Lost in the Echo - 10.040 (Wei)

[Kyle Krogen]

Ossus. A new planet, a new beginning. It had everything needed to support life and with it came hidden knowledge and the opportunity to grow, bond, and thrive. The ancient home of the Jedi was everything he had ever hoped to find. A place where they belonged. No more running, no more hiding. Already a new life had been started. A ship landed, living spaces established, and new discoveries, new knowledge, happen on a daily basis within the ancient library.

So why was it that he could not sleep at night, and could not stand being around other people. Already he had secluded himself, choosing to watch the happenings from the safety of his hill just outside of camp. To a man who had lost everything a blanket was the coziest, warmest bed. His own clothing was a mix of pieces of his prison jumpsuit mixed with whatever fragments of clothing he had managed to scavenge. He had tried his very best to not be a burden on his fellow Jedi, and had done his best to stay out of their way. Weeks curled up in a corner had followed his rescue from his several years in custody, and he was determined to not show that weakness again.

While the other Jedi delved and grew, Kyle was not entirely unproductive. He spent his days alone, on top of his hill. His lightsabre had been recovered from the Inquisition during the raid that rescued him, and with it he practiced almost forgotten techniques passed down to him from his Master so many years ago on Coruscant. His muscles were weak and hardly remembered the delicate motions. His hands moved hard, fast; chopping instead of slicing. He had no grace left. All he had left was anger and a growing desire to see his captors driven before him. He had nothing left.

They held him for years, torturing him. Breaking him. They gave no reasons, no explanations. They just woke him up every day, pushed him down the same corridor to be pricked and poked and then tied to the ceiling and beaten until his entire body ached. Then they patched him up, made him good as new. Whispered sweet nothings in his ear; propaganda, backhanded compliments. Lies. Then into the anechoic chamber where no sound could exist. They would lock him in there until he could hear his own heart beating, the blood rushing through his ears, and finally the very sound of his sanity cracking. Rinse. Repeat. For years.

Just thinking about it made him more angry, causing his sabre motions to become brutal and decisive. The purple blade hummed and sputtered, leaves falling from the nearby trees turning to smoke as they fell into the beam. His blond hair was long and untrimmed, his face a mess of stubble. Personal grooming was something he had not even put a thought to in so many years. The Inquisitors used to take him out and shave his head and face when it grew too long for their standards. Months in the Wheel saw it regrow to the point that it sat in his eyes for the first time in years.

Frustration at his poor form only made his mood worse, and his routine became sloppy as he frequently lost his footing or poorly executed a maneuver he knew he could do better. With a growl of frustration he deactived the energy weapon and tossed it away from himself, letting it skip across the ground until it came to a rest in the grass.

[Wei Wu Wei]

The lightsaber hilt rolled in the grass until it rested against the toe of Wei Wu Wei. Busy though he had been, he couldn't help but notice the lone Jedi on a small hilltop looking into the camp, or practicing all alone.

For the past several weeks Wei wondered how best to approach Kyle. It was evidently clear that something was wrong. Fear and insecurity rolled off Kyle in waves. Even without being connected to the Force, Wei could see how scared he was of...well...everyone.

At last, Wei decided to reach out to Kyle with the only thing the Force Cripple knew: lightsabers.

The Jedi Knight caught the pommel of the saber with the top of his foot. A quick flicking motion sent the hilt spinning up to eye level. He caught it in his hand and walked up to Kyle.

"I saw you training and wondered if you'd like company. I guess I got here too late. Seems you're finished for the day."

Wei offered Kyle his lightsaber--focusing lens pointed away and towards the outside of their bodies. "Trying to be a Jedi again can be difficult, isn't it?"

Wei offered a knowing smile. Becoming a Jedi again had been hard on Wei, though not half so hard as the time he spent before being a drunk. The things that hurt and haunted him still left him feeling bruised when he thought of them, but each day he spent working shoulder to shoulder with the new Order made the bruise hurt less.

