"Come on!" Ben screamed; his voice hoarse as the sweat bared down his face. His eyes narrowed as he held his bare palm forward. It wasn't working, the beams of violet force lightning in which he believed he could control were not coming out.
He latched onto his anger, his hatred, his fear. Yet not a single piece of either the light or the dark would aid him. He once again threw his hand back, trying to immerse himself within the force as he tried to take back in his prior teachings.
The teachings of Revan and Exar Kun. Even then, they proved fruitless as he couldn't concentrate. He let out a heavy sigh as he planted his butt down on the dirt. Combing through his clumps of dark hair as he couldn't understand...
He thought his mind was concluded, he thought that he accepted the force and all of its weight. Still, even now the dark side had chosen to abandon him. He didn't want to see Exar Kun...he could have accessed the old Sith Lord through his Holocron, but he didn't want to beg for an answer.
He slammed his eyes shut. Pursuing his lips. "Meetra, please..." He silently begged as he wrapped his arms around himself, his eyes slammed shut as he tried to immerse himself into that familiar feeling. Before she was the one that was always reaching out, the one that he would always try to push away.
Yet, before the wars...she was always the one he would talk to. The big sister he never had, but after she left him, he didn't want anything to do with her anymore. Even after coming to this world, she was a frequent pest that wouldn't let him live a life of peace.
But now her soothing voice was all he had wished for. His lips formed into a snarl. His eyes widened as he leaped to his feet, fresh vibrant anger funneling through him as he stared up at the sky. "Meetra!" He screamed. His pointed finger raised. "Come out, I know what I did was wrong. I know that I did not act in the Jedi way!"
He slumped deeper into himself, into the darkness of despair and guilt as he shook his head. "...but I need your help." He begged, his eyes losing their color. "Please..."
He waited there for what had felt like eternity. The only thing keeping him company was the sounds of the forest and the glare of the sun.
'Why? Why do you choose to ignore me of all times! Please, I beg of you. I heard your voice...over, and over again. But you can't...'
He gritted his teeth. His eyes blinking away the tears as red-hot malice swarmed like a monster around his gut, warping it's way along his right hand. A powerful blast of force energy welling in his palm as he splintered the nearest tree in half. A powerful sound rupturing through the forest as the false Jedi made his way to camp.
Confused...and far more conflicted, of his true standing within the force.
Split
The gang...now including Jet were riding along Appa as they broke through the skies. Ever since last night, they've flew steadily quiet. There were no jokes, no smiles, merely only melancholy that flew through the group.
Sokka, he was...flustered. He was jealous of Jet, a natural leader that was leading his freedom fighters against the fire nation. Yet, in the end it all proved useless.
Katara, she watched Jet. His movements slouched as he pressed his knees to his chest. His eyes puffy and red but she didn't know what else to say. In merely a night he had lost every single person that he knew. His whole family was gone.
Aang...he wanted to speak to Jet about it. To get him to understand what had happened, yet...
Sokka pulled along Ben's robes. Lightly nudging him as he pressed his lips towards his ear. Ben nodding his head as he took a seat across from Jet. Each of the boys gotten to know the other for a short period of time but there was still a level of respect that had formed.
Jet being a good warrior and a powerful but untrained user of the force...likewise to Benjamin in his first encounter with the armored Sith Warrior. Still, there was a boundary that separated the two boys.
"Jet, how are you doing?"
The boy in question raising his head finally. Eyes red, obviously from crying but Jet was too much of a man to show it. He swiped his nose away as he peered at Ben. "I lost everything...last night. To those fire nation bastards, to that damn warrior."
He sneered at the words. Benjamin listening as he rested his back along the base of Appa's saddle. This was going to be a long conversation; it would hopefully help Jet get his feelings out...and Benjamin can tell him the truth of what he truly was.
"Ben, that thing that you taught me. What was it?"
Ben nodded his head. Attached to the question as he took a heavy breath. He explained to Jet everything, of the force and the Jedi. The true history of the world and the nature of their journey. Also, of Jet's force sensitivity and his possibility of becoming a Jedi Knight.
Jet sat there and listened. Before he was dejected from what had happened to his comrades and to his home, but he was far more shaken by the reality of what the fire nation had done and his own potential.
Katara walked over and sat next to Ben. "Jet, I know this is a shock to you, but if this is truly your potential..."
Sokka was near the reins. "Another force sensitive..." He mumbled against his breath, Aang hiding a smirk along the reins as his eyes fixated on the bright skies. A small smile, the airbender's was gone but more of the Jedi had slowly begun to return.
Jet gazed from Katara and back to Ben. "Still, I have a question." He pointed his fingers. His eyes narrowing as he thought back to that lesson, to that time in which Benjamin instructed him to do that thing. That ability...
