The Temple is older than most living memory, and carries more than its fair share of secrets, both in the areas in use and otherwise.
One thing I wanted to note real quick is that the Christophsis mission, the one where Anakin gets Ahsoka, hasn't happened yet since Anakin was still a Padawan while Obi-Wan was on Queyta with the Wandering Masters. How I'm doing it is that he was doing the Trials he hasn't done in the field so he had to stay on Coruscant, which will have him Knighted soon-ish.
Another thing is that while in canon the Force works a certain way, I'm not using it that way, because… honestly, I don't like it that way.
Also, I'm trying out something new with the chapter titles. We'll see how well I like it.
"Master Kenobi," said Fay, concealing the unease the Force pressed into her mind under her mission mindset.
"Ah, Master Fay," said the younger Jedi. "Can I help you?"
"I believe you can. Tell me, how do you feel about an excursion into the under-Temple to go and take a look at the Temple's Vergence?"
He raised one copper-haired eyebrow. "And why would that be?" he asked.
"The Force feels… muddied, I think, here on Coruscant, and especially in the Temple. I believe that there's an issue with the Shrine in the Depths, and I'd appreciate a few other Jedi to go with Knol and I to check it out tomorrow while Nico helps refine your apprentice's Form V. Are you willing to come along with a friend or two?"
Obi-Wan nodded, stroking his beard. "In that case, I believe so. Siri should be in the temple, and if you wanted a healer, I believe I could convince Bant to come along."
Fay tilted her head, considering the situation, then nodded after a quiet reassurance from the Force. "I believe that should be enough. Be ready to leave after first meal. Bring your sabers, and meet us in the Room of a Thousand Fountains."
"Of course." Obi-Wan bowed, hiding his confusion admirably, but didn't leave, seeming to have something on the tip of his tongue.
"Is there… anything else, young man?" she asked, one eyebrow raised in a terrifyingly effective interrogative mannerism Obi-Wan would swear came straight from Jocasta Nu, but, if anything, originated with the ancient Jedi Master in front of him.
"Ah… yes, there is. If I may, why do you feel the need to bring five Jedi along on a mission to the lower depths of the Temple that, in all likelihood, will be a milk run?"
"Simple," said Fay dryly. "Any time I have a mission that is meant to be a milk run, quick in and out, it never is."
"Ah," replied the younger Jedi. "Somehow, I believe we'll find your foresight in this matter quite helpful."
When Kenobi met her and Knol at the entrance of the Room of a Thousand Fountains, she hadn't looked up the other two Jedi he said he was bringing with him.
One was a human woman who introduced herself as Siri Tachi, with gray tabards and blonde hair which only served to highlight the slightly unnerving glow of her blue eyes. Nevertheless, the Force around the woman was firmly Light, and the Adegan crystal in her lightsaber hummed with the leashed power that often spoke to a practitioner of Juyo. Her sure, smooth movements spoke of extreme skill in combat, which was a welcome thing in this endeavor.
The other was a female Mon Calamari with pale peach skin and striking silver eyes who introduced herself as Bant Eerin. Her kyber and musculature both spoke to less use of her skills in physical combat, but her powerful presence in the Force spoke to her skills as a healer, and also suggested her Form of choice was Niman.
"Excellent to meet you both," said Fay. "Follow me, there's more than a few old hidden passages in the Temple that we can take down to the base of the Old Temple.
As Fay led the way through the maze that was the Room of a Thousand Fountains, she felt the three younger Jedi's disquiet, despite their admirable shielding, but they didn't show it, commenting on how a "Quinlan" would be sorry that he'd missed out on the excitement.
Eventually, though, the confusion that Obi-Wan had exhibited the day before reared up again, and this time it made its way out. "Why are we in the Room of a Thousand Fountains, Masters?"
"This room wasn't always what it is now, young ones," said Fay, managing somehow not to come across condescendingly. "Back when I was apprenticed under Revan, this room was a maintenance hub. The Temple has grown since then, in more ways than one, but…" She turned left, into a swampy area based off of Dagobah, and walked forwards, somehow managing to walk on top of the water.
After a few moments, the other Jedi followed, albeit without managing to replicate Fay's water-walking.
