Ask Go With The Flow

[Maxims Tionson]

Max had been away from goodwill and aid missions for too long, he decided. He had started out as the kind of Jedi who went into cities ravaged by fires and earthquakes and helped preserve culture and save lives. It was how he had gotten to where he was today but, at some point, the focus of the Galaxy had shifted and the Order had shifted with it. Less involved in the natural disasters and helping those who could not help themselves and more focused on the looming threat of the Sith. Or, and the shudder he felt was well-earned he believed, politics.

He had been spending so long dealing with politicians that he owned an actual, honest to the Force, suit for the first time since he went to prom when he was a teenager.

The town they were coming to the aid of was half town and half monastery. Religion usually was at odds with the Force but this one was so focused on the natural Galaxy that it was actually rather connected to the Light Side and the Jedi teachings. But the point was that the monks had reached out to the Jedi to see if they could aid them in something that was fundamentally wrong with their town.

Fresh water had been supplied by an underground spring but now something was wrong with it. Despite not showing any signs of being contaminated, the water was beginning to make people sick. It had been decided that there was more at work that science could not detect and the monks had convinced the local, non-monks, to call in the Jedi.

Max walked down one of the streets with Willa at his side.

"Do you feel that, Willa?" he asked her with a small smile, "Reach into the Force. Grasp the Light."

The reason why he was asking her to do so? Because it was so easy. There was nothing but peace and serenity in their surroundings and it made reaching for the Light so easy, so natural.

@Killa Ree

 

[Willa Kanz]

She couldn't help but enjoy the view. Like many places in the galaxy, a lot of it was built of rugged ingenuity and was kind of rough-looking for a gal raised in Core proper, but that didn't make it any less pretty or peaceful. Her lips were pulled into a genuine smile, hands tucked into her pockets as she ducked and weaved past passerby and glanced to Max. The hood was pulled back to reveal a head of short, tight black curls; over the recent weeks it had started growing back; part of her was tempted to shave it back again, but for now, it felt nice.

And speaking of nice...

She closed her eyes for a moment, savoring the familiar feeling. Surrounded by the darkness, by evil, and the sickeningly oily feeling of the Dark Side. But this light, this sense was like a gentle hug, something that she could relax into. Almost absently, she could still keep pace with her Master, but when she opened her eyes again it was almost even visible.

"I wonder why we haven't gone here before," she commented, glancing over to Max briefly. "If it's so filled with Light, you'd think the Order would come flocking here. But I didn't even hear of this place before," she admitted sheepishly, running a hand over her hair.

"The problem doesn't Feel dark... but do you think it has something to do with it?" she tilted her head at him, brown eyes sweeping up to his face. Admittedly at first meeting him, he seemed a bit freaky with the one white eye and mangled hand-prosthetic, but she'd learned quickly on despite his rough looks and tough-dad attitude his heart was a soft one. She just hoped to be someone he could be proud of...

Not that she'd ever say that. That'd be so uncool.

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

He might be a hard taskmaster as a Jedi Master but he knew well enough that some students reacted better to different teaching methods. With Willa it seemed that the best way to keep her interested in studying was to make it seem like it was partially her idea. Or to make it fun enough that the lesson didn't seem like the main focus - like right now when he was having her get used to reaching for the Light at a moment's notice.

No warning, just an instruction telling her to connect to the Light. When she was older, more skilled, she wouldn't need to take a moment to consciously become aware of her connection to the Light and the Force around her. It would become so natural that it would be part of how she lived her day to day life. But for now?

Baby steps.

"Unspoiled paradise... doesn't stay unspoiled for long if everyone knows about it."

Plus the locals were kind of stand-offish to pretty much anyone in their own way. They tended to be the type to judge people on an individual basis and that made getting their approval as a group incredibly hard. Still, they had a job to do so they were off.

The locals had already given him directions - most of them had been evacuated because of how dangerous the water was. In such a dusty part of the planet, water was vital and not being able to trust it made people leery. Reaching a large building in the centre of one of the lower levels, he opened the doors with a keycard he had been given to reveal a large piece of machinery atop an ancient well, suspended above it to keep the weight from breaking the stone work.

He hummed a little bit.

