Ignite the spark.

Maarani opened her eyes to the smouldering remains of a glass dome. A glance over her shoulder gave her a view of an empty throne. Looking forward led to a corridor that led to the sole entryway to the dome. Further down, on the ground, the shattered remains of a lightsaber that had been torn in two lay before her. Ash and embers were rife in the air.

"You did it, Tegama. You're free."

She looked up again to see the Lady of Balance staring down at her. That smile back on her face, though it didn't look quite as smug.

"Free to show up in some random place? Where is this?"

The Lady looked around, rather belatedly, then shrugged in her carefree way. "Somewhere in the very distant future I expect, it doesn't feel ancient. That's the funny thing about perceiving the future. Most of the time, the more relevant an event is, the harder it is to discern anything about it. Thus, this is of no direct relevance to you or I whatsoever."

For a little while, Maarani didn't say much, not even having the will to stand and look around a little more. With no reason to question the setting being irrelevant, she saw no reason to look at whatever might have been occurring outside the dome. There was enough to think about given the presence of the broken lightsaber already.

"Okay, then why come at all? Why not just have another chat in shatterspace? I'll start remembering all of them now, so why not this one?"

"Because this setting is more interesting? And I did say that it was a lack of direct relevance that lets us be here. Something about this moment in time felt fitting for your moment of freedom. The moment where your inner spark lights itself, and starts a fire that will sweep the galaxy."

Maarani tightened her lips, but after some thought settled for a less reactionary response. "Normally I'd say that doesn't sound all too good, but Dana does weird stuff with fire so I guess you've got more to this."

That brought on a slight smirk from the Lady. "From this moment, you are free to do as you choose. I mean that entirely. The Following serve you, my chosen." She outstretched both hands, gesturing to their surroundings. "If you decide to bring balance to the galaxy by conquering and ruling as its solitary Empress, they will support your every action." And then lowered them back down, resting one over the other. "If you decide to go back to Ryloth and hide in your room for the rest of your days they will see your needs tended to as you desire."

Her grey marking lit up at that. "I chose to give you the tools needed to see this broken galaxy set on the path to mending itself, the rest is up to you."

She vanished from in front of Maarani, appearing on her left side. The white mark was glowing brightly.

"Whether you are the galaxy's spark of hope."

And then appeared just as abruptly on the right side, the black mark glowing in turn.

"Or it's conquering enforcer of stability."

Following that she returned to her original position, slowly kneeling down to rest her hand over the ruined lightsaber. Gazing right into Maarani's eyes.

"I realize you want to do what is best for Azera, but you must consider your choices carefully. Especially the notion of feeding her ego. She still considers herself Sith, and it has been the nature of Sith to lie, to betray, and to self destruct. Ego is the fuel of such behaviour. Changing that fundamental nature will not be easy, regardless of what she does, or who stands with her. I don't know if it can be done, but I am willing to believe."

After glancing down at the floor again briefly, Maarani lifted her eyes back up with an affirmed confidence behind them. "I won't leave her side. She isn't Kiarna, and I know that she can change the Sith. The Jedi are getting better, making less mistakes, adapting more. The Sith can stabilize, they can stop killing everyone and each other. Even if that prophecy of yours says chosen 'one', if I really have total freedom, then this is not going to be a solo effort. She and I are going to do this together."

The Lady simply smiled, drawing her hand away from the lightsaber with a light nod. "Then it will be so. You are the Lady, the spark, the candle. She is the Healer, the hope, the star. All I ask of you is to pursue balance in itself. Not in all its forms, not to see all the injured healed, and all the crimes resolved, and all races embracing one another in harmony. End the cycle of war, and the galaxy will begin to breathe again. That is all that will be required of you."

She was gone when Maarani next blinked, leaving her sitting amongst the faint fiery glow as ash continued to settle around her head. After a long breath, she cast her eyes downward again.

Where there had been a pile of crystal dust, presumably the remains of what the lightsaber once housed, an intact crystal had appeared instead.

It took her a few moments to recognize the Red Tear in shape, still bearing that crimson sheen on the outer edges, a sort of outer layer that could never be fully cleansed. Combined with the rich amber core within, she guessed that the resulting blade would be something akin to blood orange in colour.

"The spark. The fire."

She looked around the place again, then sighed quietly, having finally understood the metaphorical relevance.


"I hereby dub this lightsaber crystal, Wildfire. May it always be remembered for my days of angst-driven flaming lesbianism, but mostly the symbol of rebirth for the galaxy, and some other crap like that."

Even Yuthura couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Elegantly put Tegama. I'm sure it will be just as revered as the Mantle of the Force with a legacy like that."

Her sarcasm was quickly put to rest when Maarani activated the lightsaber at last, the fizzling red blade having changed into a clean, brilliant orange instead. With only a slight hint of red along the very edges.

"I stand corrected, it's rather more like the Heart of the Guardian now."

"Right. I don't know what either of those are, or what they look like. But if I'm going to be the centre of attention and have super duper powers I might as well have a fancy special name for the lightsaber as well. Because I'm so freaking special."

In that time, Azera had gotten around to testing her own lightsaber crystal, the cracked blend of blue and red having reforged into a clean purple. The blade had shifted in colour as well, becoming far more rich and also lacking the flickering edge that resulted from flawed crystals.

"If you're really that insistent, Tee, why not make the rest of your lightsaber unique? Give it crossguards, a blaster in the handle, a chain to whip it back to your hand and the option to make it longer on command with a rotating dial. Then it will be truly a work of art."

Maarani tilted her head with a slight snort. "Longer huh? Shame it doesn't really apply to either of us, since…"

"Again with the irreverence, Tee."

After a sigh, Maarani nodded in concedence. "Alright, no dick jokes in the sacred Temple of Balance." Her uplifted mood remained as she took the opportunity to return the lightsaber to her belt with the Force, rather than just moving her arm a couple of centimetres to do so physically. A petty use, but starting small sounded right in her head anyway.

For all of her previous discontentment with how things had progressed, Dana nevertheless made the effort to approach Maarani with a genuine smile. "I definitely had my doubts and worries, but I'm not upset that I was wrong." After a little thought, she shrugged and went right for the hug instead, catching the Twi'lek by surprise. "I'm proud of you. Annoyed with certainly, but still proud."

Maarani let it happen, returning the embrace with the warmth that had finally driven out the perpetual isolation she had felt up until the block had lifted. "Thank you, Dana. I'm going to miss having you on the ship."

As they parted, she looked to all of the others in turn, every breath a surge of that new invigoration. "Well, we've got another day to stay here at least. I'll be staying longer of course, and with enough supplies I can wait until Azera returns with the ship after dropping anyone who wants to go at Mandalore Prime."

She left the others to think about that briefly, turning back to Yuthura. "I feel like I'm supposed to train for a bit here, get the basics under control and all that. It's up to you though of course."

