Rae: Alright, I'm surprised most of the reviewers liked it. I apologise if my characters seem Mary-Sue's as you call them...but don't worry...their faults, antics and their fears will be revealed...never jump to conclusions my friends. Yes, I understand that with there being no Ani/Padmè thing going on, that there's no hope for Luke and Leia...well...I can't explain that...this story was a spur of the moment, and it just popped in my head so I went with it. That's the point of a fanfiction isn't it? To write a different version of the story...to explore the depths of your imagination. Most fanfiction stories are based on "what if this happened?" so...this is what mine is based on. I do thank all of you that enjoyed it.
Now, a new idea will be introduced in my story and it's called Elm-Ball, which is short for Element Ball. It's basically I game my original characters came up with...I understand if it seems wrong in some way, but honestly it isn't. I've come to believe that there is a connection between the Force and a Chinese practice called the Tao/Dao. The Tao/Dao system is based on the belief that everything has an opposite, Yin and Yang, which the Force is based on the Jedi and the Sith, Light and Dark..you people know how it goes. Well...I figured, since the Tao believed that everything on Earth had a spirit that flitered in and around it and was also focused around the Five Elements, Earth, Air, Water, Fire and Metal. Well...I added this thought in as well...using the elements, which contain the Force...and...you'll see.
Anyways, you have been warned...so I don't want people saying, 'this isn't right' because I explained my views up front.
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars, that is George Lucus's insanely genius work. (insane in a good way)
ENJOY!
The Rogue Jedi
Chapter Two
Anakin stood off to the side of the Council room, the two mysterious female Jedi standing in the center of the room, eyes hardened, vacant of any emotion, emotionless masks etched on their faces. Both women were dressed as the day before, Auro-Bendi had her black cloak draped over her body, Trin-X following her example by doaning a dark, green cloak. He couldn't believe how serious the two were. His thoughts trailed back to this morning.
Anakin stood at the doors facing the balcony of the apartment, the three Jedi Master's sitting behind him in the lounge, talking about the two strange women. His eyes were closed as the morning sun began breaking over the horizon, dark orange coloring the sky. He was jolted out of his meditation by a loud screech and rushing footsteps echoed throughout the apartment complex.
He turned to see Auro-Bendi sprint into the room, Trin-X hot on her trail, the cat woman spouting out cries in a language foreign to his ears. He watched as the dark-haired woman gracefully jumped over the seat Master Yoda sat in, trying her best to get away from the angry woman, a smirk displayed over her beautiful features. Auro-Bendi landed gracefully on the glass table, running and doing another flip over Master Windu's head, laughing hysterically as the swifter, more graceful cat woman followed her every move.
Anakin was surprised when Auro-Bendi did a front handspring and flipped herself over his own head, landing behind him. He felt her gloved hands grip the back of his upper arms tight enough to hold, but not tighter than needed. He felt her pull and push him as Trin-X tried to make her way around him to catch the ellusive woman, realizing she was using him as a human shield.
"Auro, that was uncalled for! Complete uncalled for!" Trin-X growled out, her ears twitching with anger and irritation.
"You wouldn't have woke up on your own, so I think it was perfectly called for. Especially with the dream you were having, I wouldn't be surprised if you slept all day," he heard Auro-Bendi reply, her lips brushing against his neck, her breath drifting over his ears, causing him to hold back a shudder that threatened to rake his body.
"Now you're spying on my dreams?" the red-head growled, green eyes glaring.
"Well, you're not exactly good at keeping a blockade around your mind when you sleep. Although, I wouldn't blame you for being angry. I woke you up just as the dream was getting a little on the hot and heavy side," Auro-Bendi shot back, he felt her lips curl into her infamous smirk.
The cat woman let out a hiss before lunging at the girl behind him, causing him to duck as to be missed. Auro-Bendi dodged the attack and laughed while running back toward the hall where the bedrooms were kept, "Besides, who would have a dream about-"
"Auro-Bendi Desha! You are so dead! I'm going to make you wish you were never born!" Trin-X cut her off as she chased after her.
