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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3580256" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 471: Anger“Tobias.”    Toby heard Master Ral speaking softly, but Tobias was too busy trying to force the door open to pay the voice much attention. He really wanted to just morph Alraxian and try, but had to admit that he wasn’t very much stronger in that body, anyway. Thinking about it, the lightsaber would probably work...    “Tobias,” Master Ral’s voice was firmer and it grabbed him this time. When he turned to face the Jedi Master, Tobias found that he was getting a stern look, “Step aside.”    Going a bit red, Tobias did as he was told and stepped back and away from the closed door. Master Ral simply raised his right arm and held it there for a few moments. In those moments, Tobias could feel the Force being focused and then there was a loud crack from the door as the locking mechanism broke and then it slid open again. Inside, Tokarr could be seen dashing to the door, though he didn’t go to block the way. Tobias expected that he was going for the comm panel.    As he moved, Tokarr growled, “I’m calling security.”    “They will not remove me from this ship as you want them to,” Master Ral spoke calmly, and it was obvious to Tobias that he was using the Force to pick at Tokarr’s surface thoughts.It was even more obvious when a curse escaped the Miraluka. The young man then turned his head to face the Jedi Master and somehow, without any eyes at all, glared, “I am a member of the crew of this ship, Corentan. You are a civilian and you have broken into my quarters.”    “You are a Jedi, Tokarr,” the Omwati didn’t seem fazed by the anger that was strongly emanating from this young man, “No matter what else you are, you have a responsibility to that.”    Tokarr shook his head, “I am not a Jedi. I was a Jedi. But you and the rest of those cowards decided it was better to sit around talking philosophy rather than actually protecting the galaxy.”    Master Ral made a very quick glance to Tobias, which made him even more uneasy than he already was, before matching the eyeless gaze of his former apprentice, “Jedi have been fighting the Yuuzhan Vong since before the New Republic even acknowledged their existence.”    “And you call them rogues,” Tokarr pointed an accusing finger at the Omwati, “Darksiders, too. I’ve heard that. Why do you think I left? At least here I can help without being ridiculed.”    “So you hide here,” Master Ral shook his head and his disappointment was obvious, “And it is quite obvious that worries about your condition are not unfounded.”Tobias immediately thought the Jedi Master was crazy. There didn’t seem to be any reason to make an outright statement like that. It was only going to antagonize Tokarr and make him even more angry. Which it did, of course. The feeling of anger was almost overpowering now, and it was taking a lot of effort for Tobias to not back away. The narrow corridor did help that, though...    “Condition?!” the fact that Tobias couldn’t see all of Tokarr because of the way he was standing didn’t help, “Are you damned Jedi so disconnected from any semblance of emotion that you take any kind of anger as an immediate threat?”    “In your case...yes,” Master Ral then took a very large step forward straight into the open doorway so that he was standing directly in front of the young Miraluka. The height difference was immediately noticeable as Master Ral looked directly down at his former apprentice, “Anger is one thing. Everyone gets angry. Everyone. But you have no control over your anger. You would have an excuse for that if you had never been trained but you very well know the dangers of uncontrolled anger. You’ve grown up your entire life with that, even before coming to Yavin.”    Tokarr didn’t look up to meet the gaze of his former Master. His cloth-covered face stared straight forward, but he managed to keep the same angry, determined tone to his voice despite the scene that Tobias was seeing, “You’re provoking me.”    “And you’re allowing yourself to be provoked,” Master Ral then took a small step back, “I taught you better than this.”    There was no movement from Tokarr at all, “What did you come here to do?”    “We came here to check on you,” it was hard to miss that Master Ral had said ‘we’, “We aren’t here to drag you away. You made your choice, but that did not mean you could just ignore the fact that you never came close to finishing your training.”    Tokarr’s head tilted to the side slightly, as if he was, for the first time, ‘looking’ at Tobias, “I am a pilot now, and that is all.”    “But being a pilot does not mean you can no longer touch the Force,” Master Ral motioned casually to the cloth wrapped around Tokarr’s head, “You see with the Force everyday. You, better than anyone, understand its connection to everything. That means you should know that you cannot ignore the things you were taught. The Yuuzhan Vong are a danger to this galaxy but they are not the only danger. Since you left, others have...and some have fallen, Tokarr. If you want to fight this war then you have to know we can’t fight it while fighting ourselves.”    There was an uneasy silence. A couple of crewman passed them and gave curious looks, but were intelligent enough to say nothing.    Eventually, though, Tokarr said quietly, “You never did trust me.”    “I did,” Master Ral didn’t let that sit in the air for long, “I wouldn’t have let you leave if I didn’t. But stop arguing with me and feel the air around us like I taught you. There is a cloud of anger around you and it didn’t just appear when I arrived.”    When Tokarr let out a sigh, Tobias felt the air of tension fade just slightly, “You didn’t answer my question, Corentan. What did you come here to do?”    “It seems that what needs to be done is to help you learn to control your anger,” Master Ral was speaking more lightly, in that way he did when instructing Tobias. It was a surprising change of direction.    “No,” Tokarr shook his head, “I have important things that I need to do that don’t involve sitting around and ignoring this war.”    His face turned to look to Tobias, and he could feel a strange strength in the Force around him, then Tokarr looked back to Master Ral, “Goodbye, Corentan.”    And then the door shut again.    Master Ral hung his head and sighed heavily.    Feeling he needed to do something, but unsure of what, all Tobias could do was say, “Master...”    “Its alright, Tobias,” he raised his head and seemed back to normal in that moment, “I apologize for that.”    “So...what now?”    “We head back to the transport and get some rest,” Master Ral started that direction, “But we aren’t leaving.”    Tobias nodded as he fell into step with his Master. After a few minutes of navigating the tight corridors, he finally spoke up again, “He’s dangerous, isn’t he?”    Master Ral glanced to Tobias a moment before nodding, “To himself more than anyone else.”    “He doesn’t seem like he’s going to let you help him, though,” Tobias had to raise his voice a bit as he stepped behind Master Ral to provide room in the corridor for others to pass.    Over his shoulder, the Jedi Master said simply, “You are correct. But perhaps, once he has calmed, he will listen to you.”</blockquote>

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