Hello everyone, and welcome to another chapter of The Clone Wars! In this one, I will be going off an episode again, this time it will be about Xur's power and his backstory, as well as incorporating a new aspect of Ahsoka and Xur's relationship.
As the war escalates across the galaxy, more lives are caught in its lethal grasp. To make up for these losses, younglings are needed more often. The trials are hard, but the best do prevail, and the reward is an event known as "The Gathering". At the same time, Xur Eon delves deeper in the mysteries that surround a possible "Force Bond."
Chapter 9: The Gathering
When Xur thought of his journey to Ilum, he imagined a nice, quiet flight to the planet, rid of distractions. He believed that he could finally go on a trip that didn't have some sort of catch to it…a trip where he could file his research and go.
What he found waiting for him was not even close to what he imagined. He found himself following a rodian, wookie, human, ithorian, and two others whose race he couldn't remember at the moment. They were younglings, and as soon as he saw them, he knew what was happening. Master Yoda had finally tricked him into overseeing "The Gathering."
Not only was it a terrible idea for a Jedi who actively delves into dark side teachings to train younglings, but Xur had intended his trip to be used to solve this new issue that had developed.
In the waning hours of the Onderon Rebellion, Ahsoka had attempted to save Stella Guerra from plummeting to her death. She had almost succeeded, but a Separatist gunship flared back to life just in time and fired a laser round right into her shoulder, causing her to drop below. Xur was at the bottom of the cliff preparing to catch her, but as soon as the bolt impacted Ahsoka's shoulder, he felt an excruciatingly searing heat on his own shoulder, causing him to be unable to stop her body from impacting the ground. After the ordeal, there was no impact, no mark, and zero trace of anything on his shoulder. The pain had just happened…and in the exact place Ahsoka had been shot.
He called it impossible. Yoda called it a "Force Bond." Whatever it was, Yoda was sending him to Ilum to get answers.
Xur didn't dislike children; he just didn't like the fact that they were asking him millions of questions. The rodian kept tugging at his belt, and he tried to look away.
"What is it like to fight in the Clone Wars?" she asked, and the others were jumping up and down for him to answer.
Xur grumbled. "Well, let's just say you have good days and bad days," he replied, trying not to entice the children to ask more questions. They were soon approaching the door to the landing platform. They tried to continue, almost dragging him to the floor, but he reached for the door. "Yes, yes maybe another time. Now, the ship is through this door, go on now!" he ushered them on as he opened the door outside. They almost sprinted out, and he nearly collapsed from the wave of six younglings trying their hardest to get there first. He shook his head and shut the door behind him with the force and walked towards the ship. He couldn't believe that he was stuck with a bunch of children for the entire voyage.
The sun shined in his eyes as he left the shade, and he raised his hand to shield them. He could make out the ship however, since he could also hear the sound of laughing children to guide him along. But, as his vision cleared up he could also hear another voice, one much more mature than the children. He could have sworn he was the only "aged" Jedi on this journey.
"…for a Jedi, there is no greater challenge or honor." He knew that voice, all too well, and he could already see Yoda's reasoning piece together. Awkwardness swept over, and he found himself shrugging his shoulders and placing his gloved hands on his backpack straps, doing his best not to stare at her.
Ahsoka was by far his closest companion, even more so than his old Master, Mace Windu…so the situation had made their relationship…strange. She seemed to take notice of his arrival, but her impeccable professionalism kept her from veering from her job.
The human youngling spoke up. "What exactly is the Gathering, Padawan Tano?" he asked. Xur rolled his eyes, since he had explained it multiple times before now, but at least he didn't have to do the talking this time.
Ahsoka smiled once more, and looked at each youngling individually. "Petro, Ganodi, Biff, Kitune, Zat, Gungi…" she then looked to Xur, who quickly looked away. "The time has come to build your own lightsabers."
The younglings jumped around in joy at the sound of it, excited beyond what Xur could possibly muster. He looked down at his belt, remembering that he had finally decided to use only two single-bladed lightsabers from this point forward. He then shot up his attention back to Ahsoka as she interrupted the children's festivities.
