Bloodlines
A Dark Brotherhood FanFiction by Obelisk Prelate Jason Hunter
(Note: I do not claim ownership to starwars related items. All names and things in likeness to anything is purely coincidental. This is a hobby that I enjoy doing.)
Chapter One
Images flashed through his mind. Old memories flooded back, threatening to destroy the peaceful state of his meditation. They were of hardships endured, painful recollections of death and agony, and the loss of allies that he had just begun to know.
It had been a mission that promised to be simple, but had, as most plans do, gone awry. The team that he became a member of had been sent out into the tundra to investigate an odd distress signal that the House's sensors had detected. It began simply enough, being dropped of at the foot of the snow-bound mountains, leaving them to trudge the rest of the way through the beginnings of a blizzard that was settling over Castle Byfrost. Soon, though, they had found the structure they were looking for, and found the origins and cause of the signal. However, they had also uncovered a ploy by the Jedi to destroy them, and had to do battle with countless Clone War-era battle droids, several Jedi, and even a chance encounter with the Skywalkers.
Adam Anderson, an Archpriest of the Krath Order, had a deep hatred for Luke and Mara Skywalker. He hated Luke for his actions that led to the downfall of the Galactic Empire, and loathed Mara for turning her back on the Emperor, a man that she had vowed to protect. Reason had failed to sway Adam from his vengeance, and he had been struck down by Mara Jade in the lone battle he had waged against the duo. The resulting Force wave had been felt throughout the group, and even back at Byfrost.
Jason Hunter, the man thinking these thoughts, opened his eyes. Adam's death had affected him greatly, he reflected. He took a deep breath to clear the last vestiges of his meditative nightmare from his head, and rose to his feet. Looking across his tiny and Spartan room, he eyed the datacard that rested on his small desk. It had been a gift from Luke Skywalker, on that fated mission. He still didn't know what the disk contained, but it must be important, for it came with the warning to not allow others to view its contents.
What kind of information, no matter how important, would Luke Skywalker share with me? He thought. Jason had spent a small amount of time training at Skywalker's Jedi Academy, but he had withdrawn under unfavorable circumstances. I'd have thought, given that bit of information, that he wouldn't have done something like that. Just goes to show that you can't trust everything you hear.
Taking a seat in the chair that sat before the desk, Jason reached out and took hold of the disk. Peering at it for a few moments, he sighed heavily and inserted it into the slot on the side of his computer terminal. Almost immediately, a window popped open, presenting him with the contents of the disk. On it was a single file, unnamed, and fairly large. Looking at the file extension, he recognized the file type as being a holographic video. Clicking on it, he waited a moment as the outdated holoprojecter whirred to life.
Springing into existence was a miniaturized image of Luke Skywalker, swathed in the black robes that he was so fond of wearing. Although relatively young, there was no doubt in Jason's mind that, given the hard lines and weathered quality of his skin, Luke had been through many trials in his time as a Jedi.
"Greetings, Jason Hunter," the Tattooinian said, a slight smile gracing his lips. "I know that the mere existence of this disk, let alone the fact that I presented it to you, must come as a shock."
"You can say that again," Jason mumbled, leaning back and crossing his arms.
"However," the hologram continued, undeterred by Jason's unheard comment. "The information I am sharing with you will come to be an even greater one. You might want to be sitting down, and I'd recommend calming yourself.
"Even here on Yavin, word of the exploits of Corellian Jedi, no matter what their alignment, reaches my ears. So, I did some digging through old Republic, Empire, and Jedi records, to find any mention of your family name, and to see where in Jedi lineage you lie. It started as a mild curiosity, not attempting to invade your privacy, trust me. But, the deeper I went the more interesting information I found.
"I recall, when you trained here, that you had mentioned a childhood grudge against one of my other students, Corran Horn. Well, through my file slicing, it appears that you two have a lot more in common that just merely being Corellian. It seems that, somewhere further back along your blood lines, your family trees used to connect."
