SW From the Ashes: Détente's End

Authors Notes

Summary: Star Wars AU - Dark Nest and Legacy never happened. Five years after the Yuuzhan Vong War ended, the Jedi find themselves losing their way, and a wayward Jedi Knight returns with warnings of a deadly new enemy.

Background: Unsatisfied with the way the series progressed after the Vong war, I set to write how I thought it should have been written. This is the first of a trillogy, two of which I have complete at this time. I will be publishing the first five chapters this week, then I will publish each chapter on the Sunday night or Monday morning (or Tuesday, depending on holiday scheduling) at the beginning of each week until it is all done or I run out of material to publish.

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars and make no claims to. It is George Lucas' sandbox, not mine. I am not being paid for this, and is purely for everyone's enjoyment, mostly my own.

Prologue

Blackness surrounds him.

Out of the black appears a figure, just as dark as the blackness itself. It has no face. No shape. No form. But it has a presence. That presence is pain. Suffering. Torment. It that appears out of nowhere will break the one who sees it.

The one who sees him knows this. It is unavoidable. It is destiny.

The Seer tries to run away, but the ground does not let him. It breaks and falls into the black. As the ground falls, The Seer watches it fall, helpless to stop it. Not it.

Them.

The ground is made of faces. Family, friends, co-workers, opponents... All of them, falling into the black below, until he stands on one alone. A face he cannot recognize but is as familiar to him as his own. Helplessness becomes despair as the figure of black, now a monster larger than life, grabs The Seer, trapping him fast. The Seer can not escape. He can not call for help. He can not even look into the eyes of the black monster to see who will create The Seer's own personal hell.

He can only wake.

"Luke?" A female voice wakes The Seer. "Luke! What's going on? Wake up!"

"I...I don't know." Jedi Master Luke Skywalker responded. Panting heavily, he found he could not move, but was able to pull himself up in bed and wave a light on at his bedside. Finally, he noticed his legs were entangled in his bed sheet. "I think I was having a vision."

"A vision?" Mara Jade asked, sitting up to look at him, using a hand to block the light from her squinting eyes. "Of what? The Anchorhead Marathon?"

Luke leaned forward, putting his palms to his eyes as if to keep the images slipping out of in his mind there longer. "Darkness...everything falling...no, everyone...an enemy. It happened so fast, I can barely remember."

"Old enemy, or new?" Mara asked, glancing at Luke's bedside chronometer. Three in the morning? Why can't the Force be more considerate?

"Yes." Luke said. "I know, it sounds stupid, but...yes."

"Did you get a good look at him?"

"No." Luke said. Abandoning any attempt to remember the vision any further, Luke began to unravel the sheet from his legs. "I don't think he had a face. At least, not to me."

"Oh." Mara said around a yawn. "Did he attack you in bed?"

"No."

"Then can it wait till morning?" Mara asked, flopping back onto her pillow without waiting for an answer.

-! #$%^&*()

Gareth Gisll saw her from a distance through the massive crowd of people, but was struck by her beauty from his first far off glance. Neither her long flowing blonde hair or the loose jacket could hide the attractive curves of her body that were well hugged by the dark tight-fitting pants and top she wore. Even on Telos, the Coruscant of the outer rim, she appeared to be quite well off between her well-cared-for appearance and expensive looking clothes. And well off people usually carried lots of credits.

"Yo." Gareth called to his Devaronian buddy, Dlasa. "Got us a mark."

Dlasa glanced in the direction of Gareth's line of sight and sighed. Gareth grinned, knowing exactly what his friend was thinking.

"Yeah, she's hot," Gareth admitted, "But that's just an added bonus. She's gotta be loaded."

Dlasa looked again and re-evaluated her appearance. She walked with a brisk pace, weary about her steps, quickly taking in the appearance of people around her as she skirted past them. She projected a look of confidence, but was definitely cautious. That only meant one thing on the streets of Telos.

"She's carrying something valuable." Dlasa agreed.

"Let's move."

The duo slipped away from their vantage point and made their way toward their target as she threaded her way through the crowd into the high speed public transit terminal. She paused to talk to an agitated Ithorian attendant, handed him some credits, and disappeared behind a corner in the direction of a little used tram traveling away from the city centre.

