The Holocron.

After leaving Dathomir, Freya goes to her room and places the holocron from Vigrith on the floor.

Dropping to one knee in front of it, she places her helmet beside her and takes a deep breath before activating it.

Your old master stands before you, his face stern and cold as you always remembered. The holocron itself seems to sweep some sort of sensor beam over you.

Though his expression doesn't change you can swear you almost hear approval in his voice as he acknowledges you.

"Freya."

(OOC: Wow, work just suddenly kicked my ass today.)

"Master, it has been a while. Mr. Von Effron sends his regards."

"I suspect it has, good hear that Von Tou's enemies have not yet hunted him down. And your training? I would hope you did not allow the Jedi to coddle you?"

"Master Odis distracted me with books and tasks for a while, but I have parted ways with the Jedi -- well, as much as anyone I can for now."

"I knew your curious nature would keep you occupied for a time. Long enough it would seem. Though I do wish you had not started down this path, for now no power in this universe will keep you from it's ending."

"Why?!" She growls, raising her voice for the first time. "What path? What ending? Killing you? You know I wouldn't do that! I don't want to."

"I told you if I didn't return to consider me dead. It would be best if we left it at that, and yet you've gone back to Vigirith, and sought out Von Efron. Why? Don't pursue this any further Freya. I've done things I didn't want to do, but what we want is often put aside for what honor and duty demand we MUST do."

Freya stands, her head tilted at an angle with her hands on her hips "Then, knowing my nature you should not have left a mystery in front of me. I am only following the clues that you left."

"Master, I have done terrible things," she says as he voice breaks back into her Vigrith accent. "You know that, and you stayed with me. I can't imagine that you could do anything that would make me walk away from you."

"Also, I've come this far -- I can't leave anything half-finished."

"Then you will have to fulfill your destiny. You will have to kill me, or whatever is left of me. Whatever, you find at the Sith Sanctum, just know that it is no longer Lucien Theradis. I am all the remains of him."

"I don't believe in destiny, and prophecy is poor guide to the future. Whatever you have done you have chosen to do. If you chose to go there, then you can choose to come back.

"Besides, if you know what is going on right now I can't believe that you would side with Sith."

"I'm a holocron, it's rather difficult to keep up on current events from my box. All I know is what was going through my mind when I made this and left it for you on Vigirith and if I've gone on from there then I might as well be dead."

"I'm sorry," she shakes her head. "I got carried away, there. I don't know how much of you is in there, but I have to let you know what is going on right now, and it goes far beyond you and me. And just talking to you might make me feel better...

"I am part of the Sith Threat Assessment and Research Squadron, what was originally a joint venture between the Jedi and the New Republic. You can probably guess what we do by the name. There are two teams of us, most are Force sensitive, and a few of us are not Jedi.

"A few months ago we became aware of a being who actually took the name 'Sith', a power Quarren Dark-Sider. Five thousand years ago he gathered four other powerful Force users as his lieutenants, and they started some kind of dark Force pyramid scheme, funneling power to themselves and their master."

As she talks she starts to pace the room as if she is stalking something.

"The finally awoke and we have been struggling against them ever since. The four, Xel'lotath, Chattur'gha, Ulyaoth, and Mantorok have been destroyed but the worlds housing them have all paid the price for it.

"Now Sith himself, who has been sleeping inside an engineered creature they call 'The Construct', is awakening in the depths of Myrkr and preparing to destroy all life in the Galaxy, leaving it shrouded for eternity in the Dark Side.

"Dozens of Jedi Masters died fighting just one of his minions, and despite their victories both there and during the Mandolorian invasion of Yavin, the power of the Jedi has been severely weakened."

"I have extensive notes and logs, but you get the idea of our situation -- totally fragged," she says as she throws her hands into the air.

"Our mission is taking us closer and closer to an old Sith stronghold, what I believe to be the Sith Sanctum you mentioned. One way or another I am going to end up there, whether we seek them as allies or enemies to be destroyed."

