Disclaimer: Visas Marr belongs even less to me than Darden Leona, and I can only hope I've done her justice.

Defining the Jedi: Freedom

"Bao-Dur…"

Darden's voice was small, faint, yet it cut through the noise like a blade. Visas heard her fall to the seat of the shuttle, and suddenly, it was as if her Master was bleeding, right there before them.

The utility droid chirped a query, and Atton repeated it for the rest of them. "Bao-Dur? What about him?"

Visas knew, even before Darden answered him. "He—I think—he's dead." Across the space between them, she reached for her friend, but his voice had gone silent, and in the place where he had been, there was only darkness. It was salt ground into a wound, another heavy load dropped onto a body already near exhaustion, and it had been all Visas could do to follow her Master in the minutes since she'd shared the news, one foot behind the other.

Bao-Dur! When the others had met her with suspicion, Bao-Dur had welcomed her, trusted her, if only at first because his General claimed she could be trusted. His voice was gentle and his hands were kind on the ship and on the small, lost, broken droids that populated her. His work kept them all in flight. He had been Visas' safe harbor in the storm, her first real friend and the second light she'd seen in a darkness that had seemed absolute, before Darden. It was difficult to imagine, painful to think of the empty silence there would be in the garage back aboard the Ebon Hawk now he was gone, how different it would be from the silence that held her friend's life and work.

The grief was a weight on her chest and spirit, and that was heavy enough. Kreia had turned, as Darden had feared from the beginning, and they were bound to face her former Master. He would destroy Telos, as he had destroyed Visas' homeworld. But if Darden faced him—she would be wounded. He was the darkness in which all life died. Beyond him, she had found, there was light, and beauty. Beyond him, life was worth living. But if he took her again, or worse, took Darden! Visas could live another seventy years and not be prepared to face him, but she would not see him take Telos.

Still, too soon, all too soon, they stood with the Mandalorians. "Let's go, Leona," Canderous said. "We will join you in the assault. These rank and file soldiers will do you no good aboard the Ravager." He referred to the Onderonian soldier. Visas did not even spare him a glance. He was immaterial, now.

But Darden, the General, quickly said, "He means no offense to you."

Mandalore laughed. "Actually, I do. Let we Mandalorians lead the charge into battle and to victory," he said.

"Mandalorians?" gasped the soldier. He was prepared to fight. The wounds from the Mandalorian Wars were still so raw, and not only in Darden Leona.

"Yes, Mandalorians," Darden snapped. "They're on our side. For now, anyway, and that's all that matters at the moment. Stay here. Secure the Station."

"There's only room in the shuttle for two more," Mandalore warned.

Visas felt as if she had known it would be so. In the end, it was right, set, that only she and Darden confront her old Master. "You will not have to face this alone," she told Darden. "I will go with you and be by your side."

Exhaustion and grief washed over Darden like a waterfall, coloring everything Visas could see of her, but still she stood, unbroken. "Good," she replied. "Visas—stay close." Even Darden, even she, was afraid of this, and she did not know how much there was to fear.

Visas stepped close to the older woman, as she heard the Onderonian and the droids depart. But the others, her friends and fellow pupils, stayed to say farewell, in case war tore them apart still further. A wave of strength poured into Visas from Mical. He could see how she trembled. Brianna and Mira both clasped her hand in turn, and Mira whispered, "Send him to hell where he belongs, Visas."

"Be—"Atton began, before Darden interrupted.

"'Be careful,' I know."

There was silence for a moment, then Atton said, "Screw it," and crossed over to Darden to kiss her. More than any of the others, Visas knew, Atton worried for Darden. Their bond was strong and always had been. They were more than pupil and master, more than friends. They were true companions. She did not know where their path would take them, in the end, but that much she could see. But if she failed, this would be the end of their road.

"Be careful," Atton agreed. "And come back."

Darden did not answer him. She knew she could not make that promise. She merely kissed him once more, waved at the rest of the crew, and got in the Mandalorian shuttle. Visas followed her.

