The chamber slowly came into focus when he came to, appearing fuzzy and distorted. He tried to move his arms, but they were restrained. He tried his legs, but the same thing too. His head was the only thing moveable. When his vision regained, he saw what was restraining him. The creature had suspended him on a huge spiderweb in the middle of the two pillars. It had tied his hands and feet into a starfish-like position, by the wrists and the ankles. He tried to struggle, but the webs were too tight on him.

Then, to his horror, the creature came down from the ceiling on a single strand and landed on the floor right on front of him. It flexed its' mandibles in front of him in an effort to scare him. Though Taran didn't show it, he was scared in his very soul, the memory of the purella coming back to him. He tried to struggle with the web, but still nothing.

"Little fool, you will not escape my clutches," said the creature in a hissing, cold, female voice. Taran could not believe that this thing was actually speaking.

"If it isn't my old friend, the Avatar," she said.

"You know me?" Taran managed to say.

"How could I not? You're the reason I'm stuck in this infernal mountain!" she yelled. Her body trembled angrily when she said this. Tarans' chances of escape went from 0 to the negatives.

"What do you mean?" said Taran.

"Of course, your new incarnations never remember. Do you know what my name is?" she said.

"Kong-Ju," said Taran.

"Yes. It means fear. And that was my job, to put fear into people's everyday lives. Then you came along, deciding that the people had enough of me. We fought and you won. Instead of killing me you imprisoned in this mountain to rot over the ages, the agony of starvation your punishment for me," she said.

"Look, do whatever you want to me, just let my friends go," said Taran.

"I think not Avatar. I saved you for last to be eaten, and your friends are the next courses," she said, saliva dripping from her jaw.

"Wait, we can solve this without violence," said Taran. Though he was only saying this to buy some time. He saw his lightsaber near the stone altar where the others lay and was using the Force with his hands to move it gently forward, as slow as possible to not get the creature to learn of it's movements.

"Such as what?" she said, inching closer to him, her legs on the web.

"Okay, you're pissed at me, or at least my past-life, because I trapped you here, but you do remember karma right? I think we can solve this in a nice, diplomatic solution instead of eating the essence of a life-form," said Taran. The lightsaber was close, but the creature was closer.

"Sorry, all my mercy went away after my entrapment. Your flesh will taste so good," she said. Her mandibles flexed open to show her razor-sharp teeth. Her tongue came out and wriggled near Taran's face. He pressed his head back so that her tongue wouldn't lick his face, which would be really nasty. Just as she was about to sink her teeth into him, Taran summoned his lightsaber back into his hand. He turned it on and flicked it in a circle, cutting off the creature's tongue in half.

She howled in pain, her screams echoing throughout the chamber. This bought Taran enough time to cut free from the webs and land on his feet, lightsaber held ready. The creature stopped yelling and turned to focus on him, it's yellow eyes glowing with hate and fury. Even though her tongue was cut off, she could still speak.

"I was going to make your death quick, but now, I'm going to rip you limb from limb!" she screamed. She scuttled over to him and attacked him with all the anger she had. Taran ducked and dodged between her attacking legs, trying to get to her head. But her legs swirled around him, pressing him on all sides. He did manage to get to her eventually and aimed a slash at her head, but it only grazed a part of her mandible. She seized the opportunity to kick one of her legs in his hand to send the lightsaber flying out of his hands. Now he was unarmed to face her.

She ran for him, hoping to knock him down with her body weight. He dodged to the side and used his Airbending to hit her with an air swipe. It her square in the head, but didn't too much to stop her onslaught. She hissed out and swung her legs at him in a patterned order. Taran dodged the first three, nearly avoided the last two, but was hit by the last one. He slammed into the wall.

The creature ran over to him and tried to bite him to pieces. Taran seized hold onto it's two fronts mandibles so that he hung directly in front of the creature's jaws, but did not enter them. The creature moved it's mandibles as best as it could, shaking them in different rhythms and manners, but Taran still hung on, though there were a few close calls. Taran held on as best as he could, trying to find a way to get away from the jaws of death. Finally he seized an opportunity. The creature flexed it's mandibles up and Taran used it's momentum to push off the mandibles into the air, hoping to land on solid ground. Unfortunately he landed on the creature's head, but while he did so he did a flip in the air and used the lightsaber to stab the creature's head.

