The first twelve hours of the long haul across the galaxy had been a very strange learning experience indeed.

Jayden was the only guest who actually knew most of the layout, and thus opted to take first watch at the pilot's seat solely to ensure that they didn't fly right into an uncharted hazard while Azera was doing the minimal tour, with Maarani as the only actual participant.

What might have been an otherwise awe-inspiring experience was instead rather cold for her. The Vastes was very much state of the art in sophistication and construction, but the overwhelming white also made it feel rather lacking in anything remotely characteristic. Not even a hint of red trim to match the outfit that Azera had remained in, despite losing the persona that was integral to it.

Even her new quarters felt a little bleak. The grey, unpolished, riveted and otherwise rudimentary walls on the Distant Star had its own kind of charm about it, of really feeling like an old starship. Now, she could be on any number of worlds or ships and not know the difference.

Over an hour of lying on that unremarkable bed, staring at the unremarkable ceiling, and feeling rather bland herself passed before she pulled herself up and made the decision to do what she had painfully put off.

The gnawing guilt of how little regard she had for Cecile in the aftermath of her rescue had reached its peak, fuelled by the fact that she had so callously put her right at the heart of the first strike that had taken out the Distant Star. She was still reeling from her own ordeal, and had no shortage of bad feelings to clear with Dana, but now the disregard for the one who had truly enabled the rescue was something she chose not to ignore any longer.

When she did finally reach the droid bay, notably poorly lit compared to the rest of the ship, the rows of empty droid deployment racks left her feeling rather haunted, half expecting to find Cecile herself hooked up to one of them.

Instead, she was quietly working at a nearby workshop table, performing maintenance on herself since that was all she could actually do at that point. Her whole chassis had fresh burn marks all over, having turned what little scraps of synthflesh remained into melted char. Even her head looked more dented than before, though the marks there indicated some effort had been made to clean off the aged metal.

And yet, despite the attack, she was still ultimately in one piece, and functional.

"Cecile?"

Cecile turned her head immediately, those illuminated eyes flickering in their own characteristic way as she made out Maarani's form.

"Yes Mistress?"

Maarani's approach was slow, almost apprehensive. There were so many things she could say, wanted to say, but the nagging feeling in her mind was that Cecile couldn't truly understand any of those things because of her very nature as an artificial being.

That nagging feeling went away when she pushed aside all that apprehension, and instead went for the simple act of embracing the droid fully. Getting char and carbon scoring on her clothes, hugging an inorganic figure, none of it mattered to her beyond the intent she wanted to convey.

"I was so scared I had failed you when they hauled you off for that memory wipe. And then when I got you blown out of the ship like that. I'm so sorry Cecile."

Caught completely by surprise at the sudden, and yet somehow seemingly inevitable show of actual affection and concern, the most Cecile could do was reach down one of her arms and pat Maarani's shoulder awkwardly.

"You are not going to kiss me, are you?"

"No. I'm not kissing anyone anymore. Don't ask why."

Cecile's eyes flickered again. "I am relieved to hear that."

It took a little while longer for Maarani to release her hold, quietly brushing herself down after and looking up at the droid. "What you did to help get me off Sloane's ship, entirely of your own accord, well it proved something to me. Cecile, far as I'm concerned, you're your own droid now."

For once, there was no flicker. Just confused silence.

"I know I said I was giving you to Izan, but I don't think he'd ever hold onto that. He's not your master, and I'm not your mistress, not anymore. From now on, you're free to do whatever the hell you want to." When those inevitable thoughts of just what could happen crept in, she chewed her lip. "Within reason. All I mean is you don't take orders from me anymore. You only respond to requests, and you don't let anyone order you about. I mean, you can leave the moment we set down on Dalchon if you want to. Got that?"

"There is one problem…" She buzzed for a few seconds. "Maarani. My core programming is entirely dependant on serving. Even if I have not been needed as a child care droid, I do not believe full independence is something I am capable of."

"Azera's got plenty of Imperial credits to spare. I'll make the time on Dalchon to get you a new protocol package and have it installed. Better yet, when we eventually go back to Coruscant, I'll pay for whatever kind of overhaul you want, if you're still tagging along by then."

"Do you mean subjecting myself to the hands of that adolescent Mirialan at the Jedi Temple?"

That little reminder of the awkward conversation waiting for her back there put a momentary dampener on her elevated mood, but she still did her best to put it aside. "I've heard of a few droid-specific spas'. You'll be in good company there I'm sure. No Twi'lek or Mirialans to worry about there, right?"

Cecile's eyes flickered one last time. "If you say so, Maarani."

Maarani clasped at her mangled shoulder with a genuine smile, feeling so much better about herself for handling things at long last. "You're part of the crew, Cecile. You have our backs, we've got yours. Your voice matters."

She slipped away from the hold at long last, no longer feeling the need to look back as she departed the bay quietly, leaving Cecile in another prolonge silence, her computational core contemplating over all that had just occurred.


"Just to be clear, I'm not implying anything when I ask why you have no bed…"

Azera was in her meditation spot at that point, and had the good sense to lift herself out of the trance before Maarani arrived. The way she took up the doorway with her whole body and had actually looked around quite a bit before even saying a word was already a little irksome.

Despite her assurances, it was hard not to read into her question given how flamboyant she was at times. And that was just after two days of being onboard with her, leaving aside all of their other mental chats and brief encounters.

"When you reach the higher phases of becoming one with the Force, it is far more rejuvenating to meditate, than to actually sleep. That and meditation allows for glimpses into events present and potential, while dreams only offer nonsense."

Maarani twisted her lips to the right.

"Sex is ultimately a distraction from the attainment of power. Feeding into that distraction is detrimental in every way."

"Glad to know what I'll be doing for the rest of our fake marriage."

"Do you have an actual reason for coming here, or are you going to keep flipping between being comfortable with this arrangement and making it as tedious as you possibly can for us all?"

Another eyeroll later, and Maarani was making her way around to kneel in front of Azera. Her lightsaber she set down between them.

"We have a lot to discuss, starting with the lightsaber according to what you told me earlier. And please don't make this a facetime discussion."

