(Old) Avatar the Last Airbender - Jedi Outcast (Remastered)

Chapter 29 - The Synthetic Crystal

Author Note: Yo, got to make this one quick. Thank you everyone for reading. Please remember to follow, favorite, and review. It greatly helps with my motivation. I hope you all enjoy and have an awesome day!

Chapter 29

Ben stood straight and strong. His body looming like a present shadow as he stared at the gravesite. Bill, it was a better place for him to rest than under all that rubble. The wind rode through his beard and his hair, a vibrant chill that touched upon his skin, but Ben couldn't feel it at this moment, too deep in his own head.

The mound of upturned dirt was fresh, and a large rock was positioned as a gravestone. Underneath all that dirt and rock, was the man that was the closest thing to a father he had ever known. Ben stared at that plot of earth, he didn't know what to say or do.

He pursed his lips to speak, hoping that maybe in some strange spiritual way he would be able to hear him...yet he didn't. Ben didn't speak. His throat emptying as he watched the soil. Bill was a man of few words and rarely ever spoken, he led by action...and Ben would honor his memory with action.

He was told to use his powers for good, and he would use those powers to defeat the fire nation and pave a new era, an era free from this century long war that has plagued this world. Because he was a warrior, and because he had people that needed him.

He raised his mechanical arm, flexing the metal pieces of the false limb. This would forever be apart of him, a wound inflicted that he would never recover from. The pain and the loss, even with the cybernetic he figured would never go away. It was scary, but Ben didn't have the time to cry or to feel fear for what would be a problem down the line, when he was in the process of wondering if he would survive the next day.

There wasn't time to cry, there wasn't time to feel fear, things were beginning to get serious and him and team avatar had to get ready for the coming trials ahead. Yet, there was something that made him afraid. Something that he couldn't hide or cover up with bravado or with something stronger.

The words Exar told him of the process. As he gazed down at his mechanical arm, flexing the fingers as he was still coming to terms with the foreign limb. How much did he lose?

Did he trade up a piece of himself...a piece of his humanity for this piece? He didn't cry, he felt sad, but he didn't cry. Was that something that was lost to him now? With widened eyes that popped out of his sockets, with a hurried breath, it was the appearance of the man in his thoughts that made him seek composure, a way to seek a state of calmness against the storm.

Exar, while he was his master was a Sith Remnant. He couldn't show weakness, or his master would exploit it. "Have you finished your business here, apprentice?"

Ben didn't turn around. Only offering a subtle nod as he began to turn away from the gravestone. He couldn't look back, there was nothing here for him anymore. Exar sparked a smile, wrapping his arms around himself as he watched his apprentice. "Excellent, now comes the second part of your training, you have done well my apprentice. A practice hand in sorcery, we shall continue this lesson after...but I hope this has shown you the true superiority of the dark side."

"Trust me, Exar." Ben spoke, a bite added to the cold etched words. "I know how powerful the Dark Side is, and I know how easy of a trap it is. I follow my own way, light side and dark side are..."

"Merely just tools." Exar finished. "Yet, if you stuck to the light side. The light wouldn't have given you a proper and stronger replacement. So, answer me this. Will holding onto your code keep you tethered, or will it only stop you from reaching your true potential?"