Prologue.

62 4 0
                                    

Finally he arrived on the planet Malachor. The Eighth brother's mission was simple. Track and hunt down the shadow known as Maul. He was honored that the Grand inquisitor had assigned him this task. Out of all the inquisitors he and the Grand inquisitor were on fair terms. When the Eighth brother heard about his supposed death, he decided he would honor his last command. As he did with his previous master's.

The Eighth brother was close now. Through the force he could sense the Shadow's presence. This had made tracking down force users much easier. He admitted the Shadow could conceal his force energy extremely well, but so could he. The Eighth brother had the ability to conceal his life force, so much so that other force users such as Jedi would think he was dead. It's how he stayed alive all this time.

As he landed his TIE Advance V1 on the inner layer of the planet he saw a sea of Sith, and Jedi frozen in stone. "A terrible yet silent scenery. Perfect for a shadow to take refuge in." The Eighth brother spoke quietly. He climbed out of his ship then jumped down to the ground. A cloud of dust and ash lifted as he landed. He began walking towards the large monolithic temple. As he investigated the statues, he noticed that while many were raising their arms up to defend from a blast, many of them were still locked in combat with another.

This place had once seen a massive battle. Taking a closer look at the statues the Eighth brother saw they were covered in a thick coat of soot. Similar to what corpses look like after a pyroclastic flow. This planet must have been volcanic at some point. If that's the case then even if it's dormant now. There's a chance a volcano somewhere on the planet could erupt. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but you can never trust any volcano to stay dormant forever.

The Eighth brother shook his head. He needed to focus on the task at hand. Right now he was detecting an individual life force. It was faint but it was there, and moving away from his position. The Eighth brother felt a small bit of excitement, and the hunt for the Shadow began. "Where are you Shadow?" He hummed quietly. He decided the temple was a good place to start his search. He ignited his red double lightsaber, and it began to spin on its axis rapidly.

Using some force energy to surround the blades he lifted off the ground. He glided over the sea of dead statues, and then landed on the first level of the Sith temple. The temple itself appeared to be made of a polished black stone. It was pyramidal in shape. The Eight brother came upon a strange, and heavy stone door. However he knew he wouldn't be able to open it; not by himself at least. After all it was the way of the Sith. The rule of two. No more, no less.

A triangular hole was in the wall to his left. He inspected it and realized it was a Sith holocron keyhole. That's probably what this temple was guarding. "Well today's my lucky day." The Eighth brother mused. By retrieving this holocron, and exterminating the Shadow he would climb to a higher rank. Right now within the inquisitors there was a power grab. While he did honor, and respect the previous Grand Inquisitor's teachings, he also wanted to become the next Grand Inquisitor.

Not just for power, and not just for the title. There was someone up in the chain of command that he absolutely abhors. The Eighth brother knew he couldn't defeat him on his own. He tried once, it didn't work, and he failed horribly. As the next Grand Inquisitor he would train the next generation of inquisitors. Then he would strike against the one who had taken everything from him.

For now he would bide his time, and continue to focus on finding the Shadow. There's a good chance that he already has the holocron in his possession. That will make things easier. He would exterminate the Shadow then take the holocron from his cold dead hands. It took a while to search all available areas of the temple. He couldn't pick up on any force energy. Not from the single individual anymore, although plenty of energy from the temple.

The dark energy from the temple was probably interfering with his senses, so the Eight brother thought it would be best to return to the temple's base. As he walked pass many statues he discovered many fissures in the ground. They were miles long and very deep. Some were wide enough to jump down through, but he didn't dare. Who knows how deep they were or if there was anything below.

Speaking of anything below the Eighth brother was actually detecting the Shadow's life force in one of the fissures. Apparently there is a way to get down there, but how? While he was debating on whether or not he should jump down and how, he began to detect another presence. This one had a much larger force energy. They probably didn't know how to conceal their life force at least as much as he could.

"How strange." He thought to himself. The energy was emitting from the crater's surface. Bad move on their part, because the relatively thin layer of frozen carbonite could give way at any moment. What were they doing here? Surely they couldn't also be going after the Shadow. The Eighth brother wouldn't allow them to steal his prey. He was so close to fulfilling the Grand Inquisitor's last command.

The life energy had come to a halt on one particular spot. There was a spire that pierced through the frozen layer of carbonite, and red vien-like etchings began to glow all over it. Then the carbonite surface began to crack, and from where the Eighth brother stood he saw three figures fall through the opening. He stayed within the darkness to avoid being spotted by the three for now.

Right now he wanted to figure out why they were here. From what he gathered two of them were male, and both human. The only female was a Togruta. One of the humans had blue hair and looked the youngest. The other a middle aged man with a ridiculous pony tail. Thankfully with his ability he could follow them undetected. "I bet whatever we're looking for is inside that temple." Said the blue haired boy.

"Seems likely. Just remember if there's a ship, we're not alone down here." The older man spoke next.

"Ahsoka, you said we're here to find knowledge. What kind of knowledge?" The blue haired boy asked the Togruta.

"The forbidden kind. To defeat your enemy, you have to understand them." The Togruta known as Ahsoka answered. This Ahsoka appears to know a lot about the Sith. The Eighth brother would have to watch her closely.

"No better place to learn about the Sith, I guess." The older man replied. The trio continued walking towards the temple. Not knowing that the Eighth brother was close behind. He paused, and hid within the shadows of the statues when he thought the boy picked up on his energy. He then quickly hurried ahead of them to prepare an ambush.

The trio halted when they came upon a different set of statues, and inspected the scene. "The ground looks scorched." The blue haired boy spoke. "Whoa Kanan! Look a lightsaber, and another!" He said as he went over to pick one up. When he ignited it, it was green, and had a cross guard. The saber short-circuited and extinquished itself.

"This was a battle field." The older man presumed to be Kanan told them.

"What happened here?" The blue haired boy wondered.

"It looks like at one time, thousands of years ago; Jedi knights attack the temple." Ahsoka explained.

"And, the Jedi won. Right?" The boy who's name was yet to be revealed to the Eighth brother asked again.

"From what I can tell, nobody won." Ahsoka replied.

"I hate to break up this history lesson, but we should keep moving." Kanan instructed them. It was clear now that these travelers knew too much about this place to be a coincidence. The Eighth brother would have to dispose of them quickly.

"Well if you ask me, this whole planet is a riddle." The boy told them.

"So if it's a riddle, what's the question?" Kanan asked the boy.

"Why is Kanan such a- AAHHH GET DOWN!" The boy shouted as he heard, and saw red spinning blades ignite.

Heyah Wattpadians! This is my first fanfic/au of Star Wars. I'm also trying to improve my writing style. Yes I've recently watched Rebels and season two finale is such a tear jerker. :'( (Yes I know there's much sadder scenes further in the show.) I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks the Eighth brother deserved more screen time right? So this is why I'm writing this. To give him a story we never got to see. Let me know how this goes, and once again let me know of any grammar, writing, and scenes I can improve. ;)

Brother Gray.Where stories live. Discover now