Last time: Sasha, Viran, and Kyr arrived to a desert world to find... nothing.

Now: Oppie reaches the end of the temple.

Chapter 7- The Trials

Oppie had lost track of the time he had spent in the temple. It wandered forever, sloping gently downwards since the portrait room. His wrist chrono, after his experience in the void he had taken to wearing one all the time, reported that he had been here about a day and a half. He had camped overnight in the passageway and gotten a few hours of sleep when the need hit him and breakfasted on some of the food capsules he had in his pouches. His water was running low, though, he hadn't really expected such a long trip, so he had only brought a small water pouch with him. He had reserved it as much as he could, not sure how much longer he would be down here, and not expecting to see any faucets or streams handy.

For the last while it had been getting steadily warmer. The passage was continuing downward in a gentle winding path that doubled back on itself every so often. As he turned a corner he saw a faint orange glow as well as felt a fresh wave of heat. He unzipped his jacket as he continued further, wiping sweat off his brow, and picked up the pace. He considered taking a drink of water, but decided to leave it for now. At least the interminable darkness was finally coming to an end.

He turned a last corner in the passage, and stood aghast for a moment, trying to comprehend the scene. A huge cavern stretched before him into the distance and in either direction; an inverted bowl that a star cruiser could easily fit into. He walked out onto a small shelf that jutted from the entry, and from there the ground abruptly fell in a sharp drop that ended far, far below in a lake of lava. A path continued forward, a stone path about a shoulders width wide and sides that cut down just as abruptly as the ledge's edge, straight down to the lava a hundred or more stories below. It ran off, turning at abrupt angles and sharp turns and branches before leading to a circular dias that stood in the middle of the cavern with an altar of some kind in the middle. It was distant enough that Oppie could not make out any particular features on it, but it was obviously where he was meant to go next.

An old fear of heights came back to haunt the edges of his mind as he edged closer to the drop off. It was something he had fought off during the Clone Wars when he had to do insertions with the drop troopers from time to time. He had quite well mastered using the Force to arrest his fall at the last second, almost coming to enjoy the experience. But there was something about standing at the edge of a face like this that brought it back to mind. Possibly because if he fell this time the only thing to land on was lava. He glanced back at the passageway and did a double take, the passage had disappeared in the wall. Where there had been an arched hole in the face was now smoothed over as if it had never existed. He stepped back and ran his hand over the rough stone finish, not feeling any indication of the opening he had just come through.

He looked back at the altar and took a deep breath of the burning air, and immediately regretted it. The dry heat caused him to start coughing as his lungs and throat dried. He took a few seconds to recover and took a long look at the path, drinking the last of his water as he did so. Studiously ignoring the sheer drop on either side of the path, he stepped forward.

Into absolute darkness.

He stumbled as abruptly all the light was sucked out of the cavern, all he could see was inky blackness. He froze where he was. He could still hear the distant sound of the boiling rock below. He hadn't left the cavern. He fought down a sense of panic, it had to be another one of the temple's tricks. He gingerly reached down for his torch and pushed the switch. The click of the button sounded, but no light pierced the darkness. He clicked again to turn it off, and then unclipped his saber. It had revealed something in the previous room, could it do the same here? He pushed the button, and heard the snapp-hiss of its ignition, but his vision did not change, just the same, inky blackness that enveloped him.

He clipped the extinguished saber back to his belt and stayed still. He fought down a sense of panic. Trapped in this lava pit, no margin for error, either side of him a sheer drop to death. The fear of heights flooded back to him and he tried to suppress it. He took a deep breath in and slowly released it, calming himself. He gingerly stepped forward. At least he could feel the path ahead of him. He considered getting down on all fours and crawling along, but when he knelt down the heat was too much - his boots would protect him for a while, but the path was hot to the touch, his hands or knees would get burned after too long even if he protected one or the other with his jacket.

He remembered the path from his long look before. He quickly ran through a Jedi technique that enhanced memory, clearing his mind of the panic and fear and replacing it with knowledge of what he faced. The path went forward, about ten steps or so. He stepped forward, cautiously. He reached out with the Force, trying to sense what he could. At the tenth step he stopped. He inched his right foot forward a few centimeters, and felt the abrupt edge of the path as he expected. He slid his foot back carefully. The path continued, five or six steps to the left. Then an abrupt turn that was back to the right. There was a branch in the path, he needed to take… The right hand one. He stepped forward eight steps.

He continued this way. Starting to feel the heat burning through his boots, but trying to not hurry lest he make a terrible mistake. The path was a dizzying series of turns, once he started walking through it. The memory enhancement technique kept him feeling he was on the right path, and with careful steps he made sure not to step over the edge. Once or twice he misjudged and pulled back from falling, then had to right himself before his abrupt movements disbalanced him. He would have given anything for a stout stick to be able to test the path though. Also some water; the heated air left him sweating, and he had been traversing the path for what felt like hours now.

