Chapter Two

Chapter 2

Shaak Ti meditates in a small building deep beneath the surface of Felucia. On her mind is thoughts about what she's supposed to do now.

Near the surface, burning brightly in the force, Shaak Ti can feel Aayla's confusion as she looks at something. In her hand is a small disk cut from the hull of an armoured transport and engraved with runes. Runes that she's bled on.

The disk now feels like her in a way that only her lightsabres ever had before this. Yet the empty bowl on the floor in front of her is testament to her inability to do what she's seen many of the native Felucian's doing.

Magic, a term that would normally be met with derision from any jedi, and most padawans. But it is a term that seems to serve well for the way it uses the force.

As if reading her thoughts, Aayla's presence winks out at the same time it appears on the other side of the planet. Yet there's not even a ripple in the force from such a grand act.

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Aayla smiles as she transports herself to the hive of Swims-with-hry'lth, a Shaman that Queen adopted into her hive. Waiting patiently outside her home, Aayla is soon rewarded as the queen appears with a soft pop.

Bowing her head very slightly, Aayla smiles, "Greetings honoured hive master. I am Jedi Master Aayla Secura, though you probably know me as Queen."

Swims bows slightly deeper, "Greetings over-queen. We became aware of your returned memories while your honoured workers were showing my honoured workers your working poison filter."

Aayla smile widens, "Oh thank the force, I was worried that hadn't happened. How are your efforts at creating wands been going?"

Swims sighs, "Slowly, as there are many words and concepts in English that we don't have equivalents of yet, and I still only have 60 sentient members in my own hive, the other 400 members have yet to achieve thought."

Aayla sighs, "I wanted you to take more."

Swims nods, "Maybe once it is possible for others to become kin without going through our rites. But I am a Shaman, and I cannot be seen to be bringing in those who are outsiders."

"I understand, I really do. It's the same reason why Chief Runs-with-acklay only took the 10 natives Quee…I had when I split the first time. It's just, without outsiders you're trapped here on the planet, as none of you took the opportunity to visit my padawan."

Swims gives his species version of a smile, "We do not feel the need to leave our home. We have had plenty of opportunities to do so in the past, but this is our planet, and we are her people. I believe you understand this, yes?"

Aayla nods, "I do. This is my planet too. But even so, I have workers and scouts creating nests on other planets, such as Endor, Cavamina Minor, and Trigalis." She sighs, "Ah well, maybe I can persuade Shaak Ti to join my hive."

Swims laughs, "Just do a Hermione. I'm sure that if you give her an adoption face hugger, she'll take it."

"I'll meditate on it later. Peace go with you."

"If peace won't go with you, leave peace in your wake."

Before she flames off, Aayla shudders at the implication that it would be the peace of death left in her wake, and that a large part of her wouldn't have any problems with that.

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Ekria shivers as she hides behind a crate with Lo'gaan as they both watch Zonder being dragged in front of Darth Vader. She's not entirely sure what's been going on today, but something certainly has.

Such as the way she's sure she ducked behind the wrong door as they were running, and wished fervently that she'd chosen the other door. Only to open her eyes to a corridor rather than the office she thought she'd ducked into. Or just now when two clone soldiers walked right past their crate without even glancing down at them. Despite the comms she's hacked into broadcasting the fact that two people matching their races, likely gender, and height, ran from a confrontation not an hour ago.

That's not getting into the fact her lightsaber form has been improving as if her master had been teaching her.

Her attention is drawn back to the screen as Darth Vader ignites his lightsabre. Somewhat fatalistically, Ekria watches as it swings around in a wide arc, passing through Zonder's neck absolutely effortlessly. The head seems to stay on the body for a few seconds as Zonder's expression takes on a look of surprise and pain. Then time seems to restart again, and the head topples off the body before bouncing on the floor.

After a good five minutes, and three patrols, Ekria and Lo'gaan both share a glance before sneaking out of the area, and splitting up.

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Shaak Ti looks up from her quiet conversation with Maris about some of the finer points of using the force during combat. Sat beside them are a bevy of training drones, and an occlusion helmet.

