The shot fired was close to my head and shot against the wall with power. I knew that these bounty hunters had a purpose and I realised a warning shot into the crowd of men to stop the attack, yet since they planned on killing us, I knew that the bounty hunters would not stop.

A ferocious scream came from my friend as he shot directly into one of the bounty hunters and as he did this, I took aim and fired a shot first into the arm of a bounty hunter and then into the head as he fell. Another shot fired towards my direction and I knew that this was a poorly aimed shot as it fell wide of the target. I had no time to look at my friend but I hoped that he was doing well.

As the bounty hunters took aim again, I took my chance and fired a shot into the leg of a bounty hunter, running low to use the double-bladed knife as he fell. As the wounded bounty hunter fell, I sliced his neck open with the knife. As I did this, a shot fired into my leg and a searing pain shifted through me.

Suddenly as the final bounty of my side was about to kill me, a Jawa came from the shadows and kicked the bounty hunter in the ribs. As I lay in pain, I knew that the kick had broken several ribs and I got up with difficulty to shoot the bounty hunter. A shot fired into the bounty hunters head and there was silence.

At this point, although the Jawa had saved me, I took aim at him with my blaster and got ready to kill him...

Silently. As black as the shadow of death i crept through the twisting turning hallways. Unlike before, i was now confident in myself. I was expecting them and, unknown to them, they were now the hunted. After foolwing my unknown friend through the seemingly endless corridors, i noticed him stop, take out his blaster and prepare for battle. Admirable. But that was not my style. The dark, treacherous urban jungle of coruscant is the perfect training ground for stealth, and my experience is what i was to put into practice. A haunting silence dwelled within the mechanical beast of the Astral Astoria. The second before the battle can be as deadly as the battle itself. A hopeful shot flew my way as i grinned cockily at the fact that the bounty hunters position was now given away. A roar of shots being fored echoed through the once peaceful and sleepy halls. I quietly crept along a wall until the bounty hunter was merely three meters around the corner from me. I reached into my back pocket, took out my dagger and threw it down the corridor aproxiamtely five meters away from me. Slowly, the bounty hunter walked towards the wall, got his blaster ready and looked round the corner straight into my fist. As he fell helplessly to the floor, i springboarded off of his neck across to my dagger and stood against the wall at the opposite corner.

A shot would reveal my position, so i decideed to risk it. I looked round the corner seeing only one bounty hunter looking infear towards my direction. But there could be more. I had to be as silent as possible, and that involved using my dagger. I took in a deep breath, got my dagger ready and then swiftly turned from the corner, threw my dagger and jumped towards my orginial position. Only one shot was fired. I smugly walked over to my last victim, ripped my dagger out of his eye and 'borrowed' some of his equipment. But the battle had not finished. My unknown friend was still fighting. What was taking him so long?

As I turned to look at my stealthy friend, I noticed the bounty hunter corpses around me, and also the Jawa that stood in fright as the blaster was still directed at him. I lowered the blaster and thanked him for his help in the battle and walked over to my friend.

"There are too many corpses around this place, we must flee before the guards wander around here." I said. He simply nodded in agreement.
"Also, there is a Jaw here who saved my life, I recommend you speak to him." And with that comment, I moved along the corridor to the lift where I and my friends could make an escape with ease.

I pressed the button and as it came, myself and my friends came in with me and I wondered whether I knew what the true story was...

After silently helping to hide the bodies, i walked into the lift with the unknown man. We stood opposite each other, staring into each others eyes, trying to learn what is hidden. Suddenly his eyes darted away from mine in order to examine the Jawa next to me. His eyes looked back at me questioningly. Cautiously, i answered,
"His name's Izizi, i met him on Nar Shadaa a while ago. Since then we've been travelling together". The unknown man looked at us in appreciation and understanding. Then his eyes became fixed upon me again as i began to talk,
"But tell me, friendly stranger, who are you?" I studied the man closely as he began to speak...

I looked into this man's eyes and begun to speak.

