Ashes to Ashes

[Chevu Visz]

Was it an unfair fight? Debatable. Chevu was a low-level Knight and Starchaser, a Master with training from Aing-Tii monks. She needed all the help she could get. Chevu had her saber on a lower setting, and although it might leave a nasty burn, the blade wouldn't kill him. She felt Coren reaching out with the Force, and as he did, it wrapped around her hands. The energy swirled, causing friction and heat in her skin and throughout her muscles. Something was happening to the molecules in her lightsaber. At the same time, Starchaser lunged at her and hooked his foot behind her ankle.

Her saber was in mid-swing when the pommel disappeared from her hands, only to join his own where it lay on the muddy ground.

Without her blue blade, all she could manage was a lame thwap on his side, and Chevu went down on her back, with Coren landing on top of her, pinning her underneath his weight. The Mirialan growled, and vehemently struggled, trying to extricate herself. Embarrassed and enraged, she felt the Force flood into her, and with so many roiling negative emotions in her system, the energy changed. The Mirialan felt something she'd never felt before: the dark side, and it was a rush, like the sweetest, most exotic spice had entered her bloodstream. Gritting her teeth, her black eyes locked on his, she began to use the Force to reach out and attempt to grab his windpipe. If he did not stop her, Chevu would use the dark side of the Force, now an addictive and unstoppable storm within her, to squeeze his windpipe, slowly cutting off his oxygen supply.

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

He wasn’t sure where Chevu was going to go with this fight, but he had felt the move of the lightsaber, regardless of its ignition, he knew he had the chance to knock her down. Coren may be decent with unarmed combat, a training aspect of the Wardens of the Sky, but it was to knock out and disable, what he needed here, against a friend, was an ability that caused him to stop her fighting, a combat style like real-world aikido. Use the energy and momentum of the other to get them to stop fighting.

Looking to his apprentice as she came at him, he took her down to the floor. And from there, made the move to keep her there.

“Chevu, stop.” He said, it was commanding, it wasn’t Force-enhanced, but his tone was the no-bullshit tone one would expect from someone like Coren most of the time. But that was before he felt the dark tide wash over her. That was… not good.

Coren had a few brushes with the dark side since he was awakened, not even to mention the years of training as a Dark Jedi Knight, before he went under. Now it was up to him to make the choice. Chevu was obviously angry, but she needn’t be. Coren not trusting her? That was due to her interactions with the Wrath, or Gabriel or both, or whatever. This was something else. He wasn’t going to waste the time trying to pull the energy, that would just perpetuate her use of the dark side, he needed to stop her, now.

With one hand, he focused the Force, that basic electric judgement bonded with his ability to stun, and he ran his hand under her shirt, to her midsection and threw the Force into her, with a blast that should mimic a taser.

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

"Chevu, stop," came Coren's stern warning, but Chevu could no more stop than the sun could not rise in the morning. That moment that she let the dark side in, she became committed to obsessively inflicting pain on her Master. She'd lost all control over her emotions as well her power, and even worse, it felt good. Too good. The pull of the dark side was a euphoria she would struggle with, not only now, but for weeks to come, once they were back on Sullust.

Before Chevu could inflict too much damage on Coren's windpipe, his hand snaked underneath the top part of her muddy hunt suit and zapped her green midsection with a sharp shock of the Force.

"No!" she shrieked, as her body convulsed with electric judgement. She hadn't yet told him about her secret and now it was possibly being stunned right along with her. Her body seized up, back arching and then sank into the mud where she lay limp underneath him, breaths shallow. She was awake, and looking straight at him with wide, terror-stricken eyes, but unable to move a muscle. The dark side dissipated back into the ether, leaving in its wake the tiniest of tendrils that trailed after it.

There was no longer anger in her expression, just a dull panic. If she lost the child because of this, she'd never forgive herself.

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

He wasn’t going to fight her, he didn’t want to. Yes, she slept with the Sith, like so many Jedi before her, at least in recent times, but he wasn’t here to harm her. He needed her. She was his student and if he could get at least one other person on his team, the galaxy would be an easier place to handle in the future. But first he would have to get her working and not slipping.

