The Crusade {closed}

[Grawn]

(PM before entering m8)


The bustling Undercity of Coruscant was lively with activity today, humanoids of all species walked the streets and the constant sounds of speeders filled the air, threatening to overtake your senses. Grawn walked down the street, melding into the crowd well as he did. His yellow eyes scanned the area as he travelled, hidden underneath his cloak hood.

Coruscant was the perfect staging area for his mission. He could think of no other planet, save Nar Shadda, that was as rife with crime then the undercity of the very planet the Jedi Temple called its home. Grawn smirked slightly as he continued his way down the street with the crowd. He would of picked Nar Shadda, but catching the notice of the Jedi made Coruscant the better choice.

He wanted them to know that true justice was to begin in the galaxy. No meditation, no passiveness. Grawn would begin his "crusade" on this very planet. As an added bonus, the planet was so filled with life that detecting a single person would prove difficult, so it was a sort of camoflauge as well. He had no doubt the Jedi would send someone to investigate once he began, so it was perfect.

Grawn turned a left into an dark alley, walking down it calmly. Through the Force he could sense several beings hidden in the shadows, well, hidden to anyone that was trained in the Force anyways. He continued to walk down, sensing their anxiety and their malice, awaiting the moment for them to gang up and mug the latest supposed "victim". The Dark Jedi only chuckled to himself silently as they began to come from the shadows, one wielding a vibrodagger in its hand as it crept behind him. " You wouldnt wish to hurt me, now would you? ", he asked suddenly, stopping and causing the thugs to back up a bit. " Give us your credits and we'll spare you lives. ", said a Human. He was dressed in rags and some leather.

More humanoids appeared behind the Human wielding the vibrodagger, each wielding weapons similar to it and if Grawn could sense right, even a gaffi stick used by Tusken Raiders. The Dark Jedi turned to the men, putting his hand to his lightsaber and sighing slightly. It baffled him sometimes the audacity of some people, but thats why he was here. To eliminate those who would cause the universe to erupt to chaos. " No, i dont think i will. ", he replied calmly, pulling back the hood of his cloak to let his black hair feel the air and for his yellow eyes to lock onto the lead thugs eyes.

He sensed the fear in the Human, which made him chuckle and just before the human struck, Grawns lightsaber came to his hand and ignited, the red glow illiumanting the dark alley and proceeded to cleave the human in half with it. As the torso fell to the ground, the crowd behind the now dead thug paniced and began to turn.

But Grawn would have none of that.

Bending the Force to his will, he sent a surge of lightning at the fleeing thugs, catching them all in the back. There bodies convulsed violently as they flew to the ground, it was clear they were to die within minutes from it but Grawn wouldnt finish them off. He would let them feel pain. He watched them die, feeling there life force slowly drain away as their bodies couldnt handle the electrical overload. It was the cost of crime, to feel pain, and for him to deal it.

Putting his saber away, he continued to walk down the alley. He would leave the bodies for someone to discover, which is what he wanted. Eventually a scared individual would flee to the safety of the authorities and once that had happened, sooner or later the Jedi would be called in. He exited the alley, his lightsaber safely clipped to his belt and as he did, he masked his presense with the Force. If anyone had seen him commit the act, they would lose track of him, he didnt wish for the fun to stop QUITE yet.

He chuckled as he melded into the crowd once again.

[Dire Wolf]

--------------
One Month Later
--------------

Ryn felt strange, he felt an odd mixture of; anxiousness, excitement, fear, and determination as he stepped off of the public transport. Ryn had been sent on a mission after a copious amount of seemingly connected killings over a few weeks caught serious attention by the authorities. After beeing stumped for a good month, the Coruscanti authorities asked the Jedi order to send help and they, in turn, sent a young Jedi knight by the name of Ryn Sundar on his very first mission as a knight.

