Strong and Strange

Night Alien

"So, was the mission a success?" Knight Rhys asked Danse.

"Affirmative. We got the transmitter."

"Finally! Some good news for a change!" He said.

"I didn't do it alone. Our friend here helped us. She's one of us now."

Rhys looked at me. "So. I see you decided to join us. I thought you'd grab the reward and leave. I was actually getting used to the idea of you leaving."

"Rhys!" Danse said. "I know you don't like it but I expect you to pay her respect. For now, I can only promote you to Initiate... it's as high as I can go as paladin." he said. "Report to Haylen and Rhys for something to do." He said.

"Ad Victoriam, Initiate." Haylen saluted.

"Haylen, she doesn't even know what that means." Rhys snapped.

"Ad Victoriam means To victory. The Brotherhood never goes to defeat." With that, they all walked away to the different rooms. I went over to Haylen.

"Sorry about how Rhys is acting. Just give him time. He'll get used to you." She said.

"Oh. It's alright. I can feel- so what's your mission?" I said quickly.

"I want you to retrieve some tech for the Brotherhood..." she said.

"Alright. I'll do it." I said, letting her mark the coordinates on my map. She looked interested in it but said nothing and went back to what she was doing. I went to Rhys and he gave me a mission to clear a place out of abominations... they were both pretty far away so I saved them for later. It was dark out so I went to Danse. "Are um... any extra beds around here?" I asked.

"Yeah. Many soldiers from my recon squad had died... you can have one of their beds." He said.

He was currently out of his armor now. He said they were called power armor. He said the Brotherhood would give me one once I was a Knight but I declined, wanting to keep my move swift for my lightsaber... I climbed into a bed and decided to meditate. I was behind a closed door so I had some privacy. I connected with the Force and saw many things. I continued to meditate when a knock on the door interrupted me. Before I could lay back and pretend to sleep, Danse came into the room. "Am I interrupting anything?" He asked.

"No. Nothing at all." I smiled.

"I just brought you something to eat and drink."

"Nah, I'm fine. I'm not hungry." I said, pulling my legs down from their previous position.

"What are you doing?"

"Just... my usual." I said.

"Oh..." Danse put the tray of food down on the table. "Could you tell me anything about where you are from?" He asked, sitting down next to me.

"Uh... it's just a sandy place really... I mean... I was mostly on Coruscant..."

"Doing what?"

"Training." I answered. I didn't feel comfortable telling anyone about me and where I'm from.

"You really don't want to talk about this, do you?"

"No."

"Where is Tatooine?" He asked, pressing me on.

I sighed. He only wants to know out of curiosity... I'm the one who used the Force in front of him in the first place... "Far, far away... in... another galaxy." I said. Danse's face went white.

"You're from another galaxy?" He asked. "But you're human..."

"There are plenty of humans there too... I was running away from a massacre... I don't know how but I went out of lightspeed and crashed here." I said.

"Lightspeed?" Danse looked intrigued. I'm sure he's going to tell all about this to the Brotherhood.

"It's a way to travel from system to system, planet to planet faster than usual..." I said. "Please... I don't want this to go out to the whole place... I don't... I can't stay for long... of course I will stay as long as I want and as long as I have to." I added.

"I'll keep the secret... for reasons on end... but not forever." He said, putting his arm around mine. Jedi weren't supposed to have any sexual relationships... so I wasn't ready for that. He must've felt my surprise and put his arm back. "Sorry... I guess you don't do that in your galaxy?"

"I can't have any sexual relationships... that's it." I said.

"Why not?"

"The Jedi code says not to... otherwise I'd be kicked out."

"Jedi?" Danse had question marks in his eyes by now.

"I already told you enough." I said, looking away.

"Sorry... it's just people would consider you an alien..." Danse said.

"Of course..." I said, getting up to get something from my bag. I took out a holocron found just before leaving the Jedi Temple. I used the force to open it.

"This is Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. I regret to report that both our Jedi Order and the Republic have fallen, with the dark shadow of the Empire rising to take their place. This message is a warning and a reminder for any surviving Jedi. Trust in the Force. Do not return to the Temple. That time has passed. And our future is uncertain. We will each be challenged. Our trust... our faith... our friendships. But we must persevere. And in time, a new hope will emerge. May the Force be with you... always." The holocron ended and I stared at literally nothing for a while. Danse was still there, staring at me. My senses came back to me and I put the holocron back into my bag. My heart hurt right then and there. A tear sprang in my eye and I quickly wiped it clean and no more came.

"Are you ok?" Danse asked. "Why would anyone want to massacre you?"

"Not just me... all the Jedi... I don't want to talk about it." I said, walking out the door with Danse chasing after me.

"Maggie, what's wrong?" Danse asked, catching up to me. "Something happened... I mean what's the Republic, the Jedi Order, the Empire?"

"The Jedi Order has fallen... We are the only hope in the Galaxy... the ones to bring balance to the force.... the republic is... hard to explain... it's like a government... and the empire is the new enemy rising... they are the dark side of the force..." I said. Danse was wearing an orange uniform. I was wearing my thin jedi tunic.

"It'll be alright." Danse said.

"No, it won't someone has to stop the Empire. I hope someone is out there to do so." I said, looking up at the stars.

"Someone has to destroy the Institute and their synths." Danse joked. I looked at him.

"The Institute?"

"The makers of the synths. Mad Scientists with crazy ideas." He answered. "What are droids, by the way?"

"Robots... protocol droids made to serve, battle droids for battle, astromech droids for repairing and companions for flying ships, many many more too." I said.

"Sounds interesting." Danse said. "I'm going back inside... coming?"

"Sure." I smiled.