We Are the Unseen
Prologue: We Will Disappear
When the Republic was created, the Jedi weren't the only protectors of peace. There was a group of assassins, determined to keep the dark forces from taking over what was left of the universe after an awful ambush against the galaxy that wiped out several star systems forever. However, the assassins soon found out that the best way to deal with an enemy was not to attack it head on, but to shadow it, study it, and quietly do away with it. To do this, these people would need to disappear and remain unseen...
25,000 BBY
Grand Master Assassin Daichi Saagar POV
"Master Saagar, we are ready."
I nodded to my second-in-command, Pagrielle. "Thank you for informing me, Pagrielle." When she did not exit my office, I raised an eyebrow. "Is something wrong?"
She licked her lips and sighed. "To be honest Master Saagar, I'm worried about my family. My husband has been trying to contact me for weeks now, and my daughters are so young. What will Rab do when they ask him about their mother in the future? He doesn't know of our plans to disappear. No one outside of the organization does."
"Everyone is sacrificing something in this transition, my former learner," I chided her. I faced her with my emerald eyes and said, "Some are losing their accumulated fortunes, others their fame. But you will always gain something from a loss. In this situation, we are gaining safety for our loved ones outside of the group. If the dark forces knew of our attachments, they would exploit them against us."
A rather sour expression appeared on Pagrielle's face. She took a menacing step toward me and growled, "If we are putting our families in danger, why do we allow such bonds to be formed?"
"A group of assassins with no knowledge of love would be a sad group altogether," I reminded her. She seemed to calm down a bit and she looked down to her feet in shame. I moved toward her to be directly in front of her and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "But, a group of assassins with knowledge of love will know not only joy and happiness, but the anger and sorrow that accompanies loss."
She looked up at me with tears streaming down her face. "Again Master Saagar, why do you allow us to love if loss is the outcome?"
"It is better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all." I smiled down at her and said, "I will be missing you, Pagrielle. You were my finest student and I expect for you to not only lead the Guild, but to teach my own child. He is to be the next Grand Master of the Guild of Shadows after you."
"Is that what we will be calling the group now? The Guild of Shadows?" she asked, wiping her nose and smiling sadly at me. "It's not like anyone will know of our existence after tonight."
I laughed, a good guffaw, and wrapped an arm around the young Togruta. She looked so much like her mother with blue eyes and navy-striped lekku down her elegant back. Her mom had been one of the best assassins in the past thousand years of the organization and my best friend, besides my late wife, Josefina, of course.
"Come, Pagrielle," I said. "Walk with me."
On the way to the hangar, where my ship awaited, we talked of the future of the Guild. "If we truly are to be of the shadows, you must be strict and tough on the others," I told her firmly. "We can't have any slip-ups in the field. If they are revealed as assassins, you will cut them off from the Guild. If they are in danger of telling authorities of us, send a well-trained assassin to slience them."
"Silence them?"
"Kill them."
As we strode through the building, I noticed an uncommon reserve of the normally bustling halls. "If I might inquire Pagrielle, where in the blasted hell is everyone?"
We entered the hangar and a childish grin grew on my face as I was met with the sad eyes, yet colossal smiles of nearly every assassin the had been present at the headquarters during this time. My former learner smiled as well, and said, "Sending you off, Master."
"Well..." I started, then let out a snicker. "Damn it, Pagrielle. You really are trying to make me stay, aren't you?" The sight of so many of my students, present and past, caused my eyes to burn from the tears threatening to spill over.
"I knew there would be no stopping you from this plan, no matter how foolish it may seem to me."
I walked through the small pathway the led to my ship, shaking fellow master assassins' hands and nodding to the assassins-in-training. Pagrielle smiled at everyone too, as they started acknowledging her as the new Grand Master Assassin. "Master," Pagrielle said as we arrived at my ship, "I feel as though a few parting words would be good to remember you as the first Grand Master Assassin to ever fly through the space of this galaxy."
Nodding to her, I faced everyone in the hangar. I took a deep breath and began, "It has been an honor being the first ever official leader of this organization. I have seen so many of my friends and comrades become fully-trained assassins, worthy to be called masters of stealth. In the sixty-seven years of my life however, I never thought that I would see so many of them fall victim to the monsters of the dark forces." I noticed some of the novice assassins cringe at the mention of the horrid creatures.
"Assassins of this organization are not trained to make a profit off of simple killings. We are here to protect the galaxy from those which would seek to do us, and our loved ones, harm." My expression turned serious as I said, "I have done my best to kill off the beings that have hunted and killed so many of us. However, I have failed. This responsibility now falls onto the shoulders of my successor, Pagrielle, and when she passes on to the next life, my son will become Grand Master Assassin.
"They will be your future leaders, but that does not mean that they will not require all of your courage and strength in the fight against darkness. Without your support, the entire galaxy will fall into the hands of the dark forces. We cannot let this happen." I saw several people nodding and raising their assorted weapons in the air. "We are all losing something tonight, but we must endure and pursue our goal as long as this organization, the Guild of Shadows, stands!"
They let out a battle cry and I smiled down at Pagrielle. I whispered to her as they calmed down, "It seems as though they like the new name."
She rolled her eyes. "They'll cheer at anything that you say, Master Saagar." But the corners of her mouth tilted up and she gave me a soft hug. "I'll miss you, Daichi. You... you've been a father to me."
I hugged her as well, and once we separated, I laid a hand on her shoulder. "And you have been the daughter I never had, nor will have. I love you, Pagrielle, and don't ever forget that." I paused and said to her the last words that anyone in the Guild of Shadows would ever hear me say: "Our descendants will do great things. I've foreseen this."
She nodded and we bowed to each other. I stepped into my fighter and closed the airtight hatch. Flipping buttons on and off, my ship lifted off and flew away from the only home I had ever known, the planet of Zontai. I set the coordinates for the Holonet station on one of moons of Coruscant, when I felt a tremor in Pagrielle's presence. I'd felt it enough before to know that she was upset and before I took off in my fighter for my last space trip ever, I said through our bond, "Shadows be with you, Pagrielle Tano."
Normal POV
You'd be surprised how the sacrifice of one man could affect the galaxy in so many ways. Any history involving the Guild of Shadows was erased and everyone who was associated with the organization was hidden when Daichi succeeded in his plan.
Of course, he died mere moments after he completed his task. He was shot in the head. A quick and painless death for a great man and hero of the universe. Soon however, planets forgot of assassins and went on with their lives.
The families of the assassins found themselves shunned and laughed at when the former told of the assassins' great deeds and their sudden disappearances. The true tales of the once well-known figures were converted into fairy tales by smugglers who listened to the stories and the truth of the assassins' existence died as the accounts became even more outrageous.
If the galaxy had put two and two together, maybe they would have realized that the Guild of Shadows wanted everyone to think that they were myths. Alas, the organization went on in seclusion and the people of the universe remained ignorant.
At least for a while they did. Almost twenty-five thousand years went on before the Guild reemerged from... well, the shadows.
And who else would be the one to do it but a member of the Jedi Order, the "former" ally of the Guild of Shadows...
Author's Note: Sorry if it was a bit rough. You'll understand more of the actual plan to remove the Guild in later chapters when we discuss the foundations of the Guild of Shadows. But I'll give you guys another chapter, just because I'm feeling generous.