Chapter 8

It had been 5 years since he had come to this world and today was the first time he felt genuine pain. Seeing Paddy lying there broken about to die was something that will probably plague his nightmares even if she survives this ordeal.

As she laid there dying, he couldn't help but remember all his memories with her, from the time they had escaped from Empress Teta and arrived on Tython, her teaching him to now. While she was lying there broken, he couldn't help blaming himself for her condition while remembering all the time he had spent with her.

For the last 3 and a half years, he had been living with Paddy, Qiuying, C2-M9, M3-D6, Lostal (Leans-slightly-towards-the-left), Wobble (Wobbles-sometimes) and Brad (Bounces-randomly). By this point, they had already become family to him. The greater galaxy would probably sneer at him for having a droid family, but right now he didn't give a shit about that fact.

As he learnt about the nature of the force, both its light and dark parts, while also learning more about the galaxy with Paddy's education. He had been happy; he had made an incredible progress into understanding the force, but A'nang had stopped him from learning further until he truly experienced life, whatever that was.

He couldn't even cheat, because A'nang made sure to make him carry him all the time. After understanding the nature of the force, and how far the Jedi and Sith strayed from the force. He had a burst of passion for creating a new force order, one completely based on his understanding of the force.

When he told A'nang about the code he had made for his new order, A'nang said that the new code had great potential, but said that before Renato could practice it, he needed to comprehend it first.

No matter how much Renato had explained how and why he included each part for the code to show he understands, A'nang always shook his head, saying that he still only understood the meaning of the words of the code but not the code itself.

It wasn't until now that he understood what A'nang was talking about. He was talking about the fact that even though he had made a code, if he didn't understand the pain, then there was no way he could ever bring the maximum potential out of the code.

"Young master, please don't be sad. I am just a droid. We aren't alive"

How it ached his heart to see her putting herself down just because she was a droid and wasn't 'alive', but now that he saw through the lies in her words.

'Nothing is true, Everything is permitted'.

He saw the lie that she had been telling herself and was telling him that she wasn't alive, but while it was true that she was dying, he knew everything was permitted and had an idea on how to save her.

"Don't lie to me, Paddy. It is unbecoming. Even though you aren't 'alive' as an organism is, you are still 'living' a life with me and the other. "

'Without Knowledge, there is no foundation'

He now knew what he meant when he put that part in the code. Without the knowledge he had from all the technology from Star Wars and Halo, he couldn't have a chance to save her. This knowledge gave him a foundation to help her. It also gave him a foundation to grow.

'Without Serenity, there is no growth'

Panicking about how paddy was close to death would not help the current situation at all. He had to keep a calm mind so that he can plan ahead and carry out that plan without any emotions interfering in critical times like this.

'Without Passion, there is no goal'

While he was serene, he however still had his goal to keep paddy alive, and he poured in all of his passion for that goal into the work to keep her alive.

'Without Strength, there is no victory'

He now knew that all of this happened because he was weak. He was weak enough to not learn this lesson from the memories of his previous life; he was weak because even though he had brought his body to peak efficiency by mastering the Alchaka, he had frozen at the moment that truly counted and that was almost costing Paddy her life. His weakness was one of the spirit.

'Without darkness, there is no light'

He now understood what this meant. There will always be dark times in a person's life, no matter how much effort you put in. He just hoped that his current darkness would not last too long and would give birth to the light.

'Without balance, there is no peace'

Even if today turned out to be the darkest day possible he had to have strength and belief in himself to create a light strong enough to balance his darkest desires and also the fact that if he gave too much into the darkness and gave up hope or gave too much into the light and have too much hope would never give him peace. It was like the age-old adage, expect the worst and hope for the best.

'The force is with me'

As he was making the last designs for a smart A.I housing made with synth-crystal, he let the force guide him in his actions to make minor alterations to the design to fix any errors in the design.

He let the force flow through him as he started the crystal furnace that he jury-rigged from the construction droid to create a synth crystal; it guided his actions so that the furnace wouldn't blow up, and the crystal that came out will be stable.

'And I am one with the force'

As he saw the crystal that came out of the furnace, he noticed that while it was still a Kyber crystal, it wasn't as good as channelling the force as a natural Kyber crystal. However, this was hardly a problem for him because he wasn't making the crystal for a lightsaber.

Now finished with all the preparations, he connected Paddy's droid brain to the new smart A.I housing and let go of all of the focus he had been holding and let himself fall into the force completely as he waited for the result.

It was at the moment he let himself go in the force that he had felt all the trillions of lifeforms across the galaxy. The force recognized the creation of the code for his order and sent a pulse through the force.

As soon as the pulse went through the force, three balls of light came into the force. One was an extremely white light and the other two its complete opposite, with a black light. Instinctively, he knew that both of these lights were Yoda, Plagueis and Sidious, respectively.

While the white light looked normal, the black light however covered itself in a shroud, hiding. He now saw and understood that this was probably force-concealment taken to the maximum. He had no plans to let both the Jedi and Sith notice him, so he copied the shroud and made one for himself to hide under.

