Cal's head throbbed as he sat in Rowan's workshop, watching Rowan alongside Reyna, Greez, and Kella's blue skinned friend. The quartet were pouring over hyper lane maps, calculations scrawled across every flat wall in the work shop, and half built holographic schematics. At the center of their workspace was the key itself, "open" and emitting a faint violet light from its now exposed core. A line of text in presumably the Kwa language slowly counted down.
It had been two days since the station had been hit by the "knock" in the Force and the key had opened. Cal, for his part, had spent the time since recovering from falling over directly onto the sharp edge of a crate. Luckily avoiding splitting his head open but earning a deep gash along his temple for said luck. As a bacta solution went to work speeding up is recovery, Cal had taken to watching the collective brain power of the station chew on the problem of the countdown and reaching Tython before whatever event the countdown was a harbinger of happened.
To Cal's surprise, a strange sense of calm had over taken him. He didn't know if it was the head injury or the fact that at the moment he couldn't do anything to contribute at the moment, but Cal was almost serene as he watched the brains work. Cal found that he enjoyed watching them do it, and despite the occasional order to move his foot off a note page, the others enjoyed having a yokel, as Rowan called him, to bounce rhetorical questions off of.
"Alright, so if my translation is correct we have roughly a month until the countdown runs out." Rowan said, walking a light stylus over his fingers, and to Cal's amusement, unknowingly levitating about an inch off his fingers before recalling it. "Unfortunately for us, the safe route takes around a month and a half."
"Aye, but if we take the hyper-lane out of o' Coruscant to Empress Teta, and then overcharge the hyper drives we can coast to Tython in three standard weeks." Reyna said, lost in double checking her math.
"There isn't a lane between Tython and Empress Teta though." Greez insisted. "Yeah, it's empty of planets and stars for sure, but you have any idea how many micro impacts that'll be peppering us? Say we do manage to graft both the Mantis' and Winds' drives together and reach the speeds you're talking about, and that's a big if, we'll have to travel through lightyears of dirty space."
"Is that bad?" Cal asked.
"You ever been hit with a blaster bolt?" Rowan asked.
"Yes." Cal said.
"Imagine being hit by a bolt traveling at around a hundred times the velocity, a thousand times a second." Rowan explained. "The Deep Core is choked with cosmic dirt, it's like flying into a line of slug throwers a thousand deep."
"My people deal with similar issues by accelerating a large object, often an asteroid or comet, into hyperspace ahead of a ship so that it will act as a shield." Roella said, her red eyes watching Rowan's unconscious Force trick intently. "The problem is in the finding something large enough to act as a shield as well as modifying it to enter hyperspace."
"Not a bad idea actually." Rowan said as he paced. "But we don't have time to boiler plate a hyper drive to an asteroid big enough."
"Well love, there is the Ripcord." Reyna said.
"What? No!" Rowan said, looking at this wife as if she just suggested riding a horse into a space battle. "The Ripcord is designed for a short jump and if it got to the speeds we're talking about it would never leave hyperspace intact."
"What is the Ripcord?" Cal asked, sitting up in his chair.
"The Ripcord is an emergency hyper drive I hardwired into the station's super structure." Rowan explained. "This station was a mobile comet harvester before I acquired it, and so it only took a little bit of canoodling to set up a basic emergency jump system. Essentially, if I need to I can jump this entire station, super structure and comet coating included, through hyperspace."
"If that's true then you could accelerate the station through hyperspace ahead of us." Roella said. "It would make the perfect shield even if you wouldn't be able to stop it at speed."
"Firs off, I live here." Rowan said, raising an eyebrow at the woman. "Second off, do you know what I'd need to do to get the station traveling fast enough to get us to Tython? I'd need around a ton of refined tyranite just for the station, not to mention what I'll need to boost the ships' drives."
