Fleeing citizens took to the streets with whatever they could carry. No one was worried about the fate of two orphaned children.

"Klayton." She'd whispered grabbing his arm. "That's the ships I've been seeing in my dreams!"

"Those aren't dreams!" He said suddenly staring at her, his eyes were huge as he turned skyward.

"Premonitions..." She said out loud, picking the word out of his thoughts. Her eyes wide with fear, "But that means, they're here."

They had hidden in their alcove when the attack came. Sith approached so openly and in great numbers running through the streets. It had never happened before and it could only be surmised that the Empire sought the natural resources shipped off world.

The problem? Neither Klayton nor Rí knew how to hide their presence. They openly communicated between each other unaware that the Sith would be looking for those like them.

She dreaded the outcome, wished she could change it a thousand times. But you can never go back and change the past.

A masked Sith had snatched her up by her hair. "I know several who have need of an apprentice," he'd snarled behind the mask. She'd struggled against the hand. Run Klayton!, she called out mentally, not realizing that she'd pushed
it so openly and that the Sith holding her could hear it.

"There's another," the one holding her said to someone she couldn't see.

Suddenly there was an explosion and Rí was thrown to the ground, although she managed to soften the landing, she glanced up in time to see Klayton there between her and another Sith. The first lay on the ground unmoving.

He hadn't run but stood between the Sith and her, his fists clenched at his side. His command of the Force was stronger than hers and he'd managed to take them by surprise.

But he was no match for the fully trained Sith.

Another explosion rocked the town and suddenly there were Jedi everywhere, and Rí tried calling for help but she just managed a small sob.

The Sith snatched Klayton up and carried him away. His fists pounded on the back of the man carrying him to no avail.

Klayton's eyes were wide with fear when they met Ri's.

Run Ri! He sent.

"Klayton! No!" The wail tore out of her throat. She hadn't been able to move, she had lain there in the dirt her eyes locked on him, a thousand promises of rescue behind her eyes, her hands were reaching for him as the Sith rounded the corner and disappeared with him.

Other arms pulled her roughly up and out of the dirt. The Jedi, she fought against the arms pulling her knowing they were only going to take her further away.

"Ri!"

"Rí!" It was Klayton now his arms pulling her up into a sitting position. "Hey wake up!" She was sobbing.

Dag stood behind in the door way, his servos making a humming sound against the silent ship.

"I'm so sorry Klayton," she blurted. "My fault..."

"Your fault?" He didn't understand, although he was beginning to see that under Rí's calm exterior she was still fighting demons that he didn't see, some that nothing to do with what he'd done over a year ago. They would have to figure something out though, every time she had a vision, or a nightmare objects rose up off the floor.

The dream had been disturbing enough, forcing him to wake her just so he would no longer have to see it. Seeing it through her memories had caused his whole worldview to change. And if he was still honest with himself he was still working through what that meant for him.

Rí glanced over at him. "That day," she whispered.

"I know," he whispered backing away from her and looking away. "That is not your fault."

"I was having visions, and I didn't know what they were. I could have warned someone, anyone."

"Rí, we were kids, with no training what-so-ever," he said. He surprised himself realizing he believed exactly what he was saying.

"If I had done something, you wouldn't have been taken," She whispered.

"Or we both would have," he said. "I got through a lot of that believing I saved you from a worse fate. I made the mistake of voicing that out loud one day in front of my Master. He then spent years attempting to destroy my memories of you."

He sighed and released her. "That's why when I saw you coming for me, I first thought you there to kill me. I hadn't seen you in years, and I hadn't expected you to show up as a Jedi. I barely recognized you."

"I recognized you, just not right away. I kept seeing this vision of a man with weird red and black hair, and I didn't realize until that moment that it was you until I saw you with your Master at Yavin 4."

Klayton pulled away. He didn't want to remember Yavin 4.

Simultaneously both of them put their walls back up.

"Anyway," She rubbed her face. "I didn't mean to disturb you."

