Hey, everyone! How are you doing on this warm but rainy night of Thursday, March 25, 2021? I am doing well, as I did my classes for the day, and published my first two chapters of this story last night, so I figured I'd get started on the third chapter of this marvelous story. I've also been reading a lot of Fate of the Jedi: Vortex, and I'm very much enjoying the book. I can't wait to get started on Conviction afterwards, as that was one of Aaron Allston's best books of all in the entire Star Wars franchise. So, considering I have work tomorrow, and a lot of homework and projects to get started on over the weekend, I'd best get started on this chapter. Wish me luck, as there'll be a lot of feels in this chapter, and the ones beyond it as well. May the Force be with the characters in this turning point for the galaxy, and God be with us all in these very disturbing times for all souls that seek freedom and prosperity.
(Friday, March 26, 2021 Addendum.) Hey, everyone! How are you all doing on this warm night? I'm doing all right, if a bit tired from work and homework. And I've been writing hard on this chapter, already having about 5k words done on it over about twenty-six hours or so. I'm on a roll. Although, it helps that I had a draft already made for a good chunk of the chapter, and I used an excerpt from Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Vortex between a former couple in the story that I hope get back together when I'm done with my saga. Man, I can't wait to finish this chapter in a few days. Well, I'd better wrap up writing for today, as I have to volunteer tomorrow, and then more homework to tackle. Wish me luck, and God be with this country as things continue to slide further and further into, in my opinion, madness and despair.
Twenty Minutes Later
In the Honoghr System
Above the Planet Honoghr
Aboard the Millennium Falcon
"So, this is the home of the Noghri." Allana marveled as she stared with wonder at the lush vegetation, rivers, and forests that covered the landscape as the Millennium Falcon journeyed towards the planet's sacred Clean Lands. She could feel the incredible life teeming off the world, and sense the many curious feelings emanating from many primitive animals and whatever Noghri were in the vicinity. And most of those thoughts were directed at them.
"We'll certainly make a big entrance when we make it to the village of Nystao." Allana reported to her grandmother, before mock-glumly pouting, "So much for keeping a low profile."
Leia Organa Solo, Jedi Master and master diplomat, nodded, "I think a low profile was out of the question for us, dear. Let's just hope that all our forces will make it in time to make a difference against the Neo Death Watch."
"Considering we're about to go up against an army of those renegade bucket heads, I think we'll need all the help we can get." Han Solo, longtime ex-smuggler and captain of the Millennium Falcon bitterly shook his head. After fifteen years of semi-retirement alongside his wife of seventy-eight years, he was not looking forward to facing off against any army of fanatics and their Sith overseers.
Though, that could be the old man in him talking, or even his bitterness towards Edaan for drawing his family and the Jedi Order into his insane mission of redemption for Vestara Khai.
Why that brilliant boy believed that Sith smooka could be redeemed, after she tried to kill nearly every member of his family more times than he could count, and even cost him an eye was beyond him. Even Leia, normally a woman who tried to see the best in all people, agreed with him on his cold assessment of her that she deserved death.
Dire circumstances be damned, she never should have led an ambush on the Falcon in the Coruscant Jedi Temple all those years ago. But it was too late to change the past, all he could do now was prepare for her final betrayal before he put a blaster bolt in-between her eyes.
And the same went for her Neo Death Watch lackey Mirta Gev, alliance with her grandfather, Mandalore Boba Fett be damned. He still vividly remembered how she tortured him all those years ago when the Qrephs captured him and tried their economic takeover of the entire galaxy, all in the name of a cure they never intended to produce.
Sensing her grandfather's fuming desire for vengeance through the Force, Allana, eager to steer him away from such self-destructive fantasies, compassionately asked both her grandparents, "Was it like this for you when you last came to this world? You know, when you released the Noghri from their service to you eighteen years ago?"
"What are you talking about, Allana? Weren't you there with us for that?" Leia curiously asked her, snapping Han out of his imagination to chuckle at his wife's forgetfulness.
"Man, and people say my memory's starting to go from old age." Han joked while shaking his head before reminding her, "She wasn't with us that time because the Noghri would have picked up her scent and realized she was our granddaughter."
Before anyone could comment or issue a well-deserved remark, a male voice came through the ship's intercom. "Millennium Falcon, this is the Intrepid. The Nystao Spaceport is hailing us. They're requesting to speak with you and Master Organa Solo before we land."
Recognizing the voice as belonging to Javon Thewles, husband of Jedi Knight Seha Dorvald, commander in the Galactic Alliance Security division, and longtime friend of the Solos from his time protecting Allana, Leia thanked him, "Thank you, Commander. We'll take it right away."
"Still as stiff as ever, isn't he? No wonder he and Wynn get along so well." Han shook his head as the Falcon came up alongside the bulky and heavily armed Bantha-class assault shuttle Intrepid. Carrying the Galactic Alliance's covert ambassadors, Wynn Dorvan and his wife, Desha Lorn Dorvan as a pretext for the Noghri aiding the fight against the One Sith and their spies embedded within the Galactic Alliance, its protection was of the utmost importance for the free galaxy.
