The Youngest and the Strongest

by Trado

Valkorion originally had three children. For this story however, he has four. Two sets of twins with two boys, then one girl and one boy. These children are named Thexan, Arcann, Vaylin, and Kayden. Rated M just to be safe. Story starts a little before KOTFE and the story will be different than what happens in the game. ABANDONED.

3. Chapter 3: The Youngest

A.N.

Alright, this is it, my first attempt with Kayden and a totally original chapter. I really hope everyone enjoys this story and continues to enjoy it!

Chapter 3: The Youngest, Kayden 1

In a shuttle headed down to the Old World, Kayden Tirall, Prince of Zakuul and the youngest son of the Immortal Emperor, was currently just sitting and waiting to arrive at his destination while also thinking about the conversation he'd had with his older brother just a few minutes before he'd left.

Kayden was so glad that Arcann was finally planning to make a claim for the throne. It was something he'd been hoping one of his older brothers would do for years, if for other reason than to get their father off of it. 'And put him into a grave.'

Despite his thoughts, Kayden didn't hate his father, not at first. For the first few years of his life, he'd simply done to his father what his father had done to him and his siblings, he ignored him. He'd also been very close to his mother during that time but his views on both his parents changed greatly over the years.

The first change had been in how he viewed his father when he looked at him through the force. He saw a void, pure darkness and evil so terrible that just being in his presence made Kayden deathly ill and afraid. Before that, he just ignored his father because he was more focused on acquiring knowledge rather than getting his father's approval. Afterwards, he tried to stay as far from his father as he possibly could and, if he sensed his father's darkness nearing him, he'd relocate to somewhere else in the palace.

The only times he couldn't avoid his father was when he summoned him or when they were having a public event and the Emperor's family was expected to be in attendance. Thankfully, neither instance happened often, saving Kayden from having to be in his father's presence for long. 'Mother, my big brothers, and Vaylin were always there those first few times to help me however they could, but even they couldn't see what I saw when they looked at our Immortal Emperor.'

Then things started getting very bad after Vaylin's accident in the training ring. Kayden loved all of his siblings, but he would also admit that he loved his twin sister Vaylin the most. He had a bond with her, both in the force and in spirit, that made it so that Kayden would always do everything in his power to help and protect her. His failure to do so ate away at him even to this day.

He'd been trying to help Vaylin control her powers in the force. The problem was obvious, she could only control her powers in moments of extreme, usually negative, emotion. So he'd been working with his sister to help her use her powers for more subtle and simple things and slowly move onto bigger things, and they had been making slow but steady progress. But everything changed after the training ring. 'I'd even told mother that Vaylin wasn't ready for the ring, but of course she didn't listen to me, only mother knew what was best for her children.'

Kayden would never forget how a group of knights had burst into Vaylin's room while he was there and had basically forced Vaylin to come with them. When the Kayden demanded to know what was going on, one of the knights said that the Immortal Emperor was sending his daughter to Nathema to teach her control and discipline.

Kayden had felt fear like he'd never felt before when he'd heard the knight's words. He knew that any plans his father had in store for Vaylin would not help her and would probably do something far worse to her.

So he ran. He ran faster than he'd ever run in his life to the one person he knew that could perhaps save Vaylin from her terrible fate. His father could stop this, but Kayden knew that nothing he said or did would convince father to change his mind, but he still held out hope that his mother might be able to. He did listen to her occasionally, and Kayden hoped more than anything that he'd listen to her when she spoke to him this time.

Except she didn't. Kayden had fallen on his hands and knees and begged his mother to stop whatever plans father had for Vaylin. He knew father would have punished him harshly for showing such weakness to anyone but he didn't care. It was Vaylin, it was his twin sister's fate on the line! 'Mother knew. She knew somewhere deep down that whatever father had planned for Vaylin would be terrible, yet she didn't so much as lift a finger to help her.'

That was when he'd started to hate his father and that hate only grew stronger when he started sensing Vaylin's pain through the force. It was so bad some nights that Kayden had horrible nightmares where he could actually see the horrible torture they were putting Vaylin through. 'I couldn't even sleep at all some nights with how bad the pain and fear got sometimes, and that was just the first two weeks!'

So he'd started researching. He still did everything he normally did to keep up appearances except spend time with his mother. He didn't want anything to do with her after she betrayed Vaylin the way she had.

It took over a week but Kayden finally found what he'd been looking for. A powerful force technique that could shield another person's body and mind from pain. He knew the technique wouldn't protect Vaylin from all of her pain, but it would definitely make her torture on Nathema much more bearable than it would have been without it. 'I would have preferred to shield her completely, but all those techniques require being in the same room as the person being shielded or performing them in very close proximity for long periods of time.'

