Chapter 2: Arrival on Dantooine
The lush green grass of Dantooine shone brightly as the light of the sun reflected from the billions of little blades. The Jedi Enclave seemed somehow brighter, as if a heavy weight had been released from its tattered walls and stone pavement. The Laigreks had all been driven out of the Jedi Enclave on their last visit and it was also the planet where Jorran first met Visas and constructed his lightsaber. As the ship touched down rather carelessly, it was a bumpy landing, many of the occupants were thrown astray and the landing platform was quickly evacuated.
Jorran held Visas up, cradling her in her arms, she was like a fragile doll, her bare arms were just a sample of the scars that laced her body, as Darth Nihilus's slave, she was thrown around, battered, and beaten mercilessly. Many healed lacerations curved around her exposed body, pink and lavender scars glowed from her pale skin. She weakly held her head up and looked into Jorran's eyes. Though she saw only the lines of his face and the texture of his skin, she knew he was staring into her sightless eyes with compassion and care that she had never felt before. "Why do you frown?" She asked, touching the corners of his mouth and collapsing her index finger and thumb over his lips tenderly.
He stared at her in silence, looking over her face as her pursed his lips and held her hand gently as he kissed it warmly. "I simply fear that at any moment I may interrupt your sweet voice as it melts softly through the silence." He replied, picking her up gently and resting her body against his, plucking the strewn hair, covered in cold sweat, from her face.
For a flicker of a second, she saw a flash of color enter her Force-sight in the darkness, the deep-blue hue of his eyes colored in those wide irises of his and fixated on her as he reached his arm around her and perched his chin on her shoulder, nuzzling her neck. She nuzzled his neck in return as she wrapped her arms around him tightly, kissing his neck with her soft reddish-pink lips.
"Hey, we're here! Why not put some pants on and actually start rebuilding the Jedi Order?" Mira poked her head through the door, seeing only the massive lump of two people in love. This took Jorran and Visas both by surprise as they rushed to cover themselves as she quickly disappeared.
Upon landing on Dantooine, the Administrator greets Jorran, her face worn with age and stress, she smiles, her sunken eyes revealing a great pleasure. "It's nice to see you again. Why have you come back, may I ask?" Her gaze penetrated Jorran like a blaster bolt.
"I came to rebuild the Jedi Enclave and restore the Jedi as defenders of peace and justice in the galaxy." He replied, she looked at him, astonished.
"I'll do all I can to ensure that you are able to. After you helped us defeat the mercenaries, we are indebted to you, you saved all of us." She smiled warmly.
Jorran's eyes sunk, "Thank you." He replied mournfully, recalling Master Vrook and his friendship with the Attendant.
"You know, you'd think those Salvagers would help since we saved their butts, but no, we have to do it all by ourselves." Atton complained sarcastically, he knew that they'd take anything shiny they found while the Jedi were moving everything around, and then there would be a good chance that it would be something important.
"Well, maybe you'd like to make yourself useful and search around for anymore Laigreks." Mira joked, straining herself while she used the Force to rise up a fallen statue in the main courtyard.
"Well little girl, maybe you'd like a man to do that for you?" Atton remarked as he also strained under the pressure to lift up the statue.
"Tough…guy!" Mira continued while she worked harder herself.
"Better then…you!" Atton exerted much Force to work with her.
Jorran looked at them both, Visas watching him intently, "Maybe if you all cut the chatter, you'd actually be able to do it." He lifted one arm, using minimal strength; he managed to smoothly raise the fallen statue.
"Now we know who the true Jedi is." Visas remarked as she stood beside him, her smile betraying her.
Meanwhile, Atris and Brianna were on the other side of the Enclave, broken droids and dead bodies occupied their time, they were specifically told to give them proper burials. Atris kept working while Brianna was still coming to grips with her mother, the robes fastened securely to her; she did as much as she could do in between her self-interrogation. "How could I travel with her for so long without knowing it?" She asked herself.
"The Dark-side clouds many things, my dear. You could have known her all your life and you would never know it unless she told you." Atris finished placing the bodies on a small cart to drag out and bury all of the bodies outside of the Jedi Enclave. Atris's white hair was restrung into a bun to keep it up. "You know, perhaps I should return the Exile's lightsaber what do you think?" She asked, her luminous blue eyes peering into Brianna's. "I did imply that if he became a Jedi, I'd return it to him."
"That was the lightsaber of a different man, not the Exile whom you caste out of the Jedi Order, but a Jedi who seeks to rebuild the Order from the ashes left by the Sith." Bao-dur replied, coming from the other end of the Enclave, he lifted up the cart and began turning it around. "I thought you might want some assistance." He replied in his casual Iridonian Zabrak voice, the Remote still following him around. His cybernetic arm worked like a phantom, the forearm held to the shoulder by a charge of energy, without strain he picked up the cart and began making his way out. Atris looked upon him respectably, one of the greatest men she had ever met.
"Perhaps there is something I can do to return the favor?" Atris asked, her voice echoing with pride, honor, and a sense of nobility.
"No need." Bao-dur responded as he went on his way into the darkness of the Enclave to drop off the bodies for burial. Atris and Brianna soon followed after him as they found no other bodies that needed to be taken with.
"He is a truly inspiring man." Atris stated, looking at Brianna as they walked forward, "Such a man is admirable for the gentleness the he exudes, he surpasses that of the Exile."
"I agree milady. He has done much for Telos, and there may be more that he will do as a Jedi Knight. After all, now his power is limitless with the Force as his ally." Brianna replied maturely, her strong face relented as she thought of their softness. "Both the Exile and Bao-dur are gentle, but their control is what I must admire, they are truly strong if they can hold in such fearsome power and reserve it only when they need it."
