STAR

WARS

Knights of the Old Republic III;

Scars of the Sith

CAST

Ebon Hawk Crew-

LS Male Exile Zenith Renar

Atton Rand

Bao-Dur

Mira

Handmaiden Brianna

Visas Marr

Mandalore/Canderous Ordo

T3-M4

HK-47

--I don't like G0-T0, so I'm pretending the little remote fried his circuits before blowing Malachor into galactic dust—

Prologue

Zenith Renar watched with pained expression as his master collapsed at the center of Trayus Core. Kreia was not a Jedi, nor a Sith, she was something less, and something more. She used the Force, but despised it. She killed an uncountable amount of Jedi, and she killed an uncountable amount of Sith. She was a murderer, a teacher, a warrior, a reviver…

…his Master.

And now, she's dead.

Zen wanted to help her, to save her from what seemed like mental instability, but he couldn't. He was too exhausted from the battle. His Force was nearly depleted before he stabbed through Kreia's abdominals, signifying that the battle's end. Stabbing Kreia was the hardest thing he had to do, yet it felt like the weight of a capital ship was lifted off his chest.

Even when death fell upon her, the words that dripped from her mouth stung Zenith like venom.

He closed his eyes, stretching out into the Force, fingering his way through the space around him. Through the crevices in the rocks, through the corridors of the academy, sweeping along the dusted scarred surface of Malachor V….

All life, was no more.

Just an echo.

He killed everyone in that academy without a thought. The Dark Side shrouded those people, and he killed them. Because that's what he does. It's what he's good at.

That's why Zenith needed to find Revan. One of the reasons to find her, at least.

The tiny whiskers that freckled Zen's jaw began to vibrate wildly along with his close crop space black hair. His sore calves weakened as the ground shook under him. He began to feel the cracks dig and widen along the platform. His ears throbbed with the sounds of falling rocks and he tasted dry blood stained on his teeth. The side of his forehead pulsed and ached from being smashed by the butt of Sion's lightsaber. His muscles screeched in agony, and his eyes threatened to explode.

Death fell all around him, mists of dusts clawed threw his hair, and Zen still stared, brows furrowed, eyes polished, gazing down at the stillness of the body that once belonged to his master.

Now, it belonged to Malachor.

Only the great rumble of damaged hyperdrives and creaking metal drove his vision away from the corpse.

The Ebon Hawk hovered ten meters in front of him and between two-three meters high. The hatch was opened, revealing his two friends.

Bao-Dur and Mandalore. Bao-Dur stepped onto the ramp, one hand still clutching the Hawk to keep steady, while the other aided a wound to his side. Mandalore stayed at the top of the ramp, gripping the indents of the corridor. One thing, though, sent a shiver through Zen's spine.

Half of Mandalore's helmet was smashed through, revealing an aged bloodied face of the great Mandolorian, Canderous Ordo.

The two men shouted for him to hurry and jump. Bao-Dur added through their bond that he would aid him if he was too Force drained.

It was then, he remembered, how much hurt he'd taken. Not from the battle between Kreia, but the battle with Sion, and the battle through the Academy, and the battle through Malachor V's surface, and the battle at Telos, and the battle at Dantioone, and the battle at Dxun, and the battle on Korriban, and the battle on Onderon…. The entire Sith War, the entire Mandolorian War…

If it wasn't Malachor, Zen would have stayed there until death enveloped him.

But he had a destiny, he had to find Revan. At that moment, he finally focused and put on his intensity face that all the Ebon Hawk crew knew. He embraced all the Force he could muster out of the dead planet, and Force leapt into the hatch.

In a moment, a hiss signals the sealing of the hatch and the Ebon Hawk launches out of Trayus Core as Malachor V give its last, final breath…

Chapter 1

Escaping Malachor V

Bao-Dur pulled Zen quickly off the edge of the ramp as he sensed the shadow bomb brings about the final quakes of Malachor V. He pulled the General up half-way of the closing ramp and was immediately assisted by the Mandolorian. In the crash earlier, everyone but Brianna was knocked out cold from the crash. He wasn't sure exactly what the Mandolorian hit that caused to shatter the left half of his helmet and leave a small deep scar between his eyebrows, a black eye, and another scar slice from his cheekbone to his chin. The Zabrak was glad he didn't know. Too many people were banged up when the Hawk fell, and Mandalore was just a reminder of that. He was lucky that Brianna was quick to tend his wounds.

Bao-Dur looked down at his master, more of a friend really, and saw all the wounds he's endured and could feel all of his exhaustion. He felt the large blood clot in Zen's side, felt the throbbing head threaten to explode, he felt the swollen knuckles begging to crack, he felt the pinning numbness of his legs, he felt his heart pulse chaotically…

Bao-Dur almost fell backwards when he attempted to heal him then and there.

The Ebon Hawk shuddered violently, trickles of sweat spurned from the men as the heat in the ship rose.

