Act 1: Demons Dreaming.
"Mommy..."
"Wake up mommy..."
"....."
"Please... Wake up.. Mommy..."
"Get away from her, Boy! That little bitch needs to learn some respect."
*Strands of black hair fell upon the small boys tears at he looked down at the woman on the floor. She had done nothing to deserve this.. Nothing at all. His mother was a good lady... Had always tried her best, with no help from her husband, who spent most his time at the local cantinas getting liquored up, and eventually dragged out by the security.
"Damien! You deaf boy?!"
*The rather large man stood up from the rickety old stool, his drunken gaze struggling to focus on the boy. Slamming his fist, which held a cylinder object in it, on the table, he bellowed out,
"Damnit, boy! Between you and that bitch, i cant decide wether to sell you as slaves, or train you harder."
*The man strides over to the young boy and delivers a solid slam to his temple. As the world fades black, a single tear grazes down the boys cheek...
~ ~ ~ ~
"Damien... Wake up honey... Its time do you your chores. We dont want to upset your father again when he returns home from work..."
*Gently rubbing his eyes, the child sits up. After a moment, he looks about the area... This was not as remember when he lost conscienceness... Now he lay in his own bed, wrapped in the bundles of warm sheets his mother had made for him years prior.
"Come on honey... up, up."
*This mother gently smiled to him.. Her once beautiful face had been tarnished by shades of blue and black; "Lessons" from her own husband had broken her bones, and more sorrowful, her joyous spirit. Still, she tried... For no other reason than her son, Damien, whom she loved more than her own life.
*Standing up, Damien gently rubbed his head, with a small squint as he touched his sore temple. His father had struck him plenty before, yet the last eve was the most life-threatening... At least that he could remember. Slipping on a old pair of faded brown pants, he stumbled his way towards the door, and peered outside at the well, where his mother now stood, pumping water into a wooden bucket.
"Mommy... Why is daddy always gone during the day?"
*The little boys words innocent and niave, trailed over to his mother as she worked. Pausing for a moment, her gaze plays the wooded area around them... So plentiful were the forests around his hut-like home on Norval II. Often the young boy would spend hours at a time, after his chores were through, in the woods, playing with sticks and twigs, and chasing the smaller bugs across the forest floor.
"Dear, I have told you before..." his mother replied, her tone a bit more sadden then moments before. "Your father is a Jedi... When he leaves here, he goes and makes the galaxy a better place for other people."
*The woman walks over to Damien and kneels softly, looking into his deep green eyes. As she continues to speak, her tone rises a bit, giving off a false sense of well being to the young boy.
"Thats why he is.. cranky when he gets home sometimes, honey.. His work is hard. So we have to do what we can to make it easier for him, ok?" She pauses for a moment, looking at Damien, who stands quietly, returning her gaze. "Your father is a good man... He just likes things done his way.. Like most Jedi, he is wise, so he knows whats best... So thats why what he says, we must do, alright honey?"
*Damien nods hesitently, still looking over the colors on his mother face. He had been told many stories of the "Jedi", and of his fathers actions with them. Thats what had brought them to this planet... Some 'Sith' were looking for Damiens father, and so he fled with his family here.. Damien couldnt remember where they had lived before then, and on the conversations he ease-dropped in on, it was never mentioned.
"Good." His mother smiles warmly, and taps Damien lightly on the nose. "Now go get us some firewood so we can make some stew later, k'ay?"
*Damien scrunches his neck down and giggles as she taps him. Then, with a smile, he nods, and scampers off into the woods, in search of dead would - for everyone knows dead wood burns the best...
~ ~ ~ ~
*Emerging from the woods, and black and blue faced boy walked with a bundle of old wood in his hands. Carefully manuvering his way around the shrubs, he dropped the pile on the side of the small home, and wiped his brow off with his forearm.
"Damien, honey, is that you?"
*A womans voice echoed through the inners of the home; she must have heard the firewood fall.
"Yeah, mom, its me... I got the firewood like you asked. Its getting harder to find the good pieces; i have to travel farther out. Im sorry to have been gone so long."
*His voice beamed out across the open area which the home sat, much louder than his mothers ever could. His stance was taller than before, for 3 years can do a lot to a young boy.
"Its ok, Damien. I have something else you need to do before your father returns though; please come here."
