Thank you guys for your comments! It really means a lot to me. Here's the next chapter, it's much shorter. ~TikTok~ "Please, have a seat, and take off your shoes. I do not have much time to clean." "I will not do anything until you tell me who you are and what the hell just happened." She was visibly trembling, holding herself against the wall with her arms up and crossed. Her eyes darted around the room, terrified that anything might happen. He knew better than to approach her, he stayed his distance. "I am not telling you anything until you sit down and are prepared to listen." "I don't trust you! I don't know who you are, or what you did, or what-" "Sit down and listen to me!" Behind those words, he put a powerful Force suggestion. He instantly regretted it as she quickly strode across the room, sat down, looked confused as to how she got there, and began to cry. He sighed and turned around to go into the kitchenette. The apartment was small, but it had a living room and a kitchen that he rarely used. It was kept in order merely to maintain the illusion that someone actually lived here. He drew a glass from the cabinet, wiped the dust off, then filled it with water before returning to the living room and placing it on the coffee table in front of her. He then sat down on the floor across the table from her and waited. He did not look at her, but waited to be addressed. He hoped that she would stop crying soon, he had absolutely no idea what to do otherwise. "They took my cell phone." Eventually, she spoke, whipping her eyes and bring her knees off the floor to her chest, still keeping her eyes down. "Pardon me?" "They took my cell phone, I can't call anyone, they don't know where I am, I have no way to get home." "I will take you home when you are ready. But I feel like you have more questions right now than will to go home." She looked up from her arms and down at where he sat across the room. "Why do you care?" "I don't need to know someone in order to help them." She reached out and took the glass of water and sipped. "Tell me the truth this time, who are you?" He took a moment to look around the bare apartment. The furniture was unused, there were no signs of photos of friends or family, no real reason to think that anyone lived here for any length of time. The apartment existed just for the functional purpose of maintaining the illusion of a normal college life. The only signs of life were the two people sitting across the room from each other and a single red rose held in a vase between them. One waited with bated breath for the other's words, while the other carefully prepared to speak. He stood, took the rose from the vase, and handed it to her to hold. Then he sat down on the couch, faced her, looked into her eyes again, took a deep breath, and began to speak. "There is evil in the world. Violence, hatred, corruption, betrayal, and despair. Evil that tries to destroy, evil that tries to take away everything we ever have or hope to build. An evil that penetrates the very nature of the world, deceiving it into believing that it is not there. Deceiving the world into thinking that there is nothing that can be done, that the fight is too long, the fight is too hard, or not worth fighting at all." "Me? I am a the shining light that holds back the tides of darkness, that stands at the door and holds the angel's flaming sword and declares that no more shall pass into the realms of men. That no darkness shall creep through, and no cry shall go unheard, for the power we have been granted is for us to serve, and to sacrifice." "My name is TwinHits, and I am a Jedi Knight." ~ "The crime scene had been abandoned for the night, the detectives had come and gone, taking the bodies and the evidence with them. All that was left was the damage on the ground, a deep sear left for the city to clean up. To Jaster, this was just another sign of a broken world covered in darkness, another two young men left dead in an alleyway with no names, no pasts, and no unfortunately now no future. This was what he hated, all he had been doing was wandering, trying to understand why Darkness had appeared to him. But he was pulled from his thoughts and back into the night surrounded once again by death. Everywhere he turned, he could never get away from it. Around him he could feel the confusion as authorities tried to grapple the mystery that lay before them. Jaster knelt near a grove on the floor and ran his fingers along it's edge. It was cold, smooth, and mysterious to all but Jaster. Unfortunately, lightsabers did not leave marks that could be traced back to a particular weapon, nor would the investigators know to look for or expect to find them. Instead, Jaster sat crossed legged in the center of the alleyway, closed his eyes, and allowed the impressions of the alleyway to fill him. Slowly they filled him, and he felt only more hatred. Men, filled with primal hunger, lurk in the darkness. Metal glints in the moonlight, eyes search and wait. Light feet enter, a trap is sprung, the hunger burns. This was a story Jaster had seen too many times, and anger filled him as he began to seethe. But instead of sadness and anguish, he felt laughter. Metal is dropped, man flee, no mercy, quick death. The faint smell of perfume, flash of high heeled boots, feeling of a lithe body turning in your arm, a hint of girlish laugher. This was not a trail he had felt before. Nor was it one he feared to feel again, yet he was tired of