The creature shook her head all over the place, desperately trying to throw Taran off. Taran held onto the head's skin as best he could, though at times he was nearly thrown off. While there he was working his way to make the creature pay for it's crimes. As he clung on he heated up the parts of the creatures exoskeleton that he held on to, burning it. The creature could feel the burns getting worse and tried to get him off. Thinking irrationally now, it flipped onto it's back. Taran was slammed to the floor, but managed to escape the worst of the impact. It did however make him dizzy.

Regaining focus he saw the creatures legs flailing helplessly in the air in a vain attempt to get back on them. Taran summoned his lightsaber and walked closer to the creature. He jumped onto the creature's belly, poising his lightsaber to make the final strike.

"Please, don't kill me," it pleaded.

"And why should I, after all the things you've done?" said Taran, not letting it distract him.

"I was hungry! I have to eat to survive, even when it meant killing anything that walked into here. I had no choice. Please, don't kill me!" it pleaded. It made noises that sounded like sobbing and extreme sadness. Though Taran didn't want to heed it's words, he couldn't help but feel mercy and compassion. If it was Obi-Wan, he would have done the same thing. Then, Taran realized how much alike he and Obi-Wan had become. He couldn't kill this thing, not like this when it was throwing itself at the ground, begging for mercy.

"I'm going to get my friends, and you stay right here. Any sudden movements, and you'll die," said Taran. The creature nodded. Taran walked slowly backwards, never taking his eyes off the creature. When he got to it's lower belly, the creature spoke again.

"One of your friends is stirring," she said. Taran turned around, but realized he had made a grave mistake. The creature flicked him off with it's leg and used the momentum of the swing to get back onto it's legs.

"You actually thought I was telling the truth? Your gullible nature is all to certain of any Avatar. Now, you and your friends will die," she said, advancing closer to him slumped on the wall. Taran was very dazed now, but he knew he couldn't give up. His friends needed him, Ahsoka needed him. He got up slowly to his feet, lightsaber on.

"Let's finish this," he said. With that, the two foes clashed. Immediately, Taran went on the offensive. He was no longer restrained. When he first attacked the monster, he was trying not to harm it too much, trying to see if there was a shred of good in the creature. Now he was fighting to kill. This thing was so twisted and evil that death was the only option.

Taran's first attack sliced off a leg. The creature howled, stumbling as it tried to regain balance now that one of it's legs was cut in half. Taran seized the opportunity to get in close and slash the two mandibles off as well.

The creature ran around in circles now, howling and yelling. Taran had to jump out the way numerous times so that he wasn't barreled over. Taran could sense that it was hurt badly now.

"I gave you the chance to right your wrongs, a chance to see the error of your ways, but I see now that you cannot live without harming others. Your reign of terror is over," said Taran. He bended up a piece of the earth and sent it at the creature. The creature was hit in the side and slammed into the wall. Green blood was coming out of it's side and mouth now. The creature was now completely helpless, but now it was vowing that it would not give up.

It got onto it's seven and a half legs and ran for Taran with all speed. Taran stood there, waiting for it. At the last possible second, a pillar came up behind him and he dove out the way as the creature ran smack into it, causing blunt pain. So fast was it going that it obliterated the pillar, smashing it into pieces. Now blinded with dust and pain, the creature could barely see a thing. Taran seized the opportunity to jump onto it's head and stab his lightsaber as deeply as he could into it's numerous eyes. The creature was so overcome with pain that all it could do was stumble on the ground. Taran was about to get off it's head when it suddenly threw it's head up and sent him to flying into the air. It had so startled him that he dropped his lightsaber.

Now the creature was ready to give him the last blow. Taran was on his back now and the creature came rapidly for him. It's stinger came out and when it hovered directly over him, it used it's body weight to stab downwards. Taran rolled out of the way as the stinger came for him over and over again. Rolling now, Taran tried desperately to find his lightsaber, while at the same time trying not to stay in one place too long for the stinger would inject his poison into him and he knew that by the time he woke up, he would be dead.

Taran kept on rolling until he felt something metal under him. He picked it, turned it on, and a bar of green plasma spewed from the handle. The creature had no idea that Taran had retrieved his lightsaber back and couldn't stop when it brought down it's full weight on it.

The loudest cream of pain it let out echoed throughout every known corridor of the mountain. Taran shoved his lightsaber to the hilt into the monster's belly. Howling and shrieking, the monster got off the lightsaber and moaned pitifully away.

