"You have two missions, Master Cadus."
Cadus stared at Windu, face completely impassive as he folded his arms over his chest. He'd do anything to get off of Coruscant at this moment in time-he was getting tired of seeing the rampant self indulgence of the senators-senators Jedi were protecting with their lives. It was starting to get to be a bit much for him-the war was simple, it was these politicians that were the true problem.
They balked when the Banking Clans wanted their independence, wanted to separate. These self important fools couldn't come together in order to establish something that is similar, or come to a mutual decision with the Banking Clans, rather they were irate that they wanted to no longer be part of the Republic. And, yet they were in 500 Republica right now, over indulging while everyone else is dying.
Palpatine was also getting worse and worse as the days went on.
He went from being overzealous to vindictive.
Cadus turned his eyes onto Yoda-the short being remained seated in a deep meditation. It was just the three of them in the room, nobody else needed to be here. Nobody else would be here.
This wasn't something any of the Jedi would know about other than the three of them.
Windu nodded, a bare centimeter. "You will go to Korriban first. You have two destinations there, and I don't think I need to say them."
Cadus knew the planet well, after all there was a lot about Korriban in the archives and galactic history as a whole. However, it wasn't the planet itself that really proved significant this time around as to what was on it.
"The Valley of the Dark Lords and Valley of Kings."
Windu's expression said nothing. "Yes, but there has been a long standing rumor that he resides there."
Cadus stiffened, visibly. There were tales that Younglings and Padawans told each other to keep each other up at night, tales of fallen Sith Lords that could perform feats that have been relegated to mere myth, but he knew it all to be fact. Among all the ancient Sith Lords there were stand outs-Exar Kun, Malak, Malgus, but there was one that caused a sense of panic and dread.
So much that nobody within the galaxy dared to utter his name.
"Careful you must be, speak of him, scarcely." Yoda said, his ancient eyes cracking open a fraction before opening all the way.
Windu nodded, fully. "I apologize, Master Yoda."
"Then to Lehon you will go, find the Sith holocrons of Revan and Malak, you will."
Cadus regarded the two Masters. "Why am I given this task?
"You were the Padawan of Sifo Dyas, waver before this...You will not."
"I find it a waste of time chasing after ancient Sith Ghosts. Korriban is a husk of what it once was, and Lehon...Nobody bothers with that, even now."
"No one better for this, other than you, is there."
Because my Master had the gift of Foresight and resolution, unlike you two. He instilled certain things in me early, some thing you both lack. Cadus held back, this time-he didn't want to throw it back into their faces. Speaking of his Master was always a sore spot for him-the body was never found, and while he slew all those responsible, and has his lightsaber, he still couldn't let it go. Even after nearly two decades, he just couldn't accept it.
His Master became disillusioned with the Republic and the Jedi, and the same thing was happening to is the shadow of greed, more and more Yoda was preaching this.
"Very well, but I must make a stop before hand."
He hadn't expected Yoda or Windu to object, so long as he completed his assignments-which he would, they had no arguments against him making additional stops.
Tython was his stop.
He marched across the wastelands. The sun was sinking quickly below the horizon. He had been walking for hours, undaunted by the sun's heat or the length of time. He passed up many old Temples, but they were mere specks in the horizon, and if he were to look back they'd hardly be specks able to view.
He didn't look back. Refusing to do so. He marched onward. The blazing heat hadn't slowed him any. He wouldn't be effected by the temperatures that were about to drop to freezing with the setting of the sun. Physical discomfort-cold, heat, thirst, hunger, fatigue-had no significant effect on him, sustained as he was by the , he was troubled.
He set foot on this world. He could sense the power of the world. Tython was alive with the Force. Yet the feeling remained to fleeting and distant, as if it were sequestered-like it had been wounded.
When he'd left the old temple and the starport behind-having destroyed the second unknowingly by landing, he'd expected that feeling to grow stronger as he trudged through his destinations. With each step drawing him closer to the ancient temples where the Je'daii pursued harmony with the Force...He had been expecting the Dark Side to grow in its ferocity, to become so overbearing that he'd have to grip his head in pain. But, also for the Light to be so consuming that there was a serenity, the ferocity, but the reservation to temper it.
Instead he felt the same thing. as when he first landed, a dull pulse. He wasn't sure what he expected to find at this place, but it wasn't just barren waste. Some Jedi came here some thousands of years ago, only to be slain by Bane and his apprentice Zannah, so there had to be something here. The spirits of the ancient Je'daii were beings of pure energy they were eternal just like the Force is.
They stuck to the world of the living. The spirit would linger for centuries and millennia. Or so the texts in the Jedi Archive had led him to believe.
Those who passed and couldn't accept it, or their feelings were too great...They'd remain behind, waiting for someone to free them, or to teach those that stumbled upon them their secrets.
Of course it didn't say this directly, but after years of piecing things together from the Jedi's ignorance-as they only focus on the Light, and have lost sight of harmony, and since he focused on harmony just as his Master, he came to this conclusion himself. His Master was also a great help because he shared everything with him, as opposed to Yoda's vague mumblings and Windu's redundancy.
