STAR WARS: An Ill Wind
Prologue 1

INT. JEDI TEMPLE - HALLWAY - DAY

"You're so serious, Pira," teases Obi-Wan, tugging at his fellow Padawan's braid playfully. "Jedi are not forbidden to smile. Would it hurt you to do so, now and then?" The teenage boy grins, by way of demonstration, at the slightly younger girl.

Apart from the two young Jedi apprentices, the well-lit corridor is empty and quiet. This is some of the time the students have to themselves, and Obi-Wan is making the most of it... and trying to get Pira to do the same.

Pira colors slightly, but says "Master Windu says that when you let emotion show, you give away your advantage to the other."

Obi-Wan blinks. "Am I your foe, then?"

Pira says, dismayed, "No!"

Pira says "But it is easily to let slip if you do not keep accustomed to the habit."

Obi-Wan makes a show of looking relieved. "Well, that's good. I would hate to have you angry at me." Another flash of that disarming grin. He really is rather cute... for a boy.

Pira taps his chest with a finger. "You, for example -- you'll have to hide yourself better when you are a Knight and leading your own negotiations."

Pira says "You hide nothing."

Obi-Wan chuckles. "Is not honesty a virtue?"

Pira says "That's not honesty, that's... that's showing your hand at sabacc."

Any further discussion is ended by a new voice, quiet yet carrying. "Ah, there you are, Obi-Wan. I've been looking for you." Obi-Wan falls silent as his teacher, Master Jinn, approaches.

Pira pulls back her hand and turns to bow to Master Jinn.

Qui-Gon gives his apprentice's companion a polite nod before instructing Obi-Wan, "We are going off-world. Gather what you need."

Obi-Wan nods, looking serious and attentive now, though Pira also notes the eagerness. Surely Qui-Gon does as well, but makes no comment.

Qui-Gon turns to leave with his apprentice, but looks back at Pira. "And you, young Pira... I believe your master wants to see you also."

Pira bows again, more hastily, and turns on her heel. "Is he in the Council Room?"

Qui-Gon shakes his head. "Seek him in his garden."

Pira says "Thank you, Master Jinn." She jerks one last bow and hastily departs.

INT. JEDI TEMPLE - OUTSIDE WINDU'S ROOMS

To Pira's faint surprise, the door does not slide silently open as she approaches.

Pira raps lightly. "Master?"

There is no answer.

Pira touches the button to open the door, a faint crease of frown marking her forehead.

The door opens into the small foyer of Master Windu's suite, which is unaccountably dark. As it swishes open, Pira feels a chill breeze waft outward.

Pira enters, angling in the direction of the doors to the garden. She automatically reaches for the Force to make her way through the suite.

The door snaps shut behind Pira as soon as she enters, plunging her into darkness. Even as she reaches out to touch the Force, the sense of cold - and unease - intensifies.

The frosted glass panel leading further into the suite seems to be smeared with something at about head-height.

Pira says again, louder, "Master?", peering at the stain as she presses the panel to open it.

The panel grinds against its rails but opens, reluctantly. It seems to have been hit and jarred loose. The smear on the far side is dark and liquid.

Ahead and to the right, inside the larger room, there is the crash of something falling and a sudden but brief flare of red light. Like thunder.

As Pira forces her way through the mostly-open partition, she sees two figures silhouetted against the archway leading out to the garden balcony.

Pira shoves the panel fully open and leaps through,

One is robed, holding a humming blade of violet with a white core. Even from here, the smooth head and fighting stance of Master Windu are unmistakable. The other is a stranger, as tall as Pira's Jedi master and cut from blackest night. His lightsaber is an arterial scarlet.

There are more flashes, as the blades meet and clash in a shower of sparks. The adversaries are framed by the arch and the stormy grey sky beyond. Such sudden storms are not uncommon here on Coruscant, but the violence of this one is, mirroring the battle taking place before Pira's eyes.

Windu's opponent is swathed in shadow, making it impossible to get a clear look at him or his face. As he and the Jedi duel back and forth on the balcony, the sandy soil crunches under their feet. Delicate stalks are trampled and crushed. The colorful blossoms are ground into the dirt.

Pira leaps to the intercom, slapping it, preparing to call for aid.

The intercom is unresponsive, dead.

A flash of lightning illuminates Master Windu's face for a frozen instant: his forehead bloody, his nostrils flared; his serenity fled, replaced by a look of grim determination.

Pira darts towards the combatants, reaching out with the Force to try to lift one of the broken plant pots to throw at the dark stranger.

With a casual sweep of his arm, the dark man deflects the pot to one side, where it shatters completely against the balcony's low wall. Noticing his student's presence, Master Windu gasps, "Pira! Get out of here, quickly."

