On first sight Khat Lah didn't even recognize the boy. Young humans could grow a lot in two years, and while Eli Horn was very much still a child, he was now a little less so than when Khat Lah had last seen him. He'd grown a little taller and lost some fat on his face. More, there was an unspoken confidence in the way he moved. After the death of his father, the death Khat Lah had failed to prevent, the Horn boy had justifiable acted lost and confused. It had been uncertain whether he'd continue his Jedi training at all. Yet three years later he was still on Ossus, and he looked like he belonged.

Khat Lah watched him from a distance at first. Teams of Jedi archivists had finished loading the Order's precious artifacts onto shuttles and the time had almost come to evacuate the apprentices. They'd all been gathered in the main training room on the academy's lowest level. Khat Lah watched from the entryway as the small Chandra-Fan Master Tili Qua ordered the children to split into groups. Older apprentices like Master Skywalker's son and his blue Twi'lek friend helped organize them.

Khat Lah watched Cade Skywalker with some interest. The blond-haired boy was clearly tense, as any reasonable being would be, but he knew was good at commanding attention and respect from the younger ones. Khat Lah suspected he'd grow into a natural leader like his father.

Mostly, though, Khat Lah watched Eli Horn. Compared to other children his size, Eli seemed calmer. He stood in rank and waited patiently for further instruction.

When Tili Qua stepped to one corner, engaged in conversation via comlink, Khat Lah saw his opportunity. He slipped along the side of the chamber until he was able to get close to Eli Horn. The boy watched him with placid expression as he approached.

Khat Lah squatted in front of the child and said, "Hello, Eli Horn."

"You're Khat Lah," the boy said pointedly. "You feel different."

"I know." The Yuuzhan Vong smiled lightly.

Eli's face twisted quizzically. "How can that be?"

"It is a long story. I hope to tell it to you, once we're away from here."

"You're coming with us?"

"Master Skywalker says I should make sure all the younglings escape. So I will."

"Everyone's nervous." Eli glanced around.

"Then be strong for them."

"I'm trying."

"You seem much stronger than before, Eli Horn. I'm glad of that. I know you came close to leaving the Jeedai entirely."

His face screwed at the bad memory. "That was a long time ago. But I want to be a Jedi. It's what Dad would have wanted."

"You honor his memory."

"Thanks." Eli blushed slightly. "I thought you'd left us."

"For a time I thought I had. But that was foolish. I know where I'm meant to be, and it is here." He extended a hand. "Now we stand together."

Eli stared at it, then clasped it by the wrist like a Yuuzhan Vong warrior. Khat gave the boy's forearm a squeeze, then released.

"Warrior Lah," a voice behind him said. "I didn't know you were here, but-"

Khat Lah looked behind him and saw Cade Skywalker freeze in surprise. He drew to full height, looked down on the blond boy, and asked, "Yes?"

"Um," said Cade. He had a thousand questions in his eyes. The one he got out was, "You're coming with us?"

"Your father has decided I should."

"Okay. Great." Cade paused. His mouth hinged open and he knew Skywalker was on the verge of asking the question.

Then a shrill cry drew attention from everyone in the room. Tili Qua raised his furry arms and gave another high-pitched shout to make sure all eyes were on him.

"Everyone, it is time to leave! I will lead the first group out not. Groups two through five, follow directly behind me. We must move quickly, children! Group one, follow me."

The Chandra-Fan scuttled for the door and a herd of about twenty younglings fell in after him. The ordered column they'd stood in quickly turned to a jumble and they barely squeezed out the door and into the hall.

Something was wrong. Khat Lah skirted ahead, leaving Cade and Eli behind. He waded through the first herd of children until he was keeping pace with Tili Qua.

"Master Jeedai," he said in a low voice, "We are hurrying. Something has happened."

"I don't want the children to panic," Tili Qua said gravely. "We just have to move quickly. We might be able to get them out."

"But what had happened?"

"We were too late," the Jedi whispered. "They are here."

-{}-

Ossus was a verdant sphere of greens and browns blurred together, streaked with occasional whites. Darth Nihl knew that it had been a dusty desert world less than a decade ago and allowed himself admiration for the bio-engineering miracles the Yuuzhan Vong could work. When corrupting the Jedi's terraforming project, Darth Maladi had intentionally avoided poisoning this world. By leaving Ossus as the only planet not despoiled they'd made it appear as though the Jedi had intentionally sabotaged all worlds save theirs in an act of sheer malice. It was almost too heavy-handed a gesture, but in their rush to blame someone the vermin of this galaxy had grabbed on the obvious target.

"It is appropriate this war end here," Nihl told the Imperial admiral at his side. "It began here, in more ways than one."

Yage nodded slightly. Nihl could feel the human's discomfort. He was a loyal Imperial, and not the kind who normally shirked to deal death to his enemies. However the prospect of attacking an undefended world didn't sit right with Yage, nor did the fact that he was going behind his emperor's back to do it.

Yage was no fool. He knew this one act would do more to reshape the Empire and the galaxy than everything in the past three years.

Vermin might have hesitated before taking the plunge, but Nihl did not. "Admiral," he said, "Begin deploying your fighters."

Yage nodded curly and began issuing orders to War Hammer's crew. Nihl spotted the silver flecks of TIE Predators jetting out from beneath the ship, then moving into low orbit. Once they were deployed Yage turned to Nihl near the forward viewport and said, "They've made no attempt to escape yet. We've transmitted the signal saying we're here in the name of Emperor Fel to request a parlay."

Yage clearly wasn't comfortable with that either. Deception, to his rigid military mind, was dishonorable.

