Dark, the room was incredibly dark. Oppressively dark even, so dark it was hard for Tobal to see the staff he held in his hand. Even Tobal’s white clothing was hidden, a testament to the darkness of this room. Within two strides, Vyktor disappeared in front of Tobal. Tobal could hear Vyktors footsteps ahead, but sight of his friend escaped him. Panic swelled in Tobal’s chest, and he slowly began to crumple into a crouch. Darkness such as this brought out a fear within himself that he had not know of before. Not Natural! Light, there should be some light somewhere! Even in the darkest forests light had been present, even if just enough to allow him to see his hand, it had still been there.

Vyktors footsteps stopped, and the sound of Tobals heavy breathing came into existence. Light… where is the light? Not natural…. Not natural…. The tribals head swivled, and his hair tangled with his nose. The feeling of panic was building, a tight knot filling his chest.

Light…. Light…. Where is the light…. It’s. not. Natural. ……………….. No light…..

There. Light. Or… was it? The darkness seemed not so oppressive now, but it was still dark. The panic was closing in on him now, soon he would loose his outward control.

Tobals voice rasped out, harsh, like dry wood. “Light…. Where is the light…”

And as if in response, a blinding flash exploded in front of Tobal, so bright his eyes dilated to pinpricks. Everything was white, and Tobal leapt backward, the panic suddenly gone. “ouch…” The light faded very quickly, but Tobal now knew something new. Holding his hand out, a small ball of light, not solid, but definitely there, hovered above his palm. It was a translucent blob, constantly changing size, and changing shape. It emitted almost no light, but it was enough to conquer the strange panic that had grasped Tobal. Crouching to pick up his staff, Tobal transferred the light to the end of the staff. How he did it, or how it worked he knew not.

Walking forward now, and without fear or panic, Tobal met up with Vyktor. The man seemed unconcerned with what had just happened, but Tobal could see his purples. They were still small, but re-adjusting rapidly.

<span style="color:blue;">Vyktor had only taken a few steps, allowing his feet to make noise on what turned out to be rather ornate flooring, when his ears caught the sound of Tobal's inner struggle. He was just deciding how to react when the burst of light came.

The sudden light completely blew Marius' night vision, in fact he had to blink several times before he could see normally again. He had just done so as he realized the source of the light, to his amusement. Though his face remained calm, Vyktor was quite impressed, and even a bit surprised with his comrades new development. Like a computer a portion of his mind was running though possible causes of Tobal's newfound ability. Nothing came to mind, except perhaps an impressive use of telekenisis brought on by Hadul's stress level. Vyktor had to admit to himself that it was quite a development.

His thoughts organized again, he spoke to his friend. "My, the two of us seem to be learning all sorts of things today aren't we, Tobal. I'd have to say I'm very impressed."

"I'm inclined to agree," a voice said from the darkness beyond the range of Tobal's light.

A single sentence, and the voice was gone. As it finished the lighting began to raise, nearly imperceptable at first, until the entire room held a soft light, and the speaker was revealed.

There, lounging on a well stuffed banthahide couch he sat, as if he didn't have a care in the world. His body language communicated the same thing, his cloak thrown back behind him, his legs streched out over the couches length. The speakers eyes however, tolds a different story. Burning bright red from the confines of his blue skin, his eyes showed the weariness of a man exausted by his responsibilities, yet so near they're completion.

Vyktor saw his master and old friend there before him, and acting on instinct fell to his knees. Now was a time for regal seriousness. His head bowed, Marius greeted Fearsons. "Master, it is great to see you. How may I serve you, old friend?"
</span>

Somehow Tobal allowed the light blob on the end of his staff to fade out. He would have to study how he had done that later. Kneeling with Vyktor, because he didn’t know what else to do, Tobal stayed silent, and waited. The panic that had enveloped him before was gone now, gone without a trace. test… it must have been a test It was the only explanation he could think of. Master Fearsons must have been testing me…

Dakkon sat back quietly, the chair overlooking the bridge 'pit' where the few remaining officers toiled, their speed fueled by the mindweb the Shadow Jedi Master had created, driving the men on with a collective sense of purpose. As he sat, his conciousness appearing to wane, he felt a blast of the Force, a sense that Fearsons was back, only that he wasn't.

