Starcrossed: A Star Wars Fanfiction

Virgo

'But peace is a lie,' Eris thought of her father's teachings of the Sith Code, as she watched Polis Massa descend from the portside window of the Jeotian flagship that now held her prisoner.  'There is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory.' 

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"What in the universe! You mean you just quit?" Eris had once asked Virgo Stryker in disbelief, as she and the ex-padawan leaned on the stone balcony railing of her statehouse, watching the stars and galaxies float by them on her 16th life-day. "Just like that?"

"Yep."

"But you were chosen by a master already," Eris said. "Wasn't becoming a padawan the whole reason you went back to Coruscant?"

"Yep."

"Sooo...what are you doing back on Jeotis then?" she demanded of him. "Are you crazy? You had the galaxy at your feet! What I would give to be in your starfighter! Why would you just throw that all away to come back to this dustball?"

"Somebody once told me the bigger the galaxy, the sweeter the homecoming. Anyway, once you've seen one galaxy, you've seen them all," Virgo shrugged.

"I may not be a Jedi, but I don't need to be one to see right through you. Don't lie to me, Vee. I know the real reason you came back," Eris playfully bumped his shoulder with hers. "You just couldn't pass the trials. And we all know, passing the Jedi trials is like taking clams from a Gungan."

"Speak for yourself," Virgo lightheartedly bumped her shoulder back, and Eris smirked at him. 

"I passed the trials just fine, thank you," he had her know. "I was even chosen by a master of the Jedi Shadow. They were training me to hunt down big, bad Sith Lords in the outer rim. All so people like your highness, can safely get her beauty rest at night."

Eris rolled her eyes.

"Will you get over your own moon?"

"You know, some say the Sith Order is rising. Even the Shadow have their reasons to be concerned."

"Oh Bane's blade, I should've known the Jedi Order would send you back brainwashed as a droid. Is that what this is about?" Eris reached over to inspect the cinnamon colored padawan braid falling down his right shoulder.

"Do I sense envy in you?" he grinned at her. "You'd be surprised how many girls hang around all day outside the Jedi Temple. I might not look like much now, your highness, but I was the oomsh fruit of every eye on Coruscant."

Eris punched him harder in the shoulder this time. 

Unsure why she felt so agitated by that statement.

"More like the dimmest spark in the blaster canon," she corrected him. "And if you were actually chosen by a master, which I highly doubt, that still doesn't explain why you left the Order. I thought you wanted to be a Jedi."

"I did," he answered quietly, awkwardly dropping his gaze from hers and fidgeting with the hem of his gray poncho.

"But?"

"It's complicated, your highness," Virgo said. "Sometimes, Jedi are forced to make decisions between what the Jedi Council decides is the greater good...and what you feel in your heart is right."

"You sound exactly like Qui-Gon Jinn now," Eris sighed. "So many big words, no straight answers."

Virgo said nothing as he gazed up at the trailing stars above them.

And in that tense silence, uncommon for her former rival-turned-friend, Eris glanced over at Virgo again. Sensing in his silence a heaviness that changed the lighthearted banter between them.