Azera let out a long breath, fingers curling up over her knees. "Don't take this the wrong way, but you're not the first to be upset about the state of my face."

"Oh right, the 'man in red' as…" Maarani quickly bit down on her tongue. She had almost just given away Visas' identity without a second thought. "The Watcher put it. She warned me that you were going to be on Ketaris, but we wouldn't actually meet there."

The hesitation didn't go unnoticed. "I already concluded that Visas was present on Ketaris at the time, but she is long gone from there now anyway. As for the 'man in red', you needn't concern yourself with him. That's a personal matter that I'd rather not discuss."

Maarani tilted her head at her attempt to keep the secret being called out anyway. Then again, Azera had mentioned meeting her on Katarr. "Right, so you were in fact screwing him then. I guess both ways now."

Azera drummed her fingers on her knee impatiently.

"Well, continue with your story. Don't stop on my account."

"It's hard not to." She clenched her hands up altogether in an annoyed attempt to keep her thoughts on track. "Perhaps Jayden told you this, but when I first met her in the hospital on Arkanis, I told her that a Jedi had destroyed my face. It's actually two particular tales of mine I simply merged together for whenever I had to use a guise other than Kiarna, to avoid suspicion. The fact is, I destroyed my own face in the process of creating this very mask."

She pulled the glove off her right hand, showing off lingering burn scars that were faint, but noticeable in that particular light. All matching up perfectly to the red handprint that stained that otherwise pristine white surface.

"Rituals of the dark side almost exclusively involve sacrifice of some kind, more often than not from the individual seeking power themselves. Darth Lasidia argued against it, and she was devastated by what she saw as a mutilation of supposed beauty I once had."

An uncomfortable feeling began to form in Maarani's stomach. "That doesn't really sound like a Sith attitude. Shouldn't she have been proud that you ended up with such a strong power for it? I mean you took a lot of my blaster shots with that shield alone, pretty good power for a big galactic tyrant to have."

"We Sith of this era do not follow the ways of Naga Sadow. There is a level of consideration made for the greater whole, whereas Sith past have always succumbed entirely to their own personal gains. She felt that the Empire would be stronger with a leader that had good looks as well as a strong foundation, fierce mind and unrivalled power. To that end, she had taken extra steps to find ways to combat the physical corruption of the dark side, purely on my behalf. Something I only learned afterwards, when the damage had already set in."

She flexed that bared hand of hers extensively. "I have always drawn the power to heal from the light side, but even then, it simply will not work on the individual wielding it. I was content with the sacrifice regardless, and so we both agreed to not pursue restoration, preservation or alteration of appearance further."

"I guess that explains why she's still only got one lekku after all this time then."

Azera nodded. "To replace it would deprive her of that powerful draw. Her own kind of sacrifice. Darth Rak'Sakar's sacrifice may not have been voluntary, but the death of his mate and their young gave him a plethora of powers that even your sister cannot match. She has not accepted her lekku as a sacrifice, merely a setback, and she is weaker for it."

"Not surprised, or sorry for that matter. Not that long ago she showed up mentally just to say she hates me because I'm a lesbian. Hope not having her lekku hurts like hell on a constant basis."

"This is why I didn't leave any of my siblings alive when Nihilus guided me into wiping out my family. Bitter hatred resulting from deep feelings of betrayal is the most volatile, unpredictable kind."

Maarani chewed her lip at how dark the conversation was turning, to a point that even her lapse into bad taste didn't seem so bad. "So I guess we have another thing in common. Both our families were murdered by you, directly or indirectly."

"Quaint way of putting it."

"Sarcasm is how I used to deal with bad situations. Gonna take a while before I'm fully out of that phase, starting with cutting back on the bad situations. So, back to the lightsaber?"

With a simple gesture, Azera lifted the lightsaber into the air and opened the casing up to bring the cracked red crystal out into the open.

"Well, I can tell you for a start that it isn't a typical Sith forged crystal. This doesn't have any of the telltale signs of the common practise used to make them. Too many chaotic patterns in the crystalline structure."

"I mean, I did find it in a cave, so I kind of already figured it naturally grew there."

Azera shook her head. "That's the thing. This crystal has been used in a lightsaber before. What it does have is certain characteristics of crystals that have been salvaged from very old forms of lightsaber, back when the Jedi were still prototyping from the Rakata forcesabers. In short, it's not technically 'your' crystal, thus it actually has no bearing on your soul."

It took awhile for Maarani to process all of that, but when she did, she sighed softly and nodded in understanding. "I'm an idiot for not making the connection sooner. The cave I got that crystal from was called the Cave of Sorrows."

There was a period of silence. Azera took a little while to think before setting the crystal back in the lightsaber, and reassembling it as it lowered back to the floor between them. "There's a Sith legend about the Red Tear, supposedly the first 'artificial' lightsaber crystal. About a woman who weeped rich blue tears on a constant basis, but on the day she became a Sith, she stopped weeping, and her last tear was red. And thus, defined the colour of all Sith lightsabers to follow."

It resembled what she remembered of the Lady of Sorrows rather uncannily, something she kept to herself for the moment. "You just said that this crystal wasn't artificial."

"I only said it was not forged by modern means. And besides, legends get distorted. What I know of the Chosen One prophecy doesn't mention the Lady of Balance, or that she'd pick a loudmouth sarcastic lesbian who reminds everyone of that on a constant basis as her herald of peace."

She didn't need eyes to know that Maarani was giving her a less than flattering glare, and in particular hand gesture.

"My point is that the legend is up for interpretation. She may simply have claimed a natural red, but also been the one to begin the tradition of forging crystals, and they merged together over time, rather like the story regarding my face. Or the process itself has been further refined since then, so much that what may very well be an actual synthetic crystal appears natural in comparison due to its irregular structure because of rustic methods."

When that failed to settle the matter, she shrugged it off and continued anyway.

"I know very little about the Lady of Sorrows, save for what I learned from the rare times I was allowed to commune with what few holocrons the Empire has recovered. Either Atris had found her personal holocron, which means it's now in the Jedi Temple and out of reach, or it was destroyed long ago. It's very unlikely we'll ever have a definitive answer as to whether or not this is in fact the Red Tear, just a lot of debatable evidence."

