Author's Notes: The following story represents Chapter Two of my In the Shadow of the Hero trilogy, featuring Tyzen Pyne. Chapter One was titled "Training Day". It takes place during the "Assault on Tython" story flashpoint as part of my Halcyon Legacy story, so expect minor canon divergences.
Tyzen Pyne coughed as the taste of smoke and dust filled his mouth. Consciousness – along with pain – were rapidly returning to him.
His awareness had improved considerably through training in the past year, and the fifteen-year-old Jedi Padawan understood instinctively that he had been knocked cold for only a handful of seconds, groggy though he was.
When he felt a knee pressed into his back and strong arms grab him from behind, yanking his wrists into a pair of stun cuffs, he immediately realized that even that even those few seconds had been too long.
As Tyzen was pulled to his knees, he couldn't help but flinch at the devastation surrounding him within the Jedi temple. It was barely recognizable. This side hall – once the temple's center of learning for the Order's younger padawans and younglings – had been gutted. Statues commemorating ancient and revered Jedi Masters had been shattered into shards of rubble and powder. Computer terminals had likewise been smashed, with the occasional spark still fizzling into broken circuits. The central holo-display – from where students could study and planet in the galaxy – had gone dark, its control console riddled with blaster fire.
To be sure, there were many fallen Imperial soldiers, but there seemed to have been far more Jedi dead this day who had given their lives in a futile last stand.
The surprise attack had been too complete.
Just a few feet away from him lay Denielle.
The Zeltron Padawan lay sprawled on her back on the floor of the temple, her eyes closed shut and her mouth hanging open in a pained expression. Her Padawan tunic was stained with blood and torn from the same explosion that had knocked Tyzen out briefly. It had clearly inflicted far greater injuries to her. There was no wonder at that; she had jumped in front of him to take the concussive grenade blast that had been intended for Tyzen.
Tyzen felt a cold sweat on his brow as he realized with a panic that she wasn't moving.
On reflex, he reached out to her through the Force, muted though it was from his restraints.
A day ago, the two young Padawans, sparring into the early evening up at the Gnarls, had exchanged their first kiss.
Tyzen knew perfectly well what could happen if they went down that path any further. They risked expulsion from the Order.
But the moment had been too perfect. And the taste of her spirit – and her lips, as they met his – had been too sweet.
They'd agreed to talk about it later.
Now, that later might never come. He could feel her lifeforce fading. If she didn't receive medical attention within a few minutes, she would die.
Tyzen attempted to struggle against the Force restraints he'd been shackled with, desperate to reach her. But it was useless. Bound, wounded, and exhausted as he was from the fight, he could barely sense the Force, much less call upon it to aid in his escape. These Imperial commandos had clearly been well-trained to deal with Jedi.
Most of the dozen or so captured padawans now kneeling around the chamber had barely begun their formal combat training, armed only with training sabers. Nevertheless, when the Imperial breakthrough had come and the main Jedi defense had been bypassed, he and Denielle – by far the best-trained fighters in the room – had led them against the attacking Imperials as well as they could.
They had all fought so hard.
It had not been enough.
At the decisive moment of the battle, Tyzen had felt the death of his Master, Liam Dentiri.
Master Dentiri oversaw the temple training grounds since it had been founded and was one of the best instructors in lightsaber technique and combat tactics in the Order. His training droids were considered the most well-designed in the galaxy; the next-best thing to a live opponent. For the last three years, he'd been Tyzen's master.
Dentiri had ordered Tyzen to help Master Bela Kiwiiks in evacuating the younglings and the padawans who were too inexperienced to fight while Dentiri and his droids guarded the main entrance to the temple.
When Tyzen had felt Dentiri die, the distraction had nearly been fatal.
Denielle's sacrifice had been all that had saved him, and soon it would all have been in vain.
Tyzen tried to console himself in the knowledge that his overall mission from Bela Kiwiiks had been largely successful. The younglings, all save one – Greeda, a six-year-old Rodian girl who had missed the previous extraction as she ran back to her chambers to recover a holodisk – had been evacuated to safety through the temple's underground escape tunnel, which was now collapsed behind him. Jedi Knight Praven – a Sith Pureblood, the first of his species to serve in the order in millennia – was guarding over them as they fled, taking them to the safety of Master Kiwiiks' sanctuary in the hills.
