Chapter 2: Meditation
It is now six months after Shri-ran has fallen to the Dark Side.
Anastasia looks outside the window of her chamber on her patio, staring aimlessly at the world around her on Yavin 4 during a short twilight night. All available light was bouncing off the seemingly boundless ocean. She wonders, how can Yavin 4 be considered a planet when it orits a planet! Well, I guess whoever named it certainly loved it whenever the sun has set but the planet remains in full view. Wait a minute, a planet! Sheesh, how oblivious and absent-minded I've been lately! Note to self, Ani: Yavin 4 is a moon, not a planet.
She hears something knocking at her door. "Come in," she replies thoughtlessly.
Reduku enters Anastasia's room. He finds her and sits down beside her. "Phew, it feels great being away from Master Jacoba and his force-driven scissors once in a while," he says, trying to spark a conversation with his confide. She didn't hear him. What is she so caught up about? He looks in the same direction her head is in and sees what has been striking her imagination. "Ah, I see what has made you somewhat oblivious," He said sarcastically, trying to get her attention.
Her head whips around, "Huh? Oh yeah, beautiful scenery…" Anastaisa replies, her words trailing as she looks at him. She noticed that his hair and his eyes seemed to be darker after his hair-cut appointment with Jacoba, like it was when they were younger. She gives a small smile. "Nice hair," she says dryly.
"Thanks," he says sarcastically. "Were you meditating?"
Anastasia shrugs, "I guess I was."
"Mind if I join you?"
"Not at all," Anastasia looks at the scenery around her once again. She tries to untie her hair, but it bound into a knot. She tried pulling it out as her frustration grew, but it was no use.
"Want me to help you with that?" Reduku asks her"
"Yes please," she replies. He steadily undoes the knot, her feeling her hair struggling to be free, steadily easing up to Reduku's hands. A minute later, it is finally free.
"Better?" He asks.
"Yes," she replies, "thank you." A breeze comes and blows her hair in the wind. Reduku gives a brief dumbstruck glance, but then quickly looks away and gazes at the ocean.
Anastasia looks to the scenery as well and starts meditating, wondering where her mind will take her this time…
Anastasia sees the world much smaller. She was only five years old. Jaina is right behind her, nudging her. "But Jaina, please can I come with you? I don't want to be around them!" Anastasia says, annoyed and scared.
"Oh,Ani, Ani, Ani, you'll be fine, I promise. Plus, you've never tried talking to 'them' before, have you?" Anasasia shook her head, realizing she was defeated once again. "Have fun, Ani," Jaina says as she gives her padawan a hug. She turns Anastasia around and gently pushes her into the room.
The door shuts behind her as soon as Anastasia turns around. Darn, she thought. She turned around to see Jetsu and many younglings.
"Anastasia!" Jetsu bursts, "Come in and join us! Would you like to meet some new friends?" Anastasia is afraid, shyness frozen in her eyes.
A few moments later, a human boy stands up and walks toward her. He takes her hand. "Don't be afraid," he says, giving an encouraging smile. He leads her into the circle where the rest of the padawans were sitting quietly, surprised.
Anastasia sat by the boy. "What's your name?" She asked him.
"My name's Reduku. You're Anastasia, right?"
"Yes," Anastasia replied.
"Ah, it seems you've missed most of today's lesson, Anastasia," Jetsu interrupts, "but it seems like our lesson today deeply affected our unusually brave Reduku. You have found a friend." He pauses for a moment, "Ah, where was I… Oh, yes… being the brave one, like Reduku was just a moment ago, can impress anyone as well as find people who you can rely on in your future as a Jedi Knight." He looks at his watch. "Blast, I'm afraid that's all we have time for today. You are dismissed."
Many of the padawans gave a quick bow and a 'thank you, master' then ran on their merry way. Reduku and Anastasia rose slowly and thanked Jetsu, smiling and making eye contact with him…
Reduku looks at Anastasia. He gazes at her, and feels something that he never felt before except for the day they met. He feels like telling her something, but he sees she is in meditation and knows it is not wise to disturb his female friend. Then his mind starts wondering to that fateful day…
Young Reduku and Anastasia walk out of the room. "Thank you," Anastasia says, "for being so brave."
"No problem," Reduku replies. "I would invite you to come visit my chambers but it's messy. Can I come to yours?"
Anastasia pauses, "Um… sure, I guess you can come. My master is away so she won't know." They entered Anastasia's room. Reduku studies and notices it's just like his room, except more tidy. "C'mon, Reduku, I want to show you my favorite part." She grabs his hand and drags him to a huge glass door that leads to a small but seemingly spacious patio.
Reduku looks at the ocean, "Wow! Awesome! I've ever seen the ocean this way before."
