Star Wars : The New Sith Crisis

The Prophecy pt. 2

Now the moment Nathan's been waiting for.........Will have to wait unless you click continue

Sec'rannce Tann looked at the words, partially but not fully comphrending their meaning. Part of it,. she felt, refered to her. To date, she was the only Sith Lord she knew of that carried a yellow lightsaber, and the only shade out of the past to return in fully physical form. The rest, however, was puzzling. As she sat by the stone, pondering the meaning of this strange inscritption, she heard voices. And footsteps. She detected the jedi she had seen on the shuttle earlier coming up the passageway. Not wanting to fight in this room, she looked around for a hiding place. Or an exit. At first, she saw neither. Then, she noticed that one of the four statues of Palpatine in the room seemed different. tapping it, she discovered it was empty. She saw a knot in the stone and pushed it. The back of the statue sswung open noiselessly and she jumped in. Using the force, she touched the knot and the statue returned to normal. Not a moment to soon. Luke Skywalker strode into the room, with Mara Jade and Eoghan following him.

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"Do you feel it, Mara?" Luke asked as they entered the strange room. He could almost feel the force leading him to this very room.
"What?" Mara replied. "The darkness of Palpatine, or the feeling of the force leading us here?"
"I only feel darkness." Eoghan said, "What feeling, Master Skywalker?"
"The feeling of the force leading us here. To this planet. To this room." Luke spoke. "I think there's something here that we need to find. Something important."
"Maybe like that rock over there?" Eoghan asked. "It has a weird feeling about it. I think there's something written on it."
"Your right, Eoghan!" Luke exclaimed. "I see writing. It's written in the Sith language."
"It's a strange inscription. From the top down it says, 'The Words of Palpatine, Emperor of the Galaxy: When shades of warriors past arise. nine and one is seven. The blazing eyes of victory. Nine and one is seven. The yellow blade, the cunning plan. Nine and one is seven. The lightning burst, the artist's brush. Nine and one is seven. Then will come the fall of the rebellion. Nine an done is seven.'" Mara read the writing on the stone.
"That's weird, it sounds like a bunch of nonsense." Eoghan said abruptly, breaking the spell of the words instantly. "The force surely didn't lead us here for this?"
"Shush, young one!" Mara snapped, his words breaking her concentration. "Let's think about this, line by line. When shades of warriors past arise. That means somoene will come back from the dead, I guess."
"Woa, back from the dead!" Eoghan said. "That's impossible. Isn't it?"
"Well, a jedi could concievably leave his body before death, and, if the physical injuries are not quite fatal and are repaired, return to it. But it seems so implausible, and no one has ever done it before, its almost impossible." Luke answered.
"But it seems to indicate that, yes, it will happen." Mara interjected. "The question is, who?"
"I have no idea, before there has never been someone like this, I'm not sure about now." Luke spoke slowly, thinking through his memories for some clue to this puzzle.

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Hidden in the statue, Sev'rannce Tann heard every word. Unlike the others, she knew exactly who the one to rise from the dead was. Her. She was the 'shades of warriors past' to arise. she listened in to see if the jedi had any other useful information about Palpatine's puzzler. They have one piece of the puzzle, I have the rest. Once I hear theirs, I will be set. She listened intently as the jedi puzzled over the mysterious writing.

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"Well, lets go on to the next line," Mara said after they stood thinking for nearly half an hour. "Nine and One is Seven."
"Now I know Palpatine was crazy. Everyone knows that nine and one is ten" Eoghan answered. "I mean, even if he was talking about nine then one it would be ninety-one. Makes no sense at all."
"Well, it has to mean something," Mara snappd. She was getting impatient with Eoghan continually dismissing everything as nonesense or impossible. Then again, if someone had told me two years ago that the empire would dig up a Sith Lord and come after us and that one measly little vong-thing and a fewe droids would kick us out of the jedi temple, I'd have said they were crazya nd this was impossible as well. Still, this prophecy ahs some important meaning, but what?
"Maybe," Luke thought out loud, "Nine and One is Seven is more symbolic, something means nine, something else means one, and something else is seven."
"So the nine thing and the one thing combine to make the seven thing" Eoghan cried out excitedly.
"Right" Mara sounded doubtful, "So now all we have to do is find out what nine and one are and see how to make the seven."
"Well, it's better than we had before." Eoghan said crossly. This was beginning to wear on all of their nerves.
"Why don't we ignore the 'Nine and One is Seven' part and just concentrate on the description of the warrior who arises." Luke suggested.
"Okay." For once Mara and Eoghan agreed.
"The blazing eyes of victory." Luke read from the stone.
"Apparently this person will have blazing eyes." Eoghan said thoughfully.
"And they will have alot of victor---" Mara trailed off as a thought struck her. "Luke, what if the person is Chiss? They have blazing eyes. Do you know where Sev'rannce Tann came from?"
"I know she attacked Kyp, Jarlath, and Ari on Krant, and late fought you and Jaina." Luke replied, confused at the question.
"How did Kyp say she came to them?" Mara persisted.
"Well," Luke answered, "I think he said at night, right after Ari dissappeared."
"And how did Ari say she found Tann?" Mara continued.
The truth hit Luke like a thunderbolt
"She said," he began slowly, "that a dark thing scared her into pushing a button and then a weird blue lady cam e unfrozen and knocked her over."
"Exactly!" Mara exclaimed. "Sev'rannce Tann is the shades of warriors past. The other descriptions are all about her. She is Sith, that's the lightning, she has a yellow lightsaber, she is very cunning in her plans, and who knows, maybe she's an artist."
"So Palpatine was predicting her rise and the fall of the rebellion, which became the New Republic which became the Federation." Luke concluded.
"There's only one thing thats bothering me," Eoghan said, "It says warriors past, not warrior past. That means plural, more tha one."
"My goodness, he's on to something!!" Luke cried. "Think, Mara, any other possible risen Chiss wa-----" He stopped as another thought hit him. A thought so terrible it didn't even bear thinking about. Mara knew immediately what he meant. "If they joiun forces--" Luke began.
"It will be the end of the Federation. " Mara finished his sentence.

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They hadn't meant to, Tann thought, but with their position, the unspoken rest of that mental exchange had gone right by her. And she had understood every word. Furthermore, Nine and One is Seven now made perfect sense to her. Never mind SLintronius, as soon as she could, she had some diplomatic negotiations to begin. And a brilliant tactician to win to her side.

**********More to Follow*****************

Posted by Jarlath Cadman at September 2, 2004 11:06 PM