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SW: Return From Exile

machievelli

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machievelli Newbie

machievelli

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It appears my liking for Goto will remain unique to me... A pity. :)

 

ED. I would have saved him if I could think about working around the Droid cut segments. The situation with him deciding to interfere with the process of removing the Trayus Core sort of set him up. As I mentioned in a previous segment, Marai had a 'live and let live' attitude. But the original authors of the game didn't leave you that option, did they?

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machievelli Newbie

machievelli

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Confrontation

 

Marai

 

The floor of the cave was vitrified stone. It felt satin smooth to the touch. Ahead of me I could see light, and as I stepped into the cavern I stopped stunned at the sight before me. A massive structure that looked like a clawed hand, with a small formation that looked like another hand in the center. In the palm of the last was a round mosaic of red crystal. Kreia stood on it watching me approach.

 

“So you come at last.” She smiled gently. “To kill or redeem?”

 

“Why?”

 

“Why what?”

 

“Why have you destroyed so many lives, Arren Kae?”

 

She started. “How-”

 

“You forget that Mira and I love history. She found your image in the faculty list.”

 

She chuckled. “I didn‘t set out to ruin anyone’s life, my child. I was a historian.” She sighed, and that sigh was bone deep with weariness. “I saw the weaknesses of the order. Weakness that has been there since the beginning. In leaning so far toward what is right and proper, the Order forgot what was necessary and just. I had been cast out because of a simple human failing, and I wanted justice. Not right or wrong as they decided, but justice.

 

“Oh they had another reason though. As a historian I spent a lot of time with the apprentices. I taught them what had been done, but more important, i taught them why it had been done.

 

“Remember I told you of the types of historians? Have you ever studied the condemnation of Breia Solo and Sienna Dodonna?”

 

“On the trip here.” I admitted. “They were Padawan in the time right before the Republic was formed.”

 

“Yes. Good. But do you know why I used them?”

 

“Because they were separately condemned using false testimony and exiled.”

 

“Exactly! As I was condemned because I taught history and not rote, you were condemned because they looked at what happened and instead of trying to understand, they cast you aside in their fear.

 

“The Shadow Mass Generator and this facility reacted to each other. If one had not been here, nothing would have occurred. But in that second of activation this Academy and the Generator fed each other. For thirty thousand years it had been untouched, and it was dying. Like the Star Forge, it was alive after a fashion, and the deaths of three million people and almost 400 Jedi fed it to overflowing in an instant. It literally vomited all that energy back into the void.

 

“The shockwave struck every Jedi in the system, but only five of us were close enough to be directly affected. There was Kielan and Quintain. Wahansi and myself.

 

“And you.” She looked at me.

 

“The device wanted to survive, wanted to return to it’s purpose. It controlled the entire religious life of the Rakata, and with the merest thought it could do that again. It reached out, it called to me, and I came. I accepted the gift of seer. I could know and see all within the very galaxy. Along with that I could also bring memories to the fore. Think of the wonder that could have been in other hands!

 

“But I was angry still from my exile. I sought not the memories that can guide and heal, but the ones that harm. When I returned to the others, Wahansi tried to fight me, to convince me to give it up, to return to being the thing I had been. In my fury at the very idea I brought every nightmare from her memory and gave it flesh to deal with her. She could have survived, but she fought me, and died. Quintain was glad to accept his position. To him no one else was ever real, so punishing them came easily to him. Kielan tried to resist, but eventually came around. But we were trapped in the cycle. Without the judge, we were people with power, but not enough power.”

 

“An engine without an ignition.” I murmured.

 

“Yes, Kielan was right about that. We needed our judge. But none that were sent could do that for us. There was that initial spark that the system created when the generator went off. Without it no mortal mind could accept it. I found myself a Seer unable to direct, with an executioner too happy to carry out his mission, and a Warrior that never broke free of the pain of his inclusion.

 

“I heard eventually about your exile, and it struck me that you were the key. That you had been here, that you had been affected by the Core. I was sure of it when I saw the record of your trial for the first time over a year before I found you.

