*Author's Note*
For the record, I did warn people at the end of Chapter 64 that my next hiatus would be in the Clone Wars. My storytelling doesn't require me writing a plot. It requires me hoarding hundreds of random tiny ideas until they overflow and those ideas don't appear on command. I am sorry that it took me a while for that, but at least the content should be good. I finally have a workable outline for what to actually do during the clone wars
Chapter 82 I am not a Jedi
The moment Rayleigh entered the training room, Vash started explaining how it worked.
"So, if it wasn't already obvious, the goal of the training isn't just to disable the droids, but to protect the VIP." Vash flippantly gestured to the mannequin in the middle of the room that still had a few dark marks from blast burns of prior training simulations.
Vash continued, "And don't bother trying to guess which doors have which droids beforehand. It's completely random, so it won't be exactly the same when it's your turn."
While looking at the placement of all the doors behind the obstacles, Rayleigh asked, "Can I move the Mannequin?"
Vash answered, "Of course!" He then added with a challenging smile, "A bodyguard should always be aware of his limitations. If you don't have the ability to protect the VIP from every direction, you can move them somewhere with cover to make it easier for you, hehe."
A group of service droids finished dragging the broken bots away, and a green light appeared above one of the doors. Vash returned his blasters and left when Mechanic called out from the observation room, "It's ready. Stand next to the Mannequin and the ten-second timer will start. You can use those ten seconds to move it if you want to. After ten seconds, six doors will open with 30 B1s. The next set of doors will open the moment the last droid from the current set goes offline. After the B1s are four doors with twenty B2s, two doors with ten BX Commandos, and then two doors with two Droidekas."
Rayleigh pulled the shining purple Kyber Crystal from his leather wrist guard and used Force Muffle to hide his activation of Babylon while starting to recite his Force code as he slowly walked to the 'VIP' target.
The moment he reached it, a flash of light surrounded the Kyber Crystal, and a European Longsword appeared in his grip. Its mass amounted to a little over a kilogram, a fraction of the weight of a standard lightsaber hilt. Its thin blade lacked a fuller or any ornate embellishments beyond the Kyber Crystal set in the cross guard. Said Crystal glowed with lights that seemed at war with each other, and to those with advanced perception, that glow could be seen climbing up from the Crystal to the sword's edge and around the blade back down to the Crystal with pulsing purple light.
The presence of the Devil Fruits within his Kyber crystal changed its base color from blue to purple, but didn't change his third Hatsu in any way besides altering the color of the aura that cycled his sword like the blades of a chainsaw, for now.
The ten-second timer started, and Rayleigh didn't move, neither the mannequin nor himself. Instead, Rayleigh spent the time using Babylon to 'see' beyond the closed doors.
An advanced usage of En was not stopped by walls or doors, and Clairvoyance and Haki weren't stopped by anything, so his Babylon that merged them all into a sensory system greater than the sum of its parts could clearly 'see' what was behind every door.
At this point, he could have just let loose a few flying slashes. At his full power, the entire building wasn't enough to get in his way, much less a few doors. But Vash's gun probably could have pierced the doors as well, and he also fought while minimizing collateral damage, so Rayleigh figured it was best to play by the same rules since he didn't want to have to pay to fix the doors or walls or surrounding buildings.
The timer hit zero, and six doors opened almost instantly. Six flashes of light followed six swipes of his sword. Four doors opened. Four more slashes. Two doors. Two slashes. And another pair of slashes was sent flying with the opening of the final two doors.
The timer stopped.
Vash's time had been one minute and four seconds, something he'd been proud of as a new record.
Rayleigh's time? 3.9 Seconds.
A majority of his time was just spent waiting for doors to open completely and curving his flying lines of sword aura over the obstacles between himself and the doors.
