Kura card

Here's another card. Kura, from my second comic issue.

Cards

Check it out! Home-made sketch cards, YES!

Umbrella

I made this guy last night. I kinda like the new idea of using an umbrealla as a weapon. The character prolly won't click, but he's fun to look at.

Radarai

I got some Prismacolor markers recenlty. Here's an in color version of one of my villains. The color is quite fun, though not for the comic.

Nyuga

Here's another new character. I think he'll be in my comic for sure, considering I'm gonna be drawing that next issue really soon.

Phibi

I drew this yesterday, maybe a good change of pace. It's just Phibi.

Zyzeji

I am pleased with this. I think it's better then the first version of him. I've draw him so much now, I don't think he'll be in the issue though.

.10 In Kole’s mind, it was set perfectly. By the time he set foot in Lord Darchind’s castle made of blue rock, his men were planting explosives all around the city in wait for what would become his angle to control the situation. Kole would either use the detonator as leverage against Lord Darchind or use it against the Jedi. If Darchind persisted in the charade of playing some innocent politician, then Kole would show the detonator and tell him if he didn’t bargain with them on an equal playing field, he’d blow Darchind’s precious city to the Kessel mines. On the other hand, if Darchind kept playing the hero-in-search-of-democracy card, Kole would hold it to the Jedi to make the decision. Oust the man from his tyrannical seat in the government or suffer the weight of about a hundred thousand innocents on their ‘guardians of peace and justice’ consciences. By some miracle that the Jedi found out about his plan and the bombs, there were always the auxiliary charges, set in a line dummy-rigged to the pulse-wave bomb. All in all, he had most of the bases covered. It was too easy, as far as Kole saw it. Alec Uban was the first to enter the throne room and find Lord Darchind sitting patiently at his throne. "My regrets, Lord Darchind for breaking the curfew, but I have urgent news—." Lord Darchind was still as ever, sitting there and taking in the four people milling behind Alec Uban in his predatory peripheral vision. "No regrets, Master Uban. I see you have brought someone from the freedom fighters into my place of relaxation?" "A representative, Lord Darchind." Alec reassured calmly. There was movement behind the chair Darchind was sitting behind, but not enough to evoke suspicion out of Uban. "Considering I never said that negotiations was part of my thinking for solving my problem here on Xolatis, I don’t know why you have brought him here. I wished for you to do away with him." Lord Darchind said. Alec shook his head, sensing a growl coming from Beserek behind him too. "Please, Lord Darchind, understand that Jedi do not simply eradicate a problem. We solve problems through diplomatic negotiations." "Why when you come for diplomatic negotiations to my administrations building do you have lightsabers on your belts then? Why do you have such weary faces as if though you might be trying to anticipate something?" Lord Darchind said softly but surely. "Our weapons are like any other." Uban said. "A last resort." "Ah." Lord Darchind said simply. "I see." "Are we at an impasse, Lord Darchind?" Alec asked. "I believe we are, Master Jedi." Lord Darchind said solemnly. "I—my position on this planet is to cleanse it of all anarchy. This is why I have strict rules, such as the curfew you have now broken twice. I also have a strict policy of not dealing with terrorists or other such bantha poodoo." "I assure you, the man that has come with us tonight has told us that he only wants peace as much as you do. He wants to consider some kind of deal between you and his organization, but he—." "How do you know that he isn’t just lying to get you here, Master Jedi? Lure you into some clever trap that would endanger both our lives?" Darchind asked sharply. "I assure you, Lord Darchind, no one here will be hurt if I have anything to say about it—these are peaceful negotiations." Uban said. "Not any longer." The voice came from behind the Jedi Master. Kole Datchin stepped forward, breaking away from the four Jedi he’d standing by. He came to stand in between Alec Uban and Lord Darchind. He withdrew from his sleeve a small capsule. On top of the finger long capsule there was a red button. "This is going to detonate half of your capitol, Lord Darchind." He spoke calmly and measured his words with his breath. A nervous man. "What have you done?" Lord Darchind asked Alec Uban. "Did you bring him here to help topple my government? I am single handedly keeping back the anarchy of natural life!" He yelled. "Pipe down Darchy." Kole said, wiping his forehead and checking the sweat on his hand. "My other man has the second detonator, so if something should happen to me, then he’ll at least take out half of your tyrannical little city—your agents along with it!" "Lies!" Lord Darchind yelled, seemingly helpless against Kole. "This is what the Jedi do?? They overthrow stable governments in favor of ANARCHY?!" Lord Darchind exclaimed. There was more then a little fear and anger in that voice. It was well-earned fear. All of this Alec Uban watched with the utmost calm. He felt his danger sense triggering between his shoulder blades, ringing and screeching inside his head. "Master Beserek, Master Justice, please take Kole into custody." "Finally!" Lord