"Well great, so not only does it look like homemade crap on the outside, but it's potentially a Sith artifact on the inside as well. I suppose the focusing lens is some long lost Rakata component, the energy cell was originally built by the Kwa, and the emitter once belonged to an Ortolan king who ate fifty pies a day and still looked skinnier than Dana is."

"Actually, I'd recommend replacing the emitter once you've regained your powers and have been trained to deflect blaster shots. The one you have modifies the blade's magnetic field in such a way that it pulls towards incoming shots, which while useful for now will throw off what you learn from actual training. The rest is just decent quality components, nothing remarkable or in need of replacement."

Maarani took the time to chew the back of her lips, then twisted them around a bit before giving up on her idle silence and sighed. "I could do without yet more big coincidences of fate, being part of some bigger plan is enough." She picked up her lightsaber, feeling the weight on her palm for several seconds, then placed it back down again anyway. "I used to feel like it was a nice representation of myself. Crudely made, unfinished, and non-functional."

"And people say I'm a depressing person to be around."

"Only because you're usually surrounded by dead bodies."

"How did I know that was exactly what you were going to say?"

Another pause for thought, this time shorter. It had raised another question that Maarani hadn't really taken into account fully until then.

"This Force bond of ours, just how much are we sharing? So far we've heard each other talking out loud, but I haven't heard the other half of some conversations of yours. Is that normal, or because I'm still not properly in touch with the Force?"

"It varies in every pair. It can be as simple as two individuals understanding the intent of the other in the heat of the moment, or it can be as vivid as seeing, even feeling the other as if they were there physically. Bonds of that strength mean harm is shared between both, but that also applies to relief." Beneath the mask, she took a deeper breath. "And other sensations."

Maarani's face went a shade of blue lighter. "So, uh, it's not that strong yet, right?"

"I don't know what technique you use, so no."

"Okay, let's make it a priority to sort things out between us before we find Yuthura then, deal?"

Azera remained very still, not even a slight flinch from her position. "Only if you get your mind out of your pants for once. Like I said, sex is an unnecessary distraction, especially when I have a revolution and overhaul of the Sith and the Empire itself to begin planning for. And you are going to help me with that goal when you're done with the Jed, make no mistake."

"I'm still not sure about being the wife of a galactic not-so-tyrant you know."

"You don't have to be. You're the one who suggested the mistress angle after all."

"I'm not becoming anyone's mistress. Did you not hear the part about how terrible it is for the people in those forced marriages that end up seeking out secret lovers?"

Azera drummed her fingers again, this time less out of impatience with Maarani's whinging and more because she was somewhat willing to admit that she was the one at fault, if not outright just yet. Truly a rare occurrence.

"Have you considered that we don't have to become lovers? Soulmates aren't necessarily actual mates…"

Maarani rolled her eyes in a very exaggerated way while moving to get up and retrieve her lightsaber. "It's a Twi'lek thing, okay? I don't mean in a religious way, just fundamentally. We can screw around all we want, but once we find that true bond there's no ignoring it. I mean I tried killing Izan because I was that upset over realizing that was what our mind link meant, but I've gotten over it. This is how things are, it's either you or a lifetime of vapid and finite relationships."

"Amazing, Tegama'Arani finally manages to define the reality of her existence. Ashla and Bogan be my witnesses of this monumental occasion."

"Oh shut up already."

"Our first lover's quarrel? If you don't count the two times I've tried to kill you personally, they're a bit beyond quarrels I suppose. And we weren't lovers at that point either."

"We're not lovers right now at this very moment. So again, shut up."

Maarani made it as far as the door before stopping in the most inevitable feeling of regret yet. Something she hadn't expected when first going in. "I'd rather sort most of my problems out before we start discussing the less urgent things. Mystery man and Lady of Sorrows are the priority, more or less. Until then, let's table the rest."

"Agreed. In that case, I leave it to you to ask your Zeltron friend to not be so disgusted when calling us lovers. That's twice today alone."

Confronting Izan after how they had left things was not something Maarani wanted to do. But it had to happen before he left altogether. "He's not rude by nature. And I'm not just saying that because of all the times he's saved me. I'll try and straighten… sort that out before we arrive."

"That was so forced I'm starting to wonder if you really are cut off from it."

Maarani stood there looking completely dumbfounded while she tried to find a comeback, only to give up with a sound of disgust and storm out into the corridor at long last.

"If only I knew that wit was all it took to break her down back then..."

Azera sighed, and then settled back into her meditation. She had learned quite a lot more than just how to win arguments with Maarani, and more importantly get under her skin, but for the moment, that was still what she found most satisfying about their little chat.


"Could you kindly stop insinuating things with Azera?"

Izan's belated sigh sounded louder than usual, possibly thanks to the particular acoustics of the cockpit. His swivel around in the chair only compounded how uncaring he was at that moment.

"You're the one who kept obsessing over the issue. Funny how it went from 'how will I deal with this horrible turn of events' to 'this is perfectly fine and acceptable and shame on you all for not taking it at face value'."

Maarani's hands gripped onto her jacket for some amount of restraint. "This being a voluntary thing still stands. I'm just asking for you to lay off the snark until we've parted ways, okay?"

"I'm surprised the Sith Lord has feelings to hurt."

"She's not the one being hurt by it."

The second sigh from him was more restrained. Not quite regretful, but certainly not carrying that tone of exasperation. He still hadn't decided to turn around and face her fully.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I think you're getting your hopes up. Ask yourself for a moment, if the only thing different about all this, was if Kiarna was male."

The cold shiver that touched Maarani's lekku made her hiss in a moment of discomfort. His point was clear enough. And yet, her rationale held firm.

"I don't think the Lady would do that to me. We can't just assume that her being a man wouldn't affect anything else. That's not how it works. And even then, my trust in Azera is not because she happens to be a woman, and that's what I find attractive. For all I care, you could be the Sith'ari, the future Galactic Emperor, and I would still give you the same kind of trust I'm giving her now, based on what the Lady told me as well as what has happened since we lost the Distant Star. This is not about appeasing my soulmate. I'd think working towards peace with the Empire and the Sith would be a little more important than that to anyone in my position."

