"There's nothing here", Dameron said as the shuttle came in for a landing on a pad. "What do you mean?" Ezra asked. "I mean, there's nothing here. No signs of a break in to the Imperial Palace, no sign that the crypt was touched, nothing to indicate the Sith were ever here", Dameron replied. "You still have troops at the Palace, right?" he asked.
As Ezra was talking, Akan was still tending to Ahsoka. "Is it the Force?" he asked, somewhat out of curiosity. "Yes. There's something wrong on Coruscant, but I can't tell what", she said. "Are you going to be okay?" Akan asked. Ahsoka stood up and shook her head. "Yeah, I'll be fine. We need to be on our guard",
Ahsoka then walked to the cockpit. "Good news. Dameron sounds like he's still got troops at the Imperial Palace. I guess you heard the bad news", Ezra replied. "We continue anyway. The fact that Coruscant seems to be at peace is a good sign",
"Does that mean the target of the Sith is not the crypt in the Imperial Palace?" Ezra supposed. "I don't know. We need to see Dameron and find out what's going on", Ahsoka replied. He then turned to Akan. "Akan, you stay here and guard the ship",
Akan was about to complain, but the images of his nightmare flashed in his mind. He shivered. "Never again…", he thought. Instead, he asked. "Are you sure you're going to be okay?"
Ahsoka smiled and brought his head in close to hers. Akan smiled as he looked into Ahsoka's blue eyes. "Just worry about yourself and the ship. I'll be back", she said. Akan nodded and Ahsoka stood upright and she and Ezra walked off the ship, with Akan closing the door behind them.
Akan shivered, Ahsoka's grip still making a impression on his skin. He still wasn't sure how to feel about that light, kindly touch on his skin. He could sense that Ahsoka was genuine in her kindness, there was no deception in her heart at all, but still. Her touch brought him some level of serenity and peace, but he didn't know how to feel now that the Daughter's essence was part of her.
"Leave the bitch", a dark voice said within Akan's mind. "Do you really want to get caught up in this tug of war between witches?"
"She saved us", Akan said aloud. "We owe her", That being said, Akan squinted his eyes as he walked towards Ahsoka's room. Ahsoka didn't seem to mind too much when he stole the Jedi Path. What's another theft going to do to her? Besides, he would put anything he found back.
Akan walked into Ahsoka's room. He closed his eyes, remembering what Ahsoka had taught him about being focused. He slowed his breathing and ignored the sounds of the ship around him. his mind's eye conjured a blue shape, it was shining brightly. Akan automatically looked down and noticed a drawer underneath her bed. Akan pulled the drawer and indeed, saw a holocron in the corner of the drawer.
At that moment, he felt a shiver go down his spine and he heard the ship's plating creak. Akan stopped in his tracks. There was someone else on the ship and it wasn't Ahsoka or Ezra. He carefully removed his hand from the drawer.
"Back away from the drawer or I'll have Lady Phobos tear your head open", said a bizarre, ethereal voice. "She already did. Still sane", Akan quipped, noticing the blaster in the corner. He then looked to the commlink. He pressed a button to open a channel. "Yes, she knows of this. She is curious how you broke out of her…",
Akan grabbed the blaster, turned around and began shooting. The Chiss simply deflected the blaster bolts with his lightsaber and yanked the blaster out of his hand and held Akan in the air with the Force, tightening the grip around his throat.
"What does that old Jedi see in you? You're just a scared little boy leeching off someone greater than him", the Sith mocked. Akan growled. "At least she's not using me as her puppet", he snapped. The Sith simply tossed him into the wall and raised his lightsaber for a killing blow. The room lit up with the blade, so Akan could see it coming down on him.
Akan instinctively reached out to grab the blade and it stopped, but not in his hand. The blade just stopped along with the Sith's hand. The Sith struggled to move the blade, but Akan just continued to hold it, intensifying his hold on the blade. Just as it was about to start denting, the Sith viciously slammed him into another wall, forcing Akan to break his focus.
But the blade shut off as soon as that happened. The Sith broke his own focus to examine his blade. It wouldn't activate. "You broke my lightsaber, you wretched creature!" The Sith howled. "Maybe the dark side isn't as strong as you thought it was…", Akan mocked. "Now, let me try…",
Akan reached out again. This time, he found a grip around the Sith's neck. He crunched his hand, tightening the grip every second. "How does that feel? You think you know fear!? Try experiencing it for nine years!" Akan said, as the Sith began to struggle and gargle for air. Akan's anger was now bubbling up. This Sith thought he could come onto his ship and slap him around. Akan was now focused on breaking this bastard's throat.
But… there goes Ahsoka's voice in his mind. Damn it. This thing almost killed her on Umbara. Why should he continue to live? But then, he remembered what Ahsoka said. This being wasn't acting of his own free will. So what? If this being didn't have the will to avoid being taken over, why should he continue to live?
