Chapter 2


The Valley had stood more or less the same for close to 4,000 years, and given Korriban's arid climate and minimal tectonic movement, the thousands of tons of rock and carved stone of each tomb had lain relatively untouched since the collapse of the Sith Academy that had operated so close to here, during the Jedi Civil War. The tombs themselves had been looted thoroughly by that generation of Sith, their relics and artifacts of Dark power scattered across the galaxy. Some of them doubtless waited on some distant world, anticipating being found by another worthy owner.

Naga Sadow, Ajunta Pall, Tulak Hord, Marka Ragnos. Four of the greatest Dark Lords of the Sith who ever lived, all of them buried here. Age and careless, clumsy efforts at forcing entry all those centuries past had caused some of the tombs interior ceilings or walls to collapse, or blocked access to the entrances. In fact, as Jaden gazed around the Valley as she emerged, blinking, into the open, she noticed just from a casual glance that only Marka Ragnos' tomb was fully cleared and accessible. Excavation efforts had not yet been turned to the others.

And with the presence of both the Jedi and of Jaden Korr, the chances of the Disciples of Ragnos doing that now were not especially good.

Jaden snickered, enjoying the understatement. Nobody's chances of doing anything were especially good around here. Nobody's but hers.

The Valley was a battleground just as the tombs had been, but fewer of the Jedi had made it this far, and they and the Disciples of Ragnos were spread out far and wide, blades of plasma flashing brilliant white before fading back to bright red, purple, yellow, green and blue. Here and there teams of Stormtroopers, competent and fearless if completely outmatched, attempted to add their weapons to the fray. Some even succeeded in injuring or killing a Jedi, but not many.

As fun as it would be to engage in each and every fight happening out here, Jaden had a growing sense that time was short. Maybe Kyle Katarn was coming here, aiming to join the battle and stop his fallen apprentice both. Maybe he'd brought Luke Skywalker with him. Or maybe, and this one Jaden thought amusing but unlikely, Rosh's death had pushed Kyle over the edge and he was coming here for revenge.

Regardless, whether or not Kyle or Luke managed to catch up with Jaden before she left Korriban, it would be far better if she got to Tavion and the Scepter first. If she didn't, their chances of interfering successfully would be, admittedly, higher.

If, by the time either of them showed up, Jaden held the Scepter of Ragnos, though…

The thought of her prospects in a fight then made Jaden's beautiful face break out into a sweet, heart-warming smile. She sprinted out and away from the catacombs exit, doing her best to keep far away from the small groups fiercely engaged in fighting. A few members of each side got in her way, and were dealt with. But altogether Jaden crossed the Valley of the Dark Lords and was headed up the steps to the Tomb of Marka Ragnos in really no time at all.

XX

The Disciples of Ragnos had fought hard, and given much, to get this far. They were so close to the end, so near to the goal they had all sworn themselves to live or die to achieve, that Jaden could tell even with a casual sensing through the Force that every member of the Disciples was fighting this out to the death. Awaiting her in the cavernous hallway that led deeper into the tomb, to the room where Ragnos was actually buried, were the most dedicated and fanatical soldiers of the cause that were left. They were Tavion Axmis' best and most loyal remaining warriors, and they moved in eagerly, igniting their red-bladed lightsabers, when they saw Jaden.

But just as they began to move towards her, Jaden was struck for the first time by how unbearably, scorchingly hot it was. The high temperature was explained easily by the rich orange glow coming up from the depths to either side of the stone walkway. An open lava flow ran under the stone, making even this giant room, with its ceiling over a hundred feet up, seem as blazingly hot as the smallest oven.

Jaden started to laugh as she realized how ridiculously close these bodyguards were to the edge of the stone bridge. She was still laughing as they broke into a run, sprinting towards her, perhaps angered further by her mocking laughter. Jaden picked up the first, and with a powerful, roaring blast of the Force, hurled him screaming over the side. The other barely had time to notice this before Jaden threw him over the side too. The screams as those men fell, the agonized shrieks they made as they twisted and writhed before the lava consumed them and they knew no more, brought euphoric happiness to Jaden's very soul.

As she strode towards the entrance to the tomb itself, Jaden reflected again on how much she had changed, how far she had come, and how better she was for the journey. The Dark Side was alive in this place; Jaden could feel its power. How had she ever been blind to how much more it offered you than the slow, tame, 'safe' path of the Light?

How had she never known?