"Do ye have any other ideas on how to get to Tython before the countdown ends?" Reyna asked. "Love, I know ye don't want to sacrifice our home, but that countdown means that someone out there knows about the Auger. We need to be on Tython before the countdown ends, before the key explodes or seals us out for a thousand years. Plus, to be honest with ye, I've had my eye on a little cottage on Northier for awhile now."
"You mean the one outside Silverfoot?" Rowan asked. "The one near the good schools? "
"Aye." Reyna said, taking her husband's hand and kissing it. "I know ye don't want to admit Love, but ye know we wouldn't be living here our whole lives. We always talked about settling down somewhere safe, and this is a good reason as any to find one. Besides all that, we need tyranite and there's only one person with enough of a supply that will work with us that I know of."
"Granny." Rowan grumbled before kissing Reyna's hand and sighing. "After everything we did, we have to go limping back home."
"Striding is how I see it." Reyna said. "Not limping, Love."
"Well, the girls will get to see snow again at least." He grumbled, turning to the others. "Alright, I'll get on the line and send mother a message. Looks like you'll be getting paid sooner than you thought, Cal."
"You don't have to go, Rowan." Cal said. "If it's just a fuel pick up, then I can take a small crew with me and go get it."
"As much as I'd like to let you..." Rowan said, trailing off as he glared into the middle distance. "I need to do this myself, the only reason I left Northtier in the first place was to find Kella and the key. Now I've got both and I somehow don't think my blood mother would forgive me if she found out I kept my long lost sister in my back pocket."
"You really have to explain the three mothers thing sometime." Cal said, as he leaned back in his chair.
?
Snow fell all around them as Kella leaned back against the still warm hull of the Cinnamon wind watching Rowan playfully flee from his daughters, each armed with a lump of packed snow. They'd arrived on Northtier earlier that day, after slipping past an Imperial patrol out of Karro by landing among the half snow buried smoke stacks of her brother's home planet. Part of her was disappointed that she wouldn't have a chance to see her birth planet, and another was relieved the she wouldn't have the chance.
"How are you holding up?" Bola asked, appearing at her side.
"Let's see, I'm about to meet the mother I was stolen from when I was three, the auntie who seems to be running an interstellar smuggling ring, and the grandmother who has a reputation for virus bombing entire neighborhoods." Kella said, wrapping an arm around the short Togruta instinctively. "In short, I'm calm as a crucomer."
"There's that blunt wit I fell in love with." Bola purred, kissing Kella's cheek and playfully tugging a lock of raven black hair beneath her hood. "Though, after facing down an entire advance of droids during the war I suspect a little familial drama is small beans."
"That's the thing about droids." Kella said, watching as one of her nieces slammed a chunk of snow down on Rowan's head. "They don't look back at you with your eyes."
"Shame they don't really." Bola said, smirking at what had to be a dirty thought. "Can you believe any of this? I mean, five years ago I was a diplomat and you were a Jedi knight-"
"Padawan." Kella corrected. "I never took the final exam, remember?"
"Semantics darling, semantics." Bola said, patting her lover's cheek. "Now look at us, two dashing young women on a quest to save the galaxy from tyranny! Lusty adventurers cutting a swathe of violence across the galaxy, preparing to open an ancient vault at the heart of the galaxy. Seriously, all we need now is a talking animal side kick and we'd be straight out of an old extra net serial."
"You know one of those serials ever had an ending." Kella reminded her. "Endless adventure with no conclusion. I'd very much like to have some amount of resolution, thank you very much."
"Ah, so do I love." Bola said, resting her head on Kella's shoulder and winking at her. "But before the resolution and cuddles comes the climax, and you know that's always been my favorite part."
"I swear if you're this flirty in front of my mother I'll-" Kella began before Bola cut her off with a kiss.
"You'll do what?" She purred as their lips parted and she slipped forward to wrap her arms around Kella. "Hold me in this big strong arms until I say uncle?"
"What am I going to do with you?" Kella said, returning the hug and pressing her forehead against Bola's, the Togruta giggling softly as Kella lifted her off the ground.
