Lightsaber Creation

This is the lightsaber creation runon for Eetherbiail, as part of his trials for knighthood. The posters will be Xen'Mordin Vismorsus and Eetherbiail.

Xen'Mordin Vismorsus stared out the window of his office. Ohmen, the capitol city of Judecca and home of the Imperial Palace stretched out upon the mountain side. The sun was setting and for one brief moment all was calm.

A knock sounded at the door. With a flick of his hand the door slid open. Xen knew who was standing in the hallway without even looking. He knew this would come, and come it had. Newly promoted Jedi Hunter Eetherbiail entered the room, with a mix of timidity and eagerness.

“Xen, you know it it is time,” Eether started to say. “That is master, Eether,” Xen interrupted, “You may be close to knighthood, but you are still just a lowly apprentice to me. Remember this.” A conflicted look flashed across the Zeltron's face before starting again.

“Master... yes. I uh...” Eether sputtered. Xen saw his apprentice's hand gripping his training saber tightly. Xen smiled.

“Ah yes. You want to prepare for knighthood. You want your real lightsaber,” Xen stated simply. “Well as fate would have it. There is quit a chance for you to work on it. But a lightsaber is earned. Remember that. And go pack a bag. We are leaving.” Xen walked out of his office with out another work.

***
An hour later the two Sith were sitting on a ship to Coruscant.

“Why Coruscant, master?” Eether asked. Xen sat silent for a moment.

“Did you know I was born there? No... no you wouldn't. It isn't something I normally talk about.” Xen said. Another pause. Xen's eyes told the story of the chaos going on in his head. Fractured, yet glued together, the different parts of Xen, clearly unsure of how to precede.

“It has been years since I've been there. I wouldn't be going but... there have been complications. One of our former Consul's...ah... secretaries left the safe care of Judecca. She is on Coruscant now, and well... She obviously knows things. Thran wasn't the most subtle man alive. We need to deal with this. And it may be a learning experience for you. Or so I hope. Who knows maybe along the way of cleaning this up, you may end up with what you need for knighthood.”

Eether looked at Xen apprehensively from the doorway, feeling his grip tighten around his training saber. Trivial, this silly thing was all about, Eether scoffed in his mind, but he would never let that slip to Xen for fear of what the repercussions would be. "I may be a lowly apprentice Xen...but I think that I've proven myself to be competent enough."

***

As soon as Xen told him to go pack, Eether grew with anticipation. At last...he could finally prove himself further and get his own lightsaber if things went right. He could finally protect himself to the best of his abilities and no one would ever hurt him again.

Walking down the dim lighted hallways towards his rom, Eether was lost in thought about what this chance was going to be, let alone how he was going to, as Xen stated, "Earn" a lightsaber. He looked around his tiny hole they called a room, I should probably straighten up a bit, Who knows what will happen when I'm gone with him... Fixing his bed and putting his thin sheets up, he put the few pens and paper scattered on the small desk into the drawers.

He pushed the chair in and stared at the one remaining paper on his desk, the drawing he'd always wanted it to be. He knew how he wanted it to look, but he thought he would be more comfortable if he put it in his little knapsack, Better be safe than sorry.

Putting an extra cloak and clothe items, some food he'd nicked in case of an emergency. As Eether pulled his robes tightly around him, still squeemish about letting people touch him, he remembered the box under his bed. He pulled out an odd looking blaster, Eether ran his finger lightly over the name etched into the handle Kyyther His father's gun, just in case he slipped it into his bag, if he needed it.

As Eether stepped through his door, he grabbed the blaster off the hook on the wall and strapped it to his belt on his robes and walked down to meet his master, his blaster and training saber lightly clinking down the empty and silent hallway.

***

After getting on the ship, the conversation with his master was just a tad bit...awkward. His master never talked about hsi past, it was very odd to see him do so now.

Eether looked at his master across from him, "If it is not out there for me to ask...who is it that we're going after?" Clearly this "Cleaning up," was meaning that they were going to have to silence someone, it was only natural for the young apprentice to be curious...

Xen’Mordin looked at the Zeltron with a piercing gaze. “I wouldn’t worry about that yet,” was all he responded with. It was evident that he considered this conversation over with. It was a long trip from Judecca to Coruscant and Xen knew both needed to be rested and ready for what ever may come. He closed his eyes and began to meditate.

Next to him the Jedi Hunter fidgeted in his seat. There is more to this then he is telling me, He thought. This was a prime chance for him to prove himself. Deep down he knew things could always go wrong and part of him knew it wasn’t necessary for his master to return with him to the Cocytus system.

