Looking around the spacious neutral color room, she senses a familiarity. An arched window fills the back wall, giving the only light in the room. Lara steps to the window an looks out on a bustling city world. "Imperial Center... no, Coruscant! Everything is older, but like brand new." she murmurs. Her reflection in the transparisteel causes a gasp. Her hair is tied back in different style, but a long braid reaches to her shoulder.
The pieces sink in, but it makes no sense. Jedi robes, braid, old Coruscant... she has to be in the old Jedi Temple. Moving to the doorway, she pokes her head out into the hallway. "Hello? Anyone here? Hello?"
Smothering silence answers her calls. Sighing, Lara steps into the hallway. Her boots click on the marble floors, echoing loudly in the emptiness. Briefly, something else echoes through the halls, a thin whisper. Lara stops, trying to pinpoint the location. "Hello? Is someone there?"
Continuing down the hallway, memories of the place begin to flood into Lara's mind. The whispers come back stronger and more distinct. Forcing down the memories, Lara sets off in the direction, but stops short of a training room. The whispers had stopped, to be replaced by the vmmmm of a lightsaber blade.
Peeking through the doors, a familiar looking Miraluka runs a black and white lightsaber through a complex series of maneuvers. Lara slips into the door and watches him for a moment. Of course it would have to be him. Cyrus is tied to this place the same as me. I wonder what has become of the others taken from here. Did they all suffer as we have? Or were they better off?
Continuing down the hallway, memories of the place begin to flood into Lara's mind. The whispers come back stronger and more distinct. Forcing down the memories, Lara sets off in the direction, but stops short of a training room. The whispers had stopped, to be replaced by the vmmmm of a lightsaber blade.
Peeking through the doors, a familiar looking Miraluka runs a black and white lightsaber through a complex series of maneuvers. Lara slips into the door and watches him for a moment. Of course it would have to be him. Cyrus is tied to this place the same as me. I wonder what has become of the others taken from here. Did they all suffer as we have? Or were they better off?
As the Miraluka closes down his lightsaber, his back is to her. Lara clears her throat and speaks. "Hello, Cyrus. It's been a long time."
"Oh, Hello there Lara. Quite interesting place we are in. This is quite simply more real then any vision brought on by my meditations then I have ever experienced." Cyrus says, looking around and fixing his Saber to his belt.
ReplyDelete"And here I was hoping it was just an alcohol fueled dream." Lara says leaning against the door. "Nice braid, by the way."
ReplyDeleteReaching up, he touches his braid almost automatically, and then half smiles.
ReplyDelete"The force works in odd ways. We just have to figure out what it is trying to tell us. Why it choose to bring us here, in the form of our former jedi self, is odd. Speaking of, nice braid yourself"
"Yeah, have to stay with the crowd. It's what all the padawans are wearing this season." She says flipping it over her shoulder with a sarcastic flourish.
ReplyDeleteLara walks over to him and pokes Cyrus lightly in the shoulder. "So you're real too? Great. So, you still in a bacta tank?"
"Im most likely headed back there. My little excursion out to the city today did more harm then good. Its you, however, Im worried about. Sera keeps mentioning some ritual to do with count dooku." Cyrus says, pokeing here back
ReplyDelete"Yeah... the fun little surprise from my past. You got taken, but got lost in the transfer.
ReplyDelete"I got taken, used for a failed ritual, lost my memories, my connection to the Force, and dumped on some CIS agents to be their 'adopted daughter'. Fun times."
Lara walks over to the door and looks out into the hallway. "Sera's in knots because she's starting to get a conscience about things. She's run off her own hatreds for so long, that its been a kick start of sorts for her when she learned we're family.
"Family has been the driving factor for everything she has done and having one tangible piece left to hold onto now... well, it can change a person."
"You two sure did get the short end of the stick on that deal. The question, however, is how we learn from the past for our future endeavors. How can we take what Dooku did to you, and turn it against Jopal?"
ReplyDelete" And more importantly, how do we make one become two? Both yourself and Sera our immensely powerful. As much as having you both as allies has been a great boon from the force, I would put our chances as much higher if I could have you BOTH as allies, instead of one at a time."
"Me? I don't know. Maybe at one time, now I really don't know. Sera has helped me remember a few things and the Force has awakened others. Bits and pieces of memory have been coming back, but all the Force stuff... I'm just kinda borrowing.
ReplyDelete"As for what Dooku did... I don't think we can do that to Jopal. Nothing hurt him. There's some prophecy or something involving me and two others. Dooku cut corners and I got burned.
"What ever it is, its connected to something Jopal now has. All I know. Sera's been going crazy about it. For all they can do, Force teachings can get too esoteric. Too much mystical, not enough substance.
"Though... I feel a peace about her now. Like she has found the answer she is looking for or at least that next step."
"How do we.... Proceed from here? Why has the force chosen to link us together, and brought us to this particular place in time?"
ReplyDeleteLara shakes her head. "Wish I knew... wait!"
ReplyDeleteShe sticks her head out in the hallway. "I heard it again!"
She takes off down the hall.
"Lara, Wait!" Cyrus yells after her. Just a moment later, he takes off after her
ReplyDelete"The whispers are coming from up ahead! I think they are leading us to something we're supposed to find!" Lara calls back.
ReplyDeleteCyrus sprints ahead, trying to find where lara went
ReplyDeleteLara sticks her head out around a corner and says "Boo!"
ReplyDeleteLaughing at Cyrus's shock, she points to two large doors. "The whispers seem to come from there. I think that's the archives and library."
