A Forming Force

Posted on Mon Mar 18th, 2013 @ 6:16am by Berry & Thane

2,635 words; about a 13 minute read

Chapter: Chapter III: Relics
Location: Red Raptor
Timeline: Day Twelve

It was relieving, if nothing else, that Bería was in a better mood, and far more relaxed and energised. No doubt she had eaten and slept for many hours, so it was not surprising that Thane was feeling the wash of positive emotions flooding from the part-Aquar's end of the bond - a bond he was only becoming more keenly aware of as his own feelings diverged more and more from her own. Even so, it was pleasant to feel the unnecessary cheerfulness that accompanied her, as it was not something he felt too often, and particularly not these days.

As a child, both on and off Caanus, he had actually been quite a happy child, cheerful and friendly. As time went on, however, and he reached his latter years as a Jedi Padawan, he felt less of that automatic goodwill. Certainly, he was still emphatic enough to understand people's attitudes and point of views, but he was far less willing to compromise and be lenient. Now, he realised, he almost did not care to even try to bend for them. What probably should have been more concerning was that he did not care a great deal, but it was not.

For now, there were far more important things going on than people's happiness, like their security and lives - like stopping Axion and developing his powers, as well as training Bería's.

As he reached her cabin, Thane could hear the banging of a small object against the floor and walls, and opening the door revealed her to be throwing a small ball around (from where she got it, he did not know), which he then pulled into his hand mid-bounce and inspected it for a moment, the urge to begin bouncing himself almost overpowering. He smiled inwardly.

"You handled yourself very well yesterday," he complimented, opening his palm so that the ball could be taken, but from this distance, it would require her to use the Force.

"Heeey!" Berry pouted at the pale man as she lay on her bed, head hanging off the edge so she was looking at him upside down. She was just in her sea chest wrap and seagrass skirt, her feet bare as she kicked at the wall. She flipped over onto her stomach, back to smiling again. "Yeah, that's what a captain does--gotta keep your cool. Sometimes." She frowned a little as she eyed the ball.

"And it was not an easy time to keep that," Thane confirmed, letting the ball float up into the air with the lightest of holds with the Force, ready for Bería to take it with her own abilities. "And it's about what happened yesterday - the many things that happened - that I wanted to talk to you about."

Berry puffed a cheek out as she pouted at the ball floating in water magic, then willed a surge of water to push it over to her. She sat up and caught it with a golden-green hand, her braids askew from her weird position. "Yeah okay. This room's not as fun to bounce stuff in, anyway...I keep hitting my face..." She hopped off the bed, bouncing the ball off the floor and into her hand.

Thane jutted his chin towards Bería's lightsaber at the side. "Bring that with you, please - there's no reason we can't talk and practise at the same time, is there?" A level of trepidation was flooding him as he considered how he should approach talking to the young woman, his informal apprentice, about what had happened. In truth, there was a lot he could say, about the different uses and dangers of the dark side, as well as how to approach certain troubles in life - such as when he had the opportunity to end K'Errekh before he could pose another danger, or the fact the so-called 'blood treasure' could actually be a boon.

"Maybe." The part-Aquar briefly made a face, the hilt flying into her hand as she walked out of the room. She trudged into the hallway and automatically veered to the kitchen before glancing over her shoulder at the Human. "Wait, where are we going??"

The Human raised an eyebrow and cocked his head in response. "I did not ask you to bring it so we could toast bread together; let's get to the training room." As he let Bería take the lead, he indulged himself a small grin with her automatic homing response to the galley, but it only took a moment before they were actually in the other room, Thane taking a position exactly opposite to where the other now stood.

"Ignite your blade and try to strike me," he suggested casually, not reaching for his own hilt, "and whilst you do that, maybe we can talk about a few things that did happen at the temple." Thane's eye narrowed for a second. "As well as the holocron we found."

