Bright suns, Star Wars fans, and welcome to Part 5 of our Hashtag Show exclusive fan fiction, I, Inquisitor. Following the confession of a Tavek Dinaar, a former Jedi padawan-turned-Inquisitor, our story now turns to his first mission. A discovered Jedi weapon has lead Fourth Brother and Third Sister to the planet of Shili.

(If you need a refresher, or want to move on to other installments, click the links below.)

Now, on Shili, they wait to spring their trap and and destroy a fugitive Jedi….

I, Inquisitor, Part 5

Perhaps, at another time of my life, I would have appreciated the beauty that the planet of Shili afforded. It’s rich, colorful grasslands and lush, canopy forests painted an idyllic landscape. Even its people, the Togruta, were awash with pigmented luster. I remember now a young Togruta male at the Jedi Temple. He must have been my age, perhaps a Coruscanti rotation or two older. He held himself with nobility of character, reflective of his race. Such thoughts never entered my mind, however, as we set to the task ahead of us.

The village we sought sat far outside of the Shili capitol. Bordering the merger of two rivers, the circular hamlet was full of unique structures resembling Togruta Montrals. The symbiotic relationship between the people, the land, and their structural architecture was a cultural phenomenon the Empire cared not about. I, as an Inquisitor, took note of it for strategic purposes and little else. Third Sister and I arrived with all the eyes of the village, curious and fearing, upon us.

Inquisitor; Shili
Image: Lucasfilm Ltd.

The Imperial insignia on our shoulders was enough to instill fear.

The crimson glow of our lightsabers ensured it.

“Give us what we want, and we’ll consider leaving the rest of you in peace,” Third Sister said loudly. An elder Togruta woman, presumably the village’s matriarch, approached. Her Montrals were swirled with white and blue, her face a pale green, matching the landscape surround us.

“We are a peaceful tribe here. We want no quarrel with the Empire. What is it you seek?” I stood by silently as Third Sister approached the woman cautiously. The old woman showed no fear, though I could sense her growing apprehension.

“We seek the one called Shan Xi. We know she is here. Bring her to us now.”

The old woman frowned. “What business have you with her?”

“The Empire’s business is its own. Now produce the girl.”

“And if we refuse?”

 Third Sister’s demeanor shifted instantly. The emotion that filled her was not one of anger. Rather, sadistic joy filled every fiber of her being. She ignited just one side of her lightsaber, impaling the old woman through the chest. Cruelly, she held the blade long enough for the searing pain to set in and the realization of death to fill the Togruta’s mind. Amazingly, the old woman made no cry; the only sound came from the lightsaber disengaging and her body falling to the ground.

Cries of shock and horror filled the air. “Murderer,” some screamed, though none stepped forward to avenge the woman’s death. Many fled the square. Those in the crowd that remained stood too frozen to move, too shocked to process what had occurred. Third Sister’s actions had produced the desired effect. Then, slowly, the gathered mass of Togrutas began to part into two. A young Togruta woman, with cream and grey-colored Montrals and pale, blue skin, emerged through the parting.

I, Inquisitor
Image credit unknown

“I am the one you seek, Inquisitor. Please spare my people. I will go with you.”

I could again sense perverse delight emanating from Third Sister. “Oh child, you’re not going anywhere.”

Suddenly the woman known as Shan Xi began to tremble, then convulse. Fruitlessly she grasped at her throat as her airway constricted to the point of asphyxiation. Her eyes bulged and she lost consciousness, though her life force remained weakly intact.

“Take her and bind her to the spire,” Third Sister commanded of me. I of course did as expected, without question. I dragged her limp body to the center of the square, propped her up, and bound her arms behind her against the smooth stone of the ornamental spire. When finished I looked to Third Sister.

“Stims?”

She nodded. I removed from my belt a stim stick and injected it into the Togruta’s neck. She returned to consciousness instantaneously. Though she feigned courage, fear seeped from her like morning mist on the river that surrounded us. Her eyes, conversely, burned with hatred. Beneath my mask I closed my eyes. She was strong, but not strong enough. He’d warned her we might come someday.  Though he’d fled in an effort to save her life, the jedi known as Jae Cal Onis had instead condemned his beloved to death. And love her, he had. Such love, however, betrayed the Jedi Code.

Third Sister sensed it to, and nodded when I turned my head in her direction. She needed not to speak. I knew my role and would fulfil my duty; my duty as an Inquisitor and agent of the Empire. I stepped back and spoke.

“Call to Him.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking abo—”

The snap-hiss of my blade and the searing burn as I thrust its tip into one of her Montrals caught her by agonizing surprise. She screamed in horrific pain. Though the screams of my victims never brought me personal joy, Third Sister brimmed with it. I withdrew the blade and her shrieks subsided. It took her several moments to regain her breath and composure. I waited. We were in no hurry.

“I can’t. I don’t know where he is. We don’t maintain comms. You probably have a better idea of where he is than I do.”

I knelt in front of her.

“You mistake my desire. I do not mean call him. I said call to him.”

She looked up to me, the burning anger in her eyes replaced with fearful confusion.

“I don’t understand what you mean!”

I stood, walked two paces away, then turn and reignited my blade. This time I pierced her other Montral. Again she screamed, and I I repeated my demand.

“Call to him!” I demanded.