Ryn attempted to search for the person who commited these crimes, but found it impossible to even find the presence of the great Master Vreem Took, let alone that of a sadistic serial killer. . . . there was simply too much life on the planet. Ryn turned to a somewhat intimidated police officer. "Can you take me to the scene of the original crime, officer?" The young man looked back at the Jedi Knight "Y-yes Master Jedi, follow me" the man turned and led Ryn to a speeder and within minutes they were airborne.

One silent car ride and a half-an-hour later the two reached their destination, a menacing looking alley, but of course all alleys in the slums of Coruscant look menacing. Almost instantly Sundar could feel the darkness, it drew all of his attention, much like a young child's cracked closet door in the middle of the night. Ryn walked about halfway through, observing the blackened duracrete tiles.

Suddenly the young knight stopped and went into a squat, running his hands accross one particularly black peice of duracrete. Ryn looked back at the officer and said "It is worse then we thought, officer. A Dark Jedi is behind the killings."

Before the police officer could respond Ryn spoke again "Please, could you wait for me back at the speeder, I must meditate here. . . . alone." Without a word the man turned and walked back out of the alley. Ryn could instantly feel all of the fear and anxiety intensify as the man turned out of sight, but the Young Knight pushed those feelings to the back of his mind. It was definatly a dark place, darker and far more evil than the other back alleys of Coruscant.

Sundar slowly sat down crosslegged and expanded his awareness, he could feel all of the people around him. He could almost hear whispers of the collective thoughts from billions of people who hurried along their rushed lives, and it was deafining. He attempted to push that to the back of his mind as well, he only focused on what was, what is, and what has not yet come to pass.

He meditated in the same position for hours on end until he saw a image and a vision. The image was of an evil man with his arms raised and lightning arcing out of his fingertips twords a group of equally evil looking men, killing them. Then Ryn saw another menacing alley, Ryn could see all details, including the street identification code.

This alley had two men standing on opposite ends. The first was wearing the traditional Jedi Robes, 3 terrified looking men were cowering behind him. The other had his lightsaber ignited, the crimson hue cast an ominous glow across his angry, hateful face.

Ryn instantly shot up and ran back to the speeder. "Officer, can you find alley #17akb257?" The officer instantly nodded and typed something into a GPS system, within seconds the computer beeped and the officer looked back at Ryn "I found it! it is not far from here!" The man said, sounding extrememly exstatic. Within 5 minutes the speeder touched down and the two got out of the vehicle.

Ryn instantly looked at the man "You should stay back, I sense a fight with a Dark Sider." without a peep the man sat back into the vehicle and spoke uneasily "Be my guest." Ryn rolled his eyes and nodded, go figure. He set out looking for they alley, it did not take long to find. As he set down the alley, he found nothing, suddenly he heard a voice behind him. "Gimmie all of your credits and I might let you live."

Before Sundar could respond he heard a lightsaber ignite, he turned around to see the cloaked figure from his vision. "STOP!" he yelled as he pulled the blaster pistols from each man's hand with one powerful pull of the Force. The 3 cowered as Ryn put himself between the men and the Dark Jedi.

Sundar looked at the Dark Jedi "Come with me and the Jedi Council can redeem you" he paused, letting his words sink in "It is not to late." he knew that the man would not take him up on his offer, but he had to try.

[Grawn]

He was disappointed. Greatly disappointed.

Grawn had spent over a month in the slums of Coruscant, killing thugs here, slaying criminals there. The corpses had been left in their places, at least one each bareing a dismembered limb to make it completely obvious to any being with a brain cell that it was no normal individual going around killing these people. Only a lightsaber could promote such easy dismemberment of limbs in that fashion. Until now, the Jedi were no were to be found, though Grawn did enjoy watching the puzzled faces of the crime investigators in the aftermath of his attacks.

He had sensed a user of the Force within the mass of life in the slums of Coruscant and waited, watching the person, a young looking male in traditonal Jedi garb. Now he stood before him, protecting 3 thugs that had even dared to try and rob the Jedi himself! Protecting beings that had wished him harm, it baffled Grawn. They both stood in the darkened alley, not far from his first assault if he recalled, his lightsaber ignited and he watched as the Jedi stood between Grawn and his prey.

