Temple Part 1

(Corrupted font of power. In four years time, Light side force users abilities will be at 10% Birth of force users will increase by 2%)

(Mission: Return fountain of power to varying Dark/Light side power ratio before leaving. Current: Light 13% Dark 87% Rewards: Vary)

(Mission: Investigate Sith Temple's 0/???)

(Missio: Investigate Jedi Temple's 1/???)

(Mission: Establish your own fountain of power. Rewards creation of force academy, ???, ???)

"Ughh," Alex groaned as the quest downloaded into his memories. Playing it off as the smell is what was bothering him, he turned to look at everyone else. "Whew, this place reaks." Waving his hands in front of his nostrils he hoped it works.

Most just stared at his foolishness. A glint appeared in Mace's eye.

"So the teams are as followed. Master Windhu, Knight Kirell, Master Myr, Padawan Tonu, Padawan Konell and I will take the side entrance." Master XoXann handed Alex an explosive charge as well as a detonator. "If you can't stop them, blow it up. These are the locations that will help bury the place. With it sealed away, we can come back later when there is time to investigate and clean everything up."

"Ok so me and the troopers will take care of the other areas." Seeing her nod her head yes, Alex turned to look at the troopers. "Alright, peeps lets do this then." Heading into the entrance Alex was flanked by Inferna. She already finished adjusting her parts in the speeder for a more infiltrator mode. So as he had the chance he would apply the upgrades when no one was around. Equipped with a Blaster Rifle in her right hand and a flamer attached to her left she seemed happy as can be. The trooper Sniper Rifle she had obtained earlier still strapped to her back.

Moving in a steady pace the group already made it to one of the entrances that would actually lead into the temple. Inferna and a trooper already started to go through the options of getting the door open. While they waited Alex spread his force abilities out slowly. Sending through the crevice of the door. With none of the Jedi with him, he released a little of his dark core. His assumption was right. The dark energy in the temple was a lot weaker than his own, in a way. Seeing the energy repel against each other he thought about harnessing the power and storing it away.

'Tch it would be so easy. But then again, I don't really know what that would do. Oh well. I will try another time maybe.' Finishing his thoughts, Alex moved his consciousness through the temple further. His project image was highly unstable. The appearance was that of a coaked figure as it moved about. If even one saw it they would think it a ghost or a dying force spirit.

20 minutes later Alex came across a Rakghoul. It was patrolling the halls of all things. Ducking into a wall, he remembered he was intangible. Melding with the wall he poked his eye out the side of the wall. Watching the Rakghoul patrol patterns as well as the others down the hall he returned back to his body.

"Whew, there are some Rakghoul's on patrol. I have found a few path's we can take to get where we need to be. One of them anyway." Alex said flexing his hands returning back to full control. 'Super duper freaky.' His hands flexed weirdly.

"We are done. No alarm trips are anything like that." Balfour said. The kid was a bit of a tech wiz.

"We are ready to in. How do we proceed formation wise?" Reamus asked.

We are to switch with multiple range modes. Long-range in the back with. Inferna in the back. Mid in the middle. I will take upfront with you Reamus. You can take a hit good with that armor. Rejoice, you don't have to take the heavy guns with you." Alex watches the man sigh in relief. Setting the guns to the side behind a few pieces of debris, he took out as his rifle happy.

"Question?" Inferna asked.

"Go for it."

"Why not put me in the front? I have fair armor. Plus I could this small flamethrower to use." Inferna moved her hand out. A small flamethrower attach moved back and forth slightly igniting.

"Because if something hits you hard enough off-kilter, you might burn one of us. Do you want to burn us up or something? Also, you dont have that offensive capability for close combat.

"I have a perfect balance," Inferna said amused. She took a pose as a ballerina before getting serious. "I dont want to burn all of you. Who fault is that I dont have that capability again?" Looking at her fingers she thought about better upgrades for herself.

"Right... Hey, wait does that you want to burn some of us?"

"Just you. I want to see if you are fireproof."