He shrugged trying to recapture that moment but failing. He moved towards the door before the silence got to be uncomfortable. "Come, pilot, when you're ready. I'm not exactly a pro at something this size...and we should be getting there in another four hours."

"Four hours?" Rí sighed. Even hyperspace was feeling slow. Still, Dagelos was a destination. Somewhere they could start to find a clue.

She didn't tell Klayton that she'd had so many visions of him that she'd known he would have to come. She took her time coming out of the room after he and Dag had left.

She didn't know the end game.

And Rí was determined to be the one to stand in the gap this time.

Not him.

Klayton stood in the circle of bodies spread out in the sand. Rí stood just outside wrinkling her nose. Circle of death, she remembered. Here they were standing right in her vision again. She shuddered.

"What is it you think we'll find here?" Rí paced, impatiently. She held one hand up to her nose and paced back and forth not coming any closer than necessary.

"Master, I must agree with Ri on this," Dag said. "This defies all logic, whoever did this must be malfunctioning on a higher level."

Klayton studied the bodies, not interested in getting any closer but knowing they needed more information. "We don't know who did this," He replied, "so we need to find out who these were and trace back the trail." The heat blasted down and the lack of any kind of Force within the planet itself made the place unbearable. He was glad he'd left his coat on board. Rí had also shed her Jedi robes when they a had landed. Although her gray shirt and pants were little better than his clothing in this heat.

He was sweating like crazy.

The only way he could describe the atmosphere here was "wrong." It was a heavy weight of nothing that pulled against your chest. He reached down and pulled the hood away from the face of the Sith closest to Rí. "Caridin." He stepped back, letting the hood fall over the shrunken but recognizable face. The heat had pulled any moisture from the bodies and the skin was pulling in towards the skull.

"Someone, you know?" Rí asked stepping closer.

"Yeah. He was taken off Dagelos with me. He came from another town, Tenquat or something like that, on the other side of Dagelos, near the equator." Klayton replied, "His Master was Lord Edigan." He began walking the circle picking up each hood and dropping it. Rí remained where she was. She wasn't going to be able to recognize any of them anyway.

"What are you looking for?"

"His Master," Klayton pulled up another hood. "You'll know her when you see her. Bright red, fiery hair, hard to miss..."

"You feel like you liked her," Ri smiled as she stooped to lift the hood off a body. It was a man.

"I admired her," Klayton chose his words carefully. "But I would stay as far away from her as I could."

"Oh?" Ri lifted another hood.

"She's not here," Klayton reported an hour later. He, Ri, and Dag had been pulling up hoods and turning over bodies for hours.

"Could Caridin have killed her?"

Klayton paused his hand going to his chin. "It's possible, but it's our only lead. The others I've seen but I'm not familiar enough with them to know who they are."

"Lord Edigan," Rí muttered looking around. "Where would we find her?"

Klayton looked at her. "She's outside the Republic realm, in the Sith Empire. Can you handle that?"

"You're serious?" Rí glared at him.

"The Sith will pick you apart."

"So tell them I'm your new apprentice."

"But you're a Jedi Knight."

"And?"

"You want me to lie to a bunch of Sith?" Ri stared at him surprise written on her face. She raised an eyebrow at him.

"I didn't realize that was a problem?"

"Well, a mutual understanding between Sith ensures..." Dag's metallic voice dropped away when Ri glared at him.

Klayton paused, remembering when he had confronted his own Master about Rí's intentions. "Yes," he muttered. "But Rí this isn't you. You don't exactly show up as the Dark Side. I don't want you losing yourself in this..." He wasn't sure where he was going and the sentence trailed off."

"Yet you won't come of it yourself."

"I don't deserve that." He finally said, dismissing the idea of any type of salvation for him. "You don't just suddenly become the good guy and all is forgiven. And I don't want to spend any more time than I have to in the Temple on Coruscant." He stopped and looked at her. "This is what a Sith does Ri. Don't try to save me."

