Author's Note: So this is still not quite the final chapter, but I have a feeling a lot of you might have strong feelings about how I'll end this one.
While Captain Gendu and Commander Kusaka were busy with their duties on the Elash's bridge as the battle in the Corellian system continued to rage, Admiral Iosha sat in her command salon with her eyes closed. Since the battle began, she had been focusing deeply on her Sith battle meditation with Admiral Ulaska, who also sat in his own salon aboard the Klasseu, and several other secret Sith commanders in the Chiss fleet, few of whom have died so far thanks to the efforts of their foes. By strict commands to each of their respective subordinates, none of the captains, commanders, or other lower-ranking officers serving, or who had served prior to their deaths, the undercover Sith would be bothering them unless it was a real emergency. So none of them had any reason to suspect, or at least question, why their superior officers were away from their command posts in the midst of combat.
Unfortunately, despite their best efforts in countering the Corellian and Galactic Alliance forces around them, and especially in trying to kill the Jedi in their StealthX fighters, Iosha now gritted her teeth in frustration when she felt that only three of the Jedi headed for her were destroyed and only two were blown away on Ulaska's side.
Because, by that point, the surviving Jedi, including Masters Kyle Katarn and Octa Ramis, had made it through the Elash and Klasseu's defenses respectively with their remaining Knights and were currently aboard the Star Destroyers.
You know what to do, Iosha heard Ulaska commune to her; she could feel him share in her frustration over the Jedi's successful boarding of their ships.
That was when the battle meditation was lessened by Iosha and Ulaska abruptly dropping out of it to live more attentively in the physical world again.
Iosha opened her eyes, stood up, and hurried out of her command salon to return to the Elash's bridge just as one of the sensor officers called out to Gendu, "Captain, we have Jedi in Hangar Bay One! They got past our defenses!"
"Get a contingent of reserve troops down there immediately!" Gendu ordered.
"Belay that order," Iosha piped in. "Send that contingent to protect me."
"Admiral?" Gendu asked.
"If the Jedi are here, they will undoubtedly come for me because of my importance in this fleet," Iosha reasoned quickly. "So let them come into our trap. You have the bridge still, Captain Gendu."
Gendu looked skeptical, and she could see that skepticism mirrored in Commander Kusaka's expression. But it was only a minor instance of hesitation from the captain before he responded with, "As you command, Admiral."
Iosha nodded at Gendu before she turned and left the bridge without another word.
If the Jedi wanted a fight, she would make sure that the likes of Gendu and Kusaka wouldn't be there to witness it. And if there were any Chiss troops still alive once Iosha was done with the Jedi, even they would be eliminated to cover up the evidence of her Force-sensitivity.
. . .
Despite Cakhmaim and Meewalh's efforts at blowing away Chiss clawcraft from the Millennium Falcon's manned turrets, the YT-1300 was currently being harassed by the charric fire of two heinously elusive fighters belonging to the blue-skinned aliens. And for every direct hit to the Falcon's aft shields, there were about ten more grazes that steadily reduced those shields much faster than they could be replenished.
"C'mon, you two!" Han called back to the Noghri bodyguards from the pilot seat of the Falcon's cockpit. "I thought you could both shoot better than that! Jaden, can't you help 'em out with some Jedi battle meditation or somethin'?"
"I'm trying, Captain Solo!" Jaden exclaimed from the nav seat with his eyes squeezed closed. "But the Sith battle meditation, there are so many of them, it's like-"
"Stow it and just keep tryin'!" Han interrupted as the Falcon bucked from another aft hit. "Leia, why aren't you operating the ventral cannon?!"
That was when he saw his wife with her eyes shut more naturally than Jaden's.
"Leia?" Han asked.
The Falcon bucked yet again from another direct hit to the aft; Han spared a glance and saw that the rear deflectors were down to just a little over ten percent, prompting him to swerve hard to starboard.
"Han!" Leia's voice suddenly erupted. "We have to get to Centerpoint right now!"
"You think I don't know that?!" Han retorted as he kept making maneuvers to avoid the rear fire.
