The grey temple, part 2(Realization)
A/N: Sorry for the long wait, life got real for me. This is gonna be a 3 part arc, I'll post the next one a week after I post this, I'm gonna try to get the second chapter at least half done by the time I post this one, and the 3rd one a week after I post the second. So, please enjoy. Cliff notes before you read, this is the beginning of Morty's ACTUAL Jedi training. He's going to enter the temple and take the beginning trials to determine if he's gonna be a Jedi or not. So, please enjoy
Morty PoV
The rock slid shut over the entrance and I started to freak out. In all of the adventures that Rick and I went on, we were never left in total pitch blackness, we've always had either a flashlight, or we used star lights from when we raided abandoned ships.
But we weren't blind for long. "Calm down Morty," Ren said. I did by trying to control my breathing, and no sooner that I did that Ren's purple lightsaber sparked to life and casted the place in an eerie glow. "Remember to stop and think before you react. Reacting without thinking leads to fear, fear leads to panic, panic leads to mistakes, mistakes leads to loss of control. Do you understand?"
Finally calmed down, I take one more breath and say, "Yes. I understand. So what are we gonna do now?"
"Well, I was gonna prepare you for the trials ahead," Ren said. "But you're fear caused the temple to activate prematurely. And the only way that we'll get out of here is if you go and finish the trials."
"Oh… ok," I said nervously. "Can't you just use the Force to open the door?"
"Well, I could, but, then the temple wouldn't really accept us when we come back."
"Wait, this place is alive?" I asked looking around, thinking that I'm inside the mouth of some stone monster.
"Yeah, but not in the organic sense, more like, the energies that past Jedi passing through these halls seeped into the ground and left an imprint on the place. Very mystical stuff. Now, come on," he held out his hand and the wall behind us slid open. A doorway. "You are to go, travel the inner sanctum, and look within yourself, or let the temple look within you."
"So… that's all?" I ask, looking at the doorway. "What do I take?"
"Only what you bring with you," he replied. I started to walk forward. "Oh, you're weapons. You will not need them." I sighed, took them off, and laid them next to a pillar, with an alien skellington on it. He, or she, had ram's horns coming out of their head, and the bottom jaw was missing. Then I walked into the door. "What am I looking for?" I asked
He was about to reply, but the door started to slide closed. He yelled, "Nothing, and everything at the same time!"
"What does that even mean!?" I yelled back as the door slammed shut. "Great, now what?"
Ren PoV
"Nothing, and everything at the same time!" I yelled as the door slid shut.
"What does that even mean!?" I got back, then silence.
I sighed. "I'm not exactly sure myself, but that's what my master told me when I was starting out."
I looked around, other than the glow of my purple lightsaber, I was in pitch blackness. The Force is all around me. The Force is telling me that I'm going in the right direction. This is the right move, I know it without even thinking about it too much.
I go around the chamber, lighting the old torches on the wall, getting more illumination. The smoke goes up into the ceiling and out the ventilation shaft built in somewhere. Once I was down, I shut off my lightsaber, and sit in the middle of the chamber.
I look to my left and say to the Togruta skellington, "You're padawan ever make it out of here?" Of course, it doesn't answer. "Didn't think so." The silence was penetrating. "I hate my life," I say after and begin to meditate.
Morty PoV
The temple likes to mess with me. Like, no, really. It just really loves to mentally mess with me. I keep seeing images, phantoms that disappear when I get too close. I kept turning up into dead ends, and walk through doors that go to places that shouldn't exist in the temple. I kept going through doors to my memories. I saw scenes from my past, in 3rd person too. One of me seeing Jessica for the first time, that one was good. It was the day of freshman orientation in the school gym. I was waiting to get my schedule, the lines were long, and I was going to to the one leading to a table with a banner labeled K-S for last names. I went to that line and stood next to myself, looking down at myself. I must have grown a bit taller since that day a nearly 9 months ago, in real life school ends next week, which is why my parents were ok with me leaving for this trip.
I looked scared, and it showed. I know that I have a major anxiety problem, but I've been managing to control it, or deal with it better. You don't spend all that time with Rick and not get better at it. But from what I'm looking at, I was scared, and it showed. Finally it was my turn to get my schedule.
"Name?" The attendant, a senior by the looks of him, asked me.
"M-M-Morty S-Smi-Smith," I stuttered out.
He looked up at me, rolled his eyes and leafed through the papers. When he found the right one, he handed it to me and said, "My advice kid, loose the stutter. You'll last longer if you do."
Gulping, I nod and take my paper. I turn around and went to leave, but I bumped into someone, knocking the person and me down. "Ow," I groan out and stand up, rubbing my backside. I look down to see that I knocked over a beautiful orange haired girl. "A-are you o-o-ok?" I asked timidly, holding out my hand to help her up.
