6 Hours Later

The storm had yet to relent.

Nightfall had come and we all were either tense or a little afraid. Jack had been trying to get into contact with his droids on the Fury every ten minutes but was constantly met with silence. It deeply frustrated him that he had most likely lost all of his highly advanced technology and Katy thankfully was able to calm him down before his temper got the better of him. Once Hyde got Thistle to fall asleep so his injuries would heal, the Serpents left their posts and refused to leave their master’s bedside. I wanted to be angry at the hippogriffs for leaving but honestly, there was nothing more they could contribute. With Vigilant’s barrier cutting us off from the outside world, we were little more than a gigantic snow globe floating in the middle of an angry sea.

Hyde was wracked with guilt for bringing us out here and he blamed himself for the situation we were put in and he also seemed to be getting ready to dive into another pit of self-pity. Luckily Katy stepped in to reassure my little brother that none of this was his fault. No one could’ve predicted the storm and Katy actually blamed herself for not telling anyone about the hostile presence that Jack told her about at the docks. Katy also helped keep Vigilant relaxed as he was holding up the barrier by giving him back massages and got him some pillows to rest on. Because of the comforts provided for him, Vigilant was able to better focus on keeping up the barrier despite the tediously long hours.

So far Katy was the one responsible for keeping morale stable and I couldn’t be more thankful for that. In situations like this keeping morale high was a priority for any leader of a ship crew. Since Katy silently volunteered to take that job for herself it gave me room to think of a way to get us out of this mess. With Thistle’s portal device destroyed we lost our quickest escape route from the storm and we didn’t have the resources to repair it. I asked Vigilant if he could teleport us all away from the storm with the assistance of the Ether crystal but he said he barely had the ability to teleport himself a few meters away. Unicorn teleportation blinking of the scale I was asking for would require the focus of dozens of unicorns who have spent years mastering the spell and Vigilant assured me that he couldn’t do what I asked even if he had the combined power of hundreds of Ether crystals.

I did have 2 solutions, however. The first and simplest one was to simply wait for rescue from the Shattered Isles. Father and my sister Takada would spare no expense in finding out where we were and I figured that they would find us at least within a day or two. The only problem with this solution was assuming that Vigilant Star could hold the barrier up for that long. People needed to sleep and even if the unicorn was drawing power from the Ether crystal to power his barrier the process of keeping it up must still be a little demanding.

The second solution offered the quickest end to our situation but it was also the most suicidal. Griffins were capable of manipulating the weather and a good team of 10 could dissipate this storm by themselves. However, there were only 3 griffins on this ship and Thistle had a broken wing while Hyde was physically weaker than a majority of griffins. It would have to be up to me and I didn’t see myself succeeding just on my own. At best I’d probably dissipate a few clouds and lighten up the winds a little, but at worst my wings would get too exhausted trying to handle such a large task on their own and I’d probably fall into the sea and get a broken neck for my trouble.

‘For now, the best course I see for us right now is to go with the first solution and hope for the best. I guess the only thing I can do for now is remain alert for any changes in the storm.’ I thought to myself as I continued my vigil at the helm.

The Next Day

Lightning cracked against the transparent blue barrier again showing that the storm hadn’t even begun to slow down despite how much time had passed. I made sure everyone got at least a few hours of sleep last night but made sure periodically that someone was awake to give Vigilant Star company. The unicorn was exhausted and almost constantly needed someone else to keep him awake and it started to lean me ever closer to the second solution. Our situation was getting desperate and not even Katy could keep everyone optimistic. I couldn’t fault her for trying though.

“Okay everyone, brunch is severed!” Katy said with a tired smile. With a little help from her brother, Katy managed to whip up a few omelets for everyone in The Extravagant’s kitchen but that was all she could come up with. Thistle only brought enough supplies for a day-long voyage and it left Katy with few other options to work with.

“It’s great Katy thank you,” I said voicing my appreciation before everyone else followed my example. With the dinner table gone we all ate our food in our own little corner of the ship deck and the only ones who weren’t eating here with us were Thistle and his Serpents. Thistle was still resting in his cabin and one of the Serpents came out only to grab a few fruits before returning to the cabin room. I figured Thistle was all right for now and knew the Serpents would come to us if something was wrong.

Hours continued to pass us by and all I could do was still keep vigil over the ship and the outside world in hopes that a rescue would come eventually. Boredom more or less became my only feeling for the majority of the day so far, but that boredom was quickly swatted aside when I saw the blue dome beginning to flicker.