Now hidden, he let himself fall back into his body, just in time to see the progress bar complete and the two seconds it took the A.I to boot up were agonizing but eventually, he saw the hologram of a young blonde girl wearing a sexy secretary dress and the voice came from the speakers.

"Wow, why are you looking so glum, young master, Paddy is here."

That was the breaking point as Renato fell down to his knees, crying and begging for forgiveness.

"Don't cry, young master. I took the chance to protect you knowingly. I would have had no regrets knowing that I 'died' to protect you. Anyway, did you know how free I feel now? Being an A.I is definitely an upgrade that I am happy to make."

Renato couldn't help but chuckle at her enthusiasm for her new state, while also reminiscing about why this whole situation had come about in the first place.

*Flashback*

It had been the rare free holiday, from both force lessons and education lessons, so Renato decided to check what C2 (one of the protocol droid) had been doing lately.

"Hey C2, So where have you been exploring this time?"

"Oh, I have been exploring the ruins of a nearby village boss"

"Oh, a village? Where?" Renato asked curiously.

Trying to keep up with his diet had been very hard on the animal population near the Jedi temple, this had caused to almost fall short of food sometimes. So as to keep up the supply, they had been slowly increasing the circle in which they hunt every few months. So, generally, C2 would go around scouting areas to find the best hunting spots for food.

But something about the village seemed familiar to him, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"It is near the ridge towards the east from the temple."

While he searched his memories for the village, Renato decided to check this village out, so he asked paddy to come with him.

"Hey Paddy, C2 has found some ruins of a village nearby. Want to come to check them out?"

"Of course, young master"

So the group of three slowly went towards the village and started exploring it.

"So what do you know about the village C2?"

"Based on my analysis and observation, it looks like this has been a Twi'leki village named Kalikori village."

The name immediately made him find the respective memory and immediately made Renato have a feel a chill inside his bones. Because he knew, if this was Kalikori village, that meant there were possibly flesh raiders near here.

"Guys, we need to leave this place quickly!"

"Why young master/boss?" asked both C2 and Paddy simultaneously.

"Because if this is Kalikori village, that means there is a flesh raider colony nearby"

"What are flesh raiders?" they asked simultaneously.

"Flesh Raiders are a group of primitive tribes-people.... Shit, all our talking and noise has attracted some of them. Quickly take them out."

Renato said while he observed with his force senses a group of five flesh raiders coming towards them. Paddy quickly took out her blaster and started firing at the flesh raiders, while Renato, who was already very close to them, took out the ancient metal sword he had gotten from the ruins of the Jedi master's enclave and started hacking at them.

However, right when he cut through the last flesh raider, he couldn't handle it anymore and started throwing up. Because even though the flesh raiders were a savage tribe, this was the first time Renato took the life of another flesh and blood life.

"Young master, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I am fine. It is just that this is the first time I have killed. I am surprised and disgusted at how easy it was."

"Of course young mas- Master! Watch out!"

It turned out that because of his hesitation and unease in killing; he made the cut a little shallow on one of the flesh raiders because one of them got up and swung its axe at him. To protect him, Paddy jumped in the axe's way because her blaster gas was out.

Seeing Paddy on the ground twitching and short-circuiting with a diagonal cut through her made him so angry that he couldn't help but pull the dark side into him and then immediately proceeded to bisect the flesh raider.

At that moment, if it weren't for Paddy's still alive voice, he would have marched then and there into flesh raider territory and start hacking at them and slowly lose himself to the dark side.

"Young master, I am so sorry. You have to be careful while hunting for food in the future, and be sure to keep up with your food requirements."

*Flashback End*

"It seems you have passed the ordeal and have truly found your path in the force," said A'nang

"Thank you, master this is all thanks to your guidance."

A'nang just shook his head and said, "No, even if I wasn't there, you still would have found your path in the force eventually. You already had everything that was needed. I was just the guiding force that reduced the number of pitfalls in your journey."

"But still, I thank you for helping me on my path"

"Yes, teaching you has been very fun. You are now the true master of yourself, and thus I name you Master Renato. Now that I have finished teaching you, I must leave. Please place my crystal somewhere in the forest.

I shall await a day where my knowledge is needed again, and the force guides someone to me. The next time we will meet would be when you become one with the force and meet my true spirit in the force. Until then, farewell Master Renato."

Renato couldn't help but sigh melancholily. He knew that this day would come someday, but it was always hard to cope with loss. A'nang until the end didn't teach him any techniques except the spirit imprint technique, he used to make the Holocron and the Alchaka meditation, even so, the debates he had with A'nang had been the ones that shaped his path in the force today.

As he slowly stared at the stars through the night, Renato took A'nangs crystal and threw it into the forest with all the strength he had. Finally, emotionally tired, he sat down on the grass and meditated on his code.

"Nothing is true, everything is permitted,

Without knowledge, there is no foundation,

Without serenity, there is no growth,

Without passion, there is no goal,

Without strength, there is no victory,

Without darkness, there is no light,

Without balance, there is no peace

The Force is with me,

And I am one with the Force."