The Teachings of Atris Part I

"Her teachings could not be allowed to continue." - Darth Traya
"...Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken." As she mouthed the words, Atris watched the remains of Vrook, Kai-Ell and Cavar burn on their pyres she'd built inside the former Jedi Council chambers of the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine. The flickering of the flames made the shadows dance around her and cast lurid orange glow about the walkway.

She'd returned to Dantooine to put to rest both the Masters that had fallen there and her own anxieties about the past. Seeing them lying there in the grass, an emptiness in the Force was only slightly less disturbing then the first time she'd found them there. Alone she had gathered their bodies and built the pyres for them in the ancient Jedi tradition for those lost to the Order, but who had not become one with the Force. And now, standing there, wearing a white cloak over her robes with the hood up, she allowed the pain to flow through her this time, instead of denying it. From this, she drew new strength, feeling the Force gather about her. 'From conflict, we grow stronger,' she reminded herself. Meeting the Sith threat dominated her thoughts now, and since her encounter with the one on Korriban, her confidence had surged. Her skills with a lightsaber and with the Force had improved under the teachings of Lord Varos, and for a change, Atris allowed herself a brief smile.

As the fires began to burn down, she turned and walked back into the tunnel, contemplating what her next strategy should be. Just then she sensed a pair of beings in the darkness ahead. Immediately her hand went to her lightsaber, drawing the weapon and activating it. The blue glow from the blade offered faint illumination of the tunnel, but a glow rod lit up and revealed a man and a woman in Jedi robes approaching from around the side of the Enclave. The man she vaguely recognized as having been a padawan once at the Enclave before Malak had attacked it.

"Master Atris?"

"Padawan Daarok," she nodded and deactivated her lightsaber.

He bowed and gestured toward the female. "This is Padawan Sena of the Coruscant Temple. We saw the light. Are there others here?"

"No. We are the last of the Jedi. The fires you see are for Masters Vrook, Cavar and Kai-Ell. They were slain by the Exile and her allies."

"This is grievous news," Daarok said, glancing at Sena. "We had thought the Sith war over with the victory at Citadel Station. We had hoped that the Enclave would attract the remaining Jedi."

"And so it has," Atris said. "We have been drawn here, but the war is far from over."

He nodded. "To continue our Jedi training is why we have come, Master Atris."

"Good," she said. "But this place is too well known to the Sith. They have struck here once already. We will need to go elsewhere. Some place more remote. Have you a ship?"

"We do, Master. It is docked at the Sandral estate," Sena said.

"Let us not linger here anymore," Atris said. "I will escort you there.

They made their way through the darkened plains of Dantooine in silence, alert for beasts and other potential enemies, but the night was calm, a cool breeze blowing across the plains. The Kath hounds Atris had remembered from earlier days were strangely absent.

"I was on Jedi business meeting with the Sandrals when Malak's attack came. I remained there even as the Sith ground forces invaded what was left of the Enclave, "Daarok explained. "They were kind enough to offer me shelter even at the risk of great danger to themselves."

"And I came to Dantooine hoping to find Jedi here after the Temple on Coruscant had been invaded," Sena said. "I found Daarok, and then we were able to make contact with Master Vrook. But he insisted that we all remain separate as gatherings of Jedi always seemed to attract the attention of the enemy. Master, is it now safe for us to gather again?"

"We will never be safe as long as the Sith exist," Atris said, a frown crossing her features, "Revan was only the beginning. There was then a new breed of Sith striking from the graveyard world of Malachor V, but they have been defeated and that planet destroyed. However the enemy remains cowering beyond the Outer Rim. The Masters' strategy of attempting to draw the Sith out has only delayed the inevitable and resulted in their own deaths. It falls on us now to hunt down and destroy them wherever they are. We are the galaxy's last hope, Padawans."

Shortly afterward they reached the Estate. The militiamen on duty outside paid them little heed as they passed by into the docking area.