"Leave him alone, Grandpa. He's had enough grief on his plate lately from the inquiries and hearings for his marriage to Seha." Allana scolded him.
"And how exactly do you know that?" Han curiously raised an eyebrow at the defense.
"I watch the HoloNet every day to stay informed, and I make sure to keep in touch with my friends."
Twenty Minutes Later
On Shedu Maad
Within the Jedi Temple
Inside the SoroSuub Horizon-class Star Yacht Jade Shadow
"How did you find this?" Luke ghastly asked Kyle and Jaden after they shared with him a holographic depiction of the Sith transmitter hidden within the Temple's gardens. To have the Sith strike so subtly and painfully within the Jedi Order's headquarters, it made Luke sick with fear and anger that it nearly made him lose control of his breathing.
This was far beyond the skill of a few agents or traitorous staff members. It had to be a very powerful and experienced Jedi that could conceal their secret allegiance to the Dark Side.
How could anyone within the Order have decided to betray them for the Sith?
"We both have a bit of experience with the Dark Side, as you well know." Kyle reminded Luke before seriously answering, "Edaan had a hunch that someone was feeding information within the Temple to the Sith. He told me after we liberated Kesh, and I had Jaden look into it."
"And you did all of this just on a hunch?"
"No. We did this because what Edaan said rang too true to me. We suffered too many setbacks against the Lost Tribe to simply attribute them to chance. And many of our staff have been acting strangely for the last couple years. I agreed with him that something didn't add up and decided to trust him on this one."
"Just like you always did, and like you did now with the fate of the galaxy." Luke chuckled, earning brief smirks from the two before Kyle elaborated,
"We didn't tell anyone else to avoid sowing disunity within the Order, or risk tipping any possible moles off to us. Better to take a few extra precautions in case it did pan out."
"Then I believe you made the right call." Luke nodded. "But the question now is this: what are we going to do about it? There are only a few dozen people we can trust with this, and most of them are spread halfway across the galaxy."
"Maybe even less than that number." Jaden reluctantly admitted to both of them, something in his tone betraying a fear he never showed to anyone, not even in his lowest point of self-doubt after the Second Galactic Civil War.
"What do you mean?" Luke asked.
"I mean, there's a chance the mole might not even know they're one. They could be a clone, preprogrammed with all their memories but with hidden programming." Jaden elaborated. "Like… I almost was."
"What are you talking about?" Luke suspiciously questioned, with Kyle eyeing his first pupil with a concerned glance.
"Do you remember eighteen years ago, when I was tracking Soldier and the rest of the rogue clones that escaped from Thrawn's hidden lab?" Jaden began. "Well, it turns out that when we reached the Rakatan station that imprisoned Mother, we were ambushed by the surviving Umbaran mercenary that could suppress the Force, and," He hesitated her before he steeled himself, and admitted, "another clone of me."
"You never told us of this, Jaden." Kyle grimly reminded him.
"I didn't know about the second clone until twelve years ago. That was when I confronted Marr about it, and he told me everything. He said that the clone hooked me up to a device, and it killed my first body."
If the wide eyes and hung-open jaws were any indication, neither Jedi Master was prepared for such a revelation. Kyle hoarsely whispered, "What? Then how…" slowly, he put the pieces together and realized, "They somehow transferred your memories and consciousness into the clone's body."
"Yeah, but the procedure wiped away the clone's mind in the process." Jaden then sadly held his right hand and flexed his three prosthetic fingers. "And to fool me, Marr cut open my new fingers and lied to me."
"And you suspected nothing? Didn't question Marr on anything?" Luke incredulously pressed.
"I did. Many times, in fact. But every time he did, he deflected the question. I suspect he was ashamed of it, but he didn't want to take any chances. It was only just before he went off on his final mission that he confessed everything. I think he knew he wasn't coming back and wanted to come clean before Daala got her hands on him."
"I told Edaan about it, but I asked him to keep it a secret. I didn't want to put you in a difficult position, and I wanted to keep helping the Jedi in every way I could." Jaden confessed.
Rubbing his tired eyes, Kyle ordered Jaden, "We can't afford to take any chances with this. We need to bring Master Cilghal into our group, and you need to let her run whatever tests she decides are best for you. Consider it a proper punishment for making Edaan keep a secret of this magnitude, and a precaution if there's any remnants of Sith programming still embedded within you."
Twenty Minutes Later
On Falleen
Within the Xoma Plains
Inside Resistance Safe House 145
Aboard the Justice's Cold Grip
"We're getting a transmission. It's from the Pre Vizsla, Gev and Kitai's flagship." Akku cautiously warned Ben, with Artoo blaring in alarm before the human shushed him.
"Last chance to back out, Skywalker." Robonino warned him with complete seriousness. "No telling what kind of tricks they'll have in store for us."