 

“You might say that your action before the council is what called me to you. When you struck the pintel and converted justice into seek and truth, you showed the judgment a good judge must have. To judge someone on all of the evidence for and against, and mete out punishment as due.

 

“But events precluded my having you brought here. The Jedi Civil War ended, and the deliveries of fresh Jedi and more importantly the ship necessary to escape ended. For a brief time I had assumed that Revan might be a usable substitute, but she was just as stubborn as she had ever been, and quite frankly when your sleep is full of nightmares of things you might have done and regretted, you can’t very well use them against the person, now can you?

 

“Then Quintain fomented his little palace revolt. He wanted to be fed, and I would not allow him to do so. His destruction of Katarr had been bad enough. But what was I after all? Merely an ex-Jedi with delusions of grandeur. Kielan went along I think because he was bored. They stripped me of my power, made me... human again.”

 

“But that freed me to travel, and thanks to Revan, I had a ship. I escaped before they even knew I had found it. I went in search of you. So did they after a time but I had the advantage. You see, they were looking for the glimpse of a Jedi. I was looking for a place where no force existed. I found it.

 

“I rescued you from Kielan’s attack, and we escaped. But you had no link to the force remaining. I was as astonished as the masters had been but I noticed that you could still direct the force. It was just that after ten years, you were a child. An apprentice if you will. You could not use the force because you believed you no longer could.

 

“It was like the blind leading the blind, but I found the link. For in my mind, I could still use the force, even though I had been cut off. I used your mind to see what I could still see, feel what I could still feel. Your mind accepted that somehow you had regained your abilities. Once it had, I merely watched. As you returned to your power, I was dragged along with you.”

 

“So you tried to make me in your image?”

 

She laughed. “Have you never heard that there are no bad students, only bad teachers? I had tried to teach as an historian and failed. I tried again as the seer, and failed. This time I taught not by example, but at cross purpose.

 

“On my home world, there is an animal called a quill-pig. It is a huge animal with spines as long as your hand. We raised them, and when you herd a quill-pig you do not get behind and push. You have to lead it. So you take a stick-” She raised her hand, then made a jabbing motion. “-and poke him in the nose. He heads toward you because it irritates him. He follows as long as you give him a prod every now and then, and back away when he has come as far as you wanted.

 

“Your constant harping on the women who joined me.”

 

“Yes. Would you have been willing to try with Brianna my daughter if I had not literally ordered you not to try? Visas, who supported you so well against Quintain. Would you have tried to use something else if I had not suggested that killing her was a better option? Would you have worked to bring Atton to your side if I had not constantly painted him as a fool?

 

“Every time you did something kind or just, I was there telling you how stupid it was. I was the devil’s advocate that pushed you to decide for yourself. The one that made you choose to become who you are.”

 

She raised her hand, and the blade of a lightsaber shot from it. “So now it comes to this. You must do the last thing. You must kill me here, at the seat of my power. Take from me what is yours by right, and avenge yourself.”

 

“No.”

 

“You refuse? Then I should just do this to myself.”

 

“Go ahead.” I stared at her. I had no anger for her. Not even pity. She had manipulated me from the minute we first spoke, yet I could not kill her.

 

“Remember the bond-”

 

“The bond that never existed.” I snapped back.

 

She stared at me, and began to laugh. Not the simple chuckle of a woman, but the full throated rich laugh of someone who knows you finally see the joke. “Oh so well done! You are greater than any I ever thought to teach.”

 

“Why did you make me think that?”

 

“To goad you and protect me. I lied to you only once. That was when I made you think the bond could be lethal. I needed it in case you decided to do without my tutelage. There were so many times I know you wanted to tell me to push off. Or even kill me. But the ‘bond’ would not let you. To protect yourself you needed me near by.” She chuckled again.

 

“But after the Masters cast you aside again, I knew most of my work was done. You were trained to the best of my abilities. Not even a master of the old order could have done better. But you still needed to come here. To end this, and me.”

 

“So I am supposed to kill you here? Become you?”

 

“If you had been at all acquisitive of power, that would have been the option. To become the judge, and others with you would become the other points of the star.”

