The Geonosian starship was small, but fast and well-armed. It had sat well hidden in a hangar, unaffected by Hypori's harsh weather, and had not been used for perhaps a good two months. And it had a cloaking device so that Shaak Ti could use it to move from planet to planet without running into Imperial orbital controls.
She first stopped on the moon Nar Shaddaa to obtain false papers. She had just entered the shabby digs of the shady Dug, who had been recommended to her in the cantina there at the spaceport, when she felt something in the Force. She hadn't found any other scattered Jedi yet, but there was a hint of darkness to this bright force she now sensed. No wonder at this time. She spontaneously turned on her heel and followed the Force's presence.
Eventually she found a young Zabrak eating something in a rather run-down backyard. Her skin was alabaster colored and her small horns on her head were red. Her long, raven-black hair, braided into small braids, created a beautiful, deep contrast. This young woman was the cause of the radiation of the Force.
"Hello, who are you?" the Jedi Master asked kindly, displaying her full Force presence, which she otherwise carefully concealed in these dark times.
The Zabrak looked around in disbelief, then smiled with relief. "I'm Maris Brood. And who are you?" the Zabrak asked back curiously.
The Togruta pulled back her brown cloak so that the Zabrak could see the hilt of her lightsaber. "I am Jedi Master Shaak Ti."
"Oh, it's an honor." Maris Brood presented her with the hilt of her blade. "However, I have never heard of you before." Then she held out a Jogan fruit, which Shaak Ti willingly took and sat down to eat with her new acquaintance.
"How come you have a lightsaber but don't know me as a master?" Shaak Ti asked back.
"My master trained me on his spaceship far from the Jedi Temple during the Clone Wars because he felt something bad was going to happen. That's why I don't know many of the masters of Coruscant at all," replied the young woman with the golden eyes, looking at Shaak Ti slightly ashamed of her ignorance.
"Well, we Jedi in the temple didn't know a lot of things that we should have known," the Jedi Master replied benevolently.
They ate together, then the two women got up to leave the backyard.
Now Shaak Ti could see that Maris Brood was not only very slim, but also a head shorter than Shaak Ti.
"I have also been to my home planet Shili more times than other Jedi Masters have been to theirs. Are you from Iridonia?"
"That's right," replied Maris Brood.
"Who was your master and where is he now?" Shaak Ti wanted to know further.
Maris' eyes went sad. "He went away to see what happened on Coruscant. He never came back."
"If you want, I will complete your training," Shaak Ti offered her.
"With pleasure," the young woman replied with a smile.
Shaak Ti could feel the darkness that had gripped the Zabrak receding more and more. It made her heart warm.
"Do you have valid papers so that we can leave this planet?" she asked Maris.
"Yes, I have that. Nobody is looking for me anyway because nobody here knows that I am a Jedi. My master probably didn't register me in the temple at all, so the clone troopers haven't caught me yet, like they did elsewhere", she explained to the Togruta with a superior smile. "Recently a battalion even passed me by. They even asked me if I knew where some of their comrades had gone. But no one suspected anything."
"That's good. But they are looking for me. So we have to be careful."
With these words she went back to the Dug's shabby digs to get some new papers. After about half an hour this was accomplished. Now she could finally leave Nar Shaddaa and lead her new Padawan to her spaceship. The Geonosian ship quickly lifted off from the smuggler's moon.
"Where are we going, Master?" the new Padawan wanted to know.
Shaak Ti led her to the cockpit and showed her the travel route. "To Felucia. I had a mission there before and I strongly felt the dark side there. Pushing back the darkness there is a task for us that will demand everything from us. But we will be safe from the Empire, because the Empire has no interest in this jungle planet. At least no one was interested in it back then. Not for thirteen years."
"Is there intelligent life?" asked Maris Brood curiously.
"Yes, there are several species there, including the natives who live in the jungle - the actual Felucians. They are quite powerful in the Force. We can probably learn a lot from each other," said Shaak Ti, preparing the ship for hyperspace.
The unnamed ship exited hyperspace. In front of them lay a green planet with a few blue veins. Rivers – as Maris Brood assumed. At least it was better than the endless bands of lava that ran through their home planet. Their spaceship had barely landed when the two women were surrounded by blue-feathered creatures about 1.80 m tall who welcomed them.
"You still remember me," said Shaak Ti happily.
