Chapter 15: Gleaming Gems
21 BBY, Tython
Satele Shan was the Grand master of the Jedi Order, a woman of great renown, both because of her power, leadership, and her insight. Unfortunately, she was not that woman. She was an experimental Holocron, a project that had been forgotten when Jedi still walked this temple.
She did not remember when she truly awoke or how. She personally thought that it might have something to do with the large Kyber Crystal within the Holocron or the fact that she spent centuries on the Force Nexus that was Tython, but she was quite unsure. After all, no one had been there to explain it to her when she woke up, for the Eternal Empire had razed Tython to the ground. All she remembered was the warmth, the Light, an imprint of the Grand master of the Jedi when she recorded her teachings into the Holocron, and she now acted as its gatekeeper.
In the end, she made the choice to continue the noble goal that Master Shan held, and that was to help and protect the Jedi Order and the Light of the Force, not that there were any Jedi on Tython when she awoke, hoping to honour her creator by taking her name as her own.
Satele waited for a long time, hoping that she would get to fulfil her purpose, until finally, a strange man came to the Temple and activated the Holocron. Harry Potter was a very odd man, one whose presence in the Force was very worrying. After all, she had spent thousands of years on Tython, familiar with the feeling of the Force within it, and she was able to discern what lay beneath the warnings and danger the Force radiated.
She could not explain it in any other way, but beneath the skin of a human was something decidedly different, something whose attention meant danger, something… deadly.
Still, his request was strangely simple: to learn of the Force. Satele would have normally not agreed, as he was not a Jedi, but this was likely the first person to ever interact with her, and the presence of the Technobeast so close to the Temple was very worrying, to say the least.
She had given him an ultimatum, an impossible task in exchange for her lessons, for him to destroy the Sith Fortress on the other side of Tython. It was likely not a fair trade, but she had little other choice.
After thousands of years of solitude, someone finally had made its way to Tython, specifically, a Sith. Unfortunately, she was the depraved sort of Sith, the one who played with the natural order, who stole the bodies of the Jedi and used them for her rituals, all to create these abominations. Satele remembered these dark days, where she was a lone mote of Light in a world of Darkness. Thankfully, the Sith had left one day and never returned, likely having been defeated or betrayed by her fellow Sith, as was the way of the Dark Side; however, remnants of her works remained.
Since that day, she, the lone Holocron, fought through the Force against her works, defending the Jedi Temple from her taint, which still persisted on this sacred planet, the birthplace of the Jedi Order itself.
Hence why she was currently floating in Harry Potter’s starship, which was making its way to the other side of the planet, and she felt the taint of the Dark Side grow stronger the more they approached their destination. The man had somehow tracked it down, though she was unsure how that came to be; perhaps it was only the will of the Force.
A part of her was slightly excited; this was the first time that she was outside the Temple, but she was mostly taken by apprehension. “You are rushing into this, Potter.”
The man did not say anything, mostly focused on something that only he could perceive, but his strange white bird turned its neck and gave Satele a severe look. She felt in the Force that it was thinking that she was being foolish or cowardly.
Still, Satele was the legacy of the Grand Master of the Jedi Order, and so, she was not intimidated by a bird… much. “I must insist that we return to the Temple. You are not trained in the Jedi arts, not enough to face the Darkness ahead.”
In the privacy of her thoughts, Satele would admit that the man was an ideal student. He seemed quite interested in the theories regarding the Force and its workings, instead of powerful techniques, like many younglings or Sith would be prone to be, which she saw as a good sign, though he did seem quite interested in the general capabilities of Jedi.
He was always polite, calm with his questions, and obviously extremely intelligent. Though he held a hint of mischief that she saw as he played around with his newly acquired Lightsaber, a weapon he was obviously unfamiliar with, like a youngling. And she also did not like how he rolled his eyes during some of her lessons that were focused on the philosophies of the Jedi Order.
