"Sir, we're being routed! There are J—ARGH!" The Holocommunicator in Kiber's hands cut out as the hologram of his squad leader was cut swathe by a glowing blade. He threw the holocom to the ground and held his wrist to his mouth.

"Where is my personal strike squad!?" He squawked at his general. His breath froze in the air as it left the apparatus on his horned helmet. "I need to advance!"

"They should be there now." Answered Hamlin from his perch atop the bridge of one of the many hovering ships. Before Kiber could tell him otherwise, a drop ship folded its wings daintily upward and landed beside him, barely shaking the icy ground.

Lynaree and HK-55 exited their own ship just as the new arrivals were departing their ship in a steady triple-file line. The commander approached the sith lord in his new set of imperial strike force armor as he adjusted the helmet to his head. Irlon reached over his shoulder, grasping the butt of his rifle and pulling it forward into his hands.

"We're ready for your command, my lord." He said as his men and women stood at the ready. Kiber pointed to the broken hangar of the ship.

"We will experience heavy resistance, but we must penetrate the ship's defenses if we are to win this battle with the ships intact." He reached back and grabbed the thick material of his black hooded cloak, pulling the garment up over his helmet. The horns that curved upward whilst pointing backward on his helmet were draped over by the hood, giving his head a bigger than normal appearance. "I hereby officially label your primary squad, "Acklay squad" as your designation. May we strike vindictively, decisively, and ferociously – May we strike fear into the souls of our enemies."

The squad roared with cheers and battle cries. Beneath his mask, Kiber smiled wickedly.

"Follow my lead." He said as he turned toward the downed ship and motioned for all to follow him. The soldiers followed after him in formation, creating his shadow to envelope all that would dare challenge them.

Liam nervously adjusted his hood and his white leatheris shoulder and chest armor as he shifted in his seat. He sat in front of a table in a sleazy back water bar deep in the cities of Nar Shaddaa with Lymathe beside him, cool, calm and collected. Lymathe glanced over at his brother with a raised brow.

"Why so nervous?"

"Because… I don't know… for starters he is on the republic's most wanted list." Liam said. Lymathe shrugged.

"If anything goes wrong I'll just call Bruu to come pick us up nearby." He reassured. It didn't help.

"If we're not careful, this may be the only time we'll get to meet with our brother." Liam warned.

"If he IS our brother…" Lymathe mumbled skeptically.

Humans and non-humans mingled and drank as unknown alien music played in the background of the red-lighten bar. The barkeep was having a casual conversation with one of the Devaronian customers from over the bar counter when the door to the cantina slid open. A man dressed in Mandalorian armor of hazy blue and accented with an almost brown orange walked through, with his right arm dragging a statue of carbonite behind him. He threw the likeness of a frozen Rodian beside the door, like how one would leave their hat or coat at the entrance of a pub. A few of the patrons present left the bar, stepping lightly as if to avoid being noticed by the hunter.

Xaffaj walked over to the table where his Jedi contact from the Holocommunication was seated, and stared through his visor curiously at the Jedi's scoundrel-esque companion. The Mandalorian pulled up a chair and everyone ignored the creaking sound as he sat down in it, putting his feet up on the table. Lymathe was taken aback as he laid his eyes upon the droid-like lower legs that seemed to cut away from the color scheme of his armor entirely. He flexed the dual appendages on each foot as he waited for someone to speak.

"How'd you get the legs?" Lymathe asked, much to Liam's surprise and displeasure.

"Lost them in a Swoop racing accident. Pretty brutal one actually."

"From what I read on the Holonet, that hasn't slowed you down at all." Liam added. Xaffaj laughed.

"On the contrary…" he leaned forward after taking his feet off of the table. "I also took up Pod-racing!" the Mandalorian wailed laughing as he smacked his hand on the table. Some of the crusted blood on his gauntlets flaked off onto the table. Liam let out a giggle but maintained his posture. Outside the windows on two sides of the bar, air speeders sped past recklessly as was often the case on this planet. Xaffaj ceased his laughter and sniffled a bit.

"So…" He said as he leaned back leisurely in his chair, "Since you're a Jetii I'll have to charge extra. It's expensive switching sides." He said with a smile not visible through his t-visor helmet. Liam sighed and then rested his crossed hands on the table.