He listened to the Jedi as he offered redemption. If Grawn had cared to, he would have laughed. Instead, he stood stern with his lightsaber humming. "Your obstructing justice, Jedi", he informed darkly, gripping his lightsaber. "If you wish to protect these scum, then i will consider you no better then them. Your reign of incompetent protection of the galaxy ends now and in your place i will stand. No longer will the innocent have to suffer for your lack of decisiveness. I will offer you this only chance, stand aside or die."

He narrowed his yellows from under his cloak hood as he awaited the Jedi's reply.

[Dire Wolf]

"Well, it was worth a try" Ryn thought as the Dark Jedi almost laughed at his offer.

Ryn looked back at the cowering thugs, he would have told them to leave, but the alley was a dead end. "Incompetant protection?" Ryn asked "What do you expect of us? The few knights and masters that are still with us cannot protect every being in the galaxy, nor can you." Ryn said. Even though his lightsaber still hung at his belt he began to formulate a battle plan. It was very unlikely that the Dark Jedi has seen a double bladed lightsaber before: they were rare among the ranks of the dark jedi. . . . even rarer amongst the Jedi.

He would fight with one end of his lightsaber, it would give him the element of surprise when he did decide to use both ends, and besides: he was much better with one blade at this point. Ryn looked down and shook his head. "I can see that you do not want to be redeemed, nor can you at this point." Ryn was not lying, one cannot turn from the dark side against their wish.

Without another word Ryn unclipped his lightsaber and ignited one end. An aqua hue lit up the Jedi Knight's face and his simple robes, he instantly dropped into an unorthadox stance that looked like a hodgepodge between Juyo and Soresu. "All life is sacred, I cannot stand by while you slaughter these men. . . . I just cannot." Ryn looked up at the Dark Jedi his heavy Corulag/Coruscanti (British) accent came through as he stoically spoke to the Dark Jedi.

He waited for he man's assault.

[Grawn]

Grawn raised his eyebrow as the Jedi pulled out a rather long hilted lightsaber and ignited it, the blue line of plasma springing to life. It was a unusual length, but the Dark Jedi swatted the thought aside as he went into a Shien stance, tightening his grip on his lightsaber and crouched slightly. The Jedi wished for a fight, he would get one. "The galaxy will know order, slowly an iron fist will close around it and the disfunction will bleed through its fingers." With that, he used the Force to propel himself to the left, his feet hitting the wall and jumped off immediately to the other side. As he landed, he ran across the wall, glaring at the thugs.

First things first. Gathering the Force in his hand as he ran, he sent a torrent of Force lightning at them. Before the Jedi could react, it struck them full on. All three hit the floor, their bodies squirming uncontrollably, then Grawn smirked slightly and pushed off the wall and locked eyes on the Jedi as he fell towards him. He swung his blade as he came close, the red lightsaber hungering for blood.

[Dire Wolf]

Ryn was already in motion by the time that Grawn jumped up on the wall and began to shock the men. When the Dark Jedi was done shocking the criminals Ryn was already bouncing off of the wall at Grawn. Sundar narrowly dodged the lance of red light as he rocketed off the wall, bringing his fist up and threw a flurry of punches at the Dark Jedi's face. Ryn was inside Grawn's defence, much too close to use a lightsaber.

Before the Dark Jedi could counter attack Ryn grabbed him by the throat and used the Force to throw the man into the Duracrete tiles at speeds of about 70mph. This would certainly ruin his day. As the Dark Jedi was recovering, Sundar walked back to the three men and squated, they were alive, but barely. The Jedi walked slowly towards the Dark Jedi "If you will not redeem yourself, at least stop the killing." Ryn pleaded.

He instantly dropped into a different stance, this time it was Soresu, he would not be caught by surprise.

