Star Wars The Old Republic/Star Wars Prequel Trilogy Cross-over
The Chosen One and the Bar'sen'thor
Chapter One – "Shattered Heart"
Author: Nikkei_Simmer
E-mail:
Rating: M
Classification: Angst
Spoilers: This is a cross-over between the SWTOR MMORPG and the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy – yes it's a time-travel story and yes, you're going to have to suspend disbelief for a long moment.
Summary: After having to kill the one that she loved, Claria Redsun, Bar'sen'thor of the Jedi Order is a broken woman.
Onboard the Sith Empire's Star Destroyer "Marauder"
The red-haired Jedi Consular stepped into the main corridor leading up to the bridge of Darth Nox's Star Destroyer, her double bladed lightsaber lit and ready for battle. Her watchful green-eyed gaze scanned the distance ahead watching for Imperial officers, troopers and Sith Apprentices and Warriors who blocked her path. As the Bar'sen'thor of the Jedi Order, she was a trusted Jedi Master by the Jedi Council and would normally be supported by as many Jedi as possible in taking down a member of the Dark Council. But...this fight was personal. There had been rumours that Darth Nox himself was Keron Yun, a former Jedi Padawan who had fallen to the dark side. She didn't believe it; couldn't believe it. Darth Nox had committed multiple atrocities that left millions dead all in the service of the Sith Emperor. Nothing could be further from the character of the young Padawan, Claria remembered...and had loved.
Reminding herself of the conversation that she'd had in the Council Chambers on Tython back before she had left on her mission to bring down Darth Nox, she prepared herself mentally and physically for the battle to come, breathing deeply and burying her essence within the Light side of the Force.
"Master Redsun, there has been no recorded evidence of any who have been so deeply immersed in the Dark Side; especially one who is of the Dark Council, to have renounced the Dark Side and joined the Light." Master Tollis and Jedi Grandmaster Satele Shan had informed Claria. The three Masters had convened to decide on what actions the Jedi would be taking against the threat that Darth Nox presented to the galaxy.
"But we cannot not try for some form of conversion to the Light if it as all possible." Claria could not see any reason why the Jedi should not try for redemption of any Sith no matter how corrupted. Maybe I am too convinced that Keron can be turned back to the light.
"Darth Nox is too dangerous." Master Shan objected, "He is responsible for the deaths of trillions. He massacred billions on Aden Prime alone with scorched planet tactics."
"We cannot seek redemption for someone so fully evil as that." Master Tollis reiterated.
"Yet Revan killed just as many and the Jedi Order welcomed him back in as if nothing happened. Why the difference?" Claria demanded.
Jedi Grandmaster Satele Shan pursed her lips before responding, "Bar'sen'thor of the Jedi Order, you have done great things, exhibited great compassion, and vanquished many foes. However, a member of the Dark Council is not someone whom you have faced."
"I have not?" Claria's eye's widened. "Then who exactly was the Red Sith I faced on Corellia? The Sith who took the entire Corellian ruling council into slavery."
Tollis raised a hand for silence, "A mere hanger-on for power. She was nothing but a useful tool of the Dark Council, nothing more. And one so easily cast aside or she would not have been on Corellia to begin with.
Attachments were forbidden by the Jedi; it was a weakness that could be exploited. Attachments led to jealousy, jealousy led to anger...anger led to the dark side.
If he will not turn back to the light; he will be destroyed. Claria's eyes narrowed as she set her lips in a firm frown, steeled her will, her lightsaber at the ready and proceeded down the corridor. It was empty. Yet she sensed the looming darkness that awaited her, like a terentatek mutated by the Dark Side that slavered hungering to be fed.
An ominous figure stepped into the corridor, clad in white armor, yet his presence filled with the Dark Side, as she reached the mid-way point in the corridor, head bare, his lightsaber still at his waist hanging off his utility belt – not even lit.
"I felt your presence on board." the figure said quietly, a hint of durasteel behind its tones. "You made a mistake in coming here."
Claria's heart lurched as she recognized the familiar voice; hardened though it was by years of the savagery of the dark side. It was Keron. "It isn't as big a mistake as the one that you made, Keron…" she riposted. "The lives that you have taken, turning your back on the Jedi. Come back to the light side, Keron. Renounce the Sith..."
