Dark Prince - Holocron Introduction
Author's Title : "Dark Prince - Rise of Darkness"
Author: Darth En Ghedi
Origin: Portugal
Language: English
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Description - Under Master Skywalker’s instructions, I was given the task to investigate this mysterious holocron that was found in the ruins of Darth Vader’s Palace in Vjun. Even though much of the Holocron’s contents were concealed from me, I was able to retrieve some recordings I believe were left to another unknown recipient, presumably this Sith Lord’s apprentice, whose identity or whereabouts are also unknown. - Jedi Historian, Tionne Solusar.
Source - Unknown Sith Holocron
Avatar - Unknown Sith Lord, presumably the one called Darth En Ghedi.
-Recording Begins -
The Dark Times are named as so because light was engulfed into nothing.
The Empire began a campaign, when unleashed the Order 66 and took whatever hope the Republic had to experience peace after the Clone Wars.
The Dark Times were a period of exile to many of the followers of the Light. But much more than that, it was a period of liberation for those who were strangled with the Jedi imposed restrictions for so much time.
To me, it was period of affirmation and of growth in both strength and power.
When I was but a baby, my parents discovered my ability to use the Force. The most amazing demonstration of my power, was when I cried from any of the needs of a small child, whatever was breakable would shatter to pieces.
Scared and ignorant, my father sought the wisdom of those he believed could bring peace to his life. The Jedi arrived in a rainy day. I don't recall much of that day, but one thing is very vivid in my mind, I could sense my father's relief to see me part. And I was but a child.
That was my sole memory. I was despised and delivered to the Jedi as a bargain for a better life. I couldn't find ways to forgive my own father, much less accept this condition. I grew up with the Jedi ways, but the more I learned, the more I felt the desire to leave. I felt deprived of my own life. But the Jedi was all I had.
In trade of this new Padawan, my parents were granted a treaty of confidentiality and my home world of Mashala was erased from the Jedi Archives. This treaty was endorsed by the Republic in the person of Senator Palpatine. Little my father knew that he was bargaining with a cunning adversary of the Republic itself.
My days in Coruscant were spent in training and learning. Many hours were taken studying the very architecture of the Force. I was a formidable scholar but also a promising fighter, always touched by boldness and curiosity.
And that curiosity led me to the Dark Side of the Force. A day I wish to forget but also a day I wish to recall over and over.
I had been called too aggressive in my training. In the end, I was always told I needed even more training, that I was but a boy. A boy… They kept reminding me of this disadvantage, but even so, I felt the Force in ways they couldn’t conceive. I had the power within me, I only held it back in respect for the Jedi Masters. Calling me a “boy” was not just disrespectful but was also an imposed defense for those who feared my power could overwhelm them.
I knew that… they knew that.
In the many hours spent on training we always had several breaks to regain strength.
All the younglings went to the canteen to take their midday meals. I decided to walk the corridors as often as I could. Absorbing the power of the Force from the very halls and floors other great Jedi stepped before me.
I learned to draw strength from the same places great Force wielders once dwelled, perhaps meditating on the many branches of the living Force or the many ways to defeat an enemy faced with a Lightsaber.
One cold day, as rainy as the day the Jedi had come to Mashala to take me, I was walking the same corridors I always did, when I felt a disturbance.
I was too inexperienced with the Force to interpret it. At first, it felt like an irresistible lure, but became colder and colder as I stepped closer to the source.
There was a dark room at the end of this corridor. I had passed beyond that room so many times, but that day I looked at it as if I had never seen it before. That was the source of the disturbance. I wondered if I was the only one who felt it, or that I might not be as attuned to feel it before, or even if the Masters were oblivious of this ripple in the Force.
As bold as I was known to be, I advanced to the room, picking up my training lightsaber from my belt. I felt scared, but somehow fueled by this disturbance in a way I couldn’t understand.
The room was poorly lit and it took some time to adapt to darkness. At first I felt that there was nothing there. But when I was turning away, I distinguished a silhouette next to the closed window. It was dusk and rainy in the weather inconstant Coruscant.
I was scared to notice the man was right next to the door, meaning I missed his presence when I entered it.
Believing he was some dignitary in the many Jedi Temple visits, I addressed the dark figure as I would any other person, threat or not. “There is only peace”, I cited the Jedi Code in my mind.
“Who are you, sir?” I asked. “This area is not open to visitors.” I trembled but was confident on my training to be a diplomat. As I ignited the small lightsaber, its bluish light revealed a man cloaked in very long dark robes.
When he spoke, the voice was a thunder in the once silent room, “Brave young man,” he said, “you shouldn’t enter a room with a stranger like you did… You will never know what is in store for you”, he smiled.
My innocence pushed me to the reply I gave, again, it was bold.
