Gash continued to watch the events as they unfolded in the temple he commanded, among the Jedi he had brought there. Even from so far away, the voice of Gash Jiren echoed in Chadd's mind- and only his.

Darth Vader once thought as you do. Do not ask them if you are consumed by evil; they cannot see it. But I can. You are consumed by your hatred, your own frustrations. These are the routes from which evil spring.

Then the voice spoke to the congregation as a whole, once again.[/b]

No, Chadd, you have not spoken against dealings with Sith- you were a Sith, much like me. You are a hypocrite because you speak against me for my consortation with the Dark Side- yet you seek to convince these Jedi to us the Dark Side. Choose your words more carefully, Chadwick Fearsons; when darkness drives you, frustration and confusion often show through even the most carefully laid speach.

<font color=red>The emperor took a moment to calm himself, to clear through with the first phase of this debate. He knew the harder part of the speech was to come now, as the Rogue Jedi Master had just brought with him a great string of arguements. It took the Shadow Jedi Knight a moment to gather his thoughts on the matter.</font>

"Hypocracy, fear, worry, hatred...the Dark Side...you fear the Dark Side, correct Master Jiren? You fear aggression? You fear hatred? You fear all of this. You fear me Master Jiren," <font color=red>his eyes finally cast onto the Rogue Jedi amongst him.</font> "I still pertain to him as my master, for he deserves my respect, he has earned it. He overcame the Dark Side's beckoning cruelty, he overcame becoming a Sith.

"But as he look back in history, there are Light Sides...and Dark Sides...but what's to say there is not a grey side? This has been seen with Master Corran Horn, with Master Durron, even Master Skywalker had what can be signified as a grey side or a 'shadow side'.

"I do not want to consume you all with evil...I am no longer a Sith, and I swear by my soul now, I would never turn down that path. The Dark Side is just that...a darkened manifestation of cereal evil, consuming all within its path. According to the Jedi Code, fear, aggression, hate, all of this leads to the Dark Side, and consumes one with evil. So, then are soldiers on the battle field 'evil'?

"I ask this because I myself, before receiving the training from Lord Vader, though menial I was trained, I was constantly afraid of death, not out of selfish desires, but out of the single primal instinct all living beings have...to live, to see another day and to bring my armies to glory. When soldiers are seeing the draught charge of the enemy after a vicious loss...it incites fear in the soldiers who know death is near. Without fear, we would be stupid, we would charge mindlessly into battle.

"But then...we do fear charging mindlessly into battle...because that would lead to the Dark Side. Fear! We are all afraid of something, anything. What is Master Jiren afraid of? Insubordinate embracement of a new order. Why? Because his sole enemy is THE New Order. He fears another manifestation of pure evil shall arise, and for that I applaud him.

"But Master, you must understand, I am not the Empire, I am not Darth Vader, I am not Exar Kun and most of all...I am not you. Hate, agression, fear...these are tools of the Dark Side I do not intend to emulate and murder with. I intend to heal, I intend to cure, and most of all...I intend to save the galaxy."

<font color=purple>Finally Fearsons' scarlet eyes turned to the already standing Knights and Apprentices, mayhap not the more seasoned, but the younger ones and even some of the old began to rise.</font>

"I am not here to point fingers, I am here to bring to you the attention of hypocracy, but also that of passion, and what you think is right. If you come with me...then do so. If not, I do not hold it against you, and admire your devotion. There is no right and wrong in this room, but I can demonstrate the justice that has arrised from the Shadow Jedi so be it."

The projection of Gash Jiren rematerialized at the will of the man behind it, if only to add pertanence to his words. But the cold stare was gone, as was the bravado. His tone was subdued, his voice quiet.

"I fear nothing, Chadd Fearsons. I only regret..." The projection stopped, staring down at the stone floor. "I regret the greatest mistake I could ever have made.


"You speak of Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker. Irionic, for I have fallen into the same mistake as Obi-Wan Kenobi; I thought I could train you, Chadd. You came to the Jedi Council, a frustrated man, one who refused change. I am confused, Chadd? You spent a good portion of your life in service to an Empire run by Sith, and allied with that Empire when you forged one of your own. For that reason, Leia turned you away. She saw the shadows in your soul.

"I thought I could purge them from you, I thought I could make you a force of good. I was wrong."

Gash sighed, and waved his hand at Chadd.

"You don't even know it, do you?" He chuckled, the sound devoid of all happiness or humor. "No, I can see it in your eyes, you don't. You're like every other Jedi who sinks into the Dark Side who thinks he can control it, to bend it to his will. You can't, you know, Chadd- it has a will of it's own, one you will become part and parcel of.

"Oh, I know, right now, your thoughts are of righteousness and glory. Of all the good you can do with the Dark Side. The Dark Side is a living entity- it is seductive. As you begin to use it, you will learn to love it. You indulge the darker part of you, and in turn, it will show you all that you can become- how to rival my power easily. You will give yourself over to the Dark Side, eventually. You cannot win.

