Dantooine: A Place of Harmony.

[Wei Wu Wei]

The hyperspace navigational computer wasn't working like it should have. Wei Wu Wei sat in the cockpit of his starfighter and sulked to himself as the ships computer danced him across the galaxy like a date at a dance trying way too hard with two left feet. R4 battled the computer software for control of the engines for nearly a standard day before finally making the little ship stop outside a fueling depot.
“We wasted more fuel than we can afford. Minute I exchange creds with this place, the Empire will know where we are.”
R4's sad whistle found his ears.
“Well, what else is new?” Wei said. “Let's just get to where we're going.” Wei paused and looked at the galaxy map. “Where are we anyway?”
R4 spun its dome head around, checking the stars in the sky against the map. The complex math took the droid only a few minutes before replying on the starfighter's HUD: Dantooine space. Standard orbiting pattern above the planet itself.
Wei chose not to think about drinking. He got there. It didn't matter that the navcomp didn't do it in a near bee-line route. “Ok, so we get fuel. We land. Do people still populate Dantooine, or did the Empire obliterate its surface?”
The planet is still populated—mostly humans. The Jedi Temple here exists as a mostly hulled-out ruin thanks to Order 66. Most of the archives have been deleted or destroyed.
“Figures. We're not here for information, anyway. The fighter's systems pinged. The small craft again showed maximum fuel cells. Wei nosed the fighter away from the station and broke atmosphere, scanning for the ruined Temple somewhere hopefully nearby.

[Palara Iscandar]

"It is possible to change your fate."

"It is not."

"Why not?"

"If fate is mutable, it is not fate."

"So why should anyone do anything, if our choices have no meaning?"

When she woke, all she could remember were the bluest eyes she could ever have imagined. The withered little troll was gone, as was the wizened old man and the younger human whose signature was clearer and purer than any she had felt before. And he was gone. Solomon.

She knelt, forgoing her usual routine of breaking her nightly fast by immediately settling into meditation to see if they had truly left her. They were still present, though the currents of the Force seemed to hold them at bay. She knew that today was the day that Wei would appear, and she would not have the help or hindrance of her companions in the Force as she had been gifted with for the past few days. She was on her own.

An alarm blared, signalling the approach of a small ship matching the specs of the fighter Wei flew. Her traps had been prepared. She knew Wei would be able to get through them. But the ionic bolt spire meant to disable his ship, the darts and laser sensors at the myriad entrances, the netting placed at key junctures throughout the structures, the sections of corridor fitted with sealing doors and gas, these were meant to strip Wei of his placidity and focus. It would make the odds a little better for her.

A little better for what, though, she couldn't say. But there was an anticipation in the air, a sense of a precipice of choice in front of her. She could go one way, or another, or another still, but after this she knew there was no turning back to her state at this moment. She would not be able to choose again. She would be doomed to follow through unto the very end.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei broke through a cloud as he descended towards the planet's surface. Suddenly A flash of light zinged past the cockpit. The hair on Wei's neck and hands stood on end. He could hear a static crackle as the hair on his head lifted and separated from the electric charge. The cockpit went dark.

"Maybe they already knew I was going to be here," Wei muttered to no one.


He pulled back on the control yoke, pressed a button under the diagnostic board--the first of several means of manually re-starting the fighter craft and bringing the electronics back online. He felt around with his foot, found a latch in the floor with his toe, pried it open. A pedal popped out of the floorboard and found the ball of his foot. Wei started pumping as hard as he could. He'd have to make the electricity himself. A ka-chunk sound told him the landing gear deployed. That was good. If he remembered, the diagnostic board would be next, to tell him the trouble. Then repulsors. Then the engines. Then R4. No time to think about that.

Wei stared out at the Dantooinian landscape. Mostly flat land, a few rolling hills. The Jedi Enclave's ruins on the horizon. He could land in the fields, and hopefully not destroy his landing gear. He angled the nose of the ship up, not sure if his shaking hands were from the fighter's efforts to buck his control, the adrenaline rush, or the alcohol withdrawal. All the while, the former Jedi kept working the pedal.

