Chapter Eleven
For years, the Followers of Palawa had been troubling the Dark Jedi named Yun especially since their refusal to teach him Terras Kasi. His father had also been disappointed by this development and approved the motion for his son to take a few squads of stormtroopers to teach them a lesson. The lesson, they hoped would be one that made them understanding that no one denied Yun or his father. Unfortunately, the old man had not lived to see his son attempt their revenge for Yun had been asked to sacrifice him as a price to pay for the Dark Side by his love: the Prophetess Sariss.
But sacrificing aside, he smiled because he knew that even if he had been the one to kill him, his father would have been pleased to see his revenge against the Palawa fulfilled after many long years. When he arrived, as anticipated, an emissary of the priests was there with his own squads to intercept the Dark Jedi right at the gates of the Palawa fortress on Bunduki. "I have come back with armed forces, as I promised I would, and I warn the priests of Palawa one last time. Either permit me training in the martial arts known as Terras Kasi or prepared to be destroyed," Yun warned threateningly.
The emissary looked somewhat intimidated though his troops pulled that off better than he did. He raised a hand to demand their silence and thought about how he would reply to the threat made by the Dark Jedi. Then he replied, knowing what the priests would say to him if they had been here in his place to face down the young man. "And I tell you one last time that the priests' orders are official and cannot be changed: you will never receive training so long as they command it," he said.
"Very well, tell the masters to prepare for their fortress to be stormed within the next two standard hours or so. I will have my revenge for the dishonor they have done me by refusing to grant me training," Yun replied. "The priests do not fear your vengeance, they only pity that you are little more than a spoiled brat in a man's body," the emissary retorted before marching back to the fortress. Yun laughed at the comment about being spoiled and he had to admit that he had been indulged by his father.
Soon, the fight for vengeance would be on though and the comment of a single messenger of the priests. "Sir, with due respect, shouldn't we bring in another Dark Jedi like maybe Sariss or her Master Jerec to aid us in this matter?" the lieutenant with him asked. "This is my personal matter and mine alone to resolve, Jerec and Sariss would not aid me even if I begged on my knees," Yun answered.
Besides that, Sariss would never forgive me for asking for her help on the matter anyway. And boy would Jerec hate me if I asked him to help me in this mission as well Yun added to himself. The lieutenant nodded though he probably still didn't see why Yun couldn't call on them for help even after the boy's explanation. He didn't need to at any rate, all he needed to do was follow orders as was his job to do in these sorts of situations.
Arden Lyn had come to Bunduki to make her statement, that she had had enough of Palpatine and was going to go rogue in accordance to that attitude. Arriving at a moat entrance to the fortress of the Palawa, she was surprised to see that the tunnels hadn't changed since last she went through them. Nonetheless, she had a feeling that the Followers of Palawa would sense her presence when she came closer to finding their leaders who had betrayed her all those years ago. Most Palawa were Force-attuned at least to the extent that they could wield some of the basic abilities anyhow.
Few, the priests being amongst them, could wield any arcane abilities and that was not a problem for Arden Lyn. In fact, it was an advantage that she would be exploiting in her quest to gain revenge against the Followers of Palawa and her declaration of defection from the Galactic Empire. Smiling, she was glad that she had received the training she required to be a Jedi Sentinel before arriving to the Temple though her more powerful abilities wouldn't be granted until she discovered Bogan. Xendor, I promise that the Followers of Palawa will pay for their betrayal of you and me at long last she vowed silently as the first disciples began making their way in her direction.
"Step aside or be struck down, pawns of the Priests of Palawa," Arden warned when they positioned themselves for a fight. "We cannot let you anywhere near the priests woman unless there's a good reason why you're coming," one of them warned. "The priests you served betrayed me and my husband, long ago by giving the locations of our bases to the Jedi for money. Do not lecture me about having a good reason to see them, I am here to wipe them away from the galaxy forever," she said.
"Whoever you are, we will have to fight you now that we know you are a threat," the lead student replied. Arden dispatched him with ease by shooting a projectile of Force energy from her mechanical hand, powerful enough to blast a hole that almost spanned the side-side width of his chest. Then she turned to the other students that attacked her and cut one down with one of her sabers after dodging a punch she threw at her. She concluded her attack on another student who tried to roundhouse kick her only to have his leg severed before she decapitated him.
