Chapter 2 - The One In The Middle

The robed man stayed silent for a moment, his face shadowed by his hood, leaving only his beard visible. "Do you still have them?" He repeated his question, his hand still extended. "We would like to have them back."

Eryll said nothing. He was stunned that they had come back, let alone managed to find out where he lived. The man placed his hand on Eryll's shoulder. "We are not here to hurt you. We simply want our items returned. They are very important to us. I'll ask again. Do you still have them?"

Making a quick decision, Eryll half nodded, half shook his head. "I... I sold the pyramid. I, uh..." He trailed off as one of the people still standing up bent down.

"Sold? You sold the pyramid?" Their voice was controlled, but laced with a hint of anger, as if they were trying to hide it.

The man raised a hand to his colleague. "We will get it back, Yemis." He looked intently at Eryll for a few seconds. "So where is the cube?"

"D-down there," Eryll stuttered, pointing down the hole.

The man nodded. "Show me, then," He looked up at his colleagues. "Keep guard out here, my friends. If the empire, or anyone else for that matter, show up, do not engage. Notify me immediately." They nodded and formed a circle around the hole as Eryll and the man descended into it.

Eryll was stunned to find that Kala had disappeared, leaving the cube lying in the middle of the floor. The man walked towards it and picked it up. "Thank you very much," he said. "Now, who did you sell the pyramid to?"

"I'm..." Eryll hesitated, then looked at the ground. "I'm not sure. I mean, I know what he looked like, but I don't know his name. He was Mon Calamari bounty hunter, but that's all I really know."

The man patted Eryll's shoulder. "That's okay kid. We'll find him, don't you worry about that." The man walked over to the ladder, then turned back. "The name's Murrer, by the way. Murrer Vernorum."

"Eryll Serolluin," Eryll said, turning to face Murrer, who had suddenly become distracted and was looking at the table.

"Is that an imperial datapad?" His voice had gained a strangely urgent tone.

Eryll nodded. "I took it from an officer a few hours ago." He frowned. "Is something wrong?"

"They have built-in locaters. The empire will be here to get that back." The urgency in his voice had greatly increased. Suddenly, one of his colleagues shouted down towards him.

"Murrer! Time to go! Stormtroopers!"

Murrer looked back at Eryll. "Come with me," he said. "You can't stay here. If they find you, you'll be thrown in jail." With that, he went up the ladder.

Eryll turned and looked back at the small room he had called home for nearly ten years. He closed his eyes for a second, then grabbed the stormtrooper helmet and followed Murrer out. Looking towards the town, he saw stormtroopers running towards them, blasters raised. A light freighter had descended towards them, its ramp down, and Murrer's colleagues were hurrying onto it.

Murrer stood on the ramp and turned back to Eryll. "Come on!"

Eryll glanced back one last time, before running up the ramp as it closed behind him. He sat down against the wall of the ship and stared at the floor, the stormtrooper helmet in his hand. He ran his finger over the writing. Do not forget, he thought. Do not forgive.

Murrer sat down beside him and pushed back his hood, revealing the face of a young man in his prime, with long, dark brown hair swept back over one shoulder and a short beard. He had kind, brown eyes that felt to Eryll as if they saw more than most. "You okay, kid?"

Eryll shut his eyes. "Will I ever be able to go back?"

"Maybe," Murrer smiled slightly. "Even if you can, do you really want to?"

"Perhaps not," Eryll sighed and shook his head.

Murrer smiled again and held out his hand. Eryll took the Sith Holocron from his pocket and placed it in the outstretched hand. "How'd you know ?"

Murrer shook his head. "The force can see many things, including lies." He rose and turned towards the ladder up into the main ship, then stopped and raised a hand, pointing to the corner of the room. "Who are you?"

Eryll looked up to see Kala standing in the corner of the room, his hand also raised. "I am Kala," he said. "Please, do not be alarmed. I am only here to make sure balance is kept."

Murrer frowned. "You're strong with the force. What do you mean you're here to make sure balance is kept?"

Kala bowed his head respectfully. "You are a Jedi," he explained.

"You're a Jedi?" said Eryll, looking at Murrer.

Kala raised a hand to silence him, then continued. "Your enemies are the Sith. I am the one in the middle. I met Eryll Serolluin when he was captured by stormtroopers. I helped him escape."

Murrer turned to Eryll with an eyebrow raised. "Is this true?"

