Ask Jakku Fear and History

Crix Aran

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Jakku was a planet with a quiet present and a loud past in the Force.

As someone with the Force, Crix couldn’t feel anything in the Now for hundreds of miles aside from Sebastian and Clove as they brought the ship down for a landing atop the exterior of a crashed Star Destroyer. There was nothing and no one around them, leading to the quiet in the Force in the Now… and allowing the Past to all but scream at them.

Standing at the edge of the ramp, Crix hummed a little bit as he cleaned one of the blaster pistols he had managed to collect over the years. Dust and sand were already becoming a problem. The problem for people who had not visited this area of Jakku before, however, was telling. Sebastian, as a former Dark Acolyte, and Clove would be able to feel what felt like screams of fear, anger and pain echoing around them.

And they were echoes.

They were impressions in the Force left by the Battle of Jakku, literally hundreds of years in the past. But with so many people dying so quickly, so pointlessly, it left an impression. If people had chosen to live in the area en-masse then their presence would have long since absorbed the echoes but as it was, no one lived in this section of the old battlefield’s graveyard.

Crix himself had found the experience of standing on Jakku disorientating to begin with but he had managed to steal himself at the time because he had been there on a rescue mission so needed to get over himself quickly. Still, standing on it again was difficult… which was exactly why he had brought Clove along with him.

“Do you hear the screaming, Clove?” he asked her as he busied himself cleaning his blaster, “Do you feel it trying to shake your bones?”


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Clove Vanhoop

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The half-Sephi didn't question the half-Zabrak when he decided to drag her into a shuttle, together with a... How does one even begin to describe Sebastian? Half-metal crab? It wasn't the nicest thing to say, but there was no other way around it. In any case, she wasn't exactly pleased with herself for how she had behaved in the month following Dantooine. Despite the progress she was making, she still felt she had let him down in more ways than one. So she followed him, introduced herself to Sebastian, grew quiet after and listened closely to whatever he had to say, even when the planet of Jakku came into view and the shuttle began to lower itself on top of the ruins of a goliath ship.

A Star Destroyer.

She'd been on Ossus and Jedha before, two planets with a past of destruction. But, with the establishment of a new Jedi Temple, Ossus had been slowly healing over time, silencing the suffering. And Jedha was so broken that it was impossible to feel anything but pain.

Jakku, however, was different from those two planets.

Where one was healing and the other an overload of excruciating pain, Jakku was empty. There was no life, no connection to the Living Force. There would have been pure silence in the Force if it hadn't been for the echoes of the Unifying Force seeping into the nerves of anybody who set foot on the planet. It wasn't as loud or as obvious as Jedha, it was far more subtle, crawling under your skin and clinging to your bones. The screams were there, but never at the front. It was in the back, constantly reminding her of the pain and death that everyone had gone through.

The silence of the present and the pain in the past was enough for her nerves to lay raw. And it made her want to run.

Even if she had dared to run, it would have been pointless because she had no idea how to pilot the shuttle of a crashed star destroyer. She was trapped on this forsaken planet. So, the only way out was to confront it. With a silent sigh, she rose to her feet and began to follow Sebastian to the ramp, the tippity tapping of his legs on the metal floor distracting her enough to soften her look of utter despair into one of mere uneasiness.

She had already begun to collect the first layer of dust and sand the moment she stepped onto the ramp.

"Yeh. I can hear it." She replied while brushing her hand over one of her braids, trying to get some sand out of it before ultimately deciding it was a lost cause and she'd need a long shower once they got back to the temple. Her brown eyes lifted from her braid and scanned the surface, finding only emptiness and a few ruined ships here and there. "It's empty, yet full of death. As if whisks of air itself echo their heartbreaking screams."

It wasn't difficult to figure out why he brought Clove and a former Sith to a planet that embodied death and loss. A former Sith must have been plagued by demons to fight, and Clove? Well.

Still, she couldn't help but wonder what he was up to. There were so many different directions the lesson could take.



