A Hunt For History

[Placeholder 0128]

"She may be," Cedric mused. He was uncertain. If the Voxyn were living here unguarded, then it was likely she had run into them as well. Given their starved state, there was little question in his mind that they had attacked. Given that at least three still lived, the beasts had likely either slain the woman, or she'd made her escape. Time would tell.

"That's more or less what I'm looking for. This would be a lot easier if there were still any records on this place's internal structure. Not sure where anything is," he added as they trudged onward. The ruin felt lifeless now - it was likely the Voxyn had killed anything that lived within to sate their hunger.

"She's back on Coruscant," he explained as they turned about a corner, then another. The ruin was mostly featureless - just about anything not bolted down had been scavenged long ago. "Training right now, I think. I have several students, and given the lack of Jedi in the galaxy, I don't have the time to teach them all constantly. I'd prefer a more traditional mentorship, but the galaxy we live in doesn't allow for that. Not if you're trying to restore the Order to its former strength."

[member="Wrenarias"]

 

[Wrenarias]

Wrenarias made a thoughtful sound in the back of her throat as she listened to Cedric explain his situation with his abundance of padawans and trainees. It sounded as if he didn't have much time available to do much of anything. Her hands clasped together behind her back, walking on the balls of her feet, almost like a prance as she followed alongside the Jedi Master. Since the danger seemed to have largely passed, and she figured the Jedi wasn't a threat to her, she had relaxed considerably.

"I'm surprised you didn't bring one of them with you here." She mused quietly. "Since you have so many that is."

An amused chuckle escaped the twi'lek's lips.

She couldn't help but wonder what that must have been like, to have so many students that you couldn't even afford the time to train them as thoroughly as desired. What did the padawans make of that situation? Were they still able to learn under such conditions? Things had been so different for her training with Kelina, the two of them went every where together. Each day was a new maneuver to be taught, a new combat stance to be learned.

Her thoughts wandered for a short time. He hadn't brought his padawans into this place. Kelina had never left Wrenarias behind, no matter how dangerous the battle or mission was. She considered each one a challenge to overcome. Eventually, she'd even started to jokingly call the skirmishes 'lessons'.

 

[Placeholder 0128]

"I have duties beyond that of a normal Jedi, and my students have duties beyond that of normal padawans. We are building a nation in the deep core. I get training in when I can, but my students' abilities are needed across several different planets at any given time." He explained as they rounded another corner. "And sometimes I just need time to myself. I'd go insane without a bit of isolation."

The room in front of them was small and compact, its walls a shining silver where the rest of the facility's metal had long since rusted. A number of terminals were wired along the walls, and while ancient, appeared operational. Cedric's brow furrowed as he appraised them.

"This doesn't make sense." He frowned, gaze flickering to Wren's, then back to the terminals. "Can't be operational. Not unless someone's moved back in and set up shop here," he murmured.

A blinding pale light crackled to life from one of the corners of the room, showering the duo in incandescence. There was another cracking, this one Cedric instinctively knew to be that of an amphistaff. Two voids in the Force charged forward through the light, and it was all he could do to raise his lightsaber and deflect a blow from the first that would have removed his head from his shoulders otherwise.

[member="Wrenarias"]

 

[Wrenarias]

While Cedric had his weapon ready, Wren's had been tucked away inside her jacket once more. It'd been a foolish mistake to put the weapon away, and a costly one at that. She should have known that just because she couldn't sense a threat, didn't mean there wasn't one. Being around the Jedi master had lowered her guard.

The second amphistaff lashed out towards her like a whip. It was pure instinct that kept the living weapon from striking her across the face. Instead, she felt the sharp bite of the amphistaff's edge cut into the front of her shoulder as she leaped backwards from the Yuuzhan Vong that was charging. Her momentum kept her sliding backwards across the stone floor when she landed, and she leaned forward to brace her left hand against the surface to keep her balance.