As the shuttle flew away from the station, Visas could see the battle raging. The Republic had arrived, but even if they defeated all the ships in His fleet, it would mean nothing if he was left standing. He could snuff out all Telos like a single candle, given time enough.

Mandalore's shuttles blew open another hole in the corpse of His ship, and when Visas walked out of the shuttle she felt the heat of the still-burning flames on her face. The Mandalorians planned to destroy His ship, like Darden planned to destroy Him. The ship was as dead as He was, Visas thought. It needed to die.

It was dangerous for Mandalore to come, she thought. A risk for him to chance exposing the mobilization of his people to the Republic. Brianna might have said it demonstrated the strength of his commitment to Darden and her cause, Visas reflected. "I know what it meant for you to accompany us here, Canderous of Clan Ordo," she said. "Your trust is an honor."

"Trust? I'm just here to make sure you get the job done right. I've been waiting for this ten years. It's time to do things the old-fashioned way."

Visas was not fooled, and neither was Darden. When the three of them had gone beyond the earshot of his men, she said, "You have a higher allegiance than battle, and we both know that's why you're really here. For the record, I don't think the Republic officer that's showed up is out to get you in trouble any more than we are." She spoke of Admiral Onasi, Mical's commanding officer and Canderous' friend from the Jedi Civil War. More loudly, she added, "We won't betray you to the Republic. It would be ungrateful indeed to repay your help in such a way."

Mandalore's man, Kelborn, came up with two of the proton cores they were to use to destroy His vessel. Darden took one, and Canderous the other. Visas knew her task would be to lead them to her old Master.

He pulled at her. Now that she stood in this place, on the Ravager, for the first time since He'd begun calling for her return, He saw her, and for the first time, He saw Darden Leona as well. He did not understand Darden now any more than He had months ago, when He'd first sent Visas to find this one beyond His power, beyond His comprehension, and end her. Visas had not obeyed. And her former…her Master was angry.

His displeasure broke over her mind like a wave on the shore, the waves that wore even cliffs down, in the end. He had come here for the Jedi, for a world rich in the Force, but Telos was dead now, only barely astir with the echoes of what had been and what had passed, and the merest whisper of what might one day come. And the Jedi—they were fewer than He had believed, and what Jedi there were her Master found beyond his reach. His forces pressed Citadel Station, but He could not breach it. Not yet, nor without further concentration. But now the Mandalorians pressed Him, and Visas returned, defiant, with—

Visas gasped. So easy, it was so easy to fall into His Darkness. It consumed her. It had consumed her since Katarr. He had killed her family, her friends, her people, her entire world, and in the ashes it had not even been enough to leave her there to die with the rest. He had crippled her and taken her, and from that day on until the day she had awakened in the Ebon Hawk's medical bay not a moment had been free of His will, His incessant Hunger, His tortures, His rages. Not a moment, even when she had been alone.

Visas led the way as if into her nightmares, barely comprehending when they stopped and when they continued, or the words her companions spoke to one another, until Darden addressed her directly.

"….he's left his defenses wide open. Visas, do you have any idea what's going on?"

"My Master…he knows I am here. He is angry. I do not believe this will be as easy as it seems."

Visas saw Darden focus on her, saw her aura flare. Visas' wrist was seized in small, strong fingers, scarred by battle. Strength flowed into Visas over the bond Darden forged with all she met. "Courage, Visas," Darden ordered. Her voice was like her hand. Warm and certain. She grieved, she feared, but she did not doubt. Not for a moment.

Visas' surroundings seemed to solidify for a moment, and she found she was able to go on.

Still, as she led the party forward, Visas quaked. Her Master baited them, lured them like fish into his trap. He was holding His force back, just a little, just enough to ensure that when the time came, there would be no escape for her. It would be fine. She walked in His Darkness and had since the day He'd made her See, and blinded her. She had never thought there was a place for her where she could elude Her Master, no corner of the galaxy where He would not find her eventually. All life withered in His presence. All, all was subject to His power, she most of all. But that Darden would be extinguished now as well, all Telos, eventually…Her Master must be fought now, but they could not prevail. Not against Him. And all she'd begun to see again in these precious months with Darden Leona, that He had not touched, not yet, those that walked unbowed, free from the knowledge of what was coming for them, they would be snuffed out now, like a candle. And Darden, she that had shown kindness when Visas had thought it gone from the galaxy, strength that only grew as she shared it, endurance like no other's—she would be the first that would be consumed. That it would be so was more than Visas could bear.

