I know I said Fay-centric in the SB thread for Incense and Powdered Diamond, but I realized about halfway through writing this chapter that at least Knol Ven'nari and Nico Diath are sticking around because I can see where they're going from a character perspective. Not Jon, though. I don't actually like him as a person and I can't get in his head, plus I can think of stuff to make the others stand out, but not Mr. ow the edge.
This is Canon Divergence during Republic 53 (Blast Radius), because I cannot accept the way that they died in canon. I mean, come on. The Jedi Master known for her pyrokinesis succumbing to burns? Bogus.
I'm probably going to try and speedrun this fic, because I don't need more on my plate, but who knows if that'll actually work out.
I Challenge My Fate
Leave saving the world to the men Temple Jedi? I don't think so! I don't think so.
Parts of the dialogue are lifted directly from Republic 53 (Blast Radius).
"Ah, Master Kenobi. Our little squad seems to be complete." The speaker, a silver-haired human-looking Jedi by the name of Nico Diath, nodded at Obi-Wan Kenobi once, his bushy moustache concealing his mouth.
"Finally. You Coruscant Jedi take your time, don't you?" sneered a Bothan Jedi in a vest sneered, characteristic of Knol Ven'nari and her fiery temper.
"Sheathe your fangs, Master Ven'nari. Obi-Wan has faced many trials recently…" the graceful Fay trailed off, seeming to look through the youngest Master present. "...indeed, I sense that you are still ill."
"Just the lingering effects of the Confederacy's new weapon. I feel fine." Obi-Wan frowned, considering the situation. "But this is… quite the strike team, Master Fay. I'm not sure I'm even needed here, merely that I'm here because I was the one the Council assigned."
Fay glided forward, touching both sides of his head with her fingers and his forehead with her thumbs, calling upon the Force and sending it through Obi-Wan in a heady rush, bolstering his weary body and clearing away what symptoms of the disease remained. "You're the only one who has firsthand experience dealing with this new weapon. Your insight will be invaluable."
Before Obi-Wan could thank her, Master Ven'nari was already growling out "Let's get this over with. I'm needed elsewhere, and the chemical factory is already on the move.
"It's mobile?" asked Obi-Wan, frowning.
"More or less. It's riding the lava flow, at least for now. We'll need to move soon before they can reinforce it." The Bothan Master's voice had softened marginally at this.
Nico Diath frowned. "True. I still see no battle droids, and given the power draw of the chemical station, compared to the equipment they could set up on this rock, I doubt they have a significant contingent inside, not if they expect to charge them all."
"So what are we waiting for?" Jon Antilles, the last of the four wandering Masters in the group, asked from within the shadows of his black cloak.
"Antilles!" snapped Ven'nari. "Nico is in charge here, not you. You weren't even assigned to this mission, drifter."
"I go where I'm needed," replied the hooded Jedi enigmatically.
"Enough." Master Diath's voice carried enough command to blow away the frustration building between the two squabbling Jedi. "We've only detected a handful of life signatures, which means that the facility is likely either automated or run by a skeleton crew. Our primary, and only, concern is retrieving a sample of the antidote, at all costs. If we fail, then the war is as good as lost."
Ignoring Fay's frown at that, Jon Antilles turned to the cliff. "Then follow me," he said, then leapt from where they stood overlooking the slowly drifting rock in the lava flow.
"So much for teamwork," grumbled Ven'nari, leaping a heartbeat after Antilles, with the rest of the Jedi not far behind. Antilles touched down at the top of a staircase cut from the stone with millimeter precision, with the rest of the Jedi behind him on a narrow path to an empty landing pad.
"Everyone land safely?" Not waiting for an answer, and likely ascertaining their safety through the Force, Jon Antilles plowed ahead, already taking his first step down the staircase. "This looks like a workable entrance."
"Nico was right," said Fay quietly once they had entered a corridor of pipes and steel grating. "I sense no battle droids here."
"No path is completely safe," said Jon Antilles, quite unnecessarily.
"The base is manned," said Ven'nari, pointing towards an armored figure backlit by a viewscreen as her green-bladed lightsaber ignited in her hands, "but this shouldn't be a problem."
"Hold," said Antilles. "Attacking a Skakoan, in their pressurized methane breathing apparatus, with a lightsaber, is unwise. They're likely to explode, and violently at that."
Ven'nari glanced back at Diath as Obi-Wan approached a wall-mounted screen and began accessing it. "Trap?"
"Unfortunately," he replied. "Until we know what the trap is, though, we'll just have to avoid them."
"Master Diath," said Obi-Wan. "I've accessed the installation's floor plans. A synthesis lab is nearby, and we should be able to find the antidote, or at least a formula, there."
"Lead on," said the older Jedi.
After about ten minutes of sneaking around, they arrived in a chemical lab, and upon seeing the occupants, Obi-Wan had to bite back several curses in Mando'a.