[Kyle Krogen]

Reaching out his fingers found the curve of the handle and slowly, reluctantly, over and under it. Pulling it back to himself he cradled it in his hands like the most delicate of relics. It was a simple design; a silver handle with a gold plate and black grip. The gold had long ago faded and tarnished and the grip had been replaced several times with different materials. It had belonged to his master. The very sight of it was a sore reminder of just how far he had fallen.

It also offered memories of a time out of place. Back when he was just a child; raised on the streets, fighting to survive. He ran from a scrape, down into the pits of Coruscant and there he found him. The Gray Man. He took a vagabond child and gave him something he never had; hope and honor. This sabre had been their connection. The days they had taken turns with it. Him instructing by example before handing it to Kyle to emulate. Together they grew. The Gray Man had a friend in the aftermath of the Purge and Kyle learned to be a man.

It had been his attempt to spread that profound sense of freedom and morality that alerted the Inquisition and for all his honesty and honor he was thrown into a prison of darkness to rot for years upon end. He would still be there, in a cell. His nightmare would have only gotten worse if he was not rescued from that ship. They were taking him to the Maw, and he had feared what waited for him there.

It felt wrong in his hands. Hands that were blistered and cracked from holding a lightsabre for the first time in years. Callouses had gone soft and his muscles weak, and now they struggled to fit a routine that had once come naturally. His whole body ached from sleeping outdoors, malnutrition, and catching what little he did eat with his own hands because it felt wrong to use the force to break the necks of little critters.

"Adjusting to sunlight after living without it for three years was hard. Living outside of a cell was hard." Kyle said, turning the lightsabre over and over in his hand. It seemed so small and delicate. Hardly the weapon of a man who just wanted to beat everything to death just to release some of the rage he felt inside. "Becoming a Jedi has been impossible..."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Ah, but you see, it's not impossible at all if you think about it."

Wei sat in the grass and invited Kyle to sit by him with a gesture.

"People think finding balance is hard. That it takes will, struggle, and effort to achieve. Balance for some people is like a wild bantha that has to be hunted, cornered and wrestled to the ground. Balance isn't hard to grasp: it's letting go of what unbalances us that's the real struggle."

Wei took a breath. "Do you know the Jedi Code?"

[Kyle Krogen]

At the mention of the code Kyle was transported back through time to Coruscant again as the Gray Man looked down at him with those tired eyes and told him to recite it again. The Jedi Code. Once upon a time he had held the idea of balance as the most important aspect of life and had applied it to everything he did. For every life he took he planted a tree, for everything he had stolen he gave equally away. It had given him a peace of mind. Serenity. Balance had been the strongest pinnacle of his life and had motivated him more than anything else. In a galaxy so dark he saw nothing but opportunities to tip the scale back toward the light.

"There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the Force."

The words exited his mouth without much thinking. The practiced memory was shaken clean of dust and shone like a beacon in his mind. The code had been little comfort in his darkest of days, and now it felt strange to say it. When offered the seat he almost remained standing, but all his rage and frustration had bled away and now he just felt exhausted. Taking a seat in the grass across from the man, Wei he believed his name was, Kyle picked at blade of grass until it came free between his fingers.

"How can I find that balance again? I can still hear their voices in my head, and every night I go back to that cell."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei thought about it a while. He knew how he found balance. An adventure to find the truth about his family and more hours than he could count practicing lightsaber forms helped him let go. But would it be so simple with Kyle?

"Well," he said at last, "I do know that any advice I give you will sound completely simplistic. Scars that run deep take a long time to heal. But I will say this: don't try to run from your feelings. The things you feel are natural, and need to be dealt with. Just remember where you are here and now. When you hear those voices or imagine that cell, know you're not there anymore. Those people can't hurt you anymore. Perhaps just bearing that in mind will help you find the balance you need."

Wei cast his gaze about the landscape, feeling lame and hoping what he said was helpful. Wei had a big problem with canned answers and half-hearted platitudes: he'd gotten more than his fair share after the death of his family.

