Private Love and Corruption - The Library of Ashur

[Hawk Hinata]

As Hawk was levitated through the ship he made a mental map of the interior; noting what he could see of the rooms he passed with the limited scope of movement afforded to his eyes. The rasping hulks moved behind him, silent and perhaps the creepiest things Hawk had ever encountered. The Jedi Master had tried to probe them with the force, but his mind had slid around them in a most unpleasant way. He could tell that they were part living flesh and part machine, but there was a third part that was entirely elusive to him. The smokey black ichor that had flowed from the creature when he had cut it seemed to stick to his probing mind, as if he were becoming stuck in tar. It had taken all of his mental fortitude to extract himself from it. In some ways it reminded him of the force itself, except, while the force was an impartial tool, this ichor had a fanatical desire to purge anything remotely impure.

Hawk quickly decided he did not want to probe the creatures again.

A doorway slid open and Hawk was levitated through it. The room he entered was cavernous and dimly lit. An enormous viewscreen filled an entire wall and before it rose a dais where a tall figure stood wreathed in the gloom, and yet Hawk could feel his gaze upon him.

"So, dark ominous tropes are unironic where you're from?" Hawk enquired.

"The darkness helps me think," the figure responded and caused the bridge of the enormous vessel to become illuminated with a gesture.

"I wasn't aware that genocide required much deep thought," Hawk accused.

"Hmmm, is it genocide to burn back the weeds so that the garden may grow?"

"Is that what you tell yourself to justify the murder of billions of men, women and children?" Hawk spat with as much venom as his restrained body could muster as the dais slowly descended. "Those were not weeds. They were living breathing sentient beings with hopes and dreams, and you destroyed them all."

Hawk stared at the blue alien hard as it approached him. It must have been around seven feet tall with black veins protruding from under its skin, and equally black eyes that stared right back at him. Broad muscular shoulders framed the powerful body, and if he could Hawk would have cast a glance from it to the two hybrid creatures beside him. There seemed to be a kind of kinship in their appearance.

"The Library does not undertake its task lightly. It is a solemn duty to cleanse broken galaxies and to keep a record of all life that once lived within it." He leant forward as he spoke and took Hawk roughly by the chin.

Hawk felt sick to his stomach as the hulking blue alien revealed that he intended this to be the fate of all inhabited planets in the galaxy. When he had referred to the Hutt as weeds, Hawk had naively assumed that he had destroyed them because they were criminals, but it seemed he had passed judgement on the galaxy as a whole.

 

[KitKatt]

Putting explosives on whatever looked important took a surprisingly little amount of time considering the size of the vessel. Of course that could just be because so much of it looked alien and thus important, but she hoped she had chosen right.

She moved back towards the interior of the ship, hopping to find Hawk. She could feel him but there was something around him that felt like a blank space in the Force. It was a little unsettling. When she tried to sense that area it just felt like something squishy slipping away. She didn’t like it.

Rounding a corner she stopped in her tracks and felt her jaw drop. There was a hallway completely covered in a type of purple sludge. The sludge was glowing slightly and pulsating like it had a heartbeat.

She turned, intending to double back and find a less occupied path, but the gelatin substance shot out and grabbed her boot. She stumbled, and activated her lightsaber, slicing the material off from the blob. It sizzled and fell off her boot, and suddenly turned into a spongy material.

“What have we gotten ourselves into?”

She heard footsteps behind her, coming her way. She activated her blade again and cut a path through the sludge. It turned to sponge as her blade touched it and gave off a slightly acidic smell. Hopefully she would find Hawk ahead and they could get out of here.

Hawk Hinata

 

[Hawk Hinata]

The Lord Archivist studied Hawk with a cold indifference. He pulled Hawk's head from side to side; prised open his mouth to inspect his teeth and shone a light into his eyes.

"Look Threoren, he is nothing more than another bipedal mammal. The universe is full of them. The First Book even suggests we evolved from such lower creatures."

From the gloom Hawk saw another of the blue aliens emerge. This one was slightly shorter than the one inspecting him and he lacked as much definition in the black veins that protruded from his body.

"This vessel can not possibly contain an entire galaxy's worth of species; their history; their cultures; their art; their music, and every other aspect of them." Hawk mused aloud.

"The Library of Ashur is not a single ship," The Lord Archivist plucked Hawk's lightsaber hilt from Hawk's hip. "It is every ship in every galaxy, and we record no irrelevant data."

"Irrelevant data!" Hawk snorted. "Those are the things that define a species. Does your species have none of those things?"

"Enough," The Lord Archivist seemingly did nothing but Hawk now found it impossible to talk. "I will not be lectured by an unevolved and violent species. You will be catalogued and cleansed. You should rejoice that you will be immortalised within the Library."

With the wave of his hand the Lord Archivist manipulated Hawk in the energy field, and then, much to Hawk's discomfort, his clothes were vaporised and the blue alien began to...study him further.
____________________

The huge blast doors that protected the entrance to Zeya the Hutt's Palace groaned as they inched open. Four large transport vehicles floated slowly through into the cargo area in a plume of sand. Hawk and Kyte moved quickly, using the cover of the sand to attach themselves beneath the last of the transports.

"The storehouse access codes are on a datastick in the security compound," Hawk whispered as they both dropped and rolled into the shadows.

"Yeah, we're not getting those codes." Kyte gave a twisted smile. "What do you think Zeya would do if she found out Bison's gang was trying to steal from her?"

"I'll presume that's rhetorical." Hawk rolled his eyes. "And what do you think Zeya will do to us for breaking into her Palace?"

"You make the plans little brother, I make the trouble."

Kyte led the way into Zeya's throne room. It was a large and boisterous hall with a long table that ran through the middle, which led upto a huge raised platform. The platform sported another long table, at the centre of which sat Zeya the Hutt, it length filled with her lieutenants and other important members of the crime lord's inner circle. Musicians played along the walls, some seemingly voluntarily and others chained to those walls. All manner of other forms of entertainment ran up and down the tables, while food and drink was consumed in excess.