She sits down cross-legged on the floor. "I would rather be prepared for what is coming, so any wisdom you might have would be -- greatly appreciated," she says with a nervous laugh.

"You and your friends carry a heavy burden their Freya. I did not think that I, in any form, would actually live to see the Devourer awakened. I would doubt you'd find allies at the Sith Sanctum. I had heard of this Sith you speak of, there were rumors in the circles I traveled after I left you. The followers of the Quarren are not the Sith I had dealings with, there are two factions of Sith. However, neither has any love for the Jedi or Jensaarai and would likely kill you rather then join forces with you. The Sith are not a rational group and the enemy of their enemy is rarely their friend."

Lucien's face saddens as his tone becomes somber.

"Freya, the only thing left I have to pass on to you is a warning. I made this holocron, because deep down I feared and yet hoped that you would come to look for me. I can imagine what must be going through your head, because I once thought the same way. That there was still something left of Karyn, that I could save her. I knew deep down I couldn't bring myself to kill her. Now I need you to be stronger than I was. If you go to face me, do not entertain any thoughts that I can be turned, go there to kill me and stop me from being the monster I'm sure I've become. I finally accepted that fate, I only hope you can do the same."

"Master, I don't want to think that all that's left of you is a holographic expert system." she growls with tears in her eyes. "We traveled all over the Galaxy together. You showed me horror and beauty and wonder and terror. You opened my eyes to things I could never have imagined."

Freya pulls her knees up to her chest and starts to cry. "Why did you do all of that if you didn't think I could save you? If I'm just supposed to kill you, then what was the point of anything?"

She sits on the floor with her head in her hands, crying for a while. Then, as her tears begin to slow, she looks up at him with narrow eyes.

"You saw that I would kill you. I thought you had saved me because you believed you found a better way to avoid that fate." She stands, her bent low but her eyes staring ahead, burning.

"But, no… That's why you let me think Tyr was dead. He couldn't help fight a Sith and would just be a distraction... I couldn't afford the compassion...

"You did everything just to make me a better killer, didn't you?"

"I spared you because I saw in you a girl not unlike my daughter. Fierce and strong and proud. All those years I trained you, I also feared you, wondering when the day would come. What would make you turn on me to do such a thing? It was not until much later after Von Tou told me of the Sith Sanctum, that I went back to that vision and saw it more clearly than before. I knew then that you would not turn on me because of hatred, but perhaps out of kindness for what I once was."

His look becomes one of puzzlement and concern.

"I don't know what you think I knew of your brother, or why you would come to such a conclusion, but I did not learn of his fate until I went back to Vigirith myself. I looked back in time through the Force and saw that dark day for you. I wish I had found him with you, but it was too late. I taught you to use your emotions, and your passion but only your hatred and anger. He could have taught you to focus them in defense for those you care about."

He finally looks resigned, and his face projects nothing but sadness.

"I am sorry to have burdened you in this way Freya. Believe what you chose to believe, but if I could have spared you this I would. The Force does not always guide us where we want to be, but where it needs us to be. So I have come back to you, and now look to the little girl I once saved, to bring me peace."

Freya drops to the ground again. "Damn it, if you want me to kill you you're not making it easy. My connection to the force waivers if my emotions are unclear, and… I have no idea what I should be feeling. I'm angry, I'm sad, I'm happy… I'm totally confused.

"And you ruined a perfectly good rage," she laughs lightly in between tears. "I should have guessed that the flow-walking me came from different circumstances."

She shakes her head. "I'm probably confusing the hell out of your holocron. Even with the Force I'd be surprised if you could make a computer that could handle my moods. I'm twenty-four, but when I talk to you I'm a fourteen year-old basket case again. I have to pull myself together."

She rubs her eyes and runs her hands roughly through her hair. "I do love you, and if only way left for me to express it is to destroy what you have become, I will do it, but I need some time to think about this."

"Death is never easy Freya, I'm glad to know that my teachings didn't harden you into a killer. As hard as it is, I am touched that this conflicts you, that the choice to kill me is something you must struggle with."

