-----neccessary info and prologue---

Okay, this was written a few years ago, before TPM,
and well before the Jedi Apprentice books. The
council chambers 300 years prior to ANH are designed
different than the movie's council chambers for 2
reasons. One, TPM did not exist when i wrote this,
and two, it's 300 years in the past, and i'm sure they
must have gone through a lot of remodeling jobs over
the centuries anyhoo.

I have a page, or rather HAD a page up on my website
describing the history of the Twin Empires, the
Trelari Race, the history of the Blackstar Imperial
line and their section of space. The page itself is
still there somewhere, but the link somehow vanished
due to a geocities error a few months ago.

And yes, this is the same Kiraan from the Metaverse,
but in his much, much younger days.

A few quick backstory notes...
Yoda's race and the Trelari are natural enemies.
Kiraan was once owned by a hutt who hated him.
Kiraan's master was killed by a Sith, but the Jedi
refused to believe him and blamed him for the murder,
then banished him from the order.

all of the above backstory notes take place in
'Legend's Origin and the Blackstar Chronicles', a
four-story set of fanfics long-since lost on my
original website many years ago.

first of a series- Kiraan and Ethan Blackstar
300 yrs. pre-ANH
Diclaimers in prologue email.

1- First Impressions.

Ethan Blackstar, the last male descendant of the
nearly mythic Drakanaii Blackstar, looked more like he
should be in grade school somewhere, not off defending
the galaxy. He still wasn’t sure what they were
supposed to be defending it from. The Sith Knights
were extinct, the Republic Senate and the alliance of
sentient worlds kept most of the galaxy at peace. The
Jedi seemed almost redundant, and a bit outmoded by
the modern world.

Ethan stood in the atrium of some large government
building, he’d stopped paying attention what their
titles were when they visited them. Master Prylon was
here at the request of one of the visiting
businessmen, he wanted to be sure he was being dealt
with fairly. Ethan despised waiting around like this,
but he had to stay where his master told him to stay.

He sighed, studying one of the decorative plantings
beneath the skylight. It seemed like a waste of their
abilities, listening to a couple of pompous
bureaucrats argue over the tax on sninnet seed. He
hated politics, he wanted to be off doing something,
not just staring at the shrubbery. The Jedi in the
old legends were so...active in the universe, now all
it seemed that they did was prevent people from
settling arguments that they could very well handle on
their own.

He sighed again, his lightsaber felt heavier than
usual against his hip today. He idly wondered what
would happen if he’d simply forgotten it in his
quarters this morning. Even without it, no one would
ever be able to mistake him for anything else but a
Jedi apprentice. He’d been raised to be a Jedi, his
parents had simply left him to be raised by a master,
he hadn’t even heard from them since.

He tried to ignore the curious stares and awkward nods
of greeting from passers-by. He felt like part of the
scenery, and not even a very unobtrusive part either.
He felt like the rather hideous statue of a Reu Thaii
that had been a gift to the Saresian consulate. The
unsightly object had ‘graced’ the front walkway to the
consulate until it had an ‘accident’ with a cargo
transport.

It had been knocked over the railing, and was probably
being worshipped as a god by the overgrown sewer
rodents that were said to inhabit the lowest levels of
the city. The image of a pack of ugly, scaly rodents
bowing to an even uglier statue of some legendary hero
from Reu Thaii history made him smile slightly.

He quickly froze his face back in its serious posture,
glancing around and hoping no one had noticed him
smirking. For some odd reason, they weren’t supposed
to be smiling for any reason. He crossed his arms,
pacing away from the plants a small distance. His
inherent talents in the force and his short attention
span had gotten him in trouble once already this week.

He wasn’t allowed into the meeting, and they didn’t
know what else to do with him, so he’d been given the
run of the building. Not as if standing around here
was much better than standing around inside the
conference room. He looked back down at the
plantings, even they were probably less bored than he
was.

He looked around for a moment, then glanced back
toward a small shrub curiously. /You could use a
little pruning, you know,/ he thought, watching a tiny
beetle creep along the edge of one of the leaves. He
closed his eyes for a second, concentrating. He
reopened them, glancing around to make sure no one was
watching.

