The Trials of Illum
It had been weeks since Spike and the others had been given their training lightsabers, weeks of hard training and no small amount of pain from the amount of losses Spike had endured. Nevertheless, Spike had gotten better since he had first began, at the same level of the others. Out of all of them he could make a strategy that could give him an edge on stronger opponents. His skill over the force is still lacking but still grows strongest each day.
Asha and Briana were stronger in the force than Spike was, There knowledge in Shii-Cho was still lacking but there strength in the force made up for this and allowed them to take the final test.
Brandon and Zuno on the other hand used brute strength to defeat there enemies, although there skills in the force was severally lacking there strength made up for this, they would overpower people with there skill in Shii-Cho. Darius had expressed concern over both of them trying to win with pure brute strength but he had soon learned there skill in light saber dueling exceeded his expectation and allowed them to take the final test.
Now after nine weeks at the Jedi temple, the five member of the Darius Clan were ready to undertake their final test, they now only had to wait for Master Darius to let them take the test. The five of them were now in the Jedi training room for what would probably be the last time when they were all together. After today, it would simply be a case of completing the Jedi temple apprentice tournament and gaining the attention of a master and then they would be out in the galaxy protecting it.
"Gather around apprentices." Darius said, as the five of them walked into the room. "There will be no more training or lessons that will be instructed by me. Today, you all will travel to the ice planet of Illum, accompanied by Jedi knight Daga." As he said this, a Jedi entered the room.
"It's nice to see you five again." He said
"On Illum, you will face numerous trials, but more importantly, you will find the crystals for your own Lightsaber. I will allow Daga to explain more on the journey."
When he finished Darius left the room leaving Daga with the intiates, before telling the initiates to follow him.
The six of them walked through the winding hallways of the temple, before they finally reached the one part that had been strictly off limits to them during their training, even when they were with Master Darius, the hanger bay. Quickly entering the room, Daga walked towards a small craft, before turning to face the initiates.
"You have all proven yourselves worthy to take this test." He said, slowly walking in front of the initiates. "For a Jedi, there is no greater challenge, or honour. Now, Spike, Brandon, Zuno, Asha, and Briana, the time has come to build your own Lightsabers." As he said this, he drew his own weapon. "But be warned, finding your crystals inside the caves of Illum will be no easy task, it is a test of minds. That being said, I hope you all pass now we will get going."
The initiates smiled, looking between each other in excitement, before following Daga into the ship. Shortly afterwards, they felt the ship move, slowly, it rose into the air before speeding off towards the ship in orbit that would take them to Illum.
"Master Daga." Zuno said, tapping the Jedi on his back.
"Zuno I am no master just a knight." Daga said while smiling.
"Sorry about that." Zuno said, "But if we do fail... what will happen to us?"
"You will try again until you pass." Daga said.
"I guess I shouldn't fail..." Zuno said getting worried.
"No worries I know we will pass." Asha told Zuno.
"I know but it's just..."
"You act just like me when I was taking this trial." Daga said.
"I suppose so." Zuno replied.
"It's best if we get some rest. We won't get there for awhile so just take it easy until then." Daga said before walking off.
After a few days of travel, the five members of Darius Clan, as well as Jedi knight Daga, descended towards the surface of Illum.
As the ramp to the spaceship opened, Spike realized the planet they are on was like the Crystal Empire except more empty.
Wrapping his arms around himself, Spike walked out into the icy weather, glad that there wasn't a storm wracking the surface as they walked towards a massive ice wall. Getting closer to it, Spike saw a beautifully crafted arch way, made entirely out of ice. The inside of the arch way was also filled with ice, but with a wave of his hand, Daga moved the ice aside revealing a large cave inside the wall. Walking in they quickly realized this was no simple cave... but couldn't tell what was different.
"If you are to become Jedi, you must enter the cave, trust yourself, trust your friends, trust the force. Do this and you will succeed." Daga said, turning back to the initiates.
Nodding, the initiates moved towards the cave. As they were about to enter, Daga stopped them.
"Once you have recovered your crystal, do not remain inside the caves. When day turns to night, the door will have frozen over once more, and you will be trapped for quite some time." He said, looking between the initiates.
"For how long exactly?" Spike asked.