"And have they responded?" asked Nihl.

"They've raised shields and said they await further instructions." Yage licked his lower lip. "I'm not sure they're buying it."

"I didn't expect them to, after Coruscant." Nihl shrugged. "No matter. Admiral Yage, have your gunners target the area around their shield perimeter. Keep up sustained turbolaser volleys for the next five minutes. I want that to jungle burn."

"A bombardment will also keep them from evacuating." Yage looked down at the planet, as though he could spot the temple with his bare eyes. "When will you launch your strike team?"

"As soon as your bombardment ends. Have three squadrons of TIEs standing by to escort us, in case the Jedi had hidden defenses."

"They're already waiting."

Nihl gave the admiral a curt nod, then stepped off the bridge. On the way to Ossus, War Hammer had stopped to rendezvous with two assault shuttles packed with Sith. They more than tripled the number of warriors under Nihl's command and combined with War Hammer's stormtrooper complement it made a formidable invasion force. The Jedi would defend their home valiantly. Nihl had no doubt of that. On the way here, Yage had asked why War Hammer shouldn't just bomb the temple to rubble from orbit once shields were down. The Sith could clean up survivors afterward, he'd said. The vermin didn't understand, but vermin never did.

Some killing cried out to be done by hand. There was one specific Jedi that Darth Nihl needed to account for. They'd already battled twice inconclusively. There would be a third fight and nothing more.

-{}-

With its shield generator activated, an umbrella of invisible energy protected everything one kilometer above and five kilometers around the Jedi temple. The Imperials declared their intentions with a full-scale orbital bombardment and Kol Skywalker watched from one of the balconies jutting out of the upper pyramid. From this height he could see green turbolaser volleys fall like heavy rain on the jungle beyond. The beautiful forest that Nei Rin had carefully sculpted in imitation of Zonama's vanished in flame. A curtain of fire rose on all sides of the temple, climbing hundreds of feet into the air as it groped for oxygen to devour. The fire soon slipped beneath the shield barrier and continued to rage. The sky turned red like blood and the air turned thick with ash. When Kol craned his head back he could see stray turbolaser blasts drop onto the dome itself and scatter emerald energy across its dome in sizzling waves. Every impact sounded like the sky cracking apart.

It felt like the end of the world, but Kol knew the worst was to come.

Standing to his right, Wolf Sazen had watched the inferno until he dared ask, "How do you think they'll attack?"

The answer came from Kol's right. K'Kruhk said, "They've burned away the forests. They'll land their ground troops on the burn zones, go under the shield perimeter, and attack."

"Can they move troops through that inferno?"

"They will try," said Kol. "And with the Sith, they'll probably succeed."

"They'll go for the shield generator first, then bring in air support," Sazen surmised. "We'll need to defend the generator at all costs."

"No." Kol raised his voice to be heard over thunderous pounding. "This is an evacuation under fire, not a siege. We'll thin their ranks in the jungle, but when the Imperials bring down the shield, we'll have as many ships possible ready to take off."

"Master Tili Qua just loaded the first group of apprentices," Sazen said. "The youngest."

Kol knew Cade would be with the last group, with the oldest children. He prayed they could hold out that long.

"The evacuation shuttles for the younglings have all been updated with the hidden temple's location," said K'Kruhk. "If any of them should be captured, they've been rigged to self-destruct."

It was grim to think on: a shipful of children, blown to atoms by Jedi bombs. Yet they could not allow the Sith to learn the hidden temple's location. More, death would be mercy compared to Sith capture. Kol still shuddered to think of it happening to Cade.

"Master, go with the apprentices," he told K'Kruhk. "Wolf, you're with me. We'll defend as long as we can."

Grimly, the Zabrak nodded.

K'Kruhk turned inside, but Kol and Sazen remained to watch the continued bombardment. In truth, there was little they could do. Along with most of the able-bodied Knights and Masters, they would fight off whatever ground forces the Sith sent at them. Once the younglings escaped they would try to flee as well, but Kol doubted they'd get that far.

He found that he was ready to die, so long as he could get Cade safely away. The despair that had gripped him just hours ago had vanished. If he dared look back on his life and actions he'd still find too many regrets, but they were irrelevant now. In this moment the only thing he could do was defend the temple and place himself in service to a living Force that, he knew now, contained miracles beyond what Jedi or Sith could know. That cleared all doubts and recriminations.

The bombardment lasted for another five or ten minutes, then suddenly stopped. Fires still raged on all sides, burning gradually toward the Temple, and hot wind swirled with a reek of brimstone. Kol stared above the inferno wall and spotted the moving light of blue ion engines dropping from the scarlet sky.

Sazen saw it too. "Here they come," he muttered and took out macrobinoculars.

The ships descended to the north of the Temple, closest to the shield generator. Sazen tracked their motion, then handed the binoculars to Kol. Through them he saw a trio of heavy Imperial landing craft and a small complement of TIE Predators and angular Sith Furies that peeled away and began flying circles over the shield dome, like scavenger birds waiting for prey to die. He bet those landing craft contained an entire stormtrooper company, plus walkers and heavy artillery. There were sure to be Sith among them too.

He watched the landing ships hover low over the fire wall and release grey fluid from their bottom holds. The flame retardant sent more black smoke into the air, obscuring the landers from view. Kol caught the light from their engines as they descended and nothing more.

"They're on the ground," Kol said. "It's time to move."

