Act 2: Chapter 19: Galactic History 101: The Hundred-Year Darkness and The Great Hyperspace War
August 5, 2023 (Earth Calendar)
School District 7
Heaven Canceller's Hospital
Theron slowly opens his eyes before sitting up straight. He looks around and sees that he's in a hospital room, given the heart monitoring equipment next to him. The boy looks to his left and sees that it's already morning. Before he could do anything, the door to his hospital room opens up and a certain frog-face doctor walks in.
"Ah, I see that you're finally awake." The doctor known as Heaven Canceller says. "I guess my estimations of when you would be waking up are off for the first time in years."
"How long was I out?" Theron asks the doctor.
"Two days at best. It seems you just woke up a day earlier from the usual timetable."
"What?" The Jedi says in slight shock.
"Allow me to explain. Your friends brought you here for medical treatment. I managed to do what I could to heal you, but from the x-rays I took a look at, your body has injuries I've never seen before and the broken or dislocated bones I was only able to repair, both of them-."
"I'm gonna stop you right there, doc." He interrupted the doctor. "Tell me you didn't mention this to my friends."
"I only told them about the injuries you sustained, not about the non-recent broken bones and 'other' injuries I healed for you. I think there's a story behind that. One you might need to tell them about."
Theron looks away, relieved that this frog-face doctor didn't say anything about his old wounds.
"By the way, one of your friends has been visiting you for the past two days from morning to night. I believe it was Miss Saten. She was really anxious to keep visiting you while you were asleep."
"Thanks for the news, doc." Theron says, not making contact with him.
"Of course." Heaven Canceller nods. "Tomorrow you'll be released from here once we go over the necessities of your condition later this afternoon."
"No thanks." He quickly refuses. "I don't need anything to go on record."
"I'm sorry, but you have to understand that I always treat and care for my patients, no matter the injuries he/she has sustained."
"Then do it off record." Theron suggests. "I don't want any of my enemies to backtrack it to find me."
"I understand. In that case, I'll leave you two alone." Heaven Canceller says before leaving the room, sliding the door shut behind him.
Theron looks up and sees that R4 has exit the shadows and starts beeping at him, happy that the Jedi's alright.
"Never mind that, R4." Theron says before getting angry at him. "Where the hell have you been? And why aren't I back at our house so only you could medically treat my injuries?"
"There's more to that frog-face doctor, meatbag." R4 beeps, explaining that it's not his fault. "By the time I tracked you here, your transponder that you placed inside your arm was no longer online. I think the guy that treated you here removed it."
"Shit. I figured he'd do that." The boy curses under his breath. "In that case, we should modify it with a few minor security upgrades when we get back, so he doesn't do it again. Nothing major, R4. Kay?"
"Fine." The astromech grumbles disappointingly.
Theron looks to his bedside and notices his lightsaber hilt on a small table. He uses the Force to summon it into his hands and looks at it.
"The girls told me what happened." R4 says, changing the topic. "An Inquisitor, huh?"
"Yeah." The Jedi answers.
...
It is now 9 in the morning as Saten once again walks down the hospital halls with the Child in her own school bag alongside her own breakfast she packed up, though it's a lot more for her to eat so she planned on sharing it with the pointy eared infant. Sliding the door open, she enters her friend's hospital room and sees that Theron's awake with R4 beside his bed.
"You're awake!" She says with relief and happiness as she approaches his bed and sets down the bags on another bed. "I thought you'd be up till tomorrow."
"I'm a tough cookie. An explosion like that won't kill me that easily." He casually waves his hand.
Saten chuckles at how funny he can be with his words. But then she lightly punches him in the arm.
"The hell was that for?" He questions in confusion.
"For scaring me and the others." She explains. "If it wasn't for the frog-face doctor, you'd already be dead."
"Fair point." He admits before his stomach growls loudly. "Man, I'm hungry. Being asleep for two days isn't what I had in mind."
Saten grins as she takes out a large box and opens it up, revealing food that's enough for three people.
"Well, since I packed more food than I thought, I planned on sharing it with the baby and now that you're awake, I don't have to save it as leftovers at my dorm."
"You cooked that all by yourself?" He says with a surprised look. "Thank you so much."
"You're welcome." She says proudly while serving both small dishes for the Jedi and the Child before serving herself. "Dig in, guys."
...
Minutes later...
"That was great, Saten! Your homemade cooking skills are amazing!" He praises in awe.
"Aw, that's very sweet of you." She smiles with a wink and giggle.
