NOVEL NEXT Chapter 11: Dividing paths
{no picture, robot picture was the in last chapter}
A galaxy filled with thousands upon thousands of worlds, yet the galaxy… was, in truth, set in twos! Two halves of a coin… and while it was on heads for a lifetime, now the coin... Turns… and when credits fail… and money amounts to nothing… strife takes hold… for in space the king is not numbered in coins… but power! Words! Words hold all the power over coins… for the words give the coin its value… as they sell you in hope… its breaths hidden resentment….
→Excerpt from an archive of the Jedi ←
As the light returned to Ahsoka's eyes, her droid companion, looked at her and waited with patience, as she rested and spoke:
[plot a course to the republic center! They must be warned in person!]
[warned of what?]
[.... WAR! War is coming again! And this time…. it felt so cold…]
The droid, having nothing else to say, simply nodded his head and was about to plot the course, when he was suddenly interrupted by Ahsoka again:
[no! Wait…. Let's not go to the republic just yet...]
Confused by her sudden change of mind, the droid asked:
[then where should I set the coordinates?]
[ were it all began… Tython… set the course to Tython!]
[Tython? I'm sorry but even for a droid as old as myself, I do not have those coordinates…]
[Ah! But you do! Huyang… you just didn't know it…] replied Ahsoka cryptically, as she melded her mind with the force, and searched out the secret hidden within Huyang.
Huyang was confused by Ahsoka's action, as being a droid with such anatomy within the Jedi order and being privy to most of the Jedi's inner workings, he didn't believe that force itself would work in him as it did for organic beings, sure he worked with them so long… that nothing surprises him anymore, even if whatever Ahsoka was doing was true. But be that as it may, he still felt hopeful….
After all, how could he not… a droid as old as him watched children grow and die, leaving him behind to start the cycle again and again, and with each pass, watching them do amazing things that he could never do! Messed with his old programming… he began… like so many other droids… heartbroken by their mortal lives… such fragile things organics were…
And with thoughts lost to his zero and ones, the world to him froze! Every dust and every particle... He could see it all with his old eyes… he even dared to touch them with his slow robotic hands… a feeling of something... Of touch… something he never experienced before!
[fascinating!] he said to himself with the eyes of a child.
And with those words in a blink, the world he knew changed again to a dark place of small little lights! There he felt it… A call... A drawing of sorts… to the center of numbers in lights… numbers that showed him the way!
But while he was fascinated and consumed with new feelings, Lucifron stared at a little droid locked in a tube meant for organic life! With steam and bubbles, and wiring a mess, Lucifron places his hand on the cradle tube and sends a chill through the force! Causing the droid within to jerk in its sleep!
For locked inside its child-like mind Lucifron said:
{fascinating! This droid… it's like it's alive! no…. wait… Yes! A being composed of living metal! And…. it dreams!}
{oh! And what a happy dream it is... One filled with fields of flowers… oh… how lucky…} exclaimed Lucifron to himself with contempt.
And with such contempt running his mood, Lucifron makes a wide grin as a beautifully normal dream gets painted in red!
With a world covered in a bounty of changing petals, the little droid blinks as he plays with a butterfly of an unknown kind. And the winds were just as gentle as its hands as he looked at a Kaminoan scientist! A scientist that was as beautiful to the droid as a mother was to her own…
A feeling of love and affection… Of belonging… joy in no better words, the droid felt it… but as the clear sky turned to ash, an explosion rang, alarms crying… and people's feet fleeting in the background… screams and orders… screams and orders…
Within screams, fear grew! And like a child with shaking hands the little droid shook his mother's body… what for? even the droid didn't know… confusion as static corroded his vision! With a mind racing and hands on his head, with words, the droid spoke inaudible…
Hearing her child, her greatest achievement fall to such a state… finally broke her cold heart! A heart that didn't even care for the lives she made and used in wars and testing…
[I really have been a bad mother…sigh… but it is too late to regret now… even my home world is gone…spent like all the others…but you can at least live… if nothing else a memory of my species greatest achievement…]] said the Kaminoan woman as she hugged her greatest prize.
A hug so warm that it stopped the flashing images of war in the droid's eyes, but unable to cry, the droid could only place his gentle hands under his mother's huge eye. And with a smile of pure joy… she was shot in the back!
With a loose concept of death, the little droid screamed as he pulled his mother to relative safety, all while watching the symbols of the republic zoom by on X-wings! And troops carrying their coat of arms…
Above the little planet, held the republic ships as they screamed over their inner coms:
[death to the new order remnants! Death to the empire sympathizer!]
Death to the order… and death to the empire… words that the little droid didn't know or understand, chanted the men as they killed!
[death… tsk… death….] Scream the little droid to himself as his head began to twitch for thoughts beyond him kept racing around his mind again. Until he heard:
[Wave!]