He focused in on one leaf, near the edge of the bush.
He pulled at the leaf gently with his mind, then
yanked it off the stem, letting it fall to the ground
unnoticed. He let a little smirk lift the corner of
his mouth. He studied the shrub again, watching the
beetle wander around the edge of another leaf.

He nudged the beetle’s leaf with the force. It waved
its antennae curiously, stopping in the center of the
leaf.
/Stop it,/ a voice in the back of his mind said.

He frowned slightly, nudging the leaf again.

/I said stop it, and don’t you dare knock that beetle
off that leaf,/ the voice said again.

Ethan sighed, pulling his attentions away from the
beetle and its bush.

/Sorry, master, I got bored,/ he said inside his mind.
He felt Master Prylon turn his concentration away
from him and back to his meeting. He sighed again,
folding his hands behind his back. He looked back
down at the beetle, waving its tiny green antennae
around as it walked along the rim of a leaf.

He glanced around, then up towards the conference room
where his master was. he looked back down after a
moment, locating the beetle again. He glanced around
again, then flicked the beetle off its leaf with the
force. He smiled mischievously as the little green
and blue beetle opened its wings before it hit the
ground. It buzzed away unharmed, disappearing into
another shrub.
/Ethan..,/ the voice warned. He walked away from the
plantings, pretending not to hear it.

Ethan found an empty bench next to a pillar across
from the entryway. He sat down, ignoring the dictate
that said he should look busy, even if he wasn’t. He
leaned back against the pillar, watching the entryway.

A strange figure on his way out the door caught his
attention briefly. He was some sort of humanoid, with
bronze/tan skin and pointed ears. He glanced back as
he walked, his dark gold eyes lighting on Ethan for a
moment as he exited the doors. Ethan was suddenly
struck by the presence the brief glance carried with
it, and the metallic cylinder at his belt seemed
eerily familiar.

The figure had pulled his dark blue cloak around him
before Ethan could be sure, but it looked like he was
carrying a lightsaber. He most certainly wasn’t
dressed like a Jedi, but there were those who either
decided not to wear the traditional robes, or were in
disguise for some reason. He let himself wonder about
the figure for a moment longer before he realized- he
wasn’t bored anymore.

-

Kiraan walked along the elevated pathway outside the
Trade monitor’s offices. He disliked the thought of
dealing with politicians for what he needed, but it
was a necessity. If the Twi’lek was telling the
truth, there was going to be another war on Tralis.

Stupid humans, they could never decide whether to blow
each other up or just shoot at everyone else. Tehrou
and his friends were trying to coerce the inhabitants
of Tralis Dreannis, the capitol moon, to come begging
to them to lighten the import taxes on their staple
foods.

Tralis Dreannis was a barren little ball of raw metal,
the only reason it was the capitol was that it was
easier to build buildings where the materials
necessary were abundant. No plants were indigenous to
Dreannis, no life whatsoever was indigenous to
Dreannis, everything had to be imported, even the air.

Kiraan pulled his cloak closer, hoping that no one
bothered to notice his lightsaber bouncing against his
leg as he walked. Being banished was one thing, but
working on one’s own to stop wars and aid the Jedi
without their knowing AND doing it all in the shadow
of the Jedi temple was excessively dangerous. He was
supposed to have left Coruscant thirty years ago, and
he had, but he kept coming back.

Despite what they thought of him, he intended to keep
being a Jedi until he was dead, or driven to the dark
side. In either instance, they were both a long ways
off for him.

He was only one hundred and twenty seven, he still had
a long way to go before he was even considered
socially mature by his species. Trelari weren’t
considered full adults until they were at least two
hundred.
He was trapped at the equivalent of being about twenty
in human age, old enough to be expected to act
responsibly, but not old enough to be taken seriously
by his peers. Even at that, he really had no peers,
he’d been shunned by the remaining Trelari for being
raised by humans. And the Jedi, the only life he’d
known for almost eighty years, had banished him for
killing the being who’d murdered his master. He
growled softly to himself, remembering.

