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Jeleasi'Beni

Jelly Bean

"I did not know her very well. I spent most of my four years with you, and some with the Professor. But I can feel the emotions here, the joy and the relief, but also the grief... I am sorry for this loss that affects so many."

Life in the galaxy for many like herself was an unforgiving and often meaningless experience, where the value of living or dying was an equal measure of apathy and cruelty from those claimed they served a greater good, in the guise of self-serving aspirations to power. How many died in the belief that good must not only stand against evil, but must also prevail? How many died serving a belief that despised them as much as it taught them to despise others? How many were caught in the middle of it all? The lives of those whose names would never be uttered nor written in the annals of history would be lost to vagaries of war and the cruelties of noble purpose, a banner carried by both sides. They each tell you that you are important and that they are the side of truth and justice... but they both can't be right, can they? And what if they are both wrong? Leia Organa will be remembered for an eternity. So few would be remembered beyond these brief moments of gathering. Some would have died without ever being known. Faceless, nameless souls deemed collateral damage. What all the people who raised a fist against the dark forces that gathered? What of the countless lives lost who wore sits of battle armor that were seemingly never designed to stop blaster fire? They had names, right? But their name wasn't Leia Organa. The Last Jedi. Or, was that the woman called Rey? Or, were their more Jedi... Weren't Preach and Winta also called Jedi? Yes? No? And wouldn't it be logical to believe that if there were more Jedi to to come, wouldn't there also be those who oppose them? Or is it the Jedi who oppose the others, whatever they are called? A cycle that is doomed to keep repeating itself and, again life is the cheapest expense of the conflict, over and over again.

JB spent her early years on Ryloth, in a remote village that kept itself isolated and avoided modern technologies. From there she was taken, no... she was given to slavers and sold to Tenga the Hutt, forced into prostitution as a child and taught to serve and entertain. The rise of the First order had never been a concern of hers in all those years. If they were to the Hutts and anyone she crossed paths with on the outer rim worlds, they didn't reveal that to her. She had heard of them and had known their cruelties. She wasn't human and that made her something to be hated by them. She never had reason to cross paths with them. That is, until her little stolen craft crossed paths with a wayward escape pod whose transmitter beacon had failed.

That day changed her life...

The first of many changes, good and bad that would come over the next four years, that would eventually see her standing here before Maz Kanata for what she had told herself might be the last time. JB had done as she had promised. She trained her awakened talents at Maz's direction to serve in a seemingly hopeless quest to right wrongs... or something suitably poignant and soul-wrenchingly meaningful? Or whatever it was all meant to achieve. Did that and lost friends along the way. Of all she travelled with, Jix and Babay were the ones to whom she had felt the closest. By the end of it, Sirra, whose own pain and torment kept her very closed off, had opened up to her.... and Amos, a man chasing a demon in his own soul it seemed, had given her a glimpse of what a father of a child should look like. The two Jedi were... just that, Jedi. They kept their lives controlled and help the things that made personal connections real very close to themselves. Contained and controlled. JB was already walled off and making a connection to those who had isolated themselves as a part of their training to control the powers they wielded would be nigh on impossible.

But, somewhere along this journey, she became something. Not a Jedi, for she would never be able to control the emotions, both good and bad... but she found she could find a balance between them.She was awakened for certain... but she was more than a gifted pilot and intuitive mechanic. Maybe Maljean had opened a door that would reveal how deep her giftings truly went.

If Maz knew the next words that were to come out of JBsmouth, she would be the only one. Coming over to tell her she was going to part ways at this time was her intention.

She glanced at Sirra, wondering if unspoken agreement they had would still hold...

"You will need a pilot who knows the Flit. And someone the Flit knows... And I'm the best one you have..."

"I'll take your team in and we'll find the ship you're hunting and we'll take it down... Then the Bargon Flit is mine and I will find him and free him... and the Galaxy will never hear from us again. Do we have a deal?"

[Ghosted for Pandemonium]

Preach

He considered what Winta said, and what J.B. was saying.

"The Guardians of the Whills were formed to protect a way of life, not impose it on others." He said, ruminating aloud.

"My old friend Lor San Tekka believed the future of the Force was as a small but significant role in everyone's lives. No Jedi, no Sith, just people."

Preach's hand patted the lightsaber hilt on his belt.

"Maybe you are where you're meant to be Winta. Instead of Jedi, in the future there will be Force Awakened in all walks of life. In defence forces, yes, but as local marshalls too," Preach said this, looking at Amos, continuing, "as rescue workers, doctors, mechanics...."

As he trailed off, Preach even imagined Force athletics, sports. But for himself, he imagined a future as a student, still with so much to learn about the power of the Force.

"For my part, I would like to continue my journey of discovery."

GM

Maz listens and beams a smile in reply to J.B., deeper yellow and wrinkled than it has been in years.

"You are ready." She says, though you can tell there's one her hallmark Kanata-twists coming.

"Luke Skywalker lost faith in the Jedi Order. In the end, Luke told Rey what she needed to hear to defeat the Sith and finally end the war.

"But the Jedi are gone, Child. You are each what comes after and that is as it always should have been."

Leia had been strong in the Force and learned many Jedi techniques but she was not a Jedi. That path, that rigid code, had brought only ruin for her family.

She had wanted the Force Awakened to learn self-control and of course to be good citizens of the Galaxy, but Leia had avoided teaching dogma. (Lando Calrissian might say she always did keep her cards close to her chest.)

The droid Professor Huyang had been programmed by the Jedi Order but only to teach martial arts.