“Vigilant? VIGILANT?!” I heard Katy call out as she sat next to the unicorn who could now barely keep his eyelids open.

‘Nooooo.’ I thought as I slowly sunk into despair.

“Vigilant you have to stay awake!” Katy said as she shook the unicorn a little which caused him to groan weakly in response.

“He can’t keep it up forever Katy we have to think of something else,” Jack said beside her before he started to pace back and forth. The two displaced alien siblings started to throw out ideas and argue over solutions but they didn’t know that I already had planned for when our situation had when it had reached this point. I could feel my heart beating my feathered chest in fear for what I knew I had to do and I had to fight to claim the courage I needed to do it.

My brothers are on this ship! Jack, my newest friend, and his sister are on this ship! I’m the sailor here and I took charge of directing this ship when Thistle asked me to. These people are my crew right now and it is the duty of a Hiallan ship commander to take care of their crew. ALWAYS!’ I screamed in my head as a sense of duty to family and my House’s pride gave me the courage I desperately needed. ‘I was afraid of the Aper Major, but I still fought it. I’m afraid of this storm, but I will still fight it!’

I silenced Jack and Katy with a stomp of my right talons on the deck and they looked to me with their full attention. I told them my second solution and they were beginning to protest immediately but I silenced them again with another stomp.

“I know what I’m doing is practically suicidal but this is the only way I see any of us getting out of this alive,” Falca told Katy and I as we stood there stunned by what she said.

I wanted to tell her no but she had already made up her mind. I wanted to find us another way but I could think of absolutely nothing. I wanted to tell her that no one, not even Rainbow Dash, could handle a storm this large and dangerous by themselves. I wanted to tell her that without her we would have no idea what to do without her if she failed. I mostly just wanted to hug my first griffin friend in this world and tell her that she didn’t have to do this.

“Vigilant can you look at me?” Falca asked the tired unicorn as he strained to lift up his eyelids to look at her. “I want you to drop the barrier for just a few seconds but after that I want you to keep it up for as long as you can. Drink some caffeine if Katy can find any in Thistle’s kitchen, slap yourself in the face if you need to, just keep the barrier up long enough till I dissipate the storm or until help arrives.” Vigilant nodded his head but didn’t use his words for fear of yawning.

Falca nodded in return before she turned to the only other person on deck who had been oddly silent this whole time. Hyde was wide-eyed and I could sense the deep paralyzing fear he was going through as he thought of Falca facing the storm by herself. He wanted desperately to help her but he knew he was far too weak of a flyer to help in any way. He nearly started crying when Falca walked up to him and hugged the small griffin to her chest. Warmth was all Falca was giving to her little brother but it only made Hyde want to cry all the harder.

“I love you Hyde. If I don’t make it back tell Thistle, Takada, and fath- papa that I love them too. It’s going to be all right Hyde understand?” Falca said a little shakily. Hyde didn’t respond at first but he nodded his head into her chest after a few moments had passed. After breaking away from her little brother Falca looked to Katy, Vigilant, and then to me for a short while before she extended her wings and took to the sky.

“Falca!” I yelled before she flew too far away. She looked down at me expectantly and I said the only thing I could think of that made any sense. “May the Force be with you.” I doubt she understood entirely what the expression meant but I think she understood enough when she smiled at me in appreciation.

“Now!” Falca cried as she reached the wall of the barrier that protected us from the storm and I watched it disappear to flood us with a discordance of icy rain and harsh winds. The brief moment of unpleasantness was gone however a few seconds later as Vigilant reformed the blue transparent barrier once again to block another bolt of lightning from striking the ship. As the barrier reformed Falca had disappeared into the inky blackness of the storm. We were all alone now and the only thing we had left to do was either wait for Falca to return or pray for a miracle.

‘Expect I hate waiting and I most certainly hate praying!’ I seethed silently as I returned to my pacing around the deck. I looked over to Katy and saw her sitting cross-legged next to Vigilant Star and Hyde while softly petting their backs to provide them all the comfort she could give. Reaching out with the Force I could sense the worry she felt deep in her gut but she hid it well with a calm face and a confident smile. ‘Out of all of us, she is probably the only one that will survive us all if this ship was destroyed by the storm. Katy can breathe underwater and she can feed herself by living off the underwater sea life. Hyde and Thistle with the Serpents could fly over the ocean for a little while if the storm didn’t strike them down first but I didn’t envy their chances. I also didn’t envy my own chances as well even though I knew Katy would never leave my side. Swimming in the middle of the vast ocean without food was perilous enough even if the storm didn’t continue to hunt me as I swam in a random direction towards land. Vigilant Star arguably though had it the worst of us all. I should head below deck and see what supplies I can salvage for us all before- NNNOOO!’

