I couldn't fit this in the summary but the cover art is The hero of Tython by xGothicfanx: xgothicfanx/art/The-hero-of-Tython-685132720
After being an idiot and not realising I barely gave any information at all in the summary and leaving a reader confused about why one of the main characters still hasn't been introduced 4 posts in I'm finally getting my act together and putting some notes in here you might want to look at before continuing.
First, this is a long one. If the summary didn't give it away, this fic is supposed to be a novelisation for what I like to think my Jedi Knight went through on his way to becoming the Hero of Tython and beyond - with a romantic twist not possible in the game. As such, it should (fingers crossed) be perfectly accessible to people who haven't played the game but are familiar with the Star Wars galaxy.
There will be new chapters up both here and AO3 every Saturday around 10-11pm GMT and so far I've been consistent so I expect to keep it up!
There's a couple of things I want to say I changed from the game's "canon" just in case they put you off (although they probably shouldn't?):
SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T PLAYED THE GAME - THESE WON'T MATTER TO YOU IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE PLOT ALREADY PLEASE SKIP TO THE ACTUAL STORY.
- Kira is born in 3658 BBY rather than 3663 BBY as the wiki states. With the main character (Tarys) being born in 3661 BBY it felt wrong that his eventual Padawan would be older than him, so she's three years younger than the leading characters, making her fifteen at the start of the story proper. Don't worry, no underage Kira romance (or Kira romance at all, great as it is in the game).
- Tarys is the Padawan to Satele Shan rather than Orgus Din. The reason for this was that as awesome as Orgus is, having him be Satele's Padawan felt like it gave me more room to explore the implications of this relationship on his future relationship with Theron and it just felt more fun.
- I've tried to mix the game's lore/old EU lore with new canon as much as possible while keeping the substance of the world largely the same. Eg. Sith use corrupted kyber crystals rather than synth crystals, in-line with canon.
And with that, we begin.
Admiral Ethys Valerys breathed a characteristically deep sigh of relief as he finally left the Spiral after another twelve hours of incessant meetings with senators, generals and anyone who thought themselves a part of the war. Ethys relished those first few steps out of the automatic door as he looked forward to seeing his wife and his infant son. The admiral shook his head gently to himself, he had a son. The thought alone brought a conspicuous toothy smile to his face, he didn't care how strange he looked as he got into his parked speeder, he had a son.
Ethys' family was the only refuge he had from the horrors of the war that the galaxy was embroiled in, twenty years the galaxy had fought and peace still seemed a lifetime away. The admiral was only fifteen when the war began but he knew on the day he heard the announcement that he would do his part for the Republic and so he joined the navy as soon as he was able, foregoing university education in favour of experience among the stars. He received his latest promotion only a few months earlier, only twenty-six days before the birth of his son in fact, and only one hundred and thirty-three days before today. It was difficult not to keep a note of how many days had passed since then, for every day that passed was another day that his son would have to live through a war. One hundred and seven. That was how many days Tarys Valerys had been alive and every one of them was war.
Today was different though, the admiral had finally received a new posting - to helm the new Republic Star Destroyer, the Hope Ascendant. He would finally be back in the skies and be able to bring his family on board too, after a month of 'breaking in' the ship, ensuring all systems worked well enough, it was only a formality but if it meant that he could do his job and be with his family at the same time, it would be worth every painful second away from them.
Part of him missed it, the feeling of piloting, and driving a speeder around the crowded skylanes of Coruscant didn't help. He revelled in the feeling of piloting a starfighter through battles in the stars, despite the ugliness of war, space had permanent beauty that he could never forget. Success and promotions had a way of driving a being away from what they truly loved unless they found something they loved even more along the way. For him, that was his wife, the hot-headed philosopher he met when he finally completed his degree at the University of Coruscant after nearly two years of spending more time off-world than on it. He still couldn't believe he was able to marry quite that high up, and now they had brought a child into the world.
Looking at his little boy was a feeling Ethys could never put into words, he'd tried. Pride, joy and hope were the closest things to words he could use to describe it. He envied his wife, she didn't have to spend most of the day away from him, she worked from home, spending her time writing away on her keyboard mere feet away from their son. Philosophers, he scoffed. He reminded himself that she was the one who had to carry him and give birth to the boy as well as the endless task of breastfeeding the infant - maybe he didn't have it so bad.