"Be warned! The journey is very dangerous, and many perils lie ahead of you. Where we are going, there is no place more sacred to the Jedi," she explained. They all looked around in wonder. "Now get on the ship, we must depart soon."
The younglings were up the loading ramp faster than Xur's eyes could track and away. He then took this chance to finally talk to Ahsoka. She looked proud of herself in a way. "Impressed with yourself?" he asked.
Ahsoka narrowed her eyes. "I learn it from you," she joked. They both looked at each other, seemingly trying to see who would throw in another witty comment. When none came, she broke the stare-down. "No, but seriously, what are you doing here? You've got more lightsabers than any Jedi in the order."
Xur scratched his head. "Well…not anymore…but no, I'm not coming to create another lightsaber. I'm here because-," he paused, thinking of how to put it. "I asked Master Yoda about what had happened on Onderon."
Ahsoka's eyes panned down and her arms crossed uncomfortably, remembering the horrific event. "What did he say?" she eventually asked.
Xur sighed. "Basically something along the lines of a "Force Bond" …and he thinks you and I might have created one."
Her eyes narrowed. "But…but how? I mean…you and I…we're not…family or anything," she stammered, looking away. "How is that-…how is that possible?"
Xur shook his head. "I don't know, but Yoda seems to think I'll find something on Ilum, and finding out that you've been assigned really isn't too surprising when you think about it."
After a few moments of silence between the two, Ahsoka sighed. "Let's hope you do find something on that planet."
The shrine they entered from the iced-over wasteland that was Ilum was huge. Xur had been there before, but it was just so long ago that he forgot how magnificent it truly was. It reminded him so much of the Valley of the Dark Lords on Korriban, as the statues of warriors towered above. Now wearing his helmet due to the wintry weather, he used it to scan the different monuments that spanned the shrine.
He could feel the Force in this place. The light side was very strong here, and he felt comfortable for once.
He knew that Yoda was speaking to the younglings, but he didn't care to listen, as he knew exactly what he was going on about already. He was far more interested in the shrine itself, wondering how such light could be channeled in one place. It felt warm, unlike the cold that the dark side possessed, a cold he knew all too well.
He then turned his attention back to Yoda as he saw the crystal cave reveal itself from behind the ice wall. Yoda and Ahsoka then led the younglings to the steps and they shed their backpacks, ready to take on the cave. He decided that it was the time to join them.
"Once you find your crystal, do not remain in the cave," Ahsoka urged. "As daylight ends, the entrance will begin the freeze over, and you will be trapped."
Ganodi looked around worriedly. "For how long?"
"For one rotation," Ahsoka explained. "There will be nothing anyone can do for you. Now hurry, time is running out!" The children then moved in quickly, disappearing into the shadow of the cave. Xur walked up to Yoda's side and pulled off his helmet. He knew why he was here, but he had no idea what he was trying to find.
"Care to fill me in on why I'm here, Master Yoda?" he asked.
Yoda chuckled. "So certain I know the answer, are you hmm?" The short Jedi Master raised his cane and pointed to both he and Ahsoka. "A bond through the Force, manifested it has between you."
Ahsoka once again looked uncomfortable, her blue eyes shifting back and forth. "But… how is this possible Master?"
Yoda's eyes shut, and a deep grumble followed. "Between the two of you, the Force flows unobstructed. As to why…uncertain…I am." Xur and Ahsoka then both finally looked at each other…almost as if they suddenly felt that exact thing. "Into the cave, you must go. Trust the Force, we must."
"If that's what it takes," Xur accepted, returning his helmet to his head. "Then so be it." His boots echoed through the hall as he marched up the steps.
"Xur," Ahsoka called out, prompting him to look back. She hesitated as responses shuffled through her head, and a look of worry occupied her expression for a moment. "Good luck," she eventually said.
All she received was a nod before he ran off into the cave.
