Wow, I had the most reviews ever. I know this one will never attract the reviews that Gods of Dark adn Light and Legacy of the Red Sun do, but it still nice to see reviews once in a while. Thanks to everyone for reading!

AStormIsBrewing--You bet, here you go.

Beth Weasley--The good guys are definitely coming together.

ancient lantean--Kyle finally made it! The bigger battle will come in Part II, and it will be a whopper.

Voration--Thank goodness Kyle's not an egomaniac--that would have been enough to drive him nuts. As it was, he got over it pretty quick. Gotta love Kyle.

Tilius--Thank you.

Chapter 13: A Convergence of Events

Rogers Air Force Base, New Mexico, Friday, January 18, 2002, 5:15 p.m. MST

Major Samantha Carter stared at the alien console inside the recovered UFO in a state of shock. Just four hours ago, Colonel Green came to tell her the bad news.

"We're not sure how it happened, Major," the colonel said. "The breaker switch did not function properly and he was killed almost instantly. We've already contacted Air Command."

Four hours. It was amazing how much could change so quickly. Four hours ago, she was eating lunch with her friend. Now Daniel was dead.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see a pregnant Shannon Janeway looking at her compassionately. "Are you all right?"

Sam wiped her eyes with the base of her palm and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine," she lied. "I just can't believe he's really dead this time."

"This time?"

"Long story." She looked down at her folded hands.

"I have a confession to make," Shannon said. "I really hate it here. I'm going to ask to be released from my contract. I think I'll be able to use my pregnancy as an excuse."

Sam took the other woman's hand. "I'll miss you, but I understand. This Colonel Green doesn't know how to work with civilians. Or anyone, for that matter. It's beyond me why he was selected for this project."

Suddenly a klaxon went off. The two researchers stepped out of the alien shuttle just as a swarm of soldiers descended not only on them, but all the researchers. Colonel Green came walking right behind them.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I must ask everyone to assemble in the conference room immediately, please." With soldiers flanking them, the technicians had little choice but to obey. When the hundred or so technicians were gathered in the conference room, Green walked to the front podium.

"There has been a significant breach of security, both inside and out of this base. We have determined that there were at least two occupants of the alien craft. One is directly responsible for at least seven civilian deaths and the deaths of the entire first response team. The second occupant likely received aid from outside sources and is believed to be in Roswell at this time. This belief was reinforced when nine agents of the FBI were killed. Therefore, we have determined the occupants of this craft are extremely dangerous and must be destroyed at all cost.

"More disturbing, however, we have discovered a researcher missing. Helen Swanson was reported missing shortly after lunch. We have reason to believe that she was either a foreign operative, or possibly worse.

"Because of these serious security threats, all research on the craft will be temporarily halted. All personnel are to go immediately to their quarters and remain there until authorized by me. Meals will be provided. I realize this is an inconvenience, but we have reason to believe your lives are in immediate danger. To this extent, we will do whatever is necessary to ensure your safety. Dismissed."

Angry researchers rose to their feet to ask questions, and were the very first ones to be yanked out of the room by the soldiers. Carter watched incredulously as civilian researchers were roughly caught and escorted out like prisoners.

"Colonel Green," she said, pushing her way through the thinning crowd. "This is entirely unacceptable. I demand to speak with General Hammond immediately."

Green turned toward her, and Sam had to pause. She had faced alien warlords and threats beyond imagining, and knew danger when she saw it. She recognized the look on Green's face as pure, murderous rage bordering on insanity. "You demand? You demand! I am in command of this base, Major, and while you are on this base you will do as you are ordered, or I will have you shot for insubordination. Do I make myself clear?"

"With all due respect, Colonel, I am a major in the United States Air Force and I will not be threatened by an army colonel. Either get me to a phone to call my superior officer, or open the door and let me leave."

Green pulled his pistol and put it to her forehead. "Sam!" Janeway called.

"I should shoot you right now," he muttered.

"Do, and you'll face the death penalty," Sam answered back, eyes narrowed in rage. "Let me call General Hammond, or put me on a plane out of here. Now."