Yuthura nodded gracefully, settling for the familiar hand on the shoulder over another embrace. "I believe the same. I cannot think of a more fitting way to spend the last of my days other than guiding your first steps as a Jedi."

"Right, it's like poetry. I already told Azera how I feel about poetry."

Azera's hand went right back to her face. "By that, she means complaining about cliches and overused phrases every time they come up. I can't say I envy..."

The way her voice trailed off brought with it another new realization for Maarani. She wasn't just immediately aware of her disturbed feeling by that, there was now a more distinct sensation to go with it. All she had to do was look at Azera to perceive the shift in her aura. Something profound, deeply personal.

"Az? Are the Sith up to something?"

Azera broke from her momentary trance with a growing look of dread. A bond broken long ago had just flared enough for her to glimmer at the other side. Awakening thoughts she had put to rest months ago.

"It's my master. Lasidia. She's found something tied to Revan."


Points of blue light danced across Sokoli's skin as she passed through the many shelves of holocrons. After the destruction of Ossus had prompted the practise of spreading the wealth of knowledge to all corners of the galaxy, to see it all returned together was a true wonderment.

She simply wasn't capable of appreciating it.

The faint hum guided her silent steps further in. Another gesture opened the way to the second sanctum. There, the rows of Sith holocrons, encased in resin loomed around. None were able to breach their light past their suppressive prisons. Not that they were trying.

A small flick of her wrist drew her lightsaber. With a cold, inexpressive look on her face, she began slashing violently at every single one of the fake holocrons, spraying the room with resin, glass and ancient circuitry alike. Deep gouges tore into the stone on which the holocrons sat, scarring the room permanently.

When it was done, not a single fake remained. The lie was now perpetual. The notion that the Jedi's access to the secrets of their enemy had been utterly destroyed would do far more to undermine them than any amount of insidious suggestion from real holocrons could. And that was simply one minor step, an opportunity seized upon by the impulses from within.

Her lightsaber returned to her belt as she moved on, bare feet crunching against the shards. The hot feeling of pain marked her advance, leaving bloody footprints as she made her way into the deepest sanctum at last.

For most Sith, it would be simple gratuitous pain, to further push their limits. For a Togruta to damage their connection to the ground beneath in such a way was unthinkable, hence the point.

Five holocrons filled that room, none contained in resin. There was nothing insidious about them after all, none were designed to whisper evil thoughts into those that came to observe. But the idea of knowledge lost being an immutable tragedy kept them in existence. Despite the secrets each of them contained.

It was the fifth one that she eventually picked up. A square holocron, just like any of the other Jedi holocrons she had just passed. But unlike the others, it was of very recent construction. Thirty five years old to be exact.

Another gesture of her hand saw the holocron open into a platform, upon which soon materialized a hologram of Revan.

"You are not permitted to view this holocron. Return it to its resting state at once."

Sokoli remained silent, though there was a faint twitch in her cheek. Indigniance. Her free hand passed between her face and the holocron briefly.

That changed the authoritative nature of the hologram immediately. "So, you are more than what you seem. A stern instruction will not suffice then, so I will issue a warning. Leave this vault now."

She raised that free hand threateningly, a few sparks beginning to leap between her fingertips.

"Very well. You will not be permanently harmed, I will simply use the limited time in your body to arrange for incarceration until it is time for your mind to be restored. I never intended my reconstruction of the Rakata mind prison to be a substitute for Jedi judgement."

In an instant, Sokoli was taken from the dark confines of the holocron vault to the infinite white that was the mind prison itself. The holocron was gone from her hand, as was the Revan persona.

He had taken full shape, looking exactly as the man himself had on the day he had finalized the holocron's contents.

"It is over, Sokoli Zatu. I suggest you make yourself comfortable, your restoration may take some time."

Sokoli simply brought her hands together in a very lax manner, staring right back at the persona without a flicker of emotion.

"Revan the Jedi would never use a real mind for his trap. I don't believe a thin copy can achieve what an ancient mind could. You certainly can't match me in a game of wits."

Revan smirked just a little, nodding mildly. The entrapment was well underway, leaving just the surface functions of the personality to do as the real man would. "A being that has been trapped for millenia in a doomed existence, to then give up his only means of escape thanks to his captive answering a few riddles. There is no talking your way out of this, Dark Jedi. I gave you fair warning. And now I will do as I must to ensure the secrets I protect remain so. That has always been known."

"Let me guess. Destroying my mind if I am too powerful to entrap." She tilted her head towards her right, as an odd pain began to faintly emanate from her left lekku. "No, that isn't it. Destroying would take far more effort anyway."

Her hand began to drift towards her lightsaber, though she herself had yet to notice the movement.

"The fate of those who come here without consent, against all other safeguards is known to the Council. Death was deemed acceptable as a means of protecting what I guard, for that knowledge must continue to exist for the case in which it is needed. I will never let the Sith reach the point of total galactic domination again."

"High aspiration for a sparse copy of a broken man." By then, Sokoli had gripped her weapon, and even as she continued to speak was slowly drawing it up. "One resource of knowledge will not stop every single plan of the Sith. Cover every single contingency, correct every single mistake."

Again, Revan dismissed that with a smirk, lightly nodding his head with a hint of sarcasm. "There is no ego to goad, Dark Jedi. I understand the entirety of my purpose. Nothing can account for every single outcome. I am merely here to provide a means to prevent some of the worst when needed."

"No ego to goad, but certainly one to distract. Speaking of which…"

She clicked her lightsaber on, which at that point had moved around to face right towards her head. When it failed to ignite, the faintest sliver of a smile formed on her lips at seeing the smirk vanish from Revan's.

"The dark thoughts told me this is how I would meet my end. That I was here to serve a specific purpose, and that when the time came I would fall so that she would attain her prize unscathed. One mind trapped, the other free."

The blank white realm around them shook violently, cracks beginning to appear all around until a vague cuboid shape became clear.

"Long have I waited to fulfil my own purpose. We are both mere shades, but clearly I came out on top."

The cracks quickly spread around, fierce thundering crunches driving the fractures further around the mind prison. In the moment of realizing his failure, the persona simply frowned and consigned himself to his doomed fate.

Sokoli's hand had gripped the holocron until it began to crack, electricity arcing between her trembling fingers as they drove into the metal and glass, crushing it through raw strength. Her face was malicious, the growl rolling deep from her throat soon rising into a harrowing scream. The holocron began to glow through the spreading cracks, until finally it imploded under her enraged grip, releasing a devastating flash of light in its destruction.


"Yes, perhaps now you'll care to enlighten us about Lasidia's whereabouts, Azera."

Maarani glared at Dana before she even finished speaking. The accusatory tone had come completely out of the blue with no reason behind it. And the clear discomfort just the mention of her name caused Yuthura was more than enough to shut it down.