"Oh no, you're not going anywhere!" said Taran. Using the Force, he pulled the monster back over here. He used every bending art he could, except for water, which there was none. An air swipe sent it into the ceiling before it crashed down. A ball of fire hit it's belly, charring it. And lastly, a pillar of earth impaled it's abdomen as it rose to the ceiling, pinning the creature in between. The creature was now helpless.

"Please, don't," it pleaded on last time. But it's plea fell on deaf ears.

"I gave you a chance, and you blew it. All I wanted was my friends back, and you couldn't do it. Now, you will pay the ultimate price!" said Taran. He closed his eyes, and when they opened, he was in the Avatar state. His lightsaber went from green, to an all-white blue.

"Kong-Ju, your crimes are to be punished as said forth. The souls of the innocent are free, and you will now perish!" he yelled, the voices of past Avatars joining his voice. He stabbed her in the head, his lightsaber going to the hilt into her head. Then, a blast of energy came out from the hilt and came out through the other side of the creature. It gave one last twitch before it finall slumped it's legs. The creature was now dead.

Taran got out of the Avatar state. This time, when he went in it, he didn't faint, but he did slump to the ground from exhaustion. All that adrenaline that was pumping into his body was now gone. He was dead tired now. As he opened his eyes again, he saw shimmering white shapes appear in front of him. He sat up so that now he was sitting as the shapes turned into people. They turned into the faces of people who had died there, the little girl in front of them all.

"Thank you Avatar Taran. You have freed us from our prison. We owe you our gratitude," she said.

"Do you know how to get out of here?" said Taran.

"Yes, follow that tunnel over ther, it will take you out at the south end. Take this root, it will get your friends out of their paralyzed state," she said, handing him a brown root.

"I cannot thank you enough," said Taran. "Although I don't know if this is real or a hallucination."

"You are seeing us in your mind, though the root is real. And it is not you who should be thankful, it is us. May you live well, Avatar," she said. Her and the other spirits shimmered and disappeared, leaving Taran clutching the root in his hand.

He got to his feet and walked slowly over to where the others lay on the altar, not wanting to exert himself too much or he would pass out. He cut each one of the cocoons open, exposing their entire body. Once every cocoon was cut, he opened their mouths and placed a piece of the root in there. He mashed together their mouths so that they could grind it up with their teeth. Immediately after it was ground up and swallowed, everyone came to.

"Ahhh, what happened?" said Rex.

"I don't know. All I remember was being stung and then everything blacked out," said Cody.

"Taran, you saved us," said Obi-Wan.

"Where's the creature at?" said Anakin. Taran pointed to where the carcass of the beast was, dripping green blood around it.

"Is Hunter here?" said Taran.

"Right here sir," said Hunter, waving his hand.

"Good. I know how we can get out of here. Follow me," said Taran. They all got out of their cocoon wrappings and followed behind Taran, his lightsaber lighting the way out. He came to the tunnel where the girl had told him and headed down it. Finally, following the tunnel, he saw a light up ahead. They all ran towards the light, never stopping until they burst back into the world.

It was night outside, but the light they saw was a searchlight from a AT-TE that was patrolling. The gunner on the walker so off edge after hearing the stroies about the mountain that he nearly fired at the group when they burst out of the entrance.

"Sir, you're alive!" said the gunner.

"Yes I am. Now which way to base camp?" said Obi-Wan.

"About ten clicks from the northern end sir," said the gunner. They all headed their, but they were walking this time. All the spider stings, running around in nearly airless, dank tunnels, and having to fight for your very life, does that to people. Along the way, Ahsoka walked alongside Taran.

"Thanks, for saving me back there," she said.

"It's okay, you would have done the same," said Taran. "By the way, I used that same move you did on the crab droid yesterday."

"Wow, that's amazing," said Ahsoka.

"It probably saved all our lives. Thank you Sensei Ahsoka," said Taran, do a little mock-bow for her.

"You're welcome pupil Taran," she said. Anakin came up next to Taran as well.

"Thanks for saving us," said Anakin. "I wish I hadn't been taken out like I did."

"It's okay Master Anakin, things happen that we can't control," said Taran.

"Too true. Anyway I won't bother. You two go back to what you were doing before I arrived, and keep it kid's rated," said Anakin.

"Okay, I'll say that when I see Padme again," said Taran. Anakin gave him a bemused grin and continued on walking.