Doubting that Sith sperm could carry the dark side into a being, as the body was working to typically destroy the little swimmers, he wasn’t worried about a physical parasite infecting and forcing the dark side into his student. He was worried about the silver tongued Sith, and what words they would be sharing to Chevu as pillow talk. Where was that going to dig, into her head? How far was that infection going to spread.

And while he was trying to stop her, he wasn’t trying to take her down. Electric judgement was too close to the dark side for Coren. A former student and adept with lightning and drain, to harm and injure his enemy, he has learned to take the other side of that coin, to stall and protect. The stun was laced with a passionate emotion to stop Chevu, to get her to focus and not slip.

He could feel her slipping away and he was not going to let the Sith take her completely, not like that. Not this one.

“Shh. Stop. Come on back.”

That was an almost coddling voice. As close as Coren could get.

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

Self-discipline was turning out to be a problem area of Chevu's. The tryst with Gabriel. The goading of Coren against her better judgement. This sudden loss of control over her Force powers just a moment ago. Was she self-aware enough to see a pattern? She was, but changing bad habits? That didn't come easy for her. Having spent most of her childhood as a servant, Chevu was extremely inexperienced with emotion. She was rash and impulsive. It might get her killed. Or worse, others. Her impulsiveness was something that would probably test Coren in the days to come.

She lay in the mud with the Commander restraining her, trying to soothe her as best he could. The gentle tone in his voice touched something in her. Coren was usually about as emotional as a rock. Those times that Chevu got him to smile? She considered those moments a small victory. Why did she attack him in the first place? What was it that she really wanted from Coren. Why did he infuriate her so badly? Deep down she knew the answer, but had been in such denial about it, that it hit her like a punch in the heart.

Lifting her torso up from the mud, she reached out and grabbed the back of his head, her green fingers gripping him desperately, pulling him in for a long, angry kiss. She wrapped the other arm around his back, her fingers digging into his back like claws.

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Self-discipline was the issue with a lot of people. It was what pushed everyone harder, to work to be where they wanted to be. Yes. Coren was a student of the Aing-Tii, and that lead to a situation of feeling the Force was a frakking rainbow. That worked well when you were dealing with your own species in your own star system, but when you were on the galactic game board? There were so many other things to worry on. That was where Coren’s Warden of the Sky training came in. As a Dark Jedi agent, he had only the mission to worry on, and he didn’t need to think.

The Warden of the Sky teachings gave him a moral compass, on what was bad, and that meant taking people from their freedom, and yes, it was hypocritical because Coren would remove the freedom of the subjugators, but that needed to be done. Someone was converting planets to a whole species? That was going to have to go. Pirates trying to harm others? That got weighed the same as any users of the dark side. Power like that always corrupted.

And it needed to be stopped.

Coren had emotions, he used them when they were needed, but most of them? He buried them. Emotions interfered with the mission, and this mission was to protect the galaxy. From the Sith, from the Vong, from the Jedi, from those who were going to control others. Every species, every being in this galaxy had a choice and it was the only freedom some of them had. To remove that? It was dangerous.

Even Chevu had a choice, a choice to sleep with a Sith.

And a choice to kiss him. Coren didn’t think, he acted, he responded, and positively. And that was when it hit him, just what was going on. He pulled back. “Chevu…” He wasn’t sure what he was going to say. Where was his mind?

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

At first, Coren returned her kiss, and both enjoyed the strange, new feeling of their lips finding each other for the first time. But then he jerked away, and klaxons wailed in her head. He is your Master, Chev. Yes, of course he's attractive but...He. Is. Your. Master. He might as well have been a brother to her. It must have been the adrenaline or maybe she was confused from the jolt of the electric judgement. Yeah, that must be it. The Mirialan scrambled out from under him and clambered to her feet, stumbling, still half-covered in mud. Not the most graceful way to stand but at least all of her muscles were working again.

She blew all of the air out of her lungs and blinked, unable to look his way. An awkward pause ensued. Then she finally spoke.

"Right. Let's go see what we can find on this ship."

Eyes downcast, Chevu brushed past him roughly and made a beeline for one of the larger ships, possibly a freighter. The landing ramp was half-way intact, and the blast doors hung open invitingly. Limping and sore, the Knight disappeared into the blackness of the ship's maw. They had a mission, and people back home were depending on them. Time was a'wasting.