"So that's the pump and that's the water source... Willa check the pump, see if there's anything irregular about it's readings."

There probably wouldn't be but he wanted to make sure the locals hadn't just missed something.

@Killa Ree

 

[Willa Kanz]

It was getting easier and easier now to tap into the Light Side of the Force; she kind of could before, but it was different then, more clumsy and acted on in duress. Calling it at will, using it to help and heal, was getting to be less and less of a struggle with each lesson. She was starting to gain confidence in something that before seemed... like something in the background.

It was kinda cool to see something ancient working with newer tech, but it felt kinda off in here. The town itself seemed a little quiet too. She glanced back at Max, nodding once, then glanced over the suspended machine once, frowning absently.

She had no freaking clue where to look for readings, but as she paced around it a visible screen blued to life, and she stepped closer, frowning at the numbers. They were formatted to be easy to read... but they didn't seem too off.

"The pressure's a bit low," she admitted, glancing over her shoulder to Max, "but beyond that, I can't really see anything wrong." Yet there was that sinking feeling again... something was off here, something that gave a slight bitter tang to what must've been quite a sweet place to be in before.

Almost out of reflex, her hand brushed over her hip, still glancing at the readings.

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

It might not have been the best in some cases but most of the time Max let the Force guide him. He lived in the moment rather than focusing on the future by default and right now his instincts were telling him that the machine was fine. Willa confirmed it and he nodded a little bit as he rubbed at his beard as he thought.

He would have lit up his one cigara for the day but he didn't smoke around young people - didn't want them thinking it was a cool thing to do. Still, the urge to light one up was back so he paced around the ancient well at the bottom for a moment as he pondered the situation.

The water was only making people sick when they drank it but the readings said there was nothing wrong with the water.

"I'm going to bring some up."

Using the machinery was pretty hassle-free so he activated the machine, drawing up enough water to fill a shallow bowl that had been close to hand. When the water was dispensed, he watched it with a small frown before moving to sit down on the floor, kneeling and resting the bowl on the ground.

He gestured for Willa to join him, to kneel across from him.

"Alright Willa, we're going to do some analysis." he told her with a chuckle, "Another lesson though I'm afraid. We're going to reach out into the Force and see if we can divine something out of place in the water. Hold your hands over mine and Feel what I do in the Force, okay?"

When she was in position he would reach out with the Force to try and connect to her. She needed to let him in though.

@Killa Ree

 

[Willa Kanz]

At his gesture her hand moved away from her hip, settling down to kneel in front of him in curiosity. Some of the things they could do in the Force were still pretty dang weird to her; like how were they gonna analyze the water without instruments?

Divine something sounded pretty weird, but... she learned that no matter how weird it sounded, somehow Master Max was pretty damn close to right. She just had to trust him.

At the sensation, she visibly flinched back, brown eyes snapping up to meet his gaze with a frown. She knew she had to trust... but it was still so friggin' weird.

She settled her hands over his again, and sighed quietly, closing her eyes.

Trust. She had to trust.

It was so much easier said than done though.

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Letting others connect to how you touched the Force was always hard the first few times – it was like someone reached out and grabbed a raw nerve. It was something that was relatively easy to defend against when someone was trying to use it against you to attack your mind. But it was a defense that was incredibly difficult to master, meaning that it was still an avenue to attack from when fighting.

But between a Master and Padawan? It was a training bond, one that would help them understand how they are both operating with the Force.

“Relax, Willa.” He gently reminded her in a voice just over a whisper, “You know I’m not going to hurt you.”

She reminded him of a skittish Lothcat at times, always scurrying away whenever someone reached out too quick or in a way she didn’t expect. Of course she was getting better but it was something that needed work still. Once a tentative connection was established, he would begin molding and guiding the Force toward the water.

“The Force warns a Jedi of danger – we’re going to be using that in a directed way toward the water. We know from the locals that it IS dangerous; we will use this to try and determine HOW it is dangerous.”

With his eyes closed, Max would lead Willa and himself into a trance. It took only a few seconds before he felt it, a Darkness that ran through the water. Sure, it was only a slither but it was enough for him to cut the connection and open his eyes to stare at the water for a moment with a small scowl.