If the droids were entirely made of a material he was familiar with, he could match his flying slashes to the 'breath' of that material to cut only the droids without harming anything else. An Entry-Level Great Swordsman can cut steel with his sword by comprehending its breath, and a mid-level Great Swordsman can send flying slashes, but only a skilled Swordmaster can release flying slashes that can cut along the grain by understanding the breath of the material. Such slashes could even harmlessly pass through obstacles and walls while cutting only the specified materials. This trick allowed the flying slash to ignore air resistance since the slash itself ignored the air.
A true Swordmaster only cuts what he wants to cut and never cuts what he does not wish to cut. This was what Mihawk taught him.
But even though Rayleigh had reached this level, the droids were made from a hodgepodge of unfamiliar alloys, denying him this option. A single slash that could slice through the droid's chassis may not harm the droid's internal components, so Rayleigh just went with flying slashes of aura. Each was the width of a line of silk and strong enough to cut through the entire group of droids before dissipating on his command to prevent any collateral damage.
Rayleigh wasn't a manipulator, but he could use different flows of Haki to program the slash as it was released. This method allowed him to designate a simple flight path during the slash's launch, but not change it afterward without using the Force.
Mechanic hadn't said anything over the speakers, so Rayleigh let his Sword of Babylon disperse and placed the Kyber Crystal back into his leather wrist guard before returning to the observation room. There, Mechanic was looking at four screens that seemed to be analyzing the video of his slashes. The cameras could even capture the flying aura slashes, something normal cameras shouldn't be capable of.
After another moment of looking over the videos, Mechanic turned to Vash and said, "Well, it looks like he broke your record. I look forward to you breaking his."
Vash awkwardly chuckled. It wasn't that he couldn't destroy sixty droids in less than 4 seconds. It was that any means he had which could do so would have caused lots of collateral damage.
Ignoring her awkward boyfriend, Mechanic turned over to Rayleigh and said, "That was impressive. You could tell where the Droids were, right?"
Rayleigh confirmed, "Yeah. I basically have high-detailed sonar, so I can map places out and find out where everyone within is pretty quickly."
She asked, "That's not a Jedi thing, is it?" Jedi did not use Clairvoyance the same way Rayleigh did. If they wanted to view their surroundings, they'd have to enter a meditative trance, resonate their point of view with the Force, then translate what the Force told them to be comprehended by their limited senses. Rayleigh had mastered the translation aspect of this skill long ago on Tython, and thanks to his multiple Wills, he could use it without needing to enter a defenseless, meditative trance. Due to the fact that he practically used it all day, every day, his proficiency with the skill was likely higher than any mortal Force user currently alive.
Rayleigh answered, "I'm not a Jedi."
Vash stated, "I heard Pacifist say your connection to the Force was pretty high though, even without a Master."
"Yeah. Using the Force on Tython is like training with weights. Although not as reliable as a strong Master-Apprentice Force-Bond, it can help those who survive it develop their connection to the Force faster than normal."
Vash asked, "So it's a Force Nexus?"
"That's right, it's a very powerful, rather unstable Force Nexus. But unlike normal ones, which are either Light Side or Dark Side oriented, the tides of the Force on Tython flow and change daily with the rising and setting of its two moons, and the weather is as unpredictable as it is deadly."
Mechanic asked, "Can you use the Dark Side?"
"Yes," he replied succinctly. He wouldn't use it without a good reason, but if the reason was enough, he could even convince the Force itself to let him get away with using it consequence-free. Of course, that implied that there had to be a good reason in the first place, one he truly believed. If he couldn't even convince himself that the action was acceptable, he had no chance of convincing the Force.
Mechanic nodded, "Then at least you're not a holier-than-thou believer like those annoying bitches from the Temple."
Rayleigh shrugged, but didn't comment. The trait that allowed someone to use the Light Side or Dark Side without causing a change to their personality worked just fine, but those who didn't dive deeply into their chosen alignment would lack the strength of those who did. This meant if the Jedi or Sith wanted to match the power of a Sith Lord or a Jedi Master, they had to believe the doctrine themselves.
