A winding path (Jedi Celestia)

>Mustafar.
>Namesake of the Mustafar system.
>A volcanic planet, which one could assume was in a very early stage of it’s live, but it was lush once and teeming with life until a cataclysmic event occurred.
>Death was very prevalent on this world.
>You gasp out.
>For individuals sensitive to what was and what is yet to come, like the Jedi in question, merely entering it’s orbit elicits a reaction.
>The frown that had distorts your features for the past few days turns from concern to sorrow.
>Closing your eyes, you merely go through the motions of undocking the starfighter from it’s Hyperdrive docking ring and flying to the coordinates given to you.
>This Z-95 wasn’t your ship, and since it was designed for clones, or plainly just for a single man’s back, you couldn’t get your angel wing in any sort of comfortable position.
>Comfort was the last of your concerns though, and it was merely a tiny factor as to why you were unable to clear your mind and meditate in preparation to the coming confrontation.
>The supreme chancellor was a Dark Lord of the Sith.
>He declared himself Emperor and sent the entire galaxy on the hunt for Jedi.
>You should be protecting those few you were able to save and go into hiding.
>Yet here you are, following a lead to the Emperor’s apprentice who had been sent out to kill the last of the Separatist leaders.
>You need to know.
>And the closer you navigate to the mining complex, the worse your precognition was distorted by your emotions.

>You can feel her.
>As you walk through the complex you find a large number of destroyed droids destroyed unmistakably by a lightsaber.
>But you try to collect yourself.
>You could be wrong.
>Your view of the future was clouded.
>So you hold onto hope.
>But you could feel her.

>Even before you enter the command center you already knew.
>A young Zabrak female stands slightly bent over a control terminal where she was copying data of from.
>Her head slightly moved and some of her blonde and crimson hair fell over her shoulder and into her face.
>She ducked it back behind her ear as if she hadn’t noticed you, but you could see her grow a smile.
>You look through the room and see the leaders of the Confederacy of Independent Systems slaughtered.
>The trail of bodies started from the center of the room to a door, which presumably hadn’t opened on command.
>You recognize Nute Gunray, Shu Mai, Gap Fox, and Aito Laff before you avert your gaze and look back to the sole living person in the room who acted like nothing special was taking place.
“It’s good to see you again, Sunset”, you tell her.
>The response was immediate, albeit non-verbal.
>She flinched, and grit her teeth.
>A few seconds tick by before she rises up and looks back to you.
>“You’re a liar, Celestia”, she tells you and then, with a sigh, add: “-always have been.”
>Greeting her in a friendly manner has failed.
>She looks away from you again and continues her work while you take a moment to continue.
“The Republic has fallen.”
>“‘gotta be honest, I’m not big on politics.”
“As has the Jedi Order.”
>“And here I thought I wouldn’t get a newsletter after I canceled my membership.”
“Hundreds are dead, Sunset!” You raise your voice.
>“Maybe they should have gotten out when they had they chance.”
“Don’t treat this like a joke! You’re talking about committing treason so lightly.”
>“Treason is it? To a now dead Republic?”
“To Democracy! To Justice!”
>Finally she turns to you fully, a smile on her face.
>Slowly she shakes her head and says as if rebuking a child: “The petty squabbles of the losing side.”
>Your mouth opens but you don’t say anything for a while.
“I can’t believe what I’m hearing from you.”
>“Then don’t.” She shrugs and turns back to the console again, “Who am I to indoctrinate? Force my believes on to others? I’m not a Jedi.”
>She’s trying to make you give in to anger.
>And she’s succeeding.
>You collect yourself and look to the corpses of the Separatist leaders.
“They were mercilessly backed into a corner and slaughtered... by a lightsaber.”
>“Astute observation.”
>The air between you got tenser and, while she was facing away from you, her stance gets firmer.
“In the temple... the guards put up a fight, but the servants... and even the younglings were killed in the same fashion. By a lightsaber’s blade.”
>Sunset takes a deep breath and looks back to you again. “One could almost assume that the culprit was the same person.” Her face contorts to a wicked smile. “Would you believe me if I told you I found them like this?”
>You take a deep breath as well and loosen your stance up.
>Angling your head a little lower and closing your eyes you nod.
“Yes. There is good in you.”
>The sound of her lightsaber igniting forces your eyes open again.