“I am a Jedi”, I tried to sound convincing, “and the Force is with me. You are trespassing…” The lightsabre turned from a light source to a weapon.
“Yes… Of course!” Only his chin was visible and just barely. Enough to notice how he was still smiling, “I have offended you…” he paused as if creating a momentum “Jedi… Allow me to apologize.”
The man extended his hand revealing a black pyramidal object with small reddish engravings. Now I know it was a Sith Holocron, but back then, I wasn’t familiar with it and it was intentional that I did not. The Jedi hide the information from the younglings they consider dangerous or easily misunderstood. Sith artifacts were certainly in these categories.
Still, I could sense it was tuned to the Force, somehow. There was a conflict in me. As much as I wanted to grasp it, the Jedi code spoke louder in my mind.
“I cannot accept it. Jedi are not meant to have possessions”, my voice as convincing as I could pretend, for I craved the small object, so alluring it was.
“Indeed! But, this is much more than a mere present. This is a true relic.” He stretched his arm further and the small object lit itself in a strange red aura. “It calls for you… listen…”
In the silence I could hear voices… and they were menacing… The Dark Side…
Steps were heard in the corridor. The man became impatient.
“I really…” I began to say.
“Take it!” The man’s voice was terrifyingly strong, now.
So tender in my age, my impulse was to cry and began stumbling away from the room.
My cries were responded by two Jedi Knights who were also walking down the same corridors I picked for my daily breaks.
Wielding their lightsabers they lit up the room and looked around. The window was closed and the room empty.
I was still crying, touched by fear. The Jedi asked what happened and between sobbing and tears I explained a man had been there and was strong in the Dark Side. I was honest. But my honesty was misunderstood with a child play.
“There’s no one here, Padawan!” One of the Jedi said, “It’s wrong to lie!”
“I am not lying, Master!” I was trembling, now by the fear of being punished for telling the truth.
They kept searching using their commlinks to contact the other Jedi, making sure the “boy” was actually telling the truth.
In the mean time, I heard a voice. At first it was as faint as a whisper, but it eventually echoed so loudly I couldn’t avoid listening to it.
“Take my gift, my young Jedi!” The voice said, as alluring as it was the object, lying somewhere on the floor, inside the room. The voice continued, “I mean you no harm, allow me to show you how you can become a powerful man”.
The Jedi were still distracted by the commlink communications. They seemed oblivious of the voice.
“Search for it,” it continued, “use your instincts…”
The temptation was too strong to be ignored. As the Light Side was advising me to run, the lure was too powerful.
“Let go of the Force,” the voice said, “pick it up…”
“Pick up what?” I started, but the words were never pronounced. I knew what I was supposed to pick. In fact, I felt it was my desire. And its lure was so intoxicating.
A dim light was able to reach my eye. At first the lights on the room did not enable me to perceive its source, but I knew where it was. Oblivious of all that surrounded me, even the two Jedi, I found the artifact in a corner, not loss, but placed irrevocably to be found.
At first I wanted to pick it up as an evidence of the man’s presence, but as I touched it, the feeling it caused in my hand was puzzling. Then the voice returned.
“Listen to what the object is telling you”, it said again, this time, it would appear it was echoing from the pyramidal object itself. So I approached my ear to it.
As I did, I felt an impulse of a million voices shouting at my year, into my mind, like echoes of many suffering voices and many other shouting. There were words of pain, and of menace… there was fear… But somehow, it was not my own fear, for I felt no fear from this phenomenon. Perhaps awe. Definitely not fear. I would say I enjoyed the tremendous power I felt in those split seconds.
In the mean time, the Jedi were no longer distracted and they clearly interpreted what was going on. They saw the artifact as I was not making any effort to hide. Nor was I attempting to hide my one enjoyment of that touch of the Dark Side.
“Drop the holocron, boy!” The closest Jedi Knight told me. His voice transmitted both authority and fear. “Do it!” He added.
But I was no longer listening. The voices were continuing to speak to me. The power of the Dark Side was tremendous and the Force was bending around me. I never recalled lighting up my training Lightsaber but I recalled its bluish light, so intense, it felt like the suns of many systems were concentrated on my own blade.
“Don’t do this, Padawan!” The other Jedi Knight was instinctively igniting his own saber. Perhaps understanding the damage the holocron was doing to me. He extended his hand “Give it to me, boy!”
The word “boy” suddenly felt awkward… then offensive…
“I am not a boy!” At first I said it almost whispering. Then I repeated in a burst of anger. The very same anger I had learned to avoid “I am not a boy!” The forbidden feeling was somehow sweet as I tasted it for the first time.
Suddenly, the two Jedi seemed so small, compared to the enlarged entity I had become by touching the Dark Side of the Force. They were only two Jedi Knights. I could take them.