[Grawn]

As he struck the tiles, he was able to use the Force to soften the impact, the other option would to have broken his back in the crash. He recovered, jumping up while using the Force to retrieve his dropped lightsaber. "God DAMN that hurt", he growled in anger. The Jedi had made him pissed beyond reason. "Killing? DO YOU THINK ME A MINDLESS MURDERER?!, he yelled as the Jedi asked the question. "The universe will be purged. Purged of the filth that inhabit it like a festering disease. A disease that lives as a symboite, feeding off the nutritons to let the host rot! NO MORE!"

Using the Force, he ripped the cracked sections of Duracrete from the floor and threw them at Ryn, one after another. Then as the last plate was launched, he dash towards the him. Grawn parried a blow that was meant to take his head and swung his leg in a reverse low sweep, tripping Ryn. As the Jedi hit the ground, Grawn swung his saber down towards Ryn's chest.

[Dire Wolf]

Ryn did not try to stop the chunks of duracrete, nor did he attempt to throw them back, instead he used the force to slightly redirect their course into either the wall behind him or beside him. Sundar saw the sweep coming, but he could do nothing about it, the jedi hit the ground with a thud. Everything went blurry for a second as his mind recovered, but he had no time, the Dark Jedi was already attempting the coup de grace.

"Not today!" Ryn yelled as he rolled to the left, narrowly dodging the lance of red plasma that would have skewed him as if he was butter. As the Dark Jedi came into view, Ryn threw his hand out, extending his fingers and creating a powerful, directed wave with the Force, this technique was called Force Push (not Force Wave). The Dark Jedi flew into the Duracrete wall, causing the wall to crack and spiderweb out with the impact.

Ryn did not give him time to recover this time, the Jedi hurled himself at the Dark Jedi. The DJ barely escaped Ryn's long sweeping swipe, the saber only hissed with anger as it's quarry passed within inches of the core. Ryn did not let up, he began to fight in the classic Juyo form, it was rare in jedi for one reason: it required aggression, and Jedi were known for many things, aggression not being one of them.

"Evil cannot purge evil, and the Dark Side is the root of all evil." Ryn grunted "The only thing that you are doing is causing more evil. If you really wanted to rid crime from Coruscant then you would seek to turn the evil from their evil ways." Ryn continued. Sundar then found Grawn on the other side of the men, he could kill them any time he wanted to.

He would have none of that.

The Jedi used the Force to pick up one of the Duracrete chunks and hurl them at the back of Grawn's head. As the Dark Jedi was preoccupied with either blocking, being hit, or evading the chunks Ryn jumped over the top of Grawn's head and dropped back into the stance of Juyo.

He awaited the Dark Jedi's imminent attack.

[Grawn]

Now Grawn was mad.

As he recovered from hitting the wall, he glared at the three thugs. At this point, he could give a damn what would happen to them. It was the Jedi he wanted dead. As the Duracrete slab soared toward his head, he dodged it with ease.

"Fight fire with fire i like to think.", growled Grawn in reply to the Jedi's statement. As he composed himself, he glanced once again at the thugs. Perhaps they could be useful after all. Thoughts raced through his head as he conjured the Force around the thugs and lifted them in the air.

The men screamed and yelled as they spun in the air. "I must disagree with you. If you havent noticed, your way hasnt exactly worked the most splendid. My experiences on Korriban would account for that.", Grawn began to say darkly, "If you allow sentinents to their own devices, they will begin to cause chaos. This is why only absolute ironfisted order is the only way to ensure peace in the galaxy."

With that, Grawn launched each man one by one at the Jedi. One of them crashed into him, causing him to lose his lightsaber. Seeing a chance he couldnt miss, he darted towards Ryn. His red lightsaber in hand, he reversed the grip to take a Shien style and punched forward but the Jedi dodged him. Stopping quickly, he spun in a half circle, his free hand into a fist and hit Ryn in the chest. With that, he gathered the Force and pushed the Jedi into the wall in a similar fashion to how he had did to Grawn.

