A Master And A Padawan.
Many have heard the story that happened a long time a ago in a galaxy far far away. But there are more than one story, many stories took place long before the rise of Darth Vader, but to see them, we need to go back several millennias. All those Millennias ago, the mighty Sith Empire, the survivors of the Old Empire that lost the Great Hyperspace War over a thousand years earlier, return to the larger galaxy under the leadership of an immortal Sith Emperor and invade the Galactic Republic, sparking the Great Galactic War. While the Empire achieved many victories in the early years of the conflict, the Republic did eventually manage to find their footing again and rallied against their ancient enemy. Winning several hard-earned victories, which caused the war to drag on for a total of twenty-eight years.
After nearly three decades of war, the Empire attacked the Republic capital of Coruscant, a brutal slaughter that became known as the Sacking of Coruscant and forced the Republic to accept a Treaty, ending the war and beginning a tense Cold War. The Republic and the Jedi Order did their best to rebuild and recover over the next decade, while the Empire secures the territory gained during the war and rebuilds their war machine in preparation for the inevitable resumption of hostilities. The tensions between the Empire and the Republic is nowhere near over, and both sides do their best to be ready for when the war may resume.
After The Sith Empire obliterated the Jedi Temple on Coruscant and slaughtered many of the Republic's brave defenders during the war, the surviving Jedi have withdrawn to their ancient home world of Tython, where they take advantage of the fragile peace to train a new generation of guardians for the galaxy. After all the damage caused by the war, they needed to take the time to rebuild and recover. Now a new hope has emerged. A young Padawan strong in the Force.
Her name was Leah Cain, brought to the jedi temple by her adopted uncle, Deckard Cain, who had gotten to old and to weak to look after her. He brought her there because he discovered she was a force sensitive, and a powerful one at that, so he knew that he couldn't allow her to fall in to the hands of the sith, no matter the cost. Despite being above the normally accepted age group, the Jedi Council knew they couldn't turn away someone so powerful. She needed to learn to control her power, or there is no telling what could happen.
But every Padawan needs to a master, one who can help tamper their young impulses and properly teach them the ways of the jedi. This task would be given to the powerful jedi master Thrall Go'el, former general of the war, who would return to Tython after the treaty in order to re-balance his connection to the force after being greatly effected by all the death and suffering brought on by the war. Luckily his will was stronger than most, and he recovered enough to be trusted with a Padawan. Right now, Thrall and Leah was walking through the nature of Tython for Leah's next lesson.
"Master, we've been walking for over an hour now. What lesson could be worth traveling all the way out here?" Leah asked..
"You are about to find out, my young padawan" Thrall said as he stopped after reaching the top of a small hill.
Leah walked up to him to see what he was looking at "Wait, is that a Kodo?".
"Indeed" Thrall answered.
Kodos are massive reptiles with hardly visible scales and thick leathery skin that ranges in color from sandy brown to black. Most kodo have a large horn that sprouts from their nose, and some are even covered in woolly hair. Leah watched the large creature for a moment before she noticed something wasn't right. The Kodo looked very on edge, ready to attack anything that moves... like that poor bug that annoyed it, causing the kodo to ram a tree, knocking it over.
"Master, something is wrong with it" Leah said.
"Yes, I received words that this Kodo has been causing trouble for settlers nearby. Normally Kodos don't come this close, but this one is behaving very aggressively, and if he isn't stopped he could hurt someone, or worse" Thrall explained.
"Is that why we are here? To kill it before it attacks any settlements?" Leah asked.
Thrall looked at her "Kill him? Leah, Kodos are endangered, if we kill him we risk pushing the species further towards extinction. Remember, a jedi's duty is to protect and preserve life".
"Well then what should we do then? We can't just leave him to his rampage right?" Leah asked.
"No, we can not. This is a part of your training. You are to find out what is wrong with him, without harming him" Thrall said before suddenly taking away Leah's Electroblade training sword.
"Hey! I need that!" Leah said a little worried.
Thrall shook his head "This blade is not a part of your task. You will use the force to bond with the Kodo, calm him down so you can figure out what got him so riled up, and then see what you can do to help him".
Leah gulped but understood her task well enough. So she carefully walked down the hill towards the Kodo. The angry beast saw her and blew air out of it's nostrils. Leah knew this beast could easily kill her with a single charge, she couldn't afford any mess ups. She slowly reached out her hand trying to use the force to calm the beast down. But it didn't seem to work as it stomped the ground hard.
"Master! I don't think he wants to connect!" Leah said in fear.
"You are resisting him. You need to lower your guard, or else you will only agitate him" Thrall said calmly.
Leah tried again, but once again she was unable to fully trust in the force, and the Kodo ended up charging at her at full speed. This scared her, but when she tried to run away, she tripped and fell on the ground, leaving her no time to get up to avoid the charging beast. At this rate she would be crushed in to a bloody mess.
"MASTER!" Leah screamed as the Kodo got closer, and she closed her eyes, expecting the end.
But there was a sound, and the end never came. Leah slowly opened her eyes and noticed the Kodo had stopped. And it looked a lot calmer now than before. She looked behind her and saw Thrall walking towards them with his hand outstretched, making it clear he had used the force to calm the raging beast down. The Kodo didn't look more dangerous than a gentle and non-threatening Shaak. The complete opposite of the raging beast it was just a few moments ago. Thrall walked up to the Kodo and gently rubbed it's snout.
"Thank you master... and I'm sorry, I failed" Leah said, feeling shame that she failed so hard that her master had to step in and save her.