He shook his head, broken from the reverie, his mind awash with confusion.

How can he be back and yet not?

With a mumbled command passing control of the bridge to his adjutant, he rose from the seat and stumbled blindly into a turbolift. With a sense of purpose not driven by the normal part of his mind, Dakkon sent the turbolift to the general area he had sensed his Master. The doors opened with a slight swish and as Dakkon nearly fell out, they closed behind him with a dull thud.

He, now, at least had something to search for.

Fearson's smiled down on the two men kneeling at his feet. It was a tired smile, but a happy one. His voice called out softly, "Come, rise my friends. Now is not the time for your much appreciated actions. It's good to know that there will always be those who will be loyal to me, but you have work to do."

The two stood with thier master, and he looked them in the eyes one by one. Looking at Vyktor, his red-eyed gaze was such as if he was looking into his very soul. "My old friend, the time has come for change. You see, I must now leave the the place in the galaxy that I have held for so many years. I have fought, and served my time, done my duty. Now I must hand over my responsibilities to others, now I get to go home."

He paused for a moment, letting his words sink in, and looked back and forth once more. "Vyktor, after many years as friends you only recently chose to come to me here for training. While I regret that it was not my fate to train you, I know you will follow the ways of the Shadow well, that you will be a warrior for the balance, a leader. Thus, knowing your feelings and your other responsibilites, I bestow on you the mantle of the Shadow Jedi. The skills, knowledge, and patience you have gained over the years will be essential in the time to come. Watch over the order, the order that has been mine for so long. Guide it, and advise it. Be true to our code, and our history."

The Emperor licked his lips and turned to the youngest of the three. Looking into Hadul's eyes, he placed a hand on his shoulder. "Young Tobal, you've been here an even shorter time than Vyktor, arriving under rather strange circumstances. You have no knowledge of other sects of force-users other than us, but I hope in time you will find that for whatever reason you arrived here, that it is right for you, for I believe you are the future of the Shadow Jedi. Even right here you have shown a capability for a unique use of the force. I hope in the coming years that you find many many more. So to you I also bestow the future of the Shadow Jedi, should you choose to take it upon yourself."

Chadd was straining now, his desire to be home overwhelming the pain of this departure from his friends. He looked over his shoulder at the door in the back of the lavishly furnished room, and spoke his last words as Master of the Shadow Jedi. As would a true master, these were in hope that he would help his students. "Both of you are very young when it comes to the ways of the force. However, you have some excellent examples for your training. My beloved Jade, Raven Skywalker, and Dakkon Blackblade will serve well in training you, and in time a new generation of Shadow Jedi. Now I bid you farewell, know that should you ever need me, you'll know where to find me. Goodbye my friends."

He turned and was gone, leaving the two apprentices alone. Marius looked to Tobal, seeing some measure of determination in the man, and did as he was asked. He was headed back for the doorway as he felt the new bulge in his pocket. Investigating the bulge, he found a small package. It was a small holo-etching of long ago, of Marius and Fearsons after that first battle together. With it was a code cylinder, and both were wrapped in a piece of flimsy. On the flimsy was written a message.

"Vyktor,

Here's a memory of our past, and a step into your future. This code cylinder will allow you access to anywhere on the ship, most importantly the library next door. Inside is all of the information and knowledge about the Shadow Jedi I have accumulated in my many years. Much of it is even beyond my understanding, I hope that one day you will surpass me in this knowledge. Take all of it and go. The 'Celestial Corruptor' will be making it's final jump in two hours. Kindly be on your way by then.

Thank you my friend,

Chadd"

Marius shook his head, imagining those tired eyes once more, and continued on. He kept it simple as he did so, hoping Tobal would follow. "We must be going, the ship will be leaving soon and we must be gone by then. Please follow me."

Standing, Tobal followed Vyktor to the back of Master Fearson’s chambers. Vyktor entered a fairly small and un-obtrusive door, unlocking it with a small round tube. Lights came on instantly, and Tobal, for the first time since coming to this Iron city, was astounded. The room, though not very large when compared to the combat chamber, was tall. The room was round, and extended a good twenty meters up and down. Hanging from the ceiling was a chandelier of almost gaudy proportions. This chandelier emanated a small amount of light, which grew brighter with each passing second. Around the entire room, three meters high, books of every kind you could imagine stood in dark wooden shelves. Above the bookshelves, the walls were completely smooth, and came to a peek at the top, where the chandelier hung from.