There was one problem with the technique he'd found. The technique itself could be used as often as was needed from any distance, even light years away, after a ritual was performed to the individual Kayden wanted to shield. Kayden had no problem memorizing the ritual since it was surprisingly simple and took almost no time at all to perform, but even with all the testing and experiments he'd done, the ritual had to be used when he was within a certain distance of the person he wanted to shield, and Zakuul was too far away from Nathema for the ritual to work.

Father had forbidden Kayden from traveling to Nathema to visit Vaylin but, even if he couldn't get inside the sanctuary, as long as he got close enough to the planet, he could still perform the ritual and be dragged back to Zakuul where he'd then be able to perform the technique to shield Vaylin as much as needed without difficulty.

His first attempt to get to Nathema had been simple, but he thought it would simple enough to escape his father's notice. He'd been wrong and the knights had all but dragged him to the Immortal Emperor before leaving father and son alone in the throne room.

Kayden tried his best to block out the memory of what had happened to him that day, but the burn scars from his father's lightning was a permanent reminder of just what the Immortal Emperor was capable of when he was… displeased.

It still hadn't been enough to stop a few more attempts to get to Nathema, or at least close enough to it to perform the ritual, but all attempts to get close enough for the ritual ended in failure and Vaylin's pain grew worse every day.

One day, when Kayden sensed Vaylin's suffering was especially bad, his mother came to him in his chambers and tried to get him to open up to her again and fix their relationship to be as it once was. Kayden hadn't let it show on his face, but he'd been furious. 'Why would she have been worried about how I viewed her while Vaylin was suffering a living hell on Nathema?!'

Kayden had bluntly told her that he wanted nothing to do with her unless she could somehow gain Vaylin's forgiveness, something that Kayden didn't believe she'd get since Vaylin also knew that her mother abandoned her. 'At least she left when I told her to. If she'd stayed, I don't know if Thexan would have come in a minute later.'

Thexan had come to him with a plan to try and get Kayden in to see Vaylin since he believed that was all his little brother intended. 'I'm grateful to Thexan for what he did, but I'm still glad I didn't tell anyone about the technique or the ritual, I can't imagine what father would have done if he'd learned my true intentions.'

Thexan had suggested that, since Kayden and Arcann looked so alike, he could borrow some of Arcann's robes and pretend to join Thexan as his twin when they both went to visit Vaylin. Kayden had liked the plan but pointed out that his hair was a little lighter than his and Arcann's hair and it was possible one of the knights would notice.

For this, Thexan recommended some slight hair dye to add to the effect, which just made Kayden again point out that asking for it from one of the knights or a servant would be seen as suspicious. Thexan told him to to get some from the Old World, since the knights didn't patrol down there as much. 'I should have thanked Thexan more for his ideas, sure I thanked him plenty before, but I still should have done it more.'

It had actually been the first time he'd gone down to the Old World without his mother or siblings, and the corruption and crime he'd seen in the brief time, he decided, he'd need to clean up to make sure Zakuul stayed strong. But Vaylin took priority, so he'd put those thoughts to the side for the time being.

With the hair dye and the white robes, Kayden looked exactly like Arcann, even some of the knights called him Prince Arcann when he was on his way to the shuttle with Thexan.

On the shuttle, Thexan and Kayden successfully made it all the way to Nathema. When they reached the surface, the sanctuary guards immediately saw through Kayden's disguise and ordered him to return to Zakuul immediately. Kayden fought them to try and get inside the sanctuary to see Vaylin, but that had just been an act so they wouldn't realize he'd already done what he intended.

Kayden had successfully performed the ritual for the technique to shield Vaylin so, as badly as he wanted to see her, he accepted that he'd done what he'd set out for and, after a brief fight, returned to Zakuul. Once back on the planet, he performed the technique and could immediately sense Vaylin's suffering lessen significantly. Kayden still couldn't fully reach her through the void of Nathema, but somehow he knew his sister was aware that she was being helped and was grateful for it.

Kayden noticed that his shuttle had just touched down in the Old World and put his memories to the side so he could focus on why he'd gone down there personally.

Stepping off the shuttle with his knight escort, Kayden approached Knight-Captain Draynon Atrus, the knight who oversaw all the knights who patrolled the Old World and was now helping to oversee Kayden's efforts to remove the corruption in the Old World. 'He's a capable knight, but mother was also a Captain and I know her skills are far superior to his.'

