SithLore

Rust marred its surface, the plastic was aged and cracked. The wires jutted out from a charred hole in the center, the electrical innards exposed in full. Power cell long since drained and spent, and the carefully crafted socket for a crystal was long ago bent and ruined. The sabre hilt had not been more than a painful memory in decades, not since a time before the Empire. A time of peace, before the darkness swept across the stars once more.

Harbinger held the hilt between his skeletal fingers, turning it this way and that before setting it back into his cloak with a glance out towards the airspace his crude ship was flying. It had been many months since his self exile to Raxus, and months more for him to cobble together a ship that served his purposes. The scrapped and piecemeal Acklay frieghter was a shadow of its former self, a fitting vessel for the shard that flew it. Any scans would show minimal power, and no signs of organic life onboard. No atmosphere within the vessel that seemingly flew on its own.

Seated in the cockpit, where many of the controls had been stripped away, it was only by use of his own natural gifts and the ships remaining onboard computers and systems, that he was able to tap into the vast array of electronics and manipulate the ship to take him where necessary. A hard ship to fly, and harder still to steal for those without his gifts. It was set for a course on a green world, one that Harbinger did not know the name, and he was in the hopes that what he felt would lead him to some peace.

The Jedi were a hard bunch to find when they were not outright searching for you, tracking your every movement, and the force had been rather mute on where he would be able to find them. Their activities and agenda not privy to him, so this was the best option he had. One he'd used before to great effect so many years ago. Ancient records he'd once accessed had told him of a smattering of Jedi temples on worlds across the galaxy, from the early days of the fledgling order. He hoped that his presence in one such temple would allow him a closer bond to the light of the force, to counter balance the growing darkness inside of himself.

The heavy freighter settled down into a clearing large enough to handle its rusting bulk, trampling plants and shrubs under its immense landing legs as they sank into the soft earth that had never born such weight until it was compacted down to the stone beneath. Standing from his control-less cockpit, the Shard turned and walked through the narrow vessel into its much broader cargo bay. It was nearly empty, save for a collection of useful items of scrap and the tools to make them useful. The ship was by no means repaired in full, and Harbinger loathed the idea of being stranded in deep space, or planet side on his own in yet another metal prison.

The loading ramp lowered, lowered, and then dropped with a clattering bang as one of the hydraulic rams that bore its weight broke free from its mooring in the hull "Wonderful..." Muttered the shard as he stooped to clear his head through the opening as he strode out into the morning sun of the verdant forest he had chosen. Gathering his cloak around himself he began to the east from his ship, following the maps he'd scanned in hopes of finding what he'd come to seek.

For the first time in many many years, the Shard took in the natural beauty of the life around him, surrounded by greenery and life as it scattered and bounded away as the metallic frame walked through the discarded leaves and needles on the forest floor. He kept to more open spaces, preferring the sights of and vista's to being amongst the tree's. Occasionally stopping to look out over the valley floor he was perched above, following a ridgeline towards his destination. All the while he let as little of his body fill his mind as he opened himself to the force and simply let himself feel alive.

After many hours, the sun was far above him, now just after noon on this world as he stood above the over grown ruin of a small stone temple. Its gardens and courtyards reclaimed by the natural beauty of this world, but he could still feel it here. The swelling sensation that the force was stronger here than elsewhere on this planet. Venturing slowly forth, the Shard ensured that he did not disturb the ruin, holding it in a higher respect than his own needs as he walked around its outer walls and soon found himself standing within its largest courtyard.

Where there once stood a grand fountain, was now a collection of shaped stones, crumbled down into a large pool of water with small creatures darting about on its surface and below. Kneeling, he placed the ruined hilt of his lightsabre upon the stone edge of this pool and shut down his systems one by one. Lastly he allowed his chest to part, splitting down the center as the armored plates opened wide, the skeletal fingers of the droid reaching inside to grasp a small red gemstone. As it was plucked from its cradle, the droid twitched and became far more rigid in its movements as it set the gemstone down beside the sabre hilt by the fountain pool. Harbingers mind now free from distraction and duty to himself or anyone as he let himself slip into meditation as he once had during his captivity. Spreading his essence across the force and melding with it as deeply as he could to reach out to touch those who felt as he did. A simple emotion being put forth from this place into the universe at large...

Regret.

