Chereads / Star Wars: Ancestral Gifts / Chapter 6 - The Blue Shadow Virus

Chapter 6 - The Blue Shadow Virus

We got the report while I was eating that droids had been spotted on Naboo, I almost immediately froze up which got Ahsokas attention. "Dankel what's wrong?" I got up and rushed over to where our Masters were organising a detachment of Clones, I closed my eyes running through different options trying to think of a way to do this easier. "Master I have a bad feeling about this." I exclaimed as we loaded into gunships, we made our way to a holotable where the coordinates of the secret lab I knelt down and closed my eyes. Opening them I was inside the room with all the bombs, thanks to the Empires Wrath I'm able to use the Force Projection ability so I'm using it to scout ahead of time. "What do you see Dankel?" Anakin asked, the desperation in his voice was very prominent, I snuck through the hallways unsure whether the battle droids would be able to see me. "I'm sneaking around, I'm not risking letting them know that we're on to them." I jumped up a wall to avoid two B1s who were talking about getting rewired, a bit more sneaking around and I found where Padme and Jar Jar were being held hostage, slipping into the room I noticed Padme spot me and winked as I jumped up onto a pipe on the ceiling. "I've found them, there's this mad Scientist dude having an evil monologue.. Oh god, Master he has revived the Blue Shadow Virus and has made it airborne..." I got up off of the floor and looked at the not very hopeful faces around the room so I decided to put on a big grin, "I'mma punch him in the face!" With that I left the room with a smirk, Ahsoka grabbed my arm to try and stop me but I just dragged her along with me to a speeder where D4 was waiting for us.

We met Peppi Bow and honestly the Gungans aren't as bad as people say they are, little clumsy but otherwise they're really brave. Peppi was annoyed when I picked her up with the Force and put her in a tree while Ahsoka and I had to dodge the cameras. I got a call from my Master telling us to hold position while they rally the troops so I slumped down while Ahsoka rescued Peppi, "This is your fault Dankel, gimme a hand!" She complained, Peppi was about to fall when I raised my hand catching and pulling her to us, Ahsoka sat down next to me and shivered slightly. "Cold?" She nodded so I heated up the air around us slightly which made her frown, "How the hell do you do it? You have such a cool powers and you're leaving me behind.." She trailed off but I knew where this was going so I stood up and was about to say something when we got the go ahead to breach the facility, "Would blowing something up help?" She nodded and floated the Thermal Detonator over the entrance blowing it wide open, she stopped Peppi from joining us and we jumped in covering the Clones as they entered. I shouted orders to the Clones which they followed to the letter, we carved our way through the facility scrapping droids left and right until we reached a fork in the road, "Ok buddy, which way?" A series of beeps and a holomap later showed that one way lead to the explosives and the other way lead to the where Padme and Jar Jar were being held hostage, "Go punch him in the face for me!" Ahsoka smirked as she took the Clones to clear out the rest the Battle Droids.

I arrived as Anakin was confronting Doctor Nuvo Vindi, I nudged D4 with my head signalling for him to sneak into the room which he did. Anakin and I circled the Doctor, he went to pull the switch and ran sadly D4 had managed to cut the power so we were free to chase the mad scientist. I increased my speed until the Doctor threw a vial of the Virus directly at me causing me to stop dead in my tracks as I noticed a crack, thinking quickly I created a barrier with the Force Anakin began to slow down but I just shouted at him to catch him as I focused on the Force Barrier as D4 rounded the corner and beeped at me, "Hey buddy, I need you to alert everyone that I'm currently containing this broken vial of the virus." He beeped with annoyance before running off to Ahsokas location, "Either of you two gonna say anything?" I mentally screamed as I tried my hardest to focus, Padme and Jar Jar turned corner. "Dankel what are you doing? We have a missing bomb and..." She noticed the vial and immediately put her hazmat helmet on before helping Jar Jar with his, "Are you ok? Do you need anything?" I closed my eyes as the bombs were set off, I immediately ran off towards Ahsoka and the Clones. I pushed Ahsoka into the safe room along with the Clones while also making a barrier to stop the virus from spreading through the door, "Dankel what the hell!" I could hear her banging on the door, "Did D4 find you?" Everything went quite so I got up and went looking for the Battle Droids, as I began to walk away I stepped on something looking down revealed Ahsokas Lightsaber.

