Praxeum (Ending #2)

“Master!” 

The young Jedi learner known simply as Kam screamed out to the Bith Jedi Knight who stood before him. The aforementioned Jedi was locked in an intense duel with an unidentified, incredibly menacing looking entity, and Kam could only stand by and watch what he had just stumbled across.

Unfortunately, his outcry had caused the Bith, Pa’halowan, to peer over his shoulder and lose concentration. 

Kam froze.

Did I just make a mistake?

The mysterious assailant shrouded in steel and cloth and the dark side of the Force took this opportunity to violently leap forward, hoping to fatally slash at Pa’halowan’s torso.

Regaining his composure, however, the Bith sidestepped the lunge and swiftly brought his saber down, cleanly slicing his aggressor in two. The assailant’s body hit the floor with two heavy, distinctive thuds.

Pa’halowan spun around, “young Kam, are you alright? Did any of the other students survive?”

Kam stumbled into the room as he glared at the silver-clad body now split in two. He painfully propped himself up against a chair and gritted his teeth. “No… no I don’t think so, I’m the only one left.”

The young Jedi gulped, now tasting the metallic flavor of blood overwhelm his taste buds as he continued, “where is Master Akial? I really, really need him to look at my leg…” 

The Bith’s eyes were quickly diverted to the young human’s eviscerated shin and calf. Then he looked around the disheveled room, “I’m sorry Kam…”

Kam momentarily stared into the Bith’s emotionless face. How he wished he would’ve been able to glean some sort of indication of what he was about to see from Pa’halowan’s naturally minute expressions.

He finally, and regretfully, surveyed the room. Only yesterday, it had served as Almas Academy’s Jedi council chamber where many major decisions were made about Kam and his fellow students’ Jedi curriculum and upbringing.

Now it was nothing more than a darkened, artificial crater, destroyed like everything else when the praxeum had been bombarded by an unknown enemy only half an hour prior.

Along with the now dead assailant, chairs and rubble were scattered everywhere, as were robed bodies.

Oh no…

Kam saw the bodies of Masters Mel Frackness and Krin D’bis sprawled out near the far walls. They had clearly been seated and completely unaware when the barrage had suddenly struck the academy. 

The young Jedi broke out into a cold sweat as he glanced towards the center of the room and saw a bundle of burning cloth.

Is that… Master Akial?

The small Jawa Jedi was now a pile of ash and flesh crumpled on the floor of the council room-turned-crater. 

In despair, Kam inadvertently fell down onto his one good knee and pressed his hands against his temples, tears streaming from his eyes. His head pounded as he realized his only chance for healing and future mobility was gone.

Is there any hope for me? For any of us that remain?

“Get up, young Kam,” Po’halowan called out as he pulled the hood from his brown robe up over his bulbous head, motioning towards their now dichotomized attacker. Then he pointed towards the door, “we have to keep moving. There are many more of these enemies in the school. I’ve already defeated three of them, but we need to-”

A flurry of blasterfire punched through the wall beside the doorway and cut the Jedi down where he stood. Chunks of crumbled stone and Bith flesh peppered Kam, and his proximity to the floor was the only thing that had saved him from a similarly quick and fiery death.

A moment later the wall collapsed and a massive machine punched its way through and into the chamber. The noise it emitted, Kam could only describe as metal scraping on metal, and a hundred pistons firing in rapid succession every second. 

From what he could see, it was an amalgamation of tubes, wires, and mechanical eyes supported by four thick, beast-like legs. It’s head was disproportionately small but equally as horrifying, and it’s sides were flanked with missile pods as its underbelly flaunted a monstrous rotary blaster cannon. It’s most distinctive trait, however, was the inconceivable amount of dark energy he could feel spilling out of it’s crevices and joints.

Sith alchemy…?

Kam had initially hoped the mechanical beast had not seen him duck for cover behind one of the heavy stone chairs during ensuing the onslaught, but clearly it could either sense his body heat or the Force that surrounded him.

The young Jedi cowered behind his cover as he felt the machine slowly crawl into the room. 

It raised its head-like appendage and emitted a low gurgling noise mixed with a high pitched, seemingly randomized set of beeps and whistles, not unlike an astromech who’s servos had just been fried. It then lowered it’s face to stare directly at Kam’s cover, almost as if it could peer right through the stone. And there was a very good chance that’s exactly what it was doing.

The bruised and bleeding young Kam no longer felt the pain from his leg, nor the sadness of seeing the corpses of his fellow Jedi, not even fear from the dire situation at hand. He only felt a complete and overwhelming feeling of absolute, unadulterated hopelessness.

What has been the point of my life…? Taken away from my family as an infant, trained in intense physical and spiritual practices, struggling with all my might not to form any attachment to any of my friends… to Valeera. 

For a moment the visage of his fellow students’ bodies and appendages, as well as the bloody crater where Valeera had been obliterated, flashed across his mind.

Is that machine attacking my mind? Or has the Force simply abandoned me, if it was it ever with me in the first place? It’s clearly with this machine that’s about to take my life, I can feel it flowing through every tube and ligament. So why is it not with me? Why was my entire existence devoted to something so quick to desert me?