*Walking in through the side door, he makes his way through the living room and dining area before reaching his mother in the kitchen. For such a small house, it had been constructed very nicely. The living room was furnished with beautiful brown couches, the floor was capped in fine gemstone tile, and a small fireplace was built from stone in the main room. That was the part of the actual home he loved the most... For hours, Damien would just sit back and look at the blames blaze up, sheding its flickering light across the room. He could never get too close though, or his father would yell at him, screaming something about not being allowed top touch the saber that rested above, on a stand on the mantle of the fireplace. Damien didnt care about the saber. He just liked the warmth and sound of the fire.. .But, none-the-less, he had to stay back, or his father would react.. worse and worse everytime he was told...
"Yes, mom?"
*He stood over his mother, who was bent over, looking into a stove like contraption.
"I need some chak-root for this stew.. Your father likes it in his meals, and we are out. Could you run down to the market and pick some up? The credits should be in my bag by the door."
"Alright.. I'll do that now."
*Many times before had he been sent to the market in the last years... Before that his mother concidered him to young to do so, but he convinced her he could do it.. Damien had always looked for ways to help his mother, in anyway possible. He had a love for her that was immeasurable to that of for his father. So, at the age of 7, Damien took up the duty of treking a five mile walk throught the woods, to the small town of Gyuni, for whatever his mother had requested. Needless to say, his direction and knowledge of the forests around him grew more flawless with each trip taken, and with every journey, he seemed to find a new tree, or flower, or leaf, that somehow escaped his eyes the trip before.
*After a few hours, He reached the outskirts of the town. Gyuni was a small town, and from the direction which Damien came, once he entered the village, the market he sought was only a block away. Traveling the streets was always an adventure for Damien, for he never knew what he'd find laying about. One time, he watched a stictex (or more commonly known as 'male') Xi'Dec and a female Indola battled in the middle of the street, all because the Indola dropped a bag of fruits a block before, and thought the Xi'Dec swiped it from her. As you might imagine, as local authorities locked away both members of the fight, Damien enjoyed a healthy snack of fruit.
*But, this trip, something was different... The people he say walked more quietly.. Their gaze never left the path before them, to where usually people smiled and nodded to whoever they say. Most the time Damien thought Gyuni was too friendly for its own good.. Of course, he never said that, and always smiled and nodded in return. Having no time for friends, his trips to the market were the only chances he had to interact with others.
*Finally, Damiens gaze fell onto what everyone else seemed to have already seen. Three men walked up ahead, away from the direction of Damien. They were all draped in the deepest black robes, and to thier sides were strapped what Damien could only make out to be as a longer looking lightsaber, with two identical sides, and no distinct bottom. The three of them walked quiety, backs turned to the yougn boy, into a small cantina.
*Overhearing a few voices, Damien listens in on a conversation held by a storekeep and a local pedestrian...
"...and then he walked away. He didnt say why or nothin."
"All he asked was if a Jedi lived in Gyuni?"
"Yup... When i said no, he said dat if i 'membered anything, like where on lived, to come se him at the Braos Cantina.... OR ELSE.."
"My, my... Why would a Sith be looking for a Jedi here? This is one of the smallest cities on the planet..."
"Ya really think its a Sith? Wow.. I ain't never-"
*Sith... Damien heard the word distinctly.. there were Sith in Gyuni. As the conversation kept on, Damien continued his walks down the street. His mind let loose the thoughts of the Sith, and he continued his real reason for being in town, hoping to get the cooking thing home before his father returned, and blamed his mother for it not being there...
*Little did he know, he was already too late...
~ ~ ~ ~
*On his way home, he ran. For a boy of his age, he was fast, and very durable. Feeling fatigue didnt strike him much anymore, as it did on his first treks to the town.
*Upon reaching the home, a loud bang was heard from inside.
*Damien shuddered and dropped the bag of chak-root, unknowingly, as he spoke out quietly into the empty surroundings:
"Fathers home..."
*As he ran into the house, he turned the corner into the main room. His jaw dropped unwillingly at the site of his mothers face, bloody and beaten. His father stood over her croched body, screaming obsenities to her, as he wiped down with his belt to her back, once covered by the thin material to her dress, and now ripped to shreds by the object which his father held.
"STOP! Stop hitting her!"
*Damien ran over to his mother and kneeled by her, taken her head softly in his hands, and resting it on his own small chest. His eyes full with malice, he looked up to his father and screamed out,
"Leave her alone! You leave her alone!"
