The Arrival of the Dead

[Ols]

The Republic Freighter idled across the landscape of Dantooine towards the rebuilt academy. It slowed gently as it arrived at the docking bay and thudded to a fairly ungracious landing. As it jerked, the sole living occupant sat bolt upright in a bunk fo the starboard dormitory. He clutched his chest and coughed. He twisted his legs round and pulled his boots on, wondering who had undressed him. And then it all came flooding back. The mission to Nar Shadaa; his master dead; the strange assailant and he had almost been blown to bits by a fragmentation grenade. He wearily stood, still wounded, pulling on his undershirt and remembering being dragged in here by T4-N3, his master's utility droid; his utility droid now. He picked up his dark brown tunic and black overvest, tying them at the hip. His outift was completed by his black leather belt, now with his master's lightsaber clipped to it, as he realised, looking at the shattered remains of his own, that it was truly beyond repair - for all the work it would take him it would be quicker to build a new one. He could use his master's for now anyway, he though. He walked to the boarding ramp, patting T4 gently on the "head" as he came up to him.

The ramp lowered and Valin Way, who should by all accounts be splattered across an alley on Nar Shadaa, who was even listed as thought to be dead even by the council, walked down into the academy.

 

[Ols]

The Academy was unusually quiet as Valin forced himself through its large halls and long corridors, until he came to the all to familiar medbay. Personally, it was not his wounds that were the worst problem, but the fact he was weary, and sad for his master. He was all too pleased to clamber into the bacta tank and close his eyes, suspended on his own for a few precious hours, to rest and understand what had truly happened.

 

[Ols]

It was dark by the time Valin had left the bacta tank. Refreshed, revitalised but not with the best of feelings, the academy seemed deserted at night. He sufficed to remain in the room he had been allocated for his stay, with T4-N3, meditating a little and practising his force powers on menial objects around his room to pass the time until he could come before the council and tell what he had witnessed.

 

[Green Ranger]

'You have skill with the Force, for one so untrained.'

The murmur was barely audible, but it broke the silence like no other sound could. Despite the silence and loneliness that filled the chamber both before and after he spoke, it had semed the Jedi Grandmaster had appeared out of thin air. Stranger things were reputed of Tyrn Lightell - strange, odd magics no other Jedi could even comprehend surrounded the Serennian like his shadow. The very shadow was worn like a cloak today, the darkness covering Tyrn in a protective cowl, hiding his features in black. Ever since Tyrn had returned from Hoth, he had changed. A shadow covered his features, a quest for knowledge creating an odd glow in his wandering eyes. Tyrn's adventures aged him prematurely, but his quest continued. But why then had he stepped aside from his campaign of learning to visit this stranger?

 

[Ols]

Despite the quietness of the whisper, it cut through the silence of Valin's meditations and he span around looking for the speaker. He thought he recognised the voice and calmed when he recognised the form of the Jedi grandmaster himself. He was surprised he had not felt the grandmaster's approach in the Force, but there were rumours that the most powerful masters could hide themselves so deeply in the Force they could not even be seen by another being.

Valin's relief was, however, quickly replaced with nerves. His master's death was an area of huge thought by many Jedi, surely, but he had not expected a personal visit from the Grandmaster. He bowed in respect, taking in the man whose poise and confidence was replaced with tiredness. The master looked drawn and spent to him. He found the courage to speak.

"Master Lightell," he said, filled with gratitude for what the man had said to him, "thank you. But what brings you to my quarters? Surely you could have requested my prescence before the council?"

 

[Green Ranger]

'The Council did not need to convene in regards to your particular case, nor did we need to see for ourselves whether you were taught appropiately. I, on the other hand, amd here because you need a Master, considering the fate of your previous tutor. It is now that you are most vulnerable to the Dark Side, so I myself will watch over what is left of your training.'

Tyrn walked out into the light, though the aura of mysteriousness did not abate. Indeed, rather than donning his usual grey-brown rough spun Jedi robe, Tyrn was shrouded in a strange hooded mantle, a deep crimson in colour, with a gold trim. Tyrn had even returned himself to a shadow of his neatly groomed self, his dark hair tie back into a knot that hung out to a side from under the hood, and cleanly shaven, as well. Serennian formal dress code would have stated for a man of his rank he was breaking many rules of fashion, but in all honesty the Serennians had elected a steward due to Tyrn's absence, so Tyrn did not have to answer to the dignitaries any more.

Well, at least not all of them.

 

[Ols]

Valin was taken aback, shocked a little even. The Grand Master of the Jedi order wanted to train him. A thousand questions raced through his mind, but he thought it best to save them for a later time. He thought about what Master Lightell had said, that he was vulnerable to the dark side. Although he was sad for his master, he did not feel evil, but then again the dark side of the Force was surely much more subtle than instilling a feel of evil. He bowed again,

"Thank you, Master. That is indeed a great honour," he said, and hoping not to sound too eager or impatient, added, "when can we begin?"

 

[Green Ranger]

'Now.'