The Sith Players, led by Lord of Madness's example, were proficient in using the Acting Method to create a character that drank from the Cool-Aid and could switch in and out of that character as easily as changing clothes. This allowed them to tap into the deeper reserves of the Dark Side's power without it truly affecting their personality, thanks to the Trait's help.
The Jedi players, though, seemed to have difficulties with the distinction and separation. Pretty much all of the Jedi Temple Faction failed to completely separate their original selves from the influence of the Light Side, resulting in them occasionally acting like they were better than others and had the moral high ground.
Rayleigh didn't have either trait that made him immune to personality changes, so he had to always be cautious of the Force affecting him. Even now, he sought to strengthen his heart so that it could be used to overcome any influence the Force could have over him in the future.
Mechanic looked back to the screens and said, "Vash will take care of getting you your ID and papers and get you a service droid. The droid can show you where you are permitted to go, where your sleeping quarters are, and can get you food."
Rayleigh asked, "Are the sleeping quarters in this building?" He would also rather make his own food, but he didn't know if this building had a proper kitchen.
Vash answered for her, "Mechanic had some constructed. This is the primary research institute of Merr-Sonn Robotic Securities, and she spends all of her time here."
Curious, Rayleigh asked, "Oh? What do you design and build here?"
Mechanic smiled at the question and brought up some new images on the screen. It was an angled metal turtle shell that looked like a cat-sized tank, but instead of rotating treads for wheels, it had six scythe-like appendages to crawl forward and stayed very low to the ground. The top had a rotating turret larger than a handgun but smaller than a rifle. On both sides of the weapon were extra pieces that Rayleigh guessed were its eyes or sensors. She exclaimed, "These are my babies, the Scarab line. Basic models are 1200 credits a piece, cheaper than the price of a B1 equipped with a blaster."
A new image of a slightly larger Scarab appeared on the screen. This one's armor looked a bit thicker, and it had extra sensors and an antenna. Mechanic pointed to it and continued, "They can be controlled remotely with a data pad or through one of these Command Scarabs, only 3000 credits. When controlled by a Command Scarab, their targeting AI is a hundred times better than a B1's. A Scarab's sharpened legs can be used to hold themselves in place so that Jedi can't push them around, they can be used to scale walls and buildings, and in a pinch, when out of ammo, they can be used as secondary close-range weapons. They are also cheap to fix."
Rayleigh now understood what those holes in the hallways were. They were not air ducts, but delivery chutes for these robo bugs.
Mechanic continued to praise her work, "My design is far better than the standard bipedal droid for large-scale warfare. Smaller in size means harder to hit. They can press themselves flat to the ground to withstand the shockwave from most indirect explosives, and their angled shells can deflect multiple shots from a blaster rifle that aren't straight hits. They carry enough solidified Tibanna gas to fire 500 shots, and the best part is that because of how low to the ground they are, they can fire over each other, meaning that an army of them can fire all at once at the same target!"
She even pulled up a simulation on screen of an army of bipedal droids exchanging shots with her army of Scarabs, and the former all theatrically fell down in moments. She almost shouted, "Those shitty clankers are just slow-moving targets that couldn't hit the broadside of a Bantha if it was sleeping in front of them!"
Mechanic was about to continue, but Vash stopped her, saying, "Yes, yes, we all know that you made the best droids in the Galaxy. Swordsman will have lots of opportunities to see your masterpieces in the future." It was obvious that if Vash hadn't stopped her, she would have continued talking, and equally obvious that Vash was used to calming her down.
The well-dressed Player looked only slightly embarrassed at how excitable she had gotten and fought to preserve her image of hard-ass CEO by immediately going stone-faced and nodding before motioning for the pair to shoo off without another word.
Rayleigh imagined that after they left, she was probably going to chastise herself and look around to see if she could find the remainder of her dignity.
