The Jedi Adventure – Chapter 3
--sparkvallen

As usual, Lucasfilm owns any of the regular Jedi folk and characters/places you'd find in Star Wars. I have permission to borrow on the likenesses of everyone else!

With the exception of Spark's trouble with levitation, the trainees flourished under Skywalker's eclectic instruction in the Jedi Arts. The Jedi Master requested their presence at all odd hours of the day and night, sometimes summoning them in the wee hours to sit atop the great Massassi Temple for meditation in the darkness. There was no understandable pattern to his training style, but the students adapted nevertheless.

One such particular night, Skywalker had summoned the trainees to the jungle paths far beyond the landing pad. He led them single-file in their bedclothes out to one of the many rivers that traversed the jungle moon. As people sat beside the slow-moving waters, Luke spoke to them of the Jedi's Code.

"For a Jedi, there is no emotion. There is peace. There is no ignorance. There is knowledge. There is no passion. There is serenity. There is no death. There is the Force…"

Sapharin smiled in the darkness at Spark, feeling chills up and down her spine at hearing those words actually spoken as tenets of belief. Joni and Falco found their minds' lulled by Luke's words, taking them to heart. Further down the line of students from them, Z'Trooper and Ebony frowned at the code.

It was Ebony, naturally, who spoke up. "There are no such absolutes in life," she said.

Z'Trooper agreed, contributing, "To say that a Jedi has no passion… are we supposed to be robots? Droids? Devoid of feeling at all but still willingly helping others? That's a paradox if I ever heard one."

Falco looked as though to speak, feeling the tides of the Force rippling with their words, but hesitated. He stared out at the river with a frown creasing his brow. Falco expected Luke to respond to them instead, but when he didn't, the silence became too much.

"It's not like we're drones, you know," he said. "It's what… what we're aiming to be, right? To be at peace and to have knowledge. Rather than being full of emotion or turmoil and totally ignorant!"

Sapharin and Spark chuckled softly in the darkness – Falco couldn't have said it better, they thought.

"I'm sorry but I feel passionate about my interests and my family," Ebony replied. "And that makes me less of a Jedi?"

"So am I, Ebony, so am I," Sapharin said, surprising herself by speaking up. "But… maybe the Code means not to take things to extreme. To love, but not be blinded by it. What do you think?"

Matter-of-factly, Z'Trooper replied, "Then why not speak the code in that way then?"

Luke leaned back against a tree at the bank of the river, listening as the apprentice's worked this out on their own. He saw no need to interrupt or guide the conversation. They were learning well enough without his interference.

Joni smiled. "Why ask why, Z'Trooper? Can't it just be as it is and you come to terms with it individually?"

Z'Trooper bristled for a moment before slowly working out the immediate tension as he'd been recently trained. The frustration melted away just as the river flowed past their legs. "I only meant that you should say what you mean clearly. Believe me, I like absolutes. It's how I think. But it needs to be realistic."

Having verified what he knew of fiction against what was reality on Yavin IV and this edge of the galaxy, Falco took a stab at that. "Out here… this is realistic, you know? Like… the Jedi that preceded Master Skywalker weren't allowed relationships. Or family. For them, the Code meant that there were no attachments. Love as we know it was forbidden if you were a Jedi. So… to have this as an ideal makes a lot more sense, at least to me, than saying, 'Hey you – I don't care that you came from a life with a family. Now you're going to be attachment-free' ya know?"

Stubborn, Z'Trooper said, "But still…"

Meanwhile, Ebony had fallen silent, piecing over the insight and context that Falco had shown with his understanding of the Jedi Code. While she was quickly learning to apply the Force as Luke had been teaching them, this philosophical angle on the Jedi practices frustrated her. What Falco said made sense, but like Z'Trooper, she was thinking But still…

Luke interjected one truth to their conversation. "Right now, the Jedi Code is a set of words that you have just learned. They're theory until you're fully walking the path and can feel their truth. Once you're off Yavin IV and living as a Jedi, I guarantee you that those words will be close to your heart indeed."

Joni contemplated that message and thought back to the religious strife that they'd left behind on their homeworld. "Master Skywalker… is the Jedi Code the law or a guideline for the to-be Jedi to follow?"