She did not see his prowess first-hand, but she remembered asking him about how he felt in the Force, and days later, the man had been able to hide himself from her senses. It was not absolute, of course, as she could feel the danger that the Force warned her of, but where before he radiated it, she now had to actively search for it to find something out of the ordinary. It was prodigious progress, and she couldn’t help but wonder what else he did with her teachings…
Still, the man was good company and told her lovely stories that she had not heard in so long, hence her disapproval at his haste at destroying the remnant of the Sith Fortress, and why she had insisted that he take her with him, since she would advise him as much as they could, even if they needed to retreat.
Potter finally turned, having opened his eyes, which were gleaming with amusement, answering, “I think we’ll be fine.”
She huffed despite not really needing to, wanting to show her disapproval at his dismissal. She thought that he was not taking the situation seriously, especially as he seemed content to stare out of the window, whistling tunes that she had never heard of before.
Truthfully, she had expected that he would leave Tython and hopefully return with a fleet of ships and bombard the attack from the sky, and not go to confront it himself with just a Light Freighter, a strange Astromech, and a bird. Hopefully, after seeing the scale of what they would face, he would choose to retreat. He was an intelligent man, after all.
The man did eventually speak up once more, “Say, Satele, I have a question to ask you.”
She turned towards Potter, and he continued, “If you had the choice, would you rather stay on the Temple in Tython, or at the one on Coruscant, with the Jedi?”
Satele hesitated for a moment before answering, “I cannot leave the temple here to fall to darkness.”
“Imagine that you didn’t. Imagine that the darkness is gone, that the fortress is destroyed, would you want to go back to the Jedi?”
Satele truly did not know. She was not human, but she ached at the idea of fulfilling her purpose, of helping the Jedi Order, just as her creator had wanted from her. And to say that she was glad to know that the Jedi had survived would be an understatement. It had been a possibility that she tried not to entertain over the years, especially as Tython remained uninhabited.
There was so much that she could teach them, but alas, she could not leave Tython to darkness, even if the Jedi did not return to this place. She had spent centuries fighting the Dark Side, channelling the very Force Nexus she stood on, as the Dark Fortress had its own.
A loud rumbling broke her from her thoughts. Tython’s weather often mirrors the state of the galaxy as a whole, and in recent years, it had felt like a storm was approaching, the balance slowly being tipped towards the Dark. There was turmoil in the galaxy, and she could feel it in the Force that the Jedi would need her help.
And so, she said, “That is a question that I can only answer after Tython is safe from the threat of the Dark.”
Slowly, Tython’s vibrant greenery disappeared and turned into a more arid, dry land. By the time they could see the Sith Fortress, a large square-shaped building made of black Durasteel, with a large wall surrounding it. It was a stronghold that an army would have a hard time breaching when it was fully operational, which it thankfully likely wasn’t anymore. Not that it made this place any less dangerous, given the Dark Side that radiated from this place.
Potter stood there with an unreadable look on his face before saying, “Take us down, T7.”
The strange Astromech beeped in reply, and the ship descended atop a small hill that overlooked the fortress in question.
The man grabbed the Holocron that contained Satele and walked out of the hill, frowning at something that he, alone, could perceive, and she heard him mutter, “This is wrong.”
“What is?” Satele asked, curiosity filling her tone.
“The Dark Side,” he answered absentmindedly.
Satele scoffed at that. Of course, the Dark Side was wrong. It was a corruptive power that could push even the noblest of souls to commit horrors. Whoever used it was bound to fall in one way or another, no matter their intentions.
Potter, however, continued, this time addressing her directly instead of being lost in thought, “You don’t understand. Anger, fear, pain… They are emotions that anything with an ounce of sentience should feel. But this… The Dark Side isn’t a gradient; it’s a concentration of pure wrath, of hatred, of suffering, of pure greed and burning jealousy. No wonder it’s so corruptive, constantly being on the receiving end of… this. This is far too extreme to be normal. This couldn’t have been the natural state of things.”
