Nearly Missed - The untold crossings of two paths

[Jago]

~ It had been nearly four years since that day.

The day that Shadow had walked out of his life.
The day he had taken that same pistol and put down the man he had looked up to.
The day he had been set down on a new world with nowhere to go and nothing to be.

Much had changed, he told himself, as he made his way up the stairs. Such long stairs: they went on forever. The dying light of the sun glistened and turned the nearby buildings gold, sending a shiver down the young man’s back. He shifted the weight of his bag onto his other shoulder and continued the ascent.

It had been a hard life. Continuously, he had been used.
By gangsters and the Underworld.
By governments and their lackeys.
By the oppressors and the oppressed.
There had been little time, if any, to rest or reflect. From one job, to the next. To feel both love and heartbreak. To learn what it meant to take a life. To experience what it was like to save one.

He had to pause for a moment, catching his breath. The mountain before him was surely some trick of the eyes: he felt as though he had been walking for so long, and yet appeared to be no closer to the summit that he was when he started. Undaunted, he soldiered on.

There had been times when he thought of that Shadow. She easily could have taken his life. Ended his journey right there.
She could have taken him with her, away from that horrible ship and towards something … He wasn’t sure. Better? What if it had been worse?
There was much she could have done. But she had left him with one, burning question, the one she had refused to answer.

What did The Force have in store for him?

She said she hadn’t known, and he had no way to prove whether that was a Lie or not. Maybe he would meet her again, his Shadow. That which had simultaneously protected and doomed him. Was she still watching? Most likely not, he surmised. Not many cared enough about him to do so. He thought there was one who did, one who was enough for him to give up everything for … But she, too was gone now. Lost to the stars he had made his home.

He stopped again. Panting. He was not used to air so clean, or a sky so bright. It stung slightly. His lungs expected the sour taste of filtration, his pale skin yearned for darkness but his heart said no. No, not anymore. That was not The Way, not what called to him. His hand clutched to his breast, to feel the pendant tucked away beneath his shirt. Again, he continued the climb.

It had been a long journey to here, yes. His life had changed many times, almost never with his choice. Always had others made their impressions upon it. Captain Cid. Scur. Luna. The Shadow. That … was not entirely accurate. The Shadow had not forced his life to change. She had merely opened his eyes, and gave him the chance to respond. She had been the one person in his miserable pit of existence that had actually let him think, and choose, for himself.

He would need to return the favor one day, if she was even still alive.

Finally, the stairs were finished. Before him sat a large, emerald pyramid, casting its glow across his features in the twilight. His eyes radiated the same color as, with euphoria, he jogged the rest of the way to the door. A Weequay barred his entrance, looking down over the not-so-teenager as if trying to see right through him with those black, opaque eyes. The human stood still, and awaited judgment. After Eternity had passed, the human’s heart began to beat once more when the being spoke.

” Who are you, that comes to this Temple?”

He looked up at the Weequay, and grinned. Ready. Knowing beyond all things that this, right here, was where he wanted to be. Where he was meant to be.

Were it not for The Shadow, he never would have gotten this far. He owed it to her to see this through to the end, wherever that may be.

” My name is Jago Pulastra. I’m here to learn the Ways of The Force, and become a Jedi.”

Like my Parents, before me.

The Weequay took one more look at him, this thin, bedraggled human that had climbed the steps to this Temple alone. Slowly, he smiled, stepped aside, and opened the door to him. ~