The void in the force was still surging towards her, drawing his arm back to swing his snake-like weapon at her head while she was still knelt on the floor. She called her weapon into her hand through the force, activating both the extender and the lightsaber itself in the same motion as the hilt flew into her palm. There was a solid click followed by the distinct hum of a lightsaber's thrumming to life.

Her shoulder ached from the wound she'd earned for her folly, she could feel the blood soaking into her tunic beneath her jacket.

Another lesson learned.

She barely had time to raise her saber to ward off the blow as the assailant reached her, swinging for her head. The next moment was essential, and were she less experienced, likely would have killed her. In an instant, the amphistaff went from a rigid stave to a writhing snake as soon as it made contact with Wrenarias' blade. Its head lunged towards the twi'lek's face, but she was already twisting away from the expected attack. The amphistaff was force to release itself or risk being rent by the saber.

Wrenarias then leaped backwards once more, coming to a stop close to Cedric, her back to his.

"What are these doing here?" She hissed.

 

[Placeholder 0128]

It seemed the Vong were a recurring theme in Cedric's life.

The vile beasts could barely be called sentient in his opinion. The creatures had served as the loyal hounds of the One Sith in their heyday, and had spread throughout the galaxy in various warbands since the fall of their lords' government. It seemed Odessen happened to be one of their bolt holes.

The amphistaff sprung toward Cedric's throat. The Jedi jerked slightly to the right, the weapon slicing through open air. His blade rose as the Vong stabbed at him again, batting away the strike with a flourishing parry. The alien snarled as it drew back, sizing up its opponent.

There was a thud as Wren took a position as his back.

"Not a clue," he admitted, "Odessen's in the middle of nowhere. Could be hiding." The Vong struck out again, and Cedric parried it away. Before the alien could charge again, Cedric pressed a boot forward, his powerful two-handed swing colliding with the Vong's staff. The lightsaber resistant weapon crackled as the force of the blow sent it clattering out of the Vong's hands. Unperturbed, the alien charged with claws at the ready. It was a simple thing to remove its head from its shoulders.

The Vong's decapitated head rolled across the floor, its body slumping shortly thereafter.

"Probably something worse though," he added, drawing in a deep breath as he rounded on Wren's opponent.

[member="Wrenarias"]

 

[Wrenarias]

The Vong may have been impervious to the Force, but even he was vulnerable sheer kinetic energy. Wrenarias used the Force to fling the severed head at considerable speed, straight at the remaining Vong's face, forcing him to react. Instead of keeping his focus on the twi'lek, the assailant had to turn his attention to the morbid incoming projectile. While he was temporarily distracted, Wrenarias was seized the opportunity to flip over the Vong in a graceful arc and slashed her saber across the length of his exposed back.

He howled in pain, barely able to deflect the bulky projectile with his amphistaff, though there was a masochistic grin on the alien's twisted features. Fighting Vong was always a horrendous thing, they enjoyed the pain inflicted on them by every injury they incurred, something to do with their religion. Disoriented and thinking the man who'd just slaughtered his companion the larger threat, the Vong chose to turn towards Cedric. The amphistaff was raised over his head, swinging towards the Jedi Master's neck.

But the blow never fell.

The twi'lek wasted no time, surging forward after the Vong as he moved away from her. She grabbed the collar of his armor and yanked him backwards, while she drove her lightsaber through his back, severing his spinal cord. With a kick, she pushed the dead Vong forward and off her saber, letting him fall to the floor with a resounding thud.

"There's probably more." She said in a low voice, looking at the pair of corpses and then up to Cedric.

---

[member="Cedric Grayson"]

 

[Placeholder 0128]

Cedric chose to hold his position as Wren flung the severed head at their lone assailant. He almost laughed. Vong were one of the handful of races that Cedric held little to no sympathy at all for. Using their discarded body parts as weapons brought him a certain amount of amusement - probably shouldn't have.

He watched curiously as Wren flipped over the Vong, dispatching the warrior with the skill of a practiced knight. The Jedi lofted a brow as he doused his lightsaber, nudging each of the bodies with the tip of his boot to make sure they were dead. Even headless, Vong were creatures with nasty surprises.