I grabbed the ship’s railing and felt the wood crack audibly beneath my grip as I chastised myself for the thoughts I was entertaining. It was almost as if I expected Falca to fail in her endeavor. She was out there fighting an entire storm to save our lives and I had to do something to help her. There has to be something I haven’t thought of yet. Something I could use to give her the strength she needed to succeed.

It might have left a bad taste in my mouth but I considered consulting Valkorion in my token to see if he has any advice I could use. Even if he refused to help I should at least ask nonetheless. So I dug into my pocket and brought out the holocron that housed the former Emperor’s collected knowledge and prodded it with the Force hoping it would respond. I soon realized it had succeeded when I saw a bolt of lightning freeze mid-air in time outside Vigilant’s barrier.

“You call for me even though you still have yet to prove yourself worthy of my knowledge. Tell me, do you expect me to-.”

“Enough with the crap Valkorion!” I shouted mentally to stop him from inevitably scolding me. The holocron guardian’s ghostly form walked up to my side and ignored my glare to stare out at the lightning bolt frozen in time. “Can your knowledge help me assist Falca or not? Outside of war, combat, and natural Force senses, I don’t know how any of the Wrath’s Force abilities can help in this situation.” He said nothing at first and just continued to stare at the frozen lightning bolt curiously with a tilt of his head. I would have been angry at his lack of haste to respond but right now I had all the time in the world to deal with it.

“You disappoint me.” Was all he said.

“I did not ask for your approval Valkorion! I asked if your knowledge can help!”

He turned his gaze from the lightning bolt to gaze at me instead and I was surprised by the curiosity I found in them rather than the smug sense of superiority I always found.

“Why would my knowledge be of use to you when you already possess the ability to solve your problem on your own? If anything, offering you a fragment of my knowledge now would deprive you of the full victory you could claim for yourself.

“The Force is challenging you, Jack Krieger.”

I was confused by his statement. Do I possess the ability to solve my problem? I don’t think a little telekinesis and Force screams are enough to fight off a supernatural storm. Especially when I can’t get a focus on the entity that was causing the storm in the first place. What was the Force expecting me to do?

“But the Wrath can’t-.”

“YOU ARE NOT THE WARTH OF AN EMPIRE FROM A BYGONE GALAXY!” Valkorion roared in an echoing baritone that shook my senses. “You are a child inhabiting another’s body. A body that is strong with the Force and was forged in the fires of a galaxy bathed in war and Dark Side energy, but it is still not your body. The Wrath used his body and its power as he saw fit, but now it is time for Jack Krieger to use that power as HE sees fit. The Wrath’s limits are not your own.

“But I don’t have time to expand those limits now!” I argued. “Falca is out there risking her life to save the lives of everyone aboard this ship. I need a solution now!”

“As I’ve already said, you have the ability to save her already but you just refuse to see it. The Force isn’t just limited to the Dark Side.”

The Light… He was talking about the Light Side of the Force. Valkorion smiled as I finally realized what he was talking about and he walked a circle around me as he continued to speak.

“The Dark can be used to empower oneself and allow them to create their own destinies in this unendingly vast universe. While the Light can allow you to strengthen the hopes and powers of another and can unify a galaxy towards a set of ideals.”

I took what he told me and used it to sift through a vast collection of Star Wars lore I had collected in my nerdy mind after years of watching the movies, playing the games, and reading the books. I remembered the countless powerful abilities Jedi and Sith were capable of and one power stood out specifically. An ability that allowed Force users to coordinate allies and even entire fleets of ships into acting as a single entity and could empower others with considerable strength. Strength that Falca could use to succeed in her task.

“Battle Meditation,” I said openly.

“Yes,” Valkorion said in a whisper.

“I can use Battle Mediation to save Falca.”

“Only if you believe yourself to have the aptitude for it. This is a Force ability your neural implant won’t have experience for you to draw upon. The Wrath was a pure warrior and could never use Battle Meditation.”

