"You can't run from your destiny; you can't run from who you are." an unrecognizable voice whispers. "You can't run from your destiny; you can't run from who you are. Wake up boy." The whisper is getting louder. "You can't run from your destiny; you can't run from who you are! YOU NEED TO WAKE UP BOY!" Young Loulgo awakes in a pool of sweat with his heart beating out of his chest. He quickly jumps out of bed and steps on one of his new action figures his mother gave him last week for his eighth birthday. "Ahh!" Loulgo shouts in pain and quickly covers his mouth while examining his foot.
It's the middle of the night and he's hoping he didn't wake his mother. "I'm sick of this! This has been happening every night now." Young Loulgo whispers to himself in frustration.
A loud single knock on the window startles Lou. His heart starts pounding again. Lou began to tip toe towards the window. The closer he got, the faster his heart raced. Loulgo reaches for the curtain slowly. His little hand is trembling in fear. Finally, with enough courage, Loulgo rips back the curtain and sees……nothing. Nothing but the pale moon light shining against his window. Loulgo sighs in relief and returns to his newly gifted action figure on the floor. He figured since he's up, he might as well spend some time with the coolest gift in the galaxy. Little did Young Loulgo know his whole life was about to change in a matter of minutes. Loulgo feels something, something he's never felt. He doesn't understand what it is. Loulgo is frozen with fear.
"MOTHER!" he shouts then runs to open his door.
It's stuck, he's pushing with all might and it's not budging. The sound of a lightsaber powering echoes as a bright red light shines from under the door.
It's silent for felt like forever to Loulgo. He can hear his mother's soft voice
"Why? Why are you doing this?".
Then a long pause as he hears his mother start to struggle. A deep voice says "for the boy" and then Lou hears a loud thud on the floor. Tears filling in young Loulgo eyes and fear in his heart, he has to run. Lou turns to his window and trying to open it. It's stuck! He pushes it with all his power. Finally after putting all his strength into it the window busts open.
Loulgo jumps out and lands on the ground below. He takes off into the open field leading to the woods. As he's running he looks back to the house and sees a silhouette standing in his window, holding a lightsaber.
"BOY!" the deep voice shouts with anger.
Lou kept running, and running even when he reached the woods he ran more. Until his lungs were burning and his legs were weak.
When He finally thought he got far enough away he hide behind a tree. Trying to catch his breath and think about what he should do next. He's so confused, he doesn't know what to do, what happened. He's lost in the woods. Should I go back? he keeps thinking to himself. There's so much going on in his mind. Then suddenly everything goes silent. The wind stopped blowing through the trees. The light from the moon started to fade away.
That feeling he felt before when he tried opening the door is now surrounding him. Loulgo is terrified, shaking with fear trying to hide under the tree. Then Loulgo gets ripped out from under the tree. He can't see what's grabbing him. He reaches out in front of him and feels nothing. Then he's suddenly pulled out of the woods. He tries to scream but there's so much pressure on his neck, he canbarely breathe. Everything goes black and Loulgo hears that dreadful voice again.
"Now you're mine" the voice says before he loses consciousness.
The man with the dreadful voice drags young Loulgo from the woods back to his ship and takes off across the galaxy to a small plant. An unknown planet that's dark, cold and musty. It's harsh and unforgiving to any life that can survive. Darth Dreugaz spent many years constructing a hideout on this almost lifeless planet. Once the ship lands on the surface Darth Dreugaz is greeted by his loyal servants who drag Loulgo out from the ship to the cages.
Loulgo is woken by Darth Dreugaz
"wake scum" he says.
Lou is still somewhat dizzy and his mind foggy.
"Where am I?" he asks as his voice cracks with fear.
Darth Dreugaz bends down closer to young Loulgo and tell him
"This is where you die".
He stands back up and walks away telling his man to prepare him for the gulag. For the next several years Loulgo was forced to work until he couldn't stand, his hands bleeding and didn't eat for days.
When he was able to eat it was only what he could find around the desolate grounds. Worms, Bugs, and sometimes if he was lucky enough to find something with meat. A dead animal or another cell mate that was a species different from him. Lou was spit on, bodily fluid was tossed on him and pelted with stones. For years this went on. Everyday the same exact exhausting day.
Darth Dreugaz would put on singles battle were hand picked prisoners or volunteers would fight. Some did it for the sport others for the thrill. But everyone was made to fight. Loulgo grew to become a great fighter. After many beatings he was able to defeat most and even became feared by some. Darth Dreugaz began to despise the fact of Loulgo winning. He would order attacks on Lou while sleeping or distracted. Other times Darth Dreugaz would use the force to try and make Loulgo lose a fight.
Loulgo never spoke much to anyone in the prison camp. There wasn't much to be said. Until one day a man was brought to the prison. Loulgo watched the guards drag him in and toss him into the cage next to his own. The man was unconscious for several hours, laying on the cold, damp ground. As the dim light from the sun began to rise and cover the prison, the man starts moving his body a little bit. Then he rolls to his back and rubs his eyes. The man takes a deep breath in and let's out a sigh.
