Oops, looks like I posted the wrong Chapter 14. Here is the real one.
Chapter 14
The light-red blade sprang into existence with a woosh and Rowahn launched himself towards the Grand Inquisitor. Ja’ce Yiaso barely had time to bring his own saber up before Rowahn was upon him.
Rowahn’s speed and skill was unrivaled within the Inquisitorius buy all except possibly Gaetana. Once upon a time Yiaso might have been able to compete with Rowahn in single combat, but since the Inquisitorius had grown, Ja’ce had not kept up his skill set. Though he had a brilliant mind for tactics, his abilities with a saber were nowhere near where they once were, and it showed. Within a few short strokes Yiaso would have been down had it not been for his quick thinking when Rowahn had disobeyed a direct order.
High Inquisitor Gaetana, the Eleventh brother and Fourteenth sister, along with a squad of stormtroopers burst through the door. Immediately the Stormtroopers started firing upon Rowahn causing him to break off his attack on the Grand Inquisitor. The momentary distraction was enough for Yiaso to regain his composer and get out of the way. Rowahn reached into the now flowing river of the Song, feeling each of the Stormtroopers, as well as the Inquisitors and Vader. His saber flashed through the air deflecting the blaster bolts back habitually while simultaneously splitting his consciousness between the physical and metaphysical realms.
As his saber launched the bolts back at the Stormtroopers, his mind was searching for a way to make them disable them without killing them.
There! he thought, but it was too late. His skill with a lightsaber had already dispatched each one of the Stormtroopers. So fast had the troops fallen that the Inquisitors had not yet made their first attack. Gaetana led the charge as the other two followed closely behind.
The only one that Rowahn “feared” was Gaetana, but even then, the other two could provide an annoyance if not taken out of the picture. So Rowahn reached out and threw Gaetana across the room. She would be recovered in a moment, but that was all he needed to dispatch the other two. Bringing his saber up, he blocked the attack from the Eleventh Brother, then with a simple flourish of his blade simultaneously sliced the brother in half, shoulder to waist, and parried the strike of the Sister. She had obviously expected him to be unable to avert her attack , and the surprise was evident in both her face and the Force. With a quick slash, her head was rolling towards Ja’ce Yiaso.
Rowahn spun just in time block Gaetana’s attack, and then the battle really began in earnest. Gaetana was fast and, like Rowahn, did not use the rotating saberstaff that most Inquisitors did. In the relatively close quarters this gave her a pretty strong advantage over Rowahn’s spear. However, over the past few weeks he had defeated two Jedi who were both excellent warriors as well as Caedon Ti-Rell and T’Risha Jord. All of whom had had some form of advantage over him. He was not worried too much about Gaetana’s advantage.
The conference room was relatively small, and was already littered with the bodies of the slain Stormtroopers and Inquisitors but Rowahn and Gaetana were not bothered by it. The easily matched each other stroke for stroke for a few minutes. Then as Rowahn had been trying to do the entire battle, he let the Song flow through him. Not just taking over his body and doing whatever it wanted to, but rather allowing him to use the knowledge and skills he had gained over the years to create an opening for him.
The opening was nothing more than Gaetana and himself being a few steps away from each other. Normally this would do nothing for him, but with the Song flowing through him, it was enough. Rowahn reached his hand out and did something he had never done before, and had only ever heard about it. He used Force Lightning. However, it was different than all the accounts he had heard of it. His lightning was not a blueish-purple color, but rather golden. It struck Gaetana and threw her into the wall. Rowahn could tell that it was not powerful enough to kill, but the effects of it were still noticeable. Gaetana writhed on the floor as he let her drop, then he turned back towards Vader and Yiaso.
“Your "protectors" have failed you Grand Inquisitor” He mocked. Even the great ‘High Inquisitor Gaetana’ has fallen. I think it is time we finished what they interrupted.”
“Silence, my apprentice.” Vader spoke, his voice resounding through the room.
“These were your allies, it was wrong of you to destroy them.” Fear and power emanated through his voice. So much so that Rowahn took a step back. There were stories about how “forgiving” Darth Vader was. Not that Rowahn was looking for his forgiveness. Not anymore. He no longer craved the attention and praise he had once been given by the Dark Lord. Now he needed answers, and it was plain to see that Vader would give him none. Still, the power in his voice was almost more than Rowahn could bare.
Slowly he deactivated his lightsaber, and started walking backwards towards the door. But then the Grand Inquisitor spoke for the last time.
“You have not been dismissed, coward!” He spat out.
