Darth Iniquitous

First Years of Innocence
Jason Tiberius was born into a kind, loving and simple family on Onderon. Being the youngest of four, with three elder sisters, Jason was not spoilt even for the first few months of his life. For the early parts of his life, due to his parents’ need to work and earn money, he was looked after by his two eldest sisters, aged fourteen and ten. The pair spent a lot of time caring for him and sacrificed a lot of their free time for his needs.

After two years of caring and well being was put into his upbringing, it came as a great surprised when the family was approached by a Jedi Knight of the Acquisition Division, claiming the two year old toddler held an abnormally high number of Midi-chlorians in his blood. After talking with the parents, the Knight discovered that the child’s mother was in fact the daughter of an old member of the Jedi Council who had imposed a self exile a long time ago. Yet the Knight believed that this was not the sole reason for the high Midi-chlorian count, as the force still flowed through him with irregular ease.

Wanting the best possible life for the child, the parents agreed to the Knights request, believing that way the boy would be able to make something special of their life. However, this was protested greatly by the two eldest daughters, who had become attached to their brother, as if he were their own child. But in the end, there was little they could do against their parents’ word. And so, after promising to write and keep in touch, unaware that they would be unable to, they bid their baby brother farewell.

Beginning of Torment
However, things did not go to plan for the Jedi Knight and the small child. En route to their transportation ship, the pair were ambushed by a group of four Dark Jedi. They were hiding on the planet and, after sensing both the Jedi and the child, had moved to claim the boy. For they, much like the Jedi Knight, had been able to sense the potential within him. Outnumbered and carrying Jason in one arm meant that it was a menial task to kill the Jedi and they quickly disposed of him. Not wanting to be captured, they quickly fled on the Jedi’s ship to Nar Shaddaa where they sold it and made their hideout which would house them for the years to come. And so the four Dark Jedi took Jason under their collective wing.

Each of the members took it upon themselves to train the boy throughout his childhood and he was an obedient boy, for when he wasn’t, he didn’t eat. Even though he was surrounded by the overwhelming influence, Jason never truly succumbed to the Dark Side; he still felt compelled to be kind but had to do so secretly so that he would not get beaten.

But his four instructors certainly were not weak. They each had their own specialty which Jason was all too willing to learn. The oldest, aged around 50 years old, was a Master of the Makashi style. Jason was only able to use an old training saber since none of the Knights really trusted him. It was the only lightsaber form, apart from the basic Shii-Cho, that he learnt. Another of the Knights was a powerful wielder of Force Lightning, which allowed Jason to focus his anger and frustration. Although he never became truly adept at it, it was often a useful tool every once in a while.

The third Knight was experienced at using Force Destruction, as skill which Jason became rather versatile at. And the fourth Dark Jedi Knight was a Master of telekinesis and the other powers which they involved. This was Jason’s greatest asset out of the four. Due to his ability to quickly and easily connect with the Force, he was much better at Force abilities than he was at lighsaber combat.

His training, due to the ruthlessness of his Masters, was a lot harder and more advanced than any Jedi had ever experienced, not just in his studies of the force, but the physical training they put him through was immense and when he entered his teens he had a body that one would not expect to see for a number of years. It was as he entered his teens that the Dark Jedi began putting his skills to practical use. Their aim was to set up their own syndicate to rival that of the many Crime Lords out there so that they might one day rule the streets of Nar Shaddaa. However, they didn’t want to reveal themselves to the preying eyes of the Jedi. And so Jason would become their tool.

He was sent mainly on missions to murder or kill, feats that, due to his age, were quite simple to complete. Of course, being brought up in the ‘care’ of the four meant that the young boy had no qualms with killing, why should he? If he didn’t kill him, it only meant he had to live through so much more pain, to be killed almost seemed like an escape route for him. Yet, at the same time, he still though of his Masters as family, for his real family only visited him in his dreams, when he was lucky enough to have one. But even then their faces were not comprehendible. Whenever he was on a mission, there was always at least one of the Knights keeping tabs on him, to make sure he didn’t run off. He never did, Jason never wanted to face the punishment for that.

