A New Dawn

[Fennex Zeerda]

Jedha Temple Spire
Early Morning​

Fennex hadn't been up here in quite a while now, he realized. While he on recovery here after Illum he'd visited this place- a tiny overlook just below the peak of one of the Temples massive twin spires- regularly. It didn't get much traffic. The view looking out over the Holy City though, with its pre-dawn smells wafting up on the cool morning breeze, the distant chimes of the dozens of smaller temples and shrines that crowded the streets below, and the vast expanse of the desert beyond the plateau... It was spectacularly beautiful. The sun hadn't yet peeked over the rocky, mountainous horizon, but the sky was already a light grayish blue color, as if it couldn't be bothered to wait for the solar body to do its part. He wished all the Jedi had the Jedha sky's energy.

So much had happened lately, and Fennex had little time to meditate on it all. The deaths of Councilors Dan'ela and Winters, the shocking revelations of the conclave, his surprise tea party with the Empress herself, and then his intense experiences with the Force, first facing his own darkness here on Jedha, and then the twisted nature of the Dark Side itself on Ellora and again on Tython. He'd learned so much over such a short time that it was jarring to him- mostly because it had revealed how precious little he had known to begin with. He had realized he knew little about himself, and even less about the Force, but for some reason that didn't bring him to despair like he thought it might. Instead, it had left him in contented awe, for reasons, again, he could scarcely understand. He felt like a Padawan again- uninitiated, not yet jaded and worn out by years of battle, and without the cynic skepticism born of constant betrayal. He felt... fresh.

Fennex poured himself a steaming cup of tea. He still had a lot to think about and consider. He wished Master Quickbill was here to guide him like had so long ago. He could still hear the little birds voice when he closed his eyes...

Use the Force, Fennex.​

@Malon

 

[Wyck]

Song​

The experience was much the same for Wyck. Though a far older Jedi, so much had happened in the last five years, it made the rest of his life look like a blinking light in comparison. There one second and gone the next. The catalyst had been Alais's fall to the dark side of the Force. Since then, nothing had been the same, and he had lost even more of the Jedi he had grown fond of—Master Vao, Nora, Evalyn, Mikko. Cregan and Kal had followed Alais to the dark side and become Sith Lords of the new Empire.

And, now, a chunk of the Jedi Temple on Jedha was missing in an apparent betrayal, though the Council had yet to discover who was behind the attack just yet. The Jedi Order was crumbling fast, and Wyck seemed to be the last living relic of its golden age. But that didn't mean all was lost. There were still good Jedi out there. His former Padawan, Imani Sage. Jedi Master Vollen Shai was another he had come to respect. And young Jon, though the boy was headstrong and in need of guidance. And, yes, there was Fen too, though the little fox remained a firecracker as always.

Wyck and Fen had... complicated history. The two Jedi had been rivals at some point. But that too felt like ancient history. Wyck had continued his studies, become a Jedi Master, was later voted onto the Jedi Council, and then became the self-declared Master of the Order. And, in all that time, he had only seen Fen a few times—most of them recently. And now they sat across from each other: Fen sipping tea, and Wyck drinking a green-tinted beverage that looked as though it had been brewed in the swamps of Dagobah.

He only let the silence linger between them for a moment. "Quiet, are you," he said. "But summon me here, you did. Questions, do you have? Or did you call me here to talk?" @Loco

 

[Fennex Zeerda]

Fennex nodded at the little green master. They hadn't been given much chance to talk privately lately- too busy dodging things trying to eat them and such, much like old times. But Fennex had felt that they really needed this... or at least he did. They were probably the last Jedi alive who had actually known Alais Drast as the girl she had been, long before she became known across the Galaxy as the Empress of the new Sith Empire. They were the only ones left who had seen everything go horribly wrong from the start, and failed to stop it when they had the chance. They were the only ones left who were still around to try to do something about it. And Fennex had recently had a very sudden and very jarring realization- one that he needed to be addressed.

"I wanted to tell you I'm sorry," Fennex started, breaking his concentration on the beauty of early mornings in the Holy City to look at his old "rival", though he had long since been left in the dust in that particular mock struggle, "you know, before one of us randomly explodes in the temple hangar." he continued. "You were right back then, on Ossus. I dont know why it took me so long to realize it."