running into trails that he did not know when he was supposed to know all of them. Jaster knew that the first thing he was supposed to do was tell the others, but neither of them would believe him. Plus, it was unnecessary to risk anyone else. He needed proof. He stood up, and reached out and searched for the trail, feeling like this was all too soon again. Finding nothing, he knew that this hunt would be harder. This trail was far more subtle than simply darkness. Putting his hands back into his pockets, he again began to wander. What really bothered him was the body count. A Jedi was not killer. No Jedi aimed to kill, it was never the right thing to do. Only God gets to kill people. The presence of two bodies meant something was exceptionally wrong. His thoughts turned back to Darkness and the face that hid beneath the hood. That was a face that would kill, that was a face that Jaster had to find a way to stop before it took away a life very precious to him. ~ The Professor looked up at the emblem on the screen. "The Jedi are surprisingly simple, and from that simplicity, we can gather a lot of conclusions. Together, we'll logically reach these conclusions, and so the simple is where we will start. I hope none of you are atheists." Turning back around, he addressed his slightly bewildered class. "I say that, because the presence of the Jedi and their source of power, the Force, means that there is something non-physical that we cannot explain. Before you ask me for proof of something I cannot access, if you assume it's existence, you will find a number of gaps in your explanation of the Jedi explained." A hand shot into the air, but the Professor knew a philosophy minor when he saw one, and ignored it. "According to the Jedi, the Force is, and I know you will all find this familiar, an energy field generated by all living things. It surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together." The class laughed, and the Professor continued. "There are those, by genetic lottery, who are blessed with permission to access this power. They are very few, but if we look at history, we can find a number of individuals with unexplained powers. This power manifests itself into three primary powers. Control, affect, and alter. As cool as these sound, we know very little about them, besides the most direct implications like telekinesis." "The best evidence of the presence of an 'Order' is only about twenty years old, however circumstantial evidence dates it back nearly two-thousand years. We will discuss two events in particular, one this class, and one the next. Both of them have happened recently, and are the basis of most of the discussion about the Jedi. "Very few doubt the Order's existence now, at least those that are paying attention, in fact many believe that in the next few months, The Order is going to become very apparent and very important." "But first, The Force itself. Yes?" "Sir." A young red headed girl in the second row had raised her hand. "How have people not noticed this Force before? An all pervasive energy field must be hard to miss." "I'm not saying that the Force is beyond science, but rather that science is not adequately equipped to study it. They are two different levels of existence, and it appears that the Jedi are the only link between them. Maybe someday we will begin to understand, but for the moment, however, we must be content just to watch." ~ Back on the rooftop, where he belonged. The struggle of understanding both the deaths and the Darkness haunted him as he stared off into the city's lights. Jaster doubted either of the other Jedi would be helpful, one had plunged into the depths of depression trying to grapple with her own identity, while the other was so shut down due to his age that any discussion would only lead to another argument. He closed his eyes and opened himself up to the Force, praying for wisdom and courage. He was immediately answered, for as soon as he centered himself, the trace came back. Sheer cloth to the touch, blow of hair out of the eyes, a fresh stamp on the back of her hand. He spun around and behind him sat a girl, blonde, thin, of average height, and with a sharp complexion. She was dressed in tight jeans and high-heeled boots, just enough to split attention from her generous and unconcealed plunging v-neck club shirt. "Hey." She said, her feet rocking back and forth where she perched, her hands on the ledge. She looked relaxed, happy, and mildly curious. He waited, silent, and so did she, expression unchanging. She was completely confident. "Who are you?" He said. He actually had absolutely no idea. "I'm Kate." She hopped off the ledge and leaned against it instead, as if with that name alone you should know who she is. "Did you kill those two men?" "Yes, I did. They wanted something I didn't want to give them. Their violence ended with violence, and they will pain no one no more." ""That was wrong, death is wrong." "Is it? They had their minds set on harming me in one of the gravest ways possible, likely to kill me afterwards. Is that not self defense? Is that not justified, Jedi?" "Only God gets to kill people." "You're one to talk, God-like man borrowing His power. Riddle me this, is my life more valuable than the lives of two armed and evil men?" "All are equal in the eyes of the Force." She laughed, pushed herself off the wall and began to walk towards him. "My dear Watchmen, everything you have said you have repeated from somewhere else. No thought is given, you are just vomiting back words that you think are true. Tell me, Watchmen, when the Darkness comes for you, and you know perfectly well that it will, how will you save yourself? Who will guard the guards, with no threat of death to protect you?" Jaster looked down at possibly the least threatening women he had ever seen, and did not know what to say. "Who are you." She giggled, flashed him the strangest most enticing glance, and began to speak.
