(As I stated before, this entire story was written as a biography for Ryu and a reference for anyone wanting to find out about the character and what he's been through. However, as I neared the end of this whole project, I found myself more interested in Ryu's future and the coming stories than I was in his past. So, in order to tie up loose ends, I wrote this final section. As the name suggests, it is but a quick wrap-up of events taking place after "The Best Defense..." and before the next book. I plan to re-do this ending relatively soon so as to make it more legit, hah. It'll probably end up in two parts. But anyway, sorry about the break from formal writing in favor of a quick wrap-up. Hope you don't hate me too much ;P)

The Wrap-Up

Okay, so the Jedi have basically gone into seclusion. What few of them escaped have disappeared into the underground, likely staying separate so as not to draw attention to themselves. Ju-Kai is among that group. So, with the Jedi morale at an all-time low as are the chances of any blind side attack on the Jensaarai from them, Ryu turns his attention to the Sith, who, as Rackus predicted, have moved into the Core Worlds.

Ryu, realizing that he is still out manned and out gunned decides to remain in the Jedi fortress/temple to continue to train new recruits. It also allows to the Sith army to continue to spread themselves thinly across the inner circle of the galaxy.

After a month or so, Ryu decides it's time to start attacking. Taking the ships that the Jedi left in their hangar, the Jensaarai stick together and attack the first planet, taking it by surprise and extinguishing resistance quickly. Getting word from Rackus that the Sith had taken a gamble and taken troops off of other worlds to fortify the one that they thought Ryu was most likely to attack, Ryu decided to go around to the opposite side of the core and take one of the planets that was less fortified then repeated the routine. It only worked one other time before the Sith amassed their army to meet the Jensaarai head on.

It was then that Ryken Trikerex began to take up his role as strategist. Ryu wasa always good with surprises attacks and working from an advantage of surprise or otherwise, but with the Sith no longer spread thin across their territory, the odds were tipped out of the Jensaarai's favor. So Ryu made Ryken his top advisor and opted to help on the battlefield more than lead from the back. With Ryken's strategy and Ryu's power and fighting prowess, the Jensaarai began a slow, grueling beat down of the Sith forces, each battle bringing new recruits and new "ship jumpers" defecting from the darkside to the gray.

Eventually, the leaders of the Sith were forced to resort to asking the Jedi for their assistance. In fact, it wasn't even necessarily a truce. The Sith planned to make one final stand against the Jensaarai and the leaders of the Sith appealed to the Jedi to make the stand with them. Once the Jensaarai were defeated, the two could resume killing each other. Ju-Kai, now the official leader of the Jedi order, agreed and the call was made to the rest of the Jedi.

The final battle was staged on Alderaan which was ironically fitting due to the fact that the first real appearance of the Jensaarai happened on this very same planet. The Jedi and Sith were outnumbered, but not by much and the battle that was fought was brutal and bloody (figuratively, of course). For the first time since Ryu had left the Jedi order, he faced his Jedi Master, Ju-Kai, on the battlefield. Ju-Kai was backed up by the Sith Overlord and Ryu was backed by his now fiancé Brianna (Ryu had requested she stay behind for her safety but she had insisted that she accompany him). The duel wasn't supremely long, but it was tiring and epic. Brianna was first to draw blood, killing off the Sith Overlord by decapitation. When she tried to step in to aid Ryu, he yelled for her not to. This was his battle and she respected that. Finally, Ryu landed a fatal wound to the shoulder of Ju-Kai's sword arm and followed it up with a stab wound to the stomach.

In his final minutes, unable to fight back, Ju-Kai lay gasping for breath on the hard ground and, in a seemingly perfect ending, asked for Ryu's forgiveness for the sins of his past and of the council's past. He confessed that he had never liked what they had done and the trickery that they had spun, but he was following orders. It was only when Ju-Kai confessed that he knew a 'sorry' meant nothing that Ryu forgave him and put him out of his misery with a deep, clean cut through his chest.

By that time, the battle was nearly over. The Jensaarai had come out victorious and only a combined handful of Jedi and Sith were able to escape. Ryu allowed them to escape, knowing that seclusion would likely be a more miserable end than dying by a Jensaarai saber.

With the war won and the force rallied together under one order, free of the limits of 'dark' and 'light,' Ryu set about attempting to establish the Jensaarai's place in the galaxy. He married Brianna shortly after that final battle and were blessed with a child only about 9 or 10 months thereafter; a baby boy who they named James. For Ryu, it seemed as though his days of ceaseless strife and struggle were over. But in a galaxy of constant change, where the ebb and flow of power is constant, Ryu didn't enjoy his peace for long...

To be continued in "The Death of a Wraith"...