Other than it's ability to move fast enough to pluck an extremely agile droid capable of near-instantaneous changes in direction and altitude from the air when the spirit moved it, little more could be gleaned from the constructed image.
Leaving me with the quandary of whether or not to warn my compatriots specifically about what they were facing.
...
"The presence of the Dark Side, I sense. Tainted by it, the creature is" Yoda observed after a moment. Not taking his eyes from me for an instant as he did so. I was being put to what sabacc players called a Moment of Decision.
The Grandmaster wanted to know whether I'd risk others being harmed to prevent people from noticing I knew a great deal more than I should about things I had no business knowing anything about, so he was putting me in a situation that would force me to prioritize either my sense of discretion or ethics.
Sighing quietly, I pointed to one of the readings on the control interface. "It isn't much warmer than it's surroundings, looks rather reptilian to me, and Mimban was occupied by the ancient Sith at one point according to articles I read in the Archives to prepare for the mission. Could it be a Hssiss ?"
Ameesa Darys's head whipped toward me. Her expression sharp and showing her surprise, as the tall, pale, white-blond and golden eyed Jedi remarked in a tone bordering on incredulity "That's one very specific guess, Padawan! I didn't think anyone outside the Researchers remembered the Dark Side dragons.
Especially since they're most commonly associated with Korriban." The Jedi Knight might've said more, but just then Knight Krintu coughed loudly.
His not so subtle cue cluing me something had been discussed concerning my knowledge. From the flash I caught from Ameesa, that had been Yoda's doing.
"Irrelevant, this line of reasoning is. A strategy, we need determine."
The Grandmaster calmly cut in. He was too much the wise and dignified mystic to glare at the Twi'lek language expert, but it wasn't hard to figure out he was less than pleased with the Jedi Knight for essentially letting slip there had been a discussion of my "uncannily accurate predictions" at some point.
His ears had lain back as he eyed the man. Causing the tall, whip thin, aqua-skinned Knight to drop his gaze toward his own feet as I sensed a flash of abashed chagrin coming from him.
It hadn't escaped my attention that Ameesa and Hallan were infinitely easier to read empathy-wise than my Master or Yoda. Which kind of made me wonder where my powers rested with comparison to your average Knight.
"Go right on thinking about your powers being greater than your elders, imbecile. You know this road leads to ending up a dismembered and immolated baby-killer, so how are you letting Grade-A Stupid like this cross your mind? Just enjoy being a natural prodigy while doing your part."
It was disheartening, just how often I was forced to give myself a reality-check like this one. Almost as if it hadn't simply been something in Anakin's personality that lead him astray, but something more tangible that I'd inherited.
Something which caused me to dwell on my grasp of the Force's ways in comparison to others.
I'd perused some introductory mind-healer texts and diagnostic criterion programs within the Archives, but hadn't really found anything which jumped out at me.
No specific chemical imbalance or neurological damage seemed to cause sufferers to wonder how they compared to their peers with undue frequency.
I never thought of myself as a particularly competitive person, but then again, I'd never had so much potential in numerous areas that it made others uneasy due to there being no way for it to go unnoticed.
Was I simply mirroring the reactions of those around me, or was there something more to it? Could people be born with a predisposition for turning to the Dark Side? It was a disturbing notion, but I knew many people were genetically predisposed to alcoholism and other chemical dependencies.
Just as I knew that emotional and psychological problems could cause people to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol. Creating an almost inescapable downward spiral, if their predispositions lined up just so.
Did I have strikes against me from the outset that other Jedi didn't, or was it simply the old maxim about the corrupting nature of power in action?
"No! I have no desire to control people, and certainly no wish to hurt them if they won't obey me. I often feel fear and anger, but I do all I can to cope with both emotions in healthy ways."
I murmured beneath my breath. Feeling myself amped up for no good reason, and growing more on edge, if not outright angry with every heartbeat that passed.
"Emotion, yet Peace
Ignorance, yet Knowledge
Passion, yet Serenity
Chaos, yet Harmony
Death, yet the Force."
I began whispering these lines first to myself, then repeating them louder and louder without regard for who heard me.
