Disclaimer: I ( draksisreborn) own nothing but my OCs. Star Wars belongs to Lucasfilm and Disney. Many thanks to zazabelle once again for making this possible with me. So yeah... this took much longer than expected. Partially because of life picking up speed once again, and partially because we both hit a block. Please review and enjoy this latest installment, we will likely have the next one done within the next few days.
Rating: T
'This is turning out to be a fool's errand.' Lerti thought, reflecting on the last few weeks of their little "missions."
Half a dozen temples, under Imperial control or so old there was nearly nothing left of them. And they were no closer to their goal then they were that night on Nar Shadda. Jedha, Tyroth, the list goes on. Nothing.
Hours spent running through disheveled corridors and courtyards slowly overtaken by the environment.
Hours spent reading manuscripts that looked as if they would crumble in their hands.
Hours spent analyzing proverbs that only raised more questions than answers, giving the entire crew splitting headaches.
Hours spent looking for data packages that supposedly contained all the information a Jedi could ever need or "holocrons", according to Cenden.
'The guards have been the worst part.' Lerti thought. Damn bucketheads were swarming at each of them, forcing them to sneak past them or risk fighting the entire planet's garrison.
A blaster bolt whizzed by her head, forcing her back to the present as they ran through the temple, stormtroopers hot on their heels. She grimaced under her helmet as she fell to the rear of the group. "Soron, I'm gonna grenade them. Once we get to the courtyard call Cholmon and BX for a pick up."
"You sure that's a good idea?" Nek yelled from the front as he impaled a flanker with his double vibroblade.
"It's the only chance we got." Soron yelled, carbine firing over Lerti's shoulder. "Go for it."
Her unseen grimace morphed into a grin as she stopped and slid her grenade launcher off her back. She quickly kneeled and fired off a few grenades, bouncing them off the jagged walls into the entrance behind them. She was rewarded with one of the tunnels collapsing, trapping whatever troopers were there.
"Please be careful, this structure is very old and you may bring the whole thing down on our heads!" Cenden yelled, although his advice went unheeded by the Mandolorian.
She took off running again, following her crew as they came into the courtyard. As her crewmates took cover and began to fire on the stormtroopers spilling into the room, Lerti erupted into the air as she activated her jetpack. Pushing herself quickly off the ground, she swivelled her body as she landed abruptly on one of the over hangs of what used to be the ceiling, giving her a view of the entire courtyard below.
Stormtroopers seemed to flood in from two of the three entrances. It was safe to bet that the third entrance held a trap for her and her crew members as they were being cornered into the only available "escape" route.
She ducked as bolt flew inches past her head. Tumbling behind one of the broken stone pillars still left on this level, another few shots fired past her. Below she could hear her teammate's rapid fire on the advancing troopers. Lerti took a breath, her fingers caressing the triggers of her blaster she had slid out of her holster.
Her breath let out.
Quickly the Mandalorian twisted and rose from her hiding spot and rained down as much fire as she could on any moving thing she knew to be an enemy.
Blasts whizzed by, she ducks and spins in anyway she can in order to evade oncoming fire, her arms always outstretched and firing back on her less than graceful attackers. Below, she watched Nek jab and swing his vibroblade at the distracted stormtroopers while Soron and Cenden kneeled opposite each other and focused fire on the tunnels.
'Not a bad idea.' Lerti thought, again sliding the grenade launcher out from under the holder below her jetpack.
Ducking back behind her pillar, she reached up for her comm. "Guys, I'm going to blow out the tunnels. All three. Once the tunnels are down climb up top and we'll request our pickup. Sound like a plan!?"
"DO IT!" Soron yelled back through the comm.
Adjusting the smooth canister onto her shoulder, Lerti took aim. She had used up her blast bombs and was left only with the time detonated ones. They would have to do, she just had to launch them far enough into the tunnels that they wouldn't roll back into the courtyard.
She quickly pulled down the viewfinder on her helmet.
Breath in.
Breath out.
Fire!
One bomb in the hole. She readjusted her aim to the next tunnel.
Breath in.
Breath out.
Fire!
The bomb flew into the second tunnel.
