Making a Splash (Ashin)

[Darron Wraith]

His fist of durasteel struck home, and he was disgusted with the sound it made against Ashin's face. It pained him even more as he felt her head slam against the floor from the force of the blow. His triumph and disgust where temporary though as he felt her hips shift underneath him. She managed to bring her arm in, after moving her hips and he took to blow full force to the face, and her Force push caused him to stand up and back away from it. Here he was once again teetering on the edge over the abyss and the water seemed to be waiting for him like some ravenous monster. Guess i'm swimming today regardless of how this ends, his melancholy humor was briefly lived as Ashin charged towards him, rage in her eyes.

Yep, definitely getting wet today.

As her armored shoulder struck his gut, the Jedi Master simply exhaled and allowed her momentum to drive them both off the edge and into the waiting water below. Her head was at his stomach level though, and Darron simply wrapped his arm under her throat and pulled it up and flexed his bicep into the back of her head as wrapped his other arm underneath her armpit and attempted to pull her arm up and rip the shoulder out of socket as they sped towards the waiting water below.

This is about to get very interesting, he thought. Then the water finally took the two it had eagerly been waiting for...

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Ashin hooked her lightsabre to her belt as she fell. Whatever force Darron was exerting against her shoulder, despite the bottom edges of her rounded pauldron, the impact pushed the joint back in the opposite direction.

As well as everything else. From this altitude, the water was like permacrete, and only the influence of the Force let the two Masters break the surface unharmed. Ashin convulsed in the aftermath of the impact, slamming her knees into his shins. Her lightsabre -- deceptively simple on the outside, but rebuilt several times on the inside -- ignited again underwater, boiling small portions of the cold sea. It was still clipped to the appropriate loop on the waist of her armor, and so, when she grabbed it, it was a matter of redirecting the weapon to swing against the side of Darron's left knee. She was still, for the moment, pinned. Somehow he had managed to hang on despite the impact.

 

[Darron Wraith]

Hold on Darron, do not let go!

The wall he built up against his back was his only defense against the water, and the only reason he didn't die upon impact. The blow was still enough to knock him unconscious as he pulled for his hilts with his senses. The Jedi Master felt rather spent after that, but he kept pushing his senses and eventually he felt them coming to him, only slowly though. His grip around Ashin's throat tightened as he tried to take her life from her all the while trying to pull his sabers to him and hold his breath. With his focus spread so much he hardly had the energy to notice what the Dark Jedi was doing.

First the kick to the shin's momentarily distracted him then he saw the bright flash of light and then he felt his leg light on fire from the woman's blade. He wanted to hang on, but he didn't want to lose his legs, so instead he brought his rather sore shins up to his chest and kicked away. With some distance between the two he managed to get his hilts back to his hands and activate his blades. The water was aglow with their blades and the Jedi Master held his blades pointed towards her to keep her far at bay from him. Trying one last time for civility he sent a message through the Force to her.

Please, Ashin, be reasonable.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Ashin grabbed hold of her own frame with the Force and levitated herself upward. Waves broke around her as she emerged from the water, and spray thrashed her. She hovered above the water, feet pointed together, arms outstretched, with the lightsabre deactivated at her waist. Her eyes lidded, she murmured to herself, getting a better sense of Darron's position beneath the ocean. Then his blades activated -- both weapons masterwork, both functional even underwater -- and the diffuse blue-green glow displayed his position perfectly.

But she held back from attacking, instead concentrating on moving upward as tall waves crashed around her. She set down on a wraparound balcony-walkway, on the edge of a huge city-dome, and waited for him to follow.

 

[Darron Wraith]

Nice trick...

The Jedi Master wrapped his sense around himself, and made the large walkway the center of his focus. When trying to move objects it helped to have an anchor, a static object that wouldn't move to base your movements off of. Usually the static object was himself, and he would pull or push things away from him. This time he was the thing being moved, and slowly but surely he levitated out of the water, his blades humming and steaming as raindrops hit them. Within a few moments he landed five feet away from Ashin. Grim resolve covered his face as he cleared his mind once more and allowed the Force to flow through him and give him the strength necessary to continue. Taking a brief moment to asses the damage, he could tell he would be hurting the next day.

His eyes searched the stormy skies ahead of him, it was odd for his mind to wander off for a second but the Dark Jedi didn't seem in a hurry either. Through battle they had learned a great deal about each other, and he firmly respected the woman before him. Blue eyes looked her up and down, she was bleeding just as much as him and he could tell she was digging deep as well in the Force. "Listen, Ashin, it doesn't have to be like this. I can help you and I will do anything to see peace restored to your heart. Your grandfather wouldn't want us fighting like this, he gave his life trying to save me from a two decade old prison. Please....we are better than this."

