A/N: Seventeen years after it began, here it is again, revised and continuing.
Eternal Balance
Chapter One
Two Millennia Ago
The Alderaan sky was set ablaze by its sun, mixing pink and orange hues amongst the thin clouds. The small starfighter shone brightly against the setting orb as two women rapidly approached it, one after the other.
"Please, Master Tryvold!" the small blonde girl called out, running faster and faster after the caped figure several paces ahead. Her shrieks and foots falls went unnoticed, which she realized as slowed to a halt. "Please…don't do this."
Jedi Master Lanna Tryvold paused her quickened strides, willing herself not to glance back at her former padawan. She drew a long breath in, pursing her lips together and letting a single tear escape from her eye. "It must be done."
"ButDocugan…it's dying! Burning up!" Sundi shouted, her voice cracking. "Reports from the Council say the outer crust is collapsing!"
"They would know best, wouldn't they?" A muscle worked in her jaw. "They always do."
"Do you even hear yourself? You'll die!"
"And what is a war without casualties?" She kept her stare cold to match her tone, disregarding the agony the ripping through every inch of her body.
Sundi's eyebrows furrowed. "What war? There is no—"
"If you do not feel the war all around you, young one, I have failed as your Master," Lanna said just loud enough for the other Jedi to hear. Her head managed to turn back only for a moment to meet the girl's stare. "Do not live in naivety. That is your last lesson."
As the Master continued to walk, Sundi's voice had finally escaped the clutches of her throat. "What do I tell the Council?"
"Tell them their sun will rise and set tomorrow without their willing consent, as it will continue to do long after we turn to dust," Lanna said as she boarded the lone craft.
Sundi watched solemnly as the starfighter rose in the atmosphere and raced through the clouds.
"The sun, my lord?" the cowardly voice replied. Droids clanked through the halls around the two men as the machines relayed their constant blather of useless information in their icy, robotic tones.
Sith Lord Darth Caedus grinned wickedly at his rather spineless apprentice. His eyes flickered from under his hood as they burned holes through the other man's. Caedus shoved a small paper into his appretice's hand. "And with it comes our greatest victory."
Caedus spun around and stalked quietly down the corridor away from his young ward, chuckling lowly. "And what a glorious celebration it will be…"
Lanna remained silent as her body sunk into the cushioned pilot seat. The landing on Docugan had been nothing short of rocky, causing her already churning stomach to do somersaults. She stared out at the landscape, littered with scraps of ancient ships that were partially blanketed in dirt and stones. Little light reached the planet, making it not much more than an dark rock floating through the Outer Rim.
The core of the planet trembled, roughly shaking the ship and Lanna gripped tightly to her seat. Her eyes squeezed shut and her jaw clenched as she waited out the quake, the seconds disappearing slowly one after the other.
And then there was nothing. Not a sound penetrated her ears, not even tumbling rocks. Her eyelids opened slowly, being met with a small starship, not gleaming like her own, but caked with mud and whatever else it must've ran into before. She swallowed hard, throat dry as a dark, cloaked figure stepped out of the old ship and something silver shined at his side in the dim light. She stood, reaching for her lightsaber at her hip. She gripped it tightly as the hatch opened and the unusually warm wind swept in a foul stench. Her face contorted in disgust, as she willed herself not to gag. She knew that smell better than most; it made her cringe every time. Rotting corpses.
No longer breathing out of her nose, she exited the craft and took a few unsteady steps on the planet's surface, hearing the squish of melted soil beneath her feet. Heat emanated from the muddy water, reaching through her boots and to her feet.
It was unnervingly quiet as she faced him and his cloak fell to the ground. The tiny gleam she had seen before in his hand had release that menacing red light as his sickly yellow eyes burned into her. Keeping her stare hard as stone, she took two more steps. He copied her actions, taking away more distance between them. Lanna, holding her weapon tightly, pressed the switch by her thumb as blue light emitted from it.
Two more steps. Two more steps.
Two. Two.
One.
The distance had nearly closed between them as their matching glares battled each other. Caedus tilted his head to the side slightly. "No tricks? No traps?"
"I could ask you the same," she said in a low voice. His stare didn't falter. "Of course not. This is only between you and I."
"One last time."
The planet trembled again.
One thousand years later…
"Master Norik," the elderly woman bowed to the relatively young man with a pleasant smile. "I am sorry to disturb you, but an impromptu Council meeting looks to begin soon. You've been requested."
The Master's eyebrows furrowed, but he nodded in gratitude nonetheless. "Of course. Thank you."
They both began down the halls of the Coruscant Jedi Temple, chatting quietly as to not disturb the surrounding Jedi. The doors before them slid open to reveal the rest of the council, many wearing perturbed expressions. At the center of the semi-circle of chairs sat Jedi Master Skyann Talms as he ran his pale hand through his graying hair. The remaining masters took their seats, the tension thick in the room.
Master Talms sighed loudly, glancing at each face around him. "Its urgency must not be overlooked. Something is out there."
"Ah, Norik," a voice he didn't immediately recognize said. Norik didn't turn, giving Master Talms a curious stare. The voice continued. "You've spent much time surveying the Outer Rim. Care to weigh in?"
Norik raised his brows. "I apologize. I've yet to be briefed on the matter."