"Maybe so, but I can't give up without one last fight. Not with everything riding on the line with this. Besides, with all the modifications this ship has, and the Wraiths' tricks they taught us, we'll know when they try anything." Ben reminded them, hiding the sheer waves of nervousness that were about to burst out.
"You need to go, now." He showed Edaan's two friends the door.
"I'll stay right outside and listening in, just in case she tries anything." Akku told Ben as he led Robonino out of the room.
As soon as the doors slid shut, Ben let out a large breath he did not know he was holding, and told Artoo, "All right, buddy. Patch it through."
Lowly whistling in affirmation, Ben's longtime friend projected a ten-inch projection of two women.
The first one to come into focus was a woman in her mid-forties. She had a sandy-gold Mandalorian armor, tanned skin, and hatefully glared at the Skywalker heir. That was Mirta Gev, Boba Fett's granddaughter, and one of the few people with a legitimate vibroaxe to grind against Ben after he did nothing to stop Jacen's torture and death of her mother, Ailyn Vel. She must have come in support of her friend, which touched him in how Vestara had a friend after all she had been through. Even so, Ben was not looking forward to this meeting even more now.
But the next hologram, the one that made his heart pound beneath his chest, and made his breath slip away, was Darth Kitai, the woman who once, still, even, held Ben's heart from when she was Vestara Khai. And she had matured much in the last fifteen years, if her body's beautiful and tall complexion was anything to attest to it.
From her long flowing brown hair now kept in a simple ponytail instead of her former braid, her height of being a couple inches greater than Mirta's, and her light body armor reminiscent of the ancient Sith, but with several modern weapons in blaster pistols, poison darts, and what Ben recognized as a cortosis knife.
But her eyes, gone were the love, warmth, and conflict she once held in her brown orbs. Instead, her eyes were blazing orange that signified her full allegiance to the Dark Side, and it nearly drove Ben to tears.
Staring at his first love with tears forming in his eyes at the suspicion and resentment blaring through the Force, Ben found himself at a loss for words before he whispered, "Ves."
After a few moments, Kitai sneered as she asked, "You said you wanted to talk, Skywalker. Well? You gonna waste our time with being sentimental?"
Recovering his composure, with a little help from an electric prod from Artoo, Ben snarkily reminisced, "I see that you've still got your sharp tongue, Ves."
"Coming from you after all the times you tried to kill me, that doesn't mean much." The Sith Lady sneered. "And in case you hadn't heard from your order's vaunted prodigy knight, it's Kitai now. Darth Kitai."
"I heard. But I… I owe you too much to simply give up on you again." Ben began.
"After all the heartbreak you gave my friend, you honestly expect her to believe that? You've got to be as crazy and treacherous as both your cousins." Mirta venomously spat.
"Leave Jaina out of this, Gev." Ben sternly bit back. "And why are you even here? This is between Vestara and me."
"Then perhaps you ought to get a little backup to level the battlefield." Akku spoke up as he came back into the cockpit, much to the two ladies' surprise and Ben's consternation as he sat down in the seat right next to the Jedi.
"I told you to-"
"Plans change, Skywalker, and you need to adjust yours before you fail entirely." The Anzati warned the Jedi Master. Turning to Mirta, he asked his fellow Mandalorian, "Why don't we let the two talk alone? They have over a decade's worth of old baggage to unload, and we'll just get in their way."
"I don't know how you could ever willingly serve alongside a Jedi, but I promised Kitai that I'd stay by her side in this battle." Mirta shook her head.
"I imagine so, and I admire your loyalty to a friend. But you can talk with me in the meantime, and perhaps you can learn something new from me." Akku suggested.
Seeing Akku's opportunity here to plant seeds of doubt in Mirta's mind, Ben carried on that train of thought by suggesting, "He's right. And I'm sure neither of you want the Sith to learn of this meeting, especially with the difficult situation that Kitai's under."
Eyes narrowing at Ben's brazen threat, Kitai's orange-yellow eyes narrowed, "Edaan told you what he tried to do to me back on Kesh."
"Yes. He told me everything, including the key to ending the torment you've been under from the memories he implanted inside your spirit. They're going to show you that you're not as far gone as you think, and they'll lead you back to the Light."
"You honestly think that you or Edaan will redeem me, when you, your hypocritical family, and your entire order of idealistic fools tried to kill me countless times, and ruined my homeworld?" Kitai laughed with such force, she almost had to hold her sides from the resulting pain. "You've gotten softer than I thought if you think I'll go back to that naïve fool of a teenage girl and Sith Apprentice."
"I never thought you were naïve, Ves." Ben earnestly admitted. "Inexperienced with the greater galaxy, perhaps, but not a fool. You were too cunning and sharp for me to slip anything past you for long."
"Flattery will get you nowhere with me, Skywalker." Kitai smirked before she kindly told Mirta, "Go talk with Seii. Maybe you can learn something from him after all."
Cautiously glaring at the Jedi, Mirta nodded at the Sith before she disappeared from view, and Akku's holocom began to buzz.
