I grunted as the Head Guardian whipped his staff against my back and sent me onto my hands and knees on the ground. Grumbling, I got back up onto my knees and looked up to Taelo, who sat in the throne watching the scene in front of him. My hands were restrained in stuncuffs in front of me. Another whack to my right side sent me to the ground again. I sighed as my body ached in protest as I got up onto my knees again, looking back up to Taelo. This was pretty mild compared to what I'd endured in the previous days. He was just enjoying himself watching me get hit over and over again. That stupid grin never left his face so long as I was being beaten in some way. So, I tried to throw in some snarky comments as often as I could.
"Your Guardian hits like a womp rat." His smile turned into a snarl for a moment. It was brief but satisfying. He pointed to his chest on the same area where he had speared me the other day. The Guardian walked around to my right side and started twirling his staff around. Oh poodoo. The end of his staff made contact with my wound and I howled in pain as my body spun around from the force of the impact and I landed on my face. Doing some short breathing work, I pulled my hands up to my chest and pushed myself up off the ground, my whole body screaming, especially my shoulder now.
"That's enough for now." Taelo demanded. I looked over to see the Guardian slam his staff onto the ground, so he held it upright next to him. I shook my head as I got to my feet and turned around. Taelo stood there with his arms across his chest. I looked up at him with my lips pushed to one side and out and one of my eyebrows raised. "I really hope you've enjoyed this…" He paused to look back at the Guardian, then back to me. "Lull... in our usual meetings." I huffed out a short breath, almost in a laugh.
"Whatever." I spat back. This angered him for a moment, but he quickly controlled himself.
"Take her to her cell. Get her ready." He said, turning back to the Guardian. He didn't even look back to me as he pushed past me roughly. The momentum of his push turned me around most of the way and the Guardian's hand shoved me the rest of the way. It was a painful walk to the containment cells. I had a slight limp and I had to wheeze to get some sort of breath into my lungs. A large thud above us made me stop and look up to the ceiling. Morek was here. As soon as I felt him, I jumped and spun, kicking the Guardian in his chest and sending him flying back. I knelt to the floor as Morek dropped out of the vent above us and sent several stun shots into the Guardian's chest before running over to me.
"Boy, am I glad to see you." I sighed in relief.
"Yeah, you look really terrible." He said, not joking in the slightest. I furrowed my eyebrows at him as I slowly got to my feet with his help. "Can you get through the vents?" He asked. I let out a soft sigh.
"If that's our only option." I said gently. He nodded and put his hands together to help boost me up. He bent down to make it easier to step into his hands and then pushed me up with ease. I started crawling and making room for him to get up. Blast, this hurt even more than just walking. After he was up and got the gate shut, he told me where to go. I paused when I saw some guardians through the vent down the hall.
"Gaster, they're blocking our way." Morek whispered into his comlink. There was a pause before Morek gave me further instruction. "Kemara, go up." I grumbled softly as I twisted myself and got my feet underneath me. A few more twists and turns and we came to a vent that the sun shines through. I put my hands on it and gently pushed it off. It fell to the floor as I stared crawling again. The first thing I noticed was the wind when I stuck my head out. The wind whipped my hair all around my face. Next was the brightness. But also, the warmth. I got my feet under me and faced the wind so my hair would be blown out of my face. And I was a little startled by what I saw. We were on the Palace roof. And not just one of the lower towers. We were on the main Palace's Dome.
"Uhh.. Morek…" I called out.
"Yeah?" He asked as if this was normal.
"Now what?" I wasn't normally squeamish when it came to heights, but the minimal food in my stomach coupled with the fact that I was too weak to really do any jumping around made me stand back from the edge.
"Now, we fly." He said as he walked around the edge a little bit and picked up a jet pack. He hooked it up and strapped it down and turned back to me. "Ready?"
"Uhh, yeah." I gulped, looking over the city. I frowned as I looked down to where the weapons depot used to be. Just a burnt building and lots of rubble. The energy bridge was down as well.
