Authors Note: This is mostly written by Derisa, I only tweaked parts of Alex's POV on Meri. Thanks for reading everyone!

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"I see what you mean," T'Lor commented as she joined Alex. "That's definitely distracting if you are tracking through the Force as you are used to doing." She paused, and looked up at the tall Jedi at her side, his eyes shadowed in the dim light of the streets. She had caught up to him on the thirty-eighth level, and another three blocks closer into the Diplomatic Sector. He was moving very slowly and deliberately, his focus obviously very tight to his task.

""But you have other means at your disposal?" Alex asked with a raised brow.

"Indeed." T'Lor centered herself with hardly an effort, and wrapped her senses around the miasma of fear that lingered where the Padawan they sought had walked. "He was terrified, but determined to find...something. Ane said he was following someone, a tech?" T'Lor looked up and caught the glint of Alex's usually genial eyes, now unsmiling and stark.

"Yes," he replied, "Our saboteur. Let's hope he hasn't managed to do more damage." The Jedi were unaware of the final outcome of Carik Agren's night's work, the crippling of the ship that carried Ieron, Melina and Yara on their outing. Even as the two Jedi Knights walked further along the trail they were following, the injured young ones were being carried back to the Temple.

"How certain are they that it's him? And what is he supposed to have done?" T'Lor asked, returning her eyes to the street to catch any faint trace the missing padawan may have thought to leave. While the streets looked bare to her sight, her other, inner senses read a whole history of tracks, people who had walked there in the day, their stronger emotions laid out behind them like streamers on the wind, or the trailing limbs of water plants in the current of the Force.

Alex watched her, quietly grateful he could withdraw his sensors back into himself, as it had been harder than he would have thought possible to keep reminding himself that the fear was not his own. Ciaran Ui'Niall obviously felt things very strongly. "Ane explained some of their points to me, things that a few of them are investigating. He was following young Ui'Niall's lead in this, it seems they all were, but Ane was quite certain who was to blame for most, if not all of the recent Jedi ship crashes in the last several months, from Davin's disappearance on to Kit's accident, and Tobias's mishap."

T'Lor gave him a long considering glance, then gestured for him to continue, keeping tabs on her tracking as they walked.

"I am not sure who all is involved," Alex went on, "But likely those two girls Dama Kaline mentioned..." he let his voice trail off as T'Lor lifted a hand and drew herself up. "What is it?" Alex asked in a whisper.

"Why is Ciaran so frightened of a simple technician, Alex?" T'Lor asked with a pointed look. "He is a well trained young Jedi, especially in dealing with emotions, as his special abilities require extensive training in that area. So why? Why is he so afraid?"

Alex shook his dark head, before drawing up the hood of his robe. "I don't know, T'Lor. I really don't know. Where is the trail leading?"

"Straight into the Diplomatic Sector," she replied. "But lower, down a few levels. Your call as to what we do."

Alex considered a long moment, weighing the benefits of going back to the Temple to make the Council aware of what was happening, just calling back to the Council for back-up, or continuing on with their tracking of the Padawan.

"We keep going," he decided at length. "We'll call back to the Temple when we find him."

T'Lor nodded her acquiescence, and Alex pondered whether his own padawan was involved in this, or whether she had had the good sense to steer clear, as they continued about their task.

Meri would have told me if she had been a part of this, he realized, Besides, she has been too busy over the past few days, what with T'Lor's Knighting, and that whole mess with Rani...and now this misunderstanding between us. Alex's thoughts revolved around the events of the past few days, and as T'Lor focused her considerable training and skills on following the traces Ciaran had left behind, Alex longed to be back in the Temple, with Meri close in his embrace.

**

T'Lor wrapped the fading stands of fear about her mind, tugging gently to find out which way they led, but holding them separate from her self. The intensity of the emotion was powerful, and she caught that the boy who had produced the feeling was not worried so much about himself, as he was the Jedi as a whole. The whole Order...? What can have the boy so worried? she wondered.