Atris turned to face the two padawans, "We will rendezvous in orbit. There I will transmit to you the hyperspace coordinates of our destination. We must be cautious. The enemy has spies everywhere." With that, she turned and disappeared into the darkness...

She was alerted from her meditation by the sound of her proximity alarm going off. Opening her eyes, she found herself staring through the viewscreen at a blue planet with two small moons. Behind her, her sensors detected Daarok's freighter emerging from hyperspace. She took a deep breath and then stretched as far as the confines of the cockpit would allow. "Daarok?" she said into the communicator.

"We read you, Master Atris."

"Follow me down." She locked on to the largest structure on the planet and set her course for it. Pushing the yoke forward, she sent the starfighter into a descent towards her new base.

It was Admiral Onasi that had told them of this place, relaying Revan and Bastila's final moments on this planet to the Jedi Council. How they'd slain their own comrades in cold blood before leaving to capture the Star Forge from Malak. That had been the culmination of the Jedi Masters' efforts to reprogram Revan to once more walk on the Light Side. One Jedi Master had suggested that Revan simply be cut off from the Force, but she had gone unheeded and many had paid the price for it. Onasi himself had barely escaped the planet with a group of Duros who also had been stranded there. It was a base that Revan and Malak had used during the Jedi Civil War, but not an ancient Sith world as Korriban and Malachor were. It was the home of a species known as the Rakata who'd had the oldest civilization known in galactic history. It was they who'd built the Star Forge that now sat idle near the systems' star, and they who'd built the Temple there. Now it would be the training center for the new Jedi Order. It would also serve as a means of keeping an eye on the Star Forge. If Revan and Malak had found it, so might other Darksiders be drawn to it.

She brought the starfighter down through the night sky until a moonlit ocean appeared below her, and then almost low enough to be skimming the waves. Off in the distance, the darkened shoreline rushed towards her, and above it hung one of the moons, looming large in the sky. The smell of the sea permeated her cockpit. Her sensors had detected a downed Republic warship near the waters edge, and she adjusted her course to come up next to it.

"Master Atris, what is this world?" Daarok said over the comm.

"This is the Rakata home world, once the center of a highly advanced civilization, but eventually brought down by their own insatiable lust for power. It is now sparsely inhabited, the species having reverted to semi-primitive state. You must be on your guard when we land. Certain groups of the Rakata are known to be hostile. Are the both of you armed?"

"Yes, Master."

"Very well. Make for the shoreline then."

It was only a short while later that the two ships were setting down on the beach next to the Republic vessel. Atris could hear the waves splashing against the shore as she crawled down from her starfighter and feel the ocean breeze on her face. The air temperature was only slightly cool, and all around her the sounds of the night beasts came alive as her boots touched the sand.

Daarok's small freighter touched down moments later, and the two padawans appeared walking down the landing ramp. They secured the ship and then joined Atris where she stood, glowrod out. The twin moons cast a faint glow about the beach, but the shadows were thick enough so that they felt compelled to use their own illumination. The glowrods quickly revealed a sandy path beyond a pair of larger rocks. They started up it, with Atris in the lead. It wasn't long before she held up a hand, halting them.

Her senses extended ahead, Atris sensed their presence, six creatures waiting near the path ahead, already alerted to the approaching threat. She activated her lightsaber, glanced back at them to make sure they were ready, and then rushed around a large boulder. The creatures waited there next to an engine from a ship partly buried in the sand, weapons at the ready.

It was her first time seeing these humanoid creatures up close, and the sight of them within the blue glow with their large heads sprouting eyes on the side and their primitive weapons was decidedly eerie. But in them would be the first test for her new padawans. In what must have seemed a blur to the Rakata, she was amongst them slashing with her lightsaber and using Force pushes to keep them off balance. One of them fell immediately to her blade, and three others rushed her, while the last two Rakata made for the padawans. The three attacking her, she toyed with, staying out of range, and slashing through their primitive weapons, but even as she did so, she watched Daarok and Sena in close combat against their attackers.