Sazen nodded and followed Kol inside. The Jedi took the lift down to the gathering room in the Temple's base, where over a hundred Knights and Masters had gathered. They all knew the defensive strategy and there was no need for Kol to instruct them. Half the Jedi would stay in the Temple to help the evacuation. The other half, led by Kol, would go into the surrounding jungle and delay the Imperial advance.

The Imperials had done them a small favor by choosing to come from a single direction. The Jedi who left the Temple slipped into the dense jungle that shielded their movement from overhead observers, and as one they moved north. The burn zone edges closer but many Jedi, Kol included, had brought breathing masks to filter out the smoke that grew increasingly dense. Kol and Sazen stayed close together as they wove around trees and ducked beneath plants, moving steadily rather than quickly toward the red-gold light that flickered through densely-packed trunks. Even far from the fire the heat was intense, and Kol quickly sweat through his shirt. With the help of a battle meld sustained by several Jedi remaining at the temple, the ones in the jungle coordinated their advance toward the Imperials and were ready the time came to fight.

The first mammoth walkers emerged from the firewall, crashing through trees and toppling burnt husks as their superheated metal hulls scorched bark and burned leaves. The towering AT-HTs stood shoulder-deep among the trees, and the green canopy brushed the chins of their head-like forward compartments. In a standard deployment the walkers' heads would swing back and forth, raining death on approaching infantry with chin-mounted heavy laser canons. These ones stared straight ahead the plowed forward on four legs. Each footfall sent tremors running through the earth.

The AT-HTs were troop carriers, battering rams, and deforesters all in one. There nothing the Jedi could do against their march, and Kol warned everyone in the Force-meld to stay clear of their devastation. After the first three heavy walkers passed, a half-dozen smaller, two-legged AT-SW walkers followed in their trail, stepping nimbly over toppled tree-trunks and splintered logs.

It was on the AT-SWs that the Jedi concentrated their first attacks. Kol, Sazen, and five other Jedi dashed out of the treeline and into the line of devastation carved by the AT-HTs. The closest AT-SW seemed to sense their approach as the Jedi attacked from the flank, and as its side-mounted turrets swung to fire, Sazen called on the Force to lift a toppled tree, ten meters long, and hurl it at the walker. Laserfire exploded the trunk, filling the air with burning pieces of jagged wood, but heavy chunks still knocked the walker's side and tipped it off-balance. The AT-SW spread its legs wider to rebalance, allowing Kol to slip close to its right leg and cleave its ankle-joint with his lightsaber.

That was enough to topple the AT-SW. The walker stumbled, lost balance completely, and toppled on its side. Metal groaned and tore as it impacted, and the thrill of victory reverberated through the Jedi's meld. Far off, Kol felt another team strike a similar victory.

It lasted mere seconds. A laser turret on the downed AT-SW creaked into motion and aimed at the Jedi. Kol threw up a Force-barrier, too late. The ground around him exploded, throwing him into the air. He landed against another fallen tree and struggled to his feet. As he did so he heard the burst of a concussion grenade and the downed walker ceased to fire.

He saw Sazen next. The Zabrak used the Force to push away the swirling smoke, revealing the exploded hull of the toppled AT-SW. It also revealed the charred remains of two Jedi who hadn't been as lucky as Kol and Sazen.

Panting, Kol swiped sweat from his forehead and looked toward the Temple. The three AT-HTs had carved a road of ash and broken trees straight through the forest, and he followed its path to see the giant walkers still lumbering on. Kol had hoped the attack on the AT-SWs might slow the larger walker's advance, but the AT-HTs had pushed onward.

He took out his macrobinoculars for a closer look. He'd charged another team of Jedi with laying concussion grenades like mines in the ground beneath the walkers. AT-HTs were heavily armored on their upper bodies, designed to withstand even direct impacts by fully-powered warheads, but the legs were relatively vulnerable. He had no idea whether the explosions would cripple them or slow them down, but it was the best the Jedi could do with equipment available.

Kol waved Sazen and the surviving Jedi to give chase. The walker-carved road was so strewn with wreckage that it was harder to pass through than the forest. Though the four-legged machines seemed to crawl slowly, they moved faster than a sprinting human, and though the Jedi drew on the Force for speed and endurance they were getting no closer.

Then a series of explosions sounded ahead. Kol and the others didn't stop running as fireballs blossomed around the AT-HTs' ankles. The great walkers slowed and Kol dared hope, but they soon began plodding at their steady, thunderous pace.

He felt disappointment from the other Jedi but tried to soothe them. They never had any hope of stopping those beasts, only delaying them. He felt another note join the meld, coming from the Jedi still in the temple. It said that the first two transports, packed with young apprentices and the most valuable Jedi artifacts, were packed and ready to run. Likewise two full squads of Twintail starfighters stood by in the main hangar, ready to run interference for the fleeing ships.

It was an encouragement, but it did little to soften the blow that came next. The AT-HTs finally unleashed the full power of their chin-mounted cannons, burning away treetops and pummeling the projection tower for the Temple's shield generator. One volley was all it took. A pillar of fire shot toward the sky and the invisible dome protecting them fell.

TIE Predators and a handful of Furies fell from the smoking red sky. The handful of turrets mounted on the temple's pyramid sprayed red laserfire but the TIEs nimbly avoided it. Kol watched as two dozen Twintails shot into the sky and began engaging the TIEs. His breathe caught in his chest as two J-1 shuttles packed with younglings took off next, soaring straight through a hole the Jedi starfighters had carved for them. Some Predators broke to intercept the shuttles, but it only made them easy targets for the Twintails. Four fireballs tumbled into the jungle and the shuttles soared free.