"You see, you've grown, as you told me, you learned from your 'mistake' of breaking your oath to me." Atris pointed out, she held out the Exile's lightsaber and looked it over it defined that edge to him that she fell in love with so long ago. She recalled watching him spar against the other Jedi Padawans, how he managed to force them into making their own mistakes within the first few moves, truly a passionate man, but she knew deep down, then, as she knew now, that he stood against her definition of a Jedi Knight, he was the antithesis of all the Jedi stood for, and he was right. The Council had been too slow to react, and in the situation, there was no other option aside from following Revan and Malak into war, had the Jedi acted sooner, the Republic would have been saved from its current damage and the Mandalorians would have been wiped out. He was right.
From the diary of Visas Marr
The way of the Jedi is one that requires strength, confidence, determination, and purity. I am but a simple sword in the hands of true warriors. I can only do as I am taught. Under Darth Nihilus, I was taught pain, agony, and death, I learned to kill Jedi and I assisted in the destruction of their Order. In my duel with the Exile, I saw a purity that no Jedi I had faced before carried. It amazed me that such an echo in the Force could grow so quickly and shine so brightly. As my lightsaber was shattered, I fell to the ground, not exhausted, or hurt, but wounded. It was a wound that did not penetrate my body or my mind, but the darkness within me. From his sheer presence, all the darkness within me suddenly found itself draining, and in flew his pure light as he took me to the Medbay. I was not a Sith by choice, but I chose to follow the Exile, to protect him from my former Master. When I finally brought the Exile to face my Master, he had grown so strong and so quickly that the light within him burned with his righteous fervor, lightsaber in hand, he fought Nihilus, though the battle seemed lost, somehow the Exile defeated Master. Even when I thought that the only way was for me to give my life to shatter the bond and weaken my Master, the Exile persuaded me that the battle would require no one to die needlessly. I owe the Exile my life, and it seems that for the rest of my life I shall owe him. The kind soul that is his is wounded by the pain from Malachor V, but even now; he heals quickly, just as my scars lost their pain when I joined the Exile.
Jorran looked at Visas, every night she would sit in the center of her bedroom and meditate on the destruction of Katarr. Her back to him, she was so still she could be easily forgotten. Until the Jedi Enclave was fully rebuilt, they were allowed to remain on the Ebon Hawk thanks to the Attendant. Visas seemed to know many different meditation techniques that she practiced all at once to ensure that she remained calm and focused, so much so that Jorran had requested to be taught her meditation techniques and perhaps to use them in the reformation of the Jedi Order, but many times Visas had not consented to his idea with that same response, "These techniques are specifically for me and no one else would prosper from them." Jorran lightly probed her mind while she meditated, every time she would repeat the same line over and over again about the destruction of Katarr and all of the Force-Sensitive inhabitants of the world. He silently sat beside her and began reciting the same chant in his head as well; something was different about his meditation, at first it was a slight nudge in his mind, something calling him to look about the inner-workings of his own thoughts. A frigid cold touched him, not on his body; it passed through him and touched the very elements of his being. This cold was choking him, overpowering him, and blinding him; this was the Dark side. It squirmed through him and took control of his eyes; he opened them to see death and destruction. His ears opened to the screams of thousands of people, not a clear sound of it, but the draining sound of people screaming as they were sucked out of life and into the next. The world around him was covered in ash and destruction, buildings were demolished, and the environment was completely leveled and dried up, a wound in the Force as the vague shadow of Darth Nihilus absorbed all life. Before him stood a younger Visas Marr, short black hair flew back in the presence of the Sith Lord. Her eyes burned in pain, veins sprouted around her eyes as she screamed out in agony, a burning pain consuming her as Darth Nihilus stood and glared at her behind his inhuman mask.
Jolting out of his meditation, Jorran found himself on his back, the smell of blood in his nostrils. He sat up, to find himself in Medbay; Atton, Visas, Bao-dur, Brianna, and Mira quickly encircled him. They stared at him in horror as he soon realized that blood perforated from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.
"What the hell happened?" Atton shouted, Visas stepped behind him and picked up a rag, calmly applying it to Jorran's head, cleaning up the blood. "You howl like a Gundark, and we all find you with her" Atton motioned toward Visas, "And you're covered in blood while she is trying to wake you up!"
Jorran looked at Visas; deep down he could still feel the bone-chilling cold penetrating his being. "I decided to join Visas in meditation." Jorran thought precariously on how to explain what had happened, "I…I witnessed the destruction of Katarr." Jorran replied, a headache ringing through the blood in his ears; now he would not be able to stop the frenzy if they conspired against Visas.
Visas looked at him, awestruck, she seemed more worried then caring as she quickly finished wiping the blood out of his face, burning his with the fabric as it quickly chaffed against his cheeks. "You witnessed the destruction of Katarr, and also Darth Nihilus?" She interrogated silently, pulling Jorran up and positioning her head to be centered directly toward his, looking at his face through the Force, but also probing his mind if he let any thought betray him.
"Yes." Jorran replied, staring down into her lifeless white eyes, he felt her enter his mind like a soft hand reaching back and caressing his scalp. She rest her arms against his chest, laying her hands on his collar-bone and proceeded to lay her head against his chest as well.
She stood against him while he wrapped his arms around her. Mira proceeded to questioning, "So, this just proves that meditation is dangerous?" She tried to bring to group's morale up as she punched Atton lightly, "Or perhaps that was all an excuse to hide your kinky BDSM games?" Her light smile waned when T3-M4 chirped loudly in an indignant tone.