It wasn't my Code, not the one I really wanted to be saying right now, but even in the midst of what I now recognized as an unnatural and insidious assault on my mind and feelings, I had the presence of mind to remember the Grandmaster would tolerate only so much heresy.
That thought tried to stoke the edginess and ember beginnings of anger into something simultaneously hotter, colder, and darker, but I continued to focus on my breathing and the meaning behind the words I was repeating.
Finally, after what felt like forever, but which my wrist chronometer reported had only been two and a half minutes, I felt the black emotions recede. Leaving me in command of myself once more.
Looking about me like I was waking up from a bad dream, I realized I had followed the other into the temple in a diamond formation with me bringing up the rear, of course. Yoda, my Master, Ameesa and Hallan were all looking at me.
The latter two careful to keep their expressions guarded as they looked to the two Jedi Masters for cues after Hallan's earlier slip, but the diminutive and venerable Master was favoring me with a look which was difficult to read.
He seemed satisfied with the fact I'd shaken off the Dark Side emanations of the temple's interior on my own, but there was a quizzical tilt to his head as well. One which took me a moment to divine a reason for.
"I, uhh, no disrespect to Master Odan-Urr/Legends . It's just the original version of the Code resonates more powerfully with me. I was really on edge, if not angry just now, and it helped me find my equilibrium."
I said in a respectful yet unhesitating manner once I got over my initial moment of self-consciousness due to being stared at by everyone.
"You're not the first young Jedi to feel that way. I too preferred the original in my youth, but found more wisdom in Master Odan-Urr's interpretation as I grew older"
Dark Woman spoke up after seeing the two Knights scowl at me for my "impertinence." Hallan's look kind of bothered me, but tall and beautiful Ameesa's glare simply pissed me off.
I opened my mouth to snap at the future torturer and killer of children, then realized it was the temple getting to me again and began focusing on my breathing once more.
Yoda was turning to face the depths of the building, and his move caused everyone else to fall in once more. I was thankful he'd taken the attention off me, but couldn't help wondering what he'd thought of my comment.
I brushed the thought off quickly. Reminding myself there was an extremely dangerous, invisible, dark side tainted apex predator in here.
Looking around as we moved deeper, I realized the building reminded me of pictures of the old Aztec or Inca structures. Not necessarily the stepped pyramids, but some of the other buildings I could remember seeing in National Geographic articles.
There was this one building that had been constructed within a huge, naturally occurring cave. One which was supposed to lead into their underworld, if you went down far enough.
That's what I would most remember the Temple of Pomojema being like. Not the immense statue that was exactly as I'd described it. Humanoid, powerfully built, winged, and with a face full of tentacles.
The twenty foot tall statue stood all the way at the back in a chamber that was the definition of dark, dank, and oppressive despite also being fairly wide open. There were a lot of niche-like ledges running around the huge rectangular chamber's edges that made me nervous.
Giving the hssiss plenty of perches to leap down on us from, if it didn't use the huge cord-like vines criss-crossing the room a dozen feet above our heads like organic walkways to increase it's ambush options even further.
The abominable lighting in here made me glad I'd remembered the darkness of the structure's interior from Luke and Leia's visit.
Which was why I whistled sharply just then. Activating the twenty thousand candle power radial lights I'd wired into each of the sensors deployed by my droids.
"Let there be light!" I joked to no one in particular. The strange looks I got from my Master and Knight Krintu reminding me no one in this galaxy was going to take that comment as anything aside from a statement of fact.
I got an appreciative grunt from Yoda, but otherwise nothing as we proceeded deeper.
Even my lights were having a difficult time doing more than pushing back the darkness enough not to need the warnings of the Force to avoid tripping over vines or cracks in the stonework.
It was still dim as hell, and downright dark beyond the conical range of each light dropped in each corner of the room, plus the wrist-lights of each of us except Master Yoda.
I was continually shining my light all about me and paying careful attention to any promptings from the Force with my left hand resting on my lightsaber.
Wondering briefly if the hssiss had fled when it sensed this many intruders.
...
Hey guys can you throw some power stones to Elevate the ranking.
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