Private Until Olympius Returns

[Zark San Tekka]

HIRATA ESTATE
ATRISIA
Henna Ashina

Floating in a bacta tank reminded Zark of what it must have felt like in the womb or on a spacewalk. His ravaged body drifted weightless through viscous fluids. Sensory deprivation should help him meditate but every time the old Jedi closed his eyes terrible visions returned. None of it made sense for he'd never trained to interpret dreams like the seers but something about this place felt important. This was where he was meant to be.

Master Sarratt.

He sensed the familiar presence before weak eyes made out her blurry outline through a glass darkly. Master San Tekka could not speak through the breath mask pumping oxygen into his lungs, so the Jedi reached out with his thoughts instead. Scars from wounds deep enough to resist bacta treatments etched themselves like a tapestry across wrinkled flesh but there was still a twinkle in the old man's eyes that defied his advanced years.

It has been some time, long strands of hair flowed through bacta like a gorgon's mane when Zark tried to look around, What is this place?

 

[Henna Ashina]

The medical wing in Hirata was a modest facility compared to what she had managed on Coruscant. Two bacta tanks, a handful of rooms - enough for their ragtag group of soldiers. With the battle against the Empire in full swing, Henna tended to leave the day-to-day in the hands of the younger, putting her experience to better use detangling the Emperor's plans and plotting courses for that knowledge. Since Zark's arrival, however, her presence had been a constant. While any New Jedi Councillor would have deserved special attention, Asmundr's ties to San Tekka demanded she oversee him personally. The master's stats had been worrisome at first - one moment, strong, the next plummeting without explanation. Over the course of the days, with the treatment, he had grown stronger. Pouring over a new development on the vitals, Zark's voice took her by surprise, causing her to jump. Well, that would explain the new readings.

Hirata, Atrisia. The Lightsworn's home.

Responding in his chosen manner to avoid any dissonance from the tank, Henna set the data pad down on a counter and moved to hover closer to the tank. Curiosity lingered in her mind, as to how he'd take the knowledge he was brought back here. In honesty, Henna did not even know where the New Jedi resided these days, even if she had wanted to bring him to his own order for treatment.

We should be able to extract you soon, but it will be another few days before you are well enough to travel. I'm afraid the effort that earned you this was in vain. Arkania has fallen.

 

[Zark San Tekka]

HIRATA ESTATE
ATRISIA
Henna Ashina

Then my failure is complete.

Master Zark bowed his head in grief at the news of Arkania. Another sacred temple fallen. Oaths sworn to protect the Jedi's holiest shrines tasted like ash in the old man's mouth. Stripped of his ceremonial temple guard armor and humbled by the Force. He meditated on this loss in silence for a long time.

I was here when this world burned, he reached out to Henna again at last, We sought to liberate Atrisia from the Sith. Millions of voices cried out in terror before they were silenced.

Distant memories haunted him of another life. In those days he commanded great hosts of capital ships and from the bridge of a Starhawk, General San Tekka witnessed in horror the conflagration of Jar'Kai and force storms that tore half his fleet apart exposing thousands of souls to dead space. Time passed and wounds healed. Now Zark was back here again as if drawn by some greater purpose he could not fathom.

Am I your prisoner, Henna? he asked, pressing one of his palms against glass dividing their worlds. Whispers of the Lightsworn's fanaticism reached him even on the Jedi Council.

 

[Henna Ashina]

My patient. Henna corrected gently. For the love I bore Asmundr, I would never consider such a thing. If you wish to leave when you are healed, I will provide you with the means.

The question was begging to be asked. The mind was a fickle thing - with the stress of wounds, age, and the presence of the dark side, even fickler still. Henna was not even sure if Zark remembered the ritual that had taken place. After all, he had confused her with her predecessor when she arrived. Even still, hesitation was defeat. Moving closer to the glass, she scrutinized the warped features harshly, listening to the filter of the tank hum quietly.

But where will you go? Surely, not back to the Alliance after what we saw.

The rumors were not untrue. Some would criticize the hard lines they drew, argue room for gray areas, but the actions on Arkania had not been that. A perversion of life and the force under the Starbird's flag. What dire times they lived in. The wash of sorrow that emanated from Zark's form was a familiar one. It had threatened to swallow her after Dromund Kaas, and still crept in the shadows, reminding her of the insurmountable tasks ahead.

 

[Zark San Tekka]

HIRATA ESTATE
ATRISIA
Henna Ashina

I will answer the call of the Force.

