Mist of Shadows
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Myst in DC Part 39
🕑 Added 2020-01-28 09:46:25 +0000 UTC
Myst sighed in relief when he finally spotted a starship that wasn’t a piece of non symmetrical junk or the same general model as the Millennium Falcon in the lot. If he was going to get something that looked like Solo’s ship, he was damned sure going to get the Falcon and that wouldn’t be possible for years if ever with the changes. “That one.” He pointed at the off white ship with some red highlights that had a circular cross section and an elongated bridge extending outwards that was parked on the lot with various other used ships. “It just has a little bit of damage.”
“And a missing laser turret,” Dawn grumbled.
Anakin turned to look at the ship that Myst had pointed at and shook his head when he recognized the model of laser turret on the underside of the ship. “Considering what they started with, someone did you a favor. I can get better weapons elsewhere, and for cheaper than the discount we can get for the damage,” he whispered the last part as he saw an overweight man in a clean mechanic’s suit walking toward the group.
“Legally?” Obi-Wan asked with a raised eyebrow.
Anakin gave Obi-Wan a grin but kept his mouth shut.
“You’re the expert,” Myst replied, perfectly willing to leave the haggling to the person that grew up dealing with Watto and working in a scrap yard.
Anakin focused on the middle aged owner as the man walked over. “A bit of battle damage, a cracked window and a missing laser, to say nothing of any damage to the interior.”
“Which we won’t know until we inspect it,” Obi-Wan said as the owner walked over.
The mechanic pulled his attention off Sabrina’s breasts and glanced between Myst, Kes, Obi-Wan and Anakin, trying to figure out who he should be talking to. He grinned when he recognized Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin. “General Kenobi and General Skywalker. Which ship are you interested in?”
Anakin gestured toward the ship that Myst had pointed out.
“Ah, the E-9 Explorer. I can have the window replaced within the hour and the battle damage is merely superficial.”
“Any other issues?” Anakin asked, knowing most used ships had some quirks if not outright issues.
The mechanic shrugged. “The power system is a bit twitchy as it was one of the first models out of the factory but it should be fine as long as you keep an eye on it and it has more than enough power to run better weapons which I’m sure you can appreciate.”
Myst turned his attention back to the ship, trusting Anakin to get a reasonable price. He glanced over the information his upgrade ability provided, hoping that he didn’t find any issues he couldn’t fix. ‘A couple of wires should probably be replaced or upgraded and we’ll need to clean up the kitchen but everything else looks decently solid if you ignore the second weapon, we might get five shots before it explodes,’ he sent to the group.
‘In other words, nothing we can’t fix,’ Sabrina mused, rather happy about getting a ship to play with even if it was only 65 meters long and didn’t have nearly enough weapons.
‘Where are we going to get better weapons?’ Dawn asked.
‘Mandalore has excellent weapons and I want to check on Snips,’ Anakin replied mentally. “How damaged is the second turret?”
“You’ll probably want to take a second look considering the other turret,” the mechanic admitted.
Sabrina scanned the man’s mind for everything he knew about the ship and what he’d paid and what he needed to make to feel good about the sale, she tossed the information to Anakin. ‘Just go with it, we can afford it.’
‘I’ll get there in a second,’ Anakin replied mentally as he continued to haggle, aiming for that sweet spot where everyone got a decent deal.
‘On that note, fix the window and get everything stocked up, I need to deal with a dark side nexus under the temple.’ Myst teleported to the shrine, glad that he’d grabbed an image of the inside of the shrine from Palpatine’s mind.
‘How did you discover that?’ Obi-Wan asked.
‘I ripped it out of Palpatine’s mind,’ Myst replied as he looked around the dark shrine, doing his best to ignore the sea of hatred and fear he could sense coming from the stone walls, statues of sith lords, skulls displayed on pedestals and the blood stained altar. ‘So, much for an easy fix.’
‘What do you mean?’ Obi-Wan asked as Anakin finalized the deal.
‘I was hoping it would be as simple as breaking an altar or a focus or drawing runes on the ground to contain the mess but the entire area is soaked in dark magic. Do you want me to teleport you down here so that you can give the Order a report or do you want me to contact Yoda and ask him what he wants to do with the shrine?’ Myst asked as he used his X-ray glasses to search the walls for secret passages and compartments.
‘Yoda would want to see it personally,’ Obi-Wan replied as he walked toward the ship to look at the inside while the mechanic went to get the replacement window.
“Sounds reasonable.” Myst reached out toward Yoda with his telepathy and gave the mental equivalent of a knock on the edge of Yoda’s mental defenses.
Yoda reached out and touched the link. ‘Curious I am. Something important for me, you have?’