As he neared the dias, from what he could remember, he came to a sudden stop. The dias had been far away, and he had not been able to see as clearly what the path did near it from his vantage point. His careful step had felt a drop-off where he hadn't expected it. He should be near the dias, it should be in front of him, but there was nothing. He carefully prodded with his foot, the only other continuation of the path was the way back.

Had he taken a wrong step on this maze? He couldn't have. Oppie searched through his memory, trying to figure out where he should be. Self doubt creeped up, perhaps he had misjudged? Had he taken a wrong branch somewhere? He ran through the maze in his mind again. He felt sure he was right, so, then, what was there to do?

He reached into his pouch and grabbed a spare food canister, the one from his breakfast. He tossed it forward, hoping to hear a sound as it fell against the floor of the dias that must surely be before him.

Oppie heard nothing. It must have simply fallen to the lava below and he would never hear it when it finally hit the molten lake in a few seconds.

Panic welled within him. Lost in the darkness, he was not sure what to do. He ran through the path a third time in his mind. Straight forward, then left, then right, then right again at the branch…

This had to be it. There must just be a gap between here and the dias, and the food canister must have fallen short. Or long. But the dias was big enough it could not have passed over, not with his little underhand toss.

He took a deep breath, steadying himself. This was a test, it was meant to inflict self doubt. He reached out with the Force again, trying to discern what was around him. There was little to sense though. He could not see with his eyes, his hearing had failed him; not letting him hear the clatter of the cylinder. He could not use his sense of touch, because of the gap. With a slight hint of humor, he supposed that his sense of taste would not help him. He sniffed the air just in case, and was brought up short. Just the faintest smell of flowers and water, like after a light rain had passed. In the heated air it was such a faint note, but he could smell it now, in front of him.

He took a deep breath, and took a leap of faith forward, over the gap, as far as he could. For the longest second he fell in the darkness, suddenly sure that he had made the wrong judgement, that he was now falling into the lava so very far below.

Then, as abruptly as it had disappeared, his vision returned as if he slipped through a curtain, and saw cool blue glowing moss rushing up to meet him. He yelped as he tumbled to the ground hard and rolled to a stop. Around him the lava room had completely vanished, replaced by the cool air of a cave that stretched out into a moist fog. In the center of the room, lit with faint blue light from the carpet of soft material, was a natural spring bubbling up and spilling out into a small pool. A tiny collection of flowering plants clustered around the clear, cool water. He knelt down next to the pool and drank, enjoying the pure taste and the cooled air after spending what felt like an eternity in the dark heat. He glanced over and saw the food canister laying in the soft lichen. When he picked it up, he let it drop again, and it indeed made no sound when it landed in the soft glowing material. He scooped it up again and put it back in his pouch, lest he be caught littering. Then he refilled his water, and took another drink.

After a few minutes he got up to inspect his surroundings. Fog wafted through this new setting, and he could not tell how far it stretched. Not quite shaking the feeling he should still be in the middle of the lava room, he gingerly started forward, careful in case the illusion failed and he needed to pull back. But as he wandered farther he realized that if he was still in the lava room, then he should have stepped off the dias already.

He had lost track of where the spring was in the fog, and he soon realized he had completely lost his bearings. He stood still in the mists, trying to discern any sort of pathway, any sort of marker he should follow. But there was nothing. His vision was obscured beyond a few meters, and the ground was nothing more than the glowing lichen growing around small pebbles and loose scree of the cavern floor. He looked to his left, then to his right, and shrugged, continuing forward.

The temple, he was fairly sure, was mostly an illusion of some sort. How else could the setting he found himself in change on a thought? He could not figure out if he was somehow directing this, or if the Temple was choosing what he encountered. The Force was strong here, like a warm blanket that suffused his senses. Comforting in some ways, he could easily see why this was the site of Master Redikas pilgrimage all those years ago. Though he was curious to see what would happen as he continued, there was a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that he had come here for guidance but received none.

The cool mists swirled around him, growing colder. He could see his breath fogging in the humid air, and he shivered a little, zipping his light jacket up to ward off the cold. He greatly preferred it to the oppressive heat of the lava lake room.

He paused. He heard a sound off in the distance. Almost like a child's laughter. He stopped, straining to hear in the deadened space. Again, he heard it, a little closer, a little clearer. He turned his head, trying to figure out where it was coming from.

The mist swirled off to his left, as if something had run through the space, accompanied by small, faint footsteps that echoed strangely.

"Hello." A small voice said behind him.

Oppie nearly jumped out of his skin he was so startled. He turned quickly, and regarded the child in front of him. She looked familiar, and she was dressed like a Jedi youngling.