She had to take a few breaths after that unintentional speech, which still hadn't convinced him to face her, to her further annoyance.

"Oh come on Izan, I'm still only asking you to lay it off. I really don't think less of people who aren't going to join in this mad crusade for peace. That's what the Following is for."

"And there it is…"

At long last, he made that turn to face her, only now the smugness had returned in full. Never before had his bright pink face looked so punchable to her.

"You're getting real comfortable with the idea that you've been handpicked by a Force deity to bring peace to the galaxy with an army of mystery people you know nothing about. And better yet, if that fails, you'll have the Sith Empress for a wife, which means the whole Empire at your fingertips by proxy. Like I said, you've gone from things getting worse and worse, to a future that just works out so well for you no matter how things turn out. I'm not going to buy that you'll remain grateful once you've got your magic powers back when that's what's waiting for you beyond, so don't try and sell me on this altruistic stint. For once, Dana has the right idea."

He rose from the pilot's chair and made his way out, all while she stood there, her expression having turned cold.

"I'm not going to become the next Darth Revan, or Darth Bane. I'm not out to conquer, I just want the war to end. Forever if possible."

"You keep thinking that. Thing is, if there really is such a thing as a 'good' Sith, then there's also 'bad' Jedi by deduction, the sort that don't actually turn dark. And who the hell is going to be ready to stop them, when there's no way to tell who they really are before it's all over? Don't think sticking to the light means you can't ever do wrong."

Once he was very much gone, she stuck her tongue out at him and made her way over to the pilot's seat. Her mood was considerably worsened for having her attempt to settle concerns met with blatant accusations of that kind.

"Like you're the one who gets to make calls on who's good and who's not around here. Dumbass."

The Vastes was on the last stretch of their portion of the Corellian run by then, almost at the point where she would have to divert off course and hope that her luck in finding the planet without problems on the way held out twice.

"Okay, long range scanners, where are you…"

That was one set of controls she had forgotten to ask about when Azera gave her a more thorough overview of the layout. The same applied to internal communications, typically meaning a trip back to her quarters.

"Oh, right. Azera, where are the long range scanners?"

She tightened her lips to help with concentrating while she waited for a hopeful answer in her mind. If it did work, then what had originally been a true bother, and more recently an awkward fact of reality, had finally proven to be of some practical use at last.

Weren't you paying attention? They're a subset of the scanner array, third row.

"I must've blanked on that part entirely, you sure we covered it?"

Very sure. And please tell me you're not going to use our Force bond to ask more of these trivial questions in future, I am still trying to meditate.

"Sorry, next time I'll be sure to pose a thought provoking thesis on the nature of existence before asking my dumb trivial question."

She got to work on those scanners. The process itself was expectedly slow, given the sheer distances involved, leaving her with far too much idle time, and thus a greater temptation to try making more conversation despite knowing full well how annoying it would be.

"I take it you heard everything I told Izan?"

Based on the fact that you ended it by calling him a dumbass, I assume it was not a good result.

"Putting it lightly. I think we'll all be better off once he's secured passage to wherever he wants to go. Don't think there's much chance of him sticking around now."

When the scanners finally turned up a result, she went quiet again to recheck the findings. To her relief at the search not being prolonged, what turned up on the planetary readout resembled what she recalled quite closely. More than enough to justify the new heading.

"So, I've been thinking, if the Force is both an entity with a will of its own, and a cosmic energy that can be channeled in various ways at the same time, how exactly can it have divergent alignments and still be the one being?"

You're about to ask another trivial question, aren't you?

"Where's internal communications?"

The lack of an answer made her shrink down into her chair just a little at what was almost certainly coming her way. At least she stuck to her assurance of giving warning that she was going to be annoying.

"That question of yours is moot by the way."

Azera was already making the small climb up the stairway, her expression hidden of course, but her tone of voice was very much that of exasperation. "The Force is not a conscious entity. It has impulses, can guide certain people and events through moments of influence, but it does not actively do anything by choice. You might as well ask how a river can source a water trough, a waste disposal plant and an industrial electrolyzer all at once, as if it had to choose only one of those results at a given time."

"I'm not exactly known for being super smart you know. Don't ask me what all this extra brain matter in these is for. I literally couldn't tell you either way." She lightly grabbed her lekku and waved them around slightly to emphasise her point.

"I have wondered why a race with supposedly greater cranial mass than most humanoids has such a strong lean towards degrading and minimal intellectual activities, such as convulsing chests and hips for the entertainment of others."

"You're still not going to let that one drop huh? Even Cecile has, and I still don't know why she had that impression stuck in her components to begin with!"

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I recall some reports from Ketaris about a Rutian Twi'lek coming into the employ of Smirged the Hutt for a couple of days as a dancer, who then proceeded to streak through the streets while wielding a red lightsaber. Care to confirm or deny said reports?"

Maarani's lip curled in very tightly. "I wasn't streaking. I had beads, and a cloak around my waist."

"Yes, I'm sure the beads made all the difference."

"In any case, I was undercover…" She tightened her hands at having walked into yet another opportunity for Azera to make remarks at her expense, something that was happening far too frequently for her taste. "Visas suggested that I use that guise, since I needed to talk with Smirged and there weren't a whole lot of ways to do that without being spied on. And I may have called her a racist bitch too. Maybe I'm the racist for thinking it might just be a Miraluka thing."

"Just assume we're all racist and spare us the headache of debating it please. I only tease and mock because it seems to be a good way to make you stop talking your head off. Some of the time."

Again with no rebuke to that, Maarani opted for changing her subject of attention altogether. "I still would like to know where the intercom is."

Azera reached out to the controls herself, actually using her fingers to do all the work rather than gesturing at them so Maarani would learn the process properly. "There's four others on this ship, two of which probably won't want to help anyway."

"Dana said she would, and it is something the Jedi should've done a better job of investigating to begin with. Izan can stay here and sulk for all I care. And well, as far as Cecile is concerned, I'll go ask her myself once we've landed."

"Ask? This is a droid we're talking about."

That time, Maarani was less awkward about returning her attention to piloting the ship as they finally dropped out of hyperspace. "She's different."