"Well, I can suggest a few things." Bola said, her breath hot against Kella's face as they stared into each other's eyes.
Kella was about to kiss the maddening Togruta when she felt a small hand tug at her coat. She looked down at one of her nieces' round faces, Roweyna if she'd guessed right, blue green eyes staring up at her with annoyed contempt. Putting Bola down, Kella squatted down to meet her niece eye to eye.
"What can I do for you sweetie?" Kella asked.
"Da says to stop smoochin and go talk to him." She huffed, slamming her mittened hands into her coat pockets. "Gran's coming and we can't play no more."
"This is why we're never having children." Bola grumbled. "Always ruin good tension."
"Thank you little one." Kella said, patting her incensed niece on the head.
She stood up and looked down the hill to where Rowan stood with Reywan. Beyond them, a sleek merchant vessel was cutting through the air, a bulbous liquids container strapped to its belly. Whirlwinds of snow and ice blew in all directions as the craft landed with a thud and extended its exit ramp. Steam rolled off the exit hatch as it swung open and four figures stepped out into the washed out light of the snow field.
Kella watched them for a long moment, her heart beating a thousand beats a minute as the steam dissipated and she caught sight of her family for the first time in almost twenty years. Something in the Force resonated in the space between them, a clenching that reflected the clenching of her muscles as she considered the four women. One was obviously not human, but the three others were no doubt related to her by blood.
With wind flapping her coat, Kella recognized the tallest of them had to be her mother, something in the way she moved and how she looked made Kella certain of that. The other woman was younger, walking with the same loud arrogance that Rowan mimicked in his every step and an aloof detachment from the preceding. Between them stood an older woman, shriveled by age with a back warped by the years until she was practically hunched over. These women were her family, the only people in the universe connected to her directly by the blood in her veins.
By the time she reached Rowan and her nieces, the woman had come to a stop around a dozen yards away. Kella looked into her mother's eyes and saw a mirror of her own face staring back at her, tears falling down the woman's face as she considered Kella. Heavy silence vibrated in the air between them and Kella almost managed a word when her mother rushed forward to wrap her in a hug filled with nearly twenty years of longing and regret. She dissolved into the hug, letting a fragment of a memory from before she was taken away from these strong arms bring tears to her own eyes.
"Welcome home my girl." Her mother whispered. "Welcome home."
?
Plasma met plasma as the sabers clashed and Starkiller's muscles screamed with the exertion as he and Proxy fought. Memories of hundreds of sparring sessions guided his movements, instinct guiding every step and attack. He could feel his body molding to the memory, muscles aligning with the phantom scars of a dozen battles as exercise and Proxy's attacks strengthened his physical form.
"Well met, Master." Proxy said as their blades slid free of one another and he stepped back. "The Flash memory technique has improved your form, resolve, and ability to override basic survival instincts by a substantial 56%. As a reward I will decrease my lethal action settings by 5% to allow you an easy cool down match."
"Thank you, Proxy." Starkiller said, taking the opportunity to catch his breath. "While you're configuring your settings, can you tell me where the memories came from?"
Though the memories had melded with Starkiller's mind flawlessly the boy knew they weren't his. They were real, he knew that, and as they melded to his synapses the memories anchored themselves to his very core, but no matter how deep their claws were, the memories weren't his. He had never known the man who'd trained him in the memories, the pretty woman he'd loved, or the Togruta girl he'd trained. The memories were of someone else's life, someone else's fall to the dark side. His master's fall.
"From you Master." Proxy explained as his internal machinery whirred. "These memories originate from a file named...I am receiving an encrypted communication from Lord Vader. Stand by."
Proxy stiffened and with a shudder shifted his form into that of Lord Vader himself. Starkiller knelt and looked at the ground in deference to his master, refusing to look at the man who's memories he now carried. The towering figure looked down at him for a long moment before clapping his hands.
"Proper respect is an admirable trait in an apprentice, Starkiller." Lord Vader said. "Raise your head, boy."
