It was arrangement none of them were comfortable with: not the Jedi, not the Sith, not the Alliance soldiers who'd been dragged into a situation they hadn't expected and could never understand. The vermin troops and the Jedi didn't object to the agreement reached between Darth Avanc and Grand Master Lowbacca, at least not when the Sith could hear. For the same reasons Darth Terrid waited until they had a small scrap of privacy to make his opinions known.
Per the agreement, they would take the Alliance troop transport and Jade Shadow, fly over to the ruins, and deploy there. The Erath shuttle the Sith had taken would remain on the field where it was. On the list of objectionable things about this mission that was low on the list. Darth Kheykid's Intruder remained high above, orbiting at the exact opposite side of the planet as the Alliance warship and Serissa Lohr was aboard. The girl had objected to staying back at first, but Avanc had insisted that one of the Jedi might recognize her as the late Princess of Hapes, at which point her use to the Sith would be ended.
Avanc had agreed to go with the team aboard Jade Shadow. He'd be the only Sith on that ship; Terrid and Kheykid would go aboard the Alliance transport along with a full platoon of armed soldiers and the Jedi Grand Master. Darth Kheykid was the most deadly fighter in the One Sith, but even with Terrid's help he could never handle so much on his own. Before they split Terrid drew Avanc aside with an insistent nudge in the Force.
They stepped away from both ships and stood among waist-high grass. The sun beat hard on their black cloaks, drawing sweat to both their faces, and salt-tinted wind brought no relief.
"Say your piece quickly, Darth Terrid," the Keshiri didn't bother hiding his annoyance. "We shouldn't show delay or dissension in front of the Jedi."
"You've put us in a position of weakness."
"We were in that position the moment the Alliance cruiser dropped over our heads. Before that. Against Abeloth we'll never have the advantage."
"We cannot trust the Jedi."
"Of course not. They'll be expecting betrayal from us as well."
"By splitting us up you've made us even weaker."
Avanc gave a tired sigh, the same sigh he'd made long ago when frustrated with his young Chiss apprentice. It made Terrid feel condescended to. "The Jedi will feel slightly more comfortable with us divided. They'll think it won't be safe for us to turn on them and they'll be right. Darth Terrid, you are to work with the Jedi in all things until we've properly eliminated Abeloth."
"From what I've heard that's next to impossible. If Luke Skywalker and Lord Krayt could barely end her what hope do we have?"
"You've seen the old Duros female?"
He thought a moment. "Yes."
"She is carrying something on her back in a sealed, rectangular case. I am nearly certain her name is Ohali Soroc and she is one of ten Quest Knights Luke Skywalker sent to find a Force-imbued weapon he believed would kill Abeloth forever. If that is Soroc then she's almost certainly brought her weapon."
"I've never heard of these 'Quest Knights.'"
"You're not privy to all the One Sith know about the Jedi," Avanc said flatly. "She'll be with you aboard the troop transport. Keep close. Watch her. Protect her and keep her safe from Abeloth and her followers. Tell Kheykid this also."
"If she's the only one who can kill Abeloth why are you going on the other ship?"
"Because my team will aim to scout and gather information rather than kill Abeloth. I know more about that abomination than either of you. Besides, I didn't want to put you together with your former friends."
Terrid scowled. "Did the girl tell you?"
"Serissa told us nothing. I know who you were, Darth Terrid. I know who they are, both of them. Whatever accounts you have to settle you can do it later. Right now you need to be separate and focused on Abeloth."
Avanc's reasons were all dispassionate and practical. Terrid knew he'd made the right choices, but they still felt wrong. All his life he'd been told that being a Sith meant using the Force to break your chains, dominate your enemy, and in doing so dominate the universe and wrest your will from it. What Avanc was ordering them to do went against every tenant of his indoctrination; it was something a Jedi would do.
"I know what you're thinking, Darth Terrid," Avanc warned. "There will be time to settle with the Jedi after she is dead."
"Abeloth can be a weapon. We can use her against the Jedi."
"My people tried that once and lost everything. No. We work with the Jedi now. By all means, don't risk your life to save one of theirs. Let them and the vermin soldiers take the brunt of her attacks. But do not hurt or hinder them until Abeloth is eliminated. This is not just my order, this is the will of Darth Krayt. Do you understand?"
"I understand," he said, "And I will obey."
He didn't bother to hide his bitterness and anger in the Force. Avanc wouldn't respect him if he did. As it was the Keshiri gave him a short nod, turned, and marched through the grass toward Jade Shadow. Neither Jodram nor Jade were outside and visible. Terrid was glad for that and he knew Avanc was right about one thing at least. He couldn't afford to be distracted by either of them now.
He turned from that familiar ship and started toward the Alliance troop hauler, where a dozen armed soldiers and Darth Kheykid were waiting.
-{}-
Jade Shadow and the larger Alliance transport flew in low over the ruined towers. Jade was back in the co-pilot's seat, Ayen Qemar at the helm. Flat fields of green tall grass, interspersed with copses of gnarled trees, passed beneath. The half-sunken towers grew large in front of them. They seemed to be molded out of some smooth silver material Jade didn't recognize. Unlike durasteel plates there seemed to be no joints or welds that marked their construction, and despite the salty air there was no sign of rust. Age was visible by the vines and mosses that climbed high from bases half-sunk into the swamp. Several structures were already partially submerged in the ocean that must have been gradually encroached on these ruins for centuries, maybe millennia.
