I do not own Star Wars The Clone Wars.
Odette watched the younglings mill about the ship. Each working on something they seemed to focus and utilize often. Whether it was technology, the force, or simply their own logic. She was impressed where they were at in their training, they seemed quite young to her.
"Where did Master Kenobi take you to get your crystals?" Ahsoka asked the knight. Master Yoda had asked the two to over see the Gathering for this group of younglings. This was Ahsoka's first time leading a Gathering.
"No where for my first saber." Odette admitted. "I built my saber from spare pieces the temple had on hand. That included the crystals."
"Your current ones you found on Mortis right?" Ahsoka could remember bits and pieces of what happened, but it still seemed surreal to her.
Odette nodded as her hands sought out her two sabers. She was always curious about when Jedi built thier first sabers. Was it as a Padawan? Or was a saber what made them Padawans? Either way she was curious to see what this Gathering entailed.
R2 beeped as they came out of hyperspace and began their decent towards the snow covered planet of Illum.
Odette and Ahsoka shared a look before heading to gather the younglings and get them dressed for the cold climate of the planet. Odette had chosen to leave her armor behind, feeling it was inappropriate. Though now she is wishing she had the extra insulation. They dressed the younglings and headed out into the blizzard that was the calm weather of this planet.
They walked towards a cliff, stopping once they reached it's base. "It's a dead end." Petro spoke up over the blowing wind.
Odette and Ahsoka shared a smirk before looking back at the younglings. "Younglings, outstretched your hands and focus the Force. Together-and only together can we enter." Ahsoka spoke before turning to the 'cliff' ahead of them. She lifted her hands and closed her eyes as she focused.
Odette watched as the rest of the younglings did the same. She went to join as a chill ran up her body. A heat spread out from her hand as the air turned dry in her lungs. For a moment Odette thought the snow ash, but as soon as she thought it the cold wind cut across her wrist and pulled her back to the present. This temple was a place of light, could someone with darkness within them enter?
Odette was pulled from her thoughts as ice and snow crashed ahead of them, revealing the door to the temple. Ahsoka turned back to the younglings. "Now hurry. The sun has already risen and we must begin." Odette turned and followed Ahsoka in leading the younglings into the temple.
The front atrium was tall and held some sort of device in it's high ceiling. Across form them was a tall wall of solid ice spanning from the high ceiling to the floor. Seated in the center of the room was the Grand Master of the Jedi order. Odette and Ahsoka stood on either side of the old jedi as the younglings stood before him.
"The force made physical, a jedi is." Yoda spoke once the younglings had gathered. "A great responsibility with that, yes?" The youngling nodded in answer to his question. "Protect others, how does a jedi?" He stood and drew his saber from beneath his robes using the force. He ignited the short green blade without so much as touching the weapon.
Odette found herself smiling as the younglings watched the weapon in awe. She had never seen a light saber ignited without the switch being physically touched. Had Master Yoda used the force to push the button? Or was it the force itself he was using to ignite the blade? She wondered how difficult it would be to learn such a skill.
She was pulled form her thoughts as the younglings began making their way over to the now melted doorway. Odette stayed back as Ahsoka directed the younglings. She knew she was distracted, but she couldn't focus. Why was her mind so scattered?
"Odette? Is something wrong?" Odette met Ahsoka's gaze with a sigh. "Does it have something to do with the Son?"
"No." Odette answered before pausing. "Maybe? I don't know. I can't seem to focus." She took another look around the room, looking for something but not knowing what she was seeking. She stopped as she spotted a darkened doorway made from a crack in the wall.
"Go you must." Ahsoka and Odette looked over at Master Yoda. Yoda focused on the Mandalorian Knight. "Brought you here, I did. A pathway, perhaps, this is."
Odette looked from the grand master back towards the darkened path before her. She could feel a faint warm breeze coming from it's direction. "What if I don't make it back before the younglings?"
"A problem, I see not." Yoda spoke. "The time you have or the time you need, which is which? Hm?"
