Chapter 1
Jedi Knight Rozen stepped off the plasteel ramp of the Temple's transport ship with apprehension. Her old apprentice lightsaber felt especially heavy on her hip, and her shaved scalp tingled under the intensity of this planet's sun. Taking a moment to survey the area in detail, she noted the arid desert was fairly devoid of plants, but she could feel a myriad of small insects and reptiles through the Force. The engines of the transport finally halted their whine, but the sound of arguing travelled from the cockpit to the engineering bay.
"I told you Sector 84 was a bad idea! But did you listen? Nooo!" harped the dark green Mirialani in Jedi apprentice robes. A single diamond tattoo adorned her chin.
"And if you happened to be the one piloting, this would have been a major catastrophe. As it happened, you were not. So shut your gob." Retorted the world weary and silver skinned Rattataki, dressed in matching apprentice robes.
Letting out a slow sigh, Rozen rubbed the leather band she used to cover her residual sockets. Her species had long ago stopped needing eyes to see. The Force was with her, and she experienced the worlds she frequented as smell, and energy, and vibration. Every aspect of life had its own particular brand of vibration, its own energetic flavor. At the moment, the arid wash of the desert melded perfectly with the bickering of the 'twins' (as she mentally referred to her two apprentices), and left an acidic taste in her mouth.
"Alright, you two. Zon got us here safe and sound, in the timeframe that Kat'hari scheduled. Your teamwork made it possible. Now focus on the present. We need to hit that northern ridgeline before the sun climbs much higher. The survey reported a solid cache of crystals following the cave system. Make sure you have your comlink on at all times, I have a funny feeling about this place."
"Yes, Master." Zon reported cooly.
"Yes, Ma-" Kat'hari's face froze, and in the next moment she was dashing back into the cabin. The squawk of a new comlink joining the channel echoed sullenly and hung in the air for a moment before Kat'hari reappeared in a huff.
"Yes Master."
Grinning wryly at her two apprentices, Rozen led the group over the sandy terrain, their boots scuffing the earth at regular intervals. She took this time to center herself. Something about this place was distressing. She could not put a finger on it, but something beneath the surface felt… restless. Rozen had surveyed dozens of planets and countless variances of Force anomalies and natural projections, they were something of a specialty for her. But she had never experienced this particular sensation before, in her experience. Perhaps it was the newness of the sensation that made it seem disturbing? That must be it. Rozen put her mind on restful alert.
In short order, the trio reached the ridgeline and, with a little searching, found the entrance of the cave network. The airflow at the entrance was cool and even. Plenty of air inside. They entered one at a time, and while Zon and Kat'hari switched on their lamps, Rozen pressed a hand gently to the wall of the cave. It was smooth, but formed with waves and ridges, hard granite layered in with softer sandstone. A perfect home for crystals to be grown and nurtured.
For an hour, they mapped out the tunnel with Kat'hari's holorecorder, but made no significant discoveries. Judging by the cave's structure, this ridge was once a part of an oceanic mountain. Rozen was wracking her memory for any relevant information, any possible connections that might help her predict where the crystals might best be accessed. She was considering returning to the surface and search for another entrance when a blast of bone-chilling air howled through the chamber. Twin green sabers ignited from her apprentices, but Rozen felt no presences within the Force. She smiled at the two, and wondered for a moment at the workings of the Force. She had made those two sabers during her trials, twins in form representing Compassion and the Force. Then came along her two apprentices, within a week of each other. Missions were becoming more critical, and it was now necessary to arm apprentices as a rule. But lightsaber crystals were scarce, synthetic or otherwise, and Rozen was just one of many Jedi perusing this mission. This planet was the best lead they'd had in months, and she wasn't about to let a chilly breeze spook her off course.
As Rozen turned to start back down the tunnel, she was stopped short by Zon.
"Master?" said Zon.
"You can let go of your lightsaber now." Finished Kat'hari.
Rozen's fingers popped as she released her white-knuckled grip on her worn apprentice saber.
Chapter 2
Rozen spent a quarter hour searching for the source of that icy breeze. They had missed a narrow opening in the ceiling that was the source of the air. The closer they got, the heavier the acidic taste became in her throat. It's just nerves. The air quality tested normal. She checked her scanner once again, and again everything read normal. She felt no abnormal distress from her apprentices, so she chose not to worry them needlessly. With a mighty leap, the trio swung into the natural vent.