The two teenagers laugh together before calming down.
"Still, I'm glad you came and watched over me. But I'm still not a fan of hospitals."
"Why?"
Before Theron could explain, the door to his room slides open and Misaka, Shirai, Uiharu, and Konori enter the room.
"Theron!" Uiharu exclaimed in happiness. "R4 called us that you woke up and we got here as fast as we could!"
"That was some impressive duelling." Shirai compliments. "But who exactly was that?"
"Yeah." Misaka agrees with her best friend. "He doesn't look like any Stormtrooper we ran into before."
"An Imperial Inquisitor." Theron says with a frown. "He's a Force User that hunts surviving Jedi or Force sensitive children."
"What?!" They exclaimed in shock.
"If he and others like him hunt children, then they must've known about the kid. Possibly Saten's strong connection to the Force."
Saten's eyes widened and looks at the small green infant with big pointy ears who is finishing his breakfast. So this is what Theron meant when he said that if he begins teaching her the ways of the Force, she'll become a target like him, including the Child. It all makes sense.
"Then it's obviously that the Inquisitor two nights ago is still alive from that lightning explosion Shirai and Uiharu mentioned in their report." Konori deduces.
"And he won't stop until he either destroys me and Saten, or turn us to the dark side and become Inquisitors as well." He agrees with the chief Judgement officer.
The Force sensitive Level 0 gulps nervously as she starts being afraid of the idea of becoming a slave to the dark side of the Force.
"Can Inquisitors learn to use lightning from that night?" Misaka wonders aloud. "He shot lightning at you from his fingertips."
"No. Their training has been limited by their master in charge of the Inquisitorious." He answers. "But that makes no sense. The Second Brother-."
"Huh?" His friends question in confusion.
"The name of the Inquisitor." He explains getting nods from them. "The Second Brother shouldn't know about Force Lightning as he and the other Inquisitors aren't allowed to further their knowledge of the dark side, unless... he's become an apprentice to his master."
In his thoughts, however, he's more confused. Why would the Second Brother be a Sith apprentice if he's still an Inquisitor with the second ranking within the Inquisitorious as he should be the second most powerful Jedi Hunter within their ranks? But that could only mean one thing: he's been growing stronger in the Force long before Theron even came to this galaxy, meaning he's stronger than the Grand Inquisitor of this galaxy. The only question is, how long exactly?
"An apprentice?" Shirai questions him. "To whom?"
"He's apprenticed to someone far worse." Theron answers hesitantly. "Someone that's not Vader, who is even more worse."
"What?" Saten asks.
"A Sith Lord." He bluntly says. "The ancient enemy of the Jedi."
"The Sith?" They curiously said in unison.
"I think it's time we continue our history lesson." He says before beginning his story again.
Eighteen thousand years after the Old Republic and the Jedi Order was founded (7000 BBY), a group of Jedi starting looking for alternatives on using the Force. They believed that using the light side exclusively held the Order back, preventing them reaching their full potential alongside the dark side of the Force. When they brought their findings to the Jedi Council, they refused, leading to the group in turning to the dark side and become Dark Jedi.
This led to a conflict that forever became known as the Hundred-Year Darkness. And a century later (6,900 BBY), the fallen Jedi were defeated and instead of being executed right then and there, the Jedi convinced the Old Republic to exile them and they eventually agreed, to which the rogue group were then banished deep into the Outer Rim with the Jedi believing that they will see the error of their ways.
"Sounds like that would definitely later come back to biting them in the ass." Misaka jokingly comments.
"Yeah." Theron agrees. "The Jedi became directly and indirectly responsible for making the biggest mistake of their lives. And instead of compromising and working together in learning to use both sides of the Force, the Jedi began showing small signs of self-righteousness and arrogance, slowly becoming dogmatic that the dark side is entirely evil. It can become addiction, but it's not evil."
The girls nod, understanding what he's somewhat trying to say, especially Saten. She recalls that like drugs, her envy of having power became an obsession, nearly killing her. She may be still traumatized by those events, but at least she's grateful that Theron has talked to her about it.
"Do you know what happened to the exiled Dark Jedi?" The Level 0 asks him.
He nods, knowing that it was one of the old Galaxy's important outcomes that led to the Great Hyperspace War.