‘I found a dark side nexus under the Jedi temple in the form of a Sith shrine, I was wondering if you wanted me to teleport you to the shrine so that you could poke around before I started ripping the walls apart?’ Myst asked as he found a stash of holocrons right where Palpatine’s memories said they were.
‘See the shrine for myself, I would,’ Yoda replied.
Myst quickly looted the holocrons by teleporting them to his hand and stashing them in his inventory. ‘In that case, are you currently busy?’
‘Meditating, I am,’ Yoda replied.
Myst focused on Yoda and teleported him to the shrine. “Capped, it is not.”
Yoda frowned as he let the dark side energies flow around him, remaining untouched but troubled by the strength of the hatred surrounding him. “Missed this, we did.”
“Gods, the Jedi are not,” Myst replied as he went back to scanning the various walls.
Yoda shook his head. “Understand that, I do.”
‘Do you have a way to deal with the shrine?’ Obi-Wan asked.
‘No,’ Yoda replied, fairly sure the order had built the temple over the shrine in an attempt to purify or contain the nexus.
‘Can you use a spell to contain it?’ Kes asked.
‘If the dark side energy was coming from an altar or a statue, I could create a runic circle that might be able to contain the energy but it’s coming from the entire structure,’ Myst replied.
‘Can we destroy the shrine?’ Anakin asked.
‘Destroying the shrine is easy, destroying the shrine without destroying the nexus of energy or causing it to explode is a lot harder,” Myst replied as he studied the skulls filled with dark energy.
‘The best solution might be using a purification ritual then boosting the lightside until the nexus is just a wellspring of power,’ Sabrina suggested.
‘That seems more reasonable than just leaving the Jedi to deal with it,’ Myst replied.
‘Knowledge of how to deal with this, we have lost, if once we did possess,’ Yoda admitted.
‘In that case, drop a cabinet in the ship then teleport down here and we’ll get started.’ Myst wanted the nexus dealt with before wandering off to collect the rest of Palpatine’s collection of holocrons and mystical equipment.
‘Sounds good,’ Sabrina replied as she headed back toward one of the bedrooms where she could stash a vanishing cabinet.
“Purification ritual, please explain,” Yoda said.
“It should erode some of the focus of the dark side energy which should let me bring the nexus back into balance without everything exploding.” Myst turned his attention toward the three sith lord statues and looked through them, curious if the sith had hidden anything in the statues. He wasn’t terribly surprised when he found a hidden compartment with a holocron. He teleported the holocron to his hand, looking at the cube. “Huh, that doesn’t look like a Sith holocron and it doesn’t feel evil, neat.”
“Looks like a Jedi holocron, it does,” Yoda agreed. “Donate to the temple, you will?” he asked, hopefully.
Myst duplicated the holocron with a gemino charm and floated the original cube over to Yoda. “Best of luck.”
“Interesting tricks, you have,” Yoda said thoughtfully, not particularly unhappy about Myst keeping a copy of the strange holocron as he wouldn’t have found it.
“Find knowledge in interesting places, you can,” Myst replied with amusement as he went back to looking around the chamber curious if the sith had hidden anything else.
“Bother you the dark side, does not?” Yoda asked as he studied Myst.
“Passion tempered by reason and compassion is the spark of life. Seeing people fall in love, watching someone work to improve their corner of the universe with a fire in their soul is beautiful and one of the reasons to keep living.” Myst gestured around the room. “This isn’t passion, this isn’t life, this is hatred and fear uncontrolled. What is the point of being alive if you let your hatred consume you?”
“None,” Yoda replied.
“Hatred is a trap, it keeps you from reevaluating your opinions which leads to blindness which leads to stupidity which should be avoided. The emotions that soak the room are annoying but they are devoid of temptation.”
“Devoid of temptation you say?” Yoda asked. “The dark side is seductive.”
“I am not a Jedi, I can’t actually reach out and feel the magic which means I’m just picking up echoes with my empathy. I don’t fear the dark side because it can’t offer me power or anything I value, at least not here.” Myst scowled at the sith statues. “There might be places where people use dancing and music to use the dark side of the force and I’d be interested in seeing what they can do but the power contained in this place, isn’t interesting in the slightest.”
Sabrina teleported in and scowled as she felt the negative emotions bleeding out of the walls and statues. “Are you sure there is anything to save?”
“It’s faint but not completely gone,” Myst replied as he teleported one of the skulls over and put it in his inventory to study later when Yoda turned to look at Sabrina. He was curious how the force repository compared to a mana battery and figured it was worth a look before he tested it to destruction.
“In that case, I’ll set up the purification ritual.” Sabrina grinned and swapped into her book form, causing Yoda to blink in surprise.
