I am brought out of my meditative trance by the cold.
Now, this is not the normal cold that freezes your toes in the winter months, and gives your mother a reason to tell you to bundle up. This is a cold that surrounds you, seeps into your bones, immobilizes you. It forewarns of darkness and pain to come.
No, this cold is not natural. It is of the Dark Side.
I stand up and call my lightsaber to my hand, feeling the Force flowing through me. This feat is of the Light Side, which is the opposite of the Dark. The Light makes you feel content, peaceful, and calm. The Dark Side is raging with turmoil.
I can sense it getting closer. It stalks towards me, drawn to me as a moth to a flame. It is ready to destroy me for opposing its rule. It only wants revenge.
The way of the Jedi is not an easy one, young one. You will face many dangers, many hardships, many temptations. The mark of a true Jedi is enduring through everything. Selflessness, justice, peace. This is the way of the Jedi.
I walk down the ramp of the ship and admire the abundance of life around me. Through the Force, I feel the bustle of ants near my feet, the calm sway of the trees in the wind, the laughter of the people of the nearby village.
And I feel the Dark. Bringing hate and pain, suffering and anger. Bringing a longing for a fight.
Padawan, the Dark Side is easy to give in to. I confess I myself have been caught by its lure from time to time. Your opponent will say things, do things, that make you crave revenge, that give you an opening to give in to your anger. The strength of a Jedi does not come from the amount of lightsaber duels he has won, or how many battles he has survived. The strength of a Jedi comes from his resolve not to fall to the Dark, and his faith in the Light.
I calm my mind and reach out with the Force, gathering peace and purpose. The Dark Side is like an angry black hole in the Force, pushing and shoving and making waves in the Force that distort and confuse. It is easy to get caught up in these things and forget your mission. That is the Dark Side's goal. To distract and gain an advantage.
Some say the Dark Side is stronger. That is not true. It is not stronger— only easier. It is like when you eat too much candy as a young child. Your mother warns you not to. You do it anyway. For a while, you feel as if you could run up every flight in Coruscant's tallest building over and over again. Then, after a while, you lose your energy and become tired, even more tired than before. You get a stern "I told you so!" from your mother before she sends you off to bed to rest. This is the Dark Side. You may gain strength for a little while, but it burns out quickly. The Light is not this way. It sustains you, gives you lasting energy. It is an ally who will not desert you.
The sense of the Dark Side grows, the colder becoming more prominent, more real. It is close.
"I should have known I'd find you here," I hear a voice leering from behind me. I turn around to face a Twi'lek, her purple skin partially hidden by the shadows of the trees surrounding her. Her eyes are like two fires, burning through the night.
"And I you," I reply.
She smirks. "Anywhere I go, I seem to find you chasing after me, Master."
Yes, young one, the fearsome Sith warrior that stood before me was once my very own Padawan. And it is a hard thing not to give into the guilt that sometimes threatens to crash down around me and drag me under. The guilt that tells me I could have done more— that her fall to the Dark is my fault. However, emotions must never sway your judgment or influence your decisions. That is the path to the Dark Side.
"Really?" I say with a sad smile, as I try to force down the tendrils of that old guilt working their way around my heart. I will not let her unbalance me so soon. "I seem to find it the other way around. As if you'd like to erase the past to begin your new future."
Her smirk turns into a snarl. "You are a Jedi. I need no excuse to end you."
Young one, let this be an example to you of how the Dark Side warps and twists reality for its own means. The Padawan I had spent so many years teaching in the way of the the Light was now its sworn enemy.
"Do not forget that you were once my Jedi Padawan," I remind her.
"Once being the key word. I am your Padawan no more. I have risen above that," she retorts, cutting her red blade through the air, causing it to hum with energy.