Odette supposed that would be the most direct answer she would get form the jedi. She looked back towards Ashoka. "If I'm not back before the younglings-"
"You will be." Ahsoka assured her friend. "You became a Knight before me. I believe in you."
"Thank you, Ahsoka." With her decision set, she walked towards the crack.
The warm breeze turned into a hot breath as she entered the darkness. Odette coughed at the dry air as she walked, keeping a hand on the wall to lead her on in the pitch blackness that enveloped her. She could not see the path ahead of her, but she could feel the hot air rushing past her and something was pulling her forward. A sudden step down tripped Odette, causing her to stumble to her knees.
As she touched the ground the darkness lifted along with the heat. The cold wrapped around her as the thick mist thinned and light caused near whiteness to blind her. Odette shut her eyes to the intense light. It sooner died down as the mist fully lifted and Odette was left in a large chamber. She got up onto her feet as she looked around.
The first thing to catch her eyes was the intricate statues around the room. She easily recognized two of the beasts that were opposite to each other. A beaked creature with feather wings and a crown and a creature with tall ears and taunt wings and bony fingers. She remembered them from Mortis, the Daughter and Son. The other two she did not recognize. One looked to be made of coral or stone while it's opposite looked to be made of tree and leaves. If the Son and Daughter were the Light and Dark sides of the Force, what were these two?
"An excellent question." Odette tensed a bit as Son spoke. What caught her off guard was that he had not spoken into her mind. "As all things should be, this temple is balanced. The light resides above while the darkness lives below. Thought when the sun sets, where does the light go?" Odette stepped back as a shadow condense before her until the Son stood before her. "The Light flees and the Darkness chases. Then the Light chases and the Darkness flees. Forever giving and taking."
"Why bring me here?" Odette asked in almost a tired tone. "Can you free yourself here? Because your explanation just made it sound like you would be trapped here."
"I would be trapped, but we can also trap others." Odette frowned as Son walked over to the Daughter's statue. "I can feel Her here. Together, we can bring her back. Just as there will always be a sliver of Darkness, of selfishness, of Me within her, there is the same within me." Odette watched as the Son turned from the statue and walked up to her, she didn't feel threatened as he approached. "Pull it from me."
"I don't know how-" She paused as her sabers began to hum. Then she recalled her crystals, one white and one black. She took a breath before lifting her sabers with the force. In a swift motion she dismantled her sabers, separating the crystals.
"Yes." The Son spoke as he made his way over to stand before his alter.
Odette chewed her lips as she focused on putting her sabers together without her crystals. Once they were reconstructed, she let them fall to the floor and held onto the crystals. They were pulsing as she held them through the force. Both were warm, but in different ways, the white was warm like a blanket while the black felt like a flame.
Now that she held just the crystals, Odette wasn't sure what to do anymore. She looked over at the Son, he seemed to be pleased and excited. Her gaze then moved to the statue of the Daughter. No one stood there, but it looked like the snow around the alter was beginning to turn to ice, like it was starting to melt but then freezing. Odette looked over at the black crystal that she had thought of as a flame. If the dark side was fire, then the Son should be able to keep his side from freezing.
Odette pulled the crystals to her and then past her, switching their positions. In a rush of air the ice beneath her feet vanished as steam blocked her view. She could still feel her crystals through the force, but now she felt something new...something more. She pulled the crystals towards her, hearing the sound of footsteps on stone.
Once they were close enough Odette reached out to grab the crystals. It surprised her when her hands came into contact with two heads. Odette looked from side to side, trying to see if what she was feeling was actually there. She could make out blond and brown hair, and that they were the size of children, but no more than that. "Who are you?" She asked in confusion.
"We are the ones that guard the power." Daughter's voice echoed about the room. "We are the Beginning, the Middle, and the End."
Odette felt the room spin before she closed her hands and gripped her crystals. She stumbled to the floor once more, not sure just what she had experienced or seen. She looked down at he pair of crystals in her hands. They had changed once more. They were no longer black and white. Now there was a crystal that was both red and blue, the two colors bleeding into each other. And the second was Green and Orange, the two colors in balance with each other. Odette wasn't sure just what this meant, or what this would mean for her sabers.
