Tension rises throughout the galaxy!
The Republic Senate has passed new laws restricting the growing authority of its powerful corporations.
Meanwhile, the Jedi Order continues its search for the dark menace hiding within the Republic.
Following a promising lead, one of the Order's newest Jedi Knights joined an expedition into the unknown.
But when all communication with the Jedi team suddenly ceased, the Council feared the worst.
Master Mace Windu was dispatched aboard a light-cruiser to discover what had happened.
Just as he prepared for the possibility that the entire team had been lost, the crew received a transmission from the storm-covered world.
Master Coleman Trebor and the missing Jedi were alive.
The light-cruiser began its descent.
Yet the mystery of what the Jedi encountered still remained…
_________________________________________________________________
The light-cruiser moved through hyperspace.
Khan sat within one of its recovery rooms.
He had showered and changed into a clean set of clothing. The burns across his arms had been treated, and most of the blood had been washed from his skin.
The pain remained.
It was easier to ignore now.
The pieces of Dooku's lightsaber were hidden among his belongings.
His new weapon remained beneath his clothing.
Across from him sat Kit and Aayla.
Their injuries had also been treated. A bandage covered part of Kit's chest, while Aayla's injured arm rested against her body.
Kit looked toward Khan.
"I still can't believe you carried me all that distance by yourself."
Khan leaned back.
"Someone had to carry your sleeping body somewhere safe."
"Sleeping?"
Kit placed a hand against his chest.
"I was heroically unconscious."
"You were drooling."
Kit stared at him.
Aayla laughed.
Khan's expression softened.
Kit slowly looked toward her.
"You believe him?"
"I was there when you woke up."
"That doesn't answer the question."
"It answers enough of it."
Kit shook his head.
"Well, I'm sure I looked heroic."
"You did not," Khan said.
Kit released a quiet laugh.
For a moment, the dark planet felt far away.
Then Aayla's expression became more serious.
"It was a strange world."
Khan looked toward her.
"I still can't believe a place like that existed."
Kit lowered his hand.
Aayla looked toward the nearby viewport.
"But I don't understand what happened."
"What do you mean?" Khan asked.
"The darkness surrounding the planet disappeared."
She turned toward him.
"One moment, it was pressing against everything. Then it was gone."
Khan did not answer.
The memory of Malgus standing alone with the holocron returned to him.
His broken armor.
His fading body.
My chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.
Khan pushed the memory aside.
"Perhaps something happened while we were separated."
Aayla continued watching him.
Kit leaned forward.
"There's also the Sith we encountered in the ruins."
Khan's expression remained still.
"We never learned what happened to him," Kit continued.
"Perhaps he found the cultists."
"And?"
Khan looked toward him.
"Perhaps they destroyed one another."
Kit considered the answer.
Aayla did not.
"Then there's you."
Khan met her gaze.
"You left to investigate the cultists. Instead of returning, children came through the forest carrying your communicator."
Her voice became quieter.
"They told us you stayed behind so they could escape."
Khan said nothing.
"I thought we had lost you."
The words carried no accusation.
Only relief mixed with something else.
Pain.
Khan looked away.
He trusted Aayla.
He trusted Kit.
But explaining what happened meant explaining Malgus.
The training.
The dark side.
The creature he crushed beneath the Force.
The storm he absorbed.
The golden blade hidden beneath his clothing.
Khan did not know how to tell them.
Not yet.
"Indeed."
The three Knights turned.
Mace Windu stood near the entrance.
"There appears to be a great deal that remains unexplained."
Khan, Kit, and Aayla rose.
They bowed.
"Master Windu," Khan said.
Mace entered the room.
He had already received Coleman's preliminary report.
He knew about the damaged transport.
The cultists.
The children.
The Sith warrior within the ruins.
He also knew Khan had remained behind so Xavier could escape.
But Coleman's report ended there.
"I'm told you possess information the others do not," Mace said.
"Yes, Master."
"Then you can begin with me."
Khan remained composed.
"I believe it would be better to wait until we return to Coruscant."
Mace's expression did not change.
"What happened concerns the entire Council."
Mace looked at him.
The boy who once stood beside Dooku had changed.
Khan held himself differently.
His presence within the Force felt heavier.
Not consumed.
Not lost.
But changed.
Mace had felt something similar from every Jedi who survived a place touched by the dark side.
The planet had tested all of them.
Khan had endured its worst alone.
"Very well," Mace said.
Khan lowered his head.
"Thank you, Master."
"I trust what you have to share is important enough to wait."
"It is."
Mace looked between the three Knights.
"Continue resting. The Council will summon you once we return."
"Yes, Master," Aayla said.
Mace turned and left the room.
Silence followed.
Kit waited until the Jedi Master disappeared down the corridor.