This set Jason aback. He paused the hologram, at just the right moment to leave Skywalker with an unintelligent expression on his face. "Holy Sithspit," he muttered. "Horn and I are related? Great..."
"'How can this be?' is what you're asking yourself, I'm sure," the Jedi continued after Jason un-paused him. "This hologram file is also programed to download all my findings to your terminal upon you viewing it. At the end of this video, you will find those files in a special folder on your desktop, for you to look over at your leisure.
"Let me offer you a bit of experienced advice: don't react too quickly to discovering your previously hidden and secret bloodlines. When I learned that my father was Darth Vader, I flung myself down an exhaust shaft on Bespin. So, for your sake and that of others, sit back, calm yourself, and center yourself in the Force; it will confirm for you, whether I'm right or not.
"Farewell, Jason Hunter. May the Force be with you."
Jason had to sit back again as Luke Skywalker's hologram fizzled out, and a red light began to blink on the terminal, to indicate that files were being downloaded. He let his head to roll back and stared up at the ceiling, suddenly lost in thought. Intellectually, he surmised that he shouldn't trust the Jedi Master, because the teachings of the Brotherhood say that the Light Side is evil and the Jedi are not to be believed, for they are deceitful. Not to mention that he hardly knew the man from Tattooine that saved the galaxy from the Empire.
But, deep inside, he knew what Luke said to be the truth. As shocking as it was, as unexpected a turn this may have brought to his life...it was true. That calm center that Luke had taught him to find wouldn't lie to him.
An impatient tone sounded, rousing Jason from his musings. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he turned his attention back to the terminal, which had finished its' download about fifteen minutes before.
So lost in my thoughts, I didn't even notice, he thought, tapping on the touchscreen to open one of the files. It was a pictogram of the known Halcyon family, with Corran Horn at the bottom of the right side, and connecting itself through Hal Horn, his father, to Nejaa Halcyon, his biological grandfather, and up through a handful more generations. There was a notation to the side of the Halcyon family tree, which read:
'This was all I could find of the Halcyon family, in the records at the
Jedi Museum on Coruscant. The names to the left, which branch off
sharply, were compiled with this list from data obtained
from Rostek Horn, Corran's adoptive grandfather.'
True to Luke's word, there was a smaller branch, that separated itself from the rest of the tree up around the name of Keiran Halcyon, which Jason knew to be the name of one of Horn's Jedi ancestors. Instead of a name being affixed to this branch, it simply read 'Brother,' as if Luke couldn't find the name of this forgotten Jedi. From there, it came down and connected with names that he did know: Jason's grandfather, who served the Corellian military well before the Clone Wars; then his Father, Vag, who was shot to death in the warehouse in which he worked. There had been a shoot-out between a garrison of Stormtroopers and Rebel agents, towards the end of the Galactic Civil War, and Jason's father got caught in the crossfire. At first, he had thought the Rebels were at fault, but, while serving as an officer/pilot for the Imperial Navy, he came to learn that neither side knew of the hapless civilian stuck in the middle.
Finally, the end of that branch came to his own name. He wasn't entirely sure he should trust the data that was laid out before him, and stick to what he knew of his family history...which wasn't, admittedly, much.
Luke's a Jedi, he thought to himself, removing the datacard from the reader and turning it over in his hand for a few moments. When I trained with him for that short week, he gave me no indication of being untrustworthy.
Looking up at the chronometer over his head, Jason let out a deep, resigned sigh. He then stood and crossed over to his small closet and, removing a duffel, stuffed a couple pairs of fight-worthy clothes inside. With his packing complete, he slid his legs into a pair of durable, denim-blue pants. He then pulled a tight-fitting, dark purple t-shirt on over his head, completing his ensemble with his usual pair of black boots.
Clipping his lightsaber to his belt and snapping his handgun into its harness-style holster, he turned off the lights and left his quarters.
(please read Chapter Two!)