Even with the sights in front of them it was hard not to glance behind them at the black-robed and armed Sith Lord standing beside Jodram at the back of the cockpit. Darth Avanc was watching the same sights they were, and as Qemar brought them close to one slanting tower he said, "These designs are not Rakatan."
After a second's awkward silence, Jodram asked, "You sure about that?"
"Very. The Sith have experience with Rakatan technology."
"You're going to have to tell us all about this experience once this is over."
"You can try to pry out secrets from my mind, Jedi, but I'll kill you before you succeed."
"You can't take everyone on this ship."
"Enough," Jade said firmly.
Darth Avanc snorted. "I took no offense. Your husband is trying to assure himself we haven't broken him."
Before Jodram could argue- or do something worse- Jade sent him a wordless message: not kriffing now.
He got it loud and clear and with effort forced his attention back out the viewport. "So if it's not Rakata, who do you think made these things?"
Avanc hummed thoughtfully. "Do you not think it's strange, this world existing so far detached from other systems in the galaxy?"
"There are other stray star clusters out there," Qemar said.
"Yes, but a single star, alone, with only a single planet? That seems unlikely."
"But not impossible," said Jodram.
"No. Only very suspect, the same way as, for example, the Corellian system."
"You think Celestials made all this?" Jade asked.
"Perhaps. What is a Celestial? A name we give for whoever engineered great stellar feats before any modern sentient race walked the stars."
There was more to the Celestials than just that, Jade knew. According to what her father and grandfather has told her, Abeloth was a Celestial, or at least some mortal sentient who'd tried to acquire their powers. In doing so she'd become as endless as them but also a monster, mindlessly groping to reclaim the family she'd lost.
If this world really was a Celestial construct, then it made all the more sense that Abeloth be here. After all her possessed mortal bodies had been destroyed fifty years ago, perhaps this was where her soul- or whatever one called her Force-based essence- recovered after being beaten by Luke and Darth Krayt in whatever shadow realm they'd fought it. Fifty years was a long time for humans but to her it was nothing. For millennia, she knew, Abeloth had been imprisoned by the Celestials in a jungle world hidden in the Maw. Something similar in this world may have caused her to re-materialize here.
Qemar said, "Sensors are picking up more shuttles."
"Erath ships," Avanc muttered as he leaned over Jade's shoulder for a better look. Jodram shouldered him back, which the Sith Lord took with a condescending smile.
Jade saw them too, though. While much of these ancient ruins were being swallowed by the sea, parts further back emerged from the grass and tangled brush. In addition to high towers there were some large silver discs of the same material that sat atop the swamp. Blocky Erath shuttles sat atop them, but no figures seemed to be moving under the sun.
"Life signs?" asked Jodram.
The Nautolan checked her sensors. "Nothing in the ships."
"Look," Jade pointed, "You can see portals in the center of the discs. They probably lead underground."
"Just where I wanted to go," Jodram muttered.
"I'm getting signals for one more ship, further out," Qemar said. "Let me pull back and take a look."
Jade Shadow rose higher above the ruins, and while Jade commed Colonel Horn's troop carrier to tell him about what they'd found, Qemar took them out further from the ocean, away from the ruins and over more tangled swampland.
"Why would a shuttle land out here?" Jodram asked.
"I don't know, but sensors are picking up familiar metallic compounds. Wait a minute… I think I've found it."
As Jade Shadow lowered over the swamp and Jade looked around. "I don't see anything."
"There." Avanc stabbed a finger forward. Jade followed it and saw the glint of metal peeking through a patch of gnarled trees. Then she noticed what seemed to be a straight slice through the forest, partially overtaken by new growth.
"I think this thing has been here for a little while," Jade muttered.
"I think so to," said Qemar as she brought them low over what looked to be crashed ship. The design was the same as the Erath shuttles they'd just seen but this one appeared to have been here significantly longer.
"We should investigate," Avanc said.
"We?" Jodram put a hand on his lightsaber.
"Yes, we. I'm going out and you can send however many Jedi you want to watch over my shoulder."
"He's right," Jade said, rising from her seat. "We'll go. Ayen, put this ship into a hover right over the crash site so we can drop down."
Reluctantly, Jodram nodded assent. When they went down to Jade Shadow's cargo bay he lowered the landing ramp. Hot air swirled up into the hold. Avanc went down the ramp first, black cloak whipping behind him, and jumped casually off the edge. He fell ten meters straight down and landed boots-first on the back of the ship.
Jade and Jodram went down after him and used the Force to soften their fall. Behind them came the healer Ranto and Nek Charrik, a Shistaven wolfman whose temperament was less fierce than his looks. The Sith Lord didn't act bothered to be outnumbered four-to-one. He climbed the back of the ship, ignited his lightsaber, and cut a hole through the roof of the cockpit. He dropped down before the Jedi could reach him, but when Jade looked down through the hole he seemed to have clipped his lightsaber back onto his belt. While Ranto and Charrik stayed outside, Jade and Jodram dropped into the hole to join Avanc in the cramped space.
The Keshiri Sith had already moved over to the aft hold. The cockpit itself seemed empty. As a crash site, Jade had expected to find bodies inside, still strapped to their seats and long-decayed. The air of the cockpit was hot and stale but there was no death-reek. There was no death, no bodies anywhere. She followed Avanc into the hold. A few stray belongings, unfamiliar for their Erath design, were strewn on benches. Avanc walked over back to the airlock portal on the ship's port flank and checked it.
