"Hey, Jedi, wake up," Mira said as she shook Seth awake. He was sleeping in the main hold. "We've just touched down on Nar Shadda. Let's go before everyone questions this too much."
"Hm?" Seth was still half asleep. "Oh—yeah." He got up sleepily and rubbed his eyes. You need more sleep, he thought. Seth stood up and walked towards the loading ramp. Mira stood where she was. "You coming?" he asked.
"I'm having second thoughts," Mira said. She needs to see Nar Shadda for what it is, Seth told himself. He gave a wry smile inside. "Never thought you'd give up a challenge," he said. Seth shrugged and walked off the ship. Her ego won't be able to take it. He exited and leaned up against one of the legs.
A few seconds later he heard Mira yelling, "Hang on!" Works every time. He gave her an expectant look. "Let's go," she said, "but there is no way that this will help me at all."
Seth shrugged again. "Suit yourself," he said. "Just keep an open mind, okay?" She nodded and the two walked out into the refugee landing pad in front of the cantina doors.
Seth stopped. "What do you feel?" "Well," Mira said, "I feel nauseous at the smell of all these freighters and a bit cold." He gave her a sober look. "What do you feel from Nar Shadda?" he asked.
"Nothing," she said. "This is pointless." "Open your mind," he said. She looked at him expectantly. "Close your eyes." Mira shut her eyes. "Concentrate on the moon," he said. "Think of the vibes coming from it—think of the people and feel their feelings…know their thoughts and troubles…"
Mira said something too low to be heard or understood. "Hear them," he said quietly. She mumbled something again. "Can you hear them?" he asked. "No…" Mira said in a somewhat of a daze.
"Listen to 'em crying out in the night!" Seth said at a whisper now. "Hear the mothers crying out for their enslaved children, hear the bounty hunters breathe their last breath…hear Nar Shadda…" He felt the Force shining a tiny bit in her.
He put his hands on her face. "Feel it!" he commanded. It seemed that light was erupting from his fingertips and entering her body but it was still the ever present stink and darkness of Nar Shadda.
The Handmaiden leaned back against the chair in the main hold. She'd been chased out of the cargo hold so Seth could train Mira in the ways of the lightsaber and teach her more about the Force. The space of the cargo hold seemed ideal since the rest of the ship was either too small or occupied.
That's my safe haven, she thought as she heard the inaudible murmur of their voices: Seth telling Mira how to perfect the movements or that she was doing well on them.
Seth's words echoed in her mind: "I want to train you." They made her shiver slightly and remember her oath to Atris. Shall I betray everything I have built my life upon? Will I follow my mother's footsteps?
She fingered the Handmaiden Staff slung round her waist and tried to feel what a lightsaber would be like. The Handmaiden had a constant battle inside of her ever since Seth had asked her to be trained, but the intensity grew after he and Mira returned.
Mira went straight alongside Seth to the cargo hold for the proper Jedi attire. He'd congratulated her and told her when they could start the actual training, all in front of the Handmaiden.
The Handmaiden shifted her weight slightly. The Ebon Hawk was currently en route to the abandoned, dead Sith world of Korriban. She didn't want to stay on the ship, but with half the crew as Jedi knights-in-training, she was sure she would prove useless unless Seth needed a woman garbed in white robes under an oath to a master shut away in an artic prison, and she could come up with no situation in which she would prove useful at all.
She heard the now-typical sounds of the ship: the murmur of new Jedi Mira and Seth training, Bao-Dur talking to the droids and HK-47 responding with rather humorous responses, T3-M4 wheeling back and forth from the aft to the front of the ship doing various repairs, Atton yelling occasionally at the controls in the cockpit because they were a little out of shape. She heard nothing of the Miraluka or of Kreia, and that suited her perfectly.
Her thoughts were interrupted when Mira proceeded out in her new Jedi robes and into the miniature cargo hold with sinks. Mira shut the door and the Handmaiden guessed she was meditating. Seth didn't appear after her. Where is he?
