Author's Note: All right, I told you all that I'd work on a sequel to Way of the Force. Well, here it is, roughly a year after the events of The Sith Lords, the Jedi Orderhas practically beenwiped out. There are few Jedi in the Galaxy trying to rebuild the Order, yet many remain in hiding--and of course,a dark presence islooming over the horizon. You'll see some familiar faces-- both from my story and from the KOTOR Games. Anyway,I hope you all enjoy it. Now, may I present Star Wars KOTOR II: Catharsis...
Star Wars: Catharsis
Prologue
Everywhere there is nothing but destruction, hypocrisy and the rank scent of death all throughout the Galaxy. Some may think we won, but I know now that is only the talk of the arrogant, foolish and most of all-- ignorant. We had lost. The Galaxy had found itself plunged into an eternal war it would never walk away from. It was ravaged, torn and won't heal. Not now, not for a long time. Exar Kun had ravaged the galaxy, using the Mandalorians and his fallen brethren to reduce the ranks of the Jedi Order.
We won, he lost.
40 years after that, the Mandalorians had invaded. Revan and Malak had defied the will of the Jedi Order-- the Council was not eager to participate in another strife that would span the Outer Rim and some parts of the Inner Rim. Revan and Malak. The saviours of the Galaxy. They made the call for Jedi to stand up and fight for that which was the mandate of the Jedi. Few answered the call. The Jedi had joined the war.
I know now, that despite the havoc and chaos the Mandalorians wrought upon the Galaxy, Revan and Malak brought it back to them, tenfold, renewing an endless cycle of mayhem. War had touched us all. War had twisted the desires, the honour, the very being that the Jedi had stood for. The Jedi who fought in the war left known space, only to return to us all 4 years later. We thought they were heroes. Who didn't? These Jedi had rallied the broken mass that was Republic forces and they had decimated the Mandalorians.
They restored peace and order to the Galaxy. At least for a time. 4 years was the price we paid for our ignorance. War had twisted the Jedi that participated in the war. The heroes had become the conquerors. Revan was the head of the mighty armada that arrived at the fringe. Revan, was the Lord of the Sith. The armada, constructed of alien vessels from an ancient starbase-- the Starforge--, had become the enemy. Telos was wiped out, along with several other worlds like Taris. Our allies had betrayed us; they were the new Sith Empire.
The Jedi Civil War-- the third one, or the fourth or umpteenth-- had begun. Jedi fought against former brothers and sisters. Friends, brothers, sisters, lovers, mentors. We fought for so much. We found our friends corrupt. We were the light. This war represented a failure to understand the teachings that tried to tell us that our power must be limited. With our power left unchecked, we could destroy everything around us-- eventually killing the Force and ourselves in the process. Light waged against the Dark.
The will of the Force declares that there must be a balance. The Jedi thought that they could restore balance. The Sith thought they could control everything. They were wrong. After Malak's death, the Sith empire crumbled. There was no strong leader-- Revan had seen to that. Revan had been betrayed by his former apprentice. Such is the way of the Sith. Balance of the Force was unlikely. Too much had already been lost.
No one knows what became of Revan. I know, like most other Jedi who knew the former Dark Lord, Revan left for the Outer Rim. Revan left to fight a war on his own. The rest of us were left here, to fend for ourselves.
We failed.
Darths Sion and Nihilus launched a cold war against the Jedi. The remaining Jedi were either killed, went into hiding or were just never seen again. I left the Order before this would eventually happen. The Jedi had lost the alternative to restoring balance. Before my friend left me, he told me that the future of the Jedi--no, the future of the Galaxy itself-- lay upon a select few, including myself. I know that by rebuilding the Order with the concept of this 'unifying' Force won't be easy. I know that by finding fellow Jedi and initiates, I will leave myself open to attack by the agents of those who have sewed the seeds of dissent and chaos. If I am to help unite the Galaxy, the Republic-- and the Jedi Order-- may have to fall completely.
Perhaps in 30, or 3000 years--as the Force may will it-- we will have learned from our mistakes in our arrogant methods of teaching.
I know we became arrogant, proud and strict. Few Masters had true successors, who followed a variant of the path that was the unifying Force.