[Kyle Krogen]

Reaching up Kyle rubbed his closed eyelids softly, kneading them as he listening to Wei speak. It was simple. So simple. He knew that, but it was where the simplicity lead that kept him awake at night with a cold sweat dripping down his back. Pulling his hand away, he looked past Wei down the hill to the camp below. Everyone was working, doing something. All had a purpose, a calling. He knew his, but it wasn't very Jedi-like.

"No. They can't hurt me anymore, but what about everyone else?. My feelings tell me to find those sick bastards and make sure they can never do that to another soul. No one should have to go through what they did to me. The hole they kept me in had enough cells to hold an army. I felt them, all of them, as their souls cried out in anguish. The Inquisition deserves nothing less than hell."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei nodded. "I'm already working on resisting them and, eventually, overcoming them."

The Force Cripple wasn't sure what else to say. Then he remembered why he was there in the first place. "The last I will say on that is this: one day they will fall. Maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow. But they are a source of imbalance in the galaxy, and they will be put to rights. In the meantime, I think it's more important to get ourselves established. Without the proper preparation, we won't be able to stand against them at all, much less put them out of business."

Wei stood and offered his hand to Kyle to help him up. "I've seen you practicing out here. If you like, we can practice together. Lightsaber combat is more or less all I do. I think I can lend out a hand if you're interested."

[Kyle Krogen]

"I haven't even used a lightsabre in years, much less fought with one..." Kyle replied as he weakly raised the deactivated weapon, spinning it idly between his fingers as muscles found old nervous habits. Letting out a sigh he agreed with a nod of his head and stood up, stretching his arms with a rotation and cracking his neck to the side. The tension he felt subsided as his limbs loosened.

Old senses long forgotten tried to emerge. Something about environments, surroundings. Oh yes, he remembered that he had always used his environment to his advantage. A hill with a scraggly tree was not exactly something to be used to his advantage. It only served to make him feel naked and exposed against a man he very much bet was the far better swordsman. Kyle had been great, once upon a time. That was a long time ago. Now he just felt old.

"If you want to kick a man while he's down, then by all means." And with that his sabre actived into a brilliant amethyst beam and his body fell into what he thought he remembered a defensive posture being; legs apart, offset, and his blade held at the head in front of him. Everything felt old and new at the same time.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei shook his head. "No, that's not what I meant. I've watched you practice alone for a few days now, and I don't think a sparring match is going to help. I was thinking more about drilling techniques and doing some strength training. We won't do any sparring again until you're more confident in your skills."

Wei stood alongside Kyle. "Not bad for an opening stance. Your body remembers more than you think. Muscle memory is a wonderful thing, and we're going to use it to our advantage. Which lightsaber form did you practice most before your imprisonment?"

[Kyle Krogen]

His blade lowered until it pointed toward the ground. Kyle had to admit he was a little bit disappointed. As much as he knew he would lose a duel against just about any other Jedi, he was also hoping for the blood rushing high and a outlet for his emotional turmoil. All this seething rage needed release. Wei's reasons, though, were understandable.

"Ataru," Kyle replied as he adjusted his position as Wei moved alongside. "With an emphasis on the Sokan principle." an emphasis on using the environment to your advantage. On his native Coruscant there was always wasted space in the sub-levels; broken down turbolifts, or entire levels in disrepair littered with debris. His master had taught him how to survive in an urban environment. Fast, hard attacks using every advantage available. Kyle hardly thought himself capable of the necessary somersaults, flips, and dives that defined Ataru.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei nodded. "That's a good discipline, and takes a great deal of energy to perform well. Why don't we start with the basics? Go over stances and basic footwork. We'll do the really high-energy stuff later."

He smiled and took the opening stance: feet shoulder width apart, but with the left leg leading. He put a good deal of his weight on the leading leg: Ataru was the Aggression Form and the weight distribution made it easier to lunge forward. He held the saber in both hands with the hilt at shoulder-level. The blade pointed at the sky.

