Rast's heart races with excitement as he comes closer and closer to the light. Finally the narrow walkway opens onto a platform and Rast finds the last clue, exactly where that poor fool Nezu had said it would be.
Rast nudges the corpse with his boot and it is stiff as the stone it lay upon. Rast shines his light on the body and though she had been there for almost two cycles, there were no signs of decay. She was pale, her open eyes, once were blue, were clouded over. Her mouth is open and it looks like her tongue is frozen to the floor. The shock and anguish of her death was frozen forever in this place, mere meters from what brought her here.
"You should have never trusted that scum," Rast tells her far too late to matter.
Rast sees the scorched hole Nezu put in her before he left her here. The little lizard monkey of a balosar couldn't even complete his task. He killed the poor woman for nothing. Rast didn't make the same mistake with Nezu Kazeri and he dispatched the worm quickly, once he got the information he needed.
"You deserved better than this, Master," Rast whispers before reaching down, parting her robes, and pulling the last piece of the puzzle he needed from her belt.
The bright green blade of pure energy crackles and hisses when it springs forth from the hilt. Rast moves the blade through the stale, frigid air and it groans with that familiar sound. The blade is heavier than he remembers but the kyber crystal was not attuned to him. Yet.
Rast slides open the cover of the light saber and plucks out the tiny green crystal, holding it tightly in his fist. He connects the nonfunctional lightsaber to his belt and walks toward the red glow.
The altar is round and made of the same black stone as the rest of the temple. Jutting from the center of the altar, roughly a meter above it, Rast can see a massive red kyber crystal. He suspects that the majority of it protrudes from the bottom of the platform and points down into the center of the chasm.
Rast holds the small green crystal in a clenched fist and presses his knuckles against the red kyber. He visualizes his pain, his anger and resentment, his darkest fears and most forbidden desires. He funnels his raw emotion into it.
Rast remembers his master being slain when he was still a young padawan learner, and he fixes that image in his mind. He focuses his sadness and loss and pours it into the crystal. He thinks about his capture and imprisonment on Coruscant. The fear and inescapable loneliness he felt as a prisoner at the Fortress Inquisitorius.
"What are you doing?"
Startled, Rast loses his concentration and nearly drops the kyber crystal. He turns and sees a young mirialan woman walk toward him. The white and brown robes of a padawan learner cling to her slender frame and billow behind her as she walks. Her silken black hair is cut short, and a single braid rests on her shoulder. Her kind brown eyes stare into his, and he has to avert his gaze.
"It had to be you didn't it," Rast mutters.
The girl smiles, " What are you talking about?"
"You're not really here," Rast utters knowing full well that this girl whom he'd cared so much for was gone forever.
"I'm right here, Drey"
"Don't call me that," Rast tells her and the words come out far more angry than he intends.
The mirialan girl steps forward and puts her hand on his shoulder. Her skin is yellow like the sunrise and he can see the little dots tattooed on her cheeks, "Our war is over, Drey. We can run away. We can finally be together."
The tears well in Rast's eyes, "I should have listened to you then. I regret not listening to you."
"We lost. Our fight is over, Drey…"
"Stop it. Please," Rast interrupts, his strength wavering.
She wraps her arms around him, "I can be yours. You can be mine. We can have a home, and children."
Rast can smell the sweet smell of the meiloorun blossom oil she put in her hair. His thoughts race back to all of those stolen moments at the temple back on Coruscant. How they came so close to being caught in the archives that one time.
"I'm still in there, Drey."
He wanted to believe that. Wanted it more than anything, but he knows that it isn't true. He gently pushes the girl away. He had nearly forgot what all this was. He almost made the same mistake that foolish balosar Nezu did.
"Didn't you love me once," the young mirialan whispers.
"I did. More than you ever knew," Rast whispers back.
She looks up at him and smiles. He smiles back.
"So you'll leave here," she asks with tears in her eyes, "You'll come find me."
"Oh, yes," he whispers, wrapping his hands tightly around her throat.
She struggles, beating at his chest, those brown eyes begging him to release her. Even though he knows that this is not real, it is the temple testing him, tempting him, it is difficult to go through with it.
Rast hisses, his words dripping with venom, "I will find you!"
The shock and horror on her beautiful face is almost too much to bear.
"I will find you, Sister!"
The thoughts and memories come flooding back. The failed escape from the Inquisitorius, being separated, put into isolation. How he was tortured first by droids, then by inquisitors, and finally, by her.
Before his eyes the suffocating girl changes. The red tattoos appear on her face. Those beautiful brown eyes turn black and yellow. The expression of fear and horror changes to excitement and pleasure.
"There you are, sister," Rast growls, "There's the girl I remember. The one that betrayed me. The one that tortured me for hours each day. The one that used my love and her sex to warp and manipulate my mind.
"There's the Emperor's pet! Vader's pupil! I am going to become what they would only let us get a glimpse of. I am going to obtain true power and then I will find you. I will find all of you, Seventh Sister!"
Her eyes roll back and her tongue lolls out of her mouth. Her face had turned back to the young girl he'd once loved. He kisses her forehead before letting her lifeless body drop to the ground.
There is a bright red flash and Rast is launched backwards and pushed away from the altar. He skids across the smooth stone floor and slips into unconsciousness. His body goes limp and the dark red kyber crystal slips from his hand and onto the hard, cold floor.