***

Coruscant: Local Time 19:34

Across the several walkway ways rested an affordable hotel, which was rather popular among poorer travelers to the planet. Xen gazed at it, taking in access points and exits incase something happened. The last thing he wanted was to draw attention to the fact that there were a couple of Sith on the planet. If she has told anyone… Dammit, how did security let her leave Judecca. I am sick of these messes.

“Master?” Eether asked clearly impatient.

“Reports have indicated our target, a female human, is staying here. This is what she looks like.” Xen responded and quickly showed Eether a small picture taken from a security feed back on Judecca. “And please Eether… Don’t get overly excited about this.

***

Coruscant: Local Time: 20:17

Xen stepped back as the gentle sound of gears issued from the door. It was open. This hotel stunk, it was the kind of place Xen had been told to stay away from as a child. His eyes quickly danced around the room, taking it in.

“Master, She isn’t here.” Eether said a little too loudly.

“Thank you for stating the obvious. And quiet.” Xen hissed. “We are breaking and entering here. I do not want unnecessary trouble. You start over there and look for anything that may store information, or give a possible location of this bitch. I want to go home.”

Eether walked angrily over where Xen had pointed and began to rifle through drawers and clothing. His hands lingered over a pair of underwear when Xen’s stern voice startled him back into awareness.
“Eether!”

“I wasn’t doing anything! I swear!”

“No come over here you fool, I found something.” Xen was holding a small discarded data card. He already had it plugged in and was reading the information stored on it.

“[Expletive Deleted]. What time is it?” He asked Eether.

“Uhhh… 20:26 give or take.” Eether responded.

“She is meeting someone at 20:30… a trade. Money for the information she has. There is no way we can make this. We are going to need to find her, get her to tell us who she sold the information too and track them down. Nothing is ever easy.” Xen muttered a string of curses under his breath.

“Well should we head to where they were meeting and try to catch them at least?” Eether asked.

“No she will be returning here. Clothing, data, personal effects. She hasn’t seemed to think we would find her. She will come to us. I’ll lock the door. Make ready for when she returns.” Xen ordered.

Eether looked around the small hotel room, taking in all of the windows and doorways. Whispering to Xen, "How long do you think the meeting will take and for her to get back?"
"Oh not long, if this is a hand off then she should be back momentarily"

***

As Eether stood in the room underneath the giant potted plant's leaves, he crouched when he heard faint footsteps in the cooriodor behind the front door. He had heard footsteps before and gotten overly anxious, but this time felt right, something was different about this time, a dark feeling, or was it more excitement?

Quickly glancing across the room, Xen nodded quickly and ducked behind the door, ready to jump out at her. Putting Eether's weight on the balls of his feet in order to be more agile and balanced, Eether was set when he heard the soft beep from the pad and click as the door slid open. As the women entered the room.

Eether jumped out from his spot and leaped across the room in an instant, gaining the distance between them in a second. Clamping his hand over her mouth so she could not scream and grabbing both of her wrists in his hand so she couldn't grab a weapon or anything in order to dial for help.

She twisted around and kicked across, trying to knock Eether on his feet. Exepecting resistance, Eether lowered his stance when he saw her spinning and stood his ground, throwing her lightly across the floor onto the couch so it would make minimal noise. She jumped over the couch and grabbed a vase with a flower in it and tossed it at Xen's head.

He easily moved out of the way and the vase smashed against the wall. Xen strode forward and struck his hand out, getting the woman in a force choke to subdue her and keep her silent. He lifted her over to a chair and said, "Eether, would you so kindly grab the rope and tie her up please before she dies?"

Eether quickly did as he was asked and tied both of her ankles and wrists to the arms and legs of the chair. Xen closed and locked the door and strode back over to the chair to where she was being held. He flexed his fingers and glared at her.

"What information did you give, who did you give it to and how much did you get paid?" Eether asked in a hiss trying to be quiet, but his excitement at actually catching the girl put him over the edge. Xen silently strode around her where they had tied her into the chair. "Come on, tell us what you did and it will make it easier for the both of us..."

The woman squirmed, fighting against the tightly bound ropes that held her prisoner. There was fear in her eyes, but a strong willed determination to not break. “I can see in your eyes what you are. You are too late. I sold the information I had on you and your kind. There is nothing you can do,” she spat out.

