When Darth Terrid stepped into the chamber he couldn't believe what he saw. After she'd quickly destroyed the dozen vermin soldiers who'd been with him in the corridor he knew well what Abeloth was capable of. He was expecting to find the broken and burnt-through bodies of many Jedi and that was exactly what he got.

What shocked him was the sight of Jodram Tainer standing side-by-side with the blind Queen of Night over Darth Avanc's prone body. As he walked toward them Jodram and the Night-queen both raised their heads and followed his approach, as though both were seeing with the same eyes. Terrid reached out with the Force, cautiously, for a hint of Jodram's thoughts, but he found nothing there.

Then, finally, he understood.

"You did well to lead me here," the Jedi's body said. His mouth moved; the voice was Jodram's.

The Night-queen said, "I'm grateful to you, Darth Terrid."

At that name, Avanc's body twitched. He retched on his back and lifted both arms so Terrid would see they'd been cut off at the elbow. He took two steps closer and saw the Keshiri Lord, his former Master, staring up at him with gold eyes full of shock and hate.

"You did this…." Avanc rasped. "Do you realize what you've unleashed?"

"He did what he had to to survive," Jodram's voice said, faintly mocking.

"I did what a Sith should have done," Terrid snapped. "I had a weapon against the Jedi. I used it."

"You fool!" Avanc said, then broke into a hacking cough. Fleck of blood sprayed over Terrid's boots.

The Chiss crouched to look his old Master in the eye. As a young man he'd let this Sith Lord terrify him, brutalize him, but he saw now that Darth Avanc was weak. Like so many of the One Sith he'd been skulking in the shadows for so long he'd locked himself in a pattern of self-restraint that denied the true power of the Force, the power the Sith were meant to harness.

The Keshiri's whole body trembled as he said, "Abeloth…. will destroy us all!"

"Perhaps," Terrid allowed. Now that she had two bodies in her possession she'd be even harder to kill. If either of them left this planet they'd be able to do unthinkable damage on the galaxy at large. Darth Avanc was right to fear her, but he was wrong to let himself be cowed by fear.

"What will you do now… traitor?" Avanc hissed.

Terrid didn't know. He'd made his choice in the tunnel for survival, and because it had been the Sith thing to do. Any wrong step here and Abeloth would destroy him. The only course left was to keep walking the path he'd chosen and hope to survive.

His response was a sharp chop with the edge of a flat hand. One blow snapped Avanc's trachea. The Keshiri retched again, eyes wide, and gasped for air. His handless arms stretched upward, reaching for something they could never grasp. Terrid watched it all, savored his Master's dying panic and fear, until his body went still and his head rolled limp to the side, eyes turned away. Only then did Terrid stand up and face Abeloth.

"Is that sufficient?" He looked back and forth between Jodram's face and the Night-queen's.

"Yes," said Jodram's.

"Most sufficient," said the Night-queen's.

"There are still more Jedi on this planet, and a great warship in orbit. They could destroy us in a second if they wanted to."

"Don't worry," said Jodram.

"I've prepared," said the Night-queen.

He tried to use anger and determination, the traits of the Sith, to keep down rising fear. "And what is to be my role in this?"

"Something you can't imagine."

"But you'll learn in time."

They smiled together and their smiles grew wide on their faces. Tiny glints of light, like distant stars, gleamed in Jodram's eyes and the black pits of the Night-queen's face. He felt the caress of a formless tentacle across his cheek and couldn't hide his shudder.

"Don't be afraid."

"I have something special in mind for you."

"And you will serve beautifully," they said as one.

-{}-

In the end only Lowbacca and Ohali had come for her at the Pool of Knowledge. The image of the dark man returned to his throne was still there, shimmering on the smooth silver-tinted water. Jade explained all she'd seen on the water and all she'd felt of the battle elsewhere in the ruins. Then the two of them began to lead her back through the maze to the rest of the group, where the Sith Lord Kheykid was waiting, surrounded by Jedi and Galactic Alliance commandos.

As they walked through the dark Jade said, "That dark man on the throne sounds like Darth Krayt. It sounds like the man Jacen Solo went dark to defeat."

Lowbacca gave a low groan, and Ohali added, "My understanding was that Jacen- Darth Caedus- changed the balance. When Luke Skywalker looked into the Pool of Knowledge he saw Allana Djo on that throne."

"I know. He did it by releasing Abeloth. Now it's like the image has turned back. What does that mean? Abeloth can't be dead, is she?"

