The Bleeding

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He'd spoken with several friends, and they had giving him nothing. There were no words that could assuage the bitterness that ate at the Jedi Master. It was unbecoming of a Jedi, a wholly human fault, and one he could not ignore. None could know if it, lest their faith in his leadership waver, save one. [member="Dak"] was Cedric's closest friend and ally, and above all else, the droid would not judge him for his choices.

There was an emptyness that should not have been there. A void that could not be filled - a hole in the Jedi Master's heart that he'd hoped restoring the Essonians to prominence would have filled. It hadn't, and that hunger had only grown. It could no longer be ignored.

Dak was the only companion he'd allowed aboard his ship as his ship on this journey. The Jedi had explained little, and had been relatively tight lipped in general throughout the flight. It was only when the ship dropped out of hyperspace in the orbit of Rakata Prime that he finally spoke.

"Welcome to the edge of the galaxy." He spoke quietly as he rose from the pilot's chair. If all went well, the vessel would land on the ancient world of its own accord. Special attention had been paid to the planet's intense gravitational field - there'd be no crashing today. "I appreciate you joining me. I couldn't trust anyone else with this."

 

[Dak]

The droid was aware enough to understand that something about this journey was different than others. He could sense it, somehow. His biosensors read nothing unusual when targeted at his Jedi companion, yet Dak was keenly aware that something was not quite right. Inexplicable; yet true, he knew.

Lehon – Rakata – Rakata Prime. A world of immense significance to the galaxy, despite few knowing its name. Such had been the case even in Dak’s earliest memories. This ancient, tropical world had once been the centerpiece for an empire of immeasurable size, or so he had been told in the past. Inhabited by a species of force wielders, if the old memories served.

“I wouldn’t allow you to venture into the Unknown Regions without someone you can trust, Master,” Dak responds as he watches the blue planet grow through the glass as their ship approaches it “especially in the midst of all this political unrest you’ve buried yourself in.”

Cedric had likely noticed the droid’s increased absence since the foundation of the Imperium. Despite his protocol modules, Dak did not consider himself to be much of a politico. His increased freedom and sentience over the centuries had led to him leaning away from these responsibilities, aside from times when he was needed to act as a personal diplomatic escort.

"Though," he looks away from the cockpit window, turning his head to Cedric "I will admit; I'm unable to think of a reason why you've brought us here. Despite your trust, I suspect there is still something you've not yet told me."

 

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Dak had a bit more tact than most. Might have been that droid programming.

Cedric shifted his gaze from the glowing blue orb below to the automaton. His brow furrowed as he tried to find the right words for his friend. Dak might have lived several thousand years, but he was still inorganic. How could one explain the complexities of human emotion to one that did not experience them? Cedric didn't know, but perhaps it would offer a unique perspective. Dak had spent most of his existence as an observer to greater happenings - there was more wisdom in that experience than in even the most experienced of Jedi Masters.

"I appreciate your concern," he offered a weak smile, though it was clear his mind was preoccupied on other things. A light flickered indicating the ship was on its approach vector. Cedric sighed. "I'm not entirely certain. My father came here before he took up the mantle of Darth Mephirium. Consider me curious," he half-explained. "I want to know what he saw here," he paused, debating on whether to reveal more.

In the end, Dak's years of service were the deciding factor. "And figure things out for myself. I am happy with the Imperium, with what we are building, but something is missing. Like a hole inside me that I cannot fill. Even when I think I've done so, it always turns out to be temporary," he turned his gaze back to the planet below. "I want to know how to fix it."

[member="Dak"]

 

[Dak]

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Dak considers the Jedi’s words carefully, observing the planet in silence. Cedric didn’t speak of his father much, but the droid inferred the complexity of their relationship from what he had learned through odd stories and comments. At the very least, he knew that the old master had been seduced by the Dark Side of the Force – the Bogan – many years before Dak was re-activated.

“Are you sure that is wise, Master Cedric?” despite his voiced concern, in truth he too found himself curious of what secrets might hide in the ruins of such a powerful civilization. Despite the Force’s influence being a concept Dak was keenly aware of, it was never a problem that he had to fear himself.