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

It wasn’t the same warning signs in his own head. Coren was a Commander in the GADF, he had a responsibility to the nation’s military, and that was why he was here. Hell, if it hadn’t been for the Sullustan hadn’t said for her to seek him out, they’d not even be in this predicament, and who knew what’d have happened with that Wrath of the Dark Lord. Alliance was a growing place, would Coren even notice? Still, there was Spark to consider as well, and where was she? Around the galaxy, doing her slicer work.

But Chevu… She was something.

He moved when she started to scramble, jolting him back into what had just happened. Right! Back to his feet, he gave her a second to figure herself out, what she was going to say. And then it was back to work. Probably for the best. He made his way over to where the weapons lay, pulling his gunbelt about him and hanging his lightsaber from his hip. He grabbed her weapon as he turned to follow her into the depths of the ship.

Taking a look around, he was checking the other vessels out, he was fairly sure that one was a corvette, but still, Chevu was on a mission, he’d follow her into the freighter, pulling the orange blade from his belt and activating it to cast the light on the hall.

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

Chevu heard footfalls behind her, then the snap-hiss of a blade. She instinctively whirled around, but of course, it was only Coren. In his hand glinted a pommel. Oh right. Her lightsaber. With trying to process her conflicting feelings about the kiss, she’d forgotten all about it. She stopped, face framed by his saber’s orange light, and used the Force to move it from his hand to hers.

“Thanks,” she said sheepishly.

Using her own blade as a light source, Chevu moved through the ship, searching it. She came across a cache of weapons, some of them were circular rings with handgrips and four protruding blades. The Force emanated from them, giving off a powerful aura like the kind that haloed an artifact.

She held up one of the Force-imbued discblades for Coren to inspect.

“Zeison Sha?”

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Conflict was right. What had just happened, and why was he handling it how he was? Coren knew it was levels upon levels of complicated, but that was what we call life. Oh yeah, that's what we call it. And just because these characters were made up, it didn't mean they got to cross over the harsh parts. The parts that defined who they were, could they stand alone? Could they stand together? Would it make conflict elsewhere? Probably, but Coren wasn't sure what to really think. The man was always on the go, and he and Spark had been going in opposite directions most of the time. Chevu here, she knew what was going on, how he did his life.

He smirked at his apprentice as she took her blade, moving himself to cast the orange light around. Looking to his apprentice, he took the weapon she held out for him. It was screaming, alive in the Force. Holding it in his hand, he ran a thumb over the blade.
"Yeah, wonder if Kreelan knows they're out this way." Zeison Sha were a bit of a oddity in the Force groups, but no doubt one to be wary of. "Can take it back to her, see if she knows anything. But this one is Force enhanced... Something I haven't seen in a while."

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

Giving Coren a wan smile, Chevu flicked on her commlink and ordered one of the scav droids to come to their coordinates to retrieve the discblades. She bit her lip and looked down at the cache, feeling a bit like an opportunist. It wasn't a feeling that sat well with her. They were standing in what was basically a mass gravesite, and picking over the possessions of the dead like a pair of carrion birds. Still, if she and Coren didn't take this stuff, it could end up simply becoming relics of a forgotten era, to be unearthed by some future archaeologist. At least the weapons would be in good hands back on Sullust.

As Chevu continued to scour the interior of the ship, she felt rattled. She used the dark side for the first time in her life, but why? Was it stress? Did it have something to do with the life growing inside of her? Was that little cluster of cells that some would call a person tainted with the dark side? She really had no idea. She only knew that she needed to be careful and mindful that she didn't use it again.

Oh, and she should also tell Coren something just in case he ever tried to use electric judgement on her again.

"Coren," she said, picking through a loose tangle of wires. It was kind of like ripping off a bacta patch.

"I'm pregnant."

Chevu was about as subtle as a brick sometimes.

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Working for a group like the Alliance? It wasn’t that hard to think that they were sometimes the bad guys. But the dead weren’t using these tools, were they? No, he could look over and ask the bodies, but they weren’t going to be caring. Maybe trying to find the passenger manifest, let the souls sleep easier knowing their family were informed, but that could also… not go well. Coren wasn’t sure. But with Chevu here, he had to focus on the job. Sometimes they were scavengers.

