Star Wars: A New Dawn

"Then so shall we." Maeror said. "That holocron will be MINE." He said leaving the meditation chamber, his silent rage building at his apprentice's failures.

Nazrin watches Maeror leave before turning to Eerie and nodding for her to follow. From there, the two of them head out towards the hangar in preparation for Coruscant.

Neri took over Jaxie's seat and assisted in flying the plane, "I didn't expect you to know... I only hoped you did. It would've been easier to have some answers for once. My apprentice has been kidnapped and I don't think she's in safe hands. I'm sorry if I seemed snappy."

"Yeah, yeah. Warm fuzzies all 'round. We can save the apologies and niceties for after we save our skins. Let's get this crate airborne and outta here before the star destroyer parked over our heads can try to kill us," Nix says, prepping the shuttle for takeoff.

Darren notices the ship taking off the platform and parries a strike from Ford before kicking him back against the railing. He reaches out toward a large pillar and begins to move it with the force, aiming to have it topple over the shuttle and the platform.

Maeror arrived on the bridge. "Set a course for Coruscant."

The helmsman looked back and nodded. "Yes my lord!" He said punching in the coordinates.

-----

Ford grunted and seeing Darren's intention he shot his arms out at Darren and Force Push him hard sending him down the platform back towards the palace.

"Can we seriously get up in the air?! NOW!" Ford barked

"If one more person yells at me, so help me god," Nix says. "Screw it. Bypassing safe-launch protocols." With that the ship harshly begins to ascend.

The Captain wrote:

Davik sighed running his hand through his long grey hair. "We simply must wait. Finding him here is impossible...the Dark Side is clouding everything, he will make his move soon however that much I can sense. We must be ready."

Tamil nodded in return to Davik, frowning. "I do sense something... dangerous. But the Dark Side clouds too much-"

Rowena gasped loudly, grasping his arm with a suddenness and strength that surprised them both. "He's here," she breathed, fingers digging into his wrist painfully.

"Fionn?" Tamil asked sharply, kneeling down next to her, and the children, who had gone eerily silent.

"Yes," she hissed, eyes narrowed and lips pulled back from her exposed fangs in unnerved danger. "I can feel his presence prodding at the back of my mind, like he would when he wanted me to practice tracking him. Staying just out of reach and keeping himself hidden." The Nalroni took a deep breath, then opened her eyes again with much greater calm. "But he's in the building. That much I know."

Davik unhooked his light saber from his belt and moved into the center of the room. "Then let him come." He said.

Leia stood up and rushed to her children. "We need to get them to safety."

"We cannot leave them unprotected," Tamil grunted, unclipping his own lightsaber from his belt. "Master Davik, please take the Solos to safety. The bunker at 550 Republica should suffice. I sincerely doubt he came alone."

"This is our mission. My failing, my atonement," Rowena said, moving swiftly for the door. "I must stop him."

***

Elsewhere in the building, Turpidus smiled, concealed by the shadows. They are divided... now, to conquer.

The door suddenly opens. In walks a young Nautolan woman and Jedi Knight, Siha. She stops in the doorway to find a blaster pointed at her and several lightsabers drawn in her direction. She stares for a moment, blinks, and cocks her head to the side. "Sense... distress," she says with her subpar grasp of Basic.

Davik shook his head. "I will not leave you alone in this fight." He said to Tamil before looking to Siha. He used the Force to speak in Nautila in her mind, knowing that speaking it aloud would sound...off. Take Minister Solo and her children to the security bunker. We have an intruder.

Siha nods. She turns to Leia and bows, then takes little Jacen's hand as Minister Solo takes Jaina's. From there she hurries along for the bunker Tamil had mentioned.

---

Meanwhile, halfway across the galaxy, in orbit of Ventooine, Zora meditates in her quarters whilst the other Mercenary Knights celebrate a job well done.

Jil, annoyed by Dorian and Broduu's drunken raving, leaves the cockpit and heads back for the living quarters, where she pauses at the sound of the thud. She rushes back to where she finds Zora, grasping a bedpost near her and gasping for air as if she was out of breath. "Zora? Zora! What happened? Are you all right?"