Dual wielding made hunting down all the Droids trying to escape a cake-walk, with the help of the Clones and the Senator it wasn't long before all the Battle Droids were scrapped, as I caught up to the last group of Droids the few Clones that had kept up with me collapsed so I skidded to a halt and launch a giant stream of fire at the B1 Droid with the blow torch attachment which was climbing up the ladder as we arrived. I mustered up as much strength as I could to create a vacuum around the inferno until the fire died out and I had to catch my breath as I glance at my wrist, taking note of the blue veins spreading across my skin. "Buddy call my Master for me..." Padme helped me stand as my strength was rapidly draining, when the holo call connected I could tell by the looks on their faces that I wasn't looking to good. "How's it going Master?" He was explaining the situation with the laser mines when I began coughing to the point of collapse, as I fell Jar Jar went to help Padme catch me however in typical Jar Jar fashion he tripped over a droid arm and pushed into Padme sending her into the wall breaking her helmet. Luckily for the Senator I was able to create an barrier around her, "Ok normally I'd let you guys figure it out cause I see that you do but I didn't see this in my vision of this so I'm just going to say it, find the Angel her home is the key!" After some nods of understanding the holo call cut out, I slumped down with my right arm still raised holding the bubble stopping Padme from being infected. "Dankel, it's ok you don't have to..." I ignited a flame on the tip of my finger and pushed my Enhanced Sight as far as I could to see if the heat could burn away the disease, no luck.

"D4 put me through to Captain Typho, I wanna talk to Doctor Vindi about this." It wasn't long before I was looking at the mad scientist, "I apologise for the interruption however I just had to congratulate you on your success where both Grievous and Ventress have failed!" His face lit up as he began raving about how he will be the benevolant being who will remove the disease of war from the Galaxy, "I would love to know how you did it, I mean not only did you revive but evolve the deadliest disease known to the Galaxy!" I felt the grin form on my face as he explained the process to me, you see I'm no good at Biology but as my body is currently fourteen years old again which has brought me back to a peak age for learning. As he explained the process I winked at Padme who realised what I was doing, "Thank you Doctor Vindi I'm pretty sure I reverse the process now." The look on his face almost made me lose focus of the bubble I'd formed around Padme, I stuggled to my feet, "All right, Padme I'm sorry to ask this of you.." She raised her hand and nodded, "I understand Dankel, if you're going to makes this work you need your full focus to be on your task." I sprinted off towards the main Laboratory and that's when I bumped into Ahsoka, I just looked at her as she helped me up.

"You look terrible," Ahsoka said as I handed her Lightsaber back to her, "Our Masters are on their way back so just hold on a little longer.. Where are you going?" She asked as I pushed past her, I felt weaker by the second but I eventually made it to Dr Vindi's work station where D4 was already pressing buttons. Using the Force and my Sonic Screwdriver I began flipping buttons and levers until I collapsed, Ahsoka caught me and laid me down, "Ahsoka you've just gotta flip that big lever, I've reversed his Machine which should absorb the electrical charge from the gas back into itself." She jumped up and ran to the lever, activating the machine which caused a stream of electricity to run throughout the entire facility and within moments the gas had returned to its liquid form. The Hero of Tython placed her hand on my shoulder, "Your job isn't done yet Dankel, stand up and use your power to protect them." Right... How can I leave a job half done, I get up much to Ahsokas shock and ignite a small flame on the tips of my index and middle finger, "Time to turn this disease to ash!" Swiping my hand through the air a wave of fire spread across the floor burning away the diseased water as I pulled the hydrogen out of it to fuel the fire, as the fire reached Ahsoka it simply burnt away the diseased water that had covered her skin and left her unharmed.

"That is an incredible display of control over your power child, having the fire not burn anyone while it destroys the virus brilliant!" The Empires Wrath exclaimed as I closed my eyes and chuckled, I slump to floor as I just created a fire that burned through the water quickly by pulling apart the water molecules to keep burning. "This is your Commander speaking, a wave of fire is passing through the facility now... Please don't panic it'll get rid of the infected water and you won't be harmed, drop any blasters as I have no clue how they'll react with the fire." I explained into my commlink before turning to Ahsoka, "We've got to follow it to make sure it dies out at the end." I gritted my teeth and followed the flame which should finish in the Hangar, Ahsoka tried to support me the best she could but the Virus had started draining her strength as well. By the time the flames died out I was being carried by Jar Jar, I totally wasn't terrified of being dropped, my Master walked over as I was placed on the stretcher. "You've done extremely well Dankel, as your Master and your friend I'm extremely proud of you!" I coughed out a thank you before being wisked of towards a medical center on Naboo, sharing a room Ahsoka is not something I'd recommend she snores...

