Li-An Jinn's Taking Of An Apprentice
By Darth Caedus


-- Chapter 1 --

Li-An Jinn never thought he would ever take a Padawan learner. He did not see the point of focusing on just one student when so many needed the tutelage. Also, the Jedi with Padawans during the Clone Wars often took the young ones into battle before they were ready, resulting in many unnecessary deaths of the young Jedi learners. Besides, he enjoyed teaching the younglings. The only times that he ever thought he might like an apprentice was when he would see how Obi-Wan was with young Skywalker. The relationship they had and the bond they shared was very strong. Li remembered seeing them once in passing on the stairs leading into the temple. Skywalker was walking next to his master looking up at him with a look very much like a son looks to a father. Somehow it made Li miss his home.

Strangely enough Li-An Jinn was thinking of this particular moment as he was hanging 200 stories above the ground from a landing platform placed high in the trees on the planet Kasshyk. He had been hiding there, amongst the Wookiees, acting as a shaman to the small community of Rookwrorro. But now Vader had found him again. This time Vader was able to get close, too close. He had casually strolled right into Li's hut as if he hadn’t just cut down 15 Wookiees to get there. Li had been sleeping. Vader is getting stronger, Li thought. He's able to cloak himself in the darkside of the force, I'm going to have to sleep with one eye open from now on. By the time Li realized what was going on, he had barely managed to get out in time. Li bolted through a previously devised escape hatch and fled to the upper escarpments away from the Wookiee homes. His Jedi robes now just a shadow of their former glory. He now wore a simple handmade tunic still in the Jedi style, and rugged pants tucked into military issue boots. His hair, now cut short was peppered with grey at the temples. In his hair he still wore the feathers of the R'Vi, as a tribute to his people. The tattoos that adorn his temple and brow still glow with the same blue intensity as when he was a child, now contrasting with the deep lines and small scars carved into Li's aging face.

As Li ran for his ship, a small modified Jedi Starfighter, he ignited his lightsaber. With a snap-hiss the orange blade came to life. Its loud thrumming drowning out the sound of Li's heart beating in his chest. Li could now see his ship on the platform ahead, but then, Vader is upon him. Their lightsabers crash in a loud explosion and a flash that can be seen for miles. Vader advances and Li back flips away using the force to throw some forest debris at him. With a small motion of his hand Vader deflects the debris without a second thought and keeps moving forward. Over and over their lightsabers clash, Vader never giving an inch, always pressing forward. Deciding to go on the offensive, Li launched an attack and the two combatants lock blades. Li stared hard into the Dark Lord’s gleaming black eyes; even now he could sense the frightened little boy behind that shiny black helmet.

“Everyone makes mistakes Anakin.” Li pleaded. “It’s not too late."

Saying nothing, Vader pressed forward and his hatred surged like water breaking from a dam. Li felt himself waiver, he wasn’t going to win this fight and he knew it. So did Vader.

Li struck and dodged and struck again. Vader pressed forward, he was more machine now than man. Li could feel the tendrils of the darkside spilling off of Vader like the tentacles of a sea creature. Li was beginning to have trouble focusing, in addition to having to beat back Vader with his lightsaber, Li had to battle the dark in his mind as well, lest it envelope him. Vader struck low, Li countered and was distracted for a moment by a loud horn. The back of Vader’s fist came across Li's face, a blow that should have easily shattered his jaw. Vader was toying with him now. Is this what I’ve become, Li thought, Darth Vader's hobby. The backhand sent him reeling over the edge. Li managed to hold on to the lip of the platform, but dropped his lightsaber in doing so. Now dangling for his life, Li looked up at the expressionless visage of Darth Vader and knew it was the end. Li sent a mental message to Vader, I forgive you. Momentarily taken aback, Vader paused and Li heard the sound of a horn again and then… Vader was gone, tackled by a Wookiee swinging from a vine overhead. Vader went sprawling. Both he and the Wookiee tumbled off the platform into the void, disappearing into the fog below. Li was safe for now. An unnecessary sacrifice, Li thought. I was prepared to die. Li didn’t stick around to thank the Wookiees for their daring rescue. He knew they wouldn’t accept his thanks anyway. He powered up his starfighter and readied the jump for light speed. He didn’t know where he would go now. The Force would guide him, it always did.

