Star Wars: Jedi Prodigy

Something in the Way

"Weiyun...?" Daliss says, standing before her in the battlefield. "Weiyun is that you?"

"Yes, darling." She answers, approaching Daliss slowly, swinging her hips as she walks. "The Jedi order is in shambles, and a big change is coming... Can you feel it?"

An explosion blasts off between the two, and Daliss is overcome with fear and runs away. Weiyun catches up to her almost immediately though, and forces the padawan to fight. Daliss clashes sabers with Weiyun, and is quickly overwhelmed, disarmed and pushed onto the ground.
"You didn't put up much of a fight." Weiyun says in a cold, cheerful way. "Some prodigy your turning out to be..."

Daliss is angry, upset and scared right now, but she finds an opportunity to attack... The padawan kicks Weiyun in the shin with a force powered kick. Weiyun was taken off guard, and falls towards Daliss, who punches her in the face before she falls on top of her. Now on top of Daliss, Weiyun groans angrily with a bloody nose, and punches Daliss in the face. And then again, and then Daliss manages to throw Weiyun off, draw back her lightsaber with the force and stand back up - in a loud crackle and a dazzling light, Daliss is electrocuted with the power of Sith lightning. She couldn't believe it. Daliss couldn't believe that Weiyun has truly turned to the dark side of the force... She falls back down, and hears someone yelling her name. Before blacking out, Daliss sees Wac trying to shoot Weiyun, and he gets electrocuted as well. Seeing this, something in the padawan snapped, and she leapt off of the ground, flying towards Weiyun with a lightsaber. She unleashes a furious barrage of lightsaber strikes which Weiyun tries to defend against, but for this round something is very different... She overwhelms Weiyun and injures her leg. Weiyun flips over Daliss and grabs her shoulder in midair, and it's just like from their encounter in Ayro. Whatever spell Daliss was under was broken and the padawan was paralyzed with a chill down her spine once more. Daliss falls to her knees, finally defeated, and she blacks out...

When she wakes up, Daliss was in a daze. Everything was blurry at first but when her vision cleared up, Daliss realized that she was on the med bay of a republic cruiser. She sits up, immediately feeling sore all over. Daliss also has a bad feeling about how the battle went. It was going poorly very quickly, and with Weiyun gone, she wonders if the reinforcements ever came. On the bright side, there should be no more intelligence leaks since it is clear now that Weiyun was giving the separatists the intelligence. But that may not even matter anymore if the republic lost that battle.
Master Todak walks in to see his padawan. He immediately looks very relieved to see her sitting up and looking like she's coming through.
"By my beard, Princess." Todak says. "I was so worried. You were out cold for three days."

"Mia... What happened? Did you save me, master?" She doesn't quite remember what happened after being electrocuted. "Did you..."

"I did..." He says, sounding upset. It's clear that they both know thatwas Weiyun. "That disciple of the dark side nearly killed you..."

"Mia!" Daliss shouts suddenly, startling her master for once. "Wac! Where's Wac - is he okay?!"

Todak is silent for a moment, worrying Daliss greatly, and when she was about to ask again Todak spoke.
"Wac was doing well, for a while. He had some headaches, but the headaches got worse and worse... But what's got me concerned is that he's starting to have nightmares... About killing Jedi. ... You and I specifically..."

Daliss is shocked, and wants to cry. This is very upsetting to hear. But what does it mean? Perhaps Wac has been touched by the force in a much deeper way... The frightened padawan ran around the med bay and found Wac, and a large border of worry was lifted off of her shoulders when she found him sitting up straight and smiling at her. Daliss practically jumps at Wac, slinging her arms around him for a tight hug.
"I guess you were a little worried, huh kid?" Wac says, wrapping one arm around Daliss. "My head sure hurts but I'm feeling fine."

Daliss pulls away, and wipes some tears from her eyes.
"The Sith lightning is very dangerous..." Daliss says, still with worry in her voice. "Infatti - I'm surprised I'M doing so well."