Darron lowered his sabers just an inch, and let them go away from his body. A show of faith that maybe she could see reason and stop this madness, though if she continued he would not give her anymore chances. He could only do so much and not risk his own life in the process, even Je'gan would have understand that. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry for whatever I did to wrong you in such a way."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Ashin nodded slowly.

"Then I'll tell you the truth, Darron. I have my grandfather's holocron. I never met him, but I've listened to him talk about you for hours. He told me the burdens you bear, the struggles you face when you use Vaapad. I've tested you today, to see what kind of a man you were -- to see if you would do the right thing, even if it might get you killed. You struggled with your inner darkness, but you have consistently overcome it, and that's a matter of personal integrity.

"I'll make you no blatant offer of power and glory in the Sith Empire. To be perfectly frank, I'm here to offer you a deal precisely because you are a Master, and one of the strongest in the Republic. Our factions are at war, and that will never change, but from time to time it may be necessary to keep the back channels open. The Yuuzhan Vong, the Shapers, the Mandalorians...it's a dangerous time for both of us.

"I needed to know that you could see a murderous Darksider as a human being, capable of redemption. And although there's a poison in my blood that bars me from the Light Side, I still understand what I knew as a Jedi: That back channels are often necessary, and violence is not the only way."

A door opened, and a Kaminoan appeared, carrying a pale blue triangular holocron. Ashin nodded in acknowledgement, traded a very large credit chit -- damages -- for the holocron, and turned back to Darron as the Kaminoan left. She held out the holocron to him.

"Do we have an understanding, Darron?"

 

[Darron Wraith]

To say he was shocked was a complete understatement, the two had been doing rather intense battle for over and hour. Yet here she was, preaching logic and reason, and she made sense. There were a great many threats in the galaxy, and here she was trying to forge a connection between two very different cultures. A loud sigh escaped his lips as he finally allowed himself to breathe for a moment, before he released the activation switches on the blades. He clipped his own hilt to his waist and then curiously flipped Je'gan's hilt to where the emitter was facing him. His senses were still in the Force as he considered this action, back channels for an alliance against greater threats. The council won't like this, but honestly Wraith, when have you tried to play by their rules.

A smile crossed his face briefly as he though of what Je'gan himself would have said on the matter. He would have preached about the good politics behind the move, and how the right thing wasn't always what everyone thought it would be. Dear friend, your wisdom is still helping me even though you are gone from this world. His eyes traveled upwards briefly almost hoping his friend would appear, but he didn't. Miracles don't always happen Darron, you have to accept and move on in life.

The Jedi walked the remaining steps towards Ashin, and he gently took the holocron in his free hand. He placed Je'gan's hilt in the Dark-Jedi's hands and looked deeply in her eyes, refusing to move while trying to read her. "Yes, we have an understanding Ashin. Your grandfather would like you to have his hilt, you deserve to hold what he made with his hands. This hilt is an expression of him, and you deserve this even if you might use it in ways I would frown upon. Should you ever need the Jedi, I will make it happen. Can I count on you for the same?"

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Ashin blinked, looking down at the electrum-plated lightsabre in her gauntleted hand. Subtly curved, it hearkened back to her grandfather's fencing heritage without constraining the wielder to that style of combat.

"That's...uncommonly generous of you," she said. "Whatever you think about me, know that I'm not a murderer. I'll use this blade as it was meant to be used. Oh, I may not be the selfless protector with a messiah complex that my grandfather was, but I fight for structure, for order -- for creation. This galaxy has had four hundred years to turn itself into a blank slate, and there's so much that needs to be fixed."

Sabre in hand, she turned away and leaned against the railing, staring down at the sea.

"I would never tell the people I work with, but if I hadn't been poisoned away from the Light, I would still be a Jedi."

 

[Darron Wraith]

Following Ashin to the railing, he leaned against it as well. His blue eyes desperately searching the waves for the answers to the situation they where in. He grinned with a touch of melancholy at the mention of Je'gan. Her statement had basically nailed his old friend's personality to a T, even if he never would have phrased it that way out of respect to his fellow Jedi. "Know that he would have wanted someone of his bloodline to keep it, and I trust that you will do what you believe is right. Our perceptions of order and stability are different, I won't argue semantics with you, but know you have my trust."

He shifted his weight slightly and he started to feel his body starting to stiffen up from the conflict from earlier. "Well you always can have a home at the Jedi temple if you want to turn away from the Force, our healers can work with you. I know you will refuse my offer, but know it will always stand. Should you ever need any help with anything that wouldn't conflict with my beliefs I will be there and I will not allow anything bad to happen to you should you be captured by my fellow Jedi." Darron turned to eye her scars, his eyes looking her over to check on her before continuing. "Though, with your skills I highly doubt I'll ever see you behind cell bars, whoever trained you did an amazing job Ashin. The order could use your skills that much I will admit to you."