Her next draw of breath had an uncomfortable rasp to it. The planet was just as she remembered. Dominated by a vast landmass in the southern hemisphere, wracked by storms that such wide oceans brewed up as a result. Not a pleasant place to live out a life of isolation at all.

"You sure you remember exactly where you landed, nearly a decade ago?"

"Western coast, somewhere on the northern side. The storms weren't as strong nearer the equator on that day."

Compared to riding down through the turbulent atmosphere in a miniscule, barely hyperspeed capable craft, the Vastes didn't so much as rumble, despite the sensors reading off some pretty wild weather patterns. The Distant Star would have been shaking and jerking about in that state.

It was after they cleared the stratosphere that she finally made that ship wide call, cruising through the bleak grey skies over that rocky coast.

"We're just above touchdown, more or less. Might want to dress warm, probably a good time to get used to surface atmosphere again. Dalchon isn't the nicest place from what I've been told, not that this is paradise anyway."

"Dry planets rarely are nice."

She switched the intercom off and returned her full attention to locating the exact island in question. "You and Jayden are the only ones who have been there recently. I wouldn't even count on that Rodian working in the same place he was when I met him. In any case, I'd rather spend more time here than there."

It was a long search in silence from there until she finally spotted familiar coastline, and eventually the place itself. Her memory of the landscape was vague enough to make her wonder if they could even land a larger craft there safely, let alone one the size of the Vastes, but drawing closer put that concern to rest when she spotted a suitably wide gravel beach.

"This'd be a good time to say that I'm counting on you having the best senses of the group. If there's anything at all to be found here…"

"I can meditate at the top of the island for a more thorough search through the Force. If you really think there's anything left to find here."

Maarani chewed on her lower lip again. That was always the real question in the end. "I just want to confirm that what Sloane dug out of my head is true. That's my part of this. All I can ask you and Dana is to feel around for anything in the Force that would have made him decide to choose this place as his hermit hovel. It's way too much of a coincidence that we met like that."

"Oh I'm not so sure. He quite possibly just happened to be caught in similar storm patterns and had to land there just as you did when he first arrived. Just saying it's not entirely beyond reason that this was a freak coincidence."

"Even so, the exact same planet in this vast galaxy?"

"We're still assuming that our 'friend' was lying and did not in fact set it up so you'd have to land on that exact planet as supposedly instructed?"

A nod was all Maarani gave as they finally came to a halt over the landing zone at last. "Check surface stability while I ease us down."

Azera got to work on that, bringing up a holographic readout of what was on the respective screen so she could actually see it for herself. "No sign of subsidence, or extremely loose matter on that note. I suppose the ocean here is so fierce that sand doesn't have a chance to build up, and all that remains is larger rocks."

"Thank you for the oceanography report Azera. Deploying landing struts."

By then, she wasn't even surprised when they touched down with barely a shake. Even the cushioning mechanisms were of high quality it seemed, impressive for uneven terrain.

"Well, seeing as we didn't cover where the boarding ramp is either…"

"At the time there wasn't much point in detouring to a place that was sealed off for spaceflight anyway."

Azera rose to her feet with grace to lead the way down through the ship to said ramp. By her own specific instruction when overseeing the design of the Vastes, the path itself from the cockpit to the ramp was very direct, and went along the corridor leading to all of the quarters for the convenience of those that were to travel with her.

Of course, Maarani hadn't bothered to look herself before then anyway. The lowest she had gone was the droid bay, where she stopped again to check in on Cecile as promised. The brief conversation was more than enough to convince her that she was getting the right idea about her freedom, choosing to continue her own maintenance over joining them on the surface.

When they finally descended the ramp itself together, they were met by the sound of light rain, and distant thunder across the ocean expanse. Only the rise of the island itself stood between the Vastes and the broad grey-blue horizon.

"We'll wait here for the others. Not like it'll be hard to get back in a pinch, but still…"

"As you wish."

Thankfully, Jayden and Dana weren't too far behind, the latter trailing behind a little to glare at Azera until Maarani frowned her off it.

"Spare the argument, please?"

Unlike how things had panned out with Izan, Dana seemed to back down from her hostility, if only a little. It still showed some amount of willingness to tolerate their change of situation at last.

"Where do you want us, Teegs?"

"Azera thinks she can get a read on the place by meditating on the highest spot. I wouldn't mind a little company for when I find the crash site. Not exactly memories I'd want to retrace without solid reasons."

Jayden waited until certain that Dana had agreed to that before stepping off the ramp for her own idea. "I'll do a lap around the island, look for anything like fishing equipment, or signs of aquatic craft. He might have had his own spaceship stashed somewhere nearby to escape with, but he still had to eat, right?"

"He did mention that fish was the only food he had, having hunted all the other wildlife off the island I guess."

"I'll let you know if I spot anything then."

And with that, she put her helmet on and jogged off along the coast southbound.

In the meantime, Azera had been doing a broad search of the island, and only just concluded where her ideal destination was. "This island isn't particularly tall, perhaps forty metres above sea level at the top. I did find a cave about ten metres above the tideline though."

Maarani began to glance down, once again chewing her lip. "That'd be where he made shelter." She took a breath, then looked back up over the slow ascent of damp grass, pitched above the rocky beach by a small, waist high cliff of sorts. The crash site was probably halfway up the incline somewhere towards the middle, based on what she remembered of the topography.

"Guess Izan can find his own way up if he wants the walk. Let's go."

Climbing up that small cliff was thankfully not as difficult, or as dirty as she expected, the grass itself surprisingly resilient when she used it to haul herself up. Dana and Azera she helped up from there to spare them getting knee-deep in wet grass and the mud beneath.

The ascent further up went without much remark. That side of the island seemed to be well protected from the ocean winds, giving it a gentle surface. Not at all like the hard rock paths she recalled traversing to get to the shelter. And she had to make her way around clockwise to do so, giving a much better idea of just where to look for the crash site.

Somewhere around the halfway point, Azera finally parted from them to continue her own climb upward, leaving the pair to begin circling around.

Only after they were well past earshot, and hopefully her Force sight, did the two finally strike up conversation at last.

