Dialogue of Courage

[Alysanne Drast]

Unnamed Mountaintop, Lothal​

It was on a cold, misty evening that Alys found herself out in the great wilderness of Lothal. Jedha had been productive, but while she had hoped to find her query there, she had been lead here, to these mountains in the middle of nowhere. It had taken her the better part of the day to hike up the mountain till she found herself here, standing at the edge of a ledge, looking down at the opening of a cave that should, if what she had read on Jedha was correct, be home to the vault that she was looking for.

Jumping down from the ledge, the mists rippling around her as she flew through the air to land on the rocky ground below. Straightening up, she pulled her cloak closer around her to keep out the chill that was beginning to set in and began walking towards the cave. It took her the better part of another hour, but ultimately her steps brought her to the treasure she had been seeking for months now, the fabled Holocron of Master Fennex Zeerda, the last Arbiter of the Jedi Order.

It stood before her, a small ornate box sitting on a broken stalagmite that seemed to form a natural dias for it. She was quick to reach out and open the box, but when her eyes fell on the holocron that lay within, she paused, just staring at it and waiting. She didn't know if she could even open it, but she worried what she might face if she did. The Force hadn't always been particularly kind in the lessons that it had taught her, and she had spent many a night wondering what she might face if she did manage to locate the holocron.

The right thing to do would have been to close the box, and take it to the Council. Let the Masters see what lay within the holocron and decide if she, or anyone else, was ready to face it. But no, she couldn't. Something told her that she had to do this here and now, on her own. At the very least, she had to try.

So, taking a deep breath, she opened herself to the Force as she picked up the holocron. Bringing it up to take a closer look at it, she reached out with the Force as well, observing it with all her senses, till she felt something within click within the Force as the holocron suddenly came to life. She jumped back in surprise, landing on her ass as the holocron slipped out her hand and rolled on the cave's surface till it came to a stop a few feet from her, now glowing and pulsing softly.

@Loco

 

[Fennex Zeerda]

Something was happening.

The Gatekeeper stirred, slowly awakening from centuries of peace and quiet to determine the source of this disturbance he felt. Early on in his very long solitude, he was occasionally jostled by an errant granite slug or a nesting Loth-cat, but eventually he'd sent out enough warning pulses that the local wildlife learned to leave him well enough alone. This, though, felt like a much more directed curiosity- something was looking for him. Perturbed, the first thing he did was send out a gentle warble in the force around his crystalline home- just enough to let whatever creature who was investigating his resting place know that someone was home, and that they didn't really care for bothers like this. Expecting this to have satisfactoryily resolve the situation, the Gatekeeper settled back in for a few more centuries of blissful slumber.

Next thing he knew, someone was picking him up. Whoever it was must be a real dingus, the Gatekeeper grumbled internally as he felt them poking and prodding his internal structures, looking for his seal. Clumsy fool he thought, preparing to scare the intruder off once and for all as they finally fumbled open the ancient mechanism locking him inside the little twelve sided sided box. With a quick burst of energy he lit the holocron from within with scintillating and pulsing blue and white light... and she dropped him.

Such indignity... No respect... Clumsy... he stewed as his home rolled across the floor. Now he was well and truly irritated, and was determined to see this dingus off. With a blinding flash of light the Gatekeeper burst free from his little housing, filling the cave with brilliant swirls and strands of silvery white light which zipped around the cave. A supernatural wind accompanied him, scattering pebbles, dirt and accumulated leaves in a whirlwind around the girl as she sat dumbfounded on her bum on the cold stone floor.

Slowly, and with a ghostly grumble, the strands of light began to take shape as they circled the room, molding themselves into a semblance of their long dead creator- a shimmering, indistinct semblance of a fox like face, expanded to enormous proportions. The disembodied head loomed large over the young girl, with the brilliant white lights of its eyes glaring down it's long, snarling snout. The giant fox face sniffed at her... or, at least it appeared to. The piercing spotlights of its eyes seemed to illuminate the padawans very core, shining their light on the deepest and darkest corners of her soul. She seemed... familiar, the Gatekeeper thought. She felt familiar. The looming figure examined her for a few more moments, taking stock of this tiny clutz who had disturbed his slumber. He sniffed again. Ghostly whiskers twitched. Then, finally, he spoke...