Suddenly a memory hit him, and a chuckle escaped his lips as the words formed. "Did you really have to make the ramp? You completely ruined my attack and it took everything I had not to laugh at how simple and effective it was."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"When I was poisoned, I took refuge at a Jedi Temple on Ossus. Their healers worked on me without success. I took it to Sith alchemists who had access to the research of the men who created the poison, and they had no success either. I was poisoned with mastercraft. I knew a woman who was dosed with the same poison, and she only escaped it through some kind of ancestral intervention. There is...no solution that either Light, Dark or science can find. At least it isn't killing me."

She snorted, and for the first time she cracked a smile. "It seemed...appropriately cinematic. You're the one who threw a whole bar at me, brother."

The verbal incongruity was a slip, and she grimaced.

"I...have some of his memories. A few. No, I don't know if he died or not."

 

[Darron Wraith]

"I was afraid you were going to say that." Darron himself had dealt with darkside poisons, but nothing of the magnitude that Ashin was describing to him. To know that there was such a weapon around, something that could completely cut a Force-user off from the light completely with no way to heal it was shocking. The warrior in him could see how beneficial that would be if the Sith ever got there hands on that and were able to mass produce it. The Jedi in him could barely hide the disgust on his face that something like that had been done to her without her consent. The man in him wanted to know who did that and make sure they never walked the galaxy ever again. All the different sides in him seemed to be in agreement in how horrible in how that was, with a calming breath his mind relaxed and he was able to regard her in a new light now.

"Don't pity her Darron, she's made the best of her situation. Respect her strength, and see her for a person."

Je'gan's voice rang in his head as if the man were still there imparting his wisdom to Darron to calm him during moments of weakness. Yet Ashin laughed at Darron's joke and he fully caught the magnitude of her words.

The Jedi snapped to face her completely, shock all over his face. "Only two people have ever called me brother, and one of them was your grandfather." Then the dots started to connect in his head. "So wait, you have all of Je'gan's memories and you don't know if he's dead or alive? How did this come to pass?"

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"A few, I said. If you'll recall, he knew a thing or two about cloning, and the Kaminoans had a flash-learning tape on file. An old one, but enough that I was able to glean some useful insights." She grimaced. "I saw my father as a baby, to my own dubious amusement. It also told me a great deal about where I came from, but that's another story for another time. Who knows." She grinned lopsidedly. "You may find that tape in your mailbox at the Republic one of these days, what's left of it anyways.

"In the spirit of cooperation," she added, "I should tell you that the Sith Empire, courtesy of me, is about to be in the business of forestalling civil war. My apprentices and I are about to move on Mon Calamari to head off the three-way racial battle that's about to erupt. It'll look like a conquest, and maybe that's what it is, but it's not imperialist provocation."

 

[Darron Wraith]

"Well in the spirit of cooperation. Since you have Je'gan's memories and his lightsaber, I'd recommend ditching Shii-Cho. Had I sped the combat up and changed my strike patterns you would have been done for." There was no pride or hubris to his tone, just frank honesty. Darron turned to look out at the crashing waves once more, pondering on all that he had learned today. "I'd recommend giving Juyo a shot."

When he returned to the Council he would relay the intel on the conquest of Mon Calamari, at least for aid and supplies to refugees. If the fighting was as bad as what Ashin was indicating it would be needed. He almost began to worry how the Council would take his words, but he decided that would be best for later. All he needed to do on his end was make sure they didn't dive into a protracted combat if it wasn't imperialist provocation. Then again, he had no idea the strength of the Republic or the Council since he had been gone for over twenty years.

"I have one question of you before I leave here....how did you know I was here?"

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"I put you here, Darron. With my father, Je'gan's son, when I was a girl of eight. Two generations of my family have paid attention to where your carbonite slab was, and where it would thaw -- when it would be needed. Something of a bastardization of my grandfather's wishes, but our decision was ours to make, not his. I trained in Shii-Cho and Sokan in the same room as that carbonite slab. Juyo - that's something of a lost art. I've spent most of my life in the Unknown Regions. Technique is...patchy there in some senses."

 

[Darron Wraith]

"You kept me here? I thought I had escaped with Je'gan? What the feth?" The Jedi Master wasn't prone to swearing but that simply brought too many questions to the forefront all of a sudden. He rubbed his hands on his temples as he began to pace, his mind working furiously to try and sort through the Dark Jedi Master's words. The implications of it all were just too hard for him to swallow, that meant he had been rescued much earlier. He had been kept frozen on purpose, and his whole entire unthawing had been a planned event. Knowing that Ashin had grown up training near the slab that had been his prison for two decades while his mind was still active wounded his soul in a way he never could have experienced.