Darchind exclaimed. "Some coherence!" "Let I remind you that I have a detonator in my hand, Masters Jedi!" Kole cried out, backing away from the Wookie and tall Human walking toward him. "Their deaths will be on your consciences!" Beserek and Justice kept walking toward him. Kole clicked down on his button. Lord Darchind screamed out in fear, but there was no cacophony of thunderous explosions. "Hey." Kole said. "Hey!" He kept pressing the button but nothing happened. "We figured you had something in mind when we left the camp. We have a few Jedi Knights of ours tail your crews and neutralize them before they could set the charges. Your ploy at violence is done, Kole." Alec looked up at Lord Darchind. "Lord Darchind, peace is restored for now. You may hold this man for his trial and administer what punishment you will." Lord Darchind was still once more, but he managed to nod minutely. "Jedi Uban, I wonder if I might ask you what happened to the other detonator, he was speaking of?" A smile blossomed over Alec’s face as Orsin Beserek and Justice picked Kole up by the squirming arms. "I assure, Lord Darchind, it was only a bluff. Our Jedi found no such detonator." Lord Darchind took off his black hood in a moment so quick that Uban didn’t even see his hand touch the hood. Darchind’s face was white, his hair long and shining black, glistening with moisture, hanging over his smiling face. His eyes, red as red dwarves, bore into Alec Uban immediately. "It was NOT a bluff!" Kole screamed. Orsin and Justice took their attention off of Kole for one moment, suddenly diverted to Darchind’s horrifying red eyed, white faced visage. "The auxiliary charges!" He screamed in horror. "I believe I should thank you for taking care of the other detonator, Master Jedi." Lord Darchind spoke. He rose his arm up in the air and withdrew the other detonator, the bluff detonator, and clicked the button down. Orange fire rippled in a diagonally right slash from the top right of the city known as Maryang to the bottom left. From that line of explosions another secondary shockwave pulsed outward, damaging the foundations of most of the city buildings foundations—even Lord Darchind’s castle(although it received almost less then a sixteenth of the force that the pulse-wave administered at ground zero.) Thousands of lives blinked out and a thousand more cried out in pain and confusion and sudden madness. All this death and pain and confusion hit the Force like a shockwave, sending not ripples out in the lake that was the living Force, but tidal waves in the ocean that was the capitol’s population in the living Force. Alec Uban felt the explosion then the shockwave through the ground, trembling at his feet before he felt the wave of sorrow in the Force. He clutched at his chest for just a moment but narrowed his eyes in disgust. There was a roar that wasn’t a fire or a bomb going off. Sitting in his throne, Lord Darchind was roaring with laughter. It was not laughter of a sane man though—this was maniacal, gasping laughter that left the one laughing reaching down into his lungs for air as deep as it would go just to pull out more and more of the sound. Alec Uban took his eyes off of Kole for just one moment during the explosion and that had been it. Hovering in the air between Uban and Darchind, Kole dangling at the end of an invisible rope, gagging and gasping for breath, clawing at his throat. As Uban reached out in the Force to help him back to the ground, Kole was thrown wildly against the wall. There was a crack and Kole was dead. "What is the meaning of this, Lord Darchind?!" Alec Uban cried. The door behind them had just opened and now Beserek, Justice and Jorata were being joined by the rest of the Paladins and Warriors-for-Justice. Still gasping for breath and laughing even shriller, Lord Darchind finally calmed himself enough to speak. "You Jedi . .have always been so foolish!" The wall behind Lord Darchind had not been a wall any more then the top of the ocean a solid surface capable of travel by foot. It was darkness behind him, but not just that it was the Dark Side. All at once, Lord Darchind’s hood was back over his face and his voice placid as ever. "We are the brotherhood, Master Jedi—the Brotherhood of the Sith. We wish to reclaim the galaxy once and for all." From behind Darchind there were gasps of red sizzling into existence. Snap-hiss after snap-hiss: red lightsaber blade after red lightsaber blade igniting and illuminating only the arms and ghostly faces of their wielders. It went on until the darkness behind Lord Darchind’s throne was indeed not darkness at all, but awash with the crimson glow of sixty Sith lightsabers. Ikeeriot and Anduil joined Uban and Beserek, side by side. They, Jorata and Justice formed the line that was the front of the Jedi’s thirty-strong pack. For Ikeeriot, the reaction was immediate: he was looking down the barrel of a flechette gun that he had absolutely no chance of dodging. He had no problem. He ignited his blue lightsaber. Uban ignited his white lightsaber, just as Beserek was igniting his blue and green lightsabers and as Anduil ignited his dual green blade. Anduil held it out in front of him sideways with two hands, sneering out at the Sith gathered in front of them. After this, twenty six more Jedi lightsabers of colors ranging from blue, green, violet and even orange ignited in a cacophony of snap-hisses worthy of reverence. In one breath, the front line of the