"Huh?" Berry blinked and looked over at him, eyes wide and a little blank as she was busy trying to think up of how one would actually toast bread with a light stick....maybe by using the light stick as a fire? But it would burn the ground if you tipped it over..."Wait, why do I want to hit you?" As she waited for an answer she ignited the blade anyway and placed it down on the ground, carefully watching if it was melting the ground.

Thane let out a deep sigh, but it was quiet enough to not be audible. "As part of your training; to improve both your connection to the Force and to your lightsaber. If at any point I need to ignite my blade to stop you, then you know you are doing rather well." He stood up straighter, waiting for when she would make a move.

Berry picked up her light stick, pouting slightly up at him. "Only if I get special food?"

"You can have special food," he said slowly and with some slightly annoyed reservation, but his tone suggested he did not care about whether she did or not.

She shrugged and shot forward, rocketing toward Thane like a fast-swimming sperm whale about to collide into the mountain side.

Just moving to sidestep in time, Thane felt the heat coming from the blue blade that had once been his, impressed that Bería's first move was not as predictable or as slow as he expected - she certainly did have a lot of potential, although he also wondered how far abilities were shared through their supposed bond. Equally, he wondered if that meant any of his developing abilities would be shared between them, therefore.

Berry screeched to a halt, skidding a bit on her sandals as she quickly turned around to face him with a small frown. Her movements were fluid and a just a little purposeful...for the food.

"You're very quick," he said, ducking to avoid another swing, "just as you were at the temple, and you did a good job handling whatever fears may have come your way." Thane could feel Bería's intentions through the ripples in the Force, just as anyone let out when in combat. Once more, he wondered if their bond would could give either of them an edge in sensing the other's plans. At the moment, he presumed he would be the luckier of the pair, given he was more in-tune with the Force. "But you need to get over this issue with the dark side - blood magic - because it is not something to be feared as the Jedi do-" he swung about to avoid having an arm severed, "-but it is not something to take lightly, either. As I said a few days ago: you may act the fool, but you were not born to play the jester."

Thane took a few steps back, watching the part-Aquar holding the lightsaber in that downwards-angle she already seemed to favour. The Niman stance, he thought to himself with some amusement, that being the primary form he utilised in non-lightsaber combat. "You have the power to be so much more than most Jedi, which means you shouldn't limit yourself to just things you think 'feel' good, or sound good. I won't make you do anything you don't want to, but as you progress, you would be foolish to ignore things that will make you a greater person and a greater combatant. Besides, the ability to do something does not necessitate doing it - but it will certainly make you superior."

Berry paused and gave him an incredulous look, her lightsaber drooping along with her concentration as she gaped at him. "Huh? I'm not scared of blood magic! I just don't wanna get dirty and mad all the time." She wagged a finger at him, frowning. "Those guys in those crates are bad people. I'm not gonna cheat and learn their bad stuff, so nothing doing!" She lifted her chin up at him. "And who says I'm not stupid?" Her eyes glimmered as they narrowed. "I have standards, even if they're dumb. What's it to you?"

"'Cheat'?" He echoed as he looked back at her, arching an eyebrow. "You make it sound as though there are rules about how to do well. Is it cheating to choose a better teacher than another? Is it cheating to simply climb over a wall, rather than spend hours walking around it? It sounds like common sense to me, and only a fool would be commandeered by their own emotions. What happened back at the temple - to me, in particular - was not as a result of the holocron, but because of a malicious and insane figure. What I became is all that is wrong with the dark side, but what the Jedi are is all that is wrong with the light side."

Thane extended his arms, inviting her to try and attack again. "Besides, haven't you heard the old rhetoric of how something is neither good or evil but how it is used? There is also the fact that knowledge, I believe, is the only good, whilst ignorance is the only evil. From where I stand, there is a lot of evil in this galaxy - but you should be better than that. And it matters to me because we have a responsibility to make a difference. Evil only prevails if we do nothing to stop it."

