PART FOUR - GONE
THE KNIGHTS OF REN
OBSIDIANITE CASTLE
ZIOST, ESSTRAN SECTOR, OUTER RIM
Day 16, Month 4, Year 34
The planet of Ziost, once the capital of the ancient Sith Empire, now lies forgotten at the edge of the galaxy. Yet somewhere in the middle of its frozen tundra, nestled amongst a graveyard of trees, is a large castle with walls of opaque black glass. This is the appropriately chosen headquarters of the Knights of Ren.
Upon my arrival, I was greeted by two figures clad in dark canvas cloaks. Hoods covered their heads and masks of gunmetal gray concealed their faces. It was within the privacy of the castle's library where the two knights finally revealed themselves.
Knight Commander Mortis is a short yet brawny man with olive skin, black cropped hair, and almond eyes. Next to him is Commander Corto who stood a foot taller. He is leaner than Mortis and has a head crowned with bronze curls. They are both grinning.
It is Mort who speaks first, "Roxin Avaris. Back from the dead."
"And looking good," Corto adds, leaning forward. "Tell me, Roxi. Are you available?"
"Cut it out, Carufo. You're going to find yourself sliced into pieces if you do so much as lay a hand on her and he finds out," Mort then turns to me. "So Roxin, I know you came here to ask questions for this biography but I hope you don't mind if you do the answering first. Where the hell were you? You're sure as hell weren't at the Praxeum when we stormed it."
Tauntaun Pox. I meant to return as soon as I recovered but my parents found out about the massacre you crazy shitheads did. Mom and Dad wiped out my memory. I woke up one day not being able to remember the last three years of my life. I cannot tell you how freaky that felt. Anyway, I let my parents enroll me at a university. Made them think everything was all fine and dandy while I researched memory swipes behind their back.
I learned that the swipe they did had a loophole and that my memories could be retrieved if I could only find the original machine that performed the procedure. Took me long enough to find it. Thirteen years. Thirteen long years and a lot have changed.
I see you call yourselves Mortis and Corto now?
Mort shrugs and smiles, "I'm flexible. You can still call me Mort."
"It took him five seconds to come up with that, can you believe it? Ren and I spent hours. See, Ren's name is inspired by his heritage. He took the 'ky' from Skywalker and the 'lo' from Solo and came up with the coolest moniker in the universe. But what about me? I already have an ugly name to begin with. Ollis Carufo. What do you get from that? Orufo?" Corto makes a face.
Sounds like a dog barfing. So when did you think these names up? When did you start planning what you did at the Praxeum? When did it all start?
Corto turns away, "When you were too busy with Miyen to notice."
"Shut up, Carufo. It began way before that. Ren told me he's been hearing this voice in his head since he was child. At first he thought it was his grandfather, speaking to him. Ren has this unhealthy fascination with Vader, you know. The voice turned out to be Snoke. Ren told us about it during the second half of our third year. I guess he trusted us enough by then. You probably didn't learn about it because you were at Sullust with Miyen for four months."
That was because Luke sent us on a diplomatic mission.
Corto looks me square in the eyes. "Ren was really pissed off, you know, when he found out. He went on another rampage. We no longer had you to calm him down so he ended up destroying more than just a forest."
"Now, don't go blaming yourself, Rox," Mort jumps in. "A lot of things happened at that time. His parents' marriage took a turn for the worse. There was tension between him and Luke, between him and Solo, between us and our classmates. Then, like I said, there was Snoke."
Mort lets the word hang in the air for a while before continuing. "Ren told us about a very powerful warrior who could teach us more about the Force than Luke ever could. He told us that the Jedi were weak. That they are bound by constraints disguised as discipline and control."
"He was right you know," says Corto. "Snoke turned out to be the father we've never had. He saw something in us. Told us that we were capable of being more and that the Jedi were preventing us from reaching our true potential. It was liberating. All along I thought I was useless and would never measure up to anything."
He also told you to kill everyone at the Praxeum.
"It was necessary. We cannot allow the Jedi to continue spreading their lies," Corto explains.
"Besides," Mort continues. "As Ren put it, everyone in the order is a hypocrite. They taught peace and serenity when their actions and inactions brought about chaos. You saw how they treated the four of us. We were left out of everything as if we were scum. They all deserved to die."
Tell me about the massacre.
"First, we had to make the lightsabers," Mort begins matter-of-factly. "As you're aware, we don't get to do that at the Praxeum until our fourth year because we're told that only by then will we be completely ready. Total bullshit. Ren managed to get hold of blueprints and I provided the materials. Did it all under my parents' nose, stupid fools."
"Anyway," adds Corto, "the sabers Mort and I constructed sucked big time. Mine had a problem with the power field conductor and Mort's blade was too short because he didn't configure the length adjustor correctly. But you should've seen Ren's…"
Mort grins, "He used a cracked Kyber crystal that was so powerful it required the addition of lateral vents at the hilt just to divert all that extra energy. The crystal was also wildly unstable, giving the plasma blade its jagged appearance."