It was all flowing back to him, his childhood in the temple, training with Mace Windu. Of course, due to his circumstance, he went to Ilum with Windu alone, since he wasn't born into the Jedi. There, he received four different crystals of the rare orange color, whose color shifted due to his ability.
Xur's progression through the cave was slow, since he really didn't know what he was looking for. Yet, he felt a presence in the cave, filled with energy. It felt strong, arrogant, almost…
With that, someone crashed into his lower section and bounced off. He could tell it was a child, since it didn't weigh enough to be a full-sized adult. He regained his bearings and looked down to see Petro lying on front of him. Xur growled. "Ah! What's the rush kid?"
Petro realized who it was and rose to his feet. "I'm sorry Master Eon, it's just that I've found my crystal and I must get back before the others!"
Xur narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. No one found their crystals this fast. "Show me," he said. Petro confidently pulled it out of his jacket pocket and showed it to him. Xur knew almost instantly that what he showed him was not a lightsaber crystal, and the icicle was already slightly melting in his hand. However, how else would he learn to lose his overconfidence? He widened his eyes greatly. "Wow! Petro, you have found one of the rarest crystals the Jedi have ever known!"
Petro swiped it out of Xur's hands. "R-really? H-how? What will it do?"
Xur laughed. "Petro…that crystal is not only longer than most, but it also laces the beam with lightning!" he explained. Petro was so excited that he ran off, slipping before he disappeared in the darkness. He shook his head, stupid kid.
With Petro gone aimlessly back to find that he had found ice, Xur continued and reached out into the force. He wanted to find something quickly, so that he could let the children discover the lie that they would be trapped alone.
After what felt like an hour of walking in circles, Xur came into a large chamber, and it looked similar to the ruins of Korriban. He gave it a good look before progressing, and he noticed some sort of altar in the middle. As he got closer however, the dark side grew, and he could feel it inside of him.
"Son," he heard a female voice echo. He looked around, up at the ceiling and then back to the altar, but now he saw her…his mother. Xur didn't grab his lightsaber yet, but he clenched his fist and grit his teeth at the sight of her.
"Darth Hydria," he said. The red-skinned zabrak female was shorter than him, but her black robe made her look larger than she actually was. "Do you want to explain to me why I'm here?"
Hydria chuckled. "Why you are here? You are the reason why you are here. You seek answers, answers that will explain your power." Hydria and Xur found themselves circling each other. He didn't want to take any chances.
Xur shook his head. "And what makes you think I haven't mastered my power already?" he asked. Hydria sighed and looked away for a moment.
"Ahh, my dear Xur. You would have made such a powerful Sith at my side. We could have ruled the galaxy as mother and son, destroyed that Sith pretender Sidious, and brought peace to the galaxy," she continued.
He clenched his lightsaber. "The Sith are weak. The rule of two makes it that way. All they do is kill each other, and that is why the Jedi always prevail. That is why I am a Jedi, and you were always a failure."
Hydria clenched both fists, and they crackled with dark energy. Xur ignited his lightsaber, awaiting an imminent attack. "If you really have fallen this far to the light, then you are no longer of use to me!" She shouted and then unleashed a barrage of force lightning, which Xur deflected back with his saber.
He laughed. "If I have fallen, then you must be beyond even me!" She did not take this insult lightly, and she increased the power of her barrage, and Xur could hold on no more. It ripped his lightsaber from his hands and hit him head on, sending him into the wall a static mess. He shook his head to regain his bearings and looked up to see Hydria approaching him. He didn't want to give her another opportunity to hit him, so he launched his own barrage of lightning after her, but she simply sent it away with a deflection. He rose to his feet.
"You see, I will always be stronger than you as long as you are a Jedi," she said. Xur shook his head and smiled, and she looked at him in wonder.
"But, you're dead. This is an illusion. You do not exist," he said, crossing his arms. Hydria looked in distress, and she unleashed another barrage of lightning, but it passed right through Xur. "You are nothing more than a ghost!" Hyrdia shouted in vain, and then disintegrated into nothing. Xur rubbed his shoulder as he approached the altar and silently thanked Yoda, since he was the one who taught him that his eyes can deceive him.
