The area was silent and black. A darkness covered the room, such that anyone hoping to see anything at all would be gravely disappointed. Then, a light flickered and died. Another light, green, blazed for a second, then turned out. A blue one. A red. Suddenly, without warning, all the lights turned on simultaneously and the old, crumbling and dead cavern was brought into view by thousands of colors of what now appeared to be the most dangerous weapon in the galaxy: lightsabers, held by graven-faced men, their dark faces covered by a long, black cloak that fell to the ground. They shut their lightsabers off, and the creeping darkness filled the room. One man turned his lightsaber on in front of his face. He was in the front of the crowd, on top of a moss-eaten, seemingly naturally formed rock pillar. The man, using his hand that was not holding the deadly tool that was his lightsaber, stretched out his hand, and a ripple flew through the cave, unrecognizable to anyone who was not already searching for it. A whisper flew through the cavern, chanting a single word in a language filled with power and vibrancy. The chanting grew louder, stronger and more powerful until it was a roar, filling the room in both mind and body. The roar died swiftly, and everyone turned their attention to the man on the top of the obelisk. He flung his arms forward and addressed the crowd in a rich, deep and powerfully strong voice.
"Dragon-riders! Today is an important, and also a very grave day. It is a tale most of you know well, and others have yet to learn, so I shall recount it. Thirty thousand years ago, this day, the our ancestors were banished, exiled. Thirty of them, there were, and they wandered the galaxy, collecting any stragglers and other exiles. Soon their ranks swelled to a hundred. At this time, one of the original exiles became angry with the others. He took a small band and went into hiding, away from our group. Now this man, a powerful leader and the head of the band, named Orokan, caused considerable distress among the larger group, who now had no leader. They split off into several tribes, each one adopting a symbol and thus traveling to a planet that was symbolic of that symbol. The tribes were of Water, Fire, of Darkness, and of the Dragon. Now the people of the tribe of the Dragon were our ancestors, our fathers and great-grandfathers. We began to swell, our ranks filling with exiles and tribal stragglers. We taught them the way of the dragon, increasing both our power and theirs. We tamed these beasts and took upon the mantle of Dragon-rider. We were able to come out of hiding with our considerable force and capture a city of great wealth and prosperity. We named it Hyu-ryuken, after our god. Now these people of the neighboring cities were angry, and desired to take back our city. For twelve years they secretly began to create an army to go forth against our city. We had made preparations and had fortified the cities with walls and towers after learning from our spies of this army. We trained any who would join us in the city, and the rest perished. Our ranks were at about fifteen hundred at this time. Now the army of the natives of this land, or the Shanoites, people of sand, underestimated the power of our army. When they went to battle against us, by the time they had reached the gates their army had shrunk in half, with the greatness of the people slaughtered. Our dragon-riders flew in and wiped out the remaining Shanoites. We proceeded to take the rest of their cities, recruiting who we could and destroying those who would or could not. At this time our leader, Ryu-Mera, Lord of Dragons, wished to create a grand army and take more of these other planets. Within twenty-five years we had taken one hundred and fifty planets and all solar systems that they were within. Now when fifty years had passed, we discovered the tribe who had originally departed from the exiled group. We met with their leader, who was in fact the son of the son of Orokan and was startled to see the grand army descending on their fortified cities. We persuaded him to join us, and his armies combined with ours and increased our armies threefold. Now those other tribes, even the tribes of Water, and of Fire, and of Darkness, saw fit that they should stop our conquering. They fought against us, and even the vastness of our armies, and they were utterly defeated. They went into hiding once again, and our ancestors did drive them into the deepest depths of the galaxy. This was called the Great Hunt, where the tribes of the elements were hunted in the far reaches of the galaxy. Then a terrible sickness spread through our ranks, and our hunt was abandoned. We lost all but a few of our systems, of the first ever great empire, before the Republic, before sniveling fools. We began to rebuild all that was lost in our search for the tribes of the elements, and we had peace. Now, I say unto you, that time again has come! The new Great Hunt has begun!"
An immense cheer erupted through the crowd. They all switched on their lightsabers in unison, filling the room with a spectrum of different colors. They ran out the small hole in the wall behind where they had been standing, still cheering and whooping. This continued until they all reached the dragon pen, where several hundred fierce dragons were being penned up, snorting fire and rearing up, showing their scaly body to all those who could see. Each dragon-rider jumped onto their dragon, and through a particularly large hole in the already holey roof, they set off, thousands of riders at once, heading into the sky. One rider, though, stayed behind, quickly heading through the maze of stone hallways and caverns. He had no reason to hide now; all of the riders were gone. He removed the hood of his cloak that was hiding his face, and revealed piercing red-yellow eyes that emanated a deep, resolved hatred. His face was dark and wrinkled; it looked as if he was twice as old as he was. His robe was a pitch black night, with clothes the same color. Everything around him portrayed a great darkness; even light seemed to dim in his presence. He whipped out a small device and pressed a button. A small holographic image of a man appeared, his face obscured by his hood. As he spoke, a cold chill ran down the first man's spine. "Where ...is...the boy...?" The man quickly answered with a deep, low voice, "He is not here, master. I could not find any trace of his presence. He may not even be on this planet." "Im...possible...Unless...unless our...source...was lying...likely..." "What must I do, my lord?" "Remain...patient...my very...young...apprentice...and the time...will reveal...itself..." "Yes, my lord." The flickering holographic image ceased, and the apprentice put the device back into his robes. He quickly started off towards the outside of the cavern, towards his waiting speeder. He switched on the ignition, and was about to turn on the power and head over to another area of land when he stopped. He stretched out with his dark aura over space, time, and closed his eyes.
It came to him slowly, but after several hours of fierce concentration he was able to make it out. A small cry, a robot's exclaim. Darren…the woman said in his blurred vision. She mumbled something incoherently, the Force around her dimming, her resonating glow darkening to a faint light, and then…nothing. The man focused harder, deeper this time at the window behind the girl. It was dark, stormy, and something was approaching. The apprentice recognized it immediately, and struggled to keep the vision going, even with the sight of it dying. He focused closer, struggled with his strength – and energy – weakening, but soon he could hear a yell outside, a crackle, then more, and the unmistakable sound of a lightsaber swishing and slashing and cutting through flesh. The vision grew fainter and darker, and the apprentice, exhausted as he was, still kept a small hold on this vision through time. Just seconds before the man with the lightsaber entered the room where the late mother lay, the robot grabbed the baby and, in a startling move that he had never seen a droid perform, jumped out the window, baby crying in hand. By now trying to keep focus was like trying to look at one spot of a moving waterfall; it kept slipping away. The last thing he saw was the man, hooded and armed with a menacing lightsaber, fling the door open with the Force as easily as moving a toothpick. He looked out the window, said something under his breath, and looked directly through time, through the vision at the apprentice. His resonance grew dark and corrupted and the man flung out his hand.
Back in the present the fatigued, hungry and shocked apprentice was blasted with a Force push technique used commonly by any who wield the Force. This blast, though, was stronger than any the apprentice had ever felt before and flew literally twenty feet, arms flailing as he crashed into the ground. The apprentice tried to get up, use his dark aura surrounding him to tap into the Force, but he was too weak and he simply collapsed again, into another darkness, deeper than his own, more welcoming….