The sounds gradually faded as faces turned to look at the two teenage humans who stood in the entryway, until their presence was noticed by the table at the far end of the hall.

"What is 'dis disturbance?" Zeya drawled. "Talk quickly, 'oo are you?"

Kyte did all the talking. Hawk could feel the excitement grow within him as he unveiled his plan. He was pitting the Hutt against the gang to whom they and their mother had been enslaved. The Hutt were to be their unsuspecting liberators.
Zeya cackled at Kyte's boldness to come before her and reveal himself a thief sent to steal from her, but whom had decided it would be better to work for the Hutt than steal from them. Of course, Kyte had no intention of actually working for the Hutt, but by the time that became clear they would be free and away from Tatooine.
____________________

"An unusual growth on his brain my Lord," the second of the blue aliens spoke while running a glowing device across Hawk's head. "It appears to be, out of phase with not only this time period, but also this level of existence."

Hawk became aware of where he was once again. Still hanging naked in the energy field, but now it was the second of the aliens who examined him, while the one he referred to as Lord had returned to his dais.

"Trouble me not with the woes of a dead man..." The Lord Archivist began, while watching the progress of the cataloguing process of the planet they orbited, before truly hearing the words of his aide. "Is he ascended?" He spluttered in disbelief.

"No my Lord, he has suffered temporal and extra-planar brain damage. I believe he is experiencing out of body time jumps to his past...but..."

"But what Threoren? Do not try my patience with unspoken mysteries."

"His cells are alight with the ascended energy, but not in a form I have seen it before. This is not the black ichor of our ascension my Lord, it is the light of the First Book."

The Lord Archivist's eyes bulged and he swept a great hand across the other's face sending him sprawling.

"I told you I would not tolerate ancient religious drivel and superstition upon this vessel!" He raged. "The Ashur shrugged off those chains millenia ago and followed the path of ascension. The black ichor flows through me as I near my ascension, and it flows through our ascended brethren!" The Lord Archivist bore down on the stricken Threoren. "This diseased...human..." he grasped the name he had read from the data feed. "...Is nothing but a curious anomaly, not some fabled messiah set to cleanse the great darkness from the universe. We will cleanse it ourselves!"

"Beep bop bop whistle whir."

Hawk's head snapped around from the scene before him to the dais where his communicator sat.

I love that droid He thought to himself with a smile as the energy shield dropped from around him.

Hawk dropped and landed lightly upon the floor in what one might refer to as the classic superhero pose, except with a lot less clothing than one would usually expect.

The Jedi Master stretched out his hands and both of his blades leaped to him. The hues of aqua blue and lilac creating a bubble of coloured light around him on the otherwise gloomy bridge.

The Lord Archivist stood to his full height and smirked. He pressed a nail into the bulging black veins upon his right arm and the black ichor burst forth. It swirled and extended in front of him for a moment before solidifying into a sword of darkness.

The Lord Archivist moved with such speed that Hawk did not have time to think, and it was only his Jedi reflexes that saw him roll to one side and avoid the brutal attempt to decapitate him. Even still, the Lord Archivist's foot came following up and crashed into Hawk's side like a chunk of duracrete.

 

[KitKatt]

Katarine emerged in a large room that easily could have fit several cathedrals inside it comfortably. She did not have time to take in the decor however. Hawk was being suspended in an energy field and they were talking about his health. An unusual growth on the brain? Out of body and time experiences? She knew he shouldn’t have come on this mission. His health was important but he was determined to save the galaxy like a stubborn ox. If they survived this ordeal she would strangle him.

She slid under a railing and kept to the edges of the room, uncertain how to free Hawk and wanting to do so before she made herself known. She felt her stomach flip when she realized the aliens had undressed Hawk. They experimenting on him? She felt sick.

When the droid sounded Kat smiled. She was starting to really like that droid.

Hawk was dropped and a fight started. The alien was fast and he landed a kick to Hawks side. The black sword was swung high and came flying down towards Hawk after he stumbled but it never made contact. Kats own white blade caught the sword as she positioned herself between Hawk and the alien.

Hawk Hinata

 

[Hawk Hinata]

Hawk twisted his body as the kick connected, but the impact was still enough to knock the breath from his lungs. Sensing the danger, Hawk swept his blades up to intercept the savage blow from the Lord Archivist, but they never made contact. The black blade had been halted higher up by a shaft of intense white light, and she now stood protectively over him.

I really do love that woman too, Hawk grinned to himself despite the soreness in his ribs.

"It seems we have an infestation of these destructive lifeforms, Threoren. Does the First Book say the warrior of sorcery and light has a friend?" The Lord Archivist ground his teeth pressing down against their locked blades before throwing all his height and weight behind a backhanded slap aimed at Kat's face. "Kill the male while I deal with this female; the purification light will fire soon and sweep away the darkness in this system, and I will not be disturbed by these pests any longer."

The one called Threoren appeared in Hawk's vision holding a similar black blade to his Lord. Hawk rolled away from his position upon the floor and rose to his feet again.

"Are the charges in place?" Hawk whispered to Kat as he casually twirled his blades circling Threoren. "We might need to buy this world some time and hope help is on the way."

Threoren moved every bit as deft as his Lord, but this time Hawk was ready for his immense speed. The Jedi Master parried the swipe of his black blade with the barest of touches, channeling the blue alien's movement instead of opposing it. Threoren was left off balance as his blade cleaved through air and his own momentum left him feeling like he had missed the last step when descending a stairway.
It soon became apparent that though he possessed great speed and strength, Threoren was not a skilled swordsmen. Threoren had not yet realised that Hawk was testing his skill, and seemed to think the duel was evenly matched, so the look of complete surprise upon his face was entirely genuine when Hawk flicked his aqua blue blade up to intercept his black one, only to twist his wrist at the last moment to hook his blade while bringing his lilac one around to remove his hand.

