Author's Note: Okay, so everyone who read Here I Go Again and wanted a sequel, here you go. This takes place sixteen years after the end of Here I Go Again but will include flashbacks. I will also like to tell you that this story will not include the Yuuzhan Vong (though I might do another story that does) but will include an enemy that does make an appearance in the EU. Also, the planet mentioned in the prologue is a real planet but I made up some things about it since there wasn't much information about it on Wookieepedia. I hope that you enjoy the sequel to Here I Go Again and reviews are much appreciated.

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars, I never have and I never will and I am only saying this once

Shards of Darkness

Prologue

She dashed down another alley before pressing her back against the wall struggling to regain her breath. Adrenaline was pumping through her veins. That adrenaline was the only thing that was keeping the exhaustion that was clawing at her at bay. She closed her eyes suddenly wishing she had her lightsaber with her but her lightsaber was back at the Jedi Temple left in the hand of her former Master.

Jenica Narak did not regret leaving the Jedi Order. Even to this day, sixteen years after her decision to leave, she did not regret it. She could still remember the screams of the rebels who were aiding the Separatists in their occupation of the Republic planet of Caloria. The rebels had believed that the Separatists were doing the planet a favor because they believed the Republic was corrupt. They were the ones that helped the Separatists launch an invasion of the planet. Jenica and her friend Ahsoka had only been sent to try to negotiate with the rebels to attempt to bring them back to the Republic but the invasion stopped that.

When the rebels had succeeded in destroying the shield generator that protected Allon, it was decided that there was no way negotiations could go through and Jenica and Ahsoka were tasked with bringing the rebels to justice. However, just because she knew that the rebels were partially responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocents because they allowed the invasion to go forth, didn't mean Jenica wanted them dead.

And yet that was exactly what happened. The rebels would not give up and thus Jenica and Ahsoka were forced to kill them. It was the hardest decision Jenica ever had to make and it showed her of how much the Jedi had changed because of the war. She couldn't deal with the guilt of what she had done even thought she knew that she had no other choice. She just wished there had been another way.

Nevertheless, that was the main reason why she made the choice to leave the Jedi Order.

The hum of a lightsaber cut through her musings and Jenica pulled herself back to the present before stretching out with the Force. She shivered when she felt the coiling darkness that surrounded her pursuer and she started moving again trying to ignore her exhaustion.

The dark Jedi had been pursuing her for several hours now and didn't seem to be showing any signs of letting up. Jenica didn't know how he knew she had once been a Jedi. He never told her when he first admitted that. He simply said that he was determined to succeed where Palpatine failed and destroy the Jedi and needed her help to do it.

Jenica refused and he said that her death would serve him well enough though he seemed to hint that he would prefer her alive.

He's been chasing her ever since.

The only reason Jenica had managed to get away was because of the help of a Republic soldier on leave by the name of Wedge who had spotted her and had managed to distract the dark Jedi long enough for Jenica to get a much needed head start. She wished she could have helped him but she had never finished her training so there wasn't much she could do to fight against a dark Jedi who has obviously had more training than her.

She hoped Wedge got out of there alive though.

"Come out, Jedi," the dark Jedi called; though quiet, his voice echoed through the silent streets of the city.

Jenica took a deep breath to calm herself before she used the Force and leapt onto the roof of the building she had been leaning against. She dashed from the top of that building to another building leaping over them as if they were stepping stones and she could sense that her pursuer was following her.

She risked a glance over her shoulder to briefly examine the dark Jedi who was three buildings behind her. He was around her age with nondescript looks; brown hair cropped in a military cut and eyes that were either brown or yellow. Jenica couldn't tell in the limited light that came from the moon above her head.

Turning her gaze back to what was in front of her, she leapt to the roof of another building and continued to run; her legs were starting to ache but she pushed herself to keep going. She didn't have any way to defend herself except for the blaster that was tucked away in her boot and she knew that the blaster wouldn't help against the dark Jedi whose crimson lightsaber hummed in the darkness as he continued his pursuit.

Gritting her teeth, Jenica leapt to the roof of another building before dropping down into the alley that separated the building she was on from the building next to it. Without pausing, as she was sure her pursuer had noticed her sudden change of direction, Jenica dashed out of the alley and down the main street of Ussa.

It was empty of pedestrians, which Jenica thought was a good thing. She didn't want to think about what the dark Jedi would do to anyone who got in his way. He didn't seem to have a problem with killing Wedge just to get to Jenica.

Again, Jenica hoped that Wedge somehow got out of the dark Jedi's way alive.

"Over here!" A very familiar voice called and Jenica looked up as the hazel-eyed Republic soldier who had first distracted the dark Jedi gestured to a nearby alley he was standing beside. In the light from the streetlamp, Jenica could see the smoking hole in Wedge's thigh though she was thankful that he had managed to survive though.

She veered toward Wedge. "You shouldn't be here. He's right behind me," she said glancing over her shoulder though a jolt of fear went through her when she found that she couldn't see the dark Jedi. She gritted her teeth and released her fear into the Force before looking at Wedge.

"We need to get out of here," Wedge said as if reading her mind.

Jenica nodded. "I have to tell the Jedi Council about this," she said. "I just need a way off Bellassa."

"Let's get out of here first," said Wedge before he limped down the alley and Jenica followed him scanning the area with the Force. She was stunned to see that the dark Jedi was no longer pursuing her and it made her wonder what he hoped to gain by letting her escape. He said that he needed her alive but killing her would serve the same purpose.

