Blades of Justice. (Fig)

[Pierce Tondry]

The lightsaber- weapon, shield, tool, and symbol all rolled in to one. Every Jedi from Youngling to Master learned its ways. As part of the transition to Knight, Padawans crafted their own lightsabers to replace those they received in training.

"Dammit!"

Assuming I can actually craft the damn thing.

Pierce frowned at his thumb, neatly sliced open by the screwing tool he'd been working with. He turned the digit to get a better look. At least the other two cuts weren't bleeding.

The construction design he based his weapon from was credited with blade stability and endurance. Those traits appealed to a hardened veteran of battle such as himself- a weapon that did not quit in battle was a true weapon.

The instructions neglected to mention the weapon circuitry's complexity though. Or perhaps they assumed a certain amount of telekinetic dexterity, a skill Pierce remained sorely underschooled in. Either way, all the patience he'd picked up during his training was about to go right out the window.

Pierce got up from the workbench, heading for the nearby supply cabinets. The Workshop was bound to have bandages in among the tools and parts somewhere. He would just have to find them.

[Figrin D'an]

"Top cabinet row, second from the right," came a voice behind Pierce. Figrin had watched from just outside the room for a few moments before entering and pointing the newly promoted Knight in the right direction.

"There may even be some small bacta salves in there, too," he added. "Don't worry, we all end up with a few cuts and scrapes before it's finished. The first time I tried to craft a sabre, I sliced my left hand open on a sharp edge from the casing."

[Pierce Tondry]

"Really?" Pierce's brow furrowed with momentary surprise, then cleared as he reached for the top cabinet. "I wouldn't have thought a master swordsman like yourself would have trouble on this kind of task."

Rummaging through the medical supplies turned up some gauze and a salve, both of which Pierce applied to his thumb while Figrin watched. "It's the Dow-Tzen design. Flow and balance, thought and enlightenment. It sounded good. Very symbolic. Very hardy, apparently. Several Dow-Tzen blades resisted being broken in battle against Sith with weapons notorious for the feat. 'Strong, clean, and even, it is,' said Master Yoda."

Ha. Pierce rolled his eyes. "I wonder if he ever tried building one. They're bloody complicated."

[Figrin D'an]

"Even us master swordmen have to start somewhere," he smirked. "It was many years ago, shortly before I first became a Jedi Knight. I had to build my own sabre as a right of passage, and despite all my preparations, I discovered just how different it is to actual build one opposed to reading about constructing one."

The Jedi Master examined the sabre upon which Pierce had been working, looking at the outside casing and the exposed inner circuitry and crystal housing.

"It's a solid design, most definitely," Figrin agreed. He picked it up, judging its balance. "Good weight distribution. Have you chosen primary crystal yet?"

[Pierce Tondry]

"No." Pierce's voice was oddly distant. A lightsaber reflected in a pair of eyes suddenly became all he could think of.

His eyes defocused, his expression turned introspective. "I met- somebody," he began haltingly. "Not long- not long after I escaped from Sorsha. She was- unique. She helped me on a mission."

Blue eyes and a bluer blade...

"It- she- everything about her all added up to something," Pierce said after dwelling. "Her weapon was an expression of herself. Or vice versa, or everything was part of everything else. I don't know."

... and staring into them was like gazing at the open ocean on a moonlit night...

"It was special. She was special. Unique, like I said. I want-"

... but dwelling in the past loses you the present.

"Master D'an," Pierce looked to Figrin, his expression one of uncertain puzzlement. "Did I ever tell you I was married to Lilaena De'Ville?"

[Figrin D'an]

Figrin's eyes went wide, though they remained fixed on the partially constructed sabre. He carefully set it back in place on the workbench, rather than risk dropping it should Pierce continue to reveal such shocking details of his personal life.

"Lilaena De'Ville," he echoed. "As in the Dark Jedi and one time Sith?"

Tondry simply nodded in response.

"You always been so quiet about your personal life, much like I am about mine," Figrin commented. "Pardon me for saying so, but this comes as quite a surprise."

The Jedi Master had an epiphany at that moment, as he did the simple logic to place the pieces of the puzzle together.