"They likely exited through here," he called. "I'm sure they tried to make their way for the ruins after that. That's where they would have found Abeloth."
"How long has this thing been here?" asked Jodram as he stepped out of the cockpit.
"It's hard to tell," admitted Avanc. "I suspect plants grow fast in this climate."
"I can make a guess," said Jade. "Say, two to three years. That's when Abeloth took over the Erath."
Jodram asked, "So what do you think? This is some kind of scout ship? If that's the case maybe they crashed here, then sent a distress signal, called more of their people to pick them up..."
"And this is how Abeloth reached the Erath homeworld," said Avanc.
"They say she took over two Erath bodies, one male, one female. Do you they were from this ship?"
"Those bodies must be very powerful in the Force for her to sustain her so long," Avanc said. Jade didn't like the Sith being so knowledgeable, even if they'd gotten his facts the same way the Jedi had. "More likely she killed most of the crash survivors, possessed one body, then occupied it long enough to get to the Erath world, where she found better hosts. I imagined she crashed this ship herself as well."
The how of Abeloth's return was falling into awful place, but Jade didn't know how it would help them defeat her. Her night-queen body must have been somewhere on this planet and Jade only hoped she wasn't strong enough to begin possessing more. For all they knew, she'd already begun.
"Okay," Jade said, "Let's get back to the ruins. If we're going to find her, it'll be there."
-{}-
It was easy enough to set Jade Shadow down on the same disc-shaped platform the Erath shuttles had taken. They commed Colonel Horn's ship before setting down and told him the rest, and the colonel had reported that they'd found another collection of landing discs and had just set down. Like Jade Shadow, they'd met no resistance.
That didn't fill Jodram with confidence. Between Abeloth, Terrid, and this infuriatingly confident Darth Avanc, there was nothing he liked about this mission. Even Jade, whose presence he'd normally treasure, shouldn't have been here.
When they landed everyone but Ayen Qemar disembarked the Shadow. Darth Avanc was first down the landing ramp, though the fierce-looking Nev Charrik shadowed right behind him, lightsaber already drawn.
As he and Jade left the ship, Jodram sidled close and asked in a low voice, hoping the Sith wouldn't hear, "What happened to Nat and Kol? Did you leave them on Fengrine?"
She shook her head. "Ossus. Allana will take care of them."
That made Jodram feel a tiny bit better. If their sons had to grow up without blood parents at least Allana would make sure they'd grow up as good, strong Jedi knights.
Stop that, Jade warned through their Force-bond.
"Sorry," he muttered.
"I wish you'd stay back at the ship with Ayen."
"Ranto says I'm fine." He didn't feel fine, not after what he'd gone through while imprisoned, but he felt good enough to fight if he had to. After all that had happened there was no way he'd let Jade walk into these ruins in search of Abeloth, especially with this suspiciously well-behaved Sith among them.
At least Darth Terrid was with the other group. It was the only mercy this mission allowed.
"We'll both get through this. Together," Jade whispered.
"Do you really believe that?"
She touched him through the Force, with the bond they'd had since they were children. That bond had been the constant of both their lives, seeing them through loss and gain. Through it he felt her sincerity, and like so much that was hers it became his own without his even willing it.
Darth Avanc kept his lightsaber on his belt as he walked down the steps, into the ancient ruin. Nek Charrik was right behind him, blue saber burning, while Elin Ranto turned on a glowlamp and cast it ahead.
They didn't need it for long. The landing discs had been raised above the natural growth that was swallowing these ruins but beneath it the structures became tangled with high grass and brush. Gnarled vines and sheets of moss climbed the walls of what seemed to be a collection of tunnels joined by low-arched gates. Daylight fell through half-collapsed roofs. They stepped lightly through the undergrowth and scattered rubble.
"Remember, we're having a look around," Jade told them. "If we think she's close we call the Grand Master and he'll bring his team."
Ranto checked his comlink. "Signal's still working."
"I'm in communication with my people as well," Darth Avanc said without checking a comm. Communication with the Force, then. Another brag.
"Does anyone feel anything?" Jade asked as they started to spread out among the crumbled arches.
"I feel kind of terrified," muttered a young human knight. Krais, Jodram recalled. "But no. No Abeloth.
"What does she feel like?" asked Ranto.
"If she doesn't want you to feel her you won't," Avanc said. "But when she does-"
"Allana called it a tentacle of need," Jodram supplied.
"You fought that thing when it possessed Master Saar," Charrik said. "What did it feel like then?"
"Nothing. Master Saar's body was like a puppet. Abeloth was this… energy animating it, but it didn't feel like anything I can describe."
"Great," Krais sighed. "So what do we do now? Where do we go?"
"Should we split up into teams?" Ranto suggested.
Jade shook her head. "We stay together for now."
"You don't have to be concerned on my account," Avanc said, so civil. Jodram wanted to smack him.
"I wasn't concerned about you," Jade said coldly. "Just Abeloth."
Avanc nodded, as though her answer were satisfactory. Jodram tore his thoughts off the Sith and stayed close to his wife. Only Charrik and two more knights had their sabers alive. Avance was taking slow steps and he moved among the broken arches, head high, always looking in every direction.
These ruins could go take days to cover on foot, even if they split up. Still, they pressed onward. After almost an hour of searching they found a place where the ground had crumbled away, leaving a great pit big enough to drop a TIE fighter into. Though sunlight fell into the pit it didn't seem to illuminate anything inside; there was only darkness.
"I don't like the look of this," Krais muttered.