He bounced once. Hard. He made contact with the ground. Twice. He felt himself reach the peak of that bounce, then heard an electric whine. He didn't bounce. He glanced down at the panels. Diagnostics were lit bright red. They must have come on when he wasn't looking. But he did have repulsors! Wei allowed them to level him out, then cut power as slowly, as gradually as the knob on the control yoke allowed. The landing gear met the ground with a softer bounce. Friction did the rest.

"Whew!"

Wei popped the seal on the canopy. He shoved it open, then climbed out. He stared at the ship. R4 could do something to repair the ship, but Wei didn't have time to sit until his leg gave out reviving the engines and restoring power. So instead, he found the manual restart button on R4, pressed it down, counted to ten, then started off towards the enclave. He would see if the little droid was functional when he got back. If he got back.

The Force Cripple activated his lightsaber. The hum did something for his nerves. His connection to the Force repaired, he could now sense the area around him. He could feel the extra strength in his limbs. Wei stepped into one of the open side entrances. The Force tickled the back of his neck. Wei ducked. He could feel the darts displace air as they passed over head. Wei crawled forward, got to his feet. He continued on, lightsaber raised, ready for action. At last, he came to an intersection. But which way?

He needed to steady himself. Concentrate. He shut his eyes, took a deep breath--THUMP! Wei went down under the weight of a durasteel net. Wei cut a hole in the net with a flick of his lightsaber, but suffered some slight burns on his arms when he lifted the metal scraps free. Without thinking he walked down the corridor he was facing at the time, trusting the Force that he would eventually find his way to the center.

The former Jedi barely stepped two paces when a metallic clang sounded right behind him, followed by a hiss of gas. He looked behind him. Blast doors? He looked ahead. A second set were coming together a few meters ahead. Wei ran, gathered his feet under him, then leaped forward. Tucking, rolling through the air, lightsaber spinning around him, he cleared the space only just in time. He gathered his feet under him and continued the sprint. Another intersection! He dodged down a hallway just as another net came down. More darts, more doors, more gas. At last! The central area! Open, inviting--even as a burnt out hole. The sky looked blue overhead.

Then he noticed her. Waiting. Wei suppressed a groan and tried a much more cavalier, "Inquisitor."

[Palara Iscandar]

"Wei," she responded, and then was silent for a few moments, the only sound in the courtyard the soft whistle of the wind and the crackling of the fire burning between them. She remained unmoving, simply kneeling in the middle of the small area she had cleared out, with her pup tent off to one side and a small crate with a microgenerator atop it nearby. The Twi'lek Inquisitor gestured gracefully to the opposite side of the fire.

"I will not simply give you zese," she said finally, setting the two medallion pieces on the ground beside her. "You will not simply surrender. We are at an impasse, no? Each time we meet, we fight, and you escape. Is it our doom to forever seek and be sought? Shall our blades cross forever until ze last stars fade from ze sky?"

She smiled wryly, and the expression felt odd on her; it was one that had long fallen into disuse.

"But I am being melodramatic," she sighed. "I am tired, Wei. Tired of chasing you, and yet I cannot stop, just as you cannot stop being Jedi. Even if it is a fallen Jedi."

She closed her eyes and the Force felt heavy; it settled on the courtyard, and she could feel the life of the plants growing around her, and the insects in the earth beneath her, and even in the stones that surrounded the fire in front of her.

"Sit. It is peaceful 'ere, no? I do not wish to shatter zis 'armony just yet."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei felt ice in his stomach when Palara spoke. Her words were an echo of his thoughts. Her mention of him being Jedi--too close to home. He didn't feel like a Jedi. He could connect to the Force like before, clear his mind when he fought. Without it, he only felt pain of loss, guilt for that loss, a need to drink, and shame because he felt that need. The Force Cripple shut his eyes. It was behind him. He was working on it. And he didn't need a drink. He needed the Force. He needed peace.

He decided to sit.

Legs crossed, elbows on his knees, Wei leaned forward. "So, how does this work? I sit here meditating until your crew slips in here stealthily and snatches me away?" Wei gesticulated with the lightsaber. "After all the trouble you went through to set up all these lovely surprises--" Wei swept the point of the lightsaber around the perimeter--"I can't imagine you're interested in preserving any sort of peace and harmony in this place."

[Palara Iscandar]

"I was not of a mind to preserve peace zen, no," she agreed in equanimity. "'Ere, now, I am of a mind."