"No, you don't get it!" Leia replied as she seemed to forget the immediate danger they were in. "If we don't get there in time, one of our children will die!"
That made Han look at Leia for five long seconds before the Falcon jolted from beneath them this time. The former smuggler immediately went back to maneuvers again as he asked, without taking his eyes away from the forward viewport, "Which one?"
"I don't know," Leia answered urgently. "The vision I received teetered between Jaina and Jacen. But one way or another, one of them will die unless we show up soon!"
"In that case, get back to operating the ventral cannon, honey!" Han responded. After a quick look at the sensors, he said, "Looks like we still got it after that last hit!"
"Right," Leia answered before she turned back to fulfill his command.
Within a few seconds, one of the two clawcraft pursuing them was finally taken out by one of Leia's lasers before a lucky shot from Cakhmaim finished off the other one ten seconds later.
And with that, the Falcon zoomed for Centerpoint as if there was no tomorrow.
. . .
Jacen reeled from the kick to the chest that he received from Judicar, colliding him against the wall behind him. He spun out of the way of a downward slash from the Sith before locking blades with her again; they clashed in place for several seconds before a parry from her opened him up to another kick from her. But this time, he pivoted out of the way and caught her leg in between the arm that wasn't holding his lightsaber and brought them both to the floor of the office in which they still fought.
He then tried to cut her down from his new position, only for his blade to be blocked by hers again; he then ducked beneath the foot that wasn't caught in his grip, but that kick connected to his lightsaber-wielding hand and sent the weapon skittering away across the floor, deactivated.
With a quick Force-shove that broke Judicar out of his grip and sent her sliding away, Jacen then rolled forward to his lightsaber and attempted to grab it. But once he was an inch away from wrapping his fingers around it, the weapon was telekinetically pulled toward Judicar. However, he caught it in his own Force-grip before the Sith could get a chance to slash the pommel; then, with his free mechanical hand, he tripped Judicar forward to the floor, allowing him to win the brief telekinetic battle for his 'saber so that it smacked into his natural palm.
Jacen surged forward to swipe at the downed Judicar, but the Sith looked up from her prone position and launched a torrent of Force-lightning from her free hand. The Jedi leaped over it so that he ended up descending upon her from directly above. His lightsaber, though, only plunged through an empty floor, for Judicar had already rolled out of the way; once Jacen pulled his blade out of the floor, the Sith had flipped back to her feet and charged back at him with an angered battle cry.
The Jedi stood his ground as his sister-turned-enemy slashed at him viciously but to no avail against his whirling defenses; at the moment, Jacen's anger and even outright hatred for Judicar fueled his power and brought him as much focus in his ripostes and deflections as it did for her in her frenzied attempts at cutting him down.
Once it became clear that they were reaching a stalemate, and neither of them seemed to be tiring anytime soon, Judicar used her free hand to telekinetically fling the office's desk at Jacen from behind him. But the Jedi brought his natural hand away from his lightsaber and used it to telekinetically rip the desk coming at him from behind in half, which sent both large pieces hurtling past him and the Sith.
Then Judicar released one of the pieces from her hold and sent the other one directly for Jacen from an angle that wouldn't hit her; the Jedi didn't have enough time to react before that half of the desk smacked him across the right side of his head. He stumbled away as white light was all that he saw for a moment, yet even through that, his danger-sense allowed him to instinctively bring his lightsaber up in time to deflect a skewering attack from Judicar.
And just as his vision cleared up an instant later, he followed up that deflection with a quick spin that got him past Judicar's defenses so that he elbowed her right in the nose. Blood spurted from her nostrils, but just like him, she deflected his own skewering strike before she could fully recover from the blow.
The two of them both stood their ground again as they dueled in place for about thirty seconds before each of their lightsabers clashed in a way that sent both blades cutting across the floor between them, creating a deep furrowed line that led into the office below. And before that line was fully created, Judicar headbutted Jacen right in the same area of his head where that half of the desk struck him.
