When she'd first seen them peering at her from the top of the chamber, Morrigan had thought them a hallucination. She'd been expecting to see Cade, but then Gunner's face had joined his in looking down from above. They'd been joined, impossibly, by Darth Talon's, and then a dark male face she didn't recognize. Even when Cade came down the walkway and stood on the grated floor in front of her, she wasn't sure if this was real.

That solution Maladi injected her with hadn't been a placebo. Morrigan had been fighting nausea for hours; and a retching pain had been building in her stomach. Her skin burned; her eyes itched in their sockets. The room seemed to spin around her and it took effort to sit upright.

Smiling, sounding almost giddy, Darth Maladi told her son, "I've brought you here to thank you, Cade. You inspired me to give my gift to the galaxy. And soon, I'll share it with you too."

Cade- and it was really, truly her son- stood firm where he was. One hand was on his holstered blaster, the other on his lightsaber, but he didn't use them. Keeping cautious eyes on Maladi he asked, "You okay, mom?"

Morrigan opened her dry mouth and rasped, "No."

"I injected her with a poison." Maladi idly twirled hair around her forefinger. "She still has a few hours left, but they won't be pleasant. I can give her a delaying agent that will last her, oh, twelve more hours."

Suddenly Cade's lightsaber was in his hand, his arm was stretched out, and a green-white blade-tip buzzed an inch from Maladi's neck. "Give it to her," Cade said, quiet and firm.

Maladi didn't flinch, didn't even blink. "Kill me and you kill your mother. You know that. Besides, I'm not afraid of death."

"I can do a lot worse than kill you."

"True," Maladi admitted. Carefully she reached up with one hand and tugged the collar of her dress low. Though her vision was starting to lose focus, Morrigan saw the glint of metal above her breast and the slow pulse of a single light.

"What the hell is that?" Cade grunted. The tip of his lightsaber edged back.

"A heartrate monitor," Maladi said, then stamped the grate beneath her feet. "I've installed a baradium bomb fifty meters below. If my heartbeat stops, or stays too fast for too long, it will trigger detonation. Everything and everyone in this facility will be atomized.

Cade's face twisted in frustration. He asked is mother, "Is she for real?"

Weakly Morrigan said, "I… I don't know."

It seemed like something Maladi would do. Cade had brought three unexpected allies with him, and likely had more on the way, but the Sith witch had made sure she was firmly in control of the situation.

Cade realized that too. He lowered his lightsaber without shutting it off, and Maladi smiled in satisfaction. Pulling her collar back up she asked, "Do you understand why I brought you here?"

"No. And I'm not gonna let you enlighten me until you give her the delaying agent."

Maladi opened her mouth to argue, but no sound came. Her jaw hung open and her throat strained for air. Morrigan didn't see her son's other hand clenched to squeeze, but she knew what he was doing. On his face there was no killing anger, just grim intent.

"Cade, don't!" Morrigan panted.

From higher above, Gunner shouted, "Damn it, Skywalker!"

"I ain't gonna break her throat," Cade told them, "But I can keep squeezing. How long's it gonna take for your head to start swimming?"

Maladi choked, "The bomb… you fool…"

"We can go back to the safe zone any time you want, cheeka."

"Please… I will… do it…"

"That's better." Cade released her throat. "Give it to her now."

Maladi bent at the waist and retched for air. A minute ago she'd seemed in total control; now Cade seemed to have taken in back. In reality Maladi's baradium bomb was the final card anyone could play, but Cade had at least succeeded in scaring her confidence away.

Panting, stroking her throat, Maladi said, "I'd forgotten…. what kind of man you are."

Cade spared her a snide reply. Maladi stepped to one of her side tables, plucked a syringe from a tray, and walked it over to Morrigan. The liquid inside was colorless and translucent like the previous injections of delaying agent. That didn't mean Morrigan was safe, but without the injection she'd be delirious in minutes. She barely felt the needle enter her arm. When Maladi stepped back she exhaled, slumped, and closed her eyes. After ten or twenty heartbeats, the nausea that had gripped her start to recede. She still felt sick, but no longer on the point of vomiting.

"Mom?" Cade asked. "Mom, are you okay?"

