AN: Hey everyone, sorry this took longer than usual. I actually had this finished earlier, but I thought that releasing a chapter about a hijacking during the week or weekend of the memorial of 9/11 was really tasteless. Real quick, let's all just – regardless of creed – take a moment to remember those that fell in that or any other tragedy. Maybe say a prayer.

Okay, back to the story.

Okay, so, CerberusAgent0001 – I hope that what I have planned will surprise even one as sharp as you. I don't want to give too much away, but you are on to something. Secondly, I'm not sure what kind of KotOR story this would be if the main character didn't eventually find out about the Force. Leon will eventually become a Force User, but the goal of this story is to be both familiar and a twist at the same time for anyone who played the game. He ain't a Jedi, I'll say that much.

Disguises don't do much good when covered in the blood of a dozen Triumvirate soldiers whose corpses are scattered around, as Leon learned. The blood that he spilled had formed a puddle around his feet, the reds, blues, and greens of different races never mixing but instead forming a spiral of sickly smelling fluids. Leon breathed heavily and stared into space, the pain of losing his unit – his friends – finally hitting him. He felt like giving up, waiting for his own blood to add to the art of death beneath his feet. It hurt that, once again, his entire family was dead. All that was left were those he had grown up around on Entralla, but that was especially hollow. The town had been divided by the war, with a majority joining the Triumvirate that had betrayed them. Leon had no one. His ache was a familiar one, but no less painful.

Leon found that he could still surprise himself, however. Despite his desire to die, to lay down and wait for the end, he found he could not. Pain ricocheted through his arm, originating from a blaster bolt impact site on his left shoulder. That pain, combined with the final words of Tarava, were enough to jolt his will back into existence. Still, it hurt like a schutta.

"Kark," Leon spat to himself. He didn't know how much time he had wasted during his hazy rage, but he knew without a doubt that the blonde Jedi from before was quickly advancing on him. Leon had to make his way to the escape pod launch bay, maybe find a way onto the planet below. Then... maybe then he could signal the Empire that he had... whatever information was on the data drive.

Leon's thoughts were interrupted by the pounding of feet. His eyes rose from the spiral beneath his feet to gaze hard at the Trirals who had just arrived. Suddenly, the fire within Leon's gut erupted once again. With an almost physical effort, he fought to keep it contained. To fulfill Tarava's last order, Leon had to be clear of mind. He could not fall once again into the endless, bloody rage he had just escaped. He had to get out of the ship, and to do that he had to be level headed. Still, that didn't mean he couldn't take out enemy soldiers before him.

"What's wrong with him?" one of the soldiers hissed at another. "He's... it's like he's gone mad!"

Leon's brain couldn't make sense of what the soldier was saying, but only for a split second. He nearly laughed as he realized that he was still wearing the Triumvirate disguise, but was able to stifle it to a mere cough. He turned his steely sharp gray eyes back towards the Trirals. "Sergeant, put the sword down," the lead soldier said, aiming his blaster at Leon's head. Leon glanced down at his shoulder, where the Triumvirate sergeant insignia was proudly displayed.

"I'm telling you, it's Sith magic!" the first soldier shouted. "Lieutenant, he's too far gone!"

"Shut up, Nerf herder!" the lead soldier hissed back, still walking slowly towards Leon. His hand was outstretched towards the blood covered Sith trooper. "Come on. Give me the blade."

Leon couldn't contain his snickering at that. In just a moment, his cocky – albeit deservedly so – sarcasm was back. "Poor choice of words," he told the Lieutenant, whose eyebrows raised inquisitively. That quizzical expression quickly turned into one of pain as Leon's vibrosword slashed through the Lieutenant's wrist. Leon grabbed the soldier and placed the screaming man's body between the Trirals and Leon's own. "Now, I'd like to point out that firing at me would only get your commanding officer... well, dead as durasteel. Throw your weapons down, maybe you'll all live."

"Like hell!" the first soldier snapped. "There's six of us, one of you."

Leon laughed again and his vibrosword snapped back into its cylindrical stowing mode. His now free hand drifted towards the blaster still strapped to the Triral lieutenant's shoulder. "You Trirals severely overestimate yourselves," he lectured the men as they readied their blasters. "That little tingle in the back of your necks? Your hair standing up? Yeah, that's your instincts telling you you're going to die. Now. Just like these lovely, moronic, traitorous bastards at my feet. I give you all... four seconds. Three. You can still run away. Two... No? One. No takers. Really? Fine. Zero." Leon's finger squeezed the trigger before any of the Triral soldiers could respond. Six bolts of red plasma flew through the hallway of the ship, each passing through the skull of a single Triumvirate soldier. "Hm... that one was too far to the left. Must be getting sloppy."