"Naturally. The light has finally returned," said one of the Felucians.
"Felou!" Shaak Ti greeted him, introducing her Padawan to him and his companions.
"No worries. You will be safe here. We hate the Sith!" declared the Felucian, whom Shaak Ti had just named Felou.
"You know that the Sith founded the Empire?" Maris Brood asked in surprise.
"We know Sith when we see them. And when we feel their power from afar," replied Felou, while his companions nodded eagerly.
He led the two Jedi into a hut where food and drink awaited them. Hungry and thirsty, the two women sat down at the set table.
"How is it that the darkness can be felt so strongly here?" asked the Zabrak.
"Oh, that was a long time ago," Felou said with a sweeping gesture of his blue hand.
"So tell us, please!" Maris Brood urged him.
"It was a long, long time ago when a big yellow man came to Felucia to take one of our own with him."
"Just like that?" Shaak Ti wondered.
"He surprised him while he was collecting berries and grabbed him from behind and tied him up. Two of us tried to free him, when the yellow stranger activated a red lightsaber and slaughtered them. Others wanted to come to his aid. They created a power bubble around their group to protect themselves, tried to infiltrate his mind, but he resisted. And kept dragging our brother along with him."
"Savage Opress!" said Maris Brood reverently. "I didn't know he could do anything on his own without his red brother," she added with a smile.
"Savage Opress is dead," Shaak Ti replied.
"Well, he said it was a long time ago. Did he have horns?" Maris Brood asked the Felucian, eager for more details.
"No, no horns. He had large, round black eyes and his rather large head was vertically furrowed in the middle - like those musicians.
"A Bith! And a Sith at that!" Shaak Ti exclaimed.
"Yes. That's why we know the Sith. We will always recognize them," Felou agreed.
"And then he kidnapped your brother to his spaceship," Shaak Ti returned to the actual event.
"He destroyed our Force bubble with red lightning that came from his hands. Two of us were able to save ourselves, the other three died in his lightning bolts," said Felou with sad eyes.
"Oh dear, maybe not just an assassin, but a true Lord of the Sith!" Maris Brood exclaimed.
"Possibly Palpatine's master," Shaak Ti speculated.
"We withdrew," the Felucian continued. "And then the Bith-Sith flew away with our unconscious brother in his fancy spaceship. We never heard from him or our brother again. But since that day, plants have been rampant on this planet. The air has turned sour and we Felucians are incredibly irritable and argue over every little thing. You experienced it yourself thirteen years ago, Master Ti. And as soon as you left, the fights and arguments started again," he concluded his report.
"When was the Bith here – roughly?" the Jedi Master inquired.
"That was over fifty standard years ago."
"Don't worry," Shaak Ti reassured him. "Now we've come to stay," she explained solemnly.
They rested a bit after dinner, then discussed Maris Brood's training.
"We'd best start with lightsaber training right away," suggested the Togruta. This time with her third Padawan she wanted to do everything right.
She was euphoric when Maris Brood's green blade met hers.
"Your master trained you well," said Shaak Ti appreciatively, after she defeated Maris Brood after twenty standard minutes.
Maris smiled mischievously. "You haven't shown everything you can do."
Next morning, they met with the Felucians in a big breakfast and discussed with Felou the howabouts of their stay on the planet.
"We need to somehow corral the darkness and seal it in a specific place where it cannot be easily released", Shaak Ti said.
"I know of a good place for it, the lake that is in the Ancestral Gorge, right next to where the Sarlacc lives," Felou suggested.
"A lake is a good choice," Shaak Ti agreed. "After all, four thousand years ago on Ambria, Master Thon banished the dark side to the bottom of a lake. And that's exactly what we're going to do now."
She ordered her Padawan and twelve Felucians to form a circle, in the middle of which she sat. She then assumed a meditative stance while the other Force sensitives around her placed their hands on her shoulders or on her lekkus to give her their strength and support.
Shaak Ti meditated powerfully.
After about an hour, she motioned for her companions to take their hands off her. Everyone present looked around and felt how the Dark Side had become noticeably weaker.
"We will do this every afternoon now. For at least two weeks," Shaak Ti explained.
After about a month, the air was much more pleasant and no longer quite as acidic and humid as when they arrived. The plants were no longer so aggressive towards each other and the Felucians had become much friendlier and more open than they had already been towards Shaak Ti when they arrived. Shaak Ti was confident that she was on the right path.