"Well, don't worry about me too much, Princess." Wac says, patting her head. "Anyway, I was hoping you'd be awake by today at least."

"Oh? Why today, amica?"

"Try and guess." Wac teases, chuckling.

Daliss scratches her chin, thinking. Wac really hasn't given her much in the way of hints at what he's on about.
"I can't think of anything, Wac." Daliss whines. "What is it?"

"Happy birthday, princess!"

"Giusto! It IS my birthday, isn't it? I forgot."

"Sure is. And uh, here." Wac grabs a purple scarf off of an end table that Daliss had completely missed. "I got you this purple scarf. I know how much you like wearing our colors and whatnot."

Daliss takes the scarf and tears up a bit from the level of thoughtfulness behind the gift. She wraps the scarf around her neck and gives Wac another hug.
"Thanks so much, amica. This is a wonderful gift."

Her little visit with Wac, and receiving that gift was very nice while it lasted, but Daliss needs to get back to work, because everything is going to be a lot harder than before. The republic lost the battle of Ayro, and were forced to retreat. What's worse, is that old Dofomian fortress on the hill was taken and there were no survivors from the attack... It is looking pretty bleak, but the campaign is not over yet. The reinforcements were late, thanks to tremendous efforts made by the fallen Jedi, Weiyun, the backup was didn't make it to the battle in time. But, because of Weiyun's absence, which she kept under the radar of those fighting in the trenches, a different Jedi was assigned to lead the reinforcements. And this Jedi was fortunately able to show up in time to cover the 707th's retreat and then group up with them. Even with the loss of every trooper from the old fortress, the 707th combining forces with the reinforcements, the 109th, the republic has a much larger force than before.
"Its going to get a lot harder before it gets any easier." Todak says, staring out at the Dofomian landscape from the bridge of the cruiser, standing next to his padawan. "But I know you're ready for it, Daliss."

"Thank you, master." Daliss answered. She is cleaned up, dressed in her Jedi attire and armor pads, ready for whatever comes next. "I will do my best."

Then, the new Jedi taking his place in the battle of Dofom steps aboard the bridge accompanied by some of his clone troopers and Todak and Daliss turn to greet him. His troops, 109th, are nicknamed the "raging hawks" and have orange markings decorating their armor. The Jedi general is a short, Zygerrian man with black hair kept in a tight bun. He is wearing the standard Jedi combat gear with orange tabards.
"Knight Qerreth!" Todak says, bowing. "It is good to finally meet you."

"The feeling's mutual." Qerreth answered in a low voice, bowing back. "Shall we get to work then? There is much to be done."

"Absolutely." The diamond squad commander added as he appeared beside the clone commander of Qerreth's army. "We've got our work set out for us."

"Certainly." Todak says, taking a much more serious tone. "But I am confident that we can pull through."

Daliss doesn't have much to say right now. She never felt like she fit in during these big tactical conversations. Especially now that her confidence is quite low.
Daliss N'dal is tired and nervous. With her old friend, Weiyun, as her new enemy, she dreads the next time she sets foot on a battlefield. It is somewhat surreal as well. Daliss was pretty young when that Sith lord, Darth Maul, emerged on Naboo to fight Qui-Gon Jin and Obi-Wan Kenobi, but she still knew Sith had been extinct for over a thousand years - even before master Yoda himself was born. And though Weiyun is not a Sith lord, it is a frightening thought, to say the very least, that Daliss is going have to fight a disciple of the dark side. And like Todak said, it is going to get harder before it gets easier. The battle for Dofom has changed, the diamond squad has lost a lot of good soldiers, and the republic forces are going to take a more covert approach having lost so much land. Regardless of however Daliss feels though, she will boldly go forward and face whatever challenges comes next.

Credits:
Design and concept of the Jedi general "Qerreth" comes from @/starglow.art from Instagram! Go check her page out!