Suddenly, the emotions she traced with those mysterious inner senses expanded, blooming outward at a phenomenal rate, almost swallowing her with their sudden encompassing growth. She drew quickly on the Force to guide her, and pulled together the strands of fear and dread and terror and... loneliness? She looked about them, catching Alex's eye and nodding towards an alleyway, where the cable of interwoven feelings led. It was clear the other Jedi had caught something of the abrupt increase in powerful emotions in the trail they followed.

They turned the corner into the alleyway, all their senses extended to the maximum.

The alley was empty, and after a few strides into the middle of it, T'Lor stopped short. Alex took two more steps and slipped a little in something dark and wet on the duractrete paving.

He turned back to catch the other Knight's eye, but she was casting about the alley, seeking the line they had followed thus far, but it was gone. The trail of powerful emotion ended, she traced her steps back to the middle of the alley... *here*.

She was standing next to Alex, and he met her eyes with a horrified expression. Both of their gazes slid to the ground, and the dark, wet stain at their feet.

"No..." Master Alex Arieh whispered, his eyes sliding shut in sadness. T'Lor drew in a steadying breath, and her face bore and expression of cold judgment. A Jedi apprentice had died this night, a very precious life snuffed out, and she would not tolerate the killer escaping justice.

Alex met her stark look, his brilliant blue eyes seeming to shine with their own light in the dimness of the alley. She nodded towards his commlink.

"Jedi Temple, this is Master Alex Arieh. Knight Kaden and I were tracking the missing Padawan, Ciaran Ui'Niall. We request some support, as we believe he has been murdered."

An unfamiliar female voice replied to the Jedi master's request, that the Temple could send no one at this time, as they were in the process of recovering some injured padawans who had been involved in a surface ship crash. T'Lor read Alex's expression as he acknowledged the Temple's reply.

"We're on our own."

"So it would appear, T'Lor," Alex replied quietly. "But there's no trail to follow, so..." he let his voice trail off, as he noted his companion closing her eyes and drawing heavily on the strength of the Force, pulling it within her, and expanding her sphere of senses outward, like a cloud of steam expanding outward.

She stood at the very spot the fear had died along with the body of the Padawan, and set her prodigious skills to some trace of his killer. Within moments she had found something, and she met Alex's eyes with a look of grim distaste, before leading them out of the alley, and further into the depths of the Diplomatic Sector.

He raised an eyebrow at her, and she frowned as she replied to his unasked question.

"She *enjoyed* it."

**

"Where is Akessiae?" T'Lor asked, as Alex returned his datapad to a hidden pocket in his robe. He had used it to access the city-planet's address directory.

They stood off to the side, eyeing the large building where the trail of vileness T'Lor had been tracking led. The door was marked with alien symbols, and a Basic inscription proclaiming it to be the "Regal Akessiae Ship Storage".

Alex searched his memory, but he couldn't answer T'Lor's question. "I don't know, but I doubt I'd want to vacation there," he replied dryly, as they moved in closer to the building. "You are sure the trail leads there?"

"There's no doubt of it. What's more, she wasn't monitoring herself. She was savoring her victory, and her thoughts were unfocused..." T'Lor's voice trailed off.

"The question is, is she still unfocused?" the Jedi Master at her side asked rhetorically. T'Lor withdrew the mental probe with which she had been following the trail, briefly wondering if she'd ever get the slimy feel of it out of her mind, as she took a customary position to the right rear of Alex. He smiled as he looked back over his shoulder at her.

"T'Lor, you *are* a Knight, now, you know. You don't need to stand in the place of a padawan anymore," he reminded her.

"I know, Alex, but I think... these are the positions we are both better accustomed to, and right now..." her pretty face wore a calculating expression, as though she were weighing how best to voice her thoughts, "Right now, I think it best to take what precautions we can."

Alex tilted his head in agreement, but he smiled indulgently as he did so. "T'Lor, whatever happened to Ciaran, he was young, not yet a full Jedi. Here we are, two well-trained and adult Jedi: are we to be afraid of the same things as an untried youth?"

"There is no fear-" T'Lor began, but she swallowed the rest of the rote phrase, recalling the depth and strength of that emotion she had felt from the trail of the boy who had died. Instead of finishing the phrase, she stared up at Alex, a look of challenge clear in her eyes and stance. "But it appears there is pride and overconfidence," she chided him, speaking clearly, so that he could not doubt her intent.