"Umm… Hi?" Oppie asked questioningly. And then he recognized her. T'sar, one of the children he and Master Redika had been taking to Ilum to gather their kyber crystals. Her presence hit him like a gut punch. She had been the first one to die at the hands of the clones that day. The first one he had not been able to save.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, curiously.

"I," he hesitated and swallowed, "I came here to seek guidance." He answered.

"On what?" She asked, innocently and quizzically.

"My friends and I, we're in trouble and I was hoping something here might help." He said as his eyebrows knitted together, trying to understand what was going on.

"Oh." She said, then she cocked her head to the side, he remembered that she had done that during their trip together, when she was trying to understand something complicated. "Why come here? There's not a lot here." She stated, looking around at the mists.

"My master came here when he needed guidance, I thought it might help me the same as it did him." Oppie answered, his brow furrowed.

"Who are you talking to?" Another voice said to Oppie's left. Startled, again, Oppie turned and saw another child there. He thought for a second; Beq had been his name. The second child that fell that day. Oppie was chilled to his core, seeing them both again.

"Padawan Xiv." T'sar answered Beq. "He came here for help."

"Oh." Beq responded, regarding Oppie. "Why should we help him? He let us die." Beq said, matter of factly. To Oppie it felt like another punch to the gut.

"Yeah." A third voice said, now behind him. Her name was Jara. "He let us die."

Oppie was rooted in place, around him all of the younglings started appearing out of the mists, walking up to stand in front of him in a semicircle. All seven of them, T'sar, Beq, Jara, Kita, Whihlall, Nassar, and Lilvana.

"Yeah, he just wanted to save Sasha and Viran, why should we help him?" Nassar said in a confused tone.

"No, no! I wanted to save all of you-" Oppie said

Whihlall cut him off with a mournful Wookie growl as she added her own question to that cacophony of voices.

"He let us die."

"He might as well have killed us himself."

"Padawan Xiv didn't help us, he let the clones kill us."

They continued, all of them venting their confusion and anger at his inability to save them. Oppie stood slack jawed, his heart pounding confronted by the younglings he couldn't save. It was true, everything they were saying. He let them die, the Rangers of the 94th had killed them and he hadn't been able to stop it.

"Please, no, I tried to save you-" Oppie began desperately.

"He let us die."

"He didn't care about us."

"If we'd been special like Sasha and Viran maybe he would have saved us."

"Please stop," Oppie begged, but they continued, voicing their rising anger at what he had done, and more importantly what he had been unable to do.

"No, you killed us."

"Yeah, you killed us."

"He killed us."

"We're dead because of you."

"STOP!" Oppie yelled, tears in his eyes.

They stopped, then, and regarded him with hollow eyes.

"I tried, I tried to save all of you, they ambushed us." Oppie said, trying to answer for his failure. "There were too many, they shot my lightsaber from me. I couldn't save you. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He said, tears rolling down his cheeks. "I tried, and I couldn't save you, I'm sorry." He fell to his knees, bringing his hands to his face. "I'm sorry to all of you, I'm so sorry."

T'sar stepped forward from the crowd of younglings and placed a small, gentle hand on his shoulder. She had stayed quiet during the tumult of cutting voices. "It's okay Padawan Xiv." She said quietly. "You're right. You couldn't have saved us. But you saved Sasha and Viran."

"But they're right." Oppie said, "all of you died because of me."

"We died because the clones turned on us." She responded quietly. "You did what you could. Our deaths are not your fault." She continued quietly. "It's okay."

Oppie looked her in the eyes, and felt a burden of guilt fall off his shoulders. He looked up, and at the faces of the other younglings whose lives had been cut short. They looked at him in forgiveness, and approval, before they faded away into the mists. T'sar faded last, regarding him with a small smile as she kept her hand on his shoulder in solace.

He sat on his knees in silence, in the mists alone for a time. Trying to understand what this was about, and trying to recover from the vision. He closed his eyes and took deep, calming breaths, trying to collect himself.

"Hi Op." A familiar voice said behind him. He closed his eyes as his chest started pounding anew. And then he stood and turned slowly as he opened his eyes.

"Master Redika?" Oppie said quietly, not sure what to expect from this apparition. His Master was standing there, his dark skin almost transparent in his ethereal form surrounded by a blue glow.

"Been a while." Master Redika said with a smile. "And call me Sen, how many times did I tell you that."

"Is this real?" Oppie asked incredulously.

"As real as it needs to be." Master Redika said with a grin. "Come on now, sit." He said as a small boulder revealed itself from the mists. Sen Redika sat on the rock and patted the spot next to him invitingly.

Oppie stood where he was, rooted to the spot. "What is this? Are you really here?"

Sen regarded his Padawan for a moment. "Yeah, Qui Gon taught me how to do this when I came here. Same spot to" He said looking around, then he gestured down at his glowing form. "Became one with the Force and all that, so I can continue on as a ghhhooooost." He laughed a little and brought his hands up, wiggling his fingers, which in an odd way reminded Oppie of what Kyr did when he was talking about the Force. "Ooogah boogah." He said with a laugh.