“… what do you think that feeling was, Willa?”

Time for her first lesson on dealing with the Dark Side he supposed.

@Killa Ree

 

[Willa Kanz]

She found it hard to trust Force users; it was even harder to reconcile that she was one, and more than that, that she had talents and skills useful in the coming conflicts ahead. She was scared, hell yes, of disappointing her Master, Crix... proving her old man right. But she had to trust Max, at least; she settled back, shoulders slumping as she nodded once.

"Yes. I... I know that, Master," she murmured quietly, exhaling slowly.

At first, she could sense nothing with him; the almost peaceful calmness of water, and for a moment, she could feel it. Sliding like a sticky tendril of oil through the coolness, and she grimaced, opening her eyes to gaze up at Max.

"It was... sick," she finally muttered. Even mentioning it brought a sour tang to her throat, like she was about to upheave. But, it was a feeling that soon passed; she swallowed once, then grimaced again, as though willing the taste away. "Like anger. It was.. almost sticky." She rubbed a hand over her forehead, as though that would tease out a more cohesive response, brown eyes glancing up at his features between fingers. "That was... Darkness, wasn't it? The Dark Side."

She knew she could be dense, but she could catch on sometimes.

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

How they reacted to the Dark Side, feeling it’s oily touch against them, said a lot about a Jedi. Some people got upset at its very existence, others that it had brushed up against their own connection to the Force and some were just perplexed about how something as corrosive as the Dark Side could exist. Max himself had been a mixture of all three of those responses, though his confusion had been about how the Sith managed to exist as a, more or less, united faction when it seemed at odds with the Dark Side itself. It was a sickening mixture of hatred, anger, paranoid fear and greed – how could people who latched themselves onto such a poison stand to be around each other?

The conclusion he had come to was that they simply hated other people more than they hated each other and themselves. Terrible conclusion but one that no Sith he had met did anything to dispute aside from Talak.

“That’s right.” He assured her with a small smile, “There is something further down that is tainting the water, something connected to the Dark Side so strongly that it’s contaminated the water. Regular people are suffering and none of their tests will ever tell them why – that’s the reality of the Dark Side when it is used against non-Force Sensitives.”

They suffered and they couldn’t put their finger on why they suffered – all they got to know was that things were going poorly for them and that was all. People without a stronger connection to the Force didn’t get the same defenses that Jedi and Sith got and he could understand why it often resulted in resentment. The gifted few holding a power that the majority just couldn’t understand anymore than they could describe colours that their eyes had never evolved to be able to translate to their minds.

But that was also why the Jedi existed – to protect the powerless from powers they could not understand. Reaching into his utility belt, he handed Willa a rebreather as he started to take several large, deep, breaths. The Force began to assist him at his request, forcing more oxygen into his lungs and into his bloodstream. Using the Force to control his breathing could allow him to resist airborne toxins or to hold his breath for an incredibly long time.

“We’re going to dive down there and find out exactly what the issue is and destroy it.” He explained to Willa with a grin, “Make sure you bring your lightsaber but kick off your shoes – the water purification system should kill off any dirt or germs we bring down with us but it’s only polite.”

@Killa Ree

 

[Willa Kanz]

Well, at least that seemed to answer what was really making people sick. But that the will of the Force could be as tangible as an undetectable poison... it had to beg the question, how many of the galaxy's mysteries were a deliberate cause of the Force? And how much had it affected her?

Was this... one of the reasons her old man was so hard on her? Did he somehow know she was sensitive to the Force? It was too late to ask now, and she was too afraid to find out. Though she heard her cousin was on the council... did he keep in contact with her father? But she didn't have time to dwell on these thoughts when he handed her a rebreather. She took it, but raised a brow when he didn't supply one of his own.

She had to trust he knew what he was doing... even though sometimes it was weird and highly questionable. She shucked off her boots, then fitted the mouthpiece over her mouth, nodding once to his words.

Beneath them, the water smelled sweet, pure. But beneath what would have been a soothing exercise, there was a tang of sourness, of the slimy Dark. Firming her jaw in determination, she waited to follow in her Master's lead.

Down into the belly of the beast, it felt like.