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Crix Aran

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Taking Sebastian to such a planet was like dangling spice in front of a recovering addict – and for Clove? It was like raising a hand as if to strike an abused pet who had come to associate that action only with pain. What he was doing was hard, it was horrible on some levels but it was something that they both needed.

Did it make it easier for him to do? Absolutely not.

But for their own reasons, they both needed to face the Dark Side in a more controlled environment and face it down again. Standing on the ramp, Crix placed a comforting hand on Clove’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

“You know I wouldn’t do this if it wasn’t required.”
He spoke quietly, turning to include Sebastian, “For either of you. You need to face this and I know it’s going to be hard. I know you might resent me for this now but… in time you’ll be able to see I only did it for you.”

Taking a deep breath, Crix pointed across the sand and debris toward the bridge of a Mon Calamari cruiser that poked out through the sand. The rest of the ship was entirely submerged in the sands.

“The end point is the bridge of that ship.”


More than a few miles of desert stood between them and their destination.

“I’ll be there, alright?”
He gently pushed both of them off the ramp, a short drop, onto the top of the star destroyer, the ship beginning to take off, “I trust you both and I believe in you both as well – I’ll see you there!”

As the ship flew off to the end point, Sebastian shifted awkwardly with his mechanical crab legs and eyed Clove warily for a few seconds before he began climbing down the hulk of ship they had been dropped off on.

“So… you’re his Padawan.”
He asked in an inscrutable tone, “For all he talks about you, I thought you’d be taller. So why do you need Dark Side resistance training? End up tasting the forbidden fruit?”


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Clove Vanhoop

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As her Master's fingers squeezed her shoulder, the half-Sephi's big eyes moved to his. And then it hit her: he was going to leave her alone with Sebastian. He was actually stranding them. But she couldn't get angry, no matter how badly she wanted to. Crix had never put her in a dangerous situation, and his lessons had proven to be very effective so far. And Dantooine? Dantooine was out of his control. "It's okay. I can't resent you." Clove let out a sigh. "Plus, biting the hand that is trying to help you isn't a good idea." Was that the correct phrasing? Eh. It didn't matter. She made her point.

Bridge of the cruiser. Right.

Clove gave two nods before returning her gaze to Crix. At the very least, he believed in them. "Be careful when flying alone." She managed to give him a half-hearted smile before raising her hand into a small wave. The half-Sephi kept her gaze fixed on the ship for as long as she could before the noises of Sebastian's crab legs told her to get moving.

She climbed down the hull slowly, giving Sebastian enough room to go ahead of her and do whatever he needed to do with his legs to get down safely. "Huh. Taller?" With a huff, she hung her legs over some stretching metal before dropping to the ship's next level. "How come taller?" She didn't want to answer his actual question for a moment. The mere suggestion that she had dipped her toes into the Darkside irritated her.

But he was her companion for at least a few miles, so starting with a petty fight wouldn't be a good idea. She had to answer him.

"Uhm. No. Fought against a Sith, it didn't go well and a Sith Lord decided to be annoying during all of it." Sure, that wasn't the whole story, but she wasn't about to tell Sebastian how she dreaded almost everything about the Force, especially the Darkside, and how Crix had just thrown her into the deep end with only a cybernetic crab guy as a life jacket. So for now, this was plenty. "How about you? Overcoming an addiction?"

The sand got closer and closer with each new drop to the next layer. A part of her wanted to swing off the broken floor she was dangling from and drop on the sand beneath the ship, but something told her Sebastian wouldn't be able to do the same. So she gently let go of the floor without swinging and landed on her feet, her knees folding forward to soften the blow on her ankles.



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Crix Aran

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She didn't seem inclined to hate him for what he was doing but Crix knew better than most than how you intended to feel about something didn't translate into how you actually felt about something as it happened. As far as they were to know, this could all go either very well or very badly... but he had complete faith that Clove and Sebastian would be able to make it to the end of the gauntlet with the lessons they had been slated to learn.

So he smiled before he left.