“Strike them down with your new given hatred…” the man’s voice had returned... and I accepted it.
There was a new power I had never felt, a new type of reward for my efforts. I felt hilarious with so much adrenaline, but much more than that, I felt victory unavoidable. For the first time in my life, I felt there was power surrounding me and it was mine to take it. How could the Jedi have hidden this from me?
My small lightsaber travelled in an unconceivable speed and clashed the standard lightsabers the Jedi were wielding in mere defense, surprised.
But they were two, I was but one… and young.
When that feeling stroke me, the voice returned.
“They are strong, but not that strong… You’ll die if they disarm you!” The voice whispered as if behind me.
I felt the truth in the man’s voice and I saw the two Jedi suddenly changing their stance to attack. One of the Jedi made a slash that passed close to my ear, too close. I could smell the burnt hair. My Padawan braid… it was gone.
The image of the small braid on the floor refilled my anger. My eyes focused on the two Jedi. I can’t describe the amount of rage I felt. Only that it felt like the very foundations of the Jedi Temple could crumble, if I so wished.
“No!” I screamed, “Die Jedi!”
I crawled with a speed I never knew I had and cut in between the two Jedi. In their surprise, or perhaps overconfidence, both Jedi flanks were found unguarded. But I was also too close to the Jedi to perform an effective blow to both. So I picked one. And I took the chance.
The Jedi screamed as I clashed his right arm with my training saber. Those were tuned to only cause dormancy on the limbs, as they were not effective killing weapons as the true Lightsabers were. Still, my blow was strong enough to make the Jedi drop his own weapon. Without thinking twice, I reached the Force to make the Jedi’s saber float to my waiting hand.
I saw horror in the Jedi’s face as I carved his own weapon in his chest. I felt a mix of shock and pleasure. Absorbing this man’s terror and feeling the power of the Force unleashing its might around me.
“Minus one,” I thought.
The other Jedi was drowned in disbelief, but I had lost the element of surprise. I could feel he no longer looked at me as a boy, but as a true menace. A life threat.
His posture also changed as he cautiously studied me. He spoke.
“Please, Padawan, stop this.” His voice was surprisingly calm. “Don’t let the Dark Side take you…”
“It’s too late, Jedi.” The voice that came from my lips, sounded too adult for my age. “I was touched by this power I never felt before. I am attuned with the Force,” I said as I smiled.
“Don’t speak like that!” The Jedi felt confident he was going somewhere with this talk, “you’re just a boy…” these words, were again like a trigger within me, “that holocron is fooling you, recall your training!”
The rage built up, until it felt unbearable.
“I am not a boy…” The words were paused and in a low tone.
I never knew the Jedi’s names until I was given access to the Jedi Temple’s records. But their names weren’t important. Jedi Knights Vas Fi-Cres, a Corellian and Jedi Master Kin Rarok, the Echani I was now fighting, represented all the Jedi and their Order. In my mind, their deaths are the death of every single Jedi.
And it felt like it in my final attack and the Jedi’s final defense. A parry, easily overcome with a diagonal strike that beheaded him. In the last split second, I remember seeing his eyes closing in sheer expectance of the unavoidable.
I never saw his body fall. But could hear it… and felt his life fade away in the Force.
I was facing the wall, sweating and breathing heavily. The only sound was the humming of the saber, still ignited.
“What have I done?” It suddenly stroked me. Fear took over.
The once soothing mysterious voice of the man, who offered me the way to reach the Dark Side, was now a source of my own grief and I trembled to hear it… I was a boy again.
“You are now an agent of the Dark Side… the Sith Legacy can be yours!” The word “Sith” itself made me tremble, the voice continued to speak to me,“You’ve done well, my…” there was a pause that felt like forever, then he finished the sentence, “apprentice!”
I was shaking violently of the cold I felt.
“No…” I began, “I am a Padawan, I can’t…”
“Enough!” The voice interrupted me, “you are a Sith apprentice! I have chosen you…”
I fiddled the small pyramidal holocron in my hand and the man continued.
“You were told the Sith are evil. That they were extinct. The object you have in your hands is a Sith Holocron, created by the greatest Sith Master, Darth Plagueis. It was mine… now it is yours…”
The name Darth Plagueis… It was not familiar, except for the title “Darth”, the title of the Sith followers. That much wasn’t kept from me during my visits of the Jedi Library.
Still, I had much trouble understanding that I was to become a follower of the Sith, knowing what it represented. It felt like a tremendous lie. A lie I wasn’t prepared to listen.
“I…” the sentence was never completed. I was looking down at the Holocron. It was pulsing in an intense red.
“The holocron has many stories to tell you.” The man said, finally revealing himself from a dark corner, as if he was camouflaged. But I knew it was the Dark Side shrouding him from me and the Jedi all the time. “You are to become a great… man!” His words were carefully chosen.
