Jailhouse Rock

[Coren Starchaser]

Fire. Lightning. Heat. Cold. Light. Dark.

These were what Coren Starchaser remembered. That was right up until the darkness descended. He was thinking he told the Jedi to run. They would know where to go. Find other Jedi, see what allies would take in the remnants of the Alliance. It was a call that he had done all he could to stop the flood. He was no Ganner Rhysode, but he had been fully willing to die, to allow other Jedi to evacuate, and Alliance personnel to get to safety.

But now, he was awake. And he couldn’t feel the Force. He couldn’t really feel anything.

Suspended, he was floating in a force cylinder. Great. How to get out of this? He was unsure. As he realized he was being held in place, he did his best to move himself, his body not giving way. He was stuck. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath in.

And out.

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
[member="Darth Carnifex"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Darth Carnifex"]

She had never actually set foot on the Lola Sayu herself, although she had sent Eldaah here when the Sith Empire captured the planet. The prisoners had rioted, and it had been the perfect time to strike against a few criminals that were running the show. Now, the prison known as the Citadel had been rebuilt and repurposed by the Sith to act as their prison for Jedi and other Force using dissidents. As the guard escorted her to the cell where her prisoner was being kept, she couldn't help but admire the place.

"Prisoner CS-198653, my Lady."

"Thank you," she said. "I'll take it from here. Dismissed."

The guard saluted and she opened the chamber to see Coren suspended in the cylinder, slowly rotating. His cybernetic arm had been removed upon his transport here, and his prisoner ID had been tattooed onto his good arm. A mark to forever show he was a prisoner of the Sith. She could feel the Emperor too.

"Hello, Coren," she said, almost cheerfully as she lowered the hood of her robes, purple eyes showing a cold amusement.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Coruscant, he wasn’t there. Couldn’t reach the Force, couldn’t tell where he was. This was not a good thing. Lightsaber gone, missing? Maybe. That didn’t matter. People knew he was awake, there had to be some form of testing on his body, to watch his functions and physiology. Maybe he was thinking too much of himself, but having helped lead the Alliance military AND the New Jedi Order made him one of the people to keep alive.

What happened to the rest? Did they get out?

The arm that replaced the one he lost to a Sith before was again, missing. Something he’d have to fix when he got out of here and burned this prison to the ground. But first, he was going to make it difficult for the Sith. He was not feeling 100% but he was feeling damned better than he was when he went toe-to-toe with Taeli.

And speak of the witch. He looked up and over as she spoke. He turned an icy-blue gaze to her. Traitor, backstabber, murderer, she was all these. And he knew she knew it. What he couldn’t do, was know why, how long she was corrupted, or how he had failed to see it.

She had taken the spot of Omai Rhen, and focused her efforts on the Inquisitors. She had taken point on the ones who would find her people. He was fooled.

“Taeli.”

He could fight, and struggle, but it wouldn't do any good.

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
[member="Darth Carnifex"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Darth Carnifex"]

"Oh good, you still have all your mental faculties," she said, slowly starting to pace around the chamber in time with the rotation of Coren in his containment. "I had wondered."

Seeing him like this... yes it was extremely satisfying to see. The leader of the New Jedi Order Sentinels, strung up and captive. How complete his failure was indeed. He had tried to make himself and his sect of Jedi into a bulwark against the darkness, to take the fight against their foes in the name of the light. A safeguard for the people of the Alliance, an example for all Jedi to follow. He had no idea that he had already failed, that darkness had sneaked into the very heart of the Alliance, poisoning its soul and spirit until it was ready to collapse.

And she, the architect of it all, in concert with the Emperor and Shadow Hand, had broken the back of everything he had hoped to build. Even now, bands of survivors were being hunted down, killed or captured. The light was being extinguished, little by little.

"That feeling of helplessness, of empty despair, or rage... it hurts doesn't it?" she asked.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

He looked up at her. The Jedi Master knew he had lost, but he didn’t know to what extent. He had an inkling, the entire Alliance falling, ships going missing, others deserting. Hopefully the latter wasn’t many. And hopefully people were getting out of the systems safe. He had no idea what was going on.All he knew was that he wanted to get out of here.

And drive his axe into Thanos

And remove the Emperor and Raaf from the galaxy. Of course, there was one real big issue on that.

He was stuck, as a prisoner. “Oh trust me, this is nothing.” He muttered, eyeing the betrayer. He didn’t have the upper hand here, and no chance to get dealt anything better. He shook his head. Silence and patience.