The night-black warrior redoubles his assault, bringing his energy blade crashing down on Windu's guard.

Pira is caught in midgesture, another pot moving at her call, and says in anguish and alarm "No, Master!"

With another gesture and a telekinetic push of his own, the dark one shoves Master Windu back to the very brink, almost pitching him over the balcony to the cityscape far below. Then he turns and begins to advance upon the helpless Padawan.

Pira backs away from him, back towards the door to the suite.

The dark one looms over Pira, not hurrying in his stride. He raises his saber to end her life. For a moment, its crimson glow reveals his face: a grinning death's head with empty eyes.

Pira screams furiously, kicking up at the black robed chest even as he brings the saber down.

Then, from behind, Mace Windu leaps at the grim spectre... who just as suddenly whirls and cuts the Jedi Master down. To Pira, it all seems to happen in slow motion.

Windu's eyes are wide with pain, shock, and perhaps some final vision as he topples to the sandy ground. He never lands - only his empty robes. His deactivated saber falls at his destroyer's feet.

The dark one turns back to Pira, placing his boot upon the saber hilt to deny it to her.

Pira shrieks "Nooooooooooo!" A chair rises from the floor, slams towards the stranger, even as Pira wiggles back, trying to get far enough from him that he will have to move to strike at her.

<OOC> Pira says, "Had to get the quote in :)"

The chair falls short of the mark, as the Force slips from Pira's grasp in her grief and fear. Lightning flashes again, silhouetting the towering figure who stands motionless, saber lowered. The thunder speaks: "You are weak. And because of that, your Master is dead."

Pira rolls to her knees. "Because of you, murderer!"

The black outline seems to shake its head. "No... because of your failure. You were not worthy to be his student."

Pira says, fighting to keep back tears and rage, "Give me that saber, and let me show who is worthy."

A long moment passes, and then the dark one kicks the silver hilt across the floor to where Pira kneels.

Pira's fingers close around the familiar hilt with a last sound of grief, and she comes to her feet, pressing the stud to light it.

Once more the lightsaber's blade springs to glowing life, its hilt still warm in Pira's tight grip. The other blade flicks negligently up to guard position, though its wielder continues to stand still.

Pira's gaze rests for a moment on the empty cloak behind the figure in black, then she begins a silent repetition of the Jedi mantra, trying to regain her grasp on the Force that swirls through and around them.

The dark one seems content to wait. Outside the storm still rages, the turmoil of the clouds matching Pira's emotions.

Pira lifts Mace's blade above her head and horizontal, one knee extended in a guard stance. "There is no death, there is the Force."

Pira's foe is an obsidian statue, his lightsaber held before him like a bar of fire.

Pira backs towards the entrance door to the suite, watching the figure though eyes that blink to wipe away unshed tears.

The apparition's deep, gloating voice pursues Pira. "Flee, little failure. One day I shall hunt you down as well."

Pira hesitates. "Who are you?"

The figure fades into the darkness, except for that blood-red blade. "When we meet again, you will know."

The door hisses open behind Pira. She edges backward... and bumps into someone standing there in the corridor.

Pira whirls, the blade swinging into defense.

Small hands, empty, slap against a broad chest. Mace Windu stands there - alive and quite unhurt, though with a serious and searching expression as he examines Pira.

Pira's "Master!" is a breathless, disbelieving gasp.

Master Windu nods once. "Yes, Pira. Are you all right?" He invests the question with more meaning than usual.

Pira stares at him, struggling to comprehend. "But... he killed you!"

Windu raises an eloquent eyebrow. "Who?"

Pira presses the open button again, only reluctantly pulling her hand away from Mace's solidity. "In your quarters, I came in--"

The door slides open once more, revealing Windu's rooms in equally pristine condition and normal lighting. There is no trace of the battle, or the coldness.

Pira reaches out with the Force, unsure now which was reality.

Windu's presence sparkles behind Pira as he places solid hands on her shoulders. "You had a vision. A vision drawn, most likely, from your own fears."

Pira whispers, "It was so real. He was death."

Windu sighs softly. "Here at the Temple, we have done everything we can to shield candidates like yourself, until you are ready. But the Dark Side is everywhere, listening, waiting for you to let it in... and all must face it, before they can be called Jedi."

Pira stares at the cool brightness of Mace's quarters, swallowing. "Did you?"

There is the briefest of pauses, and then a simple, "Yes, I did."

Pira whispers, "What was it?"

Master Windu explains, "Each experience is unique, and private. What matters is what lessons we take from it."

Pira wraps her arms around herself. "And if we don't know?"

Open as she is to the Force at the moment, Pira senses her mentor's gentle smile without having to look. "Understanding, like many things, comes with time. For now, join me for some refreshment."

Pira trails along behind him, even quieter and more withdrawn than usual.