"Until the sun comes back up." Daga said. "Become trapped and all we can do is wait, there will be no help to those caught inside."
"So… how long's until the sun comes up?" Brandon asked.
"The sun rises over Illum every nineteen days." Daga said.
"Are we going to encounter anything living in the caves?" Zuno asked.
"Gorgodon's, if anything. you shouldn't encounter them and even if you do, you should be able to protect yourselves from them." Daga replied.
"How will we know which crystal to pick?" Spike asked.
"Only you can decide that. As Master Darius taught, trust in the force. Now begin." Daga said, turning and walking away. The five members of Darius clan quickly made their way inside the cave.
The cave was dark, but quite beautiful at the same time, Some of the ice looking like crystals.
"Do you think those are the crystals?" Briana asked.
"No, this would be to easy." Spike said. "Remember Master Darius said we would face challenges." He finished.
"You are quite smart Spike." Asha laughed.
"I do read a lot." Spike said
"I guess we should probably get a move on." Briana pointed out.
"That's a good idea." Zuno said. "How are we going to do this?"
"Split up to find the crystals, then get back before it freezes over." Spike suggested.
"Are we all sure we can do it alone?" Asha asked.
"Spike is right. That would make it much easier." Brandon said.
"I suppose so." Asha said. "Alright let's get moving."
The five initiates all turned around and each one entering one of the many tunnels leading off from the main entrance, heading deeper into the cave.
Asha
Asha ran down the passage way, drawing her fur coat around herself tighter to conserve what warmth that she had. She quickly scanned the walls as she ran.
Suddenly, a thought hit her and she stopped walking, emerging into a large circular ice room while looking around. For the first time she could remember in her life, she was alone, the master of her own destiny. There were no slavers towering over her making all the decisions for her, there were no Jedi masters teaching her every second of the day, she didn't have friends to comfort her from the memories of her past.
Pure terror gripped the young Twilek as she looked around the room, trying to remember which identical passage way she came down. Spinning around frantically she lost her footing and fell heavily onto the ground. A sickening crack sounded out as she smashed onto the floor.
Before she could do anything the ice beneath her cracked, A split second later the entire floor smashed, plunging Asha into the darkness below. As she fell she heard a rumbling sound as sheets of ice fell from the ceiling crashing over the entrance to the tiny cave, forming cruel bars across Asho's makeshift cage.
Covering her head, Asha curled herself up into a ball, protecting herself from the physical blows that always came after she was put into her cage, briefly wondering whether it would be the whip or the rod this time. She waited for what felt like an eternity for the blows to land, assuming that the long wait was another one of the master's cruel tricks to catch her off guard. Eventually, Asha cracked her eyes open, taking in her surrounding once again. Instantly, the mental images that had been forming in her mind about her past was gone, as she saw exactly where she was.
Looking around herself, she took in her new surroundings. She was in a tiny ice cavern, barely two meters by two meters back, giving her just enough space to move around if she stooped. Above her head, ice shards covered the hole she had come in from forming bars to complete her prison.
Reaching up, Asha made to push the ice away before pulling her hands back. She knew that touching the roof of her cage would result in punishment. She still bore the scars from all her attempts. Shaking her head, she tried to push the thoughts out of her mind, telling herself that it wasn't real and that she was no longer a slave of the huts but try as she might, she couldn't bring herself to touch the bars.
Sliding back down the walls, Asha put her head in her hands once more and began to cry. She had been stupid to believe she was free or could ever be a Jedi.
Sobbing, she glanced up looking at the ceiling above her, forcing herself to get at least one last glimpse of her newest surroundings before she froze to death in this hell that she found herself in.
A tiny glint caught her eye.
Wiping her eyes with the back of her sleeve, she looked up at the ceiling more carefully, hoping that it wasn't just her mind playing tricks on her again. For a moment, she couldn't find the glint from before and her heart sank again. As she was about to give up hope once more, she spotted it again, a small glinting speck in the ceiling, shining out against the ice surrounding it.
Quickly getting to her feet, being careful not to smack her head on the bars she looked up at the ice keeping her captive. Unsteadily, she reached up and touched the bars, flinching as she waited for the pain that would surely follow. When none came,she gritted her teeth and pushed. She must overcome this trial.