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
[member="Darth Carnifex"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Darth Carnifex"]

"Well, I'm sure once the Emperor arrives... he will see fit that your accommodations are well suited for someone like yourself," Taeli replied. So stoic, so defiant. He truly did have the heart of a true Jedi, which was almost a pity in a way. If he could be turned, he would be a valuable ally, but alas... she doubted that would be the case. He might tiptoe the line, but he would never descend into the greater mysteries and power the dark side could supply.

"I bet you're dying to know when I turned, went back to my old ways," she continued, slowly walking around the chamber. "The truth is... I never changed my ways. A Sith through and through, one that you were woefully unprepared to actually stop. I confess myself... disappointed, to be honest. I left a trail of crumbs to be followed, to see if anyone had the ability to follow the trail and stop me before it was too late. A test, and one which the Jedi failed at. Perhaps I shouldn't have expected anything else. After all, the Jedi seem equally prepared to commit atrocities as much as the Sith."

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Suited for someone like himself? And the Emperor, huh? That was a sign of, well, something. He was a high profile prisoner, after all. If he could get their high profile people around him, that meant they were not dealing with others. He could do that. Defiance was something he was good at, that and riding the line. But he’d not fall over it. The Vanugard was shattered, the Temple was fallen, but hope was alive. Perhaps the Sith keeping the secrets from their Dark Jedi Adepts was important and a shaping point for Coren here.

He didn’t care too much for the deeper mysteries, and the why. He learned, he fought, and he defended.

Had the Jedi failed? Yes. Was it their first time? No. But the Sith failed o their own, time and again, to the Jedi. The galaxy here was a place of constant flux. All that mattered was were you going to be able to live with yourself afterwards. Always, the darkness would arise, and the light to greet it. “You’re not seeing the right Jedi, then.” Some could get twisted, lost along the way. Their heart was true, but their methods, not so much.

[member="Darth Carnifex"]
[member="Taeli Raaf"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Darth Carnifex"]

Taeli smiled thinly as he mentioned she had not been seeing the right Jedi.

"Really? You'll have to enlighten me on where I can find Jedi that stick to your Code," she replied. "Republic, Alliance, Silvers... none of them have been what embodies a true Jedi. Many of them have become war criminals, determined to do as much damage as they can regardless of civilians they claim to be saving or liberating. Even those Jedi that follow that fool Grayson, well... the people of Jaminere certainly did not appreciate their 'attempts' at liberation."

Spaceport blown up, friends and family missing from the Jedi and rebels kidnapping people. They had seen a marked uptick in recruits for the Sith-Imperial Legion and Navy from Jaminere.

"The more militant the Jedi become, the stronger the dark becomes," she continued. "War feeds the dark side, and the Jedi have been helping feed the dark side for so many years now."

 

[Coren Starchaser]

The Jedi were making a turn for the militant lifestyle, and that was in some large part to the New Jedi Order. Jedi determined to hit he targets and remove them from the galaxy. It became difficult to stem the tide. Looking at Taeli, Coren kept a neutral face. “The crimes of governments can’t befall the Jedi. Merely accomplices. But we are not commanders, we’re not soldiers. We are defenders.” The Jedi under his guide, should he get out of here, were to be trained to weaken and lessen the combativeness of their foes, dispatching at the last resort.

But a government was determined more with the striking of military installations, which were sometimes near civilians. It was a truth of war. The Jedi war was against the Sith. Collateral damage was a by-product, one that needed to be mitigated for.

“These Jedi are nothing like the Jedi that created the original Republic millenia ago, your Sith are nothing like those Sith. Two Sith, and a lineage of backstabbing. The Jedi will get their bearings and they will stem the tide of the dark side.”

[member="Darth Carnifex"]
[member="Taeli Raaf"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Darth Carnifex"]

Taeli actually gave a small laugh as Coren said that the Jedi should not be held accountable for the acts they undertook for a government, that they were only accomplices, not commanders or soldiers. Orders were orders hmm? Such passion, such belief in the cause of the light that he truly believed that the Jedi of the modern era could stem the tide against the darkness. Every day, more and more systems were coming under the Sith's sphere of influence. Where there had been chaos, there was now order.

"If you think the Jedi should not be held accountable for what they do for their government, what happens when a government is dominated by Jedi or Force users that serve the light hmm?" she asked. "The Silvers are their own government, but that has not stopped them from harboring fugitives like Ike, who was responsible for the first sinking of Ahto City, or committing terrible acts like the devastation they visited on Mirial. A world that had invited the Sith in to clear away the zombies leftover from the Primeval cult.

