Chapter 4

5 years ago

"Is everyone ready?" Ethan asked his friends.

They had been preparing to attack a separatist base on Agamar, a barren, rocky planet on the outer rim. Victor and William, acting as bounty hunters there, had discovered the location and brought the information to the jedi.

"Roger, roger," Victor sarcastically mimicked the response of a B1 battle droid.

"Shut up," Tyler grouched, "we'll be hearing enough of that soon enough when we have to fight those metal bastards!"

"Oh sorry, did I offend your new General Ethan?"

"Guys, can we please just focus on the mission," Will protested.

"He's right," Grace agreed, "we need to stay sharp. We are about to land."

The ship's engine whirred as the Low Altitude Assault Transporter filled with the young jedi knights and clones touched down on the cold stone. The doors opened and the troops moved into action.

Hundreds of B1 droids were already pouring out of the base, which was carved into a mountainside. Snow whirled around them as they rushed forward firing their blasters. They were not quite in range yet, so the clones had just enough time to form ranks and prepare to fight.

Cameron drew his green blades, one regular lightsaber and one shonto. Grace activated hers similarly, except she had two standard sabers which both glinted purple. Ethan wielded two lightsabers that were attached at the hilts with a blue color. Tyler had smaller wrist-mounted sabers that were green. Colton brought out his single blue saber. William and Victor drew their guns before Victor decided to turn on his wrist mounted flamethrower.

Standing together, the group looked very intimidating. But that did not appear to bother the droids. They arrived in range, forcing the jedi to use their sabers to block the flying lasers. Some of the clones fell around them, but they continued forward. As the droids got closer, the jedi began deflecting their shots back to hit them. The snow on the battlefield began to turn red and brown from the trampling feet, fallen bodies, and broken droids.

Through the din of the battle, Cameron signaled to Ethan. Moving over to him, Ethan asked what was wrong.

"I see an unguarded entrance over there to the right," Cameron pointed out.

Shielding his eyes from the elements, Ethan just managed to make out a small, well-hidden cave opening.

"Good find!" He smiled, "maybe this battle can turn in our favor after all. The others will have to cover us, but maybe you, me, and Colton can make it inside."

They rallied the other jedi, dropping behind the battle for a moment to explain the plan. After everyone had heard, they moved out.

The trio stealthily ran towards the opening while their friends flanked the droids on the left side, diverting their attention. Ethan, Colton, and Cameron made it under the outcropping, congratulating one another briefly before they stopped short.

Two giant symbols were carved into the stone on either side of the doorway. They looked like large black triangles with a red eye-like shape in the middle.

"Uh, I think this was a mistake," Cameron decided, "but we're here now. We have to figure out what this is."

Ethan nodded in agreement, signaling the other two to be quiet and follow him. Colton and Cameron snuck forward with Ethan.

"Woah." Colton gasped as they entered a large cavern that appeared to be devoid of life. The rock was all black, and red symbols were painted on the walls. In the center of the cavern was a monolithic black pyramid with a transparent glass upper point. Inside the glass section, a large red crystal glowed.

"It's Kyber crystal." Ethan told his friends. "I can feel it. But it's aligned with the dark side."

Cameron shivered, "I can feel it too. What is it doing here?"

Colton's eyes widened in horror. "I know what this is! My mother used to tell me legends of it! It's like the Great Scourge of Malachor!"

Ethan and Cameron looked at him with confusion.

"Have you never heard the old jedi legend? I always thought it was just a story, but… here we are. The tale says that thousands of years ago the Sith built a superweapon on the planet Malachor. They housed it in a Sith temple, and users of the dark side of the force would come to pay tribute there because of the immense dark strength of the kyber crystal inside. The jedi found out about this and attacked the temple, believing that the sith had plans to destroy the galaxy. During the battle, the weapon was accidentally activated. It killed everyone on the planet, leaving behind only the petrified remains of the sith and jedi. No one has found the site to confirm this, but Ashoka Tano, Kanan Jarrus, and Ezra Bridger are secretly searching for it."

"But… that happened thousands of years ago? On a completely different planet?" Ethan wondered.

"Yes," Colton said, "but if there's one that has only been found once, who's to say that the sith never built another that the jedi never found?"

Suddenly, the group heard the sounding of a retreat.

"Oh no! I should have been out there!" Ethan exclaimed. "I am a general, I should have helped make sure the battle went well!"

"It's ok," Cameron reassured him, "there are other generals there, and the rest of the jedi knights. You did something you thought would help. And we could have stumbled upon something huge here!"

"Yes, but we have to get out of here!" Colton reminded them, "if we don't get to the ships, they will have to leave without us!"