Li ended up on the forest moon of Renan an uninhabited world known only by Jedi masters for its small northern cave system, in which grow some of the rarest crystals a Jedi will ever find for his lightsaber. Li was brought here once, a long time ago, by his master, Mace Windu. Windu had told him that treasures like this need our protection. Perhaps this treasure can now protect me, he thought. The caves were up high in the mountains, inaccessible by ship. He would have to land in the forest below and hike up by foot. The trip would take at least a week. Li readied his traveling pack and felt queerly naked without his lightsaber. The familiar weight of it on his belt was somewhat comforting and he was missing it. I'll have to make a new one, he thought. darn, and I really liked that one too. Li-An Jinn looked up at the mountains and threw his pack over his shoulder, he had a long way to go.

-- Chapter 2 --

Aislinn Vail (pronounced Ashleen) was a "shoot first ask questions never" kind of girl. As the two, now dead, Rodians lying on the durasteel floor of the cantina could most certainly attest. That is, of course, if they still had faces. Aislinn was Correlian born but had spent most of her life growing up on Nar Shadaa, the smugglers moon of Nal Hutta. Her parents, who were traders, (which is a nice way of saying that they were smugglers), were killed right in front of her when she was only 11 years old. They were murdered by rival smugglers who were tired of losing business to a couple of humans. Aislinn, having always been small and somewhat quick for her age, managed to escape capture by slipping away into the air ducts of the station. She spent the next few years living like a rat. Scavenging everything she could off of the smugglers and traders that inhabited the small moon. She even became a decent pickpocket.

As Aislinn got older and started coming of age she began attracting more and more unwanted attention, and not just by the slave traders anymore. She could no longer ignore the leering stares and catcalls that now followed her wherever she went. She had to do something and fast. Now a young woman of 15, she devised a plan. It had taken her more than a month to figure out, but she was ready. She marveled at the simplicity of it all. The answer had come to her all at once like a vision. She saw what she had to do… who she had to kill.

Ralon Durr was not the smartest creature in the galaxy. He was however big, and that can get you pretty far by itself. He was also mean, even for a Weequay. He would often be seen slapping around one person or another, while drinking heavily in the cantina, in which he spent the majority of his time. Aislinn Vail had been watching him do just that everyday for three weeks. He wasn’t always beating up on his men, sometimes it would be a waiter or a dancer, but the result was always the same, he would draw a lot of nervous laughter from his men, (who all hated him but couldn’t or wouldn’t do anything about it) then, after getting a "private show" from one of the dancers he would meander back to his booth and promptly pass out. Not tonight, thought Aislinn.

She had been able to slip into the cantina without anyone noticing easy enough. She had become quite adept at hiding in the shadows. She saw Ralon get up to go for his private dance and waited. When Ralon finally stumbled out from the back Aislinn was ready. She stepped out of the shadows and advanced toward Ralon Durr. At first he didn’t see the young girl approach, but all the sudden his way was blocked. He looked down.

"Hey girly. What, you wanna be next?" He looked around laughing. Aislinn didnt flinch, she pulled out a large pipe that she had been concealing under her shirt, and swung as hard as she could against his knee cap. Ralon went down like a ton of duracrete. Aislinn wound back again and clubbed him over the head three times until he stopped moving. She bent down and picked up Ralon's modified DC-17m blaster rifle and pointed around the bar and at Ralon's men.