"I am not fireproof," Alex said flatly. He watched as the troopers changed their loadout on the rifles and moved vibroblades more accessible to themselves.

"How do you know? There are force users who can control fire. You might be one of them." She said insipidly. "i say we give a flamethrower hand. You know chopped that one-off. the left one and replace it."

"Because... I just know." Alex shook his head a grabbed his outfitted blaster the same as the rest. "I swear if you replace or orchestrated the loss of any of my limbs I will hate you for the rest of existence." With the special charge packs, they would be able to tear through the rakghoul armor. Hopefully. "Time to go." Moving into the open door, everyone became quiet.

"So testy about limbs. You don't see droids getting all huffy about it." Inferna said before entering.

In the background, a silhouette of a person moved in the shadows. Waiting 15 minutes the shadow moved in after them. With the light around the place, one could see it was a man smirking.

'Oh, Alex you are going into a bad place. I wonder if you will need my help?"

Back inside Alex was having trouble relaxing. More than anything he wanted to observe the ruins and take notes and read the walls. Taking pictures at least would be beneficial he told himself. But a small inkling kept him from acting on his desires. Looking around at the others he remembers it would be best if everyone lived. Whether succeed or fail he realized that he was responsible for them. More than anything them dying would best him off or make him feel guilty for a day or two. Something he couldn't afford. Especially with the clone wars on the horizon.

Seamus looked over briefly and noticed Alex lack of focus. Before he could say anything Alex's eyes dilated before returning to normal. His face became serious and steady. 'Oh, at least he popped back to. I will have to keep an eye on him. Hopefully, he does not get us all killed.' Turning back his finger came close to the trigger. 'I may need to relax a little myself. Yo tense and I will get us killed.'

Moving about the temple the group stop. Checking his memory from what XoXann said and the matching datapad, this was a laboratory. No one was ready for what they saw inside the place. Along the interior hundreds of thousands of pods aligned the wall. Mechanical arms moved about with little arms moving out of them checking the pods. Making adjustments.

"They are active... How many are there?" A trooper asked.

Inferna pulled her connection from a console she walked up to. "There are at least 127,003 individuals in the pods." Walking over to Alex she grabbed his datapad and uploaded the data. "I say individuals because this DNA sequence says they are something else entirely."

Alex was running his sense to the max. Making sure nothing would bounce out of the pods he relaxed a little. "They are new Rakghouls... We have found your missing people."

"Come again!?" Another trooper said.

"The process of Rakghouls.. has seen different stages over the centuries. One way is to infect people and turn them. Another way is to use concentrated dark side energy to forge what you need out of nothing. The latter way takes longer." Alex grabbed the datapad from Inferna when she finished and said, "See which stage they are in. If we can stop the process now, would we be able to save them in time."

"On it. Come on kid. While you help me you can check to see if any of your family is in here." Inferna said over her shoulder toward Balfour. The boy walked over slightly excited.

"Ok troopers plant the bombs. Even if we save them, this place has got to be shut down." Seeing the troopers Alex got angry. "Do it now! We cannot risk a wave of them getting free. Or do you think the topside can handle this many at once?"

Snapping to. The troopers moved out placing the charges as needed. Reamus supervised the operation. Every now and then he looked back at Alex worried.

Alex spent his time trying to figure out what he could do. This was big... A lot of people living or dying at his hands. The smart thing would be to blow them all up. Even if they did not get out any time soon, they would help perpetuate Darkside energy. A never-ending cycle. Especially with the convergence having been tainted as well.

As the hours passed by Alex was running out of ideas. Meditating on the force was not helping. Only thing he felt was the pain of the people and dark side whispers telling him to take the temple. He ignored the whispers and focused on the people. None of them had givien up. They wanted to be free. The Darkside preyed on the fear creating more of a hold on them. The deadline grew shorter to leave.

"The Jedi never stood a chance in turning this place back to the light." Walking over to a pod, Alex saw the body inside. Half the arms and legs had already changed. The eyes partly sealed over. "Jeez, this.. is really something."

