Scene: Nihilus explains himself to be a Jedi in nature despite the branding of him as a Sith.


Note: This is the scene that is set for when Anakin was pulled into the Void of Nihilus in chapter 46 (A Matter of Truth Part 2 of 2)

I ultimately dropped this scene because the emphasis for the Nihilus/Skywalker talk was to be on: 1. Starkiller. And 2. Nihilus mocking him as a 'chosen one' and his role to play in the universe.

So while this is a powerful scene to write, in my opinion, I chose to not take away from the parts of the episode that were important. If I had an argument about Nihilus making himself seem like the 'ultimate Jedi' in nature, then while it would have a profound impact on Skywalker, it wouldn't have any effect on the main story line at the time.

So I scrapped this and started over as a scene where the focus was on Nihilus stepping in and shattering what remained of Starkiller's mind wipe.

I actually found it in my folder while working on the later chapters of "In the Path of the Ravager". I had forgotten about it and decided to put it up.

This is completely unedited and raw.

edit: Sorry guys, seems there is some kind of formatting issue that gave me. Should be fixed now.


Anakin struggled against the shadow tentacle pulling him through the black mist. He clawed the ground for a hold, but could not maintain a grip. It pulled him down a flight of stairs and around a corner, and he took hold of the corner-wall as he was dragged around. The tentacle dissipated almost as soon as he succeeded in resisting.

Anakin jumped to his feet, pulled out his saber, and flicked it on. Or, at least, thought he did. No beam of light rose. He flicked it again, and it buzzed with the noise he is used to hearing, but no light came. "Great." He sighed. "They are going to kill me…" He was not thinking of the Sith that invaded the temple, but his own companions and friends. He had a reputation growing up with having lightsaber problems. They thought he was past it. He had no intention of telling them otherwise.

The Jedi stuffed his lightsaber into his belt and cautiously made his way through the halls of the temple. What was once a beacon of light to the galaxy with its majestic statues and the amount of care put into preserving every stone, was now a fortress of the dead. Skeletons, stripped of all flesh and muscle, lied scattered all across the ground everywhere he went. What was once polished stone ripe with rich color was now dusty and cracked. What was once well lit large rooms, was now dark and filled with shadows and rubble from collapsed pillars and signs of intense battle between Force users. The place that once offered him beliefs and pale-comfort, was now filled with fear and death. The shadows hid demons that threatened to jump him if he did not watch them warily. The darkness taunted him and beckoned to him. For a brief moment he thought he saw the ghost of his mother…

But he pressed on. Deeper into the black mist as thick as fog. He could barely see more than two feet in front of his face, but he had an idea where to go. The black tentacle, in dragging him, took him to a wing of the temple that was easy to understand. Some wings were easy to lose yourself in, while others, such as this one, had only one or two places to see, and very limited paths.

The first room proved empty of his quarry, but the second was populated with one. In the second room, the Sith to incite the invasion stood in front of a great stone tablet as if to read it. Anakin felt his anger and hatred, emotions born of his darker side, rise as fluidly and strongly as a flood, but with physical effort, he resisted the need to charge in and slay the murderer where he stood. His blood boiled and his sight focused in on the dark figure, revealing every feature, every fiber on the man's robe and every movement of his muscles. Blood pounded in his ears and it took every bit of willpower he had to put his inner-beast back in the cage it was born in. The bloodlust receded, and in its place he felt cold and empty until he shivered, but Anakin pressed on.

He came near to the villain, and prepared himself for battle, but no movement was made. The villain did not move, but only read the large tablet. Anakin took a chipped rod off the ground as his weapon.

"Interesting." The villain said at last.

Anakin, unsure if the man was talking to him, or to himself, stabbed him through the back of the chest with the rod. The rod held firm, and blade poured from his back, but the villain made no motion to show he felt it. "How is it that in this day I have consumed all of your kind, yet you alone live when I have touched you?" The man in the black robes turned around and faced Anakin fully. His mask dared him to fear, and the opposite end of the rod protruded out of the man's chest. Yet despite the mortal wound, the man did not die, nor did he show any sign of pain or weakness.

Fear, unlike anything Anakin had ever felt, came over him. This was no normal man. This was something more. Yet the Jedi Knight stood firm in his face and mentally prepared himself for a battle, yet was baffled the man showed no sign of interest in one. Instead, the man continued talking. "You are different, Jedi. You should have died the moment I touched you, yet here you are, surrounded by me."

Anakin glanced around at the black mist. It did look like it was connected with the man intimately. The man protruded the mist, and it acted on his will.

No, not just any man. He was the Sith Lord, Darth Nihilus, Lord of Hunger.

Anakin gulped, and said, "Why don't you attack me and find out why?" His bravado was fake, he knew it, Nihilus knew it, but he still intended to deliver a fight of some kind. Even against a man that apparently could not die. If the Sith Lord was even a man anymore. The blood was gone. In it's place was nothing. In fact, the hood didn't seem to have a face behind the mask. Inside the robes was darkness given form.

So that is what he meant by 'I touched you' in relation to the mist. The mist was him. Nihilus was a being that was not incased in flesh if he wanted to. But how could Anakin fight mist? It was beyond anything he knew.