--

Thankfully for Sebastian, the Jedi had seen fit to give his mechanical legs a multitude of different settings. One of them was uniquely suited for clambering up and down the side of metal structures. He would never thank Aran for cutting his legs off but he would admit that the replacements he had been given had uses his old legs did not.

Aran's Padawan was someone he had heard much about.

"It's an expression."
he assured the young Sephi with a shrug, "He talks you up so often, it's a wonder you are still so small - that kind of thing."

Aran liked to talk in the cockpit of the ship considering Aran himself was not allowed to actually fly the ship. The Knight was many things and one of those multitude of things was a truly appalling pilot. Scoffing, Sebastian dropped down a level with the unsettling ease of a spider.

"Dantooine? He mentioned very little of it, said that he failed."
he noted before scowling at Clove, baring his teeth as he did so, "Addiction... no. I went searching for knowledge, for power. This test, to me, is about your Master deciding if I have left those goals behind - if I can be trained as a Jedi."

He held out a hand as they started down an internal corridor of the downed Star Destroyer, a complete and utter lack of light leading the path ahead covered in total darkness.

"... do you hear that?"
he asked, slightly urgently, "Like whispers and feet on steel..."


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Clove Vanhoop

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"Ah, I had no idea it was an expression." Her already pink cheeks grew a shade deeper when the half-Sephi paused. She had no clue Crix was so loving about her; in fact, she had worried for the opposite. "That's very sweet of him. Must've been boring, hearing him talk about me so often. Sorry." She gave a fleeting smile before returning her attention to the descent.

She'd be lying if she said Sebastian didn't completely creep her out. His spider-like jumps, his bare-toothed scowl after he talked to her, it was all straight out of a horror holo-film. And while she didn't say it out loud, the slight flicker in her eyes whenever he moved unnaturally or flashed his teeth said it all.

It was also the third time she'd seen a Sith up close, or rather, a former Sith in Sebastian's case. Dantooine was first, followed by Coruscant with Severus, and now Sebastian. So that surely didn't help.

"Well, he's not the only one who failed. But what about you, do you want to be trained as a Jedi?"

The sight of the dark internal corridor made her regret not diving into the sand when she thought she had the chance. Then, to add insult to injury, Sebastian extended his hand and stopped her in her tracks. Her half-Sephi ears twitched in an attempt to pick up the sounds, and they did. Or so she thought. Because a small part of her mind questioned if what she was hearing was genuine, but the panic overshadowed all logic.

Clove stiffened behind the former Sith, her eyes scanning the room. "Yeah... Yeah- I can hear it."


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Sebastian wasn't enough of a callous bastard to not recognize that Clove was a cute little Jedi Padawan and the blushing at being told she was praised was point enough of that. It wasn't even that he was praising her so much as he was passing on the fact that she was praised by her Master to other people. On second though, he could see why she would be blushing about that. It was one thing to know, logically, that someone was proud of you but it was another thing altogether to have someone confirm it for you, he supposed.

Still, he rolled his eyes good-naturedly at her apology - if she was going to keep being this sweet he was going to end up diabetic by the time they reached the end point.

"I owe your Master a lift-debt and I want to be free to use the Force."
he scowled ever so slightly at the memory but it was a lighter one than his usual expression, "He thinks I can... change I guess."

The darkness held no answers - only memories.

Suddenly there was a pulse through the Force and the ship they were on was suddenly no longer a darkened wreck. Instead the entire area was lit with emergency lighting and dozens of stormtroopers and imperial crew were rushing past them at pace. A memory, to be sure, but one that was visibly unfolding right in front of them.

And through it all?

The fear.

Oh the fear was palpable, enough to make Sebastian choke and gag as it seemed to wash over both himself and Clove in equal measure. Star Destroyers fully crewed and with Stormtroopers attached? Almost 47000 souls all screaming at them with fear as they begin to acknowledge that the ship they were on was going to crash and that they were all, to a man, going to die. Everything about the memory, about the Fear, screamed at him to find an escape pod.

