Chapter 38
Year 6 Month 06 Day 01
Karel has become a Jedi Master and joined the council and has taken charge of lightsaber instruction and combat. Almost one year has passed since the first meeting with Darth Soule, and the idea of a peace summit has become more alluring.
"That's enough for today. You all did well." Karel said to the padawans who were gathered for his lesson. Since he joined the council and was forced to step down as commander, he enjoyed more time protecting the home front. He even became a teacher at Beacon, helping Roni with the Jedi who came through the school.
Karel still didn't like how he was taken out of his position. One of his majors was found taking bribes, taking from the top, and committing a war crime when he bombed a civilian target. Karel wasn't aware of it until after it happened. On top of that, he suffered three massive losses back-to-back. His criminal major sold information to the galactic empire, and during the last battle fled to them. He had to call the Mandalorians in to save him from the massive counter assault. A third of his troops were lost. And with some of the council members disappearing the remaining ones became a lot more worried about how they could hold onto power. Ironwood and Roni were the only reasons he wasn't stripped of everything.
And in all that time he was trying to set up stage for the peace summit. Pixi had taken over his position and had brought Winter up to the second in command. Karel finally learned why she was going to Atlas so much, as the old winter maiden died recently, and she had inherited the powers.
"Master Allusis, I have a question?" One of the young padawans asked.
"Yes?"
"You told us about specialization recently. Why should we specialize in forms and not just learn them all?" He asked.
"Well, padawan Maron, you may very well learn all the forms of lightsaber combat. But for right now you aren't yet skilled enough to try to learn more than one at a time. None of you are. A lightsaber is a weapon, and like any other weapon, you need to train to learn to fight with them. One of my close friends uses her lightsaber as well as a scythe. She was trained under Jedi master Roni, who as you know uses two lightsabers of different lengths. The forms are there to give you a foundation. I myself only use one lightsaber at a time. There will be those of you here who will choose to make more than one lightsaber to fight with, but you need to know the basics."
The padawans seemed to understand that. Karel used the force to bring over a box and place it at the base of the small stage he was on. He opened the box and pulled out a copy of the Jedi path. The blue book had reentered distribution within the Jedi, and the grey jedi converts brought with them their additions to the book.
"Now, as you all leave today, take one of these. Study up on it and put your own notes in it. These are yours now." After all the padawans took their books and left, Rouge came in the room.
"Hey there master."
"Hello Rouge. Is there something I can do for you?" Karel asked.
"I just wanted to come by to say that I spoke with her again. They'd be willing to set it up in new Mistral." Even though he couldn't go to the meeting as much anymore, he could still send Rouge to be his voice. Darth Soule and Zia had been working hard to get the galactic empire to start thinking about peace.
"That's good. Thank you." He placed his hand on Rouge shoulder and smiled.
"Thanks." She smiled, reminding him of the little girl she was when she was made his padawan.
"Now you should get some rest. You've been up for three days straight." She forgot his could look in someone's past when he touched them. She wanted to hide how tired she was, but she couldn't. She would go back to her dorm. She was a student in Beacon, at least on the books. Some of the Jedi here were made into teams. She was a part of team SPHR, or sapphire. She wanted to be on a team with Dan, but they were separated during the entrance ceremony. But she was halfway done with Beacon now. The other members were the girls that Bora was training first, and the fourth girl was recommended by Pyrrha.
"Fine, I'm going." She said. Her dorm was his old room, which just amused her.
Karel worried that she was doing to much. She pushed herself so much. But he also saw the drive in him. She may end up switching professions from huntsmen. An officer? Karel finished putting his papers away and left the academy. He would have to get to the council soon. They were going to have another discussion. Dan Rosa had recently become a knight, and a new master of the order had arisen. Meg had taken the position of council member and decided to take the position of Jedi Historian.
He got a message on his scroll that the meeting was canceled. He was kind of disappointed, but he would be able to get back home. When he opened the door, he saw Jade Playing with Silver.
"Silver?" Karel asked when he walked in.
"Hi papa." Jade said. She used the force to hold a ball over Silver. He reached up, but he couldn't reach.
"Be nice Jade." He said. She giggled and brought the ball down. Jaune walked in the living room with Bora and Pyrrha.
"You're back soon." Karel closed the door behind him.
"They canceled the meeting. I got a bit more time to get my stuff planned out. Who knew that even talking about peace would be so complicated?" Karel sighed as he sat in his chair.
