Going like the night are being....

No die. No die.

--------------------

...and the Glyph on her forehead ravened into slavering life. Within her soul, the Beast reared out of its long hibernation, scrabbling to rend and tear and destroy.

Who-- or what --had the audacity to send their two faithful guardians packing as if they were but a pair of soft Ferrerrean mishalopes, and not the most fearsome predators ever to grace the soil of Korriban?

She slowly rose to her feet, her eyes cutting meaningfully to Shayla as the impact of this unheard-of event finally struck.

Someone was within the Temple's very walls... someone with strength enough to frighten M'wonBo'o and A'liyah.

"Shayla," the name escaped her lips in a soft whisper. "Perhaps you may wish to see to the safety of our new allies. There is some-- one --who has entered into our very gates; I must go to the Great Receiving Hall and determine who this brazen intruder might be."

Without waiting to see the effect of her words on her Adept, she smoothly departed from them, going quickly and silently back into the Receiving Hall where the Great Throne brooded upon it's dias. She climbed up to it and seated herself in absolute silence, and there simply waited for that which she knew would occur.

--------------------

Let me formally introduce myself, my name is Lo-Ban Kenobi.

I know you have many questions. For starters...

I do come from the council, and they have volunteered you to be my master, can I assume they have sent me on a wild goose chase...? Here are my papers." He hands Trel a datapad:

Race: Human
Name: Lo-Ban Kenobi
Age: 18
POB: Tattoine
Midichlorian count: 18,000

Narcolm, for the life of him, could not understand how Naad could be so calm and collective. They had just been attacked by the bald felines from hell and Naad was suprised to see them! Narcolm shrugged it off at the request of K'oth and carried Freedon down the hall. This time Narcolm held the stone in one hand and his blaster in the other.
They wont be coming back Naad told him.

"how do you know," he inquired, looking cautiously around the corner.
I told them not too he said simply, as if this made all the sense in the world.

"Forgive me if im not comforted," Narcolm sneered back. Soon they came to a doorway, Narcolm set the rock down and held his blaster ready. Suddenly he felt his arm bend, pulled and pushed so that he manuevered his blaster back into it's holster.
Put that away, I'll not have you disgrace me in the great reicieving hall, someone is waiting for us and I am most curious to know who.
Narcolm grudgingly picked up the stone, and once again cradling it like a babe, eased the door open and stepped into the room.

--------------------

Rathal

(I AM turning to the Darkside)

"We will approach the x-wing in 5 minuts trel..." Came the computers cool reply...

Trel then looked at the boy sitting next to him, and indeed he was a BOY dispite his age being almost that of a man...

Trel reached out and took the data pad gently from lobans hands, took one glace at it, then through it into a compartment filled with many other datapads, that seemed to be collecting junk...

"listen, i dont know how the council managed to track me down, i havnt been there sence i was a padawan myself...i didnt even think they knew i was still alive!" trel thought for a moment and then spoke again "Im not even a jedi...i have seen to much to ever go by that name...no ,i am simply trel kentar, a user of the force..."

Looking into the boy's eyes trel read something. "yes, i noticed your extremly high medichlorean count...as you might remember, the last person that had such a count, fell to the darkside... Why should i take such a berdon on?"

Thinking once again trel spoke "listen, if we get offa this planet alive, ill think about taking you on, but listen, dispite what you think, i am not a jedi...and therefor, my training would not prepar you for jedi life, it would prepar you to use to force wisly, it would prepar you to survive, but the jedi's are simply a bunch of fools who sit at there council, and debate the problems in the world!""we have caught up to the ship trel"came the computers call...

"listen, i will consider it, if you dont like my offer, ill stop now and you can walk back to your ship... take it, or leave it...you risk your life either way..."

[ 06-20-2002 01:34 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Trel kentar ]

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Darkness rustled in the corners, seeming to laugh and taunt the small one who had the bravado... or stupidity... to enter into this sacred sanctuary of ancient Sith power and magic.

Graysith's violet eyes narrowed as Narcolm quietly entered the room, moving slowly but steadily up to stand before her. Her eyes took in every nuance of his appearance; the holstered blaster, the strange stone in his hands...

...a stone of most unusual ilk, one fairly radiating with power, almost as if it were alive....