"Probably, though not many I would imagine. If the Vong are here, then those Voxyn were with them. If they couldn't afford to feed their beasts, I doubt they would have retained large numbers." He mused, gaze shifting to the Twi'lek. He offered her a pleasant smile. "You did well there. I'd say your old mentor taught you well with the lightsaber, at the very least."

The weapon was clipped to his belt as he turned toward one of the terminals. They seemed to be ancient things, having only been restored in recent years. It activated to his touch as if it were brand new. "Looks like they were digging through Odessen's old archives. Got them running back up to snuff. That helps me, at least." He mumbled as he began to dig through the rather extensive archives. There were memoirs, battle records, infraction logs, and a hundred other tidbits of lost information. If his ancestor's logs were anywhere, they would be here.

"I'm going to download everything I can find off of this terminal. You mind keeping watch for me? Can't sense those Vong coming."

[member="Wrenarias"]

 

[Wrenarias]

Wrenarias gave a single nod of her head in acknowledgement, keeping her own saber ignited and held loosely at her side. She would be prepared for a second assault, if there was one.

Her shoulder ached were the amphistaff had sliced into her flesh, but she didn't voice the complaint. Healing with the Force was not something she'd been well trained in, and she wasn't about to try it here in the middle of the Vong infested ruins. Still, it was far from the worst injury she'd ever incurred. The wound was more a nuisance than anything.

It was deserved, considering how she'd let her guard down.

"You do what you need to do." She said in a low voice, sweeping her gaze between the entrances to the chamber.

There was a small pause, before Wrenarias spoke again. "Should have seen it when I first tried that trick..." She said with a soft, but strained laugh. "Accidentally hit myself with the rock I threw. Looked like a kriffing idiot."


[member="Cedric Grayson"]

 

[Placeholder 0128]

The terminal audibly beeped and booped as Cedric delved through its archives. There was far more information here than he'd expected - perhaps too much for his datapad to contain. He tried to narrow the search down, using particular keywords that might ping something of interest. Several documents were brought to his attention. He recognized the name of his progenitor, as well as some rather interesting articles on the Sith's history on Odessen. Could be useful.

"I'm sure that felt great," Cedric replied with distracted, friendly sarcasm. "I've had more than my fair share of accidents on my journey. I think the worst of which was getting my lightsaber impaled in a slab of cortosis during a fight. That was black comedy at its finest."

The datapad trilled a congratulatory beep as the data finished its download.

"There's a lot here...gonna have to look through it later," he removed the jack, and turned to face her. "If you wanted, you could come with me back to Coruscant. Your abilities with a lightsaber are impressive, but there is far more to being a Jedi than swordplay - things I would be happy to teach you."

[member="Wrenarias"]

 

[Wrenarias]

The woman briefly glanced over her shoulder to Cedric with a raised brow. She seemed skeptical to say the least.

Her weight shifted from one leg to the other, tonguing the inside of her cheek. "Aren't you already stretched pretty thin on padawans?" She asked him with a puzzled expression.

The offer was almost tempting, but he'd already told her how many trainees he had under his wing. Her lips pursed ever so slightly, chewing the corner of her mouth. Maybe it was a hobby of his, collecting wayward force users who seemed lost and alone. Did she fall under that category? She reasoned that it was probably the case, though the only difference was that she could defend herself to some degree. The conflict she felt was evident on her features as her brow furrowed, her nose wrinkling slightly in thought.

What did he stand to gain from taking her in?


[member="Cedric Grayson"]

 

[Placeholder 0128]

"The concept doesn't apply to me," Cedric half-snickered as he clipped his weapon to his belt. His ability to sense the place in the Force that the Vong obstructed was minimal, but he was learning to hone it. Even dead, the bodies of the Yuuzhan Vong they had slain were still static spaces of nothingness in the empyrean. He studied that nothingness, familiarized it with himself as best he could. He wasted little time in extending those senses outward, and feeling no other voids nearby, he allowed himself to relax.

