Author's note: this is a work of fanfiction based on the first issue of Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi, Redemption. Some dialogue and minor scenes may have been edited to the author's personal interpretation. Characters and scenes belong to Lucasfilm. Please do not reprint story without permission of author.

Huddled inside his thick coat, he shivered. Outside the viewport, below, far, so far away, the green jewel that was the fourth moon of Yavin glimmered, dwarfed by its giant of a crimson sun that loomed over the small spacecraft like some devil's eye. He imagined he could feel its scorching heat on his skin through the shields, through the thick plated hull of the merchant vessel.

But he was still cold.

He almost turned his face away, almost told the pudgy man sitting at the pilot's seat to turn back. Approaching Yavin...how many times had he done so before? How many times had he stood as he did now, at the front viewport on the bridge of a spacecraft, watching the planet draw near?

But this time there were no Krath at the controls. No gutteral Massassi voices beneath the grating voice of Crado on the intercom.

This time there would be no dark lord to meet him.

The pudgy man seemed unaware of his mood, chattering rapidly away about nothing at all. Then again, he was not the brightest of space merchants, which was why he was ideal for this task. Take me aboard, I'll give you credits, ask me no questions and take me someplace where I can find solitude.

Except...this was not quite what he had had in mind.

The spacer's hand twitched on the throttle controls to spin them down for a landing, his chatter never ceasing. "The fourth moon of Yavin is thick with jungles. Nice place, really-it's recovered from the devastation ten years ago...a great place for solitude. Believe me, I think it's exactly what you're looking for." A hopeful look in his direction.

He almost smiled at that as he pulled the cloak tighter around himself. Looking for solitude. That was it. How ironic, that in trying to escape from the the past that had haunted him every waking minute for ten years that he had been brought back to the heart of the pain?

Absently he reached a hand up and touched the scar on his forehead. Jagged and red, covering almost half of what would have been smooth skin once, now weathered and rough from hard years of too much grief. Perhpas he was not meant to forget. Perhaps it was his curse to have the pain forever near him, a once great Jedi and even greater Sith Lord, now neither, stripped of power, scarred both outside and in. If only he hadn't been so sure of himself. If only he had listened to Nomi, listened to Master Arca, listened to Cay.

Cay...

The craft bumped gently on the rocks as the landing gear scraped down for a decent landing. "I just love watchin' the Jedi, don't you?" the pudgy spacer said, glee in his voice. "Great events happened here on Yavin Four." He licked his lips, as if in anticipation of telling a story that few had heard and even fewer had understood.

The passenger barely heard the words, standing at the entrance to the boarding ramp, eyes closed. The ramp lowered with a hiss and yet he did not move for a moment, breathing deep of the familiar Yavin air, once so sweet with life, now only beginning to recover that scent after the devastation that had occured here.

Even after all these years, whenever he thought of Yavin he still could not imagine it without seeing Massassi toiling away at the docks outside the temples, Mandalorian scouts training in the shadows, platoons of guards and flights of space and aircraft wheeling overhead. He winced inwardly at the sight that lay before him. Gray ruins of massive stone, everywhere he looked. Vines hung crazily over the rock, rotting nests of small animals, long abandoned, half-fell from the crevices. The platform on which they had landed had the look of an ancient ruin, although he could still remember the day the crews had put the final stone in place. He had argued against its construction at all, saying that they had more than enough platforms and should concentrate on increasing the size of the fleet instead, but Kun, as usual, had held the upper hand. He always had, with everything.

It was so quiet. Even with the hum and buzz of insects in the underbrush it seemed something was missing. This was not Yavin as he had known it. The Yavin he had known was dead.

After all these years, he could feel nothing. No darkness, no light, no power. Nothing. He was still blind to the Force.

Nomi...why?

The spacer bounded ahead, his arms raised to the blue, blue sky which looked so empty without training craft and control platforms on the horizon, gesturing around to the too quiet jungle. "This was Exar Kun's main base during the Sith War." Pointing dramatically in the distance. "Those ruins are the temples he built."

The Sith Empire will rise again, and we are the spark...

He closed his eyes, willing the memory, the pain to cease, but all he could see was that face flashing before him with amazing clarity. Long ebony hair, high cheekbones, burning eyes, power.

The chatter continued obliviously. "But Ulic Qel-Droma betrayed him in the end..."

Red-gold hair, warm lips. Betrayal.

Ulic! Ulic, what have you done?

Get out of here! I swear I'll kill you all!

"All the great Jedi came here to bring a final defeat to the Dark Lord of the Sith." Voice full of awe. "Can't you just imagine the ships in the air?"

All too well.

I betrayed you...all of you...I can set it right with him but never with you...Nomi...Cay...Tott...Sylvar...

Crado's death. Ship exploding in the Cron system's expanding sun. Such a way to go. What was he thinking as he died?

Kun's fault, not mine. Not mine.

Exar Kun...What have you done?

Red fire, a circle of Jedi, all the power of the light side of the Force raining down. As they destroyed his life. As he groped for a hint, a touch, of that power, and could feel nothing.

"A great place for solitude." The spacer's voice quickened. "It give me shivers to be here...I can almost feel the echoes." Eyes shining, fists clenched. "Can't you?"

Boots clicking on stone. With a start he realized they had crossed the expanse of jungle and were now on the main walkway of the main temple. He reached out, brushed the moss and dirt encrusted walls that were once so smooth. Tried to remember the tingle of power on his skin.

It was so cold.

He closed his eyes against the tears. He fought and he lost. A single drop trickled down, making a salty trail across his skin. He glanced up, feeling suddenly the eyes of many ghosts upon him. Footsteps clattering on the stone, red skin slick with blood. Killing fever in inhuman eyes. Smoke, the stench of burning flesh. He blinked. For a moment he thought he saw shadows of Massassi running across the ruined walls, spears raised. Real or imagined? Shades of his own Krath following. And there in front of him...

He sucked in a breath. No. Not Cay.

But there was no hatred on the face of his brother's spirit. Only sadness, only an infinite sadness that seemed to pierce through him with an almost physical pain.

Ulic...I'll never see you again.

I won't leave you!

Remembered faintly raising his saber high with a power he couldn't control.

Then you should have just left-me-ALONE!

He almost reached out a hand to the shade, wanting...something. To say something, to tell him he was sorry, sorry for everything. That he loved him.

But Cay was gone. He blinked. There were no Massassi, no fires. He was alone. Had he been only imagining too vividly?

A tug on his sleeve. A cheerful round face.

"So...whaddya think? You paid me to find-"

He shook his head curtly. He should never have agreed to come back. Leave the dead to their own, and concentrate on the living. Or perhaps he was already dead and only walking among the living. Waiting for his time to join his brother, his subjects, his friends. His masters, both of them.

Unconsciously he reached up, brushed the scar where the Sith crest used to be branded so deeply. It was past time to be gone.

He dropped his hand, shook his head again. "No," he said, his voice flat, emotionless. "This won't do. This won't do at all."

He didn't wait for the spacer's reaction before turning to begin the long walk back to the ship, collar turned up against the moist jungle air, coat pulled tight around him.

It was still very, very cold.