Silence, and then:

"It is just us, Wei. I 'ave no soldiers, no ship. Just what you see before you. An adept nearly as broken as you."

She opened her eyes.

"What will 'appen when you assemble ze medallion?" she asked, gazing curiously at the two pieces by her leg.

[Wei Wu Wei]

"I'll have a whole medallion," he said. "I don't know what it does or if it means anything. I just need them. It's all I have left."

Wei sat, thinking about all she had said before. Silence hung thick in the air. He liked it: awkward though it was, he imagined it created a sort of insulating buffer between them. He didn't have to deal with her if he didn't feel like it. Seconds ticked by. Maybe a minute or two.

"The Jedi used to live here. Now it's just one of many ruins of the places we've visited. The Jedi used to be the greatest force for peace and balance in the galaxy. Now they've been wiped out. Replaced by an Empire who enforces order by an Emperor who didn't care that having Order doesn't necessarily mean you have Peace and Balance." Wei tried to keep his face from grimacing and failed. "Does the Inquisition even have a code they follow?"

Wei waited for an answer and very pointedly tried to ignore the little tickle in the back of his head that reminded him he was hardly following his own.

[Palara Iscandar]

"To be an Inquisitor is to quell disorder, to search out secrets, to penetrate and seek out enemies of our Empire, and to bring all who have ze talent into ze Inquisition so zat ze Force may be bent to its will, and not dictate to us our fate. We are seekers, investigators, 'unters, and questioners. We are shadows of ze Empire, and it 'as need of us."

The Inquisitor ended her short soliloquy and turned her gaze from the fire to Wei.

"Zat is ze closest thing we 'ave to a Code."

The periphery of her vision had darkened, and she thought she could see shapes forming out of a mist. The Troll, the Old Man, the Man, and the Young Man, and many others, surrounding them and enclosing them within the confines of the firelight. The was Force was so strong now, it seemed to be thickening the very air she breathed.

"Things are coming to an 'ead Wei," she said, drawing the Force to herself. It responded, but there was an hesitancy where there shouldn't have been in its response. "Can you feel it?"

[Wei Wu Wei]

Could he feel it?

Wei put down his rebuttal of the Inquisitor's code and took a deep breath. He took a chance--took Palara at her word--and allowed himself to be vulnerable for a moment or two to shut his eyes and just breathe. He focused on his breathing and the sound of his lightsaber still humming in his hand. With each breath Wei felt his feelings washing out of him. He breathed in, and the Force entered him. Empowering him. Making him still as the stones surrounding him. Peace. Balance.

"Maybe, but if it's like you say, what would you want to do about it? If there's anything that could be done at all?"

[Palara Iscandar]

"It is my fate, Wei," she said, looking at her foe across the dying fire. Her feelings were mixed; she had never hated him, nor thought highly of him either, but now, on the edge, she felt she would much rather be here with him than with Inquisitor Atrapes. He was the closest thing to a friend she had. "Against destiny, what can one do?"

She made to stand and activate her saber, but the Force's strength suddenly acted on her, and all the spirits around both her and Wei became visible.

"A contest of arms this is no longer," the Troll said, looking at her and then at Wei - could he see the spirits? - intently. "A contest of will this has become. A contest in the Force, and in the Force alone."

The Young Man looked both serene and sympathetic, and the Old Man looked at them both with eyes full of wisdom. The Man looked at them intently, but not without empathy and what seemed experience.

Iscandar found the world becoming sharper and clearer, and more vague and blurred at the same time. The air around her rippled, as if she had become fire.

She locked eyes with Wei.

"I cannot relinquish zese chains, Wei. You must submit!"

At her last word, she pushed with all her being against the former Jedi in the Force.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei Wu Wei leaned backwards with the push until his head rested on the stone floor. When the moment passed, he sat up again. "Yield, but not submit."

He took a breath, then let it out again. "Did you know there was a difference? I knew once, but had forgotten. Recently, I've re-learned. I am an imperfect student of the Force." One more breath in. One more breath out. One more breath in, one more breath out. "The Force is so strong here. What do you think might happen if you let the Force move on its own, rather than make it move yourself?"

Breath in. Wei brought his hands up in closed fists. Wei opened his hands. Breath out. He allowed the Force to shape his intent, to use him as a conduit. The Force moved. A powerful wind seemed to spring from him as water gushing from a fountain. Yes, the Force was strong here. Wei would never have been able to do such a thing on his own. Wei set his hands back in his lap. The wind stopped. Wei sat, serene.

