Darkness. Everything around me is darkness. And there is screaming. Why is there screaming? Pain. Pain and screaming. Who am I? My name....My name is...I cannot remember. Was it...Benqo? Banqueth? Be...Beqio! Beqio something, Beqio what? Was there even another name? Oh....Kathan! Yes, Beqio Kathan, ah, now I have a name, something to cling to....Light! There is light. At the end...a door...oh no, it's the woman, she's coming back, please, no more, no MOOOORRRREEEEEEEE.............
Two weeks earlier
The Halber's Vengeance, a large starfighter, streked across the sky. Kathan was eager to continue his mission to become a Jedi Knight, and now Master Abas had seen fit to train him. This was his Trial of Spirit: To end the life of Querto Silversun, a Dark Jedi who had left the Jedi Order a few years ago as a teenage boy.
Why this constituted a trial of Spirit, rather than Flesh or Skill, Kathan didn't know. But, this was the nature of the Jedi, so he was sure he would find out soon enough. It was just then that the trusty astromech, lent to him by Master Tuhdar, whistled and beeped behind him in the spacious cockpit.
"I know, T5, I'm taking us out now."
Guiding the translation lever down, the ship's hyperdrive went offline, and the ship began to touch down on the planetside of Eechan.
The Jedi Padawan strode purposefully through the bustling market streets of Chan City. It was an up-and-coming town, trying to reach its towers higher and higher to compete with the massive urban centers such as Coruscaunt or Denon, but lacked the population or materials to do it. A wasted dream for a city.
The sidewalk which Beqio was walking through was 30 feet off the ground. An impressive number, but for someone who had lived on the urban moon of Denon, Darlon, for the first eight years of his life, it was pathetic. The Coruscanti bridges could reach as high as 20,000 feet, bigger than most mountains on some planets. In a way, these great skyscrapers were mountains, protruding from an urban jungle. But Chan City was just a hedge row for now.
He made his way into a seedy Cantina (which happened to be his favourite: The Drunk Side) and took a seat at the well-lit bar. The Iyra bartender soon hovered over on its grav chair, and warbled a series of interesting noises that Kathan assumed meant "What do you want?"
"Quarter of Juma." He nodded, and the bartender hovered away again.
Looking behind him, he spotted his quarry. The Bounty Hunter, Tador, clad in an Echani Sheild Suit, was sipping his warm drink in a sadowy corner of an already shadowy bar. Having returned with Kathan's drink in record time (probably due to the eight arms Iyrians were 'blessed' with) Kathan wandered over to where the bounty hunter sat and took a seat.
"I'm not sure what the hell you think you're doing." Growled the gruff Bounty on the other side of the table.
"Looking for some answers." Replied Kathan deftly. "You work for Querto Silversun, don't deny that. I know. But where is he? I'm on a personal mission to have some words with him.
"You take me for a fool?" Snarled the bounty, with his chubby paw on his blaster. "No-one comes looking for people like that unless they intend to spray someone's brains on a deck. Time to defend my pay packet!"
Standing up, he aimed the blaster at Kathan's head, who promptley called upon his Echani blood and grabbed the man's arm, pulling it upward. He then stretched his leg over the table, kicking Tador in the gut, then twisting his arm over until he turned his back was to Kathan. Then finally, Kathan pulled, sending the bounty smashing onto the table. Quickly activating his lightsaber, he held the shimmering green blade at Tador's throat.
"I'll ask you again. Where is Querto Silversun?"
"Now you've attacked me, he'll come looking for you. He'll find you, not the other way round."
Kathan sighed. "All right. Don't attack me again, and you can go."
Extinguishing his lightsber, he wandered outside the bar. Just then, he sensed danger, and re-ignited his lightsaber. He span round, only to catch Tador's blaster bolt on its edge, sending it shooting into the mouth of the firer. Arching over, Tador was dead, and Kathan was finally able to finish his exit from the bar.