 

Visas. I already had my seer. Brianna my warrior. Mira my executioner. But she would never fit in that role, would she? But Atton or Bao-Dur would have. Anyone else would have been unnecessary. In an instant whichever four I had chosen would become the most powerful beings in the galaxy. And thanks to that gift of mine of easily forming bonds, they would do what I wanted. No more fighting between us, no indecision. The galaxy would be what I wanted it to be.

 

Yet it would have been a hollow victory. I could no more condemn the ones I chose to such a life as I could eliminate the ones who did not fit that pattern. And removing them is exactly what I would have had to do.

 

I reached out. “Come with me, Arren. Let me save you one last time.”

 

“Save me?” She shook her head fondly. “You did that when you refused to sink into the darkness I know so well. With every step you have taken toward the light, you have brought me from that abyss. Even now I know what you think, and you are right. Two of those that follow you would have had to die here for the pattern to be formed, and you will give up none of them. Not even me.” She lowered her hood. For the first time I saw her full face, and could see there the strong jaw of Brianna. The same steely gaze. She walked to the edge of the platform, looking down.

 

“You need not stay any longer. My time is done. But I have a gift for you. A glimpse of the future to come.

 

“You were asked to seek the Jedi. You have found them. Not those that had once held the title, but the ones that will form the new order. The lost Jedi, because no one ever thought to look for them.”

 

“The others.”

 

“Yes. All too old to be taught according to tradition, but when the galaxy needed their strength, they came forward at your call. All they had ever needed was someone like you. A teacher and leader. Someone that would guide them through the first difficult steps, then like a wounded bird, letting them free. The order will be stronger for their existence and their names will shine through the galaxy in the time to come. Their deeds will be remembered long after they are dust.”

 

“Deeds? You can see what they will do?”

 

“I see what all of you will do. I see the Republic to it’s fall, I see the death of the galaxy itself.” She smiled again, head cocked. “Would you know that they think of you five millennia from now?”

 

“My own life, no.” I shook my head. “I would rather take it as it comes. But... The others...”

 

“Part of your life I must tell to explain the rest. For a brief time you will travel with them, but it will not last. Forces within the galaxy will make you walk away from them. But that is to the good, for children never grow up if the parent does not let them go. Your skill with force bonds would tie them to you forever if you did not leave them to their fates.

 

“Mira shall hunt for life as she told you. She will seek those that are still lost, for there are so many that can claim the title Jedi if they but know it. She will fight for them, and save them where she can, and weep when she cannot. Many years will pass before she will find herself hunted as you were, by bounty hunters seeking a great prize. They will kill her on Ord Mandell, bringing them great honor, but they will not survive that battle. Her last battle will be the stuff of legend.

 

“Mandalore will gain his army, and it will be an army of honor and respect. By the time he finally dies the Mandalorian people will be restored to their honor and place within the galaxy. His people will eventually die, but that death will take many millennia, and will be itself worthy of legend. Long after the society is dead, people will remember them and still shiver with fear.

 

“Atton will keep his rogue’s heart, but he will turn it like a thief given a badge. He will seek out those that feed upon others. Eventually he will become too good at what he does. He will die, but it will be quick and painless. The only thing he will never have is the love of the woman he would have died for.

 

“Bao-Dur will return to Telos. His work will bring life back to the planets destroyed, and he will die of old age in the fullness of time revered by many. Better loved than all of you combined.

 

“My daughter will discover her own love of history. where Mira will become the Huntress who seeks the new Jedi, she will become the teacher I wished I had been. Her thought will shape the order for a millennia, and that thought is what you taught her, not I.

 

“Visas will return to her home world, and see it at last as she has seen you. But what she does from that point on is unclear. It is as if I am not allowed to see it. But what I can tell you is when you leave, she will not go with you. Like Revan, your path is too dangerous to take anyone you care about. She will remember and mourn, and that mourning will make her what she becomes in time.”

 

“But will there even be a Republic to protect?”

 

She laughed again. “Goto is right that the Republic is dying, but I could have told him that it has been dying for over fifteen millennia and it‘s fall confidently predicted by doomsayers every year. It has staggered along for all of that time, and will stagger along for another five millennia before it succumbs to the disease which afflicts it. But as a corpse beneath the soil gives forth new life from it’s essence, it will do so. There will be a period of total corruption but after that time, it will arise anew, and in time better and brighter than what has ever been.”

