Jaren's Memories

[Jaren Rouhell]

He ran faster than he ever thought he could. Jaren was being overwhelmed by his former squad of clone troopers, and had nothing left to do but run. He fought as long as he could but now he had nothing left. He ran toward his Aethersprite yelling to his astromech to start the engines, deflecting the blaster bolts coming from all directions. "R5 fire up the engines! We need to get out of here!" The mech did as his master said, and the ship roared to life. Jaren jumped into the cockpit and readied his weapons, when his mech's head was blown off. " You are all gonna die! " He yelled as he rained cannon fire down on the clone camp. He was filled with a rage he had felt only once before, on the night his parents died. He kept firing until the muzzles on his cannons turned red hot, he then took off and fled from Kashyyk. He made his way to a hyperspace ring and set his coordinates for Coruscant. "There has to be some explanation for this!" He said aloud to himself, " The rest of the Jedi might be held up in the temple. I need to tell the council what just happened." As he was saying this he dropped out of hyperspace and flew to where his home was. He came closer to his home, only to find bodies strewn about, his fellow padawans and even younglings lying dead on the temple steps. " What kind of monster could do this?" His voice quivered, as his eyes started to well up. He speeds off making sure he isn't followed, and makes his way to Tatooine using his hyperspace ring. 

[Jaren Rouhell]

When Jaren made it to Tatooine, his first thought was to reconstruct a lightsaber for himself. He knew that they needed to have a double function in order to conceal his identity. " Lightsaber wounds are too easy to identify, there's gotta be a way to hide it in plain sight. " He thought to himself. He went into the market with his cloak pulled over his torso and head, doing what he could to hide himself from prying eyes. While he was looking for some spare parts he noticed two clone troopers pulling a Togruta woman down an alley way. He slowly made his way to where they were. When he got to the alley, he saw one of them hold her down while the other engaged an electrostaff and started to prod the woman with it. " We've heard you know where some Jedi are hiding. Just tell us what you know and we can be done with this nasty business." the one torturing the woman said. "I swear I don't know anything about any Jedi!" she responded, writhing in pain. " She's lying " said the other clone.

The torturer raised his staff to strike the woman again when Jaren yelled at them, " Don't touch her again! ". "Keep walking buddy or you're next." Said the staff wielder. His blow was about to connect when the staff was pulled from his hands and into Jaren's. "He's a Jedi!!" they yelled, reaching down for their blasters. Jaren threw the staff into the chest of it's former owner, killing him instantly. He turned to the other who held his blaster at the womans head, "Turn yourself in or she get's fried." Jaren raised his hands behind his head and knelt on the ground, " Just let her go.". When he finished saying this the woman slammed the back of her head into the troopers helmet, causing his grip to loosen just enough for her to escape. Jaren then reached out with the force and grabbed hold of him, lifting him up and smacking him in to a wall. As he did this he felt something, he felt rage, anger, power. He then changed his grip, and started to choke the trooper.

Suddenly Jaren realized what he was doing and let go. It was like he was taken out of his body and watched as some dark thing took over, " What am I doing?! " he said to himself. The trooper lay there staring at him, an slowly started to reach for his comlink, when Jaren pulled out his lightsaber hilt tossed it at the troopers head, knocking him out. Jaren looked at the woman and  asked her how she was holding up. She responded " Shaken but still alive thanks to you. How can I repay you?" Jaren shook his head," I don't need your money, it was the right thing to do.". "There has to be something I can do." she said, " do you need someplace to stay or food to eat?" Jaren then had an idea, " Tell you what, someday I may need a favor from you, when that day comes I will call on you." She nodded, " I'm Abelaa, what's your name?" "Jaren. Jaren Rouhell." She looked at him for a moment then started to walk off, " That name it sounds familiar" She thought to herself.