Leon dropped the still screaming lieutenant and snapped his vibrosword back to battle mode. "You kriffing monster! What the kark did you do!?" the lieutenant screamed. "They were your allies! What is wrong with you!?"

"You Trirals really are dense," Leon said with a sigh and a shake of his head. He grinned derisively. "Bodes well for my side, I suppose."

The lieutenant's eyes widened. "But... but this ship's Sith are dead. And the Jedi... they killed the Special Forces... Who..."

"Never trust a Jedi to do competent work," Leon told the lieutenant, mock sympathy running through his voice. "You'll always end up disappointed." With that, he brought his vibrosword down through the man's neck.

While Leon tore his blade from the now open throat of the Triumvirate lieutenant, he was brought back to reality by the chirping of his communicator that cut through the soldiers dying gurgles. "Open channel," he whispered, and the communicator quickly obliged. "Hello. Who is this?"

"Hello? Finally! It's karking amazing to hear from someone else on our side who isn't... well, you know," the voice on the other side of the line said. A woman, probably about Leon's age.

"Yeah, I do," he said as he ducked into the nearby medcenter, the doors opening and closing with a soft, but noticeable, hiss. It wouldn't be much of a hiding place, given the huge bloody footprints he kept leaving behind, but at least he would know if someone was following those footprints. His voice was hollow. It was only the two of them left? "Where are you? I can help get you out. And the first question still stands: who are you?"

"Oh, so sorry," the woman said anxiously. It sounded like she slapped herself in the forehead. "I... I'm Commander Erea Naga. I am... was, I guess, one of Knight Korienn's personal bodyguards. He is the – well, former, I should say – Imperial Knight Captain of the ship. He's..."

"Damn. It would have been nice to have a Knight on our side," Leon cursed as Erea's pause went on. "I'm... I'm Saber."

"That's a weird name," the woman remarked.

"Identity is important. I don't know if I can trust you with who I really am yet," Leon responded. "Where are you?"

"Escape pod bay, so it seems like it will be I who is helping you. You're the first person I was able to get into contact with. I'm monitoring your life signs through the Fel's life support systems. Medbay, right? Look, meet me in the bay as soon as you can. After that... Wait... two Triumvirate droids advancing on your position. Get ready," the woman warned. Before she signed off: "I'll be in contact. May the Force be with you."

The line went dead. Leon groaned for a moment before grabbing a spare bacta pack from the nearby medtable. He jammed the injector into the bolt wound on his arm, and the muscle and skin immediately began to react with the kolto-like substance, quickening his natural healing reaction with the tingling feeling of muscle and skin simultaneously tearing away the dead cells while stitching together new ones.

Leon didn't have much time to let his still healing arm settle, however, as two Triral battle droids had entered the medbay. Just as he had expected, the droids had followed his bloody footprints. "This disguise isn't cutting it anymore," Leon growled to himself as he readied his blade. Across the room, he spied some Sith armor. Unlike his usual armor, this was a brighter silver. It would make him more of a target to the Triral troopers on the ship, but it would probably keep Erea from shooting him in the face at first sight.

Leon waited for the droids to follow his bloody footprints closer to his location. Once they were just around the corner of the nearest bacta tank, he made his move. Leon's vibrosword slashed through the orange and black neck of the first war droid, causing its skull-like head to crash to the ground. His next swipe at the second droid was blocked by the built in blade that the second droid utilized. Beskar plates built into the forearms of the droids that snapped out for combat use with cruel, jagged lines.

The second droid was almost a carbon copy of its brother: the obviously mass produced model's body was mostly orange body accented by white and black stripes that gave the droid the look of a skeleton. The True Empire's soldiers had taken to calling them "Bones."

Leon brought his blade around to the other side of the droid, narrowly missing the robotic being's neck as a second blade shot out of its left wrist. "Cease and desist, Organic," the droid stated as Leon took a step back.