"Or even the Alliance," she continued. "Two Force users dominated the Triumvirate, poor Jaius Sovv was the odd man out. Alliance Force users, commanding Alliance assets, were responsible for multiple incidents of needless destruction. The medical station over Sullust, destroying the Star Destroyer over the capital of Thyferra so its wreckage crashed into the city, killing untold numbers of innocents. The hostage situation when a tank round was fired and killed the hostages. I could keep going..."

She trailed off, smiling.

"Time and time again, the Jedi have shown they have abandoned the light. They only refuse to admit it."

 

[Coren Starchaser]

The Starchaser was staring at her. He couldn’t really make any comments to her. The man was at a complete disadvantage. Hopefully his own student, or Julius and Jorus knew he was alive. Even if they didn’t, the least he could do was take up the resources to keep him alive and interrogated. The man had fallen into a state that his mind was hopefully going to be detached from his body. If he knew the Sith like he thought he did.

He looked at the woman. “The Jedi shouldn’t be leading governments. They should be serving as the backbone of a police force, and advisors. But for those who are not part of the Force, or privy to its ebbs and flows, it doesn’t matter to governments. People are what matters.” And if they were lead by the light? It wasn’t going to create people subjugating others. Or trying to remove half of all people. He listened to her case. And even Coren, a student of Omai Rhen in the man’s latter years, had seen what happened at Ahto, and Mirial and were unsure of the move.

But the Silvers also operated too closely to other dark siders for Coren’s care. The Outer Rim Coalition did as well, but they had theirs under wrap. It was… some how different. When she called out the Triumvirate, he nodded. “Over sight. It shouldn’t have happened. But I’m a radical and a purist. They see me and, my opinion falls to the way side.” He hoped the others, Aryn and Jaius had gotten of the Coruscant.

“We can’t prevent everything. The Jedi aren’t gods. We can merely prevent those who will use the Force to change someone’s path from doing so. Let me out of here, and I’ll show you just how strong the Light is at doing that.”

Ok, so he was thinking more, now, but the Zealot was there, in him. The paladin who would wipe the evil of the Sith from the galaxy, if given enough time.

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
[member="Darth Carnifex"]

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"No, the Jedi are not gods. That is why you have failed."

In the middle of Coren's retort, the cell door had opened to reveal the cruel visage of the Sith Emperor himself. His muscular body was wrapped in exquisite black and light gray silk, the sheer epitome of opulence and aristocratic privilege as he entered the room with a flourish of his crimson cape.

"The Jedi should have used their power to quell the chaos that has sparked a conflagration of anarchy and disorder in our shared galaxy, you had the resources, the upper-hand, and the opportunity to take true primacy from the One Sith to exert total dominance. But what did you do? You threw yourselves at a brick wall, incited conflict with the First Order, and ground yourselves into the dirt until you were too weak to resist the resurgence of the Sith."

The Emperor stood close to both Coren and Taeli, his form dwarfing both of theirs by a considerable margin. His oiled black hair was pulled back in an elaborate style native to his homeworld of Panatha and decorated with jewels and other precious stones from all over the galaxy. "Yet now it falls to us yet again. Order must be restored, and destruction must be balanced with creation. Once every last trace of the Alliance has been eradicated from the galaxy, it will be our turn to build a society that will not be governed by the ideals of protectors, but by the ideals of rulers."

[member="Coren Starchaser"] | [member="Taeli Raaf"]​

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Darth Carnifex"]

"My Lord," she said, bowing as the Emperor entered the cell. She did not say anything as Kaine spoke, taking a more dutiful position behind the Emperor and to his right. Coren's points were wiped away as Kaine produced what really drove his vision, the one Taeli believed would finally bring an end to the chaos. For life to flourish, the old guard had to be destroyed, crushed, reduced to nothing but stories in the histories she read and studied. The Sith were the gardeners, carefully pruning and controlling the growth of the garden so it might be healthy and serve them. The Jedi were the cloying weeds trying to stifle the new, to suffocate everything with their traditions and ideals so that the galaxy stagnated.

"It's a pity the Jedi could not and cannot understand that," Taeli added. "If they merely cast off their chains, admit their hypocrisy, they might understand and survive. Thrive even. But now... the Sith Empire will show them exactly how to bring order to a chaotic galaxy. I must thank you, though, Coren. If had not been for your zealousness, and those that founded the Alliance to fight the One Sith, it might have taken me longer to turn as many as I did. But that zealousness puts you on the edge of the abyss, and a simple twist of logic was often enough to free them."

