Private Ten Thousand Immortals

[Matsu Ike]

Aika Kawakami

Ahch-to a lost jedi world where the first jedi constructed a great temple... well it was mosstly great but it was a world like this that housed much much more mysteries. The careakers didn't tell about the repository under the island where they stored thousands of years of jedi artifacts or that they reset the temple after ppeople left to always be like it was recently discovered. Repairing and fishing... until the Jadeite Jedi came. artisans and engineers who sought a place to better understand the force and brought with them materials to rebuild and expand upon the temple itself. The island becoming home to hundreds of them and training... paddocks for aquatic creatures, docks for boats and hover craft or even submersible vehicles to explore the depths of the oceans. Matsu sat in the high peak of the temple overlooking the ocean and breahed in the air.. below the sounds of shadex constructs were being worked on... Artisans were developing new technology and force equipment for training and practical use but few things beat out some of the items thy had managed to make.

 

[Aika Kawakami]

Why?.. Why was she even here? What was so important about this distant world that she had somehow found herself there? It had been years since Aika had disappeared. The last anyone had seen of her was on Tatooine, and even that was stretch as it seemed like the spaceport had been wiped of their memory of her. This enigmatic...sage. This woman that had once sworn an oath to the Republic, once stood alongside the Silver Jedi, and seemingly tuned her back on each and every one of them had been in exile. Now, she wasn't? It didn't make sense. Where had she gone? Why had she gone? As always, questions surrounded everything connected to her. So why had she come to Ahch-to? What was different now?..

This place...why?
I don't know. Something is here....
Something like what? What could we possibly hope to find on this worthless planet? It could hardly even provide protection.
Since when were we looking for protection?
Then what else has brought us here?
I....don't know.
​

Her ship had landed a few hours before. Well, not her ship, technically. But she was flying it, and possession is mostly law. As she sauntered down the small shuttle's ramp, her feet came to freeze at the base. Aika's head panned about, eyes taking in not only the world she now found herself on, but details as well. Something had brought her to Ahch-to, as it did everywhere she went. But this.....was different. In truth, she didn't even know why she had followed her instincts, or even what she hoped to find. Maybe this was her new home of exile? It had been years since she separated herself from the wider galaxy, but even that didn't seem quite right. No, this world held something else for the formerly hailed Jedi Master. Psh, the Jedi...such thoughts had been long absent her mind. In her eyes, they had fallen. Unworthy of even the simplest of titles, Aika believed it was only a matter of time before the Jedi as whole came to rest on their knees. But why were they now, of all times, suddenly in her mind?

As she finally stepped off the ramp and met the planet below her feet, a small sigh escaped her lips. Clad in black, white in her hair, and a stare that could freeze a Wompa in ice. Indeed, this was Aika Kawakami. The same that once held the idea of turning the Jedi Temples to rubble. There was no such thing as coincidences, that she knew. It was one of the reasons why she always seemed to dislike the Force. It bound things together, weaved it's way through the galaxy, and infulenced events and beings alike. Yet, it was the same living Force that has led her here. The only questions were; where was she, and why was she even here?

Matsu Ike

 

[Matsu Ike]

Aika Kawakami

There was a ripple in the air.... a promise of something as the lightest of breezes touched her face. The sound of it rising above the aves crashing into the rocks as it became a wind and it was against her face as she lept from the higher level rushing downwards. The jedi master stopped in mid air though and looked around when she felt something she hadn't felt in a long time while the ships were around them. "Interesting." She allowed herself a moment before flying over towards the starport they had set up... lower and with a hydrostatic barrier around it to keep out the waves and water. The jedi master touched down on the ground near one of the open areas the artisans were carving a watcher statue that they could use. "Aika" She saw the woman standing there looking at the temple and raised an eyebrow... her mind racing a thousand different people who looked similar but only one person her former student could... well be that one there as she moved over quickly. "Aika is that really you?

 

[Aika Kawakami]

A heart beat..
An extra breath.
A familiar life..

What is that?
What are you talking about? What did you..
Can you not sense it? She's here..
What ar... Oh, your right...
Now, this should be interesting....​

Aika's eyes widened as she familiar energy wash over her. No, familiar was far from the right word. It was more like the energy fit around her like clothing. She knew the feeling, the sensation.....the warmth. This was like a wild dream. Why here, and why now? The two hadn't seen in so long, that this couldn't possibly be coincidence. Had she been followed? No. This was not something she cold have missed. So, how was this possible? In truth, it didn't matter. This reunion was going to happen. Scratch that, it was happening, as the words of her former master plowed into her ears like a freight train into a wall.