>Shocked by the red hue illuminating the room you were almost too slow to react as she throws the saber at you.
>The saber throw was a risky move, especially if the opponent was a force user as well, but she successfully caught you off guard.
>Unable to avert it and dodge completely, the saber grazes you, burning down your left upper arm to the bone.
“Ahhh!”
>“THERE IS GOOD IN ME!?”, she shouts. “I’LL SHOW YOU ‘GOOD’.”
>Before you could collect yourself and before she catches her saber again she shoots lighting at you from her left hand.
>When she closed the distance you had your saber out and were able to block her first strike.
>A series of rapid moves push you back further and further.
>She has a red lightsaber now.
>And Force Lightning was an arts of the dark side.
>“HOW’S THAT FOR GOOD?”
>It takes you quite a while until you were able to get a proper stance, accounting for the imbalance of having one arm almost out of commission.
>“The so called ‘dark side’...”, she spoke up again once she had lost her initial advantage.
>You jump away from one another, and begin to circle, trying to find the most opportune spot in the surroundings.
>“I have a new Master, and I was taught a lot. Things that could never have come over your lips. It was more than just truth, it was a way to think!”
“An attempt to twist your mind, Sunset!”, you tell her.
>The exchange of words was accentuated with an exchange of blows.
>Sunset, being the more aggressive party, keeps pushing you back, something that you allow since you want to move this out of the narrow control room.
“The Sith are evil! They would tell any lie to gain in power like the Chancellor did.”
>“The same can be said about the Jedi”, she answers in kind.
>Again, she manages to catch you off guard using her words, which translates to you yielding even more ground to her, which enables her to land a proper kick and send you over the connecting bridge.
>You land on your feet easily, but have to take in your surrounding once again to properly continue.
>The chance wasn’t given to you though as Sunset jumps down towards you and continues her onslaught.
>“Always behind the curtain of government, always present at scenes of great bloodshed. And always trying to exterminate the Sith, which would be their only competition.”
>She counts of ridiculous pieces of Sith propaganda, but she does so almost gleefully, as if her whole plan is to hurt you with it.
>“From that perspective the Jedi are evil!”
>For her to be twisted so far...
“Well, then you are lost!”
>You know what you had to do, and you start to counterattack in earnest.
“I have failed you as a teacher, I can not stand for what you have become.”
>“So wipe away YOUR mistake?! Don’t make ME about YOU!”
“I loved you like a daughter!”, you confess.
>“And I hate you more than anything!”
>It’s been more than a year since she left the temple, and she undeniably grew in strength considerably.
>But most of it is because she was using the dark side, using her anger.
>She’s certainly not your padawan anymore, but she’s still using the techniques you taught her, and as her former teacher you also know the flaws in her footwork.
>Like- now.
>Every time she throws a feint she loosens up since she doesn’t need the balance...
>You swing-
>But her saber connected.
>A moment later she forcepushed you away and even further down.
>The feint... was not a feint, but a real attack.
>Or rather, she used the fight until now to establish she still had bad technique, when she had risen above.
>You barely get your wings beating to dampen the fall when she again, sends lightning after you, cramping your muscles up just enough to bear the full force of the fall.
>You clutch the stump of your right hand and prepare to count down your fate.
>Holding onto consciousness you await a killing blow.
>You almost welcome it now.
>You didn’t exactly want to live in a world where she had turned evil, where you had failed this miserably in both educating her, and then stopping her.
>Mustafar.
>With death was very prevalent on this world.
>You can feel it in the burning rock beneath you.
>You will join them soon enough and become one with the force.

---

>A week later.
>There was a knock at your... post.
>Inside the cargo hold only cloth geld up by strings mounted on posts separate the private quarters of each individual.
>The knock hadn’t been necessary, you had not been in a state of meditation, and you had easily heard someone coming.
>And judging from the small light steps you already knew who it was.
“Yes?”
>“Knight Celestia? The- the council requests your presence.”
“The council?”, you repeat, surprised by her use of the word.
>She had hesitated saying it as well, so you dismiss the use of the word, and answer her quickly.
“I’ll be with them in but a moment.”
>“I’ll inform- them”
“Twilight?”
>“Yes?”
>She had already been a step away and had to reel back.
“Would you assist me?”
>“Of course! I- I’m coming in.”