"Yes master." Starkiller said, looking up at his master.
"Good, now tell me, have the memories taken hold?" He asked.
"Yes master." Starkiller said. "I...remember an entire life that is not mine. Your life."
"Perceptive." Vader said, approval in his tone. "Do you know why I implanted my memories in you, boy?"
"No master." Starkiller said. "It is not my place to question you."
"Correct." Vader said, a chuckle breaking some of the imposing facade. "Starkiller, search your memories for a woman named-"
Vader trailed off and Starkiller watched as something passed through him before he continued.
"-Padme." He finished. "Tell me, what do you remember of her?"
Starkiller didn't speak as he tried to summon the memories of this Padme. What came to him was scattered memories of a beautiful woman, kind and strong in a way that he wasn't. Saw her standing in the moonlight, smiling at him, and a thousand little moments of kindness and connection between them. The memories warmed him in a way that Starkiller couldn't describe, and he couldn't stop the tears from flowing down his cheeks.
"She was...good." Starkiller said.
"Indeed she was." Lord Vader said. "She was my wife, my sun and stars, and she was your mother my son."
"What?!" Starkiller said, jumping to his feet.
"Yes." Lord Vader said, stepping forward to place a hand on Starkiller's shoulder. "You are Padme and I's son. Born the day our great enemy killed her, the day he stole the life from her to entrap me in this cage he calls armor."
"No..." Starkiller said, some forgotten part of himself screaming in the depths of his mind. "No. That's not true! That's impossible! You..."
Images flashed in his mind's eye, a man wielding a light saber against Lord Vader only to be cut down.
"You...killed..." Starkiller muttered.
"Search your feelings." Lord Vader said, his voice somehow soft as he spoke. "You know it to be true."
As that strange shard of memory sank back into the depths of his mind, Starkiller did indeed know this was the truth. Absolute certainty settled around him like a cloak and Starkiller looked up at his father. Taking comfort in his once imposing presence.
"I do..." He said. "Father."
"Good." Vader said. "You are my heir and my apprentice Starkiller. In you, I have instilled all that I was before our enemy's treachery and in you I will sculpt my legacy. Together, we shall strike down our enemies and unite the Empire around the true Lords of the Force. Anakin Skywalker and his son Galen Skywalker."
"My...my name is Galen?" Starkiller asked, his mind latching onto the name as if it was an absolute truth.
"Yes, your mother chose it with her last breath." Lord Vader explained. "But that name is for when our is done, Starkiller. Until our enemy is dead and our plans fulfilled, neither of us may use our true names. Only in victory shall we we say our true names."
"Yes...father." Starkiller said. "But who is our great enemy?"
"You know the answer." Lord Vader said. "He was there at my rebirth, and the reason for our fall. Our enemy brought truth, but truth wrapped in lies. Do not concern yourself with his name just yet, my son. Your time will come and when it does I expect you to be ready."
With that the feed cut, leaving Starkiller alone with Proxy and his new reality.
?
"Really Vader?" a familiar voice chided. "Stooping this low?"
Vader sighed as he disengaged the holo communicator and turned to glower at the ghost of his one time liberator.
"Do not speak to me of lies and half truths, Jedi." Vader said, stepping through the ghost. "The Jedi filled their padawans' heads with lies and warped what was true to serve their agenda. At the very least I will give the boy a father and a path beyond what your ilk could ever hope to offer."
"Over confidence is a slow and insidious killer, Anakin." Qui-Gon mocked. "You've found a way to tap into the Cosmic Force and empower yourself, but you take none of the wisdom it offers. Only the power. You've taken the first step towards a better way, but you squander it with lies and sacrifice."
"You know, my master is obsessed with finding a way to slip the mortal coil." Vader said, ignoring the ghost as he took a seat at a work bench. "He's spent decades pouring over the Sith teachings on the Force, trying to dominate it as if it was a single gestalt. A dumb leviathan he can chain to his will, but here you stand, sustained by the Cosmic Force. Immortal if ethereal."
