Jolee Bindo ventures deeper and deeper sinking into the muck and water. His high boots are nearly swamped. One sock has begun to dampen before the other. A cloud moves just so, further blocking the sun. And it becomes interminably dark.
Jolee draws and ignites his luminous jade blade. Then he notices the hissing of insects being drawn to the light. He projects a gentle repulse around his head and elects to disengage the saber.
He will see by the Force.
Jolee stomps through the water on his way to the bank and an unseen hand reaches down to assist him on to dry land. He accepts the arm of the robe and allows himself to be hoisted up.
Releasing the arm, for the first time he looks up and realizes that he is confronted with an apparition. A Jedi's robe levitates before him, but there is no one within. He calls all around.
JOLEE: Who's there? Come out and show yourself.
With no reply Jolee considers the sensation on his arm. He truly felt a hand, the fingers, and there was an arm for him to clasp beneath the fibers of the robe.
The robe flutters and in a blink it tries to engulf him. He attempts to reach for his lightsaber and a sleeve seizes his wrist. He calls his lightsaber and it flies up to his hand in a flash. Activating the blade, the robe disentangles itself and flutters off out of sight into the brush.
Jolee walks down the path, saber raised
parallel to his face, and scans his surroundings.
Then, he takes an unknowing step into another bog.
A little more than waist high in water, the robe flitters out at him again. Jolee attempts a sweeping strike, but lands in the water with a sizzle. And the robe evades, turns back, and grabs from behind. They wrestle for the saber, which Jolee loses his grip on.
Without hesitation, upon losing his weapon Jolee takes a breath and ducks beneath the water.
The haunted habit does not follow and levitates there.
Jolee bolts from beneath the water and lands on another patch of dry ground. He draws a second saber which he retained from his adventures with Revan.
The robe flew toward him and they began to duel.
The ground shook in frequent, but distinct tremors. Trees began to topple over. A couple trunks spontaneously exploded into splinters. All the while the chaos was familiar. The movements of his opponent were familiar. A hand had manifested from beneath the robes. The fingers were slender and nails sharp. The robe circled around him and fluttered back a pace. The turbulent swamp fell gravely silent.
The hood turned, a shadow fell away and revealed a face.
JOLEE: Nayama?
NAYAMA: Got something on your mind, do you?
JOLEE: It can't be. You're dead.
NAYAMA: What is death to the Force?
JOLEE: But, in the final battle...
NAYAMA: You defeated me before, Jolee.
Can you do so yet again?
JOLEE: I don't know what you are. But you're
not leaving here with that lightsaber.
NAYAMA: Why? You have no claim
to this weapon, Jolee Bindo.
JOLEE: It's all I have.
NAYAMA: How did you come by it, Jolee?
Where is your lightsaber to be found?
JOLEE: It belongs to me!
NAYAMA: Yes. It does... now. You took it the
same way you took the one you're still holding.
Off the body of the fallen Jedi that you killed.
Green was never your color, Jolee.
JOLEE: It is not the same.
NAYAMA: Indeed, it is not. You loved
the owner of this lightsaber, didn't you?
JOLEE: I-
NAYAMA: Where is your true lightsaber, Jolee?
JOLEE: I- I destroyed it.
NAYAMA: A Jedi's weapon? And you destroyed it?
JOLEE: I had to.
NAYAMA: Why did you have to, Jolee?
JOLEE: Because I had never killed anyone else with it.
NAYAMA: And how did it come to pass?
JOLEE: I looked for you at the final battle, though,
I didn't take part in it. I joined the Great Hunt after Yavin 4.
NAYAMA: To avenge your fallen?
JOLEE: To bring her back. To save her.
NAYAMA: And so... Jolee Bindo, instead, became the
collector of sabers of fallen Jedi who fell to him.
JOLEE: I sought no one else but her!
NAYAMA: Didn't you? You chose to go with Revan and
had to know what that would mean. And before that
you stalked those that were on the surface of Kashyyyk.
Weren't they waiting to set an ambush at the Star Map?
How many of them died before they fled from you, Jolee?
JOLEE: They would have found my house.
They would have known that I was a Jedi. I waited.
Then I approached them. And they attacked.
NAYAMA: And you chose your own life, just like you did with me.
JOLEE: I defended myself. That isn't asking too much.
NAYAMA: You saw the Sith Tempter turned to
the Prodigal Knight. Was I so beyond redemption?
JOLEE: It wasn't that she was beyond redemption.
It was that... you weren't redeemed.
He silences the hum of his saber.
JOLEE: I talked with you during that whole fight, Wife.
I begged you to reconsider. Even then, you spoke of revenge.
NAYAMA: You failed me, Jolee.
JOLEE: No. You failed me. Jedi died because you
lost faith. And because you made me lose mine.
She wails.
NAYAMA: That isn't fair!
JOLEE: No, it isn't. But it's true.
The robe collapses in a heap. Jolee cautiously approaches and pads it with the toe of his boot.
He collects his lightsaber. And about to step away he takes up the robe.
He puts it on. He turns down the path lit by the newly appeared sun.
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