Maz's role has been as a mentor, a counsellor, someone to talk to, play holochess with. Over a thousand years old and with a keen interest in ancient lore and artefacts, she's also a great storyteller.

Maz pops her goggles back down and looks to Winta and Preach.

"Leia brought you here for a reason. She foresaw a time when healing would be needed more than fighting.

"An old Whippid lives in this jungle. Once a Jedi Knight he turned his back on the Order, choosing to live as one with nature.

"He is a master of Force healing. He will teach you, if that is your wish."

Maz looks to Amos.

"You must find your son, Amos. If you can bring him back from the darkness then there is hope for all the missing sons and daughters of this war.

"I think Rose will go with you too. She is quite fond of you!"

Rose Tico? Fond of Amos romantically? She's ten years his junior and became more withdrawn after the defeats at D'Qar and Crait. But she has a brave heart and can't stand by whilst children suffer. Maz probably meant 'fond' as in respectful, admiring. The pirate queen isn't likely to elaborate!

At that she turns to Sirra and J.B.. A sisterhood has grown between the two. Maz senses it, and so her twist:

"The Resistance might need your ship now, but afterwards I think you should take it and go. And I will be going with you!

"My work here is done. Some day I would like to rebuild my castle but this day... I feel it is time for a little mischief."

Sirra:

She tilts her head to one side, scratches around the edge of the ruined eye socket.

Many things had been going through her mind. Her childhood, her nonexistent childhood, really. Had she ever really taken the time to be a child? Her parents, for whatever value that held. Her real parents had been the First Order. All of her earliest life lessons in passion, dedication, focused hate, intolerance- all of those things which made up the sculpture that comprised ‘Sirra-that-was’. All of the broken pieces that were melted together into Sirra that is. Into ‘Revenant’. Into the instrument that was hunting down the society that birthed her. Who was about to hunt down some of its strangling remnants. Then … then what?


“I will hunt down the remains of the First order and all of the destruction and death we … they … have caused. If you need a copilot, I’ll ride.”

She looks over at Maz, then JB.

“Her, I get. If she is part of what follows in the wake of the Jedi, then the Galaxy is in good hands. Her, Preach, Winta - all of them. On the other hand.”

She gives a crooked half smile.

“If I’m an example of what the universe is inheriting as protectors than that universe is in deep deep trouble. I am no model to be followed.”

Winta

She nodded and quietly mulled over Maz's comment.
Winta knew Maz was right. All her other skills were well and good, but the only reason that Winta was having the conversation was because she had kept herself alive when it was a choice of doing that or death.

She knew she had no skill in healing - that one time it it had just been desperation.

She knew that was the right path to take.

She looked at Maz.

She could see that Maz knew that she now knew and there was nothing that needed to be said.

[Ghosted for Pandemonium]

Preach

"Oh I don't know." He said to Sirra, twitching his dreadlocks, "Self-control and respect for others. I'd say that's a firm bedrock for anyone to build on."

The kanjiklubber music from the parked starfighters, and the sound of revelry from the Resistance camp through the trees reminded Preach that they should be celebrating. He could sense their joy through the Force.

Celebrating to honour the fallen and for the sake of those left behind. The Resistance and the Rebel Alliance before them, had all fought for this moment. Many had died. Yes, a victory celebration was rightly owed.

Preach rocked his old shoulders experimentally. He wasn't feeling the Force, he was feeling the beat!

"But right now, I aim to unleash the Force on the dancefloor."

[Ghosted for Phoenix Prime]

Jeleasi'Beni

Jelly Bean

Her, Sirra and Maz Kanata on the same crew, flying the Bargain Flight wild and free across the Galaxy.

JB was young, she had to remember that before she met Maz, Maz had lived over a thousand years and was fabled as a treasure hunter and pirate queen. There was more to Maz than being a mentor and there could be more to their relationship too.

Friends. Family. A notion that sparked a fountain of ideas in Jeleasi'Beni. And with Maz on board, extracting Maljean from the Nubus System would be a little less difficult.

With a fire in her eye, JB nodded to Maz and to Sirra.

Yes.

[Ghosted for KenSeg]

Amos

He agreed with Preach.

Amos couldn't jump in any old junker and shoot off to the Unknown Regions after his son. That was no way to mount an effective rescue.

Bastian seemed like a good guy and was an ace starfighter pilot. If he could fly wingman for Poe Dameron in the attack on Starkiller Base, Amos couldn't ask for a better partner for his next mission.

If Rose Tico came too, even better.

But right now they needed to celebrate their victory over the First Order and the end of the Jedi-Sith War. Amos wasn't a preacher, but he knew it'd be morally wrong not to celebrate after so many had given their lives to achieve this very end.

"Dang, Preach, reckon Jakku dried out my dance moves but a bottle of that Spotchka might just oil me up." He said.

Amos gestured to the trail that led to the heart of the party.

GM

Maz chuckles and flicks on her glowrod to illuminate the way through the trees.

As she walks, she says over her shoulder to J.B., "Hmm, Child, I know the perfect flight engineer for our crew! Just come available and decades of experience on YT freighters!"

Maz shines the glowrod ahead, the light reflecting off her goggles.

"I do like that Wookiee!" She says to herself.

From the trail, up, up, above the trees.

The canopy of the jungle spreads out between mountainous highlands.

The colourful lights of the party look magical beneath the stars.

The gas giant, luminous in night sky with its two moons, looks dream-like.

Like something from a saga of yore, a story of a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

The End