"Go away."

The disembodied voice echoed throughout the cave, as everything that had just unfolded in front of Alys undid itself. With a flash the Amaran head burst into a million points of light and promptly retreated into the Holocron with a great whoosh, leaving the girl where she sat- alone in the dark, with the only noise the gentle rustle of leaves and pebbles in a rapidly fading breeze. The holocron sat dark and silent.

@Wit

 

[Alysanne Drast]

Alys just stared as the light emanating from the holocron began taking shape, a smile of pure joy and awe slowly beginning to appear on her face as the realization of what was happening began dawning on her. She had done it, she had actually managed to activate the holocron! Her head began rising as she followed the slowly coalescing shape in front of her, eyes rising to gawk at the giant head that had formed in front of her. It was him, the Arbiter, Master Zerda! She was about to say something, push herself to her feet and say something, when he abruptly told her to leave and exploded.

"What?!"

She just stared at the holocron for a few moments, at a loss for words. That wasn't what she had expected. He was a Jedi Master, a Jedi Master from a time when the Jedi were at their peak! He was supposed to impart wisdom, share his knowledge with her, help her become a better Jedi! Not...not vanish in a grumpy cloud of light.

She scrambled up to the holocron on her hands and knees, and picked it up. "Hey," She shouted indignantly, " come back! This isn't right, what do you mean go away?" She shook the holocron around, hoping to entice some sort of reaction from it. When the shaking did nothing she reached out with the Force again, and not really sure how she did it, but somehow knowing what to do, she "poked" the holocron with the Force.

@Loco

 

[The Storyteller]

Nothing happens.

@Wit

 

[Alysanne Drast]

She stared, and she waited, and nothing happened. A more mature Jedi, a more mature person, might have been more patient, but Alys wasn't either of those things. And after climbing up a mountain for hours to get here, her patience was stretched thin, way, way thin. The Force still in her grasp, she got to her feet as she glared at the holocron, irritatation evident in her voice as she snapped. "Great, very mature, some Jedi Master you are!"

She slammed the holocorn down on the dais it had rested on and poked again with the Force, and just kept on poking, drawing in more and more of the Force till the Force was all she felt. She had managed to draw him out once, she could do it gain. Pretty soon she was holding so much of the Force that had she not been so focused on getting the holocron to wake up again that she would have been surprised by what she was doing. But still, nothign happened. At least not from the holocron.

Within her, within the Force, something was happening. And like on Kashyyyk all those years ago, she saw it again, that tendril of dark, that vision of Alais, and she stumbled back, as a woman's voice rang within her head once more. "Don't fear the dark."

She let go of the Force once more, stumbling back from the dais, from the holocron, as she recognized the voice she had heard and pulled away from it. "No," She mumbled as she panted, "no, I won't. I am not you, I won't be. I am Alysanne. Alysanne Drast, not Alais. I am a Jedi, I will not follow your path!"

For a moment the holocron lay forgotten as Alys came to terms with what had just happened. She had almost made herself forgotten about what she had seen on Kashyyyk, how she had faced the woman who had once been Alais Drast. Had passed it off as little more than the psychedelic roots of the Wookiees messing with her head. But now, all these years later, when she had least expected it, she had found herself face to face with it.

And she did not know what to do.

@Loco

 

[The Storyteller]

Nothing continues to happen.

@Wit

 

[Alysanne Drast]

It took a few moments, quite a few moments really, but she was able to calm herself down. The breathing exercises Aurora had taught her, one of the first things she had taught her, helping her find her center once again. She breathed in, standing there in front of dais and slowly let her breath out, and with each exhaled breath she felt a little more of the worry that had gripped her seep away. Finally opening her eyes, she stared at the holocron and wondered what she was doing wrong. Just moments earlier she had been frustrated enough to consider tossing the thing against a wall to get it to open up again, and in her frustration she had done something, something in the Force that she couldn't explain.