"I saw these...strange red lines, the lines that I saw before that would aid me in battle." He inched closer. His eyes in a haze as Jet was still confused by these strange words and ideas. "You helped me focus on them. What were they?"
Team Avatar turned towards Ben. The boy sighing as he turned back towards Jet. "Shatterpoints, I taught you to focus your mind and to properly locate a shatterpoint."
"Shatterpoints...never heard of them, even from the monks or the Jedi that frequented the temple back then." Aang spoke up as well. Now interested in the conversation.
Ben nodded. "Yeah, you wouldn't hear about them. Jet, the ability to see shaterpoints is a very rare and innate ability within the force."
Katara couldn't believe it. She knew that Jet was amazing...but to be gifted with the force and another ability. She watched as the boy's hair flew through the wind, her eyes tracing him as a soft blush spread along her face.
"What does it do?" She asked.
Ben leaned into his seat. His eyes narrowed as he knew what he was going to tell Jet was going to change his world. He wasn't just another force sensitive; he had the possibility to become a very powerful Jedi Knight. "Shatterpoints, they are the things within the force...the weak points. The weakness in a defensive line, in a machine, in an opponent. They are shatterpoints, the places in which the unbreakable becomes breakable."
Jet glossed down at his hands. He was just a freedom fighter at the edge of the frontier that hoped that he would be able to aid a couple of refugees while battling a couple of fire nation soldiers. Yet, to realize that he had such potential and a great destiny.
"Still, with such great power would require a very heavy amount of training." Ben uttered at the end, drawing the glances of everyone that was on the sky bison. "Jet, I felt your anger and hatred when we first met. If you walk the path of the Jedi, you will fall to the dark side."
Sokka piped up. Turning around to the pair. "Benji, are you sure he would?"
"What do you mean?"
Sokka shrugged his shoulders. He wasn't trying to play it off. "Jet, he hates the fire nation. Would he really join them and fall to the dark side?"
Ben let out another heavy breath. Combing through his dark hair as he shook his head. "That's not the way the force works, Sokka. The dark side, it relies on temptation. Yes, Jet right now hates the fire nation and what they had done to him. Still, with all that hatred in his heart he could fall to the dark side...even if he chambers it at another enemy."
There was a distinct silence that had set over them all. Ben leaned towards Jet, resting his knee of Appa's saddle as he stared into the boy's brown eyes.
"Jet, I am a Jedi Knight. I am not a master of the force by any means. Still, this world needs more Jedi." He thought back to the time when he was with Haru. Remarking on the lessons he had learned, how he should act like a Jedi and judge someone on the surface but rather to wait and guide them down their path. "Jet, there isn't anything wrong living like this, living without the force. Hell, if I awakened you to the force, it's not something that you can instantly shut off like a water valve, your connection may even dull your other skills."
Jet had heard of the dark side of the force, he heard everything that Benjamin told him. He wanted to be a hero, a true warrior that would help others but, on the flipside, he knew how much anger he held in his heart.
He didn't want to fall to the dark side and hurt good people. So, he sunk in his breath as he turned back towards Ben. "Maybe, that's for the best. I don't think I want to walk the path of the Jedi."
He expected them to be disappointed, to be angry at him. Yet, they weren't. Katara lightly rested her hand on her shoulders as Sokka and Aang both nodded, not trying to dissuade him or convince him to walk down that path.
Benjamin sighed, but a small smile was over his face. "If you ever change your mind...I'll be here." He nodded towards Jet as the pair dropped back into their seats as their journey began to continue.
Split
They docked along a town. A strange town that recognized Aang and asked for his help. A spirit had been abducting people. Taking people away during the night and had been stealing things from them.
The people of this village begged Aang for help, and the young avatar obliged. Ben and the rest of the gang, even including Jet leaned along the window. Their eyes widening when the spirit appeared from the houses.
Breaking through and wrecking them as Aang desperately tried to speak to them. They all watched, motionless and stunned.
Even Benjamin, he had seen creatures from different planets, but this thing took the cake...how it just materialized out of nowhere. "Alright, Aang obviously needs help." Sokka said. The lone warrior bursting through the door as he was armed with his boomerang. Ben watching as he was shellshocked.
A part of him didn't want to go out there, his eyes going towards his fingers. To the nubs, he had failed in connecting to the force. What type of Jedi couldn't call upon the powers of either the light or the darkness?
Yet, when the spirit's teeth slung into Sokka's upper shirt, and he was hoisted away. He was snapped into action, bursting through the door as his lightsaber was on his side. Blade ignited as the purple beam followed into a blur as the force augmented his speed.