They'd still have to get past War Hammer and its other fighters, Kol knew, but it was a start. Dozens of apprentices and the Order's most precious treasures were on their way to the hidden temple.

But not Cade, he thought. Not yet. Calling on the Force, Kol broke into a sprint. No other Jedi could match him.

-{}-

Master K'Kruhk was doing his best to direct the evacuation of the Jedi Temple in the midst of its chaos. By his command, the first two shuttles took to air the moment the energy shield collapsed. Both ships soared away clear, but that still left three more shuttles' worth of apprentices to go.

The other apprentices were huddled inside the Temple hallway leading out to a landing pad that jutted out from the waist between the complex's two pyramids. Khat Lah was with K'Kruhk at the head of the crowd, and through the open door he could peer through and see apocalypse outside. Jedi and Imperial fighters wove deadly ballets against a blood-red sky. Hot wind carried gusts of ash and a trio of colossal Imperial walking machines lumbered through the trees toward the Temple. Laserfire and explosions filled the sky in every direction, and some plasma bolts whipped perilously close to the extended landing pad.

K'Kruhk put a heavy hand on Khat Lah's shoulder. "It is time. The pilot is already with the shuttle. Take them out!"

Khat Lah looked at the group of children gathered behind him. Most were obviously terrified but Eli Horn, standing closest, looked brave enough to run.

While the last two groups of younglings huddled in the back of the corridor, Khat Lah called his forward. He charged out onto the umbilical catwalk and Eli Horn was right behind him, but other children balked at stepping outside. K'Kruhk gave a mighty roar that half-inspired, half-scared the apprentices and sent them rushing ahead.

Outside the air was hotter and it reeked of burning death. Strong wind blew, shoving some younglings into each other and jostling others against the catwalk's waist-high metal railing. Taking Eli by the hand, Khat Lah pulled him ahead as short as the boy's short legs allowed. Soon the landing platform was just steps away. The shuttle's hatch was open and a single Jedi stood on its maw, waving the group forward.

Then laserfire cut in from the side, ripping the shuttle apart. Flame and shrapnel flew through the air and the concussive shock knocked Khat Lah and his charge backwards. As he fell on his back the other apprentices screamed in terror, but none seemed injured. Only the massive Whiphid stood firm, one hand outstretched with palm facing the ruined shuttle. Khat Lah wondered if K'Kruhk hadn't called on the Force to protect them from the blast.

He looked to his left and saw the Imperial walkers had come withing firing range. Their chin-mounted cannons vomited red plasma-bolts that slammed into the landing pad and destroyed another shuttle. Then the laserfire shifted, strafing toward the catwalk. Khat Lah shoved Eli flat on the metal and tried to pull other children down as well. Even K'Kruhk crouched his mighty body low. Scorching blasts soared over their heads, missing by a meter.

Then laserfire cut into the umbilical. Superheated metal twisted, screamed, and tore. The flat catwalk on which they lay twisted to a vertical angle. Though Khat Lah tried to grab them, two apprentices were thrown into the air and fell screaming. Flaming debris and the one remaining shuttle slid off the edge and plummeted down, where they exploded on the lower pyramid's ancient face.

Finally the platform itself, and all the beings clinging desperately to it, broke off from the temple's waist and fell. For Khat Lah it was a moment of mindless terror and he was certain he was about to die, crushed between old stone and ragged metal.

And yet, impossibly, the platform spun in midair, taking Khat Lah and all the apprentices with it. Its bottom side smashed into the pyramid slope and slid downward, throwing up a spray of sparks and chipped sone. The apprentices screamed. Khat Lah gripped the railing, closed his eyes, and waited for the fatal impact.

It didn't come. The blown-off piece of platform shot off the pyramid's side, hit the grass field around the temple, and skidded violently forward. Dirt flew in his face and caught in his mouth but he did not let go of the railing. The platform finally ground to a halt when its forward edge smashed into the treeline. Only after he heard the sound of metal crunching wood did Khat Lah open his eyes and roll off the body of Eli Horn, whom he had kept pinned to the platform during their entire fall.

Some apprentices cowered on the platform. Others struggled to their feet. A few whimpered in pain and seemed too injured to stand. Khat Lah brushed Eli off, made sure the child was alright, and stood up. He saw now what had happened. The catwalk had been destroyed and the landing platform had fallen, but instead of smashing face-down it had corrected pitch and angle, and they had ridden their metal sled down the side of the pyramid and across the lawn, leaving a streak of plowed earth in their wake.

Khat Lah looked to K'Kruhk and understood the old Jedi Master had done all of it. The Whiphid was panting from exertion, his robe torn and his long gray fur in dirty tangles. He scanned the apprentices, then Khat Lah, and said, "We appear to have lost our ride."

Khat Lah wanted to tell him many things, mainly about how incredible his action had been, but there would be time for that later. Hopefully.

"We must try and move the injured," K'Kruhk grunted. "Then try and get back inside the Temple. There are still ships in the main hangar and the secondary landing platform. From there-"

He said, "Wait, Master Jeedai. There is another way. The ship I came here on, from Zonama. I left it in the forest. It is…" He looked at the Temple, tried to judge direction, then pointed south. "That way, I think. If it isn't damaged, it can fly."

K'Kruhk grunted through his tusks and looked at the sky. It was still red, and starfighters wove and dodged and exploded above them.

"That seems to be our best chance," the old Jedi said. "Lead the way."