"I have little interest in you beyond the curiosity of why you stand before me alive." The Sith Lord responded. "Your Order is on its death bed, where it should be. Instead, while I have you here, I wish to know something."

"Yeah? What?" Anakin said angrily.

"What have you done to my apprentice?"

Anakin blinked in surprise. The shadow wanted to know what he had… that's right. Varus was his apprentice once as Starkiller. "I destroyed him." Anakin said proudly, his chin up high to the shadow just a whee bit taller than him. "I taught Varus responsibility. Without having to say it, I showed him compassion, and friendship, and-"

"Values neither I, nor the Jedi share." The shadow responded calmly. "Interesting that you would go against your own Order."

"Don't you dare!" Anakin felt the darkness taunt him and his inner 'beast' growled in anticipation. "You have no right to put yourself in the same sentence as us!"

"On the contrary. You will find your Jedi and I share the exact same goals and-" Anakin punched the shadow in the mask. The mask skidded across the ground. The robes spun uncontrollably, then halted in the air, and a shape appeared like a man within it. It bent down, grabbed the mask with gloved hands, and put it back in place. The mask hovered in midair where there was no face. "I do wish you would not do that."

Anakin hissed and growled quietly as he focused in returning his anger and adrenaline back to the pit where it came. After great physical effort, he said shakily, "You and the Jedi are nothing alike."

"You really think so, don't you?" The shadow asked curiously. "Then tell me. What is the Code."

Anakin recited smoothly. "There is no emotion, there is peace."

"I reject emotion and have found peace." The shadow responded.

"There is no ignorance, there is knowledge."

"Again, same."

"There is no passion, there is serenity."

"Hatred and anger is for fools. I have transcended the need for it."

"There is no chaos, there is harmony."

"Again, same."

"There is no death, there is the Force."

"If you truly think me dead, then look again." Nihilus said. "I am beyond death. I am the Force."

Anakin opened his mouth to argue, but stopped. The words he had recited since he was ten was a cold comfort where once it was a strong foundation. In this moment he understood the Sith Lord more than he wanted to, and it shook him to his core.

"You see." Nihilus continued. "I am no longer Sith. I have no need for blind passion, chaos, emotion, ignorance. I have no need for death. Materialism is nothing, and bonds even less so. I am not just Jedi. I am the ULTIMATE Jedi! I am everything you aspire to be! Cold, heartless, selfless!"

"Selfless?!" Anakin argued. "How is one thing you do selfless! You have slaughtered for your own ambition and murdered the Order! Everything you did to Varus!"

"Again, selfless." Nihilus shook his ghostly head sadly. "If you had listened to Revan and I, there would have been no need for this day. Balance must be restored."

Anakin couldn't believe his ears. Just how twisted was this Sith's thinking?! It was as though he was speaking one way and then another in mid-sentence. "Balance?! How is that balance! You have slaughtered thousands of Jedi for your own ambition! The Dark Side will take over the galaxy and-"

"Such is balance." Nihilus responded. "Do not speak to me in ignorance, Jedi. How could you ever hope to know the threat you face, when you have never walked in the dark places of the galaxy - faced war and death on such a scale. If you had traveled far enough, rather than waiting for the echo of the Force to reach you, perhaps you would have seen it for what it was. Perhaps you could see the crimes etched into history by Jedi and Sith alike, and come to understand the need for redemption. Instead, you all wrote into your very code a need for detachment, to move away from your guilt and need to understand just what it was you have done to the galaxy. You stand yourselves up on such a high pedestal, you do not look to apologize to the ghosts of the dead, and therefore in your final days those very ghosts shall lay you low. This is why I exist, Jedi. This is why Revan, Sion, Treya, Sidius, Malak… This is why our Sith was born, to lay you low and humble and come to understand the doom you have planted for yourselves… and in so doing save you from it, before THEY do it for us. Because I promise you, Jedi, when they come, they will be less forgiving than I."

A moment, a long moment, passed in silence. The Sith Lord said what he wanted to say, and sat in perfect patience. He lacked ambition or impatience. He was at peace in his own way, devoid of all desire and emotion, yet deep down filled with gnawing hunger in pain. It was the price he was paying for his emptiness.

Anakin was struck speechless. On one hand, the Sith was truly insane. On the other, he felt such a deep connection to the Nihilus and everything the Jedi strove for, that it sickened him, yet at the same time they were so very different. The Jedi sought detachment, but at what cost? If this man, this Sith, was the penacle of all the Jedi strove for… What did that make them? Was the man Sith, full of passion and hatred? Or was he the Dark Side of the Jedi themselves?

And his words… they were of prophecy in a way, and while Skywalker was accustomed to prophecy (He was the prophesised one after all), he had never heard one so dark and wild before.

"You are truly insane." Was all Anakin could say.

"And that, is why, you shall fall." Nihilus responded.

Before he hadn't even realized until now how utterly silent the world was in Nihilus's presence. All things had ceased. Light, sound, emotion, life. Everything was sucked away. Anakin had never felt colder and more empty in his life than he had right now. Not since he lost his mother.

He needed to see if anyone was still alive. He needed to find his Padawans.