Jaren then looked down at the clone trooper as he was coming to, " What to do with him. I can't let him tell anyone about me.". "What happened? Who are you?" The clone asked groggily. Jaren replied " You don't remember?" The trooper shook his head. " What do you remember? " Jaren asked him. " I remember we were questioning a potential traitor, and then something happened...." His voice trailed off. He then looked down at his dead comrade " What happened?! who did this!?" Jaren then waved his hand and said " He's just asleep."

" He's just asleep" Said the trooper in a slightly affected voice

"You were attacked and you made it out alive." Jaren said waving his hand again.

" We were attacked and I made it out alive." The clone repeated

" You will tell no one about this. " Jaren told him

" I will tell no one about this." The clone said as he got up and went about his business. Jaren let out a sigh of relief as he looked at the dead clone. He then turned his attention to the electrostaff sticking out of the troopers chest, and it sparked an idea in his head.




 

[Jaren Rouhell]

Jaren set up camp on the outskirts of Mos Eisle, using his ship as a lean-to with a tarp to keep out of the suns. When he got back from his excursion, he laid out the electrostaff, his two lightsabers, and some spare parts he had. He then knelt down, closed his eyes, and focused on his task. The two sabers lifted off the ground along with the scrap, and started to dismantle themselves. They been deconstructed down to the two crystals and then everything stopped, and all the pieces fell to the ground except the crystals. The hovered in front of Jaren, and started to toy with his mind. In his head visions flashed before him.

He saw all his successes, all his failures. All his pride, and all his regret. He saw the man who murdered his parents, and what he said echoed in Jaren's mind, " It doesn't matter anymore, the Jedi are all dead, you're alone. You have no one left in the galaxy, you're no Jedi. You are just a scared child with a laser sword." Jaren then grabbed his foe with the force, and started to choke him. He gazed into the red eyes of the murderer, " I killed you, you can't hurt anyone anym-" As he was saying this he heard his masters voice " DON'T! " He turned around to see his master, with the same look of horror he had when Jaren told him how he killed the assassin. " You have started down a dark path. It's not too late though, you can still be redeemed. "

Jaren turned to his master, releasing his grip on the sith. " Father, I'm sorry. I've failed you. " Jaren said with tears welling up. " My son, you haven't failed me. We all falter, what matters is that you come back to the Light." His master responded. " I feel so lost master, what should I do? All the others are dead. The Jedi are dead." Jaren asked. " That is for you to decide. " His master said. Jaren then opened eyes and the vision was over.

He looked and saw the Kyber crystals had changed. They were orange. "Well isn't that interesting." Jaren remarked. He then continued building his lightsaber. He started by removing the electrostaffs shock emitters and attached them to his saber's emitter. He then constructed the rest of his saber. When he had finished he stepped out of his shelter and to his surprise the only light that shown was the light of the moon. He attached his two saber hilts together and ignited the two ends. A bright hue of orange light bathed the surrounding area. Jaren then switched to using them as two shock batons. " I won't fail you again master. "

[Jaren Rouhell]

Jaren woke up the next day, still shaken by what was going on in the galaxy. In every system clones were killing Jedi no matter their age or innocence. His anger burned in his soul, but he knew he needed to fight against his urge to find every clone in town and kill them. " There must be a better way to still this fire than to just sit here " He thought to himself. He got up and left his ship and went into town, mostly to see what he could find in terms of food. There were plenty of booths with all sorts of fruits, meats, and scraps. Most of the meat was old bantha steaks that had long since gone foul, so he kept his distance.

  As he was walking along, looking at the wares of one of the small shops, he bumped into someone. When they looked up at him he realized it was Abelaa, " Just couldn't stay away could you. " She said to him. " Well I figured I'd rather not die from starvation. Although from the looks of some of these steaks, I just might have to." He replied with a chuckle. " Chuba hagwa naga tah bedwana, bolla!" The merchant said, sounding rather miffed. Jaren had no idea what the merchant said, but by the tone of his voice he knew it wasn't very good  " Hees koona ateema slimo!" Abelaa replied with a loud voice. She grabbed Jarens arm and started off towards a couple of buildings in the distance.

