Prelude: Acceptance

17 ABY, Yavin IV, forests outside of the Jedi Praxeum

It was a quiet, dark night on Yavin IV. It was scarcely past the day's changing. The students at the Praxeum slept soundly, preparing for another day of study and training. Their master, however, was not among them.

Jedi Grandmaster Luke Skywalker walked slowly through the forests of Yavin IV, softly making his way off of one the many beaten paths. He looked around cautiously, though not as one does when expecting an ambush - his surveillance was more amicable, as though making sure he did not miss any detail the wondrous scenery might offer up. The forest was a sight a behold during Yavin IV's spring season. Globular, luminescent insects swarmed about the moss-rich tree trunks, giving the appearance of hundreds of tiny, floating lanterns lighting a wanderer's path. Luke reached over his shoulders and took of hold of his brown, tattered robe, pulling the garment's hood over his head, shielding him from the light rain that made its way through the precipitous forest canopy.

He treaded an improvised route through the dense, wooden scenery - nevertheless, he moved with a sense of purpose. An observer would not have doubted that Luke knew exactly where he meant to end up. Finally, the Jedi came to a clearing, a small sanctuary having the appearance slightly of a swamp, but absent the unpleasant facets of such a terrain. Luke lowered his hood now, pausing his walk momentarily to examine the scenery again. He took a few careful steps forward, to the edge of large pond serving as the sanctum's centerpiece.

Luke looked down to the idle, dark water expectantly. Literally rising to the occasion, a cerulean form approached the surface, growing in size as it neared the waterline. Finally, the large water serpent reared its head, departing just enough to bring itself at eye level with the shorter human Jedi. Luke smiled warmly to the Dur Sabon, placing his palms endearingly on the sides of the being's face.

"There you are, old friend. I thought I might run into you out here, Akea."

Akea replied with what might best be described as a guttural noise, a primal sort of greeting among his kind. The Dur Sabon was a senior Jedi Knight in Luke's New Jedi Order. He had spent the prior two years studying at the Praxeum, having lost the five before that to a fruitless search for a cure.

Akea had once been desparate. Victim of a cellular degenerative disease of unknown origin, Akea's body would slowly degrade over time, leading him to an early, painful death. The immediate severity of the symptoms fluctuated - sometimes it was difficult to notice the presence of the disease, and at other times, it was incapacitating. After re-emerging from a self-induced bout of amnesia, Akea left his hideaway on the planet Sembla and traveled the galaxy, in a search of some remedy. It was only two years ago that he realized the unlikelihood of such a thing.

And so Akea had returned to the Praxeum, admittedly with some reservations, to continue his studies and assist in the rearing of the New Jedi Order. It was a restless two years - Although Akea focused on the tasks at hand, his condition was always in the back of his mind, distracting him, taunting him. Despite his best efforts to check his emotions, a part of him felt cheated - of all individuals to be cursed with a terminal illness, that it should be a survivor of an age past and forgotten, a font of first-hand experience and knowledge that would serve the fledgling Jedi Order all too well. Why, Akea thought, must this be his fate? Given his strong belief that the destiny is guided by the hand of the Force, this was a particularly troubling notion.

These were harmful thoughts, however. Akea knew this. A few weeks ago, he'd left the Praxeum again, though he'd voiced his intent to remain on Yavin IV. He understood that he could not continue to divide his attentions if he was to properly serve the Order. Akea was contemplating his fate. That, no doubt, was the topic at hand.

Before Akea had a chance to initiate the greeting questions of courtesy, Luke spoke again.

"It's strange, you know. It's not often addressed. Most of us look the other way, or gloss over the subject - Lifespans. You're older now than I'll likely ever be. Even with your condition, you probably have more time left in you than I - and yet somehow, in the time we're given, we all manage to find our way. That relativity, it's interesting, wouldn't you agree?"