Talms let out a barely perceptible grunt. "You see, on my way back from the Outer Rim, my starship stopped moving several parsecs from any planet. I was about to blame the faulty thrusters but that's when I felt it."
Talms seemed to wait before continuing. Ever the dramatist, waiting for someone to ask the question they all knew he wanted to hear. Felt what?
"I'm sure your first instinct is perfectly plausible. Faulty thrusters, did you say?" Norik asked dismissively.
"The Force was evident in its very being. Suffocatingly so." Narrowing his eyes on Norik, Talms continued. "There was a voice."
"Are we honestly entertaining this?" Master Oseko Ven piped in, her tone as impenetrable as her black eyes. Her crooked sniffed and wrinkled like she smelled something unpleasant, but remained regal in the action, her two montrals more resembling a sort of crown—befittingly adding to her air of regality. Thin fingers drummed on the arm of her chair. "This is hardly Talms' first fanciful tale. I for one grow weary of them."
"It spoke!" Talms argued, voice faltering as if he found it difficult to believe himself. "The dialect sounded like no known language I'd ever encountered. It disappeared just as quickly as it came, but I managed to record a bit of it. Once I was able to leave and return here, I spoke to Master Faloinne."
The Masters turned to the elderly woman from before. Her smile faded completely as she placed a scrutinizing eye on Master Norik and addressed the room. "Nearly one millennium ago, a Jedi had confiscated a prophecy from a Sith. That prophecy was from Docugan."
"Docugan?" Master Norik said. "A nothing Outer Rim planet? It barely survived long enough to support intelligent life."
Master Faloinne raised a single brow. "And yet the coordinates of Master Talms's ship during his experience were precisely that of the planet."
Norik stood and sighed. "Oh, this is a farce—"
The air left the room as the sliding doors opened once more, calling all the stares to redirect.
A thin girl entered the council chambers in bare feet wearing what could possibly be mistaken for a burlap sack. Her greasy black hair barely bristled as the doors closed, matted and sticking up every which way. She walked to the center of the room, her white, cataracted eyes studying each face as I'd she could see.
Master Norik stood to approach the intruder but was pulled back immediately by Talms.
The woman's eyes glistened almost unnaturally as her lips trembled and her brow crumpled.
She spoke aloud, her words unrecognizable, rolling out in indistinct strings, and bouncing off the walls.
Master Talms took a step forward examining the petite woman. He stopped several feet away, feeling an air of authority surround the girl. "Excuse me...who are you?"
She tilted her head as a curious bird would.
Master Talms opened his mouth to speak again but she interrupted him.
"I am not named."
The Masters exchanged concerned glances.
"Who let her in?" Someone whispered.
Another added, "How she get in?"
Her stare flew around the room at the speed of the comments, movements stiff and considering. "You must be them."
She stopped in front of Maser Norik whose glare had faltered. She smiled this time—slowly, like she never used the muscles in her face before—and continued pacing.
"Of course you are."
The air had seemed to grow so thick, not one Master in the room could move.
"Jedi. Your name. What you are." Off the odd stares each of them sent her she again paused her pacing. "What do you think I am?"
The question sounded so genuine, yet so patronizing.
She held off her wrists and allowed Talms and Ven to escort her away, and she hummed a soft tune out of the Council Chambers.
Two Centuries Later
Nineteen-year-old padawan Anakin Skywalker lay in his bed, tossing to each side quite uncomfortably. His mind prayed for sleep to engulf him as it did every night, but his heart did not think he could suffer another dream of his mother. He could not bear to see her tormented again.
Perhaps I'll dream of Padme again... His heart lifted as it often did at the mere mention of the woman he longed to see for the past ten years. He wondered if she changed at all…if she even remembered him.
He sighed and closed his eyes, as sleep took him.
His mind was complete darkness, but a presence could be felt through the endless sea of black. A voice pleaded, just above a whisper, please…help me.
Every limb on him was pierced with agony. A deafening scream split through the still air. Images of millions dead flashed at a pace he could barely keep up with. Blood and burns coated the bodies.
A young woman whose features he could barely see looked him in eyes, her expression saying, 'I'm sorry.'
Face the darkness, learn from it. Do not become it.
A blue lightsaber clashed with a red one as a deep scathing voice laughed malevolently and another screamed in pain.
He bolted up in bed, his lungs on fire as the sucked in massive amounts of air. He glanced around the room, noticing nothing particularly out of the ordinary. Finally calm once more, he laid back down, again unable to sleep.
What was she?
What did she do?
The man's eyes were wide open staring at her.
Fear flooded those eyes, but they emptied quickly. Too quick. Too much.
Now, there was nothing but the ghost of feeling. The light in them dimmed so fast.
Her breathing quickened as panic tightened her chest and her fingers twitched violently, the unfamiliar buzz of electricity jolting through them. Her knees weakened as she crumpled to the grass.
Smoke still rose from the man's body as he laid there, skin boiled red and mouth hung open. His piercing scream still rung in her ears, but the only sound she could hear now was the thudding of footsteps in the distance, growing closer by the second.
"I...I didn't mean..."
Two middle aged men ran into view, stopping and gawking at the scene. Their shaking fingers pointed directly at her as both men started hyperventilating.
Her breathing quickened as she shook her head. "Please! I didn't...I didn't mean to-"
"Murderer!'"
TBC
A/N: Revised Prologue thingy! Yayness!