Chapter 4 On Coruscant, get choice of duties 1.) Chief Zalbaar asks for Jedi assistance with creature in Shadowlands (Shan, Asheemi, Jakk, Kal) 2.) Follow up on Sith datapad referring to Iridonia (Zev, HanK, Arlynn, Shan, Asheemi) 3.) Follow up on Sith datapad referring to Dorin (Zev, HanK, Arlynn, Filly, Kael) 4.) Follow up on Dantooine computer hack reference to Lehon, connect with Rakata enter temple (jedi only ‐ Zev, Arlynn, Shan, Asheemi) After training with Zhar’s holocron on Dantooine, Zev and Arlynn had returned to Coruscant to complete her lightsaber trial. Under his supervision, she performed the trial perfectly. Without her fingers ever touching a component, each fitting, screw, circuit, and crystal slid into perfect position with each other. She performed the test blindfolded, and when she was done, the top of it was ringed with perspiration. Although she was becoming a very powerful padawan learner, almost a jedi knight, she was still fighting her own insecurities. Zev left his student to train with her new lightsaber and bond with it. As with most jedi; Arlynn was more in tune and accurate with a blade of her own making. Zev wandered the halls of the Jedi Temple until he found himself at a familiar door. He pressed the access button and entered a perfect replica of Atris’ office on Telos. The great desk she built on that planet was a perfect replica of the original that sat here. When he was a student, he remembered lining up with his fellow younglings in her office to watch holovids of the great Jedi Masters and on special days, they would get to see one of her prized holocrons. Her office was always a place of discovery and self‐improvement, which is what he needed from her now. The elder Jedi Master was seated behind the great desk, studying old parchments recovered from Yavin. “I want to learn to control my dreams,” he told her. It was a difficult decision for him to ask for instruction. Zev’s life as a Jedi Knight was now all about learning from within. He thought he needed to bond with the Force itself, and proceed down a unique path. This was true to a degree, but there were techniques and teachings within the Force that even the great Masters learned from each other. “You still see Padawan Ghorr while you sleep?” she asked. Her voice was softer than usual, a voice he remembered from his youth. While others remembered her as a stern taskmaster, he always thought of her as a maternal mentor. “I do,” he confided, “but only when I sleep. My waking mind is strong, in control, and at peace. I know he exists… well, I think he still exists, but it doesn’t affect me like it used to. I no longer look for him in the docking bays, streets, or battlefields. I am past the fear of him…, now I want to be past the sight of him.” “The mind is not two, it is one. While your waking focus is commendable, and your lack of fear is as well, you are not over him. Kata was a friend to you, and you to him. You may have blocked this out, but the two of you were like brothers around here. You always chose a seat close to him, and when the other youngling would attack him for his appearance or mannerisms, you defended him. There is no greater betrayal than that of a friend.” At this last revelation, her voice trailed off. She gathered herself, and continued. “I can appreciate that you sought me out as a teacher,” Atris admitted. “It is well‐known, if not often spoken of, that I became the Betrayer. Like you, my dreams were filled with General Surik defiling the center stone of our temple with her lightsaber at her trial. She walked out so confidently, so beautifully, accepting her punishment with no emotion. I hurt more than she showed. I wanted her to hurt as badly as I did. Like you and Kata, she was my sister‐in‐arms and in friendship. I was going to miss her, and I wanted to know that she would miss me. When I assumed she wouldn’t, that drove me to darkness.” “Even when the Council was slaughtered on Katarr, I still dreamed of her. Protecting the Order was on my waking mind, but asleep I felt nothing but the need to hurt her like she hurt me. My dreams turned from the reality of the past to me striking her down for her insolence in the Council Chambers. This duality caused me to lose focus while awake. I missed my chance to end the Dark Wars when Kreia stood in my own academy held in a Force cage. One press of a button could have saved Masters Dorak, Kavar, and Zez‐Kai Ell, perhaps even Lonna Vash, from death.” She paused again, working past the lumps in her throat to continue. “One is either focused, or not. You have either forgiven him, or you have not. This is a question that only you can answer, and the answer must be the same both awake and asleep. While you still have doubt, I can confirm your former friend is alive. He is more powerful than the being you fought and now goes by the moniker Darth Gore. Visas has seen this, and she has also seen that you will face him, alone. Darth Gore must be defeated to protect the Order, and you must be the one to do it. But know this…, defeating him is not part of your destiny because you deserve revenge.” “Once I saw the Exile again, my heart knew that she had returned so I could destroy her. Even as she told me of her altruistic intentions, I heard nothing. While she sought out the end of the Triumvirate, I plotted to kill her and be whole again. In spite of all I did, conspiring with Kreia and striking down Brianna in anger, she still decided to saved me. But, you are not Meetra Surik. Destroy him or not, the upcoming confrontation will decide your path… Light or Dark.” Zev sat transfixed. He both heard and felt Atris’ words. His mind formed the image of those yellow eyes and scarlet tattoos on his flesh. The Sith apprentice that attacked him was so different than the youngling he had known so well. For years he hoped that Kata, Darth Gore, only lived in his dreams. If he ever faced the Zabrak again, Zev knew he would be driven to kill him and just like Atris, it would bring him full circle to the Dark Side. If that happened, like Ulic Qel Droma, Revan, and Atris… he would become an instrument of destruction. Still, how could destroying evil, the way they had destroyed the Sith on Manaan or the Beast Master on Dantooine, be unequivocally wrong? Was it because he had a motivation to kill? “This weight is heavy,” Atris continued, reading the knight’s emotions, “and I do not envy you having to carry it. Know that your destiny also reaches far beyond yourself and your link with Darth Gore. Your confrontation will be a mere turning point in your path, not the apex of it. You will be able to do a substantial amount of good, or evil, once the confrontation is resolved. What you ask, I cannot teach you, but I can only hope that you will not follow my choices. If you do, it will fall to Arlynn to destroy what you will become. When a jedi falls, it is always those closest to him that attempts redemption.” The mention of his padawan’s name caused a new sensation within him. For so long he fought alone and for his own survival. He kept to himself knowing that if he ever did give into the Dark Side, a solitary evil was easier to defeat than a cult of followers that dark power always attracted. But now he wasn’t alone. Arlynn was more than a student, she was like a sibling or a child which he protected and taught. Like he was bound to Darth Gore, and Arlynn would be bound to him. If he failed, she would bear the responsibility to succeed. He didn’t want that. His conversion, his forgiveness of his enemy, could not be in his words only. He must believe that Kata Ghorr could be redeemed. If his friend couldn’t be saved, then he had to destroy Darth Gore without passion or pleasure. If he had to kill the Sith, it must pain him to do so. “Can she stay here until it is done?” he asked, knowing the answer. “No distance can protect her, Zev,” Atris confirmed. “If you hide from him or seek him out in the wrong places, he will find out she is bound to you, and seek her here. You already know he is capable of infiltrating the Temple.” “Surely he hasn’t become that powerful,” Zev said. He then thought about his own exponential increase in ability since rejoining the Order. Kata would have had the same opportunity, and no similar break in his training. “Your destiny will unfold as it must,” Atris told him, “and only your choices can alter its course.” “I’m not ready,” Zev admitted, dropping his head. To his surprise, Atris walked around the desk and took his chin in her hand. She met his eyes with hers. “Now you are,” she told him.