"Wrong answer," he snarled. Before the stunned Shannon Janeway and two other technicians, Green raised his hand and pistol-whipped Carter in the temple, dropping her like a stone. "Get this Air Force trash back to her room and lock the door," he snarled to his men. "Her too," he added, motioning toward Janeway.

Two groups sat on two couches staring at each other over a glass-topped coffee table with a large photography book titled "Capturing the Grand Canyon." On one side of this living room chasm sat Diane Evans, Amy Deluca (whom Doggett picked up at Michael's and Maria's insistence) and Jeff and Nancy Parker.

On the other side, Max and Isabel Evans sat with Liz Parker between them, with Michael Guerin and Maria Deluca sitting on the left arm of the couch and Kyle Valenti hanging on the other. Off to the side, Jim Valenti stood with Special Agents Fox Mulder, Dana Scully and John Doggett, while on the opposite side, by a long unused fireplace, Siana Delun sat cross-legged on the floor. Rain Robinson lounged in an armchair a few feet from Siana.

The air between the two couches was thick enough to choke on.

"You're aliens?" Jeff Parker was finally able to say.

Max looked at Liz and nodded. The two were holding hands so tightly, their fingers were turning white. "When Liz was shot two years ago, I used my powers to heal her. That's when other people began realizing who and what we were. I didn't mean to put her in danger."

"And what happened at Utah?" Nancy Parker demanded.

"We were looking for the ship that brought Max, Michael and Isabel to earth," Liz said. "We'd heard there was a government bunker under that store, and we were right. Max found it, but by the time he got back after he was released, the government had moved it. I guess they didn't clean up enough, though. The chemicals Max found are what got me out of jail."

"And Philip knew about this?" Jeff demanded.

It was Diane who answered. "No, Jeff, neither of us did. That's why Max moved out—he didn't want to lie to us, but he didn't think he could tell the truth."

"And now you know why," Max said. "You're all in danger because of me."

"Technically, that's not true," Mulder interjected. "You're all in danger because of her." He pointed to the blue-eyed, blue-headed girl sitting directly opposite him. She sat with her eyes closed, as if not listening to a word any of them said. "She was the pilot of that UFO and is what started all this."

Doggett separated himself and went to look out the windows. "Still no company I can see," he muttered. "But I have a bad feeling about this." He closed the front blinds.

"There are forty men surrounding this house," Siana said abruptly, though without opening her eyes. "They are under orders to shoot anyone who attempts to leave."

Everyone stared at her. "And how do you know that?" Doggett demanded.

"I sense their presences in the Force," she said. "All are ready to take our lives."

"The Force again," Mulder said. "You'll have to tell me about it sometime. Does this Force tell you how to get out?"

Siana shook her head and opened her eyes with a sigh. "Nothing. I'm sorry—the only way we can escape is to kill all those waiting outside."

"Forty snipers," Doggett muttered with a shake of his head.

"I agree," Siana said. "I know I could do it, but the thought of killing that many people is hard for me to contemplate. I do not sense they are evil, only led by those who are."

Her casual assumption that she could kill 40 snipers made everyone stare.

She didn't seem to notice. "There is something else, though. I sense…the Dark Side here. More than just with those creatures that attacked us. Something evil is coming. But I can't pinpoint exactly what."

"Well, there's definitely something going on," Rain just announced. "I can't contact my supervisor or get us out. That means there's some kind of fairly advanced jamming going on. If we can just get outside the area of that jamming, I should be able to get everyone out of here."

"How?" Scully asked.

"Would you believe I have a teleportation device?"

Mulder shrugged. "At this point I'd believe about anything." He took a quick headcount. "There are sixteen of us. That's a pretty big group to move."

"Someone is coming," Siana said.

They turned expectantly and watched as the locks on the door turned. The three FBI agents and Jim Valenti pulled their firearms as Philip Evans opened the door. He raised his hands when he saw the weapons. "Holy…what's going on here?"