"Like I said, you probably are at a higher skill level than you realize: it's just that your body is weakened from your imprisonment. Let's just sharpen technique for now, and we'll work on building up the power Ataru requires as we go. It'll be easy: slow to flow, then flow to fast. You'll be back to normal in no time."

Wei pivoted on his front foot and cut horizontally. He stopped the motion when his right foot faced forward in a sort of reflection of his opening stance. "Take it slow, and focus on the footwork for the moment."

[Kyle Krogen]

Kyle proved more than capable of imitating Wei's posture, although his attitude was much harder to copy. Every part of him wanted to crawl under a rock and die, or shoot back into space for revenge. Because those were the emotions the Empire grilled into him, and those were the only things he had for so very long. The truth that he had only two options: fight or die.

As he pivoted like Wei and swung his blade it felt very familiar, but the voice and the teaching was different. Where Wei underlined the importance of footwork he remembered his own master focusing on the purity of thought and intention. That as a clean slate any action; passive or aggressive, could be just so long as you were pure in your intention. Neutrality, a cosmic balance, these had been the center of his lessons. When the Empire took that balance away and fill him with darkness he didn't think he would ever "dance" again.

"It feels wrong, I feel like I'm doing it wrong..." Kyle murmured, the frustration obvious in his voice. Giving up was just so much easier.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei stopped and looked over at Kyle. "I'll watch you do it and we'll see."

Wei wondered if his Form IV might vary in some way from what Kyle was taught. Of course, after being imprisoned for so long, it could be that he couldn't quite remember what the motions were like. More than likely, Kyle's mind was distracted. Wei knew how a sour feeling could infect anything you were doing and make it seem all wrong.

"Do it again."

[Kyle Krogen]

Kyle repeated the motion, just as he had just done, and when he finished he once again had the feeling that it was wrong. Not that the technique was wrong, but that he was wrong to be using it. The lightsabre felt like too elegant a weapon, too light, for all the crushing and smashing his heart wanted to commit.

Repeating it again, and again, he drilled the maneuver and it became easier and he felt less guilty for doing it, but there was still a weight on his shoulders, threatening to push him into the very hill he stood on. It became easier, and old techniques remembered by rusty muscles surfaced in flourishes and foot pivots that went beyond the simplicity of the maneuver.

Already the muscles in his thighs and shoulders were burning.

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Looks good!" Wei said. "We'll have to practice some other techniques and footwork later. Tumbling as well. The spinning and somersaulting maneuvers in Ataru work best when you can land on your feet." He chuckled at little at himself as he said it.

"You want to keep going? Don't feel bad if you want to take a break. Until you can rebuild your strength and stamina, you don't want to push yourself too hard. It wouldn't do to injure yourself in training."

Kyle was sharpening up well. He felt confident that Kyle could reach his old level of skill with a little practice and strength training. Wei was convinced the training was still there. They just needed to prime the water pump, so to speak, and it would all come rushing up to the surface.

"I believe you'll be back to your previous best in no time."

[Kyle Krogen]

"No, I can't stop now, or I'll give up." He replied, firmly in tone. Procrastination was a slave master, and like a Monkey Lizard on his back it kept tapping him on the shoulder, telling him he could stop and try again tomorrow, and the day after that, and the next day forever until someone like Wei happened by again to give him the kick in the pants he needed.

No. This was something he had to do. The burn and the strain was a good feeling, standing juxtaposed to the cramped quarters he inhabited for years in prison where movement was restrained. His body weakened, muscles atrophied. If not for the daily walk to his various chambers of torture he would have gotten no exercise at all in that place. Now he had wide open fields with as much room as he could possibly ask for, but he was still living in a cage, choking on the claustrophobia and darkness of his mind.

Stopping, he crouched down and stood up, stretching his leg muscles a few times before planting his feet and pushing off, leaving the dirt behind as his entire body went airborne, rotating backwards, but also shoulder to hip, pulling him around in the air. Time sort of slowed down, and he felt like the moment of weightlessness stretched on for an eternity as the weight of the ground fell away and he found solace in the air. Finally he came back down, landing opposite of the way he had jumped, having flipped and twisted his entire body around. It'd been some time since he had left the ground under his own power.