To Appease One’s Masters
Slowly, the Masters, thanks to Jason, managed to start on their route of thievery and conquest. Then they were presented with a chance, a weapon. Rumour surged through the crowded streets of Nar Shaddaa that the Republic was experimenting on some kind of new weapon and that it was currently being held on the planet. This was an opportunity for the Dark Jedi to gain a lot of respectability and power in a very brief period of time. In fact, it would get them into a position of importance they only planned they would be in years later. And so he set off to sneak into a nearby Republic base and steal the weapon, whatever it was, for his Masters.

It was a mission that took a lot of careful planning; this wasn’t some assassination of some underling of a Crime Lord. No, this was a mission against the Republic, and one which would require professionalism. Fortunately, Jason was not alone for this mission, a few underlings of the four Dark Masters had also been sent with them. Their goal was in the centre of the Republic base, which made things much more difficult. Equipped with a blaster and a vibroblade, Jason and the team set off for their goal.

Managing to infiltrate the base due to his small size and use of the force, Jason was able to disable all of the droids, turrets and everything else which was controlled by the security system. This included the large doors which stopped his comrades from entering the base. But with that stage now down, he was able to join in with the fighting against the personnel who were still defending the weapon. It took a lot of fighting and cost a lot of lives, but eventually Jason and the remaining members arrived at the weapon’s holding chamber. It was here that they discovered it was some kind of bomb, or at least that’s what it looked like.

There was a deadlock for a few minutes. On one side of the room were the remaining Republic troops, cornered, injured and afraid, on the other side stood the victorious, the cunning, and the strong. In between them sat a very unstable weapon. Sadly, the prerequisite for joining serving the Dark Jedi didn’t include a lot of intelligence. And so there were those who failed to consider the weapon which was between their blaster and the Republic soldiers. Of course, once the blaster bolt had been fired, there was nothing Jason could do to stop it. His body would not move; all he could do was watch, eyes wide with fear. Everything, in those few moments, seemed to move at a tragically slow rate and Jason couldn’t tell if it was due to the force or just some unexplainable phenomenon. Nevertheless, his eyes were able to follow the blaster bolt and watch as the weapon exploded in slow motion. At that moment his eyes saw the very centre of the explosion, its very source it was bright, a light which shone stronger than anything he had ever seen in the gloomy slums of Nar Shaddaa. It was the last thing he saw.

At a later date, he discerned that all of those events had been due to a momentary heightening of his force powers in anticipation of his death. However, he had managed to save himself from the blast, without knowing what he was doing, but merely with sole intention to protect, Jason was able to create an unstable Force Bubble around himself, which prevented his death. However, he slipped into unconsciousness.

Betrayed and Forsaken
A few hours later and Jason was forcibly woken by four fuming and deadly Dark Jedi. There had been two survivors, Jason, and a single underling who had been behind Jason at the time of the explosion. It appeared that Jason’s shield had prevented the man from coming to harm but had drained all his strength. In return for saving his life, the man had carried the unconscious Jason all the way back to the Dark Jedi, thinking that there his saviour would be looked after and healed, if only that could have been the case.

They yelled at him intensely for his failure and when it came to the beatings, they quickly came to learn the extent of his failure. He was blind. Looking into the heart of the explosion of a weapon the properties of which were unknown had left him scarred for life.

They tried a few times after that, to try and see if he could adapt to losing his eyes. To make matters worse, it appeared that he had lost all connection to the force, with what could be considered two of his senses now gone, he felt lost and alone.

Pitiful was how they described him as they christened their latest insults with spit and fresh bruises. He was weaker and more vulnerable to them now more than he had ever been before. It was the first time he had truly felt scared. Unable to tell what was going on around him, where he was, it made him so fearful. Usually he would feel anger and resentment, but never fear. Due to this, it did not take long before his four Masters came to despise him.