-{}-

With the fall of the shield generator, the attack on the Jedi Temple commenced in full. Along with Imperial fighters, shuttles dropped from the sky and began disgorging squadrons of stormtroopers. Some of them rappelled on their fiberchord cables and came down on top of the upper pyramid. Others were dropped onto the lawn and attempted to charge the mouth of the hangar on the bottom pyramid. The Jedi had set up artillery, tripod-mounted laser cannons that cut down the first wave of Imperial troops. Their defense did not last long. A trio of Sith Furies came in from low over the forest and charged the hangar. After blasting away the tripod guns they pushed inside the hangar itself and strafed the Jedi shuttles preparing for launch. The Furies set down amidst the fire and smoke and began attacking the Jedi inside, and in minutes they were joined by their stormtroopers squadrons. The hangar was cleared within minutes, most of the ships inside smashed beyond repair. Their beachhead secure, the Sith and their minions charged deeper into the ancient Temple.

Jedi pilots still did their best to clear the skies. Against the TIE Predators they fought well even when outnumbered; against the Furies, it was a more even match. One Twintail took a laser barrage that sheared off both S-foils and came spiraling out of the sky. It nearly hit the forest, but its doomed pilot nudged the craft into one of the AT-HT walkers firing on the Temple. The heavily armored, four-legged machine was designed to withstand the heaviest impacts, but the Twintail dove right into its head section. The explosion was amplified by the four proton torpedoes armed inside the Twintail, and the blast not only decapitated the walker but tipped it off-balance so its great bulk smashed into the walker beside it. The two mechanical giants crashed together into the woods, leaving the third and last one vulnerable to sustained volleys by the Temple's defensive cannons and dive-bombing Twintails.

Kol Skywalker was outside the Temple when all that happened. Smoke was already bellowing from the hangar mouth when the survivors of the forest mission reached their destination. He could feel Jedi fighting and dying inside; the battle meld that had once brought solidarity spread havoc instead. Kol removed himself from it and concentrated on Cade. He could feel his son still inside the temple, still frantic and terrified.

When he, Sazen, and the other survivors emerged from the forest into the green around the Temple, Kol saw that the landing platform on the east side the temple waist had been blown off. He'd only seen the first two shuttles escape skyward and had to assume the rest had been docked in place when the platform was destroyed. But if Kol was alive it meant so were some of the apprentices, and he was relieved to see the second landing pad, jutting out from the west side, was still intact. It might not be for long. More and more Twintails were going down and Imperial fighters were dominating the skies.

The hangar was clearly under Sith control, but there were other ways inside the temple. When he was sure there were no AT-SW walkers stomping around the area, Kol led the survivors across the clearing and up the slanted stone pyramid. The lowest balcony was just three storeys up, and with lightabers and the Force it didn't take them long to ascend.

Getting inside the Temple was the easy part. Even before they came upon their first Sith it was like stepping inside a raging storm. Violence and death were everywhere: old stone hallways, great gathering chambers, stairwells, meditation rooms. Scarlet-and-black Sith danced with their blood-red blades, battling against beleaguered Jedi. Squadrons of stormtroopers filled the corridors, unleashing blinding barrages of laserfire every time they turned a corner. It was clear the Sith had given the order to kill on sight. It no longer mattered if this was what the emperor had wanted. Kol understood that Roan Fel had been as much a pawn as him from the start.

Yet the old shame didn't burn him. It didn't bother him. Kol, Sazen, and the other Jedi he'd brought fought their way through the home that had become a slaughterhouse. After cutting their way through a full dozen stormtroopers they reached one of the stairwells that led up to the temple's waist. Kol could feel Cade there and bounded up the spiral. When Ossus had been attacked at the start of this war they'd had to destroy part of this stairwell. They'd repaired it since and the Imperials had used it to advance, as evidenced by the four blaster-scorched Jedi bodies they found. Kol didn't think he recognized them, but he didn't stop and look closely. They were hardly alone. Jedi were being killed, one after another. It was the greatest single slaughter since the end of the Clone Wars. He could feel it.

Yet it didn't break him. He bounded up the stairs, storey after corkscrewing storey, propelled by his faith in the Force and his love for his son. He knew on instinct when he'd reached the right door and barged through into the adjoining hallway. He was instantly greeted by the sound of laserfire, but none came at him. He raced down the hall, turned a corner, and found himself looking at the backs of a stormtrooper squadron as they fired at targets ahead. Kol spotted a few green and blue lightsabers deflecting laser bolts but only a few. Cade was back there and so were the remaining apprentices.

He felt Sazen and the other Jedi close behind him but didn't wait. Kol charged forward and cut down two stormtroopers from behind. Another spun at him, rifle raised, but Kol cleaved off the barrel. He felt another shot whip past his cheek, scarring it with heat, and looked to see Sazen knock the trooper to the ground. The stormtroopers had fully turned their attention away from the apprentices and in the ensuing fight two Jedi fell with smoking holes in their heads, but that was all they could do. Forty seconds after Kol's initial charge, the remaining Jedi stood over a hallway clogged with pieces of white-armored bodies. Everything reeked of scorched flesh and carnage and it left Kol dizzy on his feet.

Then he heard Cade call for him. His son sprinted down the hall and Kol just barely deactivated his lightsaber before the boy threw himself on it. Instead he took Cade into a firm embrace.

"Ah, kark it, dad," Cade whimpered. "I thought- I thought-"

"You thought I was dead? Now you know better." Kol mussed his hair and smiled. "And watch your language. I don't want it said I raised a foul-mouthed son."

"Yeah, sure." Cade sniffled back tears of joy. "What now?"

"Now we get to the second landing pad. There should be a few shuttles still parked there."

"What about the-"

"The main hangar's down," Sazen told him. "Sith are all over the Temple. That's why we have to go."