>The young Twi’lek moved the cloth aside and peeked in.
>After some hesitation she entered and approached you.
>The council...
>There was only one surviving member, but Twilight specifically said ‘the council’, and not ‘Master Soarin’.
>Had he..?
>Patience.
>Answers will come to you soon enough.
>Twilight helps you get your broken wings in the proper slings so there was no stress on them while you were standing.
>With only one hand it had proven to be rather difficult, especially since all was just done in a makeshift manner.
>You had not been able to receive proper medical treatment and you had to rely on the present initiate, Twilight Sparkle’s, studies of your own species’ anatomy and guidance of the force.
>Needless to say, you are still down a hand and portray a burden to the remaining Jedi.
>At the very least in financial terms.
“Thank you for your continuous support, Twilight.” You bow to her while you voice your mind.
>“Naturally.”
>She returns your bow with one of her own, before offering her arm for support.
>But you shake her head gently and gesture for her that it would not be necessary.
“Luckily I am not that frail anymore, I have gained some strength back.”
>Up until now you relied on her a lot, but you didn’t want to get attached to her, like you did with Sunset.
>If the war hadn’t happened like it had happened would have even chosen her as your new Padawan.
>She was put under the tutelage of Master Silver Zoom, who was dead now.
>Shining Armor, her older brother disobeyed orders and rushed to where they had been stationed and was able to save her.
>What was your fear of attachment was his fear of loss realized.
>And fear is always a path to the dark side.
>You feel numb.
>In case of her death... you would have barely behaved differently.
>Just one more death would have changed nothing.
>You give her a smile and head walk with her.
>You didn’t need to ask where the council would sit as there was only a single room that would be appropriate.
>You enter the captains quarters where you find Master Soarin and Knight Shining Armor already waiting for you.
>They were sitting around a circular carpet on the floor, clearly spaced out for a third person to take another seat.
“I was summoned”, you state, almost like it was a question.
>“Indeed”, Soarin answers and gestures you to join them. “please, take a seat.”
>You obey and wait for him to speak up again, which still portrayed an awkward pause.
>Twilight was still lingering by the door, but from the layout it was clear that she was not invited.
>Quickly she gives another quick bow and leaves.
>Yet it still takes a while for Soarin to say something. “Today... I would like to discuss the...”
>The future.
>He had trailed off on his first sentence.
>It was quite apparent that you are not the only one who’s spirit was not at rest.
>“All of us sit here as the losers of a war,” he finally begins. “A war we did not think would devastate galaxy, and our way of live in such a manner. We were prideful, sure of our victory, and then we failed to see the enemy coming, we failed to retaliate, we even failed to keep ourselves alive, for the most part.”
>You gulp and look down to the carpet.
>All he said was clear to the present people, but it hurt to hear the words out loud.
>“I was the armsmaster of the order and am now the only remaining member of the council. However, I cannot – not in good conscience – elevate the both of you to Masters to fill our ranks.”
>You were almost relieved to hear that he wouldn’t make you a master, but that still leaves him alone.
>You share a short glance with Shining Armor, but look back to her once Soarin starts talking again.
>“I am not grand master, I cannot be. Not with this failure. None of us are ready for the positions that would be demanded of us, and I will not let the Jedi Order be a mere farce.”
>But what then?
>“For the past few days I lived a lie, but my own failure gnaws on me deeply. My resolve is shattered, and therefore I will go into exile to find peace again.”
>Exile...
>Admit defeat, roll over and die?
>You can’t do that.
>Not with a Sith on the throne of the entire Galaxy.
>“Were I not do do that, I’d lash out in anger at the Empire and it’s people... Even if we strike now and manage to defeat the Emperor and his apprentice, the galactic public would not accept us again, and there is no proper replacement ready in terms of leadership. The Galaxy would fall into a real state of civil war again, causing more and more bloodshed, much more than the Clone War did.”
>That was why you were not a Master.
>Why you didn’t deserve to be a Master.
>You would want to lash out, you would do something rash and stupid, and you would have, in turn, unintentionally hurt more people on that path.
>“Exile May this is the right decision for all of us. To admit our defeat and not risk ourselves to be completely wiped out. Take a step back and find peace. Have patience. I opt to collect our resolve until we can do good for the galaxy again.” He closes his eyes. “Maybe our time will not come, but we have to have faith. Whenever Evil reigns, Good will rise up against it. Balance will be restored. It is the will of the Force.”