To run.

He twitched and his eyes darted around.

"Jedi... Jedi we need to run, we need to escape we need to live we need..."
he began to breathe heavily, shaking in place as the fear battered at their minds again and again, "Wait... no... the battle of Jakku is over and has been for... centuries..."


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Clove Vanhoop

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"So far, I've noticed that when Crix believes he's correct about something, he usually is." The half-Sephi softly shrugged her shoulders. "And, for what it's worth, I don't know you, but I'm sure that you can change. You wouldn't be here if it wasn't the case."

The Force rushed over the two and twisted the entire area in a matter of seconds, leaving no time to continue her righteous preaching. That sensation alone was enough to make Clove take a step back, long before she heard the shouts or noticed the flickering lights. But then her large brown eyes rose off the ground and faced what was in front of them. Chaos, fear, agony, horror, and panic were all entwined into one overpowering emotion that made it near impossible to breathe.

She wasn't new to seeing memories so life-like that they seemed like they belonged to her. Those bleeding corridors would often haunt her through her nightmares, daydreams, or anytime something brought up those memories. Clove was well aware that she wasn't truly in those corridors, just as she was well aware that the stormtroopers hurrying about were nothing more than a haze of memories drifting through the air.

But just like with those corridors, logic does not always align with raw emotions and instincts.

Clove curled her arms around her chest in terror, her breathing becoming heavier and heavier. Sebastian's words to run seemed so far in comparison to the 47000 souls' screams as they realized they were about to die. But his words stuck, because all she wanted to do was run, run as fast as she could to the next escape pod and get out of there. It would be so easy to flee and never longer feel their pain, or to be taunted by the Darkside that reminded her of her mistakes. To leave it all behind.

But just as her feet began to rise and lift off the ground, Sebastian's voice and mention of the battle of Jakku reached her and shook her mind enough to find a shred of sanity. And she let her heel fall back down onto the floor.

Eyes widened with horror shot towards Sebastian, who stood there shaking and shivering, looking vulnerable and muttering about how the battle had been over for centuries.

Yes, it'd be so easy to run. And she really wanted to, even despite her logic trying to warn her everything was fake. But the sight of Sebastian reminded her why she couldn't run. She vowed to protect the vulnerable, didn't she? And, on top of it all, she couldn't just leave him behind, even if he wasn't as vulnerable as an innocent civilian. He was clearly suffering in the same way she was, judging by his body language. Or perhaps it was even worse for him, because even though she had gotten a taste of the Darkside through Dantooine, Sebastian had enjoyed the ultimate all-you-can-eat buffet. And now he was confronted by stormtroopers, terror, and death, all of the Darkside's visible and emotional marks. It was everything he was trying to overcome.

No, she had to stay and face whatever this was together with Sebastian.

Now she just had to commit to the idea. Because although thinking bravely was one thing, acting bravely was quite another. Especially when the fear was so crushing that it was difficult to differentiate reality from memories or find a way to breathe without hyperventilating.

Clove, rigid and trembling with fear, crept forward to the man with the robotic crab legs and grasped his hand. "Sebastian." Her vocal chords were squeezed, tears that she was fighting burning on the lids of her eyes. She wanted to say more, maybe to comfort or calm him down. Or perhaps to comfort herself. But words couldn't reach the air in front of them, so she stood next to him, watching in silence at the agony of thousands of people's oncoming deaths.



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Whether or not Sebastian could change was academic at this point – when faced with the sheer, unfiltered, fear of the thousands of men and women about to meet their ends? Such questions of the present faltered before failing entirely against the weight of the tidal wave of the past. Sebastian’s legs would have been shaking but the robotic replacements didn’t have the full nerves to do so.

Instead his hands shook and he had to force himself to keep from using them to flee. His spidery legs didn’t move, his mind flashing with too many conflicting commands for them to actually start moving. Run or hold his ground? Hide or face the fears head on?

It wasn’t until he heard the soft voice of Clove that he made his decision.