He'd finally reached the familiar door of his Senate district apartment, for all the struggles of being in the top brass of the military, being able to live in such a nice place made him feel fortunate. He'd finally crossed into his world, a place where he could see his wife and son whenever he wanted. Ethys practically threw his briefcase onto his desk and walked out into the lounge where Arynna, his impossibly beautiful wife, was typing away on her datapad while the news was on the holodisplay in front of their sofa.
"There he is!" Ethys exclaimed, inspecting his son laying in his cot.
"Shhh… he's sleeping, I walked the length of the city with him in my arms to get him there, so if you wake up I will kill you." Her exhausted glare suggested her threat wasn't entirely a joke.
They had bought a nanny droid to care of their son in the sadly not uncommon occasions where both he and his wife were out but when either was present the droid might as well have not been there as they preferred to take care of him themselves.
"I'd never, what sort of father do you take me for?" He replied, mocking offence.
"Your sort," his wife retorted. "Also, I invited Satele over for eight so get ready, she'll be here in an hour."
She did what?
They'd been planning to invite her over to meet their son but he was hoping that that would be later, as in not the day before he was deployed.
"So you just invited one of the greatest heroes of the war over for dinner when she could have a hundred and one different things to do?"
"She doesn't, I told you she's coming didn't I?" His wife flashed him a winning smile.
He had always loved (and been jealous of) her confidence in her actions and no matter what she did staying angry at his wife was simply not in Ethys's DNA so he instead just helped his wife tidy the house in advance of their friend's arrival. They met Satele during a celebration dinner following Alderaan, it had been almost six years ago and he was lucky to have survived the massacre. Thankfully the Jedi arrived and single-handedly turned the tide of the battle, he was hundreds of kilometres at the sky then but even hearing it all on the comms… it was almost too good to be true at the time. Since then, she'd become their steadfast friend and something of an older sister to his wife, how she hadn't become annoyed to death by her he didn't know but a sneaking suspicion told him it was the same reason he'd married her.
Satele Shan arrived only a few minutes later and they exchanged greetings but her brow furrowed as soon as she stepped into their home.
Arynna noticed as well, "Satele, what's wrong?" she asked, worried at the Jedi's troubled look.
"I feel another presence in the Force and I've never felt one before when I've been here" she answered.
It wasn't hard for Ethys to put two and two together, "You don't mean to say that-"
"Could I see your son?"
Stunned into silence, the two of them showed Satele to Tarys's nursery, Ethys put an arm around Arynna, to comfort himself as much as her because if what he thought was true then it would change everything.
The Jedi Knight walked up to the cot where their infant son slept soundly and picked him up, cradling him in her arms. Ethys waited and waited with bated breath for what Satele would say and after an era of trepidation she finally spoke:
"It's him. Your son is Force-sensitive, and quite strongly at that." Satele declared.
Ethys' mind jumped to the obvious conclusion, "Does that mean that you have to take him?"
He felt his wife squeeze his arm when he said that, the prospect of having their son taken from them was too much for her as well as him. His mind raced at the speed of light, thinking bittersweetly of the absolute joy and excitement he felt when he found out he was going to be a father. Now, with only three short months with his son would he be taken away from him?
"I should. I really should, a child in whom the Force is this strong should be trained with the Jedi. But the decision is yours. I can't force you to give up your son if you don't want to, not after the party you threw when you found out you were pregnant." The Jedi gave a wistful smile, she seemed to understand, at least a little.
Ethys turned to his wife, the fear in her brown eyes broke his heart, he couldn't bear to see her like this.
"What do you think?" He couldn't say anymore, he was on the verge of tears as it was.
"Our son, a Jedi." Her voice broke when she spoke the words as a lump formed in Ethys's throat. They were on the same page on this, he knew, nothing would make them prouder than to watch their son grow up to protect the galaxy with the Jedi but that's all they would be able to do: watch. He'd never be able to play with his son, never be able to even have a relationship with him.
"Take all the time you need to decide, I understand it's a difficult decision." The Jedi Knight said, in the same mournful tone as before.
"Satele, do you remember your mother?"
Ethys needed to know, he'd heard of the controversy surrounding her mother and her views on attachment, he needed to know that if they gave their son away, would he even remember them?