Threoren stumbled back with a cry of pain as his hand fell to the floor; the black blade evaporating in an inky cloud of ichor. A look of something like fear and awe crossed his pain-filled face, but he quickly mastered it. The burnt stump of his wrist oozed the black ichor that ran through these beings, but it did not drip to the floor; instead it dangled loosely as more and more collected until it began to take on the shape of a new hand.

"Oh well that's just great." Hawk groaned.

 

[KitKatt]

Katarine gritted her teeth as the Lord Archivist put his strength against his blade. He was bigger than she was, and stronger but this was a challenge she often met in a duel. Katarine stood only five feet two inches and had struggled with a depression induced eating disorder since the death of Elion Corsair. She had also spent most her life battling a twin three times her size. What she lacked in strength she made up for in speed but nothing like the speed of these aliens. They were blurs when they dueled and Katarine felt certain the Lord Archivist had the upper hand in a fight.

She twirled out of the way of his hand but he was faster still and elbowed her in the side of her head. She tasted blood in her mouth but focused on getting her balance back before he attacked again.

“Are the charges in place?” Hawk whispered to her as she danced around the Lord Archivist and his blade.

“Yes. I have one detonator switch. R4 has the other.”

Kat had only a moment to speak to Hawk before she was separated from him and he began dueling a second alien. She tried to keep one eye on Hawks fight but the Lord Archivist was a very engaging opponent.

She twirled her single blade sideways and as she did so small tendrils of white energy circled her hand. She bit her lip and tried to ignore them, realizing with a jolt that she could not control it. Whatever was happening to her was now happening without Dax being present. If they survived this encounter she was determined to figure out what was happening to her, but she wouldn’t make the mistake of asking Hawk to stay away. She would force him to go with her and rest while they solved the mystery of the weird white energy.

That is if they survived and judging by Hawks groan she felt their prospects might be grim.

Hawk Hinata

 

[Hawk Hinata]

Hawk ducked and weaved evading the onslaught of Threoren with relative ease, but he could not evade him forever. The Jedi's blade found it's mark time and time again, and though each wound appeared to cause the blue alien a great deal of pain, they oozed their black ichor and rapidly healed.
Eventually Hawk had maneuvered himself so that he could snatch up his communicator, and with a signal to Kat to do the same he instructed R4 to detonate his charges.

Explosions tore through the immense alien vessel and the image of the world under threat dissolved from the viewscreen as the low hum of power ceased. Hawk didn't know how much damage they could do to a vessel of this size with their explosives, but the first series of detonations had at the very least achieved the goal of buying them some time.

The doors at either end of the bridge opened and two of the enormous monsters that Hawk had fought earlier entered through each.

"The Ascended will cleanse you Jedi, and I will ensure you are wiped from the Library memory!" The Lord Archivist raged at them both.

"My Lord, you can't cleanse without recording, you have become emot-"

Threoren fell silent at a deranged look from the Lord Archivist. The black veins throbbed across the blue alien's body and his chest heaved. Hawk could sense his anger. It was something raw and new, as if this were the first time he had ever experienced the emotion. Crackles of lightning arched between his bulging veins and within moments mechanical parts had burst forth as if grown from within him and he had become one of the monsters who closed in around them.

"Blessed are the Ascended," Threoren breathed in awe, though the Lord Archivist made no reply to this despite its obvious religious context.

Despite his words however, a deep furrow creased his forehead and his ran his fingers across the black veins upon his arms.

There were now five of the monstrous Ascended creatures within the room and Threoren. It seemed that they might have bought the planet some time, but that their own might be in short supply.

"I have an idea," Hawk said quickly throwing out his hands to knock their opponents away before turning to Kat.

All at once, Hawk was reminded of his own nakedness as he faced her...her soft yet strong facial features; full lips and fierce eyes; her cascading hair; the curves of her body. Stop it! Hawk scolded himself. It was then that he saw the white tendrils of energy emenating from her hands.

"Scratch that, I've got a better idea." He grinned and moved closer to her. "I need you to trust me now," he told her and raised his hands. "Take my hands. You will not hurt me." Hawk looked steadily into her eyes so she could see the truth of his words.

Hawk didn't know how he knew it, but he knew that so long as Kat trusted him and did not fear to hurt him than she would not.

 

[KitKatt]

Things were not improving. The alien changed form and was joined by a few of the monstrous things that had taken Hawk. Meanwhile Hawk seemed to have just realized his own nudity, and to his credit did not turn red from embarrassment as she would have done in that situation. He was giving her a look however.

“I have an idea.”

She raised an eyebrow at him, questioning if now was really the time for ideas. Then again if not now when? Death looked promising on the horizon.

“Scratch that I have a better idea.”

His next idea was a little less inviting. The last time she had let this white energy touch someone it had sent her twin to a hell dimension.

“If this is a clever way of trying to hold my hand I question your timing.”

She took his hands and winced, hopping she wasn’t about to send Hawk Hinata away from a galaxy that needed him.

Hawk Hinata

 

[Hawk Hinata]

Their fingers entwined and Hawk felt the white energy surge through him. If he fought it he knew it would burn through him, so instead he greeted it as simply another part of Kat.
Ever since Hawk had first encountered force lightning he had honed his skills in absorbing and channelling energy, spending countless hours trawling through the Jedi Archives to learn from the old masters, and spending hours more in mediation to listen to the force itself. Hawk's skill had grown over the years and he had even discovered the ability to channel force light.

The energy that flowed from Kat into him felt like sunshine in his veins. No, that wasn't quite right...his veins were sunshine. In fact, Hawk was light. The Jedi glowed with the white energy and thoroughly believed that if he lost focus on himself for a moment that he could very easily just shine away dissipating in all directions.
Hawk opened his eyes to look at Kat, but his usual piercing green was gone and his eyes glittered with white fire. Through these eyes Hawk beheld Kat, a Goddess of light, fire and ethereal beauty. He could also see her fear. Kat was afraid of herself; of what she was. She was afraid that she could not control her power; that she was not worthy of it.