He lurched along the trees as he kicked himself off trailing along the base of the spirit as he implanted his blade into the base of the creatures back. The spirit shrieked in pain as Benjamin and Sokka screamed, their eyes slammed shut as they crossed a threshold no man should of have crossed.
Split
Ben's eyes snapped open, rewarded with a pure darkness as no sign of illumination was around. He heard a dropping sound, like raindrops along a pure storm of the night. His hand hovered over his belt, grappling along the lightsaber blade as he felt the metallic hilt within his fingers.
His breath was hollow as he felt an unpleasant chill within the air that wasn't there before. Ben sunk his teeth in as he closed his eyes. Trying to sink himself into the depths of force energy as he tried to find his center.
He couldn't remember...he was riding along that spirit and then. His eyes snapped open as his finger pressed the button of his lightsaber. The purple beam of light igniting as he used it as a proper light source. He saw the gloss of wet rocks as the precipitation of the stone walls leaked down them.
It was...a cave?
Ben stared all around as he began to move through the cave system. He had zero clue what had happened to him. Still. 'I have to find Sokka and get out of here.'
He remembered how feral that spirit was. If it took Ben into its den or something along those lines, then he could be in a wave of danger. Likewise, he didn't like this place. Almost like a powerful shiver ran down his spine as he struggled to make past things.
It was the shiver of something...not the dark side but of something ancient. Something, far away but he couldn't place it. He gripped his blade tighter as he made his way through the cavern. He didn't know how long he was walking for, but somewhere along the line. He felt something run past him, brushing against his leg.
He turned around. Instantly throwing himself into the proper Shien form as he level his blade. Only for the weapon to. "A child..." He murmured. Watching the finger slink his back along the wall. Cupping his eyes into his palms as he dug his knees into his chest.
Tears cascaded down his face as Ben instantly lost his stance. 'The village elder, he mentioned before those children had gone missing from the spirit. Did I find one of them?'
He shined his lightsaber casting off a purple glow as he saw the kid. He was curled up in a ball, his palms in his face as faint tears coiled down his cheeks.
"Kid, it's alright. I'm a jedi." Ben spoke. Resting the blade as he took a knee in front of the boy. The spirit had taken into habit of abducting people in this village and dragging them through the barrier. He shook his head, a pounding headache forming as he struggled to keep his thoughts in order. This didn't make sense...
The kid parted his hands from his face. Eyes red and sunken, but Ben backed away. "Impossible..." He muttered to himself. Eyes trained forward as the boy wiped the strands of tears away from his face.
He got up. Ben noting on the Mandalorian attire he wore. His bruised face and arms from frequent beatings from his father...
"Mama taught me all about the Jedi. I have a gift she told me..."
It was him...
Younger, maybe around the age of eight or nine years old. This would be the year where his mother would commit the greatest of Sins in Mandalorian culture. Killing her husband and giving away her only child to the Jedi Order.
She knew the crime...and was executed soon afterwards. He raised his hand towards Ben. Ben scuttling away as he leveled the blade in front of himself, both of his hands locking firmly along the base of the blade.
"I am Benjamin, I wish to become a knight of the Jedi Order." He spoke. Words laced with the pitch of a child, an added smile as Benjamin shook his head again.
Trying to halt the hallucination. Ben's lips separated. "No...you're just a hallucination. You're not real!" He screamed at the doppelganger.
The boy stopped advancing. His eyes fixating on Ben's form as he glossed down at his hands. He chuckled, a maniacal chuckle as the little boy's form began to shape. The shadows and the darkness working with him as he was warped, his frame starting to change as Ben could only shield himself from the darkness as he tried to hold onto whatever light he could have held.
"You think you understand power, the force?" He jested. Ben was able to see the shadow's part. The figure taller and stronger, the shadows breaking through as he saw the orange gleam of the true Sith. "I know, power."
The shadows parted as Ben saw it. Heavy brown combat robes with metal plates fixated underneath them, his hair shortened down to his scalp. Orange eyes, the eyes of the dark side as his unnaturally pale skin fixtured with deep black veins. An abomination of the dark side, of the Sith. A being that was obsessed with evening out the score with the Jedi and the Mandalorians.
The old Ben...
His fingers moved through his belt, lightly tasseling through the metallic hilts that were arranged onto them. Jedi and some Sith that he killed in battle, those that he found to be desirable or a name of note. Revan and Malak disliked it when he did it before...but it was the truth of the Sith that those who are weak deserve only death.
He took those lightsabers as trophies but kept the same one he had ever since he was a child. He dragged it from behind him. Pulling the short handled double-bladed lightsaber as he leveled it in front of Ben.
