A/N: Hello everyone. This is my third fan-fic, and will also be the longest I've done so far if things go right. This will be set after the end of the Lost Tribe of Sith, so more than likely there may be some issues with continuity, but as that hasn't been written yet, it's kind of hard for me to see that far in the future to keep everything as close to canon as possible. Please let me know if there is anything that I need to change or edit, especially when it revolves around continuity, because I am a major continuity hound and absolutely hate making mistakes when they can be avoided. Thanks in advance and I hope you enjoy.

Following the end of the threat posed by Abeloth and the Lost Tribe of Sith, the Jedi Order and Galactic Federation of Free Alliances are on better terms. It is now forty-five years after the Battle of Yavin, and the Galaxy is at peace, but there are two factions who wish to end this path, seeking to spread darkness to their lifelong enemies instead.

There are reports of dark Force users not affiliated with any group known to the Order, upsetting the Jedi Council, who have sent Knights from all over the Order to locate this threat to no avail. Searches on such Sith-affiliated worlds as Korriban and Ziost have come up with no evidence of this threat, leaving the Masters to decide not to follow up on their feelings, despite the insistence of many members of the Order, who wish to make sure the Galaxy does not suffer from another prolonged war of destruction.

A group of Sith has hidden themselves from them with the use of their superior masking abilities. This group wishes to wait until the proper time to strike, as the Jedi would slaughter them if they revealed themselves too soon. Instead they have sought help from rogue elements in the Galaxy who wish to increase their own powers.

Jedi Master Ken Elegin is awaiting his chance to be considered one of the more premier members of the Order when he receives as vision of the destruction of the Jedi, leading him to seek out those that the very same vision directed him to locate in order to make sure the vision does not become reality. Even with the future constantly in motion, Ken cannot help but feel that his mission will lead to his own destruction, as well as the death of the Order itself.

Dramatis Personae:

Tash Arranda- Jedi Knight; anthropologist (human female; Alderaan)

Zak Arranda- Jedi Knight; anthropologist (human male; Alderaan)

Tenel Ka Djo- Queen Mother; Jedi Knight (Hapan female; Dathomir)

Dordi- Jedi Knight (Barabel female; Barab I)

Durrei- Dark Jedi (human male; Elrood)

Ken Elegin- Jedi Master (human male; Kessel)

Garindan- outcast (Kubaz male; Kubindi)

Gumbrak Hoxz- crime lord (Mon Calamari male; Mon Calamari)

Vul Isen- scientist (Givin male; Korriban)

Ylairo Iteu- Dark Jedi (Zabrak male; Iridonia)

Sinsor Khal- scientist (Hapan male; Hapes)

Kunra- Extolled One (Yuuzhan Vong male; unknown worldship)

Palazidar- Sacredot (t'landa Til male; Varl)

Danni Quee- researcher; Jedi adept (human female; Commenor)

Malinza Thanas- pilot of the Hindsight (human female; Bakura)

Three-Eye- pirate (Gran female; Kinyen)

Raynar Thul- Jedi apprentice (human male; Alderaan)

Shul Vaal- Jedi healer (Twi'lek male; Sleheyron)

Star Wing- outcast (Duinuogwuin male; unknown, possibly Elrood)

Maber Yeff- spacer (Makurth male; Moltok)

Tiu Zax- Jedi Knight (Omwati female; Omwat)

Ram Zerimar- Mandalorian bounty hunter; sniper (human male; Caluula)

Zomil- co-pilot of the Hindsight (Defel male; Af'El)

Prologue: The Vision

Coruscant system, Coruscant, New Jedi Temple

Jedi Master Ken Elegin focused on his meditation routine, one of many that Grand Master Luke Skywalker had taught him several years before when he'd only gone by the name that his protectors had offered him. Like many of the chambers in the New Jedi Temple, Ken's room was designed to specify toward his tastes, as evidenced by the painting that hung beside his bed, known throughout the Galaxy as the Horrors of Kessel. Famed artist and former prisoner of Kessel, Gayla Riemann, had developed the painting itself during her brief stay on the prison world, which she'd escaped from thanks to the help of Rebel agents. Ken held the dark painting in his room to remind himself of the places that he'd lived in and what they could do to the minds of even the purest of Jedi in the Order, as they had all learned when Jacen Solo had turned into the monster known as Darth Caedus not too long ago.

