The Darkness Within

Chapter 4

Jano could hear an audible crack from inside her body. It felt like someone had dropped the world on her heart. She stepped back and stumbled. "No. No. No." She kept saying shaking her head. The masked man's head turned sideways as if perplexed. Ren. No. He can't be dead. Ren. Sobs were coming from somewhere, then Jano realized that they were her sobs. She placed a hand on her mouth, to stifle the noise. She felt someone reading her thoughts. Almost instantly, her sadness flashed to anger, to rage. She pulled Ben's lightsaber towards her and immediately began to fight the masked man. He effortlessly blocked every attack she made. They stopped and Jano found that she was breathing heavily.

"Give up. You were dead the moment I came here." The voice said calmly.

I can't. I won't. I shall fight, for Ben.
She lunged again and the masked figure moved away quickly, though he did not move quick enough to avoid being grazed on his side. He gasped and then lifted his hand. Jano felt the force throw her against a wall. Then she felt the presence of her constant companion, darkness.

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"She'll be fine. I can trust you with her." A familiar voice spoke urgently.

"I will do my best. But you should not run from this."

"It's my fault that things are this way, she has to stay here, where she is safe."

"Goodbye, dear friend." 

Jano awoke wondering if it had been a dream. Upon opening her eyes, she did not see the plaster ceiling of her room, but a dark stone ceiling.

"Ah. I see you are awake now." A little alien woman walked up to Jano. She was dressed in a blue shirt, brown vest and grey pants, which gave her a rather masculine look. She had large lenses over her eyes and was staring at Jano intensely. "I didn't know that he had left me with a mute."

"I am not a mute."

"It talks! How spectacular."

"Who brought me here? Who are you? Where am I?"

"So many questions, I suppose you are only an apprentice then. I am right am I not?"

Jano replied with a look of awe.

"A dear friend of mine brought you here. You would know him as Master Luke."

But why did he leave me here? Jano thought angrily.

"I'm sure you are confused, but I don't know exactly why he decided to travel on alone." The alien's eyes seemed to see Jano's soul through her blue eyes. "As to the rest of your questions. I am Maz Kanata and you are at my watering hole. Well, it's more like a port or a large cantina, but most people call it my 'watering hole'."

"Thank you. I'm not sure what happened."

"I think Luke is the only one who really knows. Tell me though, young girl, what do you remember seeing?"

"Well... I remember it was raining, every few moments lighting would light up the planet's surface." Jano told Maz everything that she could recall. Maz watched her with the same intensity and only nodded every now and then. "That masked man. H-he claimed to... To have killed..." Friend, he wasn't any more than my friend, what else could we have been? "My friend."

"Who was your friend?"

"I don't know. I feel like every second I forget more."

"You need rest, I shall look in on you in a few hours." Maz walked to the door but turned back to say one last thing. "Luke left the saber he found with you. It's in that box." She pointed towards a leather box on a table nearby. "Sleep."