With that, Tyrn threw back the folds of his robe, a hand whipping out as his right palm thrust outward, a wave of kinetic energy knocking the equipment of the chamber to the walls with little more than a slight thud. The Grandmaster held out his lightsaber - a long cyldindrical hilt, double ended - then thought better of it and placed it back on his belt. whatever the reason, Tyrn was loathe to use it. Instead, he focused his thoughts frowning in concentration slightly, as a small wisp of green smoke lifted from Tyrn's left hand to create a small length of energy, held like any other sword would be. The small weapon seemed to take a more solid form, though retained its sickly green glow. Tyrn smiled, then pointed the strange weapon at the Padawan, awaiting his move in these strange events.

 

[Ols]

Even more shocked, Valin did not let it delay him. He grabbed his master’s lightsaber from his belt, shrugging his cloak off and falling into his favoured defensive, Soresu stance. He waited before igniting his weapon, to see if his master was actually to attack or wanted to see if he was as over zealous as any other padawan – if he was in public place, igniting his sword would have cause a mound of unwanted attention and he hoped his master realized he was treating this as such a practice.

 

[Green Ranger]

Tyrn...was not one for mere show. If he created a weapon out of thin air, it was for a reason. While not truly as comfortable or in his element with the weapon - he had trained himself to use the staff, so a single blade was a seemingly alien concept to him nowadays - the Force guided his hand, seemingly extending the limb outwards to encompass the blade - indeed, a weapon of pure energy had the same feel and differences from a solid blade that a lightsaber did, so at least in utilization they were very similar indeed.

Raising his weapon, Tyrn advanced slowly, yet at a slow, measured pace, a means of intimidation. The young pupil was faced with an adversary of great power and skill, and he barely grasped the basic concepts of the Force. It was time to test his mettle.

 

[Ols]

Valin remained in his stance as his new master took hold of the weapon he had seeming created out of the Force and thought that was certainly something to add to his repertoire. As his master advanced he realized that they would indeed duel. Calm as ever, he ignited his emerald blade and waited for his master’s attack.

 

[Green Ranger]

Tyrn fell into the Shien form quickly, his ambiguous stance quickly moving into the brutal, hard-hitting lightsaber style so popular with today's youth. Tyrn felt old as he thought that, though he continued with his movements, using wide and powerful swings aimed at the torso of his pupil. The blows were powerful, though reserved with incredible subtlety, not wishing his pupil harm with his attacks. These opening moves were designed to test how well his new student handled being on the defensive - the obvious Soresu stance meant he would not attack Tyrn unless given an opening so wide it was impossible not to miss. Or at least, that was how Soresu was meant to be used. Many Soresu practitioners of late used the form inappropriately, attacking as a form of defence, or so such claims were made. By doing so, however, their lightsaber form was no longer Soresu, and they were prone to attack, becoming more like a reserved variant of Ataru. Was this boy just another impetuous youth, failing to grasp the fundamentals of one of the oldest lightsaber forms in existance?

 

[Ols]

He defended himself well; each of his master’s attacks falling into his own blade. His previous master had taught him lightsaber combat well, being a practitioner of Djem So himself, incorporated with a few of Makashi’s more elegant moves and Soresu’s standard blocks, he had taught his apprentice elements to all three of those, although Valin preferred to be in control, and unless one was a master of any form in his own right and proficient in most others (as most Jedi masters no doubt were), Soresu was the only way. Although he did have an understanding, albeit a basic one, of various types of lightsaber combat, he agreed that the defense of Soresu could keep him alive until his opponent gave him an opening, rather then risking himself attacking, and that was his philosophy. He adhered to his defense.

 

[Green Ranger]

Noting the padawan's pure defensiveness, Tyrn glowed mentally. Finally, a competant pupil! Could it be that finally he had found who he was looking for, a balance to the chaotic power his other pupil harnessed?

From the beginning, Tyrn had built Reron from the ground up to be a whirling maelstrom of power, a chaotic force of purity that would, with training, time and experience, be able to perform the impossible with the Force and harness the Aspects in ways unimaginable. As a drawback, this meant that Tyrn was reflected poorly on as a teacher for creating such a powerful, albeit naive and innocent Jedi. Tyrn himself had been on the border of exile many times, due to the course his training of Andross had taken.

So, in order to balance out the unrestrained power and naivete of his first pupil, Tyrn had chosen to find a second one - humble in mind and in actions, though powerful in his own right, as a rock is before the ocean. The Second would have to be one of a great mind, his words able to sway the First to many things. If the second failed in that when the need was most dire...death, Tyrn foresaw...many, many deaths...

His mind swinging back into the matter at hand, Tyrn leapt backwards half a pace, then rushed back in. However, this time his movements had changed drastically. Once again following a heavily grounded line of assault, his bladeswing came faster, albeit lighter, seeking to overwhelm the defenses of his pupil's Soresu with the also popular Ataru.

 

[Ols]

Valin recognised the fast strikes of his new master as those of Ataru, the form of his previous master. Valin continued his steady defence, not faltering, the Force nudging him this way and that as he met his master's blade every time. The pace quickened and Valin began to struggle to keep up. He took a deep breath, pacing slowly backward and had a split second to compose himself, feeling the power of the Force stronger than ever before and again his defence was solid, reacting to his Force enhanced instincts extremely quickly, by his own standards at least.