"I hear you may be acquainted with a person named 'Kiber'?" Liam asked. No response, not even a single stir from the man beneath the helmet.

"I need to find him; it's important." Liam continued. Still nothing, just the steady rise and fall of the bounty hunter's diaphragm. Lymathe scoffed.

"Hellooooo? Mr. Big Bad Bounty Boy?" he said mockingly. Xaffaj slowly leaned forward out of his comfortable position and stared straight at Liam. He released the locks on his helmet and slid it off of his head. His faux hawk maintained its form even when the helmet scraped by. With a stern expression on his chiselled face, he zoomed into his target's face with his cybernetic eye.

"Who are you?" he asked as his eye raced around in its mechanical socket.

"Look past these," Liam said pointing at his eye coverings, "Who do you think I am?" Xaffaj grinded his teeth as he furrowed his brow.

"From what Kiber told me: You're a treacherous, cowardly scum-bag who left him to die…" the tension continued to rise. Lymathe casually got up and walked over to the bar. The bar keeper approached him and asked what it was he would like to drink.

"Nothing; thank you. But…" he slid a credit chip across the counter into the hands of the proprietor, "Take my advice and empty out the bar." The barkeeper simply nodded and called out to the rest of his customers.

"Okay folks! I gotta go, up and out! Last drink's on me!"

The rest of the cantina patron's took their last drinks and left out the door as the owner followed after them, locking the door behind them. Lymathe stood leaning against the bar as the two other quadruplets debated in privacy.

"What did that traitor tell you exactly?" Liam said with a calm expression.

"He told me how you Jedi bastards betrayed him, revoking his potential for greater power and cast him aside. Then you punished him for becoming powerful." Xaffaj had a snarling expression spread across his face as he leaned closer and closer. Mandalorians were always quick to anger. Liam scoffed, painfully, hearing what his brother had said about him.

"Is that what he said?"

"Elek…" Xaffaj said in Mando'a

"What if I told you he was lying?" Liam suggested. Xaffaj became even tenser, and before he could answer, Liam continued. "What if I told you how he was so weak that he turned to the Dark side and killed a fellow Jedi? And then the boy's Jedi master? What if I told you that the only reason why he is so powerful today was because of a fluke; his natural affinity to the darkness? We never cast him off, brother, it was the exact opposite."

Lymathe could see emotion going into his brother's words now.

"If he had turned himself in…" Liam's hands began to shake, "If he had turned himself in I would have begged on my hands and knees WITHOUT my mask – in humiliation – for clemency before the council of the Jedi. I would have done everything in my power to stop his punishment." He put his right hand to his covering and grasped at it.

"Lies!" Xaffaj said angrily. "I know Kiber! He would never kill the innocent unless-!"

"Unless they had hurt him?" Liam finished. Xaffaj could feel the talon-like appendages of his feet clenching tightly. "Pohn DID hurt him, and his master turned a blind eye to all of Pohn's doings. In the end, I still don't know why they hadn't already disbanded Pohn from the order before his death; but murder is never justified."

"Really?" Xaffaj asked critically, "NEVER justified you say?"

"Yes."

"You Jedi and your damn virtues…" he scorned. Suddenly, Xaffaj's holocom began to bleep. He sighed and activated the hologram.

"WHAT!?" he screamed. A visage of Kelann appeared with her behind the controls of their ship.

"Vod! I can't stay; I'm being attacked by a squad of Imps! I'll come back for you if I can-!" an explosion shook the hologram. Xaffaj lurched forward painfully. "Stay safe! Ni kar'tayli gar darasuum!" and then the image cut out. Xaffaj grasped at the edge of the table sorely. Another call on the holocom then. He answered yet again, this time guessing who it was; correctly.

"Drexin? What's wrong?" he asked as another Mandalorian with both a sniper rifle and an electro-staff strapped on his back appeared in the hologram.

"Imps! They're moving to attack you. They'll be on you in less than five!" He said panicked.

"Make your way here; we're getting off this rock." Xaffaj said before shutting off his communicator. Liam got to his feet as Lymathe approached the table. Xaffaj was breathing heavily as he pushed himself off of the table, and then he removed one of his blasters from its holster.

"Let's say for a moment that I believed you… what then?" he asked, irritated. Liam smiled as he grabbed his lightsaber from his belt.

"We'd fend off these imperials as we made our escape; with as little collateral damage as possible."

