Star Wars: A Thing Of Beauty

Tell Me Why

Understandably, Riyarra's death was very hard on Jinang, and he locked himself out for a while. But his friend Kal was there for him, and so was Shara. They helped but not as much as they'd have liked to. But the little padawan was able to keep fighting, and he fought well. However, Riyarra was the central leader of the whole Felucia campaign, so with her gone there is a big gap in leadership. Not to mention that Jinang needs a master to complete his training to become a knight. Shara'Dune's name came up immediately when figuring out a new campaign leader, but it was noted that she was a bit too unruly to be given that much responsibility. So somebody new needed to be deployed, someone with lots of experience as a Jedi. And so from the council came Jedi master Ki-Adi-Mundi to lead the campaign and complete Jinang's training. He is very stern and collected at all times, and he leads the galactic marines - specialized clone troopers with red dark armor. The marines will take Aayla Secura's place and restore the balance of power in that regard as well.

Jinang is sitting on the roof of the Jedi temple again by a scorch mark where the building was blasted by a cannon. Looking at the jungle and the starry sky. He's curled up with his arms around his folded legs, and his eyes are irritated from crying. He sniffles a little bit, but now his expression is just angry. It's directed in a lot of places: At general Grievous of course, but also at himself and even the Jedi council that didn't send more backup when Aayla died, which led to Riyarra being alone and vulnerable for just enough time for the separatists to kill her...
"I'm getting tired of coming up here to mourn..." Jinang said as someone climbed out the window onto the roof. "Every time I see this war torn jungle, I just think of people who've died here!"

He got worked up and through his flask off of the roof, watching it fly away.
"That was a nice throw." The voice of Shara said, surprising Jinang. He thought it was Kal who joined him. "Mind if I join you?"

"I don't care..." He answered with misdirected anger, still sniffling.

Shara sits down next to Jinang, even seated she completely dwarfs him in size.
"I've been friends with your master for a long time." Shara says, taking a deep breath to keep it together for the hurting young Jedi. "Her master and my master were trained by the same Jedi and she always felt like that connected us. If she was right, then you and I are connected too."

Shara turns her head and looks down at Jinang and he doesn't doesn't answer or look back, but she can tell he's listening.
"I believe the force has tied us together," Shara continues. "Sort of like we're family. Riyarra was your mother, and I was her sister, making me your aunt - your cool, wine aunt, mind you!"

Jinang chuckles at her jokes, but he knows she's being completely serious as well. Shara places her hand on Jinang and rubs his back, comforting him.
"Anyway." She says. "The long-winded point I'm trying to make is that I'm here for you, Jinang. Before Riyarra came to save you from Grievous in that secret outpost, she asked that I promise to take care of you should something happen to her... I wish so badly that it didn't come to this... But here we are... If you need anything Jinang, and I mean anything, you need only ask."

Shara pats Jinang on the head, and stands up.
"Don't stick around here too much." She says, exhaling. "You need to eat something and get some sleep. And that's an order! Hehe!"

Then, Shara climbs back into the temple. Jinang wipes his eyes a little bit, and takes a deep breath. It's going to take some time, but he'll make it through this. That's what Riyarra would have wanted for him.

The padawan now is sitting in the sun, on top of the smoking wreckage of a droid gunship that crashed into the jungle. The republic just won a skirmish against the separatists, and the padawan is taking a little rest to catch his breath. Ki-Adi-Mundi walks over and looks up at his new padawan. He is a Cerean, humanoid people with very tall heads. Mundi has a long, white beard, wears standard Jedi combat garb and he is very old.
"Jinang?" He says, his voice is that of a strong, capable man despite his somewhat elderly appearance. "Might I have a word?"

"What if I don't want to talk?" Jinang asked with an arrogant tone.

"I believe what I wish to say is important." Mundi answered politely. "Please."

Jinang hops down, landing on his feet next to his master. Yet another person who is much taller than Jinang.
"Walk with me." Master Mundi says, starting to walk away from the battleground, where the jungle was unaffected. "I can sense great turmoil in you, young Jedi. And you are bottling it all up, as opposed to letting it all go."

"Let it go?" Jinang repeats, following Mundi, closely behind. "You mean just shove off everything important to me? Like it didn't happen?"

"It would be better to forget," Mundi explained, revealing slight frustration. "Than to go on to let these feelings continue to consume you."

"Spoken like a man who loves nothing." Jinang snapped back angrily.

Mundi huffs, frustrated, but impressed by Jinang's wit.
"Love is a funny thing, you know." The old Jedi explains. "Love is what yields the greatest and most bitter rivalries. Tremendous and terrible atrocities have been committed - all for love. Tell me, if you stood before general Grievous, and he was powerless before you. Utterly defeated. What would you do?"

Jinang doesn't answer, because he knows exactly what he would do... He would cut that machines head off in an attempt to satisfy his hunger for revenge.
"All for love, do we kill most often." Ki-Adi-Mundi continues. "When the lives of those we are attached to are threatened, we react violently - often irrationally. Only when we are completely detached from the world around us, are we capable of seeing the light in the darkest situations. From detachment we spare the lives of those who wrong us. And thus true peace is born."

"You've got some fucked up views about love." Jinang says, his master's words weighing heavy on him. "But you still sound like someone who doesn't even know what it feels like to love anyone or anything."

"Spiteful words borne from turmoil." Mundi answered back quickly and somewhat dismissively. "You lack control over your emotions. They dominate your thoughts, and this anger comes from your refusal to let Riyarra Agdol go."

"Do you have any other wise words or are we done?" Jinang asked, just sounding more frustrated.

"I won't try to force you to follow my teachings to the letter." Master Mundi says, stopping in the jungle, taking a deep breath. "But I urge you to consider what I have told you. I wish that you think about this conversation."

"Sure." Jinang says, sighing. He would sound disingenuous, but he will in fact think about this conversation rather he wants to or not. "We ought to head back though. There's another fight ahead."

The next fight wasn't going to be a very big one - just an assault on a small recon squad of B1s on speeders before they split up and survey several different areas. No more than 25 of them. In fact, the three Jedi, Mundi, Jinang and Kal, were going to just take them out themselves, with Crackshot and his snipers around to make sure none of them slip away. However, the squad of recon droids was completely destroyed before the Jedi even got there. And after investigating for just a couple of minutes the Jedi determined that the same plasma charged blades were used to destroy these droids as the ones discovered in the mining facility that Jinang and Kal disabled on the day Riyarra died.
"I feel like this is going to become a problem." Kal says, resting his hands on his hips.

"I agree." Jinang said. "Someone is stalking us..."

"I disagree." Master Mundi says, standing up straight after looking over a destroyed droid. "Bounty hunters and pirates have been spotted here before. This isn't anything to worry about. Especially since they aren't threatening the Felucians anymore."

"No. I don't like this." Kal answers flatly. "This is too efficient for simple bounty hunters or pirates. There was clearly intention behind this."

"I am not worried." Mundi answered dismissively. "this isn't anything so far out of the ordinary, and it bought us some extra time. So let's keep moving."

Jinang and Kal don't like it at all how easily Ki-Adi-Mundi just dismissed this strange scene. Whoever did this is not just a common ruffian, but a professional at whatever their trying to do. But master Mundi is in charge, and the two padawans won't get far trying to track down the culprit in the jungle alone. So for now they must begrudgingly move on.