He felt her hand in his own and squeezed back gently.

“Clove.”

Slowly, the former Dark Sider user closed his eyes and tried to get his breathing regular.

“Clove… we should go to the bridge.”

The bridge was the last place anyone who had been on the ship wanted to go – often they were actively running away from the bridge to try and scramble to some escape pods. But that was precisely why, wasn’t it? They should go against the tide of terrified humanity and push through it, right?

But the fear was deep.

“My legs won’t move.” He swallowed thickly, “Leave me, Clove.”


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"Bridge... Right." Clove was certain she would have hyperventilated by now if it hadn't been for the squeeze in her hand. But having a sort of ally next to her was enough for her to maintain a tiny shred of self-control. Especially at the prospect of going to the bridge, something that could easily be compared to burying yourself in a catacomb. But she could see why he wanted to go to the bridge; after all, wasn't the whole point of this ordeal to overcome fear? Why not go to the place that smells the most like death and fear, and fight your way through the crowds of people fleeing for their lives?

Egh. The half-Sephi began to doubt her claim that she could never become grumpy at Crix. Because, despite understanding the lesson's purpose, boy was it harsh. Extremely harsh.

"Leave you?" Clove's gaze snapped to the man and his spider-like robotic legs. Oddly enough, his crab/spider-like body was the thing she feared the most at the start of the journey. It now seemed like child's play in comparison to the never-ending waves of fear pounding against her mind, attempting to tear down whatever walls she had managed to rebuild. "No. I'm not leaving you."

And, to be honest, she didn't want to do it on her own either. Having someone other than herself, someone she could help and who could help her in turn, sounded like the best way to get through this hell.

"We have to go to the bridge; it was your idea, remember? So, we'll go together." Clove wasn't sure if she was trying to persuade him to go to the bridge or if she was trying to persuade herself. Regardless, she shuffled towards his back, each step hesitant and slow, her instinct screaming at her to flee. She pressed her pale hands against one of his legs and began to push it forward. "Come!"



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The fear was a constant companion to them both at this point but one thing that no one ever tells you about fear is that you can live with it - that you can suffer under the weight of it forever if you have the strength to do so. It was the often unspoken truth about the Sith that they lived with their fears living rent free within their minds. Rather than adjusting and accepting them as Jedi tried to, Sith dwelled on them and grew angry and bitter about them until they could draw power from that same anger.

But the fear never went away.

Sebastian flinched when she said that she wasn't going to leave him, as though struck in the face by her determination not to leave him on his own. Still, the former Dark Sider user hesitated and it was only when she bodily began to push him that he began to move of his own power.

"Alright... alright hop on and I'll run us there."


He had more legs and more speed. Plus if he was going to be going anywhere, with the fear still so present, he wanted to make sure he was running. If she jumped on his back they would get there much faster but if she didn't they would still make it fairly quickly, the ghosts and the visions of the past blurring to include some snapshots of the present as well.

The doors to the bridge were open in both the past and the present.

Only in the past there was someone there waiting for them... or was it in the present also? It was not immediately apparent, though what was immediately apparent was the figure standing in the middle of the empty bridge, staring out the viewports for a moment.

"Tell me." the figure asked, his tone cultured even as he turned his head to regard them with bright yellow eyes, "Do my eyes deceive me or are you Jedi?"


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Sebastian snapping out of the fear that had chained his legs to the ground shouldn't have made her emotional. And yet, there was Clove, fighting back tears of relief. She didn't hesitate for a second when he invited her to join him; it made sense. He was taller and more muscular than she was, and he had a lot of legs. So she hopped up onto his back and wrapped her arms around his chest, her head tucked against his shoulder.

Because one of the most obvious benefits of sitting on someone's back is that they become a natural barrier against the horrors of the world. It's easy to hide your head and block out the view, even if only for a moment.

But no matter how hard the half-Sephi tried, no matter how well she blocked the sights, the screams still reached her sensitive twitching ears.