Taking that as his cue to leave, he nodded to Ben, "Good luck, Skywalker. You're gonna need it."
After Akku walked out of earshot, Kitai seductively gloated, "Believe me, when I get my hands on you, I'm so going to enjoy breaking and forging you to my will, Ben. Then you'll finally be all mine, just like we should have been all those years ago."
She still loves me. Ben realized, even as old hormonal impulses he long suppressed raged through him at the titillating tone in Kitai's voice. That filled him with hope that he could still finish what Edaan set in motion.
Managing to rein in the storm of emotions that battled to get out, Ben ardently shook his head. "I can't do that, Ves. I won't, not after I saw what it did to my cousin and so many others. And especially not after seeing what the Dark Side did to you after, after I pushed you away at your darkest hour, when you needed a loved one to be there for you more than ever."
"But you don't have to live in the dark anymore. This time, you've got more people than ever willing to fight for Vestara Khai. And none of us aren't going to give up until the job's done for good."
"And just how do you expect to do that, when you're trapped between an army of Sith and our loyal allies." Kitai jested.
"You've been having a lot of strange dreams lately, haven't you, Ves?" Ben asked, suddenly switching topics. "Seeing plenty of places you haven't seen before, and seeing people you don't even recognize, yes?"
"There's a good reason for these visions. Something that Edaan told me to tell you when I had the chance." Ben elaborated.
"When he mentally assaulted you just before you fled Kesh, he wasn't trying to brainwash you like you assumed. Instead, he was trying to implant in you a few key memories and pieces of knowledge that he gathered from his studies and travels. Vital memories that encouraged him to keep on this path of redemption he set for you."
"And just how 'vital' were these supposes facts that he discovered, Ben?" Kitai mockingly asked. But somehow, beneath her angry tone, Ben sensed a measure of conflict and curiosity within her. And he knew she was hopeful to a solution to the visions that plagued her.
"They showed how many Sith came over to the Light when given the opportunity, a lot of them once wholly dedicated to the Dark Side and their own Sith empires, and even how a handful of Jedi and Sith fell in love together to form families of their own." Ben answered, causing a jolt of recognition within Kitai.
"I would choose your next words very carefully, Skywalker." She warned him. "I very much want to bring you in alive. It would truly hurt me if I had to punish you more than necessary when I capture you. But if it comes down to it, then it doesn't have to be in one whole piece, I'm sure my master would understand."
She then maliciously smirked and added, "Or perhaps I'll punish young Edaan for your insolence instead. I do owe him a great deal for when he allowed his traitor of a lover and her fellow confederates to take over Kesh and ally with your Jedi Order."
Pushing back his anger at the thinly veiled threat, Ben empathetically pleaded with her, "You want the dreams to end, Ves, don't you? Then you'd better listen to me, because Edaan told me how they can end for you, for good."
"What? By coming back over to the Light Side, I assume? I don't think that's a good option for either of us. Not after Natua and Bazel paid for both of my betrayals."
He knew that the verbal jabs were meant to keep Ben emotionally off-balance and sap him of his hope, but they still hurt all the same. Those wounds were still freshly reopened, but he knew that they would only heal when he could save her from the darkness from consuming her last spark of goodness.
Even so, he forced himself to not let the insults visually affect him as he acknowledged, "Perhaps not yet. But the answer is for you to meditate as a Jedi would, and allowing the Force to flow through you, unimpeded by any dark emotion or malicious intent."
"Ah, so you want me to be a Jedi in all but name. How droll."
"You wouldn't be the first Sith to do this. According to ancient records, before he became the Emperor's Wrath, Scourge listened to Revan, and did the exact same advice that I gave you. And that quickly let him have a vision of the Hero of Tython killing Vitiate, allowing him the knowledge he needed to survive the next three hundred years."
"And yet, Revan's advice led to him being betrayed by Scourge, and the death of Jedi legend Meetra Surik and his own capture. That there set the stage for so many deaths and miseries after Revan took over and overhauled his little Revanite cult. You really have to pick advice more carefully, Ben." Kitai mockingly rebutted, a sardonic smirk playing on her lips as she crossed her arms.
"Well, no story's perfect." Ben reluctantly acknowledged with a shrug of his shoulders, before he implored her, "Just listen to me, if no other time in your life, this one last time."
"And if I refuse? What then?"
"Then you'll continue to suffer from these dreams, up until the point where you reach the point of insanity, and it's uncovered by the rest of your fellow Sith, and you're either made a pariah or outright destroyed. This is your last chance to fully determine your path, whether it be for evil or for good."
"And then what? Join your vaunted Jedi Order? After all I've done to them and the galaxy, you truly think they'd welcome me back in there with open arms? We've had this little dance before, Ben."
"You don't have to be a Jedi or Sith to use the Force, Ves, or even to be a good or evil person." Ben told her, before sadly admitting, "I only wish I realized that with you when you asked me that if I ever didn't want to be a Jedi when I was growing up. Then maybe, just maybe, we could have started over as something else, not Jedi or Sith, but just as people, and you wouldn't have been thrusted onto this dark path for all these years."