"I am a shadow of the past, a walker of life and the portrayal of deception. I am a man who has many traits and I am a man who known to some. I am Spiritius." I told him. Yet once again there was only a nod and a look that told me to continue.

"I was once a general for the rebellion forces and I am now a lost cause in this place. I wish to find the truths that lay hidden in these walls, I wish to fight a cause that is worth fighting and I wish to be a hero again." I explained.

"So many men have looked into my eyes and saw the same death and destruction I caused so many years ago. I can never know what I see, for I am too ashamed to look upon a mirror. But you are different, who are you and what do you want?" I blatanly asked.

I tried to keep a expressionless face as i listened in awe at the achievments of this man. Such influence. Such power. Yet he saw something within me. Even though years of playing Pazaak had helped me to keep a straight face through tense and troubled times, I shuddered at the thought of what he might learn from me, merely by looking into my eyes. After a brief pause i answered his question,

"Who am I? I am nothing. I live with an soul empty of answers, yet filled with questions. My only goal in life leads me to great danger and seemingly neverending troubles"

I paused as my heart started to overflow with emotions that required all my concentration to surpress. I stared down at the floor as if it could supply me with the answers i required. Taking a deep breath, I parted the hair from my face and looked back up at him so that he could finally see my face clearly. I looked him straight in the eyes as I revealed what was truly within me,

"You ask me what do i want?" a sinister smile came over my face. "I ask myself the same question, yet I end up with many more." Spiritius looked at me questioningly. "Am I not free? Am I not part of a democratic society, free from dictatorial opression and bloody rule? I am not in jail. I owe no life debt. I belong to no-one." I paused in order to let my own words sink in.

"But I ask you, why am I not free? Why is it that I live my life by the rules that are made by everyone else? Why must it be child who is not rich must live to die? Why is it that through our 'righteous' democratic society, I cannot be what i want to be? Why must a child make a choice between living a suicidal life of crime, or fighting pointless wars for a government that has done nothing for him? Why must the rich get richer as the poor get poorer?"

I looked away from him and once again stared at the floor beneath me. I resumed, almost in whisper, "Why must the deeds of the careless past of others mercilessly rule my future? Why must society ruin me over and over and over again? Am i not the same as them? Am i not alive? Have i not dreams, feelings and wishes too? Can i not love? Can i not hate? Must i die in order to please those who i do not know?" I looked up, straight into his eyes once more; "You ask me, what do i want? Well then i give you my answer: Freedom. Freedom through revenge; Freedom through acception. Freedom through death and Freedom through life. Is my desire not the same as every other living creatures? We all want freedom." I continued to stare at him without blinking, waiting for his reply...

"You are a man of wisdom, yet where your heart lies is not in freedom, but in pain. The destruction of the world around you has caused you much pain, yet you hide it behind a sheath of wisdom and supposed truth. Why hide behind a sheath when there is a world that is ready and waiting for you to unleash your rage and hurt upon this place? Why lay in wonder, asking questions yet never gaining answers? Is this the path you wish to choose, or will you see the light and follow in me?" I spoke with the determination and power that I had so many years ago, simply a memory in my mind, but now it was all coming back to me.

I longed to see a man who had no pain inside of him, I longed to see a person who was happy and content with what they had and never hoped or dreamed for what others had. Yet what I hoped for was never to come true, for as long as the world existed, the pain and suffering of others would exist.

"What is your answer? Will you be led into the swiling pit of depression and hatred, filled with so many questions it is unbearable to the mind, or instead will you see the truth inside these words and search for answers just as I do? I plea to you, answer me!" I began to get angry, but not at him, instead at myself for the foolish mistake that I had just made. He was not a soldier, nor was a man that I wished to have follow me, instead he was a loner with a lost cause. That was how he would stay, I began to walk away...