His earnest worry touched her heart. "I'm… okay. Is Gunn… up there?"

"Yeah. We brought Talon too. I figured, why not?" Cade stepped purposely to Maladi, lifting his blade close to her neck. "Now, cheeka, I'll let you do your rant."

-{}-

A compact cluster of bright ion engines slipped out from beneath the Jagged Fel's white hull and accelerated toward the Te Hasa's distant, tiny disc. At the same time the ovoid Gree vessel, about the same size the departing Imperial assault shuttle, took up the same vector. Its solar sail folded elegantly as its mast reeled it in, and both craft prepared for a lightspeed micro-jump into the planet's orbit. Soon the translucent material vanished from sight. The assault shuttle flared and disappeared into hyperspace, and a moment later, without any flash or visible show of propulsion, the strange Gree vessel winked out of existence as well.

Marasiah had watched it all from the bridge of the Jagged Fel. The plan was simple: the two small ships would decant from hyperspace over Te Hasa and dive into the planet's atmosphere, where they'd land at the site of Darth Maladi's laboratory. The star destroyer itself would keep a respectful distance from the planet, edging only close enough for Marasiah to reach out to her distant cousin in the Force and alert Cade Skywalker that help was imminent.

She ached to go with them on the assault shuttle, but Antares and Treis had both insisted that she remain here. There were no telling what traps or dangers were inside Maladi's lair. As empress and fulcrum of the galaxy's unified government, she was too important to risk her life. If the worst happened, the last two certain Force-users could be lost forever.

They were right about everything, and she hated it, but she couldn't deny their logic. In her stead, Antares and Treis had piled into the assault shuttle along with Marasiah's most elite stormtrooper unit. Both of the old Jedi Masters had joined, and they'd taken the Sith apprentice with them. Apparently K'Kruhk thought he'd be able to keep the young man under control.

Most surprisingly, Ania Solo had insisted on coming. She'd shown at the last minute, flippantly claiming that she was getting bored waiting around. Marasiah thought she understood the real reason.

And now all of them were gone. Standing at the fore of the bridge, Marasiah held herself straight. A leader had to be seen to be strong. That was one piece of her father's advice she'd never doubted. Even as she projected sureness, she felt helpless and alone. For all her authority and the Force-power she still wielded, what happened next was out of her hands. It was a terrible feeling.

She heard the shuffle of metal feet and the creaking of servos as C-3PO came up from behind her. Not looking away from the viewport she asked, "Is something the matter, See-Threepio?"

"Not at this time, Majesty." She droid stopped beside her. He stared ahead, seemingly watching the stars with the same longing as her. "However, you needn't worry. I'm quite certain the mission will be successful."

It wasn't like a droid to offer unsolicited assurance. "Are you?"

"Oh, yes. It has been placed in very capable hands." After a pause, C-3PO added, "Artoo-Detoo is a most exemplary automaton in many ways. His skill set far exceeds that of other astromech droids, and he is most resourceful." After another pause he said, "Please don't tell him I said so. For all his virtues, Artoo's ego can be a frightful thing."

Marasiah smiled faintly. "I'll keep your secret."

"Thank you, Majesty. However, I believe our greatest asset Te Hasa will be Oratak'k."

That took her by surprise; the alien administrator was inscrutable, and she'd never trusted what she couldn't understand. "In what way?"

"Did I not explain? During our conversation, it explained that under Gree law, unauthorized association with foreigners is punishable by up to five centuries of-" A burst of unintelligible Gree noises escaped his vocoder. "This is a most unpleasant form of torture. Oratak'k plans to offer clemency to Lady Maladi's associates as long as they cooperate. It believes they will surrender quickly to avoid-" He made the same untranslatable noises, then added, "Oratak'k is quite a reasonable fellow, actually."

"That's good to know," she said honestly, but it didn't to soothe her. Nothing could, when the fate of everything was out of her hands.

-{}-

Though Cade held his blade close to her neck, Maladi seemed unphased. Given the baradium bomb she had armed and prepped under their feet, she had every reason to be. The witch had made certain she would be in control of this situation, and despite Cade's threats and bluster he couldn't change that fact. Maladi tilted her head back, allowing glow from the buzzing saber to paint the underside of her chin green-white. She stared at the rising spiral of the walkway above them and whispered, "Do you know what this place is, Cade?"