So one day, not too long after the incident which cost the boy his vision, they announced that they would be leaving to try their luck on another world, with another scheme. However, Jason, they said, would not be going with them. They would leave him on Nar Shaddaa and let him waste away his pitiful existence. Even though he should have felt relieved and happy that these abusive people were leaving him once and for all, the only thing Jason could do was cry in sadness. He thought of them like his family, and would have stuck with them through any hardship. That feeling was not reciprocated.

They left him with noting but the rags he wore, they left him alone on a world full of strangers and hurt. They left the fourteen year old boy to cry himself to sleep on the cold unwelcoming floor; his new home.

Meeting of Change
For two years Jason had to resort to begging and the pure luck of happening upon someone on the God-forsaken moon who actually cared and was willing to spare some credits. His existence was painful to watch for those two years. He seemed to have lost all will to live, his eyes, although useless, were still glazed over like that of a dead man and they failed to show any signs of healing naturally.

However, there was one small piece of good news that had kept him going. Over the two years, the Force had slowly started to find its way back to him. Without it he had been like a freshly born baby, unable to find their footing upon the ground, having to crawl from place to place.

It is often said that when one loses one of their senses, the others will become more sensitive to compensate for the loss. Jason had discovered that this was true, as his hearing had improved greatly. And then, as the Force slowly connected with him once again, the lost student found that his ability to hear often fluctuated in strength. When it got more defined, he thought that he could hear distant sounds, as if he could hear everything. Sometimes he could have sworn that he had been able to ‘see’ things around him, as if an outline of a picture had been in his mind. But when he couldn’t hear such things, he was completely blind once again. I was a very peculiar experience.

It was during one of these ‘surges’ that Jason’s fate began to change. As he was testing out this power, trying to control it and see if he was able to walk around as if he were not blind, he fell over something rather large, something he had not ‘seen’. Managing to stop himself from falling onto his face, Jason caught himself on his hand and knees. Yet as he hit the ground everything vanished, his power had disappeared instantly and he was blind once again. Nervous and sweating, Jason found himself unable to move. Something soft and warm touched his right hand and then it happened. Like an explosion, sound roared into his ears louder than he had ever heard. He could hear the breathing of thousands of people, their footsteps sounded like ships crashing into the ground. But that was a fraction of what he heard and the excess of incomprehensible sounds led him to feel as though his head was about to implode. He screamed with pain, his earlobes strained.

Then he heard something new. It was soft, not like the rough noises which raged on unrelenting. Also, it was clear, crystal clear, it came through above the others, it wasn’t a sound he heard from the streets around him, it was a sound that came from within his own mind. ”Please, be calm” the voice said. It took a few minutes, but Jason was able to slowly gain control of his heightened hearing. But as things became quiet again, he passed out from pain and exhaustion.

When he awoke he was frightened, frightened because he could see. It was like his previous experience, where he was not seeing through his eyes, but instead he was seeing through his mind. He also found that he could vary the strength of his hearing, and now it no longer affected his ‘vision’. It didn’t take him long to deduce what was causing this power. Of course it was the Force but it was what the Force was using to create this image that surprised Jason. It was using the vibrations of atoms and the sound that was made by them, some how it was taking that sound and making an image in his mind. Air, ground, water, it didn’t matter, he could ‘see’ the movement in all of them, it was a blessing.

It took him a few minutes to realise but eventually he did notice that he was joined by a girl. Lynn was her name; she was a little shorter than himself but the same age. And she was a Jedi. Well, an ex-Jedi. She had been on a mission which had also ended in disaster. It appears that she had lost the use of her ears in an explosion which had killed her master and their ship. She had been on the moon for about a month before she’d bumped into him, or rather he into her. But during that month, she’d also gone through some changes like Jason; the Force affected her in a different way. She was now much more capable at telepathic skills, she often unintentionally heard the thoughts of nearby people, although when she met Jason it had been the first time she’d tried to communicate through the force.