If the Force had granted Tyzen and Denielle just a few minutes more, they would have evacuated the remaining Padawans, as well.
Now, Denielle lay dying, and Tyzen and the rest of their group had all been taken prisoner. They would most likely be killed, or worse, taken to Korriban and tormented until they surrendered to the dark side and became Sith. There was little respite to be had.
Greeda, the only member of the Order who hadn't been restrained, snuggled up to his chest.
"Tyzen, I'm scared." She whimpered.
The Zabrak Padawan felt his heart break. He tried comforting her as much as he could, given that he was on his knees with his hands secured behind his back, turning his body until her head was cradled in the crook of his neck.
"It'll be alright, Greeda." he whispered. The lie came easily enough, though it still left a bitter taste in his mouth.
Why can't I do more?
One of the armored Imperials – wearing an officer's insignia on his shoulder plate – now stepped forward, satisfying himself that the room was secure. The Imperial activated the communicator on his wrist.
"Pardon the interruption, my Lord." Tyzen could only assume this commando's superior was a Sith, which was unsurprising given the scope and target of this operation. There hadn't been a move on Tython since the Desolator incident. "I thought you'd want to know; the Jedi Temple is now fully under our control." The Imperial officer made no attempt not to sound smug. "We have a number of Jedi Padawans in our custody. Must be recent additions; most of them didn't know the first thing about fighting."
As the commando spoke, he looked down at Denielle's fallen form with a look of contempt. It was all Tyzen could do not to scream at the man to leave her be.
That won't help here. He reminded himself.
"What would you have us do with them?" the Imperial officer continued.
"We should send a clear message." The voice on the other end of the commlink was feminine, unsurprisingly Imperial and – perhaps even less surprisingly – cruel. "Litter the Temple courtyard with their bodies."
Tyzen was infuriated but unsurprised at the command. He'd been told for most of his life that the Sith and their Imperial servants were often sadistic. He'd been prepared to die; he just wished he could do something to save Greeda.
And Denielle. He lamented. Only now did he realize how much she meant to him.
The officer grinned, relishing the order.
"Straight away, my lord."
Just before the man deactivated the commlink, Tyzen heard a second voice at the other end of the line, this one also feminine but not at all Imperial.
"No, my lord!" the panicked voice pleaded. She sounded young, perhaps not too much older than Tyzen. "I beg you, show mer-"
The officer pressed the stub on the device to close the open channel, scowling at the interruption.
He had his orders.
As Tyzen attempted tried to prepare himself to meet his end, he felt little fear for himself. He'd been educated since he was a small child on the realities of becoming a Jedi.
Instead, he felt regret threatening to overwhelm him.
His training to become a Jedi Knight had been incomplete.
Now it would never be finished.
Seeming to sense what was about to happen, Greeda burrowed her head into Tyzen's side, trembling.
She's frightened. He realized.
In this, the final moment of his life, Tyzen realized that disappointed and despondent though he was, he still had one duty left as a member of the Jedi Order: to protect this youngling as best he could.
If not her life, then at least her spirit.
"Greeda." He whispered. "Recite the Code for me, would you?"
Tyzen knew that most people outside the order regarded the Jedi Code as merely series of empty platitudes. Most of which – taken literally by those who lacked Jedi understanding – defied all logic. But to those who believed in it, it was something else entirely. It could bring them serenity, and even a sense of strength.
The Rodian child wiped the tears from her large blue eyes as she looked up at him.
"There is no emotion, there is peace." Greeda recited, swallowing. "There is no ignorance, there is knowledge…"
As she spoke, Tyzen could feel the youngling start to calm.
She would never grow up to be a Jedi Knight, but perhaps she could meet her end with a sense of peace.
"Line up, men."
The Imperial commandoes – male and female, Tyzen noted in the corner of his mind that was till registering details – moved back from the captured Padawans, taking positions behind Tyzen.
"Ready!" The officer's voice bellowed.
"There is no chaos, there is harmony." Greeda whispered, having reached the fourth line.
