Deception Revealed
The war was going well for the Jedi by the time I turned 25. Thanks to the efforts of my master and I, the Sith numbers had been dwindling, leaving them terribly outmanned. They were still large enough to pose a threat, but the Jedi were confident in their abilities to finally finish off the Sith thanks to the amount of Jedi warriors that they had. It was rumored that, as a birthday present, the Jedi Masters were going to promote me to the rank of Master, the youngest to ever attain this status. All I had to do was lead a single mission to end my Knighthood and begin my life as a Jedi Master.
Many Sith had congregated together in one of their old temples. They seemed to be sitting ducks, trapped inside of their temple. The plan was simple. The Jedi would storm the temple and subdue all Sith warriors. We had orders that, if the Sith needed to be shown that resistance was futile, we were to show them just HOW futile it was. We were to be as merciless as the code would allow. Anyone, men, women or children that attacked a Jedi was immediately a target. That was how I worked already, but it was nice to get the 'okay' from the upper echelon for a change. So I set off with my army and with Ju-Kai at my side. He was here not as a mentor, but he was to act as the councils eyes and ears during the fight. He was to evaluate my performance and report to the council whether I was truly ready for a promotion or not.
We reached the temple with no issue and no resistance, but as we drew closer to the temple, I began to sense the Sith inside. They were all powerful darkside practitioners and there were many of them. This battle wouldn't be as easy as the Masters seemed to think it would be. There was something else troubling about this mission. As we drew closer to the temple, I began to feel anxious and unnerved. I couldn't put his finger on it... I just felt that something was strange about this place... strangely... familiar. I pushed the thought from my mind, focusing on the task at hand. As we grew nearer to the temple, I began to start separating the troops into a squad attacking the front and one attacking the back. I would be leading the forward attack group and Ju-Kai would be in charge of the back attack group.
As they grew closer to the temple, I realized there was more that was strange about the temple. It seemed older than I had imagined... After the two groups had split and they were rounding the side of the temple, I noticed a large hole in the side of it. Suddenly, a vision flashed through my head. I was in a room with a woman and a very young girl. The entire building shook; fear shot through me... Even though it was just a vision, I could feel the emotions that went along with the vision. At the time, I didn't know what to make of it. Perhaps it was a vision of the future? I couldn't be certain. As such, I pushed it out of my mind.
As we reached the front entrance of the temple, I had to stop short of where I had planned due to the fact that the front door of the temple was completely gone. There was no way of knowing where the door had gone, but it didn't matter. It simply meant that there was one less obstacle to overcome. With one word through the force to everyone, the battle commenced.
With a fierce battle cry, hundreds of Jedi stormed the temple from the front and the back. The Sith weren't ready for the attack and a few were killed before the battle had even truly began. That being said, when we entered the temple, there weren't many Sith on the bottom floor, so our initial charge hadn't been as successful as I had hoped. As our battle cry rang out through the floors of the temple, Sith began to pour down from the upper levels. Each of them were battle ready by now, sabers in hand and already ignited as the two armies collided into mortal combat on the huge open floor space on the bottom level.
Then... it happened again, a vision flashing before my eyes. It was the same one as I had had the day I woke up in the Jedi medical bay all those years ago. Two huge forces of Jedi and Sith clashed into one huge battle. Then the man appeared again, screaming for me to run. While I was lost in my vision, my body was paralyzed. I stood there, captivated by the vision as it played out in front of me. Only when the heat of a saber approached my head did I snap back to the present. After quickly (and easily) finishing off the Sith, I looked around, trying to find the man that was yelling at me to run in the vision. If it was a vision of the future, then this would certainly be the moment that it occurred. But there was no one. And, once I truly thought about it, I realized that the temple in which the vision occurred was much less run down, much less aged. Confusion set in. Surely this was the moment that the vision depicted. What other epic clash of Jedi and Sith could I ever be involved in?
My thoughts were broken momentarily as Ju-Kai ran up to me. He had a shallow cut on his arm and he was sweating from the heat of the fight. He grabbed my arm and shouted above the roar of the battle around us to tell me that the Sith commanding this force hadn't joined the battle and that he was in a separate room calling for backup. Ju-Kai insisted that we allow the other Jedi to kill the Sith pawns while he and I leave to take care of the master. I agreed and he and I ran off through the crowd of warriors towards the stairs.
I followed Ju-Kai for he seemed to know where to go. But while I followed him, I was lost in thought. These walls... the hallways... the temple itself... it all seemed so familiar. As we passed rooms, visions would flash before my eyes of families together in the room or of men discussing something serious in the room. It was strange. It all seemed so familiar, yet I never quite knew why. There was something about this temple; something very odd, and the feeling was getting worse as we climbed the stairs.