Jesse Ramirez stood right behind him. Doggett rushed to the door, grabbed both men and pulled them in before shutting the door behind them. Isabel flew from the couch into Jesse's arms. "Oh God, Jesse, I was afraid they got you!"

He returned her embrace, but then held her out at arms' length. "Isabel, is that blood on your blouse?"

Diane rose from the couch. "Philip!" She hugged her husband and then pulled him into the room. "There's so much to tell you!"

"Wait, please!" Siana said. Philip turned and stared at the girl, shocked by both her hair and eyes.

"Who are you?" he demanded. "Diane, why are all these people in our house?"

Siana rose gracefully from her position on the floor and stepped directly in front of him. Her head barely came to his shoulders. Slowly, she held her hand up to his chest as the others watched. "You have a recording device on you," she said.

"Oh crap," Mulder muttered. He rushed forward and yanked Evans' shirt open to see not just a wire tap, but also a digital video feed. He ripped both devices off, much to Philip's chagrin, and ground them to the floor. He turned to Siana. "Are they coming?"

"No, they're waiting for something," Siana said. She took a step back and looked up at Philip. "You believed we were in danger."

"Agent Tennenbaum told me you and Max were holding Diane hostage."

"Tennenbaum may be a rogue agent," Mulder said. "There were a series of attempted abductions all over town. Every victim has been gathered here."

Suddenly Siana gasped and backed away, her face pale and her eyes terrified. "No!" she whispered. "By the Force, it can't be!"

It was Isabel who took her hands. "What it is, Siana?"

"He is here."

"Who?"

"The Sith who slaughtered my family and friends," she whispered. "I can feel his presence close by. That's what the men outside were waiting for. They were drawing Darth Nihl to us."

She removed a silver cylinder from her dress, and then ripped the dress off at the knees to allow greater movement. "We must leave this house, now."

"What about those snipers?" Doggett asked.

Siana bowed her head and flipped a switch on the cylinder. A beam of purple energy emerged. "I will deal with the snipers and contact Isabel when it is time to flee."

"That's not…" Doggett started to say.

He stopped when Siana raised a hand to the window and somehow blew out not just the glass, but the frame. And then, faster than anyone in the room could follow, Siana Delun disappeared into the night. Moments later, everyone in the house could hear the sounds of screams. The screams were all male, and came from all around them.

"My god," Jeff Parker whispered, echoing what everyone in the room was thinking.

Isabel sat up. "It's time!" she said. She grabbed Jesse's hand and dove through the window. Max and the rest of the kids followed, leaving the adults no choice but to do the same.

They found Siana at the side of Valenti's Suburban holding a pair of very large sniper rifles. "I thought these would be useful," she said as she tossed one to Doggett and one to Valenti. Everyone noticed moisture on her cheeks, but no one said anything.

"Everyone pack in as tight as you can," Valenti said. "Third row seating. I can fit eleven in here."

"We'll ride with you," Max said as he, Liz, Michael, Maria, Isabel, Jesse, Kyle and Siana climbed in.

Doggett led the Parkers and Amy Deluca to Max's convertible, while Mulder took Rain Robinson by the elbow. "Why don't you ride with us," he suggested. "I'd love to hear more about what part of the FBI you're really with." Scully and the Evans' family followed.

In the Suburban, Siana sat in the front seat while the rest huddled behind. Valenti gunned the engine and they roared forward away from the Evan's home. Although no longer sheriff, he still had his police scanner, and turned it on the moment they were on the move. The first thing he heard was: "We have an officer down, Highway 20. Vehicle has been stolen."

With absolute certainty, Siana said, "That is Darth Nihl."

From the back, Max said: "Can you tell us about him?"

Siana took a deep breath. "It is hard to descript the Sith. Our whole galaxy knows of them, of what they can do and what they are. They are servants of the Dark Side of the Force, and Darth Nihl is among the Dark Side's most loyal practitioners."

A deputy's vehicle arrives at the side of a house. The front door of the house is open, and nearby there are bodies in the bushes. Darth Nihl leaves his vehicle and stands before the open door, feeling the echo in the Force of the Jedi who had once been there.