"Teegs, when we were on Coruscant, and you had just been discharged. Well, this is not what I had in mind when I promised we'd find you a nice girlfriend. I had to say it, okay?"

Maarani tried not to roll her eyes for once, despite the urge. She knew the point Dana was making, and didn't like it, but at the same time a throwback to far simpler days was far from putting her in a bad mood. "When we're not together, we hear what the other says basically all the time now. We haven't actually done anything other than stop hating each other and already the bond has gotten stronger. It really means something to me now. The only hard evidence that tells me I've still got a chance at regaining my powers in the Force."

Dana's hand went to her face as she sighed in an attempt to maintain patience. "I've always believed you'd regain them Teegs, from the moment we set out on this journey of yours. Whatever we've been through, however many times we've argued, I haven't lost sight of that. Actually knowing how you lost them at last doesn't for a moment change that."

"And what's your point? That you feel like I've betrayed you by putting more trust in Azera than yourself? Because believe me Dana, however weird things got back on that planet, I haven't stopped trusting you." She avoided stumbling on a rock in a moment that let her think about her words a little longer. "I'm still a little weirded out by the maternal complex thing, but then I've already got a Force entity watching over me, why not a genocide survivor turned blood donor too?"

"I can't tell if you're being sarcastic to annoy me, or to annoy Azera."

"Both, and she knows it. It's not like I'm doing this just to get her to find a way to shut the other out when we want a little privacy to ourselves individually after all."

Yes, you're always so very subtle in every possible way Maarani.

"And just like that, she breaks her silence to be sarcastic back, which means she hasn't worked out how yet."

"If you're trying to build bridges by putting us both in similar dire circumstances, being subjected to your brand of humour is not the way to do it."

"Yes, this is totally me playing therapist for once and resolving the fact that you can't-"

Her moment of frustration was sapped away by the sight of wreckage, sprawled out across a small plateau that was protected from the gales by a ridge further up ahead.

Grass and other plants had already started to cover it over. If any animal life had returned to the island since however, they had not used the various sheltered points in the charred husk of the ship for shelter of their own. Plantlife had reclaimed it, but nature itself had not.

She took a breath. Suddenly, she could taste the salt, seaweed and moisture in the air with perfect clarity, hear birds far behind in the distance, practically see where the fish were swimming in the currents around the island itself. Hear distant voices slowly dying out, as they were all massacred.

All a memory of what she had once been able to perceive about the world around her, and the world so very distant from there. Eight years had dulled her to the sensation of knowing just how limited her senses had become without the flow of the Force.

"It's real. The memories are real."

She could so very clearly envision the stranger on the ridgeline once again, staring down at her younger self huddled against the ship. And yet, she still couldn't for a moment begin to make sense of what his plan was for her.

"Dana?"

"Yeah?"

Maarani shuddered, then began to advance again. "Stay close, please? I feel like I could black out at any moment."

Dana clasped her shoulder firmly, keeping pace all the way. "I'm right here Teegs."

The assurance helped her climb that ridge, and begin retracing her steps down the other side. There were no freshly made footsteps in the grass to follow that time, but she did have a far better understanding of the island's layout.

When they finally did come across the cave itself at long last, she stopped again, only this time it was to bury her face in her hands out of anxiety.

"Please tell me there's no Twi'lek Sith ghost standing in the opening."

"There's nothing Teegs. Not even what would be left of a driftwood door."

Maarani breathed in, lowered her hands, then breathed out.

"Then we're not seeing the same thing."

The very fact that the spectre of the Lady of Sorrows was still shrouded in darkness made it clear she was just appearing from her memories alone. Rather than facing into the cave, she was looking right back at her, the crystal blue eyes and pool of tears at her feet the only things not jet black and ethereal in appearance.

At that moment, Dana shivered uncomfortably. "I assume that it's to do with why I'm suddenly sensing a lot of dark energy inside there?"

Quietly, slowly, Maarani nodded, trying not to take her eyes off that spectre. "Azera, are you absolutely certain Nihilus absorbed the Lady of Sorrows from me?"

The silence between the question and answer only worsened her anxiety.

Yes. I'm certain. I haven't sensed a trace of her since you came on board.

"Better get on with your meditation then. There is something very wrong about this place."

She finally broke the stare with that dark spectre to look right at Dana. For the sake of her own sanity, she reached out to clasp her shoulder in turn, to really assure herself of what was real. "I have to face whatever it is in there that's making me see things. You'll get me out if I start screaming, right?"

"Of course. I'm not just leaving you to go inside alone after all."

The next nod from Maarani had a bit of a tremble to it, especially as she handed her lightsaber and blaster over to Dana. "I'd rather not shoot or stab you in a mad panic. Light the way."

After placing the weapons on her belt, Dana ignited her own lightsaber, and promptly walked right through the spectre blocking the doorway without a flinch.

Maarani had to brace herself before doing the same, trying very hard to not look at those glowing eyes again while she walked through without so much as a chill to her lekku. Her temptation to look back proved too strong to ignore, letting her glimpse nothing but ocean through the cave opening.

When she looked back, all was as she remembered it. An old pot hanging over the fire in the middle, a shelf with assorted items, including holocrons to her direct left.

"Cave's empty for you, isn't it?"

Dana lightly waved her lightsaber around the place to illuminate all she could of the hollow. "There's ash, rocks kicked about, some charred bits of wood. Definitely hasn't been here in years. But other than that, yeah, it's…"

On the right hand wall, the blue glow of her lightsaber brought out the contrast of rock wall, and faintly smeared charcoal. Something Maarani could see as well, seemingly the only thing that hadn't been replaced by her memory of the past.

"Mad scrawlings?"

"No. You'd better ask Azera down here. It's ancient Sithspeak, the written form anyway."

"Right. Azera, we could really-"

She glanced at the opening again, right as Azera ducked through and made her way over to the wall in question.

"I decided to look elsewhere first when I felt a sudden shift in the dark side here. No other place on the island is even remotely charged with Force energy."

Her mask glinted a little in the glow of Dana's lightsaber. "And now we know a little more about the stranger it seems."

Dana moved to the side, a little uncomfortable about the matter, but choosing not to voice that discomfort. "I only learned the common form of Sithspeak, as Suroni when the Vahl fought with Exar Kun, and as part of my own private studies. This is something I can't read."