"So much for answers." Odette grumbled to herself as she pulled her empty sabers to herself to replace her crystals. She quickly replaced her crystals and sealed her sabers shut. She took a deep breath before igniting them. Her blades ignited, one blue blade and one green blade. "Okay, so now I get color?" She shook her head as she deactivated her sabers and replaced them on her belt.
Odette looked around the room once more, finding simple statues around the room similar to those in the main atrium. It was as thought everything she experienced was a vision. Odette shook her head again as she made her way back towards the crack in the wall, winding her way back towards the others.
She arrived to find no younglings present, only Master Yoda and Ahsoka. Ahsoka turned to her as she rejoined them. "Told you you would be back before the younglings. What did you find?" Odette simply took her sabers and ignited them, showing off the new colors. "New crystals?" Ahsoka asked, having seen the hits and black blades of her friend's sabers many times.
"No actually." Odette turned off her sabers and replaced them. "The crystals changed colors. I saw visions, I think. Son was definitely there and Daughter was maybe there. Then there were these children." Odette shook her head as she tried to remember more details. "I don't really know what to make of it."
"In time, clarity you will achieve." Yoda spoke up as the knight spoke about what she had experienced at the temple.
The three waited and soon youngling began to exit the crystal cave, crystals in hand. Soon three out of the six younglings were gathered together outside of the cave. Odette looked at the growing wall of ice that acted as the door to the cave. The remaining younglings had maybe five minutes left before the ice reached the floor.
Another youngling exited the cave, the young Wookiee. He proudly showed he had found his crystal. "Well done Gungi." Ashoka praised the youngling. "But two still remain."
They all looked to the ever growing door. "Will they make it Master?" "We should help them." Two of the youngling spoke up.
Yoda held up his cane. "Left the cave, you have. Help them, you will not."
Odette looked to Ahsoka and whispered. "Should we remind them how easy it was to open the front door?"
Ahsoka smirked. "Let them learn this lesson on their own. We can't be giving them all the answers."
The group lapsed into silence as they awaited their final companions. Soon Katooni joined them, sliding just passed the door and the ice reached the floor. "I have my crystal, but Petro is still inside." The Tholothian told everyone as she looked back at the wall of ice that closed the crystal cave off from the outside world.
"Give up on your friend, do not." Yoda informed them before watching the wall of ice with a knowing grin.
After a few moments the ice broke, Petro having broken through. He proudly showed off his crystal as the others expressed their joy in seeing him. "How did he break through the ice?" Ganodi asked the Grand Master.
"Only water made solid, was the door. Easy to break, if you have the will." Yoda chuckled after having informed the younglings of this truth.
"You-you said we would be trapped?" Katooni questioned.
Yoda looked at all of the younglings before looking back at Katooni. "Not by the cave, you were, but by your mind. Lessons you have learned. Find courage you did," Yoda spoke to Byph, "Hope," Ganodi, "Patience," Gungi, "Trust," Zatt, "Confidence," Katooni, "and Selflessness," and Petro.
Odette shared a look of pride with Ahsoka. Sure these younglings had ways to go, but they were only younglings. There was still much for them to learn.
Odette double checked their flight path with R2. "Alright, we'll be cruising at Sub-light speed until we join up with Master Kenobi and the 212th. Then from there we'll make the jump to hyperspace back to Coruscant."
"How long has it been since you've seen Master Kenobi?" Ahsoka asked her friend.
"Just before we left when the council assigned us this mission?" Odette offered as an answer. When Ahsoka simply gave her an unamused look she knew that wasn't the answer she was looking for. "A few months since we've had a chance to speak alone. The war has been keeping us both busy."
"Then this'll be a good chance for you both to catch up." Ahsoka offered Odette a smile before looking to R2. "Call us if anything happens. And let us know when Master Kenobi arrives." R2 beeped in response before turning back to the controls of the ship.
Odette chuckled to herself. "I think R2 likes being in charge."
"Probably gets it from Maser Skywalker." Ahsoka wouldn't be surprised if R2 took after her Master.