BOOM!
The whole temple shook as the first tunnel exploded into flames and flying troopers while the stones supporting the tunnel collapsed.
Aiming for the third tunnel she fired just as the second tunnel went up in flames and broken stone. She launched the last grenade into the third tunnel. On the ground she heard Soron calling Chol as all three of them remained hunched on the ground waiting for the last explosion.
Lerti squinted as she saw movement in the third tunnel.
White armor emerged from the shadows running forward with something blinking in her hand.
The trooper took a step.
They threw the bomb up towards the balcony.
"I hate when they try to be heroes." Lerti mumbled as she watched in frozen shock while the armed bomb came sailing towards her.
Lerti heard a shot from a blaster and a scream, quickly shaking herself out of it she turned and ran. Her blood pumping in her ears as she ran towards the sheer drop on the other side of the temple.
'Jump off. Activate jetpack. Jump off. Activate jetpack. Jump off…'
BOOM!
Lerti felt her body go sailing forward as the ground collapsed beneath her. She tumbled about in a cascade of her own limbs and piercing rock debris for an eternity before she saw the ground beneath her and the world went dark with a violent thump.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Lerti groaned as she slowly regained consciousness.
'Damn that hurt.' She hissed in pain as her left arm moved.
Coughing and sputtering she moved her limbs about under the dirt that had enclosed her. Stumbling to her feet, she held her burning arm as she looked around where she had fallen. Light poured in from a hole in the ground above, it seemed Lerti was down in some sort of underground cavern. The surrounding area seemed to be swimming in darkness and dust clouds. Below her feet, mounds of debris and flooring sections formed into a monumental pile.
She reached for her comm. Her hand hit the empty hair where the device normally hung on her side. Cursing, she looked about the cavern. Her comm must've been knocked off during the fall. Taking inventory, her blasters remained in place but it seemed her jetpack along with the grenade launcher had also managed to stage a vanishing act. Sighing she began to weigh her odds, if she stayed put Soron would be able to find her easy enough, but the troopers might get to her first.
Glancing over the edge of the pile, Lerti realized would have to slide down on her backside if she was going to keep moving but there was no telling how she'd be able to slow herself on the way down. She winced as she again became aware of the pain in her arm.
'It's either take a much slower fall, or wait to see if a trooper decides to throw another grenade and this time right onto my head.' Lerti finally rationalized as she took one last look up at the sunlight streaming through into the gloom. 'They better be ok.'
Carefully shimmying to the edge on her bottom, Lerti's muscles tensed as she scooted off and rapidly began her descent to the darkened ground below. The rough ground beneath her seemed to poke and jab at her body as she skidded towards the ground. Cuts and scrapes seemed to suddenly appear on her body while she continued to clutch at her arm. Lerti's eyes remained locked on the ground's approach, her heart beating in her mouth.
She braced herself.
Her feet impacted the ground.
SPLASH.
Lerti gasped as she slid through the water and soft mud caking the surface of the cavern. She quickly landed with a soft squish onto her back.
Holding in a scream of pain, she took a breath and struggled out of the mud.
"Ok this is shaping up to be the opposite of a 'peaceful temple'." Lerti whispered angrily to herself.
She squinted through the shadows, off in the distance she saw the glimmer of light coming through the surface of the ground. An exit? Sighing, she began her trudge through the mud.
What were we even doing here?
What was she doing here?
Did they think this was going to make some kind of difference? All these temples were filled with a whole-lotta-nothing. Up until a few weeks ago, she hadn't even believed the Jedi existed. But even Lerti had to admit, being through all these temples made her disgusted with herself that she had ever been lead to believe that the force-wielders were nothing more than fantasy. These had been the homes of hundreds of people at one time. The Empire laid waste to hundreds of villages and cities everyday, but to manage to wipe out the memory of such a vast quantity of people in such a seemingly short period of time was staggering to say the least.
I suppose she couldn't say that they hadn't been benefiting from the trips. The days they had been spent reading ancient history and proverbs and learning about the 'will of the force' had been genuinely interesting. Half of it was religious mumbo jumbo but she had taken a few of her favorite sayings to heart that were just good advice in general.