Jedi struck into battle, never looking back. Sith, ranking from apprentice to Sith Lord in rank rushed in to meet the Jedi, whirling their blood lightsabers expertly. Ikeeriot picked one of the Sith out and angled toward her with furious intent: this one’s name was Valecka, Uban had met her on his first visit to the blue castle of Xolatis. Valecka was nearly an expert at wielding her own lightsaber, but wasn’t ready for the onslaught of slashes and jabs Ikeeriot sent her way. Ikeeriot took a step in, dragging his left foot behind him, tripping up another Sith in his wake. His blue lightsaber cut under Valecka’s guard and smacked the red lightsaber and it’s wielder’s arm to the side. Enough for a break, Ikeeriot thought boldly. He flew into the air and kicked her in the stomach with a little of the Force behind the move, sending her across the room and into the wall. Ikeeriot turned and watched desperately as the room became a blur of distinct but vague colors at all once. The humming and buzzing of the lightsabers cutting through the air, slashing and jabbing at one another, blades clashing against each other and showering the darkness of the throne room with a mix of the two colors. He saw Alec Uban with his lightsaber, beheading a Sith and pushing the body of that one into the another with the Force. Anduil, whirling his double bladed lightsaber expertly in and out of his enemy’s guard, never ceasing or letting up in his battle motion. One of his green blades slashed across the chest of a Sith and that man went down. The Ishi Tib Jedi, Jorata Ashatyne was being flanked by four well trained Sith. Ikeeriot launched into the air and landed behind two of them. He slashed into the lower backs of the two Sith—one was cut down in a roar of agony but another turned to block it and parry the slash at him. "Jedi scum!" He hissed. There is no emotion; there is serenity, Ikeeriot reminded himself. He blocked a slash from the Sith and sent it back in that man’s direction but in a blink of an eye he saw Jorata halved by a crimson lightsaber, screaming as she died. The two Sith redirected their attention at Ikeeriot hungrily. Ikeeriot focused. The one he was already fighting took a step toward him and moved to slash with his hand. There. Everything stopped just long enough for Ikeeriot to center on that small motion in the Sith’s naked wrist. He saw the small vein—heard the blood rushing through it and centered on it. With one minuscule but crushing vice grip, Ikeeriot squeezed down on the vein in the Sith’s arm and watched the man cry out in pain and drop the lightsaber into the air. He knew his mistake as soon as he let go of the hilt, but couldn’t believe what had happened. The hope in Ikeeriot for Jorata was dashed, but he could make sure that justice prevailed here— Ikeeriot picked the still-ignited lightsaber out of the air and ducked under the Sith who was holding his purple wrist and wailing in pain. He swept the feet out from under the man and shoved the Sith’s own red lightsaber under him. The blade stabbed right out of the man’s chest, red as ever. Ikeeriot withdrew the red blade and blocked an oncoming slash with his own blue blade. He sent a push from the Force against the third Sith coming at him but it managed only in slowing him down. Enough, he thought dangerously. Ikeeriot’s left hand occupied the red lightsaber and when he threw it, it slashed through the second Sith’s upper chest and landed against the third’s shins. The third fell to the ground, eyes wide in agony, but still threw his own red lightsaber at Ikeeriot. Artfully, Ikeeriot ducked under it and sneered at the Sith. He slashed through the man’s neck with his blue blade and the Sith’s head flopped unceremoniously to the floor. Ikeeriot looked deeper into the battle and fled into it’s chaos. Orsin Beserek was holding off five Sith with his two lightsaber(one blue, one green) when the fifth came in from behind and took him off guard. Orsin dodged the first slash, yowling in his wookie language, and hopped deftly over the second blade’s slash. In a brave but seriously desperate move, Orsin threw himself into a full tilt spin, throwing his arms out to his sides and willing the Force to push him into the spin faster then these Sith could block for. The Wookie became a blur of black, green and blue but when he hit the ground again he saw three of the five Sith hit the floor. He looked around—still outnumbered, he thought urgently. Alec was suddenly there, pressing back to back with Orsin. These two were encircled, blocking and parrying madly, trying to recycle any of their moves into killing blows, but only managing to recover what ground they lost when they attacked. Alec twirled with his white blade in two hands, thrust into one Sith’s chest, dodged another’s slash by flipping backward into the air once more and came out outside of the circle. Urgency hit his eyes and he cried, "Orsin watch out!" Orsin Beserek was fending off three more Sith warriors(dressed in ceremonious black uniforms) when a fourth and final Sith overwhelmed his guard from the side. Orsin rushed one lightsaber back to block the blade whirring hungrily to hit his waist on his right side and held up his left lightsaber to block a harsh slash from above. Two blades came in and stabbed him through the stomach and chest, exhausting the Jedi Master into the Force. The Wookie slumped to the ground with two smoking holes in his front side. "No!" Alec cried. Anduil felt