The Force Wars (IC)

[AmenRa]

Jedi Master Tal Varsus was standing just behind and to the left of Alain as Reyn sliced through the wires of the door panel. Varsus forgot, for the moment, about what lay beyond the door, and instead he focused on the cloud of Dark Energy that had suddenly gathered around the once-Sith.

Tal's hand went instinctively to his lightsaber.

Then he relaxed his grip, sensing the struggle within the Jedi, and knowing of his own; how the Dark Side sometimes threatened to well-up and overtake even the most devoted of the Jedi Code.

Tal Varsus placed his hand on Alain's shoulder and gave it a slight squeeze. He did not wish to alarm the others, thought surely Lalena Kar could sense this struggle between Light and Dark as well.

"Do not fight it," Varsus whispered, "but embrace it. Only by owning your fear and anger, only by claiming it as yours, can you defeat it. Then you will know peace. Then, a Jedi will you be."

 

[Angelus]

Tal Varsus's words in his ears seemed to tell him what he wanted to hear but so did the voice that was inside his head, the voice that was so seductive, the voice that told him he could have all the power in the galaxy but only if he gave into it. It was that voice that was the loudest, it was that voice that he had listened to almost all of his life and ended up destroying many lives in the process. He knew it was the voice that he never wanted to listen to but it was just so strong.

He could feel Tal Varsus's hand on his shoulder but he could also feel the fear that came from everyone else. He knew that they would kill him if he turned back to the dark side but he wondered if they could. He knew that with his lightsaber in his hand that he was an unbeatable force, the only thing that had stopped him was the sentiments that had stopped him from killing his master.

"No! I will not fall to the dark side again!" he shouted out as he fell to the ground, pulling his lightsaber off his belt as he did. He raised his head slowly and looked at the other Jedi around him with the knowledge that it would be so easy to kill them.

He closed his eyes from the sight and as soon as he did he saw an image he never wanted to see, that of Darth Victus, his former self.

"Welcome back Alain Talan'vor. I know that you have missed the power that I gave you. Give into me and I will make you more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

Alain gripped his lightsaber and screamed out as he ran straight at Darth Victus who activated his own scarlet bladed lightsaber. As they clashed Alain knew that both sides of himself were fighting for the right to survive. He knew that it was a fight he could not lose.

 

[Wolfsister]

Lalena followed when she could. She paid attention to her surroundings and was curious to see what she could. She, herself, had never been on this frozen planet and compared her home world's temperature... she wasn't exactly impressed. However, the coolness around her did help with the exhaustion she felt since manipulating the Force as she did with Reyn's hand.

They came to a door and the beat, the pulse, inside her grew stronger and faster. She knew they had come to what they were looking for and she found her heart beating in time and sync with the beat of the Force within her.

She turned around abruptly as the a Dark Force began to gather around her pupil. She narrowed her eyes at him, a questioning look as she probed deeper into his mind than she had previously before. He was struggling with himself once more and she was inwardly worried with the outcome of that struggle.

She noticed Tal's grip on his lightsaber and then the comforting hand on Alain's shoulder. Not for the first time, she wondered if Tal would have been the better choice for teacher of this struggling young Jedi. Then she banished that thought, knowing that she had taken up the responsibility and knowing that it was hers alone to bear.

Alain screamed and fell to the ground and she instantly felt the internal struggle within him. As he writhed on the ground, she calmly lowered herself to his level, giving her Love a small look, as if to say, "I must, but please look over me,"

Then she closed her eyes and began seeking Alain's mind. It was a jumble, worse than it had been before. Sharp images collided with each other more and more frequently as the pulse of his mind collapsed and reformed with jarring explosions and frightful clarity.

Then a string, a thought, a word came to mind and Lalena clung to it. Master.. she traveled this road, this feeling, his inkling of himself to his core and there was where she saw his struggle.

A man, not unlike him in appearance, but utterly different in his Force presence was staring Alain down. Suddenly she understood as Alain charged the unknown. Before he could connect, she showed herself to him and smiled.

"I know I cannot interfere. I know I cannot win this for you. However, I want you to know this: I have faith in you, and I know you can defeat this."