Pacing quickly along the sidewalk, a black airbus hovered in the background. Suddenly flaring its engines, it caught up with Kathan along the platform. Immediatly sensing that something was wrong, he spun and activated his lightsaber.
The first assassin jumped at him, and Kathan severed his left leg so the man landed badly. He spun, neatly decapitating a second (And cursing himself for an unnecessary kill), before slicing the arm from a third. It was at this moment that another lightsaber activated, this one red, and from the ship leapt a Sith Warrior in Red and Silver armour. Intercepting a blow, Kathan lunged, tackling the Sith in the ribs and pulling both of them into the still-open doors of the assassin's ship.
The pilot, spooked by the combat that had just erupted in his ship's cabin, took off at great speed, throwing the paired Force Users to the ground as the ship rocked and bucked.
Now the two men were without lightsabers, and this tipped the balance in Kathan's favour. Calling upon his Echani training again, he stuck the man in the head before he could reach for his lightsaber. Next, he grabbed one arm, then back-kicked the Sith in the pelvis twice, before pulling him close and launching him over his back.
"Querto Silversun. I might have known. My master has given me the task of bringing you to justice, as a Trial of Spirit."
"You're not going to kill me, Jedi." He spat, pain and loathing upon his face.
"Jedi do what they have to do sometimes. Suffice to say, killing you is frowned upon by Masters of our Order, but it wouldn't be unexpected if you attacked me again."
"No, Fool, I was not referring to the Jedi Code's weak teachings of mercy. You won't kill me even if I attack you again!"
Confusion lined Kathan's face. "Could you give me a reason for that unusual course of action?"
"Because we're cousins." Growled Querto Silversun.
"What?" Frowned Kathan. "Cousins? Bah! Sith LIES!"
"Search your feelings!" Shouted Querto. "Did Harvo never tell you who his sister married? Did he tell you that he married a Silversun, and gave birth to me? Of course not! The pathetic fool never even contacted my mother after you were born!"
This felt so...right. So believable. But why? Perhaps it was true, but why was Kathan suddenly so sure of it? Perhaps the Lepras bloodline connected more people than originally thought...Querto is gone.
QUERTO IS GONE?!?!
The Sith had disappeared; and it took a few seconds for Beqio to realise that he was probably using some kind of stealth generator. But what would-
A foot impacted into Kathan's brow, and the whole world went black.
Kathan came to, albeit rather groggily, in time to see him being dragged into some foul Sith Prison. He couldn't tell what planet they were on, but from the scorched landscape and poisonous sky, he guessed somewhere like Kessel, or Cartoc IV. There was screaming, and loud nosies eminating from the huge black building he was being dragged into. Fearful, he tried to speak but his mouth was gagged.
The Sith dragged him through twisting hallways and dank passages. Rats and other foul vermin infested the foetid corners of this hive of misery; pecking bits of rotting, dead skin from long-deceased corpses and skeletons. Truly, this was one hellish nightmare of a place: One which Kathan was now trapped in.
He was thrown into a lightless cell barely two metres wide in any direction. The door slammed shut, leaving only Querto, Kathan and a semi-broken glo-globe in the room.
"Now then, Jedi scum, I hope you'll enjoy your stay here." sneered Querto, promptly kicking Beqio in the ribs. "Do you like this!?!?" He cried, kicking Kathan another two times, once in the shins and another in the ribs. "How does it feel?!?!" Continuing his enraged assault, he jumped on Kathan, then picked him up and threw him against the wall. Then to top it all off, Querto grabbed him, kneed him repeatedly until he was winded, then cracked his skull against the rocky bench in the corner.
Kathan cried out in pain, and Querto just laughed. "Oh, if you think that's painful, wait 'till you meet my friend Harkansha. She will teach you true pain, agony in its purest form!"