Sapharin softly said, "Hmmm" as she pondered the question herself.

"It is neither. As Falco said, the Jedi of old would have considered it a law to be followed to the letter. How this era of Knights approaches the Code is different. It is personal and heart-felt. Like the Force, it helps to guide how you see the world."

"So it's not required to be believed?" Ebony asked.

Luke hesitated, sensing they were on tricky ground with the line of questions. "What is important is that you have a personal connection to the Force. That is all. The Jedi Code exists as a tool, a mantra even that helps you to focus your mind and heart on the Force and its guidance."

Ebony nodded, seemingly satisfied with that interpretation.

"That is all for tonight. Let the words sink in, and over time, we'll discuss this and see what you've come to understand…"

With that, the Jedi Master disappeared into the darkness of the jungle, leaving the trainees to sit alone at the bank. Spark's attention went toward feeling the life of the jungle through the Force as they'd been working on. Where she wasn't telekinetically skilled at all, Spark did have an aptitude for sensing other life in the Force.

"We should be on our way too," she said suddenly. "There are hungry critters out and this is their nightly domain."

Reaching into the Force individually, the other trainees affirmed Spark's warning. Single-file and walking quickly, they made a steady retreat toward the Temple.

Late into the night, Sapharin, Ebony, Spark and Joni sat in the common room where dinner had been served hours before. The topic of the Jedi Code had faded for the time being as the trainees' thoughts drifted back to family and friends back home.

"I wonder what life is like without us there," Spark mused.

"They're probably throwing parties endlessly," Sapharin joked, winking back at her.

Joni chuckled then said, "Focusing on this comes to no productive end. As Jedi, we must forego attachments."

Ebony looked over at him as though he'd grown a second head. "So you're saying I shouldn't wonder how my family is doing. Or how my mother is without having regular interaction with her."

Joni met her stare evenly. "What good does it do you?"

Ebony gave an exasperated sigh. Though she was enjoying learning this new philosophy and way of "being," she did miss her family terribly. Looking away from Joni and back to the other women, she asked, "Doesn't it bother you to be away from home?"

Spark regarded her a moment and said softly, "You know my answer to that."

She could only nod as Sapharin did before giving her opinion.

"I do miss my fiancé and some aspects of my old life… but this feels so much more purposeful. Like I am finally achieving the destiny I was meant for," she said. "I only wish that our families had been brought here… or to somewhere nearby by now."

Ebony nodded. "I know. I feel like we were led here under false premises. Where are our families? Master Skywalker said that they'd be coming too and now here we are, weeks into the training and none of that has ever been mentioned again!"

Joni shook his head. "This too is a lesson…"

"Would you stop that already?" Ebony snapped. "You're not helping!"

Spark and Sapharin exchanged glances. Quickly, Saph attempted to divert the topic. "Perhaps it would be worth asking Master Skywalker about it, Ebony. To see if they are en route or if there's been some sort of delay in the plans…"

"Yeah. That'll help I'm sure."

Joni could see that Ebony was upset enough that to say much more would only make the situation worse for her. All he did say was, "He might have information one way or the other. At least you'd know."

"I'm going to bed," Ebony said. With a nod to each of them, she strode off to the quarters that the women shared.

After she was well out of earshot, Spark whispered, "She's going to tell him she wants to go back… I'm sure of it."

Sapharin paled visibly though she too sensed a shift like that in their friend. "If push came to shove, do you really think so?"

Spark nodded. "She excels here, but she's unhappy."

"And her love for what this is all about—" Joni gestured broadly to mean the Temple, Yavin IV and this edge of the galaxy, "—isn't the same as what it is for us. We're living what we've always dreamed of. This wasn't her dream even if it is her talent."

"Exactly," Spark said. There was regret on her face.

"Do you think Master Skywalker would let her go back though? Without completing her training?" Saph wanted to know. She leaned on her arm, resting it on the long table and stifled a yawn.

Before Spark could even conjecture, Joni interrupted. "It's not wise for us to speculate on things that have not even come to pass, my friends."

Saph and Spark bit back a sigh then both chuckled. "Fine, Joni… we'll be good Jedi," Sapharin joked.