The group heard a laugh leave Auro-Bendi's lips as she made a reply, "A little too late for that, Trin!" Another crash was heard and laughter left both girls's lips, echoing through the halls, greeting the four Jedi in the lounge, leaving them to wonder.
Anakin inwardly smiled at the thought of the two playful friends, who at the moment looked anything but playful. They listened to the Council closely, never blinking, never smiling. Their faces were calm, placid, without a trace of any emotion. Both of their eyes looked to be voids of endless violet and green, Anakin finding himself lost in the deep, never-ending violet pools of the darkly dressed woman.
"I'm afraid my friend and I are only here for a week. We will stay in the Temple if that is your wish, but you must understand we have a charge and we will not stay within the Temple all day, everyday," Auro-Bendi stated calmly, her expression never shifting.
"Then we are going to assign Master Obi-Wan and his Padawan to keep an eye on you. You are welcome here, but we do not fully trust you," Master Windu informed.
Anakin noticed Trin-X's ears twitched with irritation, but she made no move to question the Council. Auro-Bendi bowed respectfully, "I understand your concern, Master Windu, and I accept your proposal." She then stood up straight before looking over at her friend, who nodded in return. The two bowed once more before leaving the room.
"Obi-Wan, Anakin, step forward," Windu instructed, dark brown eyes watching the two Jedi walk toward the center of the room, bowing respectfully. "You two are to keep a close eye on the both of them, Desha more so. While at the Jedi Temple, she is able to get into the Archives and basically change or erase anything she pleases. Go, make sure they stay out of trouble."
The two bowed once more before following after the two women, who seemed to be walking ahead of them, holding a conversation between each other. Anakin glanced at his Master, who seemed to be caught up in deep thought, his eyes never leaving the back of Auro-Bendi's head. They found a speeder and the four flew off to the girl's apartment. Anakin was thankful when Trin-X decided to break the tension held between all of them.
"Auro?" the beautiful, cat-like woman called for the driver's attention. Auro-Bendi nodded, showing her acknowledgement, "When do you think we'll go home?"
The dark-haired woman sighed softly, "We cannot afford to stay here longer than a week. It'll give me enough time to show you around the city of Coruscant and it would give our old friend some time to relax."
"Coruscant is a beautiful place, for a city I mean," Trin-X opinionated.
Her companion smiled softly, turning her warm eyes on her friend, "I agree. Coruscant was my home for some time. Granted, even pledged to the Jedi Code, I still got on the darker side of the city."
"Darker side?" Anakin asked suddenly, the woman letting the speeder dive straight down, causing all of them to straighten up.
"Most Jedi don't like the interior of Coruscant, for it revolves highly around gambling and dealings with the most slimiest creatures known to man, that isn't a Hutt," Auro-Bendi replied, pulling the speeder out of the dive and safely landing on the platform connected to the girls's apartment.
Climbing out, they entered the apartment complex, Auro-Bendi immediately disappearing into the kitchen as Trin-X walked over to a blue metal disk sitting on one of the glass tables. She sat down, motioning for the guys to join her, and tilted her head back, letting it rest on the back of the lounge sofa, staring at the ceiling. The blue disk began hovering, a silver ring parting about a foot above the blue disk, a colloum of blue light forming between the disk and ring. The figure of a man, finely dressed appeared within the blue colloum.
"Auro, Trin, everything is up to date as you wished. Auro, your order came in just yesterday evening and I must say, it'll need some work done. Trin, Cras wanted me to warn you to keep your guard up on your return, I'm sure he has something planned for you. I'm afraid Klesè and myself are about to go out, so I must part words with you. Return safely."
