Ask Lothal No One's Ever Really Gone

[Ezekiel Nier]

Had...Had they done it? Ezekiel wasn't sure he believed it. He had...actually helped? No, he couldn't get lost in his head right now, Max was still in danger. He felt that he had to grab the crystal, one like what he'd already gotten to build his own lightsaber, so he reached out and did so. He hoped that there would be a way to find where Max was, maybe using the Force would help...He concentrated on the crystal, hoping it could help focus on the Force to feel out where Max was, or at least let him know that he wasn't alone, that help was trying to find him. Ez knew how it felt to be alone...He didn't wish that on anyone, especially not someone he believed in.

@Killa Ree @Nefieslab

 

[Nashyr Ris]

She huffed, then coughed, the horrible ash causing her to rapidly blink her eyes. Was...

...

That couldn't be it.

When Ez grabbed his, she regarded hers for a long moment. She'd heard about these... kyber crystals. How each one was unique to the user they chose... she extended out a hand, and grabbed hers, and felt an odd ache in her chest.

Her heart pounded, and she was dully aware that her hands were shaking. But she wasn't going to give in now.

"Time to get Max back," she gritted her teeth, holding the crystal in her hands.

It felt right, somehow. She deactivated her own blade, but still held it at the ready. Time to get out of here.

@Nefieslab @Insalius

 

[The Storyteller]

"You did well, you know."

From somewhere immediately behind them, the blind Jedi Master spoke. He walked past the two of them as he advanced down the stone walkway, the darkness peeling back to reveal a shining archway. Without the apparition saying a word they would know that if they were to step through the archway they would find themselves back where they started, kneeling on the stone of Lothal's surface with the crystals still in their grasp.

The Master stood silently and turned his head as if to regard them but didn't actually say anything. It would have stared if staring was something that could be done without any actual eyes.

"The Knight Maxims will... be present shortly."

From nowhere a faint apparition of Max, kneeling as he had been on Lothal's surface, appeared beside The Blind Master. He was unresponsive in this place, intangible and unseeing. The Blind Master placed a hand on Max's shoulder in a rather improbably moment.

"I would have words with him in private, go now Padawans."

@Nefieslab @Insalius

 

[Ezekiel Nier]

Now that the horror had ended, at least seemingly ended, Ezekiel was starting to calm down further. The apparition still made him jump, never expecting them, but when he saw it wasn't going to attack he just listened to it make its request and congratulate them. The Cathar didn't feel like he had earned any prize, though, and now that he knew that Max would be okay he had started to fall back into that pit inside of himself where he had pushed all his negative emotions towards. Another memory to add to the near bursting pile from when he could first even keep memories.


He would run through everything in his head again and again, picking out things he did wrong and berating himself for it. In truth, he didn't trust this...thing, from the Force, yet he knew that he was powerless against it, he was just a weak, useless boy in the end. This person probably just thought that he was so pathetic that it was best just to get them out of the temple instead of embarrass himself further. He sighed, nodded, and looked at Nash. He would follow her, if she decided to leave, as he had no idea where to go. He hadn't been able to feel Max through the Force as he'd wanted to, meaning he still wasn't skilled at all enough to do that sort of thing. Another failure on his part, though, at this point he knew it was just to be expected..

@Killa Ree @Nefieslab

 

[Nashyr Ris]

When she heard the blind Master and saw him appear before them, she turned around, feeling... numb. She didn't feel like it was a victory of any kind. It felt almost... hollow. She nodded wordlessly, but her hands began to tremble. And when she saw Max... it took everything in her willpower not to come running over.

She gritted her teeth, then exhaled. Not the success they were hoping for... but maybe the small success they needed. There was so much she didn't understand, so much she wanted to learn. But it seemed the questions would have to wait for now. She gently pocketed her crystal... then patted Ez's shoulder.

"C'mon kid. Let's go wait for him on the surface."

Just before leaving, she stopped, and turned to face the apparitions. Then... she did something unexpected.

She bowed low to the Master, then gazed up to meet where sightless eyes would have been. She had heard the words before... but it was never until now that she understood their meaning.

"May the Force be with you," she spoke calmly. Then... there was a faint smile. "I'm sure I'll be back... and perhaps we may meet again. But please... bring him back soon." She was about to say something else... then closed her mouth, shook her head and jogged back to Ez.

Time to find the surface, collect her Master and get out of this place.

@Nefieslab @Insalius

 

[Maxims Tionson]

The surface would come to them, rushing back around them into sudden clarity as they were once again kneeling on the ground on Lothal itself.

And they were not alone.

Max shuddered and fell onto his side from his position kneeling on the ground. His body felt cold, drained, in a way he had seldom ever experienced before. It was the feeling he had had before when he had over extended himself greatly in the Force, losing control of how much he was channeling through himself until it exhausted him.

The presence from the ruins below them had not generated what Nashyr and Ezekiel had seen and experienced; it had merely taken control of Max's mind and forced his control from him. They had experienced an elaborate illusion created by the spirit of the Force, using Max as it's puppet to do so.

For something so large and complex for so long?

It was little wonder that Max had almost drained himself of the Force and life to sustain the illusion long enough for the lesson to be learned. In the end the lesson had been for both of the Padawans and for Max himself. For the Padawans themselves it had been about being willing to push themselves against the odds for both each other and their Master.

For Max it had been a lesson and a simple truth he had been trying to avoid for some time; it was long past time that he stood up and became the Master that he needed to be for Nashyr and all the other Padawans he was taking on.

After a few moments of shaking, Max swallowed thickly and stood up on quaking legs before kneeling before Nashyr and Ezekiel. Bowing forwards to them, he pressed his forehead against the ground.

"I have failed you. I have not been fully dedicated to being the Master that you need, that you deserve. But this will change." he vowed, "From this day I will do everything I can to be the Master that you, and they, need. I swear it by the Force that I shall train you to become the best Jedi you can be."

@Killa Ree @Insalius