"That name no longer holds any meaning for me. I am Darth Nox, Dark Lord of the Sith. I am a member of the Dark Council. The Dark Side held the answers for me and now...it shall spell your doom." The lightsaber on his waist flew to his open hand; a brilliant blade of red light emerged from the pommel on one side diagonally towards the floor. Claria positioned her double bladed lightsaber in the ready stance as Darth Nox gave her a savage smile. "Let us see if you can use that lightsaber as well as your words. I look forward to cutting you down." He paused for a moment, his eyes flashing to yellow tinged around the edge with red. Moving his lightsaber to the ready stance, Claria noticed that Keron had an excessively long pommel too and readied herself for a Juyo/Ataru battle. Her assumption was correct as Keron ignited the other end of his saber with a snap-hiss that heralded another red blade extending from the opposite end of the pommel. Spinning the lightsaber in a motion that brought the red-bladed double-blade lightsaber to the ready diagonal position, he stood and waited for the Jedi's opening move.
"You wish to fight me?" Claria asked, "Your old padawan friend?"
"You are Jedi, I am Sith; that is all that matters now."
"Then my friend is truly dead…" Claria stated, her voice steady, even though her heart was in shambles. Readying herself for the upcoming battle, she steeled her resolve. Only one of them was going to walk out of this alive, "I will do what I must." She would end his reign of terror.
The majority of their battle was in silence, as both lightsabers clashed. Her friends were bringing up the rear, stopping short as they saw the clashing blades as Claria and Darth Nox battled back and forth.
Locking blades with her former Tython class-mate, she stared into his red-tinged yellow Sith eyes. "Come back to me, Keron...let go of your hate."
Uttering a snarl, Darth Nox shoved Claria with a Force push, to unbind the blades of the two lightsabers. Claria utilized the Force to halt herself being thrown back with tremendous force into a bulkhead. She barely heard the snap-hiss of two lightsabers being ignited, Lana had ignited her red blade and Arcann had ignited his yellow blade. But they knew that this fight was Claria's and hers alone. They would only join in if and when Claria requested their help and not before.
The glowing blades of light clashed again as Claria spun in mid-air to bring the other side of her double-bladed lightsaber into play. Nox's parries were imbued with anger and the dark side in order to bring power to his strikes, trying to defeat the Jedi with sheer force rather than relying on the Force to guide him.
Frustration mounted within the Dark Lord as Claria met his every slash with a riposte. Ripping a floorboard out of the floor, Nox flung it with great force towards Claria and only with her Jedi reflexes did she manage to avoid being hit by the jagged spinning debris. That was followed up by an intense barrage of Force Lightning. Evidently, Keron was playing for keeps. Claria thought as she held up her lightsaber to block the purple bolts that crackled across the blade. His intense barrage caused her pain, having to lock her legs to keep from being forced back inch by painful inch. Though he was not a Sorcerer, the Sith Inquisitor Assassin could still fling lightning with the best of them and Keron was proving his powers to Claria quite explicitly.
"Keron...don't do this…" She gritted her teeth calling out to him as she tried to withstand the electrical onslaught. Out of the corners of her eyes she looked around for anything within her narrowed range of sight that she could easily tear out of the wall and fling at him with the Force to distract him. Anything to reduce the Force Lightning that was wearing her defences down.
"Claria...look out!" Claria heard Lana call out as she ducked looking up to see Keron's, no Darth Nox's spinning lightsaber soar over her head, curve in a graceful arc to land back in the palm of his hand, that moment giving her respite from the Force Lightning he was throwing in her direction.
Nox's relentless lightsaber strikes and Force Lightning attacks were wearing her down slowly but surely. She would not be able to withstand his attacks much longer. Between dodging his lightsaber and trying to withstand his lightning, Claria saw her opponent's anger mount, his irises a vicious yellow with red bloodshot edges; the mark of a Sith ensconsed deep within the Dark Side, drawing on his rage to relentlessly attack the Jedi that he swore was his mortal enemy.
He was powerful; his anger was making him so, drawing on his betrayal by the Jedi to fuel his rage. He roared in frustration as Claria leveled a force blast at him trying to drive him off his feet and buy her some time in order to regroup so that she would be able to shore up her defenses. She was grateful that Master Par had given her instruction in how to resist force lightning attacks, but most of it was on short bursts of lightning not sustained attacks such as Nox was leveling at her right now. The attacks came wearing down her defenses and sending jolts through her body, indescribable pain that she had to resist in order to keep the surges from frying her from the inside out.