Akea sank back into the marsh slightly as he thought, grumbling almost imperceptibly. The old Jedi was smart enough to know that Luke was baiting his response, but if the conversation was to continue, it was Akea's. He returned to his original position, his head considerably elevated above the water line, now eye-level with Luke.

"I will admit that I cannot put fully behind me some degree of resentment. It is as though the old age was meant to perish, that everything associated with it must decay prematurely and fall into obscurity."

Luke had grown quite comfortable arguing with Akea, smiling before he replied.

"Perhaps it was meant to end. It is not so difficult to imagine that when the status quo allows darkness to contaminate its very core, the natural course of things would see that status quo erased entirely."

Akea was willing to maintain the argument for the sake of conjecture, although he understood it was tangent to the conversation's true purpose.

"And the years of suffering that followed?"

Luke bowed his head, somewhat sombered.

"Suffering teaches us many things. Often, it is suffering that teaches us what changes must be made if we are to thrive once again. I suppose that, then, is the issue at hand. I cannot pretend to understand your condition, but one thing is for certain; your suffering united us. You did what you had to do to survive, yes, but had you not sought my aid, we wouldn't be having this conversation. It was your illness that brought you out of hiding, and it was your illness that led you to me. It was because of that very illness that you are able to bridge the gap between the old and the new, helping to rebuild and transform the Jedi Order. That sounds to me awfully like this destiny you're so fond of referencing."

Luke gave the serpentine Jedi Knight a warm smile - Akea and Luke often argued about matters of the Force, particularly when it came to the matter of the future and the present. Akea believed strongly that the Force worked its way gradually into the lives of sentient beings across the years, a notion colloquially referred to as destiny, while Luke espoused an adherence to living in the moment, experiencing the 'will' of the Force. Luke could not help but jest at his friend, though his point was perfectly valid - had Akea stayed well, he likely never would have emerged from hiding. Luke continued.

"It's a funny thing, that we should ever bicker about these matters. In reality, neither of us is incorrect - we are expressions of the Force, as all things are. The Force is much larger and much more intricate than the scope of one being's understanding, Jedi or otherwise. I think, perhaps, that was the mistake of our predecessors, Akea."

Akea replied, having been listening intently up to this point.

"You suggest that the Jedi of the Old Republic assumed erroneously that their interpretation of the Force to be correct, and this led to their undoing?"

Luke shrugged slightly as he said, "Not exactly. My point is that I feel too many of our number equate the Force with morality. That a Jedi who is strongly in tune with the Force simply knows the 'right' thing to do. Morality is an utterly sentient concept; animals do not know right and wrong, diseases do not consider the impact of the infections they cause, and yet, these things are of the Force. To say their progression is the will of the Force is fine, and understanding the will of the Force will make a Jedi powerful indeed, but it does not make him right. Some of the most heroic people I've ever known had no connection to the Force at all, and they've taught me things I don't think I could have learned from a Jedi. The elusive concept of truly doing good is not an easy thing to understand; one must serve the will of the Force but also do right by whatever core beliefs govern their actions - that reconciliation is tricky, to be sure. We have to be aware of our surroundings and understand that we are bound to our duties not only by the Force, but a core set of ideals that charge us with maintaining peace in the galaxy."

Akea nodded, largely in agreement with the Grand Master's assessment. He replied, "The Force does not tell us that peace is its will. That is a judgment of sentient beings, that we prosper when we work in harmony, that our civilization is threatened when we allow anger, fear, and hatred to govern our actions. It is from this judgment that morality arises. We support and validate our beliefs in the Force, but it does not define them... we do."

Luke smiled again, returning one palm gently to Oahu's cheek.

"Exactly, old friend. Let no being tell you otherwise; the Force is no substitute for free will - the Force does not make our decisions for us. The Force has an ebb and flow, a directionality, yes, and we may act in accordance with it, but that is our choice. We are all the masters of our own destinies. You are one of the wisest among us, Akea; your understanding of the Jedi code and the traditions underlying our Order is truly without parallel, but you must understand, Akea, that this destiny is only a trail blazed for us by the Force's will. It is your choice to walk that path. There are no unavoidable fates. You are as blessed as you are cursed, for I think the Force has made your destiny abundantly clear. The decision to accept it is yours."