He too told her of his past, what little he knew of it, and how he’d come to end up how he was. Lynn and Jason had both suffered disabilities and they both found themselves stranded upon this moon where survival was extremely tough. So they decided on that day that they would band together and would eventually escape.

Gambling For Love
For four years the pair had to resort to begging and occasionally they would try to stow away on a ship. However, they were not the smallest of people and so they were always discovered. They quickly abandoned that plan when it came to escaping. For most of the time they were only just managing to get by. Jason found that Lynn’s sense of nobility which she had gained from the Jedi prevented her from doing a lot of things he would have considered necessary to survive, such as stealing. Although he had only really considered doing so from those who had plenty of money, Lynn would often scold him for resorting to such an act.

Something else happened throughout their years together. Slowly, it started not long after they met, they fell in love. As they had nothing really productive to do, they would spend most of their time talking about themselves or their views on things. So they became rather close, able to ‘talk’ about everything. Of course, anyone who saw them would think they both spent their time in silence. Of course, they couldn’t hear the conversation that was going on in their heads and through the force.

In all honesty, Jason felt happier in these times, blind, starving and cold but being with Lynn just made him feel unlike anything he could ever describe. He’d give up his other senses, fast for his life time and jump into subzero water, just for her. And she felt near enough the same. Well, at first she had tried to fight it, after all, she was a Jedi and such love was meant to be wrong and forbidden. Yet nothing about it felt wrong to Lynn.

Eventually, as she spent more time with both Jason and on the streets of Nar Shaddaa, her views became a little bit more ‘twisted’ as a Jedi might say. Jason, however, claimed that her perspective had just been brought down to reality. Eventually, Lynn decided that she wouldn’t want to return to the Jedi, and that she’d prefer to spend the rest of her life living with Jason on a more comfortable world.

It was then that they decided on a new plan to get off world, gambling. Pazaak was a popular game on this moon and if one had the credits, they would be able to rake in a fortune. The pair didn’t need a fortune. They just needed 4,000 credits. Okay, a fair amount of money considering they only had 17 at the moment, but they’d be able to get a flight to Onderon, Jason’s home world, for 1,000 credits each, without having to go through the procedure of showing any credentials or personal information. They then figured that they’d need a fair amount of money once they arrived at Onderon.

The idea was simple, Lynn would basically be doing all of the work, she’d play the games, she’d read their minds and she’d then play accordingly. Jason had to teacher her the basics first, he would play himself, but a blind man who always won would just scream 'cheater'.

After a bit of preparation, it was up to Jason to set up the matches. Of course, being female, many saw this as a weakness and sought to exploit it for a few extra credits. Lynn still lost, there wasn’t always something she could do and at times she had to take a gamble. But steadily, their number of credits began to increase.

Torn to Shreds
It took a few months, but the couple had managed to get within 1,000 credits of their target. It was then that they were presented with an option. Someone had become interested in the uprising pazaak player that was Lynn. And she was challenged to a total of three pazaak games, each game held the opportunity to gain 1,000 credits. If they placed all 3,000 of their credits on the table they would have the opportunity to walk away with 6,000 credits in total. Far more than they’d originally estimated that they’d need.

However, Jason had not taken kindly to this challenge. He’d been opposed to it; something just didn’t seem right about it. But Lynn had just wanted to escape as soon as possible and claimed that the opportunity presented itself. After much debate, Lynn begrudgingly agreed.

Things weren’t to end there though. The night of the match, Lynn disappeared. It appeared that she couldn’t resist the chance to get them off a few months earlier than it would have otherwise taken. When Jason returned from his round at a few bars, setting up future matches which would rake them in some more credits, he found Lynn gone. He set off immediately after he’d arrived at their ‘home’, they never went anywhere without telling the other where they were heading. So he could only assume one thing. And he was correct.