"Vader, I know what you plan to do." Qui-Gon said. "The door to the Cosmic can only be held open for so long, and your "correction" of the balance is a dangerous game to play. You cannot hope to use the power of a Sith to command the-"
"Which is why I don't plan to." Vader interrupted, picking up a pauldron coated in white crystal-metal mesh. "The Sith have always been an anomaly in the Force, those who sought only destruction and domination through absolute command of the Force. An order as doomed to destruction as the Jedi, and only pretenders to the mantle of the Dark side. You see Qui-gon, the Dark side is not evil, nor is the Light side good, but it is the intent behind the wielder that decides morality of the power. Control of one's self as the Jedi taught and control of the Force as the Sith taught may be required to wield true power."
Qui-gon remained silent.
"What is the matter, Master Qui-gon." Vader spat. "Don't you disagree? Is the Light not the natural state of the Force? Isn't the darkness an aberration? Or is that the weakness of losing control and allowing the corruptive miasma that is power in the hands of a mortal man the defines "evil"?"
"You are not entirely wrong." Qui-gon admitted. "The Darkness is part of the Cosmic Force, just as much as the light is, but those who dabble in it have fallen to their own shortcomings. Greed and hatred polluting them as it does the Force they fool themselves into thinking they command. To wield the Darkness takes as much if not more control than it takes to wield the light. Control you failed to keep when you fell, Anakin."
"Obi wan taught that failure is the best teacher." Vader said, placing the pauldron down on the table. "The Sith way leads to hatred, corruption, and ultimately destruction. So I will go my own way, as you once did to do Qui-Gon, or did the Jedi teach you how to exist beyond death?"
"I can only warn you Anakin." Qui-Gon said. "Those who seek power often find it turned against them."
"I do not seek to command power, Qui-Gon." Vader said, reaching forward through the Force. "I seek to become it."
Before he could respond, Vader flexed his will and the ghost dissipated into thin air.
?
"So, you're going to fling yourself through dirty space with only a decommissioned ice mining rig as a shield?!" Verona Blackfire, aunt to Kella and Rowan, yelled at the collected young people. "After a door that might not even exist?"
The Blackfire family along with the crew of the Mantis, Reyna, and the two two year olds sat around a well worn black wood table, talking as they ate a hearty dinner. Cal sat across from Moira, the matriarch of the Blackfires, and watched her silently drink in the conversation as she buttered a roll. Despite being the catalyst for the entire endeavor she was surprisingly quiet as her grandchildren lobbied for her help on what was a long shot.
"The door exists moth…." Rowan said, trailing off as his biological mother raised an eyebrow at him. "Auntie. Someone reached through the Force and triggered the key's countdown, be it counting down to an explosion or sealing the gate forever, we need to get to Tython before it finishes. Whoever activated the key wanted to force our hand, so we don't have the luxury of the regular routes."
"He is correct." Trilla said. "Be it Trazen coming after what we stole or the Empire itself, if what's locked away on Tython is half of what Rowan describes it as, we can't afford to allow anyone else to possess the Auger."
"And if we don't leave today we won't make it in time." Cal said, looking both of Rowan's mothers in the eye before continuing. "You sent me to find Rowan, and so I found him and your long lost daughter. I know it's a risk, a very big risk, but we're the only people with the knowledge and skill to pull this off. Cere picked up chatter that an Imperial star destroyer was dispatched to Tython three days before the key was activated. Either we act now, or risk the Empire gaining absolute mastery over Hyperspace. Right now, we're the galaxy's only hope."
"No." Valla, Rowan and Kella's biological mother, said. "I just found out that my daughter wasn't murdered in some battlefield ditch by a run away clone, and you expect me to send both of my children into the heart of the Deep Core on some mythic quest? Absolutely not."
"Frankly mom, we're asking for assistance." Rowan said. "Not permission."
"You're entire life you have rebelled against our family, Rowan." Valla said. "Please just this once listen to me."
