Part Ten: The Quagmire Deepens

Illiana was shocked to see Jacen emerge from the temporal instance within five minutes of his departure, but even more by the hardness in his eyes. He said nothing as he approached but instead turned to his right, followed the wall, and stopped before what appeared to Illiana as nothing more than ordinary rock. He reached out to touch the stone, then shook his head before turning and walking towards the cavern entrance. Confused, the elven sith followed him through the winding cave to the open desert outside where he stopped, looked at the sky and the birds flying overhead, then closed his eyes and sighed. This was not the reaction she expected from the human after seeing a jedi at their best. After another moment of silence, she walked up beside him.

"What did you see?" she asked.

Jacen opened his eyes and turned his head to look into hers. "I have seen the worst that can happen…the end of everything." Illiana's jaw dropped. "I was not taken to the past but to a possible future where our enemy had succeeded." He returned his gaze back at the birds flying above them. "It's so refreshing to see living creatures again. To know that it is not too late."

"Too late?" Illiana asked. "Too late for what?"

The human looked back at her and smiled. "I know how to save Azeroth…the jedi…and more importantly how to save my daughter."

"I didn't know you were a father."

"I won't be for another nine months, but we can talk about that another time. For now...we need to return to the temple."

Caidan sat beside Ciara at the table in the council chamber. Across from them Daneel leaned forward in his chair with his hands clasped together on the tabletop. To his left was Demira, Celeste, and Kai'moira while to his right sat Zharn, Kitali, and Olivaw. Cipher and Cheyuun stood guard at the door while the padawans, Grogg and Adaria, remained on the main floor of the temple and absent from the room. Caidan's brother, Scott, had been placed in a makeshift holding cell in one of the storage caves and guarded by four shamans who had joined the order just after the events in Desolace against the Burning Legion. For the past hour the jedi listened to the half elf detail his twin's plan to avenge their sister's death by Illiana's hand. Several times Demira, who was present in Narcis' tomb when the elven sith's memories were restored by her Force vision, shook her head at the realization of just how much the two half elves' lives had been intertwined. Caidan was the little boy who greeted his mother just before Illiana stood up to the old sith lord over twenty years ago. His description of Drakus' lightning storm and how the elven sith had been restrained during that attack was almost exactly the same as Illiana had recalled that day to her back in the tomb. The former mage began to wonder just how many enemies Illiana had out in the world looking for vengeance just like Caidan's brother. Her husband, however, was concerned with other issues when he finally spoke.

"That explains the attack on our newest recruit on the summit," the grand master said looking across the table to the couple. "What I want to know is how all of this is connected to the troll we've seen in different parts of the world. Ciara, you have said that you worked with this woman only to assist your spouse in keeping tabs on his brother, but that is not the whole truth. There is more that you have not told us."

"I can answer that." Everyone turned their attention to Jacen entering the room with Illiana close behind him. One his back was strapped the familiar greatsword, but at his left hip he also wore the hilt of a lightsaber. "I apologize for the interruption, Masters, but I have just returned from the Caverns of Time. I have seen what can happen if the sith and her troll apprentice succeed." The elven sith remained at the doorway as he walked to the table close to Ciara and leaned on it as he looked directly at her. "The entrance to the lift has been blockaded by the Bronze Flight, so how have you been able to get to the facility deep underground? How did Zirani learn to use the equipment there to manipulate the elements so that she can spy on us and sow seeds of discontent across the globe? Where is she now?"

"How do you know about that?" the elven mage asked.

"I've been there," Jacen answered. "I have seen the expansive shafts myself...ridden in the tram cars that link them...I stood in one of the control rooms where dials indicated the almost unlimited power available to the one who controls the facility." He stood straight and looked over to Demira. "I saw your son there, Master. The same son you now carry in your womb." She looked down at her stomach and instinctively touched the slight bulge. Gasps were heard from the other jedi as his gaze met each of theirs. "I have seen the lifeless corpse of a world that Zirani...this troll apprentice...and her master leave in their wake. I know how each and every one of you dies in that future...a future we must avoid no matter what the cost." His gaze rested finally at the grand master. "In that alternate timeline I met with a different Kairoz who told me how to unlock my potential. I know of my connection to the Force and how to realize my full potential. I am ready to join you in this fight to save Azeroth."

Daneel sighed and turned his head towards Illiana still near the doorway. "This was your doing? Temporal mechanics is difficult to understand and time travel a quagmire best avoided."

"I know we do not agree on this, but I felt it was necessary to help him realize his potential," Illiana replied. She stepped towards the table. "I know what it is like to lose a child...to know a loss unlike any other, and I will do what is necessary to help other mothers avoid that pain." She stopped beside the human and stared directly at the grand master. "Think of your own son not yet born. Jacen has seen a world where only he and one other lived...all other life was gone...extinguished...he saw the end of the world! Can you sit there and tell me that his journey through time was not worth the risk so that your son...your son...will not have to grow up on a world devoid of all life?"