Master Alex Arieh cocked his head and raised an eloquent eyebrow in surprise at the rebuke from one who had been still in training only a few short days before. T'Lor almost grinned: her old friend looked like nothing so much as an eagle whose honor has been called into question.

There was a pause as he formulated his reply, but it was not the sharp comment T'Lor was half-expecting. "Point taken, *Knight* Kaden." There was no mistaking that he had conceded the point, but there was a subtle reminder that she ought recall how recent her right to that title was.

T'Lor bowed her head, and they proceeded into the building. A small reaching of her inner senses, and T'Lor looked up again in sudden shock. She reached for Alex's sleeve, and he turned to face her.

"She's here." T'Lor mouthed, "She's here, *now*."

Alex nodded his understanding, a faint chill of foreboding running through him, and scanned the room they could see. They stood in an entry foyer to what appeared to be a warehouse, and through a tall sheet of transparisteel, they could see several immense stacks, running back until their length was lost in darkness. The dimness on the sides of the cavernous chamber was thicker, marking ship bays.

"Something like a hangar, bays for repair and storage...?" T'Lor remarked, and got a nod from Alex in agreement. He drew on the Force to focus himself, and observed T'Lor pick up the trail of the creature they were tracking.

"She went this way," the young knight gestured, heading around to the door leading to the wide stack of shelves on the far left of the room. Alex paused as he entered the room, his connection to the Force lifting him up and along, it was as though he flew, looking down on the room from above.

He shook his head as T'Lor started down the aisle way. She was not getting the same sense as he from their situation, and all of a sudden, the Jedi Master wanted to keep T'Lor safe from the danger that lurked in the secret silence of the warehouse.

"No, T'Lor... I'll go this way." Alex replied. His companion turned to eye him questioningly, but there was something in his posture and voice that brooked no argument. He was the Master, after all, and it was his call. He headed down the central aisle way as T'Lor moved like a panther down the other.

She is here, alright. Alex forced himself to move towards that darkly luminous presence, like a hawk battering through a gale, so thick and heavy her malevolence roiled within the Force.

Midway down the rank of shelves, there was an open area, and three figures stood within the pool of light cast down from above, two tall, scaly-armored warriors flanking a more petite third. It was this central figure, swathed in robes of an opulent red material, from which that evil disturbance within the Force emanated.

Even as the Jedi Master realized it, she turned to face him, lifting her hood away from her face, and Alex was stunned by her sheer exquisiteness of feature. Her skin was so pale and the lines of darker scaling along cheeks and jaw were delicate, sculpting a subtle, intoxicating beauty.

He was sure others had been snared by her, but all Alex Arieh had to do was recall his padawan's clear brown eyes, and he felt again the sweetness of her soul, her slim form in his arms. It woke in him clear awareness, and he knew the physical loveliness he faced was a dark sham, a brutal betrayal of the truth of beauty that lay at the heart of Meri Irhanah, the young woman he loved. This... thing *was* evil embodied: unadulterated, pure, steaming, violent hatred, clad in too shallow a skin.

His lightsabre was in his hand, and he was deeply immersed in the Force as she sent her minions to battle him, a tiny sly smile curving her lips in a reptilian expression: the hunter toying with her prey.

Alex had always been an exemplary combatant, his awareness of the Force as air currents that shifted under his pinions showed him where to watch for the next blow, and the two hulking guardsmen were no match for that intimate connection with the universe. But they were fast, impossibly fast, and he had his hands full warding off the blows from their energy pikes.

When one crouched and then leapt high into the air above his head, spinning and twisting to land with a heavy double thump, as clawed feet and thick tail hit the floor behind him, Alex felt a tremble from within and he stilled the sudden seed of fear, drawing more strongly on the wild blowing strength of the Force, and swung his sabre over his head to catch the incoming pikepoint before it could shear into his spine.

The riposte left him open along his front, and he swung his body sideways to make himself as small a target as he could, barely dodging the incoming lunge from the deadly point of the other warrior's weapon, but he recovered quickly enough to slash the pike's haft before the huge reptile warrior could withdraw it. He caught the sudden flash of terror in the creature's tiny eyes, and then that died, and the air was suddenly thick with the stench of burned meat. He pulled his shining blade of light free from the creature's ruined heart, and let the body slide to the floor.

