"I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened."

16 years earlier...

This planet had been ravaged by death. Once a prospering paradise, now only a hollow wasteland, where not a single trace of life remained. No trees; no animals; no people, not even any signs of life waiting to grow from the depths of the earth. It was is as if the Force had literally been sucked from the planet's surface, as if all life had cried out in terror simultaneously only to be suddenly and quickly deafened. That is why he had come here, because the planet was like him. Drained of pure energy, replaced with terror and exile; the planet was forgotten by the Galaxy and the Republic, cast out as he was.

Exar Kun carried himself across the dunes towards a lifeless city. As a gusts of wind slashed across his face, his anger grew and it only increased his determination to push past this storm and head to the city that lay before him. Decaying speeders were smashed into ruined buildings, that in turn were covered in repulsing slime and sand. And it wasn't just one. Dozens of them were crashed into various buildings, most likely starting fires that ravages the land, as evident by the state of a few buildings. Others just looked like they decayed with the life here. Most likely, the drivers were getting on with their daily activities when suddenly they were vanquished from existence, and with no one controlling their vehicles, well...this happened.

He was hungry, and food was all he could think about. The Jedi Council exiled him after he began drifting toward Dark Side knowledge, and now he had come here, to the only place that he knew was unknown to the Republic. The planet of Zanbarr. He scourged the kitchens and found nothing. Pots and pans, while looking relatively new and neatly packed away, or placed where they had last been used, were scattered around. Yet there was no owners, but a few scraps of bread had been laid out on dining tables, along with bones, where guests were seemingly preparing to eat their dinner but were suddenly vanquished as with the speeder owners.

Suddenly, a loud noise of metal falling was heard. Kun spun around and saw nothing. He carefully walked through the house, continuing to hear noises: footsteps, metal clanging, stuff falling, like a little rodent trying to scurry away. Finally, he found the source of the problem. A young girl, about 8 or 9, was hurrying out of the house and towards a speeder that seemed to be still intact. She was finishing filling her backpack with supplies from the house and ran as fast as she could.

"Hey!" Exar called after her. He gave chase, causing the girl to run faster. Just when she reached the speeder, he thrust his hand forward and called upon the Force to aide him. The girl was frozen, all she could do was kick and scream, all with no results. Despite his acceptance of the dark side, he had not yet met Freedon Nadd's ghost and still retained parts of the light side that he refused to disclose...at the moment anyway. For instance, when he killed the captain of the Starfighter that bought him here, he let the crew and slaves go free.

"Who are you?" he asked the frightened girl. She was at first hesitant to reply, and Kun understood the terror of seeing someone use the Force for the first time, she probably thought he did all this. Changing the question, he asked, "Are you alone? Where's your parents?"

"In the ground?" the small girl responded, her voice more cryptic than fearful now.

"Underground? As in, in tunnels?"

She shook her head, her face grim, and Kun now understood what she meant.

"Oh," was all he could say, "Where's everyone else?"

Again, she pointed to the ground. Exar knew he wasn't gonna any answers here.

"So you got this speeder working all by yourself?"

"With parts I found laying around after the cataclysm, I spent two years on it, but I'm not sure if it's complete or not," she answered. "I wanted to get some supplied from my neighbours house but then I saw you and I thought you were...the visitor."

"Who?"

"The man who came to us, warned us of the end times, and it happened a day after he left; all life was gone" she looked down, clearly what had happened traumatised her severely. But perhaps this visitor could explain what had happened here better than she could. For now, he was stuck with this girl, she could prove of some use once he actually found this man. But then another thought hit him.

"So how did you survive?" he asked.

"I don't know," another cryptic response, but this one was more joyful. A smile suddenly lit up her face. "Can you fix it for me?"

Exar sighed, he would need transportation. A half-hour later, he finished repairing her speeder, she had done a pretty good job already though, for such a young girl.

"Alright, so you sit on this smaller seat," he said, picking her up and placing her in the small seat behind, before climbing in the drivers seat. It was cramped but not as bad as the slave ship he was stuck on. "And I'll sit here."

"What's your name?" she asked.

"You can call me Exar Kun," he replied. Surely rumours of his banishment couldn't have spread so far outside the republic's reach. She laughed in response. "Glad one of us finds my name amusing, now how about you tell me your name?"

"Meetra. Surik," the girl finally answered.

"Surik. That's a nice name," Kun replied. "So where's this visitor?"

"I have a map. I think. But it's back at my camp, we're gonna have to head there first, and hurry, it's nearly dark," she quickly blurted out.

"What happens at night?"

"The Remnants come out".

As the sun begun to set, and the speeder headed towards the directions Meetra provided, she fell asleep in the back seat. But another thought popped into his head. If she survived all of this, than she must be incredibly gifted in the Force. Maybe...