"Yes, dispute it, Chadd. Please, do. Rationalize it to yourself; convince yourself you are heading down the correct path. But you do not know; you are inexperienced, despite your age. I know, better than Leia Solo or Kahn, better than you or Nathaniel, the dangers of the Dark Side. Better than anyone."

Gash's projection bit his bottom lip, and shook his head.

"You are nothing but a child, Chadd, meddling with powers you cannot possibly comprehend. Your intentions are pure, but your ends will be ones you do not wish... you will lose yourself to this, though you cannot see it."

The projection disappeared, and the lingering, disembodied voice left Gash's passing words with all Jedi present.

I will speak no more on this. Those who will go, may go, those who will stay, should do so. But you who go... will suffer the same fate as Chadd. Those who underestimate the Dark Side, who think they can tame it, are doomed to be servants of it. Farewell.

Across the galaxies people were being killed. That didn't bother he really, it was more of a threat to personal safety that bothered her. In the end, she was in it for herself and no one but herself - she had to protect number one. With all these power hungry maniacs storming around claiming planets left, right and center, how could she be sure of her safety?

She couldn't. That was the point.

Strata could provide her safety though. She may not have been a Sith anymore, but she could blast the kriff out of anything if needed.

“Cat, give me a profile on the Rogue Jedi Order.”

That was something that caught her eye. As she browsed the various articles they kept popping up. She had never heard of them before - which to be honest was not a surprise as she mostly kept herself to herself, and remained at the Temple whenever it was possible. It had been so long since she’d read any news on anything, that all of the movements through out the universe and all of the factions making them were all new to her. Some though held strong and even she had heard of before, the good old standing foundations of the galaxy such as the Jedi Council and Naboo Sith Order.

Foundations of the galaxy. Pah. Truth be told, she cared nothing for all of them. She’d never found a place to fit in after her dark arts tutor abandoned her training, and she doubted she ever would. In this day and age there were a million people would could storm around in battle equipment bombing things to high hell; you needed to have a special quality to really make it anywhere. Of course, she had the quality. It was just that no one had approached her about it. She’d never actually go in search of vocation, it had to come to her.

She was stubborn like that.

ooc:o k trying to get this thing back up and running.

ic:As Corran entered Gash's office he sensed that his master was troubeled.
"Gash what's going on? Why are the politicians suddenly ignoring everything a jedi says because the force is to vague? This goverment is a god-dammed jedi government. It was created by jedi, it was enlargened by jedi. Without us they'd be nothing.So why don't you just go tell them that. And about these Chiss. If this is really the beginning of an invasion it would make more sense to declare martial law and not let the politicians play and argue. If the Jedi fall the RJO is over. Everyone of our planets will fall to opposing forces." hear Corran paused for a second. "Gash you created RJO so we would have some action and not sit on our asses. Why don't we do something?"

Gash slept little the rest of the following night.

Morning came to a weary Gash as an escape from the horrors which had haunted him during the night. His trip to the office had been silent; he had strode through the Parliament building with narry a word spoken. The one secretary who ventured into his office found the Jedi Master staring distantly out the viewport. The papers dropped onto Gash's desk were ignored.

Corran ventured into Gash's office, and was met with that same blank stare. He seemed to fill the void of silence with hastily blurted concerns.

"Corran, the system is on as much alert as I can put it on. I have domain over the military; not so much over the political system, or the planet. I created RJO, but in doing so, I created a beaurocracy- total power corrupts totally, and I did not want to be corrupted by the power I am forced to wield."

A sad look gleamed through Gash's crimson eyes. "I had never imagined it would become a hindrance, as it has now."

ooc: ok Is there anybody else out there who was in this RP who hasn't totally quit it?
"Then what the frell can we do? Can't we just bring in the jedi from Yavin IV to help defend. Chadd might also be able to bring in part of the Rogue Empire Naval forces." Corran said. Slowly Corran was beginning to get a bigger and bigger feeling of unease in his stomach that something was wrong.

ooc:Corran doesn't know about Chadd becoming Shadow so know would be a good time to tell him

"What will you do now?" asked Mardok Mulear of the Super Star Destroyer Celestial Corrupter, whom stood just next to the emperor of the Rogue Empire. His fleet was far beyond the reaches of this great mimick of the Executor, even though some had sworn that it was larger, and he was thankful he was finally away from the royal beauracracies of the empire. His eyes cast out over Clak'Dor V, where he had only recently slain a great beast to save his apprentices Dakkon Blackblade and Arai Heishi.

"Does it matter?" Fearsons barked back without even cocking his head, simply peering out the transparisteel viewport of his quarters aboard the Corrupter. The ship was a good eight kilometers, maybe nine. Though there were only a few turbo lasers its mightiest power did not quell within fire power. It was the jedi inside that was the true power of the Celestial Corrupter. "What the master and emperor does is of concern only to the master until such a time that the populace sees the plans unravel."