"Az, we'll handle Lasidia when we need to. She can go digging for artifacts all she likes at this point, nothing she does will be enough when we get to her."

She immediately began to worry when her assurance did nothing to change the mood she felt from Azera. That dread in her remained, stronger if anything. And guilt was starting to grow. Deception. Something withheld. Fear of being caught.

So many good people are going to die.

Maarani's own tone shifted from comfort to confrontation following that. Things were falling into place, recollections and memories. It had taken some time for her subdued conversations with the Lady of Balance to resurface, possibly as a way of not overwhelming her mind in the moment of triumph. But there was enough now to go on.

"Az, Orphne said your flaw was fear. You know something, and if you're afraid that telling us, telling me will be that terrible, then forget it. I am not turning my back on you now.

So many good people are going to die.

Azera slowly turned her head to all the others, even Dana, her expression growing cold as she struggled with that integral apprehension. So many secrets locked behind the notion in her mind that she could never truly betray the Empire, the Sith, and least of all her master.

"The Battle of Sarka. I was there to torture members of Blue Squadron. It was…" She could feel Maarani reaching up towards the scar on her lekku. "It was a cover, one Lasidia insisted on. She wanted the Republic to believe we were searching any and all pilots we could get our hands on. That we didn't know who we were going after from the start."

Jayden was first to react, her mind immediately going back to that fateful day of rescue. "Omena. She wanted Omena." And then the other, bigger realization dropped. "She cut off her left lekku, as a warning."

Azera quietly swallowed. "I didn't know about that. I had left to retrieve my kindred Miraluka by that point. She didn't confide the details of her plan to me, so until now I assumed she had wanted Omena for her piloting skills for reasons she chose not to share, then she left just after I did."

So many good people are going to die.

In that time, Maarani had taken into account what both had said. She knew well enough that Lasidia was savage. And she could still have believed mutilating Omena was just part of that if not for the continued sensation she was getting from Azera.

"How do they connect? Why steal a replacement lekku when she could have a cybernetic or cloned replacement? And why are you convinced that has anything to do with her search for stuff left behind by Revan?"

A deep chill went through Azera's body, her head turning towards Yuthura primarily. "Carudan, the Rakata mutant I was travelling with. Apparently mind reading was one of his many developed powers."

There was a clear show of discomfort from Izan, the memory of being controlled by Carudan remaining among the worst he could never forget.

"He tried to impress me by claiming that he had read my master's mind the first time we met. In his exact words; 'I wonder how she'll get into the holocron archives on Coruscant.'"

So many good people are going to die. Going to die. Going to die.

For all of her assurances, the full realization of everything that had been laid out was almost too much for Maarani to accept.

About to die.

"Az…"

The ignition of a lightsaber made her spin around, only to see Dana had drawn hers in a threatening stance.

"Months! You lying bitch, you knew for months!"

Maarani went right for her own blade, as did Jayden to the defence of Azera. Izan had gone for his blaster pistol, his own distrust of the Sith finally reaching a head. Cecile took a cautious step back from the standoff. Yuthura was too dismayed by the turn of things to do anything, a long seated pain resurging in her chest.

Before it could go any further, Maarani instead sheathed her lightsaber, and nearly dropped it with a disparaging laugh. One that so very clearly carried the tone of a now broken mind.

"I don't believe it. I caused it. Right from the start, the Lady of Balance warned me this was coming."

It didn't prompt the others to break from the standoff, but at that moment she couldn't care less.

"Of all the things to possibly make this happen, you know what it was? My goddess fucking damned raging lesbian hormonal angst. That's what."

She spun around on the spot, slamming the lightsaber on her belt and swinging her arms wildly without a care in the world. "She told me! She told me that if I slept with Zariba, good people were going to die! And she was right! If I didn't sleep with Zariba, she wouldn't have tried to come along when Seradan shot Aiyek in the back. And so I wouldn't have taken her hostage in revenge. And so the Hidden Hand wouldn't have come after us again and again. And she wouldn't have been rescued before we could negotiate a settlement. And then they wouldn't have blown up the only fucking ship we had that could contact the Jedi Temple directly."

With one last flail of her arms, she stepped back and ploughed herself back against the nearest wall in utter defeat. "It's over. Lasidia is going to massacre the Jedi again, and we can't stop it. Same thing all over again. And we all have my flamboyant need to remind everyone I'm a goddess damned lesbian to thank for it. You're welcome."

Dana tightened her grip, moving a little closer with her lightsaber, eyes blazing in lavender. "We can still stop it. We can uncover her identity. When we transferred Aiyek's body for return to Coruscant, the ship was transporting Jedi Master Sokoli Zatu, a Togruta. That had to be Lasidia's way of getting in."

Caught between the lightsaber and the blaster, Jayden nonetheless affirmed her precarious stance in defending Azera. "It won't matter when the killing starts. I can't get any kind of message to Mandalore from this part of the core, and Lasidia won't stop for anything short of a live hologram confirmation that Azera is with us. Harm her now and the Temple is finished!"

"I don't believe you Jedi!" It had been some time since Izan was genuinely furious, but between his sensitivity to Maarani's turbulent mind and his own opinions, there was no restraint left. "You have access to the Force, in what you say is one of the strongest concentrations of its power, and all you can think of is arguing over holo-messages? Make Lasidia listen! You've got her weakness right here in front of you to work with!"

Throughout it all, Azera and Cecile remained deathly silent. The former paralyzed by the reality of her reluctance to come out with the truth. The latter entirely removed from the onslaught of emotions from Maarani's mental break, and having no personal feelings to act on either.

It was only the sound and sight of Yuthura collapsing in agony, clutching at her chest, that finally broke the standoff.

Maarani was over there immediately to catch her, still stuck in her broken mindset and thus unable to actually feel the myriad of emotions that should have been coursing through at that moment. A single look upward was all that was needed for Dana to stand aside and let Azera move in to help.

After just a few moments of healing, the panicked, pained gasps of Yuthura settled back into easier breaths. Much to the relief of everyone.

"Heart attack. There shouldn't be any lingering damage seeing as I was able to act immediately. But I can't prevent another from occurring without warning."

The further damage to Maarani's psyche wasn't nearly as easy to fix. After all the realizations and the like that had bombarded her in such a small time frame, the notion that she had passed on overwhelming anxiety to Yuthura was impossible to ignore. Her empathic presence was now a true danger, more than any weapon could possibly pose.

"Not like we can go there directly. They'll kill you on sight. And when that happens, everyone goes absolutely berserk. Because of me. I'll turn a disaster into a catastrophe just by showing up."

"Tee, they won't kill me. Not if I kill Lasidia for them."