The Handmaiden got up off of the chair to try to find him. She heard his voice in the Miraluka's room. Is he ever around?
"Are you alright?" Seth asked Visas. She looked as she did before: clad in her armor, mysteriously hiding behind her veil. "Yes," she said.
Visas was a solemn girl—she was always meditating. It seemed though she never ate nor slept. She was a bit taciturn and Seth always wondered if she was bald or not. Her skills with a lightsaber and with the Force were pretty good, so Seth didn't bother training her as much as he did the others. He would always check on her though to make sure she was doing alright.
"Are you sure?" he asked again. Women, let alone everybody, always lie about their feelings, Seth thought. She looked at him. "I'm fine."
There was a bit of a silence that was a bit awkward. "Can I ask you some stuff?" Seth asked, thinking he sounded like a child. "Of course," she said.
"Where did you come from?" he asked. There was a silence. "My master…he had me seek you out," she said. "I was sent to find you, and to kill." Seth expected more by the look on his face. "Do not ask to find him, for his ship cannot be found. It comes into action, and then leaves as if it is just a ghost or a spirit. He feeds on other life through the Force; his hunger has not been satisfied.
"I shall take you to him, but only when the time is right. You must be prepared to face him, for you will need all your strength. He can devour entire planets with his armada. He has followers, and the dark side is strong within him, but it is not his slave." She paused. "Yet."
So…this guy's out to get me, too along with that scarred grey guy? Seth mused. "That is all I must say at the moment," Visas finished, "because you need not focus on my master now, but your current task at hand."
Then there was another brief and somewhat strange silence between them. "Where are we going?" Visas asked, obviously trying to make conversation. "Korriban," Seth said. Then he acted as if something just came to his mind. "I can have Bao-Dur fix your lightsaber if you wish," he said. "It's a big longer than mine—which can be both good and bad." He gave a forced grin. Visas forced a bit of one too. At least she doesn't think I'm crazy.
"We're probably going to touch down shortly," Seth continued. "I could go ask Atton and see when we're going to land." "No, that's alright," she said quickly. Seth shrugged. "Alright," he said as he turned to leave. Just before closing the door, he told her that if she needed anything, she could just ask him. "I'm alright," Visas responded, pretending to be perfectly fine. Seth left her at that and wandered around the ship.
He decided to get something to eat from the cargo hold. The Handmaiden was sitting idly on a box staring off into another world. "Hey," he said. "Mmm?" she said. Doesn't she talk in sentences anymore?
"Just getting something to eat," Seth said just in case she was defensive of her territory. "Can I join you?" she said, jumping at the chance to talk to him. "Sure," Seth said. He pulled up a box next to hers and laid out an assorted selection of hermetically sealed food. Seth handed the Handmaiden a bottle of water.
She picked up a bag of sliced orange fruit; Seth took a hunk of blended animal meat that was pressed into a square. Seth set up a small table between them. The Handmaiden stood up and shut the cargo hold door.
Seth laughed. "We're not going to do that again, are we?" At first, the Handmaiden was offended, but then realized it was meant jokingly. She forced a laugh. "Of course not," she said as she sat back down.
They turned sober again as they began to eat their food. The Handmaiden looked nonchalantly at her fruit as she spoke: "I've thought a lot." Go on, she thought. If that bounty hunter can, surely you can! "I've considered training…" Her voice trailed. Atris could be watching. Her face flashed in the Handmaiden's mind and haunted her thoughts. Seth looked up at her from his hunk of meat. "Jedi training?" he asked.
"Y—yes," the Handmaiden stammered. Traitor. The word came from somewhere foreign. Betrayer. Another insult from somewhere. The Handmaiden looked up from her fruit and scanned the cargo hold with her eyes.
Seth gave her a look asking what she was doing, but she avoided it. "Yes," she said more firmly. "I wish to train to become a Jedi." "But you'll forsake your oath," Seth protested. "If you break your promise it will be all my fault!"
