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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3636314" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 490: PhilosophyIn what had always been a chaotic torrent of possibilities, images, and emotions, there had been a single point instead. Everything, from the smallest action of an Ewok hunting with his brothers to a gigantic battle with the Yuuzhan Vong to protect a world, converged at one point. At the point, was nothing. Or rather, nothing that could be discerned. Perhaps it was due to the fact that everything came to that one point that made it impossible to see it, but it also meant that what that point was, what that one moment that everything in the galaxy was pushed to, was impossible to see.    And beyond the point, nothing was visible. It was as if everything simply ended where it all came together into a single moment. But there was a feeling beyond it. Not anything specific, and nothing that could be really described, just a feeling. And that, alone, meant the point wasn’t an end. It was a convergence that resulted in...something. The point was unavoidable, as nothing escaped it. That meant that the point was the determining factor. Not avoiding it, but what happened at it. And that would shape what came after.    Jyren had seen it first. He had never been the greatest with the more passive uses of the Force, but with help from Marix, he’d learned the basics. And then, it was there. Off in the distance, out of reach, but there. And when he found it, he looked everywhere to find a way out, because the idea of one point determining everything unsettled him. Destiny always got to Jyren. All that ‘will of the Force’ crap made him feel helpless and that was one thing he couldn’t stand.    Marix saw it first in a dream. The Jendari had taught her farseeing, though she’d had minimal training in it from Faban Sunrunner as a Tam’Day’U. Seeing what was coming in the near future was a vital aspect to being an assassin. Because of her experience with such techniques, she was able to meditate and fall back into the vision to get a calmer view of it...much more than Jyren’s panicked searching through the short seconds of the vision he was able to focus on. He knew it was there, and that was important enough. For Marix, she analyzed.    After a good amount of looking at it, seeing that it changed with each day that went by, she saw that the point still didn’t move. No matter what else happened, it remained. The random flashes of events leading up to it were always different. Maybe they were just different things seen each time, but then again, maybe it was simply the future shifting based on the choices of the billions and billions of people in the galaxy. It was likely a little of both. But what was important was that the point of convergence remained in the exact same spot, and had a vague feeling left beyond it...but nothing else. No events, no flashes of images, no emotions...just a feeling of something.They had both seen it first just a month after the reports of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. Whether anyone else saw it, they didn’t know. Marix and Jyren kept it between themselves. If anyone in the galaxy could see it, the Jendari would have, but they said nothing. They likely wouldn’t if they were confronted with it. Jyren had once mentioned that the Jedi should have seen it. But the Jedi had suddenly been thrown into a galactic war and had their own problems to worry about. So in all of the galaxy, as far as they knew, they were the only two beings in the galaxy who knew something big was coming.    Good or bad didn’t seem to matter. In fact, the point itself didn’t seem to be either. Marix was the one who suggested it was not an actual event, but a choice. A moment that the fate of the entire galaxy rested on the decision of one sentient being. The time beyond was blank because it was impossible for even the Force to determine. That, or, as Jyren suggested, they just couldn’t truly understand what they were ‘seeing’ beyond. It was possible that it could be ‘seen’ and understood, but it simply took a different form.    But that was a detail that didn’t matter. A choice. A second where all of the galaxy and everything after fell into, and everything afterwards was different. There was a reason Jyren worried so much about it. Early on, he wasn’t arrogant enough to assume that either of them were the ones to make that choice, and so the worry came of who’s shoulders that would rest on and what that could mean. But over time, the natural assumption came that it was one of them that would have to make the choice, and Jyren did his usual thing and assumed the worst: that it would be him, and he would do the wrong thing.    That made things worse.    Jyren worked himself into a dangerous cycle with thoughts like that, and it only infuriated Marix that, after all the years she’d known him, he still didn’t trust his own skills. After Sadrak, Voort, Ket, Nine, Jen, Darkwings, armies of Alraxian-killing droids, armies of six-armed bugs, and good old Stormtroopers, he still didn’t trust himself. And then they’d gotten involved in the war, and everything had deteriorated more...and they both began to focus less on the single point in the future to stay alive in those events leading up to it.    And then came the battle at the Gateway. Jyren saw the point. He saw it right in front of him with his own eyes, and Marix saw it, too. He made a choice, thinking it was the one. Knowing he was doing the right thing, what had to be done.    But afterwards, Marix could still see the point. There was, however, nothing leading up to it. Everything was right up against the point, with nothing beyond. Not even a feeling anymore. Jyren had failed, obviously. Sure, the Alraxian Empire was protected from the Vong but what did that matter when the Mrrakesh were becoming aggressive? War was war. And the Mrrakesh looked a lot more dangerous than the Vong all of a sudden.    Each choice she made, Marix stepped back and tried to see the point again, but they didn’t seem to move. No matter what happened, they were still there. Right in front of it, pushing into the tiny little black hole in the future but not getting any closer. And like a black hole, it sucked in everything. Marix would turn around to see behind, see the past, and there was nothing. So close to the point in the Force, everything else was impossible to see. It was still there, it was still coming, and it was something else. Something beyond what they had thought it was.    If Marix had gone with Venda, she would have seen a moment that very well could have been that choice. She would not have seen the choice being made, but the effects of it. A shift was coming. It could have been the point itself, or maybe the point was more than just one moment. But whatever it was, one choice had been made.    A refusal to murder. A young Jedi Knight and his brother, fighting over what should be done about a battle another system away. Debating philosophy when lives were at stake. Whether war justified outright murder. What the implications of a species like the Vong, not existing in the Force, had on the morality that the Jedi normally followed. If any of that even mattered.    But even though a choice was reached, and the two Jedi both decided against using a powerful weapon, something neither of them expected happened. It proved to both of them that Jedi were not the only ones who could cause a moment of great change in the galaxy, and the terrible thing that both of them had decided against was done...and the consequences of it would soon reach Fondor.Though part of her played with her children, another part of Marix saw the point draw slightly closer, where they might have even moved into it. And she felt something odd. It was a feeling of not being alone. That someone else was there, seeing what she was seeing.    Some Jedi, somewhere, had finally stepped back from the war to see it. Marix hoped it was Venda, as the woman seemed to have more sense than most Jedi. Maybe she’d actually do something about it. Maybe she was the one to make the choice.    What Marix didn’t know was the Venda was going to exit hyperspace soon, and the choice made lightyears away would catch up to her very quickly.</blockquote>

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