Master Blake had been the first of only a few humans
he’d come to call friend, and the only one whom he
trusted with his life. Most humans were untrustworthy
in general, even Blake had lied to him, ever since the
beginning...

He shook his head, sniffing in a futile attempt to
clear his head. He didn’t need to think about that
now, he needed to focus on the present. He didn’t
especially care what happened to Tralis Dreannis one
way or the other, he just didn’t like wars starting
that close to his home. Sarris Kyronis was only a few
systems away, and these things had a habit of
spreading like a brush-fire in summer. He’d lost one
home already, he had no intention of letting another
fall to the torch of war.

Despite everything that had happened to him in the
past, he still wanted to help both the Jedi and the
tottering mass of ignorance called humanity. He
walked faster, he had a lot to do today, and tomorrow
would be even busier.

-

Ethan Blackstar stood in a large meeting room in the
Jedi temple. His master and a few others were talking
about his meeting with the ambassador to Tralis. The
pompous old Saresian had somehow gotten himself
appointed to the position despite the fact he wasn’t
even from the Tralis system.

Prylon had guessed from the few facts he’d given them
that something else was going on. They couldn’t just
go in to the council and tell then a line of
suspicions and theories. Prylon and his friends
weren’t any sort of official council, but they debated
and made judgments nearly as often as the real Jedi
council did.

They probably shouldn’t have had these meetings, but
they still had them. They’d started them about thirty
years ago, after the council had nearly split down the
middle over some rogue Jedi apprentice. The council
still had odd feelings about accepting stray students
as quickly nowadays.

After what had been quietly covered up as a renegade
Jedi breaking the code, the council had banished
Tyrnan Blake’s student and refused to speak of the
incident much. Even now, it was called Blake’s folly,
and barely anyone remembered the student’s name now.

Ethan got bored after a while of listening to them
bicker back and forth, and asked to be excused.
Prylon let him leave after a reproachful look. He
left the room without anyone mentioning how much it
would be to his benefit to stay and learn about
politics.

He closed the door behind him, sighing with relief as
he leaned back against the door. He walked off down
the corridor, looking for his friends Rick and
Darietha.

He found them talking to another apprentice, Ethan
vaguely remembered his name as Liam.

“Hi Dari,” he said, trying to sneak up behind them
from around a pillar.

“Ethan,” she said in mock surprise, turning.

“Aren’t you supposed to be following Master Prylon
around?” Rick said, folding his arms and raising an
eyebrow curiously.

Ethan shrugged, “He let me go for a while,” he said,
leaning against the pillar.

“Got in trouble again, didn’t you?” Rick said, tossing
a thin blonde braid over his shoulder.

Ethan shrugged again, pulling at one of his long, dark
braids.

“I can’t believe your master lets you keep your hair
like that,” Liam said from beside Dari. Rick looked
back with a smirk.

“Liam Richards, meet Ethan Blackstar,” he said. Liam
looked at Ethan in curious surprise.

“Blackstar? are you related to...”

Ethan nodded half-heartedly, stopping him in
mid-question.
“Yeah, /that/ Blackstar,” he mumbled.

“Oh, then I guess they just let you do whatever then,
right?” Liam said, then took a step behind Dari as
Ethan glared at him.

“No, they do not let me do whatever. I’m lucky they
let me have enough leash to change my boots without
written permission,” he said, folding his arms
unhappily. “Just because I have a big name doesn’t
mean I’m as big as my ancestors,” he said quietly.

Liam looked embarrassed, “Sorry,” he said quietly.

“Ethan, are you okay?” Dari said, placing her hand on
Ethan’s shoulder.

“Yeah, it’s just been a bad day,” he said, pulling
away from her.

“Jedi aren’t supposed to have bad days,” Liam said,
then stepped further behind Dari as both Rick and
Ethan glared at him.

Dari took a few steps away from Liam, ruining his
hiding place.

“Everyone has bad days, Liam,” she said.

“Especially Jedi,” Rick said, standing beside Ethan.

“You’re not that big of a snot to claim you’ve never
had a bad day,” Dari said, raising an eyebrow. Liam
looked embarrassed again.