The group turned towards the exit and began to run. Just as they reached the opening of the cave, Cameron stopped. His friends turned to tell him to hurry, then gasped.

A red lightsaber had pierced Cameron through the waist. A cloaked figure with a glowing yellow eye stood hidden in the shadows. Ethan started to run towards his friend and the mysterious sith. But Cameron choked out the word "go."

"Come on Ethan," Colton grabbed Ethan's arm and ran. "Cameron's done. He would want us to live on to avenge him."

Cameron watched his friends escape as he desperately fought to remove himself from the saber.

A voice chuckled, watching him squirm for a while. "You want off? Here you go!" A raspy voice through a rebreather mocked him, finally releasing him.

Cameron found himself flying out of the cave and onto the battlefield. The sith had force pushed him quite a distance. He must have assumed he was bleeding out and dying. Maybe because he was.

Cameron laid on the ground, struggling to get up as he saw the clones and jedi getting into their ships. They couldn't see him through the snow and debris, but thankfully the droids didn't pay much attention to him either.

A small fighter ship landed a few hundred yards away. "Tony, get in!" The pilot opened the cockpit and yelled to another pilot whose ship had been shot down by the AA guns. "I know this is supposed to be a one man ride, but I'll make it work! Get out of that pile of scrap, I'm not leaving you there to die!"

Tony crawled out from where he had been hiding from the droids in the wreckage, holding a broken arm as he dashed toward his friend. The man in the ship stood up and reached towards his buddy. Tony was just about to grab his hand when a droid turned and shot him down.

"TONY N…" The pilot didn't have much time to grieve before another droid sent a laser through his skull and his lifeless body tumbled to the ground.

Cameron knew it was bad, but he wanted to live. He army crawled towards the ship, staying near bodies and debris to hide from the droids. Many of them began to head back inside the base, leaving only a small cleanup crew of droids and separatists to clean up the bodies.

Ha ha! Cameron thought, that Sith underestimated me! He stood on a broken droid and pulled himself into the ship, wincing in pain. He sat down in the cockpit and took off, grinning in triumph. It had not been a good day, but he was alive. He could hear Ethan giving commands trying to organize the retreat. He then heard the radio go off to the sound of Ethan's voice.

"Indigo 9, fall back. Do you copy?"

"You sound so annoying on comms did you know that?" Cameron had remarked.

"Cameron!? How? You know what I don't care, get out of there! Their guns should be offline."

"Roger Roger." He replied jokingly. He began the lift off and was headed out of there. He was going to make it back,

Pow! Cameron felt the ship shake and begin to plummet.

"No no no!" He yelled, "There were no more separatists manning the AA guns! They were all inside or clearing the field!"

HA HA HA!

A dark laugh sounded in Cameron's mind.

Your "friends" have left you. And know, you shall know my pain.

Cameron screamed in terror as his ship hit the earth.

"NO, HOW COULD YOU!?" Ethan was screaming and banging on the window overseeing the planet where he watched one of his closest friends plummet to their death. Grace approached him and put her arm around his shoulders.

"Calm down. Malakia has a lot to answer for, but being angry will not help." She told him.

"Ethan, it's what he wants. He wants you to use your anger. He wants you to come fight him on his terms." William chimed in.

"He will pay, but on the Republic's standards. Tried in a court." Tyler told him. Tyler was currently being patched up by Colton after he took a four inch deep piece of shrapnel to the shoulder. Victor seemed uninterested that his friend died, although Grace could sense his sadness. Everyone's sadness filled the room like a dense smog.

"I hate to ruin the mood, but how much did me and Will get paid? I have another job on Tatooine I can't be late for." Victor butted in.

"You'll get paid in a week, once the paperwork is filled out. I'll let the counsel know you guys were good noodles." Ethan retorted sarcastically. He didn't care for the bounty hunter lifestyle his two friends now led, but was still thankful for their help.

"I need to meditate. Come get me when we are almost home." Ethan then left his friends on the deck and proceeded to his private quarters. He didn't sleep much, which bothered Colton and Grace greatly due to the fact that Colton was Chief Medical Officer. Ethan sat down and emptied his mind, as he began to feel the force flow through him.

"Tyler, next time I say hit the deck, hit it harder than mandalorian armor." Colton scolded as he carefully tried to remove the shrapnel from his shoulder. It had broken into several shards that were burrowing into his arm.

"If I hadn't been in the way, then that droideka would have rekt us pretty hard. I like to see it as 'taking one for the team' in a sense." Tyler retorted through a wince of pain. Colton had attuned to the force quite differently compared to his comrades. He could use it to heal wounds, which made him the medic of their little attack squad.