"Antidote secured," said Asajj Ventress, with the hulking form of Durge at her side. "Scuttle the station, before the Republic can get their hands on it."
"Too late, darksider," said Master Diath, a bar of blue-white plasma blazing to life in his hands.
"Ah, no. Not quite, fools," sneered Ventress. "Our spies knew you were coming, false Jedi, and we are fully prepared to kill you all." She lunged forward, red kyber screaming as her blades came to life, only to be met with both Obi-Wan's and Nico Diath's sabers, both catching her blades in mirrored Soresu guards. Jon faded backwards, drawing the shadows around himself as the other Jedi drew more attention to themselves.
Durge, at her back, raised a blaster- away from the Jedi. Obi-Wan tracked the line of fire to a Skakoan, and screamed "NO!"
Knol Ven'nari's empty hand had already been raised by the time Durge's blaster bolt issued forth from the weapon.
The fireball resulting from the exploding Skakoans was quickly pulled down into a sphere the size of a marble in the hand of the Bothan Jedi Master, and she grinned toothily, eyes glowing yellow in the dim light shed by the bead of flame. "They don't call me the fire eater for nothing, you relic of a bygone era." Then, she hurled the sphere at Durge, who attempted to block it with energy shields on his forearms but failed, and it exploded into an inferno once again for almost five seconds.
When it faded, there was nothing left of the bounty hunter but charred armor and ash.
"No Jedi would ever stoop to such a depth!" snarled Ventress, disengaging and leaping back. "What are you?"
"I am what I've always been, Dathomiri brat," said Knol Ven'nari, fangs bared as the baleful yellow in her eyes faded back to gray. "I am the nexu tamed into a shaakdog, but that doesn't mean I've lost my bite."
Ventress merely snarled, lunging towards Diath (who was between her and Ven'nari) and attacking him with sloppy Makashi. Instead of remaining with Soresu, Diath lunged forward in turn, drawing a second hilt from inside his robes and igniting an old-looking lightsaber hilt, a bronze blade appearing from it, and matched Ventress' offense with Form VII, although the longer the other Jedi watched, their own blades at the ready if he needed their aid, the more obvious it was that he wasn't using Juyo.
"How- When did he learn the Vapaad?" asked Obi-Wan, confused.
"He was last in the temple… mm, about five years ago, I believe," said Fay. "Nico always did make a habit of keeping up to date with the latest in lightsaber dueling, so he picked it up then."
"That's because you eschewed the art when I was your Padawan," Diath shot back, slowly starting to overwhelm the half-trained Sith assassin, "so I keep up with it now so as to not miss out in the future!"
With one final twist of his wrists, he cleaved through the emitters of both of Ventress' lightsabers, then raised his own blue blade to her throat. "Surrender now, child. We cannot promise you mercy if you do not."
As a response, Ventress just screamed, channeling her rage through the force to physically push all of the Jedi back and daze them.
All save Fay, who merely raised a hand and caused the scream to cut out. "Are you finished?" she asked primly, the eyebrow under her odd forehead marking rising.
"Not while you pretenders to the Jedi name are still here! You do not deserve to wear the title, not when you left Ky Narec to die! I am the only one who deserves to call themselves a Jedi!"
"You are no Jedi, girl," said Fay quietly, gesturing with her outstretched hand. "You are simply hatred and bile given form."
"I feel you, in my head," ground out Ventress, dropping to her knees and pressing her palms to the sides of her head. "I feel you stealing my memories, and my name."
Fay just looked at her, sadness glimmering in her steel-gray eyes. "Goodbye, Asajj Ventress."
"But I am in your heart. You fear me, and what I stand for. You know that the Sith are ascendant once more, and your corrupt and shortsighted Order's time is almost ov-" She didn't finish her word, falling unconscious in a heap.
"Nico," said Fay, jerking her chin at the young woman. The gray-haired master nodded, dropping to one knee over Ventress and clicking cuffs around her wrists, then dipping his hand into a pouch at her waist and coming out with the vial of the antidote she'd displayed at the beginning of the encounter.
"She should be suppressed until we make it to Coruscant," he said.
"Good. We'd best be going then, before something in the facility fails out from underneath us," said Fay.
"That's not a problem," said Jon Antilles, stepping out from a shadow cast by a particularly large piece of chemical equipment. "Scuttling charges have been disarmed, the shields are no longer set to shut off, and I also found us a ship, unless one of us was planning to hold the Sithling in their lap until Coruscant."
"Oh?" asked Ven'nari. "What kind?"
"It's a Corellian YT-1300. She's named the Stellar Envoy, and I think we could latch Kenobi's Aethersprite and the ring to the outside, if you don't trust your astromech to fly the ship back on its own."
"Then by all means," said Diath, hooking one lightsaber to his belt and slipping the other into his robes, "lead the way."
The hooded Jedi Master took them on a twisting route through the bowels of the facility, then out onto a landing platform on the far side of the facility, where the cream-colored ship lay.