Maarani did her best to act the part of ignoring her outright, looping an arm around Yuthura in an attempt to try and help her stand back up. The exchange of looks between both Twi'lek eventually convinced her to answer.

"Do I even need to ask what we do if we don't get there in time? This isn't a heroic charge to stop the Sith on the Star Forge, or on Malachor V. And whatever the Lady of Balance told me about you being safe just isn't enough to convince me right now."

Azera's face had grown deathly pale by that point, drained away by the whole ordeal. It seemed a wonder that she could speak at all in the end.

"I'm not a hero, Tee. You're the legend of our time, and I am going to be forgotten either way. Stop her, don't stop her, I will try."

Before Maarani could look to the others in a vain hope for answers, a distant cry of agony echoed into her mind.

Everyone but Cecile heard it. Even Izan heard just enough to turn his head in the same direction as all the others. The first of many pained screams, before they inevitably phased out.

Yuthura's face scrunched up as the old wound in her mind reopened fully, her gasp of pain coming solely from the emotional, rather than the physical.

"It's started. The deaths, they're happening again."


Before long, all of the Sith sorcerers had appeared around the central holo-table, headed by Rak'Sakar. Unusually, it was Sloane who took up the spot directly to his left, Silent on hers respectively, rather than he being the left-hand of the highest ranking Sith as it had been until that moment.

To Rak'Sakar's right was Morgak, the other officers in their respective places as they had been in their last meeting as a unified leadership. Though in that cast, many were present as holograms only.

"We have all felt the disturbance. The Force has begun to move darkly. Darth Lasidia has made her move without forewarning, without preparation to seize upon the potential. Grand Moff."

Morgak nodded while taking a step forward. "Spies on Coruscant have just reported explosions in the Jedi Temple. These have been correlated with a sudden, repeated disappearance of grenade stocks under supervision on Ord Radama. Neither I nor Darth Rak'Sakar were informed of her plan to bomb Coruscant. Our initial assumption was that she would make clear her intent when the time came to minimize the risk of information leaking to the Jedi, but that no longer seems to be the case."

"There is another issue I would raise." Sloane's interruption came as a surprise to all the Sith and officers aside from those that had just spoken, whom she had consulted with not minutes earlier. "The Twi'lek, Tegama'Arani, has awoken her powers. I felt the shift clearly. Her threat to our position cannot be underestimated, especially if the rumours are indeed true and Kiarna has joined forces with her. Darth Lasidia might not be aware of this change. They could easily destroy her, and we will all be the next target."

She let the attention return to Rak'Sakar as he dug the thick claws on his fingers into the holo-table's rim. "We are not in position for a follow-up assault on Coruscant. Nor can we move towards one now with this prodigy of the Grey likely to destroy Lasidia at any given time. The best case will be that Lasidia escapes and returns to us, the worst is that she will fall and our unity will be broken."

That sent a series of murmurings throughout both sides of the council, which he was swift to leap upon verbally. "We must consolidate our forces, entrench in secure territory, deploy every security measure. The Republic will strike back. Masaka will seize this vulnerable time to make her grab for power. Her sister will come for revenge. This is not the time for arrogant presumption that we are safe. The Empire will endure to grow stronger, or take the first steps towards its death on this day."

Once again, Morgak straightened up to speak. "The Zygerrians are already moving slave armies to aid in our defence. The public dissent on Mirial, Onderon, Lantillies, Telos, Corellia and Arkanis will cease to delay the Republic if they rally against us. The fire of rebellion must be fuelled more than ever if the Empire is to survive!"

That left the last word with Sloane, looking more dour than ever, her hands almost trembling in restrained terror at what she could feel occurring at the core of the galaxy.

"The Herald of Balance will destroy us if we do not prepare. She will whisper into each of our minds, turn our minds brittle, break our will. We must each surrender ourselves to the void of the dark side if she comes for us. Embrace fear. Embrace anger. Embrace hatred. Embrace suffering. Embrace freedom."


Atris turned her head as soon as the holocron doors opened, surprised at first that someone had gone in there without her knowledge. Seeing Sokoli Zatu stumble out, blood trailing behind in her footsteps, hands clasped over her face where bright red marks were visible against her pasty yellow skin made her hobble over in great concern.

"What happened! How are you hurt?"

Sokoli fell to her knees at that point, a sharp wail of pain muffled by her hands as she clawed at the smouldering edges of her yellow skin. At a glance, it looked as if it was burning off without a flame, akin to how any other material would with just enough heat to keep the reaction going.

At a loss for what to do, Atris began moving back to call for help, only for another wail to draw her back towards the pained Togruta. That time, she also noticed a bleeding ring around her left lekku. And she still didn't have the faintest idea as to what was causing her agony.

"Sokoli! Listen! Is there internal pain? Is there any-"

One of Sokoli's hands shot out from clutching at her face, wrapping around Atris' neck and hauling her up effortlessly. The heart monitor on her chest began blaring its warning as she tried to struggle against the fierce grip, her breath choking, and soon gurgling.

The angle at which she was held was deliberate, even as her feet dangled off the floor, leaving her a clear view of Darth Lasidia's face as it emerged from the last remains of Sokoli's disguise. Bit by bit, the yellow skin burned away to reveal the black tattoos of hssiss venom, both on her face and hands.

A sharp tilt of her head broke the organic bond between the stump of her lekku and the length she had stolen from Omena, which fell to the floor and promptly withered away to dust.

"It seems you valued your pride, your legacy above the welfare of the Jedi after all, Atris. Kreia was right, you are a worthy successor to the title of Darth Traya."

Her hand closed in, ending Atris' struggle at last, the monitor switching to a solid blare of sound. Right after, there was the thud of her lifeless body hitting the floor. Unable to rejoin the Force. Just one of many to fall on that terrible day.

The sound of a Jedi running down the hallway drew Lasidia's attention to the other side of the archives, just as Koor came into view.

"Master Atris! Master-"

She only caught a glimpse of the towering Sith at the other end before she vanished into a cloud. The revelation of her identity had been weighing on mind, but seeing her outside the holocron vault physically made her that much more fearful.

There wasn't any further time to think before she felt a cold presence behind her. A split second later, the hiss of a lightsaber driving right through her chest made her gulp as she lurched back. Barely able to look down at the blade bursting through her robes as it colour-shifted to a menacing red.

"Give my regards to your padawan on the other side, little Iridonian. I'm taking more than one of your horns today."

Lasidia slashed her weapon out to the left, carving through Koor's body as she remained silent, unable to draw breath for even a scream. By the time she took her turn to hit the floor, Lasidia had vanished back into shatterspace once again.


"We ready?"

Izan had only just reached the cockpit of the Vastes, helping to carry what he could from the temple grounds. Maarani had sprinted ahead to prepare for fast takeoff, and was clearly taking a lot of restraint to not fire up the engines at that very moment.