his former Jedi Master die in the Force and that was what would eventually start the chain reaction. Anduil whirled his dual bladed lightsaber up against an old looking Sith with a beard. The man blocked this and wore a victorious smile, but Anduil’s objective had never been to kill this man. Lingering to Anduil Siron’s side was an ill-experienced Sith trying to take on Ikeeriot. Anduil kicked wildly at the old Sith in front of him and managed to hit his knee and evoke a groan of pain before the man fell over, holding his crimson blade up, always guarding. Anduil swept to the side with his dual blade and cut the younger Sith’s arms and legs from his body. Anduil wore his determined face and jumped into the air, trying to reach Orsin Beserek but far too late. In horror Anduil saw Orsin slump to the ground with two cauterized wounds smoking in his front side. His eyes lit with anger. Anduil swept down into a crowd of Sith and Jedi and swung wildly, severing Sith limbs and just barely not hitting Jedi. Calm! A voice yelled at him. Calm yourself Siron! Don’t fall to the Dark Side or the death will have been for nothing! Anduil felt a brisk fit of pain in his side and felt his body being thrown through the air along with three of the Paladin Jedi Knights. He hit the ground and felt something strange through the ground. Footsteps. Running. Anduil looked up and saw several Warriors-for-Justice sprinting for the door, only to be cut down by the eager Sith waiting in the doorway. Justice himself sprinted, blocked and parried the Sith’s attacks in the doorway and disappeared into the darkness of the castle hallway. "Coward!" Anduil howled, enraged. Jedi were dropping faster then Sith now. Only five, counting Anduil remained against what looked to be like at least thirty, maybe a few less Sith. Then Anduil saw him—Lord Darchind, moving like an eerie dancer, cutting down the younger Knight next to Ikeeriot and then shoving Ikeeriot effortlessly into the air with the Force. Ikeeriot knocked right into Anduil and they lay splayed on the against the wall, watching and waiting. Alec’s white lightsaber flashed out and severed another Sith leg, evicting an ear-piercing scream from the misled being. He felt Darchind at his back and swung upward to block the man’s powerful swing. Darchind was about as tall as Uban, maybe even a little taller, but the Dark Side increased the aura of intimidation around the Sith Lord. All the while Darchind was laughing manically. Alec’s face and thoughts grew more concerned as he saw Justice flee from the room, then saw all the Jedi bodies dead on the floor around him. "By the Force . ." Alec gasped as he blocked and parried another of Darchind’s monstrous swings. Uban’s arms were growing more tired and more tired. . .what have I done? All these dead—over what?! Alec saw Anduil and Ikeeriot standing up, shaking themselves off and attacking and defending against three more Sith warriors. Darchind stopped attacking and stood silent for a moment aware that he and his warriors had won. It was his decision however, just how they would win. "Halt!" He cried out, still laughing under his breath. "No one will kill the young ones just yet—they are to witness this!" The three Sith attacking Anduil and Ikeeriot were unfortunate—when they were listening to Darchind’s orders they were carved up by the two Jedi’s lightsaber skills. "Now you will stop." Darchind said in a low voice. He held the two Jedi Knights in place with the Force. Darchind, Lord of the Sith, turned and regarded Alec Uban with a hideous smile behind the darkness of his hood. "Now Jedi, this is the beginning of the end for your kind!" Darchind shut off his crimson blade and put the hilt back into his black cloak. Alec knew just what was happening and shut his own off. He clipped it on his belt and planted his feet to the floor solidly just int time. Darchind threw his hands up into the air and for a moment held them there. They crackled with blue energy and then a wave of Sith Lightning Bolts sprang out from his finger tips as he laughed. "Feel the POWER of the DARK SIDE!" He railed at Uban. Uban met the Lightning with his own hands and cringed at his touch. It burned into his palms at once and his hands were all at once smoking. He narrowed his eyes in concentration and determination and threw the bolts to the side, straight into five utterly unprepared Sith apprentices. They were dead before they hit the ground. "Ahhhh!" Darchind howled. He simply pour more and more of his pure hatred into the Sith Lightning and kept laughing all the while. He took a step forward, then another. Alec was holding back the bolts of blue lightning when he felt the second surge of Dark Force behind Darchind’s blue forks licking out through the air and arrowing out at him. Only one chance, Uban bargained. One final flurry of motion and Alec pulled his lightsaber back out, igniting the white blade and using it to block the onslaught of blue lightning bolts. He arced the blade forward— —just out of reach of Darchind’s arms. Darchind pulled his own crimson lightsaber and swatted Uban’s white lightsaber away. The weapon shut off and clattered to the ground. Darchind was laughing all the while, manically as ever. He extinguished his own crimson blade and put it into his cloak once more. His hands went up and in one final bout of Sith against Jedi, he fired the arcing bolts of blue Force Lightning into Alec Uban, irradiating him with blue fire. "DIE