With almost laughable timing, the door slid open and a slender woman, clad in a fiercely spiked suit, entered carrying a box where a device similar-looking to a welding machine was attached by a wire.
"I have come as you requested, Master."
"Excellent. Start out on level 13."
"13? Sir, we never start on level 13! Lower levels are perfectly adequate from the beginning, and we only go to the higher digits after thier pain tolerance becomes to high!"
"DO NOT QUESTION ME, SCUM!" Roared Querto. "You WILL torture him, at a high level, until his will breaks and he becomes a madman! DO IT!"
"Huh. Very well." Carrying the strange box, she bent down next to Kathan's body, and inserted the needle just below his heart. Crying and weeping, Kathan shuddered.
"Are you ready to feel the power of the Sith?" Harkansha snarled, flicking a switch on the box. immeadiatly, inscrutable agony wracked Kathan's boy. He squirmed and cried in pain, writhing like some demented snake.
"Now he knows." Giggled Harkansha. "Let us begin again..."
The torture went on for days, maybe weeks, it was difficult to tell with no natural light permeating the cell whatsoever. Every day, Querto and his torture-master girl would enter, beat him, torture him, and give him a dose of that foul box again. Then some Sith Medical corps would enter, heal him and revitalise his body, plus giving a meager amount of food. Then he was left there until Querto came back to torture him again. The process repeated several times each day.
Darkness. Everything around me is darkness. And there is screaming. Why is there screaming? Pain. Pain and screaming. Who am I? My name....My name is...I cannot remember. Was it...Benqo? Banqueth? Be...Beqio! Beqio something, Beqio what? Was there even another name? Oh....Kathan! Yes, Beqio Kathan, ah, now I have a name, something to cling to....Light! There is light. At the end...a door...oh no, it's the woman, she's coming back, please, no more, no MOOOORRRREEEEEEEE............. Thus were the thoughts going through Kathan's mind in this horrific period.
But he learned to watch, watch for every single oppertunity and opening in those dark times. Constantly scanning the blank, dark environment around him, he soon was able to percieve things through the Force in a larger radius than originally possible for him. Perhaps it was the residual Force Energy around the prison. Perhaps it was his time of extreme need. Perhaps it was tactics picked oup from the Sith gaurds around him. But whatever it was, it awas making him stronger...slower. He became powerful in his weakness, so much irony inside his soul. For he had no way of using it....
By what Kathan did not know was the eleventh day, Harkansha entered the room again. This time, however, she was not carrying the dreaded box. She washed his face with some water, and nutured him until his mind was relatively clear. She also brought more substantial food.
"I....I wish to apologise. For..." She choked, and started to weep uncotrollably. "For everything. Every-Everything that I've done to you for these past few days."
Kathan (groggily) was shocked by this. Compassion? From a Sith?
"You....hav quittteeee a lottttt tsu anshwer foar." His voice box was damaged.
"I KNOW!" she cried. "And I know you can probably never forgive me! So please, just give me one last chance at redemption. I've set up a timed cascade failure in the Prison security systems. we can escape...If you want to."
Kathan nodded. "Verrrryy...Well. Afterrrrr yu..."
Performing a meager healing power on himself, now that Harkansha had detoxed his system of the Force Null chemicals in his bloodstream, he was finally able to stand. Gathering the tattered remains of his clothing to him, shivering in cold, the two companions crept from the silent room into what was likely a death trap.
The two unlikely companions made thier way through the dark passageways and hidden dungeons, casting mind tricks on individual Sith Soldiers as they went. Kathan was feeling oddly strong-But why? Weeks of torture and beatings should have demoralised him beyond all recognition. Perhaps it was the restorative fluids that Harkansha had given him.
They entered out a back way, which lead them over the geothermal reactor core. Here, Molten Metal extracted from the planet's mantle was channeled through a huge pipe then bottled by super-cooling the top layer of magma. The resulting pressure and heat was enough to blast vast quantities of water into usable plasma, which was more than enough to provide the prison's energy supply.