Shado Vao came up behind Cade. "But if the hangar is destroyed, then the only ships we've got left are on the pad."

"Exactly."

"That's not enough for everyone. We can't just…"

"We have to," Kol said. "You apprentices are the future of the Jedi Order. The ones dying down there know that. We will sacrifice everything to get you to safety." He watched sober knowledge settle on Cade, Shado, and the others. "That also means there's no time to waste. So let's get going."

-{}-

There was no easy way to get almost twenty terrified children through the jungle in the middle of a battle. Low-flying TIEs screamed overhead as Khat Lah led the way. He cradled an injured Zabrak girl in both arms while K'Kruhk carried two more, and a third child hung with arms around thick neck and broken legs dangling off the Whiphid's back.

The extra weight slowed the adults down, but Khat Lah needed to pace himself and find his way through the forest. He had set the flier down in a small clearing. With its organic-green hull he didn't think it would stand out as a target and he hadn't heard any explosive strafing rungs in that direction. However, as they got close to the landing zone he clearly heard the crash of falling trees and the distinct grind and creak of heavy machinery.

When Khat Lah spotted metal shapes moving in the forest ahead he stopped. To K'Kruhk he asked, "Are they searching for us?"

"Or perhaps for your flier," the Whiphid growled. "How close is your ship?"

He pointed ahead. "There is a ridge there. Past it, there's a clearing."

"Then the walker's in the way," Eli moaned.

K'Kruhk bent low. "Please, children, get off me now."

The other apprentices helped their comrades to the ground. K'Kruhk straightened and exhaled sharply. "Stay with the younglings, Khat Lah. I will be back shortly."

Khat Lah could feel the Whiphid's determination as he began moving for the forest. The Imperial walker up ahead seemed to have stopped in one place, though it hadn't yet fired. It was one of those two-legged types, like a giant short-tailed ni'yat with three laser turrets on different sides of its body. Khat Lah lost sight of K'Kruhk as the Jedi moved among the trees and slipped through dense foliage. He waited for the thrum and glow of an ignited lightsaber, but none came.

Instead he saw the walker pivot. It fired one of its laser turrets, sending a thunder-clap through the forest. Smoke rose and the children whimpered but Khat Lah knew, deep inside, that K'Kruhk was still alive, but frantic. He heard the buzz of a distant lightsaber and more firing laser cannons. A geyser of debris and smoke burst, hiding the walker and its prey from view.

Khat Lah knew K'Kruhk was in trouble. He put down the wounded apprentice he'd been carrying, told the children to stay, and hurried through the trees. The walker remained where it was as its head section pivoted, searching.

Suddenly a laser turret on its side swung toward Khat Lah. The Yuuzhan Vong jumped aside, evading the plasma bolt but not the force of impact. He went tumbling through the undergrowth until his shoulders slammed hard into the side of a tree. He heard the machine walking, trying to get a better firing angle. He picked his head up from the dirt, looked around, and finally saw K'Kruhk.

The Whiphid was a pile of brown fur and tattered robes sheltering behind another tree five meters away. Khat Lah saw the Jedi's hands were empty. He looked around in all directions until he finally found the metal gleam of K'Kruhk's lightsaber. It was half-buried in the dirt, closer to Khat Lah than the Jedi.

That was when the walker began firing again. Its lasers caught the base of the tree K'Kruhk was hiding behind, shattering it. The Jedi called on the Force to withstand the blast and tilted the tree forward, so its toppling trunk smashed down onto the walker's face.

That was not enough to bring the machine down. Its two great feet splayed and dug into the dirt. K'Kruhk strained with the Force, trying to press harder with the fallen tree even as the walker tried to shirk its weight.

Khat Lah ran for the lightsaber. He forgot about the turrets mounted on the sides of the walker's head, and red lasers chased him as he dove into the dirt. One volley cut close above him. He reared up on his knees, knowing the next blasts could burn away his head and torso. He thumbed the lightsaber on, extending its luminous blade, and hurled it at the walker.

The lightsaber became a blazing pinwheel, spinning end-over-end. He'd thrown it blindly, but after it left his hand he knew what was needed. He saw the lightsaber keep flying, keep spinning, altering course and tilting angle just a little to become a diagonal disc of light. He wanted it and it happened, and the flying lightsaber cut through the walker's right leg and kept going.

The machine collapsed. K'Kruhk's tree fell on top of it and the body crumpled inward. Flame burst out through broken seems in its skin, followed by streams of smoke. Khat Lah rose to his feet and brushed dirt from his clothes. He watched as K'Kruhk called the lightsaber back to his claws. The old Whiphid looked at Khat Lah and nodded silent understanding. Together they walked back to the children.

The apprentices were silent with awe. K'Kruhk was clearly tired from his exertion, but without complaint he bent low and took the three injured apprentices onto himself. Khat Lah picked up the third and they went ahead.

The group rounded the smoking ruin of the walker and moved carefully downhill. Through breaks in the treeline Khat Lah could make out the smooth green surface of his flyer. When they got down to it, he lowered the ramp and began moving the children inside. This was not a large vessel, and though its dovin basal propulsion meant that its interior wasn't clogged up by a bulky engine, the children were nonetheless tightly-packed inside.

Once they got the apprentices as settled as could be, Khat Lah went into the cockpit. There was just a single seat and he dropped into it, then placed the cognition hood on his face. He was instantly bound to the living ship's mind, like the Force-connection he sometimes felt but far stronger. He was aware that the ship's dovin basals were ready to push off on his command, and that they'd naturally open up to swallow any warheads of lasers cast their way. That was good, but Khat Lah would have been more confident with weapons aboard.