JEDI! DIE!" He screamed. Alec’s body flew into the air and slammed into the wall. It fell to the floor, lifeless. The cylinder that was his former Master’s lightsaber clattered to the ground. Ikeeriot watched in horror just as Darchind’s Force grip loosened. Force lightning illuminated Alec Uban’s body, inside and out. He fell to the floor, a seemingly lifeless husk. Go, Anduil urged him. Go to him. I’m going to fight him. Anduil stood and ignited his two green blades and rushed Darchind. Ikeeriot crossed the room wearily, still vaguely aware that he was stepping over bodies and that there were Sith watching the battle. They were too enthralled with the dual lightsaber Anduil was wielding though and the way their Sith Master was handling the Jedi Knight. Kneeling beside his former master, Ikeeriot rolled Alec Uban over and shook him softly. "Master—Alec!" At first there was nothing; just the limp dead body of a Jedi Master. Then: Alec coughing, wheezing and coughing up blood. His eyes refused to open but he knew it was Ikeeriot holding him. "Iker . .Iker!" "I’m here." Ikeeriot said, deadly calm. He knew Alec wasn’t going to make it. "By the Force—." "Iker—I was too . ." He coughed, Ikeeriot nearly thought he had died then and there, become one with the Force in his arms, but he broke the cough with words. "Iker . .I failed you. I never should have Knighted you—you—weren’t . .ready. Train yourself . .uhh . .defeat him—but protect . ." With that, Alec Uban, Jedi Master of the Jedi Order became one with the Force. Ikeeriot shook his head and stood, watching the fight between Darchind. The Sith Lord had been surprised by Anduil’s ferocity, but the element of surprise had worn off by now. A jolt of the Force expanded out from Darchind’s outstretched palm, a crash of thunder expelling against Anduil too. Anduil was thrown back out through the doorway. He crashed onto the ground in the next room and Ikeeriot heard the furious hums and thrumming of lightsabers in action, attacking him at once. He wanted to rush out the door and help Anduil, but something was holding him in place—all these Jedi—they had died at the hands of this one . .maniac and for what? No—I’m not going to run. Not yet. Darchind turned to regard Ikeeriot with a smile. "The last of the Jedi. You will be my last kill of the day." Ikeeriot shook his head slowly, silent. "No." Darchind’s eyebrows arched in fascination and then realization. Ikeeriot raised his arms and screamed wildly as blue started to flicker and crackle at his fingertips. "AHHH!" Ikeeriot screamed. The sorrow of the Jedi’s deaths, the civilians deaths, the pain, the outrage; all of it poured out of his fingertips in the shape of coursing forked blue Lightning. He heard murmurs and cries of disapproval: not the dark side! No! Don’t Iker! Ikeeriot didn’t stop though. He couldn’t see whether or not Darchind was absorbing the Force Lightning or being hit by it but he knew the whole room was flowing with the bolts. He was vaguely aware that he was moving toward the exit and when he started to back up through the doorway, the lightning started to dissipate. Once he backed out and felt Anduil’s hand on his arm, urging him to run, he started to breathe heavily, struggling for air . . "Run!" Anduil yelled at him. Ikeeriot complied, if not only because he’d never heard Anduil like that and he feared it. His whole body was sapped of strength, and when Ikeeriot tried to call upon the Force to strengthen him, he felt as if it rejected him body and soul. "Iker go!" Ikeeriot sensed the failing morning light as his eyes flickered open and closed. He noticed that it was the morning light, but the building burning in the middle of the night. Ikeeriot finally dropped to the ground and would have surely died had Anduil not thrown him over his shoulder and started to run, supplementing the adrenaline and fear in his body and the panic in his mind with the Force. They crossed the city in a quarter of an hour. When the jungle and the way they’d came from was in sight, Anduil grew reckless. There was the wreckage of many burning buildings all around, but now he began to go through the ones that were still burning. Finally they came to the very brink of the capitol. Anduil sprang into one of the burning buildings, only to find two red lightsabers looking up at him as he hit the innards of the burning home. Without hesitation he pulled the roof down on what would have been all of them but in the last moment he found a hole in the wall. He barely made it out and when he landed on the other side, the explosion of the house carried him and Ikeeriot(still on his shoulders) into the jungle. Anduil’s only thought was to get to the camp site where they had all so stupidly gathered only hours before. Anduil made it there in what must have seemed like record time(the sun was now just rising over the lip of the burning capitol) and found one last shuttle. It was marked as the Paladins’ shuttle, but he thought morbidly that they weren’t going to be needing this were they were now. Anduil hadn’t ever flown very much but he was skilled enough to get the shuttle back into the black of space and plot a random but safe coordinate jump for the hyperspace generator to receive and log. Outside of the viewport the stars turned to thin lines and Anduil silently lamented ever setting foot on Xolatis. More silent still was the already persistent voice telling him it was indeed not the last time Anduil would be there.

