CHAPTER LIII: Fire and Ice

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Jak could feel the dark side ebbing and crashing around her as she went down the steep corridor, all the way t0 the heart of Malachor V. She had never liked it here, not when she was Revan. If anyplace could actually be one of the Nine Hells, then Malachor was definitely one of them, in Jak's mind. But, instead of turning around and heading right back up to the Academy proper and out, the Corellian Jedi kept on going, navy eyes locked straight ahead.

The floor eventually evened out, and Jak could make out a wide archway...and the core of the Trayus Academy. She knew this place pretty damn well, all right, and Jak frowned slightly as she gently cocked her right wrist back, releasing her lightsaber. She tossed it from her left hand to her right, the metals chinking together soundly before she continued on her way.

The darkened cave was illuminated from a blood-red crystal embedded in the floor of the platform precariously hanging over a well of dark side energy. A dark figure stood on top of the crystal, and Jak's eyes narrowed as she made out the bloody lines trailing down a night-black chestplate. Unconsciously, she flicked her lightsaber to violet light, looking more blue in the red light. As she drew closer, Jak saw the predatory grin on Trayt's face. That looks like some devil about to collect on my soul right there.

"So, here you stand, Revan," Trayt said once they were properly face-to-face. The ravages of the darkness consuming Trayt were apparent on his face, and his formerly brown eyes glinted with hungry red light. "Two pinnacles of darkness, standing against each other."

"I ain't here for the dark side, Trayt," Jak spat. "I'm here to destroy you, Malachor, and everything the both of ya stand for." Her left fist clenched as Trayt laughed, a deep rumble that echoed around for what felt like ages.

"You cannot hide from what you are, Revan. You know what you are, who you are. Those four years in the Unknowns taught you things you refuse to accept as truth, and that will be your downfall."

"And yours is the willful misunderstanding of how us semi-normal folk think, you stupid Sith," Jak snarled. She could feel the darkness flexing, as if permitting something within the bubble of these two powerful beings.

One dark, one light, Jak thought as Trayt drew his lightsaber, the bloody beam nearly white because of the dark crystal below. One of fire…one of ice.

But she sure wasn't ready when Trayt spread his palm, sending a wave of fire right in her direction. Jak would've dived out of the way, but the wall of fire was too wide...so she drew up a wall of ice, trying to push the fires back. Trayt pushed at her, but Jak held her ground, shoving the fires away with everything she had.

Whoever broke first was going to be the one who died. And Jak had no intention of dying.

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"Y'think she's gonna make it?" Mira asked, nodding for the door. It felt like it had been hours since Revan had gone, but Bao-Dur's chrono seemed to be trying to tell them it had only been five minutes.

Five minutes since Kiray and Atton had nearly killed themselves.

"I wouldn't put it past Revan," Bao-Dur replied coolly after stowing away his comlink, "but I don't know how long these two will last without a kolto dunk."

"We could just go back to the ship, y'know..."

"No," came Visas's voice all of a sudden. Mira was startled as the Miraluka strode calmly towards the door leading...somewhere...and waved her hand to get it open. Mira frowned as she got to her feet, one hand on her lightsaber, the other on top of her blaster. Rather unconsciously, Mira checked to make sure the safety was off.

"Whatcha up to?" Mira ventured, green eyes narrowing as Visas turned to look back at them. Mira could sense an ultra-fine purpose flowing from Visas, one that she hadn't felt before. There was a tense silence for a long while that it felt like a lifetime.

Things're happening and you hafta get involved. We can't stand by anymore.

"To free them," was all that Visas replied. "Trayt holds their spirits back from awakening. If he wins, they will die, and the Force with them. If Revan wins, he will destroy them as he passes into the Force."

"So what're you going to do?"

"Free them."

"But how?!" Mira snarled. She hated it when Jedi – or anyone, for that matter – started dodging questions. But Visas turned and walked down the ramp beyond the door. Mira let a few seconds crawl past before she crept towards the doorway. Down the corridor was nothing more than inky darkness, but Mira wasn't one to be put down by shadows. It made her think back to the trap Hanharr had tried to lay, a long time ago. A lifetime ago.

Mira then had foiled that trap and rescued the ungrateful furball. Mira now wasn't going to let a pitch-black hallway scare her.

"I'm going after them. You holding the fort here?" she asked, turning to glance at Bao-Dur as she unhooked her lightsaber and brought the red-orange blade to life. He nodded once, and Mira took a deep breath as she faced the darkness ahead.

She barely registered it as Bao-Dur whispered, "May the Force be with you, Mira."

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Darkness. Nothing but dark, dank, cold. Nothing. She was nothing, there was nothing, nothing but the crushing black that suffocated her. She tried to scream, but there was no sound. She tried to move, but had no feeling. There was no time, no place, no past or future. Only now. Only the darkness that held her.