I paused to contemplate his words as he slowly paced to the other side of the turbolift, deep in thought. He stopped at the other side, about five meters away and stared at the wall before him. I took a pace forwards and ended the deadly silence,

"Tell me Spiritius, have you ever experienced true horror?" He did not answer, waiting for me to reveal what was within me. "I presume that you have killed many, Spritius, liberator of planets and hero of the free. But I too know what it is like to kill... and I enjoy it." I took another pace forwards as I began to speak again,

"You see Spiritius, it completes me. Pain hurts, and I have suffered through much, but struggle is nature's way of survival. Through pain I grow stronger, smarter" I took yet another pace forwards. "Every time life has knocked me down, I have picked myself up again. And when the time comes for to fight again, I let my pain flow through me. It fuels me. The pain within me leads me to ever-growing danger, yet it's presence keeps me alive."

I slowly took another pace forward as the echo of my boot hitting the cold durasteel floor of the turbolift floor gave of a thunderous noise. "So you see, I do not hide from my pain, I embrace it. What I fear, what I hide from is the pain of others. I fear it for throughout my whole life they have scorned me and tested me" A malicious smile came over my face. "But when I pass their tests, I look into their eyes, laughing as their life fades before me. I feed from their pain, and that is why I fear them"

I took my final forward pace, now I was so close to Spiritius that my breath fell upon the back of his neck. I spoke in a deadly whisper as I continued, "But do you know what real horror is? The real pain I fear? Well then I shall inform you"

"Every night I have a dream. There's nothing. Just darkness, everywhere. Then I hear the all too familiar sound of my tortured mother and my sisters. I run, yet I see nothing...just darkness. Then I hear whispers. Everywhere. My left, my right; above me, below me. Then I realise who they are as ghostly figures materialise around me. Every time, I cannot move. Each one stares at me, their eyes peircing into my very soul. And each time, they all reach out in unison as they feed upon me, just as I fed on them."

"So now you see Spiritius, truly, I am not free. I am haunted by my past. That is why, although there may be others around me, I will always be alone" I moved back to where Izizi was stood. "As for these questions I ask, I have a question for you: Why qould I ask a question if not to search for an answer? I believe you hold them, yet you regret giving them to me. Do you wish to torture me, Spiritius?"

I began to chuckle as I returned to normal speaking volume, "You are no different, Spiritius. Although I may not see your face, I know what you are now thinking. You think that I'm a lost cause. You wish to leave me to rot in my own hell. Yet you misunderstand my will to free myself of the agony around me. If you leave now, then you will be making a grave error. If I cannot prove to you now the worth of my being, then I shall prove ot through the hell that I have become acustomed to. I will join you, but will you join me?"

I was perplexed about the words that he had spoken, I did not know that there was such pain inside this man, yet I knew that there must've been some sort of anguish and horror for me to trust him. I turned around to look this man in the eyes, yet I felt that if I looked into his eyes, I would see the pain he sees.

"In answer to your question, I will join you. I do wish to test you though, this lift is secure in all it's exits. You surely know this, I believe that it is time for you to prove your determination and willpower. I will leave this turbolift at the next floor and I will move to a random destination, if you can find me, I will allow you to lead in the path which I am taking. I warn you, if you follow me, you will fail. If you use tracking devices, you will fail." I told him with softness, yet I knew this man would succeed....

I travelled 5 floors higher than the one which Spiritius had exited on. I walked out of the turbolift and sat on an opposite bench, laughing at his foolish test. what was the point? After spending ten minutes pondering the conversation I just had, I stepped back into the turboolift.

As I turned the corner I noticed a man leaning against a wall in front of a room labelled '50 D'. Spiritius looked at me in frustration as I took his keycard out of my pocket.

"Looking for this?" I asked him with over-exaggerated sarcasm. He laughed as he took the keycard back from me and told me that he had something to show me in his quarters. But before he could unlock the door, I grabbed his shoulder and forced him to turn around and face me.

"You see Spiritius, you're not the only one who can give out tests. I too have a test for you" Just as he was about to reply I gave him a swift right hook to his chin that sent him crashing to the floor. Almost immediately he sprung to his feet and gave me a strong left uppercut. I springboarded off of my hands and landed on my feet. A huge grin came over me.

"Well done. So how about we stop all this testing bullshit and start working together?" He nodded in agreememnt as he proceeded to open the door...