The man’s voice now sounded different. Less menacing, warmer…
“You must leave now,” the man continued underneath his dark hood, “others are coming, alerted by the ripple of the Force…”
I was filled with terror. For moments I forgot where I was. The very core of the Jedi Order. But nothing had prepared me for the revelation I was given next.
“That hideous Skywalker is coming for you…” The man’s mouth almost expressed a faint smile.
Anakin Skywalker was the champion of the Jedi. Considered to be the Chosen One, he was arguably the most powerful Jedi there was. Also, he was known for his unique temper and lack of patience.
When he learned what I had done, I was certainly going to meet his famous wrath, some of us actually questioned if it was the way of a Jedi, but now, that seemed irrelevant.
“Where should I go?” I asked, finally turning off the lightsaber and dropping it on the floor with a metallic bump.
I felt a hand on my shoulder. I felt peace somehow. At least it was sufficient to appease me.
“I will guide you…” the man said.
The hand on my shoulder was gone and as I turned back he was gone. But I, clearly, felt his presence.
With a new found power I could sense everything around me. My senses were fine tuned and I could sense the Jedi approaching, the students alarmed asking the Masters in the training room what was this disturbance they were feeling. And then I heard a familiar voice echoing in my mind.
I closed my eyes to concentrate on it… It was Master Yoda, talking to someone… Skywalker… and his words were… of death!
“Eliminate this threat we must. Kill the youngling we must…”
I opened my eyes in sheer terror. I ran… I sought the guidance of my benefactor.
“Yoda wants me dead, that’s impossible…” I said out loud, “Jedi are not murderers…”
Little did I knew, then, that this illusion was so easily created with the power of the Dark Side. Still, it felt very real to me. The man took advantage of my innocence, though.
“They know of your potential. Jedi are weak, they choose to eliminate rather than confront, since they know they will never stand a chance”. He lied, but I wasn’t aware. He was all I believed to have between life and death. “You must continue to run, I will train you in your exile. You will become powerful in the Force, I have foreseen it.”
I was still digesting all the man was saying, while running down the corridors of the Temple.
The break time was still effective, so most of the Temple’s residents were resting or studying. I found no one in my escape, I believe now that my new Master had something to do with this.
I reached the deepest area in the Temple. I had spent many times hiding from the Masters there. Being a Padawan deprived us from the childhood plays of all infants. But we always managed to find a way to avoid their watchful eyes and played in the lower levels, close to the sewers, where we found a series of tunnels that were apparently used in the past to enter and leave the Temple without being seen. Other times, perhaps other missions, other fates. But these tunnels sufficed for my own survival. The only evidence of my presence would be my Padawan robes that I decided to leave there, by the tunnel’s entrance.
I was a Jedi no more…
Far from it…
The last image I have of the Jedi Temple in Coruscant, as it was known during the days of the Republic, was a brief glimpse while I turned back, emerging from a concealed exit, about two blocks away from the gigantic complex.
It was the last time I saw it in all its glory. I could hear the alarm sirens. There was trouble in the Temple.
I could see several ships approaching the Temple. Clone Troopers. Apparentlym, the 501st Legion.
All that to hunt me? Hardly. There was something else. I now know what it was. But then, I just felt I barely escaped certain death.
Since I hadn’t the time to stay and investigate, I let go of the last pieces of cloth of the Jedi vests and kept nothing more than my undergarments.
Adrenaline was still fresh enough, so I never felt the coldness of Coruscant’s dark streets.
And I disappeared within the crowd… until one day the Dark Times would summon me…
That day was closer than I had imagined.
- End of Recording -
Addendum - These dark corridors and tunnels underneath the ruins of the Jedi Temple in Coruscant were actually found during recent excavations. The records indicate that during the Mandalorian Wars they were actually built by the Jedi Masters as a plan to escape in case of Invasion. It is not known if they were ever used. Some tunnels extend themselves more than 12 kilometres. One of such tunnels ends where there was once a small alley, about two blocks away from the temple and it fits the above description.
There are no reports of Master Yoda being in Coruscant during the period described by the author that apparently culminated with the invasion of the 501st Legion and the slaughter of the resident Jedi.
There are no reports of any issued order to eliminate any Padawan. There is also no report of any running Padawan that may have perpetrated any murder within the Temple premises. Please, bear in mind, though, that much information was lost during the rule of Emperor Palpatine.
The two Jedi names described above are both reported to have been killed during the attempt to overthrow the Emperor. However, this report has been released after the execution of the so called Great Purge, in a clear attempt to hide the true objectives of Order 66 from the Senate.
I will personally oversee the further investigation of this event. - Jedi Historian, Tionne Solusar.