Fens voice trailed off as he recalled how his whole construct of ignorance had come crashing down around him, hammered away at by encounter after encounter over such a short period. It had changed him. He felt good, but he wasn't sure what it all meant yet. He hated all the dramatic speechmaking these younger Jedi seemed to do all the time at the most inopportune moments, but now that he'd gotten started it was hard to stop, and he needed to get this off his furry little chest.

"It amazes me how every word I said then was wrong. I kept telling myself "there is no emotion, there is peace", like saying it made it true, but for who knows how long I forgot that there was more to the code than that. My ignorance of myself hid my passion, which led to emotional chaos, and from there I became obsessed with the supposed death of a little girl I thought I knew... I dont even recognize that Jedi now..."

Fennex stopped to breath, it had all come out so fast. But his confession made him feel even more content. It was like he'd finally come out of a dense fog of emotional turmoil he'd been living in, and could see clearly for the first time in decades. His connection to the Force was stronger than it had ever been, he felt. But what he had really learned, he thought, was that he had so much left to learn.

"She found me on Lothal, after Dan'ela's funeral. We... talked." he finished quietly. He knew he didnt have to tell Wyck who she was.

@Malon

 

[Wyck]

Wyck inhaled deeply and then exhaled audibly. Fen could not possibly know how much the little Jedi Master understood his plight. He was not frustrated or angry with the little fox. He wasn't even disappointed. If anything, he was glad. Glad that Fen had learned. So many Jedi did not learn. Not anymore. They simply fell... or died. But those who learned had the ability to become so much more than they already were.

He stayed quiet for a moment after Fen finished. The Jedi Master was genuinely stunned to silence by Andraste. How her mind worked. He had not seen her in five years. Not since Prakith. He had saved her life there. Protected her from an abomination and, in doing so, allowed her to escape. Allowed her to kill Evalyn. If anyone should be apologizing, it should be him — not Fen. But he knew better. The one who was at fault for all this evil was Andraste. Alais. They were just two more of her victims.

"The mark of a true Jedi, it is, when one can admit their faults and strive to be better," Wyck said. And he meant it. He chose to remain silent about Prakith. Someday, perhaps, he would tell Fen that story. But not this time. This time, Fen clearly had something he needed to say. "But, go on. Continue. What did the new Empress have to say on Lothal, hm?"

It troubled Wyck that Andraste had been on Lothal. It didn't surprise him. One of the stepping stones down the dark path, for her, had happened there. He was just thankful that she couldn't desecrate the temple. Only Jedi could open it. Still, he made a mental note. It might be time to investigate Lothal. Personally. @Loco

 

[Fennex Zeerda]

Chancellors crusty cod piece, it felt good to say all that, Fennex thought. It felt even better to hear Wyck tell him, essentially, that he wasn't losing it. He didn't always see eye to eye with the little green master (figuratively, at least, in a literal sense they were right at eye level with each other)- and in the past they had even had quite vocal disagreements- but Fen could not deny that there was no living Jedi left in the Order who had as much understanding of the Force as Wyck did. Fen knew lightsabers and battle tactics and piloting like he knew his whiskers or the fur on the back of his paws, but in this sort of awakening in the Force and the exposure of his own inner feelings and conflicts, he knew now that he was out of his element. Hearing Wycks reassurance lifted a huge burden from Fens shoulders, and he returned his gaze to the city with fresh perspective as he recalled the mountaintop conversation with Andraste.

"She's... conflicted, still... Or at least I feel like she is." Fennex shrugged, knowing he had never been the best at reading people and wondering if he had really seen glimpses of little Alais like he thought, or if that was just his clouded judgement talking, "I think Pavan and Dan'Ela's deaths affected her, and she went to a place that reminded her of better times- just like I was- but, I don't know...", he admitted, shaking his snout slightly... "She told me it wasn't supposed to be like this, and that sometimes she feels like she has no choice."