At this point Arcann threw his blade towards Nox, diverting his attention just long enough for Claria to Force-leap the gap between her and Nox. Spinning her blade, as Nox's eyes widened in surprise and before he could bring his lightsaber staff to parry her blade, she jammed her green blade into his chest, whispering "I'm sorry, Keron…" as he gasped, his insides turned to ash by the intense heat of the blade. His lightsaber dropped from his suddenly limp hands and he sank first to his knees, then to lay on his side.
"Why…" Claria's eyes flooded as she realized that the fight was over, her sides ached from the ravages of force lightning that had pummeled her. But the tightness of her throat and the wellspring of emotion that she felt staring down at the dead Sith Lord's body was not from the injuries that she'd sustained fighting him. She dropped to her knees, her arms wrapping around Keron's torso pulling him to her cradling his body,
:You have given me freedom, Claria: the Sith rage gone; the soft voice that she remembered, when they were both padawans, as she heard the tender inflections of his voice echo ethereally in her head. The body of the one whom she'd searched for years, lay lifeless in her arms, the red Sith double-bladed lightsaber laying on the decking of the Star Destroyer. Claria's companions stood beside her, heads bowed in silence as she mourned, for all that could have been...lost.
:How have you done this? The masters told me that you had done horrific things, that you were the Emperor's Vengeance, rival to the Wrath. How can your essence still remain – only the Jedi have been known to transcend death:She looked up confused, at the ceiling, her mute questions hanging in the air, half-expecting no further response.
:It was a moral tightrope, Claria, For many years, my anger simmered, my rage towards the Jedi, any Jedi that crossed my path was dead: Keron's voice was firm, :I nurtured my hatred, basked in my anger, and used my rage to conquer all that impeded my path – my goals. Yet none of that helped what I truly was searching for. For I was a slave still, still tied to a master, except in this case, it was a Sith Master. For I was not the head of the Dark Council, I was just a member seeking power, still bound and shackled to the Sith Code, to the dictates of those Sith above me in rank, those who had been seated at the Dark Council table longer than myself. As long as I lived, I could not break free of the Dark Side. Now you have given me that freedom. Claria, You are a Master of the Jedi Order:
At the cost of breaking my heart. Claria thought silently to herself, as the tears flowed down her cheeks. I will never be whole again. "...and I...have lost...you…in return..." she held herself tightly.
:Remember what was taught to us at Tython by the Masters. Attachments can be a weakness to be utilized against you by those who would seek to destroy you. I learned this far too late. Do not follow that path, I am free, I will be with you always in the light of the Force:
How I wish I could hold him once more. Claria choked down a sob as she stared silently at the wall. She started as she could see a shimmering blue form in robes. As it gained resolution, she could see it was Keron. He walked towards her, a smile on his face.
:I do not have much time left…Claria. The Masters are waiting for me. There is a task that awaits you...you and your companions will see things that you have never seen before. Because the Sith may be defeated in this time, but they will rise again...much more insidious, much more virulent than before:
:What do you mean, Keron?:
:Claria, dear heart, you have always been a fine investigator, you tracked me down when I was deep within the Dark Side, when I wished not to be found, you found me and freed me. You will know what you seek when you arrive there, Help...the Chosen One bring balance to the Force: Keron raised a spectral hand caressing her cheek with a sad smile on his face. :Farewell...my love:
:Keron...tell me we'll meet again:
Keron smiled enigmatically saying only :If the will of the Force allows it: as he slowly faded away.
"Keron...I love you…" Claria trailed off as she realized she was talking to a bare wall.
"Claria, Are you all right, you look as though you have seen a spectre."
Claria turned around to see her best friend, surprisingly, a Sith, calmly surveying the now empty armour of Darth Nox. His body had evidently vanished upon his spectre fading into the Force. That meant he had returned to the Light.
"I suppose I will have to let the Dark Council know that a seat has become vacant." She was pragmatic, forthright in her viewpoints glancing down at the decking of the corridor they were in.
"I suppose you will have to." Claria stated, "I went to the Academy at Tython with him when he and I were both Padawans."