[Palara Iscandar]

The Inquisitor was unprepared for such a feat as this, from Wei. His will and the Force pushed into her, and a deep seated fear rose within her like a fire. She hated it, how weak she felt, how he seemed to be so powerful against her. The fear and anger were controlling her, though she wasn't yet fully touching the Dark. She looked for any avenue she could find to end his domination.

"No!" she cried, desperately holding herself up against Wei's assault. She pulled, and a large stone ripped from the surrounding ruin was launched at him, just as Wei ended his counter attack.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei could feel her, could sense the tension as the stone tore out of the wall at her command. Unsure of what to do in his sitting position, the former Jedi put his thoughts aside and let the stone fly towards him. He felt the stone through the Force, saw its energy and movement. Before he truly understood what was happening, his hand was moving. The stone moved with it and crashed down beside him.

"I do not think destiny exists as you say it does," he declared. "If there is any destiny in this galaxy, it is that the Force seeks its own Balance, and will find it with or without us. What happens to us, our 'fates' if you like, will only be determined by whether or not we choose to seek Balance, or obstruct it."

[Palara Iscandar]

"Balance!" she spat, wrestling the stone back into the air and toward Wei. He fought back, and well. She wasn't at all prepared for him to be able to use telekinesis so well. "Zere is no balance! Where is your balance in slavery? Where was your force during ze Clone Wars? Ze only balance is zat which we make four ourselves in a galaxy full of injustice. And what is your balance anyway! A balance between Light and Dark? Good and Evil? Can such a balance exist?"

She was surprised at the venom in her words, an outpouring of bitterness and cynicism she thought she had well under control. She was even embarrassed a bit by the loss of control, but she tossed her embarrassment aside and returned to focusing her will on making Wei submit. She needed to win. She needed to win.

To fail again, to be trained for years, to succeed against so many and yet fail again and again against a barely functioning drunk...

She needed this victory.

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Those are things the Jedi fight for every day," Wei replied. He felt the sting in his words, the familiar guilt and grief over his lost Jedi friends. The stone came tumbling through the air towards him. He moved his hands. The stone brushed by him and the tumultuous emotions went with it.

"We were misguided. Our judgement was clouded by the Dark Side. We believed fighting the Clone Wars would bring balance, but that was just a misdirect to lead us away from restoring true balance. We got annihilated, and we deserved it. We should have stayed off the battlefield. Let the clones fight. We should have been investigating the true nature of the Darkness we sensed, but did too little to stop. In the end, we were wrong."

The Force Cripple continued to step in time with Palara's assault, flowing around it, redirecting it, but never truly firing back. Without really knowing what to say next, he found himself reciting the Jedi Code. "There is no emotion; there is peace. There is no ignorance; there is knowledge. There is no chaos; there is harmony. There is no passion; there is serenity. There is no death; there is the Force."

[Palara Iscandar]

The Inquisitor, bereft of the large stone, tried to coalesce her will and the Force around Wei, to stifle him. The Force was so heavy in the courtyard that she could see it, her fiery will flaming around Wei's bubble of cool serenity. At least a cooler and more centered serenity than she had. She increased the pressure, her drive to succeed and will to persevere translating into a vise of the Force.

But the Jedi code rattled about in the air between him and her, and it annoyed her, to see the serenity in those words, the simple strength of a soul which accepted and let go of the unrighteousness. She couldn't let it go; for if she did, she would have to forgive the galaxy its injustice, to all those who suffered under chaos and anarchy and to her, most of all.

She couldn't let it go.

[Wei Wu Wei]

"I can sense your anger. And fear. Why do you feel that way? When you get angry or upset, you can't think. You can only react. Deal with your feelings. Give yourself time to cool off."

To Wei, the Force looked like water flowing all around him. It boiled around the Inquisitor, blasted forth from her. As it rushed towards him, he could see it washing around him. As he yielded to it, the Force swirled around him and evened out, using him as a channel to return to the way it was.

"Did something happen to you to make you feel this way? Something related to what we've been talking about?" He asked. "With the Clone Wars? Or slavery? Get to the source of it, and you can decide you don't have to feel that fear and anger anymore."