"Best of luck." Those were his last words before walking behind one of the ship's landing struts and failing to reemerge from the other side.
Fay just sighed. "As charitable as we are supposed to be, his edgy routine is quite wearying, especially upon reacquaintance."
Diath just grunted out a "Kids these days," causing Ven'nari to burst into a fit of poorly disguised chuckles.
"Quite," said Obi-Wan, recalling his experiences with his own Padawan.
"Kenobi. Do you want to pick up your fighter, or do you trust the droid?" asked Diath, piercing gaze locking onto the youngest Master present.
"Ah, if you'll give me a moment to comm R4, I'll take you up on that ride."
"Make it snappy," said Diath, stomping up the ramp to begin preflight checks.
One quick holocomm later, and Obi-Wan was also on the ship, and a few minutes after that, they were under way, jumping into hyperspace mere moments after Obi-Wan's fighter.
After about half an hour of pacing, Obi-Wan turned for the hundredth time and came face to face with Fay, letting out a rather un-Jedi-like shout.
"I sense you have questions," said Fay, palms pressed together at about navel level. "Ask, and if I can answer, I will."
"I… I saw that Master Ven'nari's feat with the fire forced her to draw on the Dark Side of the Force, but I was under the impression that that was… shall I say, discouraged by the Councils. How can the two be reconciled?" asked the auburn-haired Master.
"Ah, that." She gestured to a rounded couch around a circular table. "Have a seat, this may be heavier than you'd expect."
The both of them slid into the couch, Obi-Wan's eyes never leaving Fay.
"The thing you have to understand about the Force," said Fay, after a moment, "is that it wants to be in balance. That's ultimately what the important thing is, and that's what is key here, alongside the fact that the Dark Side of the Force is only called that because we believe it to be truly dark, and not different. In truth, it's just a way of accessing the Force using our emotions. So, Master Ven'nari took her rage, at being unable to save those Skakoans, her fear, that she would be unable to save us, and her love for all of us, as her brothers and sisters in arms, and reached out through that into the Force, and drew on the quote-unquote Dark Side of the Force."
"That's… incredible. I've never heard it described that way."
"Most wouldn't," replied Fay. "I found it in a trove of documents on Tython during my time learning from Satele Shan, and it was of great comfort to me during the time when I was considered Fallen."
Obi-Wan blinked, gobsmacked. "Wait, you Fell? And you remain Jedi?"
"All three of us wandering Masters did," replied Fay evenly. "I Fell upon seeing Revan split into two halves at the hands of Darth Vitiate, and that broke me, after knowing Revan throughout their time in the Order, both times. Nico Fell when he decided that his uncle, Master Krull Diath, shouldn't be left to rot on Korriban during the Stark Hyperspace War, and pulled down an orbiting starship on the group that was keeping him pinned down. Knol Fell when protecting a young boy from an explosion at the hands of bounty hunters. The difference is… well, ultimately, we all decided that our Fall wouldn't be the end of our time serving the Galaxy. I followed the texts from Tython, and their philosophy of balance in the Force, and ultimately Nico and Knol learned from what I taught them about that philosophy, and eventually… well, here we are, Jedi in good standing." She shrugged.
Obi-Wan sat back in his seat, taking in the massive infodump. It sounded… well, it sounded unreasonable, and yet… well, he hadn't believed that something like Melida/Daan could happen in the republic, and yet here he was, all the wiser and more scarred for living through it.
He only had one more question he could ask about this before he had to meditate upon this, and it was the one he most dreaded asking.
"So… why tell me all of this?" he asked, pushing through his fear as he'd learned on Melida/Daan, or Mandalore.
"Because you have the potential to achieve this balance as well, Master Kenobi." At his skeptical look, Fay continued. "No, it is true. I sense great willpower in you, willpower that would serve you well in balancing yourself, and… well, let us say that we do not all achieve balance the same. Nico uses minor amounts of one side or the other to stay in balance, Knol uses massive bursts of one side or the other to do the same, and as for myself… well, a woman must keep some of her secrets, especially one almost four thousand years old, but I am always using both sides of the force." She stood up, then patted him gently on the shoulder. "Go. Meditate. We have to return to the Temple to give our report, then we can go to Tython, if you so desire."
She walked off into the cockpit with the other two Masters, leaving behind Obi-Wan with many questions and inner turmoil to match.
The infodump at the end kinda got away from me, lol.
I was actually originally conceptualizing a "Fay ends up on Bandomeer, drops Xanatos like the little bitch he is, and poaches Obi-Wan out from under Qui-Gon" but then I realized that I don't know nearly enough about Obi-Wan's apprenticeship to write that and nor do I have the time to learn, so… Clone Wars it is.
The "Fay is actually from Revan's time" is also a thing in that story idea, and she kind of decided that she was going to mentor Obi-Wan anyways, so… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
That's about it, so read, review, enjoy, and have a nice day!