Their techniques were weak, inefficient against their opponents. The two received their share of minor wounds from the fight even as they slowly managed to disarm their opponents and cut them down. Atris wondered vaguely about their fighting styles, but of course, they had been trained by the Jedi. It had not been so long since she herself had used those styles and nearly struck down because of it. Had she been using them on Korriban against the Sith warrior she would surely be dead now. Still, in their weakness, she saw opportunity to exert her own influence. They would take to the new Jedi training quickly...with some motivation, of course. So engrossed was she with them that Atris almost failed to take note that one of her own attackers had drawn dangerously close with his long bladed weapon. She stepped back, extended a hand toward the three of them and used the Force to draw them through the air towards her. As they looked about helplessly, she hacked the three of them down in midair. Daarok and Sena looked on, ready to assist even as they felt the pain of their wounds. The remaining Rakata dead, they pulled out medkits.

"There is no time for that," Atris told them. "We must reach the Temple before others come."

"But Master, Sena has suffered a deep cut," Daarok protested.

Atris turned to face the woman, who held her side and grimaced. "Sena, you must endure. They will come in greater numbers next time. It is not safe here. We must go on."

"Daarok, I'm okay," Sena said through clenched teeth.

"You're not okay," he said back, his ire quickly evident as he faced Atris. "Master, we must take time to tend to her wound."

It was an emotion that would serve him well, Atris thought to herself. This, the very beginning of their new Jedi training, would determine quickly if they were up to the challenges ahead of them. To coddle them now would to be to do them a great disservice. How to make them understand what would be required of them and the need for such training. That would be the challenge for her. To prepare them for what was to come so that she would not be building pyres for them as she been forced to for the Jedi Council members. The imaged burned brightly in her mind for an instant. "No. We continue on," Atris said, "and you will not question me, Padawan."

"Yes, Master."

With a final glance at Sena, Atris led the way again. The path soon brought them up a small grassy plain ringed by broken sections of a low wall. Here the moonlight was brighter, the moon looming large behind a stone structure in the center of the plain. Around the grassy area were pieces of broken stone, and off in the distance to the left of the structure could be seen some skeletons of large creatures. Atris glanced around only momentarily before leading them up to the structure's entrance from which light emerged. She paused there to extend her senses through the Force briefly beyond the entranceway, then drawing her lightsaber, she motioned for the two padawans to follow. They also drew their weapons and rushed through the entrance behind her.

Inside, four more of the creatures stood to either side of the opening. Two were immediately hacked down by Atris, while the other two were killed by the padawans.

Atris stood looking down at the Rakata, "They were not expecting invaders." Turning to face the entrance, she said, "We must find a way to secure this opening."

Daarok was already looking over Sena's wound. His compassion for the female was obvious. It might be useful, Atris thought. Sena had an ugly gash across her abdomen that would almost certainly leave a scar.

Atris glanced down at them and said, "I am going to secure the rest of the building. Remain here and guard the entrance." She started off down the corridor, lit by burning torches placed in metal stands at regular intervals. An ocean breeze moved down the corridor, which upon turning a corner, Atris saw came from a section which overlooked the sea. Here the wall came to waist height, the sound of waves could be heard splashing against its outer surface. She paused for a moment to feel the breeze on her face.

Just then, she felt them, other beings nearby. There was a loud splash, and out of the water leaped something dark. As it flew through the window, the red blade of a lightsaber appeared. The creature landed in front of her, dropping into a fighting stance. In the flickering torchlight, its features materialized into that of a Selkath, an aquatic species from Manaan. From behind her came another splash and then the tell tale hum of another lightsaber being activated.

Activating her own lightsaber, she threw a quick glance behind her and then ducked underneath the attack that came from that direction. Stepping backward, she managed to maneuver the second Selkath in front of her so that both were in front of  her. Then they came at her, swinging their blades in tandem. She met their attacks with her own blade and then threw the pair backward with a vicious Force push that sent them sliding along the cold stone. Still she was intrigued at their presence here. As they regained their feet, she briefly considered the likelihood of Selkath being on this planet, much less Selkath trained in the Dark side of the Force.