A couple of seconds after she looks up, Aayla walks through the door holding something that seems to be a relative of the crab, with 8 legs and a tail wrapped around her wrist.

Shaak Ti smiles, "Master Secura, what a pleasure. How can we help you."

Aayla looks down as she sinks to the floor. A flash of light outside precedes another one of those crabs scuttling in until Aayla scoops it up. "Master Ti, you asked me about magic, specifically what it is. At the time I didn't have an answer." She lets out a sigh, "Honestly, I still don't have an answer, only that it's part of us. Earlier, I met the Queen of another hive, one who has been looking at making wands. If they had made any progress on the limited amount of wand lore in my memories, then I'd have taken you to see them and have a wand made."

Maris blurts, "Memories?" before looking at Shaak Ti for any hint of censure.

Shaak Ti just smiles gently, "Padawan Brood, I am not going to chastise you for asking questions, as that is how you learn. However, generally a question needs more than one word for it to be understood by the person you're asking."

Maris ducks her head, "Sorry. Um, you said you had memories of wand lore. How is that possible?"

Aayla nods to herself, "It's a fair question. My species… No, the species of the creature that attached itself to me. They are naturally a parasitic species, they use other species as incubators for their young. Recently they evolved…" After a second Aayla nods again, "Yes, evolved fits. They evolved into a symbiotic species that uses magic. The magic bit is very important, as they have a genetic memory, and for me, laying magical eggs is trivial but I still default to laying normal eggs. My children… The people I gave queen eggs to when I had to split my hive, they have to concentrate to lay non-magical eggs. Another quirk they have, is that each Queen egg that's laid by a queen has all the memories of that queen, which includes all the memories of her hive and the memories that queen received from the queen before them."

Shaak Ti and Maris both sit quietly as they digest that.

Eventually Shaak Ti asks, "Why did you seek us out this morning?"

Aayla raises both her hands, "The name that various species gave these translates to Face Hugger. What they are is a vehicle to implant an egg in another species. These two contain symbiotic eggs, and outside their egg sacks can live for up to 24 hours. I would like to give each of you one. Once you take them, they will remain inert unless you lift them to your face. Once they're around a handspan away from a face, they'll activate and latch on. When they do, they'll jump at you to induce a startle response and cause your mouth to open. They will then wrap their fingers around your head, and their tail around your throat, while they're extending an ovipositor down your throat and capping your airway so you can't choke. If you struggle, or try to remove them, they will render you unconscious for around an hour in most cases. If your biology is particularly suited to being implanted, like Twi'lek's, then it could be as little as five minutes. While they're attached to you, they will provide you with all your needs, even if you're in vacuum or underwater."

Aayla takes a deep breath before she continues, "Once you're a member of my hive, you'll gain magic from three different species. Each of which uses it differently. The phoenix is a bird that is born of fire. It can teleport through fire to anywhere or anyone it's met before. Their tears are a universal panacea, and will heal everything except old age, though they won't regrow missing limbs or organs. Finally, the ability they're best known for, and the one that is the reason I'm alive today, is rebirth. If they're killed, or they reach a certain stage of their life, they will immolate and burn to ash. From the ash they will be reborn. They then grow to adulthood over a few days, at least for Xenomorphs and phoenixes. I don't know about other species. Next are humans, they don't have any innate abilities, and they struggle to use magic without a wand or other focus. But their magic is highly flexible. Finally, there's house elves, I'm not really sure how to explain house elves apart from that they use wish magic."

Shaak Ti looks at Aayla curiously, "What do you want out of this?"

Aayla looks down for a few minutes as she thinks. "I want to allow you to see my memories and experience magic. Everything I was taught says that it is something to do with the force. However, apart from a few memories about Qui-gon Jinn talking about the Living Force, I don't have the knowledge or experience to understand what I'm feeling or remembering. I also have lifetimes of memories from people who grew up calling it magic, and the things they do, spells."

Aayla falls silent for a moment, and Shaak Ti waits patiently for her to organise her thoughts, even raising her hand to forestall Maris at one point.

"I also need to split my hive again. But I don't currently have anyone who could lead a hive. Not without falling to the allure of power that comes with it. If you're willing, I'd give you a queen once you're comfortable as part of the hive, and you'd take half, or more, of the sentients I brought into the hive."

