The sound of water dripping echo’s in the room, Althea stands before four large crystals of varying colours, each different to each other. She looks over a green crystal, large in the pillar of four as she goes to speak.
“This is where it all started you know? Duskhaven… us… the road that eventually leads to your death. It’s where I first saw you, before I met you… it’s where I saw you die before I met you… It’s also where I first talked to your Padawan Zhetta… though we didn’t know it.”
Althea places her hand upon the large blue crystal, looking at it’s beauty in sorrow as she continues to talk to herself.
“You know her and I bonded really well Verrac? I used to sit and listen to her… advise her as best I could. She was so fiery yet so delicate. Zhetta thought the world of you Verrac… yet that was also leading her down a dark path… one you never addressed… one she fell down because it never was… it is why I was so angry at you. Things would have been difference if you just… If you weren’t so vain about it.”
Upon the reflection of herself on the crystal she see’s something behind her in the distance. It watches her carefully until she makes eye contact with it through the reflection. It scatters off once they do.
“This is also where Acaadi first talked me into what I did… so many promises, yet I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I should have looked into it more… I should have done more… but it seems I was tricked yet again. He never wanted to help me, or maybe he did in his own twisted way. He was the one who devised the ban you know? I just followed through with it because Revan ordered it so. Atleast that’s what I was told, he could have been lying about that too… but I doubt it. The way he talked about Revan, it wouldn’t have added up to base your motivations about someone so strongly if it wasn’t true on some level. But how much is true then?”
She begins to walk around the large crystals in the room, thinking back on all the times she’s talked to Acaadi. His voice coming back to her in pieces.
“… Lord Revan has given you a task…”
“… Revan has granted me a great deal of resources for this task…”
“… We returned from beyond the outer rim to ready the galaxy for what we found…”
“… There are few sites like these in the galaxy, Revan has a great interest in the one here…”
She stops before the large purple crystal as that thought goes through her mind.
“What does Revan want with the Nexus here… what does he want with the other Force Nexus’s in the galaxy? Where does Acaadi fit into this? I know they wanted me to protect it but from whom… That part I guess is more apart I suppose, to protect it from Acaadi now, but just who were they expecting before if their plan was to remove everyone from the planet? What does it matter I suppose though… who would believe some girl that Revan has returned. Would you have Verrac? You never seemed to believe me on other matters, not even your own death…”
She almost reaches out for the purple crystal but stops herself, eyeing that figure before in the background. It had moved closer since last she looked, that black thing in the background. As before it scuttled off as she saw it.
“Still I wonder if Reven even is truly back… He has yet to show himself to the galaxy yet his followers claim to be preparing for a coming conflict from beyond the outer rim. That doesn’t seem true though… not all of it atleast. Maybe there is a threat out there we don’t know about, why hide the details away then? Why isn’t he working with the republic to do so? Why do they hate the jed-”
She stops herself as she talks, looking out for that beast she keeps seeing.
“I know why they hate the jedi… I was wrapped up in that hate once myself, I know it well. Maybe… it explains some of Acaadi’s actions. From his knowledge of the sith… their ways and their abilities… maybe he studied them? He informed me so much on their empire here… On who ruled it and what happened to the two lords on Viscara, there’s no way he happened to that by chance. But does that make him one too? It could explain his actions, his hate… Then why did he cast me aside? What did I say no to?”
Althea things hard on what she had forgotten but a white noise overtakes her mind, blanking it almost to what she was doing from the pain of trying to remember.
“Argh… I just… I don’t remember. But, maybe I don’t need to. Saying it aloud has pointed some things out… and possibilities… If Acaadi is a sith where did he learn from? If he followed Revan beyond the outer rim does that mean Revan knew? Does that mean… Revan is one too…? Strong claims Althea from one who can’t even prove he is back… but maybe I can. I knew enough of Acaadi’s plans that it goes off Viscara… I know enough that this wasn’t the only planet he sought. How many more planets have a strong Nexus in the Galaxy? Surely I can start there… surely I can stop him at least. Maybe then you can stop calling me a traitor Verrac. Maybe then you can finally stop putting me down…”
She stops for awhile as she looks back up at the crystal. Looking back, almost breathing down her back is a large black beast with red eyes. It has a vicious look with a devilish grin but as Althea looks behind her, there is nothing there. She is yet again, alone.