CHAPTER SEVEN
Jaden ducked as the Quarren warrior wildly swung his red lightsaber, nearly cleaving off his head. Jaden then rose and blocked the saber with his own as it came back around. Prodd broke off and backed away from the Jedi only to perform a backflip as Zarin charged from behind him.
Once he had landed, the Quarren attacked again, lunging to strike at Zarin. The Kiffar Jedi raised his green blade to parry the strike and the two then began to exchange attacks. Jaden attempted to move in and aid his fellow Jedi but was sent flying into a wall by a blast of Force lightning.
"You fool," Prodd hissed. "The dark side penetrates throughout this tomb and thus fuels me."
Jumping to his feet, Jaden smirked. "Is that so? In that case...."
He raised his left arm and, much to the Quarren's surprise, unleashed a blast of lightning. Prodd angled his blade to deflect the assault but was instead pushed into the other wall. After regathering his senses, Prodd exclaimed, "By the ancient gods of the Sith... how did you do that?!"
Jaden shrugged. "Ask my master. He's the one who taught me."
The Quarren's face tentacles quivered. "But... you're a Jedi."
Jaden sighed. "I know. But my master taught me to see the Force as a tool, as a salve, and not necessarily something that defines me."
He stared at his left hand as he said this before returning his attention to Prodd, who was already charging towards him. Zarin stepped in and released a blast of wind that sent the Quarren back into the wall. Visibly weakened, Prodd flung his lightsaber at the Jedi, but Jaden knocked it aside with the Force. Zarin then strode up to Prodd and lifted him up by the collar of his tunic.
"This might seem un-Jedi-like to you," the Kiffar said. "But it's honestly the least worse thing I can do."
He then threw his fist into Prodd's face, making a cracking sound and knocking the Quarren out unconscious. As the warrior collapsed to the ground, Jaden frowned.
"That... wasn't really necessary."
"Says the Jedi who can use Force lightning," Zarin scoffed. He picked up Prodd's inert form and slung him over his shoulder. "Let's take him to Ossus and find out what he knows."
Jaden slowly nodded, slightly taken aback by the retort, before following his fellow Jedi out of the tomb. He was half-tempted to suggest that Zarin still examine the chamber with his psychometric abilities, but though against it. No need to sour things further.
As he and Zarin exited the tomb with the unconscious Prodd, Jaden could have sworn he heard a voice speak in his head, but it was too quiet for him to understand. The temptation rose in him to turn his head, to look back into the tomb....
He resisted it. Instead, he simply continued to follow Zarin.
* * *
Isolated within the spherical meditation chamber he had installed on his personal starship- a repurposed courier- Varon Krul examined the Sith holocron Tyrius had given him. Upon activating it, he found that the holocron had once belonged to a Sith Lord named Darth Vidius, who had served on the Dark Council of Lord Vitiate's Sith Empire.
As head of the Pyramid of Ancient Knowledge, Vidius had researched the lore of the Old Sith Empire that had preceded Vitiate's, and even that of concurrent empires, such as the one formed by Darth Revan. Six years after Revan's Empire collapsed, Vidius was sent to investigate rumors of a Sith army that had been encased in carbonite and secluded away on an uncharted moon. Although Vidius found no such army, he did find records of a Sith Lord known as Darth Glovoc, who had served Revan's Empire.
This greatly intrigued Varon. According to his own research and teachings, Darth Revan had come up with the practice of there being only two Sith Lords at a time, which Darth Bane later adopted as the Rule of Two. Could Glovoc have been a secret apprentice of Revan or Revan's own apprentice, Malak?
The holocron did not have any further info on Glovoc- on his backstory or fate after the Sith Empire had fallen- but Varon now had a lead. Exiting his meditation chamber, he made his way towards the ship's cockpit and entered a set of coordinates into the navigation computer.
He was getting close to his goal, he could tell. He only hoped that he was on the right track.
* * *
As they departed from Korriban, Jaden brought his Z-95 Headhunter up alongside Zarin's own starfighter, the latter which also carried the unconscious Prodd. While Zarin prepared to jump to Ossus, Jaden was about to do the same until a series of images assaulted him.
A frozen moon. A number of faces staring at him, some he recognized, others he didn't: Master Katarn, Master Solusar, a woman with green eyes.... A voice called out to him, saying his name. Jaden. Jaden....
"Jaden? You there? Why aren't you angled towards Ossus?"
Jaden snapped out of his vision and saw that his starfighter was suddenly angled in a different direction than the one he had intended. He had also entered a different set of coordinates rather than the ones for Ossus.
The moan of his astromech droid, R6-O3, prompted Jaden to finally speak. "I'm... not going with you to Ossus, Zarin."
"What do you mean? What's going on?"
"Something- the Force is telling me to go to this system. Its grid coordinates are N-seven."
"N-seven?" Zarin repeated. "That takes you into the Trans-Vulta sector. Why are you going there?"
"I don't know. The Force is guiding me there, I suppose. I'll go ahead and jump to find out why."
He heard Zarin sigh. "If you say so. Good luck, Jaden... and may the Force be with you, I guess."
"And with you, old friend."
With that, the two starfighters blasted off into hyperspace, each set on a separate path....
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