She extends her hands, and the face huggers skuttle off, before turning over in front of each of the other two. "I think I've said as much as I need to say. At this point, I can only trust in the force. So I'll leave you both to think about my offer. I'll also leave a worker outside. She will take you to either of the other Queens if you want to talk to them. Other than that, she won't move from beside your house."

Shaak Ti nods and opens her mouth to say something when Aayla disappears with a pop.

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As the two of them return from their run, Shaak Ti walks over to the worker and crouches down to have a good look at it. As she does, Maris stands back a respectful distance, and watches.

"Like Aayla, this worker has some sort of dome instead of eyes. That would suggest that it uses some other method of 'seeing' than light. Much like Miraluka do with the force. Though, given what Aayla has said, it's probably some form of electromagnetic sense, or sound based."

Maris cocks her head to one side, "Master, what are you doing?"

Shaak beckons Maris over, "I'm looking at the features of this animal to see what sort of environment it evolved in. You can tell a lot from basic observations like this. For example, this worker doesn't even have vestigial eyes. Why do you think that could be?"

Maris blinks rapidly, before shaking her head and thinking hard. Eventually, she ventures, "Because it spent most of its time in places without light, or none of the creatures on that planet evolved eyes?"

Shaak nods, "You occasionally see something like this on water worlds, with creatures that evolved in the depths of the oceans. I don't recall ever seeing something like this in a land dwelling creature larger than an insect. Next we look at the claws, they're not retractable, so they're probably not evolved to help with hunting and climbing, though they are certainly sharp enough for that. Predators that use claws for hunting tend to evolve retractable claws to keep them sharp. However, these feet are highly articulated, suggesting that they need to be able to grasp things. If we move around to the tail, you can see from the way it's twitching that it's highly articulated. I would guess that this is the primary form of defence for this species."

Cautiously, Shaak runs her finger down the spade of the tail before pulling her finger away and showing Maris the blood welling up into the cut, "It is also very sharp, which lends credence to the idea…"

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A medical droid looks up from the corpse it's just finished scanning. "Lord Vader, I have finished scanning the bodies as requested. I am unable to identify a consistent cause of death, however my scans suggest that there are two beings involved. This person was killed as they were grabbed from the front by clawed hands, and then a blunt object approximately 30mm in diameter was applied rapidly to the forehead, travelling nearly 150mm into the brain cavity in a fraction of a second. The shockwave travelling through the brain would have killed them almost instantly, if the initial impact didn't. There are other corpses that have been disembowelled in a manner consistent with claws."

The droid walks over to a trio of clone soldiers, "On the other hand, these men were killed with a sword like object straight through the back. The attacks were precise, and tore open both lungs at the same time they impaled the heart. Whoever did this also prevented them from being able to report in, or mount any form of defence as they moved on to the next target."

Vader looks at the pile of effects at the end of each bench thoughtfully, "Or it was one being, and they used the sword because the clones were armoured, so they went for an assured kill rather than one that might fail."

The droid stands there and says nothing as Vader turns around and starts to stride out, "Dispose of the bodies."

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Ekria watches on her comm device as first Vader, and the medical droid leave the morgue. The droid pushing a cart with a body on it.

Taking a deep breath, she scampers out of the room she was hiding in, and down the short corridor to the morgue. It only takes her seconds to identify Zonder's corpse, as it's the only decapitated corpse in the room.

With a deep breath, she heaves the body off the table. Only to stumble backwards as the body seems to be lighter than she remembers Zonder being. As she bumps into a trolly full of instruments, one of them rolls off the end and clatters to the floor.

Startled, she ducks round a computer and pulls Zonder's body with her. Just in time too, as the sound of the door swishing open seems loud to her ears.

Looking down at the body, her eyes widen as she realises the head is still on the table, where anyone could see… Her mouth drops open in surprise as she stifles a gasp when the head just appears resting on Zonder's chest.

A moment later, a bloody clone soldier walks in and walks around the entire room, even looking right at her at one point, before he finally bends over and picks up whatever fell off the trolley.

