Prologue

The Empire has been gone many years. The Republic of the past has been
resurrected, but it is only a shadow of the Old Republic. It is still
newborn, but it has been tested time and again by the remnants of the once
great Empire, the return of a much younger Emperor Palatine (clones), the
spirits of ancient Sith Lords and alien conquerors. The Jedi Council has
been rebuilt, but is nothing of its former self for the loss of Jedi
knowledge and Old Republic Jedi Knights and Masters, by the hands of Darth
Vader and the Empire.

I was 17 when the Empire fell. I remember it like it was yesterday: the
Rebellion destroying the second Death Star that was orbiting the forest moon
of Endor-the Emperor dying along with it. Many days after, there were
celebrations like there never had been before or ever again. I was living on
Coruscant at the time, a student in the Imperial Academy. When the word went
out through the holonet that Palpatine was dead, everyone who sided with the
Rebellion, I too, began ransacking the Academy-destroying any and all images
of the Emperor.

The much awaited wedding of Jedi Master Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade-once
known as The Emperors Hand, took place a few years ago. The entire known
galaxy witnessed it over the holonet-I thought it was very beautiful.
Everytime I think of that day, I am overwhelmed with a sense of longing and
an emptiness-as if there is some part of myself I never realized was
missing.

Part I

~ Visions ~

All my life I have been having dreams that seem to be memories or visions.
But I know they are not my own. I am always surrounded by dark energies and
I can feel great power surge throughout my body. Sometimes I see myself fly
a strange ship that I know to be called The Infiltrator. Or battle a human
male that is dressed like a Jedi, with shoulderblade length brown hair,
fighting in a desert as I wield a brilliant red bladed lightsabre. Then
sometimes I am in a massive room fighting the long hair Jedi and a second
younger Jedi with short dark blonde hair and a long thin braid from behind
his right ear. But I have had dreams where I am standing beside a mysterious
middle aged man in a hooded black robe. I can feel intense dark energies
surrounding the older man and it seems to somehow make the energies inside
me stronger.

But only recently, I have had dreams of being in a large circular room
with a seemingly endless deep hole in the center of the floor, fighting the
younger Jedi with all the energy I have. I then send him flying
backward-falling into the hole. I move toward the hole and peering down, I
find the young Jedi holding onto an outcropping for dear life. I sweep my
saber's blade against the edge of the hole high above the hanging Jedi,
sending bright fiery sparks raining down on him. I then notice something
happening, but before I know it, I

find the young Jedi launching himself upward out of the pit, over my head. I
turn to find him behind me with another Jedi's sabre in his hands, but
before I could react, the blade of the sabre ignites and I instantly feel my
middle burn with pain I have never felt before. Everytime I instantly wake
with a gasp from that dream, sweat glistening on my naked body, gasping for
breath, and a residual pain still felt running through the middle of my
body.

My dreams frighten me, unable to understand what they are or what they
mean. I have never seen the places or people in my dreams before. I have
even tried to have people who are Force sensitive attempt to find the
meaning in them, but when they enter my mind to search for the answers, they
instantly recoil in terror in what they find. And when I try to ask what
they had seen, they tell me little or nothing at all and I am hastily shown
to the door.

"* I think next time I'll see a Jedi *'" I think with frustration as I
mentally count up the number of people I've seen to try in helping me, and
not work. And just as I think it, I find myself running into someone.

"Oh! I am very sorry! I was a little preoccupied with-I wasn't paying much
attention were I was going." I quickly apologize to the person I had run
into, stepping back to see who or what I had run into. And what I find is a
young human male with short brunette hair and a gentle smile upon his face,
wearing the one of a kind garb of the Jedi. Well, I asked for one and now
I've got one-a Jedi!

"It's alright. No need to apologize." The kinda handsome Jedi returns, his
blue eyes glittering in the Coruscantian sunlight. "So, looking for a Jedi
are you?"

I am filled with disbelief and surprise at hearing him say that. How could
someone hear what I was thinking? Then I remember that Jedi have the ability
to hear and see the thoughts of others. "Uh, yeah, I guess so." Is all I
could say to the man, my mind still a little confused.