Child, you will know a Sith by the blood red hue of their lightsaber. While the Jedi's kyber crystals thrive on the Light, a Sith's crystal has a much darker past. The Sith must take a Jedi's crystal, and then use the Dark Side to bend it to their will. It is not natural. The crystal becomes a slave to the Dark Side. As this is with all who chose the easy path. The Dark Side tempts, and once you give in, it consumes. It will not let you go. Once you fall to the Dark, there is no hope. It will enslave you forever, forcing you to execute its will. But I digress. I am sure, young one, that you wish to hear the tale of the battle.
I reach for my own lightsaber and ignite it, its yellow hue lighting up the dark forest around me. Sensing that a fight is about to begin, I reach out with the Force and center myself. I can feel my lightsaber and the kyber crystal giving it life as if they were an extension of myself. And in a way, they are. The Force connects all living things.
I can feel the Sith reaching out with the Force as well, probing my thoughts, my intentions, my potential actions. However, I am at peace. She is unable to glean any information from me, and so she does the only thing a Sith knows how— she attacks.
Stones rise into the air before her and hurtle their way towards me. I calmly reach out a hand and deflect them to either side. She closes her eyes, and I feel her reach with the Force to something behind me. Sensing danger, I duck just in time to miss a tree branch that would have taken off my head.
She snarls again and reaches a hand out towards me, attempting to shove me backwards. I reach out to counter. She pushes against me with the Force, and I push back.
Light against Dark.
Calm against chaos.
Compassion against hate.
Peace against war.
The match proves to be even, and we are both thrown backward by the rebounding energy. She gets up and dusts herself off.
"You are weak," she says. "I remember the days I couldn't hope to beat you. Now?" She just laughs, a cold, dark laugh that deepens the chill in my bones.
"Perhaps you have grown stronger, Padawan, but the Dark will never defeat the Light," I respond.
She smiles. "We shall see." She stalks towards me, lightsaber at the ready. I assume a ready stance, waiting until the moment she reaches me.
I block her first strikes easily. It is obvious she is testing my skills. While it's true I haven't sparred in a while— not since she left the Jedi Order, if I am honest— the Force guides my movements. The Dark will not win; the Force will see to that.
She lunges, I parry. She is always on the offensive, I on the defense. I must not use my emotions to gain an edge in the fight. That is not the Jedi way. She thrusts, I step out of the way. We continue our fight, one that would look like an elegant dance to the observer, but is in reality a gruesome and deadly test of skills. Her anger grows as the fight continues. It fuels her, makes her stronger— but also causes her to make mistakes.
One such mistake, she continues to repeat. After striking towards me, she raises her saber high above her head to gain more power for her next swing. After noticing this a few times, I make my move. When she raises it above her head, ready for the kill, I knee her in the stomach. She doubles over, and I Force her lightsaber out of her hand into the forest around us. I stand over her kneeling form, the tip of my lightsaber pointed at her. Her breathing is heavy, and she looks at the ground. I can sense many things radiating from her— failure, anger, resentment, fear, and… is that… regret?
Child, this is hard for you to hear, but it must be said. Any regret I felt from her could not be real. She was attempting to exploit the Jedi's kindness. You may feel like the right thing to do is bring her to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant for imprisonment and rehabilitation, but this is her plan. If I had done that, it would give her a chance to escape. A Sith does not regret. A Sith only manipulates.
She looks up at me, and I can see the sadness she has forced in her eyes. She opens her mouth to say something.
Young one, my next action may seem harsh. But she knew my weakness and was planning to exploit it. If I hesitated much longer, my feelings would have gotten in the way of rational judgment. I did what I had to do.
Before she could speak, I plunged my blade through her. Her face registered fear, then shock… then nothing.
Her form fell slack to the ground, arms and legs splayed out on the grass. I gazed at her for a moment.
Child, this is the fate of someone who follows the Dark Side. They may have power and strength, but it will not last. In the end, it fades away. The goodness of the Light, however, prevails forever.
I walk back to my ship, my mission completed. Another evil, wiped from the galaxy. As I lift off, I think one last time of my former Padawan, lost all those years ago, and the Sith who replaced her now lying dead on the forest floor.