Sebastian didn't take long to reach the bridge, his metal legs coming to a halt to signaled her that they had arrived. She knew she had to lift her head from his shoulder and look at the bridge, to confront the past and her fears, no matter how terrifying it was. Even so, it took her a few seconds of convincing herself to lift her gaze over Sebastian's shoulder and see the room in front of them.

And when she did, she was met with instant regret.

Clove's already pale hands tightened around Sebastian's chest, her fingers clenched so tightly that her knuckles turned paperwhite. Her brown eyes were frozen in fear as they met the burning bright yellow ones.

How could a man, a Sith at that, look them in the eyes and address them directly? Were these not all illusions, or visions, from the past? How could the past interact with the present? The Unifying Force was impressive, but could it truly merge two timelines? Did this mean he was there in the present? Surely Crix wouldn't send them an actual Sith, would he? One who, by the looks of it, had to be a Sith Champion, if not a Sith Lord. No, Crix wouldn't.

And yet here he was. Staring right at them.

If she didn't already reek of fear, then this was the moment when every Darksider could smell it from ten miles away.

Clove knew she had to do something; anything was better than staring at the Sith with her mouth slightly open in shock. But her body was lagging behind, the fear coursing through her veins overriding any command to move even a single muscle.

"Uhm. Uhm." That's not a proper sentence. Try again. "Yes. Are you really a Sith, sir?"

Still not the brightest answer in the world, but she atleast managed to utter something resembling words.




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It was probably a good thing that the already twitchy and fearful Clove hadn't allowed herself a clear view of Sebastian as he ran with her atop him. He had been told that he was an unsettling sight when he ran with his new legs - and that had been Crix trying to be diplomatic. For the first few months of having them he had worn rubber tips so that they wouldn't make the weird scuttling sounds when he moved but that had been disturbing on another level as it instead meant he was able to cross large distances with his scuttle and to do it silently.

However, the bridge was a point of regret for Sebastian.

He had hoped that it would be the right move to make, that he would be able to see a way through what they were experiencing right then and there in the hallway. In one way it absolutely was and in another, far more accurate way, it was like jumping out of the frying pan and landing in the fire.

Still...

"Sir?"
Sebastian asked her, blinking at her a few times in disbelief as he almost forgot to be frightened for a second, "You meet a Sith and you call him sir?"

The older man smirked ever so slightly.

"Manners, my dear crippled crab-like man, cost nothing." he declared in a cultured voice, "But they can open many doors. To answer your question, young Jedi, I was a Sith."

He tutted ever so slightly.

"Tell me, what do you see out the viewport? The central one."

Both Sebastian and Clove would be able to see sand in front of the viewport - in the glimpses of the present it was pressing through the transparisteel into the bridge itself. In the visions of the past it seemed to be growing closer and closer as the Star Destroyer continued it's crash.


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Clove would have taken as long as she needed to persuade Sebastian that being polite to the enemy is very important, if she hadn't been trembling like a vig in the wind. Because, while they may be bad and their enemy, they are still humanoid beings, breathing and living just like everyone else. But she was too busy with the man in front of them and her own fears to respond with anything more than a huff.

Wait. Crippled crab-like man? Woah woah woah, Sebastian may be terrifying, but to call him crippled? So much for 'manners,' Sebastian was clearly doing just fine. The girl furrowed her brows. She was so focused on the insult that she almost missed the man's second part of the conversation.

Almost.

Why was there a former Sith, clearly there in the present moment, smirking and tutting without actually committing to the smirk or tutting? Why was he even here in the first place? Did Crix know about this?

In her mind, questions bounced back and forth, none of which she could answer.

So, instead, she turned her gaze to the viewport, with the hope she could atleast answer that question. Yet, the sight was sickening. One second they were greeted with the sight of safety, perhaps a way out. Then everything changed, and the ship was on its way to the planet. It's a scene straight out of anyone's worst nightmares. So, what exactly did they see? Sure, there were glimpses of the past and present, but was that the answer the man was looking for? Certainly not.

