Padawan

22 BBY

Coruscant, Jedi temple.

Three months had passed since Tanden set off to create Durandal, and one month since he became 15 years old. Something strange was happening, three weeks ago most of the starships docked at the temple's hangar were suddenly boarded by troops of what was supposedly clones...

Almost every single Jedi left the temple, leaving just a few behind to take care of the place and the younglings, and the majority never came back.

Tanden himself this time felt extremely light, and not for the reasons you may believe, it felt like weights were lifted from his back when the place became less crowded, he felt free for the first time as he could not sense anyone prying into his matters.

He couldn't help but think about entering the forbidden section of the library, they had after all removed basically all content about the Mandalorian wars from the database, along with all files that talked about Bastila, the so-called Jedi Revan or Darth Revan, Treya, and others, however, the only thing they apparently forgot to remove was something that was mentioned in Darth Treya's archive, the limited profile of an old Jedi called Meetra Surik, one that apparently was part of something called 'The battle of Malachor V' which of course was a classified file, and that was also what apparently made her get expelled from the order.

All in all, following any clues he could manage to find, he discovered that she apparently stole a starship called, Ebon Hawk, a Dynamic-class freighter that once belonged to a decorated and legendary republic soldier during the Mandalorian wars called Carth Onasi.

Other than that, presumably, a sith lord from more than three thousand years ago called Darth Imperius, which interestingly was labeled as the weirdest Sith to have ever existed, acquired it and was last seen with it somewhere in Alderaan.

The thing about him was how unusual his actions were, the Jedi who were interviewed in order to make his biography and profile described him as a compassionate and kind-hearted individual, much to the surprise of friend and foe alike.

A man who even in the war gave his enemies the opportunity to surrender, who valued talent above trivial matters such as bloodlines and status.

Based on what he had read, this man could basically be called the most lovable Sith in existence, all in all, no one hated him, and later in his life, he left the Sith empire to live with his wife... a Jedi knight called Kira Carsen...

"What the fuck!?"

Tanden blinked his eyes as he read that part of the file once more, he couldn't believe what he was seeing! Just what kind of man was this Darth Imperius!? He skipped the general view part of the file and went directly to the specific information, however, most info was classified so he could barely learn anything about him, the only thing that was described in detail was how he apparently defeated Darth Thanaton and started a campaign to change the empire from inside, improving the quality of life of almost all imperial citizens.

The last part of the file had a personal comment made by the Jedi consular responsible for writing his info.

'In contrast to the usual personalities of Sith. Darth Imperius was a Sith with compassionate and heroic virtues, in spite of working for the Sith.

'Known for finding more humane approaches, from sparing enemies to working alongside Jedi, such acts would cause many to distrust and be suspicious of the descendant of Kallig.

'Avoiding Sith's behavior, Darth Imperius was a Sith in name and title, in actions, identical to Jedi and in a sense, even more, virtuous and heroic.'

Other than that, apparently, he was one of the few Sith that died of old age together with his wife while being surrounded by his family and friends.

Tanden couldn't help but blink his eyes as he laid his back on his chair and looked towards the ceiling, while it was true that most, if not 99% of them were considered evil, this one basically shattered his views of the Dark Side itself, how could a man that used this kind of power be like that?

All his time here, he was taught about the dangers of the Dark Side and its corruption, but now, he actually wasn't sure if the Dark Side was truly what was responsible for such things... If even such power could be used to do good, then, perhaps things were more complicated than just 'evil and good'...

Sighing he massaged his forehead. Standing up, he went to the librarian, a woman probably in her eighties, and asked her to download all available information on Carth Onasi, Meetra Surik, and Darth Imperius.

It took a while but she soon came back with a hard drive containing the info he asked for.

After thanking her he decided to go back to the training chambers in order to practice and work on his connection with the force, something he had been working on tirelessly since coming back from the crystal cave at Ilum.

He felt that he was too weak when it comes to the force, and he couldn't allow himself to be like that, after all, all the other younglings who accompanied him were capable of destroying that ice door using force push, while he couldn't.

Interestingly enough, ever since coming back from that place and remembering more and more his previous life, he started training with the force as one would do to train his muscles, this process although unusual, actually worked better for him than simply meditating.

His fights against the training droids at the training facilities of the temple, not only gave him more battle oriented experience but also allowed him to put to practice his skills and train them properly.

When he was younger he only fought one on one battles, but now he was fighting one against two, one against three, and so on, always increasing the number of enemies every time he got used to the current number.