As he approached the altar, however, he only found himself asking more questions than before. Atop the ice pedestal floated a ball of energy, crackling with lightning every so often.
"What the hell?" he asked himself as he approached, his hand outreached.
It was then that the lightning arched forward and enveloped his body, and he screamed.
Ahsoka collapsed outside the cave, her muscles spasming uncontrollably as pain ripped through her body. The sudden shock caught her completely off guard, and a loud scream erupted from her throat.
She had no idea what was happening.
Yoda could only watch in pity until her painful, unseen assault had ceased its attack upon her body, leaving her gasping for air. He had felt the Force shift around her just before it had happened, and it could only mean one thing.
Ahsoka looked up to him, her eyes filled with the fear of the unknown. "What was that…Master?" she asked, still struggling for breath.
"The answer to your question it was, yes," he answered, his eyes closed. "Between you and Eon, a Force Bond has manifested."
The pain gone, and her assailant given a face, Ahsoka eventually rose back to her feet. She shivered from writing on the icy floor, crossing her arms. Yoda continued, "The severity however, unfortunate it is. Death for one could mean death of the other, as well it could."
Her eyes widened. "Are you saying…if he ever died…then I would too? No matter where I was in the galaxy?"
Yoda answered with a deep grumble as his eyes closed, but before he could answer, Petro came running out of the cave.
"Looks like I'm the first back with my crystal," he acknowledged. Yoda and Ahsoka turned to face him, both surprised at the swiftness of his exit. "That wasn't so hard. I even beat Master Eon out of the cave," he continued, bubbling with confidence.
Ahsoka scoffed and tried not to laugh. Yoda narrowed his eyes. "And the others?"
"Who knows?" he replied, shrugging his shoulders. "I didn't want to gloat since I found mine so quickly."
Ahsoka didn't need an attunement to the Force to feel the overconfidence pouring out of the young human. She met eyes with Yoda before saying, "Show us."
"Ha," he started, reaching into his shoulder pocket. "Master Eon said I found a rare one, longer than usual, and it's also-," he stopped as the icicle he had found melted in his hand as soon as it was exposed to the sunlight peering through the cave. All he could do was stare in disbelief.
"A crystal you have found, water you have brought," Yoda replied, finishing with a chuckle.
Petro shook his head. "B-but that's impossible! It was my crystal I was sure of it, and Master Eon said-,"
"Master Eon," Ahsoka cut him off, trying not to smile. "Says a lot of things."
Yoda chuckled. "So certain, were you? Go back, and closer you must look, away from the deceitful Master Eon."
Petro mumbled to himself in disbelief, looking back up to the ice doorway that was slowly freezing over. "But the door is already half closed."
Ahsoka shrugged. "Then you better hurry."
Petro hesitantly then ran off back into the cave, and once he was gone, Ahsoka found herself smiling madly.
Xur awoke and instinctively took his lightsaber and ignited it, only to find that he was alone. He shook his head violently and deactivated his saber as soon as he remembered what had happened before. The energy latched onto his hand, and his world went into a painful white.
Whatever it was, it was gone now, and the room he was in was different. Instead of the ice version of a temple on Korriban, he was now in a regular ice cave…absolutely nothing special about it.
Grunting, he rose to his feet despite the aching soreness of his muscles. He figured it had to have been from the attack he sustained earlier, whatever it was.
The first steps were difficult, but he eventually was able to walk at full speed, albeit with his arms crossed, shivering from the cold. Zabraks were natives of Iridonia, which was far from any icy wasteland.
After a few minutes of walking through the cold halls, he finally came to the exit, which had been completely frozen over by now. His eyes widened. He had to have been out for a long time.
"Master Eon!" someone called from one of the other paths, and he smiled as he recognized the voice. He turned to see Petro running after him, this time holding a real crystal in his hand. "You lied to me!" he protested.
Xur nodded. "Uh huh," After a few seconds of silence between the two, Xur shrugged. "What do you want me to do, say I'm sorry?"