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Max knew that Willa was concerned but she was concerned more than just for herself and him on their current mission. Her thoughts betrayed her and they led to different places, different problems that she had to face. They were not insurmountable problems but they didn't need to be to trouble the mind of a padawan. Tossing his boots to one side, Max rolled his neck a little bit as he eyed the well for a moment.

Before reaching out and poking Willa firmly in the middle of her forehead with a finger.

"Your mind wanders." he rebuked her gently, "Collect yourself before you join me; focus only on what is to be done and you'll find that it suddenly becomes significantly easier."

With that said, he stepped up to the side of the well before sitting on it's edge. Without another word, he pushed himself off and he started to fall. The well was easily wide enough for three of him to fall through so he didn't have to worry about getting stuck even as he fell for what seemed like a long time. Hitting the water feet-first, he started to swim downward and away from the narrower well and into the underground river that ran through the area.

Using the Force, he created a bubble, around which the strong current merely parted so that he and Willa would be able to idle in place without being carried by the current. In his left hand he ignited both blades of his lightsaber, illuminating the clear water around them with a bright, cleansing, blue glow. He raised his right hand in an 'okay' hand signal when he saw Willa arriving within the bubble of the Force he had created, checking up on her before they continued.

@Killa Ree

 

[Willa Kanz]

Just like always, he seemed to read right through her and into the heart of her. She swallowed once, watching him drop out of sight. He was right... but she couldn't help it. Every time there was a step forward, a push, a small, niggling voice in the back of her head would always question everything.

She exhaled slowly, rubbing the spot he always liked to poke, then frowning slightly. "Wish I wasn't so kriffing transparent..." she muttered mostly to herself, before taking in a slow breath, and fitting the rebreather on.

Nudging herself off the edge of the well, she forced herself to keep her legs straight, slicing cleanly into water that was as crisp and cool as it looked. Seeing Max's questioning gaze, she nodded once. Now wasn't the time for action or doubt; she had to have faith. A tenuous touch, but it was starting to grow stronger under Max's patient teaching.

The water grew murkier the further down she looked; great dividers, looking like fanned walls, spanned beneath them in the complex filtration system. Yet still, she could feel tingles up and down her spine as the cleansing agents worked on any contaminants in her clothing. But there was another feeling; a Sickness.

Further away from Max, her own training blade hummed to life, illuminating in a cool teal through the water.

Beneath them, someThing waited. She could feel it.

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

She had followed alright, he could see, and her lightsaber was insulated enough that it worked too – he had worried for a moment that her first attempt to build a lightsaber would have resulted in something that didn’t work terribly well underwater. A properly constructed lightsaber was a marvel in many ways and could be used in almost any biome without issues or need for adjustment. With three lightsaber blades working together, the water was illuminated quite well.

Only issue was that the water was rather murky toward the bottom of the underground river. Nothing out of the ordinary but he could feel something tapping away at the back of his mind, at his connection to the Light. It was a test against the security, and purity, of his connection to the Light by the Dark Side – probing him to see how susceptible to it’s corrupting influence he would be.

It would find no purchase within his mind.

Willa’s mind? He trusted her to know that the oily feeling was not something to be trusted, not when they were both aware of why they were down here. Such a temptation to the Dark Side was a weak compulsion at best and wouldn’t work very well at all with the two of them already expecting something similar.

Following it to the source was difficult – the Force wasn’t a radar or a sonar after all. It gave warnings and they could feel the Dark Side taint but it wasn’t a directional sensation at all. Max swam to the bottom of the river and started to comb through it with his lightsaber. It was only when he felt resistance through the blade that he looked down and spotted it, half buried in the murky mud at the bottom of the river.

Max gestured upward to Willa to have her move back to the surface as he grabbed hold of the cold, sharp, metal in his free hand before kicking up to the surface of the water. Breaking the surface, he would take a deep, grateful, breath.

“Alright… we need to get back up to the top of the well.” He told Willa with a serious frown on his face, “I know what this is and we need to destroy it quickly. Let’s go.”

@Killa Ree

 

[Willa Kanz]

The deeper they went, the sicker the feeling. Towards the bottom, it felt more like swimming through sludge, and her arms were beginning to tire with pushing against whatever it was. But then Max seemed to dig into the mud, and she kept an eye out to see if there was anything that would suddenly swim out from the murkiness towards them.

