Black. All I see is black. It is so dark, I do not even know where my limbs are located. I raise my left hand to my face. I cannot see anything. I feel around and grab my own nose. At least my hands are truly there.
I cautiously take a step forward, feeling slowly with my foot, which is bare. The ground is dirty, and firm. I stretch my hands out blindly, reaching for something-anything-to tell me where I am. I eventually find a wall somewhere behind me and to my left. The wall is made of bricks, and I slide my fingertips into the cracks between them. They are old and crumbling.
I follow the wall in the direction I think is forwards. The air is getting heavier and more humid with every step. Suddenly my foot touches the edge of something. The ground has simply stopped. I lean forward, and there is light! Before me is a dark crevice in the ground, and at the very bottom, there is a small triangle of light. I kneel down at the edge to look closer at it. It is so far away, down at the bottom of the crevice; I can barely tell if it is a triangle or a circle, much less what its source is.
I am suddenly falling. I had leaned forward too far. I grasp at the sides of the crevice and feel my hands burn against the hard soil. I catch a handhold at last and pull myself close to the side, my hands stinging. I cannot see anything above me but the last ten feet or so of the inside of the crevice. The only way to go is down. I feel around for a place to put my foot, and start my descent.
As soon as I start moving, climbing down becomes remarkably easy. The light is getting brighter, and the rocks and dirt above me are vanishing faster and faster.
Eventually I start seeing the ground. It is made of creamy ceramic tile. My bare feet touch it and make no sound. Around me is a white, pristine hallway with four doors. There is one at my right and at my left, at both ends of the hallway, and there is one in front of me and behind me. All the doors seem to be made from wood, but are white. White wood? Where in the galaxy did that grow? The handles are gold. I cannot determine where the light is coming from.
I go to the door on my left and open it. The room before me is completely green. It has green carpet, green drapes, green paint. Grass would fit in perfect. It appears to be some kind of church, with an altar, pews, and a large picture of some very holy-looking male human sitting with a creature I could not identify. It was small, and white, and completely hairless. The walls bear several different religious symbols, some that I recognize, but most that I do not.
No other pictures adorn the walls, just the human with the hairless beast. With its massive green eyes and lean, hairless body, something like a very slender vornskyr, it makes me almost frightened. Somehow, I feel the creature is the focus of the picture, and not the man. A little bit shaken, I leave the door open and go the one at the other end of the hall.
Behind this door lies a room done up completely in red velvet. This room has a similar layout to the first, but seems less…religious. There are no religious symbols that I can see, nor any pictures of animals, which most religions seem to enjoy. But it is certainly heavily decorated. The benches and the altar-which is short than any altar I have ever seen before- are cushioned with red velvet. Around the walls, pictures of several delicate-looking women of many different species are posted. Ornate golden leaves, edged with red, sit between every picture. A tall gold tree, patterned flat against the wall with some sort of dull metal, rests in the left corner at the front of the room.
All of the women but one are accompanied by an overly-muscled man of the same species. The woman who sits alone in her picture has long white hair and appears very old. Unlike the others, she does not look delicate. She reminds me faintly of Jocasta Nu. Old, but proud and strong. At the front of the room, another picture of the same women looks out over the red expanse with burning crimson eyes. She grips a red sword, so dark it borders on black.
I leave this door open as well and go to open the door I first saw in the hallway. This room is yellow. It ranges in places from pale and bright to dark and almost foreboding. Instead of benches, this room has long cushions. It has no altar, no stage, and no fancy drapes along the walls. It is rather simple, with only a ground-hugging yellow-tinted table at the front of the room. The table is so short, I do not think I could fit my legs under it without difficulty. Behind it sits another cushion, simple and dented, as if someone sat in it just a few moments before. The pictures, which are all lacking frames, portray males and females alike. Every picture has a small plate under it that contains a name. I do not read any of them. For some reason, I feel it is an invasion of the people in the images privacy for me to know their names and not the actual people themselves.
The species shown in the pictures seem to lean towards near-humans. I see many Chiss, a few nemoidians, and several duros, but only a few actual humans. They are all wearing light armor and bearing the same style of sword. The picture at the front of the room shows several different people, all with swords. Not a single human is shown. The beings in the left half of the frameless image look kind, while the right side looks murderous. There is no one in the center. Below the image, a small gold plate reads something illegible to me, written in an unfamiliar language. I realize that all the plaques in the room are written in this same strange language. I could not have understood them even if I had read them.
