Disclaimer: We ( zazabelle and draksisreborn) own nothing but our OCs. Star Wars belongs to Lucasfilm and Disney. Please review and enjoy this latest installment.
Plunging into the darkness, my voice continued to spring out from within me as the orb hovered above my fingers. I felt my guide scoop up the kyber from my hand and I watched as it began to sail in front of me.
My guide carried it now, like a leaf in the wind while I continued to charge after it.
I couldn't hear anything now except for the echo of my own voice off the cave wall as it mingled with the harmony of ones I couldn't see yet.
Tilting the direction of my sprint, I drifted over to the wall. My fingers brushed over the wet and cold stone as I ran, and a smile broke out of me as, at my touch, the wall began to glow alight- like my temple home.
Except, unlike the veiny appearance of the kyber-vines that were laced into my ruined temple, these ones were of an orderly inscription. Symbols linked up and spiraled over the walls of the cavern. Some part of my mind wanted to see what they said, what language they were, but it was too far entranced in the desires of the tones that resonated around the cave, and they continued driving me forward.
I screamed in delight and continued along with the tune that poured from my own mouth and the pace of my sprint accelerated. My arms stretched backward and my head held up to the hidden sky, it felt as if I were flying. For real this time.
I could sense that the entrance I'd entered to the cavern from was distant now, and all around me, the sense of the song's harmony grew stronger. Now, a resinous beat came to my attention in the walls of the cavern. I could feel it with each pound my foot made into the ground. I sang louder and the tune became more and more intricate. The noises I made became more distinct to match to the ones that sang before me. That's when it clicked that the noises I was singing were words.
I was saying words.
I was truly singing a song.
And now my words were not my own, but the words of a people.
Before they had harmonized to match me, but now I harmonized and sang with them.
The words I sang ached in my chest, a joy I'd never known I'd wanted until this moment:
"You know me. You found me. I am home."
The glow of the cavern walls exploded with light around me.
The beating of the earth grew louder.
The song reached a crescendo.
Up ahead of me, I could see an opening that looked to lead into the daylight.
Instead, I burst into another cavern filled with light. My voice was holding one long note that carried and resonated around the room full of other singers. A people.
The tunnel had ended and I stood on the edge of an outcropped cliff. In my hand, I held aloft the orb. All around me, enormous shards of kyber grew and they seemed to glow in time to the rhythm of the song. The cavern spiraled upward, creating a soaring ceiling that stretched and seemed to create its own sky in its height. Encircling the room, I could see other creatures placed within other cave entrance openings. Some seemed to float between the crystals, while others looked like stones of the cave floor.
Every single voice was singing and it did not stop.
The song only continued and shifted about in different meanings and tenors.
My throat ached as this voice from within me awakened and I felt an unimaginable and unreplicable peace at this moment.
The song told a story, and the language was not of words, but of emotion. It seemed to be a song of the history of these people and I was able to sing along, though I couldn't completely understand everything being said.
Memories and emotions bubbled forth and I suddenly felt the sharp and burning urge for my mom to be able to see this and experience this. I wanted her here with me to sing along and smile and feel proud that I was singing so beautifully. Especially since Nisa always said I sang like a dying loth-cat. Nisa… Gu-el, Abedmalech, Kor, Umar, and Nolia… My mom Nolia. And now there was Soron, Cenden, Lerti, Nek, Chol, and BX.
Somehow, without a word that I could understand, the feeling of their names poured out from around the song of this people's history, and my own story became woven into the tune. My heart ached along with my vocal cords and tears streamed ever further from my face. I could see the freckles on my hand that held aloft the orb was shifting in the brightest, clearest colors I'd ever seen them shift.
The song seemed now to catch up with it's present, and the voices grew quiet. The sound still resonated within and I almost didn't want to breathe out and let this feeling leak away.
I lowered my hand and looked about, smiling broadly at the scene before me. The creatures within the cavern had quieted their voices as well, but the song somehow hung in the air, resonating off the crystalline shards that towered around us, some as large as houses. They held spectrums of all different colors. I knew these to be kyber crystals, but I'd never heard any sing as these ones did. They weren't for swords or holocrons, they were for nothing but the simple act of existence.
Air suddenly shot up around me as a blurred figure rushed past my field of vision. I stumbled backward and fell on my butt as one of the beings seemed to have flown up from beneath the cavern's cliff and proceeded to hover only inches from my face.
My heart thumped loudly in my chest with the sudden pain of surprise following such a peaceful moment.
'Please don't be evil. Please don't be evil. Please don't try to kill me.' I found my mind repeating over and over again as I recognized this face as the one from the horrible vision trapped with the green kyber shard Ooni had stored with her.
"We sent the Reeska saved you from the fall," she began, her voice strangely echoing after each word, "We couldn't let you die… yet."
A shiver went through me, but at this point, I felt too exhausted to be scared.
"Why did you summon the being in the crystal?" she asked simply.
"I… I didn't mean to. The Force called to me, I guess, and so I thought I was supposed to open it." I stuttered out an answer.
"She tells the truth." I jumped as a deep voice had suddenly appeared from behind me.
I sucked in a breath as one of the stone-like creatures stood behind me in the shadow of the cave I'd entered into this alcove from. Now seeing the form up close, I realized it wasn't stone, but layered scales that linked together like plates of armor. The creature had no hair on it's head, only intricate horns. He wore a simple poncho that hung loosely over his form, very similar to the one the angel wore. And like the angel, this creature had the same dark and colorless eyes.