"Azera and Yuthura are two minutes away if that. Cecile's getting started on the short range communicator, and the rest are loading up."

"Fine." She motioned for him to take up the copilot's seat immediately, and to run through the checks again while they had to wait. "Once we're in flight, keep the hyperdrive from reaching a core temperature threshold of one-twenty percent. Anything more and we'll burn out in between stars."

"Oh, because going above full rated throttle isn't going to do that anyway?"

"Not for a jump this short. Minimizing heading adjustments and pushing us right to the edge of mass shadows will make this trip just shy of an hour. The drive will last that long if you do it right."

Izan shook his head in dismay while running through the checks as hastily as he could. "Reason why you want me handling this?"

"I need to try and commune with my father, get a real crash course in empathic control. Seeing as I nearly made you all attack each other back there I really don't want to assume I can get it done myself. And no, I am not bothered in the least by what happened there. None of us can afford to be, okay?"

"Right, all in the past, gotta focus." A quick glance at the scanners made him aware that Azera and Yuthura were on the final approach, less than a minute from boarding the ship. "And what about when we get to Coruscant? A straight line could mean we end up on the side of the planet opposite from the Temple."

Maarani took note of their arrival, her fingers growing anxious as she waited for the cue to start the liftoff. "I'll take that chance. Can't waste time trying to get through the blockade they've probably thrown up by now, so we'll drop in just shy of the atmosphere and cruise to wherever it is."

"Just shy? You want to drop out of lightspeed in relative inches from the planet? We'll-"

"Hyperdrive isn't actual light speed, Izan. We hit the atmosphere at a few thousand metres per second, by which I mean twelve to fifteen, which is still plenty enough for the atmosphere and the forward thrusters to slow us down to cruise speed. Normally that'd be near impossible to calculate perfectly, but that's what the Force is for."

"Solving impossible holes in ludicrous plans?"

"Tee, we're about to settle in."

Maarani ran through the landing sequence immediately anyway. Using the intercom was intended to notify the others of exactly when to brace themselves.

"Making clutch decisions in the hour of need when all hope lies on the brink and fate is decided actually possible to pull off. But yes, a convenient and more often than not overpowered solution."

As soon as the ship was ready, she brought it off the ground, beginning the ascent before the landing gear was even fully up. Before long, they were cruising up at speed towards the safe jump threshold.

In the time before that, both Dana and Azera made their way up eventually. Jayden had remained below to keep an eye on the hyperdrive during the stress run, while Cecile was busy working on the comm system.

"We're not going to do this neatly. I'll find the closest point to Lasidia, get us down in one piece, then we book it to her position. Izan, take the shot if you get the chance, we're not letting her get out of this 'because a Jedi has to do the deed'."

Izan just awkwardly looked back at Azera, who tilted her head questioningly.

"Aside from what happened back there, pretty sure no-one who aims a blaster at a Jedi or Sith comes out a survivor."

Azera was quick to answer in her own way. "It's because of that assumption that she told you to try anyway, Izan. Honour and doubt are both important notions, but they must be kept in check. Abundance would see Lasidia escape, and it is the absence that makes dark Sith so dangerously unpredictable. If you have a line of fire, shoot her. Even in the back."

"Alright, philosophising on hold for a few moments." Maarani lightly gestured to indicate she wasn't trying to be dismissive of anything Dana could have added, right before powering up the hyperdrive for the first jump out of the galactic core.

It was in that silence that the distant pain became more noticeable again, something she would have to endure many times yet.

"May the Force guide those that depart their bodies this day."

She closed her eyes, then sent the Vastes into hyperspace.


"Master Utan!"

With a dextrous clutch of his fingers, Utan called up a shield of rubble and debris to protect himself from the detonation above, filling the hall with smoke and dust.

Carmen hurried over after emerging from cover, hastily scrabbling the rubble away until Utan was free again, coughing heavily from the ordeal. Tossing usual politeness aside, she scooped her arms in under his and physically pulled him free of the rest, helping him to stand afterwards.

Once able to get his bearings, he rested his hand on the Mirialan's shoulder appreciatively. "Thank you, Carmen." A quick reach up to his scorched ear confirmed it was at least still connected to his head properly, though his sense of balance was still wildly unstable.

Still deeply shaken by the violence that unfolded, Carmen's continued support of him was just as important for her own grounding. Chaos had ensued from the moment she had come back into the Temple after her group had gotten to hopeful safety. What comfort and confidence she had hoped to find in the presence of the Jedi Masters was clearly wearing thin however. Now more than ever, she felt helpless beyond being someone to hold a lightsaber.

Utan's escape from the utter madness on home ground was to keep his purpose singular, and do his utmost to assure himself that everyone else would follow their own until it was over. "Carmen, we must reach the upper levels! The relay is damaged! We cannot contact the repair droids there!"

Under different circumstances, she would've doubted his directions as being a sideways task to make her feel needed, given her speciality with droids. At that point, she only cared about avoiding the worst of the carnage, and the chance to focus herself on something she knew well. And if nothing else, she could run.

"Alright.I know the stair paths." It didn't take long for them to work out a plan, Utan gradually climbing up onto her back and holding tightly onto the layered cloth on her shoulders so that she could carry him without throwing off her own balance.

"You okay Master Utan?"

"Under the given circumstances, yes. Though I wish I could do more to aid you on the way."

"Not so bad. Never had to use droids to carry stuff for me anyway." Her first few steps were wobbly, but once she found her stride she was soon jogging through the corridors steadily. The sounds of explosions at varying distances did little to keep her nerves in check, though for the moment at least none seemed to be drawing close to their path.

The pace slowed as they moved up two levels, entering more of the spanning corridors that were arguably much safer than the tight confines of the maintenance paths. In that there was less danger from explosions being channeled at them and more ways to hide.

"Maybe this isn't the time to ask, Master Utan, but what about Master Kasua?"

Utan hummed to himself deeply in a bit of thought. It was standard practise to move those in confinement under emergency conditions, but the sheer chaos of the attack threw standard practise out the window.

"Many of the power systems were compromised. In all likelihood she has been free to move about since."

"I guess so long as she has some chance of getting to cover. Aside from before I haven't really been near any that were about to go off and-"

She stopped short when the cloud she had been warned about appeared before her, though far different in shape. Before she could even turn back to run, Lasidia strode out from presence alone was intimidating enough, the various blood spatters across her only adding to the overwhelming malice that she exuded.

Utan was far quicker to react, scrabbling up to her right shoulder and leaping off it while drawing his lightsaber. He used that momentum to bounce off from the right hand wall, readying his blade and charging in for attack to defend Carmen.

Despite his best efforts, it was over with a few brief clashes of lightsabers, Lasidia tearing up the floor beneath him to hurl him against the other wall with a sickening thud. She didn't even look twice before returning her attention to the petrified Mirialan.