Vash sighed fondly and led Rayleigh down the hall. Once they were out of earshot and behind a few doors, he said, "She really loves her work, so don't get upset if she goes off on one or two, or twelve tangents when talking about it."
Rayleigh asked, "Are her droids really that good?" He had never heard of bug-shaped droids from HK-47.
Vash answered, "As long as there is a command scarab or someone competent using a control pad, yes."
"So if I run into them, I should aim for the commander? Isn't that just a little obvious of a weakness?"
Vash nodded and said, "Yeah, it's intentional. From what Mechanic told me, there is something like an unspoken rule not to mass-produce perfect droids. Like the scarab's main weakness is that if you flip them over and shoot the underside, they explode. It's a drawback of having built-in ammo storage."
After reaching an elevator and heading down a few floors and down two more halls, Vash opened a heavy metal door and showed Rayleigh inside. Once the lights flicked to life, multiple lines of humanoid droids with a variety of details could be seen.
Before examining them, Rayleigh asked the question that had been on his mind since they arrived. "Are there any other employees in this building?"
Besides the guards at the front desk, Rayleigh had not seen a single living being after the first security check. The only occupants they passed through the halls were various droids.
Vash answered, "A few. There are a few other researchers here and there, but most have their own stations and labs. Even if they need something, they'll send a droid for it. In any case, please pick one out for yourself."
Instead of selecting one, Rayleigh opened his Player menu, went to the Item Inventory, and selected HK-47's head.
After grabbing the rust-colored robot head that appeared in front of him, Rayleigh asked, "Instead of borrowing one of these, can I get a custom body for this guy?"
The head only took a moment to read the room before saying, [Appeasement. Yes, I would very much like a suitable body so that I may properly fulfil my duties as a... Protocol Droid.]
Vash looked at the head for a moment and asked, "Where is the power source?"
[Statement. You ask me, but who can I ask? This was not in my original design. I also wish to know the identity of the being that allowed me to function as a useless paperweight so that I may properly thank him by showing him the color of his own entrails.]
Vash looked rather amused and asked, "And I assume that a suitable body for you would include armor plating, energy shielding, advanced targeting systems, and perhaps some space for holdout weapons and grenades to be hidden away?"
[Affirmation. I would never ask for such things, of course, but if my Master believes that such additions would benefit my ability to fulfil my duties as a.. Protocol Droid. Then who am I to argue?]
Before this could get further out of hand, Rayleigh added, "I already promised to try and make a body for him using Divine Script to see if I could make it indestructible. You want to test it out, right?"
Vash nodded and said, "That's fine, but if you want the body to belong to you and not be the property of Merr-Sonn, you'll need to buy it yourself."
Since it was obvious that Rayleigh didn't have any money, Vash went over to a computer near a far wall and logged into it and started searching through some files for a few minutes. After finding something, he said, "Here we go. There's something of a gang war going on in this neighborhood, here on the map. A lot of Merr-Sonn's employees from other departments live there, and it is causing issues. Both gangs are backed by large corporations, so CorSec, Corellian Security, is investigating on the surface but ignoring it in actuality. If you can stop the gang war in a way that CorSec and those other Corporations won't get involved with, we'll fund whatever you need to build whatever droid you want."
Rayleigh only considered it for a moment before answering, "Deal." As long as he was given enough information, there was a lot that he could do.
Vash then said, "Alright, you still need a droid since it acts as a security pass to get around here. We also need to make your ID. What name do you want to put?"
Rayleigh had a small suspicion about Vash, and it was easy to test out. Rayleigh walked over to the computer and took over the keyboard to fill out his real date of birth, home world, and, of course, his full name.
Vash looked at the name for a moment before smiling, "Hello, Rayleigh Rush, my name is Vincent Valentine, but you can still call me Vash."
"You can call me Ray or Rayleigh. So. What's your second Devil Fruit?"
Vash's smile faltered at that. "Wait, you know? How'd you know about that?"