"Aim!"
Tyzen joined Greeda as they whispered the final line of the code together.
"There is no death, there is the Force."
As a sense of serenity filled the youngling, Tyzen felt it spreading to him, as well. The young Zabrak closed his eyes.
He knew he was incomplete.
But perhaps it had been enough.
"Fi-"
The booming explosion from high above them seemed to rock the whole Temple to its foundation, startling everyone as the Imperials shouted in alarm. Smoke, dust and ashes were everywhere, blurring Tyzen's vision even as he opened his eyes, trying to see. For a second, Tyzen wondered if the Sith had chosen to bombard the Temple to dust from orbit, never mind the fact there were still Imperials inside. From the stories he'd been taught, it seemed entirely plausible that the Sith might do something so bloodthirsty and wasteful.
But the second crashing sound that registered from behind him was much closer. Something had fallen through the ceiling and landed hard on the floor of the chamber this time without exploding.
Time stood still for everyone, as Tyzen turned his head as best he could from his kneeling position, looking over his shoulder. The Imperials likewise seemed stunned.
The first thing Tyzen saw was a dark, robed figure arising from the cloud of smoke and dust.
The second thing he saw was the twin cerulean blue lightsabers ignite.
The Imperial commander found his voice, his previously confident and domineering tone now descending into hysterics.
"Fire! Fire! Fire!" his panicked shrieks filled the chamber.
Dozens of blaster bolts suddenly filled the room, all of them directed at the Jedi who had emerged from the cloud of smoke.
And every single one of them found itself harmlessly deflected by the twin lightsabers.
As recognition registered in his mind, Tyzen exhaled in relief. No matter what else happened here – no matter how this ended – he now truly believed that he and the other Padawans were now safe.
He didn't know how. He didn't even know why.
All Tyzen knew in this moment was that in the Order's darkest hour - and against all plausibility - the Hero of Tython was here.
And that reality made all the difference in the Galaxy.
Seconds later, two more individuals – one large and one small – dropped through the hole Master Corellan had left in the ceiling, falling to the floor as they ignited their own weapons. The smaller one he recognized immediately as Jedi Knight Kira Carsen, brandishing her green double-bladed lightsaber. The larger one was a massive, pureblood Sith in black armor who Tyzen would have taken for an enemy in any other context. He'd never met him, but this could only be Lord Scourge, the Sith Lord who had pledged himself to Corellan's cause years before.
United, the trio went on the offensive.
Tyzen had closely studied every story, every report, every scrap of detail he could get his hands on about Corellan Halcyon's exploits for years. He imagined nearly all the Padawans of his generation had taken an interest, but Tyzen had done so with fervor. Master Dentiri had told him the tale once that Corellan had torn through the droids of Dentiri's Combat Leadership Training Course before he had even ever been Knighted, one of only two Padawans to have ever accomplished that feat. Since that time, of course, Corellan Halcyon had become the greatest champion the order had seen in three hundred years, and perhaps longer.
But as he looked at the expression on Corellan Halcyon's face as he tore through the company of Imperials, Tyzen Pyne finally realized that he had only ever seen the wise and caring Hero. A man of compassion and kindness.
He had never met the man who had fallen to the dark side, only to return to the light. He had never met the man who had rallied the Jedi forces to victory on Corellia. He had never met the man who had faced the Emperor of the Sith not once, but twice, ending that threat to the galaxy for good. He had never seen the man of will.
He had now.
There was no anger behind the Hero's actions. None at all. Tyzen could feel a sense of outrage from Kira at seeing the home of the Jedi devastated. But from Corellan, there was simply the resolve that what had happened this day would not go unanswered.
The fight – if one could even call it that – was over in less than a minute.
At some point, Greeda, still clutching to Tyzen's chest and unable to with ness the carnage, had fainted.
The Imperials didn't have time to run, and they seemed too shocked at having victory turned into defeat to consider surrendering. By the time it was over, only three of the commandoes in the chamber seemed to have survived, each of those rendered safely unconscious.