Lerti pushed on, the cold water soaking her into her clothes and chilling her to the bone. She kept her focus on the glow emanating from the water and not her shivering hurting body or the sow panic starting to build in her the darker the space around her became. Maybe the glow wasn't a way out, maybe it was her comm, or her jetpack, or…?
She stopped just above the light.
Just in front of her feet sat a some sort of device lodged just under the mud. Out of pure curiosity, the Mandalorian reached for the glow. Her gloved hand enclosing around the object, she gingerly raised what looked like some sort of decorative box out of the water.
"Wait… Is this one of those…?"
She heard movement behind her coming from the hole in the cavern ceiling.
Lerti turned to see the silhouette of someone being lowered down through the hole by someone above.
"LERTI!" Cenden's voice sounded, echoing through the underground.
"Do you see her down there!?" Soron called out from farther off.
"No! But I know she's down here!"
"HEY GUYS!" Lerti called out, waving her good arm holding the glowing. "CENDEN I FOUND ONE! I FOUND A HOLOCRON!"
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
"So...how do you open this thing?" Lerti asked, twisting the holocron about in her good arm, carefully examining each side.
In the medical room, Nek focused intently on binding up Lerti's fractured arm while Cenden stood in the doorway, appearing a million miles away.
"Would you be careful with that thing? Also, hold still. Seriously I don't want to mis-split your arm and have it wind up all crooked." Nek complained as he wound the bandages around the bacta, eyeing the box wearily.
"Cool your jets. And what? I don't the special healer's treatment like you got?" Lerti retorted back, glaring playfully at Nek.
At that, Cenden seemed to snap out of his daze. Sighing, he walked over to Lerti and held out his hand.
"Can I see it please?" He asked Lerti staring solemnly at the holocron.
Continuing her playful manner she smiled and laughed, "Finder's keepers, Jedi. Just tell me how to open it."
An exacerbated Cenden snatched the holocron from her grasp with a roll of his eyes.
"It can only be opened using the Force. The crystalline material reacts to the connection of the metachlorians or something like that. And as for your arm, I will attempt to heal it, but after I find what we're looking for using this." He explained gesturing with the holorcron, "Using the Force takes energy just the same as sprinting a few miles might. So be patient and I'll get to it."
"No 'thanks Lerti for finding the Jedi box'?" Lerti asked sarcastically.
For a moment, Cenden almost smiled, "Thank you Lerti. You did good."
"Darn right I did." Lerti responded as she hopped off the medical table. "Thanks for the patch up Nek. I'm going to go talk with Chol for a while, do either of you need any stemcafe or anything?"
"We should be offering that to you." Nek mentioned as he gathered the remainder bandages together.
"I can make some for myself." Lerti said with a shrug followed by a grimace before walking out of the room.
From some ways down the hall the remaining two could hear Lerti yell back, "May the Force be with you!"
Nek let out a small chuckle as he followed Cenden out of the med bay. "Good ole Lerti. Hey Cenden, where you going?" He asked their resident Jedi.
"My room, to open the holocron. Why do you ask?"
"Mind if I come with? I want to see it open" Nek asked as he followed him down the hallway, eyeing said holocron slightly.
"Why would you want to see that? It's just a box with some holograms and maps." Cenden replied as he slowed his pace slightly.
"Well…" Nek started, kicking the floor slightly, "I've heard so much about the Jedi, and considering I was nearly dead the last time you used the Force I'd really like to see you use it. If that's ok with you of course." Nek finished a bit sheepishly.
Cenden smiled a bit at the younger alien. "Of course. Just as long as you're quiet." He answered, getting a big grin from the Devaronian.
They both entered Cenden's new room, Cenden pausing a bit on entry. It was hard to believe at times that this was his room. Previously a miscellaneous storeroom, it now housed a low bed, a desk, and several shelves holding various pieces of Cenden's armor, books, and the odd trinkets from his temple guard days.
'Certainly better than temple accommodations.' Cenden thought.
"Nek to Cenden, over. Can you hear me, over." Nek asked, waving his hands in front of Cenden's face.
