Private Journeyman to Flame

[Syd Celsius]

Syd raised an eyebrow as Starlin Rand finished slaying the spider monsters then talking at high speed like he had Injected the coffee rather than drink it. Which would have been an impressive feat.

"Err slipped a little on the Magic." she said. "The Spell of Speed grants Force Speed like effects that last longer, but your body will require time to recover before you can use it again. Careful with it. Make up your own spell words for it..."

Starlin then asked where the Assembly's true body was. At this she frowned.

"That was always what was so damn frustrating about her. Even during our very worst battle, I was never certain whether the Assembly I destroyed was Assembly-Prime or not." Syd replied with a sigh. She began looking for a path upward and finding an old workbench.

(ACQUIRE UPGRADE?)

(YOU TYPE 'YES')

Syd put the Energy Bow she acquired in the Forest on the bench, and began modifying it to her liking.

When she was done, the bow had acquired two new modifications...

(Zelda Acquisition Theme Plays)

(Syd's energy bow has acquired upgrades)

Upgrade: RAPID DRAW

Spoiler

Modifications to the field energy flow enable more rapid draw of the bow energy string, and thus, a Faster firing rate.

Upgrade: BOW SIGHT

Spoiler

Upgrades the bow with a large circle sight for faster Target acquisition

Syd admired her handiwork, then turned to Starlin.

"This will be a very serious fight we are going to. The Assembly is absolutely lethal. But we go for a two pronged approach. Bathe her in Force Light, while I turn that schutta into a fething porcupine and then burn her ass."

Syd's brow wrinkled a bit.

"By the way, this is a little off topic, but you ever notice how odd the word 'Porcupine' is? I think this is the first time I ever used it. Just sounds weird rolling off the tongue..."

Syd's flesh shuddered every where as she felt the pulse of darkness from the Assembly.

"She's attempting to corrupt the machine. I'm certain of it. We need to move now." Syd said, cautious as she moved up the steps...

 

[Starlin Rand]

Spell of Force Speed? Make up his own words for it? Starlin tried to come up with a rhyme, but found that he was having trouble focusing. Even as the spell began to wane in power, it left him jittery and twitchy—followed by something like a caffeine crash. He sagged, abruptly feeling exhausted.

Struggling to listen to what Syd was saying, he nodded his head in silence. His body was bathed in sweat, but he wasn’t out of the game just yet.

“Force Light. Okay. I can do that.” He exhaled, then his brow furrowed. “What’s a porcupine?”

Regardless of whether he got a response, he followed Syd up the stairs, prepping for another even harder battle with the Assembly...

Syd Celsius​

 

[Syd Celsius]

The Assembly was at the front of the machine, flesh shuddering and bubbling in a sickening manner as Syd floated up to face her with Starlin Rand at her side.

"Assembly. Step away from the machine. I'm only going to give you one chance. Only one."

Syd doubted she would take it but she had to set a good example if Starlin was to be any sort of Jedi.

The Assembly's flesh stopped shuddering and the beautiful, dark skinned witch turned to face them, spotting Syd and scowling.

"Your Padawan's soul shall be my din--"

The Assembly snarled as an energy arrow blasted half her skull off, yet she remained standing. It seemed a bit of a button had been pressed in threatening Starlin.

"Okay, feth you, I gave you your chance." Syd snapped.

The Assembly's body broke down into a mass of writhing tissue turning into four separate copies of her, all armed with spirit ichor swords.

"Now you see why she needs Force Light..." Syd grumbled. She let loose with Multiple arrows, striking the copies even as they tapped the Dark Side to keep their bodies going as they rushed down her and Starlin.

Syd quickly abandoned the bow to get her blades and was frantically fending off swipes that cakes almost too fast for her to parry...

She hissed as she started to suffer her first cuts to her arms and legs when she was too slow to parry. She blasted one with flames from her mouth but it skittered harmlessly off their flesh.

The copies attacking Starlin tried to Force their way into his mind to tear apart his soul...

 

[Starlin Rand]

So far Starlin had been able to fend off the witches’ curses. But this time, he was no match for the ferocity of the Assembly’s telepathic assault.

Upon breaching his mind, they initially sought to torture him with hallucinations of his loved ones dying. He witnessed illusions of his mother killed, of Syd destroyed, his friends murdered. But then, as the copies conjured up memories of his friend Tom Kovack to use in their schemes, they quickly realized, with the help of the all-knowing Force, that they had stumbled upon a massive secret. They practically fell over themselves diving down to see how deep the rabbit hole went.

Their actions triggered a vision of the future.