[Palara Iscandar]

"You dare lecture me on letting go?" the Twi'lek hissed, taking comfort in the fact that though she seemed to be fire, at the very least she had not turned Dark. At the edges however there was a blackness that crept into the flames. She clamped down on her emotions, and was gratified when the darkness seemed to be leeched from itself into a washed out black. "You? 'ave you dealt with your pain yet? Can you say eet eez so easy to seemply decide to not feel pain and hurt? Wizzout alco'ol, of course."

She felt uncomfortably apologetic as soon as the words left her mouth; she had never considered herself a petty person before. The point however, remained the same.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei felt the cold spike in his heart when she brought up his past. "I'm working on it. It's not easy and it's not fun waking up with headaches and shakes. Seeing your ubiquitous Empire and knowing one of your faceless troopers murdered my wife makes me angrier than I have ever been. But I have a job to do. I'm always dealing with my grief, but each day it gets just a little bit easier. I can finally start to remember my father and my wife without feeling their loss."

The former Jedi took a deep breath. "I don't tell you to let go because it's simple, or because I'm better than you. I tell you to do it because I'm just like you, angry and grieving, and practicing the Jedi Code works. I feel the Force keenly, and when I'm not focused on things that don't matter, I touch all life, and it flows into me and through me. And then, I truly do find peace. I remember there is no death. Just the Force."

[Palara Iscandar]

Inquisitor Iscandar let off her attack, seeing the Jedi before her dealing with it far more easily than she would have liked.

What could she do? He outclassed her. If not completely in command of the Force, as proven by his abilities shown in their battle here, then moreso in skills with a lightsaber.

“Zere is no death, zere is ze Force," she said, thoughtfully, though bitterly.

“I cannot stop, Wei," she said seriously, regarding him with consternation. “You will 'ave to kill me to keep me from continuing to fight you. I must kill you or capture you. If I capture you, you will suffer greatly. Ze Inquisition is not merciful to its prisoners, or to zose who fail it as I continue to do."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"It's odd," Wei replied, "but you've spoken in the past like the Inquisition has done you a kindness. You talk like you owe them for something they did for you, but I can't help but wonder if your place in the Inquisition is just more hell, only dressed in up in the greys and blacks of the Imperial uniform." He shrugged, then continued. "All I know is, if you decided all of a sudden to stop trying to imprison me, you and I wouldn't have any problems. I guess what I'm trying to say is, it sounds like your problem is with the Inquisition, not with me."

The Jedi took a deep breath. "I mean, it's obvious you don't use their tactics or share their cruelty. It's plain to see you rest in the Light. Are you sure you belong with them?"

[Palara Iscandar]

“I swore an oath, Wei," she said, as if that explained it all. She struggled with finding the right words. “It was not ze Jedi 'oo saved me. You weren't zere. It was a man in Imperial clothing."

The flames that had distinguished her force presence guttered out. They were alone once more, with no spirits or heaviness weighing her down.

“Do you know what it means, to swear an oath? For your words to mean something. I can no more turn my back on zem zan I can kill myself. It is impossible."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"I understand oaths," Wei said. "I have taken two in my lifetime. One to uphold the Jedi Code and bring balance to the universe, and another to love and care for a woman until death." I fulfilled those oaths until I could no more. And now I taking up the first again."

Every word that rang in the Former Jedi's ears sounded to him like some truth he didn't realize he knew until he said it out loud.

"I understand the integrity of honoring oaths. However, if your oath moved you to do something against your own principles, would that oath be worth keeping? Wouldn't the worthier course of action be to break your oath, take the risks, and do whatever it took to keep your conscience clean?"

[Palara Iscandar]

"What is ze point of giving your word, if your word is always conditional to your judgement?" the Inquisitor asked quickly. "No, Wei. As 'orrible as it seems, my oath takes precedence to my conscience. If it did not, it was not a vow I swore, but a lie I told."

As she spoke, she could feel the truth taking shape within her, and she realized how truly close she had been to forsaking her mentor and the Empire both he and she served. The same Empire that, for all its faults, had broken her chains, and set her the task of breaking others'. Wei seemed unaware also, though he wasn't the catalyst for her second thoughts about the Empire. That mainly belonged to a tall, dark skinned human, and the freedom and learning she'd enjoyed while on this mission to kill or capture the human before her. The fateful moment had passed, and with her decision made, her emotions settled some. It was now time to follow through.