*His voice almost intimidating, if not for his seven-year-old size, he stared the "Jedi" that hovered over him directly in the eyes.
*At first, his father stared back at him, in obvious suprise to the young boys actions.. Then, after a few moments, he raised his belt again, and struck down hard...
*Blood exploded from Damiens mouth as his fathers fist hit his unguarded face, and the belt wrapped around, snapping at his neck. Bringing the belt up once more, he performed this heinous act repeatedly, until both Damien and his mother lay motionless in the corner of the room...
*Standing there, looking at the two, his father wabbles to and fro, then sneers, and staggers away. Blood trickling from various parts of Damiens face, neck, and back, he looks down at his mother after his father walked away. Ignoring hsi own immense pain, he brushes his fingers softly through her hair, whispering softly to her ear through her quiet weeps...
".. shhh... Its going to be ok, mom... "
"...Master Firestone..."
*Damiens vision blurred, as he looked about the area for this 'new' voice that he hearded...
".. Master.. is everything ok?.."
*Sitting up, Damien rubs his eyes, then and looks about the room. He was sitting on a bed, trimmed with offwhite sheets. Ruffly 7 feet away sat and upright Dagle, Damiens padawan, on another bed of the same fashion.
A dream...
It was all a dream...
".. Master..?"
"Yes." Damiens gaze flew to Dagle. "Yes.. Everything is fine..."
*Dagle sat silent for a moment, looking at Damien. His eyes were questioning as he spoke,
"I just thought i heard you say something.. And then when i looked, your were moving around in your sleep.. I just thought something was the matter..."
*Slightly smiling, Damien responds,
"No.. Everything is fine.. Just a miscomforting dream... i thank you for your concern; sorry to have disturbed your slumber.
*Dagle looked to Damien still, unsure of what had happend to cause the beeds of cold sweat that rolled down the brow of his master. After a moment, nodded, and said goodnight again. Both men layed back down in the comforts of their own seperate beds...
*As Dagle returned to the depths of sleep, Damiens eyes stayed open, as thoughts flickered in his mind, like the flames of a fire...
*It was not a coincidence that his nightmares returned after all these years...
There must be a reason why...
Damien knew there was...
The force had brought his memories bad for a reason.. And only time would tell what that reason be...
Act 2: Redemption
Birds chirped cheerfully outside the giant home, intertwined about the large prandwood tree. It was morning... Like most mornings, Damien rose at the crack of dawn, and made his way to the first level of the home, then outside by the beautiful 'hot lake'. The lake itself was what first attracted Damien to this location for his home... So beautiful were the crystal waters, flickering in the gleams of the sun. At night, especially, when the moon rest directly overhead, did the entire magnificance of the lake show.
This morning was different, however, for Damien... On the average day, Damien would awake his padawan, Dagle, and have him begin his exersizes.. Damien belived, that to become a Jedi fully, one must condition not only his mind and soul, but his body as well. There were structures set up to the right of the home for Dagle to perform push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, and otehr strenght building exersizes. Afterwards, a set path was made, over eight miles in lenght through the lush forestry surrounding the home that Dagle was to run every morning when he awoke, and every evening before he layed to rest....
*But, as stated, this morning was different in Damiens mind.. He did not wake his sleeping padawan... Instead, he quietly traveled out to the lake and stood, staring at nothing and everything all in the same. The dream that plagued his sleep the prior eve stil rested fresh in his mind.
...Why?
Why had the dream come? His past was just that: his past.. Why did it continually vex his future... Something was amiss... In hopes of answering his troubled minds inquiries, Damien sat down upon the cold planets surface, legs intertwined, and closed his eyes... This mind let loose all feelings of confusion and agony, as he let the power of the lightside trail through his soul...
"Mommy... Please get up... Dont be hurt...."
A voice... Oh, a voice in pain.. Damiens mind fluttered with thoughts of the past... His thoughts produced the vividness of his own childhood... His own voice crackling as he spoke...
"Please stop!.. Your hurting her!"
This voice... Damiens own mind recalling the past?
No...
This voice was new; not of Damiens mind, nor past... This was the voice of another, tainted with the same fear and hate that Damien too felt so many years before.
In his mind, Damien could see a young boy, painted with blood and bruises... His hair fell much like Damiens at that age, rumpled and matted. Above the boy sat a man... A large man, both in terms of muscle and fat. The man was striking the boy with a cord, the thickness of a ale bottle, but hollow sounding as it struct...