"Anyone else wanna ask me a question?" She said glaring down the end of the weapon. Everyone just put their heads down and went back to their business. She took whatever credits and ammunition Ralon had left on him and took off back into the shadows. She now had a weapon, and, more importantly, a rep. People now knew she meant business, and it wasn’t too long after, that she started getting some business. Aislinn started picking up bounties, nothing major yet, just locals on the station. She found that she was quite skilled at tracking people, and that following her hunches often paid off. She had gotten enough creds now to buy an arsenal, which she did and kept in her hideout within the bowels of the station.

A couple of years passed like this, Aislinn picking up bounties, making money, and gaining a reputation on the smugglers moon. She was known by most of the locals simply by "The Girl." It was often said around the station that you simply don’t mess with ‘The Girl.’ At least, not if you wanna wake up the next morning." Things went like that for a while. A while, that is, until the Empire changed everything.

-- Chapter 3 --

Aislinn Vail was feeling pretty good about herself right now, but one would never know that just by looking at her. Her face was stone, without emotion. She stared icily across a Sabaac table at two smug Imperials. They were low level officers on shore leave while their ship was refueling. Tourists, as Aislinn liked to call them. Just passing through, looking for a good time wherever they could find one. Whether that was at the Sabaac tables or just hassling the locals, it mattered little to them. But Aislinn was feeling good because she knew that she had these guys beat. They had nothing, and she knew it. She didn’t know how she knew it, she just did. She always did. In truth, she had never lost a hand of Sabaac… ever, a fact that she wisely kept to herself.

She won the hand, as she knew she would, then grabbed up her winnings and immediately got up from the table and left. She didn’t even look back to acknowledge the officer's pleas to let them try to win their money back. She was out the door. She knew it was better to walk away when you’re ahead and no one's calling you a cheat. Aislinn had an apartment now, nothing fancy just a little one-room space with no ports. She entered the tiny living space and flipped on the lights. She walked over near the refresher and opened up her secret safe, it was kept in a hollow in the wall that she had bored out. With a slight smirk, she added some of her newly acquired creds to the swiftly growing pile inside. She was about 22 now and had grown quite beautiful over the years. A disadvantage, as she saw it, for someone trying not to get noticed. She tried to blend in with the rest of the spacers on the moon as best she could. She wore a military style jumpsuit with combat boots and a utility belt where she kept her trusty DL-44 blaster that she had modified herself with a few "special" upgrades. Aislinn picked up her comm unit and dialed Blatto. After a few moments of static an image of a scruffy Toydarian with an eye patch over his left eye and a short cigar hanging out of his mouth hovered in the viewscreen.

"What do you want, can’t you see I'm busy!" The agitated Toydarian bellowed.

"Relax Blatto, it’s just me."

“Oh... Aislinn, I didn't realize. These darn Imperials, they’ve been on my back all day, asking if I have this and that. Does this look like Coruscant to you? I swear I-”

"Listen, do you still have that part I need?" Aislinn interjected, cutting off Blatto’s rant.

"Depends," Blatto said flatly. "Do have money this time? No Credit.”

"I’ve got the money, plus the rest of what I owe you."

“I will have to check my inventory, but I believe I might have one left in stock…around here somewhere.” Blatto made a purposeful show of disinterest.

“You’re the best Blatto. Hold it for me I’ll be right there.”

"No promises." Blatto stated but was cut off when Aislinn severed the comm, grabbed her jacket and ran out the door.

Aislinn had made it to Blatto's General store without any problems. She bought the item she had been waiting for, and took off back to her apartment. She had been saving up to buy this particular item for some time now. It was a navigational control chip. A crucial piece needed to finally finish the “Skeet Rat.” That was the name she had given the scrapped up ship she had purchased a few years back and was slowly…very slowly, rebuilding. Finally I’m gonna get off this rock, she rejoiced to herself. Deep in thought she ignored the prickly feeling on the back of her neck as she turned a corner and nearly ran head first into the two Imperials that she had beaten at cards. Only now there were 5 of them and they were drunk.

