Before - Legends The Shadows of Conflict: And Blessings, Curses Say (Side Story/OC Vignette)

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away?

STAR WARS
The Shadows of Conflict
And Blessings, Curses Say

Hey, everybody. This is the latest Shadows of Conflict side story. For more specifically related to this bit, see Expedition One. Both this and ?Expedition One? deal with the background story of the Jedi before TPM, so this is going here in Before the Saga.

Star Wars, the Jedi, and other things that sound familiar from the movies or "Expanded Universe" books are property of George Lucas and Lucasfilm LTD. If something sounds familiar from another fanfic, it is the respective property of its author.

Remember, ?The Shadows of Conflict ? Part Three: Assassination? debuts 1 February!

"Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.
BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR."
--Mark Twain, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"
__________

Kevir Malus walked away from the Jedi Temple, on the ground level that was about where the original soil had once been, toward the main entrance of the Senate Hall. He wore a new haircut, short, nearly shaved, across the entire scalp. He was dressed in new clothes, hardly fashionable. He took one look back at the Temple, then turned around to walk away.

From the window above, Jedi Councilman Master Yoda looked down as he leaned upon Gimer stick.

?We could have purged him,? came a voice behind him. As Master Mace Windu came up behind him, Yoda sighed.

?Dangerous, that would have been. The necessary step, expelling him was. If purged, he had been, kill him, could any form of contact with the Force. Or worse, it could be.?

?He?s not the Gheruit boy,? Windu said, referring to a Dark Jedi who had been purged by the Council of his Force abilities and had later decimated an entire city.

?Willing to take that chance, you are?? Yoda sighed. ?Begun, the age of darkness has. Handle him, we will.?

*****

?I guarantee you,? Nekia Eyaf said, ?he will do something.? The Alderaanian Jedi Mistress sat across a diner table from a Republic Guardsman named Syrod Rohij. ?I am not allowed to disclose the will of the Council, but they want you to follow him, and arrest him the second he crosses the line. Detain him, hold him, and kill him if necessary.?

?We have an agent following him,? Rohij assured her. ?Should he do anything against even the smallest planetary statute, he will be taken.?

?Thank you,? Nekia sighed. ?And remember, Agent Jinnus is never to hear of this.?

?Yes, ma?am.?

Nekia got up and ducked out of the diner, making her way back to the Jedi Temple.

As Rohij pulled out credits to pay for the caff, his commlink buzzed. He picked it up, seeing the frequency of the agent tailing the so-called criminal tracked from the Temple.

?Sir? I?m on Menelandra.?

?Yes??

?I lost him at the transport hub.?

*****

Four years later?

The city of Berwaande, on the planet Gherruette, was still more of a rural town that a metropolitan area, and, miles away from the nearest spaceport, the run had been tiring and could not go on much longer.

Kevir Malus had been on the run now for four years, since his expulsion from the Jedi Order. He still cursed himself for being stupid enough to leave a burn mark on his padawan?s hand. He had studied the records of the Sith Wars for years, and had taken up the Dark Arts; it was his intention to resurrect the power of the Dark Knights of Cantaspher. Yet he had lashed out, typical of the Dark Side, and pressed his apprentice?s hand against a stove burner, and Mistress Billiba had noticed the scar. Swearing under his breath at himself even thinking of it, he ran, certain that a Republic Guardsman could not be far behind.

His hair had grown long and shaggy now, and he had cut it recently, though he had cut it himself. There was no rhyme or reason to the style, it just was short enou

 

Ishmael!

Well curses.

I like the hints you dropped. And I love this short vignette/one poster. Curse those who don't aide those far stronger: that will show them. It appears that all roads do indead lead to Y?tarri.

Does it all lead to Assassination?

 

Oooooh...... Ya got me hooked!

 

Casper: Well, we all knew that Malus ended up on Y'tarri, since he was after the Emma-i-Liberati in Expedition One. However, all the hints point to something else entirely... I'm trying to think of the right word to describe it. Gestalt? That would be the pattern of a whole such that it cannot be described by the sum of its parts? Just keep waiting to see.

It does indeed lead to Assassination, but not in the Ishmael family. Let's just say that this curse is somewhat of a mixed blessing - since the children's children are the terror of millions, this seems to work out for the character we come to know the SoC stories. However, when darkness comes upon the family that way, that turns out not to be a good thing in a time when Light Itself comes to the universe to break the seige of Darkness.

(Oh, yeah, that bit comes from my Holiday Contest entries, which received high points but still, alas, lost. I can post links, if you like.)

Miana: Excellent. Keep watching, then, for The Moment of Silence, The Smuggler's Tale, and, the one I'm personally looking forward to most, Watchmen's Song.

 

POOF!

 

Ah POOF!