Star Wars: Wartime

Two

The first place I took Lily-la, after I freed her from the cells...was somewhere no nosy Jedi's knew of.... I sat down on the sofa within the living room as I watched Lily-la eat her food from her place at the bar. She quickly pigged it up, as if she hasn't eaten anything in a while. Which...if all the trays they've given her looked like how that tray did in the cell...she hasn't eaten in a while.

"Where'd you learn to cook...?" I heard Lily-la ask me, a little confused. After all...many Jedi didn't know how to make things that were too edible...mainly getting their food from the dinning hall within the Jedi Temple.

"Here and there." I told her, not giving any any secrets.

Lily-la then looked around the small apartment. "I didn't think Jedi could live anywhere but in the temple...." Lily-la told me, a little confused.

"Technically...we're not." I informed her, to which she just narrowed her eyes at me. "Let's keep this a secret...shall we...?"

"How many secrets you've got...?" Lily-la asked me, quite curious of the answer.

"Not many...." I told her as I took out the kyber crystal's Ashlyn gave me, watching the light reflect off the silver crystals. Though I don't have many secrets...the ones I do have...are pretty big....

Lily-la saw the crystals in my hand, her gaze instantly shifted to them. "Are those...?"

"They are." I told her, knowing what she was gonna ask me.

"Where'd you get them...?" She asked me. "Never saw any so...pure...."

I slightly smiled at the memory of Ashlyn, who I haven't seen since she'd given me these crystals. "From a friend." I told her.

"Sorry about your saber...." Lily-la told me.

"Wasn't mine." I told her as there was nothing to be sorry about. "I'd taken it from the Temple Vaults after Dooku stole mine back on Geonosis. After the battle...they weren't found anywhere." These beautiful cyan blades.... I told myself, internally sighing. Even if I now felt somewhat disconnected from them...I still missed them. We shared so many memories....

"Sorry...." Lily-la told me yet again.

"Stop saying sorry." I snapped at her, gaining a bit of fear which seemed to roll off of her. I stood up from the sofa after Lily-la had finished eating, toilet her now empty play from the bar and placed it in the sink before I rinsed it off and placed it within the dishwasher. I turned to face Lily-la, a question within my mind. "How much did Dooku teach you...?"

Lily-la hesitated to answer me, obviously the answer wasn't too good. "Everything the order teaches...." She told me. So the basics, like math...science...some tech...and history. Though which history...I didn't really know. "And the dark side." She stated quietly, I barely even heard her. She sounded ashamed of it now....

"Lily-la...." I told her as I looked at her. "There is one thing you should know about me." I paused before I continued speaking. "The light...the dark...they're different sides upon the same coin." I then held out my hand before I focused some darkside energy within it, and a purple lightning zipped between my fingers. I then pushed the dark energy away, the lightning faded from my hands. I looked at the somewhat confused Togruta before I explained it.

"There is no dark side, nor a light side.
There is only the Force.
I will do what I must to keep the balance.
There is no good without evil.
But evil must not be allowed to flourish.
There is passion, yet peace.
There is serenity, yet emotion.
Chaos, yet order.
I am a guardian of balance.
I am a Grey Jedi."

I then took a step towards her before I changed the last two lines. "We are guardians of balance...we are Grey Jedi." I told her. "I will not just be teaching you the light side...I will show you what I know of the Force...as a whole."