Chapter 14

Over the next few weeks the two Jedi Knights continued to train Ryal. His skills quickly developed under their expert tutelage. Ryal spent a lot more time with Anakin than he did Farra but that was natural since he was a male. Anakin had been teaching him mechanical skills to go with his Jedi skills and he was a quick learner. Farra had been researching the Sith while Anakin and Ryal did mechanical stuff and she was finding out all she could, hoping to get some clues as to whether Palpatine was the Sith Lord. Farra had heard that the Jedi had a Sith Holocron but only Jedi Masters had access to the Holocrons at the temple. She realized she'd have to ask Obi Wan to help her. As he was a Jedi Master he could access the Holocrons.

A few hours later Farra was able to tell Anakin that Obi Wan would access the Holocrons for her. He nodded and returned to tinkering with his mechanical arm. Farra had grown used to seeing him tinkering with it.

"What are you doing to your arm this time?" she asked Anakin.

"Trying to improve my movement with it so I can be faster" Anakin said.

"Where is Ryal?"

"He's having a swim and spending time with some other Padawans whom he's friends with," Anakin said.

Farra nodded then made her way down to the lake to watch Ryal. As she walked Farra realized that if Ryal was still their Padawan at the end of the war he'd become like a son to them after they married. As Farra watched Ryal she meditated about what she'd learnt about the Sith organizing her thoughts so she could remember important information.

Farra had learnt that the Sith were originally established when dissident Jedi discovered that power is achieved not by meditation but by emotion. The first dark Jedi was Xandor and there was a schism between the Jedi and the dark Jedi resulting in the banishment of the dark Jedi to a planet named Korriban where they eventually interbred with the original Sith, the inhabitants of this planet and became known as Sith as a result. Interestingly Farra had discovered that the Sith also had a chosen one and this chosen one was known as the Sith'ari, who was prophesied to destroy the Sith then return and make them stronger than ever. The Jedi suspected that the Sith' Ari and the Chosen one were the one and the same. This bothered Farra as she couldn't see Anakin making the Sith stronger than ever. Anakin had laughed when she had told him what she had learnt saying he'd never become a Sith. Farra had also learned that there was a war between the Sith when Exar Kun turned to the Sith and other Jedi followed. This brotherhood was hunted down during the purge known as the Cleansing of the Nine. A new Sith Empire was founded after Revan and Malak two Jedi fell to the dark side. This lead to a second Sith War more commonly known as the Jedi Civil war and this was more devastating as many more Jedi fell to the dark side or were killed.

Over the next thousand years the Jedi order rebuilt itself back to its former strength. Then another Jedi turned to the dark side after stealing a Sith Holocron and renamed himself Darth Ruin. A new series of Sith wars began ending with one Sith Lord remaining named Darth Bane. He began the tradition of there being only two Sith a Master and apprentice. This was to prevent self-destruction or a loss of ideals by the Sith. Bane also restarted the tradition of passing on the name Darth to his successors. This reformed Sith order went into hiding but was discovered again by the Jedi and believed to be destroyed. However they resurfaced when Qui Gon Jinn and Obi Wan encountered Darth Maul on Naboo and learnt he was the apprentice. The Jedi were unsure who the Master was but Farra suspected it was Palpatine.

Farra ended her meditation to see Ryal coming out of the lake. She escorted him back to his quarters to change then headed to meet Anakin. While she walked to his room, Farra meditated on the events of the last 20 months. She had a strong suspicion that Palpatine was manipulating events to gain more and more power. When she discussed this with Anakin a few minutes later he commented he had also noticed Palpatine gaining more and more power.

"Will he be willing to give his new powers up at the end of the war?" Farra asked, wanting Anakin's opinion.

"It wouldn't surprise me if he refused to" Anakin admitted.

A few minutes after that Ryal joined them and the three meditated. Anakin and Farra's meditation a joint meditation as usual.

A few days later Farra learnt about the Sith Lord Darth Plagueis. It turned out that he had learnt how to manipulate the Force to create life. That set Farra to wondering if it were he who was Anakin's father. She knew he had been created by the Force as he had known that himself since he was a small boy. Then she learnt that Darth Plagueis had taught all his knowledge to his apprentice. His apprentice was the Sith Lord the Jedi were now searching for. Farra then realized that either Plagueis or the Sith Master they were looking for could be Anakin's father. She learnt that his apprentice had murdered Plagueis in his sleep so she knew that the Sith Lord they were searching for was definitely the Master. She returned to her room and found Anakin waiting for her.

"What did you learn today?" Anakin asked her.

She told him about Darth Plagueis and what she was wondering about.

"You could be so right" Anakin said.

The two Jedi discussed everything Farra had learnt and what they knew about the events of the last 21 months. The war had now been going on for nearly two years. The two had been knights for just over a year. Anakin's hair hung down to his shoulders. As it had been 6 months since Farra's hair had been cut short her hair was also down to her shoulders. The two looked very similar and often joked about it.

"I think we need to try and draw Palpatine out and see if he is the Sith Lord" Farra said.

Anakin nodded deep in thought.

"If he is and he knows we know he might try and prevent us telling the rest of the Jedi" Anakin commented.

"Hopefully I can draw him out in such a way that I will know but he won't realize that I know" Farra said.

She was to meet with Palpatine that very afternoon and she was determined to put her plan in motion. When she got to Palpatine's quarters she was concerned to discover Ferus there as she didn't know what he had been doing with Palpatine.