"It seems there's a stroke of fortune to my being here then. Otherwise you would have been waiting far longer to make sense of this."

Azera slowly reached her hand out, keeping it some distance from the wall itself as she hovered her fingertips over the scrawlings.

"Beware the Lady. She bears…" She stopped, and turned her head to Maarani fully. "The Red Tear."

Maarani once again chewed her lip. Things were getting a little closer to making sense.

"He knew I had the Lady of Sorrows in my head." She reached up to rub at a throbbing pain that had begun to set in. "Why not kill me then? Why bother going to the effort of cutting me off from the Force? If he believed the Lady of Sorrows was such a significant threat-"

She winced at the pain in her head growing stronger, faltering from the wall, until it surged into full blown agony.

"Teegs!"

While she cried out, she could barely hear Azera doing the same before her hearing was overwrought by a sharp ringing. Both drawing closer together, both experiencing the same kind of pain, just as she had warned.


"If you are in fact of their lineage, why are you a pilot? Three children of a Jedi Master and a Sith Overseer, all given great potential in the Force. And then you…"

It was immediately clear that she was reliving the encounter on Sarka, given Kiarna's lightsaber was hovering directly in front of her eyes in preparation for a strike that would blind her. The heated pain in her left lekku from the wood shard that had driven straight through it on crash landing was vivid as ever.

The memory began to play out again, clearly for them both. The change in Kiarna's attitude, her attempts to entice cooperation all of a sudden. The growing discomfort Maarani felt, right up to the icy feeling on the back of her neck.

"Kill me."

"What?"

"Kill me!"

She made a lunge for Kiarna's lightsaber. In quick reaction, Kiarna herself grabbed at her wrist. For an instant, the direct contact had a different sensation to it altogether. A moment of understanding, of two minds linking.

An icy shock blasted through her head at that moment, pulling it back with her eyes wide. Her whole body trembled a little, starting to work free of Kiarna's grasp of her wrist.

Crystal blue tears began to seep down over her face.

The power struggle very quickly turned against Kiarna. She couldn't even release the hold she had on Maarani's wrist while the Lady of Sorrows brought her strength to bear. The voice of warning was gone from her mind, replaced by the quiet sound of the mask's transceiver receiving messages. Direct warnings she couldn't answer to, or even respond to with a plea for help.

Maarani's head slowly tilted forward again as the takeover began to peter out, with Sorrows in control. "You're right, little Sith. I do owe you a favour for releasing me of my bonds. Be the first of my return to supremacy as reimbursement."

Her hand twisted around and began to push forward against Kiarna's struggle, drawing closer and closer to the mask that began to glow brightly in response.

"Drown in my river of tears… Miraluka."

"Not yet!"

The voice that called out caused Maarani to stop just short of making contact with the mask, right before both their minds were drawn away into the realm of shatterspace, leaving the struggle frozen indefinitely.


Kiarna sprawled to the dust in a coughing fit, clutching at the pain wrought on her chest with one hand, while reaching up to get her mask off for more air with the other.

The feeling of touching her face outright made her recoil in a panicked search for her mask that had somehow come free of her face.

It further illuminated her to her new surroundings, that of long, windswept plains, covered in yet more dust. There was no sign of her mask, but there were other figures present in the vicinity. When she tried to discern more, all she found was a haze. The Force itself was somehow behaving in a fundamentally different manner to what she knew in the strange realm she had been pulled to, and it was only adding to the growing dread within.

Calling out to those nearby seemed futile, and yet that was exactly what she ended up doing.

"What is this? Why bring me here?"

From the haze ahead emerged one of the figures. Soon, she could make out facial features that matched her own, though the attire was entirely different.

The voice was definitely hers.

"We are responsible for this. You acted too soon. I failed to stop you."

Kiarna's fist tightened up inside her glove. "Let me guess, my 'light half'?"

The other shook her head. "We are not Azera herself, simply guises of hers. You have been in place for so long you have forgotten that. I haven't."

In a blatant show of disregard for the other 'guise', Kiarna waved her off in a rather explicit way while marching ahead towards where she was sensing the others.

"I knew there was far more to her. This ends now."


At the same time, Maarani found herself in the odd brown landscape as wind and dust howled around her, tugging on the Jedi robes that had somehow replaced her flight suit. She could feel a freezing mesh of sorts clinging to the back of her head, slowly spreading across while she whimpered in the wasteland around.

"Your time in the world of the living is over, Maarani. Give up, surrender yourself to me, end your existence."

She couldn't turn her head thanks to the mesh keeping it firmly in place, but she could catch a glimpse of the voice to her left just a little. The most she caught was sight of a pale white lekku, and part of the figure's left eye, rivulets of bright blue running down from it out of view.

"Maarani!"

Her eyes moved back to the area ahead. In the distance stood a woman, her blonde hair whipping in the wind, as did her long red coat that adorned her body from collar to ankle. She couldn't make out much of the face, but she was familiar nonetheless.

"Help me! I want this to end! Help!"

As the woman in red drew closer, she was startled by yet another figure moving in front of her, and soon grabbing onto her shoulder. This time, what little she could see was very familiar, as if a reflection of herself, only backwards from what she would expect to see in a mirror. She could only make out a black marking that ran from the top of her forehead down to just above the corner of her lip, and a bit of grey right down the middle of her face.

"Maarani, you need to fight her off. She will destroy your mind. I can only do so much to protect you and Azera. Do not let her win."

"I… I can't!"

The Twi'lek on her right drew closer, enough to whisper in her ear without being drowned out by the howling wind.

"You already failed to fulfil your purpose as the vanguard of the Jedi. You have failed to defend the people you swore to protect time and again. You will fail in her purpose for you as well. It is inevitable."

She wanted to reach up and claw at the growing mesh that was encroaching towards her face, and already working down her lekku. The core of it right behind the top of her spine had transitioned to a burning cold, seeping deeper and deeper into her neck.

"Maarani you must hold on. A little longer and I can-"

The hum of a lightsaber seemed to cut through the very gales around them all. Kiarna was just metres away, a bright red blade in her left hand, ready to cut them all down if needed.