In almost exact replay of this very scenario over two years ago, one in which she was the one to stride into this very room, so full of herself, so eager to display her strength, she now leaned forward a bit upon the dark and heavily carved and bejeweled throne. Her Glyph cast a radiant glow over the features of this newcomer, and chased the shadows farther back into the dim recesses of this grandiose chamber.

She cocked her head a bit to one side, still assessing the situation. Then--

"What is it that has brought you to my home?" she asked quietly.

Within her breast, the Beast roared....

--------------------

"I am good at fixing things, and can handle myself in a fight. I won't be a freeloader..."

Naad hurled Narcolm back, THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR YOU TO SPEAK he cried, heaving Narcolm to a prostrating position with more force than he intended. under his breathe Narcolm cursed, as soon as he got the admiral, he was coming after this self important bastard.

[ 06-20-2002 02:02 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Narcolm ]

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Rathal

(I AM turning to the Darkside)

Evil. A chill...

But even still, there was something else.

She didn't know precisely what was going on. She knew Graysith had been angered, and she knew something was most definitely wrong.

And she hated being left to "watch over" Terrin's band of men while Graysith faced this alone.

She continued to keep tabs on all that was occurring through that mental link she shared with Graysith, while the others continued to merely wait...

[ 06-20-2002 09:46 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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How the hell had someone just "entered" the Temple? Wasn't like the place was readily accessible...

He shuddered in spite of himself. Could be anything, with all the evil suddenly threatening all of them.

Thank the Maker little Darra was out of sight and out of reach...

...but Galen? She could be anywhere, someone could have found her even now...

...and with the looks of things, someone probably had done just that.

But gods, he hoped not...

In the meantime, however, he'd just have to resign himself to waiting. No use not facing a possible threat while it was still within these very walls. At least here the evil could be faced and possibly stopped before it spread elsewhere.

He only hoped that it could be stopped...

[ 06-20-2002 10:02 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

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Atma.

With an instinctive jerk, she raised her hand to her throat as memory flashed the entire belittling scenario before her once again. The image was crisp, clear, as though it were truly being enacted before her very eyes:

Zekk Atma striding into this very Throne Room, tall and dark, his chiseled face darkened by grim purpose and determination for the sake of his "brother," Darth Wicked. His strong hands reaching for her, the gleaming blade of his Mandalorian sword, "Soul-Crusher," placed against her throat.

The mocking tone of his voice as he had presented her with her two choices: to die at his hand and Wicked's desire... or to serve him like some chattel awaiting his beck and call.

Her staunch devotion to Wicked... her quiet resistance to his looming threat.

And the fiery touch of his hand upon her throat as he branded her like a nerf, then departed after flinging her to the cold stone floor....

Another little jerk focused Graysith's attention upon the prostrate Narcolm, the eerily floating stone. Though well she remembered sensing the sudden curtailing of Atma's life, she had then dismissed it.

But his body was here, within these very walls? And why would this stone be seeking it?

A brief snort of uneasy laughter came to her lips at that last thought.

Stone. A stone... speaking for someone very, very powerful. That much at least she could sense.

She leaned forward, her eyes narrowing. Her slim hands tightened their grip upon the arms of the throne.

"What would you do with this body, should I allow you to take it?" she then queried. Although her voice was soft, the look in her eye was ageless, and the Glyph entirely too radiant upon her forehead.

--------------------

If I don't lose these strangers, my meeting with 'her' is going to be less than friendly.

--------------------

Three fools, heedless of what they were doing, were incoming.

Shayla sighed in disgust, closing her eyes a moment.

There was so much going on of so much greater importance than that of a small group of...Jedi?!...seeking One who had done nothing to them.

Fortunately, the walls of the Temple would protect them unless Graysith deemed it appropriate to grace these wanderers with her presence. Only he who had accepted the dark within, and was able to truly accept that, would ever venture into these walls unassisted.

These incoming fools would never pass that test. And even if there was a slim chance of them doing so, they might never see the light of day again.

For a moment, Shayla considered sending A'liya to keep watch on this incoming threat. Then she realized the threat was but a bother, and truly no threat at all.

Rather, the threat was here, within these very walls.

Her attention divided between everything which was occurring, Shayla sent out a message to her tuk'ata.

Guard the door to this room and keep alert, my friend. We must be mindful of all that occurs...