"Honestly, I am happy to train as many as I can." He explained. "The galaxy is in near endless turmoil, and the Jedi are splintered. Few of us remain, and many of those that do have gone against our teachings. The Jedi Order is sick and terribly wounded. To restore it, a new generation of Jedi taught in the traditional ways must be trained. Even if it does not lead to a return of the Jedi Order, it will at least save some of those force sensitives from falling into the trappings of the Sith."

His cowl was drawn back over his face, after which he folded his arms about his chest. "As far as the Jedi Code is concerned, I and a small handful of others are the only true Jedi left. It's my duty to pass on my teachings, lest our traditions die out entirely."

[member="Wrenarias"]

 

[Wrenarias]

Her gaze swept over the hooded man, skepticism still etched into her features. After a few long moments of consideration, she finally deactivated her lightsaber and heaved a heavy sigh. The weapon stayed in her hand, held in a loose grip. Her thumb idly tapped against the hilt.

"Say I agree and go with you to Coruscant... what happens then?" She asked him, raising her chin slightly.

She didn't have any particular loyalty to the Jedi way of life, but she wanted to protect others who couldn't defend themselves -- especially from the likes of the Sith. Her combat training would only carry her so far when it came to a fight with a proper Sith. A fight with a mere apprentice had nearly killed her, and cost her a lek. She needed to improve if she wanted to stand on her own.

[member="Cedric Grayson"]

 

[Placeholder 0128]

"Well, then we go to Coruscant." Cedric said simply as he began to walk back the way they had come. He let that sit for a few moments, snickered, and added, "You'd begin training under me and the handful of other Jedi that are already there. If you choose to come with me, that would tie you to the Imperium however. Much of your training would be in the field, as we need every force sensitive we can to get things on track." He explained, his lips pressing into a thin line as he carefully avoided the bodies of the slain Vong.

"I have another padawan, [member="Loske Matson"], you'd likely work with her quite a bit. Everything you do would be voluntary, of course - if things don't turn out to suit you, you can leave at any time. We are intending to restore liberty, after all. Be a bit hypocritical if we forced anyone to stay."

He paused, glancing from beneath his cowl to meet the Twi'lek's eye. "Walking the Jedi path is a lifelong commitment. Do you feel it's something you would be happy doing?"

[member="Wrenarias"]

 

[Wrenarias]

She sighed softly, twirled the hilt in her hand while she considered his words. The last question essentially cut to the heart of the matter. Did she truly want to pursue the path of a Jedi? It was difficult to say. There were doubts that clouded her decision. Kelina never told her much about the way of the Jedi, only explaining that she'd left that life behind her. Truth be told... Wrenarias wasn't entirely sure what being a Jedi really entailed, not in any great detail anyway. But his assurance that she would be permitted to leave at any time, if she decided to move on, helped to put her immediate concerns at ease.

"I'm accustomed to training in the field. It's where most of my lessons were learned with Kelina." She replied after a long pause.

"I am willing to try, at the very least. I want to do my best to protect people, hard to do that if I'm constantly on the run and not learning." She finally gave a proper answer. Her eyes met the Jedi's and she gave a single nod. "I'll go with you."


[member="Cedric Grayson"]

 

[Placeholder 0128]

The empyrean worked in mysterious ways, but it always worked.

Cedric offered her a pleasant smile form beneath his cowl as he continued walking down the way they had come. "I'm happy to hear it. We could use someone like you," that much was the truth. Jedi students were a rare commodity these days, and Wren had the sort of spirit a burgeoning Jedi Order would need to survive in the modern galaxy. Destiny had willed the two of them to cross paths, and it, of course, had to be for a purpose.

"I'll teach you what I can. Most of my recent endeavors have been involved with the formation of a government, but my knowledge is vast. With what I can teach you, you might very well become one of our rising stars," he snickered, clearly more at ease now that the threats were gone.

"Do you know the Jedi Code?"