“I have to have the aptitude for it. Falca needs me.”

Valkorion was strangely silent for a few moments. If I didn’t look around to make sure he was there I might have expected him to be gone.

“Be wary of family and the bonds you create Jack Krieger. You may think that you need the family and love people like Falca and your sister can provide, but I can assure you that family is a weakness that will be your downfall. I may disagree with the doctrines of the Jedi on many things but I can at least agree with them when it comes to separating oneself from family.”

“What would you know about family?” I asked Valkorion in utter disbelief. I played the video game and I knew how the former Emperor treated his own family. “You discarded your wife, enslaved your own daughter, and had your sons kill each other! You treated your family as only tools to be used to grow your own power.”

“And yet, they were the keys to my own downfall,” Valkorion said simply. “I was a god, an Eternal Emperor that no superweapon, Jedi, or Sith could ever hope to destroy completely. But it was my family that helped strike the final blow and ended my glorious reign over the galaxy. I say it again Jack Krieger…

“Beware of family and the bonds you create.”

The passage of time had returned to normal and the lightning bolt outside of Vigilant’s barrier finished its blinding strike. Valkorion’s words still rung within my ears, prickling my thoughts and daring me to ponder them further, but I swept them aside as a much more important task needed my attention. Falca was still out there hidden physically amongst the quagmire of the savage storm but I could still sense her presence with the Force. She was fighting for her life, fighting for us all upon this ship and it was time I gave her some help.

“Hey, Jack you okay?” Katy asked behind me.

“No, but hopefully I will soon,” I said without turning around. Instead, I got on my knees and prepared myself for meditation.

“We’re all worried Jack but it’s okay. Falca seems to be a very strong griffin and I’m sure-.”

“Katy?”

“Yeah?”

“I need silence for what I’m about to do.”

“Ohhh… are you about to do awesome space wizard stuff?”

“Yep.”

“…”

“…”

“Awesome!”

I focused my senses entirely on the Force surrounding me. I felt the passions and emotions of all the living things on this ship turn into an energy that sung like a chorus. I held the power that dwelled deep inside me and felt how it was blighted by my constant use of the Dark Side’s tremendous energy. I knew that were I to surrender some of my power to another I would need to relinquish the greedy nature of the Dark Side and make room for the Light. To do this I needed to seek guidance from the Force.

Instead of bringing the Force under my direct control through the Dark Side I allowed the Force to give me what I needed instead of what I wanted. I needed to give up my emotions momentarily and allow myself peace so that I may articulate the Light’s will clearly.

I inhaled, then exhaled.

I felt the peace of the Light.

Where there was ignorance, only blissful knowledge now remained.

Where there was passion, only the serenity of focus kept me towards my goal.

Where there was chaos, only harmony was found instead.

There was only the Force, and the Force taught me what I needed to save Falca.

My mind and body were in a deep trance of Battle Mediation and I reached out to give the princess of the Shattered Isles my strength.

My wings ached and I could feel my muscles turn numb as icy rain dug through my fur and feathers to chill me to the bone. My wings and talons dug into the harsh electrified terrain of another cloud and I had the innate magic, which belonged to all griffins and pegasi, to dissipate the cloud into another harmless mass of water. The process was as draining as the 20 other times I had done before and I heaved a hopeless sigh as I realized I had probably hundreds of more clouds to go.

‘I have to keep going no matter what!’ I screamed in my head like a mantra. But deep down I knew that what I was doing was impossible to do by myself. I fought through the winds to the next adjacent cloud and I had to stop to catch my breath before I fainted from exhaustion.

But then something abnormal happened.

Suddenly my muscles were filled to the brim with energy and I could feel power radiate beneath my wings. My breathing slowed to a comfortable pace and I felt warmth encompass my being. My perceptions had increased dramatically and everything that once seemed chaotic and impossible now appeared controllable and promising.

I felt not merely strong but mighty. As if my talons could crush a slab of stone, as if I could fly a thousand leagues in an instant with a single beat of my wings. Thoughts raced through my brain, not simply clever or cunning thoughts but shining, frighteningly brilliant ones. It was like something inside my body had been awakened for the very first time and I wished for it to never remain hidden from me again.

I stood proudly upon the black cloud I had used for my rest and raised my wings to let loose a gust of wind that was overflowing with my newfound power. In an instant, over two dozen storm clouds were turned into more harmless masses of water and I immediately took notice of the absence of icy rain. The gust of wind I had created must have banished the rain from my general area and I felt great pleasure in the feeling of dry fresh air once more.

