Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Shadow Part Fourteen [SWJ:FO/SI]
The man that hid within the temple was but a shadow of his former self. Fear had clutched his brain, and that fear had all too easily allowed the planet's dark influence to root deep within his soul. The tomb I stepped in belonged to an alien race, and judging by the statues' portrayals of dark, horrible emotions it was clear that this was less of a tomb and more of a warning to those who'd dare cross it.
The hall I stepped in was dusty, the Nightsister quiet and contemplative slightly behind me. Thoughts and turmoil were second nature to her, as I could feel it in the air around.
"Malicos is deeper within," she spoke, "The temple decides who is worthy of entering and who is not," she added as she pointed at the large stone slab blocking the way.
I arched an eyebrow, and extended a hand. The large stone slab resisted me, and I concentrated, feeling the force swirl around me as I increased the strength to lift it up.
---
"Anakin!" I yelled loudly, much to the surprised Jedi's reaction, "Stop! It's urgent!"
"I can't stop now!" Anakin yelled back, hurrying for a speeder, "I have to see the Chancellor-"
"Senator Amidala is giving birth right now!" I exclaimed, and that stopped the young man on his tracks. It stopped him, and made him turn to look at me as I came to a halt while in front of him. From one of my pockets, an empty Jedi Holocron made its way into my open palm. "This..." I gasped for air, "is for you. For Padme. Just...just open it once you're by her side and follow the instructions. Not before-it's one-use only."
A hundred facets of expressions ran across Anakin's face. One won out over the others, worry and puzzlement, mixed with bewilderment, "How?"
"I was Master Sifo-Dyas' apprentice," I said with a dreadful sigh, "and foresight is a skill I'm strong in. I spoke with Master Yoda, and Master Kenobi. They're fine with the current situation, there's been a bit of a talk to relax some restrictions on the Jedi laws, but that's not the talk for now!" I blurted out, thrusting the Holocron in his hands. "Head to the Senator, right now! Remember, open it only in her presence, not before or you'll waste it. There's some Force guidance involved in it, stuff to turn the tides of battle in your favor and whatnot-old stuff, don't waste it. Go!"
Perhaps because I had exhorted him so loudly and vehemently, or because it dealt with Padme, he hurried off without hesitation.
The Holocron was, of course, completely empty.
With a dreadful sigh, I wiped away the sweat from my brow. I walked towards the flying car I'd be driving to head for the Senate, where I had asked to be stationed just in case something bad happened on this day, of all days.
The drive there was slow, and by the time I landed, something felt off in the Force.
One by one, I felt sharp, brutal rips into my body. Death loomed over my every thought as I wobbled on my legs.
How was it possible?
Had I-
"Jedi!" some of the guards stationed there were Clone Troopers, and as they opened fire, all I could do was raise my hands as the bolts stopped in mid-air, frustration and fear mixing with anger as I howled and slammed the bolts back, killing both and taking a deep breath to center myself the next.
Order Sixty-Six had happened.
The only counter to that would be Order Sixty-Five.
I had little time.
The Senators would have to be called. They had to be. It was the only way.
The Padawans at the temple, the younglings, Skywalker-there was no other way.
Is that your truth?
---
More Jedi died in the following hours, some young, many Padawans and Knights, and some Masters. The deaths silenced my soul; they dulled my emotions. When the time came for the emergency vote, it was done quickly and in hushed silence. A few voices of dissent were silenced by the majority, a majority whose eyes had lost their sheen and whose will had been shattered.
The opposition quieted as the order Sixty-Six was annulled, and the Clone soldiers stopped their battle across the worlds, and across Coruscant itself.
I could breathe, but I could not breathe for long.
I could feel, but I did not wish to feel more. The darkness clouded my soul; the thoughts were in turmoil. The guilt rattled at my core; to keep things from turning horrible, the turning point had been at the very end. It had been a risky bet placed on the very last instant.
It had paid off, but had it paid off enough?
The temple was in disarray when I arrived. It was in disarray, but the Clones had left. There were survivors among the Jedi.
