A Rekindling

[Cinnic]

Huh...gah...where am I?

Cinnic's eyes opened. Blinding light flooded his pupils, coming from everywhere at once. He strained to see anything in the white, but failed.

Urgh...am I hungover? Gotta lay off the juma.

Wait. I've been dry for years now. What's going on here?

Rising to his feet, the old man glanced around, still straining against the lack of color. Nothing. There was nothing in sight all around him. It was just a vast world of white. Even the floor was pure white.

What the kark's going on? Am I dreaming?

"Far from it."

With a start, Cinnic turned around. From out of nowhere stood a man shrouded in robes, his hood concealing his face. The old man stared at the mysterious figure and looked around. They were still in the bleak white. It was just the two of them.

"Who the kark are you? Where am I?"

"Calm yourself. One question at a time."

Cinnic was starting to panic slightly at it dawned on him.

"I'm...I'm dead, aren't I?"

The hood moved down slightly in a nod. Cinnic breathed out forcefully, running a veiny hand through his short hair.

"This...isn't what I was expecting."

"You are not one with the Force, if that's what you meant. It seems that the Force isn't ready for you yet, either."

"Huh?"

The hooded man let out a slightly exasperated sigh.

"Questions that do not have answers, I'm afraid. At least nothing we can comprehend just yet. All I know is that we have been offered a second chance to tie up loose ends."

"What do you mean? How do you know that?"

"I am as clueless as you are. All that I know is that the two of us are to return to your body at once."

"The two of us?"

"Yes."

There was a slight pause, and the white void was silent for a moment.

"Treya..."

"Yes, this is what this is about. Your daughter."

"They took her...that woman..."

"Yes. I saw it all."

"Huh? How?"

Gloved hands pulled up at the hood of the figure's robes, revealing a glowing blue face. Decay and damaged etched his formerly-fair head, marring the handsomeness of his high cheekbones, slender nose, and pointed ears.

"I am a spirit, neither allowed to live or become with the Force. I simply...am."

To be continued...

 

[Cinnic]

Cinnic was dumbfounded for a moment. He knew of Force ghosts. Of course he had. They were part of his teachings at the Academy. But to be before one was a different stroy altogether.

"You've...been watching me?"

"Not necessarily. I was beckoned to your home. The reason why was not known to me, nor whom commanded me to do so."

"Grah...this gets shadier by the second."

Cinnic took a moment to study the wraith's face. Decay had set in, as if he were a corpse, but it shimmered in odd pulses. Some moments his face was whole, and then others he was but a grinning skull. It was disorienting to say the least.

"How are we gonna get back to my body? I'm...I'm dead."

"I understand that. Don't concern yourself over the technicalities of it. We must do as I was instructed. Come now. Step closer to me."

The grizzled Jedi stepped forward as was instructed. A shimmer of light followed, then a twinkling, and the void was gone.

Within the blink of an eye, Cinnic was back in his hut. The walls about him were in flames. His meager possessions were slowly being reduced to ash. The disorientation of the sudden travel hit the old man, and he fell on all fours and vomited. Expecting the remains of his lunch to be in the mess, Cinnic was disturbed to see that his vomit was nearly all blood. For the first time in a while, fear shown on the grizzled man's eyes, shown clearly in the light of the inferno that threatened to swallow him whole.

A shimmering of light came from his side, and the wraith was standing next to him, beckoning Cinnic to stand.

"On your feet! We don't have much time before this entire place goes up in flames, and us with it!"

With a sense of urgency, the Jedi grabbed the only thing he saw untouched by the flames. It was Treya's doll, a crude, homemade thing, but something the young girl had cherished during her childhood. With that in hand, Cinnic burst out of the hut, and not a moment too soon. The simple structure fell prey to the flames and collapsed in on itself, caving in with a shower of sparks and smoke. The old man rested his hands on his knees and coughed profusely, the taste of blood heavy on his tongue.

"What...ugh...gah..."

The shimmer rose again next to him, and the wraith appeared, arms crossed.

"You may have cheated death once, old man. But your body is only a vessel. Remember that. You are still mortal, flesh and bone, confined to the limits of this galaxy. And it seems that I am stuck with you. Do not die. It would be unfortunate to experience death a second time, for both you and I."

Cinnic gave the ghost a glare and rose up.

"We are both, it seems, confined to your body. I cannot leave your side as long as you are living. It seems I am what is keeping you alive at the moment."

The old man stretched out, then instinctively felt his neck. That wasn't supposed to be there. Or his head. It had been taken off by the assassin's saber.

"How's my head still on my neck?"

"Does it look like I know, human? I am as clueless about your situation as you are."

"Just...who the hell are you?"

The spirit let out a sigh. He kicked at the mud beneath them. A fruitless effort, as his boot passed clean through the ground. The wraith couldn't affect anything in the physical world.

"I...I don't know. I've forgotten. It's been...how long has it been? Millennia? Eons? I do not know. Time has no meaning for me anymore, human."

Silence ensued. The only sound that was made was the patter of rain and the crackle of fire behind them, slowly being put out by the precipitation.

".....I'm sorry."

Silence, for a moment.

".....it is forgiven."

Cinnic looked at the wraith dead in the eye. Both of their irises were the same color, a glowing blue fire that warned of the power within.

"I need to find my daughter."

"Yes."

"You're gonna help me."

"It seems that way, doesn't it?"

Cinnic looked at his daughter's doll in hand and clutched it to his chest. Bitter tears streamed from his eyes and ran down his coarse cheeks, mixing with the rain that pattered down from the bleak sky. In a moment, he had lost so much. His home. His daughter. His peace. Anger grew in his heart, the old familiar sting that had nearly gotten the warrior kicked out of the Jedi Order so many times before, but when focused and utilized, was a boon in combat.

"Let's find whoever was responsible for this...and make them pay."

A ghastly grin sat on the ghost's face as he nodded in affirmation.

"Aye. It's been too long since I've been in a proper fight."

The ghoul shimmered and disappeared, but not completely. He instead rested inside Cinnic. The old man felt power in his limbs, power that he thought was lost through time and age. With a roar, the old man took off on limber feet, sprinting off into the woods. His next stop was at the nearest city, miles and miles away, where he would find gear, information, and passage back into the galaxy. The thought of how vast his search would be only registered briefly in the determined man's mind. He would find Treya. He would find his killer. And he would once again find peace, even if it meant his life.