"I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; a stage where every man must play a part, and mine is a sad one"

-William Shakespeare

The elderly and wrinkled troglodyte coughed violently once again into its third arm. It's getting worse, far worse, thought the troglodyte, for this was his 9th violent cough he had dealt with within an hour. By that point, the Energy wouldn't flow as well, if the Energy didn't flow, neither would the Cloriants and the Cloriants inside everyone and everything would die. Damned negative Energy, it thought to itself. Fact was, the Energy was what was keeping it alive but lately the Energy throughout the galaxy was being polluted with this evil and cruel negative Energy that mixed in with its body was slowly killing the troglodyte. It had hoped to correct this by full-filling a prophesy that someone born from the Energy would come to bring order to the galaxy but it knew that this 'chosen one' would first turn to evil before full-filling this promise.

But could he tell anyone? Of course not! He was strictly forbidden to intervene with the affairs of the galaxy he governed. He was given two main jobs from the establishment he worked with to keep the entire universe in order. Not only was he in charge of watching over the galaxy he was born from but he was also given the duty of allowing the flow of the Energy that kept every single person, animal, alien, plant, mountain, planet, star sun literally everything alive and running. If he was to, oh, I dunno, leave his home for more than a half hour, everyone would grow pale and within that hour, they would die and all the planets would wither to dust within a single day. Thus, the troglodyte was restricted to its home; but it mattered not, with the mastery of this Energy, it could use this to nourish its body, it was better than food and liquids that create waste, Energy is not a waste it is simply recycled. But negative Energy had been poisoning the troglodyte and it was dying, it needed a replacement and fast or everything would be lost.

Luckily, the old troglodyte found one…

"If there were as many wrinkles as there were in time, then you'd be a record breaker, dude." A voice called out from behind, the old troglodyte looked behind and saw his visitor. Not him again, thought the dying troglodyte.

"'Dude' I am not. See fit to insult age, I see." The elderly troglodyte croaked out. Out of the shadows stood a human, dressed in black, per his style, and his hands in his pockets as he walked through the air and made his way over to the troglodyte to reveal log hair and something different the trog never saw the first time he laid eyes on this bizarre thing, a gas mask? "See fit to mock smell now?" he croaked, the human in black removed the gas mask and revealed his face.

"Sorry, I had a few mind-wipes on Venusi 12. I cannot stand the smell of that place." He spoke in a low voice politely.

"Indeed. Smells of death, it does." The troglodyte replied without looking up at the human standing (correction, floating) next to him. The human nodded and put a hand on the back of his head.

"I just heard the news…" he said.

"Yes…news spread fast, I imagined."

"News like this goes fast when there are only 11 others to tell the news to. I'm sorry…" the human let his hand drop down to his side as he spoke, "I was only trying to lighten your mood with the whole 'wrinkles' thing."

"I know. But sense of humor, I lack, at least for your humor."

"Yeah, I get that a lot. Usually results in a slap in the face." The young man replied, the troglodyte chuckled but it led to another violent cough which the old trog recovered from within 5 minutes and continued the energy flow.

"Those coughs sound nasty. I didn't think it was that bad…I thought-"

"Less severe, it would be?" the old trog finished for the human.

"Well, yeah…I never imagined you were actually going to die…" the old trog sighed as he looked down on the non-existent ground while he floated near the large green orb of Energy.

"Yes…but death, only beginning, never end…" he turned and actually looked at the human. "When 10 billion years YOU be, wishing for death, you want."

"I'm only a thousand years old. I 'm not that eager to kick off that soon…" the human looked at the large green glowing orb and looked inside to see the swirling Energy, they moved as though they were dancing. "By the way…what exactly is killing you?" The troglodyte was not offended by this question; the human was new to the whole Guardian thing, meaning that receiving news like this was still rather new for him, a thousand years was still considered the level of a novice but he was definitely getting close to the level of a Full Guardian. The trog's old wrinkled and thing three-fingered hand waved at the orb as the dancing Energy moved around and revealed the image of the planet Coruscant, it revealed politicians arguing and showed a dark aura around a certain politician who seemed to be in charge.

"He and few others are cause for my poisoned body…" the troglodyte croaked. "Master of the negative Energy, he is. A Sith Lord, he is."