"The galactic empire should be the easier of the two don't you think? So why are they so difficult to talk to?" Jaune asked.
"Because their mission was to establish the empire." Adi said.
"But they have to understand the full consequences of this war continuing." Bora said.
They continued to discuss about the empire. But soon Jaune and Pyrrha had to leave. She had to go to her training. Karel sensed her power in the force. He was told some of the details, including that she somehow became force sensitive just like he got a semblance. He knew she would have a massive part in the war.
"Sorry Bora. I've been thinking of war this entire time." Karel said. "I just want it to end."
Emperor Sym finished the last meetings he had for the day. He had just established the first of his spy ring in the galactic empire. He hoped that would make it easier to get the talks open. While he was officially opposed to the rumors of a peace summit, he knew the situation they were in demanded a temporary peace. But he had one peace of good news. They had captured the spring maiden.
And better yet, she had the relic with her, and a two Jedi.
Sym entered the interrogation room. Raven, Yang, and Ruby were all cuffed together. It had been a few hours, but they seemed to not care. They all meditated the silence away.
"Normally, I would execute all of you on the spot, but I am feeling particularly peaceful. Now, tell me why the hell you were invading my home?"
After Oscar learned everything that was about to happen, he knew he was going to have to strike soon. The relic had to get to a safe place. Not even where it was now was safe. But to get it, they were going to have to get behind enemy lines, into the heart of the empire. It would be a simple in and out mission. They would be able to get to the capital easily with Raven's semblance. But they were going to have get there soon. Salem had the lance of creation, and she was getting close to finding the secret to unlocking it. He knew every attempt she made. It was getting closer every day she tried.
And she was about to find out the secret. If she did, then she would be able to take the lamp without anyone knowing. That was the last thing that anyone wanted.
Oscar gathered his most trusted ally, and the spring maiden, but when Yang found out about the journey, she joined in as well. He really didn't want her to come along with them, but he knew there was no convincing her.
"Alright Raven, are you ready?"
"Yes." She said as she put on her mask.
"Ruby, Yang?"
"We're ready. They left behind their weapons, except for their lightsabers. He brought his cane with him as Raven opened the portal. They entered at the dead of night in Mistral, but they still had to be careful. It was still the capitol of the empire. They teleported in a shadowy spot in the former lobby. They didn't touch the fountain, and left the color scheme the same, but all the material was changed. They put security stations all over. Oscar saw the statue of Jinn. Behind that was where they needed to get the first time.
Oscar held onto the fifty first siren sphere and took the magic in it to make them all invisible. They were able to walk passed many of the guards there. It wasn't that hard to get to the statue, but they were going to have to drop the spell for a moment, so that they could unlock the elevator. If they weren't careful, they would be spotted, and this mission would fail in an instant.
He let go of the invisablitiy spell so that Raven could concentrate. The statue slammed to the floor and the elevator showed itself. The squad ran in, the imperials in the grand hall all noticing them and rushing towards them. Ruby and Yang blasted them back with a force push as the elevator doors closed. Oscar sighed, relieved they were getting this close. What worried him was the fact that the statue fell the way it did. It should have been softer. He wondered if Lionheart had done anything before, he died.
The elevator to the vault could be disabled once they got to the bottom, and since they had Raven here, she would be able to teleport out of the vault. They just needed to keep the enemy away from them for a short time. Oscar knew they knew the plan as well. He opened the power socket and started to mess with the wires. Once the door opened, he ripped out a few wires and rushed forward with the others. The vault was right there. They just needed to open it now.
Oscar heard a noise come from the elevator. He turned around and sent out a massive ice barrier. Raven put her hand up and opened the vault door. It looked like a desert inside. The only thing inside was the floating relic. Yang went up and touched it. She grabbed it and turned to her family. Oscar looked back at her for a second when he felt a pain in his chest. He felt his body hit the ground and saw a puddle of blood cover the ground around him. He'd been shot, but his aura should have taken care of that. Then he remembered the punishment for using the siren spheres. While they give you magical powers, they take away your ability to use your aura and semblance. A fair trade, but on he hadn't needed to do in over a thousand years. He used it one more time to heal the wound, but it took most of his remaining energy. He couldn't move. He couldn't look up and see the Sith, Imperial hunters, and HK droids flooding the vault. The ice barrier broke more easily than Oscar thought possible. He felt a push from the force fling him on the door of the vault. He didn't know what was going on. In a minute he saw Yang get taken down by Sith using force lightning, and Ruby being choked. Raven rushed forward and brought out the purple lightsaber to save Ruby. She was out of the fight. It went wrong. They were too slow. Or maybe it was him. He should have seen it being this dangerous. He knew that the Sith gained so many new members. But he couldn't move. Raven fought hard to keep Ruby and Yang safe, but she could only last so long. She delved into the dark side and sent out a wave of dark energy. The Sith put up force shields but the hunters and HK droids were sent flying. The closest of them to her were burst open. The blood and gore mixed with the metallic parts of the droids. Then one of the Sith used the force to break her own force barrier, bringing her in the air and rag dolled her. But they kept her alive. He reached out, but the other price of the spheres came. It uses your own energy. He fainted.