No. There is no death; There is the Force. Visas, say it with me.

Warm, certain, unyielding. Like a star that shone through the blackness of space, defying its darkness, crying loudly against the emptiness that still there was life, still there was meaning. Darden Leona would not leave her alone in her mind in this place. It was her voice that spoke in Visas' head, kept her Master's Darkness at bay, just one remove…just a little space.

Visas could not speak. Her throat would not sound, and to share words mind to mind was not her talent. But she could listen to Darden Leona, and turn her thoughts as her friend urged.

There is no emotion; there is peace.

There is no ignorance; there is knowledge.

There is no passion; there is serenity.

There is no chaos; there is harmony.

There is no death; there is the Force.

She did not know if it was true, but the decision was to choose peace, knowledge, serenity, harmony, the Force, rejecting those things that threatened them. That was the choice that Darden and all her pupils made. Not necessarily to expel all emotion, all passion, but to still choose peace. Not necessarily to deny the ignorance and littleness that existed in the galaxy, but always to pursue knowledge, wisdom. Not necessarily to dismiss the existence of things beyond comprehension, to claim that the death and dissonance of the Dark Side was not. Such a stance would be foolish, and a lie. One could not look at Katarr, could not look at Darden Leona, and say such things. But a Jedi could say 'yes, but still there is life. Still there is the Force. And I choose life.'

I Choose Life, Darden affirmed, following her thoughts. Ten thousand faces, places, ideas flitted through Darden's mind. But she focused, and a few images came through to Visas. Again Visas tasted the fresh supplies from Dantooine, the fruits and vegetables their friends had so generously provided, breaking in her mouth with all their sweetness. Again she heard the rain falling on the leaves of the Dxun trees, smelled the powerful scent of the wet earth. Visas could feel Dxun's life in her very blood, but Darden's thoughts turned again to Dantooine, the planet that had been her home. The wind through the grass, the soft chirp of the stream. The cry of an iriaz, and the kath, so strong if challenged, if threatened, but left alone, they played in the summer sun, and yawned when it set under the gently whispering leaves as they curled up with their mates, brothers, sisters, pups.

As she thought of the kath families, Darden thought of Mira, of their companions now. Aliit ori'shya tal'din. The Mandalorian phrase echoed through Visas' mind, and she knew what Darden meant. Family is more than blood. Not just for Life, but for Love, too. Our friends, here, now. We're choosing them, Visas. We're fighting for them. And for them, we'll win. Darden reminded Visas of nights when the Force had flowed through them, of muscles that ached with good exercise, of voices raised in question and discussion as they had learned the history and purpose of the Jedi Order. Questions, debates, laughter, silence, most precious of all, because it was full of their friendship and of learning and of promise, not empty or stretched with anger and fear.

It was beautiful, the images Darden Leona painted for her, but it was not enough. The sound of blaster fire echoed through the empty halls, and the coldness of space penetrated through the holes in the hull of the Ravager, freezing Visas clear through. Outside, the space battle raged, and Visas could feel lives falling into oblivion, not quietly or peacefully, but angrily and fearfully. Sith or Republic soldier, she could not tell. It did not matter. Death consumed them all. Her Master's will demanded it, and it still stretched out for her, for all of them. She walked to meet it on legs that shook. She was weak. She always had been.

Over the comm, Visas heard the Mandalorians crying out as her Master pressed them, cut them off from all aid. A proton core detonated prematurely. The plan was falling apart around them. They would not be able to destroy the Ravager. They would not be able to defeat her Master.