"Thanks Wei." He said, at last, finally turning back around to face the Jedi. "I'd forgotten how it feels to move."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"You're welcome." Wei smiled. The Force Cripple shut off his lightsaber and motioned back towards the grounds. "Let's get some food. Solid nutrition will definitely be a big advantage. Meals happen pretty much any time, so there's bound to be something we can eat." He pointed at Kyle's clothes. "It might also do to get you some fresh clothes. We can do all that and be ready to go again inside of an hour. Won't take long."

[Kyle Krogen]

Kyle's eyes turned to look down at the encampment below, and the hesitation was clear on his face. Even from here he could see the rustle and bustle of people going about their day; building the camp or training, or just walking around enjoying the beautiful scenery. For all it's beauty being out in the free air only made him miss the familiar of his gunmetal gray cell; completely alone except for the Inquisitors that would drag him from that cell and into the bright lights and pain. "I don't... I don't feel like I belong around other people, around real people." That was what they said, when they were applying the thumbscrews and beating him while he hung from the ceiling. He was not real, his ideals were an illusion. They tried everything in their power to tear down who and what he was. To some success.

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Don't belong?"

The question wasn't meant to be answered. Wei looked at Kyle and smiled. "Of course you belong! You're a Jedi! You never stopped being one, even when the Inquisition had you. The reality is, you're home. We don't have to talk to anyone about what happened, or let them know about your anxiety or feelings. We just sit. You don't even have to talk. Just be there. We'll even work out a signal. Something small and innocuous that will let me know when you're getting too uncomfortable. Minute I see it, I'll excuse us and we'll come right back here for more Ataru training."

Wei held out his hand. "Deal?"

[Kyle Krogen]

His eyes never left the offered hand; even while his own twitched at his sides, unsure of what to do. Pros and cons rolled through is mind, and his stress was only rising. Knowing that he was stressing out only served to stress him more. The conflict would have waged forever if he had not taken a step of faith and stretched his hand out and taken Wei's. Just that personal contact was enough to make him feel more comfortable, and he could feel his heart rate diminishing. "Deal."

The trip into town was uneventful to a regular person, but for Kyle it was a trip through a hellish landscape. Every turn was filled with bright, shining, and unfamiliar faces that both terrified and confused. What were they so happy about? Did they know something he did not? He wished they would stop, and just for a moment be serious and miserable like him. He spoke as little as possible and only when absolutely necessary. Whenever things became too much, when his panic was caught in his throat and suffocating him he would turn to leave, and see Wei's face looking back at him, and he would find the courage in those eyes to stick it out just a little longer. It reminded him of his childhood; wandering the lower levels of Coruscant trying to survive, and having to look up to the older boys for direction and instructions. Those would learned quickly lived, and those who did not or had no one to teach them washed out quickly; just another dead pest in a gutter.

Eventually Kyle found himself freshly dressed and sitting in the open eating area; the real mess hall half built beside them. He sat alone with Wei at a table, a bowl of gray nutritional paste between his hands. It reminded him of granite worm, but without the rubbery taste and bits of undigested duracrete. In comparison to his prison time it was a feast. He did not even remember them feeding him, just whatever junk they injected into him at the start and end of each torture session to keep him alive. Compared to that and what he had been living off of on the hill the paste was an explosion of flavor. Each spoonful was consumed like it was his last; slowly and thoughtfully. While he ate he watched the other colonists eating and moving about their day. "They all move with such purpose." Kyle said at last, between spoonfuls. Finally the bowl emptied and the spoon was dropped into it was a clatter. "I haven't had a purpose in so long. Just surviving. What drives you, Wei?"

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei looked up from his own meal. "Well, until recently I've been attempting to overcome the loss of my family. Now, more recently I've been dedicating myself to discovering the nature of my handicap and arming our new Jedi Order with lightsabers." He shrugged. "It's been slow going, but progress is being made. I'm happy with it," he added.

