Sorry for the long time between the updates….. I've had a difficult time at school...
But, here it is! AND I STILL DON'T OWN STAR WARS OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS! I ONLY OWN MY OWN FICTIONAL CHARACTERS!
Chapter 3: Rising from the ashes
Sajana never really understood why Korriban was such a magnet for the Dark Side until she was brought to the heart of the planet. Where it had all began.
The Sacred Hall of Darkness.
She was surprised by how big it was, few caverns on this planet could house an entire fighter, let alone a Sith Interdictor. The vast chamber wasn't natural, she could tell that. But it was too big to have been made by hand.
Of course not. She thought, This was made by the Force, by the Dark Side.
She walked down a staircase carved into the stone. After descending the stairs, she stepped onto a platform, where a group of about twenty were busy with equipment littering the floor. The most noticing person was a large figure in the background hidden in a cloak. He walked towards her, intimidatingly, and she knelt before him when he was a meter away from her.
A deep voice came from under the hood,sending shivers down her spine.
"You have not killed the Jedi?" She could feel his anger, his embarrasment. Why was he imbarrased? SHE was his best student. And this time, she had let him down.
"I think she might be of use, my lord. She is stronger than she was before Malachor. If we could..." A life-shattering darkness went through her, and it made her want to scream. It was like she had all the life sucked out of her. Then the darkness went away.
"This is what I can do to you, Fallen. I can give you everything you want, but I can also strip more than you think away from you. I can whipe away your existence, and nobody will be any the wiser. Obey me, and you shall have your vengeance. Otherwise, you can be FORGOTTEN like the rest."
She couldn't even get up again. The pain of having forgotten souls run through her drained away her life, her own soul.
"I shall not fail you again. But surely this is not the reason you have summoned me. Why am I at this ... temple, my lord?"
The deep voice was less harassing this time, but still as intimidating. "Something with which you shall have your vengeance, and with which I shall have the galaxy in my hands. The ultimate act of cruelty is at hand. Worser than Revans betrayal to us. Far worse, I assure you."
She felt the adrenaline rush through her veins as a huge panel in the floor opened. Light poured out of the hole in the ground, and steam erupted from exhausts which were cleverly hidden from view. Out came a set of three huge cylinders, each full of tubes entering and exiting it.
Through the glass of the tubes she could see human forms floating inside the blue liquid.
It wasn't long before she recognised them.
This was her dream coming true.
The most perfect vengeance of all.
The most suiting one, too.
Even worse than her original plan.
This is the plan to end my suffering, once and for all! How much I am gonna' enjoy this...
Alila Harding had never left Nazel IV. She had grown up here, and there was noone here that would want her to leave, so why go? The rainforests seemed to stretch on forever, but if you went southwards for about an hour on a landspeeder, you would foing youself at a chasm a good 50 kilometers deep, and about 200 meters wide. On the other side of the chasm, there was a beautiful steppes-like environment that reminded her of Dantooine. She had been a padawan at the Jedi enclave there, but after she was done she went to here. And that is where she stayed. She was glad she had, because she felt the Jedi masters die some time ago.
So right now she was the only Jedi left. She had no choice but to go back to the Republic.
She turned to face the planes that stretched as far as the eye could see. Something flickered in the distance; it looked like blaster fire! As much as impossible as it seemed to her, because blasters and other weapons had been outlawed on this planet long ago.
She couldn't stand here and watch from the distance. She had to go there, and help if she could.
She climbed onto her speeder and razed over the plains into the direction of the lights. From where she was now, she could only see smoke, thick black smoke. The hill was blocking her view! She was almost there, and when she was she wish she hadn't.
The whole village was in pieces, buildings were shattered beyond any hope of repair.
As she got off her speeder, she saw the once-living remains of people littering whatever was left of the streets. The smell of burning flesh was overwhelming. She ran through the streets to look for survivors, when she heard a scream from behind. She saw Sith troopers shoot a woman dead, and out of her arms fell a baby. They shot it too.
Alila felt a rage go through her. Nothing could stop it from pouring out. She walked towards them in a slow pace, controlling the energy surging in her for use later.
The troopers looked in her direction and began to point at her.
"There she is! Capture the Jedi alive!"
As they moved towards her, four others approached from adjacent streets. Then, a Dark Jedi appeared from behind them.