“You are taking a significant and potentially unnecessary risk in doing this. Not only to yourself, but to everything you hope to achieve. What is it that you really expect to gain here?” Dak looks to Cedric, analyzing him closely as he continues to pry “Knowledge? Power? Closure?” he pauses, considering other options “Or, is it perhaps that you simply hope to prove to yourself that your will is stronger than your father’s was?”

 

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Dak was asking the right questions.

Cedric's arms folded behind the small of his back as he gazed out the view port, appraising the blue jewel below as if he might find the answers to his questions simply by staring at it long enough. After a few moments of silence, he finally spoke. "I'm not certain," he admitted in honesty. "I had a run in with him. My father, I mean." His gaze shifted back to Dak, " Loske Treicolt and I ran into the remnants of his spirit, in the Netherworld. It wasn't a very pleasant experience. I saw a weakness in myself there, one that I cannot allow myself to continue harboring."

I have to know why he did it.

"This is a place of change. The galaxy as we know it stemmed from this world. The Rakata and their Infinite Empire spanned across the entirety of the galaxy. Revan saw its power, as did Bane, my ancestors, and my own father." A pause. "Those that come here learn things about the universe that no other place can teach them. That's why we're here."

Offering no further explanation, Cedric toggled the ship's autopilot. The drives rumbled to life as the vessel began its descent toward Rakata Prime's surface.

 

[Dak]

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He wanted to pry further; to find the words of reason that might make Cedric reconsider, but he could tell words were no longer a solution. Dak would not be able change the stubborn Jedi’s mind. Only the truth could satisfy the desire for understanding that grew inside the Lord-Imperator’s heart. The droid understood now that this, no matter how dangerous, was the only way Cedric would find the closure he needed that might cleanse the darkness that lingered quietly within him. His fear.

Dak did not know how he came to realize this, but suddenly he knew it to be fact. He could feel it in their silence, though not by any means detectable through his sensory suites. What he could not determine, however, was the source of this fear. Perhaps it was the dangers that could lay ahead of them on this journey; or of what painful memories and truths he might have to confront; or, Dak wondered, was it the fear that he would fail as those before him had.

“This is a place of change … Revan saw its power, as did Bane, my ancestors, and my father.”

Dak found himself dwelling on this particular sentiment. He did not know of any Revan, and while he had heard stories of the Rakata in passing conversations with Graysons of old, he could not recall meeting any personally who had made the journey here. But Bane – well, that was a name he remembered. The stories of Darth Bane were ancient history to Cedric and the others, but to Dak they were very real. He was there, thousands of years before, and he still held fading memories of the New Sith Wars.

He felt uncertainty. Worry. 'Those who come here lose themselves along the way,' he considers saying 'perhaps such knowledge is not meant for the fragility of organic minds.'

Dak stays quiet, leaving the sound of the sublight engines and the groan of the hull as it breaches the planet's atmosphere to fill the silence.

 

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Cedric was grateful for the silence.

He maintained it for the remainder of the trip. It was one of the reasons he preferred Dak 's company over most organics. The droid had little trouble with what others might have considered an awkward silence. Cedric remained within his thoughts for the rest of the journey. He settled back into the passenger's chair as they passed through the planet's atmosphere: the shuttle's instruments sounding off to inform him that the gravity field below had indeed been surpassed by the vessel's new equipment.

Pleased that there were no interruptions, the Jedi allowed himself to become enveloped in a quiet meditation. His arms were folded about his chest, his eyes squeezed shut as he bid his thoughts away, and focused on the shifting of the empyrean. The Force was not calm here, but it wasn't agitated either. It simply was: caught in between the state of movement and non-movement, perfectly balanced.

The Jedi's brow furrowed as his eyes opened.

"Looks like we've arrived," he mused, having not noticed that the ship had begun its landing procedure along an abandoned beachhead. The seas were bright blue, and the hulls of ancient ships poked out from its depths. Such wrecks dotted the shoreline as well, and a few hung from holes they'd driven into the wind blasted cliffs above.

Cedric rose, and wasted little time strolling out into the sands. The morning sun was particularly hot. He held up a hand to block it from his vision.

"We're a long way from Coruscant," he mumbled, his gaze shifting to Dak. "You picking up any lifeforms nearby?"

Dak

 

[Dak]

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While Cedric distracted himself with mediation, Dak watched their approach intently. The planet was like nothing he had seen before. At least, not that he could recall. Everything seemed so still and tranquil now, but the history of power and destruction was evident. There was something special about this combination. It evoked a sense of wonder that he found particularly captivating.

