章節 10: Strange Body
It was night on Jabiim, the weather had gotten even colder but it was no less wet. Rain continued to pour on the planet sinking into the ground and making a thick mud that made traversal difficult. Though Jaden loved it more than he could express, he had never seen rain in real life before —it was truly amazing.
Jaden and Aurra had set up camp in the mouth of a cave where Aurra had made a fire. While Jaden had the theoretical knowledge needed to make a rudimentary fire, he lacked the practical experience; he also wasn't in the correct headspace at the moment. Experiencing nature like this for the first time had sent him into such bliss that he forgot he was travelling with a highly dangerous prisoner.
*Bzzzzzt*
Jaden looked behind him and saw Aurra in the rain twitching on the ground and he sighed. Jaden considered going back to his enjoyment of nature and letting her reap what she sowed but he didn't want her to be turned into a vegetable and be unable to walk 'Though it would give me a good excuse to leave her,' he thought to himself as he walked close to her. As soon as he got within the programmed distance she stopped twitching and went limp; Jaden sighed as he dragged her back into the mouth of the cave by the fire.
Jaden took most of his clothing off and let it dry by the fire, he then took some rations out of the pack he was carrying and started to eat them —all the while he looked out of the mouth of the cave into the storm that raged above "Pictures did not do your beauty justice..." Jaden whispered to himself as he took a bite out of the ration. A chuckle made its way to his throat as the taste of what he was eating despite it being a field ration was still a lot better than what he used to eat down in the undercity. Food wasn't scarce but if you wanted to eat well and often it cost credits, and Jaden was saving to get the hell out of there so he had to make do with the various rodents and insects.
Jaden was entranced by the falling rain; he stood up from where he was and went back out into it —relishing every droplet that made its way onto his skin. He then sat down on a boulder with his legs crossed as he looked up into the sky, he smiled at the lightning dancing across the clouds and then he closed his eyes. He started to take it all in with his other senses; he let out a breath as he was suddenly flooded with new and incredible sensations.
Satele had told him the force was what connected everything; he truly hadn't appreciated her words until he felt the life force of the planet flowing around him. Jaden sunk deeper into his trance and around him, rocks started being lifted from the ground as they circled him; the rocks were of numerous sizes ranging from a small pebble to a large rock big enough to cave someone's skull in. Jaden moved them around his body in such a fluid manner, that he even shocked himself as he would've struggled with only the largest one and yet now it all felt so easy.
Jaden moved the rocks in front of him and stacked them from largest to smallest with almost perfect precision. As he got near the top his concentration increased and he ended up tumbling the tower down "What the hell are you doing!" A voice from behind him shouted.
Jaden sighed once more as he knew he wasn't going to get any more time to appreciate where he was. "Not that it's any of your business but I was meditating." He jumped off the boulder and walked back into the mouth of the cave sitting next to the fire once more.
Aurra barked out a laugh "Don't tell me you believe all that bantha crap about inner peace, they sell you on that just so you don't go looking for power," she said mockingly.
Jaden raised an eyebrow "Oh yeah and where are your great powers, you can use the force, can't you? So where are the powers?" He asked with a small grin on his face.
Aurra's mocking smile quickly turned into a scowl "The Jedi were afraid of me! They sold me off to pirates to stop me from getting stronger!" She growled out; Aurra looked as if she was going to pounce on Jaden and beat him to a bloody pulp.
"Even without them, I've gotten stronger..." She said, her voice laced with venom. Dust started to move as the surface of the cave started to rumble "Stop it," Jaden told her. However, she just kept her gaze on him as the rumbling started to get louder and louder "Enough!" He shouted as he stood up and ignited his lightsaber.
She scowled at him once last time before smirking "You Jedi are all afraid of what power can do and it's what makes it so easy to kill you," she spat out.
Jaden turned off his lightsaber and sat back down, while most captors would've silenced her by now Jaden let her go on. 'She doesn't realise she's wasting her breath.' Jaden wasn't a Jedi so he didn't much care if she hated them, he also didn't think channelling the dark side was a bad thing —or at least he hadn't noticed any negative effects on himself.
'I should keep training, who knows what will happen on this planet,' he thought to himself as he pressed a button on his wrist.
"And another thing about the Republic!!!"
*Bzzzzzzzt*
Aurra collapsed onto the ground near the fire as Jaden used the collar to knock her out. He wanted to train in peace and he knew he wouldn't get that with her around; he walked deeper into the cave where he allowed the Holocron to float off his belt. Satele appeared though she frowned when she saw the various bruises and marks on Jaden's upper body as well as the new environment she found herself in.
"It seems quite a lot has happened since we last trained, care to explain?" She asked.
"The short version, during my attempted escape I ended up crashing onto Jabiim, the current war-torn planet... are you laughing?" Jaden asked with slight annoyance.
Satele was indeed smiling and it only seemed to grow at Jaden's annoyance "You must forgive me, I do not laugh at your misfortune."
"Perhaps it was the will of the force that brought you here," she commented.