He heard the beast readjusting its menacing stance to take aim. He would be dust in mere seconds. He couldn’t stand, he couldn’t speak, and he would die utterly alone.

If anyone or anything can hear me, I am desperate. Save me.

He was met only with spiritual silence among the deafening whir of the killing machine only meters away.

The rotary cannon began to spin.

Living Force… if you cannot save me, then show me that my life was not a waste. Please, I need to know.

Again, he was met with only stillness. Time around him slowed, and he felt the heat begin to emanate from the dark beast’s muzzle.

It’s over.

And then he heard it…

The sound of metal tearing and ripping echoed throughout the chamber, and the machine let out a distressed scream, forcing Kam to cup his ears with his battered hands.

A moment later he heard a thunderous explosion as the 2 meter tall machine slammed into the wall beside him. He felt the darkness dissipate from the room and the machine’s body ceased to move, save for a few writhing tubes and cables.

After a moment of complete shock, Kam slowly peered up and over the stone chair he had been crouched behind.

There stood Jedi Master Jorageth Markle, a blue-skinned Feeorin who’s toned shoulders and biceps jutted out of his sleeveless robes in a manner not unlike the dozens of long tendrils that extended from the back of his head. His ornate, golden bionic arm shined brilliantly as it reflected the small embers peppering the room.

Beside him, Kam saw a small and slender Bivall Jedi, the renowned librarian Master Tekka Dan-Darra, her majestic blue head crest giving him an instant sense of relief. Her eyestalks swiveled as she scanned the room, and she quickly pointed towards the corpses of her and Markle’s fellow council members.

A moment later, three more Jedi rushed into the room, securing the council chamber. As the hulking Feeorin made his way over to the other Masters bodies, Dan-Darra slowly approached Kam, who could still feel his body quaking.

“Hello, young one,” she said in her ever so calming voice, “I’m sorry you’ve been through so much, but we’re here to get you out of here. Can you walk?”

They both glanced down at his leg in tandem, which had grown numb and and was completely drenched in a pool of blood. He started to feel dizzy as his adrenaline levels dropped from the previous spike, and Master Dan-Darra winced as she looked at his mangled shin.

“Master Markle, we’ve got an issue. I need your help,” she said, spinning around and looking towards the large, blue Jedi, who gritted his teeth. He sternly motioned to a Wookiee Jedi by the doorway, “Master D’bis is still alive! Grab her and get her towards the evac point.”

The Wookiee howled and picked up the bloody Kel Dor while Markle made his way over to Kam.

“We… we’re going to have to amputate,” she said, glancing from Kam to her fellow council member.

The young Jedi felt his heart drop, and his vision began to grow blurry. 

Am I fainting from blood loss, or because I’m about to lose my leg. I can’t tell anymore.

He looked up at Markle in pain.

The Jedi Master pursed his lips and shook his head, “I cannot do it… I cannot harm one of our students.”

Master Dan-Darra scowled at him, “we need to cauterize this wound, now!”

The other Jedi took a step back.

“I’m sorry, I cannot…”

“Fine,” the Bivall said, and she looked back down at Kam who was now wavering in and out of consciousness. “I’ll do it myself. Give me your lightsaber.”

The last thing Kam remembered before fading into oblivion was Master Dan-Darra taking the Feeorin’s lightsaber and igniting it, a pained grimace slowly spreading across her face.

Will I be ok?

Yes. Yes I will. I am in good hands, and the Force is with me… it has to be.

Kam felt himself smile as he passed out.

—

Am I… moving?

Before he could muster the strength to open his eyes, Kam felt his body being jolted around. He could also feel both of his legs, and even managed to wiggle his toes. 

Were they really able to fix me?

When he finally forced his eyes open, he realized he was staring straight into the face of Master Markle. The Feeorin Jedi was carrying Kam in his arms and running through the winding stone hallways of Almas Academy. 

Kam tilted his head and saw a dozen other Jedi running around them, clad in brown robes and golden trim. He couldn’t quite get his bearing, and wondered where they were heading.

Master Markle looked down at the Jedi student as he began to come to.

“Ah, young Kam. I see you’re awake. Don’t worry, we’re almost to safety,” he cleared his throat, “I’m sorry about your leg…”

Kam looked down and saw his leg was bandaged off at the knee, the lower part of the appendage now completely absent.

His eyes widened, “but… but I can-”

“Just phantom sensations, my young friend,” the Feeorin said, continuing to stare forward in a determined scowl, “they will pass in time.”

Kam’s body quivered as he realized his head was throbbing intensely. It was anything but helped by the bright light that suddenly illuminated the hall in front of them.

A light?

A moment later, the group of Jedi emerged from the ancient temple-turned-school, the natural lighting making Kam squint intensely. As his eyes adjusted to the outside environment, he saw the surrounding forest, the billows of smoke rising into the once starry night sky, another one of those Sith machines slumped over on the ground, and a handful of other Jedi laying either bandaged or standing with their lightsabers at the ready. 