"Does this mean that your son, Jax, is also..."

[Pierce Tondry]

"He sure didn't grow from a pod," Pierce replied wryly. "But yeah. He's our son- hers and mine. And I know she wants him."

"I wake every morning wondering if it will be the day Lilaena will try to take him away. I track down criminals, not just because they've broken the law, but because each one off the streets is one less agent she can use when that day comes. The fear casts a shadow on everything I do. Sometimes, I think paranoia is all that really defines the type of Jedi I am."

Pierce ran a light finger over the edge of the gauze on his thumb. He couldn't help but think of duties he performed in the service of the Jedi as a bandage just covering scars. "If I build this blade, I want- I need it to stand for something other than fear."

[Figrin D'an]

Figrin nodded. He understood, perhaps all too well. Fear was such a powerful thing, and despite the Jedi ideal represented in the Code, any Jedi who claimed they never feared was a liar. Fear is something that everyone felt at one time or another. It was the reaction to that fear that determined if one would walk the path of the light, or fall into darkness.

"The lightsabre is often more powerful as a symbol than it is as a weapon," he said, thinking about some of the teachings he had learned as a student many years ago. "It can serve as a reminder to us of just what we stand for as Jedi."

"In the time I've known you, you have always stood for justice," Figrin continued, stepping away from the bench and towards Pierce. "Be it in your intelligence work, or as a Jedi, I don't think I've ever seen you waiver from that stance. It's an honorable quality, and one I hope you continue to uphold."

He glanced back at the saber on the workbench.

"The lightsabre is an extention of the Jedi, both physically and mentally. Perhaps that which you represent should hold true in your sabre as well."

[Pierce Tondry]

"Isn't that what all lightsabers are for, though?" Pierce shook his head. "Justice is the epitome of Jedi. Balancing what's fair for one with what's fair for another- no, that's the whole point of our existence. I need something else. Something unique. Like she was."

"Like Eve."

... like the open ocean on a moonlit night.

"If I could stand for anything, I'd like it to be peace," he said tiredly. "It's what I've wanted more than anything. Peace like a great, wide, rolling sea. Not just an end to the fighting. An end to the need for fighting."

Pierce slumped back into a seat at the bench and pressed his fingers to the sides of his head.

"But even the sea has storms and monsters."

[Figrin D'an]

"All things have their storms," Figrin replied, "or their monsters, or bumps in the road. It's only how we deal with such things that really matters. Striving for peace or justice or wisdom will never be smooth sailing. But the journey to arrive at such things is what makes them all the more important."

The Jedi Master leaned back against one of the benches, crossing his arms comfortably.

"You know, I'm reminded of a saying I once read," he continued thoughtfully. "I don't know to whom it was first attributed, only that it was passed on by many Jedi Masters to their students as advice about the lightsabre..."


"The crystal is the heart of the blade;
The heart is the crystal of the Jedi;
The Jedi is the crystal of the Force;
The Force is the blade of the heart.

All are intertwined. The crystal, the blade, the Jedi. You are one."


"Ultimately, you are what is in here," Figrin said, lightly tapping his chest near his heart. "You, the sabre, the crystal you place in it, and what you want it to stand for... they are all one in what they represent. If you are true to yourself, you'll find your answers."

[Pierce Tondry]

"I'd like to agree with that," Pierce said quietly. "That charting the right course is the most important thing. But I've seen too many losses where the ending mattered to believe that the outcome isn't important, too. The path to hell is paved with good intentions, y'know? If an important person striving for peace gets shot and everyone starts fighting over who did it, all that striving meant nothing."

"And Lilaena's a Dark Master. If anyone had a chance at knowing me, exploiting my weaknesses, she would be it. Deep down, I think I'm going to lose my son to her, Figrin. I don't know how, or if, I could handle that."

[Figrin D'an]

"The Order will do everything in it's power to prevent that from happening," he replied candidly. "Jax has a great deal of potential, and could become a powerful Jedi one day. As long as you are part of the Jedi family, he will be as well."

As much as he didn't want to pry into Pierce's personal affairs, Figrin felt it necessary to find out if there anything more specific to his concerns.