“I’d better be going anyway,” he mumbled. Ethan
watched him walk away regretfully.

“Sorry, Liam,” he said. Liam glanced back, then kept
walking. The group was silent for a moment.

“Well, I do believe we’ve ruined that young man’s
day,” Rick said finally, leaning his elbow on Ethan’s
shoulder with a half-witted grin. Dari and Ethan
looked at him strangely, then they started laughing.

Ethan happened to glance across the room toward the
lift as the doors opened. A tall figure in a dark
blue cloak with long curly hair and pointed ears
emerged from the doors, walking quickly. Ethan gaped
in surprise.

“There he is again!” he stammered.

“Who?” Rick said, turning to look toward the lift.

“That person from yesterday,” Ethan said, pulling away
from the pair.

“What?” Dari said, confused. Ethan watched him go
down a side corridor.

“Talk to you later,” he said, walking off toward the
place he’d seen the figure disappear. Dari and Rick
watched him leave, still confused.

Ethan followed the figure toward the lift to the Jedi
council’s chambers. He was walking faster than Ethan,
but Ethan kept following him. The lift doors closed
just as Kiraan arrived at them. He banged a clawed
hand against the door’s mirrored and patterned
surface, then glanced around. He took off for the
stairwell, just as the someone finally noticed him.

“Hey!” they shouted as he disappeared through the door
to the stairs.

Ethan stopped outside the lift doors, watching the
person who’d shouted at Kiraan follow the blue-cloaked
figure into the stairwell. Ethan stood for a few
seconds, trying to figure out what to do. The lift
doors opened behind him as he stood thinking.
He looked back at the doors, then decided.

He ducked into the lift, hesitating for a moment
before punching the button for the council chamber’s
floor. He shouldn’t be doing this, he thought,
staring at his reflection in the polished bronze-toned
wall of the lift. Not even master Prylon came up here
without a reason, and following a mysterious stranger
wasn’t exactly an excuse for this kind of disregardful
behavior. He blocked the twinge of worry from his
mind and waited for the door to open.

He stepped out of the lift and looked around. He’d
beaten the stranger up to this floor, if this was
where he was going in the first place. He tried to
ignore the curious look from a nearby Jedi as he
blocked the lift doors from closing. They didn’t have
much time to pay attention to him as the figure in
the blue cloak came out of the stairwell door and
dodged past another Jedi.

“Excuse me,” he said quickly, jumping over a low
decorative rail. Ethan’s presence was quickly
forgotten as Master Yoda himself emerged from the
doors on the other side of the room.

“You,” he said coldly, glaring at the stranger.
The figure slowed his strides as he crossed the room.

“Master Yoda, I have to speak with you,” he said as he
walked.

“No,” Yoda said, “Belong here, you do not, Kiraan.
Get out,” he said angrily. Ethan watched them in
shock, he’d never heard Yoda sound so upset before.

“Not before I’ve spoken with the council,” the figure
said, stopping a few meters away from Yoda. A few
other Jedi had appeared from behind Yoda, and most
seemed to share the hostility toward the visitor.

“No, speak with you we will not. Leave now you will!”
Yoda said.

“How dare you even think of coming back here,
Trelari,” one of the others said. Kiraan stood in the
center of the room, he obviously had no intention of
leaving.

“I’m not going to be ignored this time!” he said, his
accent sounding odd with the low rumbling in his
voice. “You wouldn’t listen before and Master Blake
died!” he said, pointing angrily at them.

“Your fault, Blake’s death was!” Yoda snapped, “Not
the Jedi’s fault this is!” Kiraan turned away from
them, growling, his topaz eyes flashing.
He turned back after a second, glaring at Yoda and the
others.

“There will be a war in the Tralis system if you don’t
stop this before it starts,” he said. They stood
silently, glaring at Kiraan. He took a few steps
backward with resignation.

“Fine, have it your way,” he said, gesturing widely
with his arms. “I’ll not take the blame this time,
though. There are witnesses that I tried to warn you
this time,” he said, waving toward the assembled
spectators.

