Crazy Old Hermit

[Anbira Hicchoru]

Felucia

It rained.

It wasn't so much rain, but a river from heaven. The jungle never flooded, no matter how heavy the torrent came. It was a living sponge. The water was taken eagerly by the gigantic fungi that towered overhead, and by the thick mossy ground below the canopy.

A man sat under a giant mushroom cap, watching sheets of rainwater pour down around his makeshift shelter. He wore a set of Imperial Stormtrooper armor that had seen far better days. The knee covers had long-since fallen into the swampy muck, and one of the upper arm coverings had cracked in two places. The rest of the armor was decorated with years worth of muck and detritus that had never been cleaned.

The man reached to his chest with an ungloved hand, wringing rain water from a long and scraggly beard. His other hand did the same with his wavy locks of hair that hung off of one shoulder. The extracted rainwater dribbled into an inverted mushroom cap, which the man then lifted to his lips, and drank from.

He gingerly wiped at his mouth, brushing aside the foliage of his moustache. A finger traced along a deep scar that ran from the middle of his forehead, down across one eyebrow, and to the right side of his face. It was a reminder of who he was, and what he had endured to make it here.

He did not dwell on the past, but instead analyzed it as one might pick a stone from the riverbed that caught their eye. He discarded it once again into the neither-here-nor-there, and returned to the task at hand.

Even for the forgotten, it was time to eat.

He plucked a beetle from the pile of loam he had arranged on a leaf, and popped it into his mouth, splitting the exoskeleton with his molars as he fished the sweet inside out. Chewing thoroughly, he spat the beetle's empty shell into a pile of others who had gone before him. He plucked a sproutling mushroom from the earth, and nibbled at its thick white cap, before quickly spitting it aside.

It was poison. The earthy taste he sought was instead sweet and inviting. A temptation he had learned to respect as a warning.

He washed his mouth out from the rainwater in the larger cap, spitting into the moss. His appetite had left him.

There was nothing to do until the storm abated. The hermit settled against the giant fungi's stalk, and turned his attention to his life's dedication, a cyllindrical piece of engineering that had taken him a year and a half to construct out of salvaged parts from his destroyed speeder, and a half dozen pilfered Imperial supply depots.

It was a lightsaber. His lightsaber. Constructed as he had been taught, by the masters who had gone before him into the Force itself.

He thumbed a smear of soily muck off of the hilt, attaching it once again to his stormtrooper utility belt. For the Jedi, there was patience in the storm. It was not forever. Only the Force was forever.

The storm would end. His training would renew once more, as it had done every day for three years.

His name is Anbira Hicchoru, and his past is as unremarkable as a stone on the riverbed. All that shall be said of him is that he is a Jedi Knight, one of the last of the old religion, trained by the last of the old religion's masters.

[Anbira Hicchoru]

"When it rains, it pours."

The symphony of rainfall was replaced by a gentle baritone voice that Anbira knew well. It belonged not to a man.

"It is soothing, Master."

Anbira poured the remaining water in the mushroom cap over his face, rubbing away the dirt that accumulated from living a simple life. When he blinked the water from his eyelids, he saw a shimmering blue entity, sitting on a fallen fungi stalk across from him.

"I remember a night such as this a long time ago, when I was your age."

"The Outer Rim sieges, Master?"

Obi Wan Kenobi nodded, unaffected the the rain that drizzled down on his perch.

"A fine soft evening that became a fine soft month. I have never longed for a towel more than I did then, I think."

"Kaminoan armor makes for a cozier endurance than your robes, Master."

"Indeed true, Anbira. Yet, my discomfort in iteslf was a lesson in patience."

Obi Wan had cut through to the heart of Anbira's desires.

"It's been three years, Master. I know that if I am to leave it will be through the will of the Force, but I have asked myself if there is any good that can be done in exile."

Obi Wan nodded.

"Your heart is in the right place, Anbira. But good intentions without the temperance and virtue of a Jedi can prove dangerous to those who seek to destroy you, or use your talents to destroy others."

Anbira stroked his wild beard.

"Is every waking experience a lesson such as this, Obi Wan?"

"This lesson has a second opinion."

A second apparition appeared, sitting adjacent to Kenobi. One far younger, with flowing hair and a scar that appeared similar to Anbira's own facial marking.

"Anakin Skywalker?"

Anbira averted his eyes, and knew his answer before Obi Wan could confirm it.

"You don't know the power of the Dark Side, Anbira. Do not underestimate it's power, or your own well-meaning heart will be turned against you."

