Chapter 1
-994 BBY unknown world-
As a dark hooded figure got off his spaceship, he could feel it. A feeling he had never felt before in the force. Something was here on this desolate planet, something very old and very powerful. It remined him of when he found the holocron of Darth Revan so long ago. Yet it was older far, far older than even that. How old he could not tell even as he reached out into the force. Nor could he tell what it was that he was feeling in the force.
At first, he thought it was perhaps the dark side leading him to some ancient trove of knowledge or perhaps the tomb of some long forgotten dark lord. But those thoughts were quickly disproven when he stood in front of the cave entrance he was in front of now. Whatever was in there was not of the force but powerful all the same. Which left him with more confused for what else could there be but the force.
Hearing the sounds of a ship landing the hooded figure looked towards an old starfighter landing just next to his. Then watches as another clocked figure jumps out of it and makes her way towards him. As she does a ghost of a smile comes to his lips as he feels the annoyance and anger radiating off his young apprentice.
"Greeting's master." The hooded women say to him before bowing respectfully.
"Apprentice." He says in a simple greeting.
In a inpatient but still respectful way the women asks, "Why have you called me here master? It is unusual for you to take me away from my training for anything that is not of significant importance."
Looking at his apprentice with some disappointment because she can't feel it the man says, "Can you not feel it apprentice?"
"Feel what master?" The women ask in a confusion voice.
His yellow eyes look at his apprentice in both disappointment and anger as she can't feel what he felt light years away when she is standing right next to it.
"Look at the cave apprentice then reach out into the dark side of the force and tell me what you feel." He says to her in anger.
Knowing she has displeased her master the women look towards the cave and does as she is told but when she reaches out she can't feel anything. She is about to say as much till she does feel something, but she cannot tell what.
"Master I can feel something, but I can't tell what it is. It's like looking into the dark, you know something is there but can't tell what." The women says to her master.
"Indeed, what you feel my young apprentice is a force echo. Something either great or horrible happened here long ago and left impression on the force." The man says to her.
"What happen here master?" The women asks in curiosity.
"I do not know my apprentice, but we are going to find out." He says then starts to walk towards the cave with the women hot on his heels.
They walk for what seems like for hours in the cave, following what is a natural path of broken cliffs, deep holes and dark passages. And as they do the echoes in the force get louder but stay so far away that neither can make out what the force is remembering. But the sounds of screams, battle, joy, hate and all other matters of feeling can be felt.
How is this possible the man wonders as he keeps walking? No matter how hard he tries he can't grasp what the echoes are saying, and another question how was it that none have even been here before or felt it. While the planet they were on was deep in the outer rim and a barren hunk of rock he was far from the first to visit it. From what records he could find it was even used as a minor base for the Sith Empire long ago. So, someone should have felt this before. Even if this cave was closed up and buried under the ground someone should have felt it long ago seeing as he felt it all the way from the mid-rim.
Was the force trying to bring him here for some reason or was it just a coincidence. No there was no such thing as coincidences, only the force. That still left him with the question of why now? It was a question he would keep asking till he and his apprentice arrived at a large solid metal gate long rusted over with time.
It is when they are in front of it that an echo becomes more clear and the ghosts of times past become clear.
"Close the door hurry before he awakens!" A young man yells out to his companion.
"I am hurrying give me a moment!" The man with what looks like a plasma torch says as he seals the door closed.
"We don't have a moment his supporters are close!" The young man yells again.
"Done let's go we need to get out of here before we blow the charges." The man says only to be shot by some kind of weapon before they can leave.
"There they are stop them." A group of men yell out as they rush forward with weapons pointing at the two men before the gate.
"Stop right there. Its over hand over the detonator." A women dressed in some kind of military uniform commands.
"We can't do that captain. The demon must be sealed!" The young man yells at her.
"Fool that demon you are talking about has brought peace to our world and many others." The women man says to him.
"Peace? Pease? He has made slaves of us and nothing more. How can you have peace when you have no choice but to obey. When the ax is over your head ready to drop if you disobey? That is not peace." The young man says.
"Foolish boy, before him all mankind knew was war. He bought an end to that and to do so some sacrifices needed to be made." The women says to him calmly.
"Freedom should never be sacrificed." The boy cries out.
"Even if by doing so peace for all can be achieved? Would you sacrifice the lives of trillions just so you can have your freedom?" She asks, making the boy hesitate.
"Don….don't listen to her. She is only trying to fool you. Press the button before it's too late." The man who was shot before says before he dies.