After that, she was virtually unopposed throughout the rest of the moats though she knew that that luck wouldn't remain for long. But she never guessed what lied ahead: Imperial stormtroopers attacking the disciples of the Followers of Palawa as they tried to defend against it. Despite their applications of Force barrier and Tutaminis, however, their defenses were broken with ease. The martial arts was all they had and though they killed several stormtroopers, none would survive much longer.
But when both sides saw Arden Lyn enter the fray, neither knew what to expect her to do. However, Arden did and showed as such when she withdrew both lightsabers and attacked both sides of soldiers. "Mayday, mayday, Commander Yun! Come in, we're under heavy attack from the Emperor's Hand Arden Lyn, over!" a stormtrooper exclaimed.
He tried to relay another signal just in time for Arden to hack him to pieces with her blades before continuing to make her way towards the priests she had a score to settle with. But she sensed the presence of a Dark Jedi amongst the Imperials, not powerful like her but had potential nonetheless. She knew it was only a matter of time before their paths crossed and she hoped to spare him, not kill him. After all, despite her inability to be bound by the Jedi Code, it was dishonorable to her to kill someone weaker than herself if she could avoid it especially like this gentleman she sensed approaching.
Still, if it's a whooping he wants then I'll be glad to give him one when he faces me in combat she added to herself silently. She kept attacking disciples and stormtroopers until it became clear that she would not be associated with either one of them. Then she decided to turn her attention to her true targets, the Priests that commanded the Followers of Palawa and the subject of her revenge. Using the Force to sense them out, she found that she needed to go to the same place that she had gone before to seek an audience with them: the top of the citadel's tallest tower in the center of the fortress.
"Yun has returned with vengeance just as he promised he would," the emissary said when he finally arrived to see his Masters. Ten priests there were in all with their nominated seconds who would take their places upon their deaths and the emissary's words disturbed them all. "That does not surprise me," Jupiter, the most ancient and leader of the Council, stated tonelessly. The emissary gave him a look of confusion but before he could explain, the Force sent an excruciating dagger of pain into his heart.
When the pain subsided, he revealed what it was that had triggered the pain within his ancient heart. "I sense a presence as ancient as myself, a presence that I have not felt since the days of... the Legions of Lettow," he explained. The rest of the council began murmuring and whispering its surprise right away but Jupiter raised a hand for silence. "This darkness that approaches is one we created with our actions, twenty-five thousand years ago when I was young," Jupiter said.
The emissary didn't need to ask how he had survived since the days of the Legions of Lettow: every twenty years that a priest lived, he would conduct a one-thousand year long trance. Their selected seconds would act as their mouthpieces, peering into their minds to deliver their will to others. However, the flaw with this is that the seconds could not be stopped from such heinous acts as taking bribes. Jupiter had been under one such trance when the Legions of Lettow first formed and thus, his second was consulted by the leaders of the Legions.
Though the leaders didn't know, it had been the seconds and not the priests themselves who had accepted the bribes but it was too late to change that now. Remembering this made Jupiter drift off into deep thought but he was soon called back to the present which was needed due to his ancient age. "Master, what is this darkness that you speak of and how is it possible that it could have returned from those ancient days to threaten us now?" the emissary asked. "Arden Lyn has returned," he answered, whispering with great sorrow and fear in his voice.
No one needed to ask who Arden Lyn was for everyone knew her tragic story and knew what had happened to her around the time of her supposed death. After all, the seconds of the Priests around that time were partly responsible for what had happened to her in those long forgotten days of legends. In addition, the priests awoke five-hundred years later to make sure that Arden Lyn's tomb was protected from unworthy intruders as compensation for what had happened. Several rogue Jedi had sought the treasures of the Legions of Lettow afterwards but the Palawan traps deterred or kill them all.
"What do we do? Surely it is not too late to reason with her and make her understand that the actions of our seconds were not the faults of the priests," one young priest suggested. Several of the younger priests turned to Jupiter to see what he would say to that seemingly wise suggestion. What he said, however, would baffle them all and even put fear into many of the younger ones.