[ 06-20-2002 01:53 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

--------------------

"well, you wanna play that do ya?" muttered a distracted trel...

reaching down and pressing a button belts came forth and locked loban into the seat, Then trel seemed to sink into his own seat, the pading taking on to the conture of his body, making a perfect air tight seal, yet alowing him freedom of movment...

He then pressed another buten, and two small tabs came down and pressed into his temples... Suddenly the ship began exellerating, past any speed that could be considered safe... yet some how trel managed to steer the ship perfectly, with only the slightest movment of his body...

his mind now linked with the lightwings central procceser, trel was the perfect pilot...and nothing could change that fact...

the sped on keeping close to the X-wing, dispite its every move to attempt to lose them...
Trel then spoke, his voice comming out mixed with the comm...

"I dont know why you are trying to lose me, but i wont be left behind...i just want to know whats going on..."

--------------------

--------------------

Rathal

(I AM turning to the Darkside)

Strange to treat the one you plan to reward in so demeaning a manner, she thought to herself, debating exactly how to respond. There was much to consider; obviously this spirit had something to do with the Sith, or the little party would not have gained as easy an entrance into the Temple as they did.

But to resurrect Atma.... The very thought made her shiver.

She leaned earnestly forward, her violet eyes deepening. "You expect me to hand over the body of a very powerful Darth to assist in the further empowerment of this one." Here she nodded briefly toward Narcolm. "And you expect me to take you at your word that you will then blithely skip off and we will see you no longer.

"I don't think so."

Now she rose to her feet, crossing her arms across her breast as she stared down upon eerily levitated stone. "Yet I sense great power in you; I do not wish to provoke enmity between us. There is also the fact that you came here to me with diffidence and humility, instead of swaggering and with force.

"Prove to me that no harm will come to those I harbor beneath this roof, and I shall grant your request."

--------------------

--------------------

Rathal

(I AM turning to the Darkside)

Out of nowhere, Paul saw a rock formation before him settling beside a river. He quickly pulled to starboard, but one of the fighter's wings struck it and broke off. The X-Wing crashed into the darkness beyond...

[ 06-20-2002 11:56 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by TheKnot ]

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Her hand rose to her throat seemingly of its own accord once more at that thought. Then she let it drop to her side, and in one flowing motion gracefully regained her seat upon the throne.

"Tell me who you are, and what interest one as powerful as you are has with this one," she addressed the stone, nodding her head toward the silent Narcolm. "As well as what will happen to the empty shell his spirit will leave behind."

Then she lapsed into silence herself, waiting.

--------------------

Inside Narcolm's mind new questions were being birthed every second, Why was he asking her permission?, Why didn't Naad just transport me like before?, What power did this woman posses?, and above all, who was she?

--------------------

Rathal

(I AM turning to the Darkside)

Why was this mysterious being yet being so close-mouthed? Certainly it did not denote any degree of fear....

"Tell me who you are," she repeated, each syllable spoken in the softest and most musical voice...

...yet one filled with dark promises should she decide she did not like the answer she would receive.

--------------------

Someone has had the audicity to land...or rather, CRASH...on the planet! This can no longer be tolerated!

In the next moment, her features returned to an icy calm. She turned to Shawn, who had been keeping rather quiet. "You...keep watch. Al'iya will stand outside. There is another intruder to deal with. I must leave you briefly."

Before Shawn could so much as say a word, Shayla opened a door through the All and stepped onto the frigid terrain of Khar Delba. For a moment, she took note of the snow covered leaves and vines with a touch of sadness, then she turned her attentions to the crashed X-wing.

This one was injured, and with the current state of things, there was no time for that. And her gift had always been healing. Hers and her brother's as well...

And wouldn't this throw a loop in this one's line of thinking?

Smiling at that, Shayla stretched out and sent healing energies to this brazen one who suddenly was finding himself uninjured although he knew he had crashed.

Then Shayla folded her arms and simply waited for the foolish one to leave his wrecked ship and approach her.

--------------------

With one hand kept on his lightsaber, he approached the stranger with caution...

--------------------

--------------------

Rathal

(I AM turning to the Darkside)

She tilted her head slightly, assessing.

Then she asked the most simple and direct question she could have. "Who are you and why have you come to this planet?"

--------------------