"We're going to where Edigan lives." She said firmly. "Besides if you fail, how will I know?" Rí turned away to head back to the ship.

"You would feel the connection break," Klayton's voice came from behind her. She turned her head and paused. "And it's there..." His voice paused and he came out of the circle towards her. "Don't deny it."

"I couldn't even if I wanted to," she said. "It's how I knew you were alive all this time...why did you not sever it?" She laced her fingers together in front of herself as she walked, avoiding contact.

"It's how I knew you were alive." He studied his boots as he kicked sand.

"I still thought I was going to rescue my childhood friend. I couldn't picture you growing up as a Sith."

Klayton walked beside her and said nothing. It was true he had intervened when she'd been caught and consequently been captured himself. He had endured years of Sith training. He had also killed a lot of Jedi, innocent people, and just about anyone that got in his way. Sometimes for fun. At some point, he had started questioning everything. Degan had complained about his lack of ambition, a lot.

"You don't know the depths that I've sunk to," he responded finally as they reached the ship. "Don't try to save me Rí, or bring me back. This isn't about last year, although that's part of it." He ran his fingers through his hair again, pulling it forward and to the side so he couldn't see her next to him.

"A smart person once told me, that we were just kids then," Rí responded quietly.

Klayton got angry. "This isn't like that at all. Not a game, not an excuse." Lightning crackled on his fingertips he let his hands drop to the sides, getting control of himself.

Rí was startled but she stood her ground. "Then stop playing," she snapped. She turned and fled into the ship to set the heading.

"Master?" Dag asked suddenly breaking the silence. "Should I go after her?"

"No!" Klayton snapped, he knew the droid was still programmed to act in his best interests but he didn't need it killing everyone who crossed him. "Just go inside."

Dag shuffled inside trailing sand in his wake, muttering about how moody his master had become.

Klayton stood outside for a moment and felt the anger burn through him. He stared at the bodies, thousands of them, Sith whose crime had been to be loyal to someone. So loyal they perished. He doubted they knew exactly what they died for.

He lifted his hands and with what little of the Force he had within himself he commanded the sand to lift and suddenly the sands rose up into a thick haze. He dropped his hands again and moved them in a circular motion. The sands began swirling down and covering the bodies. When the air cleared, they were gone. It was a burial of sorts, it would have to do. He felt something leave him. A heaviness he didn't know was there.

Klayton had nothing left, he felt as empty as the planet they were standing on. He let the bitterness wash through him for a moment as he glanced over the dead surface of Dagelos one last time. He turned away and headed for the ship

Rí stood in the cargo bay with her mouth hanging open. She knew Klayton was powerful but she had yet to see him doing anything other than the killing stroke he'd delivered upon his Master Degan, and play his guitar which required no Force abilities whatsoever.

He saw her waiting when he looked up. "What?" He was still irritated with her.

"I just need a more specific location to set the coordinates to." She said in a low voice. One hand was on the side of the ships door so she could flee.

"Ikdelat." He said. "That was her planet."

She nodded and fled back inside.

Klayton grumbled as he went inside to change. The door closing behind him brought almost instant coolness as the ship's life systems took over. He peeled off his shirt and made his way to his room. He showered, changed, and grabbed his guitar.

Rí wouldn't be bothering him for a while. He could feel her frustration with him. He dismissed the thoughts quickly and simply closed himself off to her. He picked up his guitar and began to pluck the strings. His touch on the Force earlier had been purposely done. He knew whoever had taken the life of everything on Dagelos would be able to sense him using it. It was possible they would come to them. A spark of Dark Side energy on a dead world was bound to get someone's attention.

Klayton had not mentioned it to Rí because he knew she would tell him not to touch the Dark Side at all. But Rí wasn't going to be able to protect him where they were going. He wasn't even sure if he could protect her. And he wasn't that confident in their lead. Better to be the bait himself.