But what purpose would letting me escape serve? She thought. She shook her head. Whatever the dark Jedi's reasons for doing what he was doing, they would have to wait. Right now, Jenica had to warn the Jedi Council about the dark Jedi and his desire to destroy the Jedi. Whether he actually could or not was a question that Jenica didn't yet have an answer to.

Darth Sicarius watched from the roof of a nearby building as the former Jedi he had been chasing for the past couple of hours followed the limping Republic soldier toward the spaceport. He knew that he could easily take her out right then and there but he didn't see the point. I did say that she would make herself useful to me dead or alive, Sicarius thought.

The young woman would go to Coruscant and would warn the Jedi Council about Sicarius just as he thought she would, just as his ally suspected she would.

Sicarius was careful about who he dealt with ever since he first began to secretly organize an offensive against the Republic. However, his ally was someone Palpatine, himself, approved of. He also knew about the threat that Palpatine knew about, that Palpatine was attempting to stop by molding the Republic into something better and ruled by a single person; an Empire. However, the Empire could not come to be so long as the peacekeeping Jedi remained. Unfortunately, Palpatine's plan to destroy the Jedi had failed sixteen years earlier.

Sicarius then took the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith for himself. After he took the mantle, he struck a bargain with his ally to help him destroy the Jedi and turn the Republic into an Empire ruled by a single person that could better combat the threat that existed beyond the Unknown Regions.

For sixteen years, Sicarius has been gathering his forces and more allies, including three of Palpatine's advisors after they had been discovered to have been in league with Palpatine and were convicted of treason but managed to escape Coruscant, but he remained on the border between the Outer Rim and the Unknown Regions while he prepared himself.

Now it was time for him to reveal himself and that was why he had tracked the former Jedi Jenica Narak, whom he learned about from the spy he had on Coruscant prior to Palpatine's defeat even if his spy hadn't lasted much longer. He knew that if he could have succeeded in killing Narak then her death would have been felt and the Jedi would have known something had happened. They would then have sent a investigative team to find who killed Narak, his ally had suggested as much would happen though Sicarius didn't really need his ally to suggest that to him. He knew that, at times, the Jedi could be very predictable.

However, letting Narak escape so that she could the Jedi herself about Sicarius accomplished the same goal. In the end, Sicarius simply let the former Jedi and her Republic soldier ally leave Bellassa because he knew that things would work out just as he wanted them to in the end.

Sitting back on his heels once Narak and her ally disappeared into the spaceport, Sicarius keyed on his comlink. "I'm done here. Meet me at the rendezvous in five minutes," he said.

"I'm on my way, Master," the voice of Sicarius's apprentice said sweetly before she disconnected the transmission and Sicarius's eyes fixed on the spaceport again momentarily before he stood up, turned around and made his way toward the rendezvous point.

Darth Sicarius was determined to succeed whereas Palpatine had failed. The galaxy would be his to do with what he pleased once he destroyed the Jedi and brought the Senate crumbling down. He knew that it would take time for his ultimate plan to be completed but, so long as the Jedi did not know his identity, his location or what his plans were, he would have all the time he needed.

When he reached the rendezvous, he leapt onto the boarding ramp of the ship as it was lowered before making his way to the cockpit. Briefly glancing at his pilot, and apprentice, he said, "Return to the Katana."

"Yes, Master," his apprentice said before she guided the ship away from Bellassa toward the moon that orbited Bellassa in the shadow of which was Sicarius's flagship, a Dreadnaught-class heavy cruiser and the flagship of a fleet of Dreadnaughts lost to the Republic a few years before the beginning of the Clone Wars.

Sicarius had run across the Katana fleet, as it was dubbed, during the second year of the Clone Wars and, after having it cleared out of the insane crew members, he filled it with volunteers from the Confederacy of Independent Systems who thought he was going to use the fleet to help the Confederacy. After the Confederacy was defeated and disband, the crew remained as Sicarius promised them another chance to get what they were hoping to get from the Confederacy.

Since the Katana fleet worked with a slave circuit, Sicarius only needed about twenty-two hundred men to crew each dreadnaught. However, finding two thousand men to crew two hundred dreadnoughts was not easy and, therefore, Sicarius was only able to crew a few of the dreadnoughts at a time. However, seventeen years after he discovered the fleet, he had gotten enough volunteers (including Chiss volunteers who followed his ally) to crew half of the Katana fleet. After disabling the slave circuit for the other half, Sicarius kept it hidden someplace he was sure no one would think to look for it.

However, the part of the fleet that he did have under his control was something the Republic will not see coming. Of that, Sicarius was sure. Now it was time for him to mentally prepare himself for what was about to occur.

A/n what do you think?

Blaze: yes, I know the prologue was short. It was meant to be. It only introduces one of the antagonists and gives a huge hint at the other. Oh and, just so you know, I made it this way for the second antagonist because I really do feel that he would have some followers even if most of his people didn't agree with him.

Darth: I'm sure people will figure out who the other antagonist is

Blaze: depends entirely on whether they read the trilogy by Timothy Zahn

Darth: good point

Anakin: (drinking cappuccino) so will the next chapter be longer?

Blaze: It probably will be. Most prologues are short after all

Obi-Wan: (also drinking cappuccino) that is true

Darth: cappuccino?

Obi-Wan: (hands Darth cappuccino)

Darth: CAPPUCCINO! (Takes cappuccino and runs)

Blaze: (sighs) well, I hope that you enjoyed the prologue and this is set in an alternate universe, the universe created by the events of Here I Go Again therefore many, if not all, things that occurred in canon do not occur in this story or occur differently. That really is a given but I thought it would be a good idea to mention it.

Darth: (at Starbucks) well duh

Blaze: oh shut up. The first chapter will be posted soon and reviews, as always, are much appreciated.