"Ladies first" cyrus says with a bow. As an after thought he puts a hand on his lightsaber
ReplyDeleteLara pulls on the door handle. The doors feel solidly in place. Reaching out with the Force, shes begins to pull at the doors telekinetically.
ReplyDeleteAfter a minute, she looks back at Cyrus. "Little help?"
"Watch and learn!" cyrus says
ReplyDeleteHe settles himself, reaches out with one of his hands and also begins to pull at the door telekinetically
Lara rolls her eyes at Cyrus before joining in.
ReplyDeleteEver so slowly the doors open to a darkened library. Pulling her lightsaber from her belt and with a quick look to Cyrus, Lara steps into the library.
Following just behind lara, Cyrus also pulls his lightsaber, his thumb hovering just above the activation rune.
ReplyDelete"Ive never seen the library dark like this" Cyrus says, suddenly remembering details of the library
"I haven't see any lights on in this place. Maybe our visionary Jedi forgot to pay the vision's power bill." Lara says looking around.
ReplyDeleteA familiar voice echoes through the library. "No. No...don't do it...don't go..." he seems more upset now. "I SAID NO GUYS! The doors behind them slam closed with a ominous thud.
Lara ignites the yellow blade of her lightsaber. "That was Set. Set! Hello? Set!"
Simultaneously, the Black blade of Cyrus' saber roars to life, emitting way more light then somthing black ever should. He drops to a knee, holding the long handle in a reverse grip, the blade inches from his back. He scans the room opposite of Lara for the voice.
ReplyDeleteHolding out her saber to light her path, Lara starts walking around calling Set's name.
ReplyDeleteAfter a minute, she stops and begins to examine a bust in a row of pedestals. Holding the blade up for light, she gasps.
"Cyrus! Over here. I may have found something. What can you remember about the statues in the library?"
Cyrus Walks forward cautiously, holding his saber in that odd reverse grip.
ReplyDelete"Mostly Grand Masters of the order, Jedi of Great importance and such. Why?"
"Not the story I'm remembering. The nice old lady that ran this place told us the story. There were twenty Jedi who left the order and not because the fell to the darkside. They quit because they could not stand to be Jedi anymore."
ReplyDeleteLara waves the lightsaber up to give a little bit of illumination in area.
"Look at this row. There's twenty pedestals, but only ten are filled. And take a look at this one... I think they did you justice on the sculpture."
After doing a triple take, Cyrus can only manage one thing
ReplyDelete"Im quite beside myself" he says with a sly grin.
"Punny." Lara says tossing the quip back.
ReplyDeleteMoving along the row, she stops at another pedestal. Running a hand over one of the faces, her frown deepens. "This is Senna. She was my best friend here. She had the top bunk, I had the low one..."
She trails off as she sees another bust. A respectable image of herself. "Cyrus... I think these are all kids taken from the Jedi Temple! You're over there and I'm over here."
A sudden chill causes Lara to wrap her arms around her torso. "I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this."
"What is this some alternate reality where we all grew up to be jedi, only to mysteriously leave? Tell me about this story the archivist told you " Cyrus says, walking towards Lara
ReplyDelete"I don't think that at all. We were kidnapped from the Jedi Temple, right. Sera got something about my history from that information droid. It said that other younglings were taken by the CIS.
ReplyDelete"What if this is them? The others who were kidnapped like us. The droid said some were to be assassins, spies, or anarchists. Others were held aside for experiments. There's no telling what has happened to them..."
"But, why is there a statue of me in the jedi archives?"
ReplyDeletecyrus asks, stumped
"Why is there one of me?" Lara counters.
ReplyDelete"We know this isn't real. We know its a vision. The question is what are we supposed to get from this?"
Lara feels another chill as she walks over to Cyrus. As she steps, there's a cracking noise beneath her feet. Looking down, the floor is littered with small bones.
The bones crunch beneath her boots as she moves slowly to Cyrus. The library suddenly feels damp and clammy. A mist springs up around knee height, thick and impenetrable.
ReplyDeleteIn the darkness of the deeper library, eight sets of glowing eyes appear. Discordant laughter echoes through the room. Eight voices speak in unison.
"Found you. Cyrus, that awful woman hid you for far too long. Lara, you disappeared all together. But now we found you, now we're all back together. We'll be coming for you soon to join us."
Cyrus Assumes a battle stance, his saber held above his head in a high guard. Lightning crackles around the blade, which begins to pulse as raw force energy is forced into it.
ReplyDelete"Who are you? What do you want with us!?" Cyrus says, voice calm but raised slightly.
"We're your brothers and sisters. Your friends. We want reunion. Join us, come back to us. We can be a family again when both of you are back." the voices taunt.
ReplyDeleteLara brings her lightsaber up into a Soresu stance. "We don't know you and this is a bad way to get our attention!" she says loudly into the darkness.
Cyrus takes a step backwards, Going back-to-back with Lara, while changing his grip on his lightsaber to hold it more out in front of him.
ReplyDelete"This is the part Im not a fan of....the waiting" he whipsers
The voices seem to take a sympathetic tone. "They forgot us. Poor dears lost their memories and disappeared. Otherwise they would be one of us already.
ReplyDelete"We will explain everything when we come to you. Looking forward to seeing you."
The glowing eyes dissipate into the dark mist. The voices echo in retreat. "We're coming. Don't worry, we'll find you now no matter where you are. Then we can be a family again."
The darkness swirls in tightly around Lara and Cyrus until it feels like thousands of tiny cold needles. With a bright flash their eyes both open.