"Perfect, she's taking the Argrath line." Gareth gestured with his chin, passing his ID through the card reader and following her. Dlasa walked ahead of Gareth, as one or the other usually did, and took a wider path in the same direction to attract less attention.

Gareth turned the corner and saw her chatting on a comlink as her hair disappeared down a flight of stairs. He quickened his pace, as did Dlasa, and took note that the next tram would not arrive for four minutes – just enough time to complete their 'transaction.' They arrived at the platform, Gareth just before Dlasa, and Gareth noticed the platform was deserted, save the blonde. She was standing in the middle of the platform looking impatiently around as if searching for something.

"Lose something?" Gareth asked the woman. She turned around quickly, eyes wide with surprise. Now that he saw her up close, he estimated her to be in her late twenties and in exceptional shape. Dlasa walked past them and stopped about three metres away, pretending to wait for the tram.

"Oh, just Astro." She responded and smiled broadly. "A friend of mine. Always getting lost, that one."

"Maybe I could be your friend instead." Gareth said with a smile. "You look like you could use some company."

Gareth saw a wall go up as her eyes hardened and her smile disappeared.

"Sorry, I'm not that desperate." She responded sarcastically. "Although Astro might like to have you for dinner, if you catch my meaning."

Dlasa grabbed her from behind, trapping her by her elbows and holding her against him, effectively restraining her arms. She did not make a gasp of surprise, nor an effort to struggle as Gareth pulled a vibro-shiv and held the blade to her neck.

"I think you would enjoy my company more than your friend." Gareth said, licking his lips.

"I think you should let go of me before you get hurt." The blonde responded. "I have some friends who would not like it if bad things were to happen to me."

"Well, what they don't know won't hurt them." Gareth smiled. He reached for her jacket, and pulled it open to look for whatever thing of value she was carrying.

His face immediately went white.

"What is it?" Dlasa asked.

Gareth pulled a lightsaber out of her jacket from its spot hanging from the inside near the bottom of the left sleeve. "Think you're some kind of Jedi?" He asked.

"I got it from a local trader." She responded, realizing they were after money. "Cost me a few thousand. Yours, if you kriff off and let me go."

Gareth grinned a predator's grin. "Credits and time with a pretty lady? I think I'll take both." He reached towards her chest when a sudden violent pain between his legs caused him to collapse into a foetal position. He heard Dlasa cry out in pain, and several painful noises later he looked up and saw his friend receiving a beating while trying to keep up with her unexpected assault. Gareth watched as she ducked under a clumsy attack from Dlasa, bobbed up with a counter to his jaw that he barely dodged, and several confused moments later Gareth finally realized he was holding a vibro-shiv. He tried to ignore the swelling pain in his groin as the tram sped into the station and focused on standing up. Finally standing, he reactivated the vibro-shiv and set after her. He saw her turn to face him off a side kick that sent a winded Dlasa tumbling, and charged at her, arm held high planning to cut her head to toe.

He instantly regretted it.

She stepped close to him faster than he thought possible, jamming his arm high with a block to his elbow with one forearm as she palm heeled his nose with the other and followed with a smashing elbow to the left side of his face. He felt some teeth collapse in from the impact while others shattered as the vibro-shiv slipped from his hand and clattered to the floor. The blonde jump-spin back kicked him in the chest with enough force to send Gareth off his feet and land painfully on his back atop a very hard cylinder – her lightsaber. The tram came to a complete stop as a large beast came out of nowhere and tackled Dlasa, preventing him from taking pot shots at the blonde with the blaster he had just pulled. The blaster appeared in her hand somehow, and she threw it far down the platform out of reach when Gareth activated the lightsaber with its distinctive snap-hiss.

Gareth thought maybe his hearing was damaged along with his jaw because he heard another snap-hiss beside him.

"You don't want to do that." A voice said beside him. Gareth looked at where the voice came from, and saw a lightsaber blade connected to the arm the body of that the voice belonged to.

A very distinctive, very famous face appeared on that body that held the lightsaber.

"Jacen Solo?" Gareth asked in shock, all the blood draining from his face for the second time. He must have been hit harder than he thought. Jacen Solo disappeared five years ago. He did not exist in the known universe anymore. Everyone knew his face from the holovids during the war, but he disappeared years ago. But here he was, holding a lightsaber to Gareth's neck. Gareth swayed on his feet as he felt the lightsaber in his hand yank itself away and saw the blonde replace the hilt in her jacket. His mind went foggier as he saw the creature pinning Dlasa…

Is that a Vornskr? Gareth could hardly believe his eyes. The vicious-looking predator animal was growling softly as it lay on top of the Devaronian, effectively pinning him to the ground with both weight and fear.