But have pushed aside the fear, and frustration, and the worry that she had let get to her, she felt herself slowly getting back to a place of calmness. Picking up the holocron once more, she walked over to a relatively smooth patch of ground and sat down crossed legged, the holocron resting on her open palms. She had let her fears get to her, again, despite having thought that she had come to terms with them. She had tried to face it in the past, and evidently failed. But she would not run from it, she was going to have to face it and overcome it, just like Valentine had told her the first time they met. He was a Jedi Master after all, and as it turned out he knew what he was doing.

She probably wasn't going to overcome it right here and now, but she could start. She wasn't going to leave this cave till she had come to terms with what had just happened, and maybe get the holocron to open up once more. But first things first, she had to get rid of all the frustration that had lead to her little outburst. So she closed her eyes, and began meditating, slowly beginning to open herself up to the Force. A little scared of a repeat of the vision, she was tentative to begin with, but she focused on her breathing and slowly but steadily began sinking into the Force. She sat there, just focusing on her breathing, for how long she did not know. The Force flowed through her, linking her to the world around her, including the holocron. A simple meditation technique for a Jedi, but one that took her more effort than it normally would have.

@Loco

 

[The Storyteller]

For what probably seemed like an eternity- many hours, at least- Alys sat silently in the cave, meditating and trying to gently coax out the spirit of the long dead Jedi once more, but to no avail. Outside the cave, the orange Lothal sun rose over the rippling grasslands of the savannah, and then once again dipped low over the horizon, bathing the world in a serene glow as the circle of life played out across the world. It was as if the entire planet was putting on a show for no one in particular except itself....

For a long time, nothing happened. Then, briefly, almost imperceptibly, something stirred. The long dead leaves littering the cave floor stirred, only slightly, but even that momentary lapse of absolute silence sounded like an echoing roar in the dim cave.

The leaves settled into new resting places one by one and then, once again... nothing happened.

@Wit

 

[Alysanne Drast]

A Jedi must be patient, a Jedi must persevere, a Jedi must stick the course. But after a certain point, an empty stomach gets to even a Jedi. After having spent hours trying to get the holocron to wake up again, Alys had to give in to the grumbling of her empty stomach. Picking up the holocron, stepped out of the cave, emerging as the sun was beginning to rise.

"Guess we're done talking. But even a Jedi Master must get tired of seeing the same things for five hundred years, time for you to see how things have changed." With that she slipped the holocron into her pouch, making sure the pouch was securely clasped shut and the holocorn would not accidentally slip out before she began the trek back down to her ship.

But while her intention had been to fly back with the holocron and let the Council take a crack at it, there was news waiting for her at the ship that tore those plans to shreds. The Sith had attacked, rebel bases were being evacuated, and no one knew where they were going to end up. Suddenly, she didn't have anywhere to return to, at least not until she was able to get back in touch with anyone. She could return to Naboo, but at this point she would simply be flying back into a trap, all she could do right now was wait. So she had packed some supplies, rations, equipment, and a few other trinkets, and made her way back to the cave. It had served as a Jedi Master's retreat centuries ago, it could do so for her as well.

Over the course of the next week or so she fell into a routine, waking up early, climbing back down to the ship, picking up the day's news packets, climbing back to the cave, and spending the rest of the day splitting her time between training, going through the updates she had picked up, and spending steadily greater periods of time talking with the holocron, or more like speaking at it.

It wasn't much, just updates on what was going on around the Galaxy, as much thinking out loud as it was sharing information. On the sixth day, as had become norm for her after completing her combat drills, she settled onto the floor in front of the dais where the holocron was placed once more, meditating on it for a bit to try and get it to open. And as usual, when not getting any response, she would pull out a holocube and begin playing the info dump she had copied from her ship that day. As it switched to a news stream, she was greeted by another piece on the return of the Jedi, with a tiny, almost insignificant mention of the dead Empress. She had turned out to be just like the others who had come before her, thinking of themselves as the next Andraste, feeling entitled to the power and respect she had wielded simply because of the name they bore. But she had earned all of that, hadn't she? Almost absentmindedly, she began speaking to the holocron, another little habit she had picked up recently. "You had known her, hadn't you? Andraste, Alais. Wonder what you would have told her if you had known this is what her legacy would be."

@Loco