Something in Kitai's eyes softened, if only by a miniscule degree, but she sadly smiled while she shook her head, "It's too late for me, Ben. I've gone too far back into the Dark Side to lose my way now. All that you can do to save me and be with me is to join me as a Sith."
"I can't do that, Ves, I won't, not all after all the suffering so many followers of the Dark Side brought to the galaxy." Ben sadly denied, before earnestly continuing, "All I can do for you now is keep my hope alive for your redemption and give you a way out from the Sith when you decide otherwise."
"And if I stay with the One Sith? What will you do to me?"
"Then we keep fighting again until one of us dies. But I'll have no choice but to kill you to set you free from your suffering and save the galaxy from the Sith."
"That's not exactly leaving me with many options, Ben."
"After everything you've done, it's the best you're going to get. But no matter what, know that I will always love you, and if I do have to kill you, it will break my heart for good."
Vestara stared into her beloved's eyes, as if she could sensing the strength of his convictions before she, fighting back the renewed heartbreak she felt when she first left Ben for the One Sith, painfully uttered every word, "Then you'll have to wait until you die, Jedi Ben Skywalker. I'm afraid that I'm not going to answer that prayer. And Edaan won't be here to help you, not with the come he's in."
"So, your One Sith order did try to break his mind." Ben angrily realized, temper flaring before he reined it in. "Was it Phasma?"
"The truth won't do you any good, Ben. You can't stop him even if you had the means. But if you really want to know the truth, just ask your little spy in Sabine Wren."
Catching him off-guard, Kitai flashed her pure white teeth before adding, "Oh, yes, Mirta and I figured it out, and we've driven her into silence after her last transmission. But don't worry too much. She's safe for now. I kept my word that I'd leave her alone for the time being."
"I'm surprised you'd offer her that, with the stakes so high for both our sides." Ben observed.
"I didn't have much of a choice. But that will end soon enough, as soon as I unravel the truth of Edaan's schemes."
"His schemes aren't like a typical Sith's, Ves. He just wants to show you that you're not as alone as you think; and that you can follow the same path as your ancestor when she walked away from the Dark Side."
That was not a remark Kitai was expecting, not if her small gasp was any indication, and when she suspiciously asked, "What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about Sith Saber Orielle Kitai and Jedi Covenant Shadow Jelph Marrian. They walked away from their respective orders to find their own way, and you-" Ben earnestly explained before Kitai heatedly interrupted,
"I know who they are! But how did you or Edaan find out about them?!"
"Edaan told me, but I'm not going to tell you anything beyond that, Ves. That's something you'll have to see for yourself. It's the only way for you to truly come to terms with your past and embrace the future's boundless possibilities."
"What? By following Edaan's advice?" Kitai sardonically asked.
"Exactly. It's the only way for the dreams to end." Ben confirmed. "I need to go before you trace my signal, or anyone figures out what I've done before I'm ready to come clean."
"You went off on your own to contact me? That's impulsive and reckless, even for you. Guess you haven't changed as much as I thought." Kitai ruefully chuckled before she stared at Ben for a few moments, as if to remember the smile on his face for the rest of her life.
"Goodbye, Ben." Kitai sorrowfully bade farewell before she ended the comm channel.
Releasing the tears he didn't even know he was holding in, he allowed himself to silently weep as he remembered everything they went through together, good and bad. As he let his sorrow flow, he recalled a certain conversation they had on the Jade Shadow on Abeloth's planet in what felt like a lifetime ago.
Fifteen Years Ago
On Helona 33rd, 44 ABY
Deep Within the Maw Cluster
On Abeloth's Planet
Aboard the Jade Shadow
"I can keep a secret," Ben interrupted. "Even for you."
"Ouch," Vestara said, recoiling visibly. "Not nice."
"But deserved." Ben put a deliberate chill in his voice. "Don't play on my emotions, Vestara. It reminds me of why I don't like you."
A look of hurt came to Vestara's face, but she raised her chin and met his eyes. "Do I deserve that, Ben?" she asked. "We're on opposite sides of this thing, and maybe that makes us enemies. But we don't have to hate each other—that's a choice we make ourselves."
To Ben's surprise, there was a quaver in Vestara's voice, and everything he had been trained to watch for as a Galactic Alliance Guard officer told him she wasn't faking it. Her tone and volume were even, she held his gaze without forcing herself, and her posture remained confident yet comfortable.
Most of all, he could feel in the Force that Vestara did not want him to despise her—and that it wounded her to think he did.
Ben felt the anger and bitterness of her earlier betrayal drain away, and he started to feel guilty about using them to hide from his true emotions. The fact was, he wasn't as angry with Vestara as he was with himself. He had let his feelings for her—feelings that he barely understood—blind him to her basic nature. She had been born a Sith, and that meant treachery came to her as naturally as breathing did to him. If he had forgotten that in the heat of a chaotic battle, wasn't it more his fault than hers?