As her head panned about, it came to a dead stop as her eyes lay upon the expected visage. It took her a moment, as if she'd seen a ghost waltz in front of her. While her frame remain frozen, she would finally manage to speak. "Ike....Ike Matsu. So, you yet draw breath.."

Matsu Ike

 

[Matsu Ike]

The jedi master raised an eyebrow at Aika Kawakami . "Well that is certainly one way to say.... Master Ike.. I haven';t seen you in forever." The jedi master didn't need to move she just stood there taking in the sight of her old padawan with a grin on her face. She finally moved though and floated up in the air so she was eye level. "It has been so long and I feared the worse for you Aika but it is good to see you." She said it with a look at her hovering there as she drifted to the side and clasped her hands behind her back. "Ahch-To is not a place many come to easily... it is still lsot to a great many." The look though on her face as she looked around at the temple around them.

 

[Aika Kawakami]

Lost? That was certainly one way to put it. This planet was way out there. One couldn't find it if they actually tried, unless they knew its location. Yet here she was by accident, favored by a lot of gravitational pull and drifting off at the controls a bit. Regardless, here stood upon this forgotten, ancient world. Faced with a visage she never expected to see again. Aika had no issues with Matsu being alive, she was simply shocked that the galaxy hadn't found it's way to swallow her whole.

Her? The Master yet lives..
At ease. She poses no threat.
Are you certain? Unlike you, this one still follows the foolish path of a Jedi. This is all the trouble we need.
She bears no threat..
Not yet..
Then we will leave her be until such time.
​

Her eyes traced Matsu's movements the moment she came into vision, and her words laid themselves bare to Aika once more. "The worst? Define what that may be. I don't think the galaxy i too far off from that point. Your right though. It is...interesting to see you again. Yet, somehow, I don't find myself shocked to see you in a place such as this. It is...one of a kind. " This place is strong with the Force...a problem...

Her fashioned themselves into a grin as she glanced about for a few seconds, her eyes not leaving Matsu for long. "So, I imagine as always you have the answers. Just where is this anyway?"

Matsu Ike

 

[Matsu Ike]

The jedi master raised an eyebrow amused to herself but she was liking something here... narrowing her eyes just a little until Aika spoke and offering a bow of her head. "It is Ahch-To, the location of the first jedi temple if some are to believe it." There might be a little debate about that... but it was possible... the jedi were after all always willing to lay a claim to certain things. Still though she was a little amused in this. "They did though make this temple and this far out I was able to bring a few others. Mainly artisans and trainers. Seems a decent place for seclusion." Her eyes never left Aika while she walked and with an almost practiced grace was navigating around the grassy areas and stone without much problem. She motioned though towards the edgesof the cliff as porgs grazed in the hillsides. "And in the case of the worst, that your path would take you to a dark place. Where few thread... well once upon a time... now it seems everyone wants to be the one jedi or ex jedi to use the darkside without it destroying them eventually."

 

[Aika Kawakami]

An ancient Jedi world.. I told you this would pose a problem.

Secluded was one way to word it. This world was almost purposefully in such a remote area, seclusion was it's only use. That, or hiding, which raised the question of which Matsu Ike was doing. In truth, it could be either or. But what reason would she have to hide, and in such a far off place? Peaceful as it may seem, grassy meadows and all, Ahch-To had its secrets and the enigmatic woman couldn't help but to wonder what such a world may hide..

"The first Jedi Temple you say?" Aika's hands reached up, before interlocking at her fingers behind her head, feet sauntering forward in the path of her former master. "That would make this, quite literally, a Jedi home world. The question is; which Jedi is that?" In truth, to her, they had all become one in the same. All Jedi seemed to share to same flaws. But in that thought, they shared flaws with all others. The Jedi held no special place in her mind, love or hatred, they were just something in her mind, to be wiped out.