"That was ominous."
Khan sat again.
"Master Windu often is."
Aayla sat across from him.
Her gaze remained on Khan.
She knew he had avoided her question.
Khan knew she noticed.
Neither spoke of it.
The light-cruiser continued toward Coruscant.
As the journey neared its end, Khan was summoned to another section of the ship.
Mace stood near a wide viewport.
Coleman and Yarael waited beside him.
Coruscant had appeared in the distance.
The planet's surface was hidden beneath cities and moving lines of light.
Yarael turned away from the viewport.
"What will become of the children we rescued?"
Mace considered the question.
"We will request assistance from the Republic. Their records may help us locate their families."
Khan looked toward the planet.
"It may not be that simple."
Coleman turned toward him.
"Why?"
"If this many children disappeared from the Core Worlds, we would have heard about it."
The three Masters listened.
"There would have been reports," Khan continued. "Investigations. Families demanding answers."
Yarael understood.
"You believe they were taken from the Outer Rim."
"Most of them."
Khan looked toward the Masters.
"Worlds where disappearances are accepted because no one expects the Republic to come looking."
Mace remained silent.
Coleman folded his arms.
"It is possible. This is the first evidence we have found of the cult operating at this scale."
"Then we should bring them somewhere safe," Khan said.
"We have," Coleman replied.
"I mean permanently."
Khan's voice remained calm.
"If their families cannot be found quickly, they should be placed within protected orphanages in the Core Worlds."
Yarael looked toward him.
"You would decide their futures without asking them?"
"They would have food. Education. A chance at a better life."
"That does not make the decision ours."
Khan met his gaze.
"Leaving them in uncertainty is also a decision."
"Some may have families waiting for them."
"And they should be returned if those homes are safe."
Khan stepped closer.
"But finding where a child came from does not mean we saved them."
Yarael's expression became more serious.
"You assume that every world beyond the Core is incapable of caring for its people."
"I assume the Republic has ignored enough of those worlds that children can disappear without anyone investigating."
The room became quiet.
Mace watched Khan.
The younger Knight did not speak with anger.
That made the certainty behind his words more noticeable.
Mace raised one hand.
"We will ask the Republic to identify their families."
Khan started to respond.
Mace continued.
"We will also investigate whether those homes are safe before returning anyone."
Khan remained silent.
"For those whose families cannot be found, we will arrange protected placement."
Mace looked between them.
"But we will not decide their futures without learning what they want."
Khan considered the answer.
"That is fair."
Yarael nodded.
Coleman looked toward Coruscant.
"At the very least, they are no longer on that planet."
Khan followed his gaze.
"No."
His thoughts returned to the empty places surrounding the pit.
"They are not."
The light-cruiser entered Coruscant's atmosphere.
The Jedi Temple rose above the surrounding city.
Traffic moved through the skies in every direction as the cruiser approached its landing platform.
The ship touched down.
Its ramp opened.
Jedi healers and Republic relief workers waited outside.
The rescued children were led from the cruiser.
Some remained close together.
Others stared at the endless city surrounding them.
For many of them, Coruscant was unlike anything they had ever imagined.
Khan stood near the ramp.
He watched Yarael help one of the younger children descend.
Coleman spoke with the waiting healers.
Kit and Aayla were escorted toward another transport that would take them to the Temple's medical wing.
Xavier remained near the back of the group.
He looked uncomfortable beneath the open sky of Coruscant.
Ships passed overhead.
Towers stretched in every direction.
Thousands of unfamiliar sounds surrounded him.
Xavier stayed close to the children.
Before following them, he stopped.
He looked back.
His eyes found Khan.
Xavier smiled.
His mouth formed two silent words.
Thank you.
Khan understood.
A small smile crossed his face.
Whatever else happened on the planet, those children were alive.
Xavier turned and followed them.
Khan watched until they disappeared into the waiting transport.
"Khan."
He looked back.
Mace waited with Coleman and Yarael.
Kit and Aayla had already left for treatment.
Khan walked toward the three Masters.
Together, they entered the Temple.
The familiar halls should have brought Khan comfort.
He had lived within them for as long as he could remember.
He had trained here as a youngling.
Studied here as Dooku's Padawan.
Returned here after every mission.
The Temple was his home.
Yet the lightsaber hidden beneath his robes felt heavier with every step.
The Council had been summoned.
All twelve Masters waited within the chamber.
Sunlight passed through the tall windows behind them.
Khan entered alone.
Mace, Coleman, and Yarael moved toward their seats.
For years, Khan had stood in this chamber beside Dooku.
Now, he stood at its center without him.
Grand Master Plo Koon looked down from his chair.
Mace spoke first.
"Tell us what happened after you separated from the others."
Khan bowed his head.