Back in the Present
In Hyperspace
Aboard the Crusader-class Corvette Indomitable
Ninety Minutes From the Honoghr System
"So, they know we're coming." Thornton Rhal, Neo Death Watch commander grimly spoke to his father, Belok Rhal as he delivered his final briefing before the attack commenced.
As an infamous galactic murderer and the interim commander of the renegade movement in Mirta Gev's absence, Belok's loyalty to the Sith was determined by more than mere credits or his bloodthirstiness. It was his fanatical devotion to the legacy of the long-dead Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders and their Taung predecessors, and a desire for vengeance against the Jedi Order for humiliating his people many times over the millennia that allowed the Sith to appoint him as commander.
And it didn't hurt that he also had a personal stake in destroying them. After all, a measly two Jedi Knights defeated his entire battalion on the Outer Rim mining colony of Blaudu Sextus when he was putting down a slave uprising on behalf of then-Chief of State Natasi Daala. Really, such an insult to his honor could not go unanswered.
But his son, Thornton, was an entirely different matter. Always being cautious and giving his enemies a chance to consider all their options and surrender before he delivered a terrible wrath on them, it was an anathema to everything Belok was.
And what Belok did not realize was that his son was a grave doubter of the Neo Death Watch and their Sith overseers. Why should they allow the Sith and Jedi to dictate their future for eternity? They should be able to stand on their own and chart their own course, just as Venku Skirata had preached for many decades before the Civil War began. After all, Mandalore the Preserver tried to do the same for his people before his legacy failed. But even so, that did not mean his goals were not worth fulfilling.
Belok's stern and grave voice interrupted his reflections, "Yes. It changes nothing. You will destroy the Solos and Dorvans before they can complete their plans. And teach the Noghri the ultimate price for aiding our enemies."
"You mean by unleashing a biological payload on the population and leaving their homeworld a wasteland for a second time in the last century. All to protect the aruetiise senators on the Sith's payroll." Thornton disapprovingly reminded him.
"We have our orders, son. And you know that we cannot allow any dissent to fester amongst anyone." Belok reminded him.
Did you come up with that all by yourself, or was it a lesson you learnt from that shabla di'kut, Daala or your dar'jettimasters? Thornton scathingly thought before he bit out, "I understand, Buir."
"Good. Report back to me once you retreat from the system. Deliver glory to your family and the Neo Death Watch, Son." Belok ordered before cutting the transmission feed.
Oh, I'll do more than deliver simple glory or vengeance before the day's over, father. Thornton silently swore. He long wanted to excise himself from his demented father's influence and restore true honor to the Rhal name. And deciding to ally himself with the Mandalorian Protectors and Jedi Order was going to be a damned good start!
Now, to check up on his covert agent and see what dirt he was able to get on the Sith's highest-ranking agents. After all, there really was no sense in going over to the Jedi with nothing to offer them, especially not with all the bad blood between the Order and Mando'ade.
On Bastion
Within the Imperial Headquarters
Inside the Urgent Care Medical Center
After hearing dozens of debriefings on the Empire's precarious state from ambassadors, military commanders, and civilian administrators, Jagged Fel was just about ready to retire for the night alongside his wife and try to get a few hours of much-needed sleep. And then the tumult of their shared duties would resume again for at least another eighteen hours.
But before he called it a day, he had one last responsibility to attend to, and it was one he needed to take a personal approach to in order to rectify one of Daala's gravest atrocities.
Dr. Thalleus Tharn, chair of xenopsychiatric medicine at the Greater Coruscant University, a clandestine ally of the Jedi Order, and a household name after his legendary kick to the groin of Jedi Knight Sothais Saar at the end of Daala's mad siege on the Jedi Temple near the end of her rule of the Galactic Alliance, was preparing to thaw out the first of Daala's carbonite prisoners.
Thanks to a few favors Kajin pulled for the Bith, he and five dozen of his fellow doctors were able to come to Imperial Space and start treating Daala's prisoners, starting with Caedus's most vital political and military opponents, including Commodore Turk Brand, Admirals Kir Vantai and Firmus Nantz, General Etahn A'baht, the marines loyal to them, and Senators Ponc Gavirsom, Releqy A'Kla, and Ta'laam Ranth.
Just before the end of the Second Galactic Civil War, these men and women attempted to depose Darth Caedus from his draconian rule over the Galactic Alliance. As a result of their brave stand against the despotic Sith Lord, they had been captured by his secret police, the Galactic Alliance Guard, and thrown into carbonite without so much as a mock trial.
Thanks to Daala hiding them to prevent more opposition of her reign as Chief of State, first deep within a Galactic Alliance Security facility under her direct control, and then throughout dozens of her safehouses before settling under her seized estate on Borosk, every effort to find and free them and the other prisoners had proven to be a failure. At least until her actions were exposed to the entire galaxy thanks to her son and his family when he defected away from her renegade army.
