Author's notes: As promised, here is the prologue to the new KotOR II fic. It will be turning out quite slow, however, so don't expect fast updates. I have decided what the Exile is going to look like and be like, but you have to wait a bit. This takes place months after the SF events and I give easily earned chocolate for anyone who can tell me who the ancient hag in the end is! Not the name I mention, of course.

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Prologue – the Watcher

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No sleep
No sleep until I am done with finding the answer
Won't stop
Won't stop before I find a cure for this cancer
Sometimes
I feel I going down and so disconnected
Somehow
I know that I am haunted to be wanted

I've been watching
I've been waiting
In the shadows all my time
I've been searching
I've been living
For tomorrows all my life

In the shadows

- the Rasmus, In the Shadows

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The vast sea of stars was not disturbed by any sight that didn't belong into the depths of space. The occasional asteroid was nothing out of the ordinary, and, near the doomed, war-destroyed world, the fifth planet from the sun of this solar system, not even the wrecks of ships and electrical storms were anything unusual.

Then, a small cargo freighter emerged from hyperspace close to the planet. It seemed to be of unique design and had clearly seen its share of space battles and chases. Nevertheless, it flied smoothly through the field of asteroids and ship remains, guided with expertise and, naturally, the Force.

Two crystal blue eyes watched the planet in front of them, a light frown passing through the ivory face of the pilot. It was worse than she expected, but then again, with all that had transpired here, she decided that surprise wasn't right here. After all, she knew well what destroyed the planet below.

The beeping next to her caused her to turn away from the sight. A small astromech droid appeared near the copilot seat, clearly concerned when it saw the unfriendly looking planet. The droid had also seen its share of battle. It was battered, but not dirty, for its owner took care when cleaning it and tending to it. Advanced repairs gave the small astromech additional equipment and despite the fact that five years ago, a Twi'lek merchant boasted that it was the best slicer, even she would now gawp at the technological wonder in front of her.

The pilot smiled weakly at the sight of the droid, but frowned when she returned her attention to the planet. Again, the droid beeped, obviously frightened that they were really heading to where it was dreading they were heading.

"No, I won't change my mind. I have to go there. One last time."

The freighter entered the planet's atmosphere. If the Force wasn't strong with the pilot and she wasn't doing her best to keep them in one piece and flying straight, they would have most probably crashed in one of the razor-sharp rock formations below. Fortunately, the freighter managed to maintain a semi-straight flight path and the pilot patiently searched the landscape for the whiteness – the color of innocence that didn't suit the academy at all – of the shell-like constructed building, the bridge over an abyss of venomous fumes that led to it.

Almost too soon, she found it and took the ship for a landing. The building's hangar was vast, containing only archaic-looking ships. They were clearly functional and fast, however, with no real sign of age upon them other than the design. Even the interior of the building that had lasted for millennia and withstood the destruction of the planet seemed to be almost new. For any other eyes, the sight would be deeply disturbing.

Heavy boots cast echoes through the silence of the building as the dark-clad warrior left her ship and looked around with a slight sense of déja-vu. The sight was clearly familiar… but it didn't feel like a pleasant homecoming to her. This was even worse than the great battle she had fought and won a year ago. The silence was all consuming here. It almost sent a shiver down her spine, though she wasn't easily frightened.

Beeping also sounded as the small utility droid rolled down the loading ramp, following its master. It seemed to be very nervous and frightened, but followed nonetheless, stubborn, not showing more fear than usual. After all, after so much time spent with its master, the little droid knew that no matter how bad the situation seemed, there was little to worry about while she was around. Yet now, it felt unease. Why has the master come here? And what was she going to do? The eerie atmosphere radiated darkness that even a machine could detect.

Lowering the hood of her dark cape, the pilot looked around. She was a human woman, very youthful in appearance, not pretty in the usual Twi´lek dancing girl style, but with her very own luminosity that made her beautiful in her own way. Perhaps it was because her skin seemed to be made of moonlight and her in eyes were flickers of reflected sunrays on a deep sea, or that her hair seemed to be formed of those very sunrays.