"No...."
Damien spoke quietly out into the void of company around him.. His voice was calm, yet hurt, Damien seeming to feel the same hurts and pains that the boy in the vision did...
"Tell me..." Damien speaks out quietly, almost at a tone of silence, to the force, as if it were an entity.. "Where might i find this child...?"
His mind flowing with all aspects of the light, knowledge beyond all aspects of a non-force user, visions continue to race through his mind... Ironic would be the adjective best describing Damiens life... He had grown up to be what he had most dispised most his existance... A Jedi... But that despise - he knew now - had been founded off falsitities of his own father, who called himself a Jedi too...
Suddenly, Damiens eyes shot open.
The boy was here....
On the very planet Damien lived, was housed the same broken home that a young boy dwelled. The shoes Damien once filde had been handed one to another... But this was not well...
Damien knew he must act...
And act now...
Before the past repeaded itself...
And the same horrible mistake Damien made is made by another...
~ ~ ~ ~
It had been many days since Damien left his home in the prandwood tree.. Many days since he left Dagle with a mere script, written on a white paper-like fabric, telling the boy to continue his training while he was away on critical matters...
And he was close...
He could sense it...
The boy from Damiens vision was near, and it would only be a matter of time before Damien could come in contact with the child... Little did he know, as he passed through a small town by the name of Yysmoli, that that time was only a matter of minutes...
"You fucking whore! I told you to have this place cleaned by the time i got home!"
Damiens head jerked lightning quick to his left, looking down the small road to a home seperate from the majority. His Jedi senses allowed him to be more assertive to his suroundings, and pick up on those noises and sounds most would let pass them by. In this case, he picked up on the sounds he was looing for... Sounds of the past... and Present...
Damien shuddered for a moment, the voice bringing him back in time to his days of young.. A bellowing sound of hate and power, booming around every part of ones being can send even the strongest man into fright.. Let alone a child of the age of seven...
For a few seconds - seconds he regreted afterwards, regarding them as time waisted - he stood, recalling the tone.. So much like that of his own fathers, long ago...
He darted in towards the house, his black robes flowing behind him like a cape of a superhero as he ran. Connecting his shoulder with the door, it slammed open against the wall, as he walked in on the nefarious acts that were taking place...
"When i say to do something, i want-" Suddenly, the mans eyes shot towards Damien. "Who the fuck are you?"
With the force, Damien looked over the entire area, his physical eyes never leaving the man... There sat a young boy, arms wrapped around his own mother, who layed dead in his arms... As the past became the present, Damien weeped inside for the boy... It was as if he knew the boy all his life, for it was the boys life Damien had once lived, only altered in the outcome...
Knowing that recollections of the past would do no good at this moment, Damien directed his attention to the man standing in the center of the room, with a worn, brownish belt in hand. The mans aura was tainted with the force.. More specifically, the darkside of the force. However, though this man was able to use the force, it was abvious by the aura he emitted, he stood untrained, and only controlled by his own wickedry and specs of darkside power which he had taught himself mildly through practice...
Quickly, the man picked up a staff from the floor, which looked recently used... And Damien knew without having to ask what it was used on...
"Mister, you just entered the wrong house at the WRONG time!"
As the man began to charge, from the depths of Damiens robes sprung a double sided lightsaber, and the two equal crimson blades shot up with a roaring hiss...
The man stopped dead his tracks.
"What the-?!"
"Your acts have gone on here long enough..." Damien spoke, his eyes ablaze with energy, yet no malice formed in his body, as he let the lightside control his actions. Looking towards the boy, he spoke again, "Come... You will suffer here no longer..."
As the boy rose to his feet, he looked to and from Damien and his own father. Tears full in the boys eyes, he ran towards Damien, not knowing who the man was, nor how he knew to come, but knowing anything would be better than what was here at home.
"Who the hell do you think you are? Coming in MY home and saying your taking MY kid!? Saber or not, your ass it dead!"
The man, obviously drunk, stepped forward and slashed downwards at Damiens head with the sharper end of his steel-tipped staff.
Thoughts rushed through Damiens head as he brought his saber up, slicing the tip of the staff clear off.... This man was a wife killer, and child beater... For his acts most would kill him on the spot... But Damien couldnt...
Or could he?
For the first time in years, hate ran through the soul of this Jedi Master... Hate for the man who stood before him... Hate for his own father who beat his mother and him...
With one slash Damien could end the pain...