"Neither do I," said Jodram. "We need to keep investigating other places. Mark this spot for later."
"I'll call the other team and give them an update," Ranto suggested.
"Do that," Jade said. "I think we should-"
Suddenly a chorus of screams filled the air. Bodies fell from the tunnels' crumbling rooftops, through the sunlit gaps and into the ground strewn with rubble and brush. They popped to their feet almost instantly: warriors in dark bodysuits with black hair like billowing clouds and bulging multifaceted eyes like insects. They held curved sabers in either hand and, still screaming, flung themselves at the Jedi.
Jodram acted on instinct. When one lunged at his wife he stepped between them and swung his saber in a horizontal sweep. It took the Erath through the midsection and dropped the body to the grass in two halves. As Jade's back bumped against his two more came at them from either side. They shifted, minds and bodies acting as one. Jodram struck out with his saber again and sheared through both the Erath's swords. It made no attempt to stop and kept coming, aiming the stumps of its blades for the Jedi's stomach. He shifted his blade and took the alien right through the chest; only then did it go limp.
Jade, for her part, didn't even ignite her saber. She'd trained with it, could use it as well as anyone else, but like their long-dead Master Mjalu, she did anything to avoid the blade. Her natural Force power, the kind Jodram could only envy, did the rest. She picked her attacker up with the strength of her mind and held him two meters in the air, under a shaft of sunlight. She plucked the swords from its hands and tossed them into the great black pit. Then she pushed the body up through the hole in the roof and hurled it out of sight.
The other Jedi did their best to fight the Erath nonlethally, but in the end Jodram had to kill another, Charrik two more, and Krais three. More Erath were disarmed and the Jedi had to break their limbs to stop them from attacking. Darth Avanc had no moral qualms: he cut the heads of three Erath with his lightsaber, blasted two more with Force lightning, and hurled a third, screaming, into the deep pit. After a silence of almost five full seconds they heard the crunch of impact far below.
"Is everyone okay?" Jade called.
"One wounded," Ranto reported, hands over the bloodstained thigh of an Itorian knight struggling to stand.
"You Jedi are fools," Avanc said, sneering down at one of the crippled Erath. "You risk your own lives because you're afraid to kill vermin."
"None of our people were killed," Jade said. "And any death is a tragedy."
"The tragedy is that you've willingly blinded yourself to the Force's true potential." Avanc's red saber buzzed inches from the Erath's frightened face. "These creatures are just puppets for Abeloth."
"Don't kill it," Jodram stepped forward, saber still ignited.
"You expect to learn something from it?"
"These Erath are Abeloth's victims, just like anyone else."
Avanc shrugged and shut off his saber. "There's no reason for us to fight at the moment."
Jodram didn't shut off his. "I'm so glad we agree."
"That's enough," Jade said. "We need to keep moving. Elin, call Lowbacca. Tell him what happened."
As the Advosze got out his comm Jade stepped up to the fallen Erath. She, Jodram, and Avanc all looked down at the prone form. Even with broken legs it lashed out at the Force-users hovering around it.
"It's not possessed by Abeloth," Jade said. "Not like Master Saar was. I can feel its mind. It's frantic, scared-"
"But still a shred of its soul remains," Avanc shook his head in disgust. "It would be a mercy to kill it. You know I'm right."
"Once we get rid of Abeloth we'll decide what can be done for her minions. Not now."
The Sith gave her a look Jodram didn't like. It was too approving. "You take charge of a situation well. Yet I've been told you've shown no desire to lead the Jedi Order like your father and grandfather. Why is that?"
"Told by whom?" Jodram asked. His lightsaber still buzzed in his hand.
"Common knowledge," he shrugged. "Why else would you have spent most of the past decade raising your sons an in irrelevant farming planet?"
Jade stared at him hard. "We'll go over all that once we've taken care of Abeloth. And a lot of other things too."
"I look forward to it." Avanc glanced at Jodram's blade. "Is there really a need for that now?"
"No, I guess not." Jodram admitted and shut it off. His wife was correct, as usual. They needed to calm their heads and focus on the task ahead. If they did encounter Abeloth herself in these overgrown catacombs they needed to face her as one; even then they'd probably struggle to hold her off until backup arrived with the Morath Dagger. And to do that they'd have to rely not on Darth Avanc's Sith savagery but on the immense, innate power Jade held within herself.
Power you'll never know, a voice said. It said what he'd long known but it was not his own.
He glanced at Jade. She didn't seem to have sent it, but it had spoken inside his mind the same way they'd spoken to each other's thoughts since their apprentice years.
He opened his mouth to ask her about it, but the air filled with screams again. Four more Erath fanatics fell from the ceiling. One of them, maybe the one Jade had thrown away, didn't even have blades. That one lunged straight for Jodram's wife and he was there to intercept. He slowed it with the Force, giving him enough time to ignite his saber. Then he swept low, cutting the creature's legs off at the knees.
The others went right for Jade and Avanc. The Sith Lord fired lightning from one hand and ignited his saber. Jade, with a flash of reluctance, ignited her own violet weapon. One savage Erath charged her and she raised one hand to repel it.
Then the crippled one at her feet reached out and grabbed both her legs. She kicked back, tried to kick free, but the creature held firm. Jodram lurched for them but Avanc was already there; he flicked his lightsaber in a vertical strike and cleaved the Erath through the chest.
Its dead hands released Jade instantly. She stumbled back, so close to the crumbling edge of the pit. Jodram tried to grab her with the Force but the Erath, already in midair, collided with her, feet against chest. The alien screamed but Jade didn't make a sound as she toppled back and fell into the black.