It took Visas several moments to realize that Mandalore had taken the lead, another still to realize that Darden's fingers were around her arm again. Visas turned her face toward Darden, and saw the grim exhaustion that gripped her friend. Now she began to realize. But she was still supporting Visas, using more of her strength to hold up Visas in her weakness, physically as well as mentally, than she was using to stand herself. It was draining her, when she would need all that strength to face Him.

Visas tore her arm away and staggered ahead. She had no chance against her Master. Darden might perhaps be able to withstand Him. Perhaps. But she would not be able to do so if she wasted her strength defending Visas. Ahead, she heard Mandalore's radio. "…we can destroy the ship on your command." Somehow, they'd reclaimed their plan to destroy the Ravager. But it would be useless, anyway. Mere explosives could not destroy Him.

Darden echoed Visas' thoughts aloud to Mandalore. "We can't leave yet. Unless we deal with Nihilus, Telos is finished, whether we blow up the ship or not."

"A big explosion's not going to cut it?" Canderous demanded. He could not feel the threat Visas' Master posed. He did not know.

"You've seen this ship," Darden retorted. "There aren't any guarantees."

Silence stretched between them a moment, then Mandalore spoke into the radio. "Hold your position. Await my order."

"Yes, Mandalore," Zuka answered him.

Visas felt Darden's gaze on her. "Which way to the bridge?" she asked.

Visas pointed, and began walking again, leaving Darden behind her. Darden could not weaken herself further. She must prevail. She had to be able to withstand Him. Behind her, Visas heard Darden and Mandalore speaking in low voices, and she knew they discussed her. But it did not matter. Her life was meaningless, if Darden could withstand Him, if she could break His power.

The halls were familiar. For what felt like a lifetime, they had been her world. The dead, broken metal, the cold of space, the empty silence, His indomitable will, they had been her prisons. Only one place it seemed she'd had air to breathe, just a little, where her person, if not her mind, had been her own. Visas straightened. They were passing it now.

He had never come here. When her Master had summoned her, she'd been compelled to go, but He had never come to her cell. Here she'd slept, here she'd mourned, and here she'd first felt Darden's echo across the stars. "That way leads to an elevator to the bridge, and to my Master," Visas told Darden, finding she could speak. "But this..." she gestured with her right hand. "This door leads to my cell. I…I had forgotten."

"Do you need anything here?" Darden asked gently.

Visas was weak. She was unprepared. Darden would need all the help she could give, but her resolve was feeble and her emotions churned like a stormy sea. She knew she was unready to face Him. She would not let her weakness hinder Darden. "If there is time, I would like to center myself," she answered. "There is a meditation chamber within that I would visit one last time."

A moment, and then Darden replied, "Do what you must." Visas bowed her thanks. "Hurry," Darden added.

Visas entered her cell. She left the cot, the place where her few meager possessions still sat in their lockers, and went to the center of the empty meditation chamber. She sat on the floor, like she had sat then and trembled, and hurt, and wished to die. But now she did not wish to die. Not anymore.

She breathed, in and out, in and out. In the tomb of Freedon Nadd, on Dxun, she had been nearly hypnotized with the power there, and there had been a place, one place in particular, where all the rage of the dead Sith Lord, of all the Sith that were living there then, had seemed concentrated, and Bao-Dur had almost been overcome, but Atton had fought back against the Darkness there, fought it back, and when Visas had joined her will to Atton's, they had defeated it together. She had not known it could be done. Later, her strength and Bao-Dur's had helped Atton, when the fear of failure, of his past and his own inner darkness, had nearly overwhelmed him. Together, she and Bao-Dur had helped Atton reject his worst fears, choose to persevere. What Atton and Bao-Dur had faced in the tomb of Freedon Nadd had been as real as what Visas faced in this place. Bao-Dur had seen his anger destroy the Mandalorians; Visas had not known then, but since she had learned that Atton had every reason to fear the Dark, knew it as well as any and better than most.

But beyond the past, beyond the failures and nightmares, there was still life. There was still the Force. Her Master-Nihilus had not consumed it all yet. Visas had seen that it was not so.