"Why wait two decades to free me? Why keep me from the galaxy that long? Do you realize my mind was awake and alert in there? I dealt with the loss of my son for two decades without so much as talking to another soul besides the ghosts in my head?"

The Jedi Master let his annoyance show in his voice, finally he allowed himself to slow down and calm down. He didn't want another confrontation after so much had been said and peace had been made. Actively trying to slow his breathing Darron spoke, "why not find one of the Sith instructors? It would allow you to channel your darkness better and allow you to control the flow of combat better...I guess."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Ashin stepped back as if slapped. "Of course we knew," she said. "Of course I felt your mind in there, but I thought you could work past it if you wanted to. That's why I had to test you -- I thought you spent twenty years hanging on to your pain. I never guessed..."

She looked away.

"Like I said, I've spent years in the Unknown Regions. I've only recently returned -- I've had so much to do, so many worlds burning, so many fires to put out. I've only recently escaped from my fate. You're one of the finest weapons the Jedi ever created, and you're needed now. My father may not have been much of a warrior, but he was a prophet. He saw the times you'd be needed. And now he's gone, and I knew it was time to wake you up."

 

[Darron Wraith]

"So your father prophesized that I would be needed now? For what? I'm a Jedi Master who is pretty good at killing, that's all. Look at my track record...."

Darron paced away and walked to the end of the catwalk, allowing the breeze to whip his locks to and fro as he tried to calm himself. It was a miracle he hadn't died while frozen that long, most lifeforms can't handle the stress of carbonite freezing. I did it for twenty fething years, and somehow didn't lose my sanity. The only thing saving him from spiraling into a rage was the fact that he had always trusted Je'gan's judgement. Say what you would about his friend, but his moral compass was true and there was a legitimate reason for every action the man did. They had often disagreed, but in matters or morality and of the heart, Je'gan had always been right. Whatever your reasons were brother, thank you for saving me.

Turning to look at Ashin he continued where he had left off. "Lets see, I killed my older brother. I failed both my parents and allowed said brother to kill them, my estranged wife killed herself because she couldn't handle my dedication to my duty. Oh and did I forget the part where my son was murdered right before my eyes as I was held down by cortosis chains with a ysalarmi strapped to my chest? I'm failing to grasp this whole, I'm needed now when those few I cared for are long gone from this galaxy."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Indignation and purpose burned hot in Ashin's eyes. "You think your duty cares? You think you're the only one who would rather sit down and let the uncaring universe chart its own course? I was paralyzed while they killed my Padawan and his family. I was cut off from the Order -- I have five kinds of Sith Poison in my blood, and not by choice. My family is dead, and my foster family too. Darron, I hid on a slum world, just trying to live out my life and do a little good. Everyone I cared about is gone, too. But I still have a duty. I'm still needed. As the Darksider said to the Lightsider...stop being selfish."

 

[Darron Wraith]

Darron couldn't help but glare at Ashin, the honesty in her words was just a little too much for the Jedi Master at the moment. Yes, his duty was the single most important thing to him, but his life had been manipulated and because of it things would never be the same. "I apologize," the Jedi exhaled his acceptance on the matter before continuing. "It's just a lot to suddenly learn, it's a miracle I am even alive and still sane. Twenty years was a lot of time to lose...I mean have delayed. I just know that there are very few people who I know left in this galaxy. Our chosen jobs don't really allow us the luxury of long-standing friendships and now I must return to an order that I hardly know anymore." The rail he was leaning against creaked slightly as he put more weight against it, his mind a blur of thoughts as he searched the ocean for answers that didn't seem to be coming.

"Dark Jedi, I know not why things are the way they are. I know there are things you aren't telling me, and I respect that. Just know that the day will come when you will have to give me some answers, and a day when our secret alliance will be strained or come to light." His face hardened as he started to consider the murky future before him, Darron tried to look into the Force and try and see the possibilities but none presented themselves. I guess this is the Force's way of telling me that the future is a blank slate for me? He pondered his thoughts before asking the last question that had been burning in his mind.

"What is the galaxy like now...what have I missed?"

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"I've given you answers enough, proportional to what you've earned. But yes, I will continue to share the truth with you. My grandfather's holocron should tell you a great deal of what you need to know. I've kept it updated." She smiled faintly. "If you trust my updates, that is. I do strive to be...dispassionate...about such things. Impartial. Facsimiles of my grandfather and I are the two gatekeepers of that holocron. That could be useful to you, if you need to make explanations to the Council."