He knew the right thing, the decent thing to do was give Tarys over, he would be able to do so much good as a Jedi but he wanted to be selfish, just this once, he wanted a life with his son in it. Again, he found himself waiting for Satele's answer, the woman's words had guided him so much before, hopefully, she could make it count this time as well.
"No."
That simple sound destroyed him, even Satele seemed upset at this point, needless to say, this was not a happy situation for anyone. He looked at his son, he knew he'd inherited his own blue eyes but they weren't visible as he slept, unaware that his future was being decided around him.
Arynna left took Ethys's hand and guided him to the living room and Satele quickly followed, they all sat down in the same silence that dominated what was supposed to be their cheerful evening.
"I know how hard this is, I do, if you don't want to give him up I just won't mention it to anyone, I understand." Satele's voice betrayed an unexpected sadness, beyond simple empathy.
"How could you? How could you possibly know what it's like to have to choose a future without your child in it? To never be able to hug them, or kiss them goodnight again, or do anything you imagined you would as a parent? How could you?" Arynna's words were venom, she was angry, though not at Satele, not really. Ethys knew exactly how she felt, she'd always been the more vocal of the two of them, but he also knew her anger was directed towards the situation itself, not the woman sat opposite he knew she cared for deeply.
"Because I'm living that future," said Satele, it looked like she might have cried herself, were it not for the Jedi training compelling her to suppress emotion.
"What do you mean?" Ethys asked, curious about what she was talking about.
"I suppose I shouldn't be talking about this, but I have a son." She sighed deeply before continuing. "Theron, he's five now, my old master is raising him. He wouldn't recognise me if he saw me and every day I ask myself if I made the right decision and the truth is that I don't know. I did it for the sake of my duty, I am still a Jedi, to raise him myself would be to go back on my oaths. You haven't made any promises like that, raising Tarys is a real option for you. Sure, the galaxy might miss out on a powerful Jedi but at least you won't miss out on having your son with you, and he won't miss out on having parents."
It took a minute for that to truly sink in for Ethys, and he was sure his wife felt the same, Satele Shan had a child? It seemed impossible at first thought but here she was, opening up to the two of them.
"Needless to say, I need you to keep this a secret, very few people know and I'd prefer it to stay that way."
"I'm so sorry, I- well, I guess you do understand. I thought I knew you so well." Arynna gave a rueful laugh. "I… don't know, I'm no closer to making a decision."
"We'll sleep on it." Ethys offered, incredulous at what transpired in the evening.
"Of course, and know that whichever decision you make, you'll be great parents." Satele consoled. She showed herself to the door leaving Ethys and Arynna in silence once they heard the sound of the door closing. All he could do was hold his wife as tight as he could, their son nestled in between them.
They exchanged only a few words the rest of the day, their minds occupied by the weight of the decision they would have to make. That night they did not sleep. They discussed their problems, as they always did and came to a simple conclusion: Tarys Valerys would be the name of a Jedi.
It seemed one hundred and seven days was all he would get.
"Explosion near the Spiral in the early morning. A speeder exploded en route to the Spiral early this morning, it is believed by the Coruscant Security Force following a preliminary investigation that a bomb was planted on the underside of the speeder and was remotely triggered. The vehicle was carrying Admiral Ethys Valerys and his wife Arynna, the admiral, previously a target of three other assassination attempts and veteran of five major naval battles was due to take command of the Command Ship Resilience after emergency plans were enacted by the Supreme Commanders to counter the Imperial threat."
Satele had difficulty swallowing her breakfast as she processed the information that the newscaster had announced. Ethys and Arynna were dead. It was wrong, they couldn't have been, she saw them only yesterday. Ethys wasn't supposed to be deployed, he didn't mention it, surely he would have said something. She got ready as fast as possible and left the Temple, she needed to see for herself. She borrowed a speeder bike from the Temple garage, it would be faster. Skirting the speed limits, she made her way to the street the news mentioned as fast as possible, only to see law enforcement already present and surrounding the scene.
She asked the policeman guarding the site if she could see for herself, and Satele being who she was, she wasn't denied access and saw that it was true, she recognised that speeder, it belonged to Ethys, they were dead. The Jedi Knight had to remind herself of her training, not allowing her emotions to overwhelm her. Her grieving mind drifted to the possibility that she was somehow the cause of their death, she couldn't have been, just because she was likely the last person to see them didn't mean she had anything to do with it. Nonetheless, the thought that maybe she pressured them regarding Tarys made her very uneasy.