“I will speak to you again,” he said pointing back at
Yoda as he entered the stairwell again. He slammed
the door behind him, descending the stairs angrily.
Someone finally remembered Ethan and looked back
toward the lift, but he was gone.

Ethan left the lift as the doors opened, walking
quickly toward the stairwell. He didn’t know what he
was going to say, he just wanted to stop the
mysterious visitor long enough to ask him something,
anything. He’d made Ethan curious, and he suddenly
wanted to know more about him.

He stepped into the stairwell, closing the door behind
him. He leaned against the door for a moment,
listening to the boot-steps coming down the stairs,
trying desperately to think of something to say.
He walked toward the base of the stairs, still trying
to think. He looked up in surprise as the stranger
suddenly rounded the last flight of stairs, nearly
running into him.

He stared blankly into those angled topaz eyes, which
stared back with an intensity Ethan had rarely seen,
even in some of the older masters he’d met. He found
himself at a loss for words as Kiraan studied him
curiously. He turned away from Ethan, walking toward
the door into the corridor. Ethan suddenly gathered
himself, jogging over to Kiraan.

“Why is master Yoda so angry with you?” he blurted.
The blue-cloaked figure stopped short of the door,
looking back at Ethan in surprise.

“That’s a long and complicated story,” he said,
studying Ethan. The low, rumbling undertone to his
voice was more audible in the quiet of the stairwell.
Ethan froze, his mind racing to form another question.

“Why did you come bursting in here like that?” he
said.
Kiraan flicked his topaz gaze over Ethan, assessing
him.

“Why should I bother to explain myself to you?” he
said, turning back toward the door.

“My name is Ethan Blackstar,” he said, taking a step
after him. Kiraan looked back, surprised.

“Blackstar? as in the great legendary Jedi fellow?” he
said in a near mocking tone. Ethan nodded, still at a
loss for words.

“Then it looks like we’ve both got a reputation we
don’t deserve,” he said, glancing back toward the
door. Ethan stared at him curiously.

“My name’s Kiraan,” he said, returning his gaze to
Ethan. He extended a clawed hand toward Ethan and
they shook hands briefly.

“Hi,” Ethan said, then realized how silly that
sounded. Kiraan smiled, showing nearly feline teeth.

“Hi,” he said, laughing slightly.
Kiraan looked at the door again, then back at Ethan.

“You wouldn’t happen to know another way out of here,
would you?” he asked. Ethan looked confused for a
moment. “I believe that there’s a rather large group
of your fellow Jedi outside waiting to escort me from
the premises,” he said, nodding at the door. Ethan
nodded, walking toward the continuation of the
stairwell, leading down.

“There’s another door a few flights down,” he said,
gesturing toward the stairs.

“Thanks,” Kiraan said, walking past him and starting
down the steps.
Ethan turned to go out the door, then thought the
better of it. He took a step toward the stairs again,
then heard a voice from down the stairs.

“Don’t let them ruin you, boy,” he said. Ethan looked
down at Kiraan from over the rail. “You’ve got your
own balance. Don’t let them tip you to their side too
far, or you’ll lose your center,” he said, then
started down the stairs as if he’d said nothing.

Ethan opened the door to the stairwell and saw a few
of the Jedi from upstairs waiting outside the door.

“Umm, hi,” he said sheepishly, closing the door behind
him. They stared at him curiously. “If you’re
waiting for the guy with the pointed ears, he’s gone,”
he said, jerking his thumb back toward the door. A
visible look of disappointment crossed a few of their
faces, they had wanted to send Kiraan off with a boot,
not let him sneak off out of the building quietly.

Ethan shrugged and walked toward the corridor he’d
followed Kiraan down earlier. A few of the others
watched him walk away with a strange expression on
their faces. As he reached the end of the hallway, he
ducked off into an alcove along an empty passageway.

He leaned against the wall, closing his eyes and
trying to slow his suddenly panicked breathing. He
had a strange flittering feeling in his stomach, and
the nagging thought that he’d just done something very
wrong in helping Kiraan escape.

He let out a deep breath, hoping no one had paid that
much attention to him in the council chamber’s
antechamber. He couldn’t believe he’d been that
brazenly stupid. He had no business following Kiraan,
and most certainly had no business taking the lift up
to the Jedi council chambers without his master.