"Thousands of people's deaths, the end result of it all... Death?" Everything in her face showed she wasn't sure about her gloomy response; while she knew the overall goal was to overcome fear, she wasn't sure how the blend of present and past fit into it all. Unless the entire goal was acceptance?




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Sebastian managed to break himself out of his stupor regarding Clove’s manners (because how anyone working with Crix Aran could have such lovely manners was beyond him) and focus on the devil in the room with them. He was tempted to say that he preferred fixating on the manners but it would be a lie – a desperate attempt to avoid the reality that faced them.

Or perhaps faced them.

It was hard to truly determine if the Sith really there to harm them. After all, most Sith would have jumped to engage them in combat by this point and the Sith stood ahead of them seemed entirely disinterested in the prospect of attempting to kill them. Entirely content to be an arse to Sebastian but that was the least he expected.

“It’s alright Clove – what else can you expected from a failed Sith than petty bitterness after all?”


Was it hypocritical? Perhaps.

The Sith eyed him for a second longer before deigning to answer Clove’s question and answer as to what it was they were seeing through the viewports of the bridge. Again and again the view changed from rapidly approaching ground to the settled sands around them. The old man eyed Clove in particular.

“Their deaths were very much like their lives in that they were incredibly unimportant.” He announced coldly, “No, what you see through the viewport is my death. And in my hour of death I am able to see whom but a failed Dark Sider and a small Jedi. How odd.”

He held his right hand out and his lightsaber snapped to life in a lazy, low, guard.

“I wonder… do you fear me, children?”


@LilyNion
 

Clove Vanhoop

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The man's burning eyes lingering on her and her alone was enough to make her cling even tighter to Sebastian's back. He could feel her trembling arms and hands, her heart fluttering in fear, and her attempt to calm her own breathing.

At the very least, her response was somewhat correct. So she had that going for her.

However, it also confirmed that the unifying Force was indeed playing some strange games, and Clove couldn't tell whether he was a glimpse or not. But to be honest, none of it mattered any longer. Because, whether he was alive in the present or dead in the past and seeing a glimpse of the future, this was the Sith's final moment. And they were a part of it.

When the lightsaber fell into the man's hand and the question was asked, she only had one response: yes. Yes, she was afraid of him. She was terrified of him, of where they were and of the screams that could be heard in the distance. And the memories of Dantooine, which gradually crept to the foreground and whispered in her ear, only added to the anguish.

But that was precisely the point, wasn't it?

Dantooine would never leave her mind, those nightmares would only get worse, and the Sith in front of them wouldn't just vanish if she closed her eyes and prayed for mercy.

Right before the tattoos, Crix had said something. That no one could escape Dantooine, so they might as well remember it for the rest of their lives? Clove acknowledged it, but pushed it out the door like the plague once she was out of the medical bay; after all, why would she try to remember Dantooine? So all she'd done since Dantooine was run, bury her head in the sand, train, train, train until she couldn't stand. It wasn't as if she hadn't made any progress at all. She rediscovered her wonder for the universe, began dancing again and reconnected with her friends. But the actual core problem? That was still there.

After a brief moment, half-Sephi's hand moved away from Sebastian's chest and lingered over her own scar instead, tracing the lines. And, despite a flurry of mental rejections and a barrage of less-than-pleasant words surrounding Crix, Clove managed to lower herself off Sebastian's back and take a stand next to him.

"Yes. Yes, I am." Clove replied bluntly and matter-of-factly. Sure, she could lie and act brave, but what good would that do? Or Sebastian? Especially after she realized that instead of fleeing, she needed to face her fears. Her gaze was drawn to the lightsaber on her belt, and reluctantly with trembling fingers, she yanked the hilt from her belt and rested it in her hand.

She sure as hell hoped she wouldn't have to fight a former Sith from the past, but if that was the case, so be it.



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The Storyteller

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The Sith Lord of another time glared at the two arrayed ahead of him as the lightsabers both in the room and in time hummed their dangerous song. A beat of silence as Sebastian’s hands splayed open as he called upon the Force to use as his own defense against the creature that stood across from them.