She didn't do anything, yet. A moment later she moved towards them, and they opened fire.
The blaster bolts bounced off of her, and she saw it as her turn to attack.
The power now bursting out of her, and she saw the murderers being lifted up into the air, and they looked like they were being warped somehow. Before she realized what she was doing, she heard bones crack and blood was bursting out of the bodies right in her face.
They were eighter crushed, ripped open from the inside out, or their limbs pulled out.
She felt much better now, she felt calm.
She walked into a building which was once a place for landed starships.
And now to find myself a starship.
She walked through the halls, stepping over countless of bodies as she got closer to the landing platform. She saw a woman trying to get into a shuttle, but her legs were gone. Alila was still within her rage, and she continued to the shuttle. The woman turned around with a look of relief on her face, but when she saw Alila, her face showed only greater despair. Alila grabbed the woman by the throat with one hand, and threw her off the platform. The woman plunged to her death about 80 metres below.
She stepped behind the controls of the shuttle, and activated the controls. Alila knew that these shuttles couldn't go fast, but, still, she plotted a course for Coruscant.
She couldn't help but think about the woman she had killed; was she Sith? No. Then why did she throw her to her death? Whatever the reason, she felt that it was necessary. She couldn't face the destruction. Now now, not EVER. But she had. She had? Where did that thought come from? She had never witnessed that kind of destruction before. But she remembered one thing: her real name.
"Ren." Alila said to herself. The word seemed to make sense.
"Ren." She repeated.
She heard a soft buzz, then it got harder. She looked around, and saw a Sith soldier pointing a blaster at her. She did the same thing she did to the others; she crushed him. A loud explosion came from behind her, and debris was tearing apart her clothes. Then she felt something hit her head.
It began to hurt alot, so she grabbed the back of her head, only to feel warm blood oozing between her fingers. She felt herself slipping away beyond control, like her spirit was being sucked out of her. The last thing she saw was the destination console, which indicated that the shuttle was flying towards Korriban. She knew this was wrong, VERY wrong.
Then she heard an echo, repeating her name as everything went black.
Ren...Ren...Ren...Ren...Ren...Ren...Ren...Ren...Ren...Ren...Ren...Ren...
Mical, while everyone else was calling him Disciple, was cleaning out the med-bay aboard the Ebon Hawk. It had only been a day since they were on the way to Korriban, but that wasn't the reason he was cleaning out cabinets for nothing. Riana had seemed absent-minded for the last few days, and he only seemed to bother her. He wondered what she was doing right now, as she hadn't left the cockpit since she came back from this confrontation she had.
"Deet-reeb-boob!" Mical banged his head against the access panel he was cleaning out. T3-M4 was behind him, and from what he could tell T3 was eager to get to that access panel.
"In a minute little droid, I'm almost finshed!"
"Reet-diddi-deed-blip!" The droid pulled out it's hydrospanner.
"I AM NOT A NAÏVE, STEREOTYPE IMBECILE!" Mical yelled at the droid. T3 probably took this as a threat, because he jammed the hydrospanner into Micals leg, which spasmed from the jolts.
"AAAH! OKAY OKAY! I'm giving up!" What an short tempered little thing that is. It's a wonder that Riana hasn't dumped it already.
He went into the main compartment and sat down in one of the chairs. Mira came out of the cargo hold and sat down next to him.
"Having a hard time, eh?" She said, her green eyes were crawling their ways into his mind, trying to understand what's wrong with him.
"Yes," He started. "The droid electrocutes me out of the med-bay, my head hurts like hell and nobody seems to tell me what's been going on!"
Mira seemd to understand him, as if she was going through the same thing; could it be she doesn't know either?
"Well you're not the only one, you know. Everyone is left out of the loop here, except Atton. It's strange, don't you think? She always tells us what's on her mind, but lately, she seems to rather distance herself, as if she's preparing for someone to betray her."
He could see the look on her face as she said 'betrayal'. The memory of Kreia was a very large scar in their memories. One that could not be hidden. But Mical had his own theory.
"Or for someone to die." He said.
Suddenly, T3-M4 speeded into the room, beeping and reeting and deeting like no droid had ever before. If there was a maximum to the amount of sounds a droid could make in his service life, T3 would have passed it long, long, long ago.
The droid injected a datarod into the holographic display, and an image of Kreia appeared.