The Jedi shook his head slightly. "Sorry. I spaced out for a second there."
"You do that a lot don't you?" Nek asked. "Ah forget about it, I should let you work." He said as he plopped down on the desk's chair.
"I guess it's hard not to with all the recent events going on… and their ability to connect to past events."
Nodding, Nek took on a silent composure as he watched Cenden.
Cenden didn't necessarily want Nek here for this. Heck, he didn't want to be here himself. Since the Order, it had felt like his own mind wanted to eat away at itself at the slightest thought of the sudden blasts and screaming of death.
For such a long time, he had told himself it was trauma. He gave himself meds for the mental strains, but it didn't help. It was more than that. He still felt the gnawing at his spirit. The fear in his heart threatening to overrun his every move.
It was the Force.
He'd know it all along, but something was so very wrong with it. The energy was still inside him, nothing had left but everything had changed. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but only change form. And his lifeforce had long ago morphed into something corrupted. He bottled it up, but it was still there. Twisted and misshapen by his own fear, and hatred, and distrust, for the very thing giving him power. He had sensed this power in the Sith before. He bottled it up so tight, the cork could almost not be loosened. More actions out of fear. But how could he go back to the trust the Jedi were so confident they had?
"The Force works in mysterious ways." He had heard that all his life. It never meant anything to him. Sometimes something unexplainably terrible would happen to someone who didn't deserve it, but "The Force works in mysterious ways" was always the answer. But that was no answer at all, it just meant, "We don't know. We will never know. Stop asking." Well now the Jedi probably wished they had asked further before the mystery was upon them in a swirling torrent of destruction. Their power could not save them when their power was against them.
Too many night of asking 'why?'
Too many days of buried thought.
'What do I do? What could I have done?' Echoed in the back of Cenden's thoughts before dragging him back to reality.
"Nek. I never thought I would ever see one of these things again. In all honesty, I never wanted to. But I guess if anyone is going to be here for anything, it should be you. You happened to drag me back into this, I guess we may as well continue from there." Cenden said as he stared at the holocron in his hand.
Nek stared too, whispering, "I think we both know coincidences don't exist."
Cenden took a breath.
Sitting down onto his bed, he closed his eyes.
His stomach twisted in knots in anticipation.
'You have to be honest with yourself now. This is the time to find answers.' Cenden thought to himself. 'You're nervous because you're afraid. Afraid to see what you've become. The Force is still with you, but for how much longer can you live like this? Trying to hide from yourself? From the future?…' His thoughts went silent for a moment as he felt a shiver run down his spine. A thought came to his mind that didn't feel like his own. But it felt more real than any thought he had had in a long time. 'You're afraid the holocron won't open for you because you don't want it to. You think you feel betrayed, but is that how you really feel? The Force is with you Cenden. It is you. So… How does the Force feel about itself?'
"I don't know." Cenden mumbled into the pulsating blue light of the holocron.
'Keep going. Find out.'
The Force built up inside him. It flowed through his body and around his being. It caressed the holocron through his fingertips like an old friend. He felt the Force's eyes on him. Watching him in suspicion. He felt that gnawing again.
"Please. I don't want to be in the dark anymore." Cenden whispered a prayer, his eyes draped shut.
A rush on energy burst through him suddenly.
He gasped as his body convulsed slightly and the holocron flew from his fingertips, unraveling in the air.
Cenden's being relaxed slightly but he still buzzed with the energy as star charts, files, teaching opened from the Jedi's data keeper.
Cenden stood slowly, bringing up the star chart, "Show us where to go."
A connection unrolled from his soul, glancing over the planets. It moved from one to the next, like an insect flitting from flower to flower.
It settled suddenly and forcefully over a spot. An empty spot.
No not empty, nearly invisible. It had settled over a small moon scattered among thousands surrounding a planet he was not familiar with.
"This one." Cenden reached out and marked it with his fingertip.
"That one? Why?" Nek asked quietly.
Almost as if to answer and without warning, the Force convulsed once again inside him, violently bringing all the energy released back on his mind.
As his vision went dark, he smiled a bit.
'It's been awhile since I've had a vision.' He thought as his body crumpled to the floor.