"Yes...my lord," Mardok said apologetically. The man was a Chandrilan and so held with him a great sense of self-authority. The emperor had found him on a refuge for those that had been routed out of the Sluis Van system during the Chimeran Biotests on the planet. It was a gruesome time and now the man was quite thankful to his leader that he had found him when he had. Days after the rescue the camp was overcome with the vicious disease that the Rogue Empire now had in their control.

The stars twinkled against the black sheet of space beyond the emperor's glowing red eyes, which were focused heavily on the sight around him. Every now and again a fighter or a freighter would pass by in order to dock and resupply with the Corrupter.

"I meant in referance to the sudden Chiss threat to Ossus."

Fearsons' face suddenly turned to a contemptuous glower, mixed with a pinge of pain facaded behind the expression. Mardok had seen that look before and knew not to speak when it was bestowed on him.

"I shall dismiss my lord."

The emperor watched as his young commander slowly made off. He was no replacement to Admiral Wyldan.

To Corran, Gash had merely shaken his head; he himself was not sure what they could do. He'd not even told the Padawan of Chadd's change of heart- he'd decided to cope with his own failure first, before divulging it to others. The galaxy seemed to have become a nightmare; Chadd's departure, the Chiss threat to Ossus...

But the question, above all, was, "Why now"? And even there, Gash saw himself at the route of the problem; was it not he who was probing into the Unknown Regions? Were not the Krick on the verge of a discovery, in that respect? What kind of brutal enemy had they awakened; what kind of brutal enemy was knocking on their very door...

Knock, knock.

Gash had to physically shake himself from his thoughts, the realization coming swiftly that the two knocks on the door were not part of some daydream. The Jedi Master stood, answering the door himself- and blanching at what he found.

The secretary who had, moments before, brought him a stack of flimsiplast documents, now stood loosely before him, her skin pale. A small trickle of blood ran from her mouth as she fell forward, Gash too shocked to catch her. In her back was a dagger, the hilt of which Gash recognized immediately; it was not just a dagger, but a short sword.

The sword with which he had performed the ceremony where Recon Klain's body had been transferred into an immortal, cloned figure. The sword which had pierced the heart of Gash's uncle.

The Jedi Master called for aid, and in moments, medics rushed around the body. They all looked to Gash, making it clear that his ability to heal would be greater than their's, now, but even he could not repair the wound done by this blade. The resurrection ceremony of Recon Klain had changed this blade; those struck by it had the essences of the Force within them drawn out, increasing the blade's power and killing the victim quickly.

Hesitantly, as if being forced, Gash reached down, drawing the blade from the woman's back. It was soaked in crimson blood- yet, in a second, the blood was gone. It did not slide off, nor did Gash wipe the blade clean; the blood seemed to seap within the weapon.

The Blade of Klain felt perfectly balanced in Gash's hand; naturally so. Yet Gash could not remember what it had felt to wield it so long ago when he'd used it to take Recon Klain's life...

And something else.

Through the blade, Gash seemed to feel drawn to somewhere... to a presence... to...

The admiral with the red eyes, the man who had smashed a thousand Republic forces, the man who had stolen Coruscant- and had it stolen back by one, meddling Jedi and a Noghri named Rukh. The one who had recovered the Blade of Klain; the man who mad manipulated millions.

The man who was not a man at all. Beyond his brilliant intelligence and tactical capability which he was known for, lay a secret beyond the reaches of the known galaxy. The Chiss...

His severe face broke upward in a slight smile. Millions of lightyears from Gash Jiren's discovery of the Blade of Klain, the battle for Ossus had already begun, though none but those under assault knew it.

Three Imperial Star Destroyers had leapt into the Mehkt system, a small, sparsely inhabited system coreward of Ossus. It was widely known that Gash Jiren's favoured strategy when taking a planet was the "Jiren Split"- the taking of two systems, at twelve o'clock and three o'clock of the target, and the use of them as a staging area for the assault. Judging by the incoming enemy vessels, Rogue Jedi forces all, it seemed the Asthentian Admiral had anticipated Thrawn's use of his own tactics against him; no matter. While other Imperial military men used underhanded schemes to achieve victory, Mitth'raw'nuruodo had one infalliable advantage over his foes; sheer tactical ability and wit.

The three ImpStars began a twisting maneuver, unleashing turbolaser fire on the lead craft.

The battle lasted only twenty minutes.

At the end of it, two RJO Imperial Star Destroyers were under Syndic Mitth'raw'nuruodo control, one was destroyed, and two Victory Star Destroyers had been captured besides.

And a million lightyears rimward, a beautiful RogueNet broadcaster was meeting her destiny at the end of a blaster barrel. Virona Ty lay dead in an Ossan gutter, and OsSec sat uncaring, not a security speeder dispatched.