Ah, well. It didn't really matter now. Jaden was still young, and now, with the power of the Dark Side of the Force coursing through her, anything was possible. Maybe she would be the one to uncover powers yet untapped by every Sith of the past 10,000 years- every Sith who'd ever lived in history- and find the key to everything every Dark Side user had ever desired. Perhaps she would one day transcend mortality itself, her power grown to heights even she couldn't imagine.

Anything was possible.

With that thought, Jaden reached the towering doors of the tomb. They stood open, as if awaiting her arrival. Inside, a beam of brilliant light shot out from the Scepter of Ragnos, aimed towards a heroic-size statue of its former master.

Tavion, trying to resurrect that old relic of history with all that Dark Side energy gathered up in the Scepter.

Jaden grinned, glad she hadn't arrived too late, or too early. Not so early that she couldn't have the fun of interrupting Tavion in the middle of the resurrection, and not so late that it had actually happened.

And to top it off, Jaden could already tell it was too late for Kyle to get in the way. He was coming, sure, headed for this very place- she could sense that. But her timing was such that he would be too late to stop her.

Perfect.

XX

"Tavion!" an angry, commanding voice barked. "Give me the Scepter!"

Tavion Axmis, leader of the Disciples of Ragnos, turned her head to look over her shoulder, letting the Scepter go silent for the moment. That voice was familiar…

"Ah," she said, catching sight of who it was, "Kyle's good student." Then she looked at Jaden differently, as if really noticing her for the first time. "Or is it? I sense the Dark Side in you. Are you here to witness the resurrection?"

"No," Jaden Korr denied flatly, striding down the steps and across the open floor of the tomb. "I'm here to kill you; something my old Master couldn't do."

"But why?" Tavion asked curiously, genuinely puzzled. "Think about it. What need is there for that? With Marka Ragnos reborn, the Jedi won't stand a chance. They will be wiped out, as they should be, and we can both serve him as he rules the galaxy!"

The tall, slender blonde, this former Jedi glowing like a blazing torch when sensed through the Force, was stern and unsmiling. Hate had gotten the better of her in a truly spectacular way, and Tavion was startled at how powerfully unbridled rage was running through the woman coming towards her. This was not Kyle's good student anymore. No, indeed.

But would she go for Tavion's sales pitch? It would be quite useful to have someone so strong in the Force on her side- if she was willing to make an alliance.

Any possibility of that ended when Jaden Korr spat contemptuously, "I will no longer 'serve' anyone, least of all some dusty old has-been who had his chance long ago! I will have the Scepter and its power for myself!" The blonde fallen Jedi reached to her belt, whipped out her lightsaber and ignited both blades. "Now, give it to me!"

Tavion let her own anger course freely through her in response, letting go of any respect or interest in alliance she'd had with Jaden Korr. "Impudent whelp!" she snarled, activating her own single-blade red lightsaber in one hand, still holding the Scepter of Ragnos in the other. This little fallen Jedi would find out soon enough what a big mistake she'd made. "I will enjoy slaying you!"

The two women sprang forward, each growling and snarling hungrily. Their blades crashed together in a flash of brilliant fire.

XX

Tavion Axmis, leader of the Disciples of Ragnos, now, one of the last of the Disciples of Ragnos. All their losses were meaningless, however; the dead were as useless as Tattooine sand. The only thing that mattered was victory- resurrecting one of the greatest Dark Lords of the Sith to ever live and swearing allegiance to him as he laid waste to the Jedi all across the galaxy. It would bring about the glorious new age that deposed Emperor Palpatine, better known among the Dark Side faithful as Darth Sidious, had promised so eloquently, begun so brilliantly, and then completely failed to deliver.

And now the Disciples were closer than they had ever been to fulfilling their goal, and it was not a Jedi who stood in the way. It wasn't that sanctimonious idiot Luke Skywalker; it wasn't his equally tiresome crony Kyle Katarn.

It was someone just like her. Recently converted, maybe. But a Dark Jedi all the same. Perhaps aspiring to the title of "Sith". A fellow user of the Dark Side of the Force.

That was who stood in the way.

Tavion was so consumed with outrage, so eaten up by fury at having her generous offer rejected, that she threw herself into the fight with an intensity she had never known before. Firing deadly beams of pure Force energy with the Scepter, and taking equally lethal swings with her lightsaber, Tavion Axmis fought with every ounce of herself in what she soon realized was the fight of her life.

Win or lose.

Winner take all.