They rushed her again, and she moved amongst them gracefully, fending off their attacks, keeping them off balance as they struggled to maneuver around each other to get to her. As she did so, she studied their techniques, surprised to see modern Sith forms being used. More aggressive than the Jedi forms Daarok and Sena used, albeit slightly clumsy. Trained and yet not complete. Not yet at least.

They came at her again. Focusing on the Force she touched their minds, and their thoughts suddenly became filled with dark premonitions of death and horror. It was a power that Lord Varos had only recently taught her, and she watched the Selkath crumpling to the ground, holding their heads, their bodies quivering. Their lightsabers de-activated and dropped to the ground. Atris put away her own lightsaber and stepped amongst them gathering up theirs. Only when they were disarmed and it was clear they carried no other weapons, did she release them from their temporary madness.

They looked up at her in confusion, and then one of them spoke, "Human, why are you are here?"

"No," she told them, "it is I who will be asking the questions. Tell me how you come to be trained in the ways of the Force."

"We were trained on Manaan by a Sith Master," one of them said.

"And why are you here?"

"He sent us here years ago."

"Why?"

"We do not know. Only that he wanted us to wait for him here, but he never came."

"And he never will," she told them, her gaze drifting out over the moonlit sea as she suddenly remembered something Onasi had told the Council.

Onasi in his briefing to the Council after Revan's betrayal had mentioned she and her crew visiting Manaan and raiding the Sith base there. Apparently no Sith had survived the attack, and the authorities there had briefly detained Revan before letting her go under certain mitigating circumstances. Or perhaps Revan slew them as well. Onasi had remained onboard the Ebon Hawk and did not know for certain the particular details as he stood before the Council. But his input had been enough.

"What do you know of him, human?" the Selkath asked.

Atris turned her attention back to him. "That he was slain by the Dark Lord of the Sith."

"How do you know this?"

"Because I am the last of the Jedi. It is my business to know such things."

At this the two Selkath had a  hurried discussion in their own tongue before finally turning to look back at Atris. "Then there is no further reason for us to remain here," the Selkath said.

"Not unless you wish to finish your training," Atris said.

"We are not Jedi."

"That much is clear. However, you do not yet understand the deeper mysteries of the Force. I can help you strengthen your connection to it."

"That we are able to do for ourselves. Here we have a found a place where we may feel the Dark side more strongly."

Atris' brow furrowed as she considered the Selkath's words. "Where?"

The Selkath's head tilted slightly to the side. "We request the return of our weapons."

"And you will have them back...after you show me," Atris said, a little more forcefully.

The Selkath exchanged glances again and then turned and led her down the corridor. They passed through a series of rooms leading towards the interior of the place. Skeletons wearing dark clothing, broken droids and burnt out lighting fixtures. In places the marks of lightsabers were evident.  There was no mystery what had occurred there.

"The savages can feel the echoes of of this place. They fear it," the Selkath said. They passed through a corridor lined with destroyed turrets on the floor. Rounding a corner, they arrived at a dead end. More pieces of rubble lie strewn about the ground, and leaning against the rear wall was a large stone slab showing burn marks on it. Attached to each corner of the slab were manacles.

That's when Atris felt it. A familiar chill, similar to the one that emanated from Malachor though without the intensity. But this chill drew her into itself, suddenly clouding her senses. She passed a hand in front of her face, but could not see it. Instead, sounds reached her ears put of the greyness, voices and then sound of electrical discharge as if from a great distance away. The clouds became thicker and then slowly began to part, the voices becoming more audible, transforming into those of a male and female, and accompanied by screams.

"Torture? No, dear Bastila, this is but a taste of the Dark side to whet your appetite," said a familiar voice.

And then all became clear. Jedi Knight Bastila Shan lie manacled to the slab, Darth Malak standing next to her. He looked away momentarily in contemplation and then extended a hand out toward her. Force Lightning flashed from his fingertips and washed over her, illiciting fresh screams from her, and this he answered with laughter. The agony was clearly etched on her face, but beyond that Atris sensed something else, something deeper.