>Soarin stands up.
>“Shining Armor, Celestia,” he calls out to you by name. “I have faith in you two as well. Train Twilight Sparkle well, but to not train her for war. Teach her to be a kind and compassionate Jedi.”
“Yes, Master.”
>“Yes, Master.”
>The two of you stand up as well while turns around and looks out of the window to the stars. “One day she will carry on our legacy.”



>“This may have been a mistake.”
>The words came from Shining Armor, sitting in the captains seat who had the best view out of the cockpit.
>You had just dropped out of hyperspace over the planet Onderon and, through your connection to the force, you feel what he sees.
>Death.
>Ironically enough, Master Soarin, the one who should know best, seemed ignorant.
>“The force guided my decision in picking Onderon as our destination. I do not believe that-” Soarin pauses as he looks out the cockpit as well, “this may have been a mistake.”
>You, too, squeeze front to get an image to what you were feeling.
>Three Star Destroyers were bombarding the planet from orbit.
>A Victory, flanked by two Venators.
“How long until the hyperdrive navigation is ready?”
>“Waaay~ ahead of you...”
>Shining Armor is frantically re-routing power from redundant systems to the navigation, but Soarin lifts his hand.
>“Hail the Victory-class and request docking rights”, he orders.
“Master?”
>Shining grinds his teeth and his hand hovers over the console.
>“We give them reason to  consider us as friendly, like we meant to show up.”
>Soarin says so, but his face grows grim. “Trust in the force.”
>A moment of hesitation later Shining opens a communications port and hails the Victory-class Star Destroyer.
>Soarin puts a hand on your shoulder and gives you a nod, as if it meant to be reassuring.
>“At times like this I know you may rather trust in common sense.” He smiles, but shakes his head. “The force led me here in search of an old friend to ask for help. But now it seems that it may be us who can offer help.”
>You collect yourself.
“What are we to do against three star destroyers, Master?”
>His smile didn’t waver. “Well, we will not take them in a space battle, that’s for sure. But we may be able to fight our way through one and do as the force guides... Prisoners. We see if they have taken prisoners.”
“Prisoners?”
>Soarin nods.
>Shining turns back to the two of you. “They ask our purpose.”
>“We are to oversee a prisoner transport for individuals who may be force sensitive.”
“But the Order 66-”
>“-only applies to Jedi”, Soarin finishes.
>You frown slightly.
“Then your friend-”
>“-a strange one that was.” He cuts you off again. “Spitfire was old when she joined the Jedi Order. Almost 7. She was a complete hot-head then. I remember clearly the transformation she has gone through. Calm and collected by the time she was knighted, but she left to live as a nomad on some jungle planet.”
>He told you about his friend, Spitfire, when you embarked, but he didn’t say she had been a Jedi once.
>“I was unable to find her before, to ask for help when the clone wars started, but now...”
>This time he trails off.
>You can tell his resolve was wavering, but he remained calm and turned to Shining again.
>“What is their response?”
>“They’ve sent us instructions on where to dock.”
>Soarin nods and looks to you again and takes a step back.
>He opens his hands up to you, but you hesitate before moving yours forth as well.
>“You can hold your saber.”
“I-”
>“Celestia, look at me.”
>You avert your gaze from the stump that had been your right hand and look up.
“I can.”
>“You can move unassisted.”
“I... can”, you repeat.
>“You can defend yourself”, he further states but you, hesitate once more so he calls out for you. “Celestia.”
>You close your eyes and collect yourself.
“I can,” you say.
>You open your eyes and continue.
“I can defend myself. I will not slow you down. I will not be useless. And I will not die.”
>“Well spoken.”

>Docking in a Star Destroyer gave you a feeling of comfort not too long ago.
>Once you were on one you knew you’d be safe, unless it was currently in a massive space battle.
>Now it’s the equivalent of walking into a mudhorn’s den.
>You can see the two turrets tracking you as you make your way into the hangar.
>While Shining is flying as slowly as possible without raising concern while you and Soarin observe the area to form your plan out loud.
>“I was a council member, they will surely know my face, so we will not have long until they will open fire. Young padawan?”