Kat'hari was astonished at the spacious room and eerie beauty of this cavern. She almost didn't need her lamp, with the phosphorescent moss clinging to every nook and cranny. There also seemed to be some kind of glowing fern growing from within the moss. She decided she would take a sample or two back with her. Maybe they had medicinal value? Kat'hari was about to prepare the first sample when Master Rozen stopped abruptly in front of the far cavern wall, frozen and pale. It was the MIraluka equivalent of wide-eyed terror.
Zon-Rii Zyx had never seen a stranger array of stalactites. He had spent most of his life in caves, and not all of them were the manufactured kind. This room, however, was almost certainly unnatural. Stalactites hung in a perfect figure eight pattern over a granite slab resting near the far wall. The rock strata of the walls had changed from the familiar compressed waves, to what could only be described as black marble scales. Filaments of light streamed from harsh angles, courtesy of the glowing plant life. Zon was sure Kat wouldn't budge from this room until she had plant samples in both arms. In a seemingly forgotten corner of the cave, the walls were smooth. A glint caught his eye.
A crystal vein!
"Master, I think you'll want to look-" Zon stopped short. Kat was reaching for Master Rozen, and time seemed to slow to a crawl. He could feel the Force coursing through his body, causing his perception to accelerate. He shuddered involuntarily, resisting the old urge to pull on as much of the Force as he could stand. It was an old addiction, one he was still learning to master.
With his heightened awareness through the Force, Zon noticed several factors at once. First, that his Master was frozen with terror. The second, and probably the more important, was that they were not alone. A black cloaked shadow was reaching for Kat'hari as she was reaching for her Master. The third was that the walls were not made of scaled granite. They were granite tile set into a honeycomb of black crystal, and they all resonated within the Force.
Zon had a bad feeling about this.
Chapter 3
The apparition on the wall held the Jedi Knight in a trance of abject terror. Three great eyes glowed through the Force on the wall, each weeping blood softly in rivulets down the wall. They could see her, see through her, and into the far reaches of her past and future. A skeletal finger of electricity shot out from the third eye, and wrapped itself around Rozen's neck.
No. I won't go back to that. I'm free. This is just an apparition! This just-!
Rozen's thoughts ceased to come coherently as the electric tendril dug into her throat. It writhed under her skin, wormed its way into her heart, and unlocked old memories of the worst day of Jedi Knight Rozen's existence. She collapsed in a heap over the granite slab she never saw.
Kat'hari's world seemed to fall apart before her eyes. She could feel the presence of a spirit coming from the wall, just before Master Rozen began clawing at her own throat. Zon had ignited his lightsaber and was rushing towards her. Behind him stood a black cloaked figure, his ghostly outline illuminated by the green plasma of Zon's blade. An icy blast of wind took Kat'hari at her back, and blew off the hood of the figure. Its face was horribly scarred, and three blue eyes glared out from their raw sockets. All of them were weeping blood. A fierceness welled up in Kat'hari as her saber ignited to life. In a smooth motion, she crouched to a safer position below Zon's elbows and launched passed him, to the frightening figure in black.
Zon spent a moment to check his relief. Kat was already marking a position behind him, and freed up his swing to take down the robed figure behind her. Its tattered black hood could not mask a mouth disfigured by scars. The figure exuded death and terror, as physical as the robes on Zon's back. As hot as the blade in his hands. The heat spread up his arms, and his blood turned to shards of broken glass. He pulled more on the Force in desperation, hoping to form a barrier between himself and the evil thing before him. But even as he grasped, even as the sweet kiss of the Force flowed freely through him, the pain was too great. The lightsaber called The Force slipped through hands numbed and frozen by pain, and the brilliant emerald blade collapsed into darkness.
Kat'hari's form was perfect. Her balance could keep her firmly grounded on the edge of a razor. Zon was at her back, and her field of attack was clear. She thrust the saber called Compassion with precision into what she assumed was the heart of the evil creature before her. As the tip pierced the fabric of its chest, black smoke spewed forth. It was foul and tar-like, and seemed to taint even the blade itself. Vile blackness crawled up plasma-formed blade like a serpent, through the emitter, and into the crystal. Kat'hari threw the saber at the three eyed enemy, using the Force to hold down the kill switch. It pierced empty air, and imbedded itself into the wall before the blade collapsed. Searching for the figure, Kat saw that Zon and Master Rozen had both collapsed. Panic began to claw at her, even though she knew that while the Force was still with her, she was never alone.
