"And you are Xorn Elias, the Key Thief?"
Xorn nods. "Why?"
Rand smiles. "My name is Nume Rand. I am a Dark Jedi Master and a member of a group of Dark Jedi who exist on the fringes of Republic space. I am here to offer my hand in friendship for the sake of survival, and for power. As few as we are, Dark Jedi cannot achieve much alone. But pooling our resources and abilities, we become threatening to our enemies. What do you think?"
"If you have Xavier's services, you also have mine..." Trax says, grudgingly. He was never satisfied with how you have chosen to lead your life, but he owes you his own and stays quiet.
"Might as well throw my lot in with you folks," Xorn says. "Now, maybe we should get out of here? Weren't a lot of flunkies huddling around Cralt here, definitely more around his fortress."
"We have a ship," Rand says.
"So do we," Trax says. "Come on, Xavier, let's get to it..."
When the door out of the throne room opens, it leads into a hallway constructed of metal beams and panels built into the dark coral formations around it, with the shallow ocean water sloshing about beneath. Bodies float just below the surface, Galder and Rianna having already been through here.
Down the hallway, down another hallway, up a flight of stairs, down a third hallway, and Xavier stands before The New Beginning with Trax and Xorn at his sides. Rand and Tanic move off toward a black starship on the other end of the hangar.
"We will transmit the coordinates to our base," Rand tells you. "Look for our message."
Xavier realizes all of sudden what he had just done by implying himself and his darker half as to separate beings.
Perhaps that is not the wisest choice yet.
"Of course," Xavier at seems to say to no one before making sure it looks like he is addressing Xorn. "You are correct I do not know what I was thinking."
The New Beginning takes off shortly and, as it has done countless times since coming under the ownership of Xavier Kolarn, heads off into a new adventure, following the black starship and the heavy starfighter- Tanic's and Galder's respectively- into the blackness of space, before blinking off at lightspeed to pursue the new alliance...
-
Coruscant, a year prior
The Jedi Council stands around an unlit funeral pyre. On the pyre is Ko Cabas, recently made deceased by his own apprentice. He lays peacefully on the pyre, ready for his final journey into the unknown realm of the Force.
Stathos, having miraculously survived his ordeal on Zrik, steps up to the pyre and lights it.
"May his body belong to the ages," Stathos says. The Council repeats his comment and watches as the body of Ko Cabas begins to burn ceremoniously. After a moment, Stathos turns to the Council.
"What of Xavier?" he asks. "He's still out there."
Master Windu shakes his head. "He will remain so."
"Why?"
"The Council agreed after the Malastare Massacre that they would not send Knights to chase down the Fallen, as all it has brought us is grief. Jedi Knights have so much more use in the Galaxy than to serve as hunters of the Darkness, and seeking out the Fallen is more trouble than it is worth."
"Then Xavier will not be made to atone for what he has done," Stathos says, disgusted.
"I have a feeling that Xavier will atone for it, in his own way," Ki-Adi-Mundi adds. "He was not amoral... merely misguided. Cabas made him a lethal warrior and he let that mentality get the better of him."
"We should be thankful that Xavier stopped a greater evil, I suppose," says Plo Koon, another Council member.
"But at great cost," Windu says. "There is evidence enough of why Knights are not sent to handle the evils of the Dark Side. Not any more. The Senate has come up with a solution to our problem..."
End