She called the droids to the location to help with the pick-up. The gear might pull others to the Alliance that could use it, bring non-Jedi forward from their place of hiding. Force knew he could use them on his side in all this. More ships, or technology could always help.

Looking at Chevu, as she called his name, he nodded. Pregnant? Oh?

At least, that was what he was saying to the outside world. Inside, he was reaching out to the Force, looking for the Wrath, hopefully holed up in his cell on Sullust, if Sarge wasn’t babying the prisoners some more, and wondering if he could fold space enough to jump to that cell. From there? Who knew what would happen.

“Chevu… I’m sorry.” He really meant that. Sure, he had two kids, but were they his idea? No. Coren was a SpecOps Pilot Dark Jedi at the time of both kids’ birth. He had things to do. She was a Jeid who was on track to possibly reclaiming her Marshal title. She had things to do.

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

Coren wasn't the touchy-feely type, and that was just fine with Chevu. His reaction was much less dramatic than she'd expected, which she also appreciated. After his knee-jerk flip out at her revelation that she'd slept with the Wrath of the Dark Lord, she was expecting alot worse. The Mirialan stared at her Master for a minute until it became awkward and then went back to scavenging.

"It's ok," she said, nodding her head at the scav droids and pointing to the weapons cache. "I've made arrangements for its care after its born. It's more just...well, if I'm out of action for a little while, that's why."

She tried to keep her face impassive, but a frown crept up on it nonetheless. It wasn't easy talking about this with anyone. Coren doubly so. Emotions were raw and unsorted, and the topic was better left in a box in the corner of her mind. It's why she'd thrown herself into every mission she could sign up for since she'd found out.

A feroocious blink came, along with a tilt of her head. There was a strange Force aura, and not a small one, coming from the cargo hold. It was stronger than the aura on the discblades. Powerful.

"There's something in here worth checking out," she said, grateful to let go of the subject.

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Knee jerk, sure, he would be responding with violence. And right now? Well, with the way their interaction had been going? He wasn’t even sure what he was feeling, where his head was at. He was still quantifying that in his mind first. Then he’d see as to how he was going to handle this. But he swore to the Spacelanes that if this was a result of her interactions with the Sith, he’d wipe them from this galaxy. All of them.

But a child, that was a waste of a life. He couldn’t imagine that sort of thing now. Back then? He wasn’t sure how he managed it, but he really got past it all, especially with the younger generation at the same biological age as him. Kaia, Jared, Audrey, Kins and Dax, the latter two he hadn’t seen in months, they were all ready, willing, and able. He looked at Chevu. “Break… oh for the…” He waved his hands, eyes on her midsection. “Thing.”

He was still looking through the supplies, before Chevu moved to another topic, thankfully. “Hmm?” He asked as he looked back up when she mentioned something worth checking out. The Corellian moved to where she was and took point, because his apprentice was now frail and weak in his eyes, carrying a child, with his saber aglow.

Even Coren could feel the Force rolling off the object, must be a holocron. He knew of them, hadn’t seen many, well excepting the family one.

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

Chevu didn’t like that disappointed look in Coren’s eyes. Kark. Telling him about her pregnancy was a huge frakking mistake. She didn’t want him to treat her any differently, and now it seemed like there was a good chance that he would. Just when they’d gotten their friendship back on track, it felt like the ends were unravelling again. Her anger swelled, and she beat it back down. After that brush with the dark side, anger was the last thing she should nurture. Focus on the object, Chev, the Force-imbued one you need to find.

She brushed past him, rolling her eyes, and deactivated her blue blade so that she could use both hands. Frantically, Chevu began to open up the cargo hold’s compartments. After rooting through a few of them, she finally found the fist-sized cube, adorned with crystal lattice around all four sides. It was most definitely a Holocron, a treasure of unknown proportions. She smiled widely as she drew it closer to her face, turning it, inspecting it. Finding the rare artifact made even those tense moments with Coren worth it. She whirled around to Coren holding it out to show him. Her anger was gone, replaced with an excitement she couldn’t contain.

"Should we open it now?"