Something slid over her mind like a slimy paw; she gritted her jaw against the rebreather, fighting nausea as it slipped over, then melted away into nothingness. What the hell was that? However, movement caught the corner of her eye, and she saw him pointing up, something glinting in his hands.

She nodded once, kicking up after him through the cold water and back to the surface, pulling the rebreather free and trying to blink water out of her eyes. "What?" she managed to utter out, staring at him, and then the thing in his hands as she hauled herself out. "What is it, Master? What is that thing?"

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Willa basically snapped at him for an answer to begin with and Max merely raised a single eyebrow at the tone she had used. He might not be as intimidating as some others in the Galaxy but he had long ago learned how to express disapproval with just a small motion. But he couldn’t hold it against her, not when it was clear that the touch of the Dark Side against her mind was clearly something new to her, something she hadn’t had to get used to yet.

Max had gotten used to it and that probably said something about the state of the Galaxy that he had gotten so accustomed to the brush of the Dark Side trying to gain access to his mind. He had felt it increasingly often in the last few years. Feeling it trying to reach into his mind was an old, familiar, feeling at this stage but he knew that it was not for Willa.

“Peace, Padawan.” He said with a small smile as he started to climb up the side of the well to the top again, “We can defeat it fairly easily despite its insidious nature.”

Reaching the top of the well, he would pull himself over the edge and, if she hadn’t climbed up herself, he would use the Force to help raise Willa up to stand on solid ground beside him again. With both of them on solid ground, Max would drop the item onto the rough sands below.

It landed with a heavy thud that seemed at odds with its physical appearance.

The physical appearance was of a small box, a cube, made of a uniform metal in a dark grey coloring. Along the sides of the box, metal jutted out in deep, stark, lines to give the entire thing the appearance of a flanged mace’s head. It was no bigger than the size of his hand but it was all-but vibrating in the Force.

“It’s a Rakatan artifact. What kind of artifact, specifically, I’m not sure but the Rakatans were an ancient race of Force Sensitive conquerors. They reveled in the Dark Side as they slaved and butchered their way across the Galaxy.” He explained with a serious expression, “Reach out into the Force. Tell me what you feel it wants from you, Willa.”

Some difficulties with teaching Padawans about the Dark Side was how to teach them to determine the goals and drive of the Dark Side source. Without training it often just felt suffocating, only like ‘the Dark Side’ with nothing else specific about it at all. Trouble was that most sources of the Dark Side had defenders and would attack – this one was weak enough, old enough, that it wasn’t going to be the same level of risk.

@Killa Ree

 

[Willa Kanz]

She flushed at his look, and felt a deep urge to sink back into the well. She hadn't meant to snap at him, but the words just slipped out. Instead, she pulled herself out, shivering slightly despite the warm air around them. The artifact seemed cold somehow, and she regarded it warily, then Max. The name Rakata rang a distant bell, but she couldn't place it exactly.

She knew she should apologize, but he was already talking, and so she nodded along, cheeks still flushed bright with the 'disappointed dad' energy Max could just pull in every now and then. The nausea from earlier subsided, but he asked her to reach into the Force.

She had to focus.

Taking in a slow breath, she tuned out her immediate surroundings; the discomfort of wet robes, the coarse sand, even Max, as she could feel the Force. Around the object, the air still felt sick. Despite Max's confidence in her, she would treat it warily, and not let it surprise her again. She exhaled slowly, reaching a hand out and closing her eyes.

Hunger. It was like a knife in her gut and she grunted, falling to one knee at the psychic shudder as the Thing began to lash out, almost like being torn at by a Madclaw. She trembled from its' raking attempts to claw at her mind, and just as suddenly it released, leaving her gasping as cold sweat beaded on her forehead. "It wants to... eat..." she murmured weakly, temples throbbing with the pain of its' pressure. Brows furrowed, she looked at him.

"But eat... what? Like... souls, or something? Is that a thing?"