His sabre was suddenly heavy in his hands, and he turned to face the creature who had been controlling the warrior. His breath came hard. He allowed his body to fight on, his reflexes blocked the continuing attacks from behind him, as he brought the fight closer to the one who he held responsible for that life, and the other he would have to take this night. He met her cold dark gaze, and let his eyes bore into hers, even as he parried more strikes from the enemy behind him.

She drew herself up, and her ophidian eyes gazed into his, unblinking, unafraid, and suddenly there was another in his mind, a chill, oily voice that sighed with corrupt pleasure at the contact.

Ahhhh, at lassst. A *real* Jehhhhdiehhhh...

The sudden violation of his inner silence by this... *thing* shook Alex and his eyes slid closed as he forced her from the sanctity of his mind. As a result he only barely blocked her guardsman's next lash-out with the energy pike, and he was forced to extricate himself from the onslaught.

With a slight shift of his balance, Alex brought his humming blade up to catch the energized tip of his opponent's weapon above his head. he held it rigid, avoiding the superheated edge from singing his sable hair. Once the pike contacted his 'sabre blade, he spun, leaping back a full meter to put the two reptilian figures at the opposing points of a triangle, able to keep both of them in view at once.

He held his lightsabre in a classic guard stance, perfectly upright and to the side, so that its shimmer did not interfere with his vision. His eyes keen on his opponent, Alex breathed in the Force and paced towards the pikeman. The creature's eyes narrowed, and its lipless muzzle curled back in a vicious parody of a smile. Alex knew a threat display when he saw one, and he softened his elbow, in preparation to lash out with a lightning-fast counterstrike to the blow he could sense coming.

A quick exchange of blows, a flurry of attack and defense, strike, block and counterstrike, and the two withdrew again, eyes still locked together. Alex's assurance faltered as he felt again that defiling caress, and heard her voice in his mind. He felt soiled from within, and he clamped down on the sudden, almost physical revulsion that rose in him at that touch.

He knew he could hold off her creatures, even destroy it like its brother, if he could keep *her* out of his mind. An effort, and he lifted himself again within the Force, his defense strengthened by Meri's eyes, Meri's hands, Meri's voice in his memory... she was his strength, his love for her was his shield in this soul-deep battle. As long as he could hold her in his mind...

**

T'lor sucked in a breath and set off at a run. She could feel the sudden whirling within the Force, and heard the vibrant buzz of Alex's lightsabre. He'd only ignite his 'sabre if he was in immediate danger! she was aware, but Alex's own connection to the Force was so different than her own, she could catch only a hint of his state. Her alarm grew as she sensed the number of opponents he faced, and she knew he had underestimated the danger.

T'lor thought back to her various studies, and recalled passages mentioning Force-sensitives being trained to exploit their darker sides, their anger and hatred and fear. They would hone these black emotions into weapons to defend, but more often to attack. T'Lor was very much afraid that what they had encountered here, in this warehouse, was one of these. There was a word for them, those who believed that the Dark Side of the Force was the more powerful, a word that had not been heard in many years: *Sith*.

She sprinted down the length of the aisle, stretching on into the depths of the huge, echoing building, and spun around the corner of the aisle where the Jedi Master was fighting. Her caution took over, and she made her way along this aisle at a stealthy run, senses swollen with the Force and her 'sabre hilt in her hand. Feet silent on the duracrete floor, her cloak made the only sound as she ran, and it was like the whistle of an eagle's wings.

She approached the figures at full awareness, and could see the red-robed one circling the combat. That's *her* the new Knight realized, She's the one who murdered Ciaran, and who knows how many other Jedi before him? The evil one moved like a raven circling a battlefield, winged in blood, only waiting for the last victim to fall before she alighted and began to gorge herself.

With that grim thought, T'lor saw Alex's foot slip, and the charged end of the energy pike contact his shoulder with a sudden flash and flare of energy released along his nerves. He let out a small cry, and crumpled, the blade of his lightsabre collapsing as he went down, at the feet of the scarlet-robed Sith-Witch.