Once they had run deep inside the cave, the group of four Jedi halted.
"What was that?" Kyp finally asked.
"I don't know," Jaina said. "I don't recognize this kind of ship."
"What do you think they want?" Tash asked.
"I don't know," Jaina said. "But it's more important than ever that we all get our lightsabers."
"Then we can fight whoever's in that ship," Jacen said.
"We shouldn't jump to the conclusion that we'll fight them," Tash said with a frown. "That is not the Jedi way."
"I'm pretty sure that's how the Jedi have historically always solved their problems," Jaina said. "There's the Ancient Sith Wars, the Clone Wars, the Galactic Civil Wars— and Jedi were fighting in all of them."
"But they were orchestrating peace, and attempting to prevent those wars," Tash said. "But you might have a point. The First Order already has so many ships, all built so fast. Who's to say what this is going to be?"
"They have way too many ships, way too quickly," Jacen said. "They always regenerate like, the day after the battle. And it's twice as large."
"I don't understand it myself," Kyp admitted. "And I lived in the capitol. They didn't make the ships there. And they all looked different from the ones sent from the Corellian shipyards."
"Remember the kyber crystals?" Jaina said, tapping her foot impatiently. "We need to work with the problem in front of us first, or we're not going to make it to the next adventure."
"Right," Jacen said hastily. "Tash, how do we find the right crystal?"
"You'll feel a pull to it," Tash said. "You just reach out, and you'll feel it."
Kyp frowned, closing his eyes and reaching out his hand. "I feel it."
"You do?" Tash sounded surprised.
"Yeah," Kyp said. He stepped forward, eyes closed, into one of the branches of the caves.
"I'll go with him," Jaina said quickly. "You guys should go get Jacen's crystal, and we'll meet back here."
Jacen shot her a dirty look as Tash nodded, and eagerly pulled him down the caves to where they would hopefully find his crystal.
Jaina, on the other hand, happily followed Kyp into the caverns, keeping him from tripping over stalagmites, among other things.
He led them to a place with hot springs within, heating the otherwise cold room. Jaina spotted what Kyp had been sensing immediately. As if part of a shrine, there was a large lilac crystal glowing surrounded by duller clusters of a similarly-colored gem.
His eyes opened when his fingertips were mere centimeters from the stone.
"This is it," he said determinedly. There was something strange about his dark green eyes. He reached for the crystal and broke it off. That was when all of the other glowing stones went out in the chamber.
"I don't like this," Kyp muttered as Jaina fumbled around with her pack, looking for her multi-tool.
"Neither do I," she said when she finally turned on the flashlight part of her multi-tool. That's when she saw the white tail of some beast, flicking angrily. Slowly she raised her multi-tool to see a giant white worm or snake.
Jacen! she screamed in their Force-bond.
"What do we do?" Kyp asked, looking to her nervously.
"Give me a minute, I'm thinking," she snapped. Jacen! White worm! Got any ideas?
That was when she sensed a darkness around Kyp.
She heard an echo in the Force, words that came from some ghost— they always came to her that way.
The Force moves darkly around a creature about to kill.
"Wait—"
Just as she was about to put herself between Kyp and the worm, he raised his hand and clenched his fist. The worm writhed and made terrible moaning, choking sounds as the bones in its spine cracked.
"Kyp— stop!" Jaina cried. She pushed him over with the Force, right as the worm died. Kyp tumbled against the rocks.
"What the hells— what were you waiting for?" Kyp asked.
"For Jacen, I can contact him through our bonds," Jaina said as she came over to help him up. "He can tame nearly animal. He was going to tell me how to do it. If we can help it, we don't kill other creatures— innocent ones, anyway. Not without a good reason."
"It could've killed us," Kyp pointed out.
"But it didn't attack us," Jaina said. "The Jedi do a lot of fighting, but Tash was right— we're supposed to offer it peace first. But even if it didn't attack us, we wouldn't do what you just did. I have a blaster, you know."
"Why not?" Kyp was more curious than he was frustrated.
"Because Darth Vader did it," Jaina said. "That's a Dark Side power."
"So maybe that was what Kylo Ren did to my parents," Kyp realized. "I didn't know."
"That's why Mum is teaching you," Jaina assured him. "Because you just don't know all of this stuff yet. From what you've told me, it sounds like your powers have been dormant for a very long time."
"Probably because of what happened to Zethes," Kyp said. "He could do weird things, too."
"But don't worry, you'll learn," Jaina assured him. "Do you still have you crystal?"
"Yeah," he said, briefly tossing it in the air before catching it. "Would you mind not mentioning that to anybody?"
"Consider it done," she said without hesitation. "Come on, let's go find my crystal."
She closed her eyes, and immediately she felt the pull, and stepped forward. She touched a cold, smooth stone, and when she opened her eyes, she was standing in a cave with an entrance out onto a gray cliff. The setting sun illuminated a pool on the floor. Jaina stood over the pool, examining the figure depicted in the pool. He matched the general shape of the withered man she saw in her dreams.
"That was the Prime Jedi," a familiar voice said.
Jaina looked up to see Luke Skywalker. She'd seen his ghost occasionally as a girl, although she'd heard his echoes far more frequently."
"Master Skywalker," she said, bowing her head in respect.
"You remind me of your mother, Jaina," he said. "You have a very strong moral compass."
"I think it's important to know the difference between good and evil," Jaina said. "There's no excuse for evil."
"Be careful," Luke said. "Sometimes, there is a reason people fall. Sometimes good people are forced into situations where evil is their only way out. We all must figure out how to navigate the Gray."
"Is that why we're the Gray Order?" Jaina asked.
"Yes," Luke said. "Take this. It'll be important."
He pressed a compass glowing a dark blue that bordered on violet in parts of the crystals into her hand.
"Be careful, Jaina," he said. "Forgiveness is the most important part of being a Jedi. And we must remain careful to do what is right. Otherwise, it can cost us everything."
With that, Jaina's eyes flew open, and instead of a compass in her hands, she held a crystal that was the same color as the one in the compass in her dreams.
"Jaina, are you okay?" Kyp was right behind her, calloused hands on her shoulders.
"I'm fine," she said. "I got my crystal."
"You were in a weird trance," Kyp said. "Nothing could snap you out of it. You just stood there, holding the crystal and mumbling things."
"I guess I was having a vision," Jaina murmured. "I saw—"
She was interrupted by beeping from her commlink. "Yes?"
Rey's voice flooded over the small device. "Thank the Force. Are you and Jacen alright?"
"Yeah, we're getting our kyber crystals," Jaina said. "Is everything okay?"
"I need you back as soon as possible, you're all going to join us on a diplomatic mission aboard the big ships," Rey said.
"We're on our way," Jaina promised. "We'll be there as soon as we can."
