USH'S GAME EPISODE III- 'ARTIFACT'. Light Side Area

Gundy... your instincts tell you the answer is VERY simple... something about your time here with Ascar is all coming together...

"Grevor," Kellan said ever so slowly as realization dawned. "Ascar is Mal Sannan. This is his lightsabre."

Grevor is silent for a few moments.

"Your instincts serve you well, Kellan," he says. "I believe you are right."

"We must stop him at all costs." Kellan leaned forward and spoke over mah's shoulder. "Don't let him out of your sights, mah. Hurry !"

Mah made the aircar give all it had, and pushed on to catch up with Ascar. He reached out with the force to see where he had to go

You seem to be in some vast abandoned industrial area. And Ascar seems to be slowing... he has dropped behind some buildings. You cannot see him but he must be attempting a landing.

Kellan pointed toward a half-crumbled tower of decaying permacrete. "There, mah," she said softly into his ear. "Just beyond that tower." She reached out with the Force, trying to assess the situation.

Your car settles down, where your instincts tell you. You cannot see where Ascar landed. it is VERY quiet around here.

Kellan was the first one out of the aircar, breathing in the smell of ruin and decay. Her good hand had been holding her injured wrist for so long now; they felt almost as if they were permanently joined. She turned slowly in a circle, threading out fingers of the Force, searching for the parameters she would recognize as Ascar's presence.

You all find Ascar's car first, around the other side of the tower. It seems damaged.

"Doesn't look like this thing is going to get back in the air anytime soon," Kellan observed. "He's got to be around here somewhere...." She reached again with the Force...

The inner control panel has been ripped out.

Ascar must have ripped the control panel out himself.... Kellan thought. She suppressed a shiver of apprehension.

Yes indeed, he could hardly have driven it here in this condition.

You can feel Ascar... nowhere. And everywhere.

Kellan reached out to Ascar's presence. Mal, we know who you are. Show yourself. I would rather talk agreeably than fight you.

"I wonder if there any doors around here..." Xeth thinks, also reachinhg out with the Force. "You know, it all makes sense now. Ascar could have easily gotten to where he is by using the Force to cheat during gambling, and using Mind Tricks could have easily gotten him out of trials. It also explains why he's so interested in Jedi artifacts. Grevor, did he know Kuylen when he was younger?"

"Not that I know of..." says Grevor.

It is still shockingly quiet around here. You trudge down a deserted street to where you can vaguely feel Ascar. And then, you hear his voice, carried on the wind- but with no source.

"You Jedi are such wearisome people," he says. "Always interfering. Always splitting the Galaxy into good and evil with your tiresomely primitive views of morality."

His voice seems to echo off all the abandoned buildings around you.

"Always so sure that you are right, clinging onto your outdated ways, so much that you cannot even see the Galaxy changing around you. And now your pointless bumbling has caused ME great inconvenience..."

Kellan shared a concerned look with Grevor. "Don't fault the Jedi for your own failings, Mal. The Code that has served the Jedi for thousands of years has in turned served the Republic and its people that we protect," she replied to their unseen opponent. "It is a Code based on honor and respect. Who are you to question the very righteousness of those principles ?"

"Your ridiculous arrogance shames you, Master Gundark," comes Ascar's voice. "The Jedi are blind, the Council is blind. No-one dare's open their eyes, as I did."

His voice seems louder now.

"I wondered the outer edge of the Galaxy for many years. And on Sirckara I found the truth. There they have knowledge and wisdom that would make the the entire existence of the Jedi Order seem like a child's scribblings. And there I learnt the TRUE nature of the Force."

Ascar's voice seems to come at first behind you, then in front, then above, then below...

"Telebiogenesis, Master Gundark. The continuous recycling of one thing into another, with no barriers. Not even death which, even you Jedi consider the end of things. Something you seperate out, like the foolish masses.

"The TRUE Nature of the Force, Master Gundark is this.

"I have discovered that there is NO Light. NO Dark.

"NO Life. NO Death.

"Just an Endless Circle."

To Kellan's ears, it sounded like the ravings of a madman. She looked at the stunned expressions of her companions, at the ruined buildings around them.

How could this be ? Everything that had been taught to her from the time she entered the Temple, every rule, every belief in the Code and the structure of the Jedi built around it, everything was.....no. Not possible. Kellan's sense of duty ruled above all else and she would see that duty carried out on this mission no matter what confronted her, living foe or words of blasphemy.

"I don't believe you, Mal," she answered simply, without emotion.