Tobal was speechless. He had never seen so many books. Following Vyktor dumbly, Tobal continued to stare openly at the bookshelves. On the back of each book was a data chip, no doubt a copy of the book. In the center of the room were five pedestals, and floating above each was a square cube, each containing different markings. Vyktor seemed quite interested in the cubes, but all Tobal could see were the books. Finally, his voice returned to him, and he forced out a few coherent words. “On my planet… you are lucky if you see a book once in your life time. Very… very few can read… The only one in my village who could read was the chieftain. He never possessed a book in his life. We … we were too far from the large villages to receive such treasures.” Turning to Vyktor, Tobal saw that the man was gazing intently at one of the five cubes. “Holocrons.. very old holocrons” were the only words Vyktor managed to speak.

In all of Marius' years, and he was almost as old as Master Fearsons, he'd only seen one holocron. That had belonged to a friend, one who had never been able to really decide if he was a dark Jedi or a Sith. Either way, other than the occasional unmentionable indescretion, the man was good. He had used the information in that ancient Sith holocron to help his friends, and that made him a good man in Vyktor's book. It had been nearly a decade since he'd last seen that man, save a chance encounter in an unmentionable bar somewhere. That meeting had been short, greetings had barely been made between the old friends before they were called apart by thier various responsibilities.

He'd never gotten a real good look at the darksider's holocron, just a glance or two when he had traveled aboard Marius' ship, but these five looked to be nearly as old. That made them very old, and a mystery as to how Fearsons' had come across them. No doubt each of them held large amounts of information that the Shadow Jedi Master had never been able to access.

Vyktor blinked, returning to the job at hand. He had less than two hours to get moving, and he needed to save all of this knowledge. He pulled two empty bags from beneath his robes, and tossed one to Tobal. As the older man gently placed the holocrons inside his bag, he made requests of his companion.

"Help me with this please, obviously there is far too much for me to do it on my own. Start placing the datachips there in that bag. I'm going to try and find some hover-carts or something to carry all of these books. It would be a shame to lose the original knowledge within, and I think they'll all fit aboard my ship. Also, let me know if you think of a better way of doing this."

With the holocron's stowed away, he found a dataport on a holoprojector near the door. Vyktor made sure the exspansion ports had fresh datacards in them, and jacked in. Approximately fifteen seconds later he began a download of the catalogue information. While the data was transfered he began searching for the carts he had mentioned. He had yet to find anything when he heard the datapad beep indicating it was full. Marius' jaw dropped in surprise, it had been less than three minutes since the transfer began, and further tones told him that the download was not complete.

Sighing, he went back to the datapad, and put in another set of cards. It took two more changes before all the catalogue was transfered. Following that he pulled up a schematic of the area around thier current location. The security level of the surrounding rooms demanded a code check, which the code cylinder he'd been provided with cleared easily. The holo-representation that followed confirmed his thoughts. The room on the other side of the Master's chambers was his personal hanger bay. They could increase the speed at which they moved the books if he brought his shuttle there. Thus Vyktor called out for the younger apprentice.

"Tobal, the room on the other side of Master Fearsons' chambers is a small hanger bay. I'm going to go bring my ship there to speed this up. Keep working on those datachips please, I'll be back in a minute."

The door opened before the black clad Shadow Apprentice, but he stopped short.

"Ohh. Tobal, what do you want done with the ship you arrived in? We can't very well leave it here can we?"

The question caused Tobal to shrug slightly. He continued to collect datacards, placing them in his bag. He didn’t need the shuttle, he didn’t even know how to fly it. His arrival in it had been a fluke, a mistake. “Vyktor”, he said, “I cannot fly that thing.” That was true. How he had managed to operate the alien machine was a question that had bothered him for the last few days. “I do not care for it. The people who looked it over said it was so old they were surprised it had started for me at all. Did I tell you how I found it? My mother hid me in an old building that had been built by some outworlders years ago. While hidden in there, I found the machine. In the front I accidentally hit a button, and it took off, flying straight up into the sky, with me inside.” Tobal’s hands moved up, as an illustration to his point. The bag of datacards lay on the floor, and he had two in each hand. “Leave it here, perhaps whoever takes this metal world will use it.”
Tobal bent, and placed the four cards in the bag, then, turned and continued his gathering.