Fay stepped onto a knoll, then knelt and rapped her knuckles on a buried piece of metal, which promptly pulled itself open, revealing a manhole that opened into a dimly lit ladder, which in turn led into an intersection of three different corridors. "...it's changed in fewer ways than some would suspect."
Knol dropped down first (using the Force to land almost soundlessly and without damaging her joints), green lightsaber throwing the shadows into sharp relief. The younger three Jedi landed shortly after, with Fay bringing up the rear and closing the manhole after her.
"I didn't know they had this kind of sublevels under the Temple," said Bant, pupils widening to take in the lower light levels.
"This temple is older than all of us put together," said Knol, gruffly if not unkindly. "It's got more secrets than any of us could learn even if we could afford the time to learn them."
"This way," said Fay quietly, pointing off in a direction that appeared no different than the other five.
Knol swept forwards, lightsaber held in a high vertical guard both to light the way and to be prepared in the event of an attack, with Kenobi and Tachi flanking Eerin, two blue lightsabers and one purple marking their positions, and Fay at the back, the currents of the Force flowing around her with enough power to make the atmosphere press down on all of the Jedi, just enough to keep their senses sharp.
For a time, they walked in near-silence, the only sounds being the various sounds of machinery working and the humming of their kyber crystals as power flowed through them. Then, something changed, which set all of the Jedi (save Fay) on edge with the uncertainty, since they hadn't figured whatever it was out.
"It's too quiet," said Siri, finally realizing what was off.
Fay nodded. "The machinery hasn't worked near the Shrine since the last time I was here. I'm told that it's unnerving to non-Force Sensitives, so most maintenance workers tend not to go close enough to repair them. Add to that the fact that it is technically owned by the Jedi Order, and there's no real reason for any ordinary maintenance workers to come near here, and thus…" Fay waved at the walls.
"Huh. Neat," replied Siri.
"How long ago was the last time you were here?" asked Bant.
Fay frowned, calling up the memories. "Some six hundred years ago, I believe. That's the last time that this Vergence was checked, I believe."
Knights Tachi and Eerin both blinked, stunned at the admission of Fay's age.
Knol, on the other hand, focused on a different aspect of Fay's statement. "So something could have moved in since then, no?"
"I suppose so," said the ancient Jedi Master, "but like I said, most non-Force Sensitive beings aren't willing to come to this place, so it's unlikely. Something about the way that the Shrine interacts with the mind."
They only had a moment's worth of warning in the Force. Not enough for most, but for three Jedi who had lived through wartime before the Clone Wars, they had enough to react.
All three of them hurled a wave of raw power forwards, halting the explosive lunge of the dark silhouette and sending it back into the shadows, amongst several other pairs of eyes reflecting the light of their sabers back at them.
The lights flickered on as Bant flicked her hand out at the wall, casting them all in flickering yellow-white light and revealing the enemies in question.
"It's unlikely, huh?" snarked Knol, setting herself in a firm Soresu guard.
"For non-Sensitives, I said," replied Fay, flexing her fingers as they stared down the tuk'ata pack.
"This'll be fun," said Siri, coiling herself in preparation for battle.
"You say that as if the last time we fought these was anything more than a mess," replied Obi-Wan dryly.
"Have some hope, Obi," she said in reply. "Not everything is like Korriban." And with that, she lunged forwards, the Force flowing through her as she brought her saber to bear.
"Why did I know you were going to say that," sighed the red-haired Jedi, leaping forwards in the Ataru arc that he'd favored in his youth.
The Son, as always, was angry.
He had transcended anger, or at least what mortals saw as anger, when he drank from the Well of Power all those millenia ago, but the term was still useful to describe his resting state.
Now, however, he was hovering somewhere just out of Basic's ability to describe his feelings, from sheer impotence as he paced the cave he'd made his home.
Ordinarily, one wouldn't expect a Force wielder of his stature to feel so helpless that he transcends language… but then again, ordinarily, Abeloth is thankfully irrelevant to the situation at hand, which in this case she was not.