.9 The leader of the ‘revolution’ as he called it was named Kole Datchin. As it happened, he trusted the Jedi less then he seemed to permit in front of his men. Five minutes after their ‘negotiations’ started, he moved them down into the ruined encampment below. The Jedi Knights Ikeeriot and Anduil were bound and carried while the Jedi Masters went of their own free will, deactivating their lightsabers and clipping them to their belts. Kole didn’t waste any time making sure the Jedi were in the dark though—he told everyone of his men to turn off their comm radios and speak not a word. They didn’t stop in the encampment either—there was a narrow opening on the opposite side of the circular camp and they took it, walking through the passage in haste. "Better watch your step Jedi," Kole said gruffly, passing by them and taking up the head of the line before they went in. "Our little canyon oasis ain’t much, and if you take a spill down there it would be a shame to have to redecorate what we already have going on down there." Alec looked to Orsin and mouthed in question, canyon oasis? Orsin Beserek squared his shoulders in a furry wookie shrug. The narrow path tunneled through the rock wall and out onto the other side of the jungle’s barrier to the encampment they’d just exited and expanded out into a rocky path that was overgrown with weeds and yellow grass. The ground sloped upward into a slant of yellowish gray clay path. The path was flanked by two red-bricked walls. There were faces in the walls, but the Jedi Masters hardly took notice. At the top of the path there was a doorway above them to the left, but no connecting ramp to pass up to it. On the other side of that doorway there was a dark durosteel catwalk that stretched out for about fifty yards, then it made an abrupt left turn and headed back to land the land. The Jedi Masters passed through the pathway in front of them and continued to walk on the yellow clay-ish ground. The canyon was boxed in, but to the left side of the catwalks there were yawning, seemingly bottomless caverns. The wind moaned upward and out of them. To the right of the catwalk and now which was in front of them, there was the pool of water. It was clear water, incredibly clear, considering the surfaces that encapsulated the water was the red bricks they’d seen before. Red bricked pillars held up the catwalks all around the square pool. "It’s beautiful." Alec mumbled, looking around. "So open, but at the same time it’s—." "Closed. I know. It’s one of the reasons we picked it as our base of operations." Kole said cooly. "Now you were saying something about you thinking we should negotiation with that nerfherder?" "It’s true that we’ve seen things that point to your thinking Darchind is a Sith might be true, but as of now, we want to at least try and go ahead with negotiations. We could always draft a contingency, if it would make things better for you." Alec said. "A contingency? Look, Jedi, you are the Republic’s contingency and if you can’t see what’s so blatantly in front of your eyes, then we’ll just storm the capitol without you!" Kole exclaimed. All around there were men and women, some swimming the pool, but other grabbing their guns and shifting their gazes to one another uneasily. Alec frowned."We’re not a contingency. We keep the peace and make sure that justice is carried out. As for you storming the capitol, I’d advise against it. I’ve sent for reinforcements—." The Wookie Orsin Beserek yowled something in his own language that Kole wouldn’t have made out, but Alec knew it was a protest. "Our reinforcements should be here by nightfall." Alec finished. "Good." Kole said. "We’ll need all the help we can get to take the capitol." "No." Alec said. "I don’t think you understand. We’re under orders to bring peace to this argument, not to take sides. We want to start negotiations." "I’ve read a lot about your kind." Kole started. "You’re enemies with the Sith. Why are you just shrugging this off like it’s nothing—?" "The Sith have been extinct for a long while, Kole Datchin." Alec said sharply. "The fight you might have witnessed that I was engaged in was one with something we call a Fallen Jedi." "Right. A Sith." Kole said. Alec was starting to lose patience with the man when Orsin muttered something in a low growl. Anduil and Ikeeriot were awaking. "Are you alright?" Alec called back. "Of all the underhanded, dirty tricks—." Ikeeriot started up. "That’s a yes." Beserek muttered. "My—ugh—my head." Anduil mumbled. "Where is my lightsaber?" "Right here, pup." Kole sneered. "Oldest trick in the womp rattin’ book and you fell for it boy." "Excuse me if I’m not as seasoned and exaggeratedly experienced as someone of your stature!" Anduil snapped back. "Dry as Corellian ale." Kole said. "Now are we going to be able to come to