"I don't think he should." Moira said, leaning back in her chair. "You are correct Valla, his entire life this boy has rebelled against his birthright and his duties, but here he is, asking us for aid in potentially saving the Galaxy. Our rebel without a cause has found something to fight for, and I for one am not so heartless as to refuse him."
"You...you...you're..." Rowan stammered. "You're agreeing with me?"
"Trust me, I won't make a habit of it my boy." Moira said, her thin lips curling back into a predator's smile. "As such, I will be providing the requested Tyranium and equipment free of charge, so long as you do your grandmother the honor of babysitting her beautiful great granddaughters while you're on your little trip."
"Well Granny, my Da was going to-" Reyna began before the old woman cut her off with a look.
"Lady Reyna, your father is more than welcome to stay with us to enjoy some quality time with his granddaughters." Moira said. "A visit from Sorkien nobility is always appreciated, and giving the girls so many family members to enjoy will be nothing but beneficial."
"Lady Reyna?" Trilla asked.
"I be a noble, aye." Reyna said, rolling her eyes. "One of the old clans of Sorkien. It's no big deal, trust me."
"Moving on." Verona said, clearly following her mother's decree. "We can strap the tyranite to the Cinnamon Wind and I can have the equipment loaded within the hour. What, pray tell, do you need so much material for in the first place?"
"We'll be spending the better part of three weeks stuck in a ship." Rowan explained. "Plus, I've got an Astromech forge and all sorts of nasty ideas for our Imp friends."
"Rowan, I try my best to convince my friends you aren't a terrorist, so please stop making the idea so difficult to believe." Verona said, rubbing her temples.
An hour later, a small work crew was busy loading the Cinnamon Wind and the Mantis with cargo and supplies while a droid crew was strapping the tank of liquid tyranite to a scaffold connecting the two ships. The beginnings of the super structure that would allow the two ships to bundle together and hide behind the shield of the station. Cal watched the work crews go about their buisness when he felt the presence of Moira Blackfire at his side. She didn't say anything for a moment, just took in the undertaking.
"Cal." She said after a solid five minutes. "Thank you for bringing my grandchildren home."
"Did you know he was going after Kella?" Cal asked, looking at the shriveled woman.
"I had good reason to make the assumption, but good reason and certainty are two entirely different things." Moira explained. "There's an old Karrocki legend about twins, some drivel about one soul forged so bright that it must be split between two bodies or some such. Considering that Kella was a Jedi and all, there was a good chance Rowan would find her if she was alive."
"I don't believe you." Cal said. "You knew."
"Ah, how suspicious the youth of today have become." Moira said, sighing dramatically before chuckling to herself. "When you return from Tython, you will find the vessel containing your payment tucked away in an abandoned ship yard in the Vastroyan system. I trust that Rowan will want to peruse it with his sticky little fingers, but I think you'll be satisfied with your payment."
"You're still paying me?" Cal asked.
"Why not?" Moira asked. "You returned Rowan as ordered and even brought us Kella. If anything, I owe you a bonus."
"But, we're also taking your grandchildren into and obvious trap after an immeasurably powerful artifact that may or may not be a weapon." Cal reminded her.
"Cal, you don't live as long as I do without learning the proper moment to accept the way the current of fate is flowing." Moira said. "My grandson would find his way off Karro or Northtier within the month, and I suspect with Kella's aid neither of my grandchildren would have stayed long enough to let the dust settle. This way I know where they are and that they are poking the Emperor directly in his irritated eye."
"I see." Cal said.
"There's no pride in lying my boy." Moira said, patting his arm.
?
Two days later the combined mass of the Cinnamon Wind and the Mantis were scaffolded together, screaming through Hyperspace behind what had been Rowan's space station. The trailing tail of ice, dust, and extra spacial matter created by the station's ice coating being flaked off by micro impacts shield them as they made their way through the Inner Core and onto the Deep Core. This meant that while there would probably be no random Imperial forces blasting them out of Hyperspace, but it also meant that the weeks between them and Tython would be about as eventful as watching sand blow in the wind.