"We weren't sure at first when we'd heard you on the surface, but it seems... you are one that has been Called." The creature's gentle voice spoke.
Her wide, slanted eyes held no color but matched her milky white skin that glowed like that of the kyber crystals around her. She had 3 pairs of wings that resembled insects that I'd seen back on my temple-home, but they didn't seem to move as she hovered in front of me. She wore a long, flowing dress of blue fabrics and her dark black hair was cut short to her head.
But the part that most caught my attention was the way her light woven and glowing body seemed to shift in color as she spoke and observed me.
Not knowing what else to do, my arm shot out and my hand now hovered in front of the beautiful creature.
"I'm Vis." I introduced myself.
"Vis." She smiled and repeated the name back to me, the sound of my name resonating like someone had struck a tuning fork off her tongue.
She took my outstretched hand but didn't shake it in greeting, she merely helped me rise to my feet. Her skin felt strange in my hand, it was cool and soft, but strangely not solid; like I was holding onto vaporous mist.
What's more, I could feel my guide swirling around and within the being, dancing along to the music she produced.
"My guide sent me here to find something… Are you who I was supposed to find?" I asked hesitantly.
She looked me up and down and I could sense a confusion within her. "You may have been sent her to discover many things… You seem have the ability to keep the times of the rhythms of the Ashla, an ability unique to us alone. And yet you do not appear to be one of our kind."
"One of… Your kind?" I asked in disbelief, "My mom was a human being-"
"Yes," the scaled-one cut me off, "That is apparent."
"So you see, you could not have been produced naturally…" The angel explained.
Those words sent a shiver down my spine and I gripped my orb tighter. "What do you mean?"
"We knew of your existence only because of that," she pointed to the orb in my hand, "The Way Finders have not been called to use for thousands of years, but our people, our planet and moons, are still connected to them."
I fidgeted, trying to think of what to say but somehow seemed to only be operating off of default, "What's your name?"
She paused, seeming not to have expected me to ask, "I am Peniel. I speak for my people on this day. Despite your summoning of the dead Force-wielder, I believe it would be more useful to help you than send you away."
Her gentle hand pressed against my back as she turned to lead me down a walkway on the side of the cliff outcropping and down further into the caverns.
I looked back towards the tunnel I'd come from, watching the horned man gaze at me as I walked away. I hoped Nek and BX were okay.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Nek was panicking, as rightly he should be.
He'd just watched the youngest member of their team go tumbling head over heels into the caverns below. Miraculously, she'd survived, but her transmission signal was completely lost.
He had to tell Soron.
Tell Soron what!? That he'd brought her along on a dangerous mission without telling him and for what!? WHY DID HE DO THAT!?
'Jedi can do mind tricks. I've heard that… Yeah. Vis played a mind trick on you because there's no way you could ever be this stupid on your own.' Nek thought as he stared blankly into the canyon below.
His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of an approaching ship's engine. At first, he assumed he would look up and see the form of The Raving Titan flying above but instead BX's metal claw hooked under his shoulder and pulled him further into the shadow of the canyon as an Imperial style ship flew overhead.
Nek cursed under his breath as the ship began its descent near the pirate's cliffside waystation. The pirates had either fled on speeder bikes or had gone and ran inside to perhaps reach underground tunnels where they were likely hiding their ships.
Ooni had stood near the edge of the cliff for a time, staring down into the depths before running inside herself. Roff had either run or been shot because there didn't seem to be any further disturbance coming from inside. The Imperial ship didn't stop in front of the building, but instead, it began to descend into the canyon.
"What the hell is going on!?" Nek hissed to BX from their hiding place behind some crags in the wall on the other side of the canyon, "Beebs said these guys don't deal with Imps!"
"These may be the "red-blades," the pirate Roff said was holding their true Captain hostage," BX said as his eyes followed the ship into the valley's shadows.
Nek nodded, "He said that Ooni was supposed to make some deal with the natives that live below this planet's surface. He might've been talking about the Diathim... this could be connected to that Zabrak we fought as well. Roff wanted to sell Vis but there's no way they could've gotten here that fast. Do you think they've been hunting her or are they here for the deal with Ooni?"
"This is unknown but the Imperial transport is heading in a similar direction of Vis' last known location, so fulfilling both goals of finding the child and discovering the motives of the Empire on this planet could both be fulfilled simultaneously. We will likely be split up. I will charge myself with finding Vis, you will trail the Imperial forces and we will convene back at the ship." BX mapped out their plan.
Nek nodded and touched the communication device on his wrist, "You got all that Chol?"
"I read all that loud and clear. Should I inform our captain of this situation?" Chol asked hesitantly.
Nek sighed, "I suppose you should… yes. It'd be the responsible thing to do or whatever."
"Great. Make me the bearer of bad news." Chol huffed.
"You can at least inform the captain that Vis is alive and well. Her vital signs are not dwindling." BX informed Chol.
"Your vital scan works all the way up here?" Nek asked, confused.
"No. But I know she is alright." BX said in a matter of fact fashion, Nek noticing one of his clawed hands reaching up to touch his chest where the lightsaber was embedded.
'We really need to run more tests on you.' Nek said as he stood from the ground.
"Let's move," Nek said as they turned to climb down the canyon walls.