Hawk help up a glowing hand to gently tilt her chin so she looked at him.

"We will discover the secrets of your power together," Hawk assured her. "I can lend you my control until you find your own."

The Ascended had recovered from Hawk's shove with the force, and unlike Threoren who, having regained his footing, now stood mesmerised by the sight of them, the Ascended had closed back in. The nearest of them swung its dark blade towards the pair, however a pillar of light arched from where their hands met and blocked it. A second pillar; then a third; a fourth, and soon many more burst forth to create a lattice of light. The Ascended tested the shield with their blades but they could not penetrate it.

Hawk's eyes, ablaze as they were, had suddenly become glazed. The white energy magnified the effect of the strange growth on Hawk's brain, and this time when it whipped his consciousness back in time...it took Kat's with it.
__________________

Hawk watched as Kyte spoke to the Zeya the Hutt. His brother thought he had them all fooled, but Hawk could see the truth in their eyes. Zeya might have been impressed by his boldness, but she had no need for two young boys happy to turn on their gang in her organisation. She would use them to kill the gang who sought to steal from her, but then she would kill them both as well. No loose ends.

A strange feeling came over him all of a sudden. A ripple of energy that he did not yet understand was the force. Piercing emerald green eyes quickly scanned the crowd until they fell upon a woman. Well, Hawk presumed it was a woman. She wore some kind of armour with a helmet that covered her face, yet the armour curved in all the right places for him to believe it were a woman beneath it. It was hard to say with a room so full, but he could have sworn she was not present a moment ago.

 

[KitKatt]

The white light that surrounded her and Hawk was getting brighter and brighter. Hawk whispered to her and then suddenly the light was blinding. She shut her eyes against it and kept them tightly closed until suddenly it was dim again. She opened her eyes and her jaw almost hit the floor. She was standing in the palace of a Hutt, and the genocidal aliens were nowhere to be seen. Was this the same transportation ability she had used with Dax? She turned to see what Hawk thought of this but received an unpleasant jolt when she realized he wasn't standing next to her.

Now fighting a rising sense of panic she scanned the crowed around her and this time her jaw really did drop. Hawk was here, but he wasn't the same Hawk she remembered. He was a child! Time travel? Is that what she had done? Surely she did not have the ability to travel back in time, and yet there was no denying that the young boy in front of her was Hawk Hinata. This was dangerous. Nobody should have this much power, least of all her. Where was adult Hawk? Even now the aliens could be slaughtering him. Or... now now really..... a century into the future they would be slaughtering him? Her head started to spin and she stopped trying to figure it out.

Hawk was looking her way and she realized he must have sensed her arrival. Judging by the look upon his face however he didn't know that's what was happening. So she was the only fully trained Jedi in the room. They were doomed. She glanced around the room, trying to figure out what was going on and why Hawk was in a Hutt palace of all places, when her eyes fell upon the boy next to him. There were certain similarities, almost like a sibling. Why had she been sent back to this particular moment? Was this a turning point in Hawks life and for some reason she needed to help it along? That made no sense. She hadn't met Hawk until her days as a Jedi.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Panicking wasn't going to help them. As soon as her eyes were closed she tried to recall what she had been doing right before the bright light and the words the alien spoke earlier drifted into her mind.

"he has suffered temporal and extra-planar brain damage. I believe he is experiencing out of body time jumps to his past."

Her deep green eyes flew open. She wasn't back in time. She was in Hawks mind. This was oddly comforting. It was like Hawk was all around her.

Hawk Hinata

 

[Hawk Hinata]

The mystery woman in armour was quickly forgotten as the crowd seemed to envelop the two teenage boys as Kyte finished talking to Zeya. Hawk found himself moving slowly past table after table of every kind of outlaw imaginable. A haze of smoke hung low in the air; a mixture of heady incense and hallucinogenics that left the senses swimming.

The tables brimmed with more food than Hawk saw in an entire season. He looked hungrily at steaming plates containing numerous dishes he couldn't even name, and sniffed inquisitively at the smell of strong alcohol spiced with flavours he couldn't even describe.
Scantly clad, and some rather more bare, Twi'lek slave girls draped themselves around various individuals or performed provocative dances for small groups. Hawk turned his face with a flush of colour burning his cheeks as one sent him a wink.

Kyte was rather more in his element, moving easily among the outlaws. A small smirk on his face.

"You know they're going to kill us too right?" Hawk whispered to his brother with a look.

"I'm not entirely without observational skills," Kyte hissed.

"Am I to believe you have a plan that doesn't see us being digested by a Rancor then?" Hawk asked with as much sarcasm as he could muster.

Kyte continued to grin as he spoke. "Our uncle is here, he has a plan to get us out. He will send someone to destroy the machine that relays the boss' signal to the implants while everyone is distracted killing each other."
___________________

The Ascended stood in a circle surrounding the two Jedi, but they could come no closer due to the energy field of white power that radiated from them. Threoren stood a little further back mouth agape in awe of what he was seeing. A small device in his hand flashed and beeped rapidly as he waved it in their direction.

"A thousand thousand galaxies contained within the great archive and nothing of this like has ever been recorded before." He breathed. "Their bodies remain protected by a strange energy field, but their conscious minds have been transported to the past." He began to make a voice recording to catalogue the event. "I believe the consciousness of the male has returned to inhabit his own past self, but is likely unaware. The female however..." He looked again at his scans. "I believe she may have inhabited a figure of some importance from the male's past."