She continued on following behind Matsu, eyes taking in the scenery about. That was until she heard her old master mention such fallen Jedi. She scoffed at the thought. Foolish. She stood not as one who fell to be controlled and rooted in darkness, no. Aika drew from the Force as a whole. Doing such opened her mind to such wide possibilities, and made her feel so much more alive than the restriction her master held herself to. "Dark, light..... Jedi, Sith..... They are simply all two halves of a whole. Anyone who can't see that or are too arrogant to listen to such forces deserve to be crushed under weight of their own creation."

 

[Matsu Ike]

She listened to Aika Kawakami and continued along the pathway with a look o her face. Hearing how she was thinking about it she wanted to ask what had changed wihtin her.. the shy girl who had come to her was much different but she dind't let anything display on her face. Maintaining her serenity and she didn't need to judge one.. she didn't need to try and convert back Aika.. she just needed to show her the same way she was willing to be shown but had rarely seen anyone make more sense beyond the 'I am not a robot not' argument which was usually while being hyper-emotional and acting like a child who has never been told no.

"That certainly is a view to have." She said it and looked at her but offered no judgement.. she knew many who had fallen off the path of the jedi and lost the ideals... there were less and even more who well just were jedi in name but acted like children which is why she secluded herself here. Well here and when she returned to Hapes... but even the Silver jedi had managed to somehow dethrone the queen mother... install a new one who was loyal to them and suddenly thousands of years of tradition were tossed aside. She led the way as the grove they were working to cultivate of uneti trees was there.. other jedi who were tending to them. "I have no real reason to judge your choices but I am just glad to see that you are... enjoying your new life?"

 

[Aika Kawakami]

'Judge your choices?' 'Enjoying your new life?' She's quite the patronizing Jedi fool.... Why do we not simply kill her?
This one has earned her life. When she falls, she will be at peace.
You care for this one still, regardless of your goals. She will be a problem..
She poses no threat.
Your old Master....you still yearn for her warmth. Disgusting..
Hardly. The apprentice has long passed the master. I bear no ill towards the woman.
​

Aika followed in her former master's path, eyes taking in the area around, She could admit, this was a beautiful world, and a powerful one as well. Matsu had chosen the perfect place for her to live out her days; full of knowledge and wonder.enough to keep her mind wandering for the years ahead. Yet, it didn't hold that same purpose for Aika. She had seen much of the galaxy, and through her own interpretations of it, it had changed her, She would always had the upmost respect for Matsu Ike ,but they no longer shared the same path.

"Mast.... Matsu. Why are you here? I mean, I can see why your here, but honestly.... Why has brought you here? As far out as this place is, I can't imagine it was a place well known to Jedi as a whole. So, tell me...." her cold, dark eyes had been staring daggers through these 'Jedi'. Who...or what were they? By the minute, this place grew stranger to Aika. "What are you looking for here?"

Oh... Straight forward. I like..
Shut up...​

 

[Matsu Ike]

She stopped and turned to look at her eyes starring and unblinking for the moment as the span of a heartbeat stretched and finally Matsu spoke to Aika Kawakami . "Looking for? Interesting observation but not wrong, in my travels I have learned a few things and of them all one thing that struck me was a force being. He found me and showed me a time from before the Muurshantre extinction. Roughly two hundred thousand years ago when there were far more powerful beings... force gods who waged war. The early jedi from here recorded it in the texts of the Rammahgon." She said it and it was a lot of information... less that many would be able to get but Matsu turned to look at Aika.

She pointed up towards the sky but spoke with a grin appearing on her face. "I have decades left to discover the older secrets, things that most of the jedi have forgotten.... and after you have met a force god like being who measures thousands of years like the beating of heart you get some perspective of just how small most of us are." But even a small person can cast a large shadow and the jedi master had made much more progress then some of the others.. for instance she had discovered thanks to Corvus and Sorel the temple under the ocean at the base of the mountain and what it was dedicated to. The inner chamber was an eye which had been used to observe.

 

[Aika Kawakami]

In her travels....yeah. That was one way to word it. Matsu Ike always did find her way to where ever knowledge was stashed. It had been that way since Aika had ever known her, so this was nothing new. But neither did it answer her question. Something had brought her here, and it wasn't just knowledge sake. No, there had to be something more. Her thoughts continued to collect as the words of her former master danced into her ears as their eyes met once again. Why was this so...odd?