We can't serve the Republic. We can't be thrown into the mundane. We are all servants of the Force. Dark, Light, Neutral; those are all terms wherein we open ourselves to a part of the Force. Even those who elect to remain neutral do not completely serve the Force. We began as a meditative order, eager to understand our own perception of what the Force is; what this entity that binds us all is and what it has in mind for us all. The Force is not energy. We are the Force and as we continue to kill each other and create echoes through the Force, we will only continue to destroy the Galaxy and continually renew this cycle. The Force makes life a gamble, especially during these times. Sooner or later, we all lose.
- Dante Ravenmoon
He couldn't stop running. No matter where he was, she was there waiting for him. He had tried to make a stand, fighting her with his emerald blade. No matter where he hit her, she shrugged it off harmlessly. Someone had definitely taken their time crafting a suit of strategically placed lightweight cortosis armour. Even the gauntlets had it.
The only visible vulnerability was the head. She had raven hair that had come up to her shoulders. Her hair covered her icy blue and green eyes. A scar ran down her left eye. It seemed to be a paler shade of green, compared to the cold blue eye on her right. She fought him with her retractable wristblades.
He'd been slashed across his left arm, when he blocked her left blade and failed to anticipate her other blade flying towards his jugular vein. As he spun around, he brought his blade to slice through her forearm.
No such luck; more cortosis. Growling, he shoved her through the Force and tried to run. She pulled him back through the Force as well.
She enjoyed toying with him. He would not escape her alive, at the very least. As he fell to the ground, she flew high into the air and brought herself down, aiming at the man's face.
He rolled away and felt the shockwave of the impact on the ground where his head had been a few moments earlier.
He brought himself to his feet and reached out for his weapon. Feeling the weapon in his hand, he ignited his lightsaber and brought it down to bear on her head. She effortlessly jumped back, her hands reaching for something on either side of her hips. Lightsabers.
Smiling, she strafed to her left, dodging the brutish cleave from the Jedi. He wanted to get to her before she produced her lightsabers. He was a moment too late. He heard the distinct snap-hiss of both lightsabers and saw her tempting him to come to her.
Suddenly, the alley where they had this showdown had grown much smaller. Knowing he could not defeat her, he still had to try. If he failed, there was no doubt in his mind that many more of his scattered brethren would fall to her. Charging at her with his blade aimed for her neck, she crouched lower.
She was poised to strike.
As he came closer to her, she leaped into a twirl, smacking his blade away from him while her lightsabers sliced through the unfortunate Jedi.
He fell in 4 pieces. His torso, midsection, right arm and legs hit the ground. The blades had instantly cauterized the wounds, not even spilling a drop of blood. He didn't even grunt when the blades passed through him.
She had landed on her feet, still in her crouched fighting form. She continued to smile, chuckling to herself lightly. Deactivating the blades, she clipped it to her belt. She threw her cloak over her hips to prevent her weapons from giving herself away.
Walking over to the body, she brought the Jedi's face forward, eager to look at the horrified face of the dead man. Eager to watch his expression of curiousity as to what happened. His pale skin only added to the idea of lost blood. She touched his chest, bringing her hand to run down it, closer to the lost right arm. She stopped at the stub and noticed the hand. The lightsaber was still activated. It's hum continued to reveal the emerald blade that hadn't even threatened the woman. She touched the lightsaber and deactivated it. Pulling it away from the cold iron clasp of the hand, she brought the lightsaber hilt into her cloak, a trophy so she could admire the Jedi she had enjoyed stalking.
There was one Jedi whom she was most anxious to see. He had left her a mark she would never forget. Her only wish was that no one had gotten to him before she would. She couldn't help but smile. He was a rare catch indeed. He would be alive. She had heard some sightings of a Jedi who walked in the backalleys of Coruscant. The slums and underground civilizations that formed the backbone of life throughout the city-planet. She was close to the jeweled center of the Galaxy.
The back alleys of Corellia were not as different as those of Coruscant. In time, he would find her, and she would enjoy her time with him, the Jedi who brought down her dreams of becoming the Empress. For now, she would continue to hunt the Jedi on this planet, squeezing them for information. This one had been sport, nothing more. The real prize lay waiting for her on Coruscant.