When he arrived at the bar where the game was to be held, he was greeted by a number of patrons rushing out of the bar, panicked looks on their faces. Pushing his way through the crowd, he was horrified by the site. The bar was a mess, parts of tables in various locations and the lights above were flickering on and off. There amongst the wreckage lay Lynn, surrounded by a few large brutes. One held a bloody vibroblade in his hand. As he moved closer to the scene, Jason could ‘see’ Lynn; she was injured badly and chocking on her own blood. Jason flipped, he fought back the four guys, knocking out the one with the blade and sending the other three fleeing into the night, each badly injured.

Kneeling down next to Lynn, he rested her body in his arms. In between bloody coughs and a mass of pain and sorrow filled tears, she tried to apologise to Jason. He just gently shushed her as he rocked back and forth. He was also crying, he could tell that she had been hurt too badly to be able to recover. Lynn knew it as well. She gave to him the necklace which she always wore, a silver crystal which Lynn claimed her older brother, who was also a Jedi, had given to her as a Youngling. It was her good luck charm and she wanted Jason to always have it. After that they traded their last words of love and then she died in his arms.

Finding resolve, Jason smacked the unconscious man awake and forced the truth out of him. The man quickly spilled the beans. It appeared that the local Crime Lord who owned the bars which Lynn and Jason had been hitting during the past month was considering Lynn to be ‘bad for business’. After all three of the games had been finished, all of which Lynn had won, they followed their boss’ order, they accused her of cheating and ‘punished’ her.

Hearing all he needed to, Jason broke the man’s neck with his bare hands. Taking the vibroblade and Lynn’s body he first of all took her to their hideout, covering in what sheets they had. Then he headed for the Crime Lord’s headquarters. Gran Sol was a powerful man; he had control of a large section of Nar Shaddaa, as well as possession of a large number of bars and cantinas within that area. Of course, with all this power came a lot of money, power and the need to guard oneself in large building which was protected by a lot of soldiers and droids.

And Jason, well, Jason being Jason, he didn’t really regard a need for a plan. Right now, he didn’t care, he just wanted to kill the b*****d who had order Lynn’s death. And anyone who even attempted to get in his way would become a necessary casualty. So he walked right through the front door of Sol’s headquarters, leaving two headless corpses behind him. There was no need for thought or consideration, all Jason relied upon was the Force, his vibroblade and the unquenchable bloodlust which he felt. He fought through four stories of enemies, he received a number of injuries, he wasn’t invincible after all, but the pain didn’t even begin to compare to the throbbing in his heart. The corridors ran red with blood, it was a horrendous slaughter, but not of it seem to matter to Jason, all the while his heart was filled with bitterness and pain. To him, the feelings and lives of others didn’t even seem like something to consider.

Letting the last few guards flee, Jason entered Gran Sol’s office. He was greeted with a blaster pistol to the face, his eyes merely burned with rage as he slammed Sol against the wall with the Force. It was then that he vented, first of all accusing the man of the murder of Lynn, the love of his life. Sol could only respond by attempting to bribe Jason, the words merely passed through deaf ears.

The thing about rich people, they often like to put themselves in high places with a view of what they own. This was true for Gran as well; a large panel of glass was the only thing between his room and a very big drop. But this wasn’t Jason’s concern. Right now he was just thinking about the glass. Gran was held up against the wall opposite this great view and Jason stood in-between. Calling upon his anger once again, he caused the glass to shatter. But the shards, they didn’t fall to the ground, no. Slowly the shards all turned until they each pointed menacingly towards Sol. It was with pure hatred and anger that Jason sent the pieces flying at Sol. The larger ones simply impaled his arms, hands, legs and feet but the smaller pieces were used to cut the flesh on his chest and face. He was a mass of cuts and blood. But that wasn’t it, still pinned up against that wall, Jason ran him through with the vibroblade, the same one which had been used to kill Lynn.