"I wake up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy, I've got my glasses I'm out the door I'm gonna hit this city. Before I leave, brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack, cause when I leave for the night I ain't coming back." She stepped back into a stance, one foot back and the other forward as she put her hand into the small of her back and spun out a double length lightsaber hilt out of which sprung a single pale blue blade which she held with both hands. "I'm talking pedicure on my toes, trying on all my clothes, boys blowing up my phone. Playing my favorite CDs, rolling up to the parties, trying to get a little bit tipsy." Then she sprang, her blade spinning around and above her as she brought it down towards him. He threw a foot back to present side-face and pulled out his own green saber to drive hers down to the ground. With his free arm he aimed an elbow for her nose, but she was already gone, ducking down around him to free her saber and now was perched up on the ledge he was overlooking. She looked down at him mockingly. "Here in the world, but got plenty of beer. Ain't got no money in my pocket, but I'm already here. And now the dudes are lining up cause they hear I got swagger, but I kick 'em to the curb unless they look like Mick Jagger." Jaster lunged at her feet, she jumped up, flipped over him and landed spinning to slash at his back, but Jaster had already turned to parry, pushing his weapon to drive hers down to grab it. She simply let go, letting the saber spin around his before catching it again, using the moment to playfully slap him across the face. Jaster recovered angered, flipped his grip into reverse and brought it horizontal across her middle, she threw herself down, bending back at the knees, and sprang back up as it passed over her. "I'm talking about bout evr'ybody getting crunk, boys trying to touch my junk, gonna smack him if he's getting to drunk. I'm going till they kick me out, or the police shut me down!" Jaster saw a subtle change in her grip, and prepared to move. Out of the other end of her double length saber sprang a matching pale blue blade which she brought up to bisect him side to shoulder. He whirled around her, striking several times along the way, but each one was stopped by a spinning barrier of light that began to form around her as she spun and twisted her lightsaber. "Don't stop, make it pop, DJ blow my speakers up, tonight I'mma fight til we see the sunlight. Tick tock on the clock, but the party don't stop!" He sprang away and lifted his hand, summoning the Force to blow her off the edge. As the wave hit, she lifted gracefully in the air, and landed cleanly on the ledge. She smiled, as she now held two sabers, her own transparent and smooth staff and the familiar clean cut lines of his own green. In his concentration, she had pulled his saber from his grip and now she held it spinning a few inches above her spread fingers. "You build me up, you break me down, my heart it pounds yeah you got me. With my hands up you got me now, you got that sound, yeah you got me." With that she fell backwards, throwing Jaster's saber in the air. Turning in midair, she fell into a headfirst dive, totally in control and gracefully racing towards the ground. "With my hands up, put your hands, put your hands up!" Courage, then, he told himself. The Force is your ally as much as it is hers. He ran forward, and swan dived off the roof to follow her taunting voice. Reaching out, he summoned his lightsaber falling above him back to his hand. He caught it, reactivated it, and brought it to bear just as he reunited with her midair. "Now the party don't start till I walk in." They landed on the windows and began running down the side of the building, the light of their weapons reflecting off the glass floor. They bounded off towards one another, exchanged parried blows, before taking each other's spot on their gravity defying race towards the ground. Again they bounced off each other, landing separated, before leaping again into the air, clashing twice and switching positions, calling on the Force to slow their descent. "Don't stop, make it pop, DJ blow my speakers up, tonight I'mma fight til we see the sunlight. Tick tock on the clock, but the party don't stop!" Jaster came upon a window cleaner's perch and with a single swipe he had a rope. One end he bound to his arm and as the ground approached he leapt off from running down the side of the building and swung towards her with his feet out for a savage slam. He passed through where she was flying, but she was already gone with only the faintest sound of laughter to herald her departure. Jaster let go of the rope, landed smoothly onto the empty street, and extinguished his lightsaber. She had fled. As he returned the hilt to his belt, turned to the streets, and put his hands in his pockets. He hoped he would find answers soon before he had to seek help from the others, her words still echoing in his ears..
