OOC: This is going to be a one post short story of DarkSaber returning to the ruins of Bene Tellemara or Teoul'alfar , on the eighteenth anniversary of its destruction. He goes through some reccolections. I will also put it into a different prospective, as if you were reading it from DarkSaber's journal. Do not add to this although i would appreciate some comments and suggestions. And tell my the mistakes I make. Read and Enjoy. I had told only Lord Kaardoon where I was going. He had whole heartily agreed saying "that it would help me past the pain". I doubt it would, but I knew that I had to go back, for no better purpose than to look upon the ruins. Thats why I was hovering 100 feet above the mountains , preparing to land. It was difficult to say the least, I had not been on Theed in eithteen years. Too many painful memories haunted my every thought before I even landed, and turning back crossed my mind more than once. I piloted the Ragnarok to a considerably large field, just beyond a copse of trees, and set down. It took me several minutes to gain the courage to climb out of my crash restraints and leave the ship. When I walked out the humidity hit me and I shook off the feeling with a shrug. I was in a clearing that was easily a hundred feet in diameter with lush vegitation everywhere I looked. There were animals, ofcourse, but they stayed beyond my line of sight, and to the shadows that the trees provided. It took me only ten minutes to reach the thick forestry, it would have been shorter if I hadn't been nervous. I felt strange to be nervous at a place that was so familiar. As the minutes passed and I walked through the forest, jumping logs and leaping ponds, the place became more rugged with debris. I looked at them all in turn, everyone of them held a memory, everyone of them held my pain. Most of it were made of marble, which is what most of the buildings were made of, and shined with the never ceasing power of the force. They were always in slabs, not round like boulders, just flash surfaced and smooth. When I looked at one, it brought back memories of the battles, of the cries of pain and death. Then I would look abruptly away, as if trying to shut the memory out, only to have it return when my eyes fell over another slab. As I walked on, knowing this area by heart, the vegitation dramatically changed from vegetables and green forestry to burned trees that would never grow back, and large black spots as wide as a bantha was long. Every spot was created by a blaster fire or lasers from flying ships. I had to avoid many craters from that bombers had created, most were about twenty feet deep with blasted marks all the way down. I could have sworn that I saw a human skeleton but I didn't stay to find out. My home was just up ahead over the next uprising no more than one mile away. Along the way I spotted a few more skeletons and that only tainted my feelings more, one of these people could have been my friend. In just an hour I came over the hill, due to a crater that used to be my home before a bomber hit it the hill had a large chunk taken our of one side, making a steep drop of thirty feet below. Soon after I came to my home, or what was left of it. It used to be one of the most beautiful abodes in Theed. But now the remains of the building were at the bottom of a crater. A memory came to me of himself and his wife running out of there and soon after the place exploded, pelting both of us with debris and knocking me unconscious. That was an oppertune time for Damien to grab my wife. I shook off the memory and headed toward my last destination. Most of the remains of the fort are scattered so there wasn't much to see. But there was a tower up ahead that never fell, the final battle took place there. And it also had a tragic ending there. I walked for only ten minutes when i arrived at a great marble tower that reached up a hundred feet and more. The tower consisted of a stairwell that led up in a spiral all the way to the top. I rounded the tower until I found the door and walked right in. The bottom room was big enough to hold only two people and the stairs was straight ahead. I remembered this spot in particular. The tower had been guarded at the time by Jedi when I had arrived to save my wife. *Without knowing it DarkSaber closes his eyes* I went up the stairs in battle formations although the war was long gone now, it was in its peak in my mind. A Jedi charged at me, running downstairs with wild abandon, all I could think about was the queen. I moved back down a step just before the lightsaber slashed into the wall where I was standing just moments before. I responded in kind with with a right hook that connected with the Jedi's chin, he stumbled backward but I would not let him recover. I quickly grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the wall so hard that it left an imprent in the marble wall. The Jedi fell motionless to the ground and slid down the rest of the way. I went through several more "illusionarry" battles before I reached the top. There, I saw Damien, holding a long dagger to her throat. My heart had nearly stopped at that. Damien turned toward me, a mocking laughter errupted from his lips and he he looked back at Nalia, my wife. She knew what was to come a second before it happened, she manage to mouth the words "I Love You" before the dagger slit her throat. It was quite strange for me to be acting this out again, to be replaying it in a different time, but I saw the vivid details as if they were just happening although the room was quite empty. The images disapeared and I opened my eyes to find that I was indeed at the top of the tower, there was no body of Nalia, no Damien, no death. Right then, not being able to hold it back anymore, I burst into tears and kneeled down to the very spot that Nalia died. I must have stayed there and wept for an hour, keeping my head low and looking at the now returned body of Nalia. I knew it was an illusion, but I didn't care, all I wanted was for her to be alive, now more than ever. I looked at her with sadness that I have never known before. But somewhere, deep inside, her death was being torn away from my mind, and being replaced with the good times before she died. My mind wandered toward our strolls through the gardens and their wedding. On that day he had given her a rare treasure indeed. A Zios Gem, a gem that is said to be one of the rarest gems in the galaxy. Only five are known to have ever existed. But we both gave something to each other that was more precious than anything, our hearts. When I finally looked up, the illusion was gone, and so was most of my torment. Unstead of remembering all the death, I remember all the life. I remembered the happiness before the war, and I remember her smile. I will avenge the death of my friends and more importantly, my wife. But even today i am yet to avenge Nalia, but someday I will find Damien, and settle the score.
 
-----------------------
A star rushes past, to crash upon the shore
But the first of many many more
Stoke that fire and stout bar the door
For this is the night Jedi go to war

~DarkSaber