After being exiled into the Unknown Regions, the Dark Jedi ended up settling on the mountainous, red sanded world that would one day be known as Moraband. But during the time of the Old Republic and even before that, the planet was simply known as Korriban. On Korriban, the Dark Jedi encountered the primitive red skinned Sith species. Using their training in the Force, the fallen Jedi amazed the red skinned species and the former were revered as gods to the pure-blooded Sith. Many decades passed as interbreeding occurred between the Dark Jedi and Sith, and the term 'Sith' came to mean not only Korriban's original inhabitants, but also their fallen masters. Now known as the Sith Empire, their existence remains unknown to the Old Republic.
1,900 years later (5000 BBY), a power struggle broke out within the Sith Empire, following the death of its recent Sith ruler. Among the contenders was Naga Sadow, a Dark Lord of the Sith. At this time, however, two Republic explorers accidentally stumbled onto Korriban, to which Sadow seized this unexpected opportunity to gain political advantage. The explorers, meanwhile, were then imprisoned as spies and the dark lord himself staged an attack to liberate them. He then left evidence that suggested the attack was a military operation by the Old Republic. Sadow later then convinced his people to unite and rally behind his cause, with the Sith fearing of an impending widespread Republic invasion. He then launched a preemptive strike against the Sith Empire's newly discovered enemy. Thus, he became the very first Dark Lord in believing that the Sith are destined to rule the old Galaxy itself.
The Sith then embraced Sadow as their new ruler, eager for only war. And so, his first act was launching a head on assault against the Old Republic, beginning the Great Hyperspace War. The Sith armies attacked on several fronts within Republic territory, including its capital planet of Coruscant.
"Coruscant?" Uiharu interrupts with a curious question.
"It's a planet that's entirely one huge city. No joke." Theron briefly describes.
"Eh?!" The girls exclaimed, disbelieved at this.
An entire planet is one city?!" Shirai exclaims in disbelief. "But that's impossible! No civilization, let alone a galactic power, are capable of building a huge city that covers an entire world!"
The Jedi chuckles, admitting that he found it difficult to believe at first.
Sadow himself commanded his forces in a meditation sphere, suspended over a giant star. On the Old Republic's side, meanwhile, its defenses were unprepared as the Sith Empire's onslaught overwhelmed them. Wielding protosabers (the first known lightsaber design) since the Hundred-Year Darkness, the Jedi Order stepped in and helped the Old Republic in its fight against the Sith (wielding lightsaber proof metal swords). Their enemy was close to victory, but soon the Sith's winning chance was short-lived. The dark lord was betrayed by his apprentice who was then quickly defeated. This broke Sadow out of his battle meditation.
"Turning the tide of the war in the end." Misaka guesses, earning a nod from Theron.
The Sith were lost without their leader's direction, and the Republic soon chases them back to the very doorstep of Sadow's meditation sphere. Seeing his imminent defeat, he abandoned his forces and started a chain of events to destroy the nearby star and everything in its vicinity. The Sith ruler fled back to Korriban, only to discover renewed opposition to his rule over the Sith Empire. Civil War soon broke out, whittling away what was left of the empire's weakened forces. Although he defeated them, the Sith were shortly thereafter defenseless against the arrived attack of the Republic fleet. As the fleet wiped out the last remaining Sith forces, Sadow fled again, only this time into permanent exile on the jungle moon of Yavin 4.
"So Naga Sadow cowardly abandoned his own people, never to be seen again?" Saten guesses with a disgusted tone in her voice. "Some ruler he is."
"You can say that again." Theron agrees with her as he felt the same thing she and the other girls are feeling about. "And that's why his rushed and reckless plan backfired, lasting the Great Hyperspace War for merely a month or less.
Meanwhile, the Old Republic and Jedi realized their mistake of not killing the Dark Jedi that became the first Sith Lords at the end of the Hundred-Year Darkness. Although the Sith no longer posed a threat, the Supreme Chancellor was unsatisfied and ordered a full on eradication of any known remnants of the Sith Empire, including the Sith's homeworld Korriban itself. Alas, the Great Hyperspace War came to an end.
"And so, paranoia struck him like the back of a moving truck." Konori jokingly comments, earn a few laughs from her friends.
"This outcome only made things even worse that would jump start future conflicts between the Jedi and the Sith." He facepalms at the stupidity of the Jedi Order and Old Republic.
"And now we got a Sith Lord and his Inquisitors within the Empire, who are clearly interested in Theron, the kid, and me." The Force sensitive Level 0 concludes.
"Yeah." He agrees, hesitant in telling his friends more about his past.