"Some Sith house of horrors," he grunted. "Bet it's been here longer than you."

"Three hundred years," she nodded eagerly. "This was Darth Acheron's place."

"That name supposed to mean something?"

"Acheron was master to Tenebrous, who was master to Plagueis, who was master to Sidious."

Cade's eyes narrowed at the last one. "And what's that gotta do with anything?"

"Acheron was brilliant. He made allies of the Gree, allies who passed their allegiance through generations, on to me. He developed a virus that targeted midi-chlorians, destroyed them, and in doing it rent the bodies of the host."

"Sounds like the perfect Jedi-killing bug."

"No. Because it targeted all midi-chlorians. Jedi, Sith, everyone. So it was never deployed."

"But you fixed it up, tweaked it so it's non-lethal, and turned it into your Force-killing plague. I get the how. I still don't get the why."

"The why is you, Cade. You opened my eyes."

He'd been afraid somehow this would all end up being his fault. He tried to shield the sting with sarcasm. "They look different from the last time I saw 'em."

"Yes. On Wayland. You reached into my mind and showed me my fear. You showed me myself. Always I told myself I was working for Lord Krayt's design and the good of the One Sith… To bring order and justice to the galaxy… But that was wrong. The Jedi were never my enemy. Not the Alliance, not Roan Fel, not your mother. My enemy was the Force."

"You lost me."

"I spent a lifetime trying to be controller of all. I mastered spies and bred diseases. I despoiled your father's Ossus Project. As my last service to Lord Krayt, I corrupted Roan Fel from within and drowned him in his inner darkness." She tapped a fist against her breast. "But always the Force outwitted me. No matter what I did the Force would not give me what I wanted. Never, never, never. It was always ahead of me, and I tangled my soul trying to fight a battle I couldn't win."

"So 'cause you got all tangled inside, you took the Force away from everyone?"

"It was for all of us, Cade. Sith, Jedi, Imperial Knights, we are all tortured by the Force. It whispers fragments of truth in our ears, promising enlightenment that will never come. It leads us on to promised destinies then forces us to shoulder unbearable burdens. It taunts us with the illusion of being all-powerful, only to bring death and ruin on our heads. Even those who obey it selflessly are crushed by its demands. You know I'm right."

Her litany of complaints echoed the ones he'd nursed in his heart for many years. There was still truth in them; he only had to think of his father to feel bitterness that would never go away.

"The Force is more than that," Cade said. "A lot more."

"Exactly," Maladi hissed. "It's truth that will never be revealed. Power that will never share. Promises that are never kept. It taunts us, teases us, and uses toward ends that always defy our own. We twist ourselves trying to appease it. We enslave ourselves by serving or fighting its phantom will. All the while we become addicted to it. We let ourselves be lost in pursuit of its power. I have liberated us all. With the Force gone all of us- Jedi, Sith, everyone- can discover who we are truly meant to be."

This was striking close to home. Cade shielded again. "That's a lot of projecting you're doing, cheeka."

"We are all the Force's pawns and I am sick of being a pawn!" Maladi's hands balled to fists.

"So you decided to do something about it."

"It has been done before, and not be me. Your mother knows. I told her."

Cade glanced sidelong at his mother. Morrigan's face was still pale, her eyes still haggard, but there was new alertness in them. "She told me about… the past. The Gree, the Rakata, the other ancient races."

Confused, he looked back to Maladi. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"Once, eons ago, all the sentients in his galaxy could touch the Force. Gradually, it has withdrawn to fewer and fewer beings. Now there are only two left… thanks to me."

At least three, Cade hoped. "What do you mean, everyone could touch the Force? Where'd you get that?"

"The Gree archives. It is all there. For the past three centuries, Darth Acheron's servants have been translating them into Basic. In the level above here there's an entire archive of knowledge, tens of millennia old…"

"Legends," he muttered.

"No. I know they're true. In my heart. It was a plague like mine that stripped the Rakata of the Force. The Gree also lost their powers. The Force has been withdrawing itself for a long, long time… and I've finished the job."