That was why Jagged and Jaina were prepared to oversee the first thawing of the prisoners and begin to undo another dark stain of Caedus's legacy on the galaxy.
Approaching the aging Bith, Jagged waited for him to finish working on the carbonite slab of Releqy before he addressed him, "How go your preparations going, Doctor Tharn?"
"Ah, Head of State Fel and Master Solo Fel." Thalleus quietly greeted the couple. "I am glad you are here. I dare say I will need your assistance for helping Senator A'Kla make a swift recovery from her inevitable hibernation sickness."
"How do you figure that?" Jaina raised an eyebrow.
"Through your connection with the Force, of course. Since Caamasi can share memories through memnii between fellow members of their species and Force Sensitives of other species, your efforts will be invaluable to help her regain her strength."
"And you're certain that such a procedure won't overload her brain, or do other lasting damage to her nervous system?" Jagged skeptically raised the point.
"Well, the theory is sound. And Master-"
"You can just call me Jaina, Doctor, because this isn't the time for any of us to stand on rank." Jaina politely interjected.
"Very well, Jaina. Anyway, I have studied my fair share of research on the Force and have conversed with Master Tekli on this matter extensively before I arrived here. Because of these findings, I believe that you and the rest of the Jedi can shield Senator A'Kla from the worst of the hibernation sickness in order to help her process your memories while helping to speed up her recovery."
"Well, as long as you have a plan." Jaina anxiously smiled. "How long until you thaw her out?"
"It will take about thirty minutes to finish preparing the last of the equipment. Scanning a person's brainwaves and ensuring they do not have any lingering sickness takes a lot of time and energy."
"Then I suppose you had best get some rest, Jag. It looks like I'm going to be here for a long time tending to the patients, and you still have our kids and reforms to consider." Jaina advised her husband.
"Are you sure? I can always-"
"You are going to need a few hours of sleep now more than ever. Right now, the Empire's looking to the both of us for strength and unity with the Sith still at our doorstep. And there are more important things to worry about right now than a little fatigue I may have." Jaina reminded him.
Pecking his lips, she assured him, "Once I'm done here, I'll get a few hours of sleep in, and we can get back to work on rebuilding the Empire. Everything's going to be fine."
Within the Borosk System
In Orbit Above Borosk
Aboard the Hapan Battle Dragon Dragon Queen II
Tenel Ka Djo, Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium, could hardly believe what she was hearing from Luke and Kyle's covert report. First, her longtime childhood friend, Jaina, was about to help Jagged rebuild the Galactic Empire into a dynasty for the Fel family after Natasi Daala and the One Sith had crippled the young democracy. This would leave her no choice but to resign from the Jedi Order, and possibly cause a rift between her and her family, never mind the Jedi Order.
She felt her heart go out to Jaina, even as she wished she had told her herself. She understood better than most what it was like to face unbearable pressure from leading a galactic power and being forced to choose between the Jedi and duty to an entire people. She still remembered her farewell from the Jedi Order at the height of the Dark Nest Crisis before she lost her Jacen to darkness. But she needed to devote her full attentions to keeping the Hapan people and their endless intrigue in check.
She could only imagine and dread the hard choices Jaina and Jagged would have to make in the months to come once they made their decision public, and the bonds that would either be forged or severed. She also knew that she would have to find a way to have the Consortium create and maintain strong ties with the Empire in order to help it recover from its civil war for many years to come.
But the next series of reports sent far greater and much more personal shockwaves down the monarch's spine: Someone within the Jedi Order and their support staff were leaking intelligence to the One Sith. And only a few people in the entire galaxy could be trusted with this information and investigation.
"And this transmitter is your only lead, Master Skywalker?" Tenel summed up.
"Precisely. If we even try to move it now, the traitors will know we're onto them and we'll have to watch our only opportunity to catch them all slip away. We need to handle this quietly, which means we're going to need outside help."
Nodding in complete understanding, Tenel agreed, "Agreed. If it can help, I will recall Jedi Zekk, Cousin Taryn, and a team of my best Hapan Security commandos to help your investigation."
"The offer is greatly appreciated and will greatly help us when the time comes. But I think we will need more, I'm afraid. Two groups that few in the galaxy are familiar with." Kyle began.
"Grand Master?" Tenel patiently asked.
"We can't trust anyone outside the three of us and a few Jedi, but thanks to Edaan, we have stronger ties with the Chiss Ascendancy than ever before in an Aristocra and her subordinates. Their experience in rooting out dissent may be invaluable to us, alongside the Noghri once their world is secured." Kyle answered, surprising both Luke and Tenel with the radical gambit.
"Do you really believe the Chiss will be able or willing to help the Jedi Order when they have problems of their own to contend with?" Tenel pointedly reminded the Grand Master.
"They might, if you or one of your representatives makes the request to them, one leader to another." Kyle suggested. "I know just which of their Syndics to get in contact with. But before you do that, I have another favor to ask of you. We'll need your help in passing along a few messages to a few key allies of ours, including the Millennium Falcon."
