Chapter 5: A Game of Dejarik

3rd Person P.O.V

It was now the evening, and after the crew and Jacob ate dinner, which Jacob liked to his surprise, he and Ezra were now in Ezra's room, where Jacob was staying, talking about life on their planets.

When Ezra asked Jacob about Earth, he was more than happy to answer Ezra's questions about Earth.

He started out with talking a little bit about how it has different climates, different countries each with their own government, the technology they have, as well as a little bit of history, like the world wars, the Cold War, and the Afghanistan conflict to name a few. He also told Ezra about various revolutions that occurred on Earth, ranging from the French and American Revolutions, to some more recent revolutions that took place and are taking place now, like with civil wars between the people of various countries and their own governments, and Jacob even told Ezra that some of Earth's present day governments were established after the people overthrew the government and established their own. This got Ezra thinking that this rebellion in the galaxy might have hope after all.

After Jacob told Ezra a little bit about Earth, including his life living there, Ezra got into life on Lothal with his new friend.

He told Jacob about life on Lothal before his parents were taken, how Ezra survived all those years on the streets on his own, and how he eventually met the Ghost crew, joining their cause since he saw them as people who he could trust after so many years alone. He also told Jacob about his discovery of the force, how he got trained by Kanan in the force, those times when he was forced to use his abilities during run ins with inquisitors, but Ezra never got into Malachor, nor mentioned the sith holocron.

They talked more about life on their planets and their ruling governments, and after talking for a while, Jacob decided to see what everybody else is up to.

Jacob's P.O.V

I left my and Ezra's room, and headed towards the common area of the Ghost, as he and the crew called it. I walked in there, and saw Hera playing some kind of game with Alex at the table. The game seemed to have these holograms, and they were playing with them. It was like some type of chess or something like that. I wanted to give it a try.

"Dang it! You're too good for a person who doesn't play dejarik that much, Alex." Hera said after he won. "What can I say? Today was my lucky day." he replied to the green alien. "Hey, Jake." he said after both of them turned to me. "What were you two playing?" I asked them. "Dejarik." Hera answered.

"What's that?" I asked them. "It's a game that is played often in this galaxy. It's played with these holograms, and you have to operate them using the dejarik board." Alex explained. "You wanna try?" "I guess so." "Take a seat, and could you teach him, Hera?" he asked her. "Sure. Where are you going?" "Cargo bay for combat practice." "Have fun then." He nodded and then left, leaving me with the female alien.

*Hera explains the rules of dejarik to Jacob* "You think you got it?" she asked me after she was done explaining. I seemed to pick up on it thanks to my abilities. "I think I got it." I replied. "Good. Let's play." she said, resetting the board for a new round.

She took one of her pieces, moving it towards me, leaving me an opening. I took the opportunity, and eliminated her piece, the hologram fading away. "Yes!" I thought to myself. Hera used another one of her pieces, and got revenge. I noticed just now how this game is a little bit like chess.

"Do you have something like this back on Earth?" she asked me. "We do. It's called chess, but there's no holograms involved. It's played relatively similar, but on a chess board, and you have various pieces ranging from rooks, knights, bishops, pawns, etc." I replied. "Right." Hera responded, eliminating another piece of mine, me being down to two pieces.

I used the force to get an idea about Hera's strategy, and I used it. I took one of my pieces, moving it to the left, waiting on her go. She moved, giving me an opening to use my second piece on her, eliminating her piece, Hera down to her last one. She was nervous and I could tell through the force. She made her move on me, and eliminated one of my pieces, both of us being down to one more piece.

Eventually, getting her in the perfect spot for an opening, I took Hera's last piece out, winning my first game at dejarik. "Good job." Hera commended me, both of us shaking hands after a good game. "Wanna go again?" I asked her. "Just to get back at you." she joked.

After an intense second round, I won again to my surprise. After my win, Sabine came in the common area, wearing a grey t shirt and what looked like to be gray sweatpants. "Hey, guys." she said. "Sabine, you won't believe this." Hera told her. "What's up?" "Jacob here beat me on his first two times playing dejarik." "First two times?" Hera nodded. "It took me like five just to win one game." "You wanna play?" I invited her. "Sure." she responded, taking a seat in front of me.