A Chagrian soldier in Republic military body armor and a human dressed less formally but clearly accustomed to field work had joined them, rappeling down from the hole in the ceiling on zip lines. Tyzen recalled that the soldier was named Sergeant Rusk while the other man was Doctor Archiban Froderick Kimble… but who was simply called 'Doc', to most. Both had been part of Corellan's crew for years.
Rusk and Scourge took up positions guarding the entrance to the chamber from further attack while Doc began tending to the wounded. Corellan and Kira started to free the Padawans. There were no discussions or orders; they all seemed to take up their roles as naturally as someone would breathe.
Tyzen finally found his voice.
"Master Corellan!" he called out.
Corellan Halcyon looked up and blinked once in recognition, his expression instantly softening.
"Is that you, Tyzen?"
He hadn't expected the famous Hero of Tython to have remembered him. It had nearly been a year since the training expedition to the falls, and that had only been for a couple of days. But he had.
With three broad strides, the Jedi Master reached the bound Padawan, stepping behind him.
"Here, don't move."
Corellan released Tyzen with a skillful slash of his lightsaber, the cuffs falling to the floor. Freed, the Zabrak rubbed his wrists, relieved to be free. Then he gingerly picked up Greeda, checking her vitals.
Noting the youngling in his charge, Corellan reached a hand and gently touched the Rodian child's forehead.
"She'll be alright." He assured Tyzen, with a smile. "You did well to protect this one."
Tyzen gave the Jedi champion a weak smile in return, feeling a mixture of gratitude and admiration.
But deep down, he also felt a small trace of fear. Not fear for himself, but for Master Corellan and the path he was on.
"Thank you." Tyzen mumbled, awkwardly.
Corellan nodded, then surveyed the room reassessing the situation and quickly coming to a decision.
"Tyzen, can you see her and the other Padawans to safety? Sergeant Rusk and Doc will cover you."
Tyzen started to answer, eager to comply, but he stopped himself as he looked towards Denielle. Kira was standing over the unconscious Zeltron Padawan, while Doctor Kimble was treating her with emergency bandages and bacta patches.
"She'll be alright." Kira called out.
Tyzen believed her. Even from here he could feel her breathing had stabilized. For the second time that day, he exhaled in relief.
A Force Bond. Realization struck him and Tyzen struggled to keep his emotions under control. When had that happened?
Even reassured, to leave her behind in a warzone felt so wrong.
His concern must have been obvious, as Corellan reached out and placed a hand on the young Zabrak's shoulder.
"No further harm will come to her, Tyzen." Corellan vowed, his cold blue eyes growing hard. "I promise you that no further harm will come to any Jedi today."
His voice and touch were compassionate; this was the man who had mentored Tyzen, Denielle and other Padawans months earlier.
But the hard look in his eyes … that was someone else. Someone who had decided to remake this situation no matter the cost.
Tyzen swallowed, nodding to give himself confidence.
"Of course, Master."
"Good man." Corellan smiled. He then turned to Rusk. "Sergeant? Can you cover them?"
Rusk stood at attention and saluted.
"No Imperial will pass this line, Master Jedi." The Chagrian declared. The veteran soldier may not have been a Jedi, but Tyzen was surprised at the surge in confidence he felt at Rusk's words.
"I don't doubt it." Corellan nodded sharply. He pressed a stub on his own wrist communicator.
"Teeseven, land the ship wherever you can find cover, then coordinate the rescue and recovery efforts with Theron. These people will need medical assistance and support when reinforcements arrive."
The Astromech droid beeped his assent through the commlink.
Satisfied, Corellan turned to Kira and Scourge.
"We're finishing this."
Three simple words. But they bore an impressive weight to Tyzen.
Kira, who had once been Corellan's Padawan before her Knighthood, looked up at the Jedi Master with a look concern in her deep blue eyes. Scourge, for his own part, had said nothing, but Tyzen noticed that the Sith Lord was watching Corellan with a cold intensity that chilled the young Zabrak.
The two Jedi and their Sith companion drew their lightsabers and stepped out of the chamber and into the temple proper.
Tyzen, meanwhile, had gathered Greeda in his arms as the other Padawans assembled around him. Among them, he alone still knew the way to the hidden sanctuary in the hills.
So it was that he parted ways from the Hero of Tython.