Just like before...
The past could repeat itself...
(to be continued...)
Act 2, Scene 2: Merciless Retribution
It was gloomy that eve... The stars seemed to hang low in the sky as Damien peered with hsi blood caked face out the window. His mother was resting in her own bedroom, healing from the double beating delivered to both her and Damien at the hands of his father, who was passed out on one of the couches aligning the living room walls, belt still strapped around his bloodied fist.
It was almost midnight...
Damien knew what he had to do...
And it was only a matter of time now before the deed that would change the rest of his life would be done... But it must be so. Damien loved his mother more than anything, and it broke him on the inside, everytime his father broke her on the outside...
And now it was time for it all to end.
A fitting desmise to a abusive Jedi...
An escape from pain for a loving mother...
And a lifetime of regret for a young, beaten boy...
As the large timekeeper in the main room of the home struck midnight, twelve chimes of pressure fell upon Damiens head.
It was time.
Creeping out the back door to the home, the seven year old Damien raced through the forst to the small town of Gyuni... Minutes seemed like hours to the young lad as he darted between trees and shrubery. Never before had ne snuck out of his home in the late of the eve... He knew if his father awoke in the time he was gone, and discoved his absence, it would be his mother to pay... But, it had to be chanced, if there was ever to be an end to this living nightmare he knew as his life.
Arriving at his usualy exit of the woods, he peered the city streets for a moment. Like earlier in the day, they were populated by a crowd of silent locals, keeping to themselves as they walked... This meant the Sith strangers still occupied the town....
As he walked, he slowed his pace a bit, so as not to draw attention. Of a second - and only a second - his thoughts left his 'mission', and focused on his surroundings... This was the first time he had ever been to town during the evenign hours... His skills within the forest had lead him easily here in the dead of night, yet arriving at the town seemed so different... Lights and sounds were altered in the eve... Shadows casted on walls, flickering with grunts and cracks of domesticated animals, caged up in the depths of the murky blackness...
"I must be brave..." Damien said to himself, as he walked forwards towards a light upon the ground, casted down in the shape of a rectangle, let loose by an open door to a boisterous cantina....
The Braos Cantina...
As the boy walked in, a few eyes fell upon him, yet no one stopped his enterance. A boy of his age was not a common sight in a place such as he was in, yet no one dared do anything to bring attention on themselves, for fear that the visiting Sith would be angered. The Sith, however, were not Damiens concern. He understood that they were not 'good' men, by defenition, yet he knew not their true capibilities... Only that they must have power, or a town such as this one would not fear them so. His concern was for hsi mother.. And if it was the Sith he had to deal with to make things better for her, then thats what he would do...
Looking about the widely lit cantina, Damien spotted the three dark figures in the back corner of the room... They all sat, faces and bodies covered with their own attire, silent, looking to one another. Most would imagine they were speaking in some other form, aside from vocally. Before Damien approached them, he excerised something - the one useful thing - his fatehr had taught him... His father had told him one day, on one of his more kinder days, that people in this galaxy were "bitches", and that some of these "bitches" had powers, one of which to read minds. After explaining that to Damien, his father taught damien a method he called "Mind Blocking". He said by altering "the Harse" inside, one could stop others from penitrating ones mind. That trick he use a great deal when aroun dhis father afterwards, and got to the point were he had pefected the art of "mind blocking", by aid of what his father called "the harse". The boy slightly smiles, suprised he could remember the words like his father told him.
"It is not wise to approach strangers, boy, unless you have prpoer cause.
One of the men, known by the town as Sith, spoke as Damien stood before the table. Many eyes were now on the boy, from other members of the bar, in fear for what the Sith might do to the boy, and in shock for what the boy hand the nerve to do.
As Damien spoke, his voice cracked slightly in speech, though he did his best to conceal his fear.
I do have cause, sir... You are looking for a Jedi, right?"
"Yes... You have information?"
All three Sith now stared down at the boy. Though strong in other aspects, none of the men could read the boys mind, so they knew the only way to know was simply ask.
"Yes... I do..."
Damien knew now there was no turning back... His plan had been set in motion, and any attempts to stop it would result in his own death, and a continued life of misery for his own mother....
Twas time to cut a deal with the Devil...
~ ~ ~ ~
"Mother, mother!... Wake up... Quick!
". . . ."