What happened to him?
That simple question dominated her thoughts as she raced back to her dead friends' apartment, surely he'd be alright, he was only a baby. Surely no one would target a baby. She kept telling herself that but she knew deep down that there were those in the galaxy who would go as far as killing an infant, after all, she'd seen it done. Thankfully her status as a war hero granted her the ability to avoid the clogged skylanes of Coruscant, especially as people made their way to their workplaces in the early morning.
Staring at the door of the apartment she'd been in only the night before, she swallowed hard, preparing herself for the possibility that the sweet little boy she'd seen had been killed. Arynna had told her that they had bought a nanny droid to care for their son in their absence. She knocked on the door, tapping her foot rapidly on the floor as she waited to see if the droid would open the door.
Every second that passed made her more anxious. She waited and waited and waited. Finally, she heard the locks on the door click as the metallic face of a droid revealed itself and greeted her.
"Hello Master Satele, what can I do for you?"
"Can you let me in, I need to see the baby." Satele pled.
"I'm afraid not ma'am, Master Ethys and Mistress Arynna are out and my instructions forbid me to allow anyone in, even you." the droid told Satele, unaware of what had happened.
"Your owners are dead, I need to make sure that Tarys is alright, let me in." The Jedi imbued her voice with authority as she was wont to do in recent days.
"Dead?"
"Check the news."
The droid spent another few seconds scouring the Holonet for the information Satele alerted it to.
Satele's growing impatience was met with the door slowly opening as the droid recognised that its masters were, in fact, dead. Satele practically ran into the nursery and found to her infinite relief that the boy was alright, still sleeping. She gave an audible sigh, releasing her anxiety with it.
"Did they leave a will?" Satele needed to know, if there was one, executing it was the least she could do.
"No ma'am, and neither Master Ethys nor Mistress Arynna has any living relatives." responded the droid.
She knew that. They'd all died in the war. Ethys came from a military family, and his father died early into his Ethys's career in the navy and Arynna's parents died after a bombing run some two years earlier. That meant everything they owned now belonged to the orphan baby that slept in the cot in front of her. Satele needed to meditate. She needed guidance from the Force and with luck, it would help her figure out what to do next. Would she take Tarys into the Order?
She wanted to but she wouldn't want to go against the wishes of the boy's parents; honouring their vision for their child's future was her duty to her friends. Peace and serenity filled her busy mind as she reached out to the Force, both for guidance and comfort.
The Force answered with a vision of a young man activating his lightsaber, revealing a light blue beam, then another in his other hand. In front of him was a throne surrounded by crimson banners bearing the Imperial insignia and on it was a hooded figure, and even in that apartment in Coruscant, Satele could feel the darkness that the figure embodied.
Could that young man have been Tarys?
Satele wasn't sure that that vision was of the future, surely not?
Regardless of her doubts, she knew enough to trust in the Force, it had never lied to her before and if that was how it answered her question, then it was clear that the child in front of her was destined for the life of a Jedi. She picked him up and addressed the droid,
"Tarys is force-sensitive I'll be taking him to the Temple to live with the Jedi, it's the safest place for him."
"My programming prevents me from allowing Master Tarys to leave my presence without the express permission of a Jedi Master or a higher authority."
It was an inconvenience to be sure, but Satele was glad Ethys and Arynna had the sense to only entrust their son to a droid with strict protocols, it seems they were prepared, perhaps not for this, but something. She brought out her holocomm and dialled a call to Grand Master Zym, his authority was as high as it went after all.
"Greetings Satele, what can I do for you?" the Kel Dor Jedi asked.
"I'll explain fully when I am back at the Temple but this droid needs the confirmation of a Jedi Master so that I'm allowed to bring a force-sensitive child with me," Satele answered.
She turned the comm towards the droid and let the Grand Master give his assent to the droid, Master Zym also suggested that the droid come to the Temple too, it would be a waste after all if it was scrapped and the creche could always use more hands to help raise the younglings.
It was a mistake to only bring a speeder bike.
It was certainly a chore to go back to the temple and requisition a full speeder but she wasn't about to risk anyone's life by cramming herself, the droid and a baby onto one bike. Nonetheless, she got everyone to the Temple made her way to the creche where she told the Jedi in charge of the creche Tarys's name and background.
Satele hoped she did the right thing bringing him here.