Jaden rolled his eyes "Don't give me all that will of the force rubbish, while I can feel that the force is... alive. It doesn't have a will of its own," Jaden said with certainty.
"Perhaps, perhaps not, many Jedi have tried to answer the very same question thousands of years before I was ever born. The important thing now is that you are here and so-"
"I need to leave quickly!" Jaden interrupted.
"This war has nothing to do with me, if the republic and the separatists want to fight over every planet then I'll leave them to it." he continued
"I agree, but do not forget more suffer in war than those who do the fighting, a Jedi's responsibility is to protect them," Satele stated.
"Unfortunately I'm not a Jedi, I don't care about the people on this planet or anywhere else..." Jaden replied.
Satele did not reply for a moment after that and instead started at him before a small smile formed at the corner of her lips "Are you trying to convince me or yourself?" She asked.
Jaden shook his head in annoyance "Just... help me train, I'm in a war zone so I need to learn something that'll help me," he asked.
"Then why not continue your training in the healing arts, from the fading bruises on your body I can tell you've made progress since I last saw you," she suggested.
Jaden shook his head "It won't help me if I get into a fight and considering where I am that's pretty likely."
Satele sat down cross-legged in her holographic form "At a time I was considered the most powerful Jedi of the age... and yet it was my ability to heal that gave me happiness, on your belt you have one of the most deadly weapons in the galaxy. You have many ways in which you can harm someone but none in which you can reverse that, so please take my advice," She asked.
Jaden rubbed his jaw as he considered it before finally nodding; he had been injured a lot in recent times so being better at healing couldn't hurt "Fine... show me how to force heal," he said a little unenthusiastically.
Satele let out a loud giggle at the look on his face "Masters from all across the order considered it a great honour to learn from me and yet the one student I have now finds it to be a chore."
"What makes you believe I can heal other people, you told me that while not rare it was quite uncommon for Jedi to be able to heal anyone other than themselves," Jaden asked.
"In my life I was naturally gifted in many aspects of the force, as my blood descendent there is a chance you inherited my aptitude as you did my skill in Battle Meditation," Satele replied.
"Tutaminis, Telekinesis, Healing, Foresight, Telepathy. You've shown a natural aptitude in the first three, in Coruscant you were able to heal wounds that a normal Jedi would be unable to, had you more time I'm sure you would've made a full recovery," she explained.
Jaden nodded slowly, the logic was kind of shaky but she hadn't led him astray so far "So where do I start?" He asked.
Satele tapped her finger against her lips "This will be slightly more difficult as you do not have a creature you can practice on."
"Give me a moment," Jaden said as he stood up and walked back towards the mouth of the cave.
...
*Thud*
"This was not what I had in mind when I requested a creature to practice on..." Satele said as she pinched the bridge of her nose.
Jaden who had just thrown Aurra's unconscious body onto the ground shrugged "She works just as well as an animal and I'm sure she'll still have some injuries from the crash," he stated.
"This woman was with you on the ship?" Satele asked.
Jaden nodded "She was the saboteur on the ship, it turned out she hid herself the whole time as she didn't want to abandon her ship," He replied.
"The ship you stole..."
"Yes."
Satele sighed "Very well, kneel next to her," she instructed.
Jaden did so but was careful as he did, he had to disable the collar around her neck for him to be able to practice on her, so he needed to be vigilant —especially since he was healing her. "Healing is about sharing your life force with another to increase the rate at which they heal, look at that large gash on the side of her stomach, let us begin with healing that," she instructed.
"Concentration is key, you must feel the force within you and her, but do not slip into a meditative trance as you must remain aware." She continued.
Jaden took a deep breath as the sounds around him started to drown out and he was left with the feeling of the force surrounding him; he could feel it inside his body and hers as well to a lesser degree. He focused on the gash, while it had stopped bleeding he could feel something coming from the wound —at least that's what it seemed. Satele saw the frown that Jaden wore and understood what was going on "What you're feeling now is the pain from the wound, it's how Jedi Healers can identify internal injuries. Focus on healing her now, do not use too much of your life energy or you might fall unconscious."
"Do not forget intent is the key, you are the the catalyst for the force, you must direct it." She continued.
Jaden heard her words and understood them but in truth, he was still enamoured with the environment —how beautiful and calm it all felt. When he meditated like this he felt truly connected to the planet; Jaden looked down at Aurra, he could feel the pain from the wound more clearly now and he put his hand over it.
'Heal.'
Satele looked down in amazement as the gash started to close; in less than ten seconds the wound was but a fading scar and Jaden was finished. "Jaden! Are you feeling okay?!" Satele asked, the only way to get such a result when healing would have been to pour a tremendous amount of life force into the wound.
Jaden who was now broken out of his concentration looked up at Satele "I'm fine, why what happened?" He asked.
Satele frowned as she crouched down in front of him and started to inspect him for any sights of weakness "Satele what is the problem?" He asked.
"Heal another wound." She instructed as she watched him.