"Oh this is just great" he exclaims.
Lou turns his head slightly toward the man for a breaf second. They make eye contact. Lou says nothing. The man nods
"Yeah, you know" he says.
Still Loulgo says nothing. Few moments pass as the man finally gets to his feet, wiping the dirt from his scruffy worn jeans and dark, torn red jacket.
"The name is Jido Kilian, what about you friend?"
he says Loulgo. Jido gets no response from Lou.
"I'm guessing you're not much of a talker huh" Jido scoffs as he turns his back to Lou and sticks his arms out of the cage.
After a brief moment Loulgo says in a monotone voice
"you'll be dead before you could remember my name".
Jido turns around to face Lou with a cocky smile on his face
"ahhh so you do talk, you just say hurtful things to people you just met". He says.
Loulgo tells Jido "They'll put you in the gulag and that'll be it".
Jido raises his eyebrows
"A gulag huh?" he says.
Loulgo nods his head.
"What's that?" Jido asks.
"it's a place where you're meant to battle another person for your life". Lou tells him.
Jido pauses for a second
"so a fight" he responds.
As the day goes on Jido keeps jabbering about much of nothing even though he's taking about everything. Lou hasn't said much to anyone in years. He's almost uncomfortable hearing his own voice. But it is nice to hear someone else talk about stuff. Normally Lou is getting rocks or dirt thrown at him, others telling him he's going to die, or they make Lou dig in the caves for jewels with the other prisoners.
A few days have gone and passed now. Darth Dreugaz hasn't shown his face since Jido arrived on the planet. They both returned from working in the caves one day and Darth Dreugaz is standing on the walkway above them. Jido looks up and sees a silhouette of something. As they get closer it becomes more clear. It's Darth Dreugaz watching them as they are brought back to the cells
"Gaz!?" Jido shouts.
Darth Dreugaz stares at Jido for a moment before quickly turning around and dissappearing out of sight.
Once back in the prison cells Lou can't stop thinking about how Jido called him Gaz, how does he know him. Lou questioned
"you've seen him before?".
Jido was sitting in silence and nods his head yes.
"unfortunately, yes" Jido says softly.
"How?" Lou asked.
Jido tells him how he was hired to hunt Gaz down years ago. Coming close a few times in capturing Gaz. But he always managed to escape. Then Gaz completely disappeared from every system they knew about.
"We checked every planet, every moon, every rock big enough and nothing. For years...nothing". Jido says disappointingly.
He begins pacing back and forth in the cell anxiously for quite a while. Jido stops pacing.
"Beyond the shattered star" he said faintly himself.
"That's it!" Jido exclaimed.
He began to explain to Lou that he joined a crew that's been searching for Gaz for a very long time. In every system they checked. Besides one system. A dead destroyed star beyond the outter rim. Because they thought nothing was left besides rubble and rocks.
Before Jido was captured he had a job to secure and salvage parts of a wreckage close to Jantoo. The planet was abandoned because of the radiation become too much to survive on. Still some would harvest what raw materials were available on Jantoo. Many were successful, but a few were not. Jido was hired by a mining company to retrieve what he could. Whilst on the recovery mission his ship was attacked and he was overtaken and untimely captured.
Jantoo is close to the outter rim. Gaz normally has his men out on patrol and they just so happened upon Jido.
"They didn't destroy my ship" he tells Lou.
"So I need a way to get off this rock and get to my ship, I'll be able to send for my crew" Jido tells him.
Lou has watched Gaz and his crew long enough to how to possibly escape. Lou tells him about the transport ship that comes off and on the planet every few days.
"if you can somehow get to the ship without getting caught, that's your only option to leave...alive" Lou says.
Jido asks "How come you never tried to escape?"
"There's nowhere to go to, I don't know how to fly a ship" Lou tells him
"I just need to get to my ship so I can send a message to Vend and let him know I found Gaz" Jido says.
"Vend!?" Lou asks as he stands up quickly. "Vend Hass?" he asks again impatiently.
Confused, Jido replys
"Yes...How do you know him?"
For the first time since Loulgo has been captured he has a sense of hope, with a smile and watery eyes he says
"He's my cousin" Lou replied
Jido's eyes widen, goosebumps take over his body momentarily
"You're Loulgo...Vend has been looking for you the day you went missing. Everyone believed you to be dead. But not Vend." Jido told Lou
Jido joined Vend in search for Gaz. The story was that Gaz kidnapped Lou, many stories why but nobody actually knew.
There was doubt such a young child would've survived with darksider such as Darth Dreugaz for a long time. Most people forgot about young Loulgo and considered him dead. Still to this day Vend never gave up hope that his brother was alive. Loulgo is overwhelmed with emotions. This whole time Vend was out there looking for him.
"I have to go with you" he tells Jido with excitement.
"Yes..yes you do!" Jido replied.
They both start coming up with a plan. A plan to somehow get to the transport ship, hijack it, fly away, return to Jidos ship and send a message. All without being caught. It's definitely going to take some time and fine planning.