Lucien smiles in a heartwarming manner you can't ever recall seeing on his face before.

"You are walking a narrow path between Sith and Jedi, and you're doing a fine job. Anger, yet compassion. Emotion, yet peace. Choas, yet harmony. You balance all these things even in the face of the annihilation of the Galaxy. You've become stronger than I could have hoped for you. Take your time to decide what you must."

His smile fades to the emotional distance you were used to.

"Now, no more tears girl. I did in fact design this holocron in case it was necessary to finish your training. Tell me what you have learned thus far, and then tell me everything you know about the Devourer. Knowledge, yet ignorance. Perhaps I can help you, but not without more information."

OOC: Feel free to just "Blah..." this part or highlight anything you have suspicions or theories on you might want to bounce of off Lucien.

Freya smiles and wipes her eyes. "Thank you."

As he asks her for details, she suddenly turns clinical, standing straight with her hands behind her back.

"Blah."
(She'll fill him in with the details they know, including that they have the holocrons of Sith's four lieutenants, the Shard of Sith, and that they fit together for some reason.)

"Sith obviously planned all of this out very carefully 5,000 years ago. If he didn't intend for the Shard to be found he wouldn't have left it behind. The others are hesitant to assemble and activate it, and if he did plan for this then turning it on must aid him in some way. However, if he wanted it to be put together then why make it a puzzle? One of my thoughts was that the assembled holocrons form some kind of modeled composite personality, but I don't see the benefit in that.

"I have also thought that somehow it would allow him to make use of power they either placed within the holocrons or the power they gathered, but they have been funneling power to him for millennia. I don't see how a little more could be important.

"Their holocrons contained more than echoes of them, while they were alive they were aware and could act through them. I sensed no presence now that their makers are dead, but Sith promised them eternal life. I don't think he would have lied so much as twisted the truth."

"Likely a great power lies within it while it is dormant, but I doubt activating it could help your cause in any way. It looks as if all the pieces fit together to make a very large holocron themselves. If the four could manifest their presence through their individual holocrons, no doubt Sith could do the same. Still leaving the question as to why he would want to do this?"

"I've wondered the same thing. His goal is to devour the Galaxy and, I believe, the Force, twist it in pain and suffering and leaving a dead galaxy filled with the Dark Side. He has nothing to teach anyone, unless it is to deceive. He nearly had us kill ourselves just from being at the edge of his presence. I cannot think of what he could do even if he was just manifesting through that thing. Perhaps a means of communication with the outside once he was inside the Construct? A way of controlling his minions, or directly usurping their Marks?

"Something else that I've been wondering... He wants to defy death. Why would you want to live forever as a thing like that? I know that he has to be insane to even attempt anything like this, but eternal life just for living's sake? Inside a monster? Is this really the end goal? Are we just seeing another step in an even longer plan?"

"The Sith have a vision of the future as do all Force users when attaining a certain level of understanding in the Force. The Sith don't see their death however, they feel their afterlife as a part of the Darkside. The pain and horror is so great they would do anything to live longer and avoid that fate. Sith is prolonging his life in perhaps the most insane way possible. The Jedi will often resign themselves to their fate, the Jensaraai may fight it from time to time, but never at the expense of another. Have you wondered at why a second rank Jensaraai is called a Defender? We take that title very seriously."

"No doubt as the Force guides us to places we may often question until all things come full circle, I am sure the Darkside has some greater plan for it's followers as well."

"Chattur'gha showed me his vision of his afterlife. I understand why they would want to avoid that."

"What is the relationship between the Force and the Darkside? Life creates the Force and causes it to grow and spread. But, if the Dark side of the Force is just another aspect of the Force, how can it exist if all life in the Galaxy is destroyed? Or… Sith would still be alive… the only Force user. Would that be enough?

"I'm trying to understand the metaphysics of what what he's doing. What is he doing? Eating all life and, thus, the Force, and…", she pauses while she looks for a less offensive word than the one she was about to say, "excreting… the Darkside?"