"Oh, how rude of me-I forgot to introduce myself! My name is Anakin Solo.
May I ask what is yours?" The young Jedi introduces himself to me with a
gracious bow, a smile still upon his handsome face.

"Sure, my name is Tela'Vex. I am…pleased to make the acquaintance of a
Jedi." I return, embarrassed that I had run smack dab right into a Jedi just
as I was thinking of looking one up. I actually feel kinda stupid as I
realize that he, Anakin, most likely heard what I was thinking.

"Solo? That sounds familiar." I exclaim with surprise and curiosity as I
find that I seem to recognize the young Jedi's last name somehow.

"Oh, my last name. My Mother is Leia Organa Solo and my Father is Han
Solo. That's probably how you recognized my last name." Confused at first,
but quickly realized what I had asked.

"Uh, yeah. Must be. Again, glad to meet ya." I greet the Jedi again, but
feeling really stupid that I had not realized how and why I seemed to
recognize Anakin's last name. "Uh, about looking for a Jedi…well, I was
just considering looking one up for help with my dreams." I find myself
saying before I can stop myself "* Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! *" I think as I
mentally smack my forehead with the palm of my hand-hard.

"What is it that your dreams would send you looking for a Jedi? Maybe I
can help." Anakin questions curiously, as he leads me to a nearby bench and
sitting, I find that I am as closed up as a Correlian clam. I do not what to
tell this Jedi of my dark dreams-ones that I can feel with every sensory
organ of my body. How real and intense they are and how more and more I've
been having them-thus beginning my quest for the meaning of my
dreams-visions-whatever they are.

"I don't know-ya know, I really don't need any help at all, now that I am
thinking about it. I'm sorry Anakin, but I must decline your help-atleast
for now." I return as I stand to my feet and look to the horizon and the
Coruscantian sunset.

"Are you sure Tela'Vex? I could help you sort out your dreams-it's a duty
for a Jedi to help one in need and I just cannot let this go…unless you want
me to. Do you?" Anikan questions with concern and frustration as he too,
stands from the bench and stands beside me to my right. I can feel his eyes
trying to figure me out without the use of the Force.

"Yes, I am quite sure." I turn to the taller Jedi, Anikan and I hold out
my right hand before me, waiting to shake his. "I am pleased to have met you
Anikan Solo and I will think over what you have offered and I if do consider
your help I will contact you. Fair enough?"

"As you wish. I am pleased to have met you aswell Tela'Vex and I hope to
hear from you in the near future." Anikan speaks with hidden frustration as
he takes my hand and shakes it once, trying to force a friendlier smile upon
his face.

"I will." And with a nod, I turn and head in the direction I had been
heading before I bumped into the Jedi, Anikan Solo-son of Liea Organa Solo
and Han Solo.

I make my way back to my quarters, thinking about my encounter with the
Jedi and what he said he could do for me. But I don't really trust Jedi for
some strange reason-maybe it's because in one of my dreams I'm "killed" by
one. I just don't know or understand what has been happening to me
lately-and it terrifies me!

As I walk along a dimly lit passageway alone, I am suddenly overwhelmed by
dark energies and falling against the wall beside me, my open eyes see a
strange glow about me, coming from something in the wall that has just
appeared before me. I see pulsing lights and a lit keypad along the wall
along side a small window in the wall-and a dim ethereal green light
emanates from inside it. Cautiously, I move toward the wall and inspecting
the keypad and lights, I discover them to be part of some sort of stasis
chamber-but what is inside it? I want to know what is inside, but I am
filled with a sense of danger and foreboding that I cannot understand.
Placing my hands upon the outer wall of the strange stasis chamber to steady
myself, I stand up on my tipi-toes and peering through the window into the
hazy green murkiness inside, I can make out what could only be a humanoid
male figure floating inside because of it's masculine frame and musculature.
Then suddenly I gasp aloud with fear as I find intense golden yellow irises
encircled in red-of the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen, staring at
me-and I can feel them look straight through me, right to my very being.