some kind of agreement or am I going to have to personally put a blaster hole in each of your heads?" He said, a man stating a reasonable question, he obviously thought. "If the Lord Darchind is a Sith, then you quite frankly already have too much work cut out for you anyway." Ikeeriot said. "You’ve just given away your position if they are Sith. Sith would track Jedi. If they are Sith, they’ve tracked us here, to your self-proclaimed base of operations. You’re down on the dueling circle without a lightsaber." "Shut up, pup!" Kole spat. He looked at Alec. "Is what he said true?" Alec shrugged. "Only theoretically speaking. If they are Sith I’m sure they would have just killed me when I met with them alone first." "You met with him alone?" Kole asked. "Jedi are either brave or legend or insane." "I tend to prefer a little of both." Alec said dryly. Kole considered. "If you want these so-called negotiations to start, then you’ll need a representative to come with you. I’ll be the one." Astonished, Alec tried to keep it out of his face. "You’ll come then?" "My people will stay behind us all the way. I come only if your reinforcements really come." Kole amended. "Fine." Alec said. He turned and started to walk back to the camp site. "Where do you think you’re going?" Kole cried after him, leveling his gun at the Jedi Master’s turned back. "I gave them the coordinates to land. The coordinates were on top of that ruined camp. By the way, what seemed to provoke that one?" Alec asked. "If you’re referring to the one who destroyed our camp then I can honestly say I don’t know. Sent by the Sith." Kole said. "If they’re Sith." Alec repeated. "They are." Kole said. "Then why go with us?" Alec asked, turning to him. "Insurance." Kole muttered. "This is turning out to be a fun day after all." Anduil grumbled. "Does anyone mind if I have my weapon back please? Or do I have to take it away." "Enough." Beserek scolded in a growl. Anduil smirked. "Only kidding." "Here." Kole threw the two lightsabers into the air behind him. "Take them. For what good they do ya. I’ve seen blasters take down Jedi once today. That’s enough to tickle my funny bone for another three centuries." "It was a stun bolt." Ikeeriot said. They moved up into the camp site and waited. A few hours passed in relative silence. Ikeeriot reexamined his lightsaber and took it back apart once. There were a few things wrong with it that he could see, and found the several hours with nothing to do easy to get along with as he fiddled with the circuitry inside of the lightsaber as carefully as he could. Anduil Siron paced back and forth between Beserek and Ikeeriot and Alec meditated silently. At last there was the distant hum of engines and finally two dots out on the horizon. The Paladins. The shuttles were nondescript military shuttles, enough for about forty people on each, however when Alec looked at how easily the ships were settling down to the ground about twenty feet away he knew there were less. I’ll be thankful for any, Alec thought calmly. The capsule shaped shuttles sunk their landing teeth into the ground and almost at once the door on the back of each of the shuttles swung wide open. There were fourteen Jedi in all, seven on each ship. All were Knights in their own right, only one, a female Ishi Tib named Lorata Ashatyne who was a Jedi Master. "It is an honor to be able to help you in settling the conflict here, Master Uban." She spoke softly when she walked up to talk with him. She seemed unsettled by their onlookers, but said to him nonetheless, "Although I fear this may seem a bit unconventional, to bring them." "Not all of them." Alec shook his head. "Only the leader, Kole. What are your thoughts on this governor being a Sith?" "Impossible." The Ishi Tib said, shaking her green head. The fleshy almost triangularly placed stalks on her head shook, her eyes closed in silent but quick deliberation. "They’ve been dead far too long . .and to reappear back here? On a planet only vaguely known to the Republic?" "It doesn’t make sense." Alec agreed. "Perhaps there is much we don’t understand about the Sith though." Lorata started but still shook her head. "We know more then them. They are the ones who do not understand the ways of the Force. When are we to leave?" "For the capitol?" Alec asked. "Not for another few hours at least. I’ve called the Warriors-for-Justice. Some are on their way. Justice is with them." Lorata’s eyes bulged in realization. "This concern of yours is more then curiosity, I take it then? You really think that the Sith may be emerging once more?" "The Force is clouded here." Alec noted calmly. "I simply feel it is better for us to be here now rather then later. If this man’s claims and what we’ve been able to theorize are true, this place could be a breeding ground for the