"No," she said. "I want to train to become a Jedi." Seth looked at her gravely. "You made a promise," he stated. "You don't break promises." "This is not forsaking my heritage, Seth," she argued. "The Jedi are dying. Can't you see that? If anyone can act, they should. If I can help the broken Order, then I will. Atris is a Jedi herself—so she understands their importance.
"What happens if all the Jedi die forever and no one can breathe life back into the galaxy? The dark side and human greed will dominate, not the Jedi—the ones who are sworn to protect the galaxy." "The Jedi are not rulers," Seth said. "They are protectors of peace and justice. They do what is right, and are fit into a holy stereotype."
"I am no perfect person, and no Jedi master," the Handmaiden said. "I feel as if I can help the galaxy's posterity, I should. It is my duty. A promise is just mere words, but actions affect many and ripple throughout the galaxy."
Seth admired her speech. Spoken like a true Jedi, he thought. He smiled at her and said, "Training starts whenever. Join Mira and me, okay?" Mira? The Handmaiden suddenly felt cheated, as if she'd bought something for an overpriced amount of credits. She forced a smile. "Thank you," she said.
The Handmaiden suddenly stood up and made for the door. "Where are you going?" Seth asked. "No where special," she replied. "Forgetting something?" he asked casually. The Handmaiden turned and gave Seth a curious look. "What?"
Seth reached over his shoulder and pointed at the pile of folded Jedi robes; the Handmaiden was wearing her normal clothing. "It's customary," he said. "You wanna be a Jedi, you gotta wear the robes." With that statement, he stood up and took a few more randomly picked packages of food and a bottle of Juma with him.
"Put those on and start meditating," he said. "It'll help you channel the Force and know how to control it until it becomes second nature." He took a final bite of the meat he'd started. "Don't I need some kind of awakening?" the Handmaiden asked. "Or just something else?"
"If you'd like," Seth said with a mouthful of food. "We're going to have to do that later; we're close to Korriban." How does he know? The Handmaiden wondered.
But she was too happy to think. You're going become a Jedi—a new member of the Order, owner of a lightsaber, and one of Seth's Padawans. She smiled as she watched Seth shut the door, and she was still smiling as she shed her clothing to throw on the robes.
The whole group was in front of the planet holovid in the main hold. "This is it. We've hit the ground—this is Korriban," Atton started. "Why would a Jedi Master come here?" "Because they wanted to?" Mira quipped. Kreia cut in before any more arguing could come about. "The Jedi seem to be unpredictable," she said in her unusually-calm-through-all-turmoil voice that could be compared to either nails on a chalkboard or a cat purring.
"How so?" Seth asked. "For one, they do not keep promises. The Jedi—the Sith. It is all just labels that makes it easier for the galaxy to sort and organize," Kreia said. "What?" Atton said loudly. "There we go with the cryptic routine—again. I swear, I'll knock you out an airlock myself if you don't quit it." "Fools need not even learn the Force, for they will just forsake themselves to the hands of betrayers and murderers, ones who slay their own kind for with no valid reasoning or thought," Kreia said in a louder tone. She was like a strict schoolroom teacher.
Atton mumbled something to himself as Seth drew away from arguing. "Alright, alright," he said. "Who wants to tag along this time?" "I will not be joining you," Kreia said. Before Atton could reply with his witty, "And why not?", Kreia responded, "I need to center myself round such items and instruments of the dark side, but I will be able to communicate through the bond."
"Bond?" Visas asked. "I'll explain it to you later," Seth said. He got back to the task at hand. "So, who's coming along for the ride?" "I will," Mira volunteered. "Need to test out this damn lightsaber that won't work right…" Her voice trailed as she fingered the lightsaber at her belt. She got it loose and Bao-Dur took a few steps to look at it while Seth spoke still. "Any more takers?" "I will come," Visas said calmly; the Handmaiden made a bit of a scowl.
"Alright," he said as he walked towards the loading ramp. "Let's head out."