Katarr was gone. All of her friends, her family, all her people were dead, and only dust blew over the planet's surface where once there had been so much life. Two years of her life were gone, and the scars those years—Nihilus—had cut into her body and her spirit attested to them and always would. But she did not have to let it define her, own her, any more than Bao-Dur's Mass Shadow Generator or the years Atton had spent lost in hate, following an illusion, had to own them. They called Darden Leona the Jedi Exile, and so she was, but she had returned, and any Jedi Order that grew now would grow from the seeds she had sown, after the fires of war, after her wanderings.

This was the past, Visas thought, feeling the broken, angry ship around her. It would die soon, as it should. Telos, though, would go on to flower again. Men and women would return to its surface, and eventually, children, too. The Force continued. So might she.

Nihilus would not.

Not for what he had done, but for the planet below that still had a future and a people, waiting to return to it. For her friends, the new Jedi, just beginning to come into their own, like the flowers after the first spring rain, that Nihilus would pull up by the roots. In honor of Bao-Dur, who had already made the ultimate sacrifice for this world and these people- that it might not be in vain. For the worlds that depended on this—Dxun and Onderon and Dantooine, the entire Republic—but all life was connected, through the Force. So when Visas left here and led Darden to Nihilus, and together they faced him, she would do it for all of them, for all life, everywhere.

She could not save those that had died already. Visas said a quiet prayer for those that had passed, including Bao-Dur, for all those that had died in this battle already.

There would be no more.

Visas Marr stood, and left the meditation chamber.

Darden looked at her as she came out. "Thank you," Visas said.

Darden seemed satisfied. She gripped Visas' shoulder warmly. She did not need further words. Visas led the way toward the elevator.

They met the Onderonian before they stepped on the elevator. Tobin, one who had opposed Darden in the battle for his homeworld, against his queen. He had looked to Nihilus for freedom from the Republic, but had found only enslavement, and been consumed. "Have you come to kill me?" he asked Darden weakly. "The final insult: stripping Onderon, my soldiers, my home from me…only to have me die here."

Darden spoke to him, the General once more, as hard as stone. "What are you doing here, Tobin? What happened to you?" she demanded.

Tobin tried to laugh, but the spasm set him coughing, and Visas could feel that the life was leaving his body. "He happened. The hunger that fills this vessel…it is power, but it consumes without end. It is that power we felt on Onderon, that Vaklu felt…it was an echo too strong to ignore."

"But why are you here? How did you ally with the Sith, anyway?" Darden pressed him.

"General Vaklu and I…when it seemed that we would need more to take Onderon, to make it strong again, he came," Tobin answered. He had no reason to withhold anything anymore. "With his power, his soldiers, it seemed as if there was nothing we could not do, and nothing the Queen could do to stop us."

Visas felt Darden's anger flare at the pointlessness of it, the stupidity of this man, that had grasped at power to destroy others that would only destroy him. "Yeah, and how'd that work out for you?" she muttered, turning to leave Tobin where he lay.

"I have served the wrong Master," Tobin agreed. "He cares nothing for Onderon, its soldiers, its people. Everything exists…to feed his will. I came here to this dead ship, and now he will not permit me to leave."

Darden stopped, and Visas felt a flicker of pity from the older woman. "I'm here to end him," Darden promised Tobin suddenly. "You're dead walking, and you know that, but if you want, you can help me. If not, stand aside."

"There is nothing to be done except wait. If you go to him he will destroy you, and your last moments will be shadow, and pain."

It was Visas' own fear, but now her head was clear she sensed no distress from Darden, no sign that Nihilus was pressing her at all, only a grim, decided amusement, and for the first time, what had seemed before a vain hope seemed a real, substantial thing. Nihilus did not understand Darden. He could not touch her. "Somehow, I think if he tries it with me he just might choke," Darden said quietly. "Listen to me now, Tobin. Once Nihilus takes out Telos, he's going to go back for Onderon."

"Onderon…but there's no longer any need—"But in his spirit, Visas recognized, Tobin realized the truth, even before Darden snapped.