"Yeah," she said and accepted my hand. Once she was up I realised that she was about my height, that changed in the coming year when she shot up to 5"10, and shows no sign of stopping from becoming a tall beautiful woman. "Are you ok?
"O-oh. Um, yeah. I-I'm fine," I said timidly.
"You sure?" She asked raising an eyebrow.
"Y-yeah. I, it's just. I'm… s-socially a-awkward," I say, lowering my head.
"Aww," she said and patted my shoulder. "Don't be," She said, smiling sweetly. I smiled back and felt a crush blooming in my chest.
The wind picked up and it blew so hard that it made me stumble. I righted myself up, but turned around in doing so. The wind abruptly ended and I was in the dank and dark corridor that I was in before. The door closed on me, making me jump and get in a defencive position. It was silent once more.
"What the hell am I supposed to do here?" I whisper to myself.
"Morty" I hear a whisper in the wind. "Morrrrty"
"No," I say to myself, once I realize who it is. "He can't be here."
"Morty," the whisper came again, only louder. Like someone was talking softly in my ear.
I turn towards the voice and say out loud, "Rick?"
Ren PoV
"Ugh," I groan out. 3 hours. 3 whole hours. That's how long I've been waiting with no one but the skellington's of the long dead Jedi for company. "How long is this suppose to take?"
Hearing no answer I get up and begin to pace around. 30 more minutes pass and finally I had it. "Ok, that's it, he might be in trouble, I'm going in."
I walk up to where the door is, and reach out with my hand and the Force to try and pry it open. Just as I've made contact and the door begins to shake, a voice calls out to me, both far away and close at the same time.
"No, don't!" it said.
I was so surprised that I dropped my hand and the door stopped shaking. "I hear you," I say. "But it's impossible that I should, you're dead," I said in awe. Nothing answered back. "I must be losing my mind," I concluded and tried to pry open the door again.
"If you keep trying to open that door, you really must be," the all too familiar voice said again.
I dropped my hand again. "No, you're dead! I watched you die myself, how are you talking to me?" I said out loud, turning to and fro trying to see where the voice is coming from. These little lights, like fireflies, formed in thin air and floated down to me. "No…" I whisper, tears forming in my eyes.
"Yes," the voice said. "Hello my old padawan. It's been a while. How have you been?"
I sank to my knees, tears free falling from my eyes. "Master Tsunade," I said with grief in my voice. "How?"
Morty PoV
I kept following the voice. Rick's voice. How he's here, I wouldn't know, but I also know it's not impossible. The multiverse has infinite dimensions. And infinite Ricks, also infinite me's. So maybe a Rick from an alternate universe came here, because if someone as high profile as our Rick is, him breaking out of space jail would make headline news. Someone would have told us, or staked out our house, or held us hostage or something. But this… this is different.
Finally I came to a hallway of doors. "Morty," came Rick's voice again, clearer than ever. "Come here, Morty," it said again. There were dozens of doors, going down the hallway as far at the eye could see.
"Ok, but which one?" I mutter to myself. I then close my eyes, and allow the Force to flow through me. I begin walking, and walking and walking. Finally, I feel a tug in the pit of my gut, a pull from the Force, telling me that the door to my immediate left is the right one. I opened my eyes and wrench the door open and quickly close it behind me once I'm over the threshold. It was the garage, and Rick was at his workbench soldering something.
"About t-time you sho-shooo*burp*wed up. Now pass me that socket wrench, Morty," he said, not even turning to me. Numbly, I go to the tool box and pick out a socket wrench and hand it to him, he took it without so much as a glance at me. After he tightened a bolt on this little machine, he packed it all together in some intricate way, and closed the frame to it, and it turned into a cube of some sort.
"Finally," he said. "I've been working on that for a while now, trickly l-lit*burp* little device." He glanced at me. "What? D-do I ha-haaaave something on my-my face?"
"Rick," I say finally. "How are y-you h-hear?" My stutter came back, but in this moment, I don't care. I'm more concerned about my internal debate of either punching him, or hugging him and never letting him go.
"W-what d-do you m-mean?" He said, fishing out his flask from his lab coat and taking a swig.
"Rick," I couldn't take it. I ran up to him, and punched him in the face. He hit the table next to the workbench and clutched his cheek. "Ow! W-what the h-hell yo-you little sh-shi-shit!" He got up and was about to round on me, but I ran forward and threw my arms around him "M-Morty?"
"Where did you go?" I said, openly sobbing. "Why did you leave us again?"
We stood like that for a while. Me just crying onto his blue sweater, and him just standing there awkwardly. Finally, he sighs and puts his arms on my shoulders. "Morty," he says, gently moving me away from him. "You're never gonna pass if you keep up like this."
"W-what?" I say dumb founded.