Jodram threw himself to the edge of the pit. By the time he fell on its rim he saw nothing besides black. He reached out to sense his wife and found her, but so distant he couldn't reach her. He heard the crunch of another body hitting the ground far below, but only once.
Are you hurt? he sent down to his wife.
I'm okay. Her mind touched his back.
Stay there. I'll come help you.
No. I'll be alright.
I won't leave you.
You're not. I can sense Lowbacca's team. They're not far from where I am. Just go, Jodram.
"She is still alive," Darth Avanc observed.
Jodram rolled onto his back and looked up at the Sith. "Sense it, can you?"
"Yes, actually. In any case I knew Luke Skywalker's granddaughter could never die so easily."
He pushed himself to his feet. "I'll be sure to relay the compliment once we find her."
Jodram, please, Jade spoke to his mind. Just keep going. I can handle myself.
"You're communicating with your wife," Avanc said.
"Do you know what we're saying?" Jodram scowled at him.
"No. But I can imagine."
"She says we're going ahead to search for Abeloth. She'll meet up with Lowbacca's team."
"That's exactly what I supposed."
"Great. Now shut up for a while."
Avanc inclined his head and gave a wordless smile. Jodram want to snap his saber back on and use it right now, but Jade soothed his mind. Don't let him rattle you. Just keep your mind on Abeloth and keep moving.
I know, he sent back. I love you.
I love you too. See you soon.
Then their mental link, slightly strained across this distance, softly broke. Jodram put a hand on his lightsaber hilt, looked Avanc in the eye, and said, "Let's get moving."
Again, the Sith Lord nodded.
-{}-
Beneath the landing pads the ruins became choked with vines and overgrowth. Going deeper the sunlight was swallowed up and they wandered through dark tunnels linked by low arches, always stretching out with the Force and finding nothing.
Despite that, Abeloth was here. Darth Terrid knew it. They all did. On Lowbacca's orders they split up the group into three. There were so many Alliance troopers with them there was more than enough manpower. Kheykid went with one group, Terrid another. The Grand Master stayed with the Barabel, surely to fight against him if needed. It was a battle Terrid would have liked to see but instead he was sent into deeper, lower tunnels, accompanied mostly by a full squadron of Alliance commandos. They let him lead the way, rifles always raised, ready to shoot him before anything else. Terrid didn't blame them and didn't give them cause to fire. He pressed ahead, using his saber to clear away the dried roots that increasingly broke through cracks in the arched tunnel ceiling.
As they marched through the interminable ruins, Darth Avanc's mind reached out to Terrid's. He spoke not with a voice but with a cascade of images, impressions. The Chiss suddenly knew that Jade Skywalker had been separated from the rest of the search party from Jade Shadow. She was alone but going to meet Lowbacca. With that knowledge came a warning: Do not try to kill her.
Terrid had intended nothing of the kind. As they'd crawled deeper into these tunnels his worries about his two former friends had been stripped away. Abeloth was here, she was close, he knew it without knowing how, and that mattered more than Jade and Jodram ever could. That Avanc felt it necessary to remind him was both distracting and insulting.
"What's wrong, Sith?" a voice said behind him.
Terrid turned and looked into the glare of the front-most commando's rifle-mounted glowlamp. "Nothing's wrong," he said.
"Then keep moving, Sith!"
He had a harsh bark, but he was terrified. They all were; those commandos were a beacon of fear. They'd been brought along on an ostensible mercy mission in uncharted space, only to be thrown as fodder to a horror their minds could never comprehend. Terrid almost pitied the vermin.
He began stepping forward again, using his lightsaber to cleave through more dried, tangled roots. The glowlamps shining past his shoulder revealed the path ahead: more dark tunnels and low arches. It seemed like they would go on forever.
Then he heard the first scream. The soldiers with the glowlamps spun around and Terrid followed their light. He saw nothing but the carved-up tunnel through which they'd come but heard another scream, quickly silence, and saw another soldier collapse. Then another scream, and another, and bodies fell like dominoes. Terrid hefted his lightsaber to defend but he still couldn't see what was attacking. A few soldiers, panicked, fired shots into the dark that only scorched the tunnel walls. Terrid watched one body after another twist and fall. Heads snapped hard to one side or another. Armor crunched as though under an invisible fist, collapsing inward and imploding bodies. One after another, they fell.
And when the last trooper died she was on him. Black hair trailed her like a cloak of night as she jumped over the bodies and landed feet-first on his chest, throwing him back. The Sith summoned his anger immediately and threw out a blaze of Force-lightning. The current jumped around Abeloth's body, effortlessly deflected. A hand shot up and grabbed him by the throat. His body was lifted from its feet and thrust hard against the thick roots behind him. They stabbed into his back as he shifted the lightsaber in his free hand to cleave off her arm.
Instead her second hand shot up and held his lightsaber between them She lifted her head, throwing back night-black hair so he could see her face. The lightsaber's glow cast the rainbow sheen of her face in a sickly red. Where there should have been the bulbous multi-faceted eyes common to Erath there were only two scorched-black pits. He stared at those black pits until he thought he saw, somehow, a twinkle of starlight at their very depths. His smile stretched wide, revealing rows of tiny black teeth.
He waited for her hand to squeeze and crush his throat, but it did not.
"Do it, witch," he choked. "Do it!"