"No, you didn't," Cade snarled. Maladi's crazy rantings were really starting to rile him now. The woman had robbed thousands of their powers and twisted the fate of the galaxy, all because she was mad at the Force. Cade had felt all those things and sulked for seven years; Maladi had done something far grander and far worse. "I didn't get infected by your damn virus. Neither does the empress, by the way, but I'm the one you called here."

"Exactly," Maladi clapped her hands together. "I knew, deep down, it would come to this. Not because my virus had a flaw. I tested it on dozens of live subjects, making sure it would sever but not kill, that it would lie dormant inside hosts long enough for it to spread widely. I knew it would work, that I could spread it as planned, that I could liberate the Jedi, Sith, Imperial Knights… But not the Skywalkers."

"How'd you know that?"

"Because the Force defeats our certainties," she growled, "Every time."

Maladi took a deep breath, unclenched her hands, and composed herself. Cade was sick of her rantings but intrigued against himself. She was mad but she was also a genius, and if these Gree archives she was talking about had any trustworthy information, it could predate even the Jedi's history of the Force.

More importantly, he had to keep her talking, keep stalling until Marasiah's backup arrived and captured the facility. An ancient Sith hideout would have more for security than the one Gree he'd seen so far.

"Not that I ain't flattered," he told her, "But what made you think Skywalkers would spoil your grancha plan?"

She looked at him with those strange dark eyes and asked, calmly now, "Do you know what you are, Cade?"

He went for flippant again. "Jedi, son, lover, fighter. Take your pick."

"You are... a vergence in the Force. The descendent of the Chosen One himself."

"I've heard that story. Anakin Skywalker might have been the Chosen One but his life was nobody's idea of a good time. Besides, he's been dead for over a hundred years."

"But you carry his legacy inside you. You have a piece of him. So does the empress."

"He was a special guy, but he was still just a man."

"No," Maladi shook her head adamantly. "He was born by the Force, conceived by its will in the belly of a slave woman."

Cade fought a grimace. He'd heard stories, passed down through generations and blurred by time. His father had told him that, supposedly, Anakin Skywalker had been born from no father. Cade had never believed it, but then, there was a lot of things he'd refused to believe about the Force that ended up true.

"Millennia ago," Maladi went on, "The Jedi started a prophecy of a Chosen One who'd arise in time of darkness and rebalance the force. The time of darkness began with Darth Acheron himself. I found the histories here, in this very room. Through blood and toil, Acheron affected the Force, darkening it, making it easier for the Sith to bend it to their will. His apprentice's apprentice, Plagueis, sought to take things deeper. He dreamed of controlling midi-chlorians themselves, and with them controlling life and death. He and Sidious tipped the Force further to darkness, so far Plagueis could snuff out live midi-chlorians with his will alone. Next he tried to compel the midi-chlorians to multiply and create life itself from nothing!"

Her voice had gone lusty, but she stopped for breath. "Plagueis and Sidious overplayed. The Force sensed their manipulations and denied them their Sith-made life. Instead it created a life of its own. Anakin Skywalker." Sick laughter rattled in her throat. "The most powerful Sith goaded the Force into making their worst enemy. Its power can never be beaten, never. Is it any wonder I freed us from it?"

It sounded like madness, but like most of what Maladi had been telling him, it left Cade unsettled the way only hard truths could. "Doesn't sound like the Force made a good move to me. Anakin spent half his life being Darth Vader, Sidious' top stooge."

"Exactly," Maladi hissed. "The Force made a weapon it could not control! Yet that is how it chose to intercede on our mortal plane. The will of the Force is confounding. You know that. We both know that. Sidious realized what Anakin was early on and manipulated him, groomed him for over a decade, stole him from the Force and bent him to the darkness. But in the end the Force chose right. Vader regained Anakin and Anakin killed Sidious, ending Bane's Sith forever and healing the darkness their kind had inflicted on the Force. And more, Skywalker sowed seeds. Down the generations, all the way to you and the empress, the Skywalkers have carried the power of your progenitor locked inside."

"The power to do what?"