Akan growled loudly and released his grip, but then immediately pulled the pistol into his hand and stunned him. Just as he did that, Ahsoka and Ezra rushed onboard.
Ahsoka was the first to see what had happened. "Are you okay?" she asked. "A bit bruised, but better than him", Akan replied, tossing the blaster aside.
"Ezra, get Dameron to send some troops to tie him up", Ahsoka ordered. Ezra nodded, doing so on his commlink. Ahsoka noticed her drawer had been opened. "Was he going through my drawer?" she asked. Akan looked at her for a minute and told himself. "She knows when you're lying. Just spit it out",
"No. I was. He caught me and demanded I give him the holocron in there", he said. Ahsoka stared him for a minute and Akan dipped his head, almost in shame. "What's on the holocron?" he asked.
"Nothing", she said, moving her hand through her pocket, showing a crystal in her hand. "What is that?" he asked. "A kyber memory crystal. I know better than to trust primitive constructs like holocrons to keep information safe",
Akan rolled his eyes. "Idiot", he told himself. "So what's on the crystal then?" Akan asked. "Personal logs, my perspectives on the Force, everything a Sith would need to understand how I operate, how I think",
Ahsoka noticed Akan's eyes, evading her gaze. She walked to him. "You weren't trying to steal the holocron, were you?" she asked, kneeling down to him. Akan tried to avert her gaze. He didn't want to lie to her, but she was worried about what she was going to say.
"I wasn't going to steal it. I was just curious about what was in it", Akan said. "But you didn't bother to ask me?" Ahsoka asked. "I thought you were going to say 'no", Akan said, quietly.
Ahsoka put her head to Akan's. "I can sense your internal conflict. Your emotions are like a whirlwind. We'll talk about this later", she said as she walked over to talk to Ezra. Akan looked at his feet and then slumped onto the wall.
"He's sending troops and he's got a special place for Force-sensitives", Ezra said. "Tell Dameron I'm coming to oversee the interrogation", Ahsoka told him.
#
The Chiss was taken to the Judiciary Detention Centre on Crosucant. Ahsoka and Ezra followed the guards as they took him to a special cell below the main prison. Ahsoka's eyes were drawn to the faded Jedi symbols on the walls of the hallway, leading to the cell. "I didn't know the Jedi kept Force-sensitives down here", Ahsoka remarked.
"According to what we know, they set this place up during the Clone Wars after the Citadel fell into the hands of the Separatists. But it was never used", Poe said as they followed the guards through a block of unused cells. They found a cell to toss the CHiss, who now had a collar around his neck.
Ahsoka planted a Sith holocron in the centre of the room and quickly backed away behind the force field. The holocron slowly slid open and several tendrils came out of the pyramidal structure. The tendrils dug themselves deep into the Chiss and ripped… whatever was infesting the Chiss out of him, the entity screaming and snarling as it was sucked into the holocron.
The Chiss collapsed. The fore field was shut off and Ahsoka's first port of call was to deliver a single swipe of her blade to the holocron, destroying both it and the spirit that was contained within. "Filthy beast", she muttered to herself.
Dameron's soldiers trained their blasters on the Chiss as he woke up. "Where… am…?" the Chiss asked, obviously worse for wear after what he had just experienced. "You're in a prison on Coruscant", Ahsoka explained, kneeling down to him.
"Coruscant…? What the hell am I doing…?" the Chiss asked, holding his head, then he saw the shattered remnants of the holcoron. He then began shaking his head. "Oh my… No", the Chiss said. "You were possessed by a Sith spirit, but I freed you. The spirit has now been destroyed", Ahsoka explained",
"What… did I do…?" the Chiss asked. "I can explain everything later. My name is Ahsoka and I need to ask some questions about your… experience. Do you mind?" Ahsoka asked.
"I have a splitting headache… but I'll try…",
What's the last thing you remember?" Ahsoka asked.
"…Hearing voices in my head…", the Chiss said, putting his hand to his head. "What were these voices saying…?" Ahsoka asked. "…Telling me to dig… in the Skywalker Academy…",
"For what?" Ahsoka asked. "…Some kind of sarcophagus, but when I saw it, that's… the last thing I remember",
"Must've been when the spirit possessed you",
"How long has it been since I was…?" the Chiss asked. "We don't know", Ahsoka said, softly, helping the Chiss to his feet. "Do you know where you went next after you were possessed?" she asked.
"I do remember a voice… telling me to go to Moraband….", Ahsoka nodded in understanding.
"What's your name?" Ahsoka asked. "Baldarek Zenta", the Chiss said.
"Okay, Baldarek", Ahsoka said "General Dameron is going to debrief you. Tell him everything you remember", she said as she left the cell. Before leaving, she said to Dameron. "Be kind with him. He's been through enough",
"Ahsoka, he slaughtered my troops. I can't let that slide", he said. "I killed the murderer. You just have his prop. Contact me if he says anything of value", Ahsoka said, as she entered the elevator.