The young woman facing Tavion was stronger than she had ever been as a Jedi, and by the Force did she know it. Confidence radiated outward from her as strongly as did the Dark Side. More, even. As they battled back and forth across the meticulously set, multi-ton blocks of stone that formed the tomb's floor, fighting before the giant statue of Ragnos himself, Tavion could sense no fear from her opponent at all. No hesitation, no inner weakness or regret. No softness, no sentiment. Just purpose and will.

Jaden Korr was an incredibly skilled sword-fighter for someone as young as she was. Her hate made her stronger, gave her extra agility and drive. Tavion met that unrestrained hate with hate of her own, but continued to be startled by the intensity of the Dark Side in Jaden. She had fallen far, very far, and had done so stunningly fast. Molten durasteel burned in her eyes as she slammed her blade down again and again, whirled and brought both blades to bear countless times. Tavion parried, blocked, counterattacked and launched assaults that would have blinded and destroyed lesser opponents.

She wasn't facing one of those lesser opponents.

A roaring wave of Force energy came thundering towards Tavion; she was hurled backward, just managing to wrest herself free before she would have been dashed to pieces against one of the four massive, flame-topped pillars set in a perfect square around the tomb.

As the battle went on, the two Dark Jedi using all their hate, all their rage, all their contempt for anyone who dared get in their way, Tavion reached an alarming realization. Most of the opponents she fought would have been sweating by now, figuratively or literally. Even Jaden Korr herself had put up a game but disappointing fight on Vjun. But this time, Jaden just kept on coming, those eyes of hers glowing with rage. She didn't speak once, never stopped to taunt or mock Tavion. She just attacked, slamming her blue Jedi Guardian's blade against Tavion's red again and again, seeming to hit just a little harder every time.

The blocks were getting harder to do. Parries seemed to come just a half-second away from being too late. And even the endless supply of rage-fuelled energy granted by the Dark Side seemed to be failing Tavion here.

When she barely escaped getting her right leg cut off just above the knee by a sudden, blindingly-fast low attack by Jaden's whirling dual-ended blade, then- for the first time since she'd lost to Kyle Katarn- it dawned on Tavion with such obviousness that she couldn't even hope to ignore it.

I'm losing.

As if on cue, as if sensing Tavion's innermost thoughts, her slowly-emerging fears as they fought, Jaden Korr renewed her assault. Far from slowing down or tiring out, she seemed to draw strength from the fighting, gain energy the longer the battle went on. It was as if she was feeding off Tavion's own rage, using it and adding it to her own. Jaden Korr had silently called Tavion's bluff, and was the stronger.

Tavion used the Scepter for all it was worth, gouging huge piles of rock out of the walls and floor of the tomb as she attempted to blast Jaden Korr into oblivion. Lithe and with a dancer's effortless grace, the blonde Dark Jedi leapt aside each time, using Tavion's momentary distraction from primary use of her lightsaber to launch a new assault.

In every exchange, Tavion found herself beginning to give ground. She threw herself into the fight with renewed determination, verbally taunting and mocking Jaden with everything she could think of, but none of it seemed to even register. Those burning orbs of hate that had once been eyes, scorching whatever they set upon, did not care at all what verbal jabs Tavion Axmis made.

None of the things she said even seemed to be heard by her opponent at all.

And just as Tavion was beginning to wonder what else she was even supposed to do, another roaring wave of the Force was flung at her. This time, it caught her dead-center, and Tavion was flung against one of the stone pillars. Her right hand smacked against the rock painfully, and the Force pried her fingers open in that weakened moment, tore the Scepter of Ragnos from her hand, and flung it away.

A second wave slammed into her, and this time Tavion's lightsaber was torn free. It went sailing towards Jaden, who spun her blade at the right moment and cut Tavion's weapon in two.

Exhausted, defeated and completely out of ideas, Tavion fell to her knees, then had to put out her hands to keep from falling down on her face.

Jaden Korr stood above her, gazing down in silence.

It was all over now.

XX

Jaden stood there, feeling the blood rage of the fight coursing through her, the fiery hate that was everywhere in this tomb making her feel more in tune with the Dark Side than she'd ever been with the light. She stood there, looking down at Tavion.

The leader of the Disciples of Ragnos did not even try to argue with her now. She knew she was done. Her whole grand plan was through. Finished. She didn't even look up, but stayed there on all fours, and said in a strained, weakened voice, "I will not cower… as I did before Katarn. Finish it. Kill me."