The figure of the man disappeared and another figure appeared, this one was of a woman, dressed in tight clothing. The first thing noticed was that she winked, "Auro, Trin, you guys haven't called in a while. I hope you two aren't showing those Jedi how to party too hard. Don't forget, one month is the memorial. I need your approval before I proceed with the preperations, Auro. Well, I must be going. Oh, and Auro, you owe me a game of Elm-Ball."
Anakin looked up as Auro-Bendi walked out, shaking her head while laughing inwardly, "It seems like you and I started a monster, Trin."
"No. You started the monster. I just encouraged it," Trin-X replied while winking at the dark haired woman who stood behind the sofa.
"True," Auro-Bendi agreed with the slightest inclination of her head. "I'll be right back." The girl turned around and walked toward her room, leaving Trin-X with the two Jedi. She grinned while tilting her head to the side.
"It's a pleasure to meet the one of the Jedi Auro holds in such high esteem," Trin-X spoke joyously, her elliptical pupils dialated as she grinned.
Anakin became confused, "I thought she wasn't fond of the Jedi Council?"
"Well, of course not, but that doesn't stop her from talking about her adventures," Trin-X explained, gazing up at the ceiling.
Obi-Wan suddenly snapped out of his thoughts, turning his attention toward the cat-like woman, "Thorosa-Bendi, I've never heard of the planet."
"That's because Auro found the planet when it was a deserted, ghost-town of a planet. The temperatures were extreme and made life there unbareable, there was no veggitation, no water, it was plain, boring. Auro started working on the planet, which I heard took lots of concentration with the Force. She put a tilt on the planet, making the climate change more bareable. She began transporting plants, animals and soon enough a decent atmosphere formed around the planet, enabling the presense of lakes, oceans and rivers. She named it after her sister, Thorosa," Trin-X spoke with such enthusiasm, pulling at the curiosity of Obi-Wan.
"She fixed a planet?" he questioned as if it was next to impossible.
"Not alone. She had help. If it wasn't for her Master, I think his name was Master Qui-Gon Jinn, pushing her to the limit, she wouldn't have been able to do it. Sure, I helped to the best of my ability, but she seemed so intent on fixing the planet," Trin-X answered.
Her ears then twitched, her head turning to glance at the hall Auro-Bendi had disappeared down. The ebony-haired woman re-entered the room, dressed in her black body suit, bare-footed, and wearing her violet vest and shorts. Her black, leather gloves were exchanged for black fingerless gloves, silver rings surrounding each knuckle and bendable joint in her fingers, thick, silver rings encircling her wrists. Her forearms were covered with black arm guards, her lightsaber attached to her hip, enhancing her combat-like clothing style.
"Go on, Trin. I don't have all night," Auro-Bendi commanded, the cat woman shooting her a grin before jumping up and dashing toward her room. Auro-Bendi let out a sigh before bending at her waist, stretching her muscles.
"What's the outfit for?" Anakin questioned.
Auro-Bendi didn't look up from the ground as she grabbed her foot and pulled it up to meet her lower back, stretching out her thigh muscles, "I owe Trin a game of Elm-Ball. You two are welcome to watch, if you wish."
"Well, definitely don't waste time explaining it. Come on!" Trin-X's voice called out, dressed like Auro-Bendi, except her gloves covered her hands completely, her rings gold. Her arm guards were a heavy-set, dark green, her lightsaber attached to her hip as well. Auro-Bendi stood up, pulling her hair up into a bun while sighing. That's when Anakin noticed Trin-X holding two, hover disks with a diameter of three feet, a grin lifting on her mocha-brown lips.
Auro-Bendi grabbed one of the disks and the two walked to the platform, Obi-Wan and Anakin following closely, listening to the two women talk.
"I get Fire and Earth!" Trin-X called out excitedly, before throwing the hover disk in the air and jumping onto it, allowing it to take her over the cityscape.
Auro-Bendi shook her head, "Air and Water." She followed her companion's moves and allowed the disk to take her over the platform's edge, her eyes closing as the hover board disk stopped a few yards away from Trin-X.