"Vision," Zora says, rapidly collecting her. "Davik. Coruscant."

"What?"

Zora pulls herself together. "Set course for Coruscant," she says, pulling herself to her feet.

Luke's eyes opened suddenly drawing him from his meditative state. He could feel a surge in the Dark Side, a powerful force, it was clear as day to him now this shadow that had been rising.

He rushed out of his meditation chamber and contacted Coruscant.

Nix manages to get the shuttle well off the ground and Jaxie returns to the ramp. "Ford, let's go!"

Rowena made a frustrated noise halfway between a whine and a snarl, one hand reaching up to her head. "He feels the same," she whimpered as Tamil came up next to her. "It feels like he's just teasing me, telling me to hurry up and find him. If I close my eyes, I can imagine it's just another training exercise on Hypori. This is-"

"Ena," Tamil said firmly. "Calm. Deep breaths."

She nodded, trying to slow her breathing from its frantic pace to something more reasonable.

"We knew this was the case, already," Tamil continued. "Even during the massacre on Iridonia, he didn't change much. That was why Master Skywalker set us, rather than a battle contingent. We think he can be saved. So should you."

The beeping of Leia's private comm interrupted them. "Speaking of Master Skywalker..."

Leia answered. "Yes Luke?"

"Get off Coruscant NOW, I can feel a Dark Presence approaching."

"We know, he's in the building." Leia said. "Masters Tay'lon and Tamil are here we're pre-"

"Not him, it's another presence...this is one is....pure darkness." Luke said. "Get off that world now, save as many as you can. I am preparing a force of Knights to come aid in the---

Lukes transmission was jammed suddenly, infact all communication on Coruscant shut down.

Davik looked up. "I feel it too, Tamil you try and save your old friend. I will protect Leia and her children."

-----

Ford blocked a series of strikes from Darren and slipped past his defenses with a quick move and his hand found Darren's chest.

"Bye." Ford quipped and Darren was hit with a powerful Force Push that sent him flying towards the Palace itself. Ford turned his saber off and jumped up into the shuttle as it's ramp closed.

"Go."

"Been trying to," Nix says. With that the ships takes off.

"We're taking him to Coruscant for questioning," Jaxie says.

Nix glances down at the radar. "Company. This thing have guns?"

---

Siha nods to Davik, giving Jacen to Leia before drawing her own saber to cover the front while Davik covers the rear.

Not needing further prompting, Rowena and Tamil raced out of the doors, down a stairwell and across  the floor below. Several confused aides milled around in panic at the shutdown of communications, and they bulled straight through them, Tamil racing around them all as Rowena flipped straight over their heads and kicked open the door at the end of the hall so they could get through.

"Master, this way!" Rowena shouted, turning down the hall on their right and speeding up even further  before coming to a bank of glass windows that barred the way. With a frustrated growl, she lashed out with the Force, shattering the windows and launching herself from them, sailing down towards the rooftop courtyard between the two towers of the building. With a second Force Push, she buffered her fall, steadying herself as she landed in a roll. Tamil touched down behind her, having chosen the relatively safer route of levitating himself down.

And there, in the center of the courtyard, stood a massive figure wearing a hooded, black cloak that obscured all of their features. "Quite the dramatic entrance, Padawan mine," the man spoke, his voice raspy and metallic-sounding, but unmistakably filled with warmth. "You look well."

Rowena tried to speak, but choked on the pure emotion that welled up in her throat. She tried again. "Master... Master Fionn, is it really you?"

"Yes, Ena. I'm here." He inclined his hooded head towards Tamil as he came up to stand next to their mutual apprentice. "Hello to you too, old friend."

"This is not a social call, Fionn," Tamil replied bluntly, tattooed features twisted in mild annoyance. "Or... should I call you Turpidus, now?"

"That would be Darth Turpidus, to you, Master Tamil," the robed man replied, to sharp intakes of breath from both Jedi. "Yes. I am a Dark Lord of the Sith. And I have come to you with an offer."

"To join you or die, I take it?" Tamil said quietly, fingers playing across the hilt of his lightsaber.