“Lord Vader is not don…”Blood gurgled out of his open mouth. Rowahn had in the blink of an eye, pulled Yiaso towards himself and impaled him on his bright red blade. Grand Inquisitor Ja’ce Yiaso had annoyed him for the last time. Rowahn deactivated his saber again, and the once great Inquisitor flopped to the ground.
Rowahn turned to leave once more but this time Vader spoke.
“You have changed.”“Yes.” came his reply. He could feel Vader moving closer.
“You have forsaken that which once made you strong. Now you are weak!”Vader’s saber sprang to life as he attacked. The ferocity in his attacks was stunning. Even though Rowahn had practiced with simulators many times, they did nothing to prepare him for actually facing Vader. Rowahn had never truly seen Vader fight, and he had never realized the full extent of his power.
Rowahn was pushed back at Darth Vader’s advance. He was barely able to defend against the mighty onslaught. It was said that there had never been an opponent who had stood against Vader and lived. Let alone won the battle.
They were soon out in the corridors of the Imperial Citadel, and even with more room to maneuver, Rowahn still had a hard time keeping up. None of his strikes made it through the Dark Lord’s defenses, and even his feeble Force attacks were anticipated and deflected with ease.
Vader reached out his hand and picked up Rowahn, then threw him across the corridor with the Force. Rowahn slammed into a wall and crumpled downwards, but before he could even make it to the floor Vader had picked him back up with the Force, and began choking him. Rowahn’s saber clattered to the ground as he reached up to grab at the non-existent hands. He could feel the life leaving his body as he desperately searched for an answer to his problem.
“You have failed for the last time. You failed your Emperor,” Vader said, his voice booming.
“And you have failed me!”Rowahn was still grasping at air when it came to him.
The song. Closing his eyes, Rowahn listened. He relaxed at opened his mind. If ever he needed an advantage it was now. He had found it. Hidden within the song was something. Rowahn could not even describe what he felt. He enveloped himself in this “hole”, making him nearly invisible to Force users. Rowahn dropped and breathed in deeply. Though Vader could still physically see Rowahn, he was no longer able to manipulate him with the Force.
If Vader was surprised, there was no way of knowing. The black monolith just strode towards Rowahn as he regained his composure.
“You are nothing now. You are less than an outcast!” Darth Vader said.
“I know.” Rowahn replied coolly. “I am nothing but a shadow of what I used to be.”
Rowahn moved. He could not stay in his “hole” while fighitng or else he would be unable to use the Force, but he was ready for Vader. The Song was fueling him, but more than that, Rowahn was fueling the Song. He wrapped himself in it’s flowing embrace and attacked. Though he could still not break through Vader’s defenses, he could at least keep up with him. The battle had been balanced. Slowly they moved out into an opening, Rowahn could sense the presence of other Inquisitors and soldiers, but they all knew better than to interfere with a battle between the most powerful Inquisitor, and the Dark Lord.
As the battle continued stroke for stroke, Rowahn came to an understanding and realization of something. He may not know what or who he was, but he did know what he was not. So he spoke.
“I will not longer be Darth Rowahn,” He said the continued with the rest of his title, “Member of the Imperial Inquisitorious and Apprentice to Darth Vader. That is not who I am.”
As he said this, he thought about the past few weeks. The battles he had fought, the foes he had faced. He started to understand Jord. Though the Jedi Order may have failed her, the Empire was even worse. More than this though, he thought about his fight with Jord. She had done things he had never thought possible. Broken traditions that he did not realize where just that. So he followed suit.
Reaching out with his mind he gathered the Force around him. He knew Vader could feel the swell in the Force, but he also knew that Darth Vader would expect him to give physical tells as to when and where the Force blast would be projected. It was almost too easy. Rowahn released the power, and Vader was thrown backwards.
The various Imperial troops began firing at him, but he stopped the blasts with his mind. They would not hurt him. They could not hurt him. He had unlocked something within himself and within the Force that he did not quite understand yet. But somehow, instinctively he used it. The blasts that were frozen in mid air disappeared, and the troops around him fell dead. No one else attempted to fire upon him after seeing their fellow soldiers drop inexplicably.
Vader had risen up again, and they were soon back at it. The Sith’s fighting style was not one of the Seven Forms that were taught to Jedi or Sith, but rather something of his own. It was said that he had created his own form because his armor did not allow him to fight like regular humans. It was probably true, but that did not matter. What mattered is that Rowahn did not know or understand the form. Though he could defend against it, it was not the most effective way possible. But it was the best he could do.