But out of pure self-preservation, at the same time Jacen reeled back, he emitted a Force-wave from his free hand that sent Judicar flying off of her feet and out through the office door behind her. She landed in a tuck-and-roll back over her shoulder and came up in a crouch just as Jacen Force-sped up to her to try to strike her down.
From there, Judicar was on the defense as she was gradually backed down the hallway behind her from the viciousness of Jacen's attacks. She stayed that way until they reached the stairwell from which Jacen chased her up; she then jumped upon the railing and stomped the sole of her boot upon his left shoulder, spinning him around and seemingly opening him up to another downward overhead strike.
Even then, though, Jacen blocked it and used his free hand to Force-blow Judicar's legs out from under her; she then collapsed to her chest upon the railing before she began a long descent to the bottom of the stairwell.
The Sith barely Force-cushioned her landing on her back, yet she still felt as if every bone in her body was broken. That feeling was immediately shifted to the back of her mind because she propelled herself back to her feet again and jumped back a couple meters to avoid one of Jacen's own slashes a bare second before he landed on his feet near her. However, upon blocking his next series of slashes, Judicar once again found herself being backed away to the point that they were nearing to this building's exit.
Back to where the fighting between the Chiss and the Corellians was raging outside.
. . .
Because of the fighting between the defending Centerpoint forces and the invading Expansionary troops being concentrated near Sal-Solo's public office building, Acheron received very little resistance in getting to the station's control room. And what resistance she did face from the few Chiss she came across, she exerted a tremendous amount of Force-effort to simply snap their necks before any of them could fire a shot on her.
Unfortunately, with the amount of dark side power she was drawing every time she did that, it was negating her ability to keep herself awake and stable enough just to reach the control room. Even the bacta patch that Sal-Solo had given her just before she killed him had been reduced to nothing more than a worthless piece of cloth thanks to the dark side's deleterious effects on her body. And those effects only compounded the blood loss that she had suffered from the stab wound that Mirax Terrik Horn had given her before she, too, was killed by Acheron.
By the time the Sith finally stumbled into Centerpoint's control room, she felt just about ready to give up and die. But the sight of the inert giant droid before her somehow gave her an extra boost of energy, like a shot of adrenaline, from being reminded of the consciousness laid within that mechanical abomination.
Abomination, she thought. How Yuuzhan Vong of her.
Yuuzhan Vong. Of course. She almost forgot.
Acheron unhooked Anakin Solo's lambent-powered lightsaber from her belt and regarded it for a moment through her blurred vision, which was now more hazy than before. Then she looked ahead and shuffled forward until she laid her hands upon the droid. She closed her eyes, grateful for the peacefulness of the darkness offered, and concentrated on using what remained of her Force-strength to find a way to reactivate this droid with Anakin's 'saber.
Acheron felt how interconnected everything was around here, even if she couldn't fully understand it the way that Anakin Solo could with his own knowledge as a mechanic. Thankfully, though, it didn't take her long before she felt a great deal of precious energy being directed at one particular console in the leftmost corner of this chamber from her.
Hoping with desperation that what she was about to do was right, Acheron used a telekinetic shove upon that console.
She almost blacked out from the process, so she had to force her eyes open. Her vision cleared somewhat to something that was barely a haze.
Nothing. No movement from the droid whatsoever. Whatever she must have done when Sal-Solo brought her here before must have damaged it beyond repair. Now what could she...
She looked at Anakin's lightsaber again. With great effort that made her grimace in mild pain, she used the Force to rip the lightsaber casing open, allowed the mechanical pieces to drop to the floor, and exposed the living lambent crystal inside. She held it in her bloodied palm and brought it forward to the droid, hoping that something would happen.
Almost immediately, she felt the crystal vibrate slightly in her hand. That vibration, however, only increased in intensity, and Acheron felt the crystal react to the being before it, as if it knew instinctively that the presence of its long-dead owner, or at least a part of it, resided in the metallic body before it.
Then the lambent glowed a deep purple, and Acheron could fully feel the lambent's intent.