Mandalore spits blood as he tries to volatize his voice over the cry of Malachor, "What's wrong!"

Bao-Dur responds in his highest even voice, "The General's taken too much wounds for me to heal by myself. Brianna is more suited for this." The head lights above them started to fade and wink out. Zen felt that was Atton's doing, that he was trying to preserve all the power the Ebon Hawk still had. He hoped it was Atton's doing.

Sparks set off of where a light had failed to deplete. More sparks joined that in the cables as the Hawk must have engaged some fallen debris.

After that shutter, Zen and the others heard the high-pitched whirring of their little astromech droid enter the corridor. He buzzed and whirred frantically at Bao-Dur, circular head twirling. Zen's mind couldn't catch a thing the crazed astromech said.

Canderous would've furrowed his eyebrows in irritation if it didn't hurt the infected scar along his forehead. "What's that blasted cylinder saying?"

T3 sounded insulted at the words 'blasted cylinder'.

Bao-Dur looked straight into Canderous' swollen eye. "The cargo hold isn't holding up. I need to keep it together before it's exposed to vacuum. The hyperdrive is beyond overheating, melting nearby safety cables; he needs you to help keep it under standard temperature."

The Mandolorian only nodded. "What about Zen?"

Bao-Dur hesitated. Brianna was already in the cargo hold, trying to keep it together herself, but obviously failing. There was no time to heal the General.

"I'll be fine." Zen managed to wheeze. "Just… make sure we get out of here." He swallowed something hot. Probably blood.

Bao-Dur only managed to open his mouth for protest when another shudder hit the Hawk hard enough to knock T3 off his wheels. Zen heard Atton curse from the cockpit. The Zabrak got on his feet and sprinted to the cargo hold to give the repairs he could. Canderous left Zen to turn the astromech right-side up and they took off to the engine room. More shudders vibrated through the ship, threatening to tear it apart. Zenith managed to use the Force to calm his speeding pulse, and then got up and limped his way to the cockpit. He passed Visas, who was meditating in the communications room. She was trying to use the Force to patch the ship together.

At the cockpit sat cursing Atton and a banged up Mira. Atton steered while Mira kept all systems in check. Through the canopy, he saw that they were flying out of a large rock tunnel that must've been apart of the valley. Green mists began to tickle its way up the edges of the cockpit's vision. Jagged rocks overhead began to entomb them. Zenith saw red lasers form at the top of the canopy, knocking rocks out of their path. Zen reached out and felt HK's mechanisms working happily in the gun turret.

Sparks from a nearby panel snapped Zen from his focus. Though the overhead lights were shut down, the cockpit was filled with computer panel lights flashing and sparks popping out randomly. Most light that was seen from the panels, however, was red.

Zenith felt in waves how tense the crew was becoming. He even began to feel small ripples of fear.

Zen took a deep breath, and calmly sat cross-legged in the center of the cockpit, out of reach from the sparking panels, and closed his eyes.

Through the Force, he searched for the presences of his companions. He felt their strong embers of life all on the ship. For that, he was grateful. He sent out his emotions, emotions of hope, of joy, of victory, of confidence…

…Of life. Something that was lacked on Malachor.

His crew would live another day, no matter what Kreia had said.

Waves of gratitude came from his padawans. Now, Zenith called onto the Force, to become one with it. He let its eddies flow into each and every cell of his body, he let it flow into him; drench him with its energies. He felt his flicker of life burst into a supernova. And, at the moment in which so much Force Will would overwhelm his bodily functions, he let the Force pour outward from him.

Its fingers traveled and grasped every crack and indent in the Ebon Hawk. It stretched out to the computer panels enveloping the cockpit, cooling the systems and subsiding the sparking. It reached Atton and Mira, calmed their tensions and enhanced their senses. The Force stretched even more, reaching the communications room containing Visas. It regenerated her and cooled more over heating systems in the Ebon Hawk. The Force stretched out further, reaching HK-47 in the gun turret. It fingered its way through his circuits, brushing away rust, cooling his systems, enhancing his reaction timing. The Force expanded out, and found the two flickers of life in the cargo hold. It grasped the weakening panels and filled the expanding crevices in the walls. It worked at Bao-Dur's wounds while aiding Brianna, as well. Its fingers crept down the corridors and reached the engine room. Again, it cooled the Ebon Hawk's overheated systems and patched the Hawk together again, holding it firm with its powerful grip. It traveled through Force-blind Canderous Ordo, slowing his pulse, relaxing him, ridding him of the infections in the two scars newly added to his face. It traveled down to his beloved T3 unit, pulling its panels together, venting the little droids heated systems. It filled the cracks that had scarred his modulator, and it spread outward, again…

…In moments, the Ebon Hawk was living up to its name of being the fastest ship in the galaxy.

When Zen opened his eyes, he saw from the view screen the ultimate destruction of the horrid planet Malachor V. If his muscles would allow it, he'd smile.

As the tiny thought finished, Zenith fell into blackness, and passed out.