Chapter 19: Crystal Stars 6

Thanks to blaze1992 for some quests concepts and spitballing ideas.

To theshadowchaser and vargos for help with SW related issues.

To WarriorsCre3d for creating a custom image for the story.

And theshadowchaser for betaing and a massive re-ordering of the chapter.

I groaned as I began to wake and moved to sit up, only to feel a hand on my shoulder holding me down.

"Easy there Padawan," a female voice said, and I slowly opened my eyes, blinking at the soft lighting in the room. As I grew accustomed to the light, a notice floated before my face.

You have slept for over 8 hours.HP, FP, PP and Stam 100% restored.All negative statuses and ailments have been removed.…

I waved the notice away, still wondering how to at least move that reminder to a more convenient location and focused on the other person in the room.

She was of the same species as Master Fisto – who I had only met in passing around the temple – but her skin was darker, almost grey in colour. A Nau-something-or-other. The name of the species escaping me at the moment.

"You are in the temple's healing complex," She said, having guessed my first question. "Your masters brought you here after you fainted. From our examinations, it appears that you overexerted yourself with the Force and passed out."

"Ah," I managed to get out, my voice coming as more of a croak. I licked my lips and felt how dry they are.

"Here," the healer passed me a glass of water.

I sipped at it, careful to not drink it too fast, before handing it back to her.

"Thanks. How am I? Anything wrong?"

"You are fine, young one," She replied with a smile that combined with the tentacles on her head and her jet-black eyes, was a little disconcerting. I knew it was wrong, but a small part of me was still uncomfortable around the more stereo-typically alien-looking aliens of this galaxy.

"If I may, I will go and inform your masters that you are awake now."

"Ok," I replied and watched her leave the small private room I was in.

The moment the doors closed, I pulled up the two blinking notices.

Quest CompletedCleanse the TempleObjective:Find the dark side taint and cleanse it [Yes]Rewards:3000XP...

LEVEL UP!Level: 10 – 11FP: +500PP: +2STAM: +15SP: +5SKP: +32...

NOTEWhile you yourself did not finish the Quest Cleanse the Temple, your actions ensured that it could be completed.This is enough to regard the quest as completed.Please note that only a handful of quests are able to be completed in this manner....

'Huh, well that was unexpected. But useful.' If certain quests like Cleansing the Temple could be completed by others in a group with me, then it would make the more long-winded quests I was sure to develop easier to handle. Perhaps it had something to do with the same issue as earning Party XP from combat.

I was pulled from my thoughts as I heard the doors opened, which I turned to face as I subtly waved away the notices.

"Good morning Cameron. How are you feeling?" Fay asked as she walked into the room with Dooku, the Jedi healer a step behind them.

"I'm fine, Master Fay. How long was I out?" I replied, curious as there was no mention of the Expert Duellist quest, which would expire on my birthday.

"You have been here since yesterday Padawan," the healer replied as she stepped beside the other Jedi, before turning to them. "Padawan Shan shows no signs of any ailment, so he is free to leave with you."

"Thank you Master Zod. Come Padawan."

Say what you will for Dooku's abilities, it was still hard to not roll my eyes at being ordered about like an army recruit again.

Fay stayed beside the bed as I stood, and we both followed him out of the room

"What happened to me?"

"You over-exerted yourself with the Force and pushed too far with Battle Meditation," Fay explained as we walked through the infirmary. I noted a few of the younger Jedi glance at me but I ignored them. I'd been getting such glances since I'd arrived, with them becoming far more prevalent after my performance in the Initiate Trials and discovering that others thought I was the 'Chosen One'.

"Ahh, that's right," I murmured as the memory came back to me. In the closing moments of the fight, I had attempted Battle Meditation in the heat of the moment to help Fay And Dooku.

"Yes, your Battle Meditation," Dooku drawled, glancing at me. "While we thank you for the help, we would prefer if you were more careful in future. Having you collapse like that could place all of our lives in danger, as we needed to both protect you and ourselves."

"That is not to say that we are unappreciative," Fay added, after glancing at Dooku. "And it was effective in helping us more effectively eliminating the Rancor, but Battle Meditation is best used if everyone is expecting it. To be thrust into it suddenly was momentarily disorienting, and that is potentially dangerous, not to mention taxing on yourself without the right preparation, as you learned firsthand."

"Understood ma'am," I said as a new notice appeared in my log. Clearly, there was more to what had happened.

"What about the temple in the mountain?" I asked. I already knew it had been dealt with because of the quest completion notice, but I had to ask to avoid suspicion. Plus, I was curious if they had taken my suggestion to heart and merely balanced the taint, and not removed it altogether.