When we finally reached the room where the Sith commander was hiding, we had climbed up to the very top floor to find but one door. Behind that door, we could both feel the Sith master standing on the other side of the room. But there was something else... the darkside filled this room to overflowing. It poured out around the door like the smoke from a fire. There was something dark and foreboding about this room. My mind was set, ready to charge into the room and slay the Sith... but my body... the force inside of me, told me not to go in there. Told me that by simply walking in there, everything I knew could change. The Light side seemed to literally hold me back. But I had to press on. If I was to be a Master, I had to show the other Masters that I could withstand a thick darkside presence and still remain true to the Lightside of the force. So, forcing myself to move, Ju-Kai pulled the door open quickly and I charged inside, saber blazing.
To my surprise, the room beyond wasn't a war room or even a meeting room. It was a bedroom. One that had stood the test of time as poorly as the rest of the temple had... but it was obvious that it had once been a very elegant room; one fit for a King or a Queen of the darkside. Grief immediately washed over me, I didn't know why at the time. But it was an uncontrollable sorrow that threatened to take me over. Again, a vision flashed before my eyes. A beautiful woman stood before me, speaking to me, telling me something. I couldn't understand it. The vision suddenly jumped ahead and now, that same woman was on laying on her side before me, a hole in her chest where a saber had gone through. Next came the anger... the unceasing hatred. It washed through the room as the vision ended. My eyes were brimming with tears... I didn't know why... but they were and it took every ounce of the lightside within me to stay true to the Jedi way and not give in to the fury as it wafted through the room.
The Sith Lord was standing by a window, he was mumbling, likely communicating through the force with someone far from this place. When he heard the door open and felt me enter the room, the mumbling stopped. When he turned, he wore a scowl, pure hatred on his old and sunken face from being interrupted while calling for backup. Then his face suddenly lightened and turned to amazement as his eyes crossed over me.
"Jin? Is that... is that you? Wait... no. It can't be. He died all those years ago." His face fell and he looked down at the floor. Then, his head snapped back up, staring at me with excitement. "Wait! If you aren't Jin... then you must be Ryu! You look so much like your father that I would have sworn you were him. My Prince, it is so good to see you again."
I wasn't sure how to respond. Surely this Sith had gone mad on the power of the darkside. It wasn't unheard of. Many Sithlords had lost their minds as they delved deeper into the Darkside's power. "My name IS Ryu, but my father's name isn't Jin. My father is Rynarim Tannaris, a Jedi Master. I am no prince of the Sith."
The Sith stared at me like I was crazy. "That can't be true. You look too much like Jin. There's no mistaking it. You are the son of an amazingly powerful Sith Lord and Lady. You are the heir to the Tikori dynasty! You are the prince that should be presiding over this temple. Over the entire Sith army for that matter! You are as much a Jedi as I am and trust me, I am no Jedi. Are you telling me you have no recollection of this temple? Of the incredible battle that took place here? Of the day your parents died? Your mother was killed in this very room! Right before your eyes! And yet you don't remember that? Where have you been for the last 13 years or so?"
My mind went crazy... my parents were killed in here? There was a huge battle that took place in this temple? My mother killed in this very room... suddenly the visions began to fall into place. The man telling me to run could've been my father, fighting in the epic battle between the Jedi and Sith in the main entryway downstairs. The woman in my most recent vision was my mother, killed before my very eyes. It was all fitting too perfectly. Suddenly I found that I was in a duel with myself. Who was I? Was I Ryu Tannaris, the Jedi Knight? Or was I Ryu Tikori, the Lord of the Sith? There were suddenly so many questions flying around in my head. Some trying to disprove that Sith's words... but others were trying to confirm.
My thoughts were broken suddenly by the unmistakable snap-hiss of a saber igniting in the hallway. Ju-Kai, who had decided to wait outside of the room and allow me to handle the Sith alone (because it was I who was being tested for the rank of Master) suddenly stormed into the room, his saber ignited and pointed directly at the Sith Lord.
"That's enough of your lies. You will not turn my Apprentice to the darkside." There was something... strange in Ju-Kai's voice. There was anger, desperation... and fear.
The Sith glared at Ju-Kai. "My lies? You hypocrite! You have been lying to him for all these years! Making him believe he was a Jedi! As if you could stop the darkside of the force from reclaiming one of its champions!" His attention turned to me suddenly. "See through their lies, Ryu. You KNOW where you belong! You can feel it! You are Ryu Tikori, a warrior of the darkside, not a pawn of the lightside and of the Jedi!"
Ju-Kai shouted for the Sith to shut up before turning to me. "Let's end this, Ryu! There are Jedi down there dying because we have wasted time on this Sith scum!" The fear had grown thicker in Ju-Kai's voice... I could hear it... feel it even. He was putting up a tough front... but the Sith's words were affecting my master.
There was more meditation needed... I needed more time to think about all that transpired here; all that was said, all that I had seen. So, with my decision made, I lifted a hand quickly and sent a huge force push at the Sith Lord, sending him backwards through the window to plummet to his death. He hadn't been expecting the attack. He was overly confident in the fact that I would be turned back to the darkside. Had he not been, my attack wouldn't have been as effective.
Ju-Kai didn't say anything to me for the rest of the fight... I wasn't sure if he was angry at me for having lashed out like that against the Sith Lord... or if he was simply too afraid he'd make things worse by talking...