Later, Tyzen had heard that Master Corellan, along with Kira and Lord Scourge, had confronted the Dark Councilor who had commanded the assault on the temple in the Jedi Council chamber along with her companions. The three-on-three battle – held in the ruins of the council chambers – had been incredible according to rumors but had resulted in the death of the enemy Sith Lord and a decisive victory for the Jedi, crushing the spirit of the remaining Imperial forces on Tython.
Much later, he'd heard rumors later that Master Corellan's ship had been a full hour ahead of the main Republic relief force. That he'd pushed his ship all the way from Korriban where he'd led an incursion on the Sith Academy there to Tython at speeds that were considered completely unsafe and challenged the laws of Astrophysics. That a Force vision had told him about the attack long before actual word of it had come through the Republic command. That he and his crew had come out of hyperspace in the Tython system on a hard (and dangerous) burn towards the planet, running the Imperial blockade with no support whatsoever. That he was only able to drop in on the temple at the moment he did by jumping out the exit ramp of his freighter at high speed, a maneuver considered suicidal to anyone else. It was even whispered by some that his timing in saving Tyzen, Greeda and the room full of Padawans was too perfect to have been anything besides the will of the Force.
Later still, he'd heard that the only Imperials to escape the temple that day had been the handful who had raided the Jedi archives. What they'd taken, he had no idea, though the rumors were rampant. Most of the other attackers had simply surrendered.
Tyzen never had the chance to personally ask Master Corellan about these rumors. None of them mattered to him much.
A day before the attack, Tyzen had wanted nothing more in the Galaxy than to be exactly like Corellan Halcyon.
Now? He wasn't so sure he wanted that responsibility. The forces guiding the Hero of Tython – indeed, the Force guiding the Hero of Tython – was perilous and had already led him to the darkest places in the Galaxy.
Corellan's experiences had left him powerful, but Master Dentiri had always taught Tyzen that power was a double-edged sword.
Tyzen wondered if his own experiences this day had brought him one step closer to becoming a Jedi.
He decided that until he had the answer to that question, he would simply focus on completing himself.
Author's Notes: At one point, I was going to kill Denielle.
I feel guilty just for saying that or even thinking about it, much less confessing to it. I grew up on comic books and other media where the killing of a female character to precipitate growth in the male protagonist was often so casual it was usually taken as a given. Some toy lines didn't even bother releasing an action figure for the "token female character". Never underestimate the insidious nature of the patriarchy.
I'm trying to be better than the media that helped form me.
This piece has been in my WIP journal for a long time. I'm glad to finally be getting to it.
I know the whole "cold rage" concept is a terrible trope. But Corellan already checks so many boxes on the 'Mary Sue' list, I figured what's one more? You (and Tyzen) are getting a glimpse of how he acts when he is pushed that that brink.
I like to think that, while Scourge doesn't normally approve of the killing of Imperials, he had himself something of an "evil-gasm" watching Corellan work here. He wants Corellan to turn to the dark side. Quite frankly, he wants him to seize Vitiate's throne. But befitting the character, he's both more and less direct about it.
I tried to pack this one with cute little Easter eggs. (And not just because Easter is around the corner as I'm writing this.)
The execution – or attempted execution – of the Padawans.
I've spoken about Liam Dentiri before.
post/626184500525842432/master-liam-dentiri-and-commanding-republic-troops
He had a brief but memorable appearance on Tython and later shows up during the Assault on Tython Flashpoint. (Alas, that would be his final appearance.)
Praven gets name-dropped. I loved the idea of him protecting a group of children. I hope we see him again in the actual game.
Greeda's name is obviously a reference to the "first of the Rodians", Greedo. I liked her inclusion but I struggled to keep her part of the narrative. There's the lesson – never add a kid, no matter how cute she may be.
Soldiers in the game seem to use "men" as a gender-neutral expression.
More about the three-on-three fight in the Jedi Council chambers another time. It has definitely had a long-ranging impact on my overall story.
Bonus points to anyone who can figure out who called for mercy for the Padawans. ?
We will see Tyzen again someday, in part three of this series. What he'll have learned by then, and the choices he'll make, I hope will be satisfying to see.
