"Jaster get out of here!" Jakome bellowed over the noise of the fighting and the volcano far below, just beginning to awaken from its restless slumber.
"Jakome, look out!" Jaster replied equally urgently, pushing with all his might against the blade-lock the Sith in front of him had engaged him in. A black clad Sith was running hard towards the Jedi Knight a few meters below, but Mereel had his hands full, and could only watch as the dream replayed itself, feeling himself suddenly detached and observing from far above the scene; a vast open chasm, the night sky far above and the molten red lava below steaming and bubbling sinisterly as Jakome's duel with the black Sith intensified and Jaster saw himself cut down two more Sith on a platform near the top of the chasm.
"Jakome!" He cried out to the Jedi, but the end was coming, and a new Sith had landed next to him in the dream, turned to look at him.
"You belong with us, Jaster," The Sith told him, his lightsaber gleaming an eerie blue, "Too long have we been apart, but now we can rebuild our people with the invincible power of the dark side!" Jaster slashed furiously, suddenly finding himself back in control of his body, his blade cutting deep and through the man's waist. He watched with panicked reassurance as the top half of the Sith fell sickly and cleanly away from the lower legs, and the man dropped lifeless. He turned back to search for Jakome far below, and saw the Black Sith racing up the platforms towards him with inhuman speed.
"How far has my brother fallen …" came a voice at his side, and he whipped around, his red blade connecting hard with the brilliant blue of the Sith he'd just slain, standing anew and grinning triumphantly. "How much the Jedi have corrupted you, Jaster Mereel! To strike down even your own blood and race!"
Suddenly the Black Sith was upon them, and Jaster pushed the blue saber from him forcefully, knocking the Sith holding it over the platform and into the red fire far below. He whirled and locked blades with the Black Sith, whose collision was breathtaking. He braced his boots, his armored soles sliding dangerously and the heat all around them.
"You killed my Master! You killed Jakome!" He spat as the hooded man facing off with him laughed evilly, yet in a somewhat familiar tone.
"I killed him." He replied, his voice low and thoroughly evil, yet unmistakable all the same. The robe lifted, slowly, then all at once to reveal the horrible truth of its wearer, and Jaster screamed.
"Jaster! Jaster wake up!" Jakome cried urgently, his hands shaking his apprentice frantically in their ship's small cockpit. "What in the Galaxy is wrong? What did you see?" He asked as Jaster reoriented himself slowly.
"It was nothing." He said in a low voice, still shaken from the eerily realistic dream. He had been the Black Sith, and the man with the blue lightsaber had seemed oddly familiar, as well.
"Jaster, you were practically having a seizure just there," Jakome told him, worry etched across his face.
"I'm fine!" Jaster snapped defensively, and his master frowned and looked taken aback.
"If you say so, then I won't probe you any further, but I will warn you that your seemingly irrelevant dreams could potentially be a premonition of the force; vivid dreams should not be taken lightly when you are a servant of the force."
"I don't think it could have been, Master, but it was pretty realistic …" Jakome looked his student over before sighing and giving his final advice.
"We're getting closer to our objective now, my apprentice; in fact we'll probably find the trails lead to one of those planets out there in the Sadomine system. Keep your mind and body receptive to the force and you will find it can help you in more ways than physically."
"Sure," Jaster nodded in weak agreement, feeling an eerie shiver run up his spine as he gazed out at the forbidding glow of the nearby planets and moons. "Sadomine Primary." He said absently, "One of the galaxy's most uninviting and inhospitable planets."
"It's probably all that volcanic activity. Look, you can see where the larger volcanoes are erupting even now …" Jakome pointed to the volatile planet surface the trail they were following led directly towards. "The miners on the far side have to pack up and leave for several months a year during the planet's closer rotation periods to the central star, when things start to get really hot, but many scientists investigating the geology are starting to say some of the deeper caverns could probably remain cool enough to sustain life throughout the year on the shadow side." Jaster's eyes were locked on the volcanic surface below, and his mind raced through his dream, the landscape of which would match up perfectly with what he saw before him. He was glad he'd decided to put his helmet back on to prepare for descent, as it was made partially of cortosis, a metal which could obscure his Master's passive senses; he didn't want the Jedi to get a good feeling of just how anxious he was.
"We'll be landing shortly, Jaster," Jakome told him now, pushing buttons and locking in a clear flight path to take them to the surface without being erupted upon or otherwise harmed on the volatile planet. "Check the readings for planetary atmosphere for me, will you? I'm told it is mostly hospitable, but these maps of poisonous gas outlets are pretty out of date." Jaster busied himself with the controls on the passenger's side of the small craft and tried to forget the threatening premonition he felt creeping up his spine.
The man awoke, his eyes snapping open and focusing immediately on the room he lay in. The lights were out, but the man instantly knew the number of occupants with which he shared the small space with a quick glance, and their slightly glowing forms meant almost nothing to him as he tried to lift himself from the table on which he lay. He was held down, and another look down at his body showed him he lay naked except for a pair of short pants, with each limb and his chest strapped by hard leather to the table that felt suddenly cold on his back. On closer inspection of his body, he was momentarily surprised, though he could not discern why exactly; something he used to know told him things had changed, but he could identify nothing to complain about; he was fit, his limbs muscular and plainly toned even in his resting position, and he felt a new strength flow through his body that obliterated the mild discomfort of the cool metal tabletop. What had changed? He could think of nothing for several moments in puzzled silence, but as he once again tried to free himself from the table, his senses locked up and his body froze rigid, with his eyes wide open. He did not know what had changed, because he could not compare his present state to what he had been before. He had no memory of any time before the very moment he had awoken just now.
"You are awake, then. Good." Came a voice from somewhere in the eerily glowing room, and a shadowy figure stepped forth from the wall. "Master Naal will be pleased."
"Who are you?" The man on the table asked, then thought a moment and restated; "Who am I?" The other man laughed, his booted footsteps carrying him away from the table and towards a door on the far side of the room.
"You shall know in time, once Master Naal is informed of your awakening." Was his reply, "For the time being, know that you have been selected for the most prestigious and rare of opportunities you will ever come across."
"What?" The man was even more confused as the door slid shut and airlocked behind the shadowy figure, and he strained once again at his restraints, and tried to remember just who the hell he was, and how he had gotten here.