The smile stayed wide; her lips did not move. A whisper in his head, soft and feminine, said, It's been some time since I looked into a Sith's eyes.
Strangely, despite his situation, he felt gratified. Staring at death, staring at the abyss of her scorched-blind eyes, he realized why. All these years he'd never truly known what he was. Never a normal Chiss, never a normal Jedi. For so long he'd never known if he was really a Sith either, or if the things he'd been as a child had corrupted him from the way of true strength.
But the Night-queen's eyes saw truth. He was a Sith in the end. He wished he could have been more. He should have been more. Always he'd stood apart, always trying to be more than those around him. To die here, pathetically- throat crushed or soul sucked away by this abomination- didn't feel him with fear or sadness. It made him rage.
"Do it," he rasped. Blue lightning sparked from his body; from his hands, his arms, shoulders, from the skin on his face and his sweat-matted hair. His entire body began to burn with the dark side from within. Rage came so easily, the most natural emotion he'd ever known.
You are not afraid? Abeloth asked. No; it was a statement.
Lightning joined his body to hers. It sparked, danced, but did nothing to harm her. Suddenly she dropped him. He fell to the ground; his lightsaber rolled across the dirt and one hand went instinctively to his raw throat but rage did not go away. He tried to call the saber to his hand but it stayed exactly where it was, unresponsive. He looked up at the Night-queen and saw her standing over him, a single finger pointed at his saber, casually locking it in place.
"Do you want my body, witch?" Terrid gasped. "Is that it?"
She bent close, as though examining his face with the scorched ruin of her eyes. There are more of your kind here. I can feel them. Sith… and Jedi.
"Is that what you want? You want me to lead you to Jedi?"
She nodded, and that smile seemed to grow impossible wider.
Abeloth was letting him shamelessly barter for his life, but it didn't feel that way. This was what he'd told Avanc they should have done from the start. No more hiding, no more sulking. To a true Sith everything was a tool. Even Abeloth could be a weapon against the Jedi.
But she knew how he felt. Of course she did. That's why she gave him this offer in the first place.
She might yet kill him or take his body. Either of those things was likely, but if he could have a short span more of life- and another chance to wreak some damage as a Sith should- he could only take it.
"I'll get you your Jedi," Darth Terrid growled, and somehow that smile got even wider.
-{}-
Jade wasn't sure how long she spent wandering through the dark. She'd brought a glowlamp along and used it to shine her way through the low, dark tunnels, many of which she had to creep through at a crouch. No more Erath appeared to stop her and she kept on reaching out with the Force, distantly sensing Jodram with the rest of his team and also feeling Lowbacca with his own group not far away. How far away she couldn't tell, but Lowbacca was aware of her, and she did her best to trace the path through the convoluted darkness to his location.
When the constricted tunnels finally fell away and she found a cleared it took her by surprise. A single beam of light fell from the darkness above, through a cracked hole in the ten-meter-high ceiling dome, though she knew they were far deep underground and there was no way the sun should have been able to reach them.
Light landed on a shallow pool. In this breezeless cavern it was mirror-still. As she stepped close she caught a whiff of some sulfurous smell and wondered if this water might be seeped up from some spring deeper within the planet. When she reached the rim of the pool she noticed that, rather than a natural welling of water, it seemed to be set within in artificial basin.
After wandering for so long on the hot surface of this planet she was thirty, but she had no desire to drink. She crouched on her knees and leaned closer. She saw her own reflection with a faint silver sheen. She reached out, haltingly, to touch, but held her fingertips a few centimeters above the water.
Instead she withdrew her hand, grasped the rim firm, and bent a little closer. Softly, she blew on its surface. The water rippled and so did her reflection. When the water stilled her image had changed. She saw herself as an older woman, by perhaps ten or twenty years, with light streaks in her hair and heavier lines in her face. She reached out and touched her cheek but it felt smooth and familiar, without the creases and jowls she was seeing.
Then she understood. Her father had told her about a grotto and a shallow pool on Abeloth's home planet in the Maw. On this world they'd found a place called the Pool of Knowledge, and in its waters Ben, Luke, and Jacen Solo before them had seen visions of the future.
This world was far, far from the Maw. Her father had told her it was a jungle, not a swamp, and he'd made no mention of colossal ruined towers of alien design. This was not the same planet, but it was similar. She suspected Darth Avanc was right; whoever the Celestials had been, this was another planet they'd deeply left their mark on. Whatever Force-power they'd used, echoes remained on both worlds. Likely that was why Abeloth's essence, crippled after its fight with her grandfather and Darth Krayt, had rematerialized here on the far side of the galaxy.
She blew on the Pool's surface again. Ripples played across it and suddenly her face was gone. Instead Jade saw a vision of her cousin Allana. She wore a white gown and was seated on a white throne. Around her beings from dozens of special, gathered like old friends and looking admiringly at the red-haired woman. Jade looked more closely and saw two figures in Jedi robes on either side of Allana. One was Jodram, the other was her. She looked her current age in this vision; so did Jodram and Allana.
It was, she realized, the same vision her grandfather had seen almost fifty years ago. The Lost Tribe of the Sith, Darth Avanc's people, had seen this vision too and launched a hunt for their so-called Jedi Queen that had nearly claimed Allana's life.
Jade understood this vision wasn't meant to be literal. There was no real throne. It was a metaphor for the state of the galaxy. She'd heard Allana ponder whether this vision- the one her father Jacen had done hideous things and died to bring about- was fulfilled when she'd taken her leadership position in the Galactic Alliance. Jade wanted to think so; it meant that, even after Allana had stepped down after twelve years on the job, the peace she'd preserved had been protected. This was still a galaxy at peace, and from this vision before her, Jade and Jodram were its protectors.