Leaving this room, I approach the final door. For some reason I feel…not an aversion, but a sense of hesitation. I push it open slowly, and I am met with a room decorated in blacks and purples. My breath catches in my throat.
At the front of the room, there is a raised stage about three feet off the ground. The ground is purple velvet, shockingly soft. Above the stage are nine pictures. The one in the center is very large and portrays three beings. The eight around it each bear only one.
The center painting shows Master Fay, Master Saa, and Master Yoda. Master Saa stood at the back left, her lightsaber unsheathed and looking furious. That was an expression I knew had sent Sith running for the hills. Master Yoda stood towards the right corner in the front, his arms folded and a small smile on his face. I could almost hear him speaking…think you can take on a whole legion of battle droids on your own, you do, Padawan Unduli?
Between Master Saa and Master Yoda, in the center, stood Master Fay, her arms raised and her eyes closed. I had entered the room long ago, and found myself standing before the picture of the three great Jedi Masters. The picture is rather large, about as tall as I am. A gold plaque sits below the picture. It reads, in basic:
"The Great Jedi Three: From back to front, Jedi Master T'raa Saa, Jedi Master Fay Khamaratni, and Jedi Master Yoda Joilion." I took a step back. I had never known that Master Yoda and Master Fay had surnames…
I look to the eight pictures surrounding the larger one. The two closest to the ground catch my eye. The one on the left shows Obi-Wan Kenobi, while the right, Anakin Skywalker. Plaques below the pictures bear their names, a date of birth, and a date of death. I noted that Skywalker's date of death was not the day Shanti had killed him on Maix, but many years earlier…the day he had fallen to the dark side. He also has another date below the dates of birth and death…a date of marriage? Beside them are larger plaques, each one bearing a short biography and a list of achievements. Obi-Wan killed the Sith apprentice Darth Maul, Anakin killed the Sith apprentice Darth Tyrannus and fathered the Jedi Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa…I feel shaken.
The pictures above them bore more familiar faces. Yan Dooku was above Obi-Wan, and Qui-Gon-Jinn above Skywalker. I had not been born when Dooku fell to the dark side, so I know that the date shown is far long ago to be the day he actually died. I remember when Anakin killed him. I had never heard more than the basics of Master Jinn's death…aside from that it was at the hands of a Sith apprentice. I did not know it was Darth Maul. I also had not known before now that Dooku had been on the Jedi council.
I jumped when I saw the two images above them: Shaak Ti at the right, and my own master, Jiam Akshay, at the left. Master Ti's date of death is blank. Master Akshay's death is the same day as Skywalker's. I am suddenly gulping back tears.
Above the two masters I adore, the pictures disturb me even more. Above Shaak Ti, a smiling picture of Shanti sits. She looks exactly like I had seen just yesterday, her bangs hiding her blue circle, wearing her black and blue robes, with her double bladed lightsaber strapped to her belt. Her death date is also blank. Her name reads 'Shanti Stefan Unduli'. For some reason, that makes me feel slightly proud. Her list of notable achievements reads 'killed the Sith Apprentice Darth Vader' 'killed the Sith Lord Darth Sidious' and 'Mothered the Jedi Eve, Jiam, and Fay Unduli'. There is also a date of marriage under her date of birth.
Across the large picture, there is an image of me. When had this been taken? I was probably around twenty in the picture. That was when the war had been going for around three years, and the scar below my left ear was fresh. My list of achievements is rather short. 'Survived order 66 and the great Jedi purge' and 'saved the life of fellow Jedi Shanti Stefen Unduli'. Well, it was true that I survived the purge, but I have never thought I saved Shanti's life…Saved her from the dark, maybe but not from death. But this place seems to equate death with falling to the dark side. Of course they will post it like that.
Around the room, I can see many images of many different Jedi. Some I recognize, some I do not. I see Bultar Swan, Olee Starstone, and all the other Jedi who are with us on Teth. Even stoic Kina Ha, who insists she is not really a Jedi, is there. I see many who had fallen in the purge, including Coleman Trebor and Ki-Adi-Mundi. I see the ancient Raana Tey and Bastila Shan. I see Padawans and young knights. Zett is there, as is Ahsoka. Barriss does not have her own image, but is in a large picture that has many other Padawans and young knights. Their names and birth and death dates are listed at the left. I see Fe Sun, Shanti's predecessor as Shaak's Padawan, beside Bariss.