"Yep, sure is," Anastasia replies. She sits down, and Reduku follows. She ponders for a moment, then asks, "Reduku, are you my friend?"
He looks at her as her hair blows with a soft breeze nearby and feels something he never felt before. He smiles and says, "Yes, Anastasia, you're my friend."
"You can call me Ani if you want to," Anastasia quickly corrected. They both looked at each other and smiled. They looked back at the ocean and the forest in the scenery…
Reduku remembers what it looked likethat day. They both said, "Wow, it was so long ago." They looked at each other, smiled and laughed.
"Reduku, how long ago was that?" Anastasia asked.
"Um… wow, at least thirteen years ago," he replied.
"Hmm," Anastasia ponders, looking at the forest, "Want to have fun?"
Reduku sees her perked eyebrow, her eyes looking at the forest, then at him. He knows her well enough to know what that means. He sighs sarcastically and says, "Sure, why not?"
"Well, c'mon then!" Anastasia exclaims in excitement, grabbing his hand and dragging him across the room.
As soon as Reduku's standing up, he tugs her. She stops giving a clueless look. "Forget something?" He asked, tucking some of her hair behind her ear.
"Oh, yeah," she replied, quickly putting up her hair. "Now can we go?" Reduku gave a quick nod and she sped off, pulling Reduku's hand until he can catch her running speed.
They went to the vehicle dock, scrambling for the the perfect vehicles to withstand the pair's adventure-seeking highs. They found some swoop bikes, looked at each other, thinking, eh, why not? They each took one, started it up, and revved out of the dock, the mechanic on duty running after them. Unfortunately, his speed could never match a swoop bike's speed.
They entered the forest and joined side by side. They slowed down a little bit so they could hear each other. Reduku asked, "So, what do you want to do?"
"Hmmm," she replied pensively. She checked the fuel gage to see her fuel tank was full. She quickly glanced at Reduku's fuel gage to see that it was full as well. She snickers, and revs up her engine. Reduku knows that look. He revs his up quickly. She knows he got the message and sped off, hoping that she can leave Reduku in the dust. Unfortunately to her dismay, Reduku kept up with her. They sped through the woods, dodging every tree and rock, leaping over every valley and stream.
After about half an hour of speeding, Anastasia looked at her surroundings. She noticed some ancient stone building covered in vegetation. A split second later, she turned the swoop bike upwards spun it so she faced right-side up in the opposite direction she was previously going, and headed back toward the building.
Reduku sees that he caught up with his best friend one moment another moment he sees that she's gone. He quickly looks around him, makes a wide U-turn, and slowly heads back the way he came, worried. He finds her, parked next to a building he has never seen before. "What was that for!" He exclaims.
"Sorry, Reduku, I just never saw anything like this. I remember Master Jaina telling me that there were no other buldings on Yavin 4 besides the Jedi Academy, and any other buildings were destroyed." She studies the building, and then says, "Check the fuel gages. We need to tell Master Jetsu what this is once I can figure what it is.
Reduku looks at both of the swoop bikes, and widens his eyes. "Uh, Ani, how far out are we from the Jedi Academy?"
She looks at Reduku and says, "Almost on the other side of the continent. Why?"
"We have no fuel," Reduku bluntly says, "Both bikes are empty."
"Well, let's see, so far we have no way home. Maybe if I can find an opening hopefully there's some fuel inside. It may not be the specific grade for them, but it will get us back home and we'll fix them," Anastasia replies, looking back at the building.
"We're in trouble now…" Reduku says.
"Oh thank you, Master State-The-Obvious-A-Lot," Anastasia says aggressively. "Arg, this is tough stuff to go through. Ah, what the heck," she grabs her lightsaber, activates it, and tears through the vegetation covering a wall. She sees part of a picture, and pulls off more to see the full image. She then discovers two pictures. One is the outline of a hand, another is a symbol. She puts her hand to the hand outline. The symbol above glows a deep red while a massive door opens. She recognizes the symbol. It is a Sith symbol. Sheesh, more Sith symbols! Why me?
"Ani, what did you do?" Reduku asks nervously.
She pauses for a moment, then says, "I think this is an old Sith temple. We have to go in."
"What? You have to be kidding me. Does the word Sith mean anything to you!"
She glares at Reduku, "Yes, it does mean something to me. It's a part of my history. But sometimes to those who have no background of Sith activity must face it sometime in their life. I am afraid of going in there, too, but sometimes you have to dive into a fear to make it go away. Now, unless your opinion differs, I'd like to get home, so let's just look inside to see if there's any fuel." Reduku reluctantly gives up and goes with her. "Have your lightsaber ready," She says to him. He takes his out and activates it. Both of their lightsabers were their only light as they entered.