The ice scraped against the other bars, and began to rise slowly, before Asha slipped, falling to the floor and letting the bars fall back into place. Not allowing herself to be defeated, Asha rose again, grabbing hold of the bars and pushing. Slowly, they began to rise, but as they did she felt herself slipping again. Thinking quickly she shot her hand out, pointing it at the walls of her cage and channelling the force to push into the wall. The wall didn't move but Asha accomplished her goal and steadied her footing, using the force to steady herself as she continued to push the bars up before with one final effort she cleared them away and opened up the pathway to her escape.
Quickly climbing out of the make-shift cage, she made her way over to where she had seen the glinting crystal, quickly finding it, and inspecting it closely. It was small so small that if she hadn't known exactly where it was, she would never have seen it. If fact, the only reason she hadn't walked straight past it was because of the fact that she had fallen into the cage, and looked upwards.
Reaching out, she grabbed the crystal from the wall before slipping it into her pocket and turning on her heel, running back down the passageway she knew lead to the entrance.
Briana
Briana made her way down the ice passage, checking at different intervals to see if she could find the crystal that she was looking for. Truth be told, she didn't actually know what she was looking for, having never seen what a Lightsaber crystal looked like and even if she had, knowing that it would be unique to her and her alone. She smiled briefly at thinking how her brother would be getting on in this.
It felt odd to be doing this without her brother, they hardly ever did things alone, they worked better when they were together but it wasn't the first time they had been separated and she wasn't worried. She could work on her own quite well and unlike her brother she knew how to get out of harsh situations.
Finding two passageways, Briana stopped, deciding which way to go.
"Might as well go right." She told herself.
Giggling to herself, she quickly found herself in a massive cavern and walked around in awe at the soaring walls and pillars of ice rising all the way to the ceiling. What really captivated her though was the massive waterfall at the end of the room, replete with large chunks of ice thundering along with it before smashing apart on the surface of the water to join the thousands of other tiny shards that were already there.
Glancing up she saw a large piece of ice reflecting something and glanced further down the wall her eyes found a small crystal object, resting on the surface of the ice shards down in the hole the waterfall had carved out.
Smiling to herself, Briana extended her hand, reaching out with the force to grab a hold of the crystal and pull it to her. Finding herself unsuccessful, Briana tried again, closing her eyes and scrunching her face up in concentration, willing the crystal to come towards her, but was once again found herself unsuccessful.
Groaning in frustration, Briana looked around the room, looking for anything that could help her reach what she instinctively knew was her Lightsaber crystal. Walking around the pit to the waterfall she quickly looked behind it, looking at the wall to see if she would be able to climb down and retrieve the crystal by hand. She put a hand on the wall, testing it to see if it would take her weight. The wall was freezing cold, and cracked as she stepped onto it but it held and Briana smiled to herself. She could imagine Zuno freaking out in this situation, she than kept going.
It was slippery and more than once she almost lost her footing but the wall still held and that was good enough for her. That was until she reached the halfway point. Stepping down, she placed her foot on an icy outcrop before lifting her other foot to find another wall. As soon as she rested her entire weight on the wall though, there was a cracking sound, and Briana only just managed to pull her foot away and place it back where it was originally before the ice broke off the wall, plummeting downwards and sliding into the water with a loud bang.
Briana began to climb back up, making sure to test each wall before putting her weight on it. She managed to make her way back to the top of the hole without incident and sat on the edge, looking down at her crystal.
As she looked down she noticed that the water had risen quite a bit since she had been climbing. thinking that it is irrelevant, she racked her brains for what to do, thinking up and dismissing numerous strategies before falling back and groaning in frustration. Wracking her brain she thought back for anything that could help her.
"Master Darius did say that patience was an important job as being a jedi."
Getting to her knees, she sat back, closing her eyes and meditating upon the force.
She stayed in the exact same position for what felt like hours, thinking upon all she had learned since she had come to the Jedi temple and how far she had her brother had come since their time on Corellia. She had loved every moment of it and reflected on all the decisions that had lead up to it, the good and the bad, and smiled knowing that she wouldn't have changed any of them, just in case it lead to her not being here today.