"Hey Girlie!" one of them catcalled. "How 'bout coming back to my room and earning some of that money you stole from me, huh?!" Aislinn kept her head down and continued walking.

"Aww c'mon dont be like that I’m just trying to be nice." He said mockingly. Aislinn kept walking but the officer grabbed her by the arm. She turned on him like a viper, drawing her blaster.

"Looks like we get to have a little fun after all,” the officer said right before Aislinn put two holes in his chest. But then the rest of them were on her, trying to restrain her. She dropped her blaster and fought. I'm not above biting and scratching, she thought, and lashed out. There were too many of them, she was overwhelmed. Aislinn felt a large ball of pent up hate and rage surge inside her chest, She felt trapped, one of them began forcing himself on her, grabbing at her legs. She began to panic, kicking out wildly. The ball of hate and pain surged in her chest again, growing, getting bigger, hotter. She felt the rage envelope her, her vision went red and all she could feel was hate. She screamed and all at once a great energy pulsed outward like a giant explosion. The Imperials were flung through the air like rag dolls, pushed by a giant wall of energy flowing from the young girl’s body. The men hit the walls and bulkheads of the station hard. All of them knocked completely unconscious, or dead. Aislinn did not stick around to find out. She grabbed her blaster from the floor and took off. She didn’t know what had just happened and she didn’t care. There was no time to think about that. For now, she had to run.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles up, in orbit around the small moon, Darth Vader stood on the bridge of his Super Star Destroyer and felt a tremor in the Darkside of the force.

"Colonel..."

"Yes, Lord Vader."

"Prepare my shuttle. I’m going down to the surface."

-- Chapter 4 --

Back in her apartment Aislinn Vail was preparing for a hasty departure. There was an open duffle on her bed and she was racing around the small space trying, frantically, to fill it with as many clothes and weapons she could manage. In the back of her mind Aislinn could feel something nearing, an intense coldness that terrified her to her core. darn, darn! What are you doing? She thought. You just assaulted a group of kriffing Imperials! Gotta hide, gotta disappear. She zipped the bag up, and threw it over her shoulder. She could feel that coldness getting closer; it was nearly upon her now. She had to get out now. Her heart raced. She pressed the pad to open the door but the way was blocked. Not realizing what was blocking her exit, she looked up to find herself staring into the shiny visage of Darth Vader.

Terrified, Aislinn stumbled backward and fell down. She was frozen. His dark presence swallowed up the small space. It was heavy and oppressive...and cold. The large black figure stepped into the room. The sputtering fluorescent lights glinted off of his dark helmet. Aislinn drew her blaster (for all the good it would do her, she had heard the stories of Vader) and fired four shots at the Sith lord. Vader snatched the energy bolts out of the air as if they were mere fireflies. He then reached his hand out and Aislinn's DL-44m blaster flew from her grasp straight into Vader's black gloved hand. He then motioned towards Aislinn with his other hand and immediately she felt a tightening around her throat. Then, as if by magic, she was lifted into the air. With her feet dangling, Aislinn gurgled and gasped for breath. She could feel the rage and panic building in her chest again. She was angry, angry with herself for not being quicker, angry at her parents for dying and leaving her alone, and angry at Vader for toying with her like this. She fought to stay conscious, kicking wildly and grasping at the invisible fingers closing around her throat. The rage inside her surged again, and she let out a small shriek, but all noise was drowned out by the sound of Vader's heavy mechanical breathing echoing from the durasteel. Her vision went red, the pain was intense. She tried to scream again but no air came to her lungs. She could no longer contain it, and like a thermal detonator in her chest the dark energy exploded forth. Everything that was breakable in her tiny apartment shattered from the surge. Unfettered, Vader released his grasp letting Aislinn fall to the floor. He seemed to soak in the dark pulse around him. Vader stepped forward to stand over her. Then in a deep booming voice:

"The force is strong with you, but you do not yet know the true power of the Darkside!" Aislinn let the darkness envelope her and she passed out.

to be continued...