"You broke a tomb?"

Nellith looked from ashen-faced Tash, with half of her braid falling out and standing with her arms crossed over her chest, to surly Jacen and then to Allana, who was as poised as she could be with dirt and ash in her hair and a scorch mark on her cheek.

"We didn't know that our mother put that failsafe into the holocron," Allana reminded Dr. Tharen. "And we do apologize. If we had known, we would have waited to activate the holocron."

Nellith frowned. For a failsafe to prevent the wrong people from finding it, the explosion had gotten awfully close to killing the right people.

She supposed even a mechanical genius like their mother was bound to get some Force-activated pyrotechnics wrong every now and then.

But that didn't stop Nellith from feeling unsettled. She supposed that it was the entire atmosphere of Korriban.

"We have Plagueis's pike, I managed to grab it for you." Nellith offered the pike to Dr. Tharen, who sighed as she practically ripped it out of the seventeen-year-old's hands.

"At least some Sith history was preserved." Dr. Tharen turned and passed it off to another aide. "I think you'll understand when we say that we hope your visit with us ends soon."

"It will," Allana said, before Nellith could speak up. "Tomorrow morning we will be leaving for Endor. We won't trouble you any further."

Well now she was in trouble.

Especially given the semi-satisfied look on Dr. Tharen's face. Like she didn't like how long they were staying, but she was willing to accept it because it was better than expected.

There was no room for what Nellith wanted to do.

"I'll take my crew back to Serenity," Nellith said. "Prep for the launch tomorrow."

Allana nodded, and Nellith gestured for her people to follow.


It was only once they were in the lounge of Serenity that Nellith spoke the truth.

"We've got one more job before we can leave Korriban," Nellith explained. "I had a dream— a vision— last night. It's this place— I've been here before, you see."

"It's one of the Star Maps, isn't it?" Jacen asked. "One of them was on Korriban."

"Yes." Nellith nodded. "And we walked by one of the locations today— Ajunta Pall's tomb."

In the Korriban heat, there was a sudden and swift cold wind that made its way through the closed bay doors to Serenity. A warning from the shadows themselves.

Kyp let out a low whistle. "Pall? You sure know how to pick 'em, Skywalker."

"Ragnos was old, but Pall. . . " Tash looked to Nellith with awe. "He was the first Dark Lord of the Sith."

"I know." Nellith crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm gonna need your help— I don't think Dr. Tharen will let me in the tomb given that we blew up the last one we entered, and got Aya possessed in the first one."

"You'd think they'd figure out it's the occupational hazard of working with so many Sith Lords," Tahiri muttered.

"Yeah, well that would require a Corellian to think about anything other than the glory of our people and—" Jysella stopped when Jacen lightly elbowed her. "Fine. Hey, I can say it— I'm Corellian, after all."

"You were born on Takodana," Kyp reminded her.

"You're an idiot." There was a light teasing, but Nellith still didn't like where this conversation was going.

Perhaps it was best that they would be leaving the planet soon.

"I need you guys to distract Dr. Tharen and have a fight, do whatever, so I can get into the tomb and get whatever it was I was looking for way back when," Nellith explained. "Can I trust you guys to do that?"

Kyp nodded, no longer in that irritable know-it-all swagger. He'd sobered completely once she'd spoken.

"Of course. Are you sure you don't want one of us to go with you?"

You, always you.

But Nellith wouldn't say that thought out loud, no matter how it made her heart skip a beat.

"That won't be necessary, but thank you, Kyp." Nellith straightened the straps of her dress. "I got in there once, though, by myself. I probably can get there again."

There was something longing in Kyp's eyes, with unasked questions.

"Take a comm unit, okay?" He finally said. "So we can come get you if something happens to you— alright?"

"Of course." Nellith took the comm unit, trying not to focus on how his fingers wrapped hers around the device, the touch lingering. "Thank you."

And then it was time to go.


It was easier than she thought. A memory, or a dream, perhaps. The tomb had indeed been broken into, but not in the front door.

No, past-Nellith had been cleverer about such things as tomb-raiding. Then again, the Corellian History Society had only appeared in the last year on Korriban.

It probably was a hard pitch, Nellith thought as she crawled through a passage in the sand in her dress. Korriban did have a bit of a reputation, after all.

She finally stood as the height of the passage widened, and dusted off her dress. The fact that someone might have had to crawl behind her was enough to make her grateful that she'd gone alone.

But then she frowned. She'd seen the chamber before— but it wasn't empty, like this.

"Where's the Star Map?" Nellith asked aloud.

"You already visited here, once."

Nellith looked around, whirling and trying to recognize the Force aura around her. She'd felt it before, of that she was certain.

"Are you Ajunta Pall?" Nellith asked.

A figure with a very familiar— although not exact— mask in robes appeared. The figure then removed his mask, revealing the handsome face of a younger man, pale with dark hair.

"Revan," Nellith realized. "I thought Sith couldn't make ghosts."

"While that isn't true and we both know that, remember your history," Revan chided. "Yes, I was Sith, but I was a Jedi, too. I was both, and neither in the end."

"Why are you here?" Nellith asked, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'd think you'd be somewhere more important to you."

"Well, this was an important place." Revan shrugged as he pulled down his hood. "One of the Star Maps was here. Besides, do I seem like I care about the arbitrary rules other ghosts follow?"

"I guess not," Nellith admitted. "But the Star Map— what happened to it?"

Revan studied her a moment. There was a glint of empathy in his eyes. "I think you have some idea."

"While I was my sister's Hand, she had me go after the Star Maps." Nellith felt a dreadful twist in her stomach. "I found it, didn't I?"

"All of them." Revan shook his head. "Then you destroyed them, so that no one else could stop your sister from taking the Star Forge."

"Of course I did," Nellith muttered. "Is there any way—"

"I was like you," Revan interrupted. "I too, had to rebuild my identity with a loss of memory. And with it, too, came my redemption. I can help you."

"Can you show me the location of the Star Forge?" Nellith's heart soared at the thought.

"I can do more than that," Revan promised. "Your memories lie beneath the surface— I can push them to the top."

"No, thank you." The response was immediate, before Nellith had really processed the words. "I don't need to remember the awful things my sister made me do."

"I thought you might say as much, but I thought I'd still offer." Revan smiled. "I did think it was a pity that you were retrieving the Star Maps for Darth Keera— you are such a clever, worthy heir."

"I'll do what I can now."

"You do remind me of someone who would have made the same decisions." Revan's smile turned sad. "I'll give you the true location of the Star Forge. Be careful, Nellith Skywalker. I will be watching."

"Of course." Nellith paused. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet."

The ghost's fingertips brushed against Nellith's forehead. And then she knew exactly what she'd helped her sister find.

It wasn't a weapon. But it was the tool that had created the truly awesome fleets the Remnant had used against the Princess Leia.

Nellith opened her eyes just as Revan disappeared.

She would make this right. No matter what it took.