The hermit rose to his feet, brushing moss from his ankle guards. Obi Wan and Anakin exchanged a moment regarding each other, as if eternities had come and gone since the Force had placed them on the same path.

"Then...?" Anbira ventured.

"The circle is now complete." Anakin confirmed Anbira's suspicions.

"The villain you once knew to be Darth Vader has been destroyed, and I have met my destiny."

"Then Luke has triumphed over your Emperor? The Sith are destroyed?"

"Anbira, there is more to be said." Obi Wan spoke, the reassuring smile replaced by a grave expression.

Anakin continued. "My son and my emperor have found their destinies, just as I have done. None survived the conflict."

"No..." Anbira protested weakly.

"Master Obi Wan, Master Luke was our only ho..."

Obi Wan waved him off.

"And that hope has been vindicated. The specter of Darth Sidious has been extinguished forever. What remains is a conflict between good and evil that must be resolved. Do not despair, Anbira. The Force is with us, and in your dedication and the dedication of other Jedi throughout the galaxy, lies the new hope that Luke fought to insure with his life."

Revelation dawned in Anbira's eyes.

"Other Jedi?"

Obi Wan and Anakin exchanged a knowing glance, and the elder spirit spoke.

"Anbira, you are going to find that many of the truths I have taught you in your exile exist through a certain point of view. You must understand that the completion of your training is paramount. When I told you that you were the last of the Jedi, it was to ward off any sense of false complacency. To deny the sense of urgency that surrounds your destiny is to embrace the dark side. Now, it is a new day. And I bring you good news, young student. The completion of your training is at hand. Very soon, you must leave this place, and carry the light of the force with you to illuminate the darkness. Neither I nor Anakin can carry this burden for you. We offer you council, but the journey is yours."

"But not alone?" Anbira questioned.

"That is a question only you can answer."

"Complete your training, Anbira. The will of the Force will carry you across the stars. I forsee you dining at a great table with a multitude of brothers and sisters, brought forward by their own destinies to ensure that the Light remains inextinguishable, forever."

Anbira felt like he weighed less than a feather. He leaned against the tall fungi's stalk.

"I am not ready."

"You will be....you will be."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Not ready for what?"

Wei Wu Wei had been slogging through the jungle, on the run for days from people who wanted him. Some wanted him dead, others wanted him alive. Wei made sure they would have neither.

The Jedi Knight crumpled underneath the gigantic mushroom. He sat there a moment, nose inches from the waterlogged soil before pulling himself up to a stand.

"I thought I was ready to face the world once. Too bad no one ever told me it would try to break you as fast as it could."

The man wrung out his hair and wiped his glasses on his shirttail out of impulse. Two shining silver cylinders hung from his belt and were made visible as he pulled the fringes of his shirt up to clean off the eyewear. "Stupid glasses," he muttered when he put them on and still couldn't see.

"So why are you out here? Running from the Empire?"

[Anbira Hicchoru]

Hearing a living voice for the first time in a year and a half had a way of catching Anbira off guard.

He fell into a moss patch. His spiritual councilors vanished into the rainstorm, leaving him alone with his new visitor.

"Haven't you seen a set of stormtrooper armor before?" Anbira managed to say, but not with the intimidating tone that he was looking for.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei lowered his glasses to he could peer over the misted lenses and get a decent look at who he was talking to.

"Oh, is that what you are? A stormtrooper? It looks more like your armor's made out of dirt than out of any sort of standard protective material. So I guess your Empire just left you out here to die, then?"

Wei felt a deep swell of disgust for the soldier on the ground. He was dirty, shaky, and definitely not in his right mind. For a moment Wei considered simply ending the pathetic man's life and making things easier on both of them. Wei returned his glasses to their original position and helped the man up.

You should still kill him he thought. Not like he does you much good anyway. He's a soldier for the Empire, remember? An Empire that destroyed all decency. Not to mention your father and wife.

Wei dusted Anbira off as best he could and leaned him up against the mushroom for support.

"So what exactly was it you people were after out here in the first place?"

[Anbira Hicchoru]

"My batallion supported the Felucian garrison under Moff Dragos."

The charade was over. Anbira sighed.

"Three years ago. Whatever they may be doing now, I wouldn't know."

The hermit eyed the cyllinders hanging from the visitor's waist.

"That's some pretty rare contraband you're sporting. Enough for a sector-wide death mark on your head. Or at least three years ago it was."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei nodded. "So I've been told. Several several times. I've got plenty of blood on my head to prove it. If I had one credit for every soldier I had to kill in order to keep these things, I'd buy a star destroyer. Maybe two."