As a result, the combined crews of the two ships had more down time than they knew what to do with, Merrin especially. She had occupied most of her time reading and contemplating the knowledge within the Book of Laws, but found that she would absorb the wisdom better if she gave herself breaks every so often. So, Merrin found herself walking through the Cinnamon Wind's galley when she caught sight of Rowan and Kella locked in combat in a cleared section of the ship's galley. Rowan wielded his strange tonfas and Kella wielding her light saber, it's radiance lower than usual as it whacked Rowan with far less than lethal force.
"Merrin." Trilla said from where she and Cal sat. "Join us for a spot of coffee and a show, will you?"
"Why are they fighting?" Merrin asked as she melted into Cal's arm and accepted a cup of coffee.
"Philosophical debate." Cal explained. "Rowan believes the Auger is a tool whereas Kella thinks it's a weapon, so they're debating while sparring."
"Is that common among Jedi?" Merrin asked.
"Yes actually." Trilla said. "Though not too common, some of the older masters believed it to be meditative to debate one's philosophy while in the middle of a duel. Meditation and resolution through the exertion of the mind and body."
"How long have they been fighting?" Merrin asked.
"Around twenty minutes." Trilla said, sipping at her coffee. "Which is around nineteen minutes more than I thought he'd last, I'll give Rowan that."
Merrin watched and listed to the twins as they stuck at each other. Kella was calm focus, all skill and ingrained grace as she expertly tore at Rowan's guard to force him into defense. Meanwhile, Rowan had no set style or technique it seemed, instead Rowan adapted his stance on the fly. One moment blocking an attack and the next contorting his body unexpectedly to whack his sister in the shin or the spine. The two were quite literally foils to each other, fighting styles that countered each other almost perfectly.
"Are they supposed to be talking?" Merrin asked, realizing that neither twin was speaking as they laid into each other.
"They were but stopped that around fifteen minutes ago." Cal said. "Trilla and I are taking bets on if they just aren't bothering with it anymore or the debate's going on telepathically."
"My money is on they're just too involved in the fighting." Trilla chuckled.
"Hm." Merrin watched the twins intently as they continued their fighting.
She deepened her breathing and allowed her perception to spread outward, through the Force. Slowly, it spread to the twins, tinting each with an aura as her perception split from the mundane to gaze directly into the energies all around them. In the energy she saw two silhouettes, one the color of steel and the other the color of copper, each giving off an aurora of light that clashed with the other. Every clash of blade against guard or cunning counter attack changed the balance just slightly, as the differing lights fought for supremacy. Thoughts and intentions wordlessly transferring between the twins as the Force carried them through each blow.
"Cal wins." Merrin said, bringing her perception back to the physical world. "They are communicating through the Force, not just fighting."
"I suppose I'll stop by the bank at the next stop." Trilla said, rolling her eyes.
Cal almost spoke when Rowan stepped back and stumbled. Kella leaped forward and with a flourish brought her blade slamming into his throat before wrenching her wrist to hook the low powered blade against his ear. Without a moment's hesitation, Kella braced her free hand against the bottom of the light saber's handle and forced her brother down into the floor. Rowan's head smacked against the floor with a loud thump and he went still.
"Rowan!" Cal yelled as he jumped towards Rowan.
He only made it about halfway when Rowan suddenly jerked him self up and drove his hand into Kella's stomach. A grunt of exertion escaped his lips as the air around them shifted slightly before Kella was thrown backward as a wave of force erupted from Rowan's open palm. Kella went flying back and only managed to just barely stop herself from tumbling over a table.
"Huh." Rowan huffed, flexing his fingers experimentally. "That worked."
"Are you okay?" Cal asked as he slid to his knees to examine an already forming welt on Rowan's forehead.
"I'm fine." Rowan said, looking past Cal to Kella and flashing her a gap toothed grin. "I just won after all."