"The Sith have existed for as long as the Jedi. They are the opposite to everything we are. The Jedi use the Force to protect and serve civilization. The Sith use the Force to control, manipulate and enslave civilization. The Jedi use the Light Side of the Force for defense. The Sith use the Dark side for attack. They are capable of unspeakable evil."

A series of police cars arrive, both county deputies and state troopers. Uniformed officers pour out of their vehicles with their weapons at hand. Overhead a helicopter on loan from Albuquerque hovers ominously. "Raise your hands and lay down on the ground," a loudspeaker shouts.

Darth Nihl grins.

"The Sith use fear and hatred to give them power," Siana told them. "They feed off negative emotions. For them, to hurt the innocent is not only allowable, it is desirable. They are killers."

Lightning flashes over the cars. Deputies and state troopers scream as they die, while nearby civilians gasp in terror. Throwing the ground forces in turmoil, Nihl raises his blaster and fires twice. The helicopter explodes and falls flaming to the ground in the middle of the street. He ignites his saber-cane and flies toward the nearest officers not to die under the barrage of lightning.

"For thousands of years, the Sith were limited to just two, Master and Apprentice, and with just those two managed to topple the galactic Republic and turn it to an Empire. The Empire fell before a race of gods that attacked us, and when we repelled the Ori, the Jedi were restored and the galaxy knew at least some peace."

The sound of screaming deputies and state police echo through the town. More and more cars come, and more and more men die. Civilians flee in terror, while still others from further away came to see what is happening. Those that come too close perish.

"But something changed in the Sith order. The Rule of Two vanished, and suddenly there were hundreds, and then thousands of Sith. The Jedi found themselves fighting a full-scale war against Dark Side Force users, and we were overwhelmed. With the aid of the Sith, the empire defeated the Alliance. Two days later they came to the Jedi Praxeum and attacked. We Jedi fought as best we could, but there were tens of thousands of Imperial storm troopers and Sith. Everyone died. My mother and father, my grandparents—everyone. Darth Nihl led the attack against the Jedi. He killed my master, and any other Jedi who fought him. And I realize now he must have stowed aboard the shuttle I escaped in to try and locate the remnant of the Federation so he could destroy them as well. But something happened to my motivator and it thrust me across the galaxy to this world."

"How dangerous is he?" Valenti asked.

"He is a Dark Lord of the Sith, and one of Darth Krayt's personal hands. He can kill with a thought and shoot Force lightening from his hands. He can move faster than a non-Force user can see, and jump distances you cannot imagine. He is an army in himself, and he hates humans."

Amidst the fires of burning cars and a shattered helicopter in the middle of the street, Darth Nihl surveys the fruits of his labor. He steps over the bodies of the fallen police officers and civilians alike, and knows that he is unstoppable on this world.

A figure emerges in front of him. Tennenbaum.

Nihl ignites his lightsaber. "Are you ready to die, worm?"

"Kill me if you must. But we know where the Jedi is going," Tennenbaum says.

"You betrayed me."

"I was betrayed," he says. "That bomb was sent by a man named Colonel Green. I had no knowledge of it until afterward. I can help you get the Jedi."

Nihl sweeps his hand over the wreckage. "I am unstoppable. Cross me again, and you will know pain such as your world has never seen."

Tennenbaum nods. "Thank you."

"Are you okay?" Jim Valenti asked gently.

Siana looked up at him, her eyes moist. "A Jedi is not supposed to know fear," she whispered. "But I can feel what he is doing. He is at Isabel's house now. He has killed your police."

Jim looked reflexively in the rear-view mirror, even though they were already far from the neighborhood. Even so, he thought he could see a flash of light coming from the house. "Do you know how many of them he's hurt?"

"All of them," Siana said. "That I can sense, anyway. He's killed all the officers in this city. I'm sorry."

Jim found it hard not to stare. Between the city, county and state, there were perhaps two hundred officers in or around Roswell. For all of them to be dead… "I hope you're wrong," he said.

"I wish I were," she answered.