"How is this possible, what is this place?" Oppie asked incredulously, still in shock, though starting to smile at his old master's antics.

"It's a Jedi temple." He said, as if the answer should be obvious. "It's a place of trial and challenge - of the trials." He paused for a moment, "Same place I came for my trials, and my master came for hers and so on." Sen regarded Oppie with a warm smile. "You passed, by the way."

"What?" Oppie asked, confused. "Passed what?"

"Your trials, you're a knight now. Congrats." Sen said warmly.

Oppie stood dumbfounded for a second, and then moved to sit on the boulder next to his former master. "Well that's neat." He looked around at the swirling mists, and then back to his master, who was still a head taller than him. "Why are you appearing now, why haven't you shown yourself before?" Oppie asked, furrowing his brow.

"It's hard to appear, places like this make it easier." Sen said wistfully. "Besides, you haven't really needed me, you've been doing good, kid." He punched Oppie in the shoulder, but his ethereal form made it feel more like an odd wind gust filled with static discharge.

"It would have helped a little." Oppie said, jokingly, still having a little trouble keeping up with all that was happening here.

"Yeah, well. Life isn't always fair." Sen said with a smile, "Almost makes me feel glad I'm dead. Don't have to deal with all of that."

"Master Redika, I'm-" Oppie started before he was cut off.

"Sen, Op." His master corrected him.

"I don't think I can ever call you that." Oppie said with a smile, before it faded. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to save you."

Sen looked at him for a moment. "Op, don't worry about it. I was the master, I was supposed to be the one to save you and all the kids, how do you think I felt about it? Let it go, it's in the past and it's done."

Oppie sat there in silence for a while, feeling the final burden of the guilt he had carried with him for all these years fading away. "What's going to happen with Dracul?" Oppie asked finally, seeking the guidance he had come here for. "How can we stop him?"

"We don't know." Sen said finally, a note of seriousness finally entering his voice. "That guy is bad news. Come on, I need to show you something." Sen said, standing up. Oppie stood next to him as his master led the way through the fog. "This guy's been around for a long, long time Op. Even the Sith tried to kill him since he was too much for even them." Around them the mists swirled, and transformed into a stormy planet. He recognized Coruscant, they were standing on the ruins of the Jedi temple, now transformed into the Imperial Palace. Out of the storm clouds Dracul's ship, the twin prowed Bloodstorm descended on the city, blighting out what little light was making it through the clouds, and red lighting poured from the ship out onto the streets at the innocent beings that were running in fear. "He's not your typical Sith Lord, he doesn't want to just be the emperor, he has no interest in political power. He wants total and absolute dominion over the galaxy, to reshape it to his absolute control. He doesn't want to be just a Sith Lord, he wants to be a dark, evil Sith god." Sen said passively as the vision continued, and beings killed from the red lightning suddenly started returning to life, and attacking those around them. Oppie was not sure if it was real, if it represented the future, as he looked on in terror. Sen answered the unspoken question. "This is what has been, and what could be. You, Sasha and Viran can stop it if you act."

"How?" Oppie asked, fear in his voice at the scene unfolding before him. "How can we stop someone so powerful?"

"Together." Sen answered. "My master passed the holocron fragment to me, as it was passed down to her. This has been a long time coming, Op. I'm sorry you guys are standing alone against this."

Oppie thought of Sasha and Viran. And he thought of Kyr, Kitsu and Illara. "We're not alone." Oppie said, "and we'll stop this." Oppie declared, determined to make the horrific scene unfolding before him never happen. "We have to."

The scene faded, as Master Redika stood with him in the empty darkness. His presence was fainter now. "My time here is running out Op." Redika said. "When the time comes, when everything is darkest, listen to Viran, follow what he says. No matter what happens, know that I'm proud of what you've done. I'm proud of what you did with Sasha and Viran, and I'm proud of you."

Oppie felt tears welling up at that statement. "Thank you." He said a little brokenly.

Sen smiled, as his presence faded. "May the Force be with you."

"Thank you for everything, Sen." Op said, almost shouting, desperately trying to get the words out. "And may the Force be with you!"

Sen's voice called out one last time as his silhouette faded to nothing. "'Course it's with me, I am the Force now." He faded out with a laugh.

Oppie stood alone in the darkness, digesting all that had happened and smiled. After a few moments he unclipped his lightsaber and ignited it, for light, to see where he was. He was surprised to find himself back at the entry, the gigantic boulder barring his exit. His journey through the darkness of the temple had come full circle, back to the entrance. Oppie Xiv, Jedi Knight, lifted the great stone which now shocked him by how light it felt, and strode out from underneath the formerly great weight, stepping out into the sunlight beyond.

Review!