There was nothing to be done with it. He commanded the ship to rise straight in the red sky. It shot up and kept going straight, high above the Temple that smoked from its assault, higher still past the burning jungle and its thick smoke. Some of the TIE Predators and Sith fighters spun to follow them but the Sekotan ship was faster. Khat Lah pointed its nose skyward and the wide-winged flyer soared higher into the atmosphere. Its pilot didn't even have to direct it to evade fire. The living ship naturally sensed and slipped around Imperial lasers, and when one proton torpedo got close enough to burst, a dovin basal swallowed it with a singularity.

When they exited the atmospheric envelope, Khat Lah was aware that one large star destroyer sat above the planet. It was too far away to hit them directly but it was launching fighters. They tried to set on an intercourse but underestimated the speed of the Sekotan flyer and found themselves chasing its wake.

Soon it was all behind them: the Imperial pursuers, the verdant world, the broken Temple and still too many Jedi battling to stay alive. It ached Khat Lah to leave them behind, but he knew he'd done what he could. Without regret he commanded to ship to jump to darkspace, and instantly they were gone.

-{}-

The enemy tide was so great there was no stopping it. Kol could feel it surging after them as he directed the herd of frantic younglings toward the west landing pad. When they finally got there he was relieved to find it was intact, with a single green J-1 shuttle in the center. The adult Jedi waved the apprentices ahead, and Cade and Shado helped drag some of the scared younger ones across the narrow umbilical to the platform. They were still coming across when a handful of stormtroopers burst through the doorway, firing madly. The two Jedi in front of Kol and Sazen were taken by surprise and cut down. Kol got his lightsaber up too slow and took a burning, glancing shot across his collar.

"Master?" Sazen called as cut down the nearest trooper.

Kol grunted, fought down the pain, and joined the Zabrak. They cut two troopers and used the Force to hurl two more over the railing and off the catwalk.

Kol could feel his son lingering, watching his father when he should have been getting the younglings on the ship and prepping for takeoff. So could Sazen. The Zabrak called, "Cade! You and Shado get the younglings on the shuttle now and get off planet! Your father and I will make a stand here. Hurry!"

Kol cut down the last stormtroopers close to him. There were no Sith warriors in sight, nor white-armored soldiers, but he could feel the dark side's hungry presence. They'd be here in minutes. Kol backed away until his shoulders knocked with Sazen's.

"They're coming, Kol."

"I sense them too, Wolf. We hold them here," Kol said firmly. "There's no escape from the landing pad except with the shuttle, and now way to the shuttle but through us."

The next wave of stormtroopers came through the door and lit up the space before the landing platform with laserfire. Kol and Sazen immediately began deflecting their attacks with a flurry of lightsaber movements, but with so many blasts coming at them Kol knew it was only a matter of time before some slipped through their defenses and cut the Jedi down.

Then a lanky form, wielding a blue-bladed saber, tumbled through the air over Kol and Sazen's heads, and landed in the midst of the stormtroopers. Cade furiously hacked at the soldiers, cleaving off a leg and an arm before Sazen used the Force to pull him out of the fray. Cade immediately set down on his feet and turned back to fighting.

"Why are you still here, Padawan?" Sazen barked. "I gave you instructions!"

"Shado doesn't need me to fly the shuttle, Master! You and dad are going to need me more!" Cade barked as he cleaved off another trooper's arm. Kol could feel the desperation flooding through his son, and the anger.

As he resumed deflecting more attacks from the stormtroopers, Kol called, "Cade, we're not going to start this again. You're still a padawan, not a knight. You owe your master obedience. He gave you an order."

"My place is here with you and Master Sazen," Cade insisted as he cut down another trooper. "I feel it."

Kol pulled his blade from the chest of the last trooper. They'd built a rampart of the dead but the attacks seemed to have finally abated. That wasn't the end of it; Kol could feel a dark presence approaching, powerful and hungry like stormtroopers never were. The Sith were coming in full force. He tried to sense other Jedi still battling in lower sections of the temple, but could find none.

Over the sound of his hard breath Kol heard the rising hum of the shuttle engines and told his son, "Listen to the Force, Cade. A Jedi's first concern is to preserve life. Protect the younglings with your life, son. Obey Master Sazen and go!"

Sullenly, reluctantly, Cade said, "Yes, father."

He turned and sprinted for the shuttle. Kol spared a tiny glance at his son's retreating back- the last of him he'd ever see- then turned his attention forward. The dark malice of the Sith was growing even closer; it would be on them in moments.

"Not the best of farewells, Kol," Sazen said softly as he took his place beside Kol.

"We take what is given. Speaking of which…. Here they come."

They stepped out of a veil of smoke, down the catwalk connecting the landing pad to the Temple. An unseen hand lifted the piled bodies of dead stormtroopers and casually dumped them over the railing. Seven Sith warriors, their bodies marked by vicious patterned tattoos, marched imperiously toward the two battered Jedi. Most of their bodies were patterned in reds and blacks, but the one in the lead was a tall thin humanoid with long black hair and a chalky white face. It could only be Darth Nihl.

"These are the last," the Nagai said. "Finish them and our master's will is accomplished."

"What?" Kol called, "No demand for us to surrender, Sith?"

"My master will not make Palpatine's mistake," Nihl said. "All Jedi must die."