A familiar mind touched hers. She stayed where she was, kneeling over the pool, gazing at this vision of a galaxy at peace, and reached back to touch it. She told Lowbacca to hasten to her. She told him there was something he needed to see.
-{}-
As they went deeper into those dark places beneath the surface of the planet, whispers kept playing in Jodram's mind, so faint he could barely make out their message. He was sure he was the only one hearing them, which was bad enough, but if it wasn't Jade speaking to him like she usually did there was only one option, and that was worst of all.
Run, Jedi, Abeloth whispered to him sometimes.
Fear me, she said at others.
Mostly she said nothing at all. They continued pressing into the dark to the sound of their own footsteps, and lightsabers cutting their way through the tangle of roots and growths that clogged these tunnels. Darth Avanc led the way, never showing hesitation when they came to a branch in the path. None of them could sense Abeloth ahead but the Sith insisted he felt something, very faint and distance, but still present. Jodram didn't want to trust him but as the others would feel nothing at all they let him guide them deeper down. Perhaps the Sith was better attuned to Abeloth's Dark Side presence. Perhaps he was after something else, though Jodram had no idea what, as the only two Sith on the planet were securely watched by Lowbacca's team of Jedi, and he knew he'd have felt it in the Force is something major had happened to them.
As Avanc announced he saw what looked like an open space ahead, Abeloth whispered, louder than before, Turn and run, Jedi. You know you desire it.
"Shut the kark up," he whispered aloud.
Nek Charrik, right ahead of him, stopped and looked back. Jodram shook his head, urging the Shistavenen Jedi on.
You are weak, Abeloth continued in his mind. You will never be as strong as your wife. You will never be a Skywalker. You will always fail those you love.
It took all Jodram's strength not to bark aloud again. Somehow she knew exactly how to hurt him. She touched on his deepest insecurities, the ones he'd tried to hide even from Jade all these years.
If a Skywalker couldn't kill me, what do you think you can do? she said. You are nothing. You will live and die having done nothing but add your weak admixture to the Skywalker blood. Be satisfied with that and go.
She was right. His family had never produced great Jedi. His father, to be sure, was a loyal one, but never the most powerful. His grandmother had fumbled her way to knighthood late in life. His aunt had failed to become one at all. He'd weakened the Skywalker line, not strengthened it, and he had no chance of killing Abeloth himself.
But because she was telling him this, he couldn't turn back. Giving in, doing what Abeloth wanted of him, would be the worst failure of all.
Darth Avanc led them into a circular chamber with a low domed ceiling. Even before Jodram slipped inside he heard hacking coughs from the Jedi ahead. When the stench of death assaulted his nostrils he pressed his nose into his sleeve and tried to stifle it. The chamber was strewn with skeletons; humanoid, probably Erath. They were mostly piled around the edges, leaving the center floor clean, but there must have been two dozen of them. A shaft of sunlight fell through a hole at the top of the dome, leaving a white circle in the middle while soft ambient light displayed the tattered clothing and scraps of decaying flesh that clung to white bone.
"What is this?" Elin Ranto said, voice muffled by his palm.
"The crew from the crashed shuttle, possibly," Avanc looked closer. His face was scrunched for the stench but unlike the Jedi he didn't deign to cover it. "Though these look like… fresher kills."
"Is this what you felt in the Force?" asked Jodram.
For once Avanc looked unsure of what to say and Jodram knew something was really wrong. His hand went to his lightsaber, too late. Something flew out of the dark tunnel mouth on the far side of the chamber; a blur of black that landed right in front of Ranto. As it did a red lightsaber blazed to life and Jodram's first thought was Sith.
Then, as the light-beamed speared through the stunned Advosze's chest, Jodram understood. As the Jedi's body collapsed Abeloth spun around, a whirl of red and black, and cut through a second Jedi before she had the chance to fumble her lightsaber to life.
Jodram just couldn't understand where she'd gotten a saber of her own.
Darth Avanc seemed as shocked as the Jedi. He flipped his lightsaber on but danced away from Abeloth, keeping his back facing the chamber wall. Abeloth skipped back from the dead body, into the light-beam in the center of the room. She stopped just long enough for Jodram to take in this form. He saw the long black curtain of her hair, the sickly pallor of her face, the wide mouth filed with sharp teeth, and the gouged-out scorched-black holes where her eyes should have been.
The Queen of Night attacked. Nek Charrik, a little better prepared than the others, caught the first few lightning-strikes of her saber. Krais run forward to take her from the side but she lashed out with an arm. Ghostly tentacles stretched out from her finger and stabbed the young man through the chest, tearing bloody holes. Charrik snarled, bearing sharp canines, and lunged. He landed right on her, spearing his blade through her chest, but her own red saber cut through him. Both bodies sprawled on the ground; she kicked Charrik aside and sprung up as though she'd taken no wounds at all.
It was like Master Saar all over again. They'd have to cleave apart this whole body to kill her. In his panic Jodram fumbled to call out with the Force- to Jade, to Lowbacca, to anyone- and asked them to help.
They were all far away except one presence, half-familiar, one he couldn't think to name, not when Abeloth was bearing down on him.
He deflected her first attack, ducked, and rolled out of the way. Charrik, mortally wounded, struggled to his knees and hurled his saber at Abeloth. She pivoted to block its wheel of light, but the weapon jerked from its course mid-flight and flew into Darth Avanc's open palm.