"Have you discovered something that might indicate she plans on taking your son from you?," he questioned. "Or have you felt something in the Force that troubles you?"

[Pierce Tondry]

"A day doesn't go by when my danger senses don't get tripped," replied Pierce. "I confront so many immediate threats that if Lily is planning anything, I haven't caught it through the other messages."

A thought occurred to Pierce and his head raised with an intent frown on it. "James Prent had a vision or two of Jax, I think," he said. "She collapsed from it the first time we met. She said she was protecting him from danger in it. I never questioned the truth of it, not even for a second, and usually I'm dead on when catching people trying to lie. She collapsed at his birthday last year, too. Never did talk about it, but I have this feeling-"

His eyes narrowed shrewdly, and Pierce stared down at the half-constructed lightsaber. "You'd think she had some connection to Jax, but darned if I can figure out what it is. Who were her parents, do you know?"

[Figrin D'an]

Figrin shrugged slightly.

"Unfortunately, she doesn't know who her real parents were," he answered candidly. "She was adopted by the Prents at a young age, and the agency has no record about her father or mother. I've been trying to track down what information I can about her lineage, but I've run into a series of dead ends so far. It's as if she was left on the doorstep without even so much as a note ."

The Jedi Master started to recall his recent conversation with James, about the vision in which she thought she saw her parents, and the blurred image of a figure clad in white. He wondered if she had sought the vision again, as he had suggested.

"James had a vision the first night I met her as well," Figrin remembered. "It was during the banquet we had to celebrate the completion of the Temple complex. She's had several others as well, though I'm not convinced she tells me everything she sees. I tend to believe there are some things in her visions that frighten her so much, she simply doesn't want to discuss them."

"She asked me once about the connection she seemed to have with Jax," he said thoughtful, rubbing his beard. "I really couldn't offer an explanation that made sense. I told her that siblings sometimes could exhibit a close connection via the Force, and that a mother and child can sometimes have a telepathic bond. A connection between two people who hardly know one another and aren't related is exceedingly rare, and is most times unexplainable."

"The bond has been only with Jax, yes?," he questioned. "She hasn't had any type of connection with you, has she?"

[Pierce Tondry]

"Not that I know of. She's never mentioned me being in her visions at all. The one she described sounded like she was confronting evil as much as she was protecting Jax. I wonder what that means. What it all means."

Pierce stared at his lightsaber for a moment, mulling over the things he'd said to Figrin. How could he possibly stand for peace when every day brought a new battle? When all indicators of the future pointed to more conflict? Even in the calmest weather, the waves still come...

A small inscribing torch sat among the tools on Pierce's bench.. Carefully leaning to peer into the tube that would become the handle of his lightsaber, he took the torch and lighted it. Then he began to etch.

Figrin moved to leave, probably sensing Pierce wanted to concentrate. The movement caught Pierce's attention, however, and he spoke without looking up. "Wait."

The etching quickly took the form of a pyramid comprised of interconnected lines, very similar to a spiderweb. Pierce blew away tiny flecks of melted metal and he caught Figrin's eye. "Take a look."

[Figrin D'an]

Figrin walked back towards the bench, and standing just off to Pierce's right, glanced down at the pattern that now adorned the sabre casing. The lines were very finely cut, showing the man's skill with the precision torch, and the design itself had a quality that seemed to make it stand out far more than mearly the sum of the simple shapes of which it consisted.

"You have found your answer then?" he asked with a pleasent curiousity.

[Pierce Tondry]

"It's Verpine."

Pierce angled the tube to better let the light in. "The phrase isn't, though. It comes from- some poem, I forget what. It's the last part of a verse."

Even in the weather calm
Come still, must all waves.
At the shore, by sand and palm
meet land and sea, for all days.
And the tides do lose their holdings
And the sand accepts its findings
And neither do complain, as if to say...

"It reads, 'As tides do bring, let come what may,'."

He looked at Figrin. "That's the closest I can come to an answer, I guess."

[Figrin D'an]

"Perhaps that is all that is required for now," Figrin said. "Let it guide you, and perhaps one day, you'll find the complete solution."

Figrin headed for the door. "I'll leave you to your work, Pierce. I look forward to seeing your completed lightsabre."