THE KORASA TRIAL – AN OLD REPUBLIC ERA FANFICTION
Prologue
"Savior, conqueror, hero, villain. You are all things, Revan… and yet you are nothing. In the end, you belong to neither the light nor the darkness. You will forever stand alone."
– Darth Malak to Revan
"Why have you come back?" So'san asked, silhouetted against the frozen grey sky. His arms were folded across his chest, but Kel Saper guessed that had more to do with the cold than past grievances; So'san's attendant was so heavily bundled within a dark blue cloak as to obscure race or gender. There was no shelter to be had on Synegral, and standing open to its elements was taxing, Force Mastery notwithstanding.
As far as human sight could stretch they were alone in the frozen wasteland. Kel saw the snowbound rises disrupting the plain, but only because he knew to look for them. They were not natural formations; merging with the landscape by design and outwardly unchanged in the last fifteen years.
Byata So'san had aged a little, but it was only superficial things: the last dark reminders of his original hair colour had turned fully white, and his face was set in rather deeper lines. The expression he presented in the Force was so much the same, unwavering as the old man waited for a beat, then grimly turned away.
His companion stepped aside wordlessly, not following but watching until he reached one of the unassuming white mounds and disappeared within. Kel had tentatively identified her as another old friend. He felt rather than saw her gaze returning to him, though she let little else of her emotions slip through the Force.
"The damage is long done, what else would you do here?" she asked wearily.
"Kisho," he acknowledged, the name returning to him. She smiled sadly from beneath her hood, begrudging the pity she felt for him. Her lightsaber hung at her side, visible when the wind shifted her cloak aside, but with a blade at least, Kel doubted that she would be any more his equal now. In the event of having to draw it she was already at a disadvantage with her hands buried in her sleeves.
"You never were afraid of me," he said eventually, frowning at the memory.
"Why would I be?" Kisho retorted, flatly unimpressed. "The Sith are such contemptible creatures, so wrapped up in their own power that they're blind to anyone else's."
"I've changed somewhat since then," Kel began, only to cut off by an impatient gesture.
"We are not so far removed that news of importance doesn't reach us. Your 'redemption', as it's been termed caused quite a stir." She grimaced faintly, glancing back towards the dome entrance. Visibly time had been harder on her than So'san; despite being much closer in age to Kel, she was greying herself now.
"I am sorry," Kel said gravely.
"As you should be." Kisho struggled with herself for a moment, obviously wanting to expound on his failings, but finally she just shook her head. "A slow death by exposure is not one that appeals to me. Come with me." Without looking at him she rearranged her cloak slightly and set a brisk pace towards the disguised entry panel.
It only took Kel a moment to consider; with the temperature dropping as it was he needed to get inside, lacklustre welcome or not.
He caught up with Kisho quickly, but even from right alongside the structure he couldn't spot the entrance until it opened as she waved an access chit for the benefit of an equally unseen sensor. The curved panel shed a layer of ice without slowing as it ground into its housing. Painted white on the outer surface, the section was thicker than his arm. Kel ducked out of the way before it dropped shut, noiselessly, for all its apparent weight.
The adjoining corridor was sparingly illuminated by strips running on minimum power, but was otherwise unadorned. Kisho took a moment to secure the door before moving on, setting her shoulder against the panel to confirm the lock had had engaged, although even if it failed there were no external controls of any kind.
So'san had long since made the descent into Synegral Proper so the path ahead was unoccupied. It continued straight for a way, sloping down and terminating in a featureless wall. Despite himself Kel hesitated, hating the feel of the place. On the surface the effect had been muted, but almost as soon as they began to descend, the sensation of baseless, pervasive fear returned in full force. Kisho wasn't the sympathetic sort but she still waited.
"Suya, Jedi," she said quietly. Be brave; encouragement by kind interpretation, albeit if Jedi were not held in high regard. It was consideration he hadn't anticipated.
They reached the end of the corridor, and alone Kel would not have made it any further. The plating concealed a blast door that was as invulnerable as the station's engineers could make it. An outer layer of cortosis made lightsabers especially ineffective; as he'd established once before.
Kisho's access chit saw them through without such a scene, but she didn't immediately activate the turbolift behind. Instead she turned to face him, decidedly belligerent.
"What are you doing here?" she asked instead, inevitably returning to So'san's question.
"I want to help."
"How?" Kisho returned bluntly. "Arcanys is beyond reach, even for you." Kel matched her gaze but he must have looked too optimistic because it suddenly turned incredulous.
"You can't be se – do you want to destroy us twice over?" she snarled in genuine consternation. "If you confront him now what do you think will happen?" Kisho's eyes were blazing yellow, a trait of non-human ancestry rather than moral alignment, but the venom in her glare would have shamed any Sith Lord.
Even if he could have halted her impending reprisal, Kel wouldn't have; it would prove his point faster than anything. Shadows were gathering at the edges of his vision, and for an instant he disappeared into one of his own memories, outside of the images Kisho meant to show him. The greyscale sky gave way to the artificial lighting of the old facility, and the Force seethed around him. The source stood before him, an unnaturally tall figure with eyes that were hidden beneath a cowl, but fixed upon him nonetheless. He remembered that presence, in turn both unhinged and terribly sane.
But Kisho's direction was stronger, guiding the vision into a more familiar scene. Red sand danced under harsh winds, enclosing but not touching him as Kel stood among the ancient stone columns. In the eye of it, he admired the storm, its ferocity so similar to his own strength in battle, corroding everything around him. He gestured once, a negligent flick of his hand stilling the biting wind completely, as he loosened his tarnished mask –
"That is enough," Kel said evenly, blinking a little to readjust to the gloom. Kisho was frowning, not quite agape, but as close to it as she ever got; her talent was a rare one, and he was presumably meant to have been too stricken with guilt to oppose the illusion. Once, she might have held him thus for days.
"You've improved then," she muttered eventually. Kel nodded, and he watched the stages of reluctant concession in her face.
"I have, but not enough. In regard to confrontation, I don't imagine it would be any different from last time," Kel replied, to attest that they both understood, but perhaps she needed to say it herself:
"Arcanys would destroy you."