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Coren cussed in his head. Carnifex. The Emperor and the beacon of the dark side, and the Sith. Of course he was here. The Dark Lord of the Sith. He wasn’t sure what to do with this information. Two Sith and him in the same room. That was going to go… terribly. The man looked between the pair and listened intently to the words coming from the new arrival. He wouldn’t ever call Darth Carnifex his opposite, but Coren was the one leading the charge against the Sith. Though during the first Alliance-Sith War, the two never shared the same stage.

He had a feeling that was going to change in the twilight of the Alliance.

Jedi as Gods though? No, maybe to some, but they were Jedi, they were not imposing their will on anyone else. “The Ren are not a group that should be allowed to lead. The First Order, the Sith Orders, you all are part of a history that grows on chaos and destruction.”

Were the Jedi instruments of Chaos? At times, yes. But There was no chaos, only harmony. An archaic Code, even for the current day, but it laid Coren’s thoughts. “Order, or control?” He knew what the Sith were trying to impose on the galaxy, and that was why Coren was never going to rest.

“Moments of weakness. They will not remain with the Sith, and your order will be destroyed from within. Simpler, faster, but the change will not last.” Coren had a passion for battle, but he was at peace in a war zone. The Sith didn’t know a Jedi like him.


[member="Taeli Raaf"]
[member="Darth Carnifex"]

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"Is that so?"

Another Sith might have laughed derisively in the Jedi's face, but the Emperor refrained from letting more than a soft chuckle audibly escape past his lips. "Your oversight needs correction, Master Starchaser. If you had told me the same thing twenty years ago, I might've been more inclined to agree. In ages past the Sith have always been their worst enemy, turning triumph into defeat as they fell victim to their own greed and short-sighted hunger for power. Despite such loss, we have always returned from the ashes of destruction and with each cycle of rebirth, we have evolved to better understand the failings of those who had come before."

Darth Bane recognized that the Sith of his era had become weak, and had rightly purged the galaxy of all he viewed as detrimental to the Sith Vision. Only he was the last survivor of such a cleansing and vowed to pass on his knowledge to only one apprentice, gradually strengthening the Sith Order with each generation of master and apprentice. After Palpatine's death that ideology had died, only to be replaced by something far greater. Darth Krayt taught the Sith obedience to himself and the Sith Order, pushing them to serve a greater purpose than themselves in the pursuit of domination of the galaxy. Yet his order had faltered because, despite Krayt's vast wisdom, he had not foreseen a Sith Order without himself as its ruler.

"I have lived through not just one, but two, Sith Empires in the past fifty years. I alone have withstood the test of time. The Sith you fought on Coruscant were nothing like the One Sith your Alliance had fought before, nor are we the same Sith that the Galactic Empire fought twenty years ago. We are a new breed, a purer breed. We have been through the crucible and emerged stronger, and we have learned the mistakes of history."

Carnifex had taken both the ideology of the Old Empire and the One Sith Empire, stripping away the culture of infighting that had plagued the Old Empire and the blind obedience to a single leader that had wrought about the end of the One Sith. What remained was a strong ideology that emphasized might, and demanded obedience to the Empire rather than its leader. The future generations of Sith that would emerge from this grand vision would be the strongest Sith ever to walk the galaxy, and with the Immortal Emperor commanding them they would be unstoppable.

"You will not find our unity so easily broken, Master Jedi."

[member="Coren Starchaser"] | [member="Taeli Raaf"]​

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Darth Carnifex"] [member="Coren Starchaser"]

"But ironically, it has been the Jedi that have been plagued with disunity," Taeli said, not missing a beat in building on what the Emperor had said. It had always been an amusing thing for, to watch the Jedi argue and bicker, just enough, to keep them all from uniting into a single force to challenge the Sith. She had been present at... so many enclaves, seen them all descend into empty promises and words, agreements never fully implemented. No one wanted to give up their own sovereignty for the greater good. So, it continued. The Silvers, the New Jedi Order, this new Praxeum, the Jedi in the Republic Remnant, the fools who followed Grayson, although that was teetering on the line after what happened on Jaminere... the list went on.

True, there were the occasional heretic that railed against the Empire, but they eventually fell silent or fell into obscurity.

"How many enclaves did we sit through, Coren?" she asked. "How many times did I, or you, or Aela watch or host meetings and see them all dissolve into bickering over whose way was the best? Who would give up their own power for the greater good? You cannot imagine my amusement every time, and I did not need to do a single thing to manipulate those results."