Her face wasn't as warm, however. Her flawlessly pale skin gave off a very cold impression; her features were almost like those of a statue made of snow. They seemed to be touched by a slight icy breeze that took away even some of the warmth from her eyes, memories of a summertime long gone, while winter reigned. Now, they reflected a spring morning's sky, still maintaining some of winter's chill, but nevertheless fighting back the shades of gray. Deep, endless pools of light, thought and mystique, like space itself.

The faraway world wasn't unfamiliar to her and she clearly knew the path she had to walk. Once the T3 unit wanted to follow her, however, she turned sharply and raised a palm to stop it. She walked around the hangar a bit and finally smiled for a moment. Then, she returned to the little droid, with a hint of melancholy.

"Everything is perfectly ready, T3. But from now on… I must journey alone."

"Beep-beet boop bzzt!" The droid beeped in protest. It was frightened, true, but refused to be parted from its master. It had no idea where she would journey, what she wanted to do, other than it was urgent.

Several weeks ago, the master appeared in the hangar of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, the capital of the Republic, where they had been for several months. With her came HK-47, the assassin droid, custom made for special missions that normal droids or even humans would never manage. Almost wordlessly, she motioned to the droids to follow her into the nearby cargo freighter.

Always a morning person, it wasn't surprising that the master would come to the hangar in the middle of the night, but the fact that she was alone and once she got into the cockpit, she immediately sat down in the pilot's seat – something she had never done before, since there always seemed to be a personal pilot that could fly her around – and set course for one of the Mid Rim worlds. Once there, she changed course, to deceive anyone who might be following them, she explained. And then, they headed here.

It was a long journey and there were times when even the master had to sleep, so it remained up to the droid to pilot the ship. Surprisingly, the master shut down HK-47 and began fiddling with his systems. The astromech droid had inquired several times what she was doing, but never received what could be considered a reply. Wordlessly and restlessly, the master fiddled with the systems… and, after a while, it was clear what she had been doing. She was erasing the droid´s memory, or, at least, locking it down.

The astromech was happy when it saw that it wasn't going to be memory-wiped as well, but received specific instructions. Under no circumstances was it to tail the master or tell anyone of her true identity. All information concerning her and her companions was locked away, the navicomputer was voice-locked. Without her voice, it was virtually impossible to access the records. And, the droid was quite certain, no sentient could mimic that particular voice.

HK´s shutdown and memory wipe immediately made more sense. While the assassin droid also had some instructions, it was able to mimic voices at will. The master didn't want someone more proficient with machinery or a capable mechanic to stumble across her recordings or her data. Still, she didn't want to cripple the droid permanently. After all, it was her masterpiece.

Now, however, the droid was stored away, though not forgotten, in one of the rooms aboard the cargo freighter, the Ebon Hawk. Many legends and mysteries surrounded the vessel, as they did its first – and, it would seem, last – crew that really meant something in terms of galactic events, being far more than simple smugglers, like most of the previous owners of the vessel were.

Shaking her head, the human woman sighed. "I have told you that I cannot take you with me, T3. You are a brave little thing, but even I might have problems getting where I need to go and uncovering the information I need."

The droid gave a concerned beep. If this mission was so hard, then it was double important for her to have some companions on it, stealth be damned! But it received another no as a reply. Obviously, secrecy was far more important than safety now and nothing the tiny droid would say would have any value. Well, it had its experiences with the master's stubborn psyche.

"I am a specialized Sentinel, you know, I can do this without problems. My knowledge of the Force is extensive enough to make me a very powerful adversary and I can swing a far meaner lightsaber than those amateurs you saw during our last trip. You don't have to worry about me… but I do have a last task for you."

The little droid immediately began paying even more attention, if that was even possible. It was keen to help its master – the other companions had each been delegated with a task until she would return. Surely the astromech could be just as useful as the others and live up to the usual expectations, proving once again that machines are not to be underestimated?

"I will store a holorecording in your database, and I want you to bring it to my former Master, Arren Kae." the pilot noted seriously, "Kae is a human woman, old, appears to be blind, with long gray hair… or she was, the last I saw her." The whisper reached the droid and its sensors detected regret and sadness in it. This person was important to the master.