"To keep the Force in balance. To work its will. To touch and feel it, maybe even command it, in a way others can only envy. The Force created you, Skywalker. To make you it reached into the mortal plane in a way it never has, not in all the recorded history of the Jedi or Sith. That is how I knew it would defy me. Even now you're the Force's instrument, fighting back as I try to liberate us all."

After listening to it all Cade thought he understood best he could ever understand. "So that's why you need me. You're gonna take slices off me and fiddle with my midi-chlorians until you figure out how to shut out all the Force forever."

"Exactly," Maladi's head bobbed. "Only then can we all be free. From the Force, from ourselves."

"Is that what you are? Free?"

She drew herself straight, gathered dignity, and said, "I am very near."

"Okay. And once you figure out how to silence my midi-chlorians, make me and the empress deaf as the rest, then what? What happens to you without the Force? What happens to any of us?"

Her face relaxed into a fond, sly smile. "What happens to the others, the countless trillions who've always lived with silence? One moment after the next, they choose their own paths."

"Cheeka, I've seen a lot of the galaxy. Most people are always answering to somebody, and even when they're free to choose their paths they usually pick the wrong one."

"But it will be their choice. And they will always be masters of their deepest selves." She tapped her heart again. "You know this is true. For all the years you ran from your destiny, all the time I chased you, you wanted freedom. I can give that to you, permanently. With the agony of silence comes the joy of rebirth. I can give that to you, Cade."

He'd wanted that, once, but even in his darkest days he'd never have accepted Maladi's offer. Though he'd buried it beneath layers of anger and cynicism, he'd never fully rejected his father's vision of a righteous galaxy, harmonized with the Force. It had been a lonely jewel too precious to break or throw away.

Cade opened his mouth for another frank reply, but he realized someone was faintly touching him in the Force. It could only be Marasiah, announcing that help was coming soon.

He'd have to be ready to disable Maladi when the moment arrived. The baradium bomb connected to her heart rate monitor threw everything into uncertain danger. A simple stun bolt might take her down, but it might trigger the bomb. He might be able to pin her limbs with the Force and restrain her until Marasiah's techs arrived and figured how to defuse the warhead, but she might still have a way to trigger the explosion. He had no doubt Maladi would rather die than let anyone undo the black miracle of her virus.

There was no good choice, but he'd have to make one fast.

-{}-

It wasn't the first time Ania had been packed in with a shipful of Imperial stormtroopers, and while things had worked out pretty well at the Battle of the Floating World, it wasn't an experience she enjoyed. She'd insisted Sauk, Kyra, and AG-37 stay on the star destroyer, but as the shuttle trembled through atmospheric entry and she got halfway crushed between big white-armored bodies, she wished she'd at least brought the assassin droid along.

Strapped tight back in the shuttle's troop section, Ania couldn't see anything of what was going on outside, but she felt their flight level out, then dip low again, felt them move from side to side as though maneuvering through a tight space.

Finally, she heard the sound of engines soften and repulsors hum to life. The soldiers packed into the ship noticed too, and they began to stir in anticipation. Ania leaned forward in her crash webbing and glanced toward the aft of the shuttle and the blast doors through which they'd deploy. The two Jedi and one Sith were closest, and she was surprised to see the young man's hands weren't bound. She didn't know what good any of them would be here, but then, she didn't know how much good she could do either. She only knew that she needed to be here, to help Jao however she could.

Metal scraped beneath them, signifying that they'd come in to land. Though the troopers were clearly ready to go, none unstrapped from their restraints, and a voice said over the intercom, "All troops, prepare to deploy when doors open. Do not, repeat do not enter the facility unless given go-ahead by the Gree. Secure the landing pad only."

When the rear blast doors opened, the three ex-Force-users went out first. The stormies popped out of their crash webbing quickly and surged for the exit. Ania gripped her blaster rifle tight and allowed herself to be pulled with their flow. The white-armored soldiers had breathing filters built into their masks, but Ania had to strap one to the bottom of her face as she was pushed out into the methane-rich atmosphere.

The landing pad was a broad flat disc jutting out from the side of a great, red-walled canyon. It was packed tight with ships and swarming with people; the Imperial assault shuttle had dropped down in the center, with an ovoid Gree ship on one side and Mynock's familiar red body on the other. A small herd of aliens were congregated around a semicircular portal built into the cliff wall. They looked like clusters of tentacles half-covered in robes, topped by heads that seemed to spill off their shoulders. Gree, no doubt, and they seemed to be announcing their presence in their incomprehensible language.