Ken had been born on the desolate planet of Kessel to his mother—known to him as the Jedi Princess Kendalina—and his father—the famed pacifist mutant derogatorily called Triclops by those who misused his talents. However, through means that he had been unaware of at the time, Ken had left Kessel behind as an infant to go to live in the mysterious and aging Lost City of the Jedi by a strange brown-robed Jedi Master who Ken never saw again.

Opening his eyes, Ken peered over to the other side of the room, where he viewed the remains of his old companion, HC-100, who—in a different life—had once been one of Ken's primary instructors in the City. Unfortunately HC-100 had lost its life in the Yuuzhan Vong attack on Yavin IV, despite the attempts of the other droids to keep the once savage invaders at bay. Luckily, though, the Yuuzhan Vong had never entered the Lost City, allowing its secrets to be kept safe. HC-100 was now stored behind some of the strongest transparisteel that Ken could afford on the meager salary that the Jedi Order was allotted by private donations and public funding. DJ-88—Ken's primary caretaker in the City—had presented the remains of HC-100 to Ken following his return to the former base of the Jedi at the end of the hard fought Yuuzhan Vong War. As was usual when he left his former protectors behind, Ken felt a tugging sadness, even though both the droids and he knew that he was needed in the Galaxy to protect the many citizens it harbored, which Ken had done ever since he had helped Grand Master Skywalker defeat the Fake Prophets of the Dark Side back when he'd only been twelve years old.

Now Ken was fifty-two years old, had graying black hair, and naturally gray eyes, was one of the longest-serving members of the New Jedi Order, and one of its newest Masters as well. It had taken Ken years to discipline himself enough to be offered the chance to become a Master, owing mostly to his need to find what he was meant to do as a Jedi, which had caused him to leave the Order many times before, an act that annoyed most of the senior Council members, including Grand Master Skywalker, who'd always expected much of Ken. Over his many absences from his duties as a Knight, Ken had studied anthropology at the Chandrilan Academy of Sciences, worked as a commander in the New Republic fleet during the Yuuzhan Vong War, spent time unearthing antiquities in areas as far from each other as Rafa IV and Ilum, and come back to the Order each time that he'd received a "revelation" as to his place in the Galaxy.

However, with each "revelation" that Ken had found in his journeys, a new doubt would arrive soon afterward, destroying the "revelation's" credibility.

Ken was grateful to the Council members to allow him the chance to come back into the Order each time that he felt compelled to come back to them, and was glad that most of them didn't harbor any grudges against him. There was still some animosity that Ken felt between such members as battlemaster Kyle Katarn—who was less than pleased with Ken's inability to stay focused on the tasks handed to him—and the mighty Barabel Saba Sebatyne—who, like Katarn, wished that Ken would hurry up and figure out what he wanted to do with his life.

Chiding himself for focusing on the negatives in his life, Ken shook his head and returned to his meditation, which he tried to perform at least once a day if the situation allowed for it. The Jedi Order itself was very much in a state where serenity needed to be at the foremost of any member of the Order's mind, especially after the fallout brought on them by the Lost Tribe of Sith and the recent troubles with the former Imperial Admiral Natasi Daala. Ken had managed to avoid the majority of the campaigns fought in the war, not by choice, but by chance, as the Order had sent him on a mission to the Senex and Juvex sectors to begin an investigation into their slave trading practices, which had been proven true, and something that Ken had stopped, but not before learning of his own origins.

His mother, Kendalina, had apparently been taken from her native home of the Senex-based Asmeru by its Jedi Watchman, the Ugor Jedi Master Dajjun, against the wishes of the House Elegin, which had tried to sue the Old Republic for her release of what they viewed as kidnapping. However, the House had agreed to give the young girl to the Jedi, yet planned on making it seem like they had never wanted to do anything like that in the first place, hoping to ridicule and gain funds from the Jedi at the same time. Unfortunately for them, the Jedi had become involved against the Nebula Front, a known terrorist organization that was responsible for attacking a Trade Federation ship, and were promptly punished by the Republic for associating with terrorists and the suit was taken out of court.

During his time there, Ken had learned that his mother was often called a princess by members of the House, as they viewed themselves as royalty, which had led her to think that she was indeed a princess, hence why she had been addressed as such to him by his caretakers, who didn't know any better. The fact that he belonged to such a despicable family of petty lords who cared nothing about others had wounded Ken at first, but in that time he'd come to terms with it and had also added his true surname to his own, which had been bothering him ever since he'd been a child.