Satele felt her hologram’s eyes widen in shock at that, but the words failed her. It was hard to believe that the man who barely knew anything of the Force had come to this conclusion, as heretical as it was. For as long as anyone recalled, there had always been the Light and the Dark, constantly battling against one another. For the state of things to have been otherwise, once upon a time was almost… heretical.
Still, the man wasn’t finished, as she heard him mutter. “It makes one wonder… If the Force truly reflected the events of the world, then what could have possibly happened to get a result like this one… Still, that’s a mystery for another day.”
She realised why he said this when she saw figures move from the fortress. Hundreds, perhaps even thousands of humanoid creatures, moved robotically within the walls, likely ready for an attack, making Satele come to the disturbing conclusion that the fortress had somehow known of their presence.
Potter, for some strange, maddening reason, brightened up at the sight. “Well, isn’t this familiar? Anyway, back to our lessons… Soul projecting an intent carefully into the Force, and guiding it until it manifests, right?”
“What? That is not what I said,” Satele immediately protested, before her hologram shook its head, “No, this is not the time for this. We need to return to the ship before the Technobeasts make their way here.”
She had never said anything about souls. Satele had not even given him instructions regarding most Jedi skills, mostly general steps to using the Force, which first required a capability in sensing and guiding the Force, not whatever he claimed. And to think that she thought of him as an adequate student. She would chastise him later, but for now, they were in danger, and they needed to return to the Jedi Temple, where they would be safe.
However, before she could say anything, Satele felt the Force shift slightly, almost imperceptibly, and a small pebble on the ground rose into the air, specifically into Potter’s palm.
She stood there, completely in shock at the sight. This was the first time that she had witnessed the man actively use the Force, and she would easily admit that it was… strange. It was very hard to describe, but it felt as if the way that he guided the Force was extremely detailed and yet he held something of a distance from it. It was as if something was working as an intermediary, which is not something that she had ever thought possible.
Potter didn’t seem concerned with what he had done, simply speaking up, “I think I figured it out.”
Satele did not know what the consequences of such an approach to using the Force could be, but this was not the time to ponder, especially as she saw a few of the Technobeasts have their Lightsabers lit up. She turned to him and finally voiced her thoughts, “We will speak of this when we return to the temple, but for now, we need to leave this place.”
With every second, she could feel the Dark Side shift further and further, empowering the Technobeasts, making them stronger, faster, and likely more resilient than the one that had snuck into the Jedi Temple. Perhaps it was a deception, meant to make someone overconfident to attack the fortress to perish to its true strength, or worse, be corrupted by the Dark Side lurking within.
She felt the Force warning her of the attack, with the danger increasing with every moment that passed, and she knew that Potter must sense it as well. He had seemed attuned to the Force, or at least, its current, when they practised how to sense it.
Which was why it was maddening when she heard Potter hum casually and dismissively say, “In a minute…”
Before she could press him further, Satele saw the man close his eyes and raise his hand as the Technobeasts climbed the hill and took a deep breath. They were much faster than before, their movements unnatural, enhanced by the Dark Side.
Then Potter exhaled, and Satele felt the Force surge in the same strange, efficient manner it had before. No, it was almost empowered by... something, guided by it, and it responded, surging, like a flame being lit by a spark.
It was unlike anything she ever thought possible regarding the Force, and yet, Satele did not have the time to ruminate on the matter too much as she witnessed Potter releasing the largest Force Push that she had ever heard of.
Her hologram was gaping as she saw the telekinetic blast vaporise everything beneath the hill, including the attacking Technobeasts, with black dust appearing alongside the attack, before it hit the giant fortress.
For a moment, she thought the Fortress had held against the attack, only to see the walls buckling inward, durasteel screaming as the entire structure collapsed under the impact, and everything enveloped in black dust.
The world fell silent as the dust slowly settled, revealing that the Sith Fortress lay in complete ruin, with nothing remaining of it but twisted metal and scorched earth.