"Xavier led me to the cultists' stronghold."
The Council listened.
"We discovered that they were holding children within the caves."
Coleman's report had already explained this part.
No one interrupted.
"Some were locked inside cages," Khan continued. "Others had been connected to a ritual."
His thoughts returned to the dark mist surrounding their bodies.
Their lives fading into the pit.
"We could not save all of them."
Several members of the Council lowered their gazes.
"Xavier and I freed those we could."
Khan kept his voice steady.
"We were discovered before we could escape."
"What did you do?" Mace asked.
"I gave Xavier my communicator."
Khan looked toward Coleman.
"I instructed him to lead the children through the hidden passage and contact the others."
Coleman nodded.
"That is how we found them."
Khan faced the Council again.
"I remained behind to draw the cultists away."
"Alone?" Adi Gallia asked.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Someone needed to ensure the children had time to escape."
Adi remained silent.
Khan continued.
"The caves contained narrow corridors. I used them to prevent the cultists from surrounding me."
He did not mention how many he killed.
He did not mention the open chamber.
Or his original lightsaber falling into the pit.
"At first, I was able to hold them back."
His hands remained inside his robes.
"Eventually, they forced me into the ritual chamber."
Eeth Koth leaned forward.
"And overwhelmed you."
"Yes."
"Then how did you survive?"
Khan looked toward him.
"I should not have."
Silence entered the chamber.
"The only reason I stand here is because someone intervened."
Adi Gallia spoke.
"Who?"
Khan took a breath.
"The Sith warrior from the ruins."
The chamber became still.
Coleman's report had described the encounter.
Two Jedi Masters.
Three Jedi Knights.
All of them defeated.
Yarael looked toward Khan.
"The same warrior who attacked our group saved you?"
"Yes."
"Why?" Coleman asked.
"Because he needed me."
Ki-Adi-Mundi studied Khan.
"You were alone with a Sith powerful enough to defeat your entire team."
Khan met his gaze.
"Yes."
"Then we must ask the obvious question."
The other Masters looked toward him.
"How do we know you did not fall to the dark side?"
Khan felt something tighten within him.
He did not allow it to reach his face.
Plo Koon turned toward Ki-Adi-Mundi.
"I would advise against deciding the answer before hearing his account."
"Caution is not an accusation," Ki-Adi-Mundi replied.
"Then let it remain caution."
Ki-Adi-Mundi leaned back.
"Very well."
Plo Koon looked toward Khan.
"Continue."
Khan bowed his head slightly.
"Thank you, Grand Master."
He looked around the chamber.
"The Sith needed a second Force user."
"For what purpose?" Mace asked.
"I did not know at first."
Khan chose each word carefully.
"I was injured, grieving, and separated from the others. He believed that made me easier to manipulate."
"Was he correct?" Mace asked.
Khan paused.
The waterfall.
The mountain.
The Sith Sanctum.
Malgus's lessons returned to him.
"He underestimated my master's training."
That answer was true.
Dooku's teachings had prevented the Emperor's fragment from taking control of him.
They had given Khan's power precision.
Several Masters appeared reassured.
Ki-Adi-Mundi did not.
Mace continued.
"What did the Sith require from you?"
"There were ruins deeper within the jungle."
Khan kept his hands concealed within his sleeves.
"A chamber beneath them had been sealed. The entrance required two Force users to open."
Oppo Rancisis watched him.
"What was inside this chamber?"
"The source of the darkness surrounding the planet."
The answer drew the attention of the entire Council.
Depa Billaba spoke.
"Describe it."
Khan looked toward her.
"An ancient artifact had amplified memories left within the Force."
He remembered the holocron rotating above the pedestal.
"The darkness surrounding the planet allowed those memories to take physical form."
"What kind of memories?" Eeth Koth asked.
"Ancient Sith."
Quiet voices passed between several members of the Council.
Khan continued before they could question him further.
"The warrior we encountered was one of those manifestations."
Coleman's expression changed.
"You are saying he was not alive?"
"Not as we understand life."
Khan looked toward him.
"He was an impression left within the Force. The artifact gave that impression a physical body."
Yarael considered this.
"And he knew what he was?"
"Yes."
"Then why did he need you?"
"The artifact had also created another manifestation."
Khan avoided describing the Emperor.
"One that controlled the darkness surrounding the planet."
Mace's eyes narrowed.
"The two were enemies."
"Yes."
Khan looked toward the center of the chamber.
"The warrior needed someone to help him reach the artifact and seal its power."
That was true.
It was not the entire truth.
"Did you help him?" Depa asked.
"I helped him open the chamber."
Khan felt the hidden lightsaber beneath his robes.
He did not mention the waterfall.
The mountain.
The golden crystal.
The weapon he forged within the Sith Sanctum.
