[Fic] KOTOR III: The Dark Reckoning

[Tysyacha]

STAR WARS: KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC III: THE DARK RECKONING

 

It has been three years since the JEDI EXILE fled the crumbling ruins of Malachor V, and eight since her greatest Master, the former DARTH REVAN, left for the Unknown Regions in search of the True Sith Empire. Once again, the galaxy is in the midst of an uneasy peace, but who knows how long it will last? The fragile REPUBLIC is still attempting to recover from the ravages of three now-slain Sith Lords: Darths NIHILUS, SION, and TRAYA.

 

Trained at the rebuilt Jedi Academy upon the planet of Dantooine, Jedi GAVIN KUATH is poised to become the galaxy's newest hero. However, now standing in shackles before THOGGA THE HUTT aboard his smuggling vessel, the Blackguard, Gavin doubts his future will be so bright...

 

My head was reeling, and I could feel my pulse throb in my left temple. Thogga the Hutt's hired goons must have dealt me a nasty blow! No matter. I'd deal with them soon enough, and with the smugglers aboard this space-heap of a ship. Not only were they carrying illegal cargo, but through the Force, I could sense sad prisoners. Slaves, maybe, or future slaves. Like me.

 

"I trust you slept well?" Thogga's words poured out like thick mucus.

 

"Yeah. Very well." I would say nothing. The less Thogga knew about who I was and the mission I had been assigned by my Jedi Masters, the better.

 

"Look here, prisoner. I am a smuggler, and I can be very powerful through my many connections. You'd do well to answer my questions. Less people would want to kill you that way." Thogga chuckled. "Tell us what you know, and I'll let you live."

 

"Know about what?" I tried to move, but my legs and arms were as stiff as boards. Not to mention the shackles around my wrists and ankles, and the Neural Inhibitor around my neck. Jedi-proof, that thing was. At least for me.

 

"First, who are you and what do you do? You're not just some space scout."

 

"I'm a Jedi," I snarled, "and that means I can kill you if I get free."

 

"Which you won't." Thogga seemed faintly amused. "I seek information about two particular Jedi Masters, Revan and the woman known as the Jedi Exile. They may not have been your Masters, but I still want to know all about them. Who were they, and what were their powers? Where are they now?"

 

"What good would knowing that be to a space slug who deals in arms?" I asked. "Illegal weapons and slaves? You couldn't take Revan and Tysy. They'd split your Hutt head in half in just two seconds. Anyway, you know the tales. Revan was a man. A Sith Lord who was redeemed by the Jedi. As for the Exile, she was kicked out for following Revan to war, but mostly because she was a wound in the Force. After saving Onderon and Dantooine and even stinky old Nar Shaddaa, she defeated Darth Traya on Malachor V."

 

Thogga suppressed a yawn of his flabby Hutt jaws. "All of that is old news. I want to know if you've heard any more of them through your current Jedi Masters." His voice was even more of an ear-splitting bass than an Ithorian's!

 

"No deal." I smiled at him. "Let me go, and I'll let you live."

 

This time, Thogga wasn't amused. "Take the prisoner back to his cell."

 

I was locked up, having submitted to his armed Rodian thugs for a while, but good thing old Gavin Kuath is a Jedi Sentinel, eh? I sliced through that door in less time than it takes a Hutt to pass gas, and I quickly slipped into Stealth Mode. Killing had never been my style. I preferred to slink by enemies' unseen, taking advantage of their stupidity and unawareness.

 

To the left and right of me, I saw other people in cells, but unfortunately I wasn't sure I was good enough at Stealth yet to free them without being noticed. So I didn't. Un-Jedi-like of me, sure, but if I didn't get out of this mess soon and off this ship, I'd be slaving in the Hutt spice camps for sure!

 

[Jason Skywalker]

Great beginning Tysy! This Gavin Kuath character is interesting. I want more!

[Tysyacha]

After all this time, why did I still thrash at night in the midst of dark dreams?

 

In reality, in waking life, I didn't know where I was. There were no charts to guide me, no Star Maps by which to plot my course. Having left my own ship, the Ebon Hawk, behind over eight years ago, I couldn't access the galactical coordinates logged in its navicomputer. I was alone, without even a droid, aboard a two-passenger courier's vessel. I ate little and slept less, but tonight fatigue had overwhelmed me.

 

In my dreams, or rather my nightmares, I was standing aboard a massive Sith vessel, poised to attack. Bastila Shan, a powerful Jedi I once knew, was staring at me hard. Her blue eyes were cold, and her gaze reproachful. I struggled to bury my sadness, my anger and fear. If Bastila knew even half of what I was thinking, she'd strike me.

 

"You cannot win, Revan," she said, her double-bladed yellow lightsaber ignited. "Not for the first time, and not for the second! How could you forsake the Jedi Order once more, after I redeemed you? You rescued me from the Star Forge and kept me from the ravages of the Dark Side. You've fallen again, and this time I won't save you."

 

"You have also fallen again, Bastila," I replied, my voice sounding muffled and gravelly because of the red mask I wore. "You've let your anger consume you, and it makes you strong. I now realize you were right as you stood against me at the summit of the Rakata Temple. I was wrong to turn you from the real Force path, that of the Sith."

 

"What made you re-degenerate?" Bastila snarled. "Was it because you left me, and that was the unwitting start of your second fall? Or was it the fact that you yourself felt betrayed by the Jedi Order, with Master Vandar and the others hiding the truth from you and having you follow their orders? Perhaps you're simply Sith to the core."

 

"I am neither Jedi nor Sith," I said. "I have re-embraced the Dark Side because I know now that's the only way to face this threat. The True Sith, who convinced the Mandalorians to go to war and paved the way for my teacher, Darth Traya, to plan the extermination of all Jedi, are coming for us--to pass judgment on this galaxy."

 

"So you say." Bastila lowered her lightsaber. "I have felt no trace of this threat."

 

"That's because you haven't listened." I wanted to step forward and take her hand, but I knew that she would not allow it. She'd cut my own hand off before that happened! "You haven't reached out through the Force and seen what true Jedi have seen. Maybe you don't want to believe, but I know the threat moves. It's coming."

 

"Nonsense." Bastila sprang forward in a great leap. "I won't lower my defenses!"

 

Too late--she already had. Before I knew it, I'd attacked and plunged my glowing red blade into Bastila's heart. The horrible truth about what I'd suddenly done shocked my senses. I felt no guilt, no sudden remorse, and no sorrow. What had to be done was done, at least in my split-second opinion. I deactivated my lightsaber and knelt down.

 

"You never knew the truth," I said softly. "I've always belonged to someone else."

 

I woke up, sitting bolt upright in a hot sweat. That last statement was true, but I'd never live that dream. Never fulfill that nightmare. Never fall to the Dark Side again!

 

[Bee Hoon]

I really liked the second chapter! Erm, re-degenerate sounds a bit funny, considering how stern Bastila was at the time. Other than that, great job!