“I can’t, I don’t have—”

Further into her flesh I pushed my blade.

“Call to him!”

More screams, and then finally, his name erupted from her lips.

“Jae Cal, please help me!”

Satisfied at last, I returned my blade to my belt and stood at Third Sister’s side.

“Do you think it was enough?” I asked her.

She tilted her head and contemplated. “Yes, yes I think it was. Come. Now we wait.”

Image: Lucasfilm Ltd.; Electronic Arts

Shan Xi leaned forward against her restraints, sobbing. I watched, briefly, before following Third Sister away towards a nearby hut that would serve as our refuge until the Jedi arrived. I should have felt remorse. Perhaps even compassion. I felt neither. Instead I reminded myself of how the Jedi had betrayed every teaching they instilled in me. I remembered how their hubris plunged the galaxy into war-torn chaos. Thoughts of the Grand Inquisitor smiling over me as I released myself to the Dark Side buoyed me. I was no longer Jedi:

I was Inquisitor.

We watched closely for two rotations. Though we didn’t need the girl to remain alive, we allowed the other villagers to bring her nourishment just the same. Third Sister wanted the satisfaction of seeing the look on the Jedi’s face at the moment of her demise. Only once did the Togruta attempt to free her. They thought we’d be sleeping. They were wrong. The glow of our sabers reflected and gleamed off our masks and armor as we struck them down. Some called us “dark demons.” None others, however, dared interfere again.

I know you are, at this point, likely already disgusted with my tale. I implore you not to turn away, Senator Organa. There are far more dastardly revulsions I’ve yet to share. If I do not provide this account in excruciating detail, however, there is little chance anyone in the Senate will believe the veracity of these words. As an Inquisitor I was trained to operate with stealth. There is no other record of these occurrences, I assure you. You will need every painful detail I provide you to promote your cause and bring Darth Vader’s crusade of murderous injustice to light.

And believe me, there are more painful details to come.

We sensed the Jedi’s arrival on Shili the moment the Corellian YT-2400 freighter he’d commissioned to deliver him there touched down. I’d been trained to sense those of a Force-sensitive nature, honing my skills in the Force so acutely that I’d have known it was him in any event. It took little effort at all, though, to learn of his arrival. Never before, and never since, had I ever felt such darkness envelope a Jedi. His anger radiated through the Force in waves.

He was no so dissimilar than I, this Jedi of a fallen order.

Anger and rage filled him. although, that which he felt was decidedly different from that which fueled me. Rather than recognize the faults of the Jedi, and direct his ire towards those that had truly failed him, it was Emperor Palpatine, and Vader, that drove him. By extension that wrath found its way to us of the Inquisitorious. That wrath strode its way through the morning mist of early hours of the third rotation of our arrival.

Third Sister and I stood flanking the Togruta prisoner, still shackled to the spire at the village’s center. The Jedi approached with purpose and conviction, the mist swirling about him like ghosts dancing in the breeze. Though his hood covered his face, his fierce gaze pierced through the shadow it cast across his features. He advanced within one hundred meters before stopping. Though filled with anger, he held true to his Jedi teachings. His arms crossed his chest, his hands hidden in the opposite sleeves of his robe. He spoke, his voice calm, but firm.

“I’m here, as you desired, Inquisitor. Now let her go.”

Image: adrian911/DeviantArt

The sound of his voice drew the prisoner awake.

“Jae Cal, no! Please no,” the woman known as Shan Xi wailed. Neither I nor Third Sister reacted, and the Jedi strode closer.

“She’s served her purpose,” he said as he spoke again. This time he pulled the hood back from his head. He was tall, human. I could place his planet of origin neither from his voice nor appearance, yet his appearance was unique. His hair was as dark as the deep space sky, save stark white streaks at his temples. The same, brilliant white striped his black beard down the middle from beneath his nose, across his chin, and down his neck.

“I’m your prize, not her. Come and claim me.”

“Jae Cal, please, leave now,” the prisoner plead.  “I’m not worth it. They’re here to destroy you!”

In that moment I felt it from her again; the perverse emancipation of devilish emotion. Third Sister roared a sound I’d not thought possible and ignited both blades of her lightsaber. The weapon spun in blinding fashion before she swung, severing the Togruta’s head and portions of her Montrals from her body before slicing through the spire like soft bread. For a moment the stone monument creaked, then cracked, the toppled towards the Jedi. It dropped to the ground with a thunderous boom. Pieces shattered and rolled, the tip of the obelisk landing within centimeters of the Jedi’s feet.

Fury welled within the Jedi.

“You wanted me, Inquisitor,” he said, his voice steeped in rage. “You should have been more careful with your desires.”

Hi ignited his lightsaber and held it aloft, its blue glow giving the Jedi’s face a ghastly appearance.  

And so, it began.

(To be continued…)

Disclaimer:

The preceding is a work of fan fiction based upon and utilizing locations, characters, and/or plot points from the Star Wars universe, originally created by George Lucas and trademarked to Lucasfilm, Ltd. The author makes no claim whatsoever of ownership of the Star Wars name, characters represented, or the Star Wars universe generally. This work is created of the author’s own imagination and is intended for entertainment purposes only. It does not purport to be an “official” Star Wars story or part of existing Star Wars canon in any way. The author is not profiting financially in any way as the result of the creation or publication of this piece of fan fiction.