In ways he couldn't explain, the planet felt like it was calling to him.

Dak is pulled from a trance he hadn't even realized he'd entered at the Lord-Imperator's words, but shows little in the way of a reaction. "No issues-" the sight of a particularly large capital ship protruding from the sea steals his words.

The droid follows Cedric from the cockpit to the beach, doing his best to remain vigilante. "Sensory readings show thousands of lifeforms in the area, Master. However, most are small and I suspect them to be non-sapient creatures. There are a few readings that are concerning, but," he looks out to the bay, across the deep blue water that stretches out beyond the horizon "they are coming from in there."

 

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"Guess we can't take that beach swim we'd been hoping for," Cedric sighed as he spoke his oh-so-subtle sarcasm. He reached out into the depths of the empyrean, and felt the warmth of life all around him. Rakata Prime had been left untouched for centuries now, and what little sentient life might have inhabited had long since gone extinct, or into hiding. He reached farther, into the depths of the oceans, and felt the titanic heartbeats of several marine colossi.

"If my records are correct, there's a temple not particularly far from here." He added as he drew his cowl over his face to protect his particularly pale complexion from the sun's harmful light.

Expecting Dak to follow, Cedric began his march up to the beach, headed for a singular pathway that led up higher into the cliffs. "We've finally found a place older than you Dak ."

 

[Dak]

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"My scanners are picking up composite materials in the area," he looks off to the distance cliffs as the pair press toward them "however, no signs of power."

Dak looks around once again after Cedric's joke, taking a more keen interest in what remained of the designs of the wrecks dotting the horizons. Although most were more than likely from various events through history, there was a chance that some of these hulks were tens of thousands of years old.

The droid could almost feel their history permeating around him; the ancient whispers of dead machines.

Finding himself distracted, the droid fails to respond. He walks in silence a few steps behind Cedric, receptors wandering.

 

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Cedric was waiting for one of Dak's general smart-arsed responses and found himself lacking. He slowed slightly, head craned over his shoulder to peer at the droid. "You're not usually this quiet," The Jedi mused. "Something on your mind - intelligence matrix, whatever?" Whatever Dak was picking up on, Cedric wasn't getting it.

The empyrean moved oddly here. It felt like it had back on Odessen, and then again on Chandrila. Both instances had resulted in events of great change; the former being Cedric's finding of Wrenarias , and the latter being when he and Loske Treicolt had come across a portal to the Netherworld. He understood quite well that his coming here had not been a mistake.

"There's something different about this place, but I can't put my finger on what it is," he mused as they rounded up the canyon wall, coming to stand at the edge of a small forest made up of sparsely placed trees.

Dak

 

[Dak]

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Intelligence matrix. How silly, Dak thinks to himself.

Considering Cedric's query serves to further delay a response. He didn't quite know how to answer, because the truth was he didn't know. "I'm uncertain," he answers, breaking his silence "I've been experiencing mild anomalies in my sensory data collection. I suspect they're the result of my primary sensor suite being stock after all this time."

The answer was an honest one, although incomplete. The full truth was that Dak had begun to suspect the virus he encountered aboard the droid-forge was affecting him in some way. He'd tried to locate it through deep scans of his primary and sub-systems, even going so far as to temporarily enter a state of hibernation to perform a complete diagnostic reading.

All results concluded the same thing: there was nothing there.

But Dak knew this couldn't be the case. There was no explanation for these experiences that could be logically tied to any malfunction he was capable of considering. Unless, of course, the virus was omitting data from his analytical core that would allow him to conclude the cause. Certainly a possibility.

The small woodland is an unexpected change in scenery when they reach the top of the narrow passage up the cliffs. Dak detects multiple small life signs scurrying off in different directions as they draw near, but none of them raise any concerns. The planet may not offer much to the civilized world any longer, but it was far from dead.

"I'm not picking up anything," he affirms as he looks across the forest edge, assessing the area visually for anything that may have gone undetected.

 

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"We'll have to see about getting that fixed," Cedric replied, dismissing the issue with Dak 's explanation. Made enough sense to him.