“Curious, that is,” Yoda said as he stared at the floating book, having felt a strange ripple in the force but nothing more.
“Do we want to collect Anakin and Obi-Wan?” Myst asked, not sure if he wanted Anakin to see the ritual or stay the hell away from the nexus until he could get his head on straight.
Sabrina opened to the page with the ritual and floated over so that Myst could study the ritual. “I would but Anakin had a vision of Ahsoka in danger by an old enemy so we’re heading out as soon as they can fix the window. Obi-Wan is keeping Anakin from rushing the repair work to an unsafe degree.”
Yoda nodded. “Send Kenobi to Mandalore, I shall.”
“This should be simple enough,” Myst said as he pulled several rupees and various other ingredients out of his inventory.
0o0o0
Padme smiled as she saw Anakin half inside a crawlspace checking something. “Any luck?”
Anakin twitched and narrowly avoided banging his head against the top of the crawlspace. “Padme?” he asked as he crawled backwards so that he could see his wife. “Shouldn’t you be meeting with someone important about the Chancellor’s death?”
“Obi-Wan called, he said you…” Padme trailed off, not sure how to bring up the fact that he’d quit the Order.
“Quit?” Anakin asked ruefully as he got to his feet. “I was tired of lying and I wanted to spend time with you.”
“Does that mean you’re staying?” Padme asked, hope leaking into her voice.
Anakin winced. “I would if I could but I had a vision, Ahsoka needs my help on Mandalore, Darth Maul is there.”
Padme pulled Anakin into a hug. “How long until you leave?”
“We’re leaving as soon as the droids finish sealing the window.”
“Do you have room for one more?” Padme asked.
“Of course,” Obi-Wan said as he walked up behind Padme, saving Anakin from putting his foot in his mouth by trying to keep her out of danger. “We could use your diplomatic skills.”
“What about the Senate?” Anakin asked, trying to think of something that would keep her away from Darth Maul and Mandalore without getting him in trouble.
Padme sighed as she thought about the squabbling senators. “None of the Senators can agree on a replacement Chancellor or if his replacement should have the extra powers the senate awarded Palpatine. We tabled the vote for two weeks so that people can campaign and try to sway the other senators which means I should have plenty of time to help. What happened with the Chancellor?”
“Do you want the official story or the truth?” Anakin asked, unwilling to lie but hoping that she wouldn’t ask even though he knew she would.
“I’ve heard the official story, the Chancellor and Count Dooku were killed during the fight and General Grievous escaped. What really happened?” Padme asked, trying to understand why Anakin had quit.
“I’ll get us in the air and headed toward Mandalore,” Obi-Wan said as he headed toward the cockpit, leaving Anakin to explain the entire mess.
0o0o0
It was hard to tell if the amount of dark side energy covering the shrine had decreased by a significant amount but the hatred and fear that Yoda could feel had dropped to a mere whisper of what it had been, leaving a mix of dark emotions that blended together into a sludge that was almost worse. “Sense less anger and hatred, I can.”
“Good.” Sabrina switched back to her human form and smiled at Myst. “Let’s see if you can even things out a bit.”
“Sure,” Myst replied as he spent mana to increase the percentage of passion in the nexus, hoping that he’d decrease one of the other darker emotions.
Sabrina giggled as the wave of mana washed over her. ‘I wonder how much that’s going to affect the female Jedi?’
“Changing the nexus, you are,” Yoda stated as he tried to sense what Myst was doing to the nexus.
“I’m pushing the passion up to see if I can clear out some of the filth in the nexus before I start increasing the amount of light side energy,” Myst explained as he increased the percentage of lust in the nexus.
“Restore the nexus to the light side, you could?” Yoda asked as he sensed the wave of energy pouring off Myst.
Myst spent enough mana to push the aggression in the nexus’s emotional mix up by 10%, causing the amount of other emotions to drop, giving him hope that he was on the right track. “Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Even ignoring the danger of completely twisting the nexus in minutes rather than over a long span of time, I believe in balance. I’d be fighting my nature if I twisted the nexus to that degree and that isn’t healthy for any magic user.”
Sabrina nodded. “It’s a good way to go insane and completely lose control.”
“Understand your point, I do,” Yoda said, thinking about how ridgid some of the other masters had become over the years.
Sabrina used a vanishing charm on the remains of the various skulls that the purification ritual had destroyed. “Besides, if someone is going to touch the dark side, I’d rather they have laughter and passion in their heart than anger. We should probably turn the statues into something more useful.”
“Have fun,” Myst replied as he worked on increasing the percentage of passion in the nexus, trying to decrease the worst emotions without completely eliminating them. He spent a few minutes tinkering with the balance then spent a massive amount of mana to increase the amount of light side energy in the nexus.