Among the Jedi survivors he saw the unconscious Master D’bis, the Wookiee Jedi from earlier, and… Valeera.

“Kam!” she exclaimed as she hopped down from her perch atop a tree branch, clipping her microbinoculars to her belt. 

She helped Master Markle set him down against a tree facing the clearing where the assembly of Jedi survivors dwelled, illuminated by flaming brush, as well as Almas’s incredibly bright and starry night sky.

In the distance he could vaguely hear the sound of blaster volleys and lightsaber arcs, although he couldn’t tell if they were coming from back inside the academy or from the vast forest spreading out in every other direction.

“I thought you were dead?” she said as she started to treat his bruised and bleeding arms. 

“You thought I was dead? I thought you were dead? I saw the crater? And the blood?”

Valeera paused and lowered her Bacta-soaked rag. 

“That was Jaresh-rai… I know you didn’t like him, but he saved my life, Kam. Somehow he sensed the attack and pushed me out of the way right before the missiles struck. When I stood up, I couldn’t sense any of you. I thought you were all dead.”

She started tearing up, “I am so, so sorry for leaving you there. I had no idea-”

“It’s okay,” he said, weakly embracing her. “The dark side was clouding all of our minds. I thought some really bad things back in there. I almost lost my faith in the Force…”

Valeera fell back against the tree trunk beside Kam, wiping the salty pools from her eyes. “I’ll be completely honest, I did too. I thought, ‘how could the infinite, omnipresent Living Force allow so much…. death.’”

“Do you still feel that way?” Kam said looking at her, his vision still unnaturally hazy.

“No… no I don’t. This may sound completely crazy, but right before they brought you out, I was perched up in that tree looking out across the forest and I saw a Convor flying overhead. Among all of the smoke and fire and cries of pain, it just kept flying. And I realized something. No matter what happens, life goes on.”

Valeera pointed up towards the sky, she and Kam focusing in on the same star tucked away behind the smoky, gray clouds. “Death isn’t the opposite of life, it’s simply a part of it. Sure it may hurt in the moment, but it’s just the natural progression of the universe. Of the Living Force. No matter what happens to us, it doesn’t lessen what the Force is doing through trillions of other beings out there. Who are we to say that the will of the Force is or isn’t exactly what is needed for the galaxy to continue on as intended? There’s a rhyme or reason for everything that we simply cannot comprehend, at least until we become one with the Force itself through… well, death.”

She shook her head and laughed under her breath, “does that even make any sense?”

Still staring into the depths of space, Kam, sighed. “Maybe you’re right… I- I just don’t know anymore.”

A moment later, the stars were blotted out as a cruiser from the Republic Rescue Fleet emerged from hyperspace.

Jedi starfighters and evacuation craft began to rapidly deploy, but Kam could only watch on in a half-focused stupor. While Valeera looked on at the Republic’s triumphant entry in awe, Kam looked over at her with the same amazement.

She was so strong, and was completely justified in her reasoning for everything that had happened today. Kam berated himself for not having the same optimism, and for doubting his whole life’s teachings the moment things looked bleak. If he couldn’t trust in the Force, he didn’t deserve to be it’s emissary.

Valeera turned to look at him as a shuttle began to descend into the clearing in front of them. He could tell that she knew exactly what he was thinking.

She smiled softly at him, “ Hey Kam, I’m glad you’re alive.”

He managed to form a half-grin, half-grimace in return, “Me too… I mean, I’m glad you’re alive. I’m glad I’m alive too, but like, mostly you-”

She laughed, and he knew he would have blushed if he wasn’t currently suffering from the effects of intense blood loss.

The shuttle was now hovering slightly above the ground and the injured were being loaded up first. Valeera helped Kam up and acted as his crutch while he slowly hopped towards the departing spacecraft.

They were the last to board, and the two younglings looked back towards their flaming home as the shuttle began to lift off.

Kam looked at Valeera and saw the fire reflecting off of her now tear-ridden eyes. She wiped them furiously and then looked back up towards her friend.

“The Force gave us a second chance, and we’re going to make the best of it, right?”

Kam squinted as he took one final look down into the open courtyard where he had been meditating when the attack had first begun only hours ago. He could barely make out the remains of his fellow students, and he felt his gut twist in a way he had never experienced before. The weight of what had happened was really setting in now, and whoever orchestrated all of this bloodshed would suffer the same fate oh-so soon, Kam would see to that, especially if no other Jedi would.

If the Force is really with me, it will make sure we all get the justice we deserve. Afterall, what is balance if not the utter decimation of the darkness that plagues our galaxy.

Kam looked back at Valeera, who was still waiting for his response. Unlike her, the fire was not reflected from his eyes, but burning intensely behind them. Yes, he would make the best of this second chance. And he would reclaim the Force from the dark, no matter the method, and no matter cost.

He looked at his fellow survivor before closing his eyes, a broken but sincere smile snaking its way up his scalded cheeks.

“Right.”