Xaffaj scoffed as he put his helmet on.

"I won't make any promises." He said.

Kiber's 'Acklay' squad tore through the halls of the shipwreck at lightning speeds, quickly and lethally like a real Acklay. Kiber's imperial troops had not believed their lord's claims of the enemy's ferocity, but then these republic soldiers joined their side and it all became clear. The resistance in the majority of the wreck was quite light; stragglers from the earlier battles that had been waged between Kiber's forces and Ralanon's troops mainly. As soon as a body shifted on the ground, one of the soldiers had already placed a clip of blaster ammunition into them. It was no wonder why these troops had been discharged: they were utterly brutal.

With how simple the attack had been so far it felt to Kiber as if it was more like a cold walk in the park, except with more flickering lights and broken equipment. Kiber's hands tensed up when he began to feel a presence resonating through the force in massive waves of dark energy; lapping against his mind like the forceful waves of Manaan. To the side of this forceful essence was a more soothing aura of gleaming energy. From both, his mind could discern that they shared one common trait; the chaos they exhumed and would exhume, if not stopped.

After a very uneventful walk down the halls, Kiber finally reignited his saber as he turned the corner into a room cluttered with bodies, both live and dead. The bridge. Darth Ralanon was lying on the ground with part of his mask shattered, exposing his scarred chin and lips. A Jedi woman stood over him with a squad of republic troopers guarding her flank. Oddly, a small boy with burnt flesh and a torn face was lying underneath a small pile of rubble – maybe a slave. That was when he felt it: a third aura just as powerful as the two before him. This boy could touch the force.

"Halt! In the name of the Galactic Republic I order your immediate surrender!" the woman said as she held up a green bladed saber. Her troops raised their weapons as well. Kiber couldn't help but be halted in his tracks; both of these people felt so familiar. He had already known Darth Ralanon, but never had he been in the same room with him, and now that he was it felt… even more familiar. The Jedi woman – oddly dressed in black robes – held that same air of familiarity.

Ralanon laughed as the other troops came around the corner with weapons drawn.

"It seems that I… have… failed again…"

Again?

"Kiber… I underestimated you…"

That voice?

The Jedi woman snarled as she reached down and snatched the mask from the Darth's face.

"Silence, Pretender!" she said as she threw the slab of forged metal across the bridge. Kiber's entire body lost feeling when he saw the man behind the mask. Beneath the moniker of Darth Ralanon, was a poorly aged visage of the only man that had ever shown Kiber true fear.

Darth Kiberan.

Darth Kiber tore down his hood and quickly removed his entire helmet, throwing it behind himself for Lynaree to catch. Kiberan smiled wickedly, even though he had been defeated, and even as the wife of his late brother stood over top of him, triumphantly. Kiber was still astounded to say the least.

"How!?" he shouted, "How did you survive!?" Kiber found the very possibility impossible to grasp. This reaction made Kiberan laugh even harder.

"Artumez… was a worthy tool… smart enough to revive me… and then try to defeat you through deception… but I should have dealt with you… myself."

It all made sense now. Artumez resurrected his master with cybernetics and the force (Assuming he was actually dead) and then planned as they waited for the right moment to strike against Kiber, his master's successor after him. The whole situation with Xu Fane and her ship was orchestrated by his own uncle the whole time – Artumez was just a puppet.

Kiberan continued smiling as he put on a voice of mock anger.

"Ha "You killed my son!" ha-ha, you fell for that you… you fool!" he said referencing back to the reason for this Kaggath. Kiber clenched his fists tighter and tighter as he struggled not to lose control of himself. And still the force from within the boy on the floor continued to cry out to him.

"Why!?" Kiber asked, "Why would you wait so long to attack?"

"I don't need to explain stratagem to you boy-!" the once 'Darth' Kiberan received a quick kick to the face by the woman watching over him.

"Enough!" she shouted, raising her voice above both of the men. "Kiberan, you disgust me…" she snarled. "You always have." The man below her boot sneered, but remained smiling, at her.

"I have always… tried… my dear Alaina." He mocked. Alaina pointed her green blade down at the neck of the disgraced sith lord.