Author: Darth En Ghedi
Origin: Portugal
Language: English
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The Jedi Archives Reports
File - TK8311124 – HLCRN 323(S)
File - TK8311124 – HLCRN 323(S)
Description - Under Master Skywalker’s instructions, I was given the task to investigate this mysterious holocron that was found in the ruins of Darth Vader’s Palace in Vjun. Even though much of the Holocron’s contents were concealed from me, I was able to retrieve some recordings I believe were left to another unknown recipient, presumably this Sith Lord’s apprentice, whose identity or whereabouts are also unknown. - Jedi Historian, Tionne Solusar.
Source - Unknown Sith Holocron
Avatar - Unknown Sith Lord, presumably the one called Darth En Ghedi.
-Recording Begins -
The Dark Times are named as so because light was engulfed into nothing.
The Empire began a campaign, when unleashed the Order 66 and took whatever hope the Republic had to experience peace after the Clone Wars.
The Dark Times were a period of exile to many of the followers of the Light. But much more than that, it was a period of liberation for those who were strangled with the Jedi imposed restrictions for so much time.
To me, it was period of affirmation and of growth in both strength and power.
When I was but a baby, my parents discovered my ability to use the Force. The most amazing demonstration of my power, was when I cried from any of the needs of a small child, whatever was breakable would shatter to pieces.
Scared and ignorant, my father sought the wisdom of those he believed could bring peace to his life. The Jedi arrived in a rainy day. I don't recall much of that day, but one thing is very vivid in my mind, I could sense my father's relief to see me part. And I was but a child.
That was my sole memory. I was despised and delivered to the Jedi as a bargain for a better life. I couldn't find ways to forgive my own father, much less accept this condition. I grew up with the Jedi ways, but the more I learned, the more I felt the desire to leave. I felt deprived of my own life. But the Jedi was all I had.
In trade of this new Padawan, my parents were granted a treaty of confidentiality and my home world of Mashala was erased from the Jedi Archives. This treaty was endorsed by the Republic in the person of Senator Palpatine. Little my father knew that he was bargaining with a cunning adversary of the Republic itself.
My days in Coruscant were spent in training and learning. Many hours were taken studying the very architecture of the Force. I was a formidable scholar but also a promising fighter, always touched by boldness and curiosity.
And that curiosity led me to the Dark Side of the Force. A day I wish to forget but also a day I wish to recall over and over.
I had been called too aggressive in my training. In the end, I was always told I needed even more training, that I was but a boy. A boy… They kept reminding me of this disadvantage, but even so, I felt the Force in ways they couldn’t conceive. I had the power within me, I only held it back in respect for the Jedi Masters. Calling me a “boy” was not just disrespectful but was also an imposed defense for those who feared my power could overwhelm them.
I knew that… they knew that.
In the many hours spent on training we always had several breaks to regain strength.
All the younglings went to the canteen to take their midday meals. I decided to walk the corridors as often as I could. Absorbing the power of the Force from the very halls and floors other great Jedi stepped before me.
I learned to draw strength from the same places great Force wielders once dwelled, perhaps meditating on the many branches of the living Force or the many ways to defeat an enemy faced with a Lightsaber.
One cold day, as rainy as the day the Jedi had come to Mashala to take me, I was walking the same corridors I always did, when I felt a disturbance.
I was too inexperienced with the Force to interpret it. At first, it felt like an irresistible lure, but became colder and colder as I stepped closer to the source.
There was a dark room at the end of this corridor. I had passed beyond that room so many times, but that day I looked at it as if I had never seen it before. That was the source of the disturbance. I wondered if I was the only one who felt it, or that I might not be as attuned to feel it before, or even if the Masters were oblivious of this ripple in the Force.
As bold as I was known to be, I advanced to the room, picking up my training lightsaber from my belt. I felt scared, but somehow fueled by this disturbance in a way I couldn’t understand.
The room was poorly lit and it took some time to adapt to darkness. At first I felt that there was nothing there. But when I was turning away, I distinguished a silhouette next to the closed window. It was dusk and rainy in the weather inconstant Coruscant.
I was scared to notice the man was right next to the door, meaning I missed his presence when I entered it.
Believing he was some dignitary in the many Jedi Temple visits, I addressed the dark figure as I would any other person, threat or not. “There is only peace”, I cited the Jedi Code in my mind.
“Who are you, sir?” I asked. “This area is not open to visitors.” I trembled but was confident on my training to be a diplomat. As I ignited the small lightsaber, its bluish light revealed a man cloaked in very long dark robes.
When he spoke, the voice was a thunder in the once silent room, “Brave young man,” he said, “you shouldn’t enter a room with a stranger like you did… You will never know what is in store for you”, he smiled.
My innocence pushed me to the reply I gave, again, it was bold.