Over a thousand years, this fortress had plagued the homeworld of the Jedi Order, leaking its horrors and its darkness, a darkness that she had repelled as best she could, and yet, in a single moment, in a single act, it was gone... like that.
Her hologram turned towards Potter, its eyes wide, as it saw him tilting his head slightly, before shrugging, “That was interesting.”
He had destroyed a Sith Fortress, one that was obviously designed as some kind of military base, with a Force Push, and this was his reaction. How was this possible in the first place? Potter had known very little about the Force when they met, hence their lessons. There were certainly Force wielders that would be capable of a similar feat; the battle between Darth Malgus and the original Satele Shan in Alderaan came to mind, but such prowess of the Force, such power, required decades of dedicated training, not... this.
Potter turned to her and said, “You said that you would answer my question when the fortress is destroyed. Well, it’s destroyed now. Besides, you’ve been pretty helpful with your lessons, and I don’t mind helping you out.”
Satele stuttered as she quickly remembered the question, the offer to take her to the Jedi in Coruscant, so that she could help them, as her creator had designed her to.
Before she could answer anything, a glowing ghostly figure of a deformed woman, the Sith, appeared from the base of the hill, screaming in rage and hatred. Satele could feel the Dark Side pulse within the spirit, as she was making her way towards Potter, likely attempting to possess him or something as horrible.
However, before she could do anything, Potter casually waved his hand, and for a fraction of a moment, she thought that she saw his green eyes sharpen and glow briefly. A strange oppressive pressure accompanied this change, so briefly that she almost thought that she had imagined it. At least, she would have, before the apparition’s screams of rage quickly turned to fear and pain, as it was consumed by brief golden flames.
Satele could feel the Force Nexus beneath the Fortress unwind itself, and with time, the will of the Sith having finally dissipated, alongside the twisted remnants of the Dark Side within the corpses of the Technobeasts.
In the meantime, she could only stutter in shock as one impossible thing occurred after another in quick succession, "What? How did you... What was... What?"
The man’s expression returned to its normally jovial sense, and she saw his eyes almost sparkle in amusement at her reaction. He looked away from where the ghost of the Sith had been just moments prior and turned back to Satele, “Quite a rude interruption, huh? Anyway, what do you think? Do you want me to take you to the Jedi Temple in Coruscant?”
Satele, who had been still digesting the sight that she had just witnessed, of a lingering Sith spirit being dealt with like this, or even what she had just sensed in the brief moment that all of this occurred.
Her hologram dumbly nodded, and he clapped in joy, before turning to speak to his bird as if nothing had happened.
In the meantime, Satele’s hologram remained frozen as she was still dumbfounded, wondering what in the Force had just happened, and what she had gotten roped into.
AN: I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. As I said before, I’m still getting the hang of writing a Star Wars story, so bear with me if anything feels off.
As for this chapter, I thought it was a somewhat cool idea to have the POV of a sentient Holocron, though I have some plans for it later. I tried doing it with Harry's POV, but it didn't really click with me as I was writing it, to be honest. Anyway, this chapter's main goal is to show a bit of how Harry is researching the Force, or at least, the result of that research. I hinted at it a bit, but Harry is using his magic as an intermediary instead of directly projecting his will, which turns out to be a pretty efficient way to do it.
A part of me considered the idea of having him explore Belia Darzu's Fortress, and destroying it from within, but I didn't really think it would bring anything to the table. I don't think I could have built any tension with it, at least, not like I could with other Sith stuff. I'm not sure I handled that correctly, to be honest. I feel like I could have added more tension before destroying it, but using necromancy in any form against Harry is a pretty bad match-up. So, I decided to just have Harry show off a bit and destroy it from the outside instead in an 'Almighty Push' manner.
Also, feel free to let me know if you have any things you'd like to see in that story. SW lore is pretty expansive, especially Legends stuff, and there's a lot that I'll probably miss, so I'm counting on you guys :)
As usual, I don’t mind rewriting this chapter depending on your feedback, so please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.