>Having been called out by Soarin, Twilight winces.
>“Yes, master?”
>“Tell me what you see.”
>She looks out the window but doesn’t start talking.
>You got to know why well these past few days.
>Twilight was rather ambitious, or rather, she has a fear of failure and disappointing those around her.
>Therefore she doesn’t want to say anything she expects Soarin to dismiss.
>You walk over to them, but before you can reach her she speaks.
>“47 Clone troopers in mostly Phase 2 armor, 4 Clone gunners with their specialized helmets and chest armors to wield the turrets recoil. They are not angled to go down to floor level, but target ships. So... 51 troopers. Standardized with D-15 blasters and blaster rifles, but I’m not seeing that many rifles on them.”
>She gulps.
>“Rate of fire... would be more than 20 shots for each of us to deflect per second, assuming they all fire at us uninterrupted and with perfect aim.”
>With that she seems to be done.
“And what do we do to reduce them being able to fire uninterrupted, and with perfect aim?”, you urge her further.
>Again she doesn’t respond immediately.
>“Friendly fire. They would hesitate if we are in their middle. But it’s not like they are close together for it to matter much, then- angle? What’s more important is them not having clear shots. The platform up there. We could jump up to it and mostly have some cover by virtue of having the high ground. It’s also easier to deflect blaster shots.”
>She looks intently outside, as if mapping out a route to take already.
“But?”, you interrupt her train of thought.
>You may not be able to make that jump, and you’d be in the turrets range again.
>Twilight looks back at you, or rather, down at your injuries. “But we’re not at full strength. So- uhh... we remain down, and-” Looking outside the window to reform her plan. “We...”
>“What do you think about splitting our forces, divide their attention?”
“Master”, you intervene. “This is not the time for a lesson.”
>Soarin closes his eyes.
>“No amount of trust in the force can change how we would be too vulnerable if we go out into the open like that, hoping we would not be recognized. No, we need to change our surroundings to our advantage.”
>He heads to the front of the ship and calls out to your pilot.
>“Shining Armor? I think it would be best if we would crash the ship? I spotted a nice VCX-100 in their hangar in which we would all have a much better time in.”
>“Crash the ship?”, Shining repeats.
>“Indeed. Near the refueling tanks, if you can.”
>“Got it.”
>You nod in agreement to the plan, even if you haven’t been asked, and you explain to Twilight.
“We create the cover we need, and we give them a problem that will take them manpower to solve.”
>“They will need to suppress a fire.” Twilight nods as well, now understanding Soarin’s plan. “Or save as much fuel as possible, yes.”
>“And we’ll be much closer to one of the doors,” Soarin adds with a smile. “Twilight Sparkle, you have repaired that astromech, haven’t you? An SP unit, if I’m not mistaken.”
>“Yes, Master, I did. SP-173”, she responds “but it’s more a messenger droid than anything else, really.”
>“We will only need it to link with the ship and show us the way to the brig.”
>It was better than any initial plan you could have come up with.
>You would rebuke yourself for that shortcoming, but you don’t have that luxury right now.
>You have to clear your mind for combat.

>Pain.
>Pain is merely your body telling you that you are hurt, and maybe that you should take more care with the parts that send the sensation to your brain.
>But Pain itself is nothing that you have to fear.
>Anything you have to do, you have to do, no use getting around it.
>And the further you move, the closer you may be to getting proper treatment, but you don’t get your hopes up of having a quick stop at the Victory’s med bay, or that you’d only need a ‘quick stop’.
>There was also the fact that all those you had wounded so far would be brought to the medical bay, so it would be swarming with people soon enough as well.
>You have not been hit, but you can feel your clothing getting damp as something flows down your back slowly.
>Even though your wounds were now a week old you still managed to rip one open.
>Everyone was well aware of your situation, but so far everyone also feigned ignorance.
>The one fear you have is that if you stop moving, you will not be able to start again.
“I will not die,” you mumble, and while you do so you notice that your jaw was shaking.

>You dictate the speed of your advance.
>Twilight is right behind you with Shining Armor as the rearguard.
>And in front of you is Soarin, acting as the vanguard, the first line of... attack, which it certainly is, your group is certainly the aggressor in this battle.
>Soarin alone cuts through more Clone Troopers than the rest of you combined.