When he woke up, he was in a morgue, naked and cold.
He sighed, as this some how wasn't the first time this had ever happened in all his lives. Or even in the last five. He kicked the door once. He would have alerted anyone nearby, but the first kick mostly just scares them He kicked again, and someone rushed over to the door. He acted like he was dead and waited.
When the door opened a female guard brought his body out. He waited till she sighed to punch at her. She backed up into a doctor. Oscar got up, not caring to catch the sheet. It was more important to get out of here than to be proper. Besides, his clothes were on the table.
Oscar grabbed his clothes and ran. He knew the guard would probably chase him, but he needed to get away now.
He snuck into a side room, and started getting dressed, getting his pants on before the female guard got in the room. She jumped on him, trying to hold him down as she took out a knife. Oscar grabbed her hand and held back the knife, but with her putting more pressure on his neck, he didn't have much time.
The doctor ran to the door, seeing the dead body that mysteriously come back to life dead once more, and his guard standing over the body. He sighed as he went to leave when his life was ended with a quick knife cut. He let out a gargle before falling to the ground, and the image of Oscar returning. The siren sphere stayed in his pocket. He quickly put on the rest of his clothes and went searching. The layout was similar, but he had to get to where they were keeping his squad, and their weapons. What's worse, he only had a knife.
"We we're just picking something up." Raven said.
"Yes, this relic. An enormously powerful weapon, and one I would rather not have in your hands. It was unfortunate that your friend died, but I'm sure he knew the risks of coming here." Sym said. He had no intention of killing them now, the talk about the peace summit was too fragile to mess it up with that. But he still needed information. Like how to use this thing.
"You killed Oscar?!" Ruby cried out. Yang felt a dark power starting to surround her.
"Ruby!" Yang yelled.
Sym stood there with his arms crossed. He felt the pain coming off her, and he knew she wanted to kill him. She was weak to the dark side, but so where the other two. Even more so the other two.
"You'd be a terrible Sith Ruby Rose. But your sister and her mother here… They'd fall so easy. They might survive the training. You don't have to be a Sith to see the dark side radiate off them." Sym said. Ruby glared at him.
"I'd never become a Sith!" Yang yelled.
"You're a fool to believe that. I could make you fall. You already struggle with it. I can see it. You've used the dark side before, haven't you?" He asked. He pulled out a shard of poison dust and placed it on the table.
"I know you were the Jedi captured all those years ago. You would have been tortured back then if we found you. One of your jedi friends decided they couldn't handle our ways of interrogation." He was waiting to see if he could see the eyes change.
"You bastard." Yang said.
"Your master Arin, he's abandoned you hasn't he. No one knows that you're here now. I could kill all of you with ease. But let's put that aside for now. How do I unlock this?" He held the lantern. He looked at Raven. She didn't say anything. He pulled out his lightsaber and held it to Yang's face.
"I'll ask you again. How do I unlock this?" He inched the lightsaber closer to Yang's face. Yang tried to shift, but he kept the lightsaber a centimeter away from her face.
"You need the password." Raven said.
"Which would be?" Sym asked.
"I don't know." Sym glared at her and lightly put the lightsaber on Yang's cheek. She screamed out in pain. Ruby reached her hands out, dragging the others. She stopped, knowing that it won't do anything.
"I don't know! Only Ozpin does!"
"Ozpin's been dead for years. I know that boy you had was connected to him somehow. But he's dead as well." He pulled the lightsaber back, and left the room, handing the Lantern to one of his royal guard. He was going to have to do more research. He needed to find a way to open it soon.