“I am a Jedi”, I tried to sound convincing, “and the Force is with me. You are trespassing…” The lightsabre turned from a light source to a weapon.
“Yes… Of course!” Only his chin was visible and just barely. Enough to notice how he was still smiling, “I have offended you…” he paused as if creating a momentum “Jedi… Allow me to apologize.”
The man extended his hand revealing a black pyramidal object with small reddish engravings. Now I know it was a Sith Holocron, but back then, I wasn’t familiar with it and it was intentional that I did not. The Jedi hide the information from the younglings they consider dangerous or easily misunderstood. Sith artifacts were certainly in these categories.
Still, I could sense it was tuned to the Force, somehow. There was a conflict in me. As much as I wanted to grasp it, the Jedi code spoke louder in my mind.
“I cannot accept it. Jedi are not meant to have possessions”, my voice as convincing as I could pretend, for I craved the small object, so alluring it was.
“Indeed! But, this is much more than a mere present. This is a true relic.” He stretched his arm further and the small object lit itself in a strange red aura. “It calls for you… listen…”
In the silence I could hear voices… and they were menacing… The Dark Side…
Steps were heard in the corridor. The man became impatient.
“I really…” I began to say.
“Take it!” The man’s voice was terrifyingly strong, now.
So tender in my age, my impulse was to cry and began stumbling away from the room.
My cries were responded by two Jedi Knights who were also walking down the same corridors I picked for my daily breaks.
Wielding their lightsabers they lit up the room and looked around. The window was closed and the room empty.
I was still crying, touched by fear. The Jedi asked what happened and between sobbing and tears I explained a man had been there and was strong in the Dark Side. I was honest. But my honesty was misunderstood with a child play.
“There’s no one here, Padawan!” One of the Jedi said, “It’s wrong to lie!”
“I am not lying, Master!” I was trembling, now by the fear of being punished for telling the truth.
They kept searching using their commlinks to contact the other Jedi, making sure the “boy” was actually telling the truth.
In the mean time, I heard a voice. At first it was as faint as a whisper, but it eventually echoed so loudly I couldn’t avoid listening to it.
“Take my gift, my young Jedi!” The voice said, as alluring as it was the object, lying somewhere on the floor, inside the room. The voice continued, “I mean you no harm, allow me to show you how you can become a powerful man”.
The Jedi were still distracted by the commlink communications. They seemed oblivious of the voice.
“Search for it,” it continued, “use your instincts…”
The temptation was too strong to be ignored. As the Light Side was advising me to run, the lure was too powerful.
“Let go of the Force,” the voice said, “pick it up…”
“Pick up what?” I started, but the words were never pronounced. I knew what I was supposed to pick. In fact, I felt it was my desire. And its lure was so intoxicating.
A dim light was able to reach my eye. At first the lights on the room did not enable me to perceive its source, but I knew where it was. Oblivious of all that surrounded me, even the two Jedi, I found the artifact in a corner, not loss, but placed irrevocably to be found.
At first I wanted to pick it up as an evidence of the man’s presence, but as I touched it, the feeling it caused in my hand was puzzling. Then the voice returned.
“Listen to what the object is telling you”, it said again, this time, it would appear it was echoing from the pyramidal object itself. So I approached my ear to it.
As I did, I felt an impulse of a million voices shouting at my year, into my mind, like echoes of many suffering voices and many other shouting. There were words of pain, and of menace… there was fear… But somehow, it was not my own fear, for I felt no fear from this phenomenon. Perhaps awe. Definitely not fear. I would say I enjoyed the tremendous power I felt in those split seconds.
In the mean time, the Jedi were no longer distracted and they clearly interpreted what was going on. They saw the artifact as I was not making any effort to hide. Nor was I attempting to hide my one enjoyment of that touch of the Dark Side.
“Drop the holocron, boy!” The closest Jedi Knight told me. His voice transmitted both authority and fear. “Do it!” He added.
But I was no longer listening. The voices were continuing to speak to me. The power of the Dark Side was tremendous and the Force was bending around me. I never recalled lighting up my training Lightsaber but I recalled its bluish light, so intense, it felt like the suns of many systems were concentrated on my own blade.
“Don’t do this, Padawan!” The other Jedi Knight was instinctively igniting his own saber. Perhaps understanding the damage the holocron was doing to me. He extended his hand “Give it to me, boy!”
The word “boy” suddenly felt awkward… then offensive…
“I am not a boy!” At first I said it almost whispering. Then I repeated in a burst of anger. The very same anger I had learned to avoid “I am not a boy!” The forbidden feeling was somehow sweet as I tasted it for the first time.
Suddenly, the two Jedi seemed so small, compared to the enlarged entity I had become by touching the Dark Side of the Force. They were only two Jedi Knights. I could take them.