"What happened afterward?" Mace asked.
"The manifestations fought."
Khan remembered Malgus standing against the Emperor's fragment.
Red light against darkness.
"The warrior refused to remain a prisoner of the artifact."
Khan looked toward Plo Koon.
"He destroyed it."
The Council remained silent.
"And the manifestations?" Oppo asked.
"Disappeared."
"Including the Sith warrior?" Coleman asked.
Khan paused.
"Gone."
The word carried more weight than he intended.
Plo Koon noticed.
Mace did as well.
Khan continued before either could speak.
"Once the artifact was destroyed, the storm weakened. The darkness surrounding the planet disappeared, and our transmission was finally able to escape."
This explained what the others experienced.
It also explained how the light-cruiser received Coleman's signal.
Adi Gallia looked toward Khan.
"Did you encounter any other threats before returning to the group?"
Khan thought of the cultists.
Their bodies scattered throughout the clearing.
The final man falling into the pit.
"No threat remains."
Adi studied him.
The answer was not the one she expected.
She did not question it further.
Mace looked around the Council chamber.
"Is there anything else you wish to report?"
Khan felt the weight beneath his robes.
Dooku's broken weapon rested within his quarters.
His new lightsaber remained hidden.
He thought of Malgus teaching him to use anger.
Of the creature crushed beneath the Force.
Of the Emperor's chains closing around his mind.
He thought of the Council taking his weapon.
Restricting his movements.
Looking at him as though he were another Sith waiting to emerge.
Khan met Mace's gaze.
"No, Master."
Silence followed.
Mace watched him for several moments.
Then Plo Koon spoke.
"We will examine the information you have provided."
His voice remained calm.
"The planet and its ruins will require further investigation."
Khan bowed his head.
"Yes, Grand Master."
"You protected the children and helped return your fellow Jedi safely to the Republic."
Plo Koon looked toward him.
"For now, that is enough."
"Thank you."
Mace spoke next.
"Go and rest. You have endured more than should have been expected from one of our newest Knights."
"Yes, Master."
Khan bowed to the Council.
He turned toward the doors.
They opened.
Khan walked from the chamber.
The doors closed behind him.
For several moments, none of the Masters spoke.
Ki-Adi-Mundi looked toward the closed entrance.
"His account was incomplete."
Eeth Koth nodded.
"He spent an unknown amount of time alone with a Sith manifestation."
"And returned different," Oppo Rancisis added.
Coleman looked toward them.
"He also remained behind so a group of children could escape."
"That does not answer what happened afterward," Ki-Adi-Mundi said.
"No," Coleman replied. "But it tells us who he was when the decision mattered."
Yarael lowered his head slightly.
"Khan omitted something."
Mace did not disagree.
"He is afraid of how we will respond."
Ki-Adi-Mundi turned toward him.
"And should that not concern us?"
"It should," Mace said.
Depa Billaba looked toward the doors.
"He has only just returned. Demanding every detail before he has had time to understand it himself may drive him further away."
Adi Gallia nodded.
"He came before us willingly."
"He came because he was summoned," Eeth Koth replied.
"And answered every question," Coleman said.
"Carefully," Oppo added.
The Council chamber divided into quiet discussion.
Some believed Khan had earned patience.
Others believed patience could allow a hidden danger to grow.
Plo Koon listened to both sides.
Eventually, he raised one hand.
The chamber became silent.
"Trust, Khan has earned."
Ki-Adi-Mundi's expression remained severe.
"But trust does not require blindness," Plo continued.
Mace nodded.
"We will give him time."
"And if he does not speak?" Eeth asked.
Mace looked toward the closed doors.
"Then we ask again."
Outside the chamber, Khan walked alone through the Temple.
Younglings passed at the far end of the corridor.
Their instructor guided them toward one of the training halls.
Khan watched them.
For most of his life, the Temple had meant safety.
Purpose.
Home.
It still did.
He wanted to protect it.
One day, he hoped to help guide the Order toward becoming strong enough to preserve peace within the galaxy.
But the Council would not understand what he had done.
Not yet.
Khan continued forward.
His hand brushed against the hidden lightsaber beneath his clothing.
He had told the Council the truth.
But only part of it.
A/N: I hope you guys liked these last few chapters. After Naboo, there was much that needed to be addressed, especially for Khan's character. This arc dived deeper into that. What will become of Khan? Will he walks a darker path? Now he is no longer the Jedi order's golden boy. Also this is just for your guys' information since I'm never going to address it during the story, but the golden crystal is a Firkrann crystal. Just in case you wanted to know. Anyway thank you for all the support, seeing people enjoy this is the only reason I've been staying consistent, well that and my current unemployment status. Welp anyway may the force be with you, and may your day treat you well.