p dir="ltr"Hawk jolted upright, his long dark hair messily covering his face. His nightmares were becoming more frequent, as were many of the other's. Visions of a dark throne and laughter echoing haunted the night and they needed to know why. Derek thought about Snoke. He and the rest of the Gray Jedi initially thought he was the one who drew Kylo to the dark, but whoever tempted Kylo with the dark side seemed familiar to him. Snoke was a stranger, a boogeyman who served someone or something else. Snoke was a means to an end, and had apparently served his purpose. Whatever he was, the darkness Derek and the Jedi felt surrounding Kylo did not vanish at his other force was at play, though no matter who it was, at this point Kylo was too dedicated to the dark side. Whatever light was inside him had been extinguished the moment he chose power over family and became Supreme Leader. He had been given an endless amount of chances but always chose the Dark. Still, whatever happened he knew what needed to be done. /p
p dir="ltr""We need to contact Cal and the other schools to see if their nightmares are coming more frequently as well." he thought to himself, as he travelled to the communication center. He sent an encrypted message to some of the other schools, Derek sighed. There was nothing he could do now except train Rey and Finn. He began working on Rey and Finn's training for the day, and as he did, he wondered how the other schools were doing. /p
p dir="ltr""I wish I did something sooner," he thought. "Maybe if I had been more convincing, he would be a Jedi Knight instead of a Dark Sider. All those padawans and younglings would be-" He stopped himself. /p
p dir="ltr"After the destruction of Luke's temple he and a few other of the older survivors split up with younglings and hid in different areas. Luke's school had been around for a few years, and Derek had been one of Luke's first trainees. By the time Ben Solo came he and a few others had been trusted to train Younglings and Padawan's. It was around this time Luke had gotten a transmission from someone. He didn't say who, but he destroyed it and mentioned he needed to go somewhere. He left for a week and when he got back he held a meeting. According to him, he wasn't the last Jedi as he had thought. A few Jedi had survived Order 66 and had been in hiding until the New Republic rose. One of them had been his father's Padawan, Ahsoka, and while she had left the Jedi Order, she was one of the last people with training under the old Jedi. According to Luke, he had tried to get her to teach, but she refused. According to Luke she claimed to have had a vision of his temple being destroyed and sensed darkness surrounding Ben Solo. Luke and a few others laughed it off, but Derek was suspicious. He figured if a Jedi from the Old Order, especially one who walked away without falling to the dark side, was warning them they should heed their warning. Later that night he looked into Ben's mind, and knew the ex Jedi was right. /p
p dir="ltr"He had told Luke about his findings but Luke only grew angry with him. /p
p dir="ltr""Jedi do not enter the minds of Padawan's." Luke told him in a way that was calm yet clear he was angry. /p
p dir="ltr""But there's something corrupting hi-"/p
p dir="ltr""My nephew is my responsibility, not yours. Continue training the younglings, before I decide to send you to negotiate a treaty with the Hutts on Nimban."/p
p dir="ltr""Yes Master."/p
p dir="ltr"This encounter was the beginning of the end in Derek's eyes. A few months after Ben was enrolled other Jedi began to sense the darkness growing in him. They begged Luke to keep an eye on him, but by the time he did, Ben was already gone. He had been fully convinced of the power of the Dark Side, and had corrupted some of his classmates./p
p dir="ltr"To Derek, the incident at Luke's temple seemed to be a sign, not only of Ben Solo's transition into Kylo Ren and the dark side, but that the Old Jedi Order could not survive without changing. Luke's commitment to rebuilding the Old Jedi, while admirable, did nothing to correct their mistakes. Being in power for that long without reevaluating their code was their downfall, and trying to reinstate it did left them open to the same means of attack by the Sith. It even began to show towards the end of the old Republic. Hell, even Luke's own father was a monument to the Old Jedi's failures. Being born a slave, told he's the chosen one while simultaneously being looked down on by most of his peers, told to ignore the suffering of others, and his manipulation at the hands of Darth Sideous proved that the Jedi needed a major reform. Even if none of that had happened stories from thousands of years ago spoke of hundreds of thousands of Jedi existing at once. During the last years of the Old Republic there were only around ten thousand left. Sure War was bound to happen, but even if there was a civil war the Jedi would rebuild. Force sensitive people would still be born and they could train any of them they may have missed initially. Whatever happened The Jedi of the Old Republic fell, and now a new Empire was emerging. Still, even without Anakin Skywalker, the Jedi would probably have gone extinct sooner or later. Whatever the case, the old Jedi were gone. Sure many of the survivors of Order 66 trained new Jedi, but they saw the flaws of the Old first hand. Luke did not, at least until his nephew turned. That shattered his faith to the core, causing him to abandon survivors of Ben Solo's rampage and those who needed him most, like his daughter, his sister, and his best friend./p