Looking back at the women with hesitation in his eyes he closes them and press the bottom and a series of explosions is heard going off in the background before the images of the past fade away. Leaving the two beings standing in cave before the metal gate.
"Foolish boy." The women says.
"Indeed, my young apprentice. People often talk about peace but when it comes to the cost of achieving it they are often unwilling to pay the price for it. Even now with galaxy thinking we are gone they took little time in fighting among each other for little more than scraps." The man says as he continues looking at the gate. Trying to figure out what it is he just saw.
The weapons they saw were clearly old beyond known history. From what little the man knew from history, ballistic weapons that fired metal slugs have not been used sense just before space faring civilizations took to the stars some 200,000 years ago if not longer. Was it possible that they had stumbled across something so old that history had forgotten it even existed? If that was the case how was this gate still here when everything else, he saw in the force was gone.
"Master, do you believe we have come across some ancient civilizations of force users?" The women asked him.
"I do not believe so my young apprentice. What we just saw showed no signs of the force being used by either the two men or the women we saw." He answers her.
"Then what do you think we have found?" She asks.
"I am not sure, but I aim to find out." He answers and raises his hand to use the force to open the rusted door. But no sooner does his power touch it than does he experiences a backlash from the force itself that is so powerful that is pushes them both back by a significant margin.
When they are able to get their feet back under them the man looks at the gate and say, "So that is why this place has never been found before. A force barrier was put here by someone to hide whatever it is that is behind this door.
"But master you said that none of those people we saw in the force had used the Force." She says.
"True but that doesn't mean we were the first to come here. Perhaps other force uses came here before recorded history and sealed whatever it was, they found." The man says trying to think of why they would do such a thing and coming to only one conclusion. They were afraid of whatever it was that was behind these doors. From what he could glimpse from beyond the barrier whatever was there was not of the force. So why fear it?
"Come my apprentice you will help me open this door." The man says.
"Yes master." The woman answers.
Together they both raise their hands and start to channel the force with all their might. Till after a few moments they are able to push pass the barrier and open the doors but not without great effort as shown by how heavy they were breathing. For the women it was like one of her more intense training sessions with her master and for the man it was like being back on Korriban learning about the ways of the Sith again.
With the doors now open they both walk in not quite knowing what to expect. Something grand, some type of lost knowledge, the possibilities were endless. Yet all they find when they enter is a dark chamber of broken technology long sense forgotten and a body lying in the middle of the room with an old style long sword sticking out of his chest. A body that was to both of their surprise still fully intact with not a spot of decay on it. Again, the man had to wonder how was this possible. As for the women she could not help but think how beautiful the young man who was lying on the floor with the sword shoved though his chest was. But too was wondering how it was that the body had not yet decay.
"Master something is wrong here. I don't know what it is but I am feeling something coming from the body. Something old and very powerful." The women says to her master.
"Yes, my apprentice I can feel it too. Whatever it is we are feeling from the body is not of the force of that I am sure, but it is like it in a way or perhaps even older." The man answers not knowing what to make of the feeling coming from the body. So, making a quick decision he force pulls the sword from the body to his hand and looks at it in amazement. Not because there was anything special about the blade itself seeing as it has long sense rusted over but because the blood on the blade was still wet and then like it was never there if vanishes off it.
Too caught up in trying to figure out how such a thing was possible the man doesn't notice till it's too late that his apprentice has walked closer to the body. "Apprentice get away from the bo….."
Is all he was able to say as he watches the eyes of the body open and glow red before a bright red light envelops them. The next thing the man knows is he is spinning around in the void of space. Watching as stars explode, planets collide and whole galaxies are both born and fade into nothingness. Yet that is not were it ends as next he is pulled into what he could only assume was a timeline and watched as moments from the past fly by quicker than the eye can follow yet slower then slug passing by.
He gets to watch as the Brotherhood of Darkness that he used to be a part of rises and falls. As the Great Schism happens again and again. The Eternal Empire, the rise and fall of the Old Sith Empire, the death of Revan, Vitiate, Satele Shan, Bastila Shan, and many other famed forces uses whose names had yet to be forgotten by those of the force. So much knowledge comes in the blink of an eye till he sees one powerful force uses who stands above all others stands before him. An old man with glowing blue eyes and a long white beard.
Their eyes meet and the old man says only one thing to him before he is pulled away, "You should have left the door alone young one."
Before he can ask why he is once more pulled away to a time before the founding of even the Infinite Empire. The fall and rise of civilizations come and go like a setting sun till he reaches a history he didn't know. An intergalactic human empire starching two halves of the current known space. All ruled over by the young man that they had found when they had entered the gate and what a man he was. While he was no Sith he was the closest thing you could get to without having the force. The acts which he had committed were brilliant, cunning and cruel. Yet before he could see any more images stop and he hears a voice.