It took Tobal a little over twenty minutes to gather all of the datacards. By this time Vyktor had left, and returned, riding on a large power cart that he left outside the library door. Together the two began to gather the books off of the wall, and to carefully transport them to the powered cart. Tobal moved the books in a reverent way, being a little too careful with them. To see a book on his planet was a rarity. Though most people could not read, all wished they could. The ones that did learn to read under the occasional teacher usually left their small village, and went on to the large villages. Few returned, but the small amount that did told of the great things the world held, and of the remarkable things you could do when you could read.

One book Tobal transported had an image of what looked like a long staff on the front. The image portrayed a tall, smooth staff, wrapped in two places with what appeared to be leather. Out of curiosity Tobal opened the book. Unlike the other books, this one had pictures, and the words were few. Paging through the book, Tobal soon discovered that it was a manual for combat, using a quarterstaff. Diagrams of different poses, shots of people moving through the moves, showing every detail. Words, though Tobal could not read them, appeared under each picture. He guessed they described how to properly use the moves. This one I shall study. I shall learn to read, so to better understand this…. Experienced with a quarterstaff himself, Tobal recognized some of the forms. Most, however, were new, and a good many appeared to be fast moves. Very fast, so fast some of the pictures were blurred at the end of the person’s staff, as well as his arms.

Setting the book aside, next to the now full bag of data cards, Tobal continued to assist Vyktor in moving the other books. Tobal noticed that Vyktor stopped every now and then as well, to page through a few books. He too had also set aside several large volumes. By the time the cart was full, two of the nine wraparound shelves had been emptied almost completely. We are taking too long…

"Let's go, get this load aboard my shuttle, and then bring back another few carts from there. I couldn't handle anymore at the time."

Together the two pushed the cart, overladden so much with books that the repulosorlift field beneath it was compressing, through the two rooms to the hanger. There before then sat not only Vyktor's Svelte-class shuttle, but the one that Tobal had arrived in as well. Marius saw the look of confusion flash across the younger apprentices face, and explained.

"When I went back for my ship, I took a look at yours. I found that it does contain what are called slave circuits, which allowed me to fly it through my own ship. Call it a personality quirk, but I don't like to waste any resources. Who knows anyway, it could be useful. Someday you'll want to go home for some reason for another, and it will have the coordinates you'll need."

Vyktor hoped Tobal agreed with what he said. He certainly would have liked to return to Hadul's world and try to repair whatever damage was done in it's people's relationship with the Jedi. That would come in time, when Tobal was ready. Right now they really didn't have time to discuss it, at least not unless they were working. The black clad man threw his weight into the cart, pushing it up the shuttle's loading ramp. Once aboard he stowed it in the cargo area, leaving this cart for the cargo droid to unload, and pulled out two others similar to the first.

On the way out of the shuttle, they passed the recreational area. Marius unslung the two bags he carried, one holding the datachips and the other the holocrons and left them on the holo-table. He wanted them out for later study. He led the way down the ramp again, and out of the hanger, they still had a lot to do.

Tobal took one of the carts from Vyktor’s hands, and began to push it toward the library. Time was short now. Master Fearson’s had said that this … ship … would be leaving in two hours. Tobal still had trouble believing that the world he was walking on was a ship. It was too large; too many people lived in it. Or had lived in it anyhow.

The two men worked in synchronization, one taking books off the upper shelves, the other receiving them, and placing them on a cart. After a while, when they had accustomed themselves to each other’s rhythm, and their speed increased dramatically. In the same amount of time it had taken to fill one cart before, they filled two. Time is running out… Tobal was beginning to worry about the time they had left, and he commented about it to Vyktor. “We have an hour and twenty minutes Tobal, do not worry.” Five of nine shelves were emptied as the two pushed their heavily overloaded repulsor lift carts to Vyktor’s ship. The cargo droid had the other cart unloaded, and had probably finished long ago.

“Are you sure your ship will hold all of these books Vyktor? We are adding a lot of weight. It won’t make the ship drop, will it?”