The royal guard went to put it in one of the vaults, but he got stopped along the way by Echo. The guard didn't say anything and tried to get passed Echo. He saw the lantern and knew it was what Salem wanted. He quietly grabbed a few of the needles. He coated them in poison and looked for the cameras. Two. He put the needles back and pulled out a device he got to stop cameras for a moment. He pressed the button, and the cameras were turned off. He spun around and tossed he needles. The Royal guard got hit by them, but all but one failed to get through his armor. He turned around and pulled out a rifle. Echo pulled out two daggers and rushed forward. He used his semblance, which boosted his abilities, making him stronger, faster, and making his reflexes near instant. The bullets rushed passed him as he used his semblance to dodge them.
He jumped on the wall and continued to run. The guard dropped the rifle and pulled out a vibroblade. Echo rushed forward and felt the blades hitting each other. He pushed off the blades and threw his daggers. The guard was able to block the first dagger but the second sliced his face. The blood ran down it, but he didn't seem to react to it. He pulled out a blaster pistol and fired at Echo. Echo turned a corner and put in a poison unit in his mask. He threw a smoke bomb at the floor and rushed forward. He took out a third dagger and jumped in the air. The blaster bolt rushed at him; his dagger took the brunt of the attack. He spun on the ground and pulled out more needles. He plunged them into the guard's stomach. He backed up, before having the blaster knocked out of his hand.
He brought his vibroblade up, trying to catch Echo unaware, but he was already gone. Echo was behind the guard as his mask let out the poison. The guard turned and felt the burning of the poison on his skin. He coughed, and felt his chest tighten. He felt a sharp pain in his stomach, it felt like it was on fire. He realized that he was poisoned.
He looked at Echo before falling to the ground. Echo bent down and picked up the lantern. He was going to need to get to Salem. He pressed a button on his wrist and put in a code. A dark portal opened, and Mercury walked out.
"What's so important Second?"
"I think our patron would like this." He held up the relic. He looked at the cameras, they would have started working at this point.
"They've seen you."
"That's the point. I want them to panic. We get more Grimm that way."
"Alright, come on. I'll take you to her directly." Mercury said. Echo walked in the portal, entering the hellish domain for the second time in his life, seeing the patron, looking annoyed.
"What is this second?" She asked. He held out the relic, and her attitude was much better.
Ruby went to Yang to see if she was hurt bad. The mark would scar, but it wouldn't do much more than that. She didn't have much training in the healing arts of the force. She could only make it hurt less. But it was better than nothing. While restricting the others, she healed Yang's face a little.
"Thanks Ruby." She said.
"Sorry it's all I can do." She said. They were stuck here thinking about what happened until he came back.
"Is it true that you can't unlock the relic?" Yang asked.
"Yes. Oscar knew the password, but he wouldn't tell me until after we returned. It looks like we won't know for a long time again."
"Oscar…" Ruby said.
A door opened and Oscar walked in holding three lightsabers.
"I found you!" He said. They all looked at him like he just rose from the dead. He went and gave them their weapons.
Ruby cut the chains and ran into Oscar's arms.
"They told us you were dead." She said while letting some tears out.
"I did wake up in a morgue about two hours ago. So, I guess I was…" He said laughing. Raven used her magic to summon her sword and form a portal back to Patch.
"We don't have much time left before they realize we escaped." Raven said.
"But the relic…" Ruby started.
"We failed. We need to get back home." Oscar said. She finally agreed to go.
Month 06 Day 04
After recovering Ruby and Yang were brought before the Jedi council.
"It seems that you've taken a lot from master Allusis here." Master Brock said. He was finally back in Vale after his long-term deployment in Vacuo. It was one of the first meeting where all the members of the council were available.
"Masters, we needed to keep the relic away from Salem." Ruby said.
"And yet it she still has it." Karel said. "I received the news last night. The emperor and Soule are desperate to start the peace summit."
"But that being said, it was still ill advised and a failure of a mission." Brock said.
"The mission may have been a failure, but now we can finally get the peace summit started. We have ears in Pare that says that the empire is willing to come to a summit." Grandmaster Ray said.
"Then what do we do about these two?" Gael asked.
"Perhaps they need what master Allusis here needed. Though they haven't been knights for that long, they were both exceptional padawans. I propose that they shall start training the next generation of Padawans. I propose they receive padawan learners." Roni said.
"Maybe we should wait on that. I suggest we hold off on that until after we defeat Salem. It will be too dangerous to send padawans to fight her." Karel said.
"I find no issues with that." Master Black said.
"Then we shall wait. But after Salem's threat is dealt with you shall take on padawan learners." Grandmaster Ray said. "That is unless you take on padawans before that time."
Ruby and Yang bowed and left the room.