"The High Council directed a team of Jedi to cleanse the place when we returned with you last night," Dooku explained with a subtle twitch of his mouth. "From the reports I have been shown, they were very, thorough, in removing all traces of the dark side form the place."

"Ah," I replied, trying to keep any annoyance out of my tone.

"This is the standard practice of the High Council when dealing with discovered minor dark side nexuses. Major nexuses are classified and placed on a list that only the High Council or other senior Jedi Masters can access." Fay explained calmly. "I meditated on your suggestion of balancing a nexus last night. I feel that you may have discovered a better approach to handling nexuses, and I suggested it to the High Council this morning. Perhaps they will consider it in future."

I nodded at her words, but I didn't hold out much hope that the High Council would listen to her. From what I remembered from before, and had seen while here, the Council was set in its way.

We walked in silence after that, and I used the time to pull up the new notice.

Force Power Discovered!OnenessSrvseYsbsdYysdgdvsddgsvsdAsfasftsas...

Well, that was unexpected!We hadn't planned for you to gain that Force Power until you were older.You are not ready for the ramifications of using that power.Thus, it is now locked.This means the power is there, however you cannot train it up in the manner you have other powers.As for when and how we will unlock it…That is for us to know and you to find out.

I frowned as I read the note from the powers that be, but since I had no real idea of how exactly I had accessed this Oneness, I wasn't too concerned at having a locked power. Nor was I stupid enough to argue with beings capable of pulling me across time and dimensions.

Clever Boy!

Soon we reached one of the mess halls and I spotted Serra and Aayla waving to me from where Dragon Clan was sitting.

"Go, spend time with your friends. We will be leaving tomorrow and when we return, they may have been selected as Padawans themselves," Fay said, and I turned to see her smiling at me. "Say your goodbyes."

"Thank you, master," I replied with a slight bow before turning to Dooku. "Master Dooku, since I will be leaving tomorrow with Master Fay, I was hoping we could spend more time today training in Makashi. Will this be possible?"

Dooku rubbed his beard. "Hmm. Yes, I believe this may be possible. I have no scheduled classes from fourteen hundred, so I will meet you in the sparring arena then. Good day." He nodded to both of us then walked off towards a pair of Jedi, one of whom I spotted to be Sifo-Dyas.

I turned back to Fay but saw she had already stepped away and was speaking with Master Yaddle, so after grabbing some food, I headed over to where Dragon Clan was sitting.

"Hey Cameron, so you remembered we exist, did you?" Aayla teased as I sat next to her, and she bumped me with her shoulder.

"How could I ever forget your lovely lekku?" I teased back, ignoring the slight twinging of dark blue that came to her cheeks as I turned to look at the others. "How have you all been?"

"Bored," Serra replied with a sigh. "With you and Darihd now Padawans, the clan minder put Sia-Wan in charge. She's no fun."

"Just because you suck at the running is not my fault Serra," Sia-Wan countered, sending me a small smile as she spoke. "So, rumour has it you fought a Terrantatek under the temple." She added.

"No idea what that is, but we did run into a Rancor," I replied, noting the way a few of the clan leaned forward.

"Wicked!" Stated Lon with a massive smile. "That sounds awesome!"

"No, it's really not," I replied with a sigh.

"What exactly did happen?" Asked Aayla. "We've asked around, but the High Council has deemed it classified, and only other Masters know about it."

I frowned. There was no reason for the High Council to do this. The nexus was cleansed, the quest completion confirmed this, so there was no longer any risk to any of the Jedi. Even if the younger Jedi learned what happened, it would change nothing.

I huffed internally. The High Council seemed to have a blanket policy of either hoarding knowledge of the Force they deemed too strong or purging all traces of knowledge about the Force except for the what they deemed as 'The Light Side'. This was... an extremely narrow-minded and self-destructive practice for them. One I was steadily learning was all too common around here and helped me see how the Sith had so easily manoeuvred the Jedi. Heck, it was giving me ideas on how to shift some Jedi around to see things from my perspective.

I considered how I wanted to play this as I took a bite of my roll then leaned forward.

"I'll tell you what happened, but I need you all to see that this isn't a joke. Even on Coruscant, even on this mountain, there are dangers that are out to hurt or kill us." I said in a voice barely above a whisper. This would be a good chance to hopefully make one or two of them more cautious. Of everyone here, I only knew that Aayla made it to the Clone Wars. If I could, I wanted to make sure all of them did, and making them more willing to listen to me over others might just be useful to me later in life; though how I wasn't yet sure of.