Threoren's brow furrowed. Individuals moving through time could cause ripples of disastrous consequences through the entire universe if they weren't careful. The male would be moving through the actions of his past, but the female, she was a stranger there; an actor on a stage who had not read the script. Whether she knew it or not, she had a role to play and she had to find out what it was before whatever importance she held came to pass.
___________________

Hawk's mind reeled with the information that their uncle had come to save them. It had been years since their father had left and Hawk had stopped hoping that anyone was coming to help them...but now...Hawk smiled then too. For the first time in a long time he had hope.
The strange armour clad woman popped back into Hawk's mind just then. Was that why she stood out to him? Was she one of his uncle's people keeping an eye on them?

---

"You've done well boys," the boss clapped them upon the back and drew them both into a sweaty one armed embrace as he held aloft the access code chip for the Hutt storehouses. "You'll have earned your place as full members of the gang once this heist is over," he declared to a roar of approval from the rest as they drank the bilge that passed for alcohol in their hideout.

The gang mounted their speeder bikes and sped off in a wave of dust and sand, heading for the storehouses.

 

[KitKatt]

The Butterfly Effect.

This holo film was suddenly all Katarine could think about. It hadn’t really been a good movie, but she and Hawk had been killing time so drifting into a bad movie wasn't concerning. The story was simple enough. Some guy went back in time and changed the future. She hadn’t really paid much attention honestly, preferring to dwell on what her feelings for Hawk meant and what exactly she ought to do about them. Now however the movie seemed much more like an instructional video that she should have taken notes on.

She decided to follow the boys. Whatever was happening it seemed simple enough to assume she needed to stick close to Hawk. She kept her distance, clinging to shadows whenever she could and hoping she would understand whatever it was she had been sent here to do.

Hawk Hinata

 

[Hawk Hinata]

Coarse grains of sand whipped against Hawk's face as they rode, though his piercing green eyes stared unblinking at the setting sun through his tinted sand goggles. The sky filled with the blood red hues of dusk and the first chill of the desert night nipped in the air.
The Hutt storehouses lay up ahead. Impenetrable bunkers set into the face of tall cliffs. The codes that he and Kyte had 'stolen' from the Hutt would deactivate the automated defense grid that surrounded it and allow them to simply walk on in. It would have been a heist of epic proportions had it not been a trap that would likely see dead every person he rode with.

Hawk felt it as they drew close. The tension in the air; the fear and expectation of death. Had he not already known about the trap than he would have now. It confused him how the others continued onwards, seemingly oblivious to what was obvious to him.
Hawk's thoughts drifted to the near future. Right now his uncle's agent should be breaking into the gang's hideout to destroy the machine that relayed the signal to their kill-switch chips. No doubt the Boss was not stupid enough to believe the ambush that waited for them was a chance occurrence. He would quickly realise that they had betrayed him, and he would touch the pendant at his neck to activate the signal to kill them.

Much to Hawk's dismay, he could also sense a great deal of excitement and glee coming from his brother. Kyte was enjoying this and he could not wait to see the slaughter begin. A sudden feeling came over Hawk, and he knew then with a strange certainty that after tonight he would never see his brother again.

The speeders raced on and with a whoop they crossed the perimeter defense line with no alarms being raised and no defense systems blowing them to pieces.

 

[KitKatt]

Following the boys lead her to joining a raiding party headed further out in the dessert. As Kat did her best to blend in with the others and look as if she knew what the plan was she couldn’t help but realize how off plan her life had gotten. It felt like only yesterday she had wanted nothing more than to marry Ellion Corsair, raise a family and put the galaxy behind her. But that was a century ago, and now she was inside the mind of a fellow Jedi while he experienced a flashback.

Her own mind drifted backwards, remembering the day she had decided to leave Aviprine and join the Jedi Order. She hadn’t wanted to be a Jedi per say. It was more that she knew she had a deadly enemy and if she wanted to live her own life she would need to know how to protect herself. Perhaps that was why she never fully felt she fit in with the Jedi. Hadn't Dax always accused her of leaving a planet full of people who needed her? Even now she was trying to save another planet that needed her but it wasn’t what she truly wanted. Of course she did not want anybody killed and she didn’t want to see a planet destroyed, but she had never been a champion who wanted to get in the middle of these things. That role had always belonged to Hawk.

Her deep green eyes flickered to Hawks young face. She could tell he felt what was coming and was confused by those feelings, but judging by the look on his face he was confused why nobody else felt them since he accepted them so naturally and easily. Hawk was always meant for this life and yet fate had saw fit to drag him a century into the future into a galaxy so different than his own. He was now helping the galaxy little by little with no real leadership roles. Even his attachment to Kat was more a desire not to cling to the past than anything else. He was the only person left from her time period and she from his. The two were moving through the galaxy together and using a label for it, love, when both knew perfectly well that in the proper time period each had been meant for someone else. An overwhelming sense of no direction hit her and she had to shove her emotions into the pit of her stomach.

She glanced away from his young face, worried he might sense her stare. From what she could tell they were supposedly raiding a Hutts storehouse and playing double agents. Why had his mind gone back to this moment and what was Katarine supposed to do? She found herself once more in a situation where she was playing a role she had not wanted. She only hoped this ended better than it had with her twin.

Hawk Hinata

 

[Hawk Hinata]

The force was awakening swiftly within the young Hawk, but without training and guidance to draw upon, this only made the world that much more confusing for him.
Fear crept into through this confusion. He was afraid that the Hutt would kill them, or that the boss would realise their part in the ambush too soon and activate their implants killing them both. Hawk was equally afraid of succeeding. Of losing his brother to the rising darkness he felt inside him. Of leaving Tatooine...despite how he loathed the barren ball of dust.

It was as his mind dwelt upon these fears that he felt it. An oasis of peace. A light in the maelstrom of fear, like a lighthouse guiding him away from the jagged teeth that waited to rip him apart beneath the ocean of emotion.
Hawk turned just in time to see the masked stranger he had seen in Zeya's Palace turn away from him. Hawk blinked behind his goggles; he had not even noticed she was riding with them until that moment, but then with the whole gang riding it was easy to blend in.