As the door hisses closed behind the clone, Ekria has just enough time to whisper, "By the force, what is happening to me?" before the door swishes open again to allow the droid to enter the room once more.

The droid just stands there for a few seconds as it processes the interior of the morgue. Just as Ekria is about to breathe a sigh of relief, the alarms start to blare, and she quickly checks her comm device.

The alert scrolling across the top of her screen is both reassuring and worrying at the same time. Reassuring, because there's no indication they even know she's there. Worrying, because they're now on the lookout for someone with a corpse.

Looking down at Zonder, Ekria sighs, "Well, I'm not going to let you just get thrown into the incinerator. But I'm not sure how I'm going to get us out of here now. I was going to hide us in one of the drawers, but that's going to be the first place they check now, and it's not like I can just want to be back in my room and… and…"

Ekria trails off as the world seems to lurch to one side, and suddenly she's sitting on her bed with Zonder's body still lying in her lap, and the head held to her chest.

Ekria looks around in wonder, "I know Master Aayla said the force can do anything. But I thought it was usually harder than that."

A moment later, a pair of soft pops near the ceiling causes her to look up. And then she screams. As she does, a pillar of fire fills the small square of standing space, and Aayla is just standing there.

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Aayla quickly looks around the room for any threats, seeing none, she relaxes slightly just as Ekria whispers, "Master?"

Aayla smiles as she kneels down and pulls her padawan into a hug, "Yes it's me. I can't stay long, as I don't want the Sith Lord to know I'm still alive."

"But you died."

Aayla kisses Ekria on the forehead, "Sort of, I'll explain more once you're away from Coruscant

*. I'm proud of you for working out how to elf pop without me around. Before I go, remember two things for me. The first is that you can go anywhere you, or someone I'm linked to has ever been. The second is that everything I know, you can see. You've probably been dreaming about my memories, but you can look at them consciously. Now don't worry about those two, there're here to protect you until you can protect yourself. Once I'm gone, I suggest you find somewhere else to hide, as they've already detected me."

Ekria holds out her hand as Aayla stands up, "Take me with you."

Aayla shakes her head, "Not until you're away from here. They might not know you exist, but they'll certainly know if you vanish. Also, Elf popping is subtle, but you can only go around 100km at a time. Further than that, and you need to travel by flame. I'll come and find you once you're no longer on Coruscant."

Ekria doesn't have time to say anything else as Aayla disappears in a pillar of fire. For the first time since leaving Felucia, and despite the tears streaming from her eyes, Ekria gives a smile that reaches her eyes.

That smile only lasts as long as it takes for her to work through the implications of them having already found Aayla through the force. Then she's on her feet, shoving things into her backpack. Less than a minute later, she takes hold of Zonder's body, and pops to the first place that occurs to her. Her old room in the temple.

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On the surface of the planet the sun is starting to set by the time Shaak Ti and Maris Brood return to their house, carrying the results of a hunt on the surface. At the side of the house the worker is still standing as still as a statue.

Shaak comes to standstill as she looks at the worker, her mind turning back to her meditations on the surface while she was teaching Maris how to become one with her surroundings.

The few glimpses of the future she received seemed to be repeated almost identically. In one, she's teaching Maris along with a group of natives, while in the next the scene is identical apart from thin lines of the unifying force running from her to a few of the people she's teaching.

Disturbingly, the last vision sees her leaping away from someone with a red lightsabre into a deep pit. In the first, she is surrounded by blue light, and then she disappears. In the second, she is surrounded by fire, and then she disappears.

In the first, she recognises that she's joining the Unifying force, so she can only assume that something similar is happening in the second, though she accepts she doesn't have enough knowledge to understand the second vision.

Shaking her head, she follows Maris into their home. There she finds Maris staring at the face hugger on the floor, her portion of the kill placed carelessly on a table.

"Master, what should I do?"

Shaak Ti shakes her head, "I cannot answer that for you. What does the force tell you?"

Maris shakes her head, "I don't know, it's confusing as it's like everything will change, but everything will stay the same. That it will separate me from everyone else, but bring me closer to them at the same time. How can that be? How can it be so contradictory?"