"I am bound, Wei. By chains of obligation, yes. But zese chains I placed upon myself. True, ze choice was to join or die," she nodded in amusement, allowing Wei his point. "But I was, and am not afraid of death."

In point of fact, she had been close to choosing death over it all, for a chance to finally feel peace and escape from the hell of the galaxy that she had found herself in. But Atrapes had appealed to her sense of justice, and the chance to right such wrongs as she saw fit — only doing so in the name of the Empire and for its betterment.

"As you said: 'Zere eez no death, zere eez ze Force', no?"

She gathered the two pieces of the medallion Wei sought and tossed them to him. It was clear to her that she had lost. She also gripped her lightsaber, and stood, the pressure and heaviness from the Force easing even more.

"But I would like to ask you to cross blades with me one last time. I would like a good memory to take with me to my fate at Imperial Centre."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei caught the pieces easily, and looked at her in surprise. "So that's it? You're throwing in the towel?"

He leveled his lightsaber at her. "If you're sure."

The Force Cripple paused a moment, trying to make up his mind how to begin. He didn't like this. He sighed. "Then let's go!"

Wei leaped forward as if borne on the wind. Somersaulting end over end, lightsaber whirling and humming, he crashed down on Palara with a mighty blow.

[Palara Iscandar]

Iscandar wasn't foolish enough to meet his hammer blow full on. Or even partly, for that matter. Instead, she gracefully spun out of the way of his attack, and settled back into a guard position, a muted smile on her face.

It was amazing, she could later recall. Having made her decision, finally, as to where her loyalties truly lay had granted her a peace of mind she couldn't remember having since she had been first freed from slavery by Inquisitor Atrapes. That peace of mind translated into a happy, quiet joy that pushed her into the only dance she ever remembered enjoying. Her steps were sure, her movements precise and while not lacking in her natural fiery demeanor, held little of the turbulence that had marked them before.

Soon enough, she was sure, this peace of mind would recede. She would be faced with other trials and challenges, not the least of which was the potential for her execution as she as she returned empty-handed to Imperial Centre. But those were in the future, and in the past also. If anyone were able to keep up with her now in a contest of arms, she was sure it would be Wei.

"I am not conceding defeat 'ere, Wei," she said seriously. "Surely you can feel it; I am not meant to win in battle 'ere. Zis I know. So I will not try to defeat you, and so I cannot lose. You are meant to leave, and you will only do so with zose pieces. So, take zem. And let me enjoy a good fight while we are it."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"As you like it," he muttered. Wei boxed out, ground in his stance, and swung laterally. The fight opened with Form IV, but Wei shifted into Form V smoothly. He couldn't reach his comm at the moment. He'd have to go back through the traps, or simply hope R4 would appear overhead soon. Palara had no intention of actually defeating him, but even with that knowledge, Wei felt he couldn't just turn his back on this fight.

"Is there any portion of this place you didn't trap?"

[Palara Iscandar]

The Inquisitor, for her part, segued into Makashi also, and once more she moved around the strike instead of blocking it. With a slight twitch of her wrist, her blade lanced in around his moving arm.

“Of course!" she said, watching his own graceful twist to avoid her strike. Her blade swung around, following him. “Once you 'ave shown me what I wish to see, I will lead you out myself."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei drew himself into Form III, closing up the gaps his defense as Palara rained strikes upon him from every angle. Muscle memory took over as Wei fought with a growing sense of unease in his gut. He didn't like this. He didn't like being handed his escape for what would essentially be a show. He didn't like how the Inquisitor's seemingly fatalistic embrace of death--all because she felt she did not have the ability to change "fate." It reminded him too much of something he had come to realize he hated about himself: despair. He started working through the feeling.

As a young Jedi during the Clone Wars, Wei was proactive. Positive. His handicap didn't hold him back because he chose to work with it. In the process, he became a capable Jedi Knight. His weakness became a strength, allowing him to hide from people trying to detect Force Sensitives. After the Clone Wars, living at home, nostalgia threatened his survival. Then, thanks to his new community, and the love of a fantastic woman, Wei was able to leave it behind. But the second loss was too much. He gave up. Alcoholism wasn't death, but in a way it was worse.