Opening her eyes, Briana's grin grew even wider as she saw the water level. The water had risen to almost the top of the hole and Briana quickly went over to the edge, looking down at the crystal that lay on top of the ice. Reaching out she brushed her hand through the water accidentally, pulling it back as she felt very cold, before trying again, this time making sure not to touch the water. Grabbing hold of the crystal she placed it in her pocket before running back the way she had come, towards the entrance.
Zuno
Zuno slowly made his way down the passageway, inspecting the walls carefully as he went. He smiled as he imagined his sister simply running around like a headless chicken looking wherever she wanted to for her crystal rather than looking carefully.
Moving further down the passageway, Zuno ran his hand over the smooth surface of the ice, reaching out to sense if he could find anything that was out of the ordinary, a blip in the ice, a tinge in his brain as he pushed the force deep into the wall, anything. He tried everything he could, everything he had learned about using the force to sense something and yet he still felt nothing.
He than took his hand off the wall and pulled his coat around himself before heading off deeper into the cave, Stopping to check the surrounding area with the force, before moving further in after finding nothing once again.
Not giving up, Zuno moved forward, reaching a dead end and placing his hand on the wall, pushing his mind deep into the fabric of the wall, feeling for anything. Finding nothing, he pushed deeper into the wall, trying harder than ever before to try and find something, anything even if it was just a direction towards where his crystal was but once again, he came up blank.
Sighing, he removed his hand from the wall before looking around. Everything looked the same, the ice walls blending into the ice-covered floor and stretching up to the frozen roof. Nothing was standing out and nothing he was doing was making anything any clearer. Everything that Master Darius had taught him, everything he knew about the force which was supposed to help him, had failed him. Nothing was working and he was crack out of ideas, not able to think of anything that he hadn't already done.
For the first time in his life, he was thinking of his sister. She could always figure out what to do in a situation and then she would do it even if it went against everything that she should have done in the situation. Knowing her, she had probably already figured out where her crystal was, how to get at it and was probably already waiting for the rest of them outside the cave.
Giving his surroundings one more look over, Zuno turned back to face the dead end, trying again to find something in the wall but coming up blank. Stopping for a moment he visualised his sister, trying to figure out what she would do in a situation like this. Briana most likely would probably just run through the caves, hoping to find it rather than searching for it, she had probably then found it.
Closing his eyes, Zuno tried to think about what he should do in this situation not what he was told to do but what he actually thought he should do. He thought deeply, trying in vain to think about the situation in a non-logical way, but finding no answers. Growling he placed his hand back on the wall and channelled the force through it.
Instantly, the wall fractured, cracking from floor to ceiling before collapsing at Zuno's feet, revealing a large cave, dotted with massive crystals.
Zuno smiled in amazement, walking around the room and looking at the different crystals before one finally caught his eye.
It was big and instantly he knew that it was the crystal for him but also that it was way out of his reach, being over the other side of an ice canyon that was slowly being filled up with water from a small waterfall.
His first instinct was to focus on what he knew and on what the Jedi had taught him and use patience. The hole would fill up and freeze over and he would be able to walk across and get his crystal. But would he have enough time to then get out before the ice wall froze over again? He also knew that the distance was too great for him to simply grab the crystal with the force so that lesson was also out.
Deciding that he had got this far by emulating his sister, he closed his eyes and once again thought about what Briana would do in this situation. Knowing her as well as he did it was not difficult to think what she would do and Zuno opened his eyes looking around the room for anything that might help. Smiling, he caught sight of exactly what he needed and walked over to a large pillar of ice.
Placing his hands on the base of the pillar, Zuno channelled the force into the frozen substance, pouring it into the structure for almost a full minute before finally the pillar began to wobble. Stepping back, Zuno tapped the pillar lightly with a single finger and slowly the pillar toppled forward. With a loud crash it slammed into the water, bridging the gap and landing nearly directly underneath where his crystal was at.
Smiling to himself, Zubi stepped onto the pillar before making his way across, arms outstretched for balance. Quickly crossing the gap he reached the wall and used it to steady himself. The crystal was still out of his reach, but with the reduced distance from being on the pillar, Zuno knew what he could do now and quickly extended his hand towards it.
Instantly, the crystal shifted in the wall, coming loose, before going inro the palm of Zuno. He looked at his hand for a moment before grinning widely. Switching the crystal to his other hand he quickly unbuttoned a pocket, slipping the precious sliver inside before buttoning it back up. Grinning widely he set off back across the pillar before running back towards the entrance to the cave.