He looked around. "Finding purpose isn't has hard as you might think. You can offer to help someone with something they're doing, or you can find your own work. Even if all you do is spend a day peeling tubers, you still provide a big help."

Wei returned his gaze to Kyle. "It's ok to start small."

[Kyle Krogen]

Kyle looked into his bowl, defeated. Wei was right, but it didn't make him feel any better, or less anxious about being around others. He still knew that, deep inside, he was just a wellspring of hate and anger. The painful memories were worn on his sleeve for any telapath to see. Looking around the dining area he was sure that at least a few had glimpsed just what was sitting on the edge of his conscious; the very real need to maim and murder those who had done this to him to satisfy a need for vengeance that he would justify by claiming to be stopping them from hurting others. That was how much he had meditated on the thought; so much that he had an excuse for after he had done it. He was ashamed of it, but he could not bring himself to let it go. His dark thought felt like a filth he could not clean off that threatened to spread and contaminate those around him.

"I just feel so... radioactive. I feel like I'm only capable of destroying." The words escaped his mouth, and he felt all the more ashamed. Wei had just revealed he had lost his family, and he was so self interested that he had not even thought twice about it. It was hard to relate to concepts like family when you've never had one. The closest he ever had was the other orphans. They formed gangs not because they wanted to socialize but because it was the only way to guarantee that someone was watching your back, that someone cared. It was not the same as a real family unit that had endless reserves of patience and love. Kyle couldn't even imagine what it must be like to lose that, but it must have been like how he felt when his master died. That unquestionable sense of loneliness as the only cornerstone of your life is suddenly yanked away causing your psyche to come crashing down.

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Sometimes, listening to our feelings can be good, like feeling afraid when face to face with a vornskyr. Other times, the last thing we should do is trust our feelings."

Wei shifted to get more comfortable.

"It might take time and effort, but you can reshape your thinking. It just takes action. If you want to see if you are capable of doing constructive things, tend the fields, or help the maintenance crews. Again, take your time. Make small, slow changes. You're safe here, and the Jedi you're going to be living with have plenty of patience."

[Kyle Krogen]

A sigh escaped his lips while his hands fidgeted with his bowl. "You're right. By the Emperor's Black Bones you're right. I can't be scared of myself forever. I'll have to try. Heh. It's not like I have anything to lose." Because they took it all from him already. With each drop of the hammer and each cut of the blade they stripped away his humanity like flesh. It was time to rebuild, to start over. To stop looking over his shoulder all the time, waiting for that knife to stab in again.

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Where would you like to begin?" The Jedi knight asked.

Wei sat quietly, perfectly still. He didn't want to disrupt Kyle.

[Kyle Krogen]

"I want to help." He said after a moment of silent pondering. "But I don't have any trade skills. I'm just an orphan from Coruscant, so unless they need someone pickpocketted or food stolen from street carts I don't really have that much to offer in the grand scheme of things. You don't come out of the school of hard knocks with a working knowledge of carpentry or herbalism."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Well, then you're in luck," the Jedi Knight replied. "You can start anywhere you like, because you can learn anything. What counts most right now is determination."

Wei leaned back. "Though you know, if your skills are in theft and stealth, then you could help Security. There's not much need for it, but sometimes little thieving animals get into the stores. " He chuckled. "Matter of fact, why not start out with inventory over at the warehouse? The quartermaster could always use a hand."

[Kyle Krogen]

Kyle's fingers drummed on the tabletop a few times as he mused over Wei's words. For a moment he was enveloped in the conversation and blissfully unaware of his anxieties and surroundings. "Sure. I'll do that. Anything to help out, right?"

"What do you do around here then Wei? You know, when you're not helping broken down Jedi pick themselves back up?"

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei pulled his datapad out of his pocket, tapped the screen a few times to bring up the information he needed, then handed it to Kyle.