He knew he sounded a bit pretentious, but Thane also knew he had to make some connection to the girl here, for risk of her misunderstanding what he did, and then losing her entirely. "And is that not worse?" He asked her. "I thought that's what you fought for on Velusia, when you were this captain. Well, the galaxy is our crew."

Berry paused in her steps, her saber still pointed aimlessly around as she smiled confusedly at him. "Huh??" Those were a lot of words...she tried to pull herself from her half-ass battle mode and get her talking brain online. "Uh, first off, I don't even know who Jedi are, so if you say they're wrong, then don't listen to them. And if you were super crazy and 'dark side,' then don't listen to your crazy self!" she said with a grin, chuckling. "Just be yourself, that's my motto. So why would I want to force people into my crew if they didn't wanna be with me? That's stupid--they'd just hate me and we wouldn't have fun."

She frowned at him. "I'm not your captain, so we don't have to agree on things. But I'm gonna let you know right now, there's a certain way I make a difference in this world. You might not like the way I do things, but I'm gonna keep doing 'em, because I have standards. I'm not gonna suddenly lower them just because a dude who's stronger than me says it's better to do that." Her eyes flashed a little at him. "Especially since they cheated. I don't need to talk to them to taste all the blood in that box." She looked away, intensity fading along with her interest especially since there was such a weak promise of special food.

"It's easy to spill it, Thane. And it's super hard to move on knowing a bad guy could still hurt me--but if I'm not strong enough to handle him at my weakest, then I already failed those I'm responsible for. Not to mention they usually keep my back, too..." She shrugged and whirled the saber like a baton. Would the fire stick melt her bouncy ball if she whacked it around? Hmmm, maybe....

With his eyes intense, Thane let them bore straight into Bería for a few long moments, his face unchanging as he considered everything she had said. Then, feeling the weight of her words more through the Force than through her expression, he let his face and feelings ease slightly, actually impressed - once again - with the young woman, even if he did not agree with her.

"Alright," he began, relaxing a bit, "I can see we're not going to agree here, and I'm not going to force the point. We'll just keep going around in circles, I can see that. We're both too stubborn and convinced of our own points of view, so let's agree on something else." Thane stepped forward, and extended an open hand. "We will be friends. With the sort of galaxy we live in, we need all of the friends we can get. What's more, I'll keep helping train you if you'll at least listen a bit more, as there is a lot more to your power than you think there is; we'll work together, and I won't force you to use the holocrons or anything of the kind. We'll help each other." Adding a small smile to his face, he asked, "Deal?"

Berry smiled back at him, so pleased her eyes were almost completely shut. "Uh huh!" At least he was smiling again. She shook his hand with a laugh, grip firm but light, and then withdrew to fidget again. "Sooo since you're my friend does that mean I get to pick on you more? 'Cause I've been holding back a loooot...and I know you don't like it but friends have to put up with each other if they're friends..." Her eyes twinkled as her smile grew a bit mischievous, as if she was contemplating the testing of a boundary before her. Indeed, she'd probably run through a wall instead of jump it...

"Sure," he said easily, taking a few steps back and then engaging his violet lightsaber, "but be careful about what you let yourself in for. Now, let's see that form of yours." Adopting a Shii-Cho position to enable basic saber combat, he intended to see how Bería finally fared against a duelling opponent who wielded a lightsaber. "Statues and remotes are one thing, after all." A small glint entered his own eye, as if he was almost relishing even the basic duel before it had begun. "I mean, I'm sure you're not scared..."

Berry's dark eyes widened. "NO, I'm not scared!" she immediately yelped. She lifted her saber and narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion. "And I don't have a form, so there!"

The grin on one side of Thane's mouth grew in satisfaction. "Oh, yes you do, Bería," he said in a cajoling tone, setting his feet apart, "you very much do."

Her gold-green nose wrinkled. "Yeah, whatever," she said with a laugh before jumping at the pale man with her formless form.

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