Spike
Spike quickly made his way down one of the passages, before darting down another side passage. He didn't know what he was looking for, neither did he have a particular strategy but if there was one thing the dragon knew it was the fact he would only know where his crystal was by getting close to it so going slow was not going to help him. He was sure that not all of the others would share his philosophy, Zuno in particular but that didn't matter to him, this was his quest and only he could decide how best to complete the challenges that lay ahead.
Skidding to a halt, Spike saw a large room ahead of him and slowly walked inside, checking the corners of the room for any sort of movement. Finding none he nodded to himself before walking around the room checking the walls to make sure that nothing was hidden within them. Rounding a corner he gasped as he saw what was in front of him.
Rising up from the ground was a huge pillar of ice, reaching half way up the room before flattening out. Above that a stalactite hung down from the ceiling, stopping just above the first pillar and in between the two huge chunks of ice, hovering in place, stood a small, glinting crystal. Instantly, Spike knew that it was the crystal for him. Looking around the room Spike searched for anyway to get to the crystal without risking his neck in a fifty meter climb. Realizing that short of climbing higher up one of the equally dangerous walls and jumping towards the pillar in the hope of being accurate enough to hit the pillar that was his only choice.
Thinking to himself as he remembered his first adventure in the Crystal Empire, Spike extended his claws, and walked over to the pillar. As he rose his hand to dig his claws into the frozen substance, he was suddenly aware of another presence in the room and whirled around expecting to see one of the other initiates.
Instead, what he saw surprised him.
"Twilight?!" He asked in confusing and happiness
"I'm here Spike." She said. "Where did you go?"
"I… I don't know." Spike bumbled, not knowing what to say. What could he say after this length of time? "I'm so sorry."
"No I'm sorry Spike." She sobbed. "I'm so sorry. I failed you."
"You didn't fail. You didn't." Spike said. "Look at me now. I'm so different now, better than I was before."
"So what now?" Twilight smiled, breaking off from the hug.
"If I get that crystal up there," Spike said, choking back his tears and pointing towards the pillar of ice behind him, "then I'm a Jedi padawan.
"Do you want to be a Jedi?" Twilight asked.
"I..." He said while he couldn't find the words.
"Is that a yes or a no." She said.
"I have friends here, Brandon, Asha, Briana, and Zuno." Spike said slowly. "So... yeah I guess."
"Then let's go." Twilight said. "We get that crystal and you become a Jedi."
"You mean you'd help me?" Spike asked.
"Oh course I would." Twilight said before walking over to the pillar.
Smiling, Spike grabbed onto the pillar, digging his claws in and gesturing for Twilight to garb on to his back. Nodding she wrapped her hooves around him and slowly, Spike began to climb up the pillar, slowly pulling both himself and the purple mare up the ice tower, Twilight whispering words of encouragement into his ear all the time.
Digging his claws into the ice before hauling himself up another few inches. Hand over hand he worked, struggling with every move he made and all the while receiving encouragement from Twilight.
"You can do it Spike." She said.
Spike finally managed to get near to the top of the pillar. Reaching up, Spike stretched out towards the crystal, trying to push his arm up as far as it could go. His other claw dug deep into the ice, keeping the pair steady. In the end, it was only a matter of time.
As he stretched out, the ice fractured and second, Spike was weightless as his claw tried to grab onto something. Slipping down, Spike looking around to see Twilight falling in slow motion. Giving up on the crystal instantly, Spike smashed his free claw into a solid piece of ice before reaching out with his other claw, grabbing hold of one of Twilights legs. As he did, he watched as a crack form on the ice and starting to collapse the tower above it. It would only be a few minutes before everything was buried in ice.
He roared in pain as he suddenly took up the weight of Twilight, his head slamming back into the ice and momentarily dazing him.
"Twilight!" He yelled, but the mare looked dazed herself, her horn sparking but failing to ignite properly.
"Spike?" She said, her eyes focusing on the Spike.
"Just hold on!" He screamed, trying to pull her up slightly but instead, slipping down slightly further.
"I wasn't planning on letting go." She said with a smile.
"Can you use magic?" Spike shouted.
