Echoes Of The Past (Month 8, 32BBY)

By the time the two Jedi made it back to the ships theirs had been fired upon and the other was gone. That wasn’t the worst part however. And a very angry Kaia turned to face him.

Zavian had lied to keep Mace Windu’s secret. All of the Jedi’s secret, the whole council. They all knew and held it against Kaia when she herself didn’t know why. It was wrong and it was cruel but he honestly, like Master Windu, thought it was for the best. Kaia has thrived without that knowledge. She thrived under the added scrutiny. She had been a student of some of the greatest duelists in the order and their bias against her only Made her work harder to gain their respect. He doubted she would see the truth of that above keeping the truth of her family from her. But here is where he was.

“Kaia...I...I’m sorry,” he said but he did not say, ‘I should have told you’. He was only sorry she had found out this way.

Kaia was upset, confused, and angry. She couldn’t believe that Zavian had kept this from her. She tried to keep her emotions in check, but it was virtually impossible. When Zavian said he was sorry she let her emotions go.

“For what? For keeping this from me, or because I found out the truth? This is why I’ve been treated differently my whole life, why no other Master wanted to train me, or let their Padawans near me. It’s why I’ve been alone my whole life. I cannot believe you weren’t going to tell me Zavian. I thought you respected me, but now I realize that I’m no more than a child in your eyes who has no right to know the truth.”

Zavian sighed. “I do respect you Kaia but what good would it have done for you to know? It wouldn’t have changed how you were treated. Everyone was hard on you even me and you rose above it all!” Zavian said. “Amara and Tarian, your father brought you to Mace WIndu when you were a child. They never told him why. They were Sith Warriors and Amara was Mace’s pedowan. turned to the dark side by Darth Plagueis “Think Kaia, search your feelings. How do you think this knowledge would have changed your perspective on everything? You would have known why you were treated unfairly and you would have felt as if you deserved their bias toward you. Keeping you ignorant of your family made you keep an open mind and persevere. Hate me if you must for not telling you but I can’t regret my decisions,” He said honestly.

Kaia listened to Zavian and sighed as she looked away from him. She felt a few tears come to her eyes. She wiped them away and took a moment to gather her feelings and calm herself.

“So what happens now? Am I still expected to kill her?”

Then, suddenly, another thought came to her. “The young man from my vision...the one I felt a connection to...I think he might be my brother.”

Zavian rubbed his chin as he thought about Kaia’s question. “She’s a Sith Warrior. If that was your brother than that would mean your family are all Sith. They will try to turn you if they can...now that they know you are trained as a Jedi. Would you allow them to turn you to the dark side? What if killing them was the only way to stop that from happening? They have chosen the dark path Kaia and their goal is to destroy all the Jedi...including me,” Zavian said. “This is exactly why I chose not to tell you,” he said.

Kaia ran her hands through her hair as she thought about everything. She felt confused and unsure now. However, after a moment she turned and looked at Zavian. She stepped up to him and placed a hand gently on the side of his face and looked into his eyes.

“They are not my family Zavian. You are the only person who has ever been there for me and looked after me. You are the only person who cares about me. You are my family.”

Zavian held her shoulders. “Kaia, if you have any more visions about them or Talzin, please tell me. They may be important. If you do have a brother, and he is a Sith, that means that there are at least 4 Sith out there right now. Maybe 5 and one of them is most definitely a Sith Lord. We need to inform the Council but our ship has been damaged. I’m going to go and see what repairs I can make. While I’m doing that, maybe you can go and find out what the Sith were doing here,” He said. “R2...lets go, we’ve got work to do,” Zavian said and moved into the ship to begin repairs.

Kaia nodded to Zavian and moved off the ship to examine the area. She walked back through the sands and found she could sense where her mother had been. She followed the traces of her that she could feel through the Force and it eventually led her to the Valley of the Dark Lords and the tomb. She stepped inside and the feeling of evil grew. She spotted Skorr’s body, sliced in half diagonally, but could sense a larger fight happened here. Her brother had been here as well. In a flash, she could see the vision of the battle before her eyes. She saw her brother and mother and saw the man her brother was fighting cut off his arm at the elbow. The memory of that pain remained with her. She looked around, but felt a pulling towards an open door at the base of a large effigy of a Sith. She cautiously stepped inside and looked around.

Down in the valley Kaia began to feel truly alone. Shadows moved as if on their own accord. There were tall, rock formations that loomed high above. Remnants from statues and buildings that used to exist here. The shadows slithered along the sands behind her as if sealing her into the valley. As she moved toward the The Valley of the Dark Lords she heard whispers as if the shadows called her name. It took all of her training to control her fear and to push ahead.

The tombs were seat in a circle and skirted around a large courtyard. Each one was tall and had runes upon the door ways and above them. Some of the tombs were opened and some were still closed shut. She felt where to go more than she actually saw. Her mother had come the way she faced and moved into one particular tomb. The voices grew louder in her head as she moved inside. The corridor was lit by wall sconces of flames. Before long the corridor opened up into a much larger room and in the center was the tomb. Beyond the tomb were steps that led up to a dark alter but it was the tomb that called to her. Beckoning her to use the force and open it.

The voices coalesced into images. Cloaked forms that looked at her as she approached the tomb. They were chanting and she could almost understand what they were saying. They spoke in a language she did not know but she felt as if she should know it. With her hands outward she used the force but it wasn’t the force she knew. It was something different, alien to her. It made her feel soiled as if she had doused her body in a dark liquid or maybe blood. Purple sparks emanated from her hands and resolved into lightning. The lightning struck the massive top of the tomb and the top spit open as if it were designed to. The sound of stone upon stone grinding echoed in the room as the tomb was opened to her. She quickly let go of the force.

