CHAPTER LI: Eruption
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Jak was expecting an attack once they crossed inside Trayus, and, sure enough, one came right at her and Kiray in the form of what dressed like a Dark Jedi Knight. Jak only had to snap out her lightsaber and bring it crashing down through his shoulder to send him to the floor, deader than a doornail. Kiray had already leaped past Jak's first kill, taking on two Sith assassins with a blast of lightning to one and a swift stab through the stomach on the other. Jak quietly walked forward as Kiray deactivated her lightsaber, but the violet light from the Corellian's blades persisted as they met in the middle of the main hall.
"All right, Kir, there's going to be a whole lotta Sith scumbags around here," Jak warned her, raising her left index finger in warning. "Mercifully, though, they don't keep coming unless you walk right into them. So, you go that way." She waved in the general direction of the right with her lightsaber. "Meantime, I'll go the other way, and we'll hopefully meet somewhere in the middle."
"Any idea where Trayt is?" Kiray asked, brisk and short. It was as if she were asking Jak from an assassination order on that deranged upstart. Jak frowned.
"Only that he's probably down in the core of the Academy, which is accessible right through that wall." She pointed to the sculpture at the end of the hall. "Only way to get there is w0rk our ways up each side, clearing out his little students as we go, and meet in the center. Then I'll go down and handle Trayt, you stay topside and
guard my back. I won't have any more Sith on my back while dueling their esteemed lord and master." Jak put on a phony Kuati accent and languidly flourished her left hand, finally getting Kiray to smile. They were both going to need it.
Jak went first, peeling off to the right and dispatching four Sith assassins before rounding the corner. Four more waited around Kiray's turn, but the Mandalorian fried them all with another blast of lightning. Jak balled her fist and let a small cloud of frost rise from her hand. Kiray mimicked her, lightning arcing between knuckles in a blue-white light. Jak nodded and opened her door. She only had time to see a cluster of six assassins and one Dark Jedi lying in wait before she unleashed her power. Ice clung to the walls when the clouds faded, and the Sith were either frozen against the wall or in their places. Jak didn't worry over them; her Force ice was most certainly not like any other ice in the galaxy, because it didn't melt. Glancing back out to toss a salute to Kiray with the front blade of her lightsaber before walking into the curved halls.
The door ominously locked behind her.
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Kiray was glad Jak had warned her of what was ahead; these Sith weren't so bad to tackle as they most likely would have been if only it had been two years earlier. She knifed her navy blades through a pair of assassins before pausing, taking
a quick sense for any more of them. Relaxing only slightly, she deactivated her blades.
Her turn had led to a long, sweeping corridor dotted with majestic windows, not to mention not exactly packed with low-level Sith – the majority of them powerless assassins, a fair smattering of Dark Jedi, several blaster-wielding troopers. So far, there had only been one or two self-titled Sith Lords and Sith Marauders; new flavors Kiray hadn't been aware of until she utterly crushed their sorry skills. And with every step, every sweep of her Force sense, she felt one of the dark nexuses getting closer...Atton.
Kiray stabbed her lightsaber into a wall, testing the stone to see if she could somehow pierce through and get to him. No luck, but it stuck rather than slithering down to the floor, allowing Kiray to pause for a little longer, sitting on the floor and meditating a little. Unconsciously, she traced her way along the bare thread that was her bond with Atton, crossing it quickly else it would break. Kiray instantly ran into a wall, a wall of cold, hard hate and anger. Quietly, she brushed against it, warming it slightly.
I know you're still there, Atton, she whispered to it, rubbing back and forth against the wall. Even if his feelings were all against her, it felt better than being alone. I know because I'm here...he hasn't killed you yet. I'm coming. And I already know what I'm going to say. She retreated from the bond before he could attack her across the bond, and Kiray stood up, pulling her lightsaber out of the wall and activating the opposite end.
There was only one way this was going to end. Kiray had made her peace with the world, with Jak, with her crew, with herself. No matter what happened, she was ready for whatever Atton threw at her. Because she had already forgiven him.
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Mira, Visas, and Bao-Dur came across corpses when they entered the Academy, Mira leading because she could easily sense Kiray and Revan. Visas was at her right shoulder, and Bao-Dur had a blaster out, as if wary of anything that came at them if they weren't ready. Mira didn't like the thinking behind it, but she was secretly glad that something definitely lethal was out. Not like a lightsaber was any different, but a blaster just felt safer.