He charged. Kol and Sazen were there to meet him but Nihl was fast. He ducked beneath Kol's blow and snapped a side-kick that took the Jedi in the stomach. He staggered back. Thighs hit the catwalk railing and he struggled to keep balance. At the same time Nihl fought back a series of blows from Sazen, then spun his long-bodied lightsaber around and jabbed its butt into Sazen's sternum, cracking bone. That stunned the Zabrak long enough for Nihl to spin his blade back around and cut off Sazen's arm at the elbow.

Before Nihl could land the killing blow Kol struck out in a long horizontal slash. The Sith bent backward to evade it. Kol called Sazen's lightsaber to his hand and stood between the Sith and his friend, the Sith and his son.

"I am Kol Skywalker, servant of the living Force! None of you will pass!"

The other Sith finally joined in. On the narrow catwalk only two of them could attack Kol at a time, but even with two blades it was a struggle to hold them back. He tried to hold the center but they kept striking at his flanks. Soon three Sith crowded the catwalk in front of him and he had no hope of stopping them.

Then a blond-haired blur rolled in from behind, beneath Kol's right saber. Cade popped to his feet and took the enemy in front of him by surprise. An upward thrust caught the Sith in the gut and Kol gave his wavering body a nudge in the Force to knock it into the one beside him.

"I'm here, Father! You don't fight alone!" Cade's grin was white, proud, angry.

"No!" Kol shouted. "Every moment you delay here you endanger the lives on board that shuttle. This is not how you were taught!"

"I won't leave you!"

As the Sith pulled their wounded back and regrouped for another attack, Kol told his son, "You're putting your own wants- your own desires- ahead of your duties, ahead of the needs of others!"

Another Sith came at him. Kol batted back the attack and looked over his shoulder. Cade was on his knees beside Sazen's broken form. "You're a Skywalker, Cade! Act like one! Help your master onto the shuttle and leave!"

Cade's desperation settled into beaten determination. He bent low, pulled Sazen onto his back, and called on the Force to give him the strength to rise.

His son growled, "As you command… Master." And then Cade was gone.

Kol felt his son retreat. He turned his attention to the Sith in front of him. They came two at a time, three at a time. He used both lightsabers against them, defending with one hand and attacking with the other. He pushed Sazen's blade into the stomach of one Sith, then used his own to cleave the arm off another. A glancing blow cut across his forearm but he ignored the pain. Another stabbed him in the thigh, tearing muscle. He should have dropped to his knees but he ignored the wound, pirouetted on his good leg, and struck the head off his attacker.

Suddenly Darth Nihl was before him. The Sith attacked more savagely than the others. Kol could feel his anger in the Force, and with it a raw lust for violence. Nihl was giving all of himself to the Force's dark side, forgetting every other desire beside his urge to kill Kol Skywalker. It was almost flattering. He countered Nihl's angry lust with deepest calm. He blocked attack after attack, and when Nihl tried to whip the butt of his long-bodied saber in Kol's face the Jedi bent backwards, lowered his blade, and swiped at Nihl's hips. The Sith evaded, then went for Kol's knees. Kol jumped high, held himself in mid-air for a split-second, then came down on top of Nihl's overextended back. One boot slammed into Nihl's shoulder, the other his head, and Kol slammed him into the metal catwalk hard enough to crack bone.

There was no time for victory. More Sith were coming. Kol leaped back from their leader's body to continue the fight.

He found himself in a state of perfect clarity once more. He knew every attack before it came. He danced perfectly to the music of the Force, defending, counterattacking, dodging and lunging even as his body cried out in agony. After a lifetime of striving and failure to bring about his vision there was joy in simple surrender. Unencumbered by any desire, even for life, Kol held back the tide of Sith, slaying one after another.

He remembered Jaina Solo on her deathbed, empty of regret, full of pride at having expended the last bits of her life energy on saving Kol. She'd told him Skywalkers give everything for Skywalkers. It was too true. He thought on the grandfather he'd never known and the father he could barely remember, and he wondered if this is how they'd felt in their final moments.

Kol heard the roar of firing engines and knew it was almost done. More Sith were coming down the walkway, climbing over the bodies of their dead.

He felt light, in his body and his mind, as he called, "Back! Only death lies this way!"

Beside him, from among the piled bodies, he heard a hissing voice: "Yes… Death!"

Darth Nihl's rage returned from nowhere. It took raw form, sizzling energy that was suddenly all over Kol, consuming him, tearing deep into his flesh from the holes already cut. His body spasmed and both lightsabers fell from his palms. Agony banished the dance and the Force itself and Kol collapsed hard on the deck. His mouth hinged open but he couldn't even scream. His very lungs were burning.

Vision blurred and darkened but he saw a black and white form looming over him, red-gold eyes blazing in the middle of its face. The Force came back to him but it carried only Darth Nihl's vicious triumph.

Lightning seized him. More mindless agony. The Sith Lord's hate rendered his very cells, killing his every part of his body at once. Kol tried to struggle through the pain and find the Force, the light side that offered knowledge and peace and purpose, but it was nowhere. Agony was all.

The world grew darker yet. All color drained from Nihl's form and he became only black against the blood-red sky. There was pain in everything.

And then a new shape drifted into view. Its shape was blurred but its dark form was clear as it moved steadily across the red sky. He caught the flare of engines and dimly heard them fire to full. And for one short moment, as everything else slipped away, he felt Cade in the Force, aboard that roaring shuttle and peering down in grief and anger at his father's body.

Kol tried to touch Cade back and tell him it was alright, that Skywalkers gave up everything for Skywalkers, and that if he clung to his dark feelings it would poison him for the rest of his life. He wasn't sure if it got through. By the time the shuttle soared away Kol Skywalker heard nothing, saw nothing, and felt nothing.