"And what of other consequences?" They turned their attention to Caidan who was now standing. Ciara's hand gripped his arm trying to pull back him into his chair, but he ignored her. "Look at what has happened at the Dark Portal. Our Kairoz took a criminal through time and brought back the Iron Horde led by orcs long dead on our world. Right now Draenor is reliving a genocidal war all because one bronze dragon thought that bringing back that army would stem the tide against the Burning Legion! What about those friends we lost on Outland now that the timeline has changed? What if some of your own jedi..two who are sitting at this table...had been caught on the other side? Could you accept their absence? Could this order survive it?"

"If the greater good was served then that is a sacrifice all jedi are willing to make," Illiana answered him. "His eyes have been opened, and we know now what we must do to avoid disaster."

"Do we?" This time it was Kitali who spoke. She held Zharn's hand firmly as she spoke. "Right now I know that if I returned to Draenor I can see my father and brother...both whom I have never seen. Right now on that world my mother is pregnant with me. What would happen if I arrived there and disrupted their fates? As much as I would love see both of them...I accepted their deaths long ago. My mother struggles even now and yet she has resisted the temptation to return to that world because it is a pain she does not want to relive. That timeline is not ours! Now you have used time travel to alter our destiny...when does it end? How tempted are you to return back to the Caverns to travel back and save your own children?"

"My sons are dead!"

"So was my brother...my father," Kitali retorted. She pointed to the wall with her free hand. "And yet they also now live on the other side of that gateway. Can't you see? Even with benign intentions that potential to wreak havoc is too great. Gul'dan lives again as does the Shadow Council...the same organization that conspired with the Legion...who spawned the awakening of the Lich King. Horrors this world has survived and yet may have to relive again because those who were defeated have returned. When does the cycle end?"

"Don't lecture me on past horrors," Illiana snarled as she pointed to the draenei. "The Lich King's army is the same who killed my second child and husband."

"You are blind to the truth! That army will rise again!" exclaimed Caidan.

"Enough!" They all gaped at the grand master leaning to his left in his chair with his right arm propped up on his knee. He appeared to be staring at the table. Illiana relaxed while Caidan sat back down. "All this arguing is pointless...what is done is done." He looked up to Jacen. "Since the proverbial genie is now out of the bottle...what do you need to awaken your abilities to their fullest potential?"

"You can't seriously be considering using this information they gained through unnatural means," Caidan countered. "I was taught that the jedi followed the will of the Force. How does time travel fit that?"

The elven sith glared at the stranger. "Just who are you?"

"I am a man who as a boy watched you stand up against a tyrant." She furrowed her brow as he spoke. "You questioned my mother as I clung to her leg just before Drakus arrived. I watched you stand up to him...this small girl against a giant. You dared him to do his worst and then he did by killing elves with lightning. It is a day I can never forget."

The elven sith staggered as she remembered the day when she challenged Drakus' adherence to the old sith caste system. It was the day she realized that her father held power over the same man who treated her like garbage. She stared at the council table as the memories ran through her mind. The visage of him raising his hand to slap her as he had on many occasion before that day, but then she stood up to him and dared him to strike her. Dared him to beat her to within an inch of her life. She recalled the human holding her back as the sith unleashed his lightning storm on the helpless elves surrounding them. The screams of their pain and the smell of their burning flesh assaulted her. Then she looked back to Caidan and remembered the elf woman who had just returned from a spying mission for the dark lord. The small boy who ran up to the woman and held her tightly as Illiana questioned the spy about her life under Drakus. This was the same child? He pulled back his hood to reveal his pointed ears causing her to gasp. It was the same child.

"My father held you back while my half-sister watched. They did nothing to stop the sith, but you...you fought for us. Our lives improved after that day. I was inspired by one who looked like us...fought for us...and when you finally defeated him, you freed us. I have strived since that day to live my life by your example. Drakus was not the only tyrant in the world and we were not the only slaves. All because of what you did that day, and yet to hear you now defend an action that I know that you know in your heart is wrong...you almost sound like him. The ends do not justify the means."

Illiana walked to a nearby empty chair and sat down. She stared at the table as she spoke. "I only wanted to spare others from feeling my pain...sharing my loss."

"We do that by following the code," Daneel said causing everyone to look back at him except the elven sith who continued to stare at the table. "I will not chastise you for doing what you thought was right at the time. I know that you felt you were following the right path, Illiana, and there is no fault in that. I may not agree with your methods, but I also know you were following the light side. I know you will not make the same mistake again."

"You are condoning it?" Caidan asked.

"I am accepting the hand that we are dealt," the grand master replied. "This discussion regarding your past can be continued between the two of you at another time. What we must concern ourselves with now is our current crisis." He turned his head to address the former mercenary once more. "What is it that you need, Jacen?"

"The other Kairoz said that there is a relic that can unlock my abilities, but he did not know where it was...only that Adaria and her brother had found it in their youth and left it where they found it. "

"She is downstairs. Kai...I would ask that you join them in recovering this relic. I want a master with them and especially one familiar with holocrons." The chiss nodded her head and began to rise from her chair.

"It's not a holocron," Jacen stated. "He did not know what kind of relic it was, but it was definitely not a holocron."

"Regardless, I want Kai to join you," Daneel said. She joined the human, and then each with a nod left the room. The miraluka then turned his head to the sin'dorei mage. "You said that you have met this troll in an underground facility?" Ciara nodded her head. "I think it is time I met this apprentice...personally."