"I shall return to Vacuo on the day of the attack. I suggest we send masters to defend the other kingdoms on that day." Master Brock said.
"We will need to see what we can do. But we should have enough to do that. We have a few more masters coming up soon. Knights Muto and Jin have both done enough to be considered masters, except for training apprentices. But the missions they've done for the order have more than made up for it." Grandmaster Ray said They've been on covert missions for much of the war. Not even Roni knew everything they've done. Only Grandmaster Ray knew all that they've done. If she were saying that it was almost guaranteed that they would soon become masters. Karel wondered if they were going to have to make it harder to become a master soon.
Karel got back home for his and Jade's birthday. Three years have passed since she was born and the empire invaded. But because they did, Karel met all of his siblings and his mother. Though he did feel guilty at times. So many lost people, and he found so many. Many of his troops started to resent that in the last year he commanded them. Something in them changed. All those people he had known at the start of this war were gone. Roy, Koa, Onyx, and all the other majors he lost. Not to mention that squad seven lost half of their team in the last battle. He would never be able to forgive himself for that. He didn't find that traitor. His generation had lost so many people as well. endless waves of young men and women fed into the meat grinder that was the war. Millions had died, and yet he still had so many people here, here for him. This war was too unfair. He gained while so many lost. And now he's no longer fighting. What right does he have to be safe while his former comrades were out there dying.
Commander Pixi had to leave first, but Erik and her shared a moment outside. Karel wondered if he should talk to people. He had a dark cloud over him even though he had so much. He had to be strong for Jade, so he pushed his emotions down.
He was happy for Erik. Pixi was a good friend, and was perfect for Erik.
After everyone giving Jade her gifts, Bora sat next to Karel. Jaune and the others were there, including Yang and Ruby.
"Something on your mind?" Bora asked.
"We got some good and bad news today." He said.
"Like?" She asked, holding his arm.
"We're going to have a peace summit. But the only reason is because Salem got another Relic. The others went to one of the other rooms which had until recently been filled with military reports. Now it was a movie theatre room. Bora showed no reaction, but she understood fully what that meant.
"That's… wow." She said. She went to the fridge and picked out two beers.
"So does that mean the war's close to ending?" Bora asked.
"Salem made it happen. With her gone, we'll have no reason to fight the war. But that all depends on the summit."
The Grand Inquisitor meditated. She knew she was unable to fight this dark lady by herself. Only the Emperor would be strong enough to take her down. Even with all she didn't know about this planet, she knew she was in danger. Her people would need to separate ties from the old empire if they were to continue. The people here were far stronger than anyone thought possible.
She wondered if she would soon have to betray the emperor. It wasn't something she considered lightly. If he ever found out he would send more inquisitors to kill her. He tried to hide them, but he failed. She had learned that she the grand inquisitor of only one of the many inquisitorius. But she had numbers on her side. After that idiot got himself killed, she thought her empire would slowly collapse, but the force sensitive natives were more than enough to fill her ranks. Now she had to establish an academy. She had to establish her own Sith council. She had only read about them at the Jedi temple, but she knew better than almost any being alive today the strength of the Sith.
But she was no fool. Her spies had found out about a peace summit rumor running wild. She even learned that she was going to be asked to join. The dark Lady was that much of a threat that the Sith and Jedi were going to join forces to defeat her. And she knew that once the offer was made, she was going to have to join it as well. The badlands were too dangerous for her to take control of. Too many of the Grimm. But she learned that was most likely where the dark lady was.
She was going to join in the destruction of the Dark Lady.
Author's notes: So, this is the last chapter before the Peace summit. Next chapter will start the peace summit, then the last arc of the entire story will begin. It's crazy to think we're finally getting to the end. I'm trying hard to get this story done soon so that I can go back to writing.
It does take time for me to find the motivation to keep on doing this. I sometimes just want to give up. Say screw it. I don't even know if anyone here even reads what I have to say. I just need to finish this story. I just want it to be out there, the Jedi Hunter series complete. That's what I want.
But I also would love to know I'm not just throwing this to no one. I want to know if I am seen. I want just want to write a good story for you guys. I want to hear from you guys. I just want one review for this story. I've nearly written two books worth of stuff here, but I still don't know if anyone even cares about this. I don't know If I'll continue to do anything on this website after I finish this story. Maybe. I don't know. I've been creating this story for years, but has anyone liked it?
Sorry for ranting.
Please tell me if you like this.
May the Force be With You
-DragonZlayerX12