"It's hard to look at." Morek breathed agonizingly. I turned back to him and nodded. He put my still bound arms around his neck and held my back tightly as he lifted off and the city got smaller and smaller. I didn't bother asking where we were going. I'd know when we got there. We weren't in the air for a terribly long time. Maybe 10 minutes, but we covered a good distance. I didn't know this place. It was a small clearing with woods all around. Just behind the wood line to our left was a small den made out of rocks. After Morek had set us down gently, he undid the jet pack and put it behind a tree and put a small cover made of leaves and sticks over it. "Here." He called as he walked over with a small device. He unlocked my binders and let them fall to the floor.
"Thank you." I whispered with a sad smile. He nodded with his lips pulled tight. I looked back to the small den, unsure of why I felt drawn to it. I hobbled over to it, holding a hand to my abdomen. I let a hand rest on the rocks on the top of the den. The Force was strong here. But there was something else. It wasn't just the Force here. There was another type of energy pulling me to it. I felt stronger here. My power felt stronger here.
"I want to show you something." I heard Morek say as he passed me and crouched down into the den. He got on his knees and started pushing the dirt in the den to the side. There was a small hatch in the ground. He found the handle and pulled it up. "Come on." He put his legs in front of him and started scooting down the small hole. I winced as I followed suit, starting to slide down the hole. The ground came up quick. Morek caught me before I hit the ground on my face. "You good?"
"Yeah, thanks." I replied as he righted me on my feet. The sound of rushing water caught my attention. It was dark, but my eyes began adjusting. Morek switched on a flashlight and it illuminated the small cave we were in. There was a narrow tunnel leading further into the cave. As we walked further, the sound of moving water got louder and louder.
Finally, we reached the end of the tunnel and it opened into a huge cavern with large stalagmites and columns of rock throughout the room. There was a giant waterfall in the middle of the room that fell into a large pool of water at the bottom. It turned into a river as it ran through smaller holes against the wall on the bottom. There was a seeming walkway that wrapped around the open cavern and hugged the wall around the room.
"Come on. It goes deeper over there." He pointed his flashlight across the space to another hole in the wall that led to another cave. He motioned me first and held the flashlight downwards so I could see where I was going. The ground was uneven and wet, sometimes slippery. Morek kept his hand out, close to my back for when I lost my balance. As we walked around the room, I felt something strong pulling me towards it. Like I belonged here.
"Morek, how did you find this place?" I asked as we walked around the giant waterfall towards the back of the cavern.
"I just saw it when I was looking for a place to lay low. I don't know if this sounds crazy, but I felt like it wanted me to come here. Like something pulled me here." I let out a small laugh.
"That's not crazy at all. I feel the pull too. Do you feel it right now?" We stopped at the hole in the wall that led us down another tunnel. I looked over to him, his face softly illuminated by his flashlight. I could see a deep bruise on his jawbone where Taelo had hit him the other day. I frowned at it and he looked over at me.
"Yeah, I do actually. It kind of feels stronger with you here." I dropped my frown and nodded. "What's wrong?" I furrowed my eyebrows before pointing to his jaw.
"Taelo hit you pretty hard to leave a mark like that." He waved his hand dismissively.
"I've had worse." He jested lightly. I huffed out a short laugh at him and he nodded his head towards the tunnel. "Let's keep going." We got to the other end of the tunnel and it opened into another large cavern. It was flat rock all around, so we walked across until we came to a small opening in the floor. Morek went first and landed with a thud as his boots hit the ground. "It's a bit of a drop, but I'll catch you." He called up. I lowered myself to the ground and started through the hole, feet first. I held my arm against me so I didn't jostle it around as I hit the ground. I fell quickly and tried to use the Force to slow myself, but as my feet hit the ground, it sent a wave of pain through my body that I want prepared for. I cried out quietly and would have fallen in on myself if Morek hadn't been there. "I got you, I got you…" He lowered me to the ground and let me breath it out. After several deep breaths and a nod, I told him I was okay to keep going. "Okay… don't strain yourself too much. I can't imagine the pain you're in right now." He confessed as he lifted me up by the abdomen and back. I looked over to him quizzically as we began walking again.
"What do you mean?" Normally when someone says something like that, they know what has happened, but they don't know how you feel about it. But Morek has been hiding out here.