He suddenly opened his eyes with a twinge of panic,
his master. He walked out of the alcove and down the
corridor toward another lift. He punched in the level
where master Prylon was still having his meeting. He
decided to wait outside the room for him instead of
wasting time getting into trouble.

/Don’t let them ruin you, boy, Kiraan’s words echoed
in his mind. Don’t let them tip you too far to their
side, or you’ll lose your center./ Was that what he
had done? Refused to become a Jedi completely? Ethan
couldn’t shake the gaze from those deep topaz eyes.
They had burned their way into him with such intensity
that he was a little frightened at the thought of
meeting their glare again, but he wanted to know what
Kiraan had meant. He wanted to know whose side he’d
been talking about, and why he’d said all that in the
first place.

Ethan stopped at the door to the conference room,
thinking for a moment. Then he turned and walked back
down the hallway, taking the lift up to the
observation deck. He needed a little fresh air to
clear his head, he thought, watching the lift doors
close.

/What are you doing?/ his own voice echoed into his
head. He leaned his head against the wall of the
lift, breathing out slowly.

/You shouldn’t be letting yourself get mixed up inside
like this,/ he reminded himself. He was supposed to
be able to keep his emotions on a tight leash, never
letting them take him over the way he’d just done. He
was a Blackstar, and a Jedi, he wasn’t supposed to be
that slack in his self-control. He was supposed to be
able to ignore his emotions, to lock them away during
combat, and to block their intrusion into everyday
life. /Like they just did,/ he thought, walking out
onto the balcony.

/Why?/ The question drifted into his mind without an
answer, he couldn’t answer it. He stood, leaning on
the rail, watching the cityscape, thinking.

/Because that’s the way it is,/ the answer came, but
not from his own mind. He turned around, Master
Prylon stood behind him. Prylon watched him for a few
moments before speaking.

“I sensed that you were troubled,” he said, answering
Ethan’s question before he asked it. Ethan closed off
the telepathic link that Prylon had opened, looking
back toward the city horizon. He stood silently,
ashamed of his mind’s wanderings.

“Ethan,” Prylon said, walking over to the railing.
“Kiraan is a dangerous man,” he said quietly, “Don’t
let him get to you.” Ethan looked over at him in
surprise.

“Someone told me they saw you following him after his
little...meeting with Master Yoda,” he said, relieving
Ethan of the fear that he’d been leaking
telepathically. He sighed, crossing his arms.

“Ethan, I know the past few months have been hard for
you, but you mustn’t let yourself be so easily
distracted,” Prylon said, studying his apprentice.
Ethan turned his gaze from his master back to the
traffic patterns laced across the sky.

“What did he do, for Yoda to treat him like that?”
Ethan asked without looking to Prylon. Master Prylon
leaned on the railing next to Ethan.

“That is an extremely long story, my young friend,” he
said, watching the glittering dots move across the sky
in patterns so complex only the flight-controller
droids really understood it.

“One that it took me nearly my entire youth to coax
out of my own master,” he said. Ethan looked over at
him.

“Was it really so bad, that no one will even speak of
it?”

“No, not really,” Prylon said, thinking. “It just
depends on your point of view on the subject,” he
turned to look at Ethan.

“What subject?” Ethan asked.

“/Revenge,/” Prylon said quietly, as if the building
itself would crumble at the mere mention of the word.
Ethan looked at him, eyes widening in curiosity.

“Come on, I’ll tell you about it later,” he said,
standing straight again. He took a few steps away
from the rail, leaving Ethan still watching him from
the rail.

“Why do I have the feeling that your master used the
same words to evade telling you?” Ethan said,
straightening up to follow him. Prylon glanced back
with a smirk, then continued walking.

“I’m not going to have to wait until I’m as old as
you, am I?” Ethan said, his voice echoing slightly as
they walked down the hall.

“No, of course not,” Prylon said. “I’ll probably be
dead by the time you’re as old as I am,” he said.

“Then neither of us will know very much, will we?” he
added, joking.

-------