For the first time since she'd turned, the first time since she'd killed Rosh Penin, Jaden had an opponent completely at her mercy.

The Jedi did not believe in killing helpless opponents. A Jedi would never, ever kill an enemy who could not fight back, whose fate was entirely in their hands. A Jedi would never do what Tavion Axmis was actually inviting Jaden to do.

Jaden Korr was not a Jedi.

Drawing her lightsaber back, Jaden swung it down in a swift, clean arc. It burned into Tavion's torso just below the neck, first severing her spine, cutting through tissue until the plasma reached Tavion's heart. She managed a brief cry of pain before the end. That was all.

Just over there, to the left, at the feet of Ragnos himself, was his Scepter. A powerful weapon of the Dark Side, so powerful it could make Dark Jedi out of people who had never even felt the Force before. Jaden suddenly imagined herself as a powerful warlord, a Sith Lord with countless forces at her command… and at the core of her army, a legion of Dark Jedi, trained by and loyal to her alone. Standing before a horde of Sith warriors at an ancient temple of white and gray stone on an unknown world, Jaden saw the Sith Empire reborn. Stronger than the Galactic Empire had ever been, even at its height, ready to set out to reconquer the galaxy and finish those tiresome Jedi once and for all at her command.

Jaden Korr, standing at the apex of it all, undisputed ruler of everything in her sight, everything on this world of oceans and sand she had never seen before yet somehow knew so well… Jaden Korr, master of the Dark Side, Empress of the Sith Empire.

To call it glorious would be to do insult to what Jaden saw. "Glorious" was not even remotely adequate. But it would do. Perhaps when the Jedi were gone, when the galaxy waited with bated breath for Jaden's every command, she would think of a better word for it. Until then…

It lasted for just a few moments, but it was so intense, so real, that Jaden gasped in surprise upon seeing the Tomb of Marka Ragnos before her again. Shaking off the lapse in concentration, she reached down to pick up the Scepter. Grand visions or not, it was what she had come here for. Time to grab the flaming thing and get out of-

"Jaden, stop!"

Oh, by the Force-

Jaden snapped her head up, inches away from touching the Scepter of Ragnos. She knew that voice. And when she looked and saw the intruder, she knew that face. She'd known he would be here. He was too preachy to have the sense just to stay out of the way. It was the one she'd rather hoped would be too stupid not to come after her, hoping to 'save' someone who had merely been set free.

Kyle Katarn.

"Don't get in my way, Kyle!" Jaden barked in warning, drawing herself up to her full height and glaring at him.

But Kyle came onward, walking towards her, speaking evenly but urgently. "Jaden, I know you're angry, but it's not too late to renounce the Dark Side."

Jaden laughed. She laughed right in his face. Genuinely amused, she just half-shrugged and replied, "Who says I want to? You?"

"Listen to me, Jaden!" Kyle insisted. "Tavion and her cult have been stopped! Ragnos has no chance of coming back now; we can end this here!"

"Oh, noo." Jaden smiled, shaking her head. "This is just the beginning."

But Kyle Katarn remained calm, his expression immovable. Only his voice showed the urgency and worry he was feeling.

"Jaden, the lure of the Dark Side is strong, but it will ultimately destroy you!"

"Liar!"

"Fight it, Jaden!" Kyle urged, still firmly in control of himself despite the storm of conflicting emotions inside. "Rosh resisted it; you can, too!"

"Rosh was weak!" Jaden spat contemptuously. "He was too afraid to grasp the true power of the Dark Side!" Her voice rose swiftly to a shout. "I did you a favor when I killed him, but you are too stupid to know a good thing when you are in its grasp!"

"Are you listening to yourself, Jaden?" Kyle asked in shock. "Please listen to me and not to what the Dark Side is making you say! Rosh is dead because you let your anger get out of control. Don't make a bad thing worse by letting the Dark Side drive you to commit blacker crimes!"

Rage was rolling off Jaden in waves. Seen through the Force, she burned like a fusion torch. "What crimes?" Jaden demanded, screaming now. "My only crime was being born with the gifts the Force gave me! My only crime was realizing how hard the Jedi work to make me a pawn in their 'noble crusades'!"

Kyle Katarn, in that moment, realized they were seconds away from a fight.

But still he tried to talk, saying in a strained, dreading voice, "I can't let you do this, Jaden…"

"Then stop me, Master!"

With those words, Jaden bowed sarcastically… and she also ignited her lightsaber.