But the human shook off these troubling feelings with ease. If it were not for the privacy of the hangar, it was doubtful she would have confessed this at all. Nevertheless, the astromech began recording her entire figure, a crystal clear image stored in its databanks. Each detail of her, from her majestic dark cape – a resemblance of a raven's wings – to the delicately bound strands of her hair, was secured and memorized.

Once more, she was handing out instructions. The droid understood some of them, but most of it was complicated Force-talk that the droid had little knowledge of. Intelligent and chirpy machine it might be, but it wasn't familiar with all the terms its master used. Then, after noticing a slight hand motion from her, it ceased recording her.

The woman bowed her head for a moment. When she raised it, she looked at the droid, with a smile clearly meant for a parting.

"It is time." she noted with a sigh, "I'm sorry, T3, but you would try to stop me… and that I cannot allow. Farewell."

A gloved hand whipped up immediately, sending a flash of mauve light at the droid. It whizzed and shrieked for a moment, then, with a slight smoke cloud from its circuits, it clearly shut itself down. The damage wasn't bad, far from it. It was simply enough to prevent it from moving or making a sound.

The woman smiled faintly and, with a whirl of her cape, headed away from the hangar. After a few minutes of wandering the halls of the building, she returned with a few possessions and headed for one of the prepared ancient vessels nearby. Nowhere near as flashy or as famous as the good old Hawk, but she would fit in better.

With one last glance at the starship that found its way into her possession out of pure need and which gained her favor thanks to the many times it had proven helpful, dark cape flowing, she entered the starship. The glow radiating from its rear end signified the starting of engines and then, with the graceful precision that her stance and movements had, it soared away from the hangar, from the building, from the planet, into the unknown.

It could have been seconds, minutes, hours of silence. The astromech droid couldn't tell. There it remained, stupefied, unable to move from the spot, a rusty little wastebasket, as its tall, auburn counterpart would no doubt comment smugly, were he still intact and had any memory of their journey together.

Oh, yes, they had gone quite a far way.

It all began on Taris, a planet of which the droid saw little, but remembered everything. It had been created there, for Force knows what means, but saved from that life due to an unlikely chain of events. It had been saved from destructions by luck… or the Force. Yes, the Force was a better term to describe it. After months of journeying with five different Force users, the little droid had seen enough to believe in the Force.

It had seen the amazing powers those who were able to touch it wielded. Almost as if they were able to warp reality itself, bend nature and technology and the universe to their will. Nothing could stop you, if you were strong enough in the Force. The master was a living example of that.

Again, the droid regretted that it had been deprived of its trusty stun ray during repairs. The gadget had been replaced with a unique shock arm, which was useful in most cases, but completely worthless when you wanted to stop someone sentient – or, in other words, a meatbag, depending on your personal views on organic life – from running off.

Then again, the droid decided that it was probably better for its circuits that it didn't have the stun ray. If it would dare attempt to stun the master after a detailed elaboration of its task and a command not to follow her, she would have fried its circuits for sure. What she had aimed at the droid was only a stun ray of her own, generated, naturally, through the Force.

The astromech saw that the master wouldn't be coming back for it. It knew little of the task she had set ahead of her, but while it was confident of her success, it wanted to accompany her. It had promised to bring back help. Well, it would, as soon as it would find this Kae person it was supposed to find.

Though knowledgeable in many areas, the droid knew next to nothing about Arren Kae. When it came down to it, it knew only the name and the description it had been given. And that she had a connection to the master, of course. It was lucky that the droid had been provided with a specification of gender – Arren wasn't a common name in the galaxy and if it would have to begin searching blindly for any human with that name, it would likely have taken years. Light years, to be precise.

Fortunately for the little astromech droid, this wasn't going to be like the hunt for the Star Forge, when they had to search entire worlds – Dantooine, Tatooine, Kashyyyk, Manaan and Korriban, to be exact – for hidden ancient devices, known as the Star Maps, created by the mythical Builders as keys to the puzzle. They held the secret of the location of an enormous space station which, at the time, was used by the Sith fleet as a factory for warships and equipment.

Finding Arren Kae was different. An artifact… easy. One particular person… hard. But Kae was far closer than the stunned droid would have imagined. Only that the name Kae was now foreign to her. Arren Kae had died in the Mandalorian wars, as far as the universe – and she – was concerned, thus there was no reason for her to reemerge under this identity that now seemed ridiculous.