Xen smiled. The hard way it was then. He straightened his back before saying, “Oh you will find we are capable of quite a lot miss. Quite a lot indeed.” Xen was a deep believer in offering the opportunity of civility before torture. “I do find in interesting you didn’t just run straight to the Republic with the information you had. No matter,” he continued as he pulled a pair of black leather gloves out from his belt. Rolling his neck and shoulders before putting on the gloves he turned to Eether, “You may want to close your eyes for this bit…”


They returned to the speeder three hours later. Soon the authorities would find a naked and partially skinned body in an alleyway, the apparent victim of a terrible rape and murder by one of the many gangs of the planet. Although it had been a messy affair, neither Xen nor Eether showed any sign of what had occurred. And they had gotten the information they needed and it was off to Dantooine they went.

“This man, Delash, only has a few hours head start on us. It shouldn’t take much to find him. However I find this whole thing a bit off. She should have gone straight to the Republic,” Eether said. Xen nodded.

“It is peculiar. We must stop him at all costs.” Xen paused. “You don’t seem very bothered by what happened. That is good. Just remember, we tried to be civil. She would have died anyway, but far less painful. We don’t need to be with out… mercy.” Xen’s lips curled at the word as if it was some terrible joke. He closed his eyes and focused on what was required of him. Eether sat staring at his master for a moment before going deep into meditation as well.

As Eether closed his eyes and meditated, his mind would not calm. His thoughts veered all over the place to every subject. Where was this man Dalash, what was he planning on doing with this information? None of this made sense to the young Jedi Hunter, he just had to hope that Xen would know what to do when they found Dalash.

As the ship headed towards Datooine on course, Xen swiftly nudged Eether out of his meditation, "We've come across a ship that fit the description, get ready." Eether stood and stretched, gathered his necessities and joined xen on the docking bay to get onto the other ship.

As their ship got close enough, the traction pulled it together and latched on, Xen and Eether moved quickly onto the other ship. The small ship had few rooms and quickly located everyone and gathered them into the main room. Xen strode among them all, taking in their faces and going through the description that was given to him on what Dalash looked like.

Finally, after a few people, Xen stood in front of a man and took hold of his shoulder and barked to the others, "OUT!" making them scramble into other rooms on the ship.

Xen held Dalash in a force choke because he would not reason and tell us where he planned on going, he was only making this more difficult for himself. As Xen slowly let the force disperse, a man dropped from the ventilation shaft above Xen and landed on him, he screamed "GO DALASH!" and grabbed onto Xen like his life depended on it. Eether had sensed something was close, but to think it was above them had not occurred too him.

Eether ran over to his master and kicked the man in the side, he flew off of Xen and into the wall of the ship, Eether grabed Xen's hand and pulled him up off of the ground. "AFTER HIM DON'T HELP ME!" Eether ran through the door to follow Dalash with Xen trailing behind. Dalash turned around and said something that was too soft to hear, jumped into an escape hatch and blew away.

Xen, extremely furious with Eethers with his small attention span, grabbed him and rushed back to their ship and took after the escape pod. They arived at Dantooine and found the empty escape hatch abandoned, footsteps and tall broken blades of grass led away from it, Xen and Eether followed the path, hopefully to their pray quickly.

Xen had never been to Dantooine. Like many he knew the history, recent and event rumors that went back to ancient times. Battle-scarred and broken, it had moved from Republic to Sith Empire control and back again, time after time. Yet, it was out of the way, small and insignificant. There was little reason for this man to flee here of all places.

Xen said nothing to his apprentice since landing on the planet. Eether’s foolishness had cost them much, and this whole ordeal could be over with. Xen wanted nothing more then to return to the Cocytus System where he had his own matters to worry about. Yet something about this planet felt... necessary. There was a reason beyond the man they were perusing to be here.

Eether quietly and somewhat submissively followed his master. He could feel the ponderous thoughts rolling off the Battlemaster like a waterfall. Eether too agreed there was something here. Something for him.

The trail came to an end. Gaping in front of the two Sith was the opening to a cave. Strange noises echoed out of the opening. Both stared into the darkness, feeling something about this cave beyond the man who was hiding within.

“Stay quiet. I don’t want him to know we are here. He is the last loose end in this matter. The sooner we know what his plans were and he is dead, the sooner we can know the Cocytus System is safe. The Republic has no need to know of our actions there, and it must stay that way,” Xen said very quietly. Eether nodded in understanding.

Using the force to guide them, they entered the cave. After several minutes of blind and silent walking their eyes because adjusted enough to see some in the low light. The air was damp and stale. Ahead the two could clearly hear the rasping of heavy breathing from a man tired of running away.