“Strike them down with your new given hatred…” the man’s voice had returned... and I accepted it.
There was a new power I had never felt, a new type of reward for my efforts. I felt hilarious with so much adrenaline, but much more than that, I felt victory unavoidable. For the first time in my life, I felt there was power surrounding me and it was mine to take it. How could the Jedi have hidden this from me?
My small lightsaber travelled in an unconceivable speed and clashed the standard lightsabers the Jedi were wielding in mere defense, surprised.
But they were two, I was but one… and young.
When that feeling stroke me, the voice returned.
“They are strong, but not that strong… You’ll die if they disarm you!” The voice whispered as if behind me.
I felt the truth in the man’s voice and I saw the two Jedi suddenly changing their stance to attack. One of the Jedi made a slash that passed close to my ear, too close. I could smell the burnt hair. My Padawan braid… it was gone.
The image of the small braid on the floor refilled my anger. My eyes focused on the two Jedi. I can’t describe the amount of rage I felt. Only that it felt like the very foundations of the Jedi Temple could crumble, if I so wished.
“No!” I screamed, “Die Jedi!”
I crawled with a speed I never knew I had and cut in between the two Jedi. In their surprise, or perhaps overconfidence, both Jedi flanks were found unguarded. But I was also too close to the Jedi to perform an effective blow to both. So I picked one. And I took the chance.
The Jedi screamed as I clashed his right arm with my training saber. Those were tuned to only cause dormancy on the limbs, as they were not effective killing weapons as the true Lightsabers were. Still, my blow was strong enough to make the Jedi drop his own weapon. Without thinking twice, I reached the Force to make the Jedi’s saber float to my waiting hand.
I saw horror in the Jedi’s face as I carved his own weapon in his chest. I felt a mix of shock and pleasure. Absorbing this man’s terror and feeling the power of the Force unleashing its might around me.
“Minus one,” I thought.
The other Jedi was drowned in disbelief, but I had lost the element of surprise. I could feel he no longer looked at me as a boy, but as a true menace. A life threat.
His posture also changed as he cautiously studied me. He spoke.
“Please, Padawan, stop this.” His voice was surprisingly calm. “Don’t let the Dark Side take you…”
“It’s too late, Jedi.” The voice that came from my lips, sounded too adult for my age. “I was touched by this power I never felt before. I am attuned with the Force,” I said as I smiled.
“Don’t speak like that!” The Jedi felt confident he was going somewhere with this talk, “you’re just a boy…” these words, were again like a trigger within me, “that holocron is fooling you, recall your training!”
The rage built up, until it felt unbearable.
“I am not a boy…” The words were paused and in a low tone.
I never knew the Jedi’s names until I was given access to the Jedi Temple’s records. But their names weren’t important. Jedi Knights Vas Fi-Cres, a Corellian and Jedi Master Kin Rarok, the Echani I was now fighting, represented all the Jedi and their Order. In my mind, their deaths are the death of every single Jedi.
And it felt like it in my final attack and the Jedi’s final defense. A parry, easily overcome with a diagonal strike that beheaded him. In the last split second, I remember seeing his eyes closing in sheer expectance of the unavoidable.
I never saw his body fall. But could hear it… and felt his life fade away in the Force.
I was facing the wall, sweating and breathing heavily. The only sound was the humming of the saber, still ignited.
“What have I done?” It suddenly stroked me. Fear took over.
The once soothing mysterious voice of the man, who offered me the way to reach the Dark Side, was now a source of my own grief and I trembled to hear it… I was a boy again.
“You are now an agent of the Dark Side… the Sith Legacy can be yours!” The word “Sith” itself made me tremble, the voice continued to speak to me,“You’ve done well, my…” there was a pause that felt like forever, then he finished the sentence, “apprentice!”
I was shaking violently of the cold I felt.
“No…” I began, “I am a Padawan, I can’t…”
“Enough!” The voice interrupted me, “you are a Sith apprentice! I have chosen you…”
I fiddled the small pyramidal holocron in my hand and the man continued.
“You were told the Sith are evil. That they were extinct. The object you have in your hands is a Sith Holocron, created by the greatest Sith Master, Darth Plagueis. It was mine… now it is yours…”
The name Darth Plagueis… It was not familiar, except for the title “Darth”, the title of the Sith followers. That much wasn’t kept from me during my visits of the Jedi Library.
Still, I had much trouble understanding that I was to become a follower of the Sith, knowing what it represented. It felt like a tremendous lie. A lie I wasn’t prepared to listen.
“I…” the sentence was never completed. I was looking down at the Holocron. It was pulsing in an intense red.
“The holocron has many stories to tell you.” The man said, finally revealing himself from a dark corner, as if he was camouflaged. But I knew it was the Dark Side shrouding him from me and the Jedi all the time. “You are to become a great… man!” His words were carefully chosen.
