Star Wars: The Rise of New Order

The new master and her padawan positioned themselves into fighting positions.

Ayla ignited her lightsaber first, which caught Jayden by surprise, because hers was Orange like his own. Jayden had looked into the information regarding Kyber Crystals before he had to go to Illum for his trial to create his own lightsaber.

Normally, at 10, every youngling would go to Illum under the protection of the Jedi Masters or Knights, for the Gathering, an event where they would find their Kyber Crystals to build their own Lightsabers.

Due to Jayden being a genius, the gathering became the final trial for him before he would be granted the rank of Padawan, as long as there was a Jedi knight or a Jedi Master to take him as their student to train.

---

Illum...

Master Plo-koon looked at the bunch of younglings as he spoke, "Younglings, what stands before you is a Jedi Temple unlike any temple you have seen or heard. Most temples serve as housing places for the Jedi, but a few are different. The temple here is one such temple. Younglings come here to collect their own kyber crystals to build their first Lightsaber".

"The temple would test you in ways you could never guess. I can't give you any hints like other trials, as the trials faced by each would be different, but I can tell you this. The trial would most likely be based on what you fear or what you want the most in existence".

"Also, remember one thing. As you can see, Illum is a Frozen world, which means everything here freezes. The temple door, which you see before you, would naturally open in a few minutes as it unfreezes, and then you can enter, but remember this, the door would freeze by evening. Once that does, it would not unfreeze for some time. You may die inside. So, make sure that you are not stuck inside before the door freezes out, whether you succeed or not in finding your crystal", Plo-koon warned them.

Though none have died during this event, there are scenarios where the kids went mental after the trials, even coming close to death on several occasions, sometimes losing some organs due to the cold.

As the overseer of this trial, it was his duty to warn them about the dangers, even putting the danger of dying, in order to make them fear and not stay inside more than required.

Sure, if they fail to get their crystal, they would be considered mediocre and may not proceed well in their future, but they would still be alive to live a life.

The children nodded their heads, and Jayden was among those children.

When the door opened, a total of fifty children entered the frozen temple. Once they were inside, as they moved further in, one by one disappeared.

Seeing this, no one panicked, as this was explained to them beforehand. Each has to walk their own path. No matter how much one tries to team up with others, they would be separated, unless the test includes teamwork.

Jayden, too, had to walk his own path, take his own trial, and he did.

At the time of the Gathering, Jayden was still a kid who had yet to remember his past life. If he had remembered, the trial might have been different, maybe even more difficult than it was.

The trial had been simple, where it showed a life of luxury with his family, where he ignored others or life as a poor Jedi, where he worked for the betterment of others, ignoring his own life.

Though Jayden has not recovered his old memories, he was not someone who would waste his life just for the sake of others, but also not someone who would ignore others if helping them was within his power.

He chose a path of his own instead of choosing one of the two given to him. He carved his own path, and at the end, he found the Kyber crystal.

At the time, Jayden was just as happy as everyone who found their Kyber crystal and showed it to Master Plo-Koon.

Plo-koon was surprised for a second before he spoke, "An Orange Kyber crystal, such a rare find. Young Jayden, it looks like you have to walk a path that is unique to you".

At that time, young Jayden, who had yet to recover his memories, didn't understand the meaning behind those words.

---

Now, looking at his master's Orange Lightsaber, Jayden finally understood why he had to wait for a while before his master came.

He originally thought everyone who was on Corscuant either had a student or was not interested in taking one at the time, but that may be wrong.

It has to do with his Lightsaber.

Wielders of Orange Lightsabers were considered to be someone who didn't usually adhere to the Jedi Doctrine, but also not to the Sith Doctrine. They walk their own path, which is similar to how Grey Jedi behave.

The moment he built his Orange Lightsaber, he became an outlier to the council, and they assigned someone like him as his master.

The council already started to push him out by assigning someone who might not be someone who stays on Corscuant when they were not on missions.

With his past memories merged and seeing his master's lightsaber, Jayden came to understand that he might not have waited for a master who was away on a mission, but rather someone who was assigned away from the main temple.

Though not all Jedi Temples are actively maintained, there are a lot where Jedi were still stationed in a very minimum number required to oversee the temple.

"They can't exactly throw me out because I found an Orange Kyber crystal. So, they are trying to push me away from others, before any of my possible future ideologies might turn others like me". Jayden chuckled but didn't think much about that.

For now, his concentration was on his master's. At the moment, he has to fight and show how strong he is.

So, Jayden ignited his lightsaber too, showing that he was ready to fight her.