"What's Ferus doing here?" Farra asked.

"He's been visiting me regularly" Palpatine said.

Farra nodded then remembered her plan.

"Suppose I wanted to be more powerful. What must I do to gain more power" Farra asked.

"There are uses of the Force that are seen by the Jedi to be unnatural. Mastering them would give you more power"

"Where can I learn of these uses of the Force?" Farra asked.

"From a Sith" Palpatine replied, "to become stronger you would need to be apprenticed to a Sith Master"

"I thought as much" Farra said.

"Let me help you" Palpatine said.

"How can you help me?" Farra asked.

"I can teach you of the uses of the Force we have been talking about" Palpatine said.

Farra knew without a doubt then that Palpatine was the Sith Master.

Ferus was looking at Palpatine wide eyed but didn't say anything until Farra had gone promising Palpatine she'd think about it. Then he turned to Palpatine.

"The Jedi are getting some strange ideas. Letting Farra and Anakin be a couple was wrong" he said.

"Do you hate Anakin?" Palpatine asked.

"I hate him so much it makes me burn inside. I want to be powerful like he is"

"What of Farra?"

"I want her to be mine. I have liked her as long as Anakin has"

"Interesting" Palpatine, said.

"Let me be your apprentice" Ferus said, "I wish to learn from you and become powerful. Then I will kill Anakin and take Farra as my own"

"Good, good" Palpatine said, "You will be my apprentice but not until Darth Tyranus is dead"

"Who is Darth Tyranus?" Ferus asked.

"Dooku" Palpatine said, "I have foreseen his death. For now keep this to yourself. The time has not yet come to reveal your true nature to the Jedi."

Ferus nodded and returned to the temple.

At the same time Farra was reporting what she had learnt from Palpatine to Anakin. Over the next three months Farra continued to meet with Palpatine not realizing what was happening between him and Ferus. Finally Anakin and Farra were sent off world again at the end of the 24th month of the war. Ryal accompanied them and it was his first mission as their Padawan. The three Jedi went to Dagro where Farra and Ryal went ahead in a scout ship to search Ryal for droids. At the same time Anakin was leading some forces into battle on another planet. During this battle his fighter was damaged and it took 4 days to repair.

While this was going on Farra and Ryal had landed on the planet and were attacked by three battle droids riding on STAPs. Between them Farra and Ryal destroyed them all. Farra was impressed with Ryal's combat ability. He had handled himself well against the battle droids with his newly constructed lightsaber. Their ship was destroyed in the Force landings but a family named Swens found the two Jedi and invited them back to their home. They fed the two Jedi and told them they could stay there. In return the two Jedi helped them out with their farm for a few days, hiding if droids came looking for them. Finally Anakin was able to fly down to the planet and retrieve the two Jedi, arriving just in time to help destroy 25 battle droids. He too was impressed with Ryal's battle prowess.

After the two Jedi Knights had exchanged greetings they realized that there had to be a controller on the planet nearby and set out to find it. They discovered a secret Confederacy base located in a gorge where a white water river ran in between two cliffs. The two couldn't fly in or rappel down because the enemy would spot them but Trissa Swens suggests anchoring their cables above the entrance to the gorge and descending then letting the river current carry them down stream. Trissa called this underwater rappelling. Trissa was to watch Ryal while the two Jedi did this as they decided it would be too dangerous for him to come. The two Jedi rappelled down the river and all went well until they noticed a sensor.

"What are we going to do?" Anakin asked Farra.

However Farra was prepared for this as she'd grabbed a few leaves off a tree before they started.

"I'm going to use the Force to float these leaves I grabbed in front of the sensor which will allow us to sneak by unnoticed" she said.

"I love you Farra" Anakin said a hint of approval in his voice.

When the two Jedi got near the sensor Farra floated the leaves in front of it and the two Jedi slipped by unnoticed. Reaching the base the two Jedi snuck around the back and jumped in through a window landing on a catwalk. They immediately noticed about a dozen Nemoidians gathered around what appeared to be a large mat and a lot of worker droids working at assembly consoles and tables. Then they noticed R3 the droid Farra had in her ship, which apparently had been stolen from the wreckage of her ship. Anakin jumped down to get the droid and used it to data from the base's computer. One of the Nemoidians started to move so Farra leapt down and threatened them.

Surprisingly the Nemoidians stood their ground and the mat split open and 100 small objects flew out. The two Jedi used their lightsabers to defend themselves from the droids. Anakin told Farra that R3 was pulling data from the computer as they fought. Finally after a lot of intense fighting the droids had all been destroyed. The Nemoidians decided to flee and the two Jedi decided it was time to leave. As they left the base Farra slashed one of the pillars causing some damage to the bases structure. Several STAPS then appeared and bore down on them so they began deflecting the bolts from the STAPs. Anakin deflected the bolts not at the droids but at a power generator. This blew up and the STAPs careened out of control while a large piece of the base collapsed into the river.

Anakin and Farra returned along the river relieved that each other was ok. Back at the village they told the villagers about the Crawl Carrier as they had discovered that one was hidden in the villages. The villagers helped them find it and destroy it by releasing loads of gravel on to it from bins on the sides of four harvesters the villages and Anakin use to surround the Crawl Carrier. Then Farra called an Analysis team to study the remains of the Carrier. After that she informed the villagers that they would all receive reward money discovering new Confederacy technology. As a result of this the people had a newfound respect for the Jedi.

Chapter 15