In any other world Wei would have chuckled at this remark. At the least, he would have smiled.

"These things are still pretty hot items out there in the galaxy. Wei unclipped one and activated it. It hummed throught the air and the ground steamed when he sent the blade skimming low to the ground."

"I never even had a real good chance to learn to use one of these. Thanks to Vader and the Clone armies my master died before I could really learn to use them."

The thoughts of murder entered Wei's head again. Wei had been skimming the Darkside for years now. The Jedi Code that emphasized peacekeeping and justice seemed to him a goal unreachable.

Wei turned the saber off and put it back on his belt.

"I don't suppose you're going to try to take it from me?"

[Anbira Hicchoru]

He wasn't a bounty hunter or slag who had gotten lucky. With the mention of a master, Anbira's own feelings found the answer they were looking for.

"You're a Jedi Knight?"

Only a day ago, he would never have imagined asking another living being that question.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei paused as he had grown used to doing when asked about his status as a Jedi. Years of introspection had put Wei in the lurch. He wasn't sure, but it was always much easier to say yes. Wei did so now.

"Yeah, I am. I trained under Quinlan Vos until he was killed in the Jedi purge."

Wei shut his eyes to shut out the feelings of despair and anguish that always threatened him when he remembered his master.

"Yeah. He was a good teacher. I don't think losing him would have been as bad if I hand't lost my wife and father as well."

Wei had learned long ago that discussing the things that hurt made them better. Wei had been talking over his pain for years now and still hadn't found peace. Instead he had been running into anger and vengefulness.

"Anyway--" Wei said in a tone that meant he wanted to change the subject. His only issue was that he couldn't think of a subject in order to make the change.

"And what about you?"

[Anbira Hicchoru]

"I was a stormtrooper, once."

Anbira crossed his gauntleted arms over his chest, and bowed his head in contemplation, his mane of hair and beard hanging down and around his well-tanned face.

"As for what I am now, that is a question I've been asking for three years."

He glanced up at Wei, and down again to a puddle of accumulated rainwater.

"I have never met another living Jedi, not until today. You're flesh and blood, same as I."

[Rognan Dar]

Tree's flashed by in a blur. The roaring sound of engines in his ears blocked out the sound of energy that zipped by his head. The Rain blinded his vision. As Rognan maneuvered his speeder bike through the under-brush and tree's laser were shot from behind by stormtroopers, who were also on speeder bikes. There were a good half dozen chasing him, been chasing him for what was growing close to a hour.

After landing on the planet, Rognan didn't do anything to attract such attention. He just wondered around and found out that there was a imperial base close to one of the villages. What better then to be where no one would be looking for him? The closer you are to danger, the farther you are from harm. Well, someone else must have thought that, too, because they were now after him. Or maybe a bounty hunter had been tracking him for who knows how long and now that Rognan was on a remote planet, decided to call in the feds and get his reward. A villager could have seen him and reported him. And that was what he thought. He had heard whispers about Jedi in his brief pass through town and stopping for a meal. But maybe it was nothing more then idol chatter.

The fact remained, however, that he was now being hunted down in some forest where it seemed that the air was solid water. He might as well be flying through an ocean. And this fact greatly hindered his ability to fly, which caused the troopers to catch up on him easily.

Coming into a slightly more clear area, Rog hit the throttle in an attempt to lose his followers. Once he entered back into a thicker part of the jungle, he pulled off and slowed to a stop. He hid the bike as best he could before he heard the other bikes zoom by. Jumping into a tree he waited, hoping that the troopers would give up their search in this area quickly. But his dumb luck got in the way again. They knew he was around here. More troopers were dropped off to perform a ground search and set up a perimeter around the general location that they thought he was in.

There were to many to fight on his own and they would only call for backup. He had to get out. His options were running low and he didn't want to be taken away like his master was. He wished his master was still here. He would know what to do.

After waiting a good forty-five minutes he couldn't wait any longer. The initial search had started at the other end, coming his way. They were getting closer the more he waited. And once they found his bike, he would not get far. Jumping down from his tree and uncovering the speeder, he jumped on and jammed the throttle. It was not a surprise when three scout troopers once again continued the chase. He only hoped that if there were any other Jedi on this planet, that he would find them before he became a fireball.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei looked at Anbira with a bit more interest and a much less contempt. "So you're a Jedi too, eh?"

A good distance off the sound of speeder engines could be heard.

"I guess they're after me. I've been hiding and ducking and deflecting laser bolts for the past several days. It's good Form III training. I suppose you either want to go back to rejoin the Imperials and their army or come with me. Or you can stay here. Any way you cut it, you had better make up your mind quick. No telling when they'll find us."