Petro scratched his head. "Well…ummm."
"Was just trying to teach you something kiddo," he replied. "Don't always accept everything at face value," he then shivered over to the icy gate. "Now come on, we've got to get through the ice."
Petro nodded. "Yeah, I was thinking I might be able to roll through it if I got enough momentum."
Xur scoffed. "Roll through it? No, no, no, if I'm here, we're doing this my way."
Ahsoka was becoming restless. Five of the younglings had returned, minus Petro unsurprisingly, but Xur was still unaccounted for. She knew Xur was aware of the lie surrounding the ice gate, but not seeing him come out after what she had…experienced made her worry. Yoda had sensed her worry during the few hours that they had waited, and urged her to trust in him, but it was becoming unlike Xur.
That was until a massive ripple in the Force ripped through the cave, exploding the lower half of the ice gateway into millions of sparkling pieces. After the spectacle had concluded, Petro walked out and revealed his crystal, causing the other younglings to erupt in applause for their fellow student…and her worries ebbed away as Xur walked out of the cave.
The rodian youngling, Ganodi, cocked her head. "How did they break the ice?" she asked Yoda.
Xur chuckled as he removed his helmet. "You didn't actually believe that Jedi Master propaganda, did you?"
Yoda nodded in agreement. "Only water made solid, was the door. Easy to break, if you have the will, or powerful ally at your side." Petro met eyes with Xur, and they nodded to each other.
"You-you said we would be trapped!" Kitune protested in disbelief.
"Said a lot of things, I did, but learned today that you must not take at face value, everything said hmm?" Yoda explained, looking towards Xur, who smiled. "Many lessons you have learned today. Take your crystals back to the Temple, and keep them safe, young…jedi."
As the younglings cheered for each other, Xur caught Ahsoka's gaze, and she tilted her head to motion him away from the crowd. To Xur, the entire experience had been a painful waste of time.
Once they were away from the others, she leaned in and asked, "Are you ok?"
Xur's eyes narrowed. "Yeah…what makes you think I'm not? I blasted through the ice, didn't I?"
Ahsoka shook her head, annoyed. "Xur, not now. This is serious."
The zabrak had a confused look on his face for a moment, but he eventually realized what she was implying. "Wait…back in the cave…when I touched that-." He stopped, the revelation taking the words out of his mouth.
She nodded. "Whatever you did in there made me feel like I was being electrocuted…and no one else was here besides Master Yoda."
"Brought you together, the Force has," Yoda answered for her, and the two of them turned their attention back to him, who had left the younglings to celebrate amongst themselves. "Why…uncertain, it is."
"So, it's true?" Xur asked. "We've created a Force Bond between us?"
Yoda nodded, and stayed silent for a moment before continuing again. "Remain with Padawan Tano and the younglings, you will. More to show you, the Force has," he finished before walking off to rejoin the younglings.
Ahsoka sighed. "Well, it looks like I'll never be able to escape you at this rate," she joked.
Xur shook his head. "Oh, don't even act like you didn't miss me in there."
She shrugged. "You got me," she conceded. "But I was wondering if you'd ever escape a youngling trial."
Xur narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. "You were worried about me?"
He could tell he had caught her in the middle of her ruse, and she quickly tried to cover it up. "You bet I was…with this Force Bond thing, if you get hurt, then I have to suffer too."
The zabrak simply smiled at her attempt. "Yeah, you were worried."
Simply put, it has been a long time since I've written anything for Star Wars, but I have some good news for followers of my Star Wars Eons series. I'm planning to return for two more episodes starting probably this summer. I'll have to create a lot of things from scratch due to my displeasure in The Last Jedi and my decision to not use any characters from the new trilogy.
Yes, I know that this chapter creates a conflict with the final chapter of Globalist, so I will be omitting that out of the chapter soon.
Other than that, I will put out one or two more chapters for this Clone Wars arc, so look out for that! If you enjoyed, please follow/fav and leave a review! Thanks for reading!