Jedi Master Ben Kenobi had been here once before in his life but the event was precursory and he had not had the time to stay and check out the sites and the feelings stored within these ruins. The lush green world around him was soothing as he sat and meditated near his own ship which was his Eta-2 Actis-class Interceptor. Often he would take the vessel out when he simply wanted a speedy get away from the troubles of a Jedi’s day to day life and when he just needed to escape. He had now been here for the better part of six or even seven hours on the carpet of green and clearing his mind of the tragedy that constantly berated his mind. Having a foe in this Galaxy the likes of which Darth Tormentous could be was a drag on one’s soul.

So many lives lost to one man. So many times the Jedi had tried to befoul the Dark Lord. Every single time they had failed and still the Dark Lord of the Sith prevailed time and again despite their efforts. It was in times like these that Ben needed to find a solitary moment just to sort things out and get the lost off of his mind, for each and every lost soul to that fiend weighed on him heavily.

It had not mattered either. Be they Antarian Rangers, Alliance Vanguard or Trooper, Pilots, innocent civilians and even Jedi Knights and Masters; Darth Tormentous had claimed them all from every walk of life and he had given no exception to women or children or any creature whatsoever. He was a monster in every aspect of the word. And even for a Jedi Master it was too much to simply live on with without taking a moment and grabbing a slice of reality once in a while.

Though as he knelt in this glade, surrounded by a moment of peace and serenity of much needed nothingness, something caught to the edges of his mind and slowly it brought him out of his meditations. Within a few moments the Jedi had his eyes open and he was looking slightly off to his left, he could sense something strange in the distance. It was not too far off but far enough that he could not grasp the depth of what it was without fully concentrating; of which he did not as he enjoyed the simpler approach sometimes and observing some patience. In time all would be revealed.

Too often times would see him rush off to adventure without slowing down to view his surroundings. A failing of his from many occurrences. He now tried hard to take his time and now was a perfect instance.

Standing up he gave himself a moment to stretch and retrieve his staff after donning his cloak and upturning the hood to protect his face from the elements. With a deep breath he looked to the direction where his senses called out to him… and he started walking…

They both had a code, it drew from their personal philosophies. They both had identity, it was born of their action and strength. They both had an enemy, seen as an opposition to order. Two sides of one coin, destined to be for ever opposed and never meeting in full. Though what of the coin?

Such thoughts and more rolled through the Shards mind as it lay upon the stone, a cousin and kin to it more so than any organic in the vast galaxy. The peace of nature brought Harbinger to a place in himself where he had finally found a stillness amongst the roiling storm of emotion that plagued him. He was stripped of the senses that his kind did not possess and was finally, Still. The sun shining down upon his smooth polished surface cast a brilliant scarlet glow upon the surface of the pool and the creatures swimming within, but he didn't know it was there. Time was passing, but for him he was alone and it ceased to exist. He was natural and whole for the first time since his captivity, and he welcomed it fully.

His mind was upon the Force and its great mystery, atleast in his eyes. What was the point of it all? The force had given him a mind beyond those of his own kind. It had given him ability and opportunity none on his homeworld could ever dream of. Not that they would, He was so far removed from his kind and culture that he didn't even know if he could return to them should he even wish it. The Shards of Orax would not know him, and struggle to even comprehend what life he'd lived through the force. Something he was reflecting on deeply, from the earliest memories of his awakening within a young padawan's lightsabre, to the battles fought and lessons learned at her side. Through the war that followed, and to the end... where one weapon was traded for another.

Behind the crystal and broken sabre on the stone, knelt the droid, its cloak flapping lazily in the breeze. Save for the bird perched upon its head, there was no life there, no sense of anything at all. A cold machine with no wars to fight. Was that the reason the force had given him such gifts? To be a weapon in the wars created by those around him?

Peaceful meditation began to falter, and the darkness was rising to the fore of the Shards emotions. Anger and pain, frustration and guilt, all boiling over into a froth of mental fog that clouded his ability to see outwards from himself. Allowing the approach of another life form, gifted with the force, to go unnoticed for a time.

"There are no Sides, We are one... Knowledge, This is my Strength and Passion... Power to be harnessed, Tempered with Serenity... Victory is needless, If all is Harmony... We are not weapons, We are the Force"

The words came to him from the mixture of overbearing emotion inside him, forcing him to deeply focus on the center, where the storms were quietest, the only place of peace in his mind. Calming some, it occured to Shard that he was not alone as his mind reached for the one approaching him. His instinct was to search the being for technology to use as his voice and ears... but he shyed back from the notion and attempted to communicate naturally. A whisper, a message struggling across the force.

"They once called me Harbinger... Now? I don't know what I am anymore"