The travel through the cliff pass was relatively unimpeded. Cedric welcomed the sudden break of forestry, though it was far more sparsely populated by way of plantlife than he would have liked. There was nothing by way of the Bogan here, but neither the Ashla. It simply was, a place of convergence between the two primordial forces.

"There's a temple not far from here," Cedric began as they continued on. "It's ruined, from what I know of it, but it may have the answers I'm looking for." He paused in his speech, a thought occurring to the Jedi.

"What are your thoughts on the Imperium?" He asked. "The other Jedi have condemned me. Called me a fascist, akin to that of the First Order. I disagree, but hubris is a blinding thing. You have greater clarity than I."

 

[Dak]

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Dak's receptors linger on Cedric from a few paces behind. He had asked a complicated question.

He had found himself contemplating the Imperium more and more as things developed. Their influence had only continued to grow, along with their infamy. The political predators of the Galaxy had begun to promote their agendas and sink their teeth into the fledgling Imperium, preaching their falsehoods and misunderstandings. The droid understood some of the misconceptions; there were many fine lines to the Essonian's ideology, but he still knew it meant well.

"Organics are quick to project their own desires and fears, or use the desires and fears of others for their own gain," Dak answers, quickening his steps to match the Lord-Imperator's "perhaps they know what they would do if they were in your place, or fear what others have done before you. Many likely just don't understand, and aren't willing to because they've been told all they think they need to know."

Dak scans the horizon, still finding no sign of the temple Cedric had mentioned. "Your kind are creatures of ego, Master Cedric. Organic beings tend to attribute being wrong as a failure, rather than as a chance to learn and grow. I've seen your kind cling to their beliefs; wrong and harmful, just to escape their own fear that they had wasted their precious time."

Time was something the droid had a lot of. Certainly more than he had ever expected. But these observations had been consistent no matter which era he'd found himself in. Humans -- organics -- they were selfish by nature, but gifted with the choice to rise above. They were not programmed for a specific purpose, or held back by primitive handicaps; they were sapient and free to transcend their primal desire for self satisfaction.

And yet, so few did in the end. Even the most righteous.

"I don't have a proper opinion, Master," Dak finally arrives to his answers, though perhaps an anticlimactic one "if I must answer, I will say that I believe your intentions are good and the method is logical. But I also believe it will be perilous, and filled with judgement and loss along the way."

 

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As always, Dak had a thinker's answer.

Cedric listened in respectful silence as they reached a clearing. The trees parted, making way for a large open area that resembled the old valleys of Ession. In its center stood a crumbling ziggurat, battered by time and wars of ages long since forgotten. The empyrean moved with great purpose around this structure, swirling like a coiling serpent preparing to strike. The Ashla and the Bogan intermingled here, creating a muddled sensation that Cedric found wholly unpleasant.

"I appreciate your thoughts," he remarked, "I think you're right. Organic beings are fallible, and much of what we think is stemmed in ignorance. Better to cast their judgements aside in favor of what we know is right."

He paused for a moment, "That being said, I only hope you're wrong on the trials and hardship, but I know you're not. Ours is a future of war Dak, so that those who follow us might have one of peace. If the other groups don't see things that way, it's on them, and if they come for us, we'll give them reason never to do so again."

 

[Dak]

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The answer disappoints the droid, but he keeps it to himself. Cedric's words were a concern, but one Dak didn't know how to engage.

"Well," he pauses, contemplating numerous responses "then for your sake I will hope too."

There was a pull to this place before them. It was something Dak had never felt before. A resonance in the air, but not physical. There were no indications, no signs, no sensory indications; he was simply aware of it. He felt a presence beyond his understanding - some sort of inexplicable Force.

 

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Cedric knew there wasn't much Dak could say on the subject. Things were complicated, and the droid had rarely ever had any internal motive beyond protecting the Graysons. It was what he liked about the droid - there was no ulterior desire, no want for power, no fake friendship. Just an honest and constant companion.

"Does a droid's hope count like an organic's?" Cedric asked as he approached the ziggurat, "Or it like...binary hope." He paused to consider, amused by his own shitty joke as he came to a halt at the steps of the ziggurat.

"The Force is howling here," he said suddenly. As if the planet itself were in accord with his words, a sudden wind passed through the clearing. It was loud enough to be heard, though not to bother. Cedric's brow furrowed with worry.

"That's definitely not foreboding at all."

Dak