Kayden didn't know many of the knights by name since father constantly rotated his and his siblings guards around to prevent any forms of attachment, but he could still respect the knights who proved themselves and were willing to assist him in the Old World. "Captain, good to see you. Report."

The Captain always looked surprised when Kayden gave him a kind greeting, but the knight quickly put on a more serious expression as he explained the situation. "Your Highness, several of my men were caught in an explosion when a bomb went off. It killed two knights and injured one other but the rest were unharmed."

Kayden clenched his teeth in frustration. These bombings started soon after he'd started his efforts to clean up the Old World. They'd been small at first, likely trying to scare the knights away, but recently the bombings had gotten worse and this was the first time any knights had been killed. 'This will not be tolerated.' "Do we have a lead on who planted the bomb?" Kayden asked, hoping they'd have something to go on.

The Knight-Captain gave a quick nod. "Yes Your Highness, several individuals were seen fleeing after the bomb went off. The knights who were uninjured gave chase and captured three of the individuals but the rest lost them when they fled into Breaktown."

Kayden nodded. He didn't blame the knights for losing the individuals who'd fled into Breaktown since, if they'd continued to pursue them after that, they likely would have been killed. "Do we have the identities on the individuals who were captured?"

The Captain shook his head. "No Your Highness. We tried running their identities through our database but each one came up negative, so they were likely never registered. Our brief interrogations of the individuals has also given us no leads, so far each of the individuals have been resistant to all of our attempts. 'So these thugs are tough and they're likely connected to others, seems I made the right choice by coming down here.'

"Take me to these prisoners. I'd like the chance to interrogate them myself." Kayden said with a commanding tone to which the Captain nodded and started walking in a seemingly random direction to which Kayden and his escorts followed.

Soon the Knight-Captain, Kayden, and his two knight escorts arrived at a cantina, which according to the sign Kayden read was the Platform 6 cantina, and Kayden decided to have a little fun. "I hope we're not stopping here because you need a drink Captain." The young prince said in a slightly amused tone.

The Captain quickly became very uncomfortable. "Uh n-no Your Highness, I uh…"

Kayden shook his head. The knights were too serious in his opinion, always nothing but business with little to no personality whatsoever. He could understand how that could be useful most of the time, but at other times it just made the knights seem dull. "It's alright Captain. I'm sure there's a good reason why we're here."

The Captain seemed to become much more comfortable at Kayden's words, which just made the prince want to sigh but he held himself back. "Yes Your Highness, this is where the bombing occurred while several of the knights had been taking a break from their patrols. We were keeping the individuals that were captured here until a transport could take them away."

Kayden scratched his chin in thought for a moment. "Show me to the prisoners. I'm not waiting for a transport to take them to an interrogation room."

The Captain nods and leads him inside. It doesn't take Kayden long to see that, despite the fact that the place was recently bombed, the cantina still has several customers enjoying their drinks. Those same customers quickly ignored those drinks when they noticed that a member of the royal family is walking through the cantina.

None of the customers approach him or his escort, but Kayden can sense their fear and confusion easily enough and can even hear a few of them speaking and whispering if they should kneel. 'I really hope they don't.'

Kayden didn't like it when people kneeled before him, even though his father always wanted anyone and everyone who saw him to kneel, it wasn't something enjoyed by the youngest of the Immortal Emperor's children. 'I just don't understand it, it makes me feel like I'm putting others down even when I'm trying to help them.' Kayden knew that kneeling was meant supposed to be meant as a form of respect, but it left a bad taste in his mouth since he knew his father insisted on it to inspire fear.

Kayden's thoughts on the customers were quickly forgotten when his group walked into one of the cantina's back rooms which was obviously the place where the bombing had happened and from the look of the room, it had happened recently.

The entire back corner of the room was black, ruined, and slightly smoking with several objects in the corner scorched or destroyed completely. The rest of the room appeared to be undamaged, but it was the occupants that drew Kayden's attention.

As the Captain said, there were three prisoners on their knees with their hands on their heads while the four knights surrounding them had their lightsaber pikes activated and pointing at the prisoners in case they tried anything. Still, they weren't the only occupants in the room.

There were two corpses near the blackened area of the room that were covered by white sheets. 'The murdered knights.' Kayden thought as he turned his attention to the finally occupant, a female knight who was clearly the knight that had been injured based on the medical droid next to her as well as her appearance.