Dammit. This is taking too long, Leon cursed inwardly. The droid should have already been scrap metal. Taking on this droid and a Jedi would be painful, if not outright suicidal. Leon deflected one of the incoming droid blades and ducked under the other. The droid landed a sharp blow to his gut with its leg and Leon flew upward, colliding with the ceiling of the medbay, then falling down, towards the outstretched blades of the droid. "Kriff." Leon fell towards the droid, and death. He knew the end was only a short ways away.

Not yet...

Leon was surprised when he hit the ground, sparks hitting his face, tingling against his skin. He opened his eyes. The vibrosword that had been in his hand was now sticking out of the droid's power converter. He had... he had killed it. "But..." Leon shook his head. He didn't have time for that. He walked over to the Sith armor, which unfortunately had no helmet, and quickly replaced his burnt and blood covered Triral uniform. As he placed his blaster pistol and vibrosword at his hip, he couldn't help but gaze back at the still sparking droid. How had he killed it? He didn't remember moving the vibrosword. He didn't remember... well, much, really.

As pain shot through his left arm again, Leon grimaced. The bacta hadn't fixed his arm entirely, yet. And the coming battles would only aggravate the wound more. Leon grabbed extra packs for the escape pod journey and stashed them in the mag-lock pack of the armor. Not yet... Whose voice had that been? His own? It was the only logical answer... but he still wasn't quite sure. The voice had been familiar, yet –

"Hey you okay, nameless one?" Erea asked over comms. "You haven't moved in... a while."

"Just... getting my bearings. Thanks for the heads up on the droids," Leon responded. He magnetically locked the last bits of armor to his now rebooted undersuit. "What's the path of least resistance? There's a Jedi on my tail."

"Look, the entire ship is crawling with Triumvirate soldiers," the woman responded. "Honestly, your guess is as kriffing good as mine. I'm working on getting video and some access to the ship's systems. Once I've done that, I should be able to find the quickest path for you, maybe even clear your way a little bit. Until then, Saber."

Leon grunted an affirmation and signed off from the comm system. Before running, he glanced down at his left bracer and furrowed his brow. He pulled his vibrosword from his hip again and increased its vibration function before placing it directly against the armguard. A few moments later, he had carved four simple tally marks into the arm. Leon closed his eyes for a moment in remembrance of his fallen allies, then marched off to fulfill his fifth mission.

SWSWSWSWSW

Outside the Jagged Fel medbay – ten minutes later

The Jedi Knight knelt sadly next to the broken, carved forms of his troops. He had underestimated the Sith Special Forces, and those he was sworn to protect had paid the price. The data he had been sent to collect from the bridge's mainframe had been deleted, the only remaining copies were in Kaas City, behind an armada of Sith ships and lightsabers, or in the hands of that foolish boy. Even when he captured the data, the losses were too great, regardless of what information he was chasing.

The Jedi cast out a few words of apology to the dead soldiers nearby, calling them each by name. He raised his gaze to the medbay and walked in, hoping to find the dead form of the Sith who had claimed the lives of the soldiers. Instead, the Jedi only found the smoking husks of two high-end, top of the line battle droids, CQC specialty for the enclosed spaces of starships. Both of them held the evidence of being carved through by a vibrosword. The Jedi snarled. "At least I'll get to kill the monster myself," he spat. Then he froze. The Jedi code preached that vengeance was wrong. But one who would kill in such a manner..? Did they truly deserve the life they had? The Jedi decided, no they did not. The Code did not contain all truths, all realities. Righteous anger was just that: righteous. The Jedi ignited his saber, the blue light illuminating the rage in his eyes. When he spoke again, his voice was filled with an icy anger. "Your luck is about to run out, monster."

The Jedi ran off, not understanding that what he had said was completely foolish. Any Jedi Master worth their lightsaber, or any Sith or Imperial Knight for that matter, is experienced in not only battle but the deeper mysteries of the Force. The ebbs and flows of its strength, both light and dark regardless of their own proclivities. The river of power that flows into the bodies of the countless Force adepts and masters throughout the galaxy, throughout the universe. Cause and effect rule everything, and a single act on Hoth can have an effect on Coruscant years into the future or the past. Throughout all of that beautifully chaotic movement was a steady undercurrent. For a galaxy full of trillions upon trillions of acts within a single second to have even a single coincidence... that itself would be a terrible coincidence. As any Jedi has ever told their padawan, "There is no luck, there is only the will of the Force."

The Jedi Knight was about to learn that the hard way.