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Life was weird and for people living in the moment? Even more so. One call to save your comrades or someone you were protecting could end your existence. Or a call you made to save someone could end up costing more people down the line. And if a Jedi made a call to fall, or to fight their own type? They had a reason. And Coren would do his best to give them that right, even if he had to fight them after they made the call. Still, watching the pair, he was listening, taking in what they were saying.

The cycle of death and creation, destruction and rebirth was not lost on Coren. And the Jedi, they were disorganized, but they were getting better. He had seen it. When he had worked in the Levantines there was a lot of separation between the groups. Silvers and Republic increased that. The Alliance had done what it could, but understanding other groups views was not always the same as being cohesive. Not like the majority of the Sith.

He nodded to Taeli. She was right. Carnifex was right. But it was different. The Sith were exerting control. The Jedi were not. Control, disorder, order, chaos. This world was not a world for Coren. His training had taught him how to hunt down the ones he knew were going to harm the galaxy.

“The Sith are unified in their desire to control.” Looking at the two Sith, he knew there wasn’t much to gain from entertaining them. He knew that Jedi were the ones who meddled. The New Jedi Order had gone in, to so many places, cleared the opposition that needed a Jedi’s touch. The Alliance handled the rest of the settlement and deals. But… that wasn’t the same for everyone who looked at the religion of Jedi.

Definitions on things changed.

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
[member="Darth Carnifex"]

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"Would it not be merciful if you had the opportunity to rid the galaxy of chaos and disorder, even if the price for doing so resulted in the death of trillions? To destroy countless souls but sparing those that remain of strife, ensuring a bright future for their children and their children's children? How much would you, or any Jedi, give to ensure such a future?" The Emperor conveniently left out his designs to engineer an endless state of heightened alert and shadow conflict to keep the people of the galaxy compliant to his authority, a state of perpetual fear of an enemy that no longer existed except in the minds of the fearful. As long as there was an enemy to demonize with violent deeds to exaggerate, then the Sith Emperor would always retain a tight grip on the galaxy.

"I can tell you what I would choose, Master Starchaser. I would choose the difficult path, the path that would leave entire worlds stripped of life, but one that would ensure that the future generations would thrive in a galaxy without chaos. Unlike the Jedi, I am willing to sacrifice anything for such a dream, for there is no price too steep that I would pay." No price too large to pay for his immortality, no sacrifice too great for his Empire to remain the dominant power.

"It doesn't have to be this way between us, Coren." Carnifex opted to refer to the Jedi Master by his given name, attempting to bridge a link of familiarity between them despite this being the first time they've ever met face-to-face. "Taeli has seen the truth, she's been witness to the future calamities of the galaxy and knows that there can be no future in a galaxy where the Light remains dominant. The Dark Side will ensure that we survive as a civilization. You can join us, Starchaser, and fight to ensure a better future for the galaxy..."

Or you will die, the Emperor thought cruelly.

[member="Coren Starchaser"] | [member="Taeli Raaf"]​

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Darth Carnifex"] [member="Coren Starchaser"]

"Aren't Jedi supposed to serve the greater good of the galaxy, Coren?" she asked, tilting her head in the process. It was the underlying principle of the Jedi that they served life and the galaxy in general and were not supposed to serve the whims of any government. History, both ancient and recent, had clearly shown that was not the case anymore. The Jedi had allowed chains to be wrapped around them, although they could not see them. In this modern age, chains were no better than allowing the stagnation and chaos of the galaxy to rip apart the very fabric of civilization. The Sith would bring order and... evolution to the galaxy, allow it to grow.

"Aren't the Jedi supposed to choose between the easy and difficult paths to walk?" she continued. "And we all know the answer to that question. Such an odd coincidence, isn't it?"

 

[Coren Starchaser]

To rid the galaxy? He could see where the Sith and others would think that was the way to handle things. Removing choice from beings o the galaxy may work for some people. And it may give answers some people were looing for. But life wasn’t about the quick and easy path. Was it difficult? Yes and no. It was more difficult to watch the galaxy struggle and know you could remove a choice from people and fix it. He was not going to succumb to that. He knew what he needed to do. As much as the Sith were the agents of order from initial chaos, the Jedi were the ones who understood that chaos was a harmonious move.

‘There is no Chaos, there is Harmony’

Life wasn’t about order. It was about strife, and growth. He looked at the Emperor and the Lady of Shadows.

“We serve life. And life ensures people can make the call for themselves.” He muttered.

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
[member="Darth Carnifex"]