"No." She said, shaking her head and trying to light her horn again but failing as she had before. "Are you ok?"
"I can't hold on much longer." Spike grunted, his muscles starting to hurt as he struggled to stay attached to Twilight and the ice pillar.
"Let go." She said, so softly that if Spike hadn't seen her lips move, he would never had known she said anything.
"Tell me you didn't say what I thought you said." Spike said.
"You want this? You want your own life, a new one, you have to let go of the old one." Twilight said softly. "You can't get the crystal and hold onto me."
Deep down, Spike knew that on a level, Twilight was right but he refused to accept it. He wasn't the same dragon as before and he wouldn't just give up.
"I am not letting you fall!" He shouted, struggling to raise her up even slightly.
"You know you can't do both!" Twilight shouted. "You have to choose!"
"I will not choose!" Spike yelled out.
"Then you'll lose both!" Twilight screamed.
"No!" Spike screamed.
Continuing to scream, Spike looked down at Twilight, and with the last of his energy he used the force to pick her up.
Twilight looked at Spike as he turned back to the wall, digging his second hand into the ice and quickly climbing again making sure to keep Twilight near him. Without the added weight on his back, Spike quickly went up the last few meters of the pillar, snatching the crystal just as the pillar finally began to collapse.
Achieving his goal, Spike pushed himself from the collapsing tower, diving towards one of the walls. It was a long jump and if he hadn't been so high up to begin with, he would have hit the floor long before he hit the wall. As it was, he managed to dig a claw into the wall, sliding down until he gently touched the floor, lowering Twilight to the ground beside him.
"That was…" Twilight began, but Spike interrupted her.
"No more." He said sadly, shaking his head. "You're not her."
"What are you talking about?" Twilight asked.
"You're not… you can't be. She can't be here." Spike said, tears forming in her eyes. "You were part of the test, the cave, whatever."
"You were supposed to drop me." Twilight said as her body starting to evaporate as the illusion slowly faded.. "When did you realize?"
"Twilight would have thought of some way to save both herself and let get the crystal, she always does, that's what makes her amazing." Spike said with a smile, even as the tears fell to the floor.
"Like I said, you weren't supposed to be able to do both." She said. "You were supposed to give up on one life and choose the other one in its entirety, yet you did both."
"So what are you really?" Spike asked.
"I'm part of the cave, part of the test. I'm not even real." She said as half of her body disappeared.
"So you're not even here?" Spike asked. "Nothing is?"
"Don't worry... you will still have somebody" Twilight said before finally, disappearing completely.
And like that Spike was alone again, nothing but the small sound of the last bits of ice falling to the floor. Knowing deep down that this was always going to be the only logical explanation, Spike placed the crystal in a pouch on his belt before running towards the entrance.
Quickly reaching it, Spike saw that the door was almost closed, perhaps having only ten meters left to go, before it touched the bottom and sealed the cave for another nineteen days.
Going underneath the door, Spike caught sight of Asha, Briana and Zuno, all standing around. As they saw him, they quickly gathered around him.
"Did you do it?" Asha asked excitedly, holding out her crystal so he could see.
"Yeah, let's have a look." Zuno nodded.
"Where's Brandon?" Spike asked, looking around but not finding him.
"He hasn't come out yet, he's the last one." Asha said, holding her own crystal in awe.
"Wha-" Spike couldn't finish what he was saying as he saw Brandon looking slightly injured but fine. He also had his crystal."
"What happened?" Spike asked him.
"I prefer not to tell." Brandon replied back.
"We should get going" Asha said.
"Agreed." Everyone said in unison.
Everyone started to run toward the entrance, nearly frozen.
"We will make it." Spike said.
With the last of there energy they made it through.
"We... did it" Brandon said.
"You have all succeeded. It is time we go back to the ship and you all will construct you're very own lightsabers." Daga said.
"Guess I'm..." Spike almost said before falling to the ground completely exhausted.
"It seems as if you have completely exhausted you're energy Spike." Daga said before picking Spike up and taking him back to the ship with the rest of the initiates.
Longest Chapter to date and sorry that I couldn't finish this on Friday but hopefully the length of the chapter will make up for it. I didn't reveal what happened to Brandon because it's going to be explained in a future chapter... it's also quite important. Will I hope all of you enjoyed it.