So, I started on the story, explaining how Fay, Dooku and I had been taking expeditions to the lower levels of the temple for over a week. While they already knew this, I wanted to cover everything to help build up the story.

As was expected when entertaining children with an exciting story, I had a very good, and attentive audience.

Gasps and exclamations in all the right places, until I finally told them about meeting the Rancor in the heart of the nexus.

"Now, mind you, I was unconscious for part of it, but I can remember most of it," I said, as I thought back to those last moments...

I had thought, after the life that I had lived before this one and the incidents that had occurred during this one, that there wasn't much that could scare me.

I had been shot at, shot in, thrown across a street as my friend was blown up with an RPG, attacked by a man wielding a flamethrower, attacked by a Sith Warrior who had helped kill my grandfather, and even attacked by subterranean monsters less than an hour earlier.

I figured I really should be numb to fear.

Yet hearing a rancor roar then charge you, that was terrifying in a whole new, and more primeval way. The kind of fear that is the more, tiger vs bunny rabbit instinctive way.

Something that was nearly ten meters tall and weighing what I suspected was more than a few tons, charged at us with more speed than a beast its size logically should.

Thankfully though, all the fear faded as Player's Mind auto engaged and I was able to think calmly again.

"Scatter!" Dooku shouted as he Force Leapt to my left and sliced two of the smaller beasts – I was going to call them grunts – in half as he landed.

I moved to my right and ducked under the wild swing of one of the grunts. My lightsaber cut it at the knee as I passed, and I pivoted around and took its head.

A giant boulder went flying past me and smashed into the on-rushing Rancor and I glanced to where it had come from to see Fay; three more large boulders lifting off the floor beside her.

"Stay back Cameron. These beasts are tainted by the dark side," She said as she calmly sent a boulder into three of the altered grunts; squishing them into a paste. "They are far more dangerous than what we've faced before."

"I'll try," I replied as I side-stepped one of the regular grunts before slashing its chest as it passed me.

I glanced up to see Dooku rolling out of the reach of one of the rancor's massive paws, bringing his lightsaber down on the arm as he did so. However, his sure expression shifted slightly as the blade just bounced off harmlessly.

"How," I heard Fay mutter as she sent a blast of pure Force energy at one of the mutated grunts, only for the grunt to shrug off the attack as it hit a patch of darkened skin.

My own blade bounced off the skin of a mutated grunt, only to then skin it where the skin was the same colour as the non-mutated grunts.

"Their skin is only protected where it's dark!" I shouted out as I drove my blade through the mouth of the grunt then push the body back into the last grunt; with both them being squashed under a stalactite that came loose from the ceiling.

Neither Jedi Master said anything, though I watched as Fay now sent a long, narrow rock hurling at the rancor, piercing its skin where it wasn't darkened. Dooku then used the beast's roar of pain to step in and slice off one of its giant clawed fingers.

The beast roared again, and I felt a surge of fear shoot through me as it charged at Dooku. The old man leapt aside to avoid a massive clawed paw, only to be knocked away by a swing of the other arm.

As Dooku came to a sliding stop near the far wall of the cavern, I realized that I couldn't help him fight it directly, nor would throwing projectiles like Fay be much help. I wasn't skilled enough to use TK like this in battle. However, there was something I COULD do.

Seeing that the grunts were all down, I moved to a corner of the room and knelt. Taking a deep breath, I activated Battle Meditation.

I reached out with the Force tried to mentally touch both Jedi. After a few seconds, I was able to get a very weak link. I used the link to try and instil confidence in them that they could take the beast down and to link their minds to each other.

I knew I couldn't hold the connection for long but giving them even a minute might be enough.

I felt my FP begin to run out but pushed deeper into the Force, asking it to help. I still wasn't sure whether the Force was truly alive or not, but at this point, I wasn't above imploring possible deities. Straining my mind, I kept pushing further until...

I gasped out loud as I felt SOMETHING respond and wash over my mind and body. Power flooded into me and the connections between me and the two Jedi Masters instantly strengthened. I imagined that I could see what each was doing, as if I was perceiving through their own senses, and not just my own.

Fay started striking the beast at the non-darkened spots and Dooku seemed to instantly know where and when to strike to compliment Fay's strikes to do the most damage.

With only a handful of further swipes of his lightsabers, Dooku had the beast on its chest and drove the twin blades through the back of the rancor's head. It was over.

Suddenly, just as quickly as it had come, the power faded, and the connection was severed. I suddenly felt weak, and my eyes snapped open to see both Jedi Masters looking at me in concern.