Yet the harsh evidence before him was undeniable. Even though he had been spurred by some ambition to find what he should have, he didn't find anything at all.
Nothing except ancient temples.
There was nothing but waste-barren and desolate, the sky itself was weeping, colored a cruel gray with a haze of black-the planet still trembled from the war that took place tens of thousands of years ago-when the haughty Jedi were formed, when the cruel Dark Jedi were formed, and when the Je'daii slowly faded into extinction as they years went on. Their limited gene pool not allowing them to continue on as the other two, and after some generations they were completely gone.
Tython was a planet of myth and folklore, the birthplace of the Je'daii. The planet itself was saturated in the Force, had been at least, and was a lush-verdant world that spanned on for kilometers. It was orbited by two moons-Ashla and Bogan, one being light, the other being dark, and from these two moons, and the planet itself, the Je'daii strived to be in harmony with the Force, never tipping to one side or the other. As they learned from Tython itself, harmony and balance are crucial. Storms and all other kinds of disasters would happen if a single Je'daii wasn't in total harmony.
One single Je'daii being out of harmony, could cause planet-wide earthquakes or worse.
"The Jedi and Sith...To become so hubris. To abandon the original teaching-the original creed."
Though he didn't find anything worthwhile on the planet he did come away with a valuable lesson. The Force always maintains balance on its own, and its through the machinations of the Jedi and Sith-not the Je'daii that cause disruptions and imbalance in the first place. The Jedi hold to the Light, and the Sith hold to the Dark side, and there is no balance or harmony.
Just as his Master told him when he was still a child Jedi's need to protect and self righteousness has caused war, the hypocrisy has caused schisms, their ignorance has forsaken many who abandon all forms of attachment, their perpetual need to vanquish the Dark, like it is their calling, is only arrogance. Hubris. The Sith and their senseless cruelty, the suffering and pain they inflict on each other, on other people, the need to conquer and be ruthless, how the Dark Side degenerates people.
All of it has thrown galaxy into war after war-the Jedi declaring war on the Sith, the Sith declaring war on the Jedi and Republic, and vice versa, and so forth.
The Republic and how it wants all the systems and planets in its domain-how the Outer Rim systems wish to be out of the Republic...It was all so nonsensical, so pointless...He pondered why the Jedi ever became politicians-why is it that they became hounds for the politicians. The Ruusan Reformation-the Jedi Army of Light was disbanded, many planets that wanted to break away or were about to break away were brought back into the Republic.
Because they wanted their independence Jedi were sent to quell these rebellions-Republic dignitaries and transports were sent out to colonize.
The Jedi became slaves and in turn they were enslaving.
Why had Farfalla agreed with the Chancellor back then? Why did Hoth have to sacrifice him on Ruusan-if he remained alive...
"Master is right..."
He only gained a lesson after visiting Tython, but upon arriving to Korriban Cadus felt what tolerance he had slip completely. The tombs and everything else were completely razed, there was nothing.
For some reason, he just felt that something was going to vex him, and it was going to turn back to Yoda and marched across the wastelands of Korriban. This had been it-they sent him on a pointless mission, so they could do some political maneuvering.
The sun was sinking quickly below the horizon. He had been walking for hours beneath its heat, marching onward without any reservation. He took five minutes break to snack. The temples and tombs, the bodies that were mere durst, all of far behind him. They had been reduced to mere specks, if that. If he was to look back, he would have just been able to barely make them out in the fading light.
He didn't look back. Refusing to do so. He marched onward. The blazing heat hadn't slowed him any. He wouldn't be effected by the temperatures that were about to drop to near freezing with the setting of the sun. Physical discomfort-cold, heat, thirst, hunger, fatigue-had no significant effect on him, sustained as he was by the Force , he was this he went to Korriban remembered setting foot on Korriban for the very first time. He could sense the power of the world.
Korriban was alive with the dark side, ye. Yet the feeling remained to be fleeting and distant-yes it was the Dark Side, but it was just barely there, he'd left the old temple and the landing platform-having destroyed the second unknowingly by landing, he'd expected that feeling to grow stronger as he trudged through his destinations.
With each step drawing him closer to the Valley of the Dark Lords and the Valley of Kings...He had been expecting the Dark Side to grow in its ferocity, to become so overbearing that he'd have to grip his head in he felt noticeable change at all.
He was now a few thousand kilometers away from the valleys' entrances; he could see the shaded outlines of the nearest tombs carved from the stone walls. And still the dark side was no stronger than a hollow echo, no more than the lingering memory of distant words spoken in the distant wasn't sure what he expected to find at either of these places, but it wasn't just barren waste.
The spirits of the ancient Dark Lords were beings of pure dark side energy; they were as eternal as the Force itself. They stuck to the world of the living. The spirit would linger for centuries and millennia, until a worthy successor came along. The texts in the Jedi Archive, as well as the Sith holocrons had led him to believe. Of course it didn't say this directly, but after years of piecing things together from the Jedi's ignorance he came to this conclusion himself.
His Master was also a great help because he shared everything with him, as opposed to Yoda's vague mumblings and Windu's the harsh evidence before him was undeniable.