Her injuries were worse than what Kayden had been expecting. She was still wearing her armor, but it was mostly black now rather than the common golden color. She was missing both her left arm and her left leg and, since her helmet was off, Kayden could see that her face had also been scared on her left side. Kayden felt uncomfortable with how much the knight's injuries reminded him of Arcann's. 'Though Arcann at least was spared from losing a leg and her facial injuries aren't as bad as his were so she probably won't need a mask to help her breathe, though she will require quite a bit of help before she can continue on as a knight, assuming she still wants to.'

Kayden could sense that not only did she certainly want to continue as a knight, she was more angry that she'd allowed herself to be caught off guard than she was at the fact that she'd lost an arm and a leg. 'She's certainly got a strong will, hopefully we can get her patched up fairly quickly.'

While the knight's personalities did seem lacking at times, Kayden would be the first to admit that they made up for that with their commitment and determination. Once a knight was given a task from a superior, they'd do just about anything to see it done.

Kayden walked over to the injured knight and, when she saw who was approaching her, her eyes widened and she pushed the medical droid away and actually tried to rise on her one remaining leg.

"Sit." Kayden commanded. He wouldn't have this knight who'd just been lucky enough to survive a bomb to break herself further by trying to show her strength.

Though clearly hesitant, the knight obeyed and the medical droid came back over when she lowered herself and let out a grunt of pain. Kayden sensed her frustration rise and he couldn't be sure if it was from the pain or that she'd allowed herself to show weakness to her Emperor's son. 'Well, at least I can help her with that a little.'

Kayden lifted on of his hands and used the force to dull the knight's pain like he had when Arcann was injured and the knight, while trying to keep on a serious expression, showed clear signs of relief when so much of her pain faded away. "T-Thank you my Prince." The knight said, still clearly feeling some pain despite Kayden's efforts.

At this point, Kayden knew his frustration was rising now that he was in the same room as the scum who'd killed and injured these knights so he decided to try and lessen it somewhat. "No titles right now knight, I don't care for them and I doubt you do either. So, if you must, just call me sir since I know you won't use my name no matter what I say and I'll just use your name… actually I should have started with this, what is your name knight?"

The knight looks shocked by Kayden's words and he doesn't need to think long to know why. His father had it drilled into all the knights to show every member of the royal family respect at all times, especially when being directly addressed by them. Thankfully their training also taught them a great deal of discipline and her shocked expression quickly changed to a serious one as she answered. "Zakuul Knight Zar Draya, sir."

Now Kayden felt much more comfortable speaking to the knight. "Knight Zar, can you please describe what you can remember from the attack?" Kayden asked with the knight giving a quick nod in response before answering.

"Myself and the others were just taking a few moments to relax here after patrol when the bomb went off. I nearly blacked out from the pain but I was still focused enough to see those three and their companions running away after the bomb went off." She said while using her remaining arm to point at the three prisoners.

"Did you see exactly how many there were?"

The knight shook her head. "No sir, I know I saw at least six, but my vision was starting to get blurry and there could have been more."

This information gave Kayden some ideas on who he was dealing with. A small band of thugs couldn't have done this, it was too well planned, so it had to be one of the gangs that operated out of Breaktown. So the only question now was, which one? 'I suppose I'll just have to ask the prisoners to tell me.'

"Thank you for your help knight Zar, I promise you that you'll receive the best help we can give you. I'll always reward someone who can help both me and Zakuul at the same time." Kayden said the last part with a smile but realized it might make the knight uncomfortable, that was until she responded.

"Thank you sir, that's… I'm honored." Her reply would have annoyed Kayden if it had been in the same serious tone he was used to hearing from the knights, but when he heard it from her it sounded genuine. It sounded like she was actually glad to know she'd been able to do some good despite what she'd lost. 'She'll go far in the future, I don't need the force to show it to me to see she's going to rise high up.'

Giving one last nod and a smile to the injured knight, which she actually returned, he let his smile drop into a frown when he approached the three who'd had a hand in getting her injured and her two companions killed.

The prisoners were all wearing black robes with no markings on them and looking at the floor, but when they heard his footsteps all three looked up and, while they did an excellent job of keeping their faces from showing any emotion, their emotions in the force were as easy for Kayden to read as one of the holobooks in the library. 'They're all incredibly angry to see me, but they're even more fearful of me. This won't take long.'

"I won't bother with introductions since you all know who I am and I know that none of you will tell me who you are so, onto business. You all know what I'm capable of and how hard I've been working to clean up the Old World, so I'm going to make an offer here. If one of you tells me what I want to know here and now, I promise that person will be spared the consequences that you are about to experience."