In the depths of this cave, on an alien planet, the battle waged on.
Chapter 4
Jen'ari Orobot was tired, frustrated, and just a little bit cranky. The fields of holoscreens in front of him were starting to blur together, and his favorite tarbean tea had run out hours ago. But still he pressed on. The source code for the Temple's communication systems looked like spaghetti. All logic, no comments. It was a bleeding nightmare. Jen'ari was entertaining some very un-Jedi like thoughts about the original programmer when an alert chimed in on the Mission Critical screen. A shiver ran down his spine as an echo in the Force flagged him to pay attention.
The Vigilance was past due for their check-in. Logs indicated that their landing check-in was successful three standard days ago, but had been silent since then. Jen'ari pulled up the mission specs to see who was running this quadrant. Concern furrowed his brow as he brought up the integrated Comms application he had finished writing as a replacement for the joke of a program the Temple previously had in place. Not all of the comlink address codes had been ported over, but the one he wanted was at the top of the available lists.
"Octagon here." Reported the masked voice of a Kel Dori Jedi.
"Master Octagon, the Vigilance hasn't checked in for three days and is now passed due. Normally I'd hail them, but something feels off. Knight Rozen was leading the mission, and we both know how she is about checking in."
"Her mission wasn't on a populated planet, go ahead and hail her team's commlink channel. If there is no response, pull a report of any Jedi not on mission or medical. I'll be there soon. Octagon out."
The Zabrak searched the address codes, but unfortunately theirs hadn't been ported over yet. Damn.
Thirty minutes later, the report was finished and the address manually added to the new integrated Comm system. His beautiful program was sending its signal out into space, bouncing off of a sublight relay satellite in orbit around the planet, and launching into warp across the far reaches of the galaxy. It reached an idle Vigilance, coated with a fine layer of dust. The ship's onboard communications panel blinked to life, showing two inactive and one available commlinks in range. The channel flipped open, and a flood of static filled the mic.
Strange, thought Jen'ari. The buffer should have filtered out the static.
"Vigilance, this is Temple Operations, you are past due for check-in. Roz, are you there?"
Static was all that responded. Jen'ari kept trying to hail the crew for a few minutes, but there seemed to be nothing but static. He was about to switch over to Master Octagon, when something caught his attention. The bandwidth on the channel showed enough data transferring for a whole fleet to be communicating. That didn't make any sense. He upped the filters and turned up the volume, listening carefully.
"Help… … it's here … don't know … much longer…"
"Help me…. Help…"
"NOOOOOOO!" wailed the blood-curdling scream as the filter slipped back into static.
Chapter 5
"Can you hear it?" murmured a soft voice shrouded in the darkness.
"It's so sweet. You can almost taste it." Replied a deeper voice, grating with equal parts ecstasy and agony.
"Alive. Twice alive. So fully alive." Chanted the voices in discordant unison.
Chapter 6
Within the cabin of The Stillness, three Jedi sat with meditative equipoise. Master Octagon and Jen'ari had been joined by a massive Togruta, a Knight by the name of Arigorn. All of them had heard the last transmission of the Vigilance, and prepared to expect the unexpected. One of the Temple's more skillful initiates was piloting the transport, and was preparing to enter the planet's atmosphere.
The ship landed gently next to the abandoned Vigilance. The three Jedi disembarked and observed their location with calm and purposeful focus. It was obvious that nothing had approached the craft since its landing. Jen'ari tried the comm channel, but there was only silence. Not even the static remained. He looked apprehensively at his companions. The shadow of Aragorn fell across the landscape, his intricate horns pointing in an ominous direction towards the shadow of a cave. The setting sun filtered the landscape in a rusted amber glare, while the presence of tremors within the Force steadily grew.
A wind began to pick up as the three approached the mouth of the cave, whipping Jedi cloaks this way, and that way. Like a horrible cycle doomed to repeat itself, three Jedi entered the cavern one at a time. Inside, the cave was sweltering hot. A breeze continuously flowed out of the mouth of the cave with all the qualities of a starliner's engine exhaust. Shedding the outer robes, the systematic search for the missing Jedi began.