 

“Arren-”

 

“Spare me, Marai, my dear child.” She looked at me sadly. I am thin and stretched, and if you had gone to darkness, my entire life would have been a waste. Now I am free, as you will be when this is gone.” She waved toward the structure. “May the Force be with you always.” She gave me a cheery wave with her left arm minus it’s hand, and stepped out into the blackness.

 

*****

 

I walked slowly back to the room when Kielan still knelt.

 

“She is gone.” I told him. “And this will be gone ten minutes after I leave.”

 

He stood facing me. “Come.” He escorted me from the building. The mass of dark Jedi had grown to almost a hundred. They parted for us, and flowed back together after we passed.

 

Brianna wanted to leap into my arms, I knew that from her look. But she was watching the mass that faced us grimly. The others except for Atton faced outward as well.

 

“Mistress?” One of the Dark Jedi called plaintively. “Are you leaving us?”

 

“They will be upset.” Kielan said. “Run.”

 

“Kielan-”

 

“Marai, I died here. I just haven’t laid down yet.” He reached out touching my face. I passed him my lightsaber. “Go.”

 

I walked up and Mira handed me a lightsaber from her belt. “Figure you might need this. You got a plan?”

 

“Run like hell.” I said.

 

Bao Dur threw Atton up on his shoulder. “Lead the way General.”

 

We started at a slow walk toward the path home. Behind us the plaintive cries had grown alarmed, then as we began to jog, angry. There was a hiss of blades, and a dozen or more charged after us. Kielan met them in a flurry of blows, and screams began to follow us as we began to run.

 

We came to the first bridge, and perhaps half of that hundred were baying at our heels. We took the span at a run, and almost staggered to a stop at the sight of half a dozen droids at the bottom.

 

“Amused Rejoinder: We were instructed to keep them at bay.” One said. “Declarative statement: get off the bridge so we can blow it.“

 

We ran down the span, and had barely reached the end when the 30,000 year old bridge shattered like glass. A few dozen of the dark ones had made it across, and they were taken under fire by the droids as we ran on. We reached with only a few following, and that one was also destroyed. None had made it past there, and we hurried on, passing the humming shadow mass generator.

 

HK47 stood at the ramp. “Impulsive statement: It is good to see you again not-a-meatbag-Marai. Board quickly.”

 

Bao Dur dropped Atton in the med bay, running forward, followed by Mira. I saw their fingers dancing over the controls, felt the ship lurch, then spin to leap toward the stars. I went aft, and Brianna had already switched on the aft viewer.

 

Where are you going? A voice seemed to ask. I suddenly felt the crushing weight of loneliness. I must survive, my mission is to survive. I felt someone catching my arm, then someone else grabbing the other. Brianna was screaming at me, Visas was begging. I had to do this I had to give that lonely voice what it needed! But they held me down, fighting me!

 

“800 thousand.” someone said. “850, 880,”

 

I flung Brianna aside, chopping at Visas. She caught my hand, and I flipped over her shoulder. I caught her clothes, and she fell atop me, but I was trying to do something with my other hand.

 

“One million. One one, one two-”

 

I flung Visas aside, and even as my hand pulled it free, I recognized the dead man circuit. I closed my eyes, even though I knew we would be dead before I even recognized that I had-

 

“One five, one six-”

 

Wait a minute. The system should have cut in. We should be crushed by a million gravities...

 

“Two million. Ignition.” The ship lurched backwards toward the core, but we were outside the kill zone. I staggered to my feet, staring at the screen. Malachor five had taken on a red tint, light running toward it faster than it had anywhere around us. The star flared, plasma rushing toward the core as it shifted in it‘s orbit, both attracted to each other by the massive gravity well.

 

Still we ran. No one knew what happened if you accelerated a planetary sized mass to light speed. Would it try to tunnel into hyperspace and go plunging into the swirling lights forever? Or would it stubbornly refuse, striking the star at a large percentage of light speed?