"Currently, I'm working on arming the Jedi Order," he said. "Ilum is no longer accessible to us. There was a mission to Ilum a short while back to get lightsaber crystals, but the Council doesn't think raiding a heavily fortified Imperial holding is wise. So, I'm researching methods of synthetically growing the crystals through the use of the lightsaber forges of old."

The Jedi Knight pointed off in direction of the towering ruin of the Great Jedi Library. "Excavation teams have been digging up all kinds of documentation for weeks now. It's kind of hit or miss so far, but it's generated a handful useful bits of information. I have a list of types of lightsaber crystals and their molecular structures. I even have a rough design for the lightsaber forge. But I don't know how it works, or what it's supposed to be made of."

Wei glanced up at the sky. "I haven't ever seen lightsaber forges at Coruscant or any of the other places I've visited. I've considered revisiting a few of them, but Coruscant, Dantooine, and Dathomir are all off limits owing to Imperial control on the first two and the Force Witches on the other. It took a series of complex navigational maneuvers to get to Tython the first time: if I can avoid going back, I would like to do that."

He shrugged. "I just don't know how long the Jedi Order can afford to wait for something to turn up."

[Kyle Krogen]

"Probably not, but with the right team you might just be able to sneak in right under their noses." Kyle replied as his eyes ran down the information, pausing occasionally to soundlessly mouth the harder words. Most of the info went right over his head. Too sciency. There was bits and pieces he got, and others he assumed the meanings of. "My master used to tell me stories of the Clone Wars, of Jedi infiltrating behind enemy lines to sabotage planetary shields and artillery placements. He also told me that the sith used synthetic crystals to power their lightsabres, and because of it they were weak. Is there anything in the Jedi dogma about using synthetic crystals?"

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei inclined his head and shrugged his shoulders at Kyle's words.

"True, and I was a member of one of those teams. However, I won't risk the lives and welfare of Jedi just for this. The Force will guide me. As for the Sith and their synthetic crystals, those were created with Dark side energies to produce the blood red blade they're so famous for. There are naturally occurring crystals that make red blades, but these had a quality that the Sith believed made them better than Jedi blades. I intend to use the forge to make crystals that would be almost exactly like the ones that occur naturally. To my knowledge, there is no ban on synthetic crystals."

Wei shrugged. "Some day, we'll reclaim Ilum. Until then, we must make do."

Wei's comm unit pinged. A message from the archaeological team. The Jedi Knight's face lit up with a big smile. "Oh! Ha ha! Yes!" He held up the comm to his ear, listened to the brief message, and then returned the comm to his pocket.

"The archaeologists at the Library have some data for me. Want to come?"

[Kyle Krogen]

Kyle frowned. His master's story had depicted Jedi who were willing to get the job done, brutally cutting down the enemies of the Republic who got in the way. Those were the stories that had inspired Kyle to invest so heavily into mastery the lightsabre over the other aspects of the force. His master had once been a great swordsman, or so his stories went, and he often entertained the young rogue with the tales of the operations that were conducted. There were some stories he would start and then stop. Even though his eyes had lost their sight the thousand yard stare would unmistakable. Horrible things happened in those operations. Perhaps Wei had suffered similar events and that was why he was so hesitant to pursue Ilum. Kyle knew it was beyond proper conduct for the Jedi to be the aggressors but they would never restore their former holdings without pushing the Empire out.

Perhaps it was not their place to take it back, but to make due with what they had. The Force moves in mysterious ways.

"I would love to come." came his earnest reply, his shoulders rising and a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei nodded. "Then let's go. You can see everything."

"For some people, this simple existence we have is boring," Wei said, as though answering Kyle's thoughts. "Last anyone knew of the Jedi, we were war heroes. Leading great armies and battling our enemies out in the open. We were never meant for that, though. Before the Clone War, we were diplomats, guardians, researchers, and peacekeepers. Our only aim was to understand the galaxy, the peoples and cultures within it, and the Force, so that we could maintain Peace and Balance."

Wei shrugged. "Some people nowadays outright distrust us. I think it's better we start small and work our way back up. We're re-introducing the Jedi to the civilized world."