Mace Windu stood at the top of the temple's stairs, his breathing hard, a light sheen of sweat on his face.
"I've stopped it," I said. "Master Windu, I stopped-"
"How?!" he snarled. His voice was rough. His body tense. "How could you possibly stop this!? Knight Shade, explain yourself!"
Emotions were high.
"Becoming Supreme Chancellor-It was the only way, Master Windu. There was no other option-"
It was a blur from there. I dimly remembered the crossing of lightsabers. The purple one of Windu, striking against the golden one that belonged to me. Then the silent cork that had kept my emotions bottled up exploded, and things changed.
Do you regret it?
---
"No," I whispered, and my eyes looked at the door slowly sliding up. "To regret the past is foolish. To learn from it, that is the meaning of its recollection."
I stepped through, the Nightbrothers standing beyond it dropping down their weapons at my passage, the Nightsister following me enough of a guarantee that I was not to be harmed. One door opened at my passage, and as I slowly reached the inner temple, I watched more figures of Zeffos turned to statues hang near the walls, clutching them in depictions that were born of mania and fear.
"An armored warrior," the Nightsister spoke from behind me. "Brandishing a lightsaber," I stopped and turned to look at her, "descended on Dathomir."
I slowly nodded, "Count Dooku," I said, "Under orders of Darth Sidious. Sith, the two of them."
The Nightsister looked at me, "Does he still live?"
"He does not," I said, "And neither does his master."
"Then I have no revenge to look forward to," the Nightsister said. "Malicos lied."
"He will lie no longer," I mused. "The dead cannot talk," I chuckled, "Though I am sure you would beg to differ on that, wouldn't you?"
The Nightsister quieted down further, if such a thing was possible, and then a slight twitch of her lips threatened to become a hint of a smile. "I would not beg. I would say."
"Good," I smiled. "Once more, I am Shade."
"My name is Merrin," the Nightsister said. "Malicos is ahead."
I glanced forward, and saw the man standing there, on a circular platform that seemed to have no path towards it. I walked towards the edge of the crevice that separated us, and as Malicos' eyes centered on me, his voice boomed loudly and reverberated in the large halls.
"I can feel you! Merrin, why are you there? Do you not realize who he is, child? He is a Jedi!" Malicos spat out, "He is responsible for the death of your people."
"He is strong, Malicos," Merrin said plainly. "Stronger than all of us. And the strong shall always rule on Dathomir. That is the way."
Malicos spat to the side, "Who are you, then? A Jedi Master? I recognize you not! Have you come to bring me home? I am home already, Jedi! Leave and tell your Masters not to bother with me anymore!"
"Dathomir has corrupted you," I mused quietly as I flexed my legs, the jump enhanced with the Force bringing me to land in front of the fallen Jedi, who stood chest naked with the symbol of the Sith etched on his chest. "Fear has clouded your mind, and the Dark Side has destroyed your reasoning."
"Is that what you think? Is that why you have come?" Malicos' voice turned slightly darker now, his eyes narrowing as he took a few steps back, "The Jedi have sent you as my assassin then! But there is power here! Power I control!" he unclasped both lightsabers from his belt, and lit them. They were crimson not because they were synthetic in nature, but because the Dark Side had corrupted them. They had been bled upon.
I sighed, and quietly brought my index finger and thumb to my robe's neck, and then gently pulled the knot loose and free.
As the cloth fell softly on the ground, Malicos took one step back.
"What are..." his eyes widened as my fingers gently clasped together.
"Let us begin," I mused. "Your redemption, your salvation, and your inevitable demise," my fingers touched, and the lightsabers flew off the belts that held them across my chest and arms, twirling and swirling as they lit one after the other.
The Force rumbled within Dathomir. It siphoned through my will, and past it, across the thoughts and feelings that embedded the crystals within the lightsabers I called to my side. The greatest ability was calling an enemy an ally; turning a rival into a friend, subduing without fighting and, most importantly...
To make another see through your eyes, rather than to close them forever.