Stay on your guard. This one is a watcher still....she sees much..
​

The voices in her head hushed just in time to see Matsu point to the sky. An eyebrow cocking upward in uncertainty, her head rolled back to look towards the sky, fingers still interlocked behind her head as she takes in the skies. She could hear Matsu. She could hear the voice. Yet her own thoughts drowned out them both. This world held secrets, the likes of which had been buried likely for hundreds of years, but there was more. This planet, this place, it held......power. She could feel it. Not as if coursing through her veins, but power held in understanding. Power held in knowledge... It now made perfect sense to her.

What do we seek?
Knowledge, of course...
And what is knowledge?
Tell me..
Knowledge.....is power.
​

"Matsu, you've been here for quite some time, obviously. Surely you have found things to share. After all, I came all the way out here for what I thought was a hunch. Figure I might as well make the trip worth the while. So, what forgotten knowledge have you uncovered, my old master?"

 

[Matsu Ike]

The jedi master was looking at Aika Kawakami and she raised an eyebrow standing there and held out her hands. "I have learned a good deal from here and still am." She said it with a look on her face though as she didn't walk just yet. " Learning though is easy, understanding takes time and comes in time." She said it while she was looking at the once jedi but there was little reason to horde knowledge.. if anything just like looking into and studying the jedi holocrons... well she had disseminated and put t into the different archives that she had built around the galaxy. Storehouses for the jedi to access and even with the hybrid flowers that were made to transfer and hold the knowledge.

"I don't think explaining it will do good... one has to see it to experience it and here there is much you can feel and even more hidden." She said it with a smirk appearing on her face while as she walked towards one of the platforms with a nod of her head. Then she jumped and dived into the waters down below and let the waters go out with the tide pulling her down deeper as she held her breath and went down into the cave of the precepts that they had discovered. She left room for Aika to follow and a rebreathed from the utility belt as the jedi master passed in the clear waters statues similar to the valley of the jedi and kept going deeper into schools of multicolored fish.

 

[Aika Kawakami]

OOC: Sorry it's taking so long to reply... World is crazy...

This was one thing about Matsu Ike that had never wavered or changed since the moment the two were connected. The vast knowledge and the way she shared her knowledge with those in search. In the years since they had separated Aika had grown, and so to did the distance between former Master and Apprentice. Many of the lessons that she had been taught no longer held weight to her. The way she looked to her as a goal to be reached no longer existed. The way Matsu could accumulate knowledge was likely the only connection that remained between them, the final thing that she still admired. But was it admiration, or in fact a jealously and anger that the Jedi still held the edge over her? It was a question shed never once pondered on, until this very moment..

As Matsu dove into the water, Aika simply watched, eyes drifting down as the woman dove, and then to the breather left behind. A simple sigh escaped her lip as she knelt to retrieve the device, placing it between her lips before closing down on it. Water....swimming.....she hated every bit of this, and she was pretty sure Matsu knew it. However, if she were to achieve her goal, she was being shown the path, and had to follow. With a few small steps, she followed in her former Master's path, stepping off the cliff as her black clad frame plummeted to waters below. Just as the other woman, Aika would disappear under the clear, cool waters of Ahch-To. This was the first true step in her destiny, and a step that would stet the enigmatic rouge on a road that would lead to her true destiny...

 

[Matsu Ike]

Aika Kawakami

The jedi master continued down into the waters, she could sense Aika following her as she swam. The mountain going down deeper and deeper as it flattened showing more statues that became different. Where the others looked like jedi at first and then just more robed figures these ones were more defined... darker stone that absorbed what little light there was and going through the base of it that was a massive cave mouth. Matsu turned on some glow rods that had been strung along the pathway and led down into the deeper pars of the caves as she passed through a hydrostatic shield able to keep out some of the fish around them. They had netting made from it but couldn't keep everything out.

Matsu waited for Aika and continued into the temple itself that opened up and resembled the ancient eye.... the thing that was found on Ossus and the jedi had built a temple around it. Looking out upon the galaxy and well they had found several things like this and the hand across the galaxy. Ancient places of collected power and dangerous energies when the jedi master came out of the water and stood there for a moment and shook her hair out. She looked up at the vaulted ceiling of the cave that held murals of the different beings... masses of eyes, teeth and flesh but they held no true form.. the creatures were usually considered beyond thought and the brain tried to see something to make sense of it.