The two made their way to the hold where the younglings were waiting around. They had found training gear and were practicing with a drone. Ahsoka clapped to get their attention. "Can everyone gather around please?" Odette collected the training equipment from the younglings as they followed Ashoka over to the work bench. "You have all successfully passed the Gathering and harvested your crystal."
Gungi cheered happily. "So when do we start building our sabers?" Petro asked excitedly.
Odette stepped behind the desk with Ahsoka. "Place your crystals on the table, your lesson begins now."
"May I introduce you to architect and lightsaber designer Huyang." Ahsoka spoke up as the two parted and a droid stepped out from between the rows of storage shelves.
The droid looked at the youngling. "I swear they get younger every expedition." He remarked. "All have passed the Gathering?" He asked the two jedi overseeing the youngling on this journey.
"Yes." Odette answered.
The droid looked at her. "Are you sure?"
Before Odette could answer, a youngling spoke up. "But he's a droid. You expect us to learn form a droid?" The voice sounded more curious than angry.
"Who said that?" Huyang asked, offense in his programmed voice. Ganodi stepped forward and crossed her arms. "Many years have I been on this ship, teaching many a jedi before you, and I will continue to teach many a jedi after you." He ranted as he moved down the work bench. Call me what you want, but inside my memory banks I contain a record of every lightsaber ever made and the jedi who fashioned them." He pushed a button on the control panel and showed a variety of sabers stored in his memory.
Odette watched as the youngling gazed at them in fascination. She was sure she would have had the same reaction had she participated in a Gathering when she was their age. She had done similar when her Aunt Bo had shown her records of the various armor designs that had been in their clan. She supposed this was no different.
It wasn't long before Huyang began pulling pieces out of drawers and shelves to aid the younglings in building their sabers. Once they had all gathered the pieces they would need, Huyang showed them a diagram and explained each piece of the lightsaber. He emphasized the importance of following instructions.
Odette and Ahsoka watched the younglings, offering help when they felt the youngling needed it. Odette stayed against the wall, feeling something was not right, but unable to sense what was happening. Ahsoka was aiding Ganodi and Katooni. Byph and Gungi worked on the floor while Petro and Zatt sat at a table to work.
They were all having trouble, but none had given up. Petro snapped his saber together, the first to finish. "With this saber, I will challenge Master Kenobi to a dual and kill Grievous." Odette found the goal of challenging her Father amusing.
Huyang examined the saber closely. "The only person who will be killed by that, young friend, is yourself. You've reversed the emitter matrix which will cause the power grid to backfire. Light this and all that will be left of you and your light saber will be your crystal." Odette could see Zatt chuckling as Petro looked disappointed, but not defeated. "Start again, and this time please follow the diagram."
Odette continued to observe the younglings as her mind wandered, still chasing the elusive sense of foreboding she felt. Something was coming for them, but she could not make out it's intent. Nor could she sense how close the danger was, or if it even was danger. It was an odd sensation to feel both at peace and on edge.
"Knight Kryze." Huyang spoke up as he approached the young jedi. The ship shook before he could speak. "Oh my!"
"What was that?" Katooni asked in worry.
Odette and Ahsoka shared a look. "Stay here." Odette ordered before she and Ahsoka took off running for he cockpit. They arrived and found R2 panicking. "R2, what's going on?"
The droid beeped while looking between the two, trying to explain what was going on. Ahsoka looked out through the front viewport, looking for the ship attacking them. "Where?" A round ship came up form above them. Most of it's hull spun around itself while the center or the ship remained stationary. Ahsoka and Odette shared a look, pirates.
The pirates fired on them again. The ship rocked as the missiles hit. "They're aiming for the hyperdrive." Odette spoke up as she made her way towards the pilot's seat. "R2, prep the nava-computer. We can't wait for Master Kenobi. We'll have to make our way to Coruscant on our own without an escort." She turned the ship so they could have a clear jump to hyperspace.
The ship gave a final lurch before the power began to cut out. "I don't like the sound of that." Ahsoka spoke as they listen to the engines shut down. "Let's check on the younglings. R2, fix what you can as soon as you can."