"Taelo… he broadcasted what he did to you on the rebels' frequencies. I, and I'm sure the others, had to watch him torture you…" I felt the blood drain from my face. My legs buckled and Morek had to grip me tight around the waist. "Alright, alright. Let's take a rest." He lowered me to the ground gently. I thought I was going to be sick. They all had to watch as I was beaten and burned and electrocuted and cut and choked over and over and over again. I had to place a hand over my mouth to will the bile back down.
"I'm sorry... Morek, I'm so sorry. You shouldn't have had to watch-" He cut me off quickly, kneeling in front of me and waving a hand at me.
"What? Kemara, do you hear yourself? Stop. Stop. Stop. Taelo was torturing you and you're sitting here apologizing for it? Trust me, I am the last person that is going to look at you like you're weak, or, or look at you different." I shook my head as I looked to the ground.
"No, that's not… I'm not concerned about what you think of me." I said before I looked back up to him. "I'm concerned with what you think of yourself." As I sat there and watched his facial expression, I knew I was right. His look of rage did little to hide his overflowing sense of guilt. He felt useless and wasted. "You can't hold yourself responsible. There was nothing you could have done. Taelo would have killed you. In fact, you helped me more by escaping with your life and coming back and rescuing me." My reassuring words caused some sort of acceptance to bubble up in him. He nodded slowly. "You did all that you could… and I know that doesn't feel like much when you're dealing with Force users and power holders… or whatever this is…" I said as I raised my hand and let a flurry of my powers fly into the air before evaporating. "But believe me, you just saved my life. I don't know what Taelo had planned, but I'm sure it wasn't going to end well for me." He nodded slowly and stood up. I held my left arm out for him, and he took me by the forearm and underarm to help me up.
"I've explored just up ahead. There's a big drop off and I can't fit my jet pack through the tiny hole back up there, so I have no way to get across." He explained as we started forward again. Sure enough, we went through another tunnel and there was a small outcropping of floor before it stopped and dropped into a deep chasm. Morek shined his light down towards the bottom, but we still couldn't see where it stopped, if it ever did.
My power called to me and when I looked closer, it looked like the outcropping had been broken off. The rock wasn't smooth like the walls and other floors. I laid my hand flat against the floor and watched as the ice shot out of the rock and formed a small staircase up to another outcropping it wasn't steep, but the ice was beautiful. Smooth and delicate.
"Woah, did you know you could make things like that?" He marveled. I shook my head as I stepped onto it.
"No… I had no idea…" I breathed out as I took another step. Then another. Morek followed closely and kept a hand on my back, keeping me steady. We reached the top and looked back down at the staircase made of ice.
"Cool." Morek blurted before I looked back up to him, a shy smile gracing my lips. I turned back to the cave that was in front of us. Morek handed me the flashlight and motioned forward. I moved the beam of light all around to see where I was walking and what laid ahead. It was a series of small rooms and tunnels that could have easily gotten someone lost but Morek and I both silently agreed on each passageway. Something was directing us to it. Or someone. Whatever it was, it was big.
After a while, we came to another room that had a large drop off again, then another large stone in the middle a little below us. He stopped to my left and we looked around the room but saw no tunnel or cave that went beyond this cavern.
"Hey, do you see that?" Morek asked as he peered over the edge and pointed to something at the bottom of the cavern while he rested a hand on my shoulder. I shined the flashlight down to the bottom and almost dropped it. A giant eye peered back up at us and we backpedaled, pointing the flashlight up towards the ceiling. "Did you just see what I saw?" Morek fretted. I looked across the cavern at the wall, not daring to look back down.
"Uh huh." I sputtered. Morek scooted back to the edge and looked down. He put his arm around my back and scooted me closer too. I pointed the flashlight down again and saw the eye still peering up at us. He blinked before turning his head and looking with both eyes. I started looking around with the flashlight and saw his large scales and wings that laid against his body. He stood up and stretched his wings out before tucking them back against himself. While he was standing up, he looked directly up at us. He began climbing the rocks and I backed into Morek. As he got closer, I realized he matched the description of Basiliskans from the Jedi Archive. He perched himself on the stone in the middle of the cavern, putting his head just a little above ours.
"Finally found your way down here, hmm?" The creature mused lightheartedly. Morek stiffened at the words.
"Who are you?" I asked as I shined the flashlight upwards, so I wasn't pointing it right at his face.
"I am Khalliag." He responded and bowed his head slightly.
