She began to bring her weapon down on his waiting head, and found that she couldn't move. She tried again and met with the same result.

It was nothing physical blocking her- Bastila and Dustil hadn't moved an inch. Phineas hadn't even tried to escape. He still knelt before her, his eyes closed; already looking dead as if the swing of her lightsaber was only for official purposes.

"Katrina." She couldn't remember the last time she had heard that name from Bastila's lips, but the Jedi had finally woken up, holding out her arm and stepping slowly towards her.

She glanced back at her.

You don't know what he's done to me, Bastila. What he could have done to all of us.

"But he didn't," she answered.

Bastila looked far more scarred than her years deserved. Scarred enough that she stopped there, not following it up wth the phrases Katrina was so used to hearing from her: Do not give in to the dark side; Do not become what you despise.

The Cathar looked ready to jump out of her skin. Katrina fought the urge to embrace her and pull her away from this miserable Twi'lek Xor that she wouldn't mind killing herself.

"Just walk away, Juhani," she said slowly. "Just walk away."

"I don't want your pity, Revan," her brother snapped, finally opening his eyes to give her an irritated look.

She allowed the small amusing thought to break through the tension; that he seemed to be annoyed that she hadn't killed him yet.

"I don't pity you. I'm not going to show you mercy." The hard edge tried to creep into her voice, tried to turn 'mercy' into 'murder', but she kept it out. Her weapon dangled in the air for a moment longer.

Katrina finally let it drop and turned around.

"Let's go."

"What?"

Dustil was the least of her concerns at the moment, but she still turned to look at him.

"We need to find Sakh."

There is no emotion, there is peace. She heard the code even though she was not the one chanting it in her head like a death toll.

"You're letting him go?" Dustil said, taking two steps towards where Phineas still stood, his lightsaber raised as if Katrina's response would be 'No, just kidding. Go ahead and kill him'.

There is no ignorance, there is only knowledge.

"We must act quickly. Sakh may have already begun preparations to flee the planet," Bastila added flatly, looking from Katrina to Phineas for help. Her brother was still staring at her, his jaw not entirely dropped but looking like it felt very heavy.

The younger Onasi didn't move. She watched his emotions fighting to break out on his face like hives, making his lips tremble and his eyelids twitch.

She needed to say something, anything.

"Dustil-"

"Wait just one minute," he began as if she hadn't said anything. One emotion finally broke through and she immediately recognized which one it was. "You're going to let him live?"

Phineas eyed the end of Dustil's lightsaber warily, finally letting out a broken and irregular breath.

"He doesn't deserve to die." No one deserves execution, no matter what their crimes.

She didn't quite believe it, couldn't quite grasp the fact that she was saying it and, moreover, knew it was right.

There is no passion, there is serenity. Her Padawan was screaming it now, shrieking it over and over in his mind until it became an unintelligible wail.

"Why?" Dustil shouted, echoing off the marble walls. "What excuses him? Explain it to me, Master."

That's the most he's said since Coruscant, she thought.

"He gets live because he's your brother?" Dustil went on without waiting for an answer.

Should she bring that up? Should she take them all back to Korriban? What would a Master say?

"You would have killed your father, Dustil,"Katrina said softly. "What exempted him?"

There is no chaos, there is harmony. Now the Code seemed almost mocking amid the chaotic churning she felt in his stomach.

"My father didn't try to blow people up with prototype bombs. My father didn't lie about being a Sith from the moment we met him." His voice got louder with every 'my father'. "My father didn't send us off with a list of people to assassinate. My father didn't stand here and try to apologize for murdering people-"

'People' didn't mean people. It meant 'Juhani'.

Dustil broke off awkwardly, staring at the white core of his lightsaber, watching the glow pulse around it.

"My father didn't decimate an entire planet. My father didn't raise an army to fight against an army he used to lead. My father didn't kill my mother."

His head shot up.

"But my father let you live. He exempted you." Dustil stepped towards her.

There is no death; there is the Force.

Her brother stood somewhat uncomfortably next to his desk, looking as though he wanted to do something but didn't know what. Bastila rushed forward. Katrina slowly raised a hand to stop her.

"Let him go."

"If you in any way turn back, if you in any way betray the Republic…"

And in her heart she knew that Republic meant 'me', and that she had already done it.

"You'll have to deal with me."

Dustil's lightsaber was suddenly the only thing in her field of vision. She reached up belatedly to bat it away. He made two more clumsy and trembling swings at her, and she blocked both, staring him in the eye.

"Do you feel like this is going to ease your pain, Dustil?"

The upper lip of his tight sneer shivered at the sound of his name. His nose was running. His eyes were bloodshot, and his voice came out in a hiss worthy of his red blade.

"I'll kill you."

I'll do it.

"Will that solve anything?" Katrina replied flatly, parrying another blow. "Will it bring-"

Juhani.

"Will it bring her back?"

Another blow, this one more precise, but weaker.

She suddenly felt immense irritation towards him that he was being so stupid again, that he was wasting their time, engaging himself in a battle he couldn't win even if she went easy on him-

"You can't defeat him," she hissed. The younger Onasi scoffed, moving past her and engaging Abbas. She could hear the rising Sith master's laughter again, echoing off the walls of the cavern. She heard Dustil's wretching and coughing sounds as the second apprentice's tell-tale clenched fist indicated an unresisted Force choke.

