"Youngling?" the aged Jedi Grand Master asked his young student. "Trouble sleeping you have?" Yoda sat meditating on a dias, his eyes closed. Yet, the Jedi apprentice hiding in the doorway could have sworn the Grand Master was looking right at him.
"Yes, Master Yoda," the child replied. "I felt something, Master. Something dark, here in the temple."
"In this room you sense it?"
"Yes, Master. I don't know why."
Yoda climbed off his meditation pedestal and walked over to the child, looking up at the youth. "A crime curiosity is not, youngling. More dangerous than curiosity a lack of caution is. Come." He took the young Jedi student by the hand and eased him into the room. "In my possession, many things there are. Some light, some dark, some... neither. Or both. From a certain point of view, all things are viewed. The darkness you sense, in here it is. Harm you directly it cannot."
Yoda led the child over to a table, upon which sat three objects. Each one could fit in an adult human's hand. One was a golden cube, glowing a faint white; the second, a black pyramid that put out a faint red glow. The third, sitting on the other side of the pyramid was a cube, golden like the first, but like the pyramid glowed with a soft red light.
"Holocrons," the child said softly.
"Indeed, youngling," Yoda confirmed with a soft chuckle. "By a previous Jedi Grand Master, this one was made." He tapped the golden-white cube. "By a powerful Sith Lord of the Old Republic, this one was." He pointed at but did not touch the pyramid.
"And the last one?" the child asked.
Yoda looked somber as he regarded the holocron in question.
"That one, by a Jedi it was made. Follow the Code she did not. Dangerous her teachings can be."
"A Jedi?" The boy's confusion showed on his face. "Then why does it glow red, like the Sith one?"
Yoda picked up the pyramid and the red cube. "Bring the other one, youngling. A tale you shall hear. All three it concerns."
Minutes later, Yoda and the child sat at a low table in Yoda's chambers; the three holocrons sat on the table between them. With a wave, Yoda activated the white cube. A small hologram appeared, of an older man with angular features, with a chin that looked like it had a bit of a predator's nature, and piercings on the bridge of the nose and the ears.
"Greetings again, Master Yoda. How might I serve the Order today?" the man in the hologram asked.
"A visitor we have, Master Xibeda."
"What species are you, Master Xibeda?" the child asked. "I've never seen your kind before."
"I was a Pureblooded Sith." The child's eyes went wide, so the hologram continued. "I'm told my kind went extinct, which is why you've probably never seen my kind before."
"A Sith Grand Master?" the child asked, clearly still not believing it. Yoda chuckled.
"The ways of the Force are mysterious, child," Xibeda replied. "When I was alive, I was not the only Sith to join the Jedi. Sadly, there were also Jedi who turned to the Sith Order of my time."
"Activate your first sister I shall." Xibeda nodded at Yoda's proclamation. Yoda waved his hand, and the pyramid sprang to life. A slender woman wearing a robe over light armor appeared from the pyramid's holo emitter; most notably, however, the woman was apparently purely human, save for a mask covering her eyes. A scar ran from her eye mask to below her lips.
"Behold the teachings of Darth Pegali, once the Sith Empress," a cold feminine voice stated.
"Sister, Master Yoda?"
Yoda chuckled. "Yes. A Miraluka this Darth Pegali was. More accurately, a half-Miraluka."
"Pegali and I shared the same father," Xibeda explained, "as did our other sister, whose holocron has remained inert."
"The darkness you felt, youngling," Yoda asked the boy. "The Sith holocron?"
"No, Master Yoda. That one." He pointed to the red cube.
Pegali's hologram seemed to regard the others with a knowing smirk, then switched itself off.
Yoda reached for the red cube and switched it on. A beautiful young woman in a sleeveless blouse, miniskirt, and knee-length cape appeared. "Grand Master Yoda, why...?" The hologram then seemed to notice the boy. "A new student, Grand Master?"
"Not quite," Yoda began, before seeming to hesitate over his next words.
"Perhaps I can explain better," Xibeda stated. "That is the holocron of my sister Raiki. As you can see, she was purely human. There were seven of us born to our father who had Force potential: Mikk, Allie, Peg, Raiki, Klek, Neha, and myself. Klek and I shared the same mother, as did Mikk, Neha, and Raiki. Allie and Neha never sought training in their talent. Mikk, Raiki, Peg, and I were trained as Jedi..."