"There doesn't have to be a need, idiot. He's hungry. He is hunger. Do you know what happened to Katarr? That was him. You think Telos will satisfy him? He's tasted Onderon. He'll go back for it, and devour it, too, and on and on until he's consumed the entire galaxy."

"You are right," Tobin whispered. "But what would you have me do?"

Darden told Tobin of their plan, sent him to the Mandalorians. He was dying, but in his death, she would allow him to reclaim a little of his honor, and save one of Mandalore's clan, as well. As Tobin stumbled away and they turned again toward the bridge, Visas counted the Onderonian just another reason she would follow Darden Leona, against Nihilus and to death itself, if need be.

It was not long before they opened the door and once more, Visas stood before him. Nihilus' Dark presence reached out, furious at her betrayal. He sensed her resolve, how her allegiance had changed. He knew she had given her loyalty to another, and that they had come here to challenge him now. It was betrayal, and he was enraged, only more so because Telos had proven a trap, a waste. He could not touch it. There were no dozens of Jedi here, hardly any life on the planet to consume. He still could not attack Citadel Station directly, not yet, and now Visas interfered so he could not meditate on it, either.

His anger surged, and with it, his power. Darden and Mandalore were flung back, and Visas was left alone, before him. She heard the bodies of her friends hit the deck, and then Nihilus' hand was at her throat. His power beat at her, she could not breathe; she could not stand. She fell to her knees, and just as the sound of the engine straining, the hum of the particle field began to be drowned out by the sound of the blood pounding in her ears, her own heartbeat, weakening, she heard a single blaster shot, and Nihilus cried out, and she was released.

Visas collapsed to the deck, gasping, and before her saw Darden, her aura flaring with pain, but also with anger. "I came!" she cried. Her voice was thick with pain. "Me! This is…our fight, Sith. You leave Visas out of it."

Darden had wounded Nihilus, as he had wounded her, and now her defiance drew his rage. But it had not been Visas' plan that Darden should face him alone. She threw herself in front of Darden. "No!" she forced out. "Do not harm her. I am…the one who has betrayed you. I am…the one who should suffer. I will return to you…but please…do not harm her…do not do what you did to me…I beg you…"

Darden's voice cracked like a whip over hers. "Visas! Shut up! We can beat this guy!"

Visas took a breath. She had come here to defeat him, not to rejoin him. He did not own her. He would not. She mustered her strength again, and with Darden, stood firm. She did not know if they could beat Nihilus, but Darden was right. They would try.

Darden stepped in front of Visas once more, closing to melee combat range. "Visas will never be yours again," she said, addressing Nihilus again. "And this…this is between you and me. You can see the planet down there. You've lost the battle. And you can feel the planet down there. There isn't any Jedi Academy. She told you there was one, didn't she?"

Darden laughed aloud, mocking him. She meant Kreia, Visas knew. Darth Traya. She had not realized until after the old woman had left and the cloud she had cast over the Ebon Hawk had departed. Traya had once been Nihilus' Master, until he cast her out, but he feared her still, and hated her with all the hatred in him.

"She lied," Darden continued, provoking him still further. "You came here for Jedi, but I'm all there is here, Nihilus. So. You want to feed on a Jedi? Just try it."

Visas almost cried aloud, but then it was like down in Atris' Academy at Telos' pole. Darden Leona disappeared. Where she had stood, now there was only gaping emptiness, a screaming hole of war and loss and oblivion. Where she stood, despite all the wisdom of the Jedi Code, there Was No Force. All at once, Visas understood. Where there was no Force, there was nothing for Nihilus to consume. And if he tried, he would only be trying to swallow a vacuum.

Still he tried, and Visas felt him straining. Nihilus fell to his knees, and Darden laughed with grim satisfaction. "Yeah. Thought so," she said. "He can't hurt me, Visas. Look. His own nothingness is consuming him. Kreia knew that it would."