"And of the course the greatest irony, he's in charge of the government. No different than my home-planet back in the early 21st Century; giving control to crooked politicians who want nothing but money and power and don't care if they have to ruin beauty and fair justice to acquire it…" the human said bitterly. The troglodyte ignored him and showed images of ships battling each other in space and aggressive battles on planets, destroying plant life, scarring the landscape and the murder of thousands of innocent people.

"This…This why dying, I am…senseless killing…destruction…pollutes galaxy, it does with negative Energy…" the human's head dropped down with rage as his hand clenched and electric sparks began to fly. "This is an outrage, Segav…" the young man spoke with his teeth biting down and the words going through his teeth. The human was being polite and not trying to explode with rage, even the sparks flying out of his hand was being contained.

"Indeed…but I fear not…for outcome, I see…" his hand waved again and the image changed to reveal two men, both in black, one emitted a dark aura with a small outline of a positive aura. The other man showed an aura of goodness, these two men fought each other with laser swords while in the vision another young man with small yet strong good aura watched on inside a space station.

"Revenge belong not to you…revenge needed not, for a revolution, will come from it…prophesy, be completed it will…" the old troglodyte croaked. The image faded as the elderly Guardian went into another violent cough. It eventually passed, but the human understood now. Segav intended for this conflict to happen to destroy the negative aura once and for all. With this realization, his temper swayed and his rage diminished.

"Still…once you're…well, gone…a replacement has to be found."

"Search needed not. Found him already, I have…" the trog's hand moved over the orb again and the image of his intended replacement appeared fighting off an army with a laser sword.

"Hmm, he looks young, Segav; easy to manipulate from dark forces."

"True, that may be. But strong of heart and courage, he is. Complete, my faith on this one is." Segav croaked. The human only nodded. "How long I have, you think?" the human only looked at Segav almost to look inside him to determine that.

"From how violent your coughs have been…I guess…a month…maybe less…" the human replied. The trog sat there for a bit in mid-air keeping quiet, eventually another cough escaped from the trog but that subsided quickly.

"Fine…the war's end and mine, be same, it will…" he croaked quietly but the human nodded. Segav may have been the shortest of the Guardians, but he was the only one of them who could see the future. That power was once owned by The Elder but as her responsibilities grew, she had to pass her individual powers to each of the 11 guardians; these special powers were what separated the 12 Guardians. Even the human being standing next to Segav had been given such an individual power that he was deemed the Guardian of Memory as well as other alias he went by. The human's head picked up as if he heard something.

"Crap. The Elder's got something for me…well I'm in luck, the Wipe's to be done in your galaxy…"

"Permission to enter my galaxy, granted it is…say no to The Elder, I cannot…" Segav croaked before he went into another coughing fit that subsided shortly. The human bowed his head in respect as he reached into his hat and pulled out a strange mask and he tied it on his head. His eyes were covered and so were his cheeks and nose but the only his mouth was revealed.

"I apologize if I ruined your hospitality and your work, Segav. I hope we can meet again…" he then turned to exit from the troglodyte's strange see through home.

"By the way…" croaked the trog, "strange energy, I've felt lately…felt it before two month ago. Feel it now, I do…energy similar to yours…have been messing around galaxy again, have you, Voltz?" the human in black turned and gave an inquisitive look.

"Me? I don't think so. I haven't been in your galaxy since the last time you kicked me out…I was messing around in Kaj's sector mainly, but I haven't visited your sector in almost a year…" he replied. The trog stroked his wrinkled chin with his equally wrinkled hand. Could it be possible, he thought, no, it couldn't…The Elder would've picked up on abnormalities like that…still, this abnormality read the same as Voltz'…perhaps this abnormality had came from the same galaxy Voltz' was born from and he felt the energy as the same…or perhaps, it may have just been-

"Nothing…it probably is…perform Wipe on denizen in sector and leave, you will…and Voltz…stay out of trouble, you will…" Segav croaked. The human smirked as he snapped his fingers and disappeared in a flash of light and a thunderclap. As the room quieted, Segav moved his hand over the orb once again as the image of his replacement appeared in the orb. Another cough came as he stared at the fighter taking down an entire army without breaking a sweat. He knew he was the one to replace him, but he also know that if he was destined to take his place, he would have to disobey the Guardian protocol and use his powers to lead the Jedi down the pathway would that lead to his eternal glory