He ignited the duel cyan blades as he instinctively charged. Ben raised his blade to parry as both saber locked by the chest. He broke through as he pivoted, blasting a force push only for the corrupted Ben to break through it, wresting his throat backward with the force.
He flew, colliding along the stone floor as he threw out his left palm, the sparks of purple lightning in which he thought he had control over refused to come out. His only saving grace was when he slashed forward, and the corrupted version was now backed up.
Each of the lightsaber forms had their own positives and negatives. Shien, the form Ben mostly specified in was known for its overpowering attacks and its power to break through an enemy's saber defenses. Still, one of its drawbacks made the user be more sluggish and more open to parries and unexpected attacks.
Ben eyed the figure. He was using a modified version of Ataru. He didn't pick up on using Jar Kai until later on during the Jedi Civil War. He blocked another attack, but this time he saw an opening. Drawing on the force he chambered a mighty force push.
The corrupted one was quick. Lashing out with his own force push to repel Ben but his left arm was wide open. Ben formed a powerful cleave. Slashing downwards as he bisected the arm. Cleaving anything that went past the bicep as his left arm fell to the ground.
The corrupted one collapsed to the ground. Ben raising the purple blade overhead with both hands as he followed in pure instinct. Another dark jedi, another dark sider...he had to die.
So, he raised up his blade ready to finish it but...
That face, that old face. Hesitation, wrapping around his fingers and refusing to let go as it sunk into him like snake venom. The corrupted Ben smirked. Drawing onto the force as he wretched one of the blades from the lightsaber. A brilliant yellow blade breaking through the darkness as he launched himself upwards with the force.
Leveling the weapon, as Ben was impaled through the chest. His throat hitched, a vibrant heat echoing through the wound as his lightsaber was unignited and collapsed to his side. He patted his chest, the shock roaring through him as he felt the cold swarm him like a nest of bees.
The corrupted Ben stood over him. The lone figure not giving any attention to the missing arm as he held the simmering yellow blade of the fallen Jedi. 'I don't even remember...I killed all those Jedi and Sith. Yet, I can't even remember their faces.'
All these murders, all these kills. He wasn't a Jedi, he wasn't anything. Did he honestly believe that saving the avatar and the world would be enough to absolve him of his sins?
"You have a great deal of hate in you...that is good. Revan, he taught us that our hate is the gateway to power. But hate is not enough." He spoke, raising his simmering stump into the air as the yellow beam lit up the cavern. "Anger...that is the true source of power. It must be focused if it's going to be a powerful weapon. But, without control and with delusions...it shall merely become a shadow of what it truly is."
He leveled the yellow blade in front of Ben's face. Sweat pouring down it as his breath hitches, his corrupted one raising it over his head. "Keep deluding yourself of what the force truly is! Keep giving yourself into hesitation...and you'll have a stump like myself!"
He struck downwards as Ben closed his eyes. Whether it was exhaustion or his existence. Everything began to just go black.
Split
The villagers began to herald out of the dark forest. Katara lightly stirring as Jet who was leaning along the village wall instantly grew alert. "Sokka...Ben." Katara lightly mused as the blanket collapsed off of her.
The waterbender's eyes gazing in all directions as families were once again reunited. Aang appearing from his meditative crouch as he lightly wiped his eyes. Jet went over towards him lightly patting him on his back as Aang returned a pleasant smile.
"Woah, being in the spirit world was just something else..."
"I can hardly imagine." Jet replied. The pair making their way towards the entrance as more and more people began to part.
As nearly everyone was huddled through. Katara nearly had tears in her eyes. "Are they...coming back?"
But through the fragments of darkness. That was when she saw them. Tears flowing down her cheek as she and the rest of team avatar bellowed into the clearing. Sokka was lagging behind. But he was holding something...or rather someone.
Katara stopped moving. Her eyes widened as Sokka held a limped over Benjamin. Eyes closed as the whole frame drooped downwards.
"I need help!" He screamed. Laying Ben down on the forest floor as his sister quickly rushed to give aid to the fallen warrior.
Aang ran to his side. Jet likewise but he was just as confused with the situation as everyone else. "What happened...how long has he been like this for, Sokka!"
Sokka shook his head. "I don't know...I just woke up and saw Ben laying on the floor. While everyone else woke up he didn't..."
Aang rested his palm on Ben's forehead. Eyes starting to glow for a second as he felt it. Eyes hollow as his breathing began to get heavier.
"What's going on!" Jet yelped. By Ben's side as he stared at the large boy. He had already lost people; he would be damned if he lost another.
"Ben, his spirt..." Aang glossed over, giving them all a look that sent a powerful shiver through each of there spines. He glossed over deeper into the darkness of the forest. "His spirit is lost in the spirit world..."