The body of the Dark Lord that laid there was covered in a black shroud. Upon the shroud between where his hands were was a lightsaber in a configuration that she had never seen before. Its design was exquisite almost as if an artisan had made it. There was also 3 crystals embedded into the side of the tomb. One deep red, one white and one a deep blue.

Kaia did not like being down in the tomb. She felt as if she was being watched and could hear voices...echoes of the past. They spoke in a language she did not know...although she felt as if she shouldknow it. For a reason that was unknown to her, she felt as if she should open the tomb. She outstretched her arm and hand towards the tomb to use the Force to open the tomb. However, the feeling that flowed through her was not the Force. It was something different, but just as powerful. Suddenly, purple sparks emanated from her hands and transformed into lightening. The lightening struck the heavy lid of the tomb and it split open. She immediately pulled back her hand and let go of whatever power had caused her to be able to split open the lid.

Taking in a deep breath, she approached the tomb and saw the body of the Dark Lord. He was covered in black shroud and laying upon the shroud was a lightsaber in a design she had never seen before. Kaia pulled a holosphere out of her pocket and activated it. She tossed it into the air and let it take a 3d scan of the entire area. When it had finished she put it back into her pocket and then approached the tomb again and picked up the lightsaber. She also saw three crystals embedded into the side of the tomb. One was red, one was white, and one was blue. She used the Force to pull them out of the tomb and pocketed them as well.

She knew it was getting late and she wanted to leave this place. She used her comm link to communicate with Zavian and let him know she was returning to the ship. By the time she made it back it was completely dark out.

"Is the ship repaired?"

Zavian stepped up to Kaia with a deep concern on his face. “Yes...you were gone for hours. I almost went after you but I didn’t sense that you were in danger,” he said. He sensed she was curious more than anything else and that worked up his own. “You found something. Were you intending to keep it to yourself?” He asked with a smal smile as they moved into the ship.

“R2, prepare the ship for launch,” he said and the little droid clicked and whirred in response as it rolled toward the cockpit.

Kaia was shocked to learn how long she had been gone. She had not thought it had been as long as it had. However, she gave it no mind as she wanted to show Zavian what she had found. She waited until the ship was in flight before she and Zavian left R2 to monitor the flight path and retired to the small sitting area. There, she told him what she had seen and revealed the holosphere of the tomb.

“I found this lightsaber and these crystals,” she told him as she pulled them out and put them on the table.

Zavian looked over the lightsaber. It was unlike anything he had ever seen. There was no crystal in it. “A beautiful piece of engineering,” where did you find it?” He asked. He examined the crystals. “These are….these are not natural crystals: they are synthetic,” he said as he held them. “I wonder which Dark Lord’s lightsaber that was. I’ve never seen one designed that way. A duelists saber,” he said. He thought about the find and then grinned at her.

“I think you should keep t and this blue crystal will look different than the blue kybers we’re used to,” he added. He would LOVE to see Yoda’s face when Kaia pulled that out. That thought made him frown though. That kind of rebellious nature was why he wasn’t on the council now.

“You’ll have to attune those crystals to yourself. I wouldn’t recommend the red one though, he Saadi dryly. He meant it as a joke but considering the circumstances. Maybe not a very good one.

Over the next two days Kaia meditated with the white and blue crystals. Slowly, she felt the crystals begin to attune themselves to her until she almost felt that they were apart of her. Then, she took her lightsaber and removed the old crystal and inserted the new dark blue Kyber crystal. As she turned on her lightsaber, the color it produced was breathtaking. It was unlike any other lightsaber color she had ever seen. She smiled when she showed Zavian.

“What do you think?”

——————————————

Meanwhile, Amara and Kevan has made it back to Dathomir. He needed medical attention and she went to see Talzin. She stood before her and handed over the holocron.

“I have fulfilled my part of the deal at nearly the cost of my son’s life. I wish to see my husband.”

Talzin had felt Amara’s return but if she really knew what she was after she doubted Amara would have come back at all. She sat on her throne with ner nightsisters chanting behind her in a circle. They were praying and were all cloaked in the colors of their choosing. The throne room was large and circular. There were shelves all over the walls of various instruments of death and suffering. There were tables with relics, artifacts and baubles on them and statues of her predecessors all around the room. One of the sisters in the circle turned to regard their entrance.

“I’ve let Tarian go as soon as you left. I sent him and my son to kill General Grievous on Vassek 3,” she said as if she were discussing the weather outside. “I’ve foreseen a plot to destroy me and my daughters here. Our attempts to kill Dooku have failed and so he is enlisting his ‘separatist’ lackeys to do his dirty work for him. “So you see, I’ve kept my part of our bargain,” she said idly.

If he left when she left then he could be there by now, she thought. He wasn’t dead though, she’d have felt it if she were.

Amara felt anger bubble up inside of her as she learned that Talzin had already released her husband. Not only that, but she had sent him with Darth Maul to kill General Grevious on Vassek 3. She could sense that he was still alive but that did not stop her anger.

“Tarian and I have done everything you have ever asked us to do and yet you continue to hold us here.”

Talzin smiled down at Amara. “I...hold you here? I let Tarian go as soon as you left. You came here for refuge when the Jedi were close to discovering you and I provided that refuge. As she and Talzin spoke Kevan stepped back. One of the nightsisters had come up to him and she looked...worried about his arm. To Amara’s surprise he embraced the nightsister and she kissed him. Talzin’s grin at the exchange was telling. How did Amara miss this? Obviously Kevan was in love with Estiana or carrying on with her, one of the younger nightsisters. The newest one. Estiana had long, black hair, dark skin and dark eyes. She wasn’t tall and with quite lithe and thin. They were talking softly to one another.