She reset the board, and we played now. And after an even more intense third round, I beat Sabine after catching her off guard using the force to my advantage, predicting her moves. "Dang, you're good for a first timer." Sabine said. "I learn pretty quickly." I replied. "Explains much." She got up after our game. "Where are you going?" I asked her. "To my room to paint."

"Wait, you like art too?" I asked her. She stopped, turned around, and said, "What did you ask me?" I repeated my question. "Yes I do actually. Do you?" "I do as a matter of fact. On my phone, I even have photos of some stuff that I did." "Can I see them?" "Sure thing. Let me just go get my phone first."

I went back to my and Ezra's room, looked for my phone using the force, and when I found it in a drawer, I was surprised that the battery wasn't drained as much. It was at 95% when I left Earth, and it still is unusually. I picked it up, punched in my pass code, opened up my photos, and went to find Sabine in her room. I found it pretty quickly, thanks to not only me detecting her presence through the force, but her front door was painted in some kind of graffiti. I knocked on the door. "Come in." Sabine said through the door, me entering.

"So?" she asked. "Here they are." I said as I handed her my phone. "What the heck is this thing?" she asked. "It's an iphone, a cellular device used by lots of people on Earth." I answered. "How do you operate thi-oh I see how you do this." she said after she found out how to swipe in between my photos.

The photos that she ended up seeing were some really good drawings and paintings that I did. I used to draw and paint a lot to help get stress out of me, especially if it was related to my force abilities, and I was good at it that the force helped me out a bit.

Some of the paintings and drawings Sabine saw included my drawing in pencil of Daft Punk in their helmets that had both of them up close and wearing tuxes, my painting of a night time Seattle that I did from the rooftop of a friend's house one time, my drawing in pencil of an up close Optimus Prime from the Transformers films, and my painting of the Moscow Kremlin that I did one time after I saw lots of visions of it at one point for reasons unknown. Sabine seemed to like a lot of them, and then when she found this one particular picture in there, she was intrigued by it.

This picture was another drawing in pencil, and it had a baby all alone on the ground, crying in a forest at night time. And in that, there was a figure above it, and when I told Sabine to go the next one, it showed the figure with the baby in its arms. The figure was shaded really dark in pencil, and the baby had very little shadowing done to it. This I drew out after experiencing a vision of a baby in a forest through the force one time in my teens, and that same exact vision struck me last night while the droid removed the bullet.

"What's the story with these two?" Sabine asked me. "I've seen that baby before in a vision that I had, as well as the forest and the figure." I answered. "Was your vision a force vision?" "Possibly. I experienced that last night. That baby I have seen before in that forest many times, and these days I still don't know why I keep on having that vision." I wanted to tell Sabine that the baby turned out to be me after I experienced the vision last night, but I didn't want to since I didn't feel comfortable sharing it with her. "Right. Anyway, these are really good though." she switched the subject.

"Thanks." I replied, her handing me my phone back. Sabine yawned afterwards and said, "I'm tired. I'm going to bed." "Me too. And before I go, Sabine, do you know where your shower is on this thing, if you have one?" I asked. "I do. Follow me."

I followed her, and we came up on the restrooms that had showers in them. There were two, and the women's one was distinguishable with a painting of a woman stick figure in pink by Sabine. I thanked her, said goodnight, and went to shower up.

Ironically, this shower seemed somewhat similar to an Earth shower. I activated it after I got undressed, and at least it was easy to operate, and it had hot water, which was good for a spaceship. I showered, dried myself off using a towel that I found in the men's room, and since I did not have any other clothes on me, I was forced to put on the same clothes that I had on since we left Earth for the walk back to my room.

I arrived, trying to not wake Ezra up, got undressed, climbed up onto the top bunk, and went to sleep.

I experienced another thing while I was asleep, but it wasn't a vision of me as a baby in that forest, or anything else. It was just a whisper in a dream, and it was that same one from last night.

"Kill the sorcerer."