An older Starlin stood amid the dense jungle of Lao-mon, homeworld of the Shi’ido. He had come there looking for Tom, who had gone with an expedition to investigate the Maw and never returned. The Jedi Knight who did survive, Ala Quin Quinn, had claimed he chose to stay and keep up the good fight against the cultists. Starlin, unwilling to let his friend die on some remote planet in the Unknown Regions, had immediately followed him.

He’d found Tom, all right—but it looked like it might be too late for him. Tom had been nearly bisected at the waist, his guts hanging out from the wound. Black blood pooled in the dirt around him. The pain radiating off him was intense, his body swiftly going into shock… and yet a Shi’ido healer was nearby, working diligently to save him as though his wounds were minor rather than catastrophic.

Starlin continued to stare, paralyzed with a confused mingling of grief and fear of the unknown. At last, he tore his gaze from Tom to glance slightly to the side—an obfuscating Force amulet lay amid the bloody leaves near his body. The amulet had been implanted inside Tom’s body, but the slashing blow had torn it from his innards. In his present condition, he couldn’t reach it—couldn’t indulge in the disguise it offered, hiding his true identity from other Force Users.

Starlin picked up the blood-spattered amulet and stared at it. Slowly his gaze shifted to Tom, his expression one of utter shock.

“... Professor?”

In the present, Starlin fought against the Assembly, swinging wildly, but he couldn’t seem to get a hit in, couldn’t stop them from—

Tom opened his eyes and looked at Starlin, his expression contorted with pain. He struggled to speak.

“Starlin, it’s not… what it looks like.”

“You’re Professor Nimdok,” Starlin said, as though announcing the fact would anchor him, help him to feel less unmoored from reality. “That’s what it looks like to me. You’ve been with me all along, pretending to be my friend!” His fingers tightened around the amulet. “Why? Why did you do this to me?”

“I did it mainly for Miri,” Tom explained, grimacing. “So that I could... watch over her and be with her while she was training. I couldn’t do that as Nimdok, not yet—”

“So you pretended your daughter was your sister, too?”

“Starlin,” Tom growled, annoyed by the constant interruptions. “You’re starting to piss me off.”

“How do you think I feel? You lied to me!”

Tom’s body suddenly began to seize up. He gripped the healer’s arm, clinging to him as his flesh—his Shi’ido flesh—writhed and heaved. The healer muttered reassurances in their native tongue, and soon Tom’s body began to mend, spurred on by a drug the healer had injected into him.

“I lied about who I was,” Tom admitted once he had caught his breath again. “But none of what happened was—was fake. I am... still your friend. I am still... a Jedi. Understand?”

Starlin glared at him, shaking his head. “You didn’t have to do this.”

“I did,” Tom insisted. “To keep you out of trouble. That proved to be much… much more difficult than I thought it would be.” He groaned, hands clawing at the underbrush as his flesh rapidly knit back together. “I set you up... with Syd Celsius, Starlin. I might as well see to it that my investment paid off.”

“You think you’re the only reason I became a Jedi?” Starlin spat. “Just to impress you, or some chit? Just to please your whims?”

“The only reason you’re still a Jedi is because of me,” Tom snarled, hazel eyes flashing. “You wanted to leave, remember? You knelt down before the NJO and tried to turn in your lightsaber. I don’t think you ever cared about being a Jedi except when it allowed you to be the hero. That’s not what being a Jedi is about, Starlin! And it’s definitely not about following whoever you happen to like! Don’t you ever think for yourself?!”

Starlin howled, cut to the core by Tom’s harsh words. He didn't understand much of the vision, for it dealt with events that hadn't happened yet. But just as if he were waking from a vivid nightmare, his consciousness took it completely seriously and reacted violently. His blades sliced one of the copies of the Assembly into three pieces, cutting through her neck and middle, before slashing brutally at the others, half-blind with tears streaming down his face.

Syd Celsius​

 

[Syd Celsius]

Upon hearing Starlin Rand cry out, Syd, kept on the defensive by the copies, tapped something dangerous in her and sank into Juyo.

She was pissed they were hurting him. It's something that would become a factor at Dantooine.

Again and again, she was haunted by her past everywhere. It ceased to let her rest, leg her escape. It took so much from her, and she couldn't live with herself if it took Starlin.

She slipped into that primal outlook, but didn't let it dominate her, as her defense became pure offense, each blow swatting aside an attack and cutting into a copy, as Starlin's cries of emotional pain fueled her determination to kill whatever was threatening him, as she began casually turning aside attacks through her one attacks, slicing rapidly into bubbling Witch flesh, strikes growing more and more rapid until she was a blur of orange blades, rapidly slicing apart surprised Witch copies until both she and the crying Starlin had killed them all.

