Narla Hal climbed out of her B-Wing in what was fast becoming the next galactic parking lot. There was Londo's yatch, and another random A-Wing. This was supposed to be a secret world no one knew about, and all of a sudden she was the third person to get here.
Nevertheless, if Londo was still here, and he was after Ean, chances were the arkanian hadn't yet found the holocron, or at least, hadn't gotten away with it, so there was hope.
More than hope, actually. Narla could feel it, really feel it, palpably, in the Force. The whole temple vibrated with power, something she never felt before, as if not only the holocron, but the temple itself were a jedi artifact.
She wasn't only standing before history, she was standing before the masters themselves. Building this must have been a concentrated effort by a number of jedi. Back in the time where they would store their artifacts in inaccessible locations full of traps and tests of character, such that reaching them would in itself be a trial for the young apprentice.
Narla's youth was long past, though, and she had long proclaimed her apprenticeship over, so she gave herself every right to step in. After all, she owned her destiny now.
She drew her lightsaber as she was halfway to the temple's entrance for no other reason than reverence. It seemed proper to enter such an honored place wearing your badge of office, and for a jedi, the badge of office was this elegant weapon, this dismembering, mauling instrument that overcomes armor and most defenses.
The explosion came before she could even turn. As the roaring blast knocked her face-flat on the earthen floor, she only had time to see the pieces and components of her beloved, heavily modified B-Wing falling down as the cockpit still burst in secondary explosions.
The baudo-class yatch did this. Someone in there just destroyed her ship. But how? She didn't sense anyone in there as she landed.
Well, at that moment "how" was far less important than the fact the ship's turrets now turned towards her, and fired.
She parried the first salvo of shots, though not without stumbling back and nearly losing her footing. She tried concentrating on the ship and crushing it like a paper plane, but the unrelenting lasers would not let her rest. Oh, she would tear that thing apart piece by piece…
Her back met the temple's wall, and the impact of each laser shot in her lightsaber was so strong she just could not help losing her stance. An opening formed in her defense. She would lose it, because just one of those shots would be enough to vaporize her.
Damn the ship. To hell with whoever was in it. He or she were a walking corpse. She would end them, only not now. Now she had to retreat further back, and the only way she could retreat into was within the temple, towards the entrance to her right.
Step by step, parry by parry closer to being destroyed, Narla moved towards the entrance, using the wall as a means of keeping her footing whenever a parry would throw her back. Her lightsaber juddered in her hand at every shot, its energy coils nearing overload.
She was thrown into the temple as she parried one last shot from the ship that caused her to stumble back, rolling down a stone stairs and cracking into a jumble of… bones?
Only her lightsaber illuminated the interior hall of the temple. That, and the blaster shots that Londo and Zeryn were constantly firing aimlessly. Back-to-back, they were literally painting the temple wall in the color of their blasters, as if they were fighting an invisible enemy.
Was that it? Was there something invisible, or stealthy enough in there? There were some creatures in the galaxy that could disappear like this, though Narla never met them.
One way or another, whatever was going on with Londo and Zeryn, it left them completely vulnerable to her. In fact, she stood a little ways away from them, with a lit lightsaber in her hand, and they didn't seem to notice her at all.
It would be such an easy kill Narla would almost pity them. Well, on second thought, she wouldn't pity them at all, no. She would revel in it. Let her lightsaber sear their flesh.
A rustle came from behind her, and as she turned around, the same sound started coming from all over. There it was, whatever threatened Londo and Zeryn. Let it come. Let it feel her blade.
Narla's eyes widened as the first corpse got up before her. A more-than-half-decomposed human with two blasters in hand.
That… wasn't possible. It just wasn't. But that human wasn't he only one, more and more corpses got up, all staring at her, and as she raised her lightsaber in the classical shii-cho form.
The dead advanced, and her blade danced. Arms and legs flew apart, old blaster shots were deflected, and yet they came. More and more they rose, so much that Narla forgot where she was, or what she had come to do. All there existed was her and the endless barrage of enemies. Undead enemies.
Which… of course… could not be. It could not. Yes, she felt each strike, she could smell the burning bones and rotten flesh, feel their hands clawing at her. And yet… that could not exist.
This was a test. This had to be a test. Those undead could only be force illusions, imprinted into the temple to protect it from anyone not trained in the force. But how could Narla overcome that? Force illusions, although they weren't real, could very much injure and kill whoever wasn't prepared for them. Ignoring the illusions might not be the best way to overcome them.
Narla whirled around clearing the closest wave of illusory undead. The others already advanced, she had maybe one, two seconds.
So be it. Let the strongest in the force wins. Narla closed her eyes, concentrated, and pushed back with her mind. She thrust everything she had into clearing the Force around her, dissipating those illusions.
The undead overran her and she was thrown to the floor as they mounted over her body, gnawing and chewing at her.
"They are not real. This is not real. All of this is an illusion. The only reality is in me!"
It was like lifting the ocean with her bare hands. The sheer effort it took her would have broken her ten years ago. This wasn't ten years go, this was now, and she would win. She would overcome those illusions. Or rather, no, she would not overcome them.
She already had.
Everything went silent, if not for the sound of Londo's and Zeryn's blasters. They still battled the illusions. Left alone, they would surely perish. Narla was strong, and it took her all her willpower to overcome the temple. Those two… they would be dead in seconds.
In fact, Londo aimed his blaster at Zeryn and shot, but Zeryn dodged the bolt and shot back. The illusions now tricked them into shooting each other.
It would have been a pretty sight, seeing them kill each other, but Narla would be so, so disappointed if she wouldn't kill them both herself. So she raised her saber, advanced slowly while moving her finger from Zeryn to Londo, choosing which one of them would die first.