"You sound almost impressed." This voice called out to Alex. Looking around quickly he noticed a change. Time was frozen again. The force deity walked about around the walkway up above. Jumping down he looked at Alex. "You know what you have to do don't you?"

"Tch. You said I was supposed to help force-sensitive people. Help keep more wounds in the force from happening. Help them all understand the light and dark are one in the same. A means to an end. But this!" Alex said angrily pointing at the pods. "This is madness!"

"Does it make you angry? That, someone, had played with the lives of so many people."

"Your damn right it does. I am fucked up in the head, but this is ridiculous. Why would they do this?"

"Power. A means to an end. But hear this Alex," the force deity said as he walked over to a pod. Wiping the container he looked at the person inside then to Alex. "They did not ask for this. Nor did the clone troopers that are being made. "Would you just kill them all to?"

"That is different. They were created to help bring back system order. To stop the droid armies that amassed in the systems."

"Oh, I see." The force deity said amused. "Do you not think the rakghoul were created the same way? Created to bring back order of someone else's ideals."

"Tch," Alex had nothing to say to that. "Just tell me what to do then." Saying this defeated, he looked down at the ground disappointed. 'These are rakghouls not sentient creatures. Monster's with a single purpose to destroy. Why should they be spared? Just a ticking time bomb waiting to go off.'

The force deity watched Alex's inner turmoil in silence. 'I am a little disappointed in you Alex. Keeping you back to long may have made you weak compared to the others. I search your soul. You may have a perfect dark core but that bright light inside of you is just waiting to come out. Now is your chance.'

"If I use Force Apex and Force cleanse.. will it work on them?" Alex asked the silent man.

"It will do something that is all I can say."

"This will kill me will it not?" Alex asked scared. He died once already. Technically he should not have cared. But then again, was he ok with dying for a bunch of strangers.

"I cannot say."

"Sigh," Alex started to gather force energy as best he could. The dark side energy poured in slowly as time started up again.

"Goodluck Alex," the force deity said smiling before disappearing. "Try not to destroy your soul in the process."

Inferna noticed it first. "Hey! What the hell are you doing?" She would have run over, but stop when the reading showed the vital change in the people in the pods. The infection traveled downward quickly. Returning to a more normal human level. "Argh, you better know what you are doing oh foolish one. You still owe me a new chassis as well as some other things." Inferna continued to help with reconfiguring the treatments to help return the people to a stable level.

'This better work. Force Apex, Force cleanse.' The energy converged on Alex, zapping the people of the Darkside energy. As it gathered in Alex black lines started to form along his body where his veins were. The light side energy he generated traveled out touching each of the people. A few alarms started to finally go off. One by one each person disappeared from the pods. In two minutes none remained.

"They are all gone..." Balfour said amazed. "Where did they go?"

Releasing Force Apex, Alex dropped to his knees gasping for breath. The Darkside energy was trying to break his dark core open. If it succeeded he would fall prey to the Darkside. To weak mentally to fend it off he would not stand a chance to resist the assault. Getting up he tried to leave. "Gasp.. gasp.. we need to leave. Now!"

(????, ????) Notices went off in his psyche that he did not notice.

"Tssh," a door opened. In walked a Jedi Master and a little Rakata.

"What have you done?!" The master questioned. You have ruined our plan to save the republic." The Rakata stood back smiling a little.

The troopers pointed there blasters at the new group that came in. Looking to Alex, they waited for this signal.

"I don't want to hear what they have to say. Retreat as you fire. There is no excuse for this!" Drawing his lightsaber Alex needed to vent this energy before it succeeds in cracking his dark core. Running forward he looked at them before screaming.

Force blast traveled out destroying the walkway and the now-empty pods as it traveled towards them. The pod shards feel down as Alex waved his hands Bringing the place down around them. Launching everything at them exhausted him, but it ate large portions of the energy inside. Not even looking to see if they survived Alex turned to catch up with the troopers and Inferna. Cutting the walkway along the way he felt uneasy. If they came here they may have found the others already.