Within moments however, the strange masked woman had slipped from his mind again. It was as if he could not hold onto the thought of her, or her image within his head unless he looked at her.

The entrance to the storehouses loomed before them as the Boss held his fist aloft and brought them to a standstill. His two lieutenants rode forward the last few feet and inserted the security chip into the receptor. The sound of immense gears turning and shifting echoed in the valley as the mountain itself seemed to open.

The Boss' cheer died in his throat as a blaster bolt thudded into the chest of each of his lieutenants; swiftly followed by two more that sent them sprawling to the sand dead.
Mounted cannons crested the escarpment above while a dozen AATs floated into a semicircle behind them. From within the mountain itself poured dozens of Hutt enforcers and heavily armoured droids.

The Hutt opened fire from all quarters and everything was mayhem. Many of the gang died within moments before those who remained formed a defensive ring of speeders from which to hide behind and return fire.
Amidst the chaos, Hawk's eyes found those of the Boss. He stared hard at Hawk with such hatred in his eyes before reaching into his shirt and pulling out the device to activate their implants.
There was nothing Hawk could do. He was too far away to stop him. All he could do was watch helplessly as the Boss levelled it in his direction. Hawk clenched his teeth together in expectation of the detonation within his skull that would kill him...

 

[KitKatt]

“Daxium no fair! We called no rocks!”

Katarine was spinning frantically in a circle, trying to see which way her twin went. A rock lay beside her boot, as if it had been thrown at the little girl moments before.

“What fun is that?”

She turned toward the sound of his voice but she could not see him.

“How would you like it if I pelted you with rocks!”

“You havent got the guts!”

Another rock came flying through the air and hit her on the cheek. She cried out and rubbed her cheek where already there was a red mark starting to puff up.

“That could have taken my eye out! Stop it now!”

He just laughed at her and darted behind another set of trees. She saw him for only a second and then he was gone. The urge to panic was overtaking her. It was always like this with him. They would be having a fun game and then suddenly he wanted to play too rough. At first she thought he just didn’t know his own strength but now she worried he actually wanted to hurt her. It was almost like he knew something she didn’t and hurting her was a valuable skill he thought he needed.

She spun around as a twig snapped but it was just a small animal. Instinct took over and she closed her eyes, willing herself to feel where her twin was.

She felt a sudden jolt in her stomach and spun around in time to catch the rock flying towards her, but he was fast and had already thrown another which hit her ear and drew blood.

She was shaking, holding her bleeding ear and trembling so much it felt like the ground was trembling too. Even the animals felt it as suddenly several birds took flight. Suddenly all the rocks surrounding her flew into the air, and exploded away from her, ripping through trees and bushes , and causing Daxium to fall from his hiding place.

“I SAID STOP!!’

—————————-
The sudden jolt in her stomach was a warning, and it was one Katarine knew to trust by now. In the chaos overtaking the group nobody seemed to notice how out of place she was, nor that she hadn’t ducked for immediate cover.

When she saw Hawk tense up she followed his gaze and saw the man holding a slaver detonator. She had never once suspected that he great Hawk Hinata could ever have been someone’s slave but there was no mistaking the fear radiating off the child. Katarine flung her arm out and the detonator flew from the man’s hand.

Hawk Hinata

 

[Hawk Hinata]

Hawk's heartbeat thudded out the moments as they stretched before him in suspended agony. Blaster fire crashed all around, filling the air with a fine veil of dust that glittered as spears of light thrust between them. Through the chaos, Hawk saw the remaining members of the gang make a desperate push for the shelter of the storehouse; his eyes frantically looking for sign of Kyte before settling back upon the Boss as the moment came to an end.

Warmth that had nothing to do with the heat of the sun and peace unlike anything he had ever felt in his life washed over him in a wave. I'm dead Hawk thought to himself, before the information from his own eyes dismissed the notion. The detonator had leaped from the Boss' hand and the masked woman had caught it. Magnets?" he wondered in the half second it took him to realise he wasn't going to die.

The next half second brought him back to reality as the ground in front of him exploded. There was every chance that he was still going to die...
________________________

"It was you..." Hawk whispered, his lips barely moving as he and Kat stood there, perhaps some small part of his mind aware of their own time. His brow furrowing as for a brief moment he saw a frightened and angry young girl whose ear bled.

"Peace child, the hurt is not so bad and I will keep you safe..." His whisper was barely audible but carried with it the strength of Hawk's absolute certainty.
____________________

A great roar filled the air as he tucked himself beneath a speeder bike. The dust filled air swirled and parted to reveal a ship. It's forward cannons blazed ripping through those that overhung the escarpment, and before the AATs could even adjust their firing trajectory the pilot had whipped the craft around and turned them into a smouldering pile of twisted wreckage.

The ship drew low to the ground and a boarding ramp descended. A figure appeared at the end of it yelling for him. Hawk crawled our from where he was hidden. A boy of about his own age stood there. It took Hawk a moment to realise who it must have been, as he had not seen him since they were only very young. His cousin, Talon.

"Kyte!" Hawk yelled, and suddenly his brother was there beside him.

For a moment Hawk thought everything was going to be alright, but then he looked into his brother's face. Eyes that had once reflected his own now stared back with a sickly orange and yellow hue. There was recognition within them, but it was caged behind an animalistic fury. Hawk took an involuntary step back and their relationship ended in that moment.

"Go." The last word his brother ever spoke to him, before he darted off to join the slaughter.

Hawk paused. He wanted to chase after Kyte and force him to go with him, but he could not. The Hutt had regrouped and he had disappeared amidst the chaos. With no other choice, he leaped up beside his cousin; the masked woman who had saved him slipping from his mind like a dream he had awoken from.
____________________

Threoren had quite forgotten about the planet they were targeting as he documented the strange occurance. In fact he had forgotten about anything else at all...that was until the proximity alerts began to sound.
Dozens of large ships and perhaps hundreds of smaller ones entered the system and began to bare down upon the enormous alien vessel. Their opening volleys doing little more than rippling across the energy field that protected the ship.