It wanted to go to the droid.
With another great effort that made her bleed just a bit more from her wound, Acheron Force-flung the crystal directly into the open slot that might as well have been the droid's mouth.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Then the droid's eyes glowed purple before it straightened up in its seat to look down at Acheron.
"Tahiri?" Anakin's voice came from the droid. "Why-why are you swaying like that? What's wrong?"
"Anakin..." Acheron whispered as she stumbled forward. "Please..."
She then dropped to her knees; but before she could collapse prone to the floor, the droid scooped her up gingerly in both of his massive hands so that she was lying back within his palms.
"Tahiri!" the droid exclaimed. "You're dying! Wh-what do you want me to do?!"
"Destroy... destroy... destroy..." Acheron whispered.
"Destroy? Destroy what? What do you want me to destroy?"
Acheron gave a weak chuckle in response. The real Anakin wouldn't have wanted to destroy; yet this one wanted to do just that if he thought it meant she could live. Only a droid could think like that, she thought idly.
In her dying thoughts, all she could think about was her hatred. But not for the Jedi she had betrayed. No. It was for what she had become. For what the Sith had done to her to make her into the woman she had come to hate deep down; to make her into the woman that thought that killing Corran Horn, and ruining the lives of his family, and even ending Mirax's life, were key to seeking self-fulfillment in her life.
It was only then that she realized that if there was anyone she truly wanted dead in the galaxy, it wasn't anyone who tried to help her. Not the Jedi. Not Luke Skywalker. Not Jacen Solo. Not any of her friends, so many of whom were dead already anyway.
Her voice grew weak as she said, "Anakin... please... if you... want to... give me peace... destroy... destroy..."
Her consciousness almost faded to nothingness then.
So it took all of her willpower, bolstered by the last remainder of her Force-strength-the last bit of her not corrupted by the Sith-to bring her back to full consciousness, if even for one precious moment.
"If you want to save the galaxy, Anakin Solo, you will destroy Korriban," she said with the last of her ailing conviction.
That was when Darth Acheron, formerly Tahiri Veila, gave her last breath and died in the droid's hands.
"Tahiri?! Tahiri?! No! No!"
A very pained, very human scream of grief, emitted from the droid's vocoder before he stood up to his full height. And with Tahiri's body still in his hands, the mechanical being that thought of himself as Anakin Solo concentrated on getting Centerpoint Station's infamous hyperspace tractor beam operational.
In less than a minute of concentrated effort motivated by grief, love, and a willingness to carry out final wish, it had succeeded in accomplishing what would have taken the station's scientists almost a year to figure out.
Then the hyperspace beam arrays were activated and, in unison, oriented themselves at the hyperspace coordinates of Korriban's star.
With only mild hesitation, the droid Anakin Sal-Solo fired the beam.
And with that accomplished, he shut himself down once again, the purple emanating from his eyes fading away back to nothingness, after adopting its slouched stance again.
Acheron's body still lay in his palms.
. . .
Mere minutes after the firing of Centerpoint's hyperspace tractor beam, the eyes of Darth Krayt, ruler of the One Sith, flashed open from within his tomblike casing in the depths of Korriban's Sith Temple. He had felt the danger headed his way, and he also felt the outright fear and trepidation of his subordinate Sith all throughout the Temple.
Krayt exited the protective casing, his trepidation growing along with everyone else present in the Temple. For the moment, though, he was alone in the dark room into which he emerged.
That was until a figure suddenly manifested itself before him, as if from thin air.
The dark room wasn't so dark that Krayt couldn't make out who it was: Darth Acheron, her body curiously highlighted by a red glow.
She grinned at him wickedly. "What, no Force-vision to warn you of my treachery, oh great Dread Lord?" Her tone dripped with sarcasm and contempt. "Honestly surprised you didn't see this coming."
Her form disappeared as easily as it had manifested.
Then there was nothing but a great burst of light that engulfed Darth Krayt, his minions in the Sith Temple, and the rest of the Horuset system as its sun instantly became a nova.