Odette placed a hand on the droid. "Seal the cockpit when we leave." She followed her friend back towards the hold where they had left the younglings. As they ran, sounds of the other ship docking with them could be heard. "They're going to board us. I'm going to see if I can negotiate, you get to the younglings."
"Pulling an Master Kenobi on me?" Ahsoka asked with a smirk.
Odette shrugged. "What can I say? Diplomacy runs in my veins." They came to a stop as one of the doors ahead of them was breached in a flurry of sparks and smoke. "Go. I've got this." Odette walked up to the doors as the weequay pirates got the door fully opened. "Hello there." She called in greeting.
Of of the weequay with a hat and goggles looked over at her in a bit of surprise before putting a smile onto his face. "Hello my friend. Would you happen to be in command of this ship. I was passing by when I noticed you were in distress." Odette raised an eyebrow at his explanation. "So I have come to offer my assistance."
"Right, and those weapons you're brandishing?" She asked while observing the men behind the weequay she was speaking with. She had a feeling this guy was in charge of this operation.
"To protect ourselves of course." He proclaimed happily. "We weren't sure if you were friendly or not, but I see they are unneeded." He handed his weapon off to someone behind him. "Now then my friend, how can we help?"
"You can start with calling the rest of your men off this ship." Odette spoke calmly. "We are on a training exercise. We don't have anything valuable that pirates could want." She noticed the smile fade off of the pirate's face. "If you don't leave, I will throw you off this ship."
"You seem rather confident for someone so young." The pirate spoke as he gripped his hands behind his back and stepped closer toward the jedi in front of him. "Tell me, what is your name?"
Odette took a defensive step back as she placed her hands on her sabers. "I'll give you mine if you give me yours." The weequay stopped a few paces from her and watched her. "As an honorable person shouldn't you grant a lady's?" She smirked as the man began to chuckle. She had guessed that his charismatic ways would mean some sort of moral code. She just hoped she was buying enough time.
"Very well. My name is Hondo Onaka." Odette frowned, the name was familiar. Had she read it in a report somewhere? "And yours?"
"Odette Kryze." She took her sabers from her belt, but kept them deactivated. "Now leave my ship."
Hondo let out a sigh. "I was hoping we could negotiate peacefully. It's been so long since someone did. Oh well, business is business." Odette frowned as he backed off, she was sure he would do something. Something poked at her back before electricity jolted through her body. She shouted in surprise as her body tensed and convulsed at the same time. When the shock ended she fell to her knees, panting heavily. "I'm impressed. Usually that is enough to knock someone out. You are very strong."
Odette glared up at the pirate. "I've trained through worse." She grunted as she lashed out with the force, grabbing all the pirates and lifting them. "Now, you are going to leave, or I will throw your lifeless corpses off of my ship." She glared at them all as she held them in her grasp.
"I thought jedi were peacekeepers?" Hondo choked out as he grappled with whatever was holding him by his throat. "Isn't this a bit aggressive?"
Odette walked up to the pirate, unafraid. "'Business is business', as you said. If this is all you comprehend, then why use any other means? Now then, if you would kindly-" She was interrupted as a stun bolt hit her from behind. Whatever power she had been unknowingly using to support herself slipped from her grasp and she feel to the ground once more.
Hondo dusted himself off and pulled his blaster from his belt. "Yes, we are a violent bunch. What can I say? We are pirates. It's just how we are." He set his blaster to stun and aimed it at the jedi. "But know that we are not murderers." He shot her point blank with the stun bolt. "Load her up. We can ransom her and anyone else on this ship."
I love interacting with Hondo in a story. He's always in it for himself, bu he's not outwardly trying to hurt anyone. He just will if it gets him what he wants and it's the only option left. And he always tries to turn every opportunity or interaction into profit. So much fun.
I originally wasn't going to pull Odette back into the canon storyline, but Illum just suited my needs perfectly. And now I have a chace to show off her new crystals. They are inspired by those custom kyber crystals you can find for Savi lightsabers.