"Now die!", he roared and swung in a horizontal slash at Ryn.

[Dire Wolf]

"Korriban?" Ryn thought, dropping his guard for a second "He is no Sith, he cannot be" His train of thought was derailed by the Dark Jedi throwing him into a wall with the Force.

Everything slowed to a crawl as the angry crimson lightsaber speed towards Ryn's chest. Sundar could see everything in perfect clarity, from the starless Coruscanti sky, the fearful expression on the 3 men's face, and the furious look on the Dark Jedi's face. Suddenly Ryn's lightsaber met his grasp as he was already in the process of blocking the long, sweeping horizontal swipe.

The clashing blue and red blades cast a violet hue on the environment. Suddenly, the second end of Ryn's lightsaber ignited and he extended both blades to their full length of 2.6 meters, he saw a mixture of surprise and a hit of fear in the Dark Jedi's face. He would not hesitate this time, the Jedi attacked him unrelentlessly, he did not even give the Dark Jedi a chance to counter attack.

As the twin lines of plasma arced, looped, and spun the Jedi had an almost constant view on his enemy, the real purpose of double bladed lightsaber combat is to have your opponent focused on the blades, and not on the one wielding them.

That was one of the many reasons why they were so deadly.

Suddenly, Ryn spun around with his right arm extended and made another directed wave of Force energy at the Dark Jedi. The Dark Jedi tumbled through the air and easily overshot the saftey railings, falling into the blackness of Coruscant's ground level.

Ryn slowly walked over to the railing, looking down, he had lost the Dark Jedi's presence almost the moment that he left his line of sight. Slowly the Jedi Knight turned around and took the three men with him back to the officer, they had attempted to commit assault with more-than-a-few deadly weapons, they would not be getting back on the streets for a while.

He left for the Jedi temple, and to relate the events to the council.

[Grawn]

Grawn's eyes went wide as the other side of the Jedi's lightsaber ignited. A double bladed lightsaber?! He had heard of them but never he had seen one before. But studing the exotic weapon wasnt his focus, it was the fact he had to now contend with practically TWO lightsabers from a single foe.

He thought of using his uncles lightsaber, the one he had kept as a trophey, in a Jar-Kai battle stance but he was untrained in the techinque and would likely damage himself more then anything but before he could complete such a manveur, the Jedi launched a powerful push from the Force.

It struck Grawn head on, throwing him into the air and before he could do anything, he flew over the safety railing and now found himself falling towards Coruscants ground level. "Hmm", he thought as the air rushed past him, the view of the volcanic ground coming closer. Gathering the Force around him, he pushed against the closest wall and propelled himself to a nearby hand hold where he hung.

His boiling rage simmered slightly as he looked around. "Well, this is inconvinent", he muttered sarcasticly. Gripping the metal bar that protruded from the wall he now hung from, he hoisted himself upon it. The metal groaned in protest as the increased weight threatened to break it but Grawn reinforced it and made it stay straight with the Force.
Sighing slightly, he looked up from where he had fallen. He had fell a decent distance, more then one strong Force Jump could accomplish.

A plan slowly formed in his head and he began to gather the Force at his feet. If one jump couldnt accomplish it, several would. He pushed off against the wall and propelled to the otherside, then as he hit the other wall, he pushed off it strongly with the Force aidding him. He did this until finally he was able to grab ahold of the railing.

Not sensing the Jedi, he lifted himself up and looked around. No one was around nor in sight. Grawn growled slightly and put his hood up, covering his angery yellow eyes. His performance against the Jedi whelp was unacceptable, to be beaten in such a fashion was degrading to say the least. Grawn could no longer ignore the fact he couldnt complete his mission alone, or at least not in his current state.

He began to walk down the street as he began to brood, his mind racing. There was only one place he knew that he could train himself to become stronger, a place of dark power and ancient secrets.

Korriban.