    "If you're going to be here long, you should learn some languages other than basic. It could save your skin from being jumped. I know you're supposed to be mister badass Jedi, but I doubt you could take on group of these guys all on your lonesome." She said to him, almost scolding him. " I see that. Thanks for that." He said in return. " I know a place, not much in the way of food, but they do have a good selection of drinks. " said Abelaa. They walked to place called Chalmun's Cantina, which had many ships and speeders parked outside the building. " This place is a little rough, but once you become a bit of a regular most people won't bother you." She assured Jaren. They walked in and sat at a table in the back of the building, "Wait here, I'll get us something to drink." Abelaa said as she walked towards the bar. Jaren sat there watching her, then looking around the room, listening to the band when a patron ( who clearly had way too much to drink ) sat next to him at the table.
  " That's my friends seat, and I would appreciate it if you'd move. " Jaren said calmly. " I don't 'ave to do nothin' * hic * ya fuggin schutta ." He said as he started to get too close for Jaren's comfort. " I warned you " Jaren said as he stuck his saber hilt in the persons stomach and engaged the shock emitter, causing them to convulse spasticly until they passed out. He then pushed him of the chair and onto the floor, much to the delight of the other patrons. 

" I'm gone for five minutes and you're already getting into fights?" Abelaa jested. " He started it, my only concern is that I'm the one that finishes it." Jaren replied. Abelaa placed the drinks down at the table and sat next to Jaren. " Cheers! To a new friendship" He said as he raised his glass. " To the renewal of an old one" She said. " I know you Jaren." 

[Jaren Rouhell]

"How do you know me?" Jaren asked. She " Before you left to join the Jedi we were friends." She was still talking while he was trying to recall his life before the Order. He was searching his memories, his experiences when he remembered. " You were the girl in the alley. The one those kids were picking on. We ended up being friends after that." He said as the memories came flooding back to him. She nodded, " That was. We were very good friends after that. And I never forgot about the boy who charged in to a group of kids with nothing but a metal pipe.". Jaren sat memories still coming back to him " I guess we have a lot to catch up on then don't we?"



They sat at the booth for hours talking about each others lives and experiences, laughing and reminiscing with one another. Jaren was just finishing telling her about how he narrowly escaped death at the hands of his battalion when a squad of clones from the local outpost walked in and sat at the bar. " We need to go" Jaren said getting ready to stand up when Abeela pulled him back down. " If we leave now they might suspect us of something, we should just sit here a bit and then leave." she said. So they sat there for another ten minutes before getting up to leave. They started toward the door when one of the clones whistled at Abeela as she walked passed, " Well isn't that a nice view!" he commented. Jaren stopped in his tracks, and turned towards the clone " Is there something you want to say trooper?" Abeela grabbed Jaren's arm and tugged on it " Let's just go, he's just a moron who thinks only with his blaster."



She turned to walk out when she heard a blaster go off and a loud hiss. She turned to see Jaren with his lightsaber ignited and the clone slumped over on the floor with smoke coming from his torso. It took everyone a second to realize what happened, the other clones all reached for their blasters yelling " Jedi!" Abeela flipped over a nearby table and hid behind it pulling out her blaster she kept on her. She started to fire on the clones while Jaren kept deflecting blaster bolts towards the people who fired them. Abeela had taken one of the troopers down when she saw one of them speaking into their wrist com. "Jaren!" she yelled " They're calling reinforcements, we need to go!". " Kinda busy at the moment!" he said as he took out another of the clones . There were only 3 clones left of the original six, and Jaren knew there were more on the way, he needed to act fast so he used the Force to grab another table and use it as a shield while Abeela ran outside to get a speeder for them to escape on. Bolts are flying through the table and past his torso. " Hurry up out there!" He yelled out to her. The next thing he hears is her yell " Get on!" Jaren threw the table at the clones and bolted out of the bar, and jumps onto the beat up X-34 speeder, deflecting bolts as Abeela punches the throttle. They pass through the canyons on the way to Bestine and make camp in a cave in the canyons.