Eryll nodded, getting up. "It is. He also managed to find and get to my house before me, and seemingly disappeared when you and your friends arrived."

Kala laughed slightly. "No, no," he said. "I did not disappear. You simply did not see me. Turn your force attention to Eryll for a moment, Jedi. Then you will see why balance is essential."

Frowning, Murrer looked intently at Eryll, then his eyes widened slightly. "He's right. Your natural strength with the force is greater than that of many Jedi." He turned his head back to Kala. "I still don't understand what you mean by 'balance is essential'. The light side of the force is all a Jedi needs."

"And that, with respect, is why the Jedi failed," Kala placed his hands behind his back, resuming what seemed to be his favourite stance. "The Jedi kept to simply the light, and they were all but destroyed. The Sith kept to simply the dark, and now there are only two of them. I have acknowledged both, and I have lived for more than a thousand years. Balance is the only way to achieve true peace."

"If you use the dark side, you have no place on board this ship," Murrer narrowed his eyes. "The dark side has brought nothing but war to the galaxy."

"That is not true," Kala walked up to Murrer and looked down at him. "War is a mutual effort. The dark side has not brought war, the inequality of dark and light has brought war. The differences between Jedi and Sith have brought war. I have allowed myself to become a merging of the two. Neutrality. Balance. I take part in no conflict. I train both those who would consider themselves my friend and those who would try to kill me. I assure you, if everyone found balance, war would be obsolete."

"You would never get everyone to find balance," Murrer shook his head. "Even if I believed you, hardly anyone else would, and as such, the light side is the only solution. The dark side brings cruelty to all who would not wield it. The light side tries to teach." He climbed up the ladder and into the main ship. Behind him, Kala sighed and turned to face the wall as Eryll followed the Jedi.

In the main ship, Eryll was not met with as much welcome from the others as he was from Murrer. There were five crew members in total, and three of them glared at him, whilst one simply ignored him. Only Murrer spoke to him. Just outside the sleeping quarters of the ship, Murrer held out a hand. "My lightsaber, please."

Eryll sighed and handed back the lightsaber he'd stolen during the argument with Kala.

"Did you use either of the Holocrons?" Murrer held up the Jedi one and inspected it. Its corners were slightly ajar. He then looked at the Sith one. Its corners were perfectly aligned with the rest of the Holocron.

Eryll nodded. "I used the Jedi one. They had a lightsaber, but I used a stick when practising. I never had a chance to actually fight anyone with it though."

Murrer raised his eyebrows and put the Holocrons in his pocket. "You learnt how much in two months?"

"All the basics on the Holocrons." Eryll leant against the wall. "Kala was surprised as well."

"No wonder," Murrer shook his head in disbelief. "It takes a lot longer than two months for most to learn even basic makashi. Usually, people learn form 1, Shii-Cho, first as well, in order to get a feel for the flow of lightsaber combat."

"Hey, Murrer," One of the other crew members came through. "Message from the contact. He's got job for us, this one's on a Star Destroyer."

Murrer nodded. "I'll be there in a moment, Yemis." He looked down at the stormtrooper helmet in Eryll's hand for moment, then followed Yemis to the cockpit.

Once again, Eryll ran his finger over the writing on the helmet. Do not forget, do not forgive. He reached into his pocket and retrieved the medal he'd taken from Admiral Dalion's house. Clenching his fist around it, he thought about what Yemis had said about a Star Destroyer. Perfect, he thought.

The others were angry when Eryll said he wanted to join them on their mission. They said he had no idea what he was getting himself into. Murrer, however, was very different. He sat, silently staring at Eryll for quite some time before he finally spoke. "No, he can come," The others stared incredulously at him. "His ability to stay undetected would be very useful. You lot certainly are more likely to be caught than him, ever since you stopped using the force."

Still unhappy, the others left the room, with Yemis glaring directly into Eryll's eyes as if to threaten him. Eryll smiled slightly and looked at Murrer. "Thank you," he said, yet again running his finger over the writing on the helmet.

Murrer glanced at the helmet. "I know you have no interest in the mission," He spoke softly. "You just do what you need to do. I'll take care of the mission."

Eryll nodded. "You said they stopped using the force. Were they Jedi too?"

"Once," Murrer looked out into hyperspace outside the window. "A long time ago. They gave it up, though. They never finished their training anyway." The hyperspace suddenly disappeared, revealing a large Star Destroyer hanging in front of them.