I was far from done though. More bolts of lightning crashed down upon The Extravagant down below from the hundreds of other storm clouds that surrounded me. Above it all though I sensed something amongst the clouds that wasn’t there moments ago. I don’t know how I could sense it now but I didn’t question it. There was an entity that formed and directed these clouds and I deduced that it was the same entity that Jack had spoken of back on the ship. It was beyond angry now and I could sense that it knew I was more than powerful enough to eradicate its storm. It hastened its creation of more storm clouds but I also sensed that it was beginning to conjure something much more dangerous.

I took flight once again and returned to my fight against the storm anew. Every wing beat in my flight path had cleared dozens of more storm clouds and along the way, I gathered the newfound power within my core to prepare for what I had planned. My destination was the mysterious entity that had caused all of this mayhem and it laid within the eye of this supernatural storm. I was going to end this storm at its very source with my mysterious newfound strength.

‘It will pay for threatening my family!’

With Falca endowed with the power made possible by my Battle Meditation the tremendous danger that the storm once presented seemed like a trivial matter to the griffin princess. The mysterious entity was now aware of the threat she presented and instead of directing lightning bolts towards The Extravagant, it now directed them towards Falca. She easily dodged the near instantaneous bolts of plasma once I had the Force guide her wings.

However, what was most curious about the whole endeavor was the fact that Falca needed less and less of my help the more I tapped the core of her being with my Force energy. The heaviness of her previous exhaustion vanished as if it were physical armor that had been seized and yanked off by her own talons. Her mind was racing with vast comprehensive thoughts that focused solely on the dissipation of the storm and each one of them was engendering a shift towards a quick resolution. Not only her mind but also her body seemed to ascend abruptly and shockingly to instant whole new levels of strength, dexterity, and control. It felt like not only could she destroy storms… she could also create them.

It all came to me all at once in an instant. Falca’s Hiallan bloodline wasn’t just filled with powerful magic and a lineage of monarchs. With my Battle Meditation, I had awakened something within Falca that has probably been dormant since the dawn of her birth. Falca was Force Sensitive!

“What… what is this?” I managed to ask myself in a whisper. How had I not sensed this before now? I knew Falca’s family was beyond extraordinary compared to most griffins but this revelation had taken them to an entirely different level. Every creature was touched by the Force, or in this world’s case magic, in some form or another but Force Sensitives were people like me who could become attuned to the Force’s spiritual will or could manipulate the Force to transform the world around them. It may not have been intentional but I was possibly responsible for creating this world’s very first Force Sensitive.

I wanted to bask a few moments in the joys of creating such a happy accident but it was cut short when the blue barrier that was supposed to protect The Extravagant disappeared all of a sudden and fresh icy rain chilled my skin. I broke my focus to turn towards Vigilant and was startled when I found that he had lost consciousness and was slumped against the cushions that Katy had provided for him. I cursed to myself as I realized I could’ve helped Vigilant maintain the barrier when I was using my Battle Meditation but was too focused on only helping a single person to realize my folly. I touched his mind to see if I could wake him up but I found it would probably be too dangerous forcing his brain to become conscious when his body was so desperately needing rest. I was surprised that he never complained once about the fatigue he was going through.

With the barrier down Katy was moving fast to get everyone below deck but the wind had picked up suddenly and threatened to blow everyone overboard. I quickly leaped to grab the rails to hold on and tried to keep focused on my Battle Meditation, all the while Katy grabbed some thick rope from the ship deck before it could fly off and tied lifelines around Vigilant’s and Hyde’s waists. She tied a loop around the mainsail to keep the lifelines secure but neglected to tie a lifeline around herself as she slowly tried to get to me on my side of the deck. Katy crawled on the deck holding on to obtrusive pieces of wood as the wind blew her hair around crazily. Angry waves tossed and turned The Extravagant ceaselessly as Katy tried to get closer to me and I tried to cut her journey in half by slowly trying to crawl towards her as well.