As they made thier way across the gangway over the core, (where the heat was significant) thier progress suddenly became impeded. Querto had arrived with a pair of Sith troopers, responding to a Breach of Security alert.
"There they are! Shoot down the Jedi, and his traitorous friend! They will regret this foolish action for the rest of thier short lives."
The Sith troopers opened fire, and Kathan (with his lightsaber Harkansha had retreived) deflected the first shot. harkansha did the same, and redirected a shot straight into the right trooper's face. He screamed, and keeled over, very dead. But this stunning move gave her a moment of celebration; just a second, enough for the second trooper to get a shot in, which hit the turned Sith Marauder in the shoulder.
Yelping herself now, she fell back, as Kathan Force Pushed the other trooper''s defnese open and deflected a substequent shot into his chest. Rushing to her aid, he then stood up again as Querto bellowed with rage, and charged at him. Knowing that he wouldn't last against Querto in this state, he desperately slooked around for options. Suddenly, something occured to him which he was sure would not have entering the prison originally. He threw his lightsaber at some hyper-coolant pipes running alongisde the right banister.
The pipes shattered, shooting hyper-cooled hydrogen straight into Querto's path. The extreme pressure blasted him sideways while simoultaenously hyper-froze him as he was blasted off the gangway. His screaming form hit the cool upper layer, breaching it and immeadiatly catching fire. His horrific fate was amplified as the fire was allowed to consume him for another ten seconds than normal due to his hyper-freezing, which extended his agaony as all his organs (internal and external) were blazing. Kathan took one last grimacing look at the howling form of his cousin before he snak into the magma and was consigned to gradual obilteration.
He could do nothing for Harkansha now, she was bleeding profusely, and had dragged herself to the side, leaving a trail of blood behind her as she went. She was now unconscious, and would be dead in a minuite. Kathan bit his lip, forced down his instincts and continued on.
Emerging into a cramped armoury, he could see the exit beried behind a pile of rubble. Obviously neglected for too long by the Sith's maintanence crew, it now made it very difiicult for him to proceed. Glancing around the room, he first locked the door behind him, and welded the side shut with his lightsaber. Then he scrambled round the room, picking up food, water, a blaster, a pouch of grenades, some synth-rope and a pair of electrobinoculars. Taking a gtrateful swill of water, he summoned all the Force energy he had to him, and blasted it at the rubble.
Nothing happened.
He tried again, this time more forcefully, and some of the rubble disloged. He could hear the Sith banging and shooting at the door now. He tried once more, and this time, generated the epicenter of the Wave at the center of the rubble. Releasing the concussive wave, it blew the rubble apart, and finally Kathan was free. Exiting through the rusted door, he stumbled out into a huge stretch of desert. Gathering himself, and finding the nearest settlement through the Force, he set out.
Beqio Kathan was left wandering through the desert for two days. By the time he finally found the settlement he was lokoing for, he was half dead. The locals, under the oppressive regime of the Sith, took him into thier own home secretly. Finally, when he was well enough, he fixed one of thier broken transports and flew back to Eechan. There, he picked up the Halber's Vengeance, swearing to the locals that he would return and free them.
But while he was wandering in the desert, he had a long time to think. He thought: Why did I fail this? Querto is dead, but I still failed, and suffered for it. Perhaps the way of the Consular is not for me. I could be a gaurdian, as combat is in my Echani blood, but I do not thinkk situations can be solved by violence. But what about a Sentinal? It makes sense. I have learnt to watch, to see things that I could not before. My awareness has greatly improved, so why not be a Watchman? One who could serve the Jedi as one who knows, who investigates, who finds out. Yes, that is what I shall be.
But I will no longer hide behind the shadow of this fake persona, this deformed name. The name that disgraces the names of my forefathers, no - From this day forth: I am Beqio Kathan no longer. I am Tellen Silversun.