Rayleigh answered, "The other Twenty Talent Pirate Players are Dragon Chef and Titan. I already know that Titan has the Golden Buddha Fruit and the Quake Fruit, so it stands to reason that the other 20 Talent Pirates also have two Devil Fruits."
Vash theatrically sighed and walked away. "Ah, dammit. I guess I have to kill you."
Vash pointed his hand at Rayleigh and made a finger gun. A moment later, the arm's flesh twisted, tightened, changed color and form, and rearranged itself into a massive high-tech cannon that was audibly charging up.
The weapon's humming grew louder and louder, and then, "BANG!" shouted Vash before changing his arm back to normal.
Rayleigh, who never felt any danger to his life, only showed moderate amusement.
Vash shook his head, "Tough crowd, tough crowd. Anyways, the Weapon Fruit lets me turn myself or any body part into a weapon that I've touched before. It's not that useful in the Pirate World, but here, it's pretty badass, especially when my girlfriend can design and fabricate custom weapons. If I control some Helium-3 gas and use it with one of Mechanic's specially designed weapons and harden it with Haki, I can make a Fission-Powered Nuclear Cannon that can legitimately put holes in planets."
That had Rayleigh's attention. He was confident that one day, he'd be able to cut a planet, but that day was not today, and if he were to go all out, he'd only be able to cut a mountain, maybe a small mountain range.
At least that explained why he chose the name Vash. The original Vash could also turn his arm into a cannon that could wipe out cities and put holes in the moon. It also explained why the Chat Room was under the impression that Vash the Stampede could shoot you from Orbit. They might not know how he could do it, but they knew that he could.
Rayleigh asked, "Can you make a lightsaber?"
Vash smiled, and his hand and upper wrist turned into a lightsaber that extended a glowing yellow blade, which matched the color of his hair.
After putting his toys away, Vash commented, "You know, Swordmaster is said to be the strongest in combat, and Greymatter is said to be the strongest in the Force among the Jedi Players. But I know both of their names, and neither has double letters."
Rayleigh nodded at the unasked question and replied, "Yeah. I heard that all the other classes have multiple 20 Talent Players, but among the Jedi, I am the only 20 Talent Player."
Vash's smile widened, "So you're way stronger than they are? Oh, this is gonna be great! I can't wait for them to find out." He looked like he was about to start prancing about like a kid who had just learned that today was Christmas and he had lots of unopened presents.
Rayleigh ended up picking a random Protocol Droid, and Vash left, probably returning to Mechanic's side. The droid took Rayleigh to his own room and showed him how to log into the available data terminal. Rayleigh had it go get some food and used the time to look over the maps of the city and the available information on the gangs. He then had it get him some clothes that did not stand out as much.
After his meal and a change of clothes, Rayleigh had the droid take him outside, past security. Once he was at the last checkpoint, he had the droid wait there for him to return and ran off into the city.
Although Rayleigh's speed on foot was not quite at the level of a high-end speeder, it was not too far off. Even if the city was the size of a country, his maximum speed had come a long way since the initial prototype of his first Hatsu, and although he had a long way to go to match the Flash, he was making respectable progress.
Before the sun set, Rayleigh had already made it to the territory involved in the gang war. Since gang membership required representing your gang and the gang's colors were on the file he read, it didn't take longer than a few minutes for Rayleigh to find a gang member. One Jedi Mind Trick later, and he found out how the Gang War started.
It seemed that the Purple Wearing Gang's Leader's blood brother was killed using weapons favored by the Silver Wearing Gang. Rayleigh didn't care for their elaborate names, so he only thought of them by the colors that they wore. The Purple Gang's Leader said that if the murderer doesn't surrender himself, he'll keep killing members of the Silver Gang. The Silver Gang didn't actually know who did it, but basically replied with a mix of 'Fuck You' and blaster fire.
Another round of questions led Rayleigh to the scene of the crime, and one more round of Mind Trick and Force Stealth let him sneak past the gang members guarding the place.