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The sound of blaster fire was muffled by the Force Barrier I created, Echo was a little too eager to help with this training shooting at me with his sidearm. I realised a while ago that if I want to protect the men who placed their trust in me I needed a more defensive ability, my lack of ability to stop the Blue Shadow Virus from infecting everyone made that even more obvious. So here I am getting shot at by Echo while Cutup was trying to figure out how he could be more useful to his Squad when I pointed out that he's the best shot so he might be good with a DC-15x which he dragged Fives to go grab one and test it out. Hevy offered to shoot me with his Z-6 Rotary Blaster Cannon but Obi-Wan shot that down immediately and then saying I should have using the stun setting on Echos Blaster instead of the live ammo, "Trial by fire Master, the Droids aren't gonna stun me and they definetly won't shoot blanks." As I said this my barrier cracks so I jump out the way, kicking off of the quickly vanishing forcefield to dodge out of the way which is something I make a note of. Obi Wan had me follow him to the Medbay for my check up, standard procedure after being exposed to the deadliest virus in the known Galaxy. "We'll be returning to Coruscant for short while, the Council wants your report personally." I groaned slightly, "It's about me burning the water isn't it.." Obi Wan nodded, "Dankel you must understand the power you displayed is dangerous, even more so then the Council already thought!" We didn't talk for the rest of the trip back, as far as I'm aware we weren't angry at each other I just had no response to that.

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"My degree of control over my Pyrokinesis has increased rapidly, D4 file 275 please," My partner in crime jumped down off of my Masters chair and displayed a file of how many times I logged into the training room on our Capital Ship as well of an attached holotape of me burning myself on multiple occasions until it reached the final video of me meditating with multiple orbs of fire floating around me. "I've even started training a skill to counter my own Pyrokinesis, D4 file 816 please." D4 then switched to a holotape of me training my Force Barrier skill against my own Pyrokinesis as well as the blaster fire from my own troops, Jedi Master Eeth Koth was the first to speak up, "If I may speak out of turn my fellow Masters, we should look at the psychological aspect of Padawan Fecs growth." Master Windu waved his hand as a signal to proceed, "For such a young Padawan tonot only have faced Dookus Assassin Asajj Ventress as well as General Grievous on three seperate occasions.. Yes Padawan Fec?" I had raised my hand, I could see where this was going and wanted to get my opinion on my own state of mind in before they deemed me unfit for duty.

"Master Koth I appretiate your concern, I admit those encounters do play over in my mind quite often... When my dreams aren't visions of the future or past they often plague my Nightmares, I do use them as a drive for improvement but not out of fear as would be expected after my brush with the Dark Side," I chuckle slightly, it appears not everyone on the Council knew that bit of information, "I use it as a drive to protect the men who placed their trust in me to lead them, my friends who choose to be there with me on the frontline." I bowed my head to signal that I was done, there were murmurs as different Masters voiced their opinions, my own Master stood up placing his hand on my shoulder. "I'm proud of you Dankel, it appears we on the Council have much to discuss..." He looked to Masters Yoda and Windu who nodded their heads, "You're free to leave, go and rest you've more then earned it." D4 was asked to stay for a moment longer by my Master which pissed me off slightly but I walked away, returning to my room I began to meditate.

"That Council sure is something else, bold of you to claim your brush with the Dark Side so freely now that took guts!" I mentally nodded, it made sense why not everyone in the Council was made aware of that experience I also didn't check my report after submitting it. It is highly possible they scratched my use of the Dark Side from the record so certain people didn't see it and vote to have me expelled from the Order, "That is a highly likely possibility!" The Empires Wrath chuckled, "You could always head to Scrouge if they throw you out, although he'd probably kill you as you are now." That's when the Hero of Tython chimed in with a slight chuckle, "While what my eternal annoyance her is forgetting to mention is that we dashed all records of the Iokath system including the Hyperspace lane codes, the coordinates are on data discs in our tombs." I looked up at the two of them, "On Tython and Korriban?" They shook their heads, "We do have tombs for our respective Orders but no we're talking about the ones that house our actual bodies, Lana, Theron and Scrouge dealt with that for us." I nodded and got up from meditating to see Masters Yoda and Windu waiting at my door with Obi Wan and D4 behind them.