Fennex could certainly sympathize with that feeling. There were many times in his life he felt like he was being driven towards something inevitable by Forces outside his control. It was a common feeling for many students of the Force, and it wasn't entirely without merit- from a certain point of view. Fennex recalled the words he had spoken to her on Lothal and then, suddenly and unbidden, his mind wandered back through the years to the last real conversation he'd had with Wyck. Fennex scoffed at himself as he made the connection. The scoff quickly turned into a long incredulous cackle as he finally recognized the Galaxy shattering level of irony in all of this. He probably looked like a madman right now, sitting on this ledge rocking back and forth laughing something nobody else could see.

"I said..." he choked back a laugh and shook his head, amazed by his own levels of foolishness back then. This was great. Fen sighed, long and hard, and took a sip of tea to gather himself before continuing, "I told her that our choices are our own... That we choose our own path."

@Malon

 

[Wyck]

"Hmmm." Wyck's brow furrowed. There was no easy approach to this situation. Not in the slightest. Fen was right, of course. It seemed that the little fox had finally understood what Wyck had told him all those years ago. But the lesson seemed to have come too little too late, and now Fen's heart was as conflicted as he thought Andraste's was. But Wyck knew better. "Conflicted, she is not. Your own conflict, are you sensing."

Wyck sighed and thought back to the battle on Prakith. She had come ready to kill him. Had there not been an abomination to separate them, Wyck doubted either of them would have left the Deep Core world alive. Like an abused dog, Wyck's ears flattened as he was reminded of Evalyn and Vin. News of their deaths pained him terribly. Especially Vin's; the girl may have fallen to darkness, but there was still good in her. A chance. Unlike Andraste.

"Correct you were in holding her to her choices. Yes." Wyck's face furrowed and became more serious. "To her death, Andraste sent Vin. Handed Evalyn over to the Hutts she did. The blood of her friends and mentors, on her own hands they are." The fire left Wyck's eyes at once, and they were once again filled with great sadness. "Mourn her if you must. But make no mistake: supposed to be like this, it was. The ultimate result of the dark side, this is."

Wyck did not mourn Andraste. He pitied her. Pitied what she had become. The girl was so lost to darkness that he doubted even the men she surrounded herself with brought her much light. Not truly. What she felt for them was not genuine love. She was a leech. And they would meet the same fates, or worse, of the others she had killed... eventually. Such was the way of the dark side.

But, even so, there was some hope that had come out of this situation. "But Andraste's path matters not. Chosen her own fate, she has." He pointed his twisted walking stick at Fen. "What path have you chose, hm? More important, that is." @Loco

 

[Fennex Zeerda]

Fennex balked, blinking in surprise, facing down Wyck's cane like it was the tip of a lightsaber. He hadn't been asked a question like that in... decades, probably. And because he'd never been asked, Fen had never considered it. Thoughts and feelings rushed into every crevice of his being, flooding his mind and momentarily overwhelming his senses. What path had he Chosen? What path was he on? When did he first set foot on it? Was he straying from that path? Fen's mind whirled, seeking answers from itself. He'd been doing what he'd been doing since as long as he could remember, and in all that time he'd never really considered whether he was actually making a choice at all. Everything he had ever done for the Order had always just seemed like the natural course of action at the time. So when his brothers and sisters fell, it left him baffled. He'd been faced with plenty of adverse circumstances and choices to make in the variety of missions and battles he'd endured throughout his career, but he'd never seen a choice when it came down to a basic question of right and wrong.

"I..." Fennex stumbled as he mulled the question. He looked out on the Holy City again as it bounced around between his ears, and the obvious came to light. He may never have given it that much of a thought before- not in a very long time- but that didn't make it any less of a choice on his part. He had chosen to follow the Order's teaching, as best he could at least, and be a defender of the weak and innocent, a guardian of peace and justice in the Galaxy. "I chose to be a Jedi..." Fen concluded, and then shook his whiskers slightly to correct himself, "No, I choose to be a Jedi."

Fen nodded his head, feeling more confident now as he pieces locked into place. He was secure in his choice. There was no doubt or conflict in his mind when it came to this one thing.

"I am a Jedi."

@Malon