"That Sith Lord was once a Jedi?" the boy asked.
"Yes," Xibeda said with a sad smile. "But you're getting ahead of the tale. Mikk, Raiki, Peg, and I were trained as a Jedi by their mothers."
"When we were in our teens," Raiki continued, "we four were sent to Tython, the birthplace of the Jedi Order, to continue our studies and ultimately take our trials. You have to understand it was a time of hostility between the Republic and the Sith Empire, and the Jedi were hurting. Bad. Ten years prior, the Sith had sacked Coruscant."
"I wasn't the most welcome at the time," Xibeda said. "I was a Sith, and my brother had already gone to join the Sith Empire. Many thought me a spy. I had to become more of a Jedi than most in order to make people look past my red skin. That I arrived with my half-siblings helped."
"Master Kaeden never did like you, as I recall," Raiki commented.
"No, he did not," Xibeda said with a sigh. "As it is, I wasn't the one they needed to watch."
"I was," Raiki told the boy. "I discovered ancient Dark Side teachings, from one of the Jedi Order's founders, Master Rajivari. Before you ask, I will not pass on these teachings unless you are of great fortitude and exceptional loyalty to the Jedi. I learned the lessons of Master Rajivari well. Some might say too well. I embraced the Dark Side."
"But what was a surprise to everyone was that while she fell to the Dark Side..." Xibeda began to explain, only to be interrupted by his sister.
"It wasn't a 'fall', brother."
"While she turned to the Dark Side," Xibeda continued, "she remained loyal to the Jedi Order."
"Most Jedi who fall," Yoda explained, "against the Jedi they turn. Destroy us they try. The galaxy in war they enflame."
"So what happened with Peg and Mikk?" the child asked. At this question, the pyramid switched itself back on.
"Jedi arrogance happened," Pegali explained. "Mikk had a romance on the side. He was happy, the love those two shared gave him strength to persevere. Until the Jedi Council found out and forced him to choose between her and the Jedi. The fool chose the Jedi, and that choice killed his spirit. He was a broken man long before he perished, fighting a Sith on Nar Shaddaa. Without being forced to make that choice, he would have had the strength to carry on. The Jedi killed my brother long before the Sith unsheathed the blade that destroyed his body and gave me my scar."
"Peg's account is clearly biased," Xibeda commented, "but in essense she is correct about the events. She betrayed the Order and joined the Sith. Many in the Jedi expected Raiki to do the same."
"Except for one thing," Raiki said with a cold smile of her own. "I embraced the Dark Side, but I sought only the destruction of the Sith. It consumed me. The Jedi tested my loyalty constantly. I became their secret weapon, posing as a Sith to gain access to their facilities, only to destroy them from within. I was merciless, ruthless. Everything a Jedi should not be, I was. But I was cold inside. Dead. Unfeeling. A shell, until the most unlikely person brought me out of it, and taught me to feel again."
"Enough for now I think," Yoda declared suddenly. "Food for thought the youngling has, hmm?" The boy stopped in the middle of his yawn and smiled weakly at Yoda.
"Think about our tale, young one," Xibeda told the boy. "Never judge by first appearances, for to do so blinds you to the light inside others."
"Always keep an eye out to guard against Jedi arrogance," Pegali stated coldly. "The Council are not infallible."
"And know the difference between knowing when to act without emotion clouding judgement," Raiki finished, "and destroying your emotions completely. Not having positive emotions can be more damaging than letting the negative emotions run wild."
The three holocrons shut themselves off, and Yoda telekinetically raised them up to a shelf.
"Master Yoda," the boy asked, "are emotions good or bad?"
"Depends on the emotion it does," Yoda told the boy. "Anger, fear, hate, the Dark Side those lead to. Suffering they cause. Love, compassion, joy, those cherish you must, fleeting though they may be. Cling to them do not, or more suffering they can cause. Cloud judgement, all can. Meditate on this, you should."
"Good night, Master Yoda."
"Good night, Qui-Gon Jinn."