None of the thugs react physically, but their emotions in the force are a different story. 'Well I know at least that the first two won't talk since their fear lessened and their anger increased, but this last one might talk since it was the other way around for him.' Kayden thought as he waited a few more moments to let his words and their implications set in.

"Now here's my question for you all, and remember that one of you can still be spared what's coming next, who was it that ordered you to do this?" Kayden looked at each of the men carefully with both his eyes and the force to look for a clue on the best way to proceed.

The first two were angry and it showed, both in their faces and through the force. The last one kept his face expressionless except for the slight sweat that was starting to form on his forehead and his emotions showed he was getting even more afraid. 'The last one is filled with fear, but he can't decide if he should be more scared of me or whoever it is he's working for. I'll make that decision easier for him.'

"None of you want to talk?" When none of them respond, Kayden gives a slight shrug. "So be it, I don't need all of you anyway." He says before, almost faster than anyone's eyes can see, activating his golden lightsaber and decapitating the first thug in the line and letting the now headless body fall to the floor.

Both of the remain thugs went pale at their companion's quick and unexpected death and while the first thug still had a lot of anger in him, the second thug was just about at his breaking point. 'Now, just one last small push to break him.' "So, who'd like to go next?"

"We are servants of the Serpent God Zildrog!" The last, now identified, herald of Zildrog shouts with his companion sending him a death glare and Kayden just barely resists the urge to groan. 'I should have know those insane freaks were behind this.'

The heralds of Zildrog were a cult of zealots that worshiped and awaited the return of their Serpent God, Zildrog, and killed anyone that didn't share their ways so they could be 'reborn in the serpent's fire' as they put it.

Kayden thought they were a group of idiots who didn't know anything except how to kill people. 'If they would actually study their history, they'd know that Zildrog was said to be a Dragon God, not a serpent. Whoever came up with that lie was the real snake.' He knew there were some cultists who did know Zildrog was referred to as a Dragon God, but most seemed to stick to the snake lie.

Kayden had read all about the different gods that were worshiped on Zakuul and he had different feelings for each. For Zildrog, Kayden just assumed it had been some terrible beast that roamed and killed in the swamps of Zakuul during the ancient times until it was finally killed or just died of old age. 'Regardless, it was the Heralds of Zildrog that killed these knights, meaning it was likely ordered by that psycho 'the Exalted'. When we finally start making some progress into Breaktown, I'll come and take his head myself. For now, these three will serve as an example.'

"Well heralds of Zildrog, you killed two of my knights and injured another. Since I've already killed one of you, I think what's about to happen next should be clear to both of you." Kayden says as he uses his still activated saber to decapitate the second of the heralds before quickly taking the left arm and leg off of the remaining cultist who fell to the floor and cried out in pain.

Kayden looked down at the injured cultist. "You can live since you talked, but don't consider this mercy. I would have killed you all for killing just one knight, but perhaps some of your wiser members will take the hint about what happens when you spit in the face of Zakuul and the Eternal Empire and they'll give up their ways." Kayden said, though he doubted his own words since he'd seen how blindly loyal their members were to each other.

Kayden turned back to the Knight-Captain and pointed back to the injured cultist. "See that he gets patched up enough that he doesn't die, then take him to a prison facility after taking a few holos of him and his dead companions. We'll use those to show the heralds the consequences of their actions." He ordered, with the Captain and the other knights moving quickly to obey his orders and, even though he didn't see it on his face, he sensed that the Captain approved of his actions.

Kayden never enjoyed ending the lives of others, but he still understood their deaths were a necessary part of making sure Zakuul would be safe and protected. 'By protecting my home, I protect my people and my siblings.'

Kayden liked to think he was everything his father wasn't. He would never sit on the Eternal Throne, something that he was extremely glad about, and he truly cared about his siblings, his people and Zakuul. His father might have been the Emperor, but Kayden knew full well that Valkorion couldn't care less about the people in his empire. All he wanted was for everyone to fear and serve him and he didn't care if they did it willingly, just that they did. 'We're all just things to him, possessions to be used as he sees fit. Possibly servants at best, but that actually feels like it would be too much since he'd have to actually accept that we're people for that to be true.'

So when Arcann had told him he was going to take the throne, Kayden had given his support immediately. Not just because he loved his brother far more than his father, but he also knew that if their father was allowed to remain the Emperor, then eventually something terrible would likely happen to Zakuul and its people.

'The sooner someone else is sitting on the Eternal Throne, the better off we'll all be.'

A.N.

That's Kayden's chapter for you. What do you think of the Immortal Emperor's youngest son? Please let me know in the reviews or with a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Have a great day everyone!