"No, young one. We betrayed Arden Lyn and her husband Xendor with the actions of our seconds and now we must pay. Arden Lyn will not be persuaded or reasoned with for her vengeance, her pain are both far beyond reasoning now," he answered. "But surely we can't just let her kill us willingly!" a priest exclaimed suddenly.
"We will fight, that's what she would want us to do: to put on an honorable display even if in the end, we accept the consequence of our actions against her," Jupiter replied. No priest or second had anything to say, even the emissary was troubled by this development revealed by Jupiter. "But there is something one thing that we can do: save our seconds and have only priests fight," Jupiter added. Not one priest hesitated to begin that process and the emissary was immediately dismissed to fight for them.
Yun sensed the presence of Arden Lyn and when a stormtrooper's transmission to him confirmed she was there, he immediately clipped his lightsaber to follow her. The report had been that Arden was attacking the stormtroopers so he would need to kill her if he couldn't subdue her first. Cutting his way through any disciple of the Followers that challenged him, he finally found her about to enter the Citadel and called out to her. "Arden Lyn, get down here and face me or suffer the brand of the traitor forevermore!" Yun shouted.
The woman turned around to see him, apparently hearing his cry which he smiled at seeing. But she surprised him when she used Force Jump to fly above the distance between them. She landed centimeters away from him and told him she would be dubbed a traitor even if she hadn't faced him. "True but at least you will be able to have some honor to go with the label if you face me in combat," Yun replied.
"I don't need a duel with you, it'd only be a waste of time. So I'm only going to knock you out of the picture quickly and then return to the task I wanted to go about doing," she said. Then she lunged with her right mechanical arm, charging Force energy into it so quick that it seemed but a blink of green. After that, she made contact by punching him with it and the impact sent him flying all the way from the Citadel to the gates of the fortress.
That was an astonishing distance of several dozen meters or so and when he landed, he did so with enough force to literally slam the gates wide open when he landed upon them. "Sir, are you alright?" his lieutenant asked upon seeing him. "Never better, new orders: destroy the fortress, burn it all to the ground and purge those within!" Yun ordered. "We have two AT-ATs nearby and four AT-STs if you would like me to bring them in," the lieutenant suggested.
"Yes bring them in, bring in all the destructive equipment you can find. The Followers of Palawa must be purged from the face of the galaxy and Arden Lyn must be destroyed for her betrayal! Bring it all down!" Yun ordered. The lieutenant nodded and went to make the rounds in order for Yun's orders for a purge to be obeyed immediately.
After dealing with the Dark Jedi named Yun, Arden used the Force to propel herself back to where she was before his disruption. But as she ascended the steps, she found memories racing across her mind specifically memories of when she and Xendor had first arrived here. At that time, their reason had been that the Followers of Palawa were a powerful force though not like the Jedi. However, their power was great enough to where Xendor would rather have them as an ally than as an enemy.
The reason was because while not even the full strength of the Legions would be required to destroy them, it would weaken them against the greater Jedi enemy. They needed every shred of power they could get as well as some degree of protection from the scrutiny of the Jedi. Arden had thought, as Xendor did, that the Followers of Palawa would give them that protection against their enemies. However, they had provided them with naught but treachery and defeat that was sure to be eminent for the Legions and their ideals.
Now, though, she had an opportunity to avenge the betrayal of the past and was not so innocent as to be incapable of violence in her vengeance. The best part of her vengeance, nevertheless, was that she was not about to enter the citadel unopposed by more disciples. She dispatched some with energy bolts conjured from the Force and ejected out of her mechanical arm whilst Force-choking others. Those who were not trapped by either power was cut down by her lightsaber or swept away with Kinetite and Force Destruction.
Making her way up the citadel, she was temporarily rocked by the tremors of several explosions that were happening outside and around the building. She knew it was only a matter of time before the source turned its cannons on the citadel itself and hurried as best she could. Climbing up the stairs, she killed all who opposed her though she guessed they were just buying time for the priests. They would need their seconds to escape in order to continue to spread the discipline of Terras Kasi across the galaxy where Arden could not.