Kat'hari was cold. The nook she found was set in a cold furrow of rock. It was dark, well hidden, and most importantly, it just felt safe. With her holorecorder missing and no sense of direction, Kat was hopelessly lost. She had located a tiny rivulet on one of the nearby crannies, and the calcium rich water had managed to keep her sustained thus far. Her commlink had gone dead at the last transmission. That was several hours ago. Maybe even a day or two. Time no longer seemed to matter in this place. She tried to spend as much time as she could deep in meditation, hiding within the Force and searching for any presence of her Jedi family.
But it was cold. So very bone-chillingly cold. It got harder to concentrate, and as the solitude began to slip into agony, Kat'hari became desperate. She pulled the Force into her center, and breathed it into fire. The heat spread out through her limbs. She knew this would probably alert the horrible spirit to her presence, but for the moment she valued the comfort more. She continued to sit, and breathe.
Chapter 7
Pain was the only world Zon-Rii Zyx could remember. It dominated his every decision, controlled his every need. Blurry reality intermixed with his haze of agony. He started to remember eating the strange ferns out of hunger and thirst. Its sticky black sap was still oozing down his chin. He could make out several cuts, and what felt like nail scratches where covering his face and arms in stinging lattices. None of it compared to the pain that seemed to follow his blood wherever it flowed. He found he could take a deep breath. So he took another. Clarity began to return slowly, and with it, the pain subsided. Zon looked around.
He was in one of the northern cavern complexes, far from that horrible cavern. It was all he could do to stand. Most of his apprentice uniform was in tatters, and some of it looked like it had been burned with a lightsaber. His lightsaber! Zon looked around for it, but it was nowhere in sight. Oh well, he thought. At least it was warm. Using the Force healing technique Master Rozen had taught him, he knelt in a warm yellow glow of healing energy. The Jedi apprentice began cycling out all of the blocked and damaged energy while cycling in healthy and clean energy from the Force. After a few moments, he felt well enough to stand, and began following the breeze to what he hoped was the exit.
Kat'hari heard the footfalls before she felt the presence of other Jedi within the Force. It had to be a trick. Kat wasn't sure if it were a figment of her over-hopeful imagination, or a trick of the vile being who lived in this cave. She had made a mistake that she did not plan on repeating, when she saw the forms of her Master and Jedi Brother lying on the floor. She had tried to move Zon into a safer position, maybe even drop him out of the cavern. But he woke up screaming and clawing at her face. She had to fend him off with his own lightsaber before she could make her escape. That saber sat by her side, ready for use.
The familiar form of a Togruta emerged from around a corner, illuminated by a lamp being held up behind him. Kat'hari rolled forward into a defensive kneel, igniting her brother's saber. Swallowing back her feelings, she would put this new apparition to the test.
Arigorn thought that Kat'hari looked like hell. He was grateful for that, actually. At least she was still alive. Her tunic was badly ripped and burned black in several places. Her eyes were hollow, and what appeared to be a Force-induced fever rolled off her in waves of incredible heat. It was likely the source of the heat throughout the caverns. He thought she would be grateful to see him. Or at least relieved. Instead, she rolled into an exhausted attack! But she was slow, and possibly wounded if he judged her gait correctly. He bantha kicked behind him, pushing Jen'ari backwards out of the way of any possible saber swings, and pivoted around the strike. With his lead hand, he closed around Kat'hari's small grip on the lightsaber and reached around her shoulders with the other. She was tiny, and the momentum collapsed her strike. It was a simple twist to remove the saber from her grasp.
Kat started pounding at him with her fists, screaming 'You're not real! You're not even here! Where are you? WHERE ARE YOU?'
She began sobbing.
'Where have you been? Why did you let this happen? Where are they?"
Arigorn looked back at his companions, and saw with astonishment the shadow of Zon, collapsed against a wall. Jen'ari and Octagon were tending to him as best as possible, but Zon looked like he was in bad shape.
Carefully setting Kat'ari beside Zon, Arigorn placed a reassuring hand on both apprentices shoulders. The Force allowed him to share some of his vitality with the two, restoring some calm to Kat'hari and consciousness to Zon. Master Octagon spoke simply and to the point:
"I know you two both feel like you could sleep for a week, but we need to know what happened. Where is She?"
The two apprentices looked at each other with expressions mixed with fear and pain. Haltingly, they both retold their fragmented recollections. Jedi Master Octagon faced the two Knights, and instructed them to take the two apprentices back to The Stillness and get them medical treatment. He would go on ahead to confront the menace and determine the fate of Rozen.