From behind one of the nearby pillars came a woman, hooded and cloaked, fitting the description the droid had been given to the very last syllable. Her face old, her eyes milky white, with the shadow of a fog passing through them, she was indeed almost ancient-looking. Her features indicated a strict personality and she was, or had been, keen to experiment. Once, long ago, she had been a respected Jedi Master, the one who had been given the arduous task of raising the most amazing child of the galaxy as her student, a child who she prided herself in, who she viewed at times as her own.

Her own views were always grayish, a subject of much debate in the Jedi Order, but her student became faithful to her and she grew fonder of the young soul that had been entrusted to her, as did the student become fond of her, looking up to her as a role-model of sorts. She had given the child everything she could have, taught the child everything she knew.

It was never enough, it would never be. Like a black hole would never cease to hunger, the child couldn't be satisfied, ravenous when it came to knowledge, information. Over time, the child had discovered there was nothing more to learn from her. Staying was unacceptable, the only result would be stagnation. With some remorse, the child left her, seeking wisdom from other teachers across the galaxy, traveling far and wide, but never satisfied.

The woman once known as Kae had followed the young woman's progress closely. Yes, her student had become a young woman, strong-willed, beautiful, charismatic, a first class example of leadership when necessary. A titan, Kae knew, and became even more proud of the giant she had presented the galaxy with. Her first student would claim the galaxy effortlessly, due to her very presence. Pride was all she felt.

From Padawan to Knight, from Knight to Master, her student had passed with nothing short of amazing results in every task, every examination and, finally, became close to being the single key figure of the Jedi Order. Everything she could want, she would soon have, Kae was certain.

And then, the Mandalorian Wars came.

Strengthened by some invisible power, her student, now grown, returned to her. Their encounter left Kae both shaken and relieved. She knew that her former pupil wouldn't sit idly when something was going on. This pleased her. But there was something different about the woman she met that day, something strange. Never had there been a moment when Kae ceased wondering if her star pupil didn't have a bit of Mandalorian blood running in her veins, but that day, she was almost certain of it.

Another thing she was certain of was that her pupil knew her secret. But, as usual, she remained tactfully silent, not even bringing up the subject of the spark of a soul, a foreign creature, she must have sensed years ago, now strengthened. Kae had never informed her student of her pregnancy, though there was probably no need to do so. There was no need to point out the small, pale-skinned, white-haired and blue-eyed girl that sometimes reminded Kae of her pupil, not only in appearance.

Her student left her then, content with learning the last bit of information she needed, leaving to fight at the helm of the Republic forces in the war. Abandoned, though not alone, Kae resumed her ordinary life. Happiness with knowing that her student was meant for glory and power didn't last long.

The trial. Her expulsion from the Jedi Order. Somehow, they had found out about her affair with the Echani general, Yusanis. That could have perhaps been punished less cruelly, but when the shame of her birth had been revealed, the crime could not be left unpunished. The only reasonable choice was what she had been punished with – expulsion.

Ashamed, alone and grief-stricken, she had been forced to abandon the places she viewed as her home and become the follower. She followed her former student to war, welcomed with gratitude, and fought a great many battles. And then came the final battle… her supposed death… and she had been left with nothing once more.

Valor, honor, bravery, nobility­… those words seemed meaningless now. She wanted to find her old student. She needed to find her, for her own peace of mind. And then she found this place. Much had been explained to her, much became clear. She had reconsidered her position. And allies came quickly, far quicker than she would have imagined.

There were two of them – the major ones, the ones whose power was greater than that of the others. The two she took on as students, her first since her triumph with her first apprentice. Never had they proven themselves to be quite as satisfying to teach as her first. They had potential, true, but both lacked qualities necessary to make them true masters of the Force.

The first had learned more of pain than any living creature. He was more of a corpse filled with a last fleeing whiff of life than a living man. Once, he had been a student of the Sith, powerful and strong, now, spawned by the Mandalorian Wars, he became a shell of what he used to be. Still, his endurance had proven him formidable enough and while he lacked the ability to grasp the more gentle concepts of Force wielding, he was a fierce warrior and had his uses.