He closed his eyes after delivering the cryptic response and blocked out all distractions. Medical sensors monitoring the old Jedi's slowing vitals faded from awareness. Brain waves flatlined without warning. Distorted by glass the floating body looked unresponsive.

"We are luminous beings," Zark examined smoke rising from his hands in wisps beside Henna, "Not this crude matter."

Only a few meters separated them but projecting his consciousness into this astral form still required every fragment of the Jedi Master's concentration. He looked much healthier standing before her in traditional robes of white and gold. Disquieting thoughts echoed through his mind when Zark found himself confronted by his own mortality in a very real sense.

"There is no Council left for me to return to. Ilum activated its emergency beacon, but I could not turn my back on so many people."

Left unspoken was the confession that Master Zark could not face the survivors after losing the temple guard mask which symbolized an oath he could no longer keep. Half a lifetime spent reuniting the Jedi into a strong coalition to drive back the shadow. He refused to surrender the Core Worlds so easily like frontier wayseekers too isolated by their ideological disputes to resist a looming Sith threat that should have united them into action.

"We let victory defeat us after the Hyperspace War. I know why you felt you needed to leave Coruscant but we're past that now. This is total war. We no longer have the luxury of choice. These worlds need the Jedi more than ever."

 

[Henna Ashina]

A grimace lined Henna's face as she moved to shut off the alarms that had begun with the projection. A hand lingered on the button afterwards, letting the flicker of contempt at mention of her departure from the New Jedi wash and recede like a tide. The master's attire mirrored Zark's, ivory and gold, and a mantle of regrets. Long before Atrisia was her home, she had sworn an oath to Tython - and the planet now stood occupied by the enemy he spoke of.

"I do not mean to let them go without. Already, plans are in motion to bring what Jedi we can as allies."

Even the order the Lightsworn had broken from was not off the table. Making peace with a ghost would be an easier endeavor than the one they had already begun with the rebels in the north.

"The Lightsworn have begun their mission to disrupt the Empire wherever possible. It is my hope we can soon transition our momentum to launch a full counteroffensive to retake Tython."

With the admission, Henna turned back, standing tall. It was the first time the words had been uttered as a plan, rather than wishes and wants in a council room - but those whisperings had begun to forge a beacon to rally around in their darkest hours. It only lit one way forward.

"We only fail when we cease trying." Henna challenged of Zark's earlier declaration.

 

[Zark San Tekka]

HIRATA ESTATE
ATRISIA
Henna Ashina

"Failure is the greatest teacher."

The ghost of a smile etched its way across worn features. Master Zark could sense the Force move darkly through Henna as a shadow passed over her expression. His own resentments reflected back like a mirror. Her Lightsworn had lost faith in the Order. Lost faith in his leadership. They abandoned the Alliance's vast resources to fight a shadow war and part of him could not help but wonder if they kept their oaths would it have made a difference between victory and defeat.

"You were there on Arkania. Imperial flags now fly over Coruscant," the elder Jedi stroked his beard despite being a glorified hallucination, "Retaking Tython will require more than a few targeted strikes. Star cruisers. Soldiers. Credits. More than a single world like Atrisia can provide."

Zark scrutinized her reaction before it dawned on him more than a single world could be convinced to fight back by the right kind of voice. He began to grasp the full implications of her plan.

"You're talking about a crusade."

 

[Henna Ashina]

"A mad concept, isn't it?" A weak smile had blossomed at his quick understanding. "But this is, at its heart, our holy war."

Drifting to collection her datapad from the counter it had been abadoned on, the master moved from various health logs to the notes she had made from old tomes and recollections. It was cast upon the wall for Zark to see - quotes from Lord Hoth and his allies, questions from Henna detailing logistics for her to follow up on later, two battle maps out to the side with various footholds worth taking and Empire forces outlined. Atrisia, Eufornis,

"Those self-imposed restrictions of the Ruusan Reformations are a product of a time long past. The Sith no longer live in hiding. The Senate divides itself from us at every turn, or worse."

The inquisition and the subsequent attack on Coruscant hadn't been so long ago. Expression thoughtful, Henna turned her head from the projection back to the master. Command had not watered her ego so much that she would reject his wisdom and insight. The master had won wars whilst she was still a girl in the Hapan court, unaware of the path set before her.

"Give me your counsel. Does circumstance not demand, as guardians of peace in total war, that we raise the Army of Light anew and take up our mantle again?"