[Jaren Rouhell]

They had just finished building a fire when Abeela looked up at Jaren to see him clutching to the right side of his rib cage. " Were you hit?" She asked as she rushed over to him. "Yeah, nothing serious but it sure stings like hell." He said trying to convince her he was fine and needed no medical attention. He failed in that endeavor. She made him move his arm out of the way revealing a severe burn along his ribs. " Jaren, this needs immediate attention!" She scolded him. She had finally been reunited with an old friend, she wasn't about to let him die on her. Due to the nature of blaster wounds she wasn't nervous of him bleeding out, she was more concerned of the burnt tissue becoming infected. She looked around for anything to cover the wound, the only thing she could find that would work was Jaren's cloak.

Before he could get a word in edgewise she took out a vibro-blade and cut a swath from the bottom hem of his cloak, and tried to start wrapping the wound with it. " Hey! Get off me, that stings! I'll be fine!" He protested as he pushed her off of him. " It's not that I don't appreciate what you're trying to do, but the least you could do is to afford me the decency to do it myself." he said with a half chuckle half cringe of pain. " I'm just trying to help. Clearly you weren't going to do anything about it." Abeela said with a tinge of bitterness in her voice. " Look, just wrap it up and then I'll feel better about it. It was my fault we even ended up in this situation." She said. This wasn't the first time her opinion got her into trouble, but it was the first time that the life of one of her friends was put in danger. She sat down and put her face in her knees, feeling ashamed and starting to tear up a bit. " This wasn't how I thought today would go." She said with a laugh. " I thought we would hang out, catch up on life, maybe play a game of sabacc. Not be on the run from the Empire." Jaren knelt down beside her and put his arm around her, trying to comfort her, " Well we did do two of those things. And while sabacc would be way less painful than running from the Empire, it's not nearly as exciting." He said to her. She looked up at him and smiled, " Yeah I guess you're right.". She leaned her head on his shoulder as they both stared into the fire, as they listened to the wind howling.

Abeela had fallen asleep on Jaren's shoulder, so her gently laid her down, using his cloak like a pillow. He got up and walked away from the camp, stopping after a few meters. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath with his hands folded behind his back. He was in thought, contemplating what he was going to do, now that the Empire knew there was a Jedi out there on Tatooine. He knew he was going to have to be more careful and constantly on the move. He also knew that he needed to deepen his knowledge of the Force and increase his skill with a lightsaber. He pulled his hilts out attached them into a staff igniting both sides and started in a low ready stance. With one blade slightly angled toward the ground an the other angled upward toward the sky he started his shadow duel.

[Jaren Rouhell]

As the suns rose over the horizon and the fist rays of light touched Abeela's face she woke up to find Jaren kneeling down with a swirl of small pieces of metal and wire flying around him. She got up quietly and walked around to see Jaren's face, curious as to what he was doing. She saw more pieces of metal and two crystals floating in front of him. On his face was the look of peace, as if he hadn't gone through the things he had in recent days. Afraid to bother him she turned to walk away when he spoke up, " I was just finishing up. Give me a second." All the pieces gathered in front of him and appeared to assemble themselves and the two crystals went into their respective housings, and then the constructed saber hilts rested at his knees. In awe Abeela said " That was certainly impressive." Jaren chuckled, " Not really, my master taught me to start everyday with meditation, it's supposed to help find the peace for the day, and to deepen my understanding of the force. I never thought about it till recently, now I wish I had listened sooner. Did you sleep well?" Abeela replied, " About as well as one can sleeping on a hard rock face. You?" " I slept fine." He lied, he hadn't slept at all. The entire night he spent practicing the five lightsaber forms he knew, and meditating on the Force.

