Tatooine, Eastern Dune Sea

It had taken some time to ride the dewbacks into the Eastern Dune Sea from the Jutland wastes. Between infrequent sandstorms and being unable to travel at night with the dewbacks, they made the journey rather slowly. Yet made it was until finally they had reached the mountain range Anakin had seen in his vision. Anakin and Hett entered the canyon, feeling a pull from a nearby wall covered in rubble. The pair used the Force to remove the rocks from the cover and discovered the entrance to a cave along with fossilized remnants of a Krayt dragon.

The two then entered the cave after lighting their sabers. The walls of the cave were not natural they could tell even after all this time that the cave had been built by machine.

"Have we even found the temple?" Anakin asked. "It just looks like a cave. The entrance to the temple must be hidden or the Krayt destroyed it."

"Certainly not the Krayt dragon. The Krayt was killed before Revan found the map to the star forge," Hett answered. "The map was certainly part of the temple complex. I imagine we must find it first." Hett ran his hands over some oddly-shaped rocks to investigate when latch opened revealing a doorway.

Anakin and Hett stepped through finding within the map room to the ancient forge. To their surprise the map was still functional.

"This must be powered by the Force," Hett said in awe at the map before him. "It was written by the ancients that the Rakattans had figured out how to use the Force in their technology, but I didn't anticipate it was quite this literally."

"But they lost their connection to the Force it was also said," Anakin replied.

"Indeed though how that came to be, either because of a sickness or it was a backlash of the Force itself is unknown," Hett replied. "With their access to the Force gone, they lost the ability to use their technology, and slave revolts across the galaxy put down their empire within a few years. But surely this map room isn't all there is."

The two Jedi looked through the room carefully before finding a panel that led to another room. The entered the door and gazed down in amazement. At the bottom of a long flight of stairs was a Rakatan temple.

"They built a temple in the bedrock," Anakin noted. "Why would they go through the trouble of putting a temple here beneath the sand?"

"The Force is strong here. There must be a nexus of the Force here on Tatooine," Hett said.

"I'm rather surprised since there is little life on the planet," Anakin said.

"It is almost certainly like Ilum, a nexus of the Cosmic Force as opposed to the Living Force," Hett answered, "The strange thing is, while I do sense the darkness ,it is much lighter than I expected for an ancient Rakattan temple."

Anakin nodded in agreement as the two descended down the stairs. "It's strange to think that for a group of galaxy spanning conquerors that Tatooine would have played any role in their empire much less the point at which they would bother to place a temple," he remarked gazing on the infrastructure.

"Rakatan hyperspace technology could only go between points that were strong with the Force," Hett answered. "While Tatooine isn't known for being a place strong in the Force that may not have always been the case; it's possible we will find the explanation here."

The temple was lit with a strange light- red and green- that seemed at odds with the way the light was shown around the temple. The structure was not large, being less in size than the hanger bay of the Jedi temple on Coruscant. It was a ziggurat in structure with a drawbridge leading to an open door. Despite the darkness, neither felt that there were any threats present, even though the door was open instead of closed as they gingerly crossed the bridge alert for any traps.

Hett said out loud what they were both thinking. "Do you find it strange this whole place is just wide open?"

Anakin halted briefly reaching out but still sensing nothing amiss. "Based on what you say of the Rakattans, it was likely deemed a symbol of their power and they didn't anticipate any resistance. Where did you learn about them? We were taught little about them except they had an empire predating the old republic and that was in passing." Anakin inquired.

"I had several teachers. Ki Adi Mundi you would know. I also had another as well: a less orthodox teacher, known as the dark woman in Jedi temple gossip, who was vastly interested in ancient dark side civilizations. I dare say the council tolerated Qui-Gon Jinn better than they did her." Hett said amused at the thought. "She however forsaw the galaxy getting darker, and in her paranoia sought out dark places to flush out any would-be Sith Lords.

"Seemed to have a point," Anakin noted with a huff.

"Yes, but she was looking for the monsters of legend not backstabbing politicians who say one thing and mean another," Hett answered. "In a way the council was right. The stuff she pursued were for tourist attractions and treasure hunters: Morriband, Dromand Kas. Places no actual Dark Lord of the Sith would have ventured openly, knowing that the Jedi would be observant of those places if they ever sensed their rise in the galaxy. Coruscant and, I suspect, Sojurn, which was glassed by the crime syndicates, would have been the places to have looked. But who would suspect people who have day jobs and are important influential ostensibly respectable people?"

By this time the duo had entered into the actually simple structure with an obelisk in front of them. The two approached the obelisk and realized on it in the center of the stone on a stand was a red kyber crystal.

"Is it a trap?" Anakin asked.

Hett closed his eyes and felt outward after a pondering on what was in front of them he opened his eyes. "No, the Rakattans were attempting to darken the Force nexus into being a dark side nexus. By funneling the nexus through the kyber, they wanted to imbue the area into the dark."

"I can feel it here inside the building but not outside of this area," Anakin responded.

"Yes, the experiment was a failure. They could not completely cap the nexus, thus only a sliver is tainted which goes through that kyber crystal," Hett said.

"Do we remove the kyber or would we alert the Dark Lord to this location by changing a nexus?" Anakin asked.

Hett considered for a moment. "The nexus itself is a light side nexus. Removing the tiny sliver will likely not be enough to cause a shockwave through the Force large enough to cause any major ripples. The light side nexus will also blind the darkness creating a natural camouflage. It's likely why you were not sensed by any dark-sider off planet when you were young."

Anakin slowly reached for the kyber crystal to remove it from the focal point of the nexus when he withdrew his hand and reached in his pocket. He withdrew the Krayt pearl and with the same hand reached for the kyber crystal and grabbed hold.

The last words he heard before the world went black were his friend yelling Anakin.

Author's note

Its shocking how much time has come since I started posting this book it's been over 30 weeks.

Thanks for the continued support with likes favorites and comments on both FFN and A03

Next week When Oceans Boiled

Thanks Ben

Next week When Oceans Boiled