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

He wasn’t really surprised that she didn’t show any signs of acknowledgement when he mentioned the ancient empire and it’s practices. Most people didn’t even remember that the Empire had once existed – Max himself had brushed up on their history when he was researching the Zeffo and Dathomir but that had just been a brief brushing up on what he had learned before.
Some of the Jedi who had taught him when he was training as a Padawan had been students of history so he was regaled with historical tales often. He placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze both as a way to assure her that he wasn’t really mad and to give her something physical to focus on if she needed to bring herself back from the Force.

She was doing well.

It hurt because of course it did – the Dark Side was a poison and without growing accustomed to it, it was like injecting battery acid into the veins. Sometimes he wondered just how Dark Side users ever got used to the damned sensation but it was probably something they got used to a long time before they started using it in combat.

Max did not stop her.

She needed to experience the Dark Side like this so that she wasn’t bowled over by it when she saw it in action later. When she pulled herself back from it, he physically helped her move back away from the rakatan device by a few steps. Recovering was also something she needed to do on her own so Max didn’t assist her with it, only keeping the Dark Side from further reaching out to her instead.

“Yes, the Dark Side often hungers for something.” He agreed with a nod, “Some artifacts? They can snatch the life from you. This one hungers to live again.”

He tutted.

“It has been draining people who drink the tainted water – it must be destroyed.” He confirmed, nodding to Willa, “Willa, draw your blade. I shall contain it’s escape when you destroy it’s vessel.”

@Killa Ree

 

[Willa Kanz]

Being pulled away by Max made the pain fade almost immediately. Still, she swiped at her forehead, wiping the sweat away, as well as some of the lingering drops of water. He was still letting her manage this herself, a fact that made her shoot him a grateful look. She didn't want to be babied; she wanted to prove herself.

Gritting her jaw, she gripped her lightsaber. She had to prove herself, that his training meant something to her. She was a Jedi, not a kid.

"Yes, Master."

Her thumb flicked over the activator, and the blade hummed to life again. Brown eyes narrowed, as she tensed in preparation. "I'm ready."

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

He paused for a moment as he waited for her to be ready, waited for her to metaphorically catch her breath. She was doing well but she needed the little breaks more than she probably thought she did and that was alright. As a Padawan it was fine that she was able to take those small breaks and it was his job as a Jedi Master to make sure that she was able to do just that. It wasn't babysitting or pandering - he was making sure she had the room, the space, to grow.

Seeing that she was ready with her lightsaber, Max focused on the Force. Spreading it finely over the area in a more metaphorical sense than any literal or truly physical way, he nodded to Willa to let her know that it was ready. His trap would spring as the Darkness of the object was expelled upon the destruction of the item by her lightsaber.

The lightsaber likely wouldn't even destroy the object entirely because it didn't have to. To break the hold the Dark Side had on the object, it needed to feel threatened because the Dark Side was many things but chief amongst them was fear. The fear of death and of defeat was something that motivated every Dark Side object and user, whether they accepted it or not.

Fear lead to their anger and their hatred and it led them precisely where they were afraid to go.

And, in the end, their fear would not save them from death.

@Killa Ree

 

[Willa Kanz]

She had to have faith. But it was more than that; faith could be broken, belief could be shattered. But like Max had lectured before, she had a fractured faith at best for most of the times; not like her friends, who seemed to adapt so easily. But no. Being here, seeing and feeling the Darkness assault her senses, she had two options; to let her faith in the Light shatter, or be annealed by it.

Well, what didn't kill you made you stronger, right?

She narrowed her eyes at the object, lunging forward to strike at the box. And for the first time, she didn't feel like the Force was an external entity, shadowing her steps, but part of her, flowing through her arm and the extension of the lightsaber to strike at the thing that wanted to absorb lives. She could feel resistance, a shattered scream rippling through the Force up her sword arm and straight through her skull, and she grunted, watching as the Thing's former ancient vessel cracked, and fear blossomed from the Thing. It was suggestion, one last-ditch effort to get another vessel through the Padawan, but she gritted her jaw, shutting her mind down from the influence of the thing's fear.

And just like that, it faded, leaving her breathless and in a cold sweat of concentration. That surely couldn't be it...

Could it?

She glanced at Max once, to assess by his own skill. But the room felt lighter, there was no more sickening feeling of dread.

@Nefieslab