Then she calmly stepped to the side to witness the ensuing battle. It would be easier to destroy Alain from within should he lose. However, she felt deep within her own Force that it was not to be this way. He would win simply because he wouldn't allow himself to lose.

Outside, her body was rigid as she sat crosslegged on the floor, her hand absently stroking the sweating forehead of the young, moaning Jedi in front of her.

 

[AmenRa]

Tal Varsus caught Lalena's eye as she knelt beside the once-Sith. He pulsed strength and love through the Force-bond that she and he shared. He reinforced her faith in herself as much as in Alain. She had chosen this path, and she must walk it.

However, she would not walk it alone.

And it was thus for the Jedi that now fought an internal struggle on the cold floor of a caverned corridor of Hoth.

He had chosen his path.

But, unlike Lalena, he must walk this path alone.

It has always been so. Tal Varsus had heard the voices of the ancient masters, the Knights of the Old Code, and he had heeded their warnings.

Mostly.

Tal Varsus had once been seduced by the Dark Side. He had succumbed to the provisions of lust, greed, and power. He knew the Dark Side as it knew him. And he could feel the conflict within the young Jedi that lay at his feet.

If you only knew the power of the Dark Side.

Release your anger. Only your hatred can destroy me.

Tal Varsus closed his eyes and sent a silent Force thought, reaching out to gather the fabric of the Force itself, to harness all that was good, the life essence that fed along the spider-web strands of that which binds the galaxy together.

Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us, binds us together. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.

Jedi Master Tal Varsus knelt down and took the hand of Jedi Master Lalena Kar, and he added his power to hers, and together they stood beside Alain as luminous beings.

 

[Angelus]

As the blades of the lightsabers clashed together again and again Alain knew that this was a fight he had to win. If he didn't his very essence would be stolen by the darkness that was now always a part of him. He looked straight into the face of that darkness and wished that he could do anything to erase it, that he could do anything to erase what that side of him had done. He knew though that he could not do that. When he had been that person he knew that he had enjoyed everything that he had done, enjoyed the destruction that he had wrought across the galaxy. He knew that it would be easy to just give up, to let the darkness take him again and once again become the Sith Lord as he was always meant to be.

It was then that he felt the presence of both his master, Lalena and Tal Varsus with him and hoped that they would lend their strength to fight this battle. He knew that they would not interfere unless the darkness took him once more.

He looked into the face of Darth Victus as he parried a cut towards his side.

"I do not fear or hate you. I know that you will always be a part of me; something that I will always have to atone for but you are a part of me that I will not let control my life anymore. I do feel sorry for you though-"

Darth Victus laughed as he swung his lightsaber again, "You feel sorry for me? You are the weak one of us. You are the one that is always fighting that which will make you stronger, more powerful than any other Jedi in this galaxy."

"That is why I feel sorry for you. All you crave is power and destruction. You have destroyed everything which you hold dear and for what? What have you got to show for it except being trapped in the body of a Jedi who will atone for everything that you have done in this world. A Jedi who will fix everything you have done in this galaxy."

He then raised his lightsaber and closed his eyes. He knew what it would look like to Lalena and Tal Varsus. It would look like he was giving up, that he was going to kill himself. He opened his eyes again and when he looked at Darth Victus they were no longer the orange and red; they were now a deep green.

"I have always fought you; have always tried to stay in control. But I will not do that anymore. You will not have any power over me. My name is Alain Talan'vor. I am a Jedi Knight as I was always meant to be and I will always be a Jedi Knight. You are my past. You should always be where you were meant to be; as a bad memory of mine."

The lightsaber that was in Darth Victus's hands suddenly disappeared and as he started screaming his robes began to change until they were no longer Sith robes but Jedi ones. Alain looked at Darth Victus now who looked like him and shut off his lightsaber. He walked towards the mirror image of himself who walked forward as well. Very slowly he reached forward just as the other half of himself did. As soon as they touched there was a blinding light.

Alain slowly opened his now green eyes just to see Lalena's face above him.

 

[AmenRa]

Tal Varsus sighed, and he slumped a bit as he felt his knees get weak.