Hearing his name called him out of his stupor, turning back to his mother the droid felt something wet and warm on his fingertips…
[mother…. You are leaking oil!]
[I know… but wave it does not matter; you can't fix it this time… so listen to me…]
[what are you talking about mother?] replied the little droid as more blood oozed from his mother's body.
[look Mother there is no time we must hurry!]
[WAVE LISTEN TO ME! THATS AN ORDER!]
Hearing his creator's direct command, the little droid was forced to stop and look at her.
[Good that's better! Now Wave… tell me… what does your name mean…]
[Mother now is not the time…. We need to…]
[Wave! What does it mean! Don't make me ask again!] screamed the Kaminoan
[its means… wired android versed in exploration…]
[That's right! You were meant to explore the unknown regions of space! You're an explorer! Remember it. Please…now... Go… leave me here…]
[tis… I'm sorry mother... But I cannot leave you here as is... You're still leaking... We already lost 3 minutes]
Seeing the determined look on her son's face, she knew she wouldn't be able to stop him, but time was short and the republic would not stop, and more than anything she feared not his death but his capture! With banging at the seal door, the republic men demanded as they set their fire to spread!
With a smoke so suffocating, the Kaminoan woman told her little droid to follow her, for the oil she told him she needed wasn't in the medical bay. Confused, about why it wouldn't be there, the droid followed suit obediently, when they came to a certain part of the lab that even he was never allowed into…
[Mother… what is this place?]
[...]
Not hearing a response, the droid turned around as the door came slamming at his back! Confused and with a little worry, the little droid raced back to the door! And with knocks, he called out to his mother!
[mother… please open the door…]
[...]
[MOTHER! PLEASE OPEN THE DOOR!]
[...]
[MOTHER PLEASE I CAN FIX YOU!]
[no... son… you can't fix this…so, please... Son… live for me…
Turning to the door panel, he tries to wire it open, only to find it has been manually locked from his mother's side! For No computer can change old school maunel seals.
Intermission outside the vision:
[Lucifron.. What are you doing to it? It looks like it's in pain…the water… it's turning red…]
With a smirk at Leon's words, Lucifron turned to him:
{I'm stealing his destiny! Now get back…}
[get back… why?]
{because I still need a pilot…} replied Lucifron as he forced pushed Leon out of the room!
{foolish humans… their awareness is like that of a bug…} said Lucifron to himself as the vat tube began to crack!
Facing it, Lucifron smiles as he turns on his father's blades.
Intermission over
The little droid watched through a transparent door, the sight of his mother smiling. A smile that shined through the black smoke and the sparkly wires… with hands on the glass, he watched as his mother pressed a button… a button that poured water into his room!
Confused, the little droid looked to his mother as she waved her hands in goodbye! For the room, he was in… spun up and retracted into itself like a small tube of his height! The water was cold and freezing… while the last thing he saw… was the sight of the republic flag!
As the door into the room was blown apart! Seeing strange and unknown men enter the room with signs he didn't know, activated his stress response!
[get away from her!] he screamed into the tube. But words no one heard.
[weapon system armed…] words that skimmed across the droid's eyes…
Watching her child lose his mind inside the tube, pain her heart as she slowly turned her eyes away… seeing his mother turn her eyes away and the dangerous men approaching, made his robot heart snap! With killing words that went across his system, he turned on his burning blade! For his heart was made from the purity of a Kyber crystal!
Its color was once shiny and blue and majestic, but now… it was turning black and red! With a burning red blade, the little droid went to strike the glass tube! But the moment the saber made contact with the glass… the saber energy was snuffed out and taken! Drawn into the glass!
Seeing her son trying so hard for her… did make her happy… as an echo of blaster fire scorched her back! Seeing his mother gunned down in front of him like an animal, and being unable to do anything about it…
For a droid who only knew happiness… this was forged into his living metal memory… the sight of the republic symbols and faces as he was made to sleep in a cold tube….
As Lucifron stood there, the tube exploded with a passion of corrupted water! Flooding every corner but where Lucifron stood, as his blade clashed with another! Two burning red sabers linked in a memory of vengeance! With a parry and a force push, Lucifron looked at the droid as it fell to his back.
{you desire vengeance… and hold great sadness… that is good…} said Lucifron while the droid contorted its joints like a spider and went in for another strike!
But with another parry and a scuff, Lucifron easily knocked the droid away again…
{but you lack power!}
Commented Lucifron with a cough, while shocking the droid with red lighting!
Seeing the droid squirm on the floor and screaming, Lucifron continues:
{no... that's not it… you lack conviction! But that I can teach you! Not as an apprentice but as a father! Submit! And together we shall seize your vengeance!}
To his words, the droid's eyes remained steadfast in blood…
{I see... You still lack discipline! But that's fine… where still a long way from Varl.}