The other was undefined, incomprehensible. To try to understand what or who he was would be like trying to see the patterns of a dark fog, patterns that shimmered here and there, only to disappear once more into nothingness. It was from there that he had gotten his name – he was devoted to nothing, cared nothing about the Jedi, the Sith, the galaxy… only himself. His hunger was immense, but not insatiable in the way her first apprentice's was. This hunger was all consuming, with a will of its own, creating a hole in the Force. And, as all blank spots, it grew wider, until it became obvious that he had the power to devour others, the Force itself.

That pleased Kae. Over the years, feelings of hatred emerged from her core. Undefined at first, they became aimed at all possible directions, until they pointed at one enemy she wished to destroy. Impossible, it would seem… but there were ways. You simply had to know which string to pull.

Now, that very same woman walked towards the small droid, clearly tired, but knowing that what she had been pursuing was finally at hand. There were techniques within the Force to make one's presence small and insignificant and she had mastered them long ago. Predictably, when her former student hadn't been anticipating her presence here and was far too focused on other things, she was easy to miss.

Smirking, almost unnaturally for such an old woman, she looked at the droid, towering it.

She had never quite comprehended why her pupil loved machines so. From the beginning, all she wanted to know about were wires and circuits, parts and mechanisms. It had been up to Kae to teach her the value of persuasion and manipulation, showing her that not everything could be gained through machinery and gadgets. But the girl remained in love with machines, with their cool perfection, though she had learned that perhaps her Master was not the right person to speak to about this.

Her friendship with that boy, as Kae often referred to him, was another mystery to Kae. You could hardly find two more different people in the galaxy and yet, their personalities fit together like a wonderful jigsaw. The best and brightest of the Order, the other Masters called them. And they were. It was Kae, however, who saw the warning signs and discouraged the relationship, giving warnings through subtle means, creating barriers that would ensure that both of them would remain fixed on their goals and not on each other. Evidently, it failed.

His death wasn't at all surprising to Kae. After all, those who crossed her student never lived to tell the tale. After the kind speech she had recorded, however, even the cold heart of the woman who bore the name Arren Kae softened and accepted it. It was part of the past, however. Kae hoped that her student had learned to let go of the past, the memories… if only for that, she admitted to herself that perhaps the friendship with the boy wasn't useless after all and he had taught her flawless creation one important lesson about life, the universe, and everything.

Now, Arren Kae was looking at the droid. Her gaze then moved to the ship nearby, the last remaining thing she had left of her former student. She glanced at the sky – the hangar bay doors had remained opened after the ancient shuttle flew away. Even with her seemingly sightless eyes, she saw well enough. Anyway, it was only a gesture of melancholy.

"May your feet reach the end of your path soon, your heart unscarred, your mind untainted, your body unhurt and your soul whole, my child." Kae whispered, like a crone speaking a prophecy. The place channeled such powers, but she didn't have to rely on them that cool night.

Again, her eyes fell upon the droid. She didn't know how to repair it, truth to be told, but there were more than enough mechanic that would be more than willing to do so. It was a shame that her student didn't bother investigate the whole academy, really. It was deserted, certainly, but there were new things there as well.

Almost lazily, she strode through the hangar. The words that her pupil had spoken, recorded in the droid´s databanks rang in her ears. She alone seemed to be able to listen to the voice of her student without appearing to have taken a large quantity of spice. There was a nightmarish quality in the voice that ordered you to surrender to your darkest dreams only to be saved. Its skill to augment and influence was legendary.

Find the Exile…find the Exile… Truthfully, Kae didn't really know such a person existed. She knew a lot about the final battle, but not this. The information provided filled a gaping hole in her field of knowledge.

One major chess piece was leaving the board for an unlimited period of time… it would seem that it remained up to her to drag another one into the field. She knew of the restlessness of her students. And her will was not law. There were disagreements… ambition… and hunger for power…

If all would go well, she would never have to do what the holo had been suggesting. Leaving now would be foolish. Searching blindly for an outcast on her own wasn't good, especially now. But the tempting thought that such a creature existed…

The old woman stopped in her tracks, but didn't look back. Perhaps she was wrong to think that her own pupil couldn't influence her at all. When she resumed her stride to the Core, another event had been set into motion.

Another echo moving through the Force.