"I'm not actually here, Morty, and deep down, you know it too," he says, not looking me in the eye. And I do know. I just didn't want to believe it. "This Temple is testing you, Morty. This is your test, and if you don't pass it, you can't become a Jedi. Bad things will happen if you don't become a Jedi, you're family will suffer, the Federation will continue to expand throughout the galaxy and beyond, and a whole hell of a lot of people, aliens, celestial beings, will die. You have to pass this Morty."
"But," I sniff. "What am I supposed to do, Rick?"
"I'm not Rick," the not Rick said, but not unkindly. "I'm just a manifestation of Rick through the Temple."
"I know that Rick," I say. "But I'm not gonna call you anything else. Now, what am I supposed to do?"
He sighs. "I would have figured you would know, I mean, this is your trial after all." I continued to stare at him. "Alright fine," he relents. "This is the trial of Awakening. It's meant to show if you have traites a Jedi is suppose to have. Integrity, courage, self confidence, a bunch of things, but most importantly, you need to be ready. This is a test to see if you're ready. And only you can know if you're ready or not."
"How will I know?" I ask.
"You have to face the Temple, and you will know if you're ready or not," Rick says. He walks to the door leading to the house and opens it up. On the other side is this foggy blackness, like soup. "You have to see for yourself what this Temple is offering you, Morty, and face it head on. Otherwise, how can you face what you can't?"
"What does that mean?" I ask, getting frustrated with all the cryptic lines. I walked next to him and stared into the abyss, and got the feeling that it was staring back at me.
"It means," he said gripping my shoulder, hard. "You have to find out," and he threw me into the void, and I fell. "He'll never make it," I heard him say before I got out of range. I looked up and saw the door close, leaving me falling into the unknown… Literally.
Ren PoV
The spirit form of my old master, Master Tsunade, was in the form of little lights, like fireflies, and he came to me because I'm not handling this right.
"Master," I say. "How are you here, with me?" The lights give no response. "I saw you die, right in front of me, over 20 years ago. How are you here?"
"I have transcended the physical plane when I died, and managed to hold onto my consciousness. And in all this time, all I did was think. The Force is everywhere and is with every living being, plants, and animals. This is what we call the Living Force. The Living Force bleeds into the cosmic backdrop that binds the universe together called the Cosmic Force. When we die, we transcend in the Force and become one with the Cosmic Force. From that, I was able to maintain my identity, to come back and become one with the Living Force, even after death. That is how I'm talking with you now."
"Can I see you?" I ask timidly, getting on my knees in front of the lights.
"Sadly, no. My training isn't complete. And I am only able to talk to you because of the strong connection to the Force this place has. I came here to warn you," he continued. This peaked my attention.
"What is wrong? Is something happening?" I ask.
"Something has been happening for the past millennia. Dark forces have been stirring for hundreds of years. The eradication of the Jedi 3 centuries ago brought it to a head. But those of us, of you, who are left have kept to our ways and kept them alive. You are all growing now. But so is our enemy."
"How," I ask. "Tell me what I can do?"
"You can start by letting your padawan finish his trial," he said, chiding me.
I look down in shame, but remain strong. "I'm sorry my Master," I say. "But I've never done something like this before. When you brought me to my trial, I was more ready than he was. I had years of training already under my belt and still I barely passed. I'm worried for my apprentice, but I don't know what to do."
"You can start by letting him go and let him do it himself. He's a strong boy, he'll pass."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because you trained him. And I trained you, even if I didn't get to finish, I know that you're training is complete. Once he passes, you will truly be his Master, and he will truly be your Apprentice."
That once again brought tears to my eyes, but I rubbed them away. "Thank you Master, that means a lot to me."
"Yes, I know. You needed to hear those words. Now, be ready, for something is about to happen."
"What?" I ask, getting to my feet and pulling out my lightsaber handle. Then I feel it, it's cold.
"Perhaps an allie, perhaps a enemy, or perhaps a friend. Such are things of the unknown," he says cryptically, then floats up to the ceiling and fades away.
No sooner that he did, that the front entrance to the Temple slid open, the sudden rush of air blew out the torches I had lit. On the other side was a figure, clad in black armor, cloak with a hood and mask, was a person so powerful in the Dark Side, that through the Force it looked like he was bleeding darkness from his very skin.
"Hello," he said in a synthesized robot voice. "I've been looking for you," he reaches into his cloak, I ignite my purple lightsaber, but he brings out a teapot. "Care for a cup of tea?" he asks. Dumbfounded, I sense that his words are genuine, so I deactivate my lightsaber.
"Sure," I say as the purple glowing blade shrinks and vanishes. "It's been boring in here anyway."
End Chapter
A/N: I didn't get to start on chapter 7, but my computer has a bad ram stick, so, I'm going to be uploading this from the library and work on chapter 7 when I get a replacement for my RAM stick. So, until then, read, review and favorite/follow, it'll help me write faster. This has been Bigmike33321, signing off! *BOOP!*