(For disclaimers, please check my profile page, heh. Also, as it says on my profile, hang what you know of the Star Wars universe at the door. This won't follow it. I've taken the galaxy of Star Wars and made it my own, redoing everything. I wanted to make sure everyone reading this realized that right from the outset. I wanted to say that this was written as kind of a long version bio for the character of Ryu so that's why it's broken down into shorter sections of his life and isn't exactly a "book" but is more a semi-brief (not really, haha) overview of Ryu's life as written from Ryu's own perspective. This whole story, as well as the next two I will be posting, is completely finished... well not completely. I plan to re-do the ending of this one (you'll see why when you get to the final chapter...). As such, I'm posting this entire story right now. The other two won't be done in the same way, but after a day or two I'll deal with those, heh. Keep checking back for more! =])

The only constant in our lives, in any culture, on any planet, and in any galaxy... is change. Bodies age and grow old, leaving the once formidable weak to be overtaken by the young and ambitious. Men will rise and fall as their power peaks and then dies away. Some will simply fade into unimportance while others will be struck down, perhaps before their time. It is this continuous rise and fall of powers that keeps the galaxy in its constant state of change. I am a victim of such ebb and flow... My name is Ryu Tikori and this is the recounting of what once was...

Childhood: Sith Youngling

When compared with the average life of a force sensitive child, I suppose that my life was what one would call normal. As the heir to the Tikori dynasty, I was put into training at a very early age. My parents, Jin and Kiara Tikori, were part of the top echelon of Sith Lords in the galaxy. They were powerful and extremely skilled in the art of... well killing. I say killing rather than fighting because fighting brings the thought that it was a struggle for my parents to win a duel. That, however, was not the case. Their reputation for power and for ruthlessness earned them high honors in the Sith community and they were soon given their own temple to train new Sith and command their own battalion of Sith soldiers.

I was proud of my parents in ways that a child as young as I was could not describe. I wanted only to make them proud, to live up to the standards that they had already set, to leap the bar that my parents had set so high. I was a Tikori, a man born of two of the most formidable Sith Lords of the time. I needed to be powerful so that I may take up my parents' mantle when it was time for me to claim my inheritance. So I threw myself into training with my master whose name I cannot remember. He (I do remember that it was a he) trained me hard, focusing on my saber skill first. On one occasion, I remember asking him to spend more time on my force powers. He told me that my blood already gave me a head start in that area and that I needed to catch my saber skills up. For a while, this was my life... but the Force had other plans for me. Thus, my world changed in mere hours...

End of the Tikori Dynasty

It was in the afternoon that the Jedi attacked. I had just come home from my daily training with my master and was in my parents' room on the top floor showing them what I had learned. The Jedi snuck onto the planet and had reached the temple undetected. With a thunderous boom, they broke down the temple's huge metal door and charged in, sabers blazing. My father left my mother, my 8 year old sister, Dominique, and I in the room with a warning to stay there. Shortly afterwards, a fighter ship dropped out of nowhere and blew a hole in the temple's side with a few rounds of blaster cannon fire. This served as a huge opening for more Jedi to enter the temple nearly halfway up the temple's floors. It was like injecting a poison straight into the blood stream and watching it spread. The Jedi caught everyone in the temple off guard and successfully took down a good many Sith Lords before they were even able to draw their sabers.

The Jedi soon made it to my parents' room where my mother and I were told to wait. My mother immediately attacked the Jedi, quickly taking care of the two that had entered the room. My mother turned to me and told me to hide here with my sister until the fight was over... but while she was turned towards me, a Jedi snuck up behind her and stabbed her through the chest. I killed for the first time that day. In a fit of rage, I avenged my mother's death, catching the Jedi off guard with my sudden outburst of fury. I knew that the only way to safety was to leave the temple, to somehow get outside. So I pulled Dominique into my arms and ran as fast as my 12-year old legs could carry me.

I dodged bodies and sabers as I sped through the battlefield that was the upper levels of the temple. Powered by the force, I was able to reach the bottom floor safely and quickly. As I came across the main entryway, I realized just how large scale the attack was. The fighting in the upper levels was nothing compared to the gore and death that met my vision on the bottom floor in the grand entry hall. It was like two entire armies colliding on one flat battleground. In the middle, I noticed my father, and for a moment, I felt like everything would be alright. He was carving Jedi up as if they were some sort of festive holiday meat. I felt confident that my father would win the day.

As I stood there, Dominique in my arms and watching my father's brilliant skill, he glanced our way. After a double take, my father's face was filled with concern. He screamed something to us. Judging by the circumstances, I assume it was something like "RUN!" But even as he finished the word, a Jedi, seizing the opportunity that my presence brought, picked up one of the huge metal doors that had been lying on the floor since the Jedi knocked it down and launched it straight at my father with the force. My father was distracted, and the Jedi's aim was perfect. I watched my father fly through the air like a rag doll, skidding and bouncing on the floor as the projectile did the same, crushing my father many times over. I didn't stick around to see where my father ended up. I had started running shortly after the door had hit its mark.

It was then that I decided that attempting to leave the temple was too dangerous. There was one place in particular, a crawl space in a nearly unused hallway, where I was confident that I could hide with my sister and not have the Jedi find us. Luckily, I was able to make it there quickly and undetected. I remained there, holding my sister in my arms as I watched the battle through the force. With the master of the temple killed, the Jedi were able to run rampant through the Sith ranks and exterminate all of the Sith that resided there. I felt helpless as I watched my brethren and my friends get slaughtered by the attacking Jedi. In retrospect though, I suppose that the fact that I wasn't trained in the force was the only thing keeping me from being discovered by the Jedi. I later found myself grateful to my slain master for not having trained me in the force at first.

When I felt the Jedi presence disappear from the temple, I decided to venture out. I told Dominique to remain where she was until I came back. I wanted to make sure that the Jedi were truly gone before I brought my sister out of hiding and attempted to leave the planet. However... as I reached the main entryway, my mission became finding my father's body. I found it quickly... trapped between the door that had slammed into him and a large pile of rubble on the far side of the entryway. His upper body was the only visible part of him... and even that was barely recognizable. He had been crushed so badly... It was then that all of my emotions, all of my grief from watching my parents die, suddenly came crashing down on me. I collapsed over my father's body, tears streaming out of my eyes. I knew that I was probably getting his blood all over me... but I didn't care. I had held in the pain for too long already... But my outburst of emotions made me vulnerable to outside attacks. I didn't even notice the Jedi Knight as he swiftly kicked the back of my head and knocked me unconscious.