Then… everything stood still for a second as the Force warned me of a lightning bolt directed solely at Katy. The entity must have noticed that Vigilant’s barrier had fallen and stopped directing its lightning at Falca to continue its assault on us! With a flick of my hand, I ceased my Battle Meditation and my lightsaber flew into my hand. I channeled the Force into my legs to throw myself above Katy and I clicked the button on the lightsaber’s handle to activate it. In the small space between milliseconds, my lightsaber was half-formed as I turned my hand towards the sky to block the coming bolt. However before the blade could be fully formed, the impossible happened as lighting struck the blade in full force and shattered the saber’s plasma into pieces of released ionized matter. The lightsaber then acted as a conduit for the lightning as it traveled through the handle and into my arm!

It was just for an instant, but it was one of the direst pains I had ever felt in my entire life. It felt like thousands of razor teeth were tearing the inside of my body apart. My muscles spasmed and my jaw clenched shut, almost causing me to bite my own tongue in half. My insides churned and boiled and it felt like my organs were being turned into a gruesome soup.

Then just before it could end, I felt the electricity tear across my chest and my heart froze mid-beat. In those spare moments, before my back had hit the deck, my heart never continued its pace. I could only lie there wide-eyed, unmoving, and terrified as Katy rushed over to me to place the side of her head against my chest and heard absolutely nothing…

I could feel the power leaving me as I neared the eye of the storm. I clutched the feathers near my chest as it felt like my heart was being turned into liquid magma inside my own chest. Desperation plagued my mind as it felt like something close to me was ripped away from my very being. I needed to keep going but my body refused to respond to me as I dropped from the sky like a stone.

‘What’s happening to me? Why is it happening? I’m so close to ending this! I need more time, PLEASE, I need more time!’ I screamed inside my head.

I could see that I was quickly approaching the sea and I desperately searched inside myself for that power that had been within me. Seconds passed as I fell ever closer to my doom and without the power’s presence, I felt as if I was slowly being buried alive with fear. It felt like I was trapped, hopeless, and alone inside my own body.

But… whether by luck, resolve, or the will of the Ancestors, I found that power again deep inside myself. Except this time it didn’t feel like it had come out nowhere like some outside force. Instead, the power grew like a flame awakening for the first time and stretched to each corner of my body to fill me with its warmth. The power was returning and I used it to help me ignore the pain in my chest so I could will it to give me the strength to fly again.

I didn’t have time to stop and ponder why this was all happening and instead flapped my wings in a single beat that sent me soaring back onto my target. Then the fear returned in force as I saw the last few hundred dark clouds twist and turn into a horrible avatar of disaster.

The mysterious entity was creating a hurricane!

“JACK!!! COME ON JACK DON”T LEAVE ME HERE!” My sister screamed as she continued to press hard on my chest with the palms of her hands performing CPR.

I couldn’t respond however as my consciousness delved slowly into a tranquil state of oblivion. Shadows crept towards the edges of my vision and the only thing that kept me anchored to my mortal coil was the life Force energy inside me that still clung for life. It was hopeless though without a heart to keep the organic systems of my body from failing. Soon I would die and I didn’t know if everyone else would follow me into a similar demise.

It all made me absolutely furious!

My friends and family were having their lives threatened and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it. I tore myself away from the warm comforts of the Light Side and dove once again into the raging fires of the Dark Side. The rage gave me power and that power demanded a target to be focused upon.

My eyes were dead focused on the clouds above me, but I searched instead telepathically with the Force to find the mysterious entity that was the cause of all of this. I searched through the raging winds and electrified clouds to find the entity and once again came across a formless chaotic mass. I didn’t know if the formless mass was just an illusion conjured up by the entity or if it was actually its true form. Regardless, that formless mass would be the target of my last moments of rage and I swore I would see it obliterated before I die.

I pushed and pushed against the hurricane’s winds with all of my might and I could barely reach the threshold of the storm’s eye. My wings began to feel an all too familiar ache as I continued to fight on but it was easily ignorable. I forced my wings to beat harder and harder, then soon all was nearly silent as I passed the threshed and found myself within the storm’s eye.

I had read about the experiences of great griffin and pegasi flyers who have dared to travel into the hearts of storms before but it was nothing compared to the real thing. Sunlight bathed me in its rays from up above while an entire landmass of dark clouds circled my sides and beneath me. It was so serene that I could’ve never guessed that a Tartarus spawned disaster was occurring outside the eye’s boundaries. Suddenly I had remembered why I had come here and I used the senses my newfound power has given me to find the mysterious entity that had caused the storm. I didn’t need to search for long however as I realized that the entity was all around me.