The Archives were wrong. He came out here all for nothing, and even though he had been spurred by some ambition to find what he should have, he didn't fell any of desperation he threw his head back, arms raging at his sides.
"I'm here Jen'aris! I'm here old Sith Kings!" he screamed to the desolate landscape. "I've come here on a pointless mission! But, I come here in search of you! Show yourselves...!"
He trailed off, listening for a response. "Show yourselves! By all the power of the dark side, show yourselves! Sith King Adas-show yourself!"
"Darth Nihilus! Show yourself!"
"Show yourselves! Ghosts of the Pure Blooded Sith!"
His words reverberated through the landscape, sounding empty and hollow-echoing and fading away. He felt like dropping to his knees, his arms fell slowly to his sides and his head slumped forward.
The echo died away leaving only the cold shrill of the wind as the only thought of him not being worthy came to mind, but that couldn't be. He never stuck to the Jedi's dogma and didn't follow the code to the T, if anything he was like his Master and didn't follow it at all. He was very powerful in the Force, he had great physical might-even if these are ancient Lords of Sith, they should recognize his power.
"COME OUT!" His voice echoed again, longer, flitting away as the sun finally dipped over the horizon. He couldn't go to Lehon empty handed, and he couldn't leave this planet empty handed.
He had to get something, find something-otherwise this was just a wasn't a waste, it was a lesson well learned, and now he knew what was going to happen and what this whole war was wasn't about the CIS, Techno Union, Backing Clans, and whatever other faction is out 's purpose was to destroy the Jedi Order. Spread the Jedi thin, and in turn play them for fools.
The Jedi and their arrogance...There was no way he'd ever be able to prepare for that day. He'd cut through Clone Troopers, but there's no way Jedi were going to be walking out alive.
Because of their indolence and arrogance they allowed their skills to wane-and it can be argued there were the likes of Agen Kolar and Kit Fisto, but everyone knew that Windu, himself, and Yoda were the most fearsome duelists. There weren't duelists like them anymore, though Obi Wan was a true Master in his own right, he was all defense and not known for was also a fearsome duelists, but he needed one point there were duelists like himself and Windu-experts like Count Dooku, but now...
"The Order has changed." He said.
He had been boasted by he was weighed down by the burden of his six thousand years have passed between the time the Sith had been driven from Korriban by Revan, and roughly three thousands since Kaan's Brotherhood of Darkness officially reclaimed this world for the order, and one thousand odd years since Darth Bane destroyed the Brotherhood and reformed the Sith.
In that time the legacy of the original Sith-the Pure Blooded Sith who lived by strength alone, who believed victory freed them from the chains of mortality itself, had been completely wiped out.
He found only disillusionment here. Korriban was no longer the center of darkness it had been infamous for. Like he had told the dogmatic Windu; it was a husk, a withered corpse picked clean by Jedi, Sith, and the Republic. But, he knew that the Jedi, Yoda and Windu, and all those who follow them and rigidly stick to the code are all wrong...They are all haughty and deluded, and will lead themselves to their doom.
He understood too well that they were very, very hadn't found what he was looking for in the tombs of this planet or the wastelands of Tython, but in the long trek back across this barren desert, the long travel here from the Deep Core to Outer Rim; his mind was clear.
Doubt and uncertainty were cleansed from his thoughts. It stripped away the luster armor of the Jedi and exposed the lies of Yoda, and what the Jedi were preaching. The Sith weren't worthy, spirits of the Sith were gone from Korriban forever. But, it was Kaan's Brotherhood of Darkness, the Baneite Sith-they were both to blame for everything...They had twisted and perverted the ancient order of the Je'daii to fit their own needs.
The Jedi's and Sith's teachings flew in the face of everything the Je'daii stood for. Both of them had cast aside the harmony of the individual with the Force and replaced it with the false glory of self-sacrifice in the name of a worthy cause. With pride coming from a victory. By turning the Force itself into a weapon.
The Sith always sought to destroy the Jedi through might of arms, rather than cunning, though this pertains more to Kaan's Brotherhood. Worst of all, Yoda, Windu, and a wide majority of the Jedi all proclaim that the Light is superior to the Dark, and the Dark should be feared.
The Jedi and Sith preach self reliance and forbid love. Forbid attachments. Forbid family attachments. For the Sith they are a means to an end, and for the Jedi they purge themselves of such wonder his Master struggled so much...No wonder he could only speak to Dooku."You always did say I'll need to make a choice Master..." Cadus muttered, voice pitching with anger.
"I need more time."
The Jedi would meet their doom, but he'd do everything he could to save his brothers and sisters in the Force, because that was his duty. There would be those who turn their backs to him, but he'd have those who remain at his side. When somebody went against the dogma-against Yoda and Windu, things always went downhill from there, it's happened time and time again.
They tried to make a fool of Sifo Dyas, but ultimately he made a fool out of them.
The Old Guard-what he was part of...How many had died.
As Serra said-there were few Masters.
The Republic was no more.
The Jedi Code held no bearing at this moment or significance.
The Jedi.
The Sith.
The Republic.
The Trade Federation.
None of it mattered.
It never mattered in the first place.