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I launched multiple short bursts of fire at my opponent, the Council decided that the test against the Maul training dummy I went up against wasn't good enough so I am now fighting the Master of fighting people with their own darkness. I blocked and parried to the best of my ability but duelling with the man who can fight on par with Darth Sidious, the lilac storm kept pushing forward quicker than I could make space. Master Windu was pushing me as far as he could without killing me, "I must admit, he's lasting longer than I thought he would." I heard Master Ki Adi Mundi say to my Master as I lock Sabers with one of the strongest Masters in the Order, "Why aren't you using your full strength Child, you wouldn't be struggling so much!" The Empires Wrath proclaimed with the Hero of Tython also saying this would be the perfect oppurtunity to perfect my Force Sight so I began to activate it in moderation, my blocks and parries became more refined as I focused not on the Saber but on Master Windus technique. I could feel a smile growing on my face as my Saber began to flow through the forcefield of purple which began to feel less imposing, I slid under a slash and switched my Saber to its spear configuration blocking a back slash with the extended hilt.

Rolling to the side I began stabbing at my opponent who took a step back and locked Sabers with Master Windu, "Am I passing this test so far?" I asked which got a chuckle from him as he launched me back without my Saber which he'd managed to disarm me of. "Fellow members of the Council, in my duel with Padawan Fec I have used Vaapad to push him, I sensed darkness as everyone has however the light I sensed from him was far greater." He picked up my Saber and examined it, "I see no need to continue this duel unless anyone has any complaints." I raised my hand which got me some looks, I felt the adrenaline reach its peak and I was finally warmed up . "If its alright with you Master Windu I'd like to keep going, it's not everyday I get to duel with a Master of a Lightsaber Form I've never seen before!" Master Windu looked over at Master Kenobi for what I assume was permission, Obi Wan looked between the two of us then to Master Yoda who was nodding his head so my Master agreed. "Ok Padawan Fec, from what I understand you use Form Six: Niman," I nodded, "I am one of the few practitioners of Form Seven however I use a seperate Form from Juyo which is Vaapad, so knowing that Dankel if you can either disarm me or last lets say five minutes you win, I'll win if you are unable to continue the Duel agreed." The use of my name freaked me the hell out but I won't let him get in my head, "You may use any means necessary to try and win, I want to see that creativity your Master has mentioned in his reports!"

I pulled my Saber to me before circling Windu who kept his blind spot covered like a pro, I extended my hilt to the floor which D4 quickly climbed up onto my shoulder. "You said any means necessary so me and my Partner will work together considering this is how I often fight." I got a nod from Master Windu as I began rushing forward to deliver a powerful over head strike which was parried into a counterattack which I blocked with a Force Barrier, I jumped off of it to gain height after which I launched a spark at a strip of Magnesium which D4 had so greatiously dropped for me, Flash Grenades a standard issue for Arc Troopers though they're often ignored so it was easy for me to dismantle and take the magnesium solution and return it to easily stored strips which I keep in D4s Bacta-Stim dispenser, from everyone elses point of view I just created a blinding light with my Pyrokinesis. I landed and went to stab at Windus leg which was also blocked by the Jedi Master, even though I can also do it I often forget that Jedi can sense the intentions of people as well as the whole see without seeing thing. I rush forward utilsisng both Forms Four and Five for quick and heavy attacks as well as using my momentum to try and crush my opponents guard. Something in my Brain clicked however as a vision of the past played through my head, I was in this room when I saw Master Windu training with a Weequay Jedi Master who I realised was Sora Bulq what I was witnessing was the creation of Vaapad...

When I left the vision I falling which was odd to say the least, I corrected myself and landed on a Force Barrier. lookinging down I realised I was at the top of the large training room the Council had commendered for this test. "Dankel are you alright?" Master Obi Wan shouted, I looked down to see the room on fire with the Masters fighting the flames. I jumped down creating small Barriers to slow my descent, I went into free fall at about 12 meters pulling all the flames into my hand before cutting off all the O2 and sticking the landing. I later found out that the duel had continued after my vision had started, my body continued to move on its own meeting Master Windus every blow until it physically couldn't keep up after which it launched itself up to the ceiling using my Pyrokinesis. I explained my side of things with the vision, I also explained I had no clue that my body did that during visions or if it was a response to situation either way I apologised and made a promise to Master Windu not to study Vaapad (mentally crossing my fingers of course).

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Dankel Fec: Current Ability Level

Duelling - Significantly above Padawan Anakin Skywalker

Hand to Hand Combat - Significantly above Clones

Connection to the Force - Slightly Stronger

Force Abilities - Telekinesis, Pyrokinesis, Force Sight (Advanced), Force Healing (Passive), Force Projections, Force Scream, Force Barrier.

Current mastery over the Abilities on a scale of 10;

- Telekinesis = 3.5

- Pyrokinesis = 6

- Force Sight (Advanced) = 3.5

- Force Healing = -0.9

-Force Projections = 0.1

-Force Scream = 0

-Force Barrier = 2.5