My eyes, now bloodshot at this point, widened as luminous blue smoke blew forth from the clouds behind me. The smoke pulsated and collected itself in a massive irregular sphere level with my body. The sphere formed a 20-meter-wide misshapen head with no mouth or nose but had enormous eyes the radiated a dazzling blue glow. The entity was nothing that I had ever seen before in my entire life.

The head riled back and forth with rage at my presence and something beneath its eyes took the shape of drooping, deformed and ever-changing lips. Sparks of blue electricity tapped the edges of those lips and the power that resided within my body warned me of the danger. I wrapped my wings in front of me and willed the power within me to extend outwards to form a protective shield. Bolts of blue lightning then sprung forth from the entity’s mouth and collided with my shield with surprising force. I growled fiercely as I resisted the shocking attack and prepared myself for the right moment to strike. I gathered more and more of the power within me then used it to empower myself until it was practically overflowing through my limbs!

Since my heart refused to flow blood and energy through my arteries to give my muscles the strength to move I decided I would move them with a different kind of energy. I willed Dark Side energy to flow into my right arm and my fingers twitched as my barely conscious brain registered a response. My rage pooled more energy into the dying limb and I made a fist to experiment with the strength I had gathered. I was close, so very close to my goal.

Revenge was all that drove me now and I couldn’t afford myself to be distracted. Even when I saw Katy trying to tie a lifeline around my waist to bind me to the ship. The winds were beyond perilous now and I wished Katy would leave my clinically dead corpse to save herself instead. She looked like she could barely hold onto the deck and I could see the muscles underneath her scales straining as she fought fearlessly against the winds.

As soon as she finished the last knot she began to work on herself. She had gotten a loop around her waist when a stray heavy wooden board appeared out of nowhere and struck her directly in the face. Katy’s nose was bleeding white dust and it was enough for her to lose her focus and… lose her grip.

She was gone.

I couldn’t turn my head to see where she had gone but I knew the wind had blown her overboard and far, far away. The storm had taken away the one thing I cherished above all else in this new world. It took my sister away from me.

‘It took my sister away from me.’

‘It took my sister away from me!’

‘It took my sister away from me!!’

‘IT TOOK MY SISTER AWAY FROM ME!!!’ I screamed inside my head, never more desperate to roar like a beast in my entire life!

My right arm sprung directly into the air targeting the sole focus of all of my rage. Dark Side energy pooled from my arm like a fountain and I suddenly remembered the lighting that had so badly damaged my mortal body. I remembered how it tore into me and ripped me asunder with its unbearable heat. I remembered exactly how that lighting was formed when it struck my lightsaber and used that horrifying experience to give form to the attack I was about to direct at my target. The Force took the form of dazzling sparks that danced along the edges of my fingertips and I channeled the Dark Side energy into those sparks to give life to a vivid spectacle of power.

Sith Lightning pierced the sky in a blinding purple color towards its most hated target.

I saw purple light gleam through the feathers of my wings rather than the blue rays I had come accustomed to from the entity’s blue lightning. I peeked through my shield of power to find the entity twisting its smoky form in pain till it exploded outwards in a huge boom that was so loud that it stabbed my ears far more loudly than any thunder strike. The air sucked in by the implosion made the clouds rustle towards the entity in such heavy waves that it almost seemed like the clouds were trying to protect the entity. The roar of the entity was now beyond deafening as it grew larger, but it seemingly gave up its attempts to pull itself together as it soared higher and higher towards the stratosphere and flew away in retreat. It seemed like my intense buildup of power now seemed unnecessary.

That wasn’t the case however when I realized that the entity had left behind its half-formed hurricane beneath me. The storm was still raging beneath me so the danger had yet to pass. With a target to focus my power upon I extended my wings in a dazzling flourish to release all of the power that had built up inside me with an exploding repulse. Nothing was spared as the hurricane and its clouds parted beneath me like a dividing sea and soon all was as quiet as the eye of the storm.

I could see the beautiful sea underneath me as the sun now shined brightly upon its waters once more. The sight was made all the more beautiful when my keen avian eyes soon spotted The Extravagant intact and floating rather than desolate and sinking. Then that keen avian sight began to fail me as I realized I had probably used too much of that newfound power inside me. Exhaustion ached my muscles and my bones as I attempted to keep myself aloft in the air but it was futile as I soon dived beak first towards the ocean.

I tried to extend my wings to lighten my fall but it was useless as they had refused to move at my will.