Pushing aside his distracting thoughts, Ken dwelled on the Force, and washed his mind away to allow it the chance to show him what he needed to know, if such a thing were necessary at this point in time. Many Jedi had problems with losing themselves in an effort to reach oneness with the Force, as had Ken many years ago, but now he found it far easier to do, so much that sometimes he would enter trances that would cause him to lose focus on where he was and how much time had passed.

But this time there was something different about his meditation, something that sent his danger sense on fire. Before he could react, Ken began to experience a series of visions, each one more terrifying than the next.

Coruscant was under attack once more, but not by any foe that he had seen before. Unlike the attacks brought on by the Empire under Admiral Thrawn or the devastation brought by the Yuuzhan Vong under Tsavong Lah, this assault wasn't fought between starfighters or destroyers, but by a creature birthed from the bowels of the darkest parts of the Force. The creature was massive in size, looking like a mix between the millitile that lived on Kothlis and the kell dragon of Ruusan. A group of Jedi Knights were attempting to fight it off, but the moment that they came next to it they were corrupted by the dark energies that the creature expelled from its body and forced to fight each other in a duel to the death. Ken tried to force himself out of the vision, as his body began to feel the beginnings of chest pains, but he was unable to do so.

No… a voice called out in the confusion. Stay. Learn…

Looking up to find the source, Ken discovered that the scene had changed, and now a group of Dark Jedi were assembled on another planet, one of them human and the other a Zabrak, as they talked of how the creature would rip the very fabric of the galaxy apart to destroy anyone who was not worthy enough to live on to the new age that they would make their own.

As he tried to figure out who they were, the vision shifted to yet another world, this time one that he was vaguely familiar with due to his travels with the Chandrilan Academy of Sciences: Lehon, where he saw a woman and a man working on a dig site. But as he tried to look closer at them, he saw an explosion and felt their deaths in the Force, causing him to shiver uncontrollably, right as he recognized the humans as Zak and Tash Arranda. But before he could act, the view changed yet again.

On the once thought mythical planet of Zonama Sekot, a female human and a Yuuzhan Vong warrior were talking to the planet's consciousness on where they needed to be. Once more Ken was forced away from identifying the people in time as the vision went to its next source.

Jedi Knights, slaves, and other individuals were facing off against what appeared to be a t'landa Til, who was trying to kill them for some infraction committed against him that had cost him a lot of credits. The survivors were gathered to leave for some unknown world where the Dark Jedi had assembled their forces in order to bring the creature to life once more, as it had been purposely placed into hibernation so that its powers could be kept in check.

His eyes weary from the continued changes in the visions and the locations of where they were, Ken closed his eyes for a moment, only to find that the light provided by the vision had left and, when he opened his eyes once more, he discovered that he was alone in a dark and murky expanse of space that was occupied by a gigantic figure that looked like it was completely encased in white.

The figure spoke in a voice that was almost serpentine in nature: "Ken Elegin of the Jedi, I have need of you. The Galaxy has need of you. Find the ones that I have shown to you and lead them to greatness, for if you should fail, then the Galaxy shall lie in ruin for the remainder of its days. May the Force be with you."

Before he could question the figure, Ken was taken away from his vision and pulled back into his chambers, where he barely registered the fact that he was in control of his mind once more. Looking around, Ken found a datapad, and typed in from his memory the coordinates of Lehon, which he knew he could find without trouble thanks to his experiences there.

Other Jedi would have taken some time to consult with other Masters on what the vision had meant and if it could be interpreted differently, but Ken had seen too many of them and been near too many Jedi who had seen them to know that he needed to follow his instincts when it came to the vision. For now his instincts said that he had to go out and reach Lehon, where he would find Zak and Tash Arranda. What he would do after that he didn't know, but he trusted the Force to lead him to his goal without too much trouble headed his way.

Some Jedi would find his impetuousness abominable, but Ken didn't care what they thought of him anymore. All that he knew was that he had seen the Galaxy wiped out, and that he was needed to gather the forces necessary to defeat it. Grabbing a pack of supplies and the ignition key to his StealthX, Ken left his room, ready to begin his quest to make sure his vision never came to pass.

A/N: Thank you for reading through this. I don't know when the next chapter will come, but it should be a relatively short amount of time due to how small it will be. Until next time.