Former Dark Side user as he was, Sebastian was the one who was more in tune with the Dark Side than Clove was and he was the first one to notice something was off.

“Clove… I don’t sense the Dark Side from him.”
He muttered quietly to her, “Just the emotions from the past. No… no active Force use.”

Sneering, the Sith eyed Sebastian for a second.

“Your crippled companion is correct – I am able to reach across the Force and time at this moment but you will not die, writhing by my lightning. Does that give you some measure of safety?”

Before he had even finished the sentence, the Sith launched himself forward toward them with surprising speed, slashing his blade up diagonally from his waist to his right. Sebastian was forced to throw himself to the right to evade as he lacked any way to block the saber. It would continue toward Clove.

“Tell me, Padawan, why do you still stand if your steps are filled with fear?”


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Clove Vanhoop

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Clove gave Sebastian an odd look. The old Sith couldn't use the Force? And yet, using the Unifying Force, he was able to travel through the Force and time. Unless... maybe it wasn't the man's doing and the Force was the one who did it?

There was no time to ponder the thought because, as soon as the Sith confirmed Sebastian's assertion, he charged forward with a speed and agility that a half-Sephi wouldn't expect from a man of his age. And the sight of his assault was enough to make her want to flee once more. But she couldn't because the attack was diagonal, meaning the blade would catch her in the middle of a turn. And secondly, she needed to stay and face the man. She wasn't sure if the Sith's blade would actually make contact with hers; perhaps he'd just phase right through her, but she couldn't take any chances.

There was just enough time for her to activate her training lightsaber and raise the blade high enough to block the Sith's attack.

Clove clenched her teeth and took two steps backward to gain some distance, regardless of where the man's blade struck hers. "Because there's no point in running away in fear."

Well, there was a point in running away from a Sith Lord. Crix made sure to emphasize this exact point: run if you see a Sith Lord. But it wasn't so much fear as it was the knowledge that if you didn't, they'd kill you. Of course, this man was most likely a Sith Lord as well, but she decided to trust Crix and whatever he had planned for both herself and Sebastian.

Clove began to channel the Force through her body while staring at the man in front of her, which felt strange because she hadn't touched the Force in months due to the fear of messing up again. And that meant she'd lost touch, her connection smudged in comparison to what it had been. Even so, there was no better time than now to try and pick it back up. Clove wasn't sure what to do with the Force, so she let it build up in her body for now, ready to act when the time came.


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Through the Unifying Force, many things were truly possible but one thing that could not be said to be possible was true Time Travel. One could not step through the ages like this were a doorway but they could peer through them like they were a window when the Force allowed them. Sebastian had been correct that the Sith couldn’t use the Dark Side because the Sith wasn’t really there.

He was seeing them through the veil of time just like they were seeing him and the destruction of the Star Destroyer through the lens of the fear of those long dead.

His blade passed straight through Clove’s block and her body without pause – and without ever actually connecting with anything.

“You speak the words, Child, but you need to live them.” The spectre lectured Clove even as the Sith drew himself back up to his full height and stared at the viewscreen ahead of him, his lightsaber extinguishing as it proved itself to not actually be a threat, “You have stared into the face of your fears but you are going to have to do it again and again and again.”

The Sith seemed to sag, the light leaving him and the image of him dimming to the sight of both Sebastian and Clove. Ahead of them the visions of the viewscreen filled with sand and the vision of the past abruptly cut off with a mental attack that would hit them both like a sudden headache hitting them all at once.

Ahead of them the visions of the past cut off abruptly as a wave of memory hit them – memories of people dying abruptly and violently. They would not feel as vivid as if they’d actually seen or felt the deaths first hand but they would still feel them. Sebastian rocked, eyes closed, as the mental backlash hit him hard.

“Ugh… Clove, you alive?”
he called out without opening his eyes, “Please say yes. Aran would be insufferable if you died…”


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