Chapter 8
Octagon's steps echoed quietly through the cavern in sure, steady beats. He had a general idea of where he needed to be, but the Force was guiding him to simply follow his instinct. The situation with the apprentices was grave. He had seen the weight of the memories on their souls, and it would take them time to heal the wounds. Compounding the harrowing tale shared by Kat'hari and Zon was the growing emanation of enmity within the Force. It was waiting for him, he was sure of that. It wanted to be found, and to be recognized. He could almost sense the intelligence behind that shattered mind. It was wearing Rozen's face like a mask. He saw the countless eons that it had sat in this cavern. He saw the spirit being abandoned by his people long before the ocean receded and his civilization turned to dust. With sudden inspiration, Octagon knew what he needed to do.
The body of Rozen reclined lazily on the granite slab, tracing the figure eight of stalactites on the ceiling repeatedly with her arm. It had begun to burn and tingle some time ago, and as the motion continued, the agony increased. What a wonderful sensation! The scars this body wore caused such intricate physical and emotional reactions! Why, it was almost too much to bear when he wore both bodies, so he cast away the injured one, focusing on this blind thing, this… Jedi as it called itself. What a strange life it must lead, to willingly add to its already scarred soul.
Some wounds even seemed to transcend lifetimes… it thought as it lazily dug a fingernail deep into the flesh over the throat. The resulting pain caused the most curious static to grow around the neck, and seize the heart. Like being strangled with a strip of wire, maybe. Or drinking caustic acid. He lounged in the sensation, satisfied with being able to feel so intensely. He never wanted to part with this new plaything. It was just new enough to be entertaining, and it saw the world just as he did! This Jedi saw the world through the eyes of the Force, and yet could still interact with the physical world. There was no better host.
But as with all fun, it must come to an end. He could feel the presence of a powerful spirit preparing to enter his chamber, and it was time to pick up this boring little game where he left off.
Octagon leapt into the strange chamber and was immediately immersed in the power of the crystal grid. He could feel within the Force a honeycomb grid of energy, arcing up to form a pyramid within the chamber. The room, the very walls were sentient. This was the true body of the foe he faced. There were patches of energy where Rozen had lingered recently stood out, but he could not locate her.
A cackling laugh echoed through the caverns.
"You came! This one did not believe there were any more stupid enough to enter my home, but here you are! It's been so long since I've had company. Will you play a little game with me? It will help me shake the dust off my bones!" Rozen's voice growled fiercely at the end, and a long red blade ignited from a dark recess. The light narrowed to a single point and launched at Octagon with impossible speed. The Jedi Master held his ground, not even reaching for his saber. The blade froze over his chest, close enough to singe the tunic, and Rozen's form hovered in the faint red illumination. Beads of sweat rolled over the leather band covering her eyes. Fury surrounded her, but she seemed unable to speak. Her hand began to shake, and the lightsaber fell to the ground. The cavern was consumed in darkness, but Rozen's presence suddenly flooded the space.
"Kill me." She whispered. "Before it comes back. I can't take this. It's too much. It delights in my pain! Don't you understand? Show me this final mercy, Master. Do it! Before-"
Octagon whipped Rozen around, pinning her arms behind her back, and used the Force to reach through her soul. Rozen saw the walls of this horrible cavern melt into nothing, revealing the sky with a billion stars. It was beautiful. A falling light caught her attention. It looked like a falling seed. It hit the top of her head, and the universe exploded.
Chapter 9
The Jedi were preparing both ships for takeoff when the ground began to tremble. Some of them began to run to the entrance of the cave when the Kel Dori Master emerged, carrying the limp form of Rozen.
"She will live." He said simply as he placed her on a med couch in The Stillness. The ridge collapsed into itself as both transports took off.
The return to the Temple seemed like a dream to Rozen. She could feel that she was heavily sedated, but her long training in meditation kept her mind active. She could feel the Force healing her wounds, and she wondered idly when the pain in her throat would stop. By the time they landed, she was able to walk through the peaceful temple grounds on her own two feet. She had almost made it to her meditation chamber door before the massive Ithorian Master found her.
"I am so glad you all returned safely! Who could have guessed such a small mission would have threatened so much! Well, I'm sure you've had a long week, and I don't want to keep you. It is good to see you return whole." Hummed the Ithorian in resonant tones.
Rozen covered her throat with her hand.
"Thank you, Master Grayson. Yes, it is good to be back." Rozen said stiffly and slipped into her chamber. Behind the door, he could hear sobbing.
***END***