"This message is for the exile only. She will know how to access this message. Summon her now." The old woman said.
"I'll get everyone." Mira said. "You stay here and make sure the message doesn't get deleted, okay?"
Mical thought it was the right thing to do, so he stayed put. But that was hard to do after what happened a few seconds later.
The rumbling was accompanied by alot of shaking as the Ebon Hawk plunged from hyperspace into normal space. A large grey mass that one could easily identify as a Sith Interdictor overshadowed the small, frail vessel.
T3 was flying down the hallway because of all the hits the ship was taking. He barely made his way to the cockpit of the Ebon Hawk when all hell broke loose.
"T3! The nav controls are out! See if you can repair them!" Atton yelled at him. T3 knew that this time he didn't yell at him out of anger, but because the sounds around them were silencing everything else out. He could hear Atton as loud as a crisp, though.
He went towards the controls and began to make repairs. He actually went to the cockpit to inform master Riana of the message, but right now it seemed impossible.
As the repairs went more smoothly, the controls came on-line. Atton and Riana were busy manning the turrets, so he would have to do the rest by himself.
Disciple entered the small chamber and went behind the controls, from what T3 could see, he was trying to steer the craft.
T3 heard one of the alarms go off, and he went into the corridor. He stopped just before the comm room, turned around and tried to warn Disciple about what he saw; the windows were cracking!
"Reet-deet-deet! Reet-deet-deet! Reet-deet-deet!" The droid whirred. Riana and Atton were already coming to see why T3 was whirring so frantically, but Disciple didn't seem to notice.
"Reet-deet-deet! Reet-deet-deet! Reet-deet-deet!" The droid whirred again. By now everyone was standing in the corridor watching at the imminent disaster at hand.
While Disciple was desperately trying to evade all the incoming blasts, the window pulled apart. T3 ejected a force field emitter onto the wall to the left of him and to the right of him. As soom as he was past them and in the cockpit, he engaged his magnetic clamps and activated the emitters.
Then it all happened. The window broke.
They all saw it happen from behind the forcefield, but T3 saw it happen from up close.
The poor souls body was being ripped apart by the vacuum of space.
At first, blood sprayed from his nose, mouth eyes and ears, after that, his flesh ripped open, and his intestines began to spill out. It wasn't a pleasant sight.
T3 hoped he would get a specific memory whipe after this, this was just too horrific for a droid. He still struggled, and that was the most upsetting. To see him struggle for nothing.
Out of sympathy, T3 unlocked and aimed at Disciple with his integrated blaster pistol. He found it hard to fire the subroutine needed to fire the weapon, but he did.
The blaster bolt had hit Disciple right between the eyes, instant-kill.
Poor, poor organic. He thought. If only you were a droid, just like me.
T3 went to the navigation console and accessed it. He also took over the weapons control programs.
Yet droid or not, you shall be avenged.
The Ebon Hawk made a pirrhouette in space, faced the large chunk responsible for Disciple's death and went straight for it. Collision seemed imminent.
Riana didn't know wether she screamed at such a high pitch because of Disciple getting killed in front of her face or because they were on a collision course whit an Interdictor.
She decided it was both.
As she saw the huge ship getting bigger and bigger, her fear only grew bigger. T3 was one hell of a pilot, that was not to be argued, but he knew better than to send them into their graves, right? When the ship was according to her feeling only 100 meters away, she began to sing 'Three sunsets over Tatooine'. It might have seemed strange to everyone else present, but as she sang, the rest began to sing along too, with Mira and Visas suddenly clamping onto eachother while singing a very twisted verion of the Jedi Code.
"There is no emotion; there is peace in the grave.
There is no ignorance; only knowledge of death.
There is no passion; hitting walls is serene.
There is no chaos; harmony is in our will.
When we face death; we've been forced by the Force."
By the time they were well into the second chorus, the Ebon Hawk grazed the hull, and the docking clamps were activated right behind the bridge of the Interdictor.
Visas, who was still in shock, was still singing.
"Our blood shall not be shed in vain!….. What is it? Why have we stopped?"
Riana couldn't blame anyone for reacting this abnormally. After all, the only way she didn't go insane during the Mandalorian Wars was to act like you were insane during off hours. That way it wouldn't get to you that easily.