A gesture of Shaak Ti's hand has a pair of sitting mats rise from their storage area and unroll on the floor. "Sit." Suiting actions to words, she takes her own seat on the mat.

Once Maris has sat down, Shaak takes a deep breath and lets it out as she closes her eyes. "As a padawan, you have been taught that the force is all around us and within everything. That there is a light side and a dark side to the force. All of this is true as far as it goes. However, for those prone to research and introspection, there is a philosophical debate that has been going on for as long as the Jedi Order has existed. This debate is about the nature of the force. On the one side, you have the teachings that you receive. That there is only the unifying force, and it expresses itself differently. On the other side of the argument, they claim that you have both the Unifying Force, and the Living Force, and they are distinct things. What we do know is that there is a cycle. All life has the force inside it, and that force comes from the greater universe. When living beings die, that energy is returned to the greater universe. Those who are force sensitive are born with an increased ability to connect to the force in the greater universe and both receive guidance from it, as well as use it to affect the world around them. However, we have no records of the reverse being true, of people being born able to use the living force. From what Aayla was saying, the species that is now living in symbiosis with her encountered another species that could use the living force. The new queen was then able to take in that trait and pass it on into her hive."

After a few minutes of the two of them sitting there thinking about what Shaak just said, Shaak says, "Padawan Brood, I would like to thank you for teaching me to look at this situation from a different perspective. It has been most helpful and enlightening."

Maris' eyes snap open in surprise, "Really?"

Shaak laughs, "Is it really so surprising that you have things to teach me?"

"But you're a Jedi Master."

Shaak smiles, "Maris, the second line of the code, 'There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.' It doesn't mean that we know everything. It is a precept for us to aspire to. Instead of looking at a situation and accepting that you don't know things about it, seek to replace that ignorance with knowledge. The alternate, simplified code, says 'Ignorance, yet knowledge.' These both mean the same thing."

Maris shakes her head, "Master Ghryyim never explained that. He'd always tell me to meditate on the code."

Shaak nods, "Master Ghryyim chose the Guardian path as I recall. He was never one for quiet introspection and discussion when he could be out doing something. The first three lines refer to our relationship with ourselves. There is no emotion, there is peace: When you understand yourself, and are honest with yourself, you will find you no longer war with yourself, instead you will be at peace. This is not a command to supress your emotions, as you will, you could often hear quiet laughter or upset tones in the halls of the temple. It's an understanding that such emotions are fleeting."

After a short pause, Shaak continues, "We've already spoken about ignorance and knowledge, so we'll move onto 'There is no passion, there is serenity': A passion is all consuming, it dominates your thoughts and your life. It can also blind you to the effects of your actions on others around you. This precept is there because we should seek to step back from those things that threaten to consume us and understand why we are feeling that way. Once we understand why, we can approach the task with a serene mind rather than one that is blinkered by our feelings and emotions."

Maris looks confused, "Isn't that the same as the first line then?"

Shaak smiles gently, "It is not, but I will leave you to meditate on the difference to understand why. The last two lines deal with our relationship with the world. 'There is no chaos, there is harmony': This precept is a reminder that even when events seem truly random, nothing happens without a cause. A meteorite falling out of the sky into the middle of a town, where it explodes and wipes out most of the population. Despite the fact that it appears to be totally random to the local population, indeed they may even ascribe it as an act of god, something caused that meteor to head to the planet. Whether it was the natural progression of the planets, a passing ship, or even a remanent of a battle fought lightyears away, and thousands of years ago. Finally, 'There is no death, there is the Force': This is often the hardest precept to truly accept. When we die, the thing that makes us, us. The thing that meant each of the clones we worked with had their own personalities. That fragment of the force inside us. That returns to the unifying force. Now, I want you to meditate on what you've just learned, and how it applies to your original question."

Putting actions to words, Shaak settles down into meditation as she considers her force visions, the face hugger, and her own place in the universe. Hours later, long after Maris has retired to bed, Shaak takes up the face hugger, and opens her mouth as she brings it up to her face without ever opening her eyes.

An hour later, the face hugger falls to the floor while Shaak returns to her meditation.