As they went around the bend both let out a small gasp. They were standing in a large cavern, brightly illuminated. Growing from every surface, from the floor to the ceilings to the walls were crystals, bright and vibrant. Xen knew at once what these were. He instinctively gripped his lightsaber hilt as his side before moving silently like a ghost forward.

Eether followed, mouth open and with a greedy look in his eyes. He suspected when he saw the crystals and from Xen’s action of grabbing his saber hilt, he knew. These were the rare and critical focusing crystals need for a light saber to work. If he could only get his hands on one for his own.

Eether looked around the cavern in awe, he had never even seen one of these crystals let alone hundreds! Jedi never took the crystal out of their light sabers to show to their novice out of fear for anything were to happen. His eyes quickly scanned the room until he saw hunched in the corner a huddled black mass.

As he walked behind Xen, he realized his master wasn't paying attention to him anymore, he was completely focused on Dalash. Eether casually angled towards the wall of the cavern and looked around quickly, finding a decent size and colored crystal that looked perfect from his studies, he swiftly hit the base of it with the hilt of his blaster while coughing at the same time to cover up the sound.

Eether quickly put it in his side bag as Xen spun quickly around to him, glaring wildly and hissing, "I told you to be quiet! Now he knows we are here!"

"Pfft...he heard us walking in the moment our feet echoed against the floor, and besides, this is a dead end room in the cavern, he has to get past two dark Jedi anyways and it's not like that would happen. But I am sorry master, it wont happen again."

The pair walked up to the man crouching against the corner in the back of the cavern and Xen grabbed Dalash by the throat, lifting him up off the ground so his feet no longer kept him standing. "Where were you attempting to take this information and to whom?" Xen slowly loosened his grip on Dalash so he could speak.

"To the Hutts....I could sell the information to them and then get paid for it, and have them escort me to the capital in which i would tell it to everyone else. If that didn't work i planned on killing which ever Hutt i found after he had paid me and then sold the information to the republic afterward to make even more money. But that didn't work now did it? Seeing as i crashed here." Dalash spit in Xen's face.

Xen tightened his grip on Dalash, his eyes bulged. "Did you tell anyone other than the miserable people who were on that ship back there this information?!"

"N-no I didn't get a chance to..." Replied Dalash. "Good...we have no more use for you then." Xen quickly grabbed his lightsaber and plunged it into Dalash's chest. He clicked it off and let him go, Dalash fell to the floor. Xen turned around and Eether quickly looked away to be inconspicuous.

Eether looked back at Xen slowly "So....are we done? I guess we have to go back now huh?"

Xen nodded in response. “The Hutts…” He muttered under his breath. Something about it made his head tingle, there was more going on then just information trading. But it mattered little at the moment, they had accomplished their task. Eether stood awkwardly by while Xen gave one last glance around the cave.

“Let us leave,” Xen said after a moment.

***

While the knowledge of Dalash’s plans sat firmly in the back of Xen’s mind while the two sat flying back to Judecca, there was something else that he was focused on. There was a distinct air of smugness coming from his apprentice, as if he felt he had gotten away with something marvelous.

Xen was well aware of what Eether had done back in the cave. What the Jedi Hunter didn’t know was this was just a power crystal, and one of several crystals he would have to implement into his blade. Part of Xen wondered if Eether could even focus enough to imbue the force into these crystals. If he would fail, the results would be less then pleasant. Xen let his hand pass casually over a breast pocket on his cloak. The small lump there sat firm and solid.

***

All Eether wanted was to take a warm shower and go to bed. He felt grimy and sore from the efforts of chasing down this intel, and he never even got to learn all the juicy details about what it was.

As he stepped back into his room from a nice hot shower, Eether could tell something was off. Someone had been in his quarters. He looked around and at his desk saw it, a small bright crystal and a note.

“You may find this to be needed in addition to the crystal you tried to hide.”

Eether felt a chill go up his spine.

***

A week later Eether found himself knocking on his master’s office door.

“Enter,” was all the muffled voice on the other side said. The door slid open. Standing in the door way was the massive Neti and Emperor of the Cocytus system, Ood. Eether made a low bow and stood back.

“I hear you did good on uh… our little issue,” Ood said before passing through the door and into the hall. Eether entered and turned to his master, who was leaning back in his chair.
“I trust you… put in the appropriate efforts into it.” Xen said. Eether nodded and held out his hand, crystals gleaming in the light of the office.

“Good, now you build…”