"* The time of Darth Maul's return is nigh. *" I hear a dark, sultry
silken male voice in my mind-it could only be him inside the stasis chamber.
And just as suddenly as the waking vision came over me, it suddenly vanishes
and I find myself still in the passageway, alone, utterly confused and
filled with fear-but I still feel the dark energies surrounding me, touching
me with the slightest of caresses, swirling about me as I hear it call to me
with the voices of the ancients. I have heard its call all my life and I
have always thought it just my imagination or that I'm just going insane.
But I know that I am NOT insane-actually, I am quite sane, if I were not
Anakin would have sensed it immediately of me.

With a loud sigh of frustration, rubbing my hands over my face, I lean
back against the wall again and tears begin to slip from my eyes. I let it
all out and my wails echo along the long, narrow passageway. "And now I'm
having waking dreams."

After three long hours, I am home. Sitting upon the black overstuffed
couch in the livingroom, I begin to write about my experience with my waking
dream, what I saw and felt and the man inside the stasis chamber and what I
had heard in my mind. I have been keeping record of everything pertaining to
my dreams and now waking dreams aswell, ever since the first one I
experienced at the age of fifteen-my entrance into womanhood. 

When I am finished, I go into the kitchen and make myself a plate of fruit
and salad, and returning to my seat, I activate the holoscreen. The local
news is on-New Republic News, and the human female is taking about the
anniversary of the Battle of Naboo, where the Jedi and young Queen Amidala
saved her planet from the corrupted Trade Federation. In remembrance,
Princess Leia Organa and Luke Skywalker have planned a memorial for their
mother and her home planet Naboo. Then I hear about the fragmented Imperial
Fleet is stirring up trouble in the outer rim systems. "* When don't they!
*" I think as I flip the channel to a holo-movie channel and I find a very
inticing and interesting adult flick about a Jedi showing up on a strange
and very primitive planet called Earth, which is inhabited only by humans
(excluding the wildlife) and he finds himself befriending a beautiful red
haired woman while on the run from the United States Government. And then
they have there little hot and steamy moment together while hiding in an
abandoned building.

"Who thinks of this stuff?" I exclaim aloud, finding the holofilm a little
cheesy-except for the sex scenes. But I watch it anyway; it's something to
keep my mind off what took place only a few hours ago. And as the film ends
an hour later, I feel myself beginning to fall asleep. I let it happen.

~ Dream sequence…

Entering an underground facility that seems to have not been used in
centuries, I begin to wander about, and looking at all the strange looking
technology sitting about, dusty, cobwebbed spherical black probe droids of
some kind, I suddenly feel myself being pulled toward a dark corridor.
Following the corridor, I find it leads me to a massive underground landing
bay and sitting in the center of the bay is a beautiful, sleek black ship
that almost like an Imperial tie-fighter or tie-interceptor. I run my hands
along the black surface of the ship and I realize that it has stealth
capabilities. How odd though, that the ship sits here as if abandoned, yet I
am drawn to it for some unknown reason. Suddenly I hear the hiss of released
pressurized air and before me a pair large circular doors begin to part,
revealing total blackness beyond. Then a walkramp descends to the floor to
my feet as I quickly step back, out of its way. I am filled with curiosity
and the urge to enter as I cautiously walk up the ramp toward the open
doorway of the magnificent ship that I somehow know is called The Sith
Infiltrator. The ancient and evil Sith Order of the old Republic and the
Empire. I remember hearing once Darth Vader calling himself a Dark Lord of
Sith. Could this ship once belong to Vader? No, I don't think so. It looks
as though it has been here since the fall of the Old Republic and I have
never seen a ship of such a design before as the Infiltrator.

Taking a hand light from my pack, I turn it on and entering the ship, I
find the inside immaculately clean and very sparse of personal effects.
There is a small table and two seats against one wall, an area with some
type of training equipment, a single bed along another wall, inset
compartments on the curved walls, and cabinets, a small kitchen area, and
along one wall, I catch sight of flashing lights and a lit keypad along the
left side of a window with ethereal green light showing through it. A stasis
chamber within the wall. Sensing that there is something inside I must
discover, I move toward the wall containing the stasis chamber. Inspecting
its workings, I find whatever or whoever is inside is very much alive and in
stasis sleep.