"Venu's protege. I might just keep you around for Sloane to work her magic with."

There simply wasn't any way for Carmen to win, or escape for that matter. She could train with the lightsaber for years, and still fail against a Force-sensitive who had just picked one up. Lasidia was as far from a trainee as they got.

And still, she drew her weapon and charged right at the malicious Togruta, her battle cry turning to more of a scream as she prepared for that futile strike.

Worse than being cut down, she was stopped in place by that horrifically strong hand grasping her wrist until the lightsaber fell from her grip. There wasn't even any usage of the Force to bring her down to her knees. The absolute petty nature of Lasidia's disregard for her might have been enough to plant the seeds of a dark Jedi in others. But not her.

"Never mind. You're not worth it. The Exile's pandering to the masses has utterly ruined what it means to be Jedi. I'll just leave you here to-"

She abruptly released her wrist and spun around to block an almost devastating blow from Venu Kasua, who in turn followed up her failed blow with a flurry of distracting attacks instead.

"Go Carmen! Go!"

Carmen barely had time to catch a glimpse of her master, hastily wrapping her uninjured arm around Utan's unconscious form and bolting away as best she could, leaving her lightsaber behind for the time being.

The duel that had begun was also quick to end, but not before Lasidia could continue to gloat.

"Your choice of legacy was impeccable, Venu! A pathetic, meaningless waste! Even Hodechi did more for her kind than you in the end!"

At the next blow, she forced the struggle down to a point where she could twist her blade around and cut Venu's hands clean off. That was swiftly followed by a downward cut through her torso, ending the darkened Jedi's last stand.


"Azera? This supposed to be happening?"

Izan lifted his hands well away from the controls at that to make it clear he wasn't making contact with any while they continued to shift and move about on their own.

Not needing to move her head to take a look, it appeared as if Azera had initially ignored him, until she decided to speak up.

"They were designed to be receptive to the Force beyond direct gestures and the like. So that I could fly the ship while meditating if needed."

"I figured that. But you're not meditating right now clearly." He looked over his shoulder to Dana, who was rather unfazed, but definitely conscious. "Either of you. Sounds like it'd take a lot of training to do, not something that happens just an hour after getting use of the Force."

Azera made a slight tilt of her head towards Maarani, following the implication, then shrugged it off. "Training isn't solely about practising techniques. A key component is the attunement to the energy that flows through the Force. If that attunement already exists, and simple doubts like the one that stands between being unable to lift a heavy rock, and making it weightless, anything is possible. Flying the ship like this isn't a technique, it's her own piloting skills having a new avenue to express themselves through."

At that point, Dana broke from her near trance with a roll of her eyes. "She gets a shortcut because of the Lady of Balance. A convenience. All you needed to say, Azera."

"I see the repressed suspicion wasn't so repressed after all."

"Oh shut it you blind freak."

Even Izan was left disconcerted by the outburst. The only consolation was that Azera was far less likely to snap back than Maarani, something even he had come to notice by then. Heated arguments were very dangerous in their particular situation after all.

Further proven when Maarani came out of her meditative state, shot a glare at Dana for the rude remark in an ironic twist, then went right back to keeping the ship from spiralling out of control.

"I can't make contact with my father. Or the Lady for that matter. So I'm on my own for this, and no shortcuts through shatterspace. If ships can even function in a realm that doesn't obey standard physics."

Another rattle throughout the ship highlighted the other concern at hand. "Jayden? How's the hyperdrive holding up?"

It took a noticeable amount of time for her to respond, presumably because she had gone and looked at it directly.

"I don't like what I'm seeing. But I'm no mechanic, and Cecile's still working on the comm system."

"You'll know when it's actually about to go bad. We're over halfway there at least, just keep it hanging in there."

She closed the intercom after that on the odd chance that more bickering would start up. "Funny, I'd feel a lot better with your cousin on board, Izan. Lot more qualified to keep the drive from exploding I'd bet."

"I met Chaser once on Dantooine, after however many years. Not exactly grounds to convince her to drop everything and jump to some random crew vaguely associated with the Jedi."

Surprisingly, Azera chose that moment to speak up. "Chaser?"

Maarani tilted her head back, not wanting to take her eyes off the controls despite the urge to after her random reaction to the name. "Don't tell me. You've met her too?"

"First battle of Sarka, got hit by artillery, knocked me out cold. Nearly gunned down by a woman the troopers later described as a Zeltron, going by what I assumed was her callsign. And I believe she led the assault team that achieved the destruction of the Herald of Karath some years later. Never came up against the Empire after that, as far as I'm aware."

Izan just blinked a couple of times, staring at no particular point, then slowly turned back to keep his attention on his side of the flight controls. "Huh. Gender transition, fought in the worst ground battle in recent history, took down a dreadnought. And I was sitting at a bar the whole time, doing nothing with my life."

"Well, the first part aside you've gotten involved in a lot of important events since then, Izan." It conveniently, and rather grimly, brought Maarani's attention back to the crisis at hand. "I would give just about anything for a second massacre to not be one of them."


The moment she felt a familiar, equally powerful dark presence enter the Temple grounds, Lasidia made her way directly towards it.

Upon arrival, she at first found nothing but yet another desolate hall. The damage of her attack from earlier on only just having started to settle. It took the shift of the lights around to a more familiar red to make her understand, and turn around.

"Masaka."

She was only mildly surprised to see her accompanied by two others. A young human man with scars across his face, the other a Twi'lek man with circular scars on his lekku.

Masaka still had the vertical scar down the very middle of her face, and a malicious grin to bear.

"She's coming to kill you. Thought I might give you a little warning, for old time's sake."

After looking to the pair just behind her, and seeing no real intent to act, Lasidia settled her focus on Masaka alone. "You're not in any position to bargain, especially not for the one limit you have."

"Tch, being openly suspicious is not the Sith way. Even for someone who still clings to a drunkard's idiotic vision, you should know that by now. This is a simple exchange of information, it's quite fair and balanced I assure you."

Lasidia went right for her lightsaber, being methodical in drawing it out and raising the blade right towards Masaka. Eyeing that convenient scar for a direction to cut in. "You should have spared me the months of work that led to this moment. We are long past a simple exchange."

Masaka rolled her eyes, then gestured with her head for the others to depart. Together, they opened a rift back to shatterspace, then stepped through to leave her alone, but not without escape.

"My sister has had an awakening. The Force moves around her in ways you don't have any hope of understanding, let alone enduring. And, she has your precious apprentice wrapped around her finger, following her every whim and desire."

The change in Lasidia's tone was gradual, but anything but controlled. It culminated in a shaking roar, her lightsaber once again lashing out in fury at her surroundings as the truth she had been blinded to became clear.

For once, Masaka wasn't smiling either.