Both of the two just hovered over the city, hands unclenched and at their sides, fingers curled slightly. Anakin and Obi-Wan watched mesmerized as Auro-Bendi moved her right hand to hang over her left one, palms facing each other as she wove them around in a graceful manner. The guys then noticed a grey sphere form in her hand, light clouds swirling within the sphere. She turned her right palm facing up and moved it to her side, a simple grey sphere floating in her hand. Her left hand then pointed toward the apartment, water trickling toward her hand from a personal fountain that sat on her table. The water swirled around her left hand until a blue sphere formed in the palm of her left hand.
Trin-X turned her right hand toward the ground, dust and rubble from the city's ground zero seemed to float up to her and form in her up-turned palm before she turned it to face the sky. Her left hand shot out to the west of the inner city, toward the plantations, which supplied power to the cities, flames seemed to errupt in the palm of her hand, a dark orange sphere dancing in her hand. She then opened her eyes as her companion's violet eyes slid open.
Anakin and Obi-Wan watched with hidden amazement as the two began juggling the spheres in their hands, more spheres forming, their eyes trained on each other. Trin-X made the first move, her hand holding the sphere of fire shooting out, aimed toward her friend. The dark Jedi dodged it easily, shooting a sphere of water toward the woman, who dodged it. Both seemed to nod at each other before the real action took place.
Spheres of each element flew back and forth over the city, Auro-Bendi blocking a fire sphere by intercepting it with one of her water spheres, following it up closely with a sphere of wind. Trin-X blocked the attack by lifting her right hand up, a sphere consisting of dirt and rubble seemed to spread out and block the wind, dust falling over part of the city scape, concealing the cat woman from view. Auro-Bendi's violet eyes widened as a fire sphere shot out from the dust, her right hand instantly coming up and a wind sphere shot out and made contact with the fire sphere. Anakin and Obi-Wan fell in awe as the wind came out of the sphere, wrapping around the fire sphere before making a quick revolution around Auro-Bendi before releasing the fire sphere, back at the cat woman. The sphere instantly hit the woman in the stomach, knocking her off the hovering platform under her feet, her body plummeting toward the city.
"Whoops, I almost forgot there's no water under us," the guys heard the other woman say before diving after her unmoving, falling friend, her hover disk following afterward.
The two disappeard from sight as they fell toward the city, but the guys were surprised when Auro-Bendi's platform returned with Trin-X laying on it, groaning at the pain in her stomach from the burn. She looked up, pupils large with dismay as a sudden crash was heard from inside the apartment. They ran back in to find a smirking Auro-Bendi leaning against a door which rattled from fists pounding on the other side. She shook her head when the chaos came to silence, looking up at her audience of three Jedi and grinned even wider.
"I told you, you would lose. You're just too stubborn to realize it," the grinning woman broke the silence.
Trin-X snorted, "That was a cheap shot."
"Like your's wasn't?" Auro-Bendi shot back.
"What was that?" Anakin asked still in the state of shock.
Auro-Bendi looked over at him while smiling, "That, my young friend, would be Elm-Ball. It's much more dangerous if we were on a planet with more abundance of the elements. We simply took the Force, within and around, the elements we chose, and molded them to form spheres, using the Force to attack, block or change the structure of the element to what we feel is needed."
"So, once again, you've learned a way to manipulate something?" Obi-Wan questioned, the accused woman tensing up at the calm words holding an underlining of venom.
Anakin watched from the background as the woman bit down on her lower lip, forcing a smile on her lips before she spoke, "Well, look at you Master Jedi. You have everything figured out." Her voice darkened slightly and before anything was said, she walked around Obi-Wan, shoving pass Anakin as she moved toward her bedroom.
Rae: Well, I hoe you guys liked this chapter. Don't worry, the plot goes deeper than them arriving on Coruscant.R&R!