>You mostly just deflect Blaster Shots back to the perpetrator, and by the time anyone would be within your saber’s range, they are already dead.
>It pains you in your heart.
>Always so much death.
>You being one of its harbingers makes the feeling all that much worse.
>A naive person would say that they are just clones, but one can’t think in these terms.
>If you kill another, you don’t just destroy them, but you also destroy what they may become.
>You destroy all the potential they have.
>The clone wars are over, and after the galaxy has settled, there will be no more need for so many soldiers.
>These clones can then have lives of their own, families of their own.
>Some are trained as combat medics.
>There could be so many more medical professionals that they can be sent into far away systems that long since yearned for such aid.
>But they are cut down because they are in the way.
>Your way.
>The way of the Jedi.
>If you surrender, a legacy will die.
>This is the burden you bear.
>That’s why you have to survive, even if it means destroying some potential.

>You snake your way through the Star Destroyer, not wanting to give away your actual target.
>Your first supposed target was, of course, the bridge, before you head in direction of the engines.
>But it’s the brig you are really aiming for.
>Down another corridor...
>The door opens just far enough away from you that you knew it wasn’t Soarin opening it with the Force.
>You raise your guard as a Clone Trooper stumbles out, his body mostly turned back to where he came from.
>He is... fleeing.
>“No... Nonono...”
>When he looks to his path and sees you in his way, lightsabers raised, he stumbles and falls to the ground.
>His distress becomes all the more clear as his already raggedy breath turns into a cry.
>Without even standing up he takes his blaster and... shoots himself in the head.
>“Wussed out like a little bitch,” a female Zeltron comments with a sense of glee in her voice.
>She holds a light red lightsaber loosely in her left hand and shrugs her shoulders when she looks at you. “c’est la vie.”
>The scene of carnage behind her made it obvious why the clone had been fleeing.
>Behind the Zeltron stretches another hallway.
>Clones, still alive, were screaming and writhing in pain after their limbs had been cut off in an act of atrocity.
>It takes all of you a little time to process what was happening, so she was the first one to move again.
>Her right hand too, grabs a hold on the massive hilt of her lightsaber underneath her left hand.
>Combined with her footwork... that is Form IV, and mirrored at that.
>With that she could be outrageously aggressive.
>But it’s more effective in one on one duels, while she is facing the four of you.
>You don’t know how well versed Twilight is in saber combat yet, nor do you know how much of a duelist Shining Armor is.
>And even if you were in prime physical condition, you are not much of a duelist either.
>Soarin, however, was Armsmaster of the Order.
>You all came to a full stop and eye the new enemy, but you personally can’t even think straight.
>She didn’t kill them, she made hunted them down and maimed them for her own pleasure.
>“To who do we owe the pleasure?”, asks Soarin cautiously.
>“It’s ‘whom’,” she responds, but her grin is slowly fading as she seems to calculate her own odds.
>You heart is almost beating out of your chest and you take on a better position, alongside Soarin.
>If you are to win, you should gain the upper hand quickly before she tries to form a plan.
>However, this would go against your teachings not to seek out battle.
>She is an unknown entity, fighting against the Empire, or at least the clones.
>But she may as well be an inquisitor making an example for some reason.
>Inquisitors...
>You haven’t really met any of them, nor do you know where they came from, but they appear to be force users wielding red lightsabers, and that they wear all black with their faces hidden.
>She was neither clad in black nor was she obscuring her face, and the saber had a pinkish tinge to it.
>Your not sure how much time passes while your mind is trying to come up with something before you could calm it and clear it.
>“We are not looking for a fight,” Soarin tells her and slightly lowers his weapon.
>Letting his guard down was not something you are looking to do right now.
>Your body is urging you to act.
>And you almost do so, but then another person enters the corridor behind the Zeltron.
>A Chiss female, older, maybe in her late twenties.
>She was also equipped with a lightsaber, a blue one, and casually flicks it against the Clones, bestowing the mercy of death upon them.
>As opposed to the Zeltron, she looks bored as she does so.
>It was your presence that made her properly emote, albeit it just being slight surprise.
>“Nut kenst uzdu saw?” She shakes her head. “Um mih’mels Liwlen!”
>You don’t understand a word, nor are able to even place what language she was speaking.
>But you think you hear our a mixture both accusation and annoyance out of her.