Exiled as he and his family were to Mortis (since they required proximity to both the Well of Power and the Pool of Knowledge to counter just her passive influence on the Force), he couldn't simply go to her prison within the Maw Cluster and thwart her directly, and even if they could, their artifact that could stop her permanently (the Dagger of Mortis) was both out of his hands and required on Mortis by the Father to keep Aboleth's surges in power in check.
So there wasn't much he could do to stop her beyond stew in his rage and hope that what little influence over the Force at large he had could nudge the scales, even the barest of amounts.
"I was hoping you'd be here," said a smooth, somewhat feminine voice behind him said, and he whirled to see a silhouette, over six feet tall with glowing green rings to show where their eyes were.
"Oh, it's just you. Tell me, Walker, have you come to torment me once again?" he snarled.
"Nayc, pal. I'm here to let you know that… well, we're in the endgame now, as far as we're concerned." The red-eyed man's head snapped up.
"Truly?" he asked, hope buried under the rage for the first time in centuries.
"Yeah. Fay's on the path to the answer, and she's set to drag the whole Order along with her."
He sneered. "Ah, your precious champion. What makes you think this alteration will go any better than the last half dozen that you made?"
Mortis responded to the woman's sharp stab of sorrow, visions bubbling up around the room.
Yuthura Ban, retaken by the Hutts and left in carbonite to crash on Tython-
Nihilus, plunging into the Maw Cluster with his ego wrapped around him like armor, and hurled back out, pulled out of his own mind with something else crammed in instead-
Meetra Surik dodging Scourge's first stab, only for Vitiate to immobilize her and allow him the coup de grace-
Lord Hoth, trusting in his own mental shields, which failed against the Thought Bomb-
Jaster Mereel, beskar'gam failing under an E-Web's barrage of plasma-
"I have to," said the woman, steel in her voice. "I can't afford to think otherwise, not again, not when so much has changed for the better."
Arla Fett, Dha'kad'au belted at her waist and Jaster's cape flapping in the wind, standing between Bo-Katan and Satine Kryze, showing the strength of a united Mandalore-
Cerasi, grown past the childhood that in another life was all she would have known, at the head of a war-torn but survivng Melidaan-
Tahl, just better enough at filtering toxins out of her system that she walked away, severely nerve damaged but alive-
Ky Narec, glaring up at the retreating shape of a sleek solar sailer, left hand gripping the stump of his right-
Darra Thel-Tanis, lightsaber holding out just a moment longer and allowing her to deflect the blaster bolt that should have killed her, taking out her attacker-
Shmi Skywalker, injured but alive, carried by her son back to her husband's farm, sparing Anakin his first step down the path to the Dark Side-
The Son frowned, looking around at the fading mists, with the shreds of scenery still visible in them. What was he-
"That's enough of that," said the green-eyed silhouette, and the Son's memories clicked back into place.
"Must you do that every time you need to convince Mortis to release you?" he grumbled, crossing his arms petulantly.
"It's the easiest way, since I'm not actually Force-Sensitive and I can't do it that way," she said, shrugging.
"Fine. Is there anything else you have to say?" demanded the Son, hope dancing in his eyes for the first time in millennia.
"Not really, nah. See ya 'round," she said, and between one instant and the next she was gone, only the sound of air snapping back in to fill the vacuum she left in her wake remaining as proof of her presence.
The Son sighed, then turned to the corner, where he kept a picture from an age long since past, where his family wasn't so broken.
"I'm sorry it got this bad for you, Mother, and I'm more sorry that you didn't feel comfortable talking with us about it. Don't worry, we will have the thing that stole your body put down soon enough."
He stood up, fury burning in his eyes. "Once Abeloth is dead, we can all rest."
And that's that!
Some of the sharp-eyed might have guessed, but now it's confirmed: Abeloth is the big villain. She's a Legends character with power comparable to the Ones (from Mortis).
Siri and Bant might be just a touch out of character. I'm mid-reread of Secrets of the Jedi for Siri's character, but I don't have access to the Jedi Apprentice series to double-check for Bant's character, so I'm just kinda winging it along the lines of "mom friend", and I also don't know a whole lot about their fighting styles or other capabilities, so I'm going for Juyo instead of Ataru for Siri and Niman for the healer who's skilled with the Force.
That's about it, so read, review, enjoy, and have a nice day!