Akea nodded again, leaning into Luke's palm, which still rested on the side of his head. The Dur Sabon, an utterly logical and philosophical society, had few words to express notions of friendship or affection. As such, physical gestures were often used to express such notions, a habit Akea had learned from childhood.

"I know my duty, Master Skywalker. I have tried, time and again, to devote myself wholly to this duty, but I find myself ever distracted by my condition, and this tendency to be resentful is not something I wish to pass on to younger generations. I know that there is no cure, but as you say, this is the way of things."

Luke nodded, adding to Akea's statement, "Then it is in the past. Already your time is limited, why not move on? If you are to walk the path of a Jedi Master, you cannot be put off by such things. Every moment you spend searching futilely for a cure to your condition is time that younger Jedi are deprived of your wisdom - time of which neither of us possess an unlimited amount. Some parts of the past must be forgotten, and others must be remembered. Forget your illness - you know its outcome and you cannot change it. Help us, instead, to remember what is worth remembering about this Jedi Order of ours."

Akea straightened out again, assuming a more assertive posture.

"If you insist that a being's destiny is his own, Master Skywalker, why do you so urge me to return?"

Luke dropped his hand back to his side, his expression growing quite serious again.

"Because I believe it is my destiny to rebuild the Jedi Order into something that is prepared to handle the challenges of a new era. I believe that I must acknowledge our traditions and expand upon them, to transform the Order as the galaxy around it has transformed. I believe that I do not have all the answers to the questions that must be asked. I believe that the Jedi Order is adaptive, but that its core principles are unchanging. I believe that I must consider all these factors if I am to build the Jedi Order not into what it once was, but what it will be. I have chosen to walk this path, and I cannot do that without you."

Akea nodded, rising further out of the water. The scene was quite an iconic one - the draconic silhouette of the Dur Sabon rising from the steaming swamp before a single cloaked, hooded figure. Nearly eight feet out of the water, the Jedi Knight surveyed the forest briefly, closing his eyes. Everything around him lived and breathed, as he did. The lifeforms in this forest were continually living and dying, constantly renewing the greater ecosystem that made the forest itself as one massive organism. Akea had always known, but now he understood. Regardless of his actions, the Force did not slow down; the path he had before him, his destiny, would continue to move along with the rest of the world irrespective of his action or inaction. If he was to seize his destiny and walk down this path, he had to move forward and leave behind anything that was preventing him from doing so. This wasn't about Akea - he was but one being, insignificant in the scheme of the Force as well as in the grand scheme of an entire civilization. He could do only his part to improve both.

Luke, seeing him close his eyes, spoke softly.

"If you wish, I will leave you to your meditation." Luke prepared to turn around and make a graceful departure, but he was interrupted by the Dur Sabon's low, booming Basic.

"That won't be necessary, Master Skywalker. No more time need be wasted - I have pondered my condition long enough. My destiny lies ahead, and my duty is not to myself. I will return to the Temple with your blessing. I cannot promise that my understanding of this destiny has changed instantly. I would not deceive you by telling you that tonight is the last night I will regret the hand that I have been dealt. But what I do know is that there is much important work to be done, and - "

Already, Luke had extended a hand to Akea, a gesture of welcoming. Akea took the much smaller hand of the human Jedi Master, emerging fully from the swamp. Now on dry land, Akea continued, steam emanating from his body.

" - I am confident that, as you said, in the time we are given, we all manage to find our way."

Luke turned and began walking, and Akea matched his pace, sliding along the forest floor. Luke looked up the Jedi with a warm smile, glad that Akea was returning to the Praxeum.

"That we do, old friend. That we do."