[Anbira Hicchoru]

Anbira's eyes went sharp, piercing the fungal forest in search of the origin of the throttling speeder sounds.

"My fate is away from Felucia. I've stayed here long enough."

He glanced to Wei, a calm born from experience on his face.

"They're approaching from the northeastern ridge. I suggest climbing the red parasols and hiding beneath the caps. They should support your weight."

[Rognan Dar]

Rognan was just going over a fallen tree when a lucky shot hit the back end of his speeder bike. For once his luck was on his side and the speeder didn't burst into flames. But it did hit a part of the engine and the speeder was slowing down and dropping closer to the ground. Having no other choice he jumped off and landed on something soft and wet. He looked up in time to see another shot hit his bike and explode, sending parts of it all over the place.

A blue light snapped out infront of Rog. The source of it was hidding be bushes and tall grass. The three bikes came about and started to fire in his position. Rognan deflected the ones that would have caused direct damage and let the others go. He ran for cover, which was a tall tree. Its branches were to high up for him to reach and the bikes were coming around again. He ran for another tree. More bikes could be heard, coming closer. Oh great. How I'm dead... he thought as he prepared for the next attack.

[Wei Wu Wei]

The Jedi Knight turned in the directions of the sounds as they grew louder. "Ok, let's get up this thing and hide."

Wei crouched low and allowed the Force to boost his jump up into the cap of the mushroom. Then he got low and waited.

[Anbira Hicchoru]

"Hang on, change of plans."

Anbira spoke in a spur-of-the-moment tone, bouncing off of his parasol's perch no sooner than he'd mounted it, and leaping into a high thicket of wild moss.

"They're close."

Scrambling low, Anbira peeled the curly sheets of moss from his face has he crept forward. The dewdrops drenched his face and armor in a glistening bath. The thicket began to clear, and he could at last see the source of the commotion - a pair of Imperial speeder bikes chasing an unseen quarry like so many red horned wasps.

The hermit crouched even lower, appearing like a predatory cat creeping through the jungle's underbrush. He paused, still as a statue.

[Rognan Dar]

While weaving in and out of tree's and other objects for safety, Rognan also deflected shots in a attempt to knock them back at the troopers. But at the speed they were going it was going to be near impossible. One storm trooper made the mistake and got to close. The end resolt was him blowing up into a tree. That left two with more on the way.

"Go bother someone else!"

At the fall of their companion the two others kept their distance. It gave Rognan the freedom to move a little more freely. Turning off his saber Rognan sprinted in a direction that looked good to him, though he had no idea where he was now. As he was running a shot blew dirt into the air behind him. He looked back and saw that the two bikes were right behind him and were going to run him through. Just before they reached him Rognan tripped over some object, what he thought at first to be a big rock. The speeders zoomed overhead. When he looked around, his supposed rock was not a rock at all. The white plating of stormtrooper armor alarmed Rognan. He lit his saber again, waiting to see what the figure was doing hidding there.

[Anbira Hicchoru]

"I'm not your enemy!"

Anbira said with urgency, putting aside momentarily the fact that this newcomer was also armed with a lightsaber.

With Rognan straddling his prone figure, Anbira jerked a thumb in the direction of the throttling speeders.

"But they are, and they will be returning sooner rather than later."

I glanced from the direction of the sound, to Rognan, and up to the parasol that the spectacled Jedi was likely to still be perched upon.

[Wei Wu Wei]

The saber flashed in Rognan's hand and Wei jumped down immediately.

"Hold on there, now. Let's just back off a minute. Let's get back up in this mushroom here and talk about what exactly you think you're doing jumping of a speeder and flying off the handle like this."

Wei surprised himself with his words. What was he doing? Keeping the peace? It was hard for him to believe considering the lack of peace he felt inside him. He'd sort it out later. But for the moment there were lives at stake.

"You heard me. Both you up, get up that mushroom pronto!"

[Rognan Dar]

Rognan was about to slash the newcomer that tried to ambush him when he saw that he was just some other guy. He felt trapped for a moment. Troopers all around and two guys infront and behind him. After the events of the day he was going to snap. But the firm voice of the man with glasses calmed him down, if only slightly.

Quickly, Rog deactivated his saber but kept his grip tight on it. Though these men did not present a imidiate threat, who knows what they were really up to. So he followed them up the 'shroom as he kept his eye's out for the bikes to come by and blast them into pieces. After a while of waiting, and not being blown apart, he whispered to the others.

"Ok, so what is going on here? Who are you two and why are you just sitting out here?"