Jaden was a bit confused but moved on to a large bruise that was on one of her ribs and concentrated once again. He couldn't help the sigh that escaped his lips as he felt reconnected with the force around him; he focused on the bruise and quickly discovered that there was more pain emanating from within 'A broken rib.' He guessed as he could feel the snapped bone in his mind.
He focused on fixing it, knitting the bone back together, and healing the damaged tissue. But as he healed her body he started to sense pain radiating from other places around her body; he didn't care much if she was in pain, but he was happy to use her as practice. One by one he healed the injuries that he assumed were caused by the crash 'What's that?' He thought to himself as he started to look deeper.
Deep-rooted pain ran through her entire body. Jaden had to take a breath as the connection he had formed with her using the force allowed him to feel her pain to a certain degree 'It seems like it's constant, how does she function like this,' he thought to himself as he started channelling great amounts of the force and directed it to heal her. Jaden started to sweat as the mental toll this was exacting was great and if he let his concentration falter for even a moment he knew it would have dire consequences, as the force that was being directed inside of her would lose control and wreck havoc inside her body —he didn't know that for sure but that was what his intuition told him.
Jaden breathed a sigh of relief when he felt the last specs of pain leave her body. When he stopped concentrating and looked back at Satele he couldn't help but feel a little nervous "Is everything okay?" He asked.
Satele looked at him with pure amazement "Jaden... how many wounds did you heal?" She asked, as a hologram she didn't have a presence in the force, nor could she use it to sense what Jaden was doing, but she knew something wasn't right when Jaden didn't even look winded after healing the large gash. A fully-fledged Jedi Healer can control the force to an incredible degree, it is how they circumvent the need to expend large amounts of their own life force; by controlling it in great detail they can reduce the life force that is wasted. As one of the best healers of her age, Satele was able to do this to such a great degree that she could bring someone back from near death and only need to catch her breath for a moment.
However Jaden as someone who had never healed anyone other than himself didn't have this kind of control, not even close. "I healed all the wounds she had, including some of the others she must've had before the crash," he replied as he stood up and started stretching.
Satele watched him trying to come up with an explanation on how Jaden wasn't dead right now. His lack of control combined with the amount he had healed her would put him one foot in the grave. "That should be impossible..." she said to herself.
"Unless..." Satele considered one possible explanation. Long ago she read a journal in the archives about a Jedi master who believed it was possible to heal someone using the force that surrounded them. This was seen as not being possible up until that point; while all life forms had the force within them it was slightly different to that of what surrounded them and so it couldn't be used as a means of healing a wound —it could heal wounds temporarily but as the force had no true roots inside of them as soon as the healing stopped it the force would return to the surroundings and the wound would revert to how it was before.
'He must be drawing the force from around himself using Tutaminis and replenishing his own life force faster than he is losing it," she theorised.
'If that's the case then the boy is more than a simple prodigy, as far as I know, there has never been a record of someone able to replenish their own life force with the force around them to the degree in which Jaden can,' she thought to herself. While doing such a thing was impossible to do for someone else it was possible to do for yourself to a certain degree; The greatest Jedi Masters can use the force to revitalise their cells, but it is incredibly difficult to do and often takes hours of meditation to achieve and even then it wouldn't extend their life much which is why they often have to do it daily.
"Jaden if I may ask what race are you?" Satele asked.
Jaden looked at her with a strange expression "I'm not sure? Some type of human I assume, who knows I could be from here," he said with a small chuckle at the end.
"Do you know why your blood is Jet Black? That's not exactly a human trait," Satele commented.
"No, I suppose not... I never knew my parents so I have no clue," he said as he shrugged his shoulders.
"Jaden you need to listen to me carefully." She looked at him with a serious expression.
"What's wrong," he asked with slight concern.
"Your ability with healing is not just prodigious but it borderlines the impossible... I was once grandmaster of the Jedi order so I am aware of some of the unethical things the order has done in the past as well as during my time as its leader. I say this because I know that if your healing ability were to be witnessed by a Jedi there is no doubt they would try to bring you into the temple, so please for your own sake keep it a secret," She said with concern.
While she believed his ability would be a great boon for the order Jaden was still her descendant and she knew having such an ability would put him in a dangerous position. "Alright I'll make sure to keep it a secret," Jaden said in an effort to reassure her.
Satele felt better once Jaden had reassured her and let the matter drop "I believe we can put a pause on your healing training, with your ability you would only benefit by gaining a greater degree of control over the force and by increasing your medical knowledge, which is not anything that is currently pressing," she stated.
Jaden smiled "Does that mean I can finally learn something a bit more offensive?" He asked.
Satele shook her head "Work through your Form 1 kata and then we can move onto Form 2," she instructed.
Jaden sighed before pulling the lightsaber he had off his belt and into his hand.
(AN: So I know some people are gonna be upset at the alterations I'm making to the force, but to be honest I don't care. Legends and canon healing are pretty different though they share some similarities. Also, I'm aware that there are force abilities that enhance the body, this would count as being temporary however. Jaden has a unique body and his bloodline (Not Shan) is the reason why he is able to absorb the force from around him and replenish his own life force near instantly, though he doesn't do it consciously yet as that would be a bit OP.)
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