"Pulling a basic use of the Force out of your ass isn't winning." Kella growled before turning on her heels and making for the door. "I'm going to take a shower."
"Don't mind her." Rowan said, as Cal helped him to his feet. "A flair for the dramatic is a dominant gene is us Blackfires."
"You used the Force." Merrin said as she stepped forward to stand by Cal. "In the same way Cal does."
"Sort of." Cal said, patting Rowan on the arm. "It was a Force push I'll give you that, but my master would have grilled you over how sloppy it was. Though I'm just curious how you managed to do it at all."
"I've been practicing, well, I've been staring daggers at tin cans trying to knock them off shelves." Rowan explained. "But that was the first time it worked, during the fight I could feel it building inside me. This anticipation as if I was using a muscle for the first time, and when Kella forced me to the ground that anticipation burst. Suddenly I knew that I could do it, not try to do it, but do it if that makes sense."
"It does." Trilla said, a half vicious smile on her lips. "Though I believe Cal and I had those moments when we were around eight years old."
"Well not everyone gets trained by creepy wizards, now do we?" Rowan snipped at her.
?
"The Crusader is en route to Tython as we speak, my lord." The officer said over the holo link. "We expect them to arrive within the three week restriction."
"Excellent." Vader said. "Tell them to wait until the ships have left Hyperspace and covertly follow them to the Gate. Once the gate is open unleash the full might of the infantry upon them until I arrive."
"You will be arriving, Lord Vader?" The officer asked. "I was not aware you had commissioned a ship."
"What I do is no buisness of yours." Vader said "Relay my orders and do not contact me again until they breach Hyperspace."
The officer saluted and the line blinked out leaving Vader alone in his comms room. He queued in the next address and hesitated before pressing the transmission key. This was where his plans entered their most dangerous, albeit potentially lucrative, stage. Pressing this key would mean that he was committed, and that there was no going back. Vader hesitated for only a moment before pressing the button and sending the transmission link screaming across the galaxy. With practiced deference, Vader knelt and waited as the transmission was accepted.
"Lord Vader." His master's voice reached him before the image of the monster appeared to tower above him. "What a pleasure it is to hear from you, my apprentice."
"Master, I have good news to report." Vader said, looking up to gaze into his master's eyes. "The installation of the remote console was successful and with Trazen's "assistance" I believe a gateway between Mustafar and the Auger can be created when the gate on Tython is opened. I will be able to destroy the rebel Jedi and claim the Auger in one blow."
"Excellent my apprentice." The old man cackled. "You have done your master a great service, and when we have the Auger you will be rewarded greatly."
"Thank you, my master." Vader said, bowing slightly. "I will claim the Auger personally. Trazen's limited knowledge will allow for at least a partial activation, and once it is activated nothing will stand against the Empire."
"Yes...yes." Sidious said, an almost imperceptible twitch in his left eye practically screaming at Vader. "You believe that you possess the power to defeat these Jedi on your own? They have bested you before."
"I do master." Vader insisted.
He's got the scent of the honey. He thought. Now let us see if he will bite the lure.
"When they are defeated, I will be in sole possession of the Auger and the power it commands." Vader said, allowing prideful determination flavor his voice. "Or should I say, we will be in possession of the Auger, my master."
"Yes…." Sidious said, a spark of suspicion lighting his eyes. "No my apprentice, this is a historic day for the Sith and the Empire. Tython and any dimension linked to it is dangerous for those not steeled against such...cosmic forces. I will accompany you to this Auger and together we shall take it, as master and apprentice."
"You honor me with your presence, master." Vader said, for once appreciating the mangling of his face as it hid his sneer. "I will prepare my castle for your arrival and our transference to the place beyond as the Kwa styled it."
"See that you do." Sidious said. "I will not tolerate failure even in the smallest detail, Vader."
"Of course my master." Vader said, bowing again as Sidious nodded and his image blinked out. "We wouldn't want a single detail to be missed, now would we?"