"Juhani's death-" she swallowed. "Juhani's death was not Phineas's fault."

Dustil growled, bringing his blade down vindictively.

He had made the choice; he had left Carth on Telos. He was not her responsibility. Juhani quickly turned and fled towards Abbas.

"Juhani's death was not your fault." Her Padawan hesitated only for an instant in which she realized that he had been blaming himself all along.

She would not help Dustil. Let him pay the price for his own mistakes.

"It was mine."

Dustil's face screwed up in either confusion or disgust. His lightsaber lowered.

The peace didn't last. He hurtled towards her with his bare hands, the blade now dangling around as if it just happened to be attached to his palm.

Katrina grabbed his fist, holding her lightsaber up against his, restraining him from coming at her any further.

"I'm not going to betray you. I'm Katrina, not Revan." The name tasted horrible. She grasped desperately for the life she had had hours ago, but not even its ghost remained now.

"Control yourself, Dustil," Bastila said, rushing forward. "You are treading dangerously close to the dark side."

"It's all right, Bastila," Katrina murmured, not looking away from her Padawan's gaze.

"Well, we'll just have to wait and see about that." Carth turned towards her, cold dirt eyes the color of whatever grave he wanted her in. "Revan."

"It was my fault, Dustil," she said carefully. Dustil's entire body shook with the effort of trying to overpower her. "You were outmatched against Abbas, and I saw you were in trouble."

It didn't hurt anymore than calling herself Revan, than accepting everything that went with it.

Small whimpers escaped from Dustil's gritted teeth. His knees began to bend.

"And I could have helped you, but I…"

I am Revan.

"I didn't, and Juhani went to face him alone. If I had gone with her to help you defeat Abbas, she might still be alive." Dustil was lower than her already, still fighting, still pushing, but now half kneeling before her.

"If you kill me, it's not going to bring her back." 'Her' meant Juhani. 'Her' meant Morgana.

Katrina lowered her voice asDustil got shorter and shorter.

"Will it solve anything to fall to the dark side again?"

She glanced up at her brother.

"Will it solve anything to kill my brother?"

Phineas's face was white as a sheet, but he sighed, relieved.

"Will killing him bring Carth back?"

She hadn't thought of him in so long. She allowed herself to picture Carth Onasi, graying brown hair and honest brown eyes. It ached, and the aching felt good.

"Will killing anyone else end this war? Will it change what's happened? Will it change what I've done?"

Itseemed as though Dustil had suddenly collapsed onto the floor under the strain of his own rage. Looking at the failure and defeat in his eyes and her own lightsaber glowing a menacing green above his head, she realized she had put him there.

"Will this change the fact that Juhani died because of my mistake?"

There is no more denial. There are only your memories; and those cannot be denied.

Katrinalooked squarely at Phineas.

"Phineas is my brother, and no, I'm not going to kill him." She held her hand out to Dustil.

Her Padawan- no longer the younger Onasi, no longer just his father in smaller shoes- finally took her hand, allowing himself to be helped up without a word.

His lightsaber sparked in his hands. It coughed red embers and then only a small wisp of smoke before falling silent.

"I won't be much help against Sakh," he finally said hoarsely.

She knew what she would have said weeks ago: I don't need your help. But now she simply nodded.

"We'll find out soon enough."

"If we're done here," Bastila said, coming closer. "We are losing precious time. We need to find Sakh and stop him." The Jedi turned to Phineas, who stood forgotten and quiet near his desk where they had left him.

"If you truly wish to atone for your actions, Phineas, you can start by telling us where Sakh might be." Her brother straightened up, the sweat around his neck suddenly visible.

"We were both very…confused after Abbas's death. I think the only reason he didn't seize on the chance to kill me then was because of the strong connection we both had to our…Master."

"And his location now?" Bastila pressed. Phineas leaned over the desk, his head hung and his arms motionless.

"There was too much evidence against him for him to remain on the Committee. But he didn't confide in me that this was the reason he was going into hiding, or where he was going, or even tell me that he was going into hiding at all." He sighed. "I assumed because of his lack of communication that he intended to kill me."

Her brother's head shot up violently. He whirled around as if some imaginary demon had tapped him on the shoulder.

"He's here-" A long blue lightning bolt shot across the darkness, connecting with Phineas's chest and sending him toppling over the desk and onto the floor.

Katrina heard his footsteps before she saw the Sith apprentice's feet; sharp tapping across the smooth floor.

Sakh walked into the sitting room, the low lighting illuminating only his lips, reddish cheekbones, and yellowing Sith eyes. It made it look like a thick rounded skull was floating towards them.

"I knew you might take it personally, Revan," he said, smiling at her, his teeth an unnatural shade of blinding white.

"And you're not?" she answered. Sakh chuckled.

"Ah, but you forget; that is the way of the Sith. Our emotion fuels us, gives us strength and drive. Drive to do the unthinkable." He said the last few words derisively, his gaze going from Katrina to