"They split up," Mira declared when they reached the end of the hall. She could feel the definite crackle of Kiray's presence snaking off one way, and a bright chill powering on the other. "Right, I'll go after Kir, you two can go after Revan."
"Revan is fine on her own," Visas murmured, her voice echoing despite the low volume. "It is the Exile we need to be afraid for."
"The General wouldn't put herself in danger. I'll go for Revan." Mira nodded at Bao-Dur, before the Iridonian holstered his gun and pulled out his lightsaber before quietly opening the door scoured with Revan's aura and vanishing behind it. The huntress looked at Visas, scowling faintly.
"Look, you don't have to run around after me. Better, you should find some way to soften up Trayt," Mira tried to reason, but Visas looked way far away, causing Mira to grumble under her breath. She had never really understood why the Miraluka had jumped onto the ship, even though it had been before she'd jumped onto the Hawk.
So Mira trotted off down the opposite hall, feeling Kiray a wide distance ahead of her, but doubling back. She was dimly aware of Bao-Dur trailing Revan, who had seemed to have vanished out of the Force. Great. An ex-Sith with a vanishing act. She went past a column of dead Sith, before reaching an open door, crackling with energy. Mira still clenched her lightsaber, while her other hand strayed for her blaster. Slowly, her green eyes glimmering at the closing darkness ahead of her, Mira crossed through the doorway.
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Jaq paced back and forth, eyes closed, in front of the door that led down to Malachor's core. Now there weren't just two Jedi in the academy; there were five. Mira...Bao-Dur...the Miraluka. This was going to get interesting. Maybe instead of waiting for Kiray, he should hunt down those other three, kill them fast, find Revan. Then persuade Revan, kill Kiray and Trayt, and then...then the galaxy would be open for him and Revan to rule.
Are you crazy? Jaq stopped his pacing and halted, scowling as he heard that voice in his head again. Y'know, on Dantooine, you were pretty quick to let me and Kir walk all over you. And Revan socked you one so hard...you think you can sway her back?
"Shut up, you have no say in this," Jaq snarled under his breath. If only he could dredge out his other half like what had happened at Dantooine; should have finished the job of killing him. The voice prodded him again, hard.
You just don't want to admit it! You don't wanna admit that you know she's gonna kill you now. You were stupid to believe that idiot when he took you to Telos; should have fought them off!
"They came up like ghosts! How was I supposed to get them?! It was you who didn't fight them!"
Yeah, right. And I'm the king of Corellia. Jaq scowled, activating his lightsaber. It was like he could see those squirming Jedi in front of him, wearing a multitude of faces: all of his victims, the one Jedi that had ripped through his mind and showed him the Force, Mira, Bao-Dur, Visas, even that snotty historian. Himself, the Jedi half...Kiray. She looked at him with the most peaceful face, and Jaq faltered in his angry tide.
I know you're still there...
Jaq took a step back from his imagined kill, red-yellow eyes widening. Kiray's voice echoed in his head, rubbing against his wall of forced emotion. She dared to reach him! He was about to strike, but her voice whispered on: I know you are...because I'm here. He hasn't killed you yet. Of course Trayt hadn't killed him, how stupid it was to say that!
I'm coming. Like that was a surprise...but something inside Jaq wanted to see her, see that perfectly serene face. And I already know what I'm going to say. The contact vanished, and Jaq stood, alone, in the antechamber. What was she going to say? He had done...
No! He was doubting himself again, letting the other Rand loosen Jaq's control. Jaq forced that warmth down, forcing it out of himself before he hurled his lightsaber at the wall. The blood-red blade plunged through the stone, quivering as it turned yellow at the huge amount of energy. Frowning, Jaq pulled the lightsaber back out, deactivating it. Kiray was coming. He had to be ready to kill her.
He hoped Revan wouldn't be too far behind. She had vanished from feeling; was she dead? No, that was impossible: no Sith here was strong enough to kill Darth Revan. But there were a lot of them in the proving grounds...if Revan was dead, that was just a minor setback. It might take years, but so long as Kiray died and he took on
the power that beckoned from the shadows...the apprentice always killed the master. It was the way of the Sith.
Then again, the voice of Atton Rand commented snidely, you don't really walk either side of the line.