p dir="ltr""We need to contact Cal and the other schools to see if their nightmares are coming more frequently as well." he thought to himself, as he travelled to the communication center. He sent an encrypted message to some of the other schools, Derek sighed. There was nothing he could do now except train Rey and Finn. He began working on Rey and Finn's training for the day, and as he did, he wondered how the other schools were doing. /p
p dir="ltr""I wish I did something sooner," he thought. "Maybe if I had been more convincing, he would be a Jedi Knight instead of a Dark Sider. All those padawans and younglings would be-" He stopped himself. /p
p dir="ltr"After the destruction of Luke's temple he and a few other of the older survivors split up with younglings and hid in different areas. Luke's school had been around for a few years, and Derek had been one of Luke's first trainees. By the time Ben Solo came he and a few others had been trusted to train Younglings and Padawan's. It was around this time Luke had gotten a transmission from someone. He didn't say who, but he destroyed it and mentioned he needed to go somewhere. He left for a week and when he got back he held a meeting. According to him, he wasn't the last Jedi as he had thought. A few Jedi had survived Order 66 and had been in hiding until the New Republic rose. One of them had been his father's Padawan, Ahsoka, and while she had left the Jedi Order, she was one of the last people with training under the old Jedi. According to Luke, he had tried to get her to teach, but she refused. According to Luke she claimed to have had a vision of his temple being destroyed and sensed darkness surrounding Ben Solo. Luke and a few others laughed it off, but Derek was suspicious. He figured if a Jedi from the Old Order, especially one who walked away without falling to the dark side, was warning them they should heed their warning. Later that night he looked into Ben's mind, and knew the ex Jedi was right. /p
p dir="ltr"He had told Luke about his findings but Luke only grew angry with him. /p
p dir="ltr""Jedi do not enter the minds of Padawan's." Luke told him in a way that was calm yet clear he was angry. /p
p dir="ltr""But there's something corrupting hi-"/p
p dir="ltr""My nephew is my responsibility, not yours. Continue training the younglings, before I decide to send you to negotiate a treaty with the Hutts on Nimban."/p
p dir="ltr""Yes Master."/p
p dir="ltr"This encounter was the beginning of the end in Derek's eyes. A few months after Ben was enrolled other Jedi began to sense the darkness growing in him. They begged Luke to keep an eye on him, but by the time he did, Ben was already gone. He had been fully convinced of the power of the Dark Side, and had corrupted some of his classmates./p
p dir="ltr"To Derek, the incident at Luke's temple seemed to be a sign, not only of Ben Solo's transition into Kylo Ren and the dark side, but that the Old Jedi Order could not survive without changing. Luke's commitment to rebuilding the Old Jedi, while admirable, did nothing to correct their mistakes. Being in power for that long without reevaluating their code was their downfall, and trying to reinstate it did left them open to the same means of attack by the Sith. It even began to show towards the end of the old Republic. Hell, even Luke's own father was a monument to the Old Jedi's failures. Being born a slave, told he's the chosen one while simultaneously being looked down on by most of his peers, told to ignore the suffering of others, and his manipulation at the hands of Darth Sideous proved that the Jedi needed a major reform. Even if none of that had happened stories from thousands of years ago spoke of hundreds of thousands of Jedi existing at once. During the last years of the Old Republic there were only around ten thousand left. Sure War was bound to happen, but even if there was a civil war the Jedi would rebuild. Force sensitive people would still be born and they could train any of them they may have missed initially. Whatever happened The Jedi of the Old Republic fell, and now a new Empire was emerging. Still, even without Anakin Skywalker, the Jedi would probably have gone extinct sooner or later. Whatever the case, the old Jedi were gone. Sure many of the survivors of Order 66 trained new Jedi, but they saw the flaws of the Old first hand. Luke did not, at least until his nephew turned. That shattered his faith to the core, causing him to abandon survivors of Ben Solo's rampage and those who needed him most, like his daughter, his sister, and his best friend./p