"Wait, we'll never get on board with this thing!" Eryll exclaimed, standing up.

"You think?" Murrer turned back to the controls and pressed a button. "This is freighter 3981-YT-100 requesting permission to board. We're in need of repairs and supplies. We were recently attacked by pirates, you were the closest imperial vessel we knew the position of." There was a brief silence, then the response came.

"Freighter 3981-YT-100, you are cleared for boarding. Please make your repairs quickly and leave."

Murrer grinned and directed the ship towards the Star Destroyer. "Absolute idiots."

"We're not in need of repairs..." Eryll frowned. "How did they buy that?"

"They bought it because we look like an absolute junkpile," Murrer said, allowing the ship to drift into the landing platforms on the Star Destroyer.

In the main cargo hold, where the ship was entered and exited, the other crew members stood in an assortment of different costumes, completely different from their normal robes, that made them look like a crew cobbled together from people found on street corners. Only Murrer remained in his robes, although he had abandoned the cloak.

Yemis glared at him. "In need of repairs? Is that a comment about my ship?"

"Perhaps," Murrer directed his gaze away from Yemis, smiling. "Yes, in fact. It is." The ramp came down and they left the freighter one by one.

Eryll quickly slipped away from the bay as the troopers, pilots and engineers were preoccupied with Murrer, who was rattling of a long list of problems with the vessel that needed to be fixed. Eryll slipped through a door as the trooper guarding it looked towards the increasingly loud scene. Proceeding to the lifts, Eryll thought about what he was going to do, taking the dataspike out of his pocket and looking at it. He quickly slipped it back in as the lift stopped. With no one outside he slipped into the corridor.

Moving quickly and equally silently, he crept along the corridor. He was now in a restricted section and nearing his goal of the commander's office. He reached the suite in a fairly short amount of time and was surprised to find it unguided. He slotted the dataspike, an item he was extremely proud of, into the socket outside the door, and a few seconds later, he was in.

Also in the room was Kala, which Eryll only noticed after a few seconds. The shock nearly made him drop his dataspike, but after a few seconds, he whispered to Kala. "What are you doing here? How did you get here before me?"

Kala let his hand drift over the desk as he walked towards Eryll. "I knew what you were going to do. I wanted to urge you on."

"Urge me on?" Eryll frowned as he slotted the dataspike into the socket on the desk. "I thought you took no side in fights?"

"You have mistaken me, Eryll," Kala sat in the chair. "I will fight if it necessary. If it is for the right reasons. Why are you fighting? Control of the galaxy? That is what both the empire and rebellion are fighting for."

Eryll muttered something under his breath.

"Pardon me?" Kala leaned forwards. "I didn't quite catch that."

Eryll shook his head, as the dataspike clicked, indicating its progression. "I'm fighting to destroy the empire, but I don't care about the galaxy. I want revenge for all the times they made me suffer."

"That is partially a lie," Kala stood up and turned to the window of the room. "You do care about the galaxy. It is evident in your eyes. They are eyes of sorrow, Eryll." He turned back. "Tell me. Why are you fighting?"

"I..." Eryll closed his eyes as the dataspike clicked again. "I'm fighting because I've seen the suffering on my planet and I know it's not the worst in the galaxy. I know that the peace preached by the empire is a lie. Lack of war is hardly peace, after all, if there is still cruelty."

"Yes?" Kala leant forwards, removing his mask, revealing striking blue eyes and long black hair, with pale skin. "Go on."

Eryll frowned. "I'm fighting because sometimes to gain a greater peace, a lesser one must be sacrificed."

Kala straightened up and laughed. "Perfect! Wonderful! You are fighting for the right reason. Now all that remains is to fight in the right way."

The dataspike clicked again, and Eryll leant down and pulled it out. All of the data on the computer had been deleted. He slipped into his pocket and looked up. Kala had disappeared completely. Eryll shook his head and was about to leave when he saw something. A small box. He picked it up and opened it. Inside was an even smaller indigo crystal, glowing faintly. He picked it up and shut the box, putting it back down on the table. Frowning, he held the crystal up to his eye. As he did, he heard the door open behind him.

He quickly placed the crystal in his mouth and turned around. He instantly regretted his decision to linger here and even to come aboard the Star Destroyer. A tall figure in a high ranking imperial uniform, with blue-black hair, blue skin and red eyes entered the room, flanked by two deathtroopers and a familiar face - Admiral Dalion.