>The Zeltron glances back shortly, but doesn’t let her gaze waver from Soarin for long.
>Not immediately responding she shrugs. “Run wasef mad abselan”, before adding: “chi bah ge’dufen neige Je’daii.”
>Now, that last word, you know.
>“Dun kenst uzdu saw?” The Chiss says again, a similar accusation as before. “Tendu ihnen shuld-” >She interrupts herself mid sentence and raises her blue lightsaber only to guide the pink saber of the Zeltron down.
>“My apologies to the esteemed Jedi. My sister would not be as foolish as to challenge Soarin, the armsmaster of the Jedi Order, to a duel.”
>The two exchange a glance, and while the Chiss looks smug about it, the Zeltron was clearly insulted.
>“We both like to apologize for having given a bad first impression as well.”
“A bad first impression?”, you ask, “She was literally maiming people for the fun of it.”
>“Yes”, the Chiss nods. “As you may have noticed the same thing is happening our home planet right now. Our friends and families are getting unceremoniously slaughtered.”
>Your eye twitches, but Soarin answers for you “And you do well to think that returning one act of atrocity with another will make a bad first impression with Jedi. Who are you?”
>You would have phrased it differently.
>Soarin’s words were certainly more diplomatic, but he voiced his displeasure as well.
>Nonetheless does he lower his lightsaber and you sense Shining Armor and Twilight doing the same just behind you.
>The Zeltron and Chiss ‘sisters’ look at each other once more for a moment.
>“I’m Luna,” the Chiss introduces herself before nodding to the Zeltron. “This is Cadence.”

-----

>Jedi.
>Right when you first meet some for the first time really eye to eye they behave in exactly the way that goes completely against your own teachings.
>“My name is Soarin,” the armsmaster introduces himself unnecessarily, since you already know his name.
>But at least he’s polite about it.
>As are two Twi’lek.
>It was not quite obvious, but you conclude to yourself that, against all odds, they are siblings.
>It’s rare that siblings get initiated into the Jedi Order, solely based on the fact that they are not to grow attachments.
>And to produce force sensitive siblings, one needs force sensitive parents, yet another thing that Jedi frown upon.
>You look to Cadence who had come to the same conclusion, and she smiles.
>The reason why she does so eludes you for now, you will have to ask her later.
>The last one to introduce herself was the Angel.
>“I’m Celestia.”
>She can barely hold herself together, merely how she speaks under her ragged breath infuriates you.
“No, what you are is about to die,” you tell her. “The ever selfless Jedi, laying down their lives, even if they are the last of their kind.” They have no self worth whatsoever. “For what purpose, may I ask?”
>While you will have to have a stern word about Cadence’s behavior, she at least only toyed with those who’d die for being in your way.
>This Celestia however, is literally killing herself.
>“We were on our way to ask a friend for help, but saw that help was demanded of us in return.”
>You sigh.
“Tetfur beiw nauge”, you tell Cadence. Just as you expected. “Ants are being that look after others and not themselves, but such a lifestyle is only possible for a colony.”
>You raise and reignite your lightsaber, pointing at the worst offender, the Angel.
>She doesn’t hesitate to raise her saber in response.
“Would it not be a mercy to put 4 lone ants already struggling to survive out of their misery?”
>You move in a feint, barely doing anything at all except for  getting into a bit of a better position.
>Nonetheless she attacks.
>“Celestia!”, Soarin shouts out to her, but it was too late.
>The adrenaline that kept her going was her body working against it.
>Her teachings as a Jedi didn’t tell her how to deal with her feelings, so any rhyme or reason was lost to her in that moment.
>Fear and anger controlled her.
>A Jedi that selflessly kills herself to save others, unable to achieve her goal and falling against her teachings.
>A beacon of hypocrisy.
>Weak and pathetic.
>You really hated her in this moment.
>With a cool head you parry her feeble attacks, almost closing your eyes while doing so.
>When you have properly collected yourself, you simply twist her saber out of her hand, and bunch her in the face.
>You catch her before she makes contact with the floor.
“Fall,” you whisper, while pressing your left palm against her forehead.
>All the hate you have for her collects as blue magick leaves you and follows your command.
>It smokes out and enters her.
>You can’t help but feel that it, in itself, also wants to punish her in a fate worse than death.
“Fall into your worst nightmare.”