His mother lay still, softly breathing... Her eyes peered out to him threw swollen bruises about her face. She was weak... Very weak... The Force only knows what beating she had gotton before Damien returned home, and took the rest of the beating on for his own self. Damien knew she was not able to stand, let alone trek the hike that would have to be done...
After a few moments, Damien returned to the room with a large sheet. Laying it down beside his mothers bed, he - as carefully as possible - rolled her off the bed onto the cloth... Laying a few more blankets on top of her, along with a pillow benieth her head, he said outloud, though in a quiet tone,
"He won't hurt you anymore, mom.. I promise..."
Taking the sheet by both ends closest to her head, he began to drag her by the sheet... Through the doorway of her room... Past the living room.. Out the back door... and Deep into the woods. He avoided bumps and twings as much as possible as he hiked though the forest, his map in his mind, and the destination premade, Damien knew the most important phase of his plan was completed; his mother was now safe from the events to come....
~ ~ ~ ~
A day... A night...
The end of a sun, and full pass of a moon...
Damien and his mother had been in the forest for twenty-four hours now... A full day... Had the plan gone like it was suppose to, Damiens father would no longer be able to hurt his mother... Or anyone else... Ever again...
But he had to know...
Living in fear for the rest of his life was not an option in Damiens mind; he had to make sure the deed was done. His mother was asleep now, and would be for a while to come. Damien had nursed her wounds as best as possible when they arrived to the location, deep within the forest. Damien had seen this place on one of his treks for firewood. It was a old shack looking hut, which had been abandoned for uncertain reasons for years. However, now it once more surved a purpose, and it served it well.
Sprinting once more, Damien took off, weaving his way quickly in and out of bunches of tree in the forest, he headed back to the place which he had oncd called 'home'...
(to be continued)
Act 3: ...never did i want to be here again...
There it was...
The small cottage like home stood merely yards away from where Damien knelt, his entire body shaking...
Is he there?
Did they come?
Are they still there?
Damies mind raced with fears and questions like never before as he stared at the once cheerished home. The stack of wood to the side of the home layed untouched since Damien last added to it... Much like the rest of the home seemed, it was in the same condition Damien left it as the day prior. But what was inside... THAT is what Damien wanted to know...
Stepping softly, Damien made his way over the crinkling leaves - which sounded much quieter when he was trying to make no noise - and to the wall of the home. Again, standing silent, he listened...
Nothing...
No sounds emitted from the inners of the home... No voices.. No footsteps.. Nothing...
Slowly, Damien creeped around the walls outside, until he came to the back door. Slowly, he pushed it open, the creek of its hinges echoing through his mind like never before. His eyes stared at each object they could see, evaluating it as if it was an opponent in a battle.
Stepping inside, he stood in the kitchen area... Two paths lead out from this room, besides the one he entered with: the laundry room, and the living room. His small hands, quivering with fear, slid across a small counter as he walked towards the living room of the home, as if by letting go of the counter, he would drift off into the aybss... which, right now, in place of where he truely was, might be nice.
A couch... the tip of the rug... A small table... Slowly his vision of the ajoining room grew more vast as he stepped closer to it... Soft step by soft step his feet touched the gemstone tile silently, his bare toes gripping down on it as like life depended on it. All in the house seemed the same... Nothing was out of place or unusual so far...
And then he saw it...
Damiens eyes widened, and a quiet gasp escaped his lips, just seconds before his hands clasped over his mouth to keep from screaming.... In the adjoining room, Damien could see that someone was there... A foot shown in his line of site... Someone was on the ground.. Unless... of course... Thier foot was no longer attached...
His mind never thought of saying something... Announcing his presense incase someone was around, and might think hes sneaking up for an attack... He was to scared.... The stood their, in the kitchen of his home, to mortified to walk further... This was the first time he had ever seen a dead body, other than small quillei rats that roamed the forest, and were often attacked by the flying animals...
But this...
This was a human...
But he had to... He hadnt come all this way just to chicken out from fright. One step at a time, he inched his way closer into the room... With each movement, the figure on the ground grew more...
A leg...
Two legs...
A waist... Chest.... Arms...
And... and face...
A familiar face...
The face of his own father...
Creeping still, he fully entered the room. Quickly he looked around, searching for the Sith, or anyone else that may be around.... He saw no one. All that rested in the room was the stylish furnature... Damien himself... And the body of his father, dead in the middle of the floor, spread out over the now crimson stained rug.
