Star Wars Jedi: The Haunting

Chapter 3

Cal opened his eyes, dimly aware that he was dreaming, and looked around. It was very dark, and he couldn't make out anything. He tried to get up, and suddenly found he couldn't. He tried to shift his sitting position and the chair he was in eerily creaked. Cal felt scared. His breathing quickened.

Suddenly a door creaked open, and a blue lightsaber activated. The room was clearly big, as Cal couldn't quite make out who this was at first, but when they got closer, Cal could see clearly. This was Jaro Tapal.

He looked exactly as Cal remembered him in the vision on Dathomir, yet his body seemed to illuminate the room in an almost ghostly way as he walked, lightsaber in hand.

Upon seeing his old master, Cal felt a powerful rush of many emotions all at once, happiness, regret, relief, surprise and fear all battled for supremacy inside his head as his master walked towards him, staring directly into his eyes.

"Padawan," Jaro Tapal almost spat as he spoke the word, "have you not listened to anything I taught you?"

"Master," said Cal, suddenly hoarse. "I-"

Cal was about to say something, but his words stuck in his throat as Jaro walked closer still, only stopping once he was within touching distance. He kept his lightsaber activated.

"Persistence reveals the path. I told you this many times," Jaro said angrily. "Yet, you refuse to keep fighting. You withdraw into obscurity on an unknown world with your tail between your legs. Like a coward."

"Master, it's not like that, I-"

"It is EXACTLY like that," Jaro shouted. "The war is still not over, padawan. And it won't end on its own," he said more quietly. "I thought you would be the one to end it. I had faith in you to defeat the Empire. Bring peace to the galaxy. I really believed that – that you would be the one to put an end to the Empire's tyranny. It seems that my faith was misplaced."

Now Cal was feeling very close to tears. "Don't say that, master. It's not like that. Your faith was not misplaced." Now the tears came. "I will not let you down, master. I will not fail you."

Jaro Tapal's anger had passed, and what was left was a disappointed, almost condescending expression, the type of expression that makes your skin crawl with shame and makes you doubt yourself and everything you stood for.

"You already have, Cal. You already have," Jaro said bitterly.

Cal felt his throat seize with emotion. He sat in silence.

"I trained you to be a warrior. I taught you to be in control of your feelings. I taught you that persistence reveals the path. I thought you would honor my teachings, but just look at what a mess you've made of yourself," Jaro snarled, his anger growing again.

Cal tried to speak but all that came out were garbled groans and sobs.

"You've run away from the war for... fatherhood?" Jaro said the word "fatherhood" as if it were a mortal sin. He shook his head. "Your cause is lost, Cal. Look at you. You've fallen victim to your own fear. You are a failure. You have not only let me down, Cal, but you have dishonored me. And the rest of the Jedi Order."

With that, Jaro turned and walked away.

Cal found himself shivering, both due to his fear and the fact that the room was cold. Extremely cold. For a half second he thought he might freeze.

After Jaro left, Cal heard it. That familiar sound that he had come to know all too well. The sound of stormtrooper boots.

The trooper that walked in was wearing the standard stormtrooper uniform, and except for the ghostly white emanating off the uniform, looked exactly like a stormtrooper that you would find when infiltrating an Imperial base.