"I'll spare Kiarna in exchange for sole control over my sister's fate. We can't fight them while they work as one, even together. Not in our state. We both need to prepare. Hence, the exchange."

It was so clearly a decision that would backfire on her later. But, the momentary pause from her rampage to reach out had validated exactly what Masaka had said. For her insistence on the most basic rule of Sith, she was in fact speaking truthfully for once.

After the calm returned, Lasidia opened her hand to a small rift, through which a small holo-database fell into her palm. Only then did she turn back to Masaka.

"We will only end up killing each other in the end."

"Psh, always so dramatic and stereotypical. I'm not a stupid Sith." Masaka stepped a little closer, her smug grin returning while she tilted her head back to maintain eye contact. "I've lost interest in galactic domination. Your pet can have that to herself. When I and the others transcend to the Force, there won't be any competition."

Still keeping her grip on the lightsaber, Lasidia very slowly tilted her hand, eventually letting the database fall into Masaka's waiting hands.

"See? Not so hard, was it, Mikan?" Masaka's smile remained as she stepped backwards, reaching the halfway point between Lasidia and the lingering rift before stopping again.

"I will kill you if you try to run, little Twi'lek."

Masaka just tilted her head, that sadistic smile widening. "After you've gone and checked on your precious superweapon, go take a stroll on a world called Dromund Kaas. I've been there, and a very fascinating walk it was. I think you'll find it just as enlightening."

Lasidia narrowed her eyes. She hadn't ever heard the name of the world, and yet there was enough familiarity behind it to deduce just what the significance was.

"And after that?"

"You'll find your teacher soon after. Someone who has defied death, who knows much about the Force. And he hates my sister almost as much as we do. Now run along, and cause enough carnage to keep them all busy for a while longer, Mikan."

She finally stepped back into shatterspace, the rift closing up immediately after. Still stewing on the turn of events, it took longer before Lasidia returned to spreading devastation throughout the Temple. That time with a new edge to the unrestrained havoc in her wake.


"Two minutes from Coruscant."

Tension was unsurprisingly higher than ever. The near constant rumbling of the ship was straining the already bad mood of most. Maarani was barely able to keep herself in control by focusing down so much of her concentration on the way ahead. Waiting in preparation for that crucial moment of timing. There simply wasn't enough focus left to try and keep her inner turmoil from spilling out into the minds of everyone else.

A sudden, dull beep from one of the many sensors startled all but her, coming completely out of nowhere in such a different tone from the rumbling. Azera moved her head just a little before sighing quietly.

"We've just set off an outer perimeter scan. They'll start moving to the approximate arrival point."

Maarani took that to note, keeping her hands steady on the controls. "One thirty. They'll keep a safe distance. They'll assume four minutes to arrival and act accordingly. We'll be into the atmosphere by then."

After a short pause for thought, she closed her eyes with a small tilt of her head, then went for the intercom "Jayden, did you recognize this ship at all when you first saw it? Back on Arkanis."

"No? All I knew was that it was upper class, didn't think too much of it at the time."

"They may have just gotten a read on our silhouette. I don't think we can assume no-one else will recognize it. Be ready for some really hard turbulence."

Just before the one minute mark, she switched to Cecile's direct feed. "Please tell me you're less than a minute away from getting it up. They're going to blow us out of the sky at this rate."

"I am close, but there is simply no further shortcuts I can take on this."

"Fine. Just be ready for me to scream my head off about how screwed we are until we get that channel open. Nothing personal when it's hundreds of lives on the line."

With the time in her head ticking down, she switched it one last time to where Yuthura was waiting. Of everyone, she was most worried about her by far.

"You doing okay? We're about to reach Coruscant, you need to be secure by then because there's no making it a smooth exit."

"I believe I am safe here. Good luck, Tegama."

"To all of us." She switched off the transmitter at that point, leaving all three channels open just in case. Barely whispering, she began counting down to the exact moment, closing her eyes once her hands were all in position to make the drop.

"Fifteen. Fourteen."

Everyone else in the cockpit fastened themselves into place, Azera included.

"Twelve. Eleven."

The sense of foreboding became rife once more. Entering the innermost sphere of the darkness surrounding the Temple, all the deaths spreading a negative influence through the Force.

"Eight. Seven."

Maarani's fingers tightened on the controls. Izan did the same on his end, if only to keep himself prepared for the drop itself.

"Four. Three. Two. One."

There was no hesitation on bringing the ship out of hyperspace, despite all the known risks and dangers echoing in her head. No time for slowing down before exiting, no time for a safer angle.

The blue rush of the corridor gave way to the view of Coruscant as it rapidly expanded into view. Just for a second, the entire ship stopped shaking as that picturesque angle of the planet overwhelmed every window.

Hitting the atmosphere came violently. Frictional flames began to flick up the upper hull in front of them as the whole ship shook about wildly, the very framework groaning and whining under the sheer stress of the forces involved. Alarms about the approach speed blared out when the sensors finally got their readings.

Maarani was the only one who hadn't been left dazed by the impact, solely through determination to keep everyone else intact. The very controls were fighting back at her attempt to lift the Vastes' trajectory from the hard angle it was stuck in. They were simply going too fast for reverse thrusters to be of any real use.

"Come on! Really great job making this ship aerodynamic Az!"

Even after the nose started to level out, she kept her hand tight on the attitude controls. It would take some time to shift their downward momentum into forward momentum, and longer still to actually get on course for the Temple once she had a lock on it.

Izan had recovered by then, focusing his efforts on the scanners and other various key problems arising by the moment to let Maarani focus on the flying itself.

"Two destroyers inbound! Two, three squadrons of fighters! Five more ships minutes out!"

Not daring to lift her hand away, Maarani glanced at the intercom controls to manipulate them back on. "Cecile! Now I'm shouting about the comm system!"

"A few more minutes!"

"Better be right this time!"


One by one, the Jedi that charged at Lasidia fell. She counted at least half a dozen attempts to ambush her by that point, each one countered and undone by the simple fact that they were all off balance. All the talk of being more open, more accepting and less judgemental had gone too far the other way. Never finding just that right balance between action and restraint that she breezed through without a second thought.

At least until she was sent sprawling into the right hand wall by a sharp roundhouse kick. The blow was enough to knock the lightsaber from her hand, which she heard clatter to the floor after deactivating by the time she turned to fight back.

That in turn led to a powerful jab to the face as Brianna followed through on her weaponless attack. Never before had she put her decades of Echani training to work in such desperate circumstances. There was nothing behind each blow but the simple intent to kill quickly and be done with the matter.

The fact remained however that Lasidia towered over her; the retaliatory punch causing Brianna to stumble back several paces before she could go for a finishing blow herself.

Amidst the bodies and debris of previous explosions, there was simply no room for verbal sparring. It was two trained killers staring each other down before the next exchange, both powerful enough in the Force to make lightsaber combat irrelevant.