For moments on end, Damien just stood there, looking at the body... The neck had been slit by what looked like a burning hot knife, for the skin and viens seemed to be singed, which stopped the blood from flowing. Thatw as probibly better, for Damien at least... A body holds much blood, and the site of his entire living room splattered with crimson coloring probibly would not have gone over too well in Damiens already frightened mind.
For a reason still to this day unknowned by Damien, he had walked over to the body of his father... Yes, he did infact hate the man... But he was family... And every family - loving or not - has a certain link with each other, that bonds them... And it was that reason only, so Damien would imagine, he wept over the body of his father, his arms wrapped around his own stomach as he knelt...
Time went by...
It was at least an hour later before Damien reqained his composer, and evaluated his suroundings again, with a less emotional aspect of thought. And it was that point, and no point prior to that, when he realized the intensity of the situation...
He had killed a man...
His own father...
Not directly, of course, was the death to be blamed on Damien. Yet, it was he who told the Sith men of his fathers where-abouts... It was he who made the arrangements, where he knew... He KNEW his father would be killed...
Looking down on his father body once more, new thoughts ran through his mind... regrets for the actions done.. The procejures take into play... His father was a bad person, that Damien had no doubt. But, did he deserve this? Was his crimes to his own family justifiably punishable by death? Some would say yes... Some would say no... But, whats done is done... And it cant be changed... Past is to be embraced, but not dwelled upon.... Its also to be learned from.
For... As many know... If you do not learn from the past, you are doomed to repeat it...
But sometimes...
Even when you do learn...
It repeats itself...
(to be continued...)
Act 4; Final Act: Find my shape by the Moonlight
The walk home was quiet.. Both Damien and the boy to his side stepped quietly through the brush, away from the place once refered to as home by the child... No names had been exchanged... No mention of where they were going was spoke of... Both the boy and Damien knew that there was a time for talk, and a time for silence... Both felt that this was not one for talk.
The lumicent rays of the moon above cast a bright shadow down to the forest floor below, as Damiens mind pondered days of the past. Visions dance through his mind, and tickling the feelings of anger kept pushed out from his body. Since the encounter with the man in Yysmoli, Damiens mind had been plaged with the image of his father, so many years ago... The image of carcass lying lifeless in the middle of his living room was a sight he would enver forget... And never forgive himself for...
~ ~ ~ ~
"Forgive me, father... "
Upon speaking those words softly into the air around him, Damien sparked a small flame to the sticks and dried leaves that rested benieth the slab of wood, in which his fathers body - lifeless and cold - lay still. During earlier years, Damien had heard stories of a "Jedi Burial", and how the person would be set upon a grave of fire to burn away his or her physical form, and "join the lightside completely".
Damiens father was a Jedi, so he had been brought up to belive. Therfore, he deserved a Jedi burial. It was regret for the murder that lead Damien to feel remorse for his father, but not regret for the death itself. It was because of Damien that his father was slaughtered, and somehow that fact erased the pain his father cause to Damien and his mother while he perpared while he watched the body burn.
In the flames he could see images of just hours before... He himself was knelt over his father body, tears flowing down his ghost white cheeks. In his fathers hand was his lightsaber... For some reason, Damien picked up the cylinder object and held it in his hands, running his small fingers down its shinning surface... To even further the event - for reasons still unbeknownst - Damien ignited the saber, and watches its shimmering green 'blade' rocket up with a hiss.
And as the body burned on the 'alter', Damien held that very saber in hand... Clutched onto the only physical memory he would ever retain from his father, aside from small scars that played his back and face, he watched as the aftermath of his well laided plan fall into play...
His father was dead...
His mother would live on...
And no longer could that man cause pain to anyone... ever... again...
~ ~ ~ ~
Damiens shadow flicked on and off like a dim light with a bad fuse as the two figures walked under numorous trees and other specticals in the canopy layers of the forest above. It had been hours since they left Yysmoli... Hours since either had uttered a single word... Finally, over half they way to a destination unknown to the boy, he speaks out to Damien,
"Thank you.. Sir... For helping me..."
Damien slightly looked at the boy, through the corners of his eyes. So much had he ressembled Damien as a child.. His hair was jet black, just as Damiens - though, with age, Damiens now featured streaks of grey. His hieght and wieght seemed to be matching Damiens at that age as well... The only distinct feature difference was the boys eyes... They were a magnificent shade of both red and lightblue, split evenly on a horizontile line.