"…" I saw Fay's lips move but I heard nothing as my vision failed me and I was surrounded in darkness.

"Wow, that sounds so exciting!" Lon exclaimed.

"Yeah, I was so excited that when it roared and charged, I almost crapped myself," I responded dryly. That drew a few laughs. "If not for Masters Fay and Dooku, I would've died."

That destroyed the mood of the table as I kept going.

"I thought I could handle anything, but I was wrong. I was arrogant and because of that I almost got into real trouble." I stated. While not totally true, I figured that teaching these kids to be more careful than most Jedi will help them live longer.

"But you didn't," countered Trudie, her curly blonde hair bouncing as she leaned across the table.

"Only because of my Masters. We all think we're ready, but we're not. Watching Master Dooku showed me just how far I still have to go, and how far we all still have to go if we want to be useful."

The others all were looking at me carefully. They clearly wanted to hear more of what had happened in greater detail, since I had left certain parts out and had been vague about what had happened while in the Battle Meditation. However, my warning was making each of them a little worried that what had happened to me could eventually happen to them, and I suspected that they were scared that they wouldn't be so lucky.

I resolved to myself then and there to try and prepare them much as possible so that they would never have to be as lucky as I was.

…

…

As I stepped out the sonic shower, I smiled.

Today was the day I finally got out of the Temple and could begin to see the galaxy and hopefully find a real water shower to use. Sure, a sonic shower might be better at cleaning you, but it wasn't the most relaxing as there was something missing from the experience.

I was drawn out of my musing as I saw the notice for quest completion, though I frowned as under that was a blinking white notification.

I'd never seen a white notification before; quests usually came in light and dark blue – for alerts and completions – or red when I failed while general interface messages such as level-ups or the annoying sleep statements, were in grey.

I tapped both and as I read the white one, felt my brow rise.

Quest Completed!Expert DuellistObjectives:Get Makashi to Master 1 by your ninth (9th) birthday. [Yes]? Get it to Master 25 [Yes]? Get it to Master 50 [No]Rewards:3000XP1400XP...

It's Your Birthday!To help with your growth, each birthday you gain 1/3 of your current level's needed XP.This will last until you reach 11 cycles, and the system will upgrade.Knowledge Skills suffer 10*strata levels of degradation.NOTE:Degradation decreased by 75% due to perk Photographic Memory.Degradation suffered is now 2.5*strata...

I had only past Expert Duellist by using Skill points, and then, on a hunch, had spent more to get to Master 25. I was pleased to see that the pattern on that being the first bonus objective held true and even after spending so many skill points, I had thirty still to use.

The birthday notice was unexpected, but that meant I just been granted about 3500XP for free. No way was I going to complain about that.

I honestly had forgotten about the degradation of knowledge-based skills as these weren't the skills counted towards levels but instead referred to my general knowledge about science, people, governments and so forth.

Though I was certain to take the perk Eidetic Memory at my next level up.

According to its description, it removed all knowledge loss and gave me perfect recall of everything I had ever known/seen/felt. While sounding a little overwhelming, having perfect recall of The Clone Wars cartoon and the movies was going to be a godsend.

I quickly called up my status.

Cameron ShanSpecies: HumanTitle: The PlayerLevel 11HP: 160/160FP: 5500/5500PP: 22/22XP [8578/11000]STAM [181/181]Hunger [0/100]STR: 11 +VIT: 11 +AGI: 11 +INT: 16 +WIS: 12 +CH: 11 +Luck: 0 + [+10]SP: 6SKP: 32Perk P: 0PPP: 0Credits: 4251

"Nice," I muttered. Thanks to using the skill points and my birthday surprise, I was only 2500XP from another level up.

I had used Examine yesterday while having a meal with Dragon Clan to learn the levels of those my own age. Serra and Sia-Wan were the highest at 9, while Aayla had been at 8 and the others were all lower.

From that, I was working on the assumption that most levels correlated to growth since the interface's help stated that most Human adults were between levels 20 and 25, and the human body generally stopped true physical development and brain maturation around that period.

An interesting thing was that none of the Initiates had detected my usage of Examine, so I planned to use it later with Fay just before we left the Temple. Hopefully, she wouldn't sense it, but if she did, it could just be waved off as a passing feeling.

The strangest thing though was learning that using Examine improved the Force Power Empathy, with my perk Empathy granting a bonus to experience gained for the power. I had no idea how to even use the power, but at least this meant that the perk wasn't a total waste.

Putting that to the back of my mind, I focused on what I had been planning in the sonic shower and considered my next batch of learning quests. Soon enough I had five of them.