Ten Minutes Later
In Hyperspace
Aboard the Pre Vizsla
Within Kitai and Mirta's Cabin
Approximately 102 Hours From the Falleen System
"Kitai? Are you all right?" Mirta gently asked her friend as she quietly wept.
"Do I look all right, Gev?" Kitai blithely pointed out. "I feel like I'm pounding my fists against an unbreakable wall, and I'm getting bloodied with every krething blow. Every time I think I regain control or have things figured out, the Force, or whatever karking gods or higher power in charge, tries to throw me into a black hole!"
"Skywalker really hit home to you, didn't he?" Seeing her nod in agreement, she simply asked, "Why don't you just make amends with him? Start over and make a new chapter in your life."
"We've been over this, Mirta. I've done too much evil to go back now. My soul's too tainted and set in my ways."
"That's the pride and stubbornness talking."
"You're one to talk." Kitai hatefully bit back. She didn't want to hurt someone she considered a big sister, but she was too angry to think or act clearly. "You could've fixed your friendship with Jaina anytime you wanted after she killed Caedus, but you both let it fall apart, and you both became bitter enemies due to your damned pride and duty. Far as I can see, you messed up just as bad as I did!"
Expecting a fist cracking her jaw or a blaster pointed at her, she was startled when she heard two calm and controlled words, words she'd never expect to hear from a Mandalorian as prideful as Mirta Gev, "You're right."
Looking at her with tears brushing off her synthskin, Kitai listened as she continued, "I messed up on so many things in my life. I cut myself off from almost all my loved ones and became little more than a deranged strill that ought to have been put down, all because of one man's delusions. Maybe I could've gone back to my family and people and fixed what I broke. But instead I lashed out in anger and bitterness in the name of destruction, all when I could've been trying to build bridges for everyone I ever cared about."
"But maybe it's not too late. Maybe we, both of us, can still atone for the damage we've done, and make something better for us all with those that still love us. It's certainly a better alternative than being pawns of the Dark Side like both our people have done for so many centuries."
"Pawns of… Mirta, look at me!" Kitai despairingly cried as she ripped off the synthskin covering her face and right arm, revealing black Sith tattoos traced in various intricate patterns all across the actual skin. "My sins are etched into me in both body and soul, and I can't run away from them! After all the lives I took and ruined, how many times I betrayed Ben, how could I face up to that?! How could I face the guilt?!"
"You just took your first step towards redemption by admitting your guilt. And I think you know what you need to do to take it even further. You have to face them head on and triumph over them, like you should've done all those years ago."
Eyes quavering, Kitai resolutely replied, "I refuse to let this doubt and heartbreak hold me back anymore."
"But-"
"Let me finish!" Kitai sternly interrupted before she took a deep breath. "If I leave the cabin there now in my state, I'll be imprisoned for being compromised by the Jedi. And if I let this eat away at me for much longer, then I'll drive myself mad and life will be a living hell for me and your kids. At least, if Ben and Edaan don't get to me first. I can't wait for Phasma to come through with her bargain, so I only have one choice if I'm going figure this out and decide my path."
Clenching her hands into fists and trembling from the effort it took to mouth these words, Kitai admitted, "I'll play Edaan's game. I'll let the Force guide me into his full memories, and then I'll see where we go from there."
Putting a supportive hand on her shoulder, Mirta commended her friend, "I knew you could do it."
"We can't do it on the Pre Vizsla." Kitai continued. "If the Sith catch us, then they'll execute us and your kids for high treason. That leaves only one option for us. We have to reach out to the Ursa and work with Sabine Wren and her family."
"I'll make the call." Mirta clarified. "You ought to focus on getting my kids and all the supplies and equipment the four of us will need for the transfer. I've got a feeling we'll never see this ship again from a friendly perspective."
"Right. Somehow, I think you got the easier assignment." Kitai teased.
As she rose from her bed, the faltering Sith asked, "By the way, what did Akku say to get you so willing to desert the Grand Design?"
"He just reminded me what it meant to be a true Mandalorian, and how a Jedi showed him kindness and empathy when no one else would have done so." Mirta simply answered. "I'll tell you the rest later, after you make your life choice."
Well, I think this is a good place to end the chapter! I hope you all enjoy it, as it was a little bit of a challenge to write this. I hope you all enjoy the advancements to the plot, and the acceleration of battles to come, both on the material and spiritual plane. So, how are you all doing on this warm night of Saturday, March 27, 2021? I'm doing well, as I worked hard on some volunteering and homework today before barreling through this chapter. I'm glad I finished it tonight, because I have a bit of homework to take care of tomorrow. Good thing I worked on a bit of it a few months ago as an early draft. And I've read a bit of Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Vortex a little while ago, so that was enjoyable. So, I'd better get this chapter to my friends for their look over, but I'm sure it'll take a while for them to work on it, given their own lives to lead, and projects to take care of. Even so, I hope you all have a blessed night, and Long Live the Expanded Universe!