But as I am just about to look through the window, I suddenly wake with a
gasp. "Wow! I have never had that dream before! How do I know the name of
the ship in the underground landing bay and how do I know that everything is
very real?" I exclaim aloud as I sit up in the couch, rubbing the sleep from
my eyes. With a yawn, I realize the holoscreen was left on as I hear the
sounds of blaster fire and shouts of orders come through the speakers. "I
hate it when I do that!" I retort angrily, deactivate the holoscreen as I
stand from the couch.

Stretching my limbs with a moan, yawning myself awake, I enter my sleeping
chambers and begin to remove my clothing. Tonight, I planned to go out and
have fun with a few of my friends at the local clubs. And a half an hour
later, I step out of the refresher, dressed to kill in a skintight metallic
silvery-black full bodysuit, matching thigh-high stiletto heeled boots, a
golden chain hip-belt, and my hair up in a thick tail upon the back of my
head, and my face colored. With my black leather jacket and wallet, I leave
for Club Terra-the newest and hottest club on Coruscant.

But I do not get there as I had planned, for as I walk along the sidewalk,
only a short distance away from the club, I am again overwhelmed by dark
energies and slipping into the nearby alleyway I had seen just moments
before, I lean against the wall as I let the unsettling waking dream over
take me.

I suddenly find myself standing behind a man dressed in an ankle length
black robe, its hood upon the wearer's head, his broad, muscular back turned
toward me, looking out over the city of Coruscant from the terrace outside.
I am filled with pride, happiness and love for this man, but I know not who
he is. As I near him, I can feel the cool night air upon my naked skin,
holding a satin black sheet across my chest. The moon is full and showing
brightly in the night sky. I move to his right side, looking at the
magnificent full moon as I place my left hand upon the railing before me. I
do not fear the man I stand beside-I know he would never harm me
consciously, for he feels the same about me as I do him-but he is unable
show it in return. He does not have to.

"I have been waiting for you, little one. It is time for your journey to
begin." I hear him speak to me with the most dark, sultry, silky voice I
have ever heard speak from behind the black hood to me.

"Yes, I know my Lord. I am prepared." I hear myself return, not turning my
eyes from the brilliant light of the moon, my love for him growing by leaps
and bounds with every moment I stand at his side.

"The journey will be hard and filled with danger. But I have great faith
in you, my dearest." The man I love adds, feeling him place a single
leathered fingertip upon my hand, running it gently, sensually against my
skin.

"I understand. I will not fail you-not again." I answer, finally turning
my eyes toward the hood of the slightly taller man at my left. And I
instantly hear myself gasp with fright as I find myself looking upon a most
handsome male face covered entirely in red and black designs-tattooing, eyes
that glow golden yellow and red, and a soft grin upon his lips, revealing a
single dimple on each cheek.

"I know you will not, my dearest Tela'Vex." Then my sight returns. I can
feel my heart thrumming in my chest and my ears, my breath caught in my
throat, leaving my lungs burning for oxygen. I can feel myself tremble
uncontrollably as the image of the man's face is burned into my mind for all
eternity. And I can feel my womanly insides ache with need for the man I had
just envisioned. I feel as though I am about to collapse where I stand, but
the urge to move pulls me from within the shadows of the alleyway and into
the crowded sidewalk.

I hastily call upon a transport and jumping in, I request the driver to
take me to my address. As soon as I get home, I quickly begin to pack my
things-I am setting off in the journey of my vision. I want to know who the
man of my sleeping and waking dreams is, why he wants me to take this
journey we had so slightly talked of in my newest of visions. I want to know
why he has chosen me, why I know so many things I did not know I had
knowledge of before and why I love him and my body ache for him so intensely
as it does.

My things packed, my clothes changed, I set out to catch an offworld
transport. With my entire credit account cleaned out-about 3 million
Republic daktaries, I catch a first class transport headed for Malestaar.