A sudden feeling of uneasiness comes over me. Whoever built this place knows so much about the Jedi…I flee the room, almost tripping over the door frame. Back in the pure white hallway, I feel a little bit calmer. How did they take those pictures? How did they know about what we had done, even after we had removed ourselves from the known galaxy?
A hand touches my shoulder. My reflexes take over and the person behind me barely ducks under my fist. They straighten, and I jump away from her and take up a defensive stance. The person is a mirailian, not one I know. She holds up her hands.
"I'm here to give you answers, not fight," she says. She is not wearing a headdress, and for that matter, neither am I. Her hair falls thick and black, and her eyes are deep blue. She looks…a lot like me.
"Who are you?" I demand. She looks at the ground, dropping her hands to her sides. For a moment, she looks very sad.
"I shouldn't be surprised you don't remember me. I was four years old when you were taken away by the Jedi, and you were barely a year…" I stiffen.
"Tell me the answer, not riddles," I say.
"I am Miara Unduli, your sister," she says. She clearly expects me to relax after hearing this information. I do not. She meets my eyes. "Did the Jedi even tell you that you had a sister?"
"Of course," I answer. "But meeting you might cause me to form an attachment, and that is dangerous." I am spouting the old Jedi code again…damn it…
Miara laughs. "But, dear sister, you know better than anyone that attachments can do just as much good as evil. By the way, you can relax now."
I do my best, but my muscles are simply refusing to completely let go. Adrenaline can be a blessing and a curse. "Tell me what this place is."
She gestures around her. "This, my sister, is the Hall of Heroes. Three organizations have shown an unending stream of valiant beings. They have their own rooms. The Jedi is one of them, as you have seen. The red room is dedicated to the Falfvi, an order of warrior-healers too far from your galaxy for you to ever know about. The yellow room goes to the Ahaigrazi, an order similar to the primitive Jedi who uplifted near-humans. Like the Falfvi, they are too far away for you to comprehend. The green room was once an assortment of heroes." She looks down and bites her lip. Sadness clouds her eyes again.
"But…?" I prod. I need to know.
"But the warriors pictured there all were from the same section of the universe. One warrior, or warrior-team, I should say, found this hall." She casts her eyes to the ground. "It is nearly impossible to find, but a few have done it, as you have. These two warriors, who you saw in the green room, found this place and the knowledge of all the other warriors. You saw the Maixan, Jionr, who you thought was human, and the creature you saw with him, who is a Maixan hound. Chryri'ion, in Maixan. Ask Shanti about it. She'll remember the name from the stories the old people told the children to keep them in line. Maixan hounds are the stuff of nightmares."
So the language I had seen in the green room was Maixan…
"They are sentient, but extinct today save for one. Him, the pale creature of death. He calls himself Illiatan. He and Jionr left Maix, and were the first to do so. They set out to kill all the other heroes mentioned in the green room, until they were the only ones left. They felt that their nonexistent god had told them they needed to."
"But that would nullify their status as heroes, wouldn't it?" I interject. She shrugs.
"I suppose not, because they are still there. But you haven't heard the end of the story. After they had wiped out every hero besides themselves and destroyed the pictures, Illiatan murdered his friend and partner. He allowed Jionr's picture to remain up here, why, I don't know."
"Then this is not a hall of entirely heroes," I said. Miara's eyes go wide. She lungs and grabs my arm, which I reflexively jerk away.
"Don't say that! He will hear you!" She says in a panic.
"Who will hear me?" I spin around. A tall creature with eyes the size of my fist, as tall as I am even on all fours, and completely hairless, stands there.
"Him," Miara says. I reach for my lightsaber. It was not there. The grotesque creature looks almost amused, and takes a step aside. Behind him, in a pool of blood that looks painfully wrong against the pristine white floor, lays a limp bundle of black, blue, and brown. It twitches, and the monster leans over and bites. Blood gushes and a scream splits the air. I am frozen.
"Your wife is the first of many to fall, and soon I will dominate the black and purple room," the monster says. "Your children are next, as soon as you are out of the way." My blood runs cold. Then the monster jumps. I see white teeth and a colorless tongue before an explosion of color.
