Duel on the Ebon Hawk

In the time of the First Jedi Purge, Darth Nihilus, a Dark Lord of the Sith, dispatched his Shadow Hand, Visas Marr, a Miraluka, to eliminate Meetra Surik. Marr's quest to discover the source of the Force echoes led her to Surik. Surik was a former Jedi General in the Mandalorian Wars, who had severed her connection to the Force during the final conflict on Malachor V. The general returned alone to Coruscant to face the Jedi High Council and justify her choice to disobey their orders by joining Revan in his fight against the Mandalorian menace. Consequently, she was exiled from the Jedi Order.

Surik had been traveling the Outer Rim for almost ten years before returning to Republic territory, where she was being pursued by Sith assassins who thought she was the last Jedi Knight. Surik embarked on a quest to locate the Jedi Masters who were not present at the conclave on Katarr in an attempt to preserve the Jedi Order. Surik's journey led to a renewed connection to the Force, and her decisions sent ripples through it, enabling Marr to locate her. Marr boarded Surik's starship, the Ebon Hawk, and disabled the crew.

In a short, fierce lightsaber duel, Surik shattered Marr's lightsaber, defeating and injuring her. Convinced of Surik's superior power, Marr surrendered and begged Surik to end her life, because her failure would result in death at the hands of her master. When Surik refused, Marr pledged her allegiance to her, abandoning Nihilus before she lost consciousness.

Surik then brought the unconscious woman to the ship's medical bay. This compassionate act surprised Atton Rand, the pilot of the Ebon Hawk and Surik's companion, who felt uneasy around powerful Force users, as the Miraluka were known to be. He was also astonished to see a Miraluka Sith, claiming he had only heard of Miraluka Jedi and questioned how to kill one. Surik was incredulous at the idea of killing Marr, expressing regret for hurting the Miraluka during their duel. Rand assured her that Marr's wounds would heal, noting that while some were severe, she appeared to have suffered many more in the past. While Rand reluctantly accepted Marr, Kreia, Surik's informal master, greeted her arrival with barely concealed disdain. She believed that the Miraluka's ability to see through the Force was wasted on her people and that she should be considered a servant. Furthermore, Kreia found it necessary to remind Surik that Sith were often betrayed by their own apprentices and that even though Marr had pledged herself to Surik, she was bound to other masters, suggesting that Marr's loyalty would always be questionable.

Despite being wary of Kreia's attitude toward Marr, Surik sought her advice about the change Marr had caused in her eyesight during their fight. Kreia explained that this alteration of Surik's perception was nothing new, but she utterly despised the Sith's forceful and "crude methods." Surik welcomed her into the ship's crew and began retraining her in the ways of a Jedi Sentinel. With Marr as an ally, Surik knew she couldn't hide her presence for long, but she also knew she had a way to find at least one of the Sith Lords hunting her.

Marr's first real encounter with Surik left her disturbed. Unaccustomed to Surik's mercy towards her and others, Marr believed this would weaken Surik against her future enemies. Nevertheless, impressed by Surik's skills, Marr rediscovered hope and began to believe that the universe might not be as her master had shown her, and that Surik could stop him with her help. The fact that her master neither understood nor saw Surik as she did was comforting to her. However, Marr warned Surik that she needed to understand why this was so if she was to defeat Nihilus. She refused to guide Surik to him untested and without her potential realized, as Marr felt the Jedi was not yet ready to face such a threat. She foresaw that Surik and Nihilus would meet soon.