Nihilus stopped trying to drain Darden, but his efforts, Visas saw, amazed, had left him gasping. He climbed to his feet, though. /You're nothing more than a puppet, Exile,/ he spat. /Less than that. But you will find that even a stone can be melted./ Nihilus raised his lightsaber, and engaged Darden Leona.

Whatever Darden had done to close herself off from the Force, without it, she could not sense her lightsaber, Visas knew. She would need aid. Mandalore fired into their battle, shooting to kill Nihilus, but he deflected the bolts. Visas tried to support Darden with the Force.

But every attack she threw he embraced. He drew off the power of them, and Visas soon realized that though she could distract him from harming Darden, she could not hurt him through the Force, and every effort she made would only give him more power. Hungrily, Nihilus turned toward Visas now, draining her energy to help him destroy Darden.

"He…is…too…powerful…" Visas gasped, desperate to warn her friend. Darden could not know what was happening, not closed off as she was. "He…"

A moment, and then suddenly, Visas could see Darden again. The hole in the Force closed, and where it had been there was her friend, alight with determination. "Visas! Get behind me," she ordered. "Focus on me. Just on me! We'll get through this!"

Visas reached out with her feelings, and found Darden there, and it was like in the tomb of Freedon Nadd, with Atton and Bao-Dur, except now, she found that suddenly she could breathe. Nihilus had been drawing on her, but now where he'd been, there was Darden, and though she took strength from Visas, she reflected it back, like a mirror reflected back a beam. It was strange, very strange. But Visas knew that for now, she didn't need to understand it. She just needed to use it.

She activated her lightsaber. "I…I will try," she promised.

Mandalore's repeating blaster rifle resounded again, and this time, angered by the turn the battle had taken, instead of merely deflecting the bolt, Nihilus rounded on him. Darden cried out, but even as she shouted lightning arced past them and into Canderous Ordo's body. His armor conducted the blast, and Canderous fell to the ground, screaming and convulsing.

Grief and anger surged through Darden's mind. Visas could feel it, and she saw how Darden would move, what she would do. Darden's ankle was sprained. Now she sent the Force to heal it, and took up an Ataru stance.

Visas followed in her footsteps from the other side. They could not defeat Nihilus through the Force any more than Nihilus could defeat Darden through the Force, but he would fall to a lightsaber as easily as Darden. More so. The lightsaber was not Nihilus' strength.

In the end, Visas found, it was a simple thing. Her lightsaber passed through flesh at the same time as Darden's, and the air cleared, and the Darkness dissipated, and a body fell to the deck of a dead ship, and it was over.

Visas stood there, gasping, gazing down at the corpse that had once ruled her world. And behind her, the slaves that she'd thought had lost their minds long ago to Nihilus' will were stirring, speaking, and ahead, outside, she could see that over Telos the battle had ended, and the Republic had won.

Over, and still she stood.

She knelt beside the corpse, and behind her, another voice sounded, familiar.

"What…what the hell are you doing? We…we need to get off this ship. Now."

"Canderous!" Darden cried. The joy in her voice was a bell.

But Visas struggled with the ties that bound the blank mask to the face of the corpse of the man that had been Darth Nihilus. "I have to see...with the Force, and with my eyes…"

Visas took off the mask, and looked down on a dead man. Not a nightmare, not a monster, not the Darkness in which all life died, for she still breathed, and Telos would go on. All the galaxy would go on. In death, the man seemed small, somehow. All he had been was gone, and in time, it would pass even from memory. Visas dropped the mask, and stood.

She returned to Darden's side. "What did you see?" Darden asked.

"A man, nothing more," Visas answered. "You are my Master now, and I will follow you wherever your path takes you. My path is at an end."

She had not thought that she would survive.

Now, though, she felt Darden smiling, and the smaller woman wrapped strong arms about her and squeezed. "No, it isn't," Darden promised her. "You might find that the Force has a few surprises for you yet. But let's get out of here and blow this place. This ship should have died years ago."

Visas hugged her back, and turned her back on the corpse on the bridge, and even before the ship blew, with every step she took, she grew lighter.

It was over. No longer a prisoner, no longer afraid, she was a Jedi now. And she was free.