Alrighty, here's chapter one!
Previous Chapter: Prologue
Next Chapter: Chapter 2: What Has Passed
Chapter One[]
Mission frowned slightly as she stepped up to the college building. It seemed... odd somehow. It looked like every other college she had seen before, but there was something different about this one. She could feel it.
It was like something... familiar was lurking deep beneath the building and Mission couldn't put her finger on why it seemed that way. Whatever it was, it felt like it was calling to her. It seemed to say in her head to her: "Come here... come here, child..."
Mission found herself thoroughly creeped out, but there was nothing really that she could do except ignore the call. But it seemed to be something she was meant to do- to follow the calling.
Mission never really believed in destiny. Oh yes, it always felt like she was being pulled along on some string, but she just ignored the feeling. But it seemed to grow ever stronger, the urge to follow whatever was calling her.
"...Trust in the Force..."
There it was again. The "Force". She would always be left wondering what the Force was, if it was dangerous or not, if it was real or her imagination. But that wasn't the only thing Mission felt as she stepped inside the building.
Something was coming. Something familiar. And it was coming for her.
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Mission could sense the... "energy" as she called it all around her. Well, more specifically around all the other students in the class. In some students there was more of the "energy" than in the others. But there wasn't nearly as much "energy" in the other students as there was in Mission. Mission felt... more connected. She felt stronger. More powerful in the "energy".
However, she did note that the professor- who was on the other side of the classroom- seemed to be as connected to the "energy" as Mission was. She didn't know how she knew. She just... felt it somehow.
But Mission ignored all this and tried to focus on the lecture instead.
"... and then we find the square root of..."
Mission frowned considerably. She had missed half the lecture because she was too busy thinking about something trivial. This wasn't good.
Mission tried to play back the lecture in her mind and managed to fill in some of the blanks. At least enough to know what the professor himself was talking about. But things continued to nag her the rest of the day. Things, as little as they seemed, could change everything with just one action, one choice.
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Flashback: Twenty Years Ago
Four year old Mission looked up at the stars through her bedroom window. They seemed like tiny pearls. Tiny pearls whose light illuminated the sky.
Mission knew there was more out there. More people, more planets, more... of everything, really. It was a beautiful sight, the night sky. And she felt it all hanging in the balance. There was peace.
Somewhere out there, there was a safe haven. Mission knew already what it was. In one of her most recent dreams, it was referred to as "The Promised Land". She knew it was out there. She just didn't know how to get to it.
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Present Day
Mission frowned slightly as she heard the professor call her name after class. Did she do something wrong?
She stepped towards him nervously, and asked, "Was there something you needed, sir?"
"Well," the professor spoke, "you seemed preoccupied throughout the entire lecture. Is there something wrong?"
Mission looked at the professor suspiciously. She felt somewhat distrustful of him, despite the fact that something in her told her he was an honest person. "No," she lied, "nothing is wrong, sir." She continued with, "Thank you for your concern, though, sir. Good day."
The professor simply nodded and then looked back at his notebook, which was full of calcutions.
Mission exited the classroom cautiously, deciding to keep an eye on the professor from now on.
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Mission looked on in horror as the slaughter commenced. Left and right, welders of the energy blade fell. There were screams of utter terror as the genocide ensued.
Mission turned to run, only to see the landscape change. Now she was in a snowy forest, the wind blowing snow past her. Suddenly she sensed the presence of someone. Someone dangerous.
A cloaked figure stepped out from behind one of the trees. He pulled something from his belt and a red blade of energy protruded from it. The figure suddenly slashed at Mission with it, the latter moving out of the way just in time.
She looked down and saw that she had two blades of energy coming from an object in her hand as well. Only hers were silver.
Mission saw the figure attempting to strike her again, only this time she instinctively blocked it with her double-bladed energy sword.
"You seem to have some skill with a lightsaber. Surprising for someone who denies her destiny as a Jedi," the cloaked figure hissed, making a deadly swipe with his lightsaber.
"Lightsaber? Jedi??" Mission thought as she blocked the blow.
Apparently the figure somehow must have read her thoughts, because he gave an incredulous laugh and said, "Oh, this is rich! All these years and you never realised the truth?" Mission frowned as the figure continued. "The Force runs deep within your veins. It represents your very being. It gives you strength and power over the weak. It is always in constant conflict, the light and the dark sides. Some people walk between the light and the dark, trying to balance it. But in the end, it's either one side, or the other."
"Who are you?!" Mission shouted, brandishing her lightsaber dangerously.
"You don't know who I am?" the figure asked. Then he- or she- removed her hood. "What about now?"
Mission stepped back, horrified. It was her, but at the same time, it wasn't.
"I am the darkness that resides in you. I am your fear, your anger, your hatred. I am what keeps you going. I am your only choice."
"No, no!" Mission backed away frantically. "Get out of my head!!"
And suddenly she found herself wide awake in bed, sweating profusely. What was happening to her?