"In short," Corto leans back and folds his arms across his chest. "It was the bomb."
"We spent most of the summer break preparing," Mort continues. "Ren travelled to some distant planet to get his crystal and undergo this test Snoke prepared for him. When he came back, he was fuming with power and was more focused on what we needed to do. There was no holding back."
Corto nods. "It was the first day of classes and a tropical rainstorm just happened to hit the Praxeum. Perfect timing, if you ask me. It was like the universe was on our side."
"We came in wearing these dark cloaks and steel masks Carufo and I spent days making. Then we activated our lightsabers and killed everyone who got in the way."
Just like that?
Mort snaps his fingers. "Just like that. But we were kind, weren't we, Carufo?" He nudges his friend with an elbow. "We tried to give all who resisted a quick death. Articus Miyen though…"
Corto shakes his head."Ren bound him, got into his mind, and tortured the hell out of him. I could still hear the blonde fool screaming and begging for mercy. When Ren had enough mind-probing, he took out his lightsaber and beheaded Miyen slowly."
"This time, Roxin, you can take the blame," Mort laughs.
"Contrary to popular belief, we didn't kill everyone," Corto says. "There were those who surrendered and professed loyalty to Ren. He mind-probed them first. Those who gave in because of cowardice were killed. The rest are downstairs." He jerks his thumb towards the door.
Mort's expression hardens. "Why don't you join us, Roxin?"
"We can call you Knight Commander Roxoid," Corto gives a sly smile.
"We'll contact Ren and he'll be over in a second to knight you. But wait," Mort narrows his brows. "Does he even know you're here?"
No. He doesn't know I'm alive.
A look of disbelief crosses Mort's face. "Why didn't you tell him? Come to think of it, why didn't you reach out to us the moment you got your memory back?"
Maybe because I didn't know how. It's been what – thirteen years? I didn't know how much you've all changed – especially Ren. I didn't know how to approach him or if I could approach him at all. I needed some kind of preparation.
"That's why you're doing this then?" Mort asks. "This biography?"
Yeah. I guess that's it. I had a lot of questions and I wanted answers.
"You know what? Just show up. I don't think there's anything to fear," Corto assures me. "It's not like he's going to kill you. You of all people. You know that, right?"
FROM THE ACCOUNTS OF ROXIN AVARIS
FORMER STUDENT,
JEDI PRAXEUM, YAVIN-4
I remember the last time I was at the Praxeum.
I was thirteen and summer was just around the corner. It was past midnight when the ship that transported us from Sullust touched down at the Yavin Spaceport. From the window, we could see the small group of students from the academy who have come to meet us. I immediately spotted Ollie, his golden curls contrasting with the dark green foliage of the Yavin jungle. I was lethargic and feverish from the trip. The climate at Sullust topped normal body temperature and I just realized that readjusting to the damp, cold weather of Yavin would take a further toll on me. Despite this, I found myself rushing down the boarding ramp, luggage in tow, to the small area where I saw Ollie.
Mort was also there. His eyes were half-shut and he appeared to have just woken up.
Ben Solo was nowhere to be found. "This isn't everyone." I said after looking around, expecting Ben to pop out of nowhere just as he had done so many times in the past.
When they told me that he was still at the Praxeum, I grabbed Mort's wrist and tried to drag him along, saying, "Let's go! Let's go! I have so many things to tell all of you!" But the both of them just stood there and stared at me.
Finally, Mort told me that Ben didn't want to speak with me at the moment.
I was hysterical. "Why?" I asked them. "When he accompanied Luke to Hoth, I didn't go around complaining. This is my first out-of-planet mission and I thought you guys would at least be a little excited for me."
"It's not that," Mort cut me off. He and Ollie were fidgeting. "This is about Articus Miyen."
Articus Miyen had been chosen to go along because he understood Sullustese better than most of us. Besides, the mission was diplomatic in nature which meant there was a lot of talking, something Ben abhorred. I told my friends that I didn't understand why Ben would make such a big deal about Articus being chosen over him. It wasn't like this has always been the case. I could think of ten missions at the top of my head where Luke preferred to bring Ben along instead of Articus. It was no question who was the better student.
That was when Mort lost his cool, which was rare. His eyeballs widened and looked ready to pop out of their sockets. "This isn't about the fucking mission or who the better student is," he practically yelled. "This is about Miyen getting to spend four months with you."
"But what does that have to do with anything?" I asked, because honestly, I had no idea what the hell Mort was talking about.
"It's got to do with everything," he said it slowly, condescendingly, emphasizing every word. "Why do you think he saved you from that Bothan in Naboo? Why do you think a guy like him agreed to hang out with losers like us? Why do you think he instantly calms down when you touch him? Why do you think he's insanely jealous of Miyen? Why do you think he once asked Ollie and me if he has any chance with you?"
"Because he's crazy, Roxin," Ollie said, shaking his head. "For you."
By the time we arrived at the Praxeum, we were told that Ben had already flown back to Corellia.
I was too late.
He was gone.