Syd immediately shut off her blades, went over to him, willing the dead parts to ash with her pyro abilities, dropping her Lightsabers as she went over to him

"Starlin? Starlin, breathe. Whatever they showed you, whatever you saw, it was only meant to hurt you..." She said clasping his shoulders, sick with worry for him. "It's ok. I'm here, calm down. Remember your training. Push past the distress, release it from you..." She instructed. "Don't give into the visions..."

 

[Starlin Rand]

Starlin kept thrashing at the empty air for a few moments after the other copies died, like an animal caught in a trap. He was no longer certain what he was fighting—the witches, Tom, a hidden aspect of himself?

"Starlin? Starlin, breathe. Whatever they showed you, whatever you saw, it was only meant to hurt you..."

Syd’s voice calling to him seemed distant. His vision was blurry, but he felt her hands on his shoulders, grounding him at last.

“Syd.” Hot tears cleared a path through the forest dirt smudged on his cheeks. The fifteen year old, unwilling to be seen like this even by his master, sniffled and quickly wiped his eyes. “That was embarrassing...”

Now that he was no longer under the witches’ influence, the vision only confused him. What had he been crying about? He couldn’t remember anymore...

“Did… did we get the Assembly?” he asked, looking around. “Is she dead?”

Syd Celsius​

 

[Syd Celsius]

"It's never embarrassing to show pain..." She said reassuringly. "It's natural. Learning to deal with pain is what makes you a proper Jedi. It's not weakness, trust me on that. Many brave people cry. But you managed to fight whatever they did. That means you were stronger than whatever pain they caused you. Don't dwell on what they showed you, whatever it was."

At Starlin's question as to whether they had truly gotten rid of the Assembly, Syd frowned.

"These copies are dead, certainly. But I'm still not sure The Assembly is fully dead. There might be more copies out there. I'm afraid we will simply have to remain vigilant." Syd answered honestly. "But I'm very proud of you for fighting it off, even if imperfectly."

She patted him on the shoulder, then stood up, walking towards the final machine. Fortunately The Assembly had not managed to damage or corrupt it.

"I'll handle this final Machine, Starlin. Catch your breath..." She said, chanting under her breath to activate this final machine, combining all the elements of the previous machines into this final one, reactivating the devices fully.

The presence of the Light was noticable. Palpable as the machine caused it to wash over the area, banishing any remaining trace of darkness.

The Light flooded through her and she felt her flesh shudder, metabolizing the energy...

(Plasmid Acquisition Theme Plays)

(Syd gained a new Light Side Power!)

Power: SERENITY

Spoiler

Light side power that requires only brief meditation to regain ones full strength. Significant cool down of 007 hours in-between use. No ranks.

They would discover the secrets of this machine, and why it was built. As a matter of fact it would be their next assignment.

But it could wait. Starlin needed her help. She went back to him, her flesh having reset.

"Take it slow...we don't move until you are ready to..." She said gently, willing to wait as long as she needed to before he decided he was mentally ready.

She decided not only would their next assignment be learning this machine's secrets, she also decided she would focus on helping him shield his mind better.

007 hours later.

She had resumed her elderly form after putting in her report on the incident. The encounter with the Assembly had made her want to stop wearing Phyre's face awhile, donning her Gown in place of her typically skintight armor while not on assignment.

She had taken Starlin to a very peaceful meadow close to the Silver Rest to simply stargaze, and had brought his favorite Pizza to try and cheer him up, eating none of it as his brush with death still had her stomach in knots over it.

"You learned much today. But it was a good thing. A lesson is not always joyous to learn even when needed. But it makes one wiser." She said softly. "Continually placing your faith in the Light, and letting it guide you, will be crucial to surviving threats like the one you faced today...but I have faith in you..."

(Exit Post)

 

[Starlin Rand]

In the meadow Starlin tried to sort his thoughts.

So the Assembly might still be alive in one form or another, but the copies in the Shadowlands at least seem to be eradicated. More are out there somewhere. Well, I suppose a Jedi’s work is never done…

Syd had taken care of the last of the machines, and they had given a full report of the matter to the Silver Jedi. Perhaps they would at least post guards around the perimeter, or install surveillance devices to keep watch over them and prevent any further meddling by witches or mercenaries.

But what was that vision I had all about?...

No matter how much he calmed himself or how hard he pushed at the boundaries of his memory, he could no longer remember the contents of the hallucination. Like a dream dies in waking, it had faded away. A phantom outline was left behind—he knew that he'd had a vision, and that it involved Tom and the future—but that was all he knew.

I hope Tom is okay, he thought, taking a bite of pizza. He had noticed Syd wasn’t eating any, and could sense her trepidation. But everything was fine now, wasn’t it?

Everything was okay.

//fin

Syd Celsius​