Brightest Star

Zero; Heart of Kyber

      Some never know what to do with themselves in such a situation. I was never any different- despite the forewarnings, and my training, it never made it any more easier. I could feel the ash between my fingers when I rubbed them together, trying too hard to distract from the pain from my ankles to my heart.

The promise of change without revenge wasn't one I expected whatsoever. Quite actually, I looked forward to all this turmoil. I don't know how I was supposed to handle it exactly but this had to be the second time I heard such a shrill cry in my ears that lasted forever. I still can't get it out of my mind. I can't get any of it out of my mind.

Oh will any just wish me some hope here on out. It won't be any longer that I could handle this. Please. I should've stayed in the temple. I should have let myself die with the younglings... I can't carry another burden. Not again.

Her size shrank as she knelt in front of the window, moonlight passing through easily and illuminating the tarnished book and bowl of black ill on the wooden stand in front of it. The woman's features were cut like a statue; an oval, pale face with a bumpy hooked nose bridge and wide lips. An Altrazian; boiling red eyes and long, celestial white hair that reached her hips, draping off her shoulders like fine silk. She let her claw like fingers dance over the little book, curling her index finger curl around the thin leather string that was used to keep it shut, opening it. The first page was only dressed in three paragraphs, the empty spaces below it yearning for her to write more. Undeniably, she could fill thousands of the same book with just her thoughts.

Instead, her nails dragged gently back off the book and underneath the small table, disappearing into the darkness under them. She didn't look to see what she grabbed, instead pulling out and placing two items on the table as if she'd rehearsed it a million times over. It was a pair of shears and a golden lightsaber hilt.

Her fingers curled around the endless silky threads of hair that fell down her shoulders, bunching it up until it was all in one hand, elegantly and without a single tangle. She braced herself, taking in a deep breath as if she was preparing for pain.

𝐊𝐒𝐇𝐇𝐊

In her other hand, she donned a green glowing blade which in one swift movement, lopped off the majority of her hair. It now lay a shock in her fist, dropped carelessly onto the table as she whimpered. Doubling over, she expelled her lightsaber behind her. The pain she felt was bordering physical— she must proceed. Without hesitation she did, coating her hair in the black goo before her until it reached down below her shoulders, where the ends were seared.

'In a better life,' her mind sung. 'You bare no witness to the sun and to no longevity your sanity.' It pounded through her thoughts forcefully as the darkness behind her took her in fully. More and more, away from the window she went, fingers curled tightly to the metal shears. She passed by a shrouded dark cradle, dragging the blade of the shears gently along the rim as she walked past it. For a moment, her pace slowed only to look inside, contemptly passing when she assumed all is well and into the backroom she went.

'Who are you.' Her mind questioned, a foreign being and a sour soul at it's end. Though in protest she only answered with her fist against the handle on the wall, a cascade of water falling down on her and washing the black goo away. She coldness made her tense. 'Answer yourself or you shall die.' She whimpered again, choking on the vivid scent that came from he dye in her roots. 'How did you get here? What happened for you to become so pathetic. Sever your ties all you want but it's rooted in you, jedi.'

It felt as if the gods spoke to her. Als looked down in disdain, baring his teeth at the horrible crime before him.. down on him. A child of his, Altrazian. From white to black, it all washes down the drain yet leaves a horrid stain. But how DID she get here?

Somewhere in the noise, she lost herself in the reasons. Heat graced her skin and bruises replayed as she placed herself in the exact time it all happened. She dressed in cheap robes, carrying only a bag and the shattered pieces of her dignity.

Behind her, the jedi temple became smaller, her feet rushing down the steps in a hurry.

"TRAITOR!" A man stood at the top of them, his image framed by the glow of a growing orange hue. As darkness fell upon Coruscant, the brighter the flames seemed. "You're apart of this!" His skin was singed just as much as her's, the both of them skimmed with blaster bullets. "I never suspected the most useless jedi to be such a mastermind in slaughter."

"Kaleth, this isn't something you want to be apart of- I'm not either. I never hurt anyone!" She yelled back, her voice like a calming tune among the tame eye of chaos around them. "You must go. The clones will find the both of us."

"Did you even hear a word I said?" Kaleth yelled "the babies are missing! Both of them! Younglings not even close to talking! And you know this."

She swallowed the lump in her throat, backing more and more off the steps. "I never knew where they were being held! It isn't my duty but if you're so inclined then go ahead!" The shivers down her spine encouraged her to jump back more and more, until Kaleth was only a silhouette in the distance.

"It's your duty to protect. It seems all Jedi have betrayed themselves. You swore to protect so long ago! You're more useless than I thought." Kaleth's golden hair swayed with the coming of a heavy breeze, creating a glowing crown around his head. There was a moment where neither of them spoke- she continued to back away without another word. "Who even are you, Xio-Xan A'keeta? You're no jedi. That is for certain." He disappeared again, heading back into the temple as the sound of blaster fire filled the sky.

𝙓𝙞𝙤 pressed on, though she couldn't run like she knew she needed to. Her feet dragged as she dissapeared away from all she knew as a past so easily. Kaleth was right to suspect her of being a traitor. Afterall, she saw all of this coming. If she didnt, she wouldn't have packed a bag.

'I can't-' she thought, turning back around once more. Wordless voices told her to do so, even pulling at hee ankles themselves. Before she knew what was happening, she was running towards the temple like none of it ever mattered in the first place. Like SHE never mattered in the first place.

Inside, clones swarmed the area. Some jedi could be heard by the whirr of their lightsabers trying to desperately fend off their own troops that turned against them so easily. She felt stupid the moment she was within it's tall burning walls. Her death laid on the doorstep like an unsuspecting trap. She knew full well many jedi met their fate today. It was prophesied in her sleep.

As she ran down an emtpy hall, she tried to gather her thoughts and intentions until crying burst from behind a mangled door she had just past. It was a baby's whine— one of the babies Kaleth spoke of. Xio spun around, hooking one of her hands on the doorframe as she kicked it down, seeing a semi buried cradle with a reaching baby inside.

The jedi froze, clutching the doorframe harder as her mental walls started to cave in at that exact moment. Twenty years ago it hurt just the same. The thought of a baby stiffened her. Xio wished she could've lived with the insults Kaleth threw at her, but they were too hard to swallow. Yet this. This was harder.

The infant's cries grew and grew. Xio followed her heart and felt feelings for the first time in decades. Thirty five years old and only now crying since she was a teenager. Tears stained her cheeks as she swept up the bundled child. She fled the temple with them, taking glances down at the curly haired child, his brown eyes so bright when filled with tears- yet his whining stopped.

In Aurebesh, the letters 'JF' were labeled

I saw the letters in Aurebesh. JF. I assumed they were initials the same way I assumed I was to raise him now. Jiaq Faye, I thought. That was to be his name, a mystery child who's origins are nothing but mystery to me and left with the people who died.

Today, I died. Today I lay in ash, blackened from a pyre of change that I do not expect to blossom from. Though I hope the cinders I call the last of me would fuel this child like a small fire. I just don't know what to do.

Xio combed her now black hair that fell to her shoulders after being properly trimmed. Infant Jiaq sat in her lap asleep. She didn't plan to do the same and it was harder to write in the book next to her. Only a few paragraphs, short and simple.

She wished the reason why she was kept awake was because of Jiaq, but her own mind lay at waste this time around. There was a possibility, she thought; maybe my heart isn't crafted of stone afterall.