"So, the myth begins again does it. But I don't think I want to play a role in this story again."
The man hears a voice from behind him and turns and says, "Who is there?"
When he turns, however, he sees he is no longer in space or that images of the pass are flying by him. Instead, he finds himself standing on a platform of some kind with pillars with the faces of billions of beings stretching on for eternity on them and in the center of this room sitting on a throne like a emperor is the young man. Who is looking at him with cold cunning eyes that show a certain amount of boredom.
"Come now that is such a silly question. Surely of everything you had seen and heard you must have pick up my name." The man says to him.
And like a light goes off in his head the hooded man says, "Lelouch vi Britannia."
"Correct and it is a pleasure to meet you Dessel or do you prefer Darth Bane?" Lelouch asks with an easy going smile enjoying the look of surprise that comes to the man's face.
"How do you know that name." Bane asks in anger but not feeling the force answer his call.
"You matter well stop with that Bane. We are not the physical world or even the land of existence that will allow your power to work here and come now you didn't really think you were the only one to see images of the others life do you?" Lelouch answers.
Looking at the man before him with his eyes now glowing a Sith red Bane says, "And do tell where are we Lelouch vi Britannia."
Giving him a mocking smile Lelouch answers, "Come now for someone who thinks himself wise are you honestly telling me you have not yet guessed where you currently are?"
Looking at smaller man Bane says, "Do not push me boy. I can guarantee you will not like what happens if you test my patience more."
In response to this Lelouch just laughs a bit and says, "Please Lord Bane you know as well as I do you threats are meaningless. As I said we are not in the physical world as you know it right now but instead somewhere beyond but don't take my word for it. Just look at your hands, and you will see what I mean.
Doing as told Bane looks down at his hand and sees they are fading in and out of existence. "An astral projection?"
"Correct, you see this place works on a different set of laws then the physical world and requires a strong mind to even enter here. Something you companion lacked but you surprisingly don't." Lelouch answers.
"And I ask again where is here?" Bane asks paying no never mind to the fact his apprentice was not here with him.
"That is a complicated question to answer but to put it simply you are at the end. Well, the end of the beginning anyways." Lelouch answers with an uncaring voice.
Bane however cannot keep the shocked look off his face as he looks around himself. He was easily able to see though Lelouch's vague answer and come to the right conclusion without any help.
"Creation. You're saying this is creation?" Bane asks in wonder.
"No this is only the end of the beginning of creation. The final act before the curtains of what you know as the universe rose and life began. Beyond this is creation itself and a place that is far beyond my or you're understanding." Lelouch says to him.
As he continues to look around Bane does not want to believe what Lelouch is saying. For him, to those who came before there was the Force and nothing more. But now upon entering here he saw that the force was only one small part of something far grander.
Looking at Lelouch, Bane asks, "Why are you telling me this? Why did you bring me here?"
"I didn't bring you here. You brought yourself here or was it not you who pulled that sword from my chest?" Lelouch asks the dark lord.
"So, there was something special about that sword." Bane says.
"Hardly, it was just a rusted piece of steel that happen to be in my body and nothing more." Lelouch corrects.
"So, you say but yet this didn't happen till after I pulled it from your body." Bane says back.
"True but in truth I could have removed it anytime I liked. I just didn't feel like it seeing as it helped me stay…. I guess the word would be asleep seeing as I can't truly die." Lelouch say.
"What do you mean you can't truly die?" Bane asks feeling like he already knew the answer.
Waving him off Lelouch says, "It doesn't matter Lord Bane. All you need to know is that you have forced me to wake up instead of leaving me to sleep. Which I am not too happy about but seeing as it has already happened there is nothing to do about it other than me taking my leave before you and your companion wake up."
"What do you mean wake up?" Bane asks as he realizes the world around him is starting to fade away.
Giving Bane a mocking smile Lelouch answers, "As I said before Lord Bane this is not the physical world. Your mind was dragged here by my power which means your body is still in the real world currently unconscious on the ground. As for me, I am not so limited. Till we meet again Lord Bane I bid you farewell."
With those parting words the world around Bane fades completely away and he awakens with a start only to find himself indeed back in the dark room with his apprentice still on the ground unconscious. Moving quickly, he uses the force to speed his way out of the cave to his and his apprentices' ship only to find his apprentices starfighter gone. Along with the man known as Lelouch and any answers he had hoped in getting from the man.