Epilogue – "Missed Calls"
Chapter One - A Return to the TempleDelusionalDeath
In Transit, Ship
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The door had closed behind her, but the moment lingered. The words still hung in the air, weighty, unspoken, like the last echo of a blaster shot in the void.
Ilaria did not look back.
She walked with measured steps through the dim corridors of the ship, the hum of the engines a steady pulse beneath her feet. Around her, officers passed by, some barely sparing her a glance, others eyeing her with curiosity, with wariness. She did not concern herself with them. Their thoughts were as irrelevant to her as the whispered fears of the Outer Rim.
Her own thoughts, however, were not so easily dismissed.
Akratonos had spoken with conviction. His belief in the loyalty of his crew, in the righteousness of his cause, was undeniable. But belief was not enough. Loyalty was not enough.
Strength was enough. Control was enough. Mastery was enough.
She had spent too much time among the Jedi of Coruscant, watching them drown in their emotions, suffocate beneath their own supposed empathy. If the galaxy feared them, if the people saw them as something to resent, then the people were fools.
And fools did not dictate the course of history.
She reached the observation deck, a silent, empty space lined with transparisteel windows overlooking the endless sea of stars. The ship continued forward, cutting through the void with purpose, carrying its crew toward duty, toward war, toward the slow and grinding inevitability of conflict.
She exhaled softly, placing her hands behind her back as she stared outward.
Saul Karath should come to mind. Telos.
She had spoken the words as fact, but the truth was more complicated. His legacy was carved into her name, into her blood, into the whispers that followed her through the halls of the Jedi.
Was he justified?
She had always believed, not morally, but retributively so. The Republic had deserved it, had let itself become weak, complacent. Saul Karath had not been blind—the Republic had been, and if they hadn't Telos and Taris would of been avoided.
And yet, even he had faltered in the end. Even he had underestimated the currents that guided the course of history.
She would not make the same mistake.
Her focus was singular. It had to be. She would master herself, perfect her understanding, shape her destiny with hands that did not tremble, with a mind that did not waver. The galaxy was broken, but it would not remain so forever.
Because when the day came—when she had risen beyond the weakness of those who came before her, when she had stepped beyond the fading legacy of both Coruscanti Jedi and Alliance alike—
She would not beg for the galaxy's respect.
She would command it and shape it to better the galaxy.
To bring the Jedi back.