"How long will we stay here in the jungle with the Felucians?" asked Maris Brood after two months.
Shaak Ti remained calm and stoically. "As long as the Empire rules. Or even longer if we like it."
"What? All this time in this uncivilized…?"
"Yes, we have no choice if we want to survive. If you care about me as your master. It would be too noticeable in the cities of Felucia. "But you can take occasional trips into the city since you're not officially registered as a Jedi."
"Thank you, Master," the young woman replied with relief, her golden eyes shining at Shaak Ti in anticipation of her new excursions.
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Since that day, Maris Brood occasionally went to Niango, the nearest major city, to run some errands. One time she saw a battalion of stormtroopers march past. Two of the white-uniformed soldiers broke away from their hundred and went to the supermarket, where Maris Brood was also about to shop. Maris Brood acted like it was nothing special to her as she hurried from shelf to shelf to do her shopping. Then one of the stormtroopers suddenly approached her.
"Could you perhaps tell me where I can find the blue milk?" he asked kindly.
A touch too friendly, the young Zabrak thought, drawing her fine eyebrows together suspiciously.
"Over there," she replied curtly and her right hand shot horizontally to point to the shelf in question.
The soldier took off his helmet. She saw a tattooed red face, while short white horns crowned the member's head. His eyes were brown.
"Ah, are they taking us as soldiers now?" she asked boredly.
"Yes, the Empire pays well. Can you maybe take me to the shelf? I don't see that. The market is so big," he said with a sweeping gesture.
"Do you know what? Ask a vendor," replied Maris Brood harshly. "Unlike me, she gets paid for it."
She abruptly turned away from the man her fellow species, who had been so offended, and simply left him there without paying any further attention to him.
"Can I at least give you my com frequency?" the stormtrooper called after her, almost pleadingly.
"How many planets where you guys are stationed on do you pull that number, huh?" she asked back mockingly before disappearing behind the spice rack without waiting for his answer.
"So far I've only been stationed on Iridonia and here on Felucia," he replied, suddenly appearing in front of her in the underwear department.
"What are you doing here anyway?" asked Maris Brood, displeasedly looking on the underwear, then around, finally on him. "... I mean ... on Felucia?"
"I could ask you the same thing," he replied.
"I'm not here on a military mission, I'm just a normal civilian," she replied, trying to look as calm and stoic as her new master.
"Well then, I don't want to be like that," he relented. "Since Aayla Secura was executed here two months ago, the Empire has set up a garrison on Felucia to ensure that there are no more of her kind here," he explained.
"Her kind?" the Zabrak mimicked the suddenly arrogant tone of her interlocutor. No doubt, the other Zabrak pulled out all the stops to impress her.
"And who was this Aayla Secura anyway?" she asked apparently bored, pleased that her assumed calm had apparently had the desired effect. Information was now pouring out of the stormtrooper.
"It's clear that you're not very familiar with Jedi things," he replied amused.
Jedi things, the word hit Maris with full force in the pit of her stomach.
It took Maris a moment to compose herself, then she decided to leave him in his naive belief in superiority.
"She was a blue Twi'lek with brown eyes, and …", he continued hesitating, "... dressed rather skimpily."
He grinned somewhat suggestively at these last words and then looked down to the side in embarrassment when he saw Maris Brood twisting her dark red mouth dismissively.
"My superior Commander Bly executed her personally," he tried to give the conversation a more serious tone.
Then he turned his head to the right to see his comrade heading towards him coming from the liquor section. The other stormtrooper had now also taken off his helmet. Maris Brood looked into a human face with blonde hair.
"So really no comlink number exchange?" the other Zabrak tried again.
"I am married. And I really have to go now," she replied sternly and turned to leave.
"Well, then… see you again sometime," he ended the conversation and went to his comrade.
Maris Brood quickly went to the stationery, then headed for the checkout.
No, my Master wouldn't be happy if I...
... would tell her that the stormtroopers are now present on our adopted home of Felucia too. But surely Shaak Ti would know this Aayla Secura. And in the process tell her more about the Jedi.
... would tell her that the stormtroopers were now present on her adopted home of Felucia. But surely Shaak Ti would know this Aayla Secura. And in the process tell her more about the Jedi.
Author's note: This chapter is a tie-in to the storyline of the video game "The Force Unleashed", where Shaak Ti survives Order 66.