"I'm Kemara." I started as he picked his head back up to look at us. "This is Morek. We didn't mean to disturb you." I explained as I stepped forward.
"I know who you are. In fact, I've been waiting for you." I furrowed my eyebrows at his words.
"Do you know about the prophecy?" I pressed. The large creature let out a small chuckle.
"Know the prophecy? I wrote the prophecy!" I felt a twang of anger roll off Morek. I turned around and saw an angry frown on his face.
"My friends died and you did nothing!" I put a hand against his shoulder and tried to hold him back as he pushed forward.
"You misunderstand. I am merely a seer. A guide. I do not intervene. I did not know what your brother was going to do, only his intention to deceive." I sent a calming wave to Morek and turned back to Khalliag.
"Did you lead us here?" I inquired.
"I did."
"Why now? Why not before all the death and destruction? Why did Kemara have to suffer?" I turned back around to face Morek.
"That's not fair." I interjected.
"I am bound by a code. Just as Kemara is bound by her code. I may not always follow it exactly, but to go against it could have harmful effects." I turned back around as he spoke.
"What is Taelo planning? Do you know?" I continued. He nodded slowly.
"He wants you to suffer. He wants you to watch everything you care about... burn…" Khalliag warned.
"Why? How did I wrong him so badly?" The creature closed his eyes and shook his head slowly.
"You didn't wrong him. He only feels wronged. You were born to right the wrongs committed here. You were the one destined to take the throne. But in all, there must be balance."
"How do we stop him?" Morek requested.
"You." The large creature stated simply.
"Me?" Morek was taken aback. Khalliag nodded slowly. "How am I supposed to defeat him? He has his fire powers and the Force and a lightsaber."
"You see all these things that he has, but you don't see what you have." After answering, he looked to me and seemed to smile. "No one can do it without the other." He urged.
"So, what's my role? I've already saved Kemara from Taelo."
"No, you've merely helped put the future in motion. She must go back." I'm pretty sure my mouth fell open a little bit, but I shut it as quickly as it fell.
"What?!" Morek cried out. "There is no way she's going back to Taelo. He'll kill her!" I looked from Khalliag to Morek. His face was contorted in anger.
"Are you certain of this? Do you know his plans for her and her friends?" Morek broke eye contact with the creature and lowered his gaze.
"No…" He relented.
"What does he want with me?" I asked, returning my gaze back up to Khalliag.
"He wants you to be the one that hurts your friends. He has prepared a spell to make you subservient to him."
"How do we break the spell?" After I asked, Khalliag looked from me back to Morek.
"What do I have to do?" He asked without hesitation. Khalliag hummed at Morek's question.
"Stay with me. I will teach you what you need to know."
"What about your code, Khalliag? You aren't supposed to interfere." I stated, slightly worried about what could happen to the creature. If doing things this way would impact Khalliag, we could find another way.
"I am... maintaining the balance." He seemed smug about it. I gave him a soft, knowing smile and nodded before turning to Morek.
"I have faith in you. Don't doubt yourself." I advised him. I handed his flashlight back over to him as he kept his head down. He looked like a kicked lothcat. I breathed out a laugh and put a hand on his arm. Morek looked up to me with worry in his eyes. I gave him a sad smile and I squeezed my hand that was on his arm before I dropped it. I looked back up to Khalliag who stood up straighter. He looked behind him and I noticed a door. No way that was there when we entered the room. He looked back at me and spoke.
"Follow the tunnel back to the Palace. Do not resist Taelo. You can't win a fight against him right now. You will heal and be ready when Morek arrives." I took a deep breath and held it for a second before letting it out slowly. I brushed a hand through the air in front of me, a flurry of magic rushing out and forming a staircase around Khalliag to the tunnel entrance on the opposite wall.
"Kemara…" Morek started softly. I turned my whole body to him. "I'll see you soon. I promise." I beamed at him with sincere eyes. I turned back and began the journey up the steps. I reached the tunnel entrance and turned around one last time.
"Khalliag." I called out. The giant creature full of wisdom turned around to face me. Carefully moving my arms, I put my fist and flat palm over it and bowed. Khalliag bowed his head in return. I turned back to my tunnel and started the journey back to the Palace.