As he had heard said, the Force was a powerful ally. Rowahn understood this, and believed it to be powerful enough to help him defeat an opponent that had never been beaten. The two red sabers flashed in brilliant and mesmerizing patterns as the two warriors danced through the room. Had either of them been fighting any other opponent, the battle would have been long over. But Vader was the most powerful Force user alive, and Rowahn had access to things Vader did not understand.
Though many soldiers and a few Inquisitors pretended to be busy with other tasks, they were really watching the battle. This was something they had never seen before, and probably never would again. Then it happened. Rowahn found an opening. He spun and leaped over Vader’s head, disorienting the Sith, then running along a wall, opened Vader up for an attack. The thrust was quick a precise, and the Dark Lord fell.
Rowahn walked forward and toward Vader raising his saber above his head, than after a brief pause, decided against it. Turning he walked towards the docking bay. One Inquisitor, the Fifteenth Sister tried to attack him. Rowahn did not even raise his hand, and the Inquisitor fell to the ground. Her legs giving way to the Force’s grip.
Before leaving the room, Rowahn looked back at Vader, then detached the hilt extension from his saber, and dropped it on the ground.
Caedon’s ship was still in the docking bay when the young man arrived. No one had tried to stop him, though they had considered it. There were already rumors going around that he had killed Ja’ce Yiaso, High Inquisitor Gaetana, and nearly killed Lord Vader. With Gaetana and Rowahn gone, the title and rank of Grand Inquisitor would go to the First Brother, a Pau’an. For now, the young man did not care. He had things he needed to do, to learn, before he could take the fight back to the Empire. Someday he would be back, but that was not today.
The YT-2400 freighter took to the skies, and was soon traveling through hyperspace. The young man did not know where he was ultimately headed yet, but for now, he needed to get out of the Core. Maybe Hutt space until he got a lead. At least there the Empire might leave him alone for a little while.
Through the numbness he could hear voices. Many voices speaking at once, indistinguishable from each other. Slowly they faded and one stood out.
“Death and pain, a natural part of life they are. Hmm?” The wise Master said,
“Wish to remove them we do, yet without them, grow we would not. Pleasant, they are not, but as necessary as the air we breathe they are."
It was an old lesson. One he had heard many times at the temple. One taught to each youngling, but never fully understood by any of them.
“Though pain is necessary for our growth, it should not rule our actions. When pain dictates our actions, we end up making the choices without paying heed to the consequences. We should, as much as possible, consider what reactions our actions will cause, and think through them before making a decision. The Jedi Code states that ‘There is no emotion, there is peace’. Though many interpret this to mean that the Jedi cannot and should not feel emotion, that is incorrect. Emotion is as much a part of life as anything else. What this means is that we should not let our emotions control us. They are indeed useful at times, but they can also cloud our judgment. As such, we must consider our actions from both the point of view of our emotions, and our logical mind.” Another master had once said.
His path was becoming clearer, and he was beginning to understand these lessons.
“Emotion, yet peace,
Ignorance, yet knowledge
Passion, yet serenity
Chaos, yet harmony
Death, yet the Force.”
As the younglings finished reciting, the master spoke.
“The Jedi code does not forbid the feeling of emotion, nor does it condemn it. Rather, it instructs us to look past our emotions about something and really think about what is going to happen. But, you will not always be able to think about something before you act. Sometimes an action is required immediately, and as such, emotions can be a great way to quickly make a decision. However, you must be prepared to take responsibility for your actions, and accept any consequences. Emotions should not be feared, but they also should not control your life.”Another lesson. One designed to be understood by children, yet applied to even the eldest Jedi.
One last voice sounded before all was silent.
“Join me young padawan, and I will teach to never know pain again.” It was the voice of another Master. But one that was far different, far darker than any of the others. One full of emotion. Rage, anger, guilt, despair, fear, and pain. Not just physical, but of a far more dangerous kind.
He understood now. Pain was an important part of life. Without it, there could be no joy. He had felt it many times. The first was during the purge, but most recently had been with the death of the only person he could have called a friend since his master had died. That of T’Risha Jord. He realized this now, and only now. Before, he never would have accepted it. Now, he realized he needed it. But unlike Vader, it would not . . . could not rule his life. He would feel pain again, of that he was certain. But now he was at peace. He did not need to fear it.
He now knew what he was. He was no longer Darth Rowahn. He had cast that off on Prakith. However, he did not then know who or what he was.
Now he did.