" Well we should get a move on if we plan to make it to civilization before nightfall." Abeela said packing up her belongings, " Thank you by way." She said as she tossed Jaren's cloak to him. He caught is and put it on, " Don't worry about it. " He clipped his sabers to his belt mounted the bike they had "commandeered" and started off on the last leg of their journey towards Bestine.

[Jaren Rouhell]

Jaren had Abeela stop the bike out of the city of Bestine, " We can't go back there, not for a little while at least. We're also going to need to disguise ourselves, just till we can go back to Mos Eisley." She responded, "Well for starters you should probably get a change of clothes, it's a little suspicious to see someone walking around wearing robes that are covered in blaster burns. We'll head into town see what we can scrounge up for you." He smiled as they head into town on the bike.

That smile vanished from his face when he saw an entire platoon of clones with their weapons drawn charging towards them. He rested his hand on his saber waiting for the blasting to start, when one of the clones yelled " Out of the way civilian! " Abeela pulled out of the way of the clones and on to the side of the road. She and Jaren watched as the clones stormed a three story building that was behind them. They sat and watched as bursts of light flashed in the windows with one constant green light. Abeela was a little confused, but Jaren knew full well what he was looking at. He was watching a Jedi defend himself against the troopers. "Abeela I need to go in there!" Jaren said as he got off the bike. She grabbed onto the back of his cloak " You can't, there's to many and you already have an injury to get over! " She pleaded to him. He looked over to her to convince her to let him go, when the entire front end of the upper floor of the building exploded on to the street with a tall older Jedi lying in the middle of it.

The Jedi picked himself up when he looked at Jaren. They're eyes locked, they recognized each other. This Jedi was a friend of his deceased master, and a man Jaren himself respected a great deal. Jaren went to go help him but the next thing he knew his whole body froze. He tried to move his feet but it was like someone locked his feet in place. He looked up to see the Jedi's hand outstretched towards him. He simply said, it's not your time yet, and turned to face the troopers. He ignited his lightsaber, and the clones opened fire on him he deflected many of the bolts away, and even hold some in place, but his focus was on keeping Jaren from moving in to defend him. Eventually one bolt connected with it's target. The Jedi's head flung back with a blaster burn in the middle of it.

Jaren could move again, but all he could do was fall to his knees and try to hold back his emotions. Abeela came to his side and rested her hand on his shoulder, " I'm so sorry. " She whispered in his ear. She knelt down and pulled him into a soft embrace, trying to comfort him. He looked up at the clones as they came down to inspect the dead Jedi, wanting to kill every single one of them, but with Abeela and him already on the run he knew that would only exacerbate the situation they found themselves in. The commander of the squad knelt down and picked up the dead Jedi's lightsaber, " Jedi scum " he taunted the corpse. The squad laughed as they walked passed the body and one of them even put another bolt through the corpses head. They all walked off to head back to what Jaren assumed was their HQ, talking to each other about how easy this Jedi was to kill.

As soon as they were out of sight Jaren got up and went over to the body, " You should have let me help you old fool. " He said. There was no malice behind what he said, just a lingering sadness at the loss of another Jedi he respected and learned a lot from. He looked over to Abeela and said " We need to give him a proper Jedi's funeral. He picked up the body and brought it outside the city with Abeela. He gathered wood and built a pyre large enough to lay the corpse down on while Abeela wrapped the body in a large sheet, setting his cloak aside. Jaren came and picked up the body and he laid it down on the bed of wood and took a few steps back. He took a stick with his old cloak wrapped around one end and lit it on fire using the arcing electricity of his stun setting on his saber. He took the torch and threw it on the pyre. As the flames grew he put on the old Jedi's cloak on and put the hood up. He made a promise that night, he will not let another Jedi die when there's something he can do to stop it. He pulled Abeela over into a side hug, " Thank you for being here for me. " He said. " I'll always be here for you. " She replied.