Still he was not done. Using the force, Jason moved Gran’s dying body and released it onto the ground a little in front of the ‘open’ window. On his hands and knees, Gran was confronted with one last thing. It was long; it was about eight feet wide and a couple of feet high. His desk. Jason telepathically lifted Sol’s hulking desk up with the Force and sent it hurtling at the dying Crime Lord. If the collision didn’t kill him, the fall certainly would. He walked away from the confrontation completely silent and with bitterness biting at his heart.

Using the money which Lynn had won, Jason managed to get both of them to Onderon, like they had been planning. He went out into the wild, searching for a place which he thought was beautiful, a place where Lynn would have liked and there he personally dug her a grave and lay her to rest. As soon as he had finished, he finally wept a river. All of the pain and sadness that had built up left him in those tears.

After that Jason spent a while brooding. However, he soon became discontent at just sitting around. It was then that he would form the ideals which would shape his future. He didn’t want to see this pain or suffering inflicted upon anyone else, he wanted to change the galaxy for the better, make it a place where people could be happy and where people wouldn’t die needlessly. But he was not overly knowledgeable of the Jedi way, but he knew using merely peace would just mean that others would exploit it. One had to take a different approach. But to accomplish any of this, Jason knew he would need more power, more training.

So he set off in search of ways he might become more powerful, with his money he hoped to gain some insight on what he might be able to learn.

Training From The Dead
Using what little resources he could gather, Jason found a solution to his problem, Sith Lords. The history of the Republic had been affected greatly by the actions of these extremely powerful Sith. In fact, he recalled Lynn mentioning them before, saying how they were different to the Dark side users, Dark Jedi, that were currently. They were in a completely different league.

The Sith had only recently returned, starting a war with the Republic and the Jedi, this was a conflict Jason did not think he was ready to get involved with just yet. But at the same time, he heard of the tombs and burial chambers of many previous Sith Lords. Jason also heard that it was possible to communicate with the spirits of these Sith Lords. Seeing an opportunity, Jason decided that he would seek power and training from the spirits of any ancient of fallen Sith Lord that he could find.

He traveled across the galaxy for two years, visiting a number of different tombs on an array of planets. He didn’t always find what he was looking for; he’d often be led to dead ends or tombs that held no Sith Lord or anything remotely similar. But he did manage to come into contact with a number of Lords, some who had been known throughout the galaxy and others who had never reached the history books of the Republic at all. What surprised Jason was that a fair number of the spirits were able to sense something, something special, they had said, within him and would therefore teach him a thing or two.

Jason would often run low on funds, but he no longer cared too much about how he obtained credits, being surrounded by dark spirits seemed to be slowly taking its effect on him. Often he stole from those he thought were too rich and greedy, or those who gained it dishonestly. Ironic, but he was just trying to justify his actions. He never wanted to try the same method as on Nar Shaddaa.

Towards the end of the two year journey, Jason, having been instructed by a number of spirits, had constructed his first lightsaber with parts he collected from many distant worlds. The only thing he lacked was a crystal that would give his blade a colour. He was surprised when a spirit had told him that the silver crystal he wore around his neck was the answer to his problems, the crystal which had been Lynn’s lucky charm. Now it formed a part of the weapon which would help him mould the Galaxy into a better place, he would make sure of that for Lynn’s sake.

After two years, Jason now felt it was time to get involved with the events of the Galaxy, to try and affect them how he wanted. Although he leaned more towards the Sith, his allegiance was not really assured until he came to understand the leaders. He would ally himself with whoever felt the same as he. It was when he announced this to the final Sith Lord he had visited that the Lord granted him a new name, claiming him to be worthy of the Darth title.

So he left the barren world of Korriban with a new destiny and a new name. History would forget Jason Tiberius. Darth Iniquitous had been born.