The man’s voice now sounded different. Less menacing, warmer…
“You must leave now,” the man continued underneath his dark hood, “others are coming, alerted by the ripple of the Force…”
I was filled with terror. For moments I forgot where I was. The very core of the Jedi Order. But nothing had prepared me for the revelation I was given next.
“That hideous Skywalker is coming for you…” The man’s mouth almost expressed a faint smile.
Anakin Skywalker was the champion of the Jedi. Considered to be the Chosen One, he was arguably the most powerful Jedi there was. Also, he was known for his unique temper and lack of patience.
When he learned what I had done, I was certainly going to meet his famous wrath, some of us actually questioned if it was the way of a Jedi, but now, that seemed irrelevant.
“Where should I go?” I asked, finally turning off the lightsaber and dropping it on the floor with a metallic bump.
I felt a hand on my shoulder. I felt peace somehow. At least it was sufficient to appease me.
“I will guide you…” the man said.
The hand on my shoulder was gone and as I turned back he was gone. But I, clearly, felt his presence.
With a new found power I could sense everything around me. My senses were fine tuned and I could sense the Jedi approaching, the students alarmed asking the Masters in the training room what was this disturbance they were feeling. And then I heard a familiar voice echoing in my mind.
I closed my eyes to concentrate on it… It was Master Yoda, talking to someone… Skywalker… and his words were… of death!
“Eliminate this threat we must. Kill the youngling we must…”
I opened my eyes in sheer terror. I ran… I sought the guidance of my benefactor.
“Yoda wants me dead, that’s impossible…” I said out loud, “Jedi are not murderers…”
Little did I knew, then, that this illusion was so easily created with the power of the Dark Side. Still, it felt very real to me. The man took advantage of my innocence, though.
“They know of your potential. Jedi are weak, they choose to eliminate rather than confront, since they know they will never stand a chance”. He lied, but I wasn’t aware. He was all I believed to have between life and death. “You must continue to run, I will train you in your exile. You will become powerful in the Force, I have foreseen it.”
I was still digesting all the man was saying, while running down the corridors of the Temple.
The break time was still effective, so most of the Temple’s residents were resting or studying. I found no one in my escape, I believe now that my new Master had something to do with this.
I reached the deepest area in the Temple. I had spent many times hiding from the Masters there. Being a Padawan deprived us from the childhood plays of all infants. But we always managed to find a way to avoid their watchful eyes and played in the lower levels, close to the sewers, where we found a series of tunnels that were apparently used in the past to enter and leave the Temple without being seen. Other times, perhaps other missions, other fates. But these tunnels sufficed for my own survival. The only evidence of my presence would be my Padawan robes that I decided to leave there, by the tunnel’s entrance.
I was a Jedi no more…
Far from it…
The last image I have of the Jedi Temple in Coruscant, as it was known during the days of the Republic, was a brief glimpse while I turned back, emerging from a concealed exit, about two blocks away from the gigantic complex.
It was the last time I saw it in all its glory. I could hear the alarm sirens. There was trouble in the Temple.
I could see several ships approaching the Temple. Clone Troopers. Apparentlym, the 501st Legion.
All that to hunt me? Hardly. There was something else. I now know what it was. But then, I just felt I barely escaped certain death.
Since I hadn’t the time to stay and investigate, I let go of the last pieces of cloth of the Jedi vests and kept nothing more than my undergarments.
Adrenaline was still fresh enough, so I never felt the coldness of Coruscant’s dark streets.
And I disappeared within the crowd… until one day the Dark Times would summon me…
That day was closer than I had imagined.
- End of Recording -
Addendum - These dark corridors and tunnels underneath the ruins of the Jedi Temple in Coruscant were actually found during recent excavations. The records indicate that during the Mandalorian Wars they were actually built by the Jedi Masters as a plan to escape in case of Invasion. It is not known if they were ever used. Some tunnels extend themselves more than 12 kilometres. One of such tunnels ends where there was once a small alley, about two blocks away from the temple and it fits the above description.
There are no reports of Master Yoda being in Coruscant during the period described by the author that apparently culminated with the invasion of the 501st Legion and the slaughter of the resident Jedi.
There are no reports of any issued order to eliminate any Padawan. There is also no report of any running Padawan that may have perpetrated any murder within the Temple premises. Please, bear in mind, though, that much information was lost during the rule of Emperor Palpatine.
The two Jedi names described above are both reported to have been killed during the attempt to overthrow the Emperor. However, this report has been released after the execution of the so called Great Purge, in a clear attempt to hide the true objectives of Order 66 from the Senate.
I will personally oversee the further investigation of this event. - Jedi Historian, Tionne Solusar.
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