"We didn't use the Mortis Dagger," Ohali said, shirking the encased weapon on her back. "Your grandfather was convinced that is the only way to kill Abeloth for good."

"Maybe they didn't kill her. Maybe they just… defeated her again." Last time it had taken the two greatest Force-users alive. Jodram and Wharn were nowhere close to that.

Lowbacca made a whimpering noise. He was right; they had even less idea how these Throne of Balance visions worked than they did about Abeloth. The only thing the change in vision meant was that nothing good had happened.

They found the remaining Jedi and commandos- and the one Barabel Sith Lord- standing in an area beneath a grid of pillars sprouting low arches. The commandos had placed glowlamps in intervals, providing pools of illumination in the night.

Lowbacca asked for a report. Valiss said, "Nothing since you left, Grand Master. It's been all quiet here."

"Not entirely," Kheykid hissed. "Darth Avanc is dead. I felt him pass."

Stunned silence passed among the Jedi. Jade forced herself to ask, "What about Darth… Terrid?"

"I did not feel him die."

Jodram was alive. Wharn was alive. She didn't know what that mean but she tried to cling to those facts- both of them- for hope. It was flimsy, especially since she could no longer touch her husband's mind at all, but it was all she had.

Colonel Horn shouldered his way to the center of the gathering. "Grand Master, as you know, I've lost contact with one of my commando teams. We still have no good idea what we're facing down here and we're starting to take losses. My recommendation is that we begin a withdrawal to the surface. From there, assuming we make it safely, we can begin evaluating our options." He swallowed and said, "My recommendation is we clear the surface entirely. One call to Mon Remora and I can order a full orbital strike."

Dismay rippled through the group. "There's still another group of Jedi down here," Valiss said.

"And I still have soldiers I don't know are dead," Horn said, "But if we need to blast this entire ruin to atoms to secure the success of this mission, I'll do it."

"I felt some Jedi die," Jade said mournfully. "Didn't you?"

"We felt losses," Ohali confirmed, "But exactly who or what, I'm not sure."

Lowbacca asked about Jodram.

"I don't think he's dead. I'm… having a hard time reaching him. But he's not dead."

"I'm sorry, Master Jedi, I really am," Horn said, "But right now I strongly advise we evacuate the planet and initiate orbital bombardment. It may be our best chance of stopping this… thing from getting offworld."

Lowbacca gave the order with a mournful groan. They gathered their things and began retracing the way they'd come back for the surface: the Jedi, the commandos, even the solo Sith. His shielded Force aura and reptilian face gave no indication what he was thinking as they marched their way through the dark. They encountered no more bands of savage Erath, which was the only relief Jade could find in the grim march. She reached out with the Force to Jodram, again and again, but found nothing. She reached out to sense Darth Terrid, calling on her memories of Wharn, but they were faded by memory and the Sith had destroyed and remade her old friend a long time ago. She found nothing of them and nothing of Abeloth either, but she was here, somewhere. Colonel Horn was right; she had to be destroyed and blasting this part of the planet to ash was their best hope of doing so, but that rational knowledge did nothing to alleviate her dread. If he knew about the choice, the sacrifice he was being forced to make, Jade thought he'd accept it save for one thing. It would be bad enough knowing Nat and Kol would have to suffer their father's death; it was worse knowing that she'd stood by and let it happen.

She was so lost in her own thoughts- in her guilt and grief for something that hadn't even happened- that when the attack came she was taken by surprise.

They'd reached a space where a cracked old stairwell wound five flight up toward faint sunlight. A commando team lead the upward march, followed by two Jedi, then more commandos and more Jedi in staggered repetition. Jade stayed with Ohali and Lowbacca near the bottom of the line; a set of commandos was all that separated them from Darth Kheykid but the Barabel was as inscrutable as ever.

She didn't see their attacker fall from above but she heard the tang of laserfire and heard soldiers cry out in shock. She heard armor crack hard and the sizzle of lightsabers. She saw the bodies of two commandos fall off the top stairs and smash hard into the ground far below.

Lowbacca immediately ignited his saber and charged ahead. Kheykid was already moving forward, body bent low, tail straight out. Two half-meter red blades shot out from above each wrist. The big aliens took long strides, three stairs at once, and Jade and Ohali ran to keep up. They swung up two full flights of stairs before they finally saw it on the landing: a humanoid female with long black hair down her back, head lifted high to show off a face with scorched holes in place of eyes and skin with a dulled rainbow sheen. One hand clutched a red lightsaber; the other was cut off at the wrist.