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

The way the galaxy worked wasn’t always the way the people in the galaxy wanted it to work. Coren was going to take lead for his apprentice, probably even before he knew she was pregnant, but more so afterwards. Protective? Sort of. But it was also protection for himself. If she was carrying another inside, that meant she might not be able to take point, risk to herself, risk to the child, and she wouldn’t be thinking straight.

He was looking about as the pair had entered the hold. Chevu was more frantic than he was, but that was possible because now she felt she had something to prove? Not quote Coren’s fault, but definitely his responsibility. “Calm down, Chev…” He said over to the green Knight. There wasn’t a race here, no war going on, they dealt with gundarks already.

“Either here, or back at the ship.” He looked around, this seemed to be a quiet enough place here.

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

All of Chevu’s attention was now focused on the small cube in her hands. She was going to open it here and now, determined to show Coren that despite her disgraced ex-Marshal status, she was worthy of the knowledge contained within. With that chip placed firmly on her shoulder, the Mirialan pushed past Coren and took a seat on one of the weapons crates. She turned the artifact over in her green hands, blowing off a dusting of ash from its bronze surface. The light was too dim to properly see it, but from what she knew, it wasn’t opened manually. It was unlocked by communicating with it through the Force, by opening oneself up to it.

She closed her eyes and cleared her mind, breathing deeply. Slowly Chevu began to let go of the dissonance in her head, her situation with Gabriel, her kiss with Coren, her decision about her unborn child. Focusing on solely on the cube while letting the Force flow through her fingertips, she surrounded the object with her energy. In a few minutes, slices of the cube began to shift across its surface and float upwards a few inches out from the object. In the next moment, it the cube opened.

Eyes opening, she glanced at Coren and gave him a weak smile. The effort had drained her but the secrets inside would be worth it.

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Coren was watching her, he might not necessarily proclaim she was useful for the rank of Marshal again, but that was because if she was going to truly continue on this path of training with him, she wouldn't be a Jedi. Big sentences followed by small ones. Still, the girl understood what she was doing, and she had the focus to save the Alliance. She was here to learn all she could and prove herself. Was it to him? Or Gabriel, or merely to herself? That remained to be seen. Sure, his head was all over the place right now, between her and Spark and the war.

But one thing was certain. Coren would not hesitate to call Chevu out on her garbage.

He smiled when the holocron opened. Meant the Force wasn't totally dark for her. Maybe she wasn't as far off the edge as he was sometimes thinking. Even if she didn't accept a spot within the GADF, there may be a way to save her, and put her in charge of the men and women of the Alliance again. That all remained to be seen.

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

The Holocron opened with a shimmer, and a hologram of the gatekeeper arose. It was the creator of the artifact, a Quarran named Aeonian Angavel who had filled it with his knowledge. Angavel spoke of his cult of lightsiders, a small sect called the Walls of Light, and how they embraced the traditions of the Zeison Sha. One of the techniques that the Walls of Light were familiar with was the skill of Force Weapon, which imbued objects with the Force so that they could be used to block lightsabers in combat. Some of the Walls were even skilled enough to perform this power on the fly, turning anything, a rock, a walking stick, even pots and pans into defensive weapons. The power could also boost the offensive capabilities of weapons, making ordinary swords and polearms deal more damage.

The gatekeeper added that whomever the Holocron opened for was deemed worthy enough to learn the power if he or she chose to. Chevu flashed Coren a quirk of her brow.

"Well, at least someone here thinks I'm ready to learn new things."

Yeah, she was still bitter about earlier.

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Holocrons were a special thing. Coren had never been able to make one, but he had been able to assist the family one, which kept all their tools of the trade and history, in updating. Chronicling two years spent pre-amnesia among the Aing-Tii as well as time with the Wardens of the Sky, more recently. But it still didn’t give the how to of Fold Space. No, Coren was guarding that one. Maybe Chevu would earn it, maybe not.

He looked over at her, as the Gatekeeper was speaking and quirked up an eyebrow.

Only time would tell, apparently.

“Then you better get to learning. Then we can figure out how to get off this rock.”

Well, the ship they came in on, obviously, but getting the rest of the vessels moved? That would cost a bit of time and energy.

[member="Chevu Visz"]