Saten senses hesitation within his well-protected thoughts. After Theron was injured, the girl began meditating through the Force to train her vulnerable mind as the Jedi instructed to her. Her training in building up her mental barriers is slow but at least she's beginning to somewhat make progress. Still, her barriers are nowhere near as strong or almost strong as the boy's own mental barriers.
"Hey guys, can I talk to Theron alone?" Saten asks her friends as she is carrying the Child in her hands. "There's something I want to ask him about."
Her friends were hesitant at first, but they understood her and they immediately waited outside of Theron's hospital room along with R4 and the Child, who was given to the astromech by the girl to watch over. When the door closes, Saten turns face-to-face to her friend she's crushing on with crossed arms and a serious face.
"Alright, spill it." She demands. "What are you hesitant about telling us something we want to know about."
Theron sighs heavily and looks up at her.
"You know the frog-face doctor told you about my injuries right?" He reminds his friend, in which she nods in confirmation. "Well, he didn't tell you about the ones that weren't recent. And unlike the non recent broken bones I sustained, I'm hesitant in telling you in front of the others. The only one that knows of this is myself and R4."
Saten's eyes widened in a state of shock.
"What do you mean?" She further questions sitting down on the side of the boy's bed.
Theron takes a deep breath and pulls the blanket off of him and sits beside her on his bed.
"When my master was killed by an Inquisitor, I was captured and taken to a remote volcanic mining world called Mustafar." He explains. "I was imprisoned in a Gothic castle as the Empire wanted to know about my master, to say the least. Then, this dark shadow came. He was a Sith Lord but... he was unlike any of the ones I've heard about. He governs over the Inquisitorious alongside the Emperor in the old Galaxy. He... tortured me for wanting answers, and I resisted. But not without a cost. He almost broke me and... I ended up with these."
He stands up and pulls off the hospital gown over him, and Saten gasps in horror at what she's seeing before her. His chest and back are covered in deep lightsaber cuts from Vader and not when the boy first fought against the Second Brother. The girl stands up and looks closely at his scarred chest and back. She then tries to touch them with her fingers but Theron stops her by grabbing her wrist and let go of it.
"Theron... did he... do this to you?" She asks as tears in her eyes are showing.
"Yes." He says while looking away. "I don't think they could ever be healed, Saten. I'm still tied to my traumatic experience I had in the Sith's castle. He forced me into training to become an Inquisitor. Knowing that I had no other choice, I played along and... embraced the dark side without it fully consuming me... to survive and find a way to escape off-planet. Plan after plan, he recaptured me multiple times within and outside of his fortress. A year after I was imprisoned, R4 finally rescued me and we managed to escape. Three years after that, well... you know the rest."
"Could that noise in Theron's memories belong to the same Sith Lord that imprisoned him?" Saten wonders, fearful of that horrifying, raspy breathing.
The girl suddenly hugs him in comfort, feeling really sympathetic for what the boy went through.
"I'm so sorry you had to go through all of that." She says as tears got onto his scarred chest.
"Don't be. Now dry those tears. I hate to see you all sad like this." He reassures with a smile.
She looks up and smiles, drying her own tears away.
"R-Right."
She looks at his chest and started staring.
"Whoa. He looks a bit buff with those impressive muscles he's showcasing." Saten says in thought.
"Her hands and fingers are so soft." He says to himself as he sees her attractive fingers touching his scarred chest.
The two then look at each other, gazing into each other's eyes. Then, something took over them as they're in a trance. The two close their eyes and Saten stands on her toes to lean in as their lips move closer to each other.
Unfortunately, the door slides open and the two teen broke away quickly with embarrassing blushes on their faces when their friends came back inside the room. Luckily, Theron put the hospital gown back on just in time.
"What the hell did I just do?!" She exclaims in her mind, flustered beyond relief as her heart starts beating without realizing the reason what she almost did. "Oh God, I almost kissed him! What is wrong with you, Ruiko?! Control yourself!"
"Hey Saten, why are you and Theron blushing?" Uiharu asks her best friend before gasping. "I knew it! You two are into each other!"
"W-What?! No!" Saten denies, deepening her blush. "He and I are friends. Right, Theron?"
"Yep." He agrees, successfully lying to the others and getting rid of his blushing.
"It's obvious you like him." Misaka smirks evilly. "Besides, this is payback for teasing me about being with that idiot."
"But I told you, it's not like that!" She angrily shouts at her friends giving her teasing looks.
Theron chuckles at the comedic scene. He walks toward the window and looks out at the nice morning view of Academy City, and places his right hand under his chin.
"Looks like this is far from over." He says in his thoughts.
End of Act 2