"Dinner is served, Astro." The blonde called out.

The Vornskr grunted back as if it were speaking to her, and licked Dlasa's face playfully.

Is this for real? Gareth asked himself.

"Yes, it is real." The hallucination that was Jacen Solo said.

Jacen Solo is reading my thoughts. Gareth thought stupidly.

"We both are, as pitiful as your thoughts are. I suggest you leave." The blonde approached him with a vicious look on her face and grabbed his jacket. "Now."

Gareth did not remember her letting go of him, how he climbed the stairs in two bounds, knocking over the Ithorian attendant, or the dozen people he ran into. A block down the road he found himself sprinting faster than he ever had in his life, stopping only to pant for air and spit out some teeth when he could no longer stand. Everyone seemed to be giving him a wide berth because of his broken appearance as he lay semi-conscious on the flagstones. Several minutes later, or maybe an hour later, for time no longer seemed to exist for Gareth, Dlasa appeared.

"They let me off." He explained, looking as agitated as Gareth felt while pulling the human to his feet. "But she had something valuable. Showed that guy some weird device. He looked at it like it was a corusca gem and they left with the Vornskr on the tram."

" 'on't care," Gareth said, holding his mangled jaw and still panting hard. " 'Eez mo twoubble dan she wurf."

-! #$%^&*()

"It's probably not a good idea to activate that here."

Jacen broke his gaze away from the object to look at his companion and nodded. A sudden jolt of tram almost made him drop it, so he quickly put it in his inner jacket pocket and sealed it shut. He took a seat opposite her, and the Vornskr rested his head on Jacen's lap. He absently scratched the canine's ear as he spoke to his friend.

"Was it hard to find?"

"Not really." She said. "Once I got past the guards and the security system and into the lower levels it was just a matter of avoiding rakghouls to infiltrate the..."

"I didn't want a play-by-play..."

"Fine." She rolled her eyes. "I was just getting to the good part. I eventually found the abandoned Jedi Academy in the polar region. It looked like it was used by the Sith a hundred years ago, but hadn't been occupied since. It was just lying there in a big circular room waiting to be found. The hardest part was not freezing my butt off. Whose idea was it to wear this stupid outfit?"

"You did use the heating techniques I taught you, didn't you?" Jacen asked. "And if I remember correctly, you're the one who buys your wardrobe, not me. Speaking of stupid, who were your new boyfriends?"

"Cute." She scolded. "Thanks for the save, but I didn't need it."

Jacen nodded thoughtfully. He knew when to stop bugging her - he had the bruises to prove it. "Good work finding it. I'm sure we have the largest collection of them by now."

"How many more do you need?" She asked. "I mean, you have Bane's, Nadd's, Nomi's, Sidious', Vos', and now this one."

"I think this one is the last one we'll need." Jacen said. "If I'm right, it has all the big players. Palpatine, Plagueis, Bane, Ajunta Pall, Exar Kun, and Naga Sadow, to name a few. I'll check with the others, but I think we have all of the ones on the checklist."

"What's so special about these ones? I mean, isn't one as good as the next?"

"I think these are the ones that talk about using Sith magic." Jacen theorized. "Some talk about it, like Nomi's, but these ones explain how to use it."

"I see. Do you think we can learn more from this one than the others?"

"Yeah," Jacen grinned and pointed to his jacket pocket. "Palpatine was said to be the best at hiding himself, and some of these guys practically invented most Sith magic."

"Do you think they'll let us learn all this stuff?" She asked sceptically. "I mean, if this is the mother ship…"

"Some stuff will obviously be out of our skill set need." Jacen said. "But others could be quite useful. I suspect most Sith Magic derives from techniques we've already learned from our journey."

The tram finally started to slow its speed, indicating it was reaching the spaceport.

"We'll contact them as soon as we're in hyperspace." Jacen said. "Hopefully we'll have a better picture of why they sent us after these things when they already know everything inside them."

The tram came to a complete stop at a station a five minute walk from the spaceport.

"Let's hurry up and get off this planet." She said. "I want to get back to the ship before Womprat welds my door shut or something."