Generational Duellist was to raise Makashi to Savant 1 within half a year and granted 3000XP.

Competent Defender was to get Soresu to Professional 1 in the same time frame and granted 1000XP.

Both of those carried two hidden objectives, though from experience I knew they were for levels 25 and 50 of the relevant strata.

Cash in Hand was a straightforward quest; have one million credits to my name by the time I was eighteen. There were four hidden objectives, and I believed those referred to completing the task early and/or having more money by the deadline.

Fluffing any of those quests would just result in a loss of XP – and a block on storing money in my inventory for a few years for Cash in Hand – so there was no real danger to them unlike some of my earlier quests which carried the threat of locked skills if failed.

Force to the Max was a quest to max out as many Force powers as possible. Each maxing granted me 1000XP, and I instantly gained that amount as Force Power: Serenity was already maxed out.

Skilled to the Max was similar Force to the Max, though it applied to skills, with each maxed skill granting me 500XP; and there I gained 1000XP for Meditation and Concentration.

That combined instant XP left me less than 500 from levelling up, which was a nice surprise, and I realized that these two quests were going to be constant, abusable means of gaining XP, as they had no time limit.

My list covering what I needed to do to prepare for the coming war was still growing, and I suspected I could adapt most of it into quests, but much of it was dependent on how much say I had in where I went with Fay, and what we would be doing over the coming months.

…

…

"Is this all you wish to take?" Fay asked me as I met her near the temple's public hangar bay.

I had only my lightsaber and a standard Jedi utility belt on me. However, I had two small bags in my Inventory; one contained a spare set of robes and the other was full of food. A careful examination of the interface help led me to learn that anything placed in my inventory was in stasis, and thus would remain in the condition it entered regardless of when I removed it.

The bags were going to be my proof of this, but if it worked, I felt I'd discovered another loophole in the strange powers I now had.

In addition to the bags, my inventory also held the remains from the two lightsabers that had been destroyed on Ilum. I estimated them to be enough to make a single new weapon. I had the crystals from those lightsabers stored separately.

I also had the three functioning lightsabers found while we were exploring the lower levels of the temple, an ancient vibroblade and blaster, along with a spare energy pack and the Sith Holocron from the ship that had brought me to Coruscant.

There were also two datapads; one with my ideas/plans/notes and the other with the data for how to return to Dromund Kaas and the flight plan of the ship the Sith had used.

"Yes, ma'am. I was not told to bring anything else." I stated as I reached her.

She placed her hand on my shoulder and seeing my chance, I placed my hand on her arm as she spoke.

"I do not know where we will go Cameron, but the Force will guide us to where we are needed. Once we reach the spaceport, we will meditate and see what path the Force has ready for us." She said with a soft smile and as she began to remove her hand, I took my shot and activated Examine.

"Master, is everything alright?" I asked as Fay stumbled backwards

"Yes, Yes. I just felt… something unusual," She said as she stared at me. "Most unusual, yet I don't think it was anything to worry about. Now come along, we have a path to find."

As she turned and began to walk, I pulled up the notice of what Examine had discovered.

FayRace: Sephi-Human HybridLevel: 50Health: 100%Force Potential: HighEmotional State: Relaxed/ExcitedFay is one of the oldest living members of the Jedi Order.She feels you have a part to play in countering the darkness that has fallen across the galaxy.Though she is uncertain of what this will mean for her and the other Jedi....

'Holy fuck! Level fifty!' I almost stumbled myself when I read that. That was more than double the average adult according to the help, and combined with her high Force Potential, meant she was an incredibly powerful Jedi.

Learning that she felt I was important but was unsure about how, was not unexpected, but the confirmation was nice. And I was glad to see she didn't feel drawn to me like, according to Examine, a few members of Dragon Clan were.

Another notice stated that I had levelled up Empathy, which was interesting, as Fay was only the ninth person I'd used Examine on. If that held true, levelling up that power was going to be easy.

As we walked to the nearest landing pad, and the waiting speeder that would take us to the spaceport, I wondered just what level Dooku and the High Council members were. I suspected that only a few would be at or higher than Fay's level.

When we returned in half a year, I would have to see where Dooku stood and compare myself to the members of Dragon Clan to see how my growth hopefully surpassed their own.

On the flight to the spaceport, I wondered just what the next few months hold, and what I could learn. I silently hoped that at least some of it would be relevant to my plans and preparations for the future.

….

And thus ends the Crystal Stars arc.

Next arc will see a short time jump until Cam's return to Coruscant and his first mission from the High Council.