Sabrina gestured at one of the stone statues and changed it into a statue of a giant naked girl blowing someone a kiss. “That’s better.”
“Upset the sith would be,” Yoda said. “Caring, I find myself not.”
Sabrina gestured and changed the next statue into an athletic looking naked man holding a sword. She gestured and changed the last sith statue into a naked woman holding a bolt of lightning.
Yoda shook his head. “What lesson does this teach?”
“That magical ability is genetic,” Sabrina replied with amusement.
“Forbidden, attachment is,” Yoda pointed out.
“I’m not saying Jedi should get attached, I’m saying that stress relief might keep the Jedi from going insane. In other words, if we create an order of companions, we’ll increase the number of magic users and we’ll decrease the number of Jedi that fall to the dark side because they’ll have reasons to behave, no sex if you’ve lost your marbles.”
Yoda shook his head. “Convince the other masters of this, very difficult it will be.”
“In that case, I guess we’ll just have to do our best to train our own group of force users, do you want to jump ship?” Sabrina teased.
“Tempting your offer is,” Yoda admitted. “Younger than I used to be I am.”
Myst shook his head and continued working on increasing the light side energy while keeping the passion and aggression to reasonable levels.
0o0o0
Obi-Wan stopped as he walked out of the cockpit and into the dining area and noticed that it was easily a third larger than it should have been, as was the table unless he was seeing things. He turned to look at Myst. “How?”
“Magic,” Myst replied with amusement as he looked up from the schematic of the ship’s power grid that he was looking at. “To be more specific, I permanently increased the interior space. I did the same for all of the bedrooms and improved the life support systems to compensate for the increased volume of air. I’ll probably get around to increasing the size of the lounge once I figure out where to stick the cloaking device.”
“Where did you get a cloak?” Sabé asked as she walked into the room with Kes.
Myst turned to look at Padme’s bodyguard. “One of my last stops before coming to this section of the galaxy. I’m hoping it helps us get where we need to be without having to fight through an armada.”
“I’d rather not have to hurt anyone,” Kes said.
“That would be nice,” Obi-Wan agreed.
“That reminds me, how would you like to be immune to heat, cold, and electricity or strong enough to lift thirty tons?” Myst asked as he glanced between Obi-Wan and Sabé.
“Thirty tons?” Sabé asked in surprise. “I’d rather not get turned into a cyborg monster.”
“Nothing like that. I have an elixir that increases your physical abilities, mostly strength and durability.”
“What would it cost?” Sabé asked, wondering what the catch was.
“Nothing,” Myst replied as he conjured a glass of re’em’s blood enhanced Coke. “Consider it a gift for keeping Padme safe.”
Sabé shook her head. “That sounds impossible.”
“This wouldn’t be the first impossible ability he has handed out,” Obi-Wan offered as he floated off the ground a couple of inches.
Sabé glanced at Obi-Wan’s feet then looked back at Myst. “Thank you.” She took the elixir and drank the interesting beverage, knowing that the danger to Padme was just going to increase as the war continued and that Myst was going to offer Padme the same elixir.
Myst conjured another glass for Obi-Wan. “If nothing else, it should let you survive flying with Anakin.”
Obi-Wan laughed as he took the glass. “I’ll drink to that.”
“You should probably make some more defensive gear while you have the chance,” Kes suggested. “You’re going to need at least six sets, Yoda, Obi-Wan, Sabé, Padme, Anakin and Ahsoka.”
“At least,” Myst agreed with a yawn, knowing that Rex was most likely with Ahsoka if the show was at all accurate. “I’m going to grab some sleep. When Anakin and Padme get done breaking in his bed, let him know that I’m going to need some help installing the cloaking device.”
“Sleep?” Dawn asked as she walked into the room. “Nope, you’ve been upgrading the ship like crazy, I’m ready to knock on Anakin’s door and ask if I can join him and Padme and that would likely ruin the mood so yeah, I need someone to fuck.”
“And suddenly, I’m not remotely tired,” Myst assured Dawn as he walked over and picked her up. “Let’s get you to a bed before you decide to have your wicked way with me on the table.”
“Tempting but we’d probably break it,” Dawn said as Myst walked down the hallway with her in his arms.
Sabé looked at the metal table. “This is going to take some getting used to, isn’t it?”
“It’s easier than you’d expect,” Kes offered. “Let’s head to the hold, we can get a bit of practice in before we get some shuteye. Just don’t pick anything up and toss it until you’ve had a chance to practice in a desert or somewhere collateral damage doesn’t matter.”
Obi-Wan had a feeling it was going to be a rather strange mission, especially as Yoda had decided to tag along. “Sounds like a good use of our time.”
0o0o0