From there, Rayleigh just had to use his most powerful Force skill.
Psychometry is basically a way to read the memories of things left by the echoes of the living. Thankfully, the person who killed this guy was not a droid. A lot of emotion is needed to kill someone, and that emotion left an imprint that Rayleigh could easily read, allowing him to get a good look at the killer.
At first, Rayleigh wondered if this was a frame job or some kind of dark conspiracy. After seeing the face, he realized that he was overthinking it. The face was on the list of known members of the Silver Gang, and Rayleigh had his address.
A few minutes later, Rayleigh had a very informative talk with the murderer. He didn't even need to use Mind Trick; once confronted, the guy told him everything on the spot.
It seemed that the 'victim' had acquired the debt of the killer's sister. A debt she only had because of a time he got shot and needed emergency treatment. She wasn't a gang member, but a University Student. After finding out that the girl's brother was a member of the Silver Gang, the 'victim' insisted that the sister pay off her debt in the Purple Gang's Brothel. The brother asked to meet with the guy secretly to discuss the debt and killed him. The only reason he hadn't turned himself in was that doing so would reveal why he did it, screwing over his sister. That 'victim' had a lot of debts, so it wasn't like he was the obvious suspect.
With that, Rayleigh was faced with a dilemma. The gang war could be ended by turning this guy over to the Purple Gang Boss. But doing so would certainly cause the guy's innocent sister to be sent to a life of hell.
Rayleigh was not upset at the idea of facing this dilemma. Wasn't this exactly what he wanted? Training the heart didn't mean reading romance novels or falling in love. It meant facing difficult situations where there was no right answer, making a decision, and holding strong to that decision without regret.
Still, this was his first time, so he thought that it couldn't hurt to ask for a little advice. As for who to ask? Well, it was his fault that he was doing this in the first place, so it made sense for him to contribute, right?
[Advisement. If you want the two small parties of meatbags to stop shooting at each other, I have a suggestion.]
After hearing HK-47's thoughts, Rayleigh decided to go for it.
Over the course of the night, Rayleigh spent the next few hours breaking into various secure locations belonging to both gangs, and with prolific use of the Jedi Mind Trick and Babylon, he acquired all sorts of sensitive information and meticulously detailed maps.
Once all this information on the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of these two gangs was sorted into two files, these files were then sold to nearby rival gangs. They had to be sold as HK-47 affirmed that freely given information would not be properly valued.
Before the sun rose, both gangs experienced attacks from these rival gangs. Not enough to fall or be crippled, but enough to be a threat. Within an hour of the sun rising, both gang leaders had agreed to a cease-fire and truce. With enemies on either side and leaked intel, they had more important things to do than avenge some two-bit bookkeeper.
Sure, it was messy and bloody, but it worked. According to HK-47, even if the killer was turned in, peace would only be temporary. The murder itself was just an excuse, and giving in to the tantrums of children would only invite more spoiled behavior. Instead of giving them what they want, it was better to give them an actual reason to stop fighting each other.
Right on time for breakfast, Rayleigh returned to the outermost security checkpoint and met back up with the protocol droid he'd been assigned and asked it to lead him to breakfast. Lead him it did. But at the breakfast table sat Mechanic and Vash, who had apparently learned of the two-party attack and following cease-fire through their own connections.
Vash said, "Umm. Honestly, I thought you'd talk them down. Like a Jedi." There hadn't been a single mention of Rayleigh, and since neither CorSec nor the gang's backers suspected external involvement, it wouldn't cause further problems, but he couldn't believe that the situation had been handled that way. If he hadn't been the one to send Rayleigh, he wouldn't have believed that this had been Rayleigh's doing.
Rayleigh grabbed food to put on his plate before replying, "I told you, I'm not a Jedi."
*Author's note*
There are no Corellian Jedi in this fic because those guys are so useless; the entire wiki page for Corellia didn't include a single line about them, which is also why I forgot they existed.
And yes. I am Back.