The stormtroopers formed ranks behind the friendly Gree and the former Force-users- Jedi, Sith, Imperial Knights- anxiously gathered on the platform. Ania spotted Jariah and Deliah standing at Mynock's base and rushed toward them.

"Glad you could make it," Jariah called as she trotted up to them. He and Deliah both cradled rifles and watched the front door anxiously.

"Any word from inside?" asked Ania.

"Not yet," Deliah shook her head. The Zeltron's face was pinched into a tight, concerned scowl. Ania could tell she didn't give a damn about anything else inside that secret Sith base except for Cade.

The Gree continued to hiss, squeal, gargle, and click their demands. They didn't seem to be getting anywhere until the portal opened and a trio of new Gree slid outside on writhing tentacles. They started talking back and while Ania had absolutely no idea what was being said, each had raised a pair of tentacles like arms above its head, which looked to her like the universal sign of surrender.

Ania didn't pick up any official signal to move in, but the stormtroopers started for the door and the Gree let them pass. "Guess that's our go sign," she muttered and jogged in to join them, Jariah and Deliah right behind her.

-{}-

Cade stood, tense with indecision, a blaster in one hand and humming lightsaber held low in the other. Maladi watched him with dark careful eyes and asked, "Well, Skywalker? Do you want to be free?"

He glanced at his mother, then at the audience who'd watched it all from the top of the chamber. He had two choices: stall her until Marasiah's people were on her doorstep, or try and disable her now and risk the baradium bomb explosion before more people got within blast range.

He could try and give the others a head start. He told Maladi, "Sure, go ahead. Take my midi-chlorians. Just let Morrigan Corde go."

Maladi looked sidelong at Cade's mother. "He cares for you. Why is that, Corde-Calixte? You schemer, all twisted inside. You who only care for power and knowledge… Why should he care for you?"

Morrigan was still dazed from the poison inside her, and Maladi's question seemed to have honestly struck her. She said, "I don't know. But maybe it's because I can change without wrecking the whole galaxy in the process."

"Then you're free of yourself, Calixte-Corde?" Maladi sounded like she really wanted to know.

Morrigan swallowed. Cade watched her every motion; at that moment he cared about nothing else. Very weakly she said, "I hope so."

"Very well," Maladi said. "Cut her loose."

Cade sidestepped. With a flick of his lightsaber, he sliced the cuff binding Morrigan to the table. Then he tilted the blade back toward Maladi. "Give us the antidote."

"There is no antidote."

"The delaying agent. Every bit of it you've got."

"It will not save her."

"Shut up and get it."

Maladi sighed, as though all this had gotten tiresome. As she stepped across the grate to one a stout refrigeration unit in the corner of the lab, Cade called on the Force to gently lift his mother off the table and place her on her feet. He stepped close and asked, "You okay?"

Unsteady, she gripped his arm with both hands. "Cade, this won't work."

"It's working okay so far." Better than he'd expected, actually.

"You can't let Maladi analyze your midi-chlorians. She'll-"

From above, the Gree guarding Jao, Talon, and Gunner released a series of frantic noises. Cade didn't have a clue what they meant, but he could guess from the slack shock of Maladi's face.

Standing in front of the open refrigeration unit, Maladi stared upward and said, "What? They're inside? Why aren't you stopping them?"

The Gree responded with more incompressible sounds. Suddenly the door at the top of the chamber opened. White-armored stormtroopers surged into the room, pushing the Gree to the side as it flailed its tentacles up in surrender. Gunner joined them in running down the corkscrew, Talon disappeared from view, and Ania, Jariah, and Deliah all appeared around Jao at the top of the spiral.

It all happened at once, and shock delayed Cade's reaction for the critical second. He swung his attention back to Maladi and reached out with the Force to seize her limbs, but he was too late. Her old lightsaber had appeared in her hand, emitter nozzle placed against her sternum. Before he could freeze her thumb it pressed down on the button, and she speared her body through with fatal light.