[member="Wrenarias"]

 

[Wrenarias]

Wrenarias made a dubious expression at the mention of building a government. She had exactly no experience with anything remotely related to such an endeavor. Her expertise lay with cybernetics and on the battlefield. Neither of which was particularly useful when trying to establishing a new governing body. Politics had never interested her, largely because that world always felt so far away from her. Those that worked in such positions were far more educated and... well, pompous than she was.

A world where she didn't belong.

She wasn't sure how she felt about the prospect of potentially having to be involved in politics.

The question about the Jedi Code was a welcome distraction.

"I uh... no. It was never really a point in training." She murmured, sheepishly rubbing the back of her neck.

[member="Cedric Grayson"]

 

[Placeholder 0128]

He'd expected as much, though that was no discredit to Wren. The Jedi Code was something obscure these days. Many Jedi never learned of it, surprisingly enough. The very foundations of the Order were beginning to be forgotten, and with them the true soul of the Jedi.

Needless to say, Cedric was more than happy to explain.

"There is no emotion, there is peace."​

​

"There is no ignorance, there is knowledge."​

​

"There is no passion, there is serenity."​

​

"There is no chaos, there is harmony."​

​

"There is no death, there is the Force."​

The words were spoken on well practiced lips. There was a reverence to the Jedi Master's voice, and a slowed cadence as if to further emphasize the importance of the code.

He glanced back at her as they arrived at the tight crevice from earlier. He was far more confident as he clambered his way through it. "It isn't meant to be taken as a rule of law. The code is an ideal that we all strive toward. It guides us in our most troubled times." He explained. "It is meant to be used when we are fulfilling our duties, and making great decisions. One thing I notice many take umbrage with is the idea that the code tells us to deny passion and emotion. When this is stated, it is referring to the grand scheme of things. One may have a family, hobbies, joys, but they must be ready to put aside all those things to serve the greatest good. It is this willingness to sacrifice ourselves for others that defines Jedi."

[member="Wrenarias"]

 

[Wrenarias]

Wrenarias had to deactivate her saber as she squeezed through the crevice after Cedric, grimacing a little as she accidentally pinched her organic lekku between the rough stone and her back. Grumbling under her breath, she pulled the appendage over her shoulder to drape safely over her chest and out of the way.

"Mmm... I can see why some would be hesitant, given the codes wording. It's not surprising, given how often people tend to take things literally, instead of interpreting the information given to them." She murmured as she followed after the jedi.

There was a pause as she considered the words, then she asked another question. "Do you have a family?"

 

[Placeholder 0128]

He was glad she understood. Too many prospects had a lack of dynamic thinking these days.

"A family?" He asked as he worked his way further through the crevice. Generally speaking Cedric did not care to utilize the Force for mundane things. The rocks ahead, however, were just a little annoying, and he he willed chunks of them to blast forward, better clearing their way. The last section of the crevice was cleared easily, and they once again stood on the opposite end of the severed hall.

It was only then that he answered the question.

"I have a sister, and a droid. I don't know my sister very well. I've only recently met her - the rest of my family's passed away." He explained plainly, a brow raised as he glanced over his shoulder. "What about you?"

[member="Wrenarias"]

 

[Wrenarias]

Having the question turned back onto her was something Wrenarias expected, but it was unpleasant nonetheless. Her expression contorted slightly as she wrinkled her nose, shaking her head as if in disgust.

"Ah... technically, I do. But I don't want anything to do with them and I haven't seen them in over a decade." She answered, not wanting to get into specifics with someone that she barely knew. As it stood, her relationship with her family was nonexistent. The last she'd ever seen of them was when she was a teenager on Ryloth as she was loaded up onto a ship with a collar on the back of her neck.

A grimace passed over her features once more, and she shook her head. Those were thoughts best left alone. They only ever led to heartache and anger, neither were emotions sh was particularly fond of.

"That said, family doesn't always have to be blood, I suppose. Kelina was like a sister to me." She explained, dusting off her jacket and trousers once they were through the crevice.


[member="Cedric Grayson"]