"We need to end this," Threoren spoke to the Ascended. It was his duty as the new Lord Archivist to complete their mission and purge this galaxy of its evil, though even as he spoke the words he could not help but recite the scripture of the First Book in his mind.

The Ascended began to chant, a dark mist raising from each of them and beginning to encircle the light of the two Jedi. Tendrils of light forked like lightning to repulse the dark cloud if it drew too close, but it did not withdraw far and continued to probe the light, looking for a way in.
____________________

The ship and Tatooine itself dissolved into nothing but sound and colour, and then lightning streaked across the sky of Korriban and the sounds of battle were momentarily lost within the roll of thunder. A figure clan in dark robes stood upon a hill littered with debris and corpses. Power radiated from him in waves of nauseating evil. He danced a dance of death with three others, his single crimson blade flashing to intercept their blue and green. The figure of great evil was falling back, he was no swordsman. It would be over soon. The red blade sailed from his hands and clattered to the ground and the three surrounded him...but he merely laughed. With the raising of a single hand he called the lighting from the very sky itself and brought it crashing down upon his enemies. Two died where they stood, but the third leaped aside.

Hawk hit the floor hard as he leaped aside as the lightning crashed into the spot where he had stood moments before. The residual energy of the blast however crackled through the ground and his body jerked with the electrical energy.
The young Jedi Padawan felt the deaths of the two Knights whom had fought beside him, and he knew his own would come soon. In great pain he crawled across the ground hoping to reach his blade. If he was going to die than he would go down fighting, but he never made it to the hilt.

Lightning, this time from the Sith's fingertips encircled him. It was like his very nerve endings were on fire and he screamed. The Sith seemed to enjoy that.

"Do you know who I am, Jedi?" The Sith laughed dementedly. "I am Malice Draclau. I could train you to become a powerful Sith, or you can die like your friends."

Hawk reached out a hand as the lightning coursed through him and his mind connected with that of the Sith. Hawk fought for control, but even here within his mind the Sith was too powerful. He felt his strength being overwhelmed. The Sith was going to destroy his mind before he destroyed his body...and yet, there was something growing inside Hawk, a light of brilliant white energy.

 

[KitKatt]

"It was you..."

Kat heard Hawks voice as if it was coming from all around her, but not from the young boy who was now boarding a ship. She glanced up at the sky and felt her jaw drop. The scene in front of her looked like two tapestries crudely sewn together. On one half was the ship that was now rising, carrying a young Hawk Hinata, but on the other half of the sky stood Katarine and Hawk, locked together and surrounded by white light. Her heart started to hammer against her chest. This was too much. She did not understand what was happening or why it was happening. The only thing she was certain of is this did not feel like Hawk. There was no peace, no tranquility and no understanding. All she felt was a radiating, blinding power, neither good nor bad, but strong. Was this her? She did not want this. She should not be this. Nobody should have the power to look at the fabric of the universe and see where the past and present connected. The ground below her shook again with explosions. She ripped her eyes away from the sky and darted sideways in time to miss a volley of blaster fire. But when she spun around to face her attacker they were gone. Everything was gone. It had all changed.

There was Hawk, older than before but probably still a pdawan. Was she still inside his memories? Or was she inside the past? It didn't truly matter right now. She had to help Hawk before he fell. She felt a pang for the lives of the two other Jedi. She could do nothing to help them.

"I am Malice Draclau. I could train you to become a powerful Sith, or you can die like your friends."

With a jolt Katarine's deep green eyes finally landed on the Sith attacking Hawk. The moment she saw the pointed ears she felt a blinding anger. She had promised Malice Draclau the next time she saw him would be the last time he saw anybody. She had sworn he would suffer for what he had done to James Terran. A monster was erupting inside her, snarling, and longing to sink it's fangs into the wretched Sith. Hatred Katarine had never known coursed through her and she struggled to gain control of this sudden madness.

She took two steps forward, no thought in her mind but to rip the vile Draclau from limb from limb, when a flash of white light stopped her in her place. It was like a wall separating her and the two men, but it was not transparent. As if a giant holo screen was now in front of her she saw once again her twin throw down the Mandalorian insignia James wore around his neck. She froze as a sudden understanding washed over her. Malice Draclau had never even met James Terran. He'd taken credit for something Daxium Ryiah had done in order to twist Katarine's emotions and cause her hatred. She suddenly felt a sense of peace wash over her. It was a slow steady peace she had never felt before. Everything seemed still and quiet on this side of the wall. The long scar on her shoulder blade, a gift from Malice, felt warm now, as if the skin was beginning to heal at last.

The screen in front of her changed, showing her a thousand tiny smaller screens, all events from her life. She felt a warmness radiate up her hand and glanced down to see two of her fingers were now glowing white.

"I understand."

The moment she uttered the soft words the light screen vanished, but the peace and tranquility she felt inside her remained. Her deep green eyes now fell upon Malice with nothing in her heart. The deep wound was healed and her mind was clear and calm. All she wanted now was to save Hawk.

She flung her arm out and the unsuspecting Sith was pushed backwards. He howled, now realizing there was another Jedi in his midst. She could see him gaining his feet and knew he would be upon them any moment. She knelt down to Hawk to check his pulse, though she felt confident he was still alive. The moment her white glowing fingers touched his skin she saw a dark cloud forming all around the sky, as if smoke was trying to find an entrance into a giant snow globe they were all trapped inside.

"We have to go back."

She was not sure how she knew it, but the darkness was in the present timeline, a thousand years away from this moment, but a thousand times more concerning than Malice Draclau was in this instance. She closed her hand around Hawks arm and everything started spinning. When she opened her eyes she was standing with Hawk, inside a cage of white light. The aliens were surrounding them, trying to find a way in.

"Hawk?"

His eyes were closed and for a horrible moment Katarine wondered if she had left him in the past with the Sith.