This Jedi had touched Revan's mind, and the dark impulses that ran through through the Dark Lord of the Sith had entered into her, tightly contained by the her will. But now, under the concentrated assault of Dark side energy, her will crumbled and the energy was released. Atris could sense the change in her, could feel the chill of the Dark side gathering about her, but more than that...Bastila's consciousness was transformed. Her frustration with the Jedi Council became clear and a deep anger that had lie dormant deep beneath the surface emerged. As it did so, the Dark side was drawn to it, flowing ever more deeply into Bastila, freeing her thoughts so that the purpose of Revan and Malak became clear. Enlightenment came even as the last crackles of Force Lightning swirled about her and then were gone. A flurry of images came to her of the Star Maps, of the Star Forge and of the final moments aboard Revan's flagship when she dared confront the Dark Lord

But even as Atris observed the vision left imprinted there by the echoes in the Force, she felt a different sensation. Bastila's pain she felt as if it were her own, and she felt her own anger rising with it. As Bastila had realized a new potential in herself and within the Force, so also did Atris' last inhibitions slip away. In that moment she had a glimpse of the true depth of the power of the Dark side, just as she had conceptualized in her studies as Archivist for the Jedi Temple. The Force was not something that you allowed to merely guide your actions, it was a tool to be used, and emotion fueled it. It was something Lord Varos had been trying to instill in her for some time, but only now did the words take on meaning.

Strangely the pain did not diminish, but continued on despite the fact that the vision began to fade. She suddnely found herself kneeling on the floor, hands covering her face as one of the Selkath directed Force Lightning at her. At once, she stood, feeling the energy moving across her painfully, and then summoned the Force around her to resist the energy. Extending her palm toward the attacking Selkath, she drew upon the Force more heavily to gather the Force Lightning into a sphere which pulsed before her fingertips, and in a quick motion sent it back at the Selkath. His eyes widened, and as the energy hit him, he emitted a piercing scream. The blast through him backwards to the ground, and then he became very still. Wisps of smoke drifted upward from him.

The other Selkath looked at him wide-eyed and then turned his fearful glance back to Atris, even as he slowly began to back away.

"Your associate had spirit, though he was a coward to attack me while I was distracted. I wonder if you have the courage that he did not," Atris said, reaching into the folds of her robe and throwing his lightsaber to the ground in front of him.

He glanced down at him, hands shaking ever so slightly and then looked back up at her, continuing to back away.

"Pick up the weapon," she said, "or you will surely die." She drew her own lightsaber and activated it.

His eyes flickered between the blue blade, her face and his own weapon.

"Choose now. My patience is exhausted," she said, and with that she lunged at him.

His eyes grew wider still, the shock of it almost overcoming him, but he used the Force to draw his weapon to his hand and met her attack with his red blade.  Witht that simple gesture, his fear diminished and begin to change in to anger.

Good, she thought to herself, now channel your emotions and draw power from them. She launched attack after attack at him, driving him steadily backward down the corridor.

He fended them off with greater skill than that of the other Selkath, his confidence slowly growing. Then he threw a Force Push at her which caught her slightly by surprise and used the slight distraction to launch his own series of attacks. The red and blue blades crackled as they came together again and again. Then she channeled the Force bac at him sending hard to the ground, his lightsaber bouncing out of his hand and down the corridor. He quickly rose to his feet, but Atris had her blade inches from his throat as he did so.

"Very good," she told him. "Do you wish to continue  your training or shall I simply end this now?"

He stood looking at her for a moment and then bowed his head.

With that, she de-activated her lightsaber and hung it under belt. "Very well, let us..."

But she was interrupted just then by Daarok running up. His surprise at seeing a Selkath showed in his expression before he looked back at Atris, clearly agitated. "Master! More Rakata are moving toward the Temple. With them are a pair of small rancors."

"Well then," she said, beginning to walk down the corridor and motioning for the Selkath to follow, "let us go and make clear our resolve here..."