But still, it was a good question, WHY IN THE NAME OF THE FORCE HAD THEY STOPPED?
It didn't take quite long to realize that; they were clamped to the damned ship!
On the Interdictor Revenge, the blue Twi'lek Mission Vao approached the bridge commander, barely containing her anger as she made her way past these… murderers.
"I hope you did not lose that ship from your sight, commander Aldebran. It would be such a waste to see a otherwise capable commander die because of a small mistake."
The brown-haired, tall man looked at her nevously, and after a few seconds, he had seemed to have gathered some courage to respond.
"It could not have left the system, Mistress Vao. Such a ship is much too small to have a cloak, and if it would have passed us we would have surely seen it."
"A good explanation, commander. But where would they hide from our sensors? Another puzzle has been introduced to you, it seems."
Aldebran glanced at the navigational charts of the sector, and then seemed to fill almost immediately with confidence.
"They must have hidden themselves fromm our sensors by attaching to our ship!"
"Well done, commander. Now eliminate them."
Aldebran seemed to almost laugh at the order, but he quickly opened his mouth to speak again, and Vao didn't mind.
"I have a better idea. If we want to be succesful at eliminating them, it has to be done efficiently. We should use all the power we have. If this is the last of the Jedi, she will not be defeated that easily. Besides, one can never be too careful these days."
Mission shuddered at the idea of seeing the Ebon Hawk dodge a million shots, then take a few and fall apart. Why? She thought that was all behind her – that noone that she travelled with back then ever survived – that she could just continue with a new chapter of her life, but why was she so eager to go to that ship? To be left alone again? She had said goodbye Zaalbar five years ago, when he went back to Kashyyyk to rejoin his tribe and rebuild the world that was devastated by Czerka. She had felt so lonely since then, no word could describe what she was going through.
No! No longer should I think of those times! I must get my revenge. I must restore the honor to Taris! No, I HATE Taris, but then why would I want to avenge it?
Mission, felt a sharp pain go through her head, and she could barely stand on her feet when it all hit her.
I'm not a Sith, that's what I disgust, I'm the one who helped Revan to find herself. I have to get out of here, I have to go back.
The pain subsided, and she felt quite calm.
But right now I should lay low. It's not the time to resurface yet.
After the chaos passed, she saw that everyone was looking at her, and she knew she had to act fast.
"I will be in my quarters, commander. Something has…. Intervened."
Sajana could hardly believe what she saw; the Jedi who saved the Republic in kolto tanks? But she recognised all three; Bastila, Juhani, and the old hermit Jolee Bindo.
One of the scientists present walked towards her and began explaing this sight, interrupting her thoughts.
"As you know, these are the loyal servants that served Revan in the Jedi Civil War. These are not clones however, they are the original ones. They have been in stasis for almost five years now, and they have not aged at all. They have been programmed…."
Sajana interrupted the small man quite brutally, she could barely contain her enthusiasm.
"Programmed? Oh, this keeps getting better and better. I suppose they have been programmed to find the last of the Jedi? So they can replace me?"
"No. Not at all. They have been programmed to more or less obey you. Also, anyone you consider as an enemy, they consider as an enemy."
Sajana couldn't help but distrust the man, yet this all sounded too good to be left alone. This was her way to make things even. To make things right, according to her.
"Get them out. I've already got a special mission for them."
The scientists walked around the controls housed in a pit like they were a bunch of zombies. Some equipment lighted up, then noises could be heard from the drainage system. Slowly, the kolto got sucked out of the tanks, and the two women and the man stood up.
As they got out, they walked towards Sajana, and knelt for her.
"We will follow you forever. Mistress." They siad in unison.
I'm beginning to like this already. Maybe I'll have something else done to them, to insure their loyalty.
Sajana turned to the scientist again. "Are they aware of who they are? Whom they served?"
"No." The scientist said, "They will ask you in time who they are. For the sake of successful reprogramming, try and distort their idea of how it all happened not by much, because they might still have certain… instincts left."
Sajana couldn't resist having a big grin on her face.
"Thank you of informing me. Get them some clothing, then bring them to me."
And now the game has begun...
I'm sorry. I'm SOOOO SORRY for the long wait! But a writers block is a writers block is a writers block. But, still, not bad, don't you think? I'll be writing loads of new chapters soon, but right now I'm busy with something else. But I'll write more I PROMISE!