Jodram had his opening. He slashed out, cutting Abeloth across the waist but not deeply enough to sever torso from hips. Her body lurched and stumbled; severed muscles and tendons caused her to call of the Force to stay upright.
Avanc had his opening and charged. His sabers, blue and red, came down on Abeloth in a flurry. Even wounded her body moved like lightning, red sword flashing back and forth to block both attacks. At the same time Jodram tried to attack again, but an invisible hand picked him up and threw him hard against the far wall.
Pain shot from his back through the rest of his body. He struggled to stand. It was Darth Avanc versus Abeloth now, one-on-one; all the other Jedi were dead. Jodram pushed back his pain, grabbed his saber, and lurched to join the fight. Avanc moved with speed and grace; even though Abeloth kept blocking one blade he slipped the other beneath her defenses. First he jabbed her in the upper torso; next he sliced through her upper leg, severing muscle, buckling her body beneath his continued two-saber attacks.
Jodram found his opening. He jumped in from the side and with one careful sweep severed Abeloth's saber-bearing arm at the wrist. The hand, and its weapon, went tumbling away.
His contribution to the fight took Avanc by surprise. Before Jodram could make another thrust as Abeloth's exposed body a ghostly tentacle grabbed him by the throat and hurled him again. This time he landed head-first against the wall. He dropped to into a heap of skeletons but barely felt it. Consciousness wavered; the world darkened. He drew on the Force to stay awake but struggled to push himself out of the bones.
The world around him was blurry, but he could make out two dark forms: Avanc wielding two sabers, Abeloth with none. The Sith swept with both blades at once but Abeloth nimbly dodged. As Avanc raised high for another dual strike another saber, discarded on the floor, flashed to life. Jodram tried to open his mouth, tried to warn the Sith, but there was no time. A red disc of light spun through the air, taking both Avanc's arms off and just barely missing his head.
His arms and sabers tumbled to the ground. Avanc stared at the stubs of his arms in shock. Then two ghostly tentacles grabbed him, lifted him high, and threw him hard against the ceiling. Jodram heard one hard crunch, then another as the Sith Lord's body hit the ground.
The Queen of Night wavered on her feet for a moment. Then, slowly, awkwardly, she turned and began lurching toward Jodram. He did everything he could to push himself upright, to get to his feet, to call a weapon, but his entire body cried out in pain and the Force was the only thing keeping him from passing out.
You hurt me, Abeloth said in his mind, clear and loud, no more a whisper. You did better than I thought you would.
He opened his mouth for some reply but his strength gave out. He pitched forward on his knees, barely catching the fall with palms scraping over the rough floor.
You are still weak. You understand that, don't you?
With effort he lifted his head. She looked over him, obscuring all light.
But you will serve a purpose. My purpose. Rejoice, Jedi. Worship me. You will serve me far better than you could ever serve the Jedi.
Her ghostly tentacles wrapped around him and stood him upright, almost gently. Through his pain and confusion, realization dawned.
The smile on her eyeless face spread wider. "Rejoice," she said, and her wide mouth moved with the words. "You will live forever, as part of me."
-{}-
Jade was still crouched over the Pool of Knowledge, waiting for Lowbacca to find her, when she felt disquiet. Jedi were dying. She didn't know who, or how, but somewhere, they were dying. She reached out to Jodram and tried to speak to his mind but she found only frenzied panic. She jumped to her feet and grabbed her saber but realized there was no place to run to; no way of knowing where to go. So she stood there, helpless and agonized, waiting for the pain of Jodram's death, dreading even more than that whatever agony it would inflict on her two sons: Nat just growing as a Jedi, small Kol whose talents would be ruined before they'd had a chance to blossom. Her greatest fear as a mother was about to become real.
And then it was over. The fighting and dying was done. She hadn't felt anything from Jodram. She reached out to him now and felt… nothing. Nothing at all.
She didn't understand. She'd always been able to feel Jodram, since they'd trained together as children. She'd held certain all her life she'd feel his death as awfully and vividly as she'd felt her mother's. If Abeloth had killed him she'd have surely known.
Flickering light caught her eyes and she looked down at the Pool. Though she hadn't blown on it, ripples ran across the water, disrupting the image of Allana on the Throne of Balance. Before the water settled a series of images flashed before her. She saw Allana now in dark robes, surrounded by hooded acolytes, her face darkened by a savage gleam unnatural on her cousin. Then she saw the throne cracked down the middle, the chamber empty except for a single man with messy blond hair wearing a battered bronze chestplate and black trousers. He was sprawled lazily across the broken throne and wore a smug grin. She'd never seen him before but she felt, impossibly, like she knew him.
Then the waters settled. The image resolved into one of an intact throne and more hooded acolytes. Seated on it was a man in rough, organic-looking armor and a mask that covered his face save a tattooed lower jaw. One eye was placid blue, the other red-gold of a Sith. Instead of Jade and Jodram guarding the throne there were being she didn't recognize: a Twi'lek woman whose body was covered in savage black and red tribal markings, an alien male with chalk-white skin and gold eyes, a humanoid female with red skin and black hair pulled up in a topknot. They were circled around the dark man, his loyal protectors.
She wanted the image to turn back, to show Allana in white ruling over a galaxy at peace, but the vision refused to change.
She didn't understand anything except one fact. Before her eyes, the fate of the galaxy had changed forever.