"More guises? A Jedi, a crying wretch, and…" She gestured the lightsaber at the Lady of Balance. "Whatever you're supposed to represent."

Hearing Kiarna's voice made Maarani tremble even more. Her cry for help had quite literally just made things worse.

The Lady of Balance on the other hand was concerned for different reasons. "Azera, do not interfere! You are already at risk, anything more will put you in extreme danger!"

Kiarna looked over the trio, and after some thought, began to focus her attention on the one to the right. Being the most quiet of them gave the impression she was the most dangerous threat. The two instances of Maarani she could deal with after once rid of the problem.

"I will not be lectured by the apparently missing confidence of a lowly Twi'lek!"

She charged towards the Lady of Sorrows, lifting her lightsaber for a decisive blow against her.

That was stopped short by a flick of the wrist, causing Kiarna to clutch at her neck where a new icy mesh was beginning to grow out.

"The spread has begun, Balance. I will retake the galaxy."

"I have other ways of stopping you! Your time is over, and you will not take my Chosen or her mate from me!"

The landscape of shatterspace dissolved around them all, leaving Maarani and Kiarna back in their forest standoff once again.

Immediately, Maarani recoiled from the grip, falling back into the undergrowth behind. The crystal blue tears had stopped, leaving her in control of herself again for the time being.

Kiarna was about to go for her lightsaber, then stopped, her hand shaking out of raw anger at the realization she could not in fact cut her down on the spot. Her pleading for just that fate now made a lot more sense.

"What an elaborate plan. Lure me in, wait until certain I was marked, then have me kill your host so you could take over. I'm not falling for it, whatever you are."

Maarani shook her head, trying to fight back the tears that felt ready to come again. "I'm not… I don't want this…"

"Save it! Consider yourself lucky if anything!" Kiarna reached up to her mask, ready to make contact with the command ship. "Now you're guaranteed to live, long enough for I and the others to-"

Just as she was about to open the comm link in her mask, she spotted an anomaly very close by. Movement in the undergrowth, surrounding a complete absence of organic life.

A droid, spying on the whole matter.

As soon as she span around to take out the droid, Maarani made a run for it, dividing her attention again.

"Maarani! Stop!"

A loud ringing noise went through her head at that moment, freezing her in place. Taking away the memory of what had just occurred.

When she came out of it, the memories, as well as her telepathic link to Lasidia were gone. Just as Azera had remembered what followed after that gap in her memory.

Her hand went to the mask at last, switching on the comm link at last.

"Shadow Hand, report please."

"We've been attempting to contact you for several minutes now. Darth Lasidia has expressed grave concern. What happened?"

Kiarna tilted her head around the forest clearing. What else could she say, but the simple truth? There was no point in lying after all.

"Blue Six got away. My recollection of the whole matter since hunting her down is gone. Somehow. She isn't a Force user, she can't possibly have mind tricked me. All I got was her name."

She looked around again, only now sensing a faint trail that had the sensation of being made by her escape.

"Tegama'Arani. Maarani."


Both Maarani and Azera woke up at the same moment in a loud gasp of shock before they both fell back to the lounges they had been laid out on.

The exact timing of it all left Dana concerned as she looked between them both, remaining by the former's side exclusively. "Take it easy. You're safe."

Maarani immediately reached up to cover her stinging eyes, waiting for that to pass before finally lowering her hands a little to look over at Azera. Her mask was lying on a table nearby, meaning everyone else had now seen her face beneath.

"You both collapsed in the cave. Jayden and I got you back here as quickly as we could. Izan didn't feel confident enough to make for orbit through the storms while you were unconscious."

A sensible precaution, though it was a matter that was very far from her top concerns. Once she had the strength, she made herself sit up, and waited for the nausea to subside on its own. "I finally remember what happened on Sarka. The Lady of Balance blocked out those memories, so I wouldn't let the Lady of Sorrows out by mistake."

"We both remember. My memory of that day has been blocked until now as well, for the same reason in fact."

Azera was slower to sit up, though she did make a point of putting her mask back on before doing so. The insistence on keeping it on was something she hadn't forgotten.

"it seems the Lady of Sorrows was waiting for an opportunity to move on from Maarani by having myself or another Sith kill her." Azera sighed deeply, tilting her head forward to rest it against her hand. "There are many good reasons why the Sith don't employ the more archaic forms of dark magic in this age, unless they are demented and desperate like Exar Kun was in his final days. I can't begin to imagine just what kind of meddling in the Force warped her into a being that spreads in the form of a mental contagion."

Noting Dana's complete confusion, and Maarani's mix of that and quiet horror, she ended up scoffing to herself softly. "Now we know why the HK-50's tried to kill me, and capture you, Maarani. Like it or not, I think that stranger of yours did you a favour by stopping the Lady of Sorrows from breaking out eight years ago."

"Somehow I don't think he'll call them off just because we tell him that she's gone for good."

It was still an answer to a longstanding question all the same, quite a few in fact. What she had assumed was the HK-50 goading her suicidal tendencies, despite the strange conflict of motives, finally made sense as instead being the lingering voices of the Lady of Sorrows. The droid itself had apparently watched the whole thing occur, and gleaned enough information to make a vague guess at what had transpired, though clearly without some of the crucial details, leading to all the events that had resulted from it.

The inexplicable healing of her lekku, the vision of a blonde woman in red while meditating with Bastila, being pursued by droids with seemingly no clear goal from their current employer. The constant struggle between her bouts of crippling depression and moments of raw determination.

And yet, there were still gaps in her memory to be filled.

"Azera…"

The words caught up on her tongue as she looked over at that cold, imposing mask. Now that she had seen her true face, without all the scarring and damage to it, what had once appeared horribly ugly she could only perceive as tragic. Something she could probably apply to Azera as a whole.

"Thank you, for healing this." She pointed at the scar on her lekku, deciding to say no more about what they had recalled together. After all, they were both very different people back then.

Azera simply nodded in a solemn manner. "It wasn't for the right reasons at the time. But, I appreciate your intent. You are welcome."

"I think it's time we paid that Rodian a visit. He's got a lot to answer for."