"...and he joined the ranks of the Sith?" Lana Beniko asked. "He was a respected Dark Council member. He defeated Darth Thanaton in mortal combat."
"He used to be so gentle and kind." Claria took a deep breath to calm herself. She didn't want to dissolve in a puddle of tears. "I couldn't believe he fell to the Dark Side." She was alone now and forever would be. She did not want others at all. From hereon in she would follow the non-attachment tenets of the Jedi Order to the absolute letter.
Lana nodded. "I heard he only killed if he had to. But he followed orders of those above him, but his subordinates knew a man that had a strict hand, yet was fair and just. The other Sith who were power-hungry didn't like him at all but somehow he managed to survive the assassination attempts." Claria looked at her horrified at the revelation of such attempts as Lana reached down to pick up his Sith double-bladed lightsaber off the floor handing it to her.
"Jedi don't keep trophies." It seemed almost ghoulish to take a Sith lightsaber if one was a Jedi.
"Heal his crystals, reattach them to the lightsaber and keep it in memory of him." Lana advised. "He was special to you, wasn't he?"
"Yes…" Claria admitted softly. "He...I…" she stammered as another wave of emotion came over her. "In another life, if I had not been Force-sensitive, we...may have been lovers. The Jedi, unfortunately, are not allowed attachments." How did that emotional response look to her companions? She was devastated, yet she had to look the strong leader that everyone expected her to be. She would save her tears for her cabin onboard the starship.
"Star-crossed?" As practical a Sith as she was, Lana was still sympathetic towards the Jedi she considered her friend.
Claria let out a snort, her eyes smarting with the desire to let her grief flow but holding it back. "It certainly appears that way." She closed her eyes looking out at the corridor that appeared to be nearly empty. We have to get back to Tython and to the High Council, they must be informed that the threat of Darth Nox is ended."
"Of course, as you wish." Lana stated. "Now let's get off this ship before we get inundated with troopers." She knew that the Sith Empire's agents would wish to avenge the death of their Master and Dark Council member and she had no wish to remain to do battle with the entirety of the Sith Empire's Star Destroyer's crew.
Lana and the rest of the crew did not know how they got back to their ship, but they knew it had been a relentless battle. They had run into a crew of nearly seventy Imperial troops and there had only been Felix, HK-51, Arcann, Theron and Qyzen, along with Nadia, Theran, Ak'ghal, Koth, Jakarro, Sen'ya and Zenith being left to mind the ship. Shae had gone back to her Mandalore and had left the group in order to lead her people. Dazh Ranos, Nico Okarr and Paxton Rall were back with the Alliance. But it had been a pitched battle only brought to an end by HK-51's, Theron's and Felix's relentless firepower and Arcann and Lana's additional lightsabers that had swung the tide.
Qyzen unfortunately due to his affinity for close-quarters combat was now resting with bacta patches adhered to his side in the medbay as he'd taken on six Imperial troops in close quarters with his staff. His strength was shown to the rest of the crew that were with them when he suddenly slammed his staff against the side of the head of a Sith Empire Trooper who had come up on his blind side behind him so hard that the trooper's disembodied head detached from his body when careening down the corridor, while the rest of the now headless body slumped to the floor. Qyzen had sustained multiple blaster burns to his side whilst decapitating multiple opponents. He'd winced in pain as he staggered back to the group, mumbling something barely intelligible as The Scorekeeper will be honored at this.
Lana had mentioned that he should actually be wielding a blaster-rifle, however Qyzen derisively snorted that the Scorekeeper would find that dishonorable. Or at least that's what Claria thought he had said. Master Yuon Par's affinity to understand Trandoshan speech was unparalleled, at least amongst humans.
Claria sighed as she looked over at C2-N2. "Ship status update?"
"All systems appear to be fully functional, Master."
"Good. Patch me in with the holoterminal to Grand Master Satele."
"Yes, Master."
The pale blue holoprojection of the Jedi Order's Grand Master flickered as her gaze turned to Claria. "So it is done…" she said matter-of-fact.
"Yes, Master Satele. Keron turned back to the light after death." Claria informed her, amazed that her voice was steady after the emotional battering she'd taken.
"It is possible." The Grand Master conceded, "I felt the shift in the Force. Bar'sen'thor. I have been asked to be in a meeting with the Chancellor so I will meet you on Coruscant. Proceed there. May the Force be with you."