She would permit them this out of respect for who they were and besides, her vengeance was strictly with the priests and not the seconds who would succeed them upon their deaths. Readying her blades, she knew that the priests would most likely not talk for very long and would certainly fight her. However, with her skills in lightsaber proficiency in addition to her improved connection with the Force and her wide variety of powers combined with their likely ancient age, she knew they would surely die. Revenge was all but guaranteed for Arden Lyn, husband of Xendor the first leader of the Legions of Lettow in the First Great Jedi Schism.
"Emperor Palpatine, may I speak with you for a moment?" the hologram of the Dark Jedi Yun spoke. "Go ahead Yun but make it quick," Palpatine stated annoyed. He always hated speaking with the apprentice of Jerec's pupil Sariss due to his pampered, indulgent nature. Nonetheless, he sensed that Yun sincerely had something that was worth speaking to him about on emergency frequency.
"Your mighty Hand, Arden Lyn, has betrayed the Empire and has thus betrayed you in that process. I was planning on destroying the Followers of Palawa when I suddenly saw my troops being attacked by Arden Lyn as well as the disciples. One of my lieutenants notified me of this development before he was hacked down and then I tried to stop her only to have barely made it," he said bluntly. Palpatine thought to himself about this and wondered if this was why she had volunteered to search for Skywalker after his conversation with Lord Vader.
He knew that once he revealed his intention to never resurrect Xendor, she would use whatever opportunity she could find to defect. But he also knew that she would need to make a statement in order to avoid returning into his servitude at all. Perhaps this is the statement that she intended to make and why not? She benefits by revealing her new enmity to me in addition to gaining her revenge against the priests of the Followers of Palawa Palpatine thought silently.
When Yun asked him for a response or even an approval to go ahead and destroy the Citadel she was traveling in after dealing with all other buildings, Palpatine did so. "Yes, go ahead and do so when you're finished. Isn't it what you were already planning to do?" he replied. Yun didn't bother to answer the question except with a bow that acknowledged the familiar cut of transmission. Sighing heavily, the Dark Lord of the Sith also known as Darth Sidious became troubled by this turn of events.
This was the first time that any powerful servant of his had betrayed him though he wasn't used to political officials turning on him if they weren't intimidated into submission. Even Lord Vader couldn't stop those people even if he gave his all to doing precisely that in the name of Palpatine. However, he had never had a servant with similar power and abilities to Lord Vader actually make a defection case. I'll destroy you Arden Lyn, make no mistake of that. I will destroy you even if it's the last thing that I do as cliche as that phrase is Palpatine vowed silently.
But first, he would test her powers and thus decided to call upon a man who had fought her before. Torbin was unavailable due to his death and Darys was also unavailable for reasons of dying in the confrontation with Arden Lyn. So it turned out to be that he would need Inquisitor Tremayne for the apprehension of the ancient woman though he was truthfully just a test of her skill. "Admiral Tarkin, summon High Inquisitor Tremayne to my Throne Room," he ordered into his chair's comlink.
"Yes my liege, I have sent him the memo already. He should be there within minutes or so," Tarkin replied after a few seconds. And as promised, Tremayne did arrive within a few minutes after the Grand Moff sent his summons to him. "You wished to see me, milord?" Tremayne asked upon arrival.
"Yes, the mission I have for you now is special and requires no failure on your part. My Emperor's Hand called Arden Lyn has gone rogue and made her case by killing several troops. I need you to track her down and destroy her, settling your old score with the woman in the process no doubt. Do you feel up to it?" Palpatine explained immediately.
"My liege, it will be my utmost pleasure to find and dispatch that insane hag in the name of the Empire. I will bring her head and her lightsabers to you as soon as possible or die trying!" Tremayne vowed passionately. "Very good, she was last seen in Bunduki though I have a feeling she will survive Dark Jedi Yun's attempt to destroy her there," Palpatine replied calmly. "I will follow her presence to whatever planet she happens to be on, even if it's in the foulest parts of Tatooine!" Tremayne shouted. "Then go, High Inquisitor. Avenge this betrayal and your previous dishonor," Palpatine stated.