Part 35: Revealed
Tesar Sebatyne's eyes narrowed as he struggled against his body's urges to drop and take a nap. Whose brilliant idea was it to lead us all into a carbon-freezing pool? The Barabel wondered, scratching his scaly head in an attempt to recall the name of the one who led him to the freezing chamber.
After an indefinite amount of time, the light from the setting sun finally began to warm the Jedi's cold blood and reenergize him. Just as the Barabbel began to revel in the heat, Tahiri, who led the hunt, took him and Tekli into the shady Well of the World Brain, where the mysterious Flames person said Jysella and someone named Crest were.
A hiss escaped the Barabbel's lips as jealousy tugged at him for the first time in perhaps two decades. The Chadra-Fan was fortunate to be warm-blooded and Tahiri's abilities made her the only suitable leader of the hunt. The jealousy soon turned into anger and hints of hatred, for Tesar's species, as a whole, hated to hunt in packs and not to lead the hunts.
"Thiz one smellz blood. They are near." The Barabbel calmly stated after the furry Jedi's pheromones soothed his emotions. Then, without noticing
"This is strange." Murmured Tekli as she knelt down and examined the petite woman leaning against the speeder. "There's a pulse, but there's no Force presence. Her body temperature is thirty-three standard degrees and dropping."
"I think that's Crest. Weirder still, Jysella has maa'vu vines on her fingers and that stuff on the back of her hand's an ooglith replacer." Analyzed Tahiri after studying Jysella's undisguised hands.
"I stopped the blood flow. Should I remove these implants?" Asked the furry healer.
"This one thinkz she iz dead."
"Not yet. Not if you leave my hands alone. So hot." Groaned the weak Jysella as she barely budged two of her fingers. Once Tesar recovered from his surprise, he touched the young woman and began to lend her what energy he had. Her excruciating pain became his and his strength became hers.
"Sure. We'll take you to our medcenter and Tekli will treat you two." Replied Tahiri.
"Get that Nom Anor… Talk to the World Brain." Much to the three rescuers' surprise, Jysella used her borrowed energy to talk rather than heal. "That creep gave me this nasty gut stab and he's got the means to kill almost everyone in this system."
"You're not making any sense." Tekli shook her head as the Barabbel used his reptilian strength to lift up both Crest and Jysella.
"Help Ben catch Nom Anor and save lots of lives! That should make more sense. I'll go back to being a good girl." Jysella gave a ghost of a weak grin before falling into a healing trance.
-scene change-
Sheng Lah closed his purple tinted brown eyes in an effort to concentrate on himself and to see if his Vongsense had recovered enough for him to face the warmistress. Instead of seeing total darkness, the Yuuzhan Vong Jedi saw himself as a child standing with a crowd of friends by a lake on Zonama.
"Scared of drowning, Sheng?" Asked one of the Ferroans at Sheng Lah's side.
"Nah, not a chance." Hoping to prove himself, Sheng Lah dived into the lake after a short run.
"See ya on the other side!" The Ferroan grinned and dashed along the shore until he stood directly across from his previous position.
"Sure!" The Yuuzhan Vong child managed as he momentarily pulled his head out of the water. The Jedi became puzzled when he suddenly shifted from the Force-shown perspective to that of a flashback. It was good to remember the golden days, the time when Sheng Lah was and was treated as normal, but what did the old rite of passage have to do with any of the questions he wanted answered?
The Jedi was left no time to think when he found his younger self in a tangle of underwater plants. He held his breath for as long as he could as he tried to untie himself, but he was soon forced to break the surface for a breath. He thought his mouth and nose were above the surface of the water when he inhaled, but he was a second too late, for the robust plants had pulled him back beneath the water by the time he reacted to the air.
Water filled the child's lungs and Sheng Lah vividly remembered the desperation he had felt as he struggled to cling to consciousness. Just as his vision began to dim, he saw himself surrounded with light that he did not remember seeing as a child. Sheng Lah realized that the Force was showing him the fortress of light again.
A planet appeared just outside the wall and a hand came from the planet to slightly decrease the density of the light on one wall. When the concentration of the light reached a certain point, the hand reached into the wall and snatched Sheng Lah before pulling him out of the shining castle.
The Yuuzhan Vong's vision snapped back to that of the water and flora that surrounded his younger self and he felt a large, invisible hand lifting him to the surface of the water and squeezing the liquid out of his lungs without hurting him. The flashback, or rather, vision, ended, and Sheng Lah grinned slightly upon realizing the meaning of all of his previous visions and the answers to many of his big questions. At last, the question that haunted his existence for an indefinite amount of time and that had driven him to name his ship Spectrum of Insight had finally been answered.
There was a wall of light blocking the his species from the Jedi's spectrum of the Force and Sekot could undo whatever damage that was done Force-wise, for, in saving Sheng Lah's life, the planet already gave the Force back to Sheng Lah when it saw him drowning.
When Sheng Lah finally opened his eyes, he felt his Vongsense washing over him like an ocean tide and knew that he could face whatever was to happen when he would meet Kodachi Cha.