‘After all of that, I’m still going to die?’ I thought both half mad and half strangely satisfied. ‘It doesn’t though, I succeeded in saving my family and friends from the storm. I saved my crew like any good Hiallan ship commander should. I would’ve liked to have experimented with that power some more at the very least but we all can’t get everything that we want. Not even a princess can…’

I closed my eyes to wait for my neck to snap in half when I eventually reached the surface of the sea. It would be a quick death I realized and hoped that my deeds today would be enough to prove myself worthy of joining the Ancestors. I was content and ready to go.

Then I heard a roaring hissing sound behind me as I felt cold metal arms reach around me to cradle me and softly break my fall. I was surprised that someone had come to save me but was confused as to what these metal arms belonged to. I opened a tired eye to look upon who had rescued me and was even more surprised to find Jack’s droid HK-55 flying in the air with a weird metal backpack of some kind strapped to its back. The backpack spewed fire underneath the droid and had to be the propulsion that was keeping the droid aloft so high in the air.

‘So the Fury must’ve survived then?’ I pondered.

“Query: Do you require assistance Princess Falca?”

I was too exhausted to respond and allowed myself to fall asleep, relieved that I wasn’t going to die today.

The entity was gone and Falca had dissipated the storm. The waves had ceased their angry torment and the sun was now shining brightly upon my crimson skin. Everyone seemed to be safe.

‘All except Katy, and I’m still dying.’ I thought bitterly as my arm was still extended into the air towards a target that wasn’t there anymore. My brain was still the only thing that was fully functioning right now but that was soon to change as a lack of blood flow began to force it to shut down.

‘No, no, no, not yet. Not now! Katy’s been thrown far across the sea by treacherous winds and I need to see her safe in front of my eyes. I can’t die now.’

Sparks of lightning and Force energy still prickled at my fingertips and a faint, dying idea struck my mind. I pooled whatever Dark Side energy was left inside me into my right hand to produce a proper voltage and straightened that hand into an open palm. I smacked my right hand onto the middle of my chest and electricity spasmed through my muscles again, prompting my body to arch its back towards my electrified hand.

Through my vast power over the Dark Side, I managed to bring myself back from the precipice of death as air filled my lungs once more to oxygenate my blood as it began to flow through my circulatory system. A faint lubb-dupp, lubb-dupp, lubb-dupp, was felt by my hand as it felt the heart beneath it beginning to reawaken with life. However, my mind was still exhausted after being deprived of oxygen for such a strenuous amount of time. I needed to sleep, so I allowed myself that blissful pleasure.

‘But when I wake up, I will find you again Katy.’

Many hours later and far away from the events of the storm that had wrecked the sea, an old galleon ship had caught something big and heavy in its net. Nearly a quarter of the crew had to be used to pull up the net up to the deck and when they finally completed their task they hanged the net onto a hook high up on the mainmast of the ship to get a good look at their catch. The crew itself was comprised of a multitude of races like griffins, ponies, and zebras but they all wore shambled clothing that was either made out of torn leather or cheap cloth. Each one of them though was heavily armed with sabers or crossbows.

“Eh, what you think it is D.D?” A young looking griffin male asked a mare as he poked the net with his saber.

“Don’t know, but maybe you griffins could eat it like any other fish. Got beautiful blue scales though, a shame if you lot decided to eat it.” The mare answered to her fellow crewmate.

“Nay that be no regular fish.” Another pony said, this one a stallion, from behind the other two. “It got red hair and an eyepatch on its head. Look at that! It also has two mounds on its chest like they were belonging to some mammal. Never seen a fish with tits before in me life!”

“You’re right lad, that ain’t no regular fish we got caught in our net.” A deep croaking male voice said that had an instant effect on the crowd. The crew immediately made way for a large lumbering griffin as he walked towards the net and he was quite the sight to look at. His right eye was a creamy milky white and he wore a red finely furnished captain’s coat that widely set him apart from the rest of his crew. A black tricorn hat rested on his head and he took the hat off to reveal his molting half brown, half gray feathers to better examine the catch in the net under a better light.

Katy Krieger moaned unconsciously within the net as she hung upside down with her feet caught and tied up next to the hook that held the net. She was bruised and weathered but was obviously alive.

“Lads and lasses, we just caught ourselves the biggest payday of our lives.”

Author's Notes:

Finally got this next 2 part chapter done after using my time in the evening after work for 2 months. I hope everyone enjoys and I'm looking forward to writing the next one!