Hawk Hinata

 

[Hawk Hinata]

The invasive darkness of Malice's mind had threatened to overwhelm the young Padawan, until the light had surged to his defense. Hawk had been unable to control the power as it surged through him however, so instead of merely pushing the Sith from his mind Hawk had pushed into his.

Suddenly, the past crumbled around him and he was back aboard the strange octahedral vessel, naked and a mere breath away from Kat. Hawk's eyes snapped open and he drew in a breath sharply. A white fire burned within his eyes; Kat's fire. It did not harm him, as somehow he had known it would not...but perhaps that was because it had been with him for so many years without him realising it.

It had been her who had saved him that day on Tatooine. The force had pulled the detonator from the Boss' hand, not some magnetic device as he had presumed. It had been Kat's arrival on Korriban and her fury at Malice that had filled him with her fire and pushed the Sith from his mind, but his own inability to control it that saw it rip part of Malice's own consciousness from his mind and hold it within Hawk's.

The white fire had been a part of him since that day. Whatever genetic and ritualistic manipulations that Phoenix had done to achieve his immortal prison had allowed him to contain it without it destroying him...and all of it had stemmed from this moment. The paradoxical nature of cause and effect across the temporal plane made his head swim, but he had seen it all.

"Kat..." Hawk breathed as his mind grasped the enormity of their entwined destiny, but then his firelit eyes shifted to peer out of their fiery cacoon as the dark mist of the Ascended continued it's assault.

The Jedi Master smiled at her, his fingers played across her own as the white fire flowed from her into him. He understood why she feared this power. It's collosal energy threatened to overwhelm him at any given moment, and perhaps it would have had he not already spent years with its spark inside him and learned to master it. It was a strange thought that the white fire had just been placed within him by Kat's love a bare few moments ago from one perspective, but at the same time it had also been placed there so very long ago.
All of it therefore had been destined to happen. Both he and Kat had been destined to be frozen and flung into the far future; he had been destined to spot her being taken by the Mandalorians; to pursue her; to find her; to battle beings thay claimed to be gods together; to fall in love, and thus close this loop in time.

It was also Kat's fear of her power that prevented her from mastering it herself. Hawk had only had a small taste of it to contend with, but Kat must have lived her whole life in fear of what might happen if she lost control, and so never let it out.

"Let go of your fear," Hawk told her, his voice seemed to echo faintly and boom all at once, as if simultaneously close by and far away. "We are exactly where we are destined to be. This is why our love could defeat Tenebris. The white fire spanned across space and time to connect us; to not only bring us to this moment, but to bring me to you. It knew that one day not just our galaxy would need you, but all galaxies would." The white fire in Hawk's eyes blazed as he looked at the Ascended around them.

"These Ascended are manifest darkness. I could not sense it at first, not because it wasn't there, but because it was everything. So vast an all encompassing. It is the darkness of destroyers of worlds; of entire galaxies laid waste. It is evil on such a monumental scale that I only see of now through these eyes or pure light." His eyes darted to Threoren. "But like all evil, it believes itself the solution and sees not its own shadow, because only light casts shadows."

Hawk's fingers tightened around Kat's reassuringly. "I am but your conduit; the sluice to the river of your light. You must shine now; cast a shadow in this darkness and destroy these dark manifestations."

Hawk's voice shifted back to normal as he spoke his final words. "Remember Kat, the smallest of lights can dispel the darkest of fears."

 

[KitKatt]

Kat felt her stomach drop when Hawk opened his eyes with a brilliant white light within them. The Hinata bloodline had several eye colors that changed with the Force, but she had never seen a radiant white. It was terrifying on so many levels and it made her realize even more that she was dangerous. If she could send this type of power to another person then it meant she would be hunted by those who wished to do evil. She would be hunted by those who were not honorable champions like Hawk Hinata. Hunted by the most vile and conniving minds this galaxy had to offer, like some battery that could supercharge evil.

The scene with Malice played through her mind again. During that moment she had realized she needed to understand whatever was inside her. She needed to fully understand how to destroy it so monsters like Draclau could not bend her towards their will. Her only solace was the thought that there wasn’t a challenger in this galaxy who might control every ounce of this power. Even she had to keep it contained and locked away for fear it would burn right through her. Surely no other being would be able to do so? But even as she thought of this a comforting notion a high cold laughter sounded in the depths of her mind.

He knows

There was nothing she could do to stop it. The pit of torment she had sent her twin to rot in was useless when he could see her thoughts and could see a supercharged Jedi standing in front of her. Now that he knew he could have twice the power there would be no rest for him.

It was only a matter of time.

Hawks booming voice broke through the laughter and highlighted that she had more pressing problems on her hands. The Jedi Master seemed to have so much confidence in her abilities but didn’t he understand she was just as dangerous as the dark beings surrounding them? Maybe what the aliens had said was right and Hawk would end an evil today.

She only hoped he didn’t have to end two.


She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. The hand that was not entwined with Hawks opened and white energy started to solidify around it. A moment latter a snaphiss sounded and she removed her fingers from his, offering him a weapon conjured from within the depths of the white energy. Inside the lit blade was a dancing white fire, unlike any lightsaber in the galaxy. The hilt was inlaid with intricate designs so that its beauty was truly stunning, but within the chamber was the true heart of the holy rod. The stone within was pure white light, charging a weapon that pulsates with power and strength. She had never seen the blades equal. It would cut through the aliens and turn them to powder, making them unable to reform. How she knew this she could not say. All she knew was this was a weapon for champion of light and a conduit of good. It was a weapon created by angelic energy to knight a soldier of the heavens. This covenant would come with its own rules and destiny which she hated to burden him with. But in this moment she knew with all her heart the weapon was meant for Hawk and always had been.

She opened her eyes and held his for a second as the snow globe of energy around them started to crack. A moment latter she turned and lifted her arm and the shield vanished.

Hawk Hinata