At the beckoning of the (literal) ghosts of his past, he resumed his Jedi training. His father's dying message gave him a direction. A purpose. He was recovering. He was changing his fate, finding personal balance, and stood to help bring the galaxy into balance as well. He could rescue the Jedi legacy, ensure his family's sacrifice had meaning, and recover his own integrity and self-respect.

Upon reflection, it was actually quite simple. Letting go of his grief helped him find the reason for that grief. Discovering that knowledge gave him clarity and purpose. However tragic his life had become, his family was not the target of a random attack: They were murdered because his father saw an opportunity for his son to recover his essence, and risked everything to give him that chance.

Wei refocused on his opponent. He measured her movements. He paced her timing. He found his opening. Wei struck Palara's blade, keeping his wrist flexible and his grip on the lightsaber firm, but pliable. The blades seemed almost stuck together. The Force Cripple suddenly moved, directing the Inquisitor's blade to a position he chose, but did not strike at the opening. "Fate is not a preset path, Inquisitor. The Force flows, and influences us all, yes. Life creates it. Makes it grow. It surrounds us. It binds us. How can something that penetrates the fabric of the very universe not leave its mark upon our lives? But giving in, giving up to 'Fate?' That's not balance. It's only capitulation to the will of someone else."

[Palara Iscandar]

"I do not speak of paths, Jedi," Iscandar said, a small smile on her face as the Jedi did not strike her down, but started to speak. "I speak of ends."

Now that Wei was focused on the fight at hand, or at least on her, she picked up her tempo, resuming her acrobatic dance in what she remembered as "Ataru". But then there was a Makashi stance and parry, a few quick flicks of her lightsaber into Wei's defense, and then suddenly she was throwing all her Force-enhanced strength into blows onto his guard. Wei blocked and locked their sabers once more, but Iscandar quickly brought one fist down onto his wrist.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei's face scrunched in pain. He released that hand's grip on the lightsaber, rolling his wrist over so it bent around Palara's wrist. With his other hand, he stabbed. The Jedi Knight did not reply to Palara's words. He had to go. He had to get going. She didn't know it, but he would be following close behind her to that planet called "Imperial Centre."

The Force Cripple locked blades with the Inquisitor and pushed. He was ready to go. He'd had enough, and it was time to move. Wei regained his two handed grip on the lightsaber and hammered down on his opponent over and over again, trying to push her towards a door. Any door. He just needed her to move.​

[Palara Iscandar]

For the first time in the fight, Iscandar frowned. It seemed as soon as she had found some emotional stability, Wei's was on shaky ground. As he hammered on her defenses, Iscandar simply parried, never matching him strength for strength. She had taken more from their fight with Gethzerion than just the memories of overpowering Dark, it seemed; she was fighting as the old woman had, using the Force to draw in stray objects to distract her opponent, and then as a whirlwind of motion and attacks, would swirl around the man.

But soon after this phase had started, she paused, and deactivated her lightsaber, still regarding Wei with a thoughtful frown.

"Zat is enough," she said, placing the weapon on her belt. "You do not understand yet. Zere is no enjoyment. Vairy well. Follow me, Wei."

She led the Jedi through the maze of the ruins, skirting traps and pits and weak looking sections of the walls. Within a few minutes, she had brought the Jedi out of the ruins, and the fields of Dantooine lay before them in all their wide open splendor.

"Before you leave, Wei," the Inquisitor said. "I must warn you. I do not know what you 'ave planned next, but I feel zis is not ze last we will see of each ozzer. As I will be on Imperial Centre for some time, it may be zere. If you are planning on going to Imperial Centre, gain some certitude. Should you face my mentor, emotional stability will be all zat saves you. 'e 'as no questions about 'is path. Zere is no turmoil in 'im. 'e will kill you at best if you face 'im now, as you are."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei paused at her words. Even after Palara put away her weapon, the former Jedi never sheathed this. Confused and angry, the Force Cripple only managed to say, "I'll do that, then," before backing away from her and towards his ship.

R4 greeted him with a flurry of beeps and whistles. The ship's display was a wall of text built with questions about what happened, where Wei had been, and what had happened while the little droid was out of commission.

"We need to leave," was the only reply.

Minutes later, the view out of the canopy was as dark as Wei's mood.