Slave. Witch. Jedi. Medic. Warrior. Healer. Seer. Friend. Sister. Butcher.
All of these can describe the silver haired woman as she stares into the darkness in front of her. Formerly Callera NoName now Callera Bladesinger, Arkanian 'Offshoot' bred to be no more than a toy for a rich family.
Till she came. Tamith Kai, Nightsister and the Mistress of the coven that allied itself with the Shadow Academy; in an attempt to balance out and rival the burgeoning Jedi Academy run by Luke Skywalker. She had sensed the resentment and latent talent within the young girl and brought her to the station the Shadow Academy used as its base. While ruthlessness and cunning were encouraged, all with even the barest hint of talent with the Force could compete. For the first time her silver skin and hair meant nothing, only how powerful she was, and how well she could defend herself.
And then the twins came. The head of the Shadow Academy, Brakiss, kidnapped the eldest children of the Solo's; Jacen and Jaina. She could feel the power roiling within them, the potential. Greater than Vilas, Mistress Kai's shining star and the one she hoped would lead Callera's generation to greatness. Their passive resistance struck a chord with the young witch. They were doing at the Academy, what she had done to her former 'owners'; and that shook her. She'd been given an opportunity here, a chance to build a life for herself, but to do so here she'd have to do it on the backs of others. Just like those who had made and used her before. That had turned her stomach, but she still had a role to play, the perfect dark witch. She learned, pushed the envelope, and served as faithfully as she could till her opportunity came. With most of the older Jedi scattered about the universe, those in power felt that the students of the Shadow Academy and their Stormtroopers and Pilots would be more than enough to overwhelm Luke's trainees and a few teachers before reinforcements could arrive.
They were wrong.
While many of the Shadow Academy's students were more powerful on an individual level to most of the Praxeum's students; they had been taught cooperation and teamwork, where the bulk of the attackers were selfish and vindictive and they paid for it. It was almost pathetically easy for Jedi trainees to isolate and remove a few of the attackers at a time. Callera let herself be captured quickly and without incident by three of Luke's younger trainees... or would have been, if it hadn't been for Lomi Plo's interruption. The fight between the two witches had been viscious but short, leaving them both unable to fight and waiting for the victor to claim them. Coming to in a med tent, cuffed one armed to the bed, she knew she'd chosen the right the course.
The next few years were a blur. The Dathomir Witch turned Jedi, Kirana Ti, oversaw Callera's development with the Force, slowly untangling the twisted strands of Tamith Kai's teachings from the young woman's heart. Spending time with both Kirana Ti and Tennel Ka's tribes to relearn their ways properly, to respect the heritage she'd been brought into, but under Kirana and her husband Streen's tutelage to become a Jedi. But routine wouldn't last long.
Two days before her 21st birthday, the galaxy tilted on its axis and everything changed. Invaders from beyond the rim, the Yuzhan Vong had arrived. Absent in the Force and relentless they were, carving through the New Republic like a lightsaber through wood. Every moment was a fighting retreat, make the invaders earn each bloody planet and every inch with sweat, tears, pain, and loss. Callera put her training to use mostly as a field medic for refugees and the occasionally merc or Republic unit trying to evacuate civilians.
Till the bounty.
As she later learned; Jacen Solo, the peacemaker and jokester had humiliated Tsvong Lah on Duros and so he offered to halt his people's advance. If they handed over the Jedi. Callera worked tirelessly amongst the camps and ships to aid those she could. She did what she could to not appear as a Jedi or even someone affiliated with the Force, just another field medic trying to keep people together, but the Peace Brigade found her and struck while she was helping a young Bothan. The gas they pumped into the field hospital to knock her out reacted poorly to the child's physiology. Rushing him outside as fast as possible, caused the Brigade to open fire indiscriminately mowing down several refugees. With the young child suffocating in her arms and others falling around her, she touched back on those dark threads of her initial teachings. Her first teachers showed her how to manifest the force as a very blade to use her against her foes, and so she did. Bladesinger her witch sisters had called her, for the way the blade seemed create sound as she cut the very air. So her blades sung, and each member of the Brigade fell. Even when they tried to surrender, she kept going. All they way up their chain of command and to the very freighter they used to bring them to this place.
When the blood rage left she'd been horrified; all that pain, and hate, and rage that she thought she'd dealt with had flowed through her as she eliminated the brigade members. But there was no time to mourn or process, everyone was being recalled a new threat was emerging. The Voxyn, bioengineered weapons that hunted all with a connection with the Force. She wasn't tapped for the suicide mission, her connections with refugee groups and mercenaries were deemed 'more valuable', but even she felt Anakin's last stand on Mykr, but instead of grief she felt hope through the Force. It would take Jacen's miraculous reappearance to understand, that the Force had told her that the balance was tipping again away from the dark.
Slowly the new Galactic Alliance and the Jedi pushed the Vong to the point of collapse, and she participated in the Battle of Courscant. Serving as field medic and 'Jedi' for a commando squad hoping to use the Shamed Ones to get tactical and positioning edges. She again lost herself as she watched the squad fall one by one, unable to save them.
Which puts Callera at the here and now, staring at the dark cave in front of her. She'd explained what she felt she needed to do to Master Skywalker and the rest of the Jedi Council. She'd heard about the Dagobah cave from him and from Tionne's tales and felt she needed to face herself and her fears there to come to terms with what she had done. She asked for a month's supplies and a shelter to spend time in quiet contemplation with nature while there. They granted her request without issue, knowing she was not trying to run from her pain but trying to face it head on. Jacen Solo had dropped her off with her supplies before he headed out on his expedition to learn more about the nature of the Force, someone else would pick her up in a month's time.
Two weeks of 'building up her courage' before she finally stands at the caves entrance. Unlatching her belt, with her own lightsaber rarely used, and hanging it from the tree. The cave shows 'only what you take with you' according to the others. Taking off her boots, before letting her toes, squish in the mud and ground of Dagobah. Smiling softly in remembrance of the barefoot Jedi Tahiri and hoping for her recovery to continue, before Callera starts to undo her jumpsuit. Shimmying out of the fabric, her black sports bra and tight running shorts all that is left on her. Wanting to ensure that she truly faces herself as herself. Only her fears and darkness.
Raising her head high and slowly walking into cave, letting the light slowly face behind her with each step. Slow sweeping steps with her bare feet to sense the floors flow in the darkness, she can feel her own doubts bubbling as steps forward, but still onwards she moves. The cave air feeling heavier with each step, feeling cloying and sticking to her. The stickiness gets worse as she moves deeper, starting to feel like its invading her lungs. She starts to see images in the back of her mind as her feet continue forward.:
Blades of blue, green, and crimson flashing. The Senate Hall empty yet full of grandeur as two forms fight in its empty spaces. Two Blue blades on a field of lava. Twin Suns. Water. Water…WATER!
Gasping suddenly as fluid fills her lungs, pushing the force through her limbs, puling upward through the water as it lightens. Breaking the surface with gasp, she starts to tread water and looks around. The green hills and the mostly placid lake fill her vision, graceful brown buildings on the closer side of the lake.
'Where in the name of Allya am I?'