Dark Side." Lorata nodded and looked around the camp. She told her Paladin members to take a seat and that they would be there for a while longer. "Your learner?" "No longer." Alec said. "I’ve elevated him—he did. Ikeeriot is a Knight now." "I don’t think the council would approve of a field Knighthood Trial." Lorata tried. "No matter." Alec said patiently. "He is my padawan, not the Council’s." The Ishi Tib nodded soundlessly. For a moment it stayed that way. "If they are Sith?" Alec frowned and looked at Lorata closely. There was something about this place alright—whatever was on Xolatis brought out the anxieties in people. "I don’t think I’ll have to remind you of our duties." Lorata seemed to smile a bit, "We would defeat them in combat then?" Alec nodded silently; purposefully. "We would have no choice. They are a threat to the galaxy and a threat to the Jedi. We protect those in the Republic and that encompasses the people in the capitol. If they are under Sith rule, it is one masked in democracy so thin that only these freedom fighters know it is tyranny. I must stress if Lord Darchind is a Sith." Lorata nodded eagerly. "Have you meditated on it?" "All too much." Alec said, wrinkling his forehead and furrowing his brow. "I cannot tell if the Dark Side here is due to Sith or the conflict between these two peoples. Something is here." Changing the subject, Lorata asked, "Any news on the war?" Alec shook his head. "This place is basically communication free with our holonet. I haven’t heard anything since I left Coruscant." "I haven’t heard anything either. I have a bad feeling about that fact, Master Uban." Lorata remarked. "Look to the Force, Master Ashatyne." Nightfall came and the jungle grew cool. Everyone in the camp became restless but it was soon swayed and pushed away by the arrival of the Warriors-for-Justice. They came in two more shuttles. Four Jedi in one shuttle and another eight on the other. There were thirty Jedi in all now, more then Ikeeriot or Anduil had ever seen assembled outside the comforting walls of the temple that now seemed so far away from them. Alec immediately went to ‘Justice’ and shook hands with the man. Justice had once been Alec’s padawan once upon a time and now that they were reunited and on another mission after all that time, Ikeeriot could see their genuine love for the Jedi Order sparkle in the moon’s distant purplish hue. "We’re not here to fight, just remember that, Justice." Alec said. Justice was tall, he had long brown hair and a beard too. His eyes were beads of cold blue light in the night. "As a last resort though—if they are Sith, then we have to." "Agreed." Alec said. Beserek greeted Justice with a hearty Wookie crushing-hug. Beserek woofed in mighty amusement as Justice tried to get his breath back. "Always had a flair for dramatics." Beserek said. "Yeah, you always had a flair for the ability to nearly crush my lungs without the use of the Force." Justice fired back playfully. "Good to see you again, Orsin." Finally they assembled, Alec, Justice, Jorata and Orsin at the front of the group with Kole behind them, muttering something into his comm radio. "We’ll only need a few of us to go into negotiations, but if we need the rest of you, we’ll call for you." Alec said to the small crowd. "You’ll be right outside the door. If there’s anything going on, you will know so through the Force. If all goes well though—peace will be achieved and we’ll have a unified planet in our Republic in the morning." There were a few claps for this, but most of them wore concentrated faces. "Let’s go." Alec said. Ikeeriot and Anduil were filing into the transport that Alec and Orsin were taking but Alec held them back for a moment. "You’ll be going in the other transport." He said. "You’re going to be our backup, just in case anything does happen." "I don’t think you going in there alone is such a good idea—." Ikeeriot said. "I am not alone, Ikeeriot. Orsin, Justice and Jorata are with me." Alec replied. Ikeeriot frowned and looked down at the ground for a moment but finally nodded it away. Anduil shook Orsin’s and Alec’s hands without knowing why he was doing it. Before Ikeeriot and Anduil had to step back from the loading door of the transport, Anduil bowed before the two familiar Jedi Masters and nodded to the others. "May the Force be with you." The doors shut and the shuttle snapped back into the air. Ikeeriot and Anduil hurried over to the second transport and filed in with the rest of the Knights and Padawans from the hodge-podged group of Paladins and Warriors-for-Justice. It only took them about half an hour to get to the administrations building, which was more like a castle made from blue stone. Upon filing out of the transport with his friend Anduil Siron, Ikeeriot said in awe, "May the Force be with us all."