---
"Bother me in my retirement, you do," Master Yoda was small and green, and yet Cal knew that there was strength, and wisdom, within him. "If Tarfful you seek, aid find him I shall," Yoda nodded, "but what can you do, when you know not what you seek?"
"The Force Sensitive children on Cordova's holocron," Cal said, "that's what we're looking for."
"Wrong," Yoda huffed, walking past them while shaking his head. "Fear you have. Hide it behind purpose, you do." He lifted one of his fingers towards Cal, and then made a no-no gesture. "A test, you must pass."
"A test?" Cal asked, puzzled.
"Master Yoda," Obi-Wan began, but then stopped as Yoda turned to look up at him. Silently, the man conceded.
"He is not ready," Master Yoda said. "The Emperor, defeat him, strength and numbers won't matter-only a Jedi, a true Jedi, shall." He nodded to himself. "Cal Kestis," Yoda looked at him, "The Dark Side, face you must. But be wary," he added, "For stare back, the Dark Side will."
Cal heard BD-1 softly beep from his back, and with a slow nod of his own, he vocalized his answer, "I'm ready, Master Yoda."
"We shall see," Master Yoda answered.
---
Dagobah's cavern was strange. It was filled with the Force, that much Cal could sense. There was, however, Darkness within it. The Cave of Evil, Master Yoda had called it.
"There's nothing here," Cal muttered. BD-1 had been left behind. He breathed the pungent and marshy air in, and then heard the soft dripping of water against the roots of the tree.
There was nothing there. Nothing but himself, his thoughts, and-
His master?
---
"Are you done?" I mused, watching Malicos' screams die out, replaced with tiredness.
"Why do you toy with me!?" Malicos snarled, taking a step forward, and then stumbling back, his lightsabers barraged by swings that sent him reeling back. His back exposed, he could have died there and then, and he knew that.
"Because you are a victim, to whom I offer one chance at redemption," I pointed out. The lightsabers unlit, and clattered to the ground. They rolled around us, coming to a natural halt. "Are you willing to renounce your power, Malicos? To forever live a peaceful existence on a planet, swearing never to leave it, nor to delve in the mysteries of the Force again?"
"Ah!" Malicos laughed, "Renounce my power? Why? Have I-Have I not impressed you with my skills? I was a Jedi Knight once! I could be of use, this power-I realize now that I am but an apprentice to it! But you...you are its Master!" he deactivated his lightsabers, and knelt down with his head low. "Make me your apprentice, and I shall serve you faithfully!" he proudly proclaimed, and I knew he was utterly lost.
I knew he would never accept peace, nor return to his roots. Power had corrupted his soul, and even in defeat he still sought it.
"Something new, something better than the Jedi, you are its creator and I-I promise to be its faithful serv-"
A crimson blade slammed through the man's back, pierced him straight through and left him to collapse on the ground, his eyes losing their spark of life as my left hand gently extended, the Force swirling through the dying man's eyes and mouth, his body crumbling to ashes and cinders, dissipating into the twirling sphere that soon passed through my body and was swiftly absorbed.
I sighed as I raised a hand, and the lightsabers that had been on the ground rose as one to strap themselves back to my belts.
Two more joined them.
"Let us go, Merrin," I said amiably, looking up at the Nightsister that had been watching the fight from a corner of the hall. "I promised to show you the galaxy, and I am a man of my word."
She reappeared by my side, green flames reforming her body.
She glanced at the spot where Malicos had been, and then looked up at me, thoughts warring in her mind. "Are you afraid?" I asked gently.
"No," she whispered, "My Emperor."
I sighed.
"One day someone will call me Shade, and mean it," I muttered under my breath as I began to walk out of there. "Let's try to get some civilization going on Dathomir though. Zabraks are renowned for having Force-Sensitive children among them; we could use the extra manpower in the army."
And as my thoughts turned to the addition of the planet to the Imperial Machine, the third force-sensitive I had felt on the planet dimmed, but did not disappear. My eyes moved back towards the temple, and there I saw for the briefest of moments the glimmer of a Ghost.
Then he was gone, and only I remained.
As it had been, so it would be...
...Que sera sera, the future is not ours to see.
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