"Yeah whatever, just don't squirm so much you're making it difficult. I don't want you to heal over these fragments."

As Tyler yelped in a quick burst of pain, John entered the room. He had been on a secret assignment from the Jedi Counsel, and thus was not present for the mission.

"Hey, I heard about Cameron. Have you found his remains yet so we can give him a burial?" He asked.

"No. And it would take a very covert force to even find it. I doubt there is anything left." Tyler said with another wince.

John didn't say it, but he felt guilty. He thought that if he was there maybe he could have saved him, if not taken his place. Then he thought of Malakia. Everyone had hoped that they could bring him back. John did not have that same hope, but he could not openly kill him without orders. Currently, Ethan was in charge because of the fact that it was his brother. Ethan stayed and argued with the counsel for three days straight to get his position.

"Tyler, don't you lead a squad of shadow troopers? We could at least retrieve his body or saber." John mentioned as he leaned against a nearby counter littered with medical equipment.

"I do, but i don't think I am comfortable with endangering them so much. They could die, even if I went with them."

They all wanted to do something. They didn't want to just stand there and twiddle their thumbs thinking oh well maybe next time. Malakia, their friend, had killed one of their own. Maybe John couldn't disobey his orders, but he wanted revenge.

"I need to go contact the counsel. Come get me if we are doing something." As John left he almost bumped into Victor. They said a small greeting to each other as Victor entered the room. He placed his blaster and flamethrower onto the table in the middle of the room as he sat down in a nearby chair.

"He is hiding something." Victor just blurted as Tyler was almost patched up. Colton was now cleaning the wound.

"Why such an accusation?" Colton asked him.

"It's a talent of mine. You can tell when someone is lying or has a secret he doesn't want to tell. Keep an eye on him." Victor said has he fiddled with his ammo belt. He had no interest in John's secrets, but felt that it was his duty to tell is friends.

"How are you doing with Cameron? You seemed disinterested with his death, but you guys came from the same planet, almost the same neighborhood." Tyler asked him.

Victor sighed and let his head drop to try to hide the sadness behind his eyes.

"Not good. We will leave it at that." Victor told them, with a bit of what could have been anger. No, it was bitterness, the kind that is present when you're angry and sad. The kind that gives a dark feeling around your heart that consumes you with either depression or hatred. Victor chose hatred. He hated the droids. The Separatists. But strangely enough he did not hate Malakia. He hated the Sith Lord that had used Malakia's inner hatred against him.

"Well, I wanted to say goodbye for now. I will be in Dagobah. Contact me if anything comes up." Victor said as he gathered his things and left. Colton and Tyler sat in silence as he finished patching him up.

All he could see was darkness. Bitter, unloving darkness. He felt his limbs, but they were heavy. They felt fake, not his. Then, a breath filled his lungs, metallic and cold. He regained feeling of his fingers, but only on one hand. He could feel restraints on his wrist and ankles and a cold table underneath him. Then his hearing phased back in. He heard machines, metal feet marching in unison, then a familiar sound. Hiss. The sound of something hanging onto life, breathing through a mask-like rebreather. Then, it spoke to him.

"They didn't even come back for you. They left you. They didn't even have the courage to attempt to search for your body." A voice he knew all too well. Cameron couldn't reply. It was as if his voice was turned off. His eyes fluttered open and were immediately blinded by the bright light of an operating table. The table buzzed, tipping to make Cameron almost completely upright, directly facing Malakia.

"Now, do you see? They never cared for us. They fear the strong. The counsel sent you on a suicide mission. They knew of the temple, they knew how heavily defended and evil it was. Yet, they still commanded you to die. Join me. We will take the counsel down at its roots. Do not deny me. I will break your will." Malakia said.

Cameron could feel small tendrils poking at his brain. He was too weak to fight him. All he could feel was a strong obedience. Hatred. And then, he was not him. He saw Malakia as a commander. Someone who could get things done. Someone that knew of the counsels sins.

"Now. Who do you serve?" Malakia demanded.

Cameron resisted. He could feel his mind weakening, but he refused to serve the Darkside. He is right. Help him take the Republic down. Cameron resisted...but his strength wavered.

"The. Republic. Go to hell." He spit out at Malakia. Cameron was weakening.

"Wrong answer." Malakia dug deep into Cameron's will, making Cameron wince and squirm. It was more pain than he could imagine. Was it even real? He couldn't say, but he was giving in. How was Malakia able to do this? Join him. Help. Restore order and balance. They abandoned me. Cameron's consciousness was turning against him. He was defeated.

"Who. Do. You. Serve?" Malakia sneered with audible difficulty.

"I serve...Malakia."