"I will not take vengeance for my husband…" she began, "But I will take vengeance for the thousands of innocents that you have killed, harmed and enslaved." She glanced over at the boy on the ground. As she went to finish what she had begun, she found that she was unable to move her blade any farther. On the other side of the room, Kiber was standing with his hand stretched outwards, grasping her lightsaber with the force. She disengaged the blade and pointed at Darth Kiber.

"Stay out of this, Kiber!"

Kiber spit on the floor.

"No stranger – especially not a Jedi – will steal my vengeance away from me!" he said, glaring at the woman who had once given him birth.

Kiberan laughed; both at the boy's ignorance and his dark intentions.

"Spoken… like a true… sith!" he rattled from his throat. "But she is… no stranger…" he let out a fit of coughs before Alaina began to crush his chest with her foot. Kiber and Alaina's eyes locked as the soldiers behind them continued their stand-off.

"No…" Kiber whispered.

"It's true." Alaina said to her son, "I… am your mother." She said softly.

The room dropped silent, and the look on Kiber's face was one of slight content. Alaina smiled sweetly, and made one step forward. That one step was her only step, as Kiber roared with rage and grabbed up his mother with the force. He smashed her against one of the computer consoles, knocking the wind out of her. She had barely time to think as Kiber brought down his blade in a cleaving motion. She caught his blade in hers and pushed him off with the force, sending him flipping past he center of the bridge. A firefight broke out between Alaina's and Kiber's forces that lit up the whole bridge.

"Where were you!?" Kiber screamed, enraged. "You selfish BITCH!" he leapt across the blaster bolts and landed right beside her, staggering the Jedi with a shockwave. Before she had time to react, he blasted her with a wave of force energy, sending her crashing through the unshielded windows of the ship's bridge and onto a platform in front of the bridge. The winds outside of the ship had obviously picked up and ice whipped through the air around her as she rose to her feet.

Kiber jumped through the already smashed window and landed a few metres from his mother. Alaina's face was bloodied and shards of glass decorated her body with crimson slicks sliding downward before freezing. Kiber held out his arms to his sides and telekinetically equipped his lightsabers, activating the red and silver blades in his hands.

"I'm… I'm sorry, Kiber! I didn't want to abandon you!"

"The *want* isn't what matters, Mother! You should have been there!" he began to advance slowly toward her as she raised her weapon. She backed off slowly. "Do you have ANY idea what I had to endure!? Huh!?" he continued forward.

"Kiber!"

"I don't understand how a mother could do that!"

"I didn't have a choice!" she felt the back of her boot reaching the edge of the platform, leading into a white nothingness as the storm made it impossible to see very far down.

"There is always a choice!" Kiber raged. As he went to strike, Alaina did the unexpected. She disengaged her saber and put her arms at her side.

Without hesitation, Kiber plunged his silver saber through her gut and out through her back. She yelped and then her breathing began to slow. For whatever the reason, Kiber found himself unable to pull the blade from his mother. Instead, she grabbed his shoulders and pushed away.

He heard the woman who had gifted him life whisper I love you before falling back into the endless white of the storm. With that closure, he turned and entered back into the window without so much as a tear; only leading to more surprise and distress.

Kiberan had closed the blast doors to the bridge, leaving most of Kiber's forces stranded in the halls, away from the republic soldiers' bodies. Kiberan had gotten to his feet, and held Lynaree captive in his burly arms with a saber at the ready.

"You are impressive Kiber, but I will win this day." He cackled.

"Damn you…" Kiber snarled.

"Just do it! Kill him!" Lynaree goaded helplessly as the man tightened his grip around her neck.

"You are too powerful for me to defeat; I see that now." Kiberan admitted. "But I can take a part of you with me!" he raised his saber to strike at Lynaree as Kiber screamed in vain. Time seemed to slow as the saber disappeared from his hand and reappeared in the hands of the child behind him. With one path diagonally through Kiberan's chest, the slave child killed his former owner by slicing through the sith's spine and ending his life swiftly and painlessly. As Lynaree shrugged off the hulking body of her uncle-in-law, the boy collapsed to the ground after using all of the energy that his frail body could muster. Lynaree immediately went to her knees to check for the boy's pulse.

"He's breathing! We have to-!" before Lynaree could even finish her sentence, Kiber had already scooped up the child in his arms. The boy's face really was a mess and it would require extensive surgery. Darth Kiber then bent down and grabbed his helmet off of the ground with just two fingers of his right hand. He turned to his wife.

"See if you can get this open…"