"Not quite," he replied, slight amusement detectable through the metallic filter. "As we speak, the Sith fleet moves inexorably closer, closing its iron fist over Coruscant. Even now, they draw closer. Turn over the Minister of State and Rowena. And do not stand in our way. Otherwise-"

"I refuse," Rowena said bluntly, drawing her lightsaber and holding it low in the classic Niman ready stance. Despite this, unshed tears burned in her eyes as she stared at the silhouette of the man she considered a father. "Jedi do not cut deals with terrorists, Master. You taught me that."

A shuddering sigh, though one that seemed patently false, rippled from under the black hood. "So be it." With that, the cloak was shredded as black ripples of power erupted from the man, revealing blackened, spike-riddled armor and a battle helmet lit with a red slit across the face. "Then I will take our objectives by force." He thrust outward with his hands, creating a massive shockwave of power that blasted both Jedi off their feet and shattered every window facing the courtyard. "Your options are to flee and live, or face me, and perish. Choose, Jedi!"

Davik hurried with Leia, the twins, and Siha to the Republic bunker near the building, Republic soldiers rushed past them towards the intruder.

Davik grimaced feeling the power of the Dark Lord and seeing the soldiers move past them. He did not like seeing men going off to fight something they could had no power to stop.

The Mercenary Knights pull out of hyperspace just outside of Coruscant, Zora leaning over Borduu and Hsien's shoulders in the cockpit. "The capital," she says. "Hurry."

---

"Sir," one of Nazrin's spies reports. "Turpidus is below. But he's engaging two Jedi. The Chancellor and Minister are divided. Your orders?"

Nazrin stares for a moment then turns to Eerie, who bows her head to him before turning and making her way towards a separate shuttle.

Davik got outside the building and to the sky bridge that lead from the building and towards the more hardened military bunker.

Leia had her light saber in hand but turned off as she rushed with Jacen and Jaina out of the building, she was worried more for their sake than her's.

-----

Ford walked up to the cockpit seeing the Ziost near them.

"That's not a class of ship I'm familiar with." Ford said looking to Nix. "I hope you are if we're gonna get past it."

"I am," Nix says. "And the only way we're getting away from it at this point is to have the two best pilots up here, flying. It'd also be nice to know if this crate has guns."

---

A shuttle approaches the sky bridge from above. Meanwhile, another shuttle keys in on Chancellor Mothma's location.

"Just laser cannons." Ford said taking the co-pilot seat. "It's just a shuttle."

-----

Davik looks up at the shuttle. "Siha, get them away from her go!"

-----

Chancellor Mothma was en route to an evacuation shuttle with several Republic soldiers and a couple Jedi Knights.

Tamil flipped over despite the power of the attack, then after a quick moment of eye-contact with Rowena, who had likewise managed to land on her feet, they charged, splitting his attention to either side. Divide his focus and we have the advantage. He can't possibly be that fast wearing that much ar-

Turpidus was suddenly standing in front of him, fist cocked back.

-mor?

Tamil's momentum abruptly reversed itself as he was cannoned into the wall with enough force to destroy the stone masonry and knock him further inside the complex.

"Master Tamil!" Rowena shouted, then came do a dead stop as Turpidus turned his full attention towards her.

"Ena... stop this," he said softly, gently. It was the voice he'd used to coax her out of nightmares, to soothe her fear of storms as a pup. "You should know you can't win. Not against me, and not as I am now." He strode towards her, and she scampered backwards, bringing her lightsaber up. "I know you wanted to have me back. For us to be a family again. We can. I promise you. But you must come with me, instead. It is the only way."

His honeyed words belied the fierce rage and terrible pain she felt, roaring out of his heart like a furnace. Rowena's throat closed up at the sheer magnitude of his agony, but she found it in herself to speak. "Master, what happened? Why do this to yourself?"

"Because I was weak and scared, and lost everything because of it," he replied. His tone was measured. Reasonable, as though selling his soul for power was an acceptable course of action. "Vader took the Order from me. Order 66 took my family. You... kept me sane, Padawan. But your light was not enough to blot out the darkness in my heart."

"And now..." Ena murmured, feeling a tear track down her face. "You want me to fall into that same darkness. To drag me down."

"No," he returned swiftly, "I want to lift you up... and train you to be the next Lord of the Sith."