Brianna broke from her position first, sweeping her left hand across to tear a large chunk out of the wall. A strike to the direct middle shattered it into several smaller pieces, all of which she crushed down and hurled at Lasidia in a rocky hail.

Expectedly, the most it really did was keep her opponent from retaliating until she could close the distance again, prepared to deliver another series of strikes to the Togruta.

It ended with Lasidia's foot lashing up to strike her right in the gut, mirroring the opening blow as it turned out. Her manipulation of the Force into that moment sent Brianna crashing into the wall. A subsequent fierce gesture with her hands sent a kinetic blast right at her, spreading cracks throughout the surface.

Brianna was completely unconscious by then, spared from mutilation solely by Lasidia's swiftly diminishing time to enact her final stage. Drawing up her lightsaber at last before disappearing through another rift.


"Izan!"

"I know I know!" He was furiously trying to get some amount of usable telemetry from the damaged sensors. Weakened by the atmospheric impact on arrival, and now from the near constant barrage from fighters on passing attacks, it was hard to even get a constant read on the temperature of the air outside.

Getting the exact vector to coast towards the Jedi Temple was taking all of his concentration off his previous tasks. Not that maintaining the ship's defences would do much good if they ploughed into a skyscraper anyway.

The hard inertial shift when they finally changed course was still the least bothersome event at that moment. Still no word from Cecile, and no sign that the attack was going to let up.

With an actual location set at last, he could at least start running down the time to arrival. "Eight minutes?"

"Fine by me! Close enough now that any delay is on them, not us!"

They finally had a view of the Temple itself amongst the cityscape. Even from that distance, the plumes of smoke billowing out from various points in the outer surface were visible.

Amidst the barrage of the next squadron attack, that one message finally came through. "Mistress! Now!"

Maarani wasted no time in bringing the comm system up to broad frequency at last. "Maarani to all fighters! Hold you fire! Hold your fire! We are friendlies! Repeat, we are friendlies! Identification code Xesh-Nine-Two-Zero-Peth-Krill-Six-Osk."

The few moments of absolute quiet that followed carried the greatest tension. The fighters had ceased the attack, but without a response there was no way to tell if that would remain the case. It did at least only last seconds at the most.

"This is Grand Admiral Onasi. That identification code was rendered invalid several months ago. You'll have to do a lot better than that."

Subduing the urge to swear at Carth Onasi of all people, Maarani quickly made the daring switch over to a holographic feed, made possible now that there was an actual signal source to connect with through the jammers.

"Look, you saw me when I did that big speech. You know my face, you know my voice, and I'm pretty sure you're in on the big secret the Jedi had about me. I am about ten minutes away from taking out the literal head of the Sith Empire and the last thing I need is half the Republic's fighter compliment making those ten minutes hell! I know it's something of a joke among the officers that you have trust issues, but now is the absolute worst time possible for them! Sir!"

"Six minutes."

Carth rubbed at his chin in deep thought, across the greying hairs of his beard, while his eyes looked around his side of the holocom. "Fine, answer these questions to satisfaction and I'll back off. Who originally owned that ship, and are they still on board with you?"

Maarani clenched her teeth, grinding them to either side. In the critical moment, she didn't have time to figure out if he already knew, just had suspicions, or was in fact unaware of just how significant that core question was.

Being honest was a massive gamble, and she didn't even need to look back at Azera to know she was thinking the same. In the end, it was potentially putting her life against those of the Jedi that still had a chance to survive. Success meant that the Republic could very well accept her turn of allegiance in exchange for taking down Lasidia. Failure would be the end of her.

"This is the Vastes, it belongs to Azera Vass. Formerly, Kiarna. She's sitting behind me right now in fact." That time she did allow herself to look back briefly, gauging all the very disconcerted expressions of the others. "I do mean formerly, she's more or less a new person now, take it from me. And she's the only one who can kill Lasidia. Let us get there and stop this. Better yet get us a direct comm link to the Temple so we can at least work out where to go."

To the side, she noticed Izan mouthing that they were now four minutes away. Her focus remained on Carth, who really didn't look ready to go along with it.

"Admiral, I'm not saying this is another Revan case, because it's not. If we go down, a lot more Jedi are going to die. We don't have time to prove Azera's loyalty to you first, not now."

Approaching the three minute mark, the decision was finally made.

"I'm not going to hope you're absolutely right about this, there's too little hope to spare these days. Do what you have to, we'll deal with what comes next later. I'll let you know if we get a signal to the Temple."

"Wish it didn't have to go down like this, sir."

Even before she closed the holocom, she could feel the arguments coming. She could have been more vague, she could've let Dana do the talking. At that point, she didn't care if being honest was a mistake, or even the right thing. It was her choice, and there was only one final concern to discuss.

"Az, I need you to be absolutely on board with this. We are not giving Lasidia a shot at her own redemption. She dies today."

"I know." Azera was still very quiet in tone. The reason why she had never come to Coruscant as Kiarna was still so very valid. It was the heart of enemy territory. And the growing fear in her mind that her master had a way out was also reminding her that she didn't have the same.


At the base of the Tower of Reconciliation, Merena'Likta was overseeing the last of the evacuees caught further up by the bombardment throughout. So far, it had already sustained a number of attacks throughout the tower.

It was a long walk down with the repulsorlifts destroyed. Her headcount as each passed by left her more and more worried. Far fewer than she had expected, and the number of those she could see approaching the stairs were already thinning.

"Forty-seven, forty eight…"

A biting cold swept through her body, causing her to close her eyes.

When she opened them, a ring of small rifts had begun to open around the entire circumference of the tower. All of them matching the description relayed to her by survivors as the prelude to detonation.

Her time in the Jedi Order was over.

"Great Lady..."

Just as the grenades fell, a larger rift formed behind her. Only long enough to step backwards to safety, since there was simply no way she could save everyone else in time.


"One minute."

They were so close to the Temple by then. Maarani had slowed the ship's speed just enough to not actually blow an even bigger hole into the facing wall. It was down to how they got inside at that point, cutting down the time they'd be on foot instead of in the air.

"Az, better get ready to jump out that airlock, going via the ramp will take too long."

"I know, I can still-"

Azera reached for her head as she gasped. More than the others, she sensed a sudden gutting sensation, the hollow feeling of Lasidia's presence vanishing abruptly. But without the accompanying feeling that her life had just been ended.

"She's gone!"

Maarani voiced the disbelief of everyone else at that moment. "What!? We come all this way and-!"

A distant boom drew her eyes back from Azera to the view ahead. A ring of debris had shot out from the base of the Tower of Reconciliation, ending in a fierce burst of fire. Just moments later, the whole tower collapsed down over the Temple, barely missing the Tranquility Spire as it crashed through into the ziggurat itself.