Beyond - Legends The Legacy of Ar'Kell (New Imperium), Part 4: "Past Reckonings, Future Portents" (OC)

SUMMARY: Xar is haunted by memories of his past, until someone from his past decides to haunt him. An enemy strike force sneaks past Palace Ravenspyre's defenses, and begins an attack. The invaders strike hard and fast, quickly taking control of the palace. But they have made one mistake... underestimating House Ar'Kell. As Ar'Kell strikes back, they learn of a secret that had been hidden under Ravenspyre itself. And once this relic comes into play and the identity of the invaders is revealed, the House will never be the same...

This is the second chapter in the plot-line of the New Imperium, known as The Return. This story focuses in on who is essentially the central character of the storyline, known as Xar Runis (at this point, at least). This is his back-story, the tale of his capture and training by a Dark Jedi named Runis, his eventual escape, his discovery of the devastation of his home world, and the life he puts together afterwards.

Expect a new story to be posted once or twice every week (there are 20 stories completed already, 3-4 still yet to be written). These stories feature completely original characters. Only a couple of canonical characters appear in the entire saga, namely Maarek Stele and Kir Kanos. The vast majority are all-original.

If you want to read the other stories in the New Imperium Plotline ahead of time, you can go to http://www.newimperium.org and get all the resources, artwork, maps, and extra info that you might want. This epic series has been going on since around 1997 and is building toward a climactic ending with the remaining stories. As these early stories were written many years ago, please understand the quality may not be top notch, but you will find the skill level increasing rapidly as you continue reading through the series...

A final note: I would love to have other contributing writers to the storyline. If you read through the Plotline and find you would like to help by either writing side stories or doing artwork, please do contact me. We would love to have more people join in the NI and also to post on our boards anytime. Thanks!

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Prologue
It was winter on Varnus. A world that had once thrived with prosperity and trade throughout Epsilon Sector, it now lay alone among the stars, forgotten by time and the systems around it. A temperate world, it was home to a race of resilient, persevering humans who had rebuilt their cities time after time, despite numerous periods of destruction in various wars and by various powers. Though much of Vectur, its capital, had been rebuilt in the past ten years since the devastation in the Imperial/Rebel conflict, the city was one of few in that fact. There was little contact with the smaller cities spread out on other continents throughout the globe, many of them mere villages with no centralized form of government. The entire world seemed frozen in time, waiting for something to happen to it, to finish it off or restore it to the former glory of its ancient past.
Xar Runis - as he called himself - knelt quietly in the fresh snow that had fallen. He was sometimes known by the callsign of Sauron, a name out of Varnusan legend. It was a suitable alias to use while in the service of the Imperial Remnant and the Dark Jedi Brotherhood ? and another way to hide his true identity. He looked at the layer of white that covered the graveyard around him. It made the landscape seem clean, pristine. An ironic masquerade, almost as good as his name. The thought brought a sickly smile to his lips. The shame of both was his, though. He could never reveal his true name as long as his family and his world went unavenged. And that would never occur until there was no trace of the Rebellion left. It had swept the galaxy, and at the fast rate it was moving he could be following quite a useless cause. Still, it was his duty, as he saw it. Justice had to be served. That was not his only reason, however. It was not merely for revenge that he served the Empire. H