She tried to remember. Pain was all she could muster, a flash of light before searing, unbearable pain before the darkness had taken her. Maybe she was dead. She knew she had no body, but a mind, a soul. And there was no pain, but no joy either. She wanted to weep, because she knew that there was something missing, but there were no tears when she shuddered and gasped.

After the longest eternity, she noticed that there was something else with her. It felt familiar, like it was a missing piece of her that had been torn away. She reached for it, dreading and curious at the same time, and was startled when it turned, revealing...a face. A man's face, pained, but when he saw her, the pain seemed to leave him. Instead, he reached back to her, touched her face...

In an instant, her memories exploded back to place. Kiray Fett. Atton Rand. Trayt. Revan. Mira, Bao-Dur, Visas, Mical, Mandalore, T3 and HK...she threw herself onto Atton, holding him tight, glad that he was back.

"I missed you," she managed as Atton gently rubbed her back.

"Missed ya, too, Kir. What a way to get back together, eh?" he asked, chuckling faintly before moving aside. With some effort, Kiray could look down at the two levels of the Trayus Academy – Bao-Dur, on watch over two figures in the upper area; Jak, battling Trayt, a wall of fire and ice between them as they struggled to gain the upper hand; Mira and Visas, racing for the lower level to help Jak. Atton sighed, "Fun, ain't it."

"Are we dead, At'ika?" Kiray asked softly after a moment or two. She knew that the figures Bao-Dur was guarding had to be their…bodies. How morbid. Atton shrugged slightly.

"Dunno. I know we sure ran each other through, so we oughta be dead…"

Kiray turned her gaze away from the scene far below, and instead looked above and past them. It was an indescribable tapestry of color and life, of war, peace, light, darkness. Surrounding them was a thick set of bars, reeking of some ancient power. She pushed at the bar slightly, but it was solid, even more solid than Mandalorian iron. Frowning, she saw a vision – whether of past or future she couldn't tell – float past, showing a chamber filled with glowing pods.

Maybe she could somehow channel her power to one of those pods. Maybe then the bar would give way, thinking back to some tale of a trapped beast who was nibbled away by tiny creatures until it was small enough to finally escape.

"Atton, no matter what you feel," Kiray warned as she pulled at the Force inside her, eventually wrenching it free and gently rolling it between her hands, "don't look. Keep focused on what's happening in the present."

"What're you up to?"

"Something potentially suicidal. If it works, we'll get out of here."

"And if it doesn't?" Kiray spared a glance back, looking Atton right in the eyes.

"Then we'll either be trapped here for all time…or we'll be dead."

"Comforting thought," Atton grumbled. "Kir, if it's going to kill you, then you're not doing it. I won't let you!"

"It has to be done," Kiray answered as she mentally pulled the vision closer and starting splitting up the portion of power in her hands. "Otherwise we're dead anyway."

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Jak couldn't hold it much longer. Trayt had too much power, too much momentum, but, being Corellian, she wasn't about to concede defeat. But if that concession could've meant getting out of this alive, Jak would most certainly consider it.

But most Sith dealt in absolutes. Either your enemy killed you, or you killed them. And Trayt was particularly keen to kill her.

"You're getting weak, Revan!" he yelled over the roaring of the twin walls shoving back and forth. "I can feel it! You won't suffer for long, I promise you that!"

"Forget it, Trayt! I ain't quittin' yet!" Jak barked in reply, but she could feel her feet grating against the stone floor...pushing backward. Trayt was winning, after all. Jak gritted her teeth and tried to throw more power into her wall, but it wasn't enough. The ice shattered.

Flames flared out around her, heating the stone floor as Jak felt the powerful thrust of air blow her backward, off the floor, before slamming back down, gut heaving as her legs dangled over the edge. Jak grappled to solidify her grip, but her left hand was sweaty, her right heated so smooth that all the friction from the scratches of work were just gone. A lot like her lightsaber.

If she could just get to the spare down her boot...

Jak carefully released the hold of her right hand, propping her left elbow up onto the rock. As she struggled to kick her right foot up so she could reach for the shaft, Trayt ambled up, grinning viciously.

"Look at you, Revan. So helpless. So...weak. Was this what Malak fought, before you killed him? What of the hundreds of Sith you murdered in the name of the Republic? Those that share your blood..."

"You don't know anythin' about that!" Jak spat, right hand still grappling down the solid leather boot. "No one does! You don't know anything!"

"Don't I? With the entire weight of the galaxy on your shoulders? Must take a strong person to hold all that. But that makes you all the easier to set up for a fall.

"A new order is rising, Revan. And you could have been at its head. Instead you returned to the cringing, soul-sucking Light and left lesser mortals to take your duty, your task. And yet you end up killing them anyway. I'm going to make sure that you no longer shab up your own plans," Trayt snarled, red eyes glowing as he lifted his lightsaber.

Jak managed to reach down to her lightsaber, hefting up the single-hilt.

She sensed Mira and Visas running up behind Trayt, their own blades lit.

The Force exploded.