Star Wars_ Darth Bane 02_ Rule of Two - Drew Karpyshyn [95]
“Do you know who I am?” Johun asked.
“I know you’re a Jedi,” the hermit replied. “That’s why I couldn’t shake you.”
“My name is Johun Othone. I’m in charge of the project to build a monument to those who sacrificed their lives here on Ruusan.”
Johun waited, giving the other man a chance to respond or reply. But the hermit simply stared at the ground, his good hand resting in his lap, clasping the stump of his right arm.
“Why did you wreck our equipment at the construction site?”
He half expected the hermit to make some type of denial; after all, Johun hadn’t actually caught him in the act. But instead he freely admitted what he had done.
“I wanted to stop you. I figured if I cost you enough time and credits you would give up and go back where you came from.”
“Why?” Johun asked, puzzled at the venom in the hermit’s voice.
“We don’t want your kind on Ruusan,” the younger man snapped. “You have no right to be here!”
“I served with General Hoth in the Army of Light,” Johun answered, trying to stay calm despite the righteous indignation he felt. “I saw my friends die. I saw them sacrifice themselves to save the galaxy from the Sith.”
“I know all about the Sith,” the hermit sneered. “And the Jedi, too. I saw the war with my own eyes. I know what happened.
“Look at what your war did to this world!” he shouted, his voice accusing. “Every year the snow falls, and with each winter more and more animals die from the cold. Ten years after your so-called victory, entire species are still being driven to extinction by what you caused!”
“I am sorry for the suffering this world has endured,” Johun said. “But the Jedi cannot be held responsible for everything. The greatest harm to this planet was done by the Sith.”
“Jedi, Sith, you’re all the same,” the hermit spat. “You were so blinded by your hatred of each other you couldn’t see the consequences of what you were doing. And in the end your general marched down into the underground caverns to face Kaan’s followers, knowing he would unleash the devastation of the thought bomb on this world.”
“Hoth sacrificed himself so that others could be saved,” Johun protested.
“The thought bomb was an abomination! Hoth should have done everything in his power to keep Kaan from using it. Instead he intentionally forced his hand.”
“There was no other choice,” Johun answered, defending his former Master’s actions. “The detonation of the thought bomb destroyed the Brotherhood and forever rid the galaxy of the Sith.”
The hermit laughed loudly. “Is that what you believe? The Sith are gone?” He shook his head and muttered, “Poor, deluded little Jedi.”
“What do you mean?” Johun demanded. He felt an icy fist closing around his guts. “You don’t believe the Sith were wiped out?”
“I know they weren’t wiped out,” the hermit answered. “One of the Dark Lords survived, and he took my cousin as his apprentice.”
Johun’s head snapped back as if he’d been slapped. “Your cousin?”
It sounded crazy, completely implausible. But the hermit, despite his wild eyes, didn’t strike Johun as mad.
“How do you know this?”
“After the thought bomb exploded, I went down into the tunnels to see what was left,” the hermit whispered, his expression grim as he dredged up dark memories from his past. “I saw them there, my cousin and Lord Bane.” He held his stump up before his face. “They gave me this.”
Johun’s mind was reeling. He remembered the mercenaries he’d encountered in the aftermath of the battle, and their tales of a Sith Master who had brutally slain their companions. Though he’d later recanted his position and dismissed their account in the face of Farfalla’s irrefutable logic, part of him had always clung to the belief that their story was true.
With no evidence and no leads, he had abandoned his efforts to prove that a Sith Master had escaped Ruusan alive. Now, inside the walls of a tiny mud hut, he had stumbled