The twin suns burned like hot steam across Ulic's shoulders and he trudged
wearily across the barren and battered landscape. Behind him, the ancient
Sith temple slowly crumbled away in the harsh conditions and the occasional
sand storms that swept across the orange and yellow surface of the dieing
planet. Ulic wore his damp Jedi cloak swathed in the blood-soaked garments
of the now extinct Sith, Exar Kun. Ulic paused to get a good breath of the
thin air and to wipe the dry tears from his torn and tattered face. His
hand was wet with the quickly drying blood, re-bathed a blackish crimson
when he tightened the garments around himself, protecting his sore skin and
deep wounds and gashes. He looked beyond the horrid carnage of bodies
strewn across the open dunes. They had all once been breathing, serving
Kun, but they turned their backs on him and the empire he was building; a
Golden age of the Sith that would ravage the universe and spread its death
seed far beyond the reaches of any Jedi...
Ulic stopped on the edge of a cliff overlooking a canyon and the endless horizon far beyond, deep in gold and subdued in red from the death floating throughout the air. "Master... Can you here me?" Ulic held his breath and closed his eyes as a tear formed and fell, rolling down his check, stinging the open wounds. Ulic watched as the tear dropped and pattered on the ground, evaporating in a pip of dust. "I call for you, will you not answer?"
Ulic looked toward the ground in shame, but quickly lifted his head high in defiance of self pity. That was weak, dishonorable. Ulic's father became a stronger voice in his head now than his Master, Arca. He thought only of pleasing his late father and mother. And his sister, who came to rescue Ulic from the dark workings of Kun and the Sith, to save him from himself. But she had failed, so had her father... Ulic did not go back. Turning himself against the Jedi. But now, looking on at this dead panorama of blood and flesh, Ulic took it upon himself, knowing only he could bring an end to Kun and his dark workings, to search for the remnants and apprentice of Exar Kun. He would not fail this time...
"I have shunned you to long my Master..."
A faint echo of a voice tingled around in the Force, beckoning Ulic to listen...
~ Who is your Master Ulic Qel-Droma? Surly it cannot be me, I am a Jedi, yet you call with all your sorrow and disbelief in yourself... Should I not answer you?~
"Master Arca. I...." Ulic bowed his head and fell to one knee before continuing. "I have slain the Sith, I have rid our galaxy of its nemesis"
~ But you have not Ulic. What sensible thought allows you not to see this?~
"I have slain the Sith Lord Exar Kun my Master. He is no more, and soon thus the very name of the Sith will be forever lost in time within our galaxy." Ulic hesitated to open his eyes, afraid to look at his Master if here where to be standing before him, sparkling with a faint luminescence...
~ You have not slain the dark lord; he lives, still within you. You gave yourself to him Ulic, you are not a Jedi! ~
"Master! I have redeemed myself to the Jedi, I am free, I will not live in darkness anymore!"
~ You are dead Ulic; your soul has been corrupted, your mind tainted with the sent and taste of blood. You are a reckless warrior seeking a truth you cannot have nor possibly hope to find. ~
"I have many truths, and I am very much alive Master. Where it not better to see the light while immersed in the dark?"
~ There is no light once you close your mind to the Jedi; there is only hatred and corruption... Dare I feel the spirit you encompass now. ~
"If you need justification on the validity of what I have told you, then so be it, I am open to your "
~ No, you have destroyed but a minion of the Dark Side, the Force is not yet in balance. Go now; speak not of me again Ulic. Find yourself before you seek me again...~
The Force rippled with the waves of disruption as Arca disappeared into the spinning sand. Ulic opened his eyes and stared out on into the distance seeking not what he knew to find... He turned to a crescent gorge in the flagstone rock a few parsecs beyond. The silver and tan gleam of the Sun Gem glinted lightly within the canyon, its engines powered up with a strong yet precise focus of the Force from Ulic's mind. He would leave this bared and wasted planet, and travel somewhere away from all the chaos and uncertainty, to the only place he knew he would be accepted as who he is, no Jedi, nor Sith.
Ulic stopped on the edge of a cliff overlooking a canyon and the endless horizon far beyond, deep in gold and subdued in red from the death floating throughout the air. "Master... Can you here me?" Ulic held his breath and closed his eyes as a tear formed and fell, rolling down his check, stinging the open wounds. Ulic watched as the tear dropped and pattered on the ground, evaporating in a pip of dust. "I call for you, will you not answer?"
Ulic looked toward the ground in shame, but quickly lifted his head high in defiance of self pity. That was weak, dishonorable. Ulic's father became a stronger voice in his head now than his Master, Arca. He thought only of pleasing his late father and mother. And his sister, who came to rescue Ulic from the dark workings of Kun and the Sith, to save him from himself. But she had failed, so had her father... Ulic did not go back. Turning himself against the Jedi. But now, looking on at this dead panorama of blood and flesh, Ulic took it upon himself, knowing only he could bring an end to Kun and his dark workings, to search for the remnants and apprentice of Exar Kun. He would not fail this time...
"I have shunned you to long my Master..."
A faint echo of a voice tingled around in the Force, beckoning Ulic to listen...
~ Who is your Master Ulic Qel-Droma? Surly it cannot be me, I am a Jedi, yet you call with all your sorrow and disbelief in yourself... Should I not answer you?~
"Master Arca. I...." Ulic bowed his head and fell to one knee before continuing. "I have slain the Sith, I have rid our galaxy of its nemesis"
~ But you have not Ulic. What sensible thought allows you not to see this?~
"I have slain the Sith Lord Exar Kun my Master. He is no more, and soon thus the very name of the Sith will be forever lost in time within our galaxy." Ulic hesitated to open his eyes, afraid to look at his Master if here where to be standing before him, sparkling with a faint luminescence...
~ You have not slain the dark lord; he lives, still within you. You gave yourself to him Ulic, you are not a Jedi! ~
"Master! I have redeemed myself to the Jedi, I am free, I will not live in darkness anymore!"
~ You are dead Ulic; your soul has been corrupted, your mind tainted with the sent and taste of blood. You are a reckless warrior seeking a truth you cannot have nor possibly hope to find. ~
"I have many truths, and I am very much alive Master. Where it not better to see the light while immersed in the dark?"
~ There is no light once you close your mind to the Jedi; there is only hatred and corruption... Dare I feel the spirit you encompass now. ~
"If you need justification on the validity of what I have told you, then so be it, I am open to your "
~ No, you have destroyed but a minion of the Dark Side, the Force is not yet in balance. Go now; speak not of me again Ulic. Find yourself before you seek me again...~
The Force rippled with the waves of disruption as Arca disappeared into the spinning sand. Ulic opened his eyes and stared out on into the distance seeking not what he knew to find... He turned to a crescent gorge in the flagstone rock a few parsecs beyond. The silver and tan gleam of the Sun Gem glinted lightly within the canyon, its engines powered up with a strong yet precise focus of the Force from Ulic's mind. He would leave this bared and wasted planet, and travel somewhere away from all the chaos and uncertainty, to the only place he knew he would be accepted as who he is, no Jedi, nor Sith.