 

The star bulged, then behind us it went into a nova. It exploded, but it was like a shaped charge, all of the energy vented in a cone with Malachor V in it’s focus. The core disappeared into the plasma and was gone.

 

I gasped, the voice in my head was gone. I staggered over to Brianna. “Oh, gods, my sister, I am sorry.” I whispered.

 

“A neat trick.” She coughed, holding her side. “I will have to remember that one.”

 

Bao-Dur came aft, staring at us in shock. Both Brianna and Visas were battered, and bloody. I looked as if I had stuck my head in a wind tunnel.

 

“What happened?”

 

“The damn thing tried to call me back. Make me stay.” I whispered. “But the dead man circuit didn’t work!”

 

“Oh that?” He asked dead pan. “You could never lie very well, General. So I told you that was a dead man circuit. It was just a heart monitor.” He lifted his own wrist, and removed the one he wore. “If you died, I figured we wouldn’t have a chance, so I rigged the dead man circuit into my cuff instead.”

 

“You...” I stared at him. Brianna and Visas looked toward me. Mira had come from forward.

 

“Get him!” We charged tackling him.

 

End

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Emperor Devon Newbie

Emperor Devon

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I spend all that time sending you pages worth of cut content, and I don't get an ounce of acknowledgement at the end!? :p

 

Fantaboulistic job on Return From Exile, mach! This has easily been my favorite fic in all the CEC and KFM. :thumbsup:

 

The end was unexpected. Poor Bao-Dur.

 

Once again, fantaboulistic job! *claps*

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Emperor Devon Newbie

Emperor Devon

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Well, the librarian should move it into Jedi Archives.

 

If I may...

 

once your fanfic is finished, just start a new thread and post a clean copy of your fanfic in the general fanfic forum with the expression [FIN] in the title and we'll move it to the Jedi Archives.

 

The comments in this thread would be needless in the Archives, if you meant that this very thread should be moved. :)

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Jae Onasi Newbie

Jae Onasi

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I spend all that time sending you pages worth of cut content, and I don't get an ounce of acknowledgement at the end!? :p

 

Fantaboulistic job on Return From Exile, mach! This has easily been my favorite fic in all the CEC and KFM. :thumbsup:

 

The end was unexpected. Poor Bao-Dur.

 

Once again, fantaboulistic job! *claps*

 

I thought they were tackling Bao-Dur in fun myself. :)

 

I liked the description of the nova, btw. For some reason it just grabbed me.

 

I'll catch up on the rest when I'm done with this stupid report I have due in a few days.

 

Momerator note--I pruned the off-topic posts. Please take off-topic stuff to PMs. Thanks much!

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machievelli Newbie

machievelli

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If you want to award Fics around here, post what you think in this Thread. It is hosted by me. Like Emperor D, I won't bite. Also mach, I'll read all your Fic, when I have time, since I've only read the first few Chapters.

 

As I said last year when they had the awards Pottise, I will not vote. I'm already critiquing them all.

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Emperor Devon Newbie

Emperor Devon

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Momerator note--I pruned the off-topic posts. Please take off-topic stuff to PMs. Thanks much!

 

Already did, Jae. :)

 

Damn, the fact my nemesis can delete my posts here whenever she wants just scares the **** out of me!

*Jae gives Emperor Devon an evil (and joking) cackle....*

 

As revenge for your blatant corruption, Jae, I am going to type this in the most difficult to read color available. Your old eyes will wilt before it! Ha ha!

 

:) --Jae

 

@goldberry and machievelli, I think he means that out of a rating of 10, Return From Exile gets an 11. :)

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machievelli Newbie

machievelli

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Already did, Jae. :)

 

Damn, the fact my nemesis can delete my posts here whenever she wants just scares the **** out of me!

*Jae gives Emperor Devon an evil (and joking) cackle....*

 

@goldberry and machievelli, I think he means that out of a rating of 10, Return From Exile gets an 11. :)

 

I am not sure if I should be apalled that I only got 11 out of ten or ecstatic. (More alcohol. Those of you too young, I feel for you, but after the second 5% brew, I don't really care...

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