquisitor then ignites his red blade, and the people look at him jumped in fear.
To be continued...