This is one of the reasons that allowed him to easily defeat the other younglings during the apprentice tournament, however, based on the looks he received from the masters that watched, he wasn't sure if he would be accepted by any of them as a Padawan.

Because of this, he was already making plans to leave the order since he didn't want to be part of the JSC. The younglings were given a monthly allowance of a hundred credits per month, the padawans four hundred, the knights a thousand, and apparently, the masters received more or less five thousand credits per month, not that they used it though, most Jedi would send their money back to the vaults of the order.

The thing is, he wasn't that stupid, money was useful no matter where you lived, and ever since joining the order he managed to save 13.200 credits.

With that amount, he could buy all the materials necessary to build his own starfighter and even implement much more advanced technologies in them, for instance, he wouldn't need fuel if he used zero-point energy, shields would practically be activated at a hundred percent capacity for as long as he wanted, and he would be capable of using space warp travel, hyperspace travel, and he would also be able to use Eisten-rose bridges.

Although the last one would require him to actually search for nuclear pasta, and create an anti-gravitational vault alongside a few other things to work... It was a pain in the ass basically.

As he was leaving the place though, someone stopped him and told him that the council wanted to see him.

When he arrived he discovered that only three Jedi masters were physically there, they were master Yoda, Master Mace Windu, and Master Plo Koon, the others were all holograms.

"Did you want to see me?"

"Yes." Windu looked at me for a moment. "Despite believing you're not yet ready..." He looked at Plo Koon. "Based on some recommendations and a recent situation, we decided to make you a padawan earlier than expected..."

"May I ask why?"

The Jedi looked at each other for a moment, and Plo Koon was the one to answer. "Three weeks ago we lost many Jedi in a battle on the planet of Geonosis, you probably noticed the movement of the clone troopers in our temple, the thing is... I recently met with a friend of yours, Padawan Ahsoka Tano, she told me of your exploits during the apprentice tournament, and I decided to recommend you for promotion a year early than we were planning."

Hearing this he smiled slightly, Snips actually helped him become a Padawan, he truly wonder what she would think if she knew that he was preparing to leave the order in case he wasn't selected to become a Padawan like she was.

"Then who will be my master?"

Plo Koon stood up and walked towards me. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Padawan Tanden Vizsla, from this moment forth, I, Plo Koon, am your master."

Hearing this Tanden reflexively bowed as he did for the general of his squad in his previous life. Plo Koon patted his shoulder. "There is no need for this my Padawan, you can go back and prepare for now, it will be a week until we actually leave this place, if you have any requests, just look for me and I'll see what can be done."

"In that case..." Tanden smiled. "Could you lend me ten thousand credits?"

Hearing this everyone looked at him surprised, heavens, wasn't this Padawan a little bit greedier than they imagined? And to think that he never showed this side of his before!

"Why do you need so many credits?"

"Is Master aware of my other... cough, talents? "

Hearing this, he thought for a moment, then as if a lamp had lightened up above his head he said, "Are you talking about your scientific knowledge?"

"Hm, yes, there is something I would like to build for me, something that is extremely important in many ways. So please, if you lend me that money it would make things much easier, and I promise you that will never forget this debt."

"Hahaha!" Master Plo laughed and shooked his head. "There is no need to feel indebted to me, padawan, I'll send the money you asked to your chamber later today, now go and rest, I'm pretty sure you'll be pretty occupied tomorrow since you asked for so much money."

Tanden nodded and left the council chambers with a smile on his face, while he wasn't satisfied with the fact that the council planned to make him wait for another year to become a padawan, even though he completely dominated the initiate trials, the way things developed was enough to make his mood better and starting from tomorrow, he would not only start building his own starfighter, he would even start the creation of his own Mandalorian exoskeleton armor and Helmet, he doubted that any common human would be able to compare strength, agility, and dexterity with him when everything was done.

Besides, all his tech was completely safe against reverse engineering, it would take at least three decades for anyone to steal his works if they ever managed to get hold of one of them. With this, the gears of his plan to get rid of the Hutts and the Black Sun got into motion, and if the Jedi tried to stop him... well, at that time, they wouldn't be able to catch him anyway, and as long as he didn't become a criminal he would have the green card to do as he pleased once he left the order...

Perhaps that was why Master Yaddle was so adamant about the future, maybe she had seen him destroying those pirates, criminals, and their cartels in some vision.