The power flowing through Alain was exhausting. The Dark Energy and Light Energy fluxed and flowed and bottle-necked at some points, ever-expanding, ever-widening, and Tal Varsus was a conduit, just like a focusing crystal on a light saber, for he had used his intimate sense of the tendrils of the Force to feed all that bound the galaxy together through Lalena Kar to join her power and then into this one Jedi that fought for himself.

Tal Varsus wiped the cold sweat from his brow and looked at Alain and smiled.

"The Force is strong with this one," he said.

 

[Wolfsister]

Lalena Kar was glad of the cold that seeped through her clothes to freshen her flesh. She was beginning to burn up and she knew she would need to rest soon, if she didn't collapse of exhaustion. Healing herself had never been a strong point with Lalena and getting others to heal her even less so.

"The Force is strong with this one,"

She laughed, she had no idea why she laughed, but she did, smoothing down Alain's hair with a motherly affection. "Aye, it is, " she smiled and nodded her approval.

Then she looked up at Reyn, "I think we are ready now,"

Helping Alain up, she gave him a comforting squeeze to his shoulder, "Well done," she simply said before she took a station up next to the door and awaited for their journey to continue on the other side.

 

[rengadeirishman]

The whole while, Reyn had stood poised to strike Alain down at the first sign of relapse.

It was not very jedi-like of him, but part of him wished he'd had the oppurtunity.

He retracted his force claws, and turned. "Lets move."

 

[Angelus]

Alain slowly got to his feet before he stumbled forward again. The fight that had exhausted him so much that he felt as though he could sleep for days on end. He knew that he could not as the others were counting on him. If he was to fall now he might be putting the others in danger and after everything they had done for him he knew that he would not do that. He closed his eyes slowly and sought out the strands of energy he had lost in his fight, bringing them back until he started to feel stronger.

As soon as he opened his eyes again he realized just how different everything was. It was as though the darkness within him had clouded his vision and given him a distorted view of what the world was really like. He did not want to admit that it had made that much of an impact on him but as he looked around he could tell it had. He could now feel the peace and harmony flowing through him and knew that this is what he had been missing the whole time. He knew that there was a small part of darkness within him, something that he would never get rid of but it was a part so small that it could never tempt him again unless he wanted it to.

It was something, he knew that would never happen. He had fought against the darkest part of him and won. He had seen who he actually was and knew which path he was going to tread from this day forward. He looked over at the Jedis that he was with and knew that he was now one of them. He could still feel the darkness that flowed from the open door but this time it flowed past him. He could feel the sickness that it brought to him but nothing more.

He stepped behind Lalena Kar and looked into the darkness, wondering what was in there waiting for them.

 

[rengadeirishman]

Reyn walked into the darkness and turned on the powered lights on the pauldrons of his armor. Twin beams of light lanced forward, revealing a two doors. One ahead of him and one to the right, He walked up to both doors and felt the pull of the force come strongest from the former. He noticed that it was locked and there was a frozen control panel to the side. Producing his lightsaber, he turned the length adjuster up and slammed it to the hilt into the door, he twisted the blade and moved it around the doors frame until it at last was cut and then, using the force he pushed the section he had cut out. There was a loud clanging and he stood in front of the hole, seeing 5 dormant droids and the remains of a sixth, having been crushed by the door. He walked in and quickly destroyed the remaining ones, in case they decided to stop being dormant.

He looked back at the others, "Coming?" he asked before heading further in.

 

[Wolfsister]

Lalena placed a quick hand on Alain's arm, her nod and the glint of approval in her eyes clear for all to see. Then she turned at Reyn's voice and nodded again, this time in answer to the other jedi.

She stepped up to the door, slipping through the hole made so recently by the big man and swept her gaze around the interior. She noted the destroyed droids and nodded her approval. They after all, didn't have souls and so should have been disposed of long ago. She had no qualms about ending their lives.

Looking around, she waited on Tal Varsus, naturally falling back to the rear as she felt she needed to be. She kept Alain at her side however, restraining the younger jedi should he try to overtake her. Simply for his safety, of course.