"Firestone..." He smiles warmly to the boy. "My name is Damien Firestone... I am a Jedi Master.. And no thanks is needed; I am just glad i arrived in time to aid."
The boy looked up at him, still walking through the forest greenery. His mind fluttered with thoughts of his mother... Though the fact hadn't hit him in entirety yet, he knew she was dead...
And for his father...
The boy knew he had gotton a just punishement.
"My name is Xi'Dromo... Xi' Dromo Cire."
After a few more moments of walking, the boy spoke up again,
"May i ask where we are going, Master Firestone?"
Damien looked back down to his own shadow as the continued walking, the boys question implanting itself in his mind. Damien had felt something in this boy... Damien knew that this boy could grow one day to become a Jedi... And that is what Damien intended to make happen.
"We are going back to my home, young Cire... You will live with me, until you are old enough to choose your own path for yourself..."
The boy fell silent once more, his mind a flutter with thoughts. I deas which he had never shared with anyone came back into mind... Knew that if he were to ever make his dreams happen, he would have to ask now, whiel he had the opportunity before him.
"I know what i want my path to be, sir...." He boy paused for a moment, almsot expecting that if continued, Damien would laugh at him, and mock his foolish dreams, yet he spoke on, "I... I want to become a Jedi, and help the galaxy... Like you helped me today... I want to save people from being hurt, and stop bad people from doing.. bad things, and bring people happiness, and... and..."
Damien stopped in mid step, and turned towards the young child. Kneeling down beside him, he looked directly into the boys eyes, studing his expression for the honorableness of his words.
Noticing Damiens movements, Cire stopped as well, looking back at Damien, expecting the worst to come from his piercing gaze.
"Xi'Dromo... Becoming a Jedi is hard work, and strenuous work... Not just anyone can take the training that is required to become a Jedi...
Xi'Dromo bowed his head slightly, figuring the end of this talk to along the lines of 'No, your not good enough'. Even if that be said, he knew that his dream was to become a Jedi, and if Damien would not help him, he knew he would have to find someone else that would...
"... It takes dedication, young one... And.. If you are willing to put forth that energy.. And train your best to become a great Jedi... I will take you on as a padawan.
The young boys eyes jolt up upon hearing those words. His eyes filled with a glee a happiness, he nods and says,
"I will, Master Firestone... I'll become the best jedi there is!"
Damien smiled slightly, and stood back up straight. He had no doubt the boy could become a great Jedi, but the idealistic dreams of youth had always touched a tender spot in Damiens heart.
So, with those words spoken, Damien took on another Jedi Padawan; the young Xi'Dromo Cire.
~ ~ ~ ~
Light was now beginning to breech other the tree tops ahead, revealing that a new day was finally arriving. Both figures walked on, tired a sore, put persisting further to their destination. Again, for a long while, silence had struct the duo, both fairly overcome by drowseyness. Damien, using the force to aid them both, helped disapate the fatigue, and helped the trudge on. After many more hours of silence, Cire asked Damien,
"Master Firestone... My ... My father...?"
The boy didnt even have to finish the question at hand; Damien knew the rest of it already.
"Your father..."
A slight smile crosses Damiens face as he walks on, his expression out of sight from Xi'Dromo. To Damien, his actions with Xi'Dronos father was like traveling back in time, and redoing an event the way it should have been done before. Justise was served right this time.. The way the lightside had guided him to oversee it...
"... He will be locked up, I imagine..."
Epilogue: Dreams Live On...
When even the most docile creature dies, its spirit is sent to join the force in all entirity. Its physical body no longer able to sustain the powers life as a whole demands, it shuts down one last time for the deepests, most profound slumber, known to the galaxy as Death...
And like in all forms of sleep prior, death provides the soul with dreams, more vivid than ever before... These dreams, not of imagination or fantasy, but of past and the life that soul once lead, and the lives of those he came in contact with. For some, these dreams are altered into nightmares by the horried existance lead by the soul during their time in the galaxy... For others these dreams provide calmness and ease, the soul having lived a life of peace and serenity, as followed by the followers of the lightside.
Much like the ever loved idea of nirvana, a soul which lives a good life, dreams the sweetest of dreams... The happiest of memories... While those who followed the path of darkness and evil are plagued with the pains and misery of those whom they have hurt....
"These" are the moments of your life: past, present and future...
What will your soul bear after your mortal life passes away, and the dreams of eternal slumber take you over?
~FIN~