"It's alright Leah, I was never going to allow you to get hurt. I hoped calming the Kodo would help advance your training. But I now understand I pushed you to far, and made you confront something you weren't ready for" Thrall assured, but noticed this did nothing to ease Leah's shame "But you still have a chance. Now that the Kodo is calm, you can find out what's wrong with him. Use the force to sense his life force. Don't worry, he will not attack again".
Leah smiled as she got up, happy she got a chance to make up for her mistake. She took a breath and focused on the force around the Kodo "He... he is sick... something in his system is causing him pain".
"Very good. He is indeed sick, possibly due to eating a poisonous plant" Thrall said before giving Leah a bag "Feed him this, it should counter the effects and make him feel better".
Leah nods and began feeding the kodo the medicine, which it ate without issue "Good boy. You know, I've never seen a Kodo in person before. Only in pictures".
"Kodos used to flourish, but then outsiders ravaged their homes, plundered their lands, leaving nothing for them to feed on. And some tribal people even used them as war beasts. As a result, the whole Kodo species were at the risk of going extinct. But animal lovers managed to save some of them and brought them here to Tython, hoping the jedi order could protect them and give the race a chance to escape such a cruel fate. Ever since then we've been working on helping them recover, and hopefully they will flourish again one day" Thrall explained.
"I see... now I feel bad for believing he needed to be put down" Leah said as she finished feeding the kodo, who already looked like he was doing better.
"As jedis, we protect life, all life. That includes animals" Thrall said as he allowed the Kodo to leave.
"But... jedi do kill sometimes, right?" Leah asked.
Thrall closed his eyes "Yes, sometimes there are people and beasts that can't be reasoned with. Jedi always try to find a peaceful solution to any situation, but if there is no other way, we will defend ourselves".
"Have you ever killed someone, master?" Leah asked.
"I have... more than I want to remember. The war was a dark time, for everyone, including the jedi order. I was forced to join the war as leader. I was younger back them, believing I could fix everything by striking down evil with my lightsaber. That lead me to fighting against the Sith. But the war effected me, and once the treaty was signed, I had to spend years trying to find my way back to the light again. And I succeeded" Thrall said before looking at the horizon, and narrowed his eyes.
"Master?" Leah asked as she looked and saw some creatures heading towards them "What are those?"
"Flesh Raiders. A hostile and violent species. Stay back, and do not interfere" Thrall ordered his padawan as he walked up to meet the Flesh Raiders.
Leah stood back, watching as her master was surrounded by the Flesh Raiders. Still he remained perfectly calm as he began to speak.
"I am Thrall, jedi master of the Jedi Order. I harbor no ill will towards you or your people. Leave this place and allow us to live in peace, and there will be no need for any meaningless deaths" Thrall said, giving the Flesh Raiders every chance to walk away with their lives.
Sadly they didn't take the chance. One attacked Thrall from behind, but he calmly avoided the attack. He sighed, knowing the Flesh Raiders were not wise enough to see reason. As the Flesh Raiders attacked from all sides, Thrall held out his arms, unleashing a force wave which scattered the Flesh Raiders. He then took out his lightsaber, and the glowing green blade was activated. He entered a simple stance, ready for anything.
One Flesh Raider charged at him, it's weapon held high, leaving it completely exposed for Thrall to strike, cutting it's chest open, killing it instantly. Another one tried to attack from behind, but Thrall reversed his grip on his lightsaber and stabbed the Flesh Raider through it's heart. Some jedis would jump around and use fancy moves to overwhelm their foes. But Thrall outmaneuvered the flesh raiders through careful and well balanced foot work, never moving an inch more than what was necessary and each strike was aimed to end the fight quickly, to prevent any suffering.
The remaining Flesh Raiders roared as they charged at Thrall. He held up one hand and unleashed a force push which staggered them, before charging in and cut them all down. Leah watched in awe as her master managed to defeat an entire group of Flesh Raiders by himself. Thrall turned of his lightsaber and sighed. Clearly displeased by the deaths he was forced to cause. He didn't want this, but the Flesh Raiders gave him no choice.
"Are you alright, master?" Leah asked.
"I will be. I only wish this bloodshed could've been avoided" Thrall said.
"They attacked you. You did what you had to" Leah said.
"Yes, but I do not enjoy it. This is one of the many things that seperate us from the Sith, Leah. The Sith kills whoever they want, whenever they want, they don't need a reason. But we, the jedi, only kill if we're given no other choice. We never take pleasure in death, not even the death of our enemies" Thrall said.
"Yes master, I will never kill if I can avoid it" Leah promised.
Thrall nods in approval "Good. This will be enough training for today. We need to go back to the jedi temple and inform them of what happened".
Leah blinked as she saw Thrall call for a ship "Wait, we could've taken a ship this whole time!?".
"I enjoy a good walk. And exercising is an important part of jedi training" Thrall said.
Leah pouts as she pats her belly. Safe to say, this was a training trip she wouldn't soon forget. And she would remember the lessons... even as darkness grows near.
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Here is another brand new story. I made a normal Heroes of the Storm story before, but deleted it because it was rather old and I was not happy with it anymore. But I still love Heroes of the Storm. Seeing so many of Blizzard's awesome characters from several different universes really satisfied my love for crossovers. So I decided to make a new story, and this time have all the characters exist in the Star Wars universe. Since it was easy to find a way for all those characters to fit in to Star Wars in some way.
In this story, all characters from Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo and Overwatch will be born and raised in the Star Wars universe. And as you can tell, I will not limit myself to only the characters that has showed up in Heroes of the Storm. Every character from all those worlds are fair game and can be used, so no need to worry about not seeing your favorite characters just because they haven't made it in to Heroes of the Storm yet.
And yes I combined both Thrall's names to make a full name.
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With that out of the way, tell me what you think. Every review helps.