Three commandos and one Jedi already lay dead around Abeloth. She must have dropped from above, past the initial rows of troopers, because Colonel Horn and a dozen commandos clogged the stairs leading up to the light. More filled the path leading down and Jade tried to slide her way through them. They had Abeloth pinned here on the landing; whether that was their mistake or their fortune they were about to find out.

Horn gave the order to fire. Laser blasts rained down on Abeloth but she simply stood there, unmoving. The shots sparked against an invisible shield and died, one after another, a hundred times over.

When the confused soldiers finally relented, Abeloth sprang into motion. She dashed for the downward stairs but Lowbacca and Kheykid were there to meet her. Jade and Ohali stayed back; the Duros dropped to one knee to sling the case off her back and draw out the Mortis dagger while Jade peered over the armored shoulders of the commandos ahead of her. Three bodies moved in a flashing, brutal dance. The Wookiee and the Barabel slashed constantly at Abeloth. Kheykid whipped his tail and her body seemed to leap over its crushing path on instinct. Lowbacca tried again and again to pierce her defenses but she blocked every thrust. At the same time ghostly tentacles, barely visible, stretched out from her severed wrist to push back Kheykid. The Sith Lord hacked at them with sabers and when one flew close to his face he snapped at them with his mouthful of serrated teeth but he couldn't grab hold.

"I have the dagger," Ohali whispered as she crept beside Jade. She looked down to see the long, double-bladed weapon grasped tightly in two hands. Ohali was ready to lunge forward and strike but there was simply no opening; the three combatants on the landing never stopped dancing around one another.

Then Abeloth gave them their chance. The tentacles from her severed wrist finally overwhelmed Kheykid's defenses, lifted him off his feet, and hurled him through the air. His heavy body flew right toward Jade and Ohali. She grabbed the Duros woman and threw her hard onto the downward stairs but a few commandos were hit by the falling Barabel. All three tumbled together over the edge, down to the ground ten meters below.

Jade looked up just in time to see Lowbacca's response. The Wookie had slipped behind Abeloth and let his lightsaber drop. Before the Night-queen's body could spin around, the Wookiee grabbed her arms by either bicep and tore them from their sockets.

Abeloth's mouth opened for an agonized scream. Black blood fountained out from the stump of either shoulder and Lowbacca raised both ripped-off appendages like clubs and began to beat Abeloth's body with its own arms. She fell to her knees beneath the raining blows and Jade could hear bone after bone crack.

She put a hand on Ohali's back and shoved her forward. "Now! Now!"

The Duros sprung up the short flight of stairs, onto the landing. Jade was right behind her as she held the Mortis dagger ahead of her with both hands and charged. Abeloth's body was still bowed from the beating but two tentacles materialized from nowhere and snapped at Ohali's legs. She tried to jump above them, too late; she cried in pain as her legs cracked; her body fell forward and planted face-first on the hard landing. The dagger went skidding away.

Through some impossible power, Abeloth's bleeding broken body reared upright. As she stood a burst of Force energy knocked Lowbacca against the wall but she didn't turn to strike him. Her eyeless head swung toward Jade as she bounded up, right behind Ohali, and called the Mortis dagger to her hand.

She knew Abeloth's next tentacle-strike was coming even before it materialized. It was too high to jump over so Jade dropped down, knees skidding across the hard landing, and bent her body back, back, so the strike sailed just over her arched chest and tilted chin.

She kept skidding, right up in front of Abeloth. Her body snapped forward and Jade thrust the Mortis dagger straight up into the Night-queen's chest.

And for a moment, everything froze. The Night-queen's body pitched forward, deeper onto the dagger, pressing Jade's shoulders against the landing. The queen's head lolled forward and her whole form went limp. Jade pushed back, tilting the dagger to the side and throwing the body down with it. It landed on its side, rolled on its back. Jade held on tight to the dagger and used it to pull herself upright.

She leaned on the blade, driving it even deeper into the body. Then she put one boot on the Night-queen's chest and drew it out.

Finally Jade felt it in the Force: Abeloth's presence leaving the Night-queen's body, like a great exhalation of breath. Then all that lay before her was the broken corpse of one Erath woman.

The world spun around Jade for a moment. She looked around to see Ohali on her back, gasping in pain. Lowbacca was forcing himself upright. Colonel Horn and his commandos looked on, faces blank with shock, uncertain what to do next.

"It is… over?" Horn ventured.

Jade looked down at the body. The dagger had done as promised: killed Abeloth with one blow. Killed this body, at least. She'd hoped for, even expected, something more than that. Some certainty the timeless abomination was finally, truly dead.

Instead all she could do was look Horn in the eye and say, "I hope so."

-{}-

Darth Terrid stood beneath the sweltering sun and watched as the Alliance troop ship pushed off from the landing disc and rose into the sky. Its main engines flared and it shot upward into the hazy blue, en route for the great Mon Calamari warship that waited invisibly overhead.

He couldn't feel Abeloth's presence but he knew she was there, along with almost every Erath follower on this planet. If it were any other being but her on that ship he'd have said they had no hope of seizing control of Mon Melora, but the past few hours had been a repeating lesson that to Abeloth, all things were possible. It humbled and frightened the Sith like nothing else.

When the flare of the departing troop ship dwindled to nothing he looked around the landing platform. The Alliance transport was gone but several Erath shuttles remained, and any of them would do to lift him off-planet when the time was right. A good two dozen Erath remained on the platform, surrounding him. A few grasped blaster rifles they'd taken from the Alliance soldiers who'd stayed to guard their ship, but most retained only their jagged, curved swords.

They all looked with him with those unreadable insectoid eyes. Abeloth hadn't possessed their bodies but her Force powers had long ago taken over their minds and reduced them to witless pawns. He could feel it emanating from them now as they watched him: a loyal adoration.

He wasn't fool enough to think Abeloth had left him with twenty-some mindless followers. They were as much his jailers as his protectors. If he broke from the goal Abeloth had charged him to accomplish, they'd fall on him and savagely hack him to pieces. He could fight them, and kill many, but outnumbered so badly he doubted he'd survive.

His only choice was to do as Abeloth had commanded.

Despite the weight of that command, and the knowledge that he was spared death and agony only so long as he was useful to that ancient monstrosity, he felt strangely free. Killing Darth Avanc had been stepping through a door, just like the first murder that Keshiri had forced him to do so many years ago. He no longer felt like a Jedi in denial, or an untrusted tool for Darth Krayt's minions. His life, at last, felt like his own, even with Abeloth surrounding him on all sides.

He looked around the platform again, took in all those mindless Erath faces. Despite their intent, he felt a surge of power in their adoration, and knew he was ready to accomplish his next task.

He reached to his belt and plucked free his lightsaber, thoughtfully returned to him by Abeloth. He looked at the Erath and said, "Come. We have work to do."

-{}-

It took time to tally the cost of it all. Six Alliance troopers were dead, two more Jedi killed, almost all the others injured in some way. Jade was the lucky exception, but she stayed with the Night-queen's corpse as Colonel Horn's remaining troops began lifting the wounded and carrying them up the remaining flights of stairs toward the surface. She'd returned the Mortis dagger to its case and strapped the case to her back; it was heavier than she'd expected but there weren't many others fit to carry it. Jade watched as Lowbacca lifted Ohali's wounded body, cradling her with two furry arms, and began marching her up the stairs even as his own broken knee buckled with every step.

New sensation came suddenly. Jade knew the mind touching hers instantly, even though they'd not bridged in seventeen years, and that mind had been so very different then.

So softly even she could barely hear it, she whispered: "Wharn."

But it wasn't Ran'wharn'csapla, wasn't her friend. It was what years of Sith captivity, of brutal training and abuse, had forged him into. That mind was cold and intent even now, as it reached out to her in entreaty.

He was calling to her from someplace down below. It was hard to tell what he wanted; because he was being deliberately vague, because he was far away, because he was barely the person she'd once known. She gained intimations of Jodram; that alone was clear.

It had to be a trap, but she couldn't just ignore it. She looked up a flight of stairs. Darth Kheykid was marching up them in Lowbacca's wake; the fall to the lowest level had broken one arm but the Barabel betrayed no pain. It also didn't seem to mind that it was now effectively captured by Jedi and Alliance troops, nor notice that its fellow surviving Sith was reaching out to touch Jade.

Jade hurried up the stairs to find Stefan Horn. As they watched Darth Kheykid trudge upward she tugged the colonel's sleeve, bent close, and whispered, "I need your help."

The colonel frowned. "Of course. What is it?"

"I think there's still people alive down below. I need a squad of troopers to come with me."

"Your husband?"

"Maybe." She couldn't lie to the man who'd helped them so much. "Also Darth Terrid."

Horn's frown deepened. He looked up at the stairwell, then back to her. "I'll give you two squads. You sure you won't want Jedi?"

"Nobody's in fighting shape except me. But please, I'd like the help."

"You'll get it." Horn whistled and called up a man in sergeant's stripes from the lower landing. "Take squads three and four. You're going down with Jedi Skywalker. Search and retrieve. Stay alert and stay in comm contact at all times."

"Understood, sir," the sergeant saluted.

The simple trust and loyalty of those soldiers strained Jade's heart. Even now none of them had any clue what they'd been dragged into; she could feel that from them all, along with their grief over friends already lost. But they followed her anyway, down the stairs, into the dark lower depths where a grid of pillars joined by low arches spread wide around them.

She felt Terrid's mind calling her. He was close, and she told the soldiers to stay alert. She ignited her violet lightsaber and held it before her, ready for anything. She tried to ask Terrid where Jodram was, what had happened. He responded that they were both wounded and Jodram unconscious, or she thought he did. Again it was hard to tell if he was lying or the link between them weak.

It was foolish to even come down here; she knew that, and if it were just Terrid reaching for her she'd have gone up to the surface with the others, ridden back to Mon Melora, and let the warship pound this place into nothing from orbit. But if there was any chance to rescue her husband, to save her sons from the agony of losing a parent she knew too well, risk had to be taken.

Darth Terrid appeared from nowhere. He was suddenly standing in front of them, three rows of pillars ahead. His black cloak obscured his torso and hand buts the hood was pulled back, showing his blue face and red eyes.

The sergeant behind Jade threw up a hand to halt the advance. Staying right beside him, Jade called, "Where's Jodram?"

As soon as she got the words out they attacked from all sides. Erath seemed to fall straight from the darkness, swords flashing, hacking away at the Alliance commandos. The sergeant right next to Jade took a blade through the neck before he could call for help. The space around her was a sudden frenzy of agony and death but the sound of a second lightsaber igniting tore her away from all that.

She spun just in time to block the fall of Terrid's sizzling red blade. She let the force of impact tip her back, then reared up one boot and pounded the Chiss in the stomach. Terrid stumbled back and she shouted, "Wharn, stop it!"

Terrid kept attacking, one fast strike after another. Swords fell and lasers flashed and dying soldiers screamed around her but she couldn't let herself notice any of it. She found her back pressed against a pillar and ducked low; Terrid's red blade cut through the stone behind her and she swiped in turn at his legs. Terrid jumped high, jumped back, putting a full two meters between them.

Jade stood up, raised her saber, and prepared to charge. She barely noticed the pop of one laser blast, closer than the others. As numbness spread fast over her body her lightsaber fell from her hand and she knew what a fool love had made her.

-{}-

The battle ended quickly enough. In terms of numbers, the Erath and the Alliance troops Jade had brought with her were about evenly matched. The soldiers had better armor and weapons but the Erath had surprise and mindless savagery. By the time the last Alliance soldier bled out on the cavern floor, even Erath were still standing, most of them wounded and exhausted.

It was possible, Terrid thought, that he could fight them, kill them, but what would be the point? By now Abeloth had probably seized control of Mon Remora and could obliterate everyone on the planet's surface in five seconds.

That elation of freedom he'd felt on the landing platform had withered quickly in the caverns. He'd passed from being the One Sith's servant to Abeloth's slave; hardly a great improvement. He'd made the change to survive and deluded himself into thinking it was an act of liberation. Perhaps even that had been Abeloth, toying with his paltry mortal mind.

He looked down at Jade, sprawled unconscious on her stomach. She'd fallen with her head tilted to one side so her profile was visible. He crouched low and looked at it, looked at it closely for the first time in seventeen years. She'd aged, of course, but well. He could see the girl he'd known. Something stirred within him; weakness, the memory of affection. He felt an urge to touch her face but held back.

Perhaps he'd loved her all those years ago, loved her like Jodram had. He couldn't remember; raised first by Chiss and then by Jedi, he'd known nothing about love himself in those days. He knew even less now.

He didn't know exactly why Abeloth wanted her alive, but as a Skywalker she no doubt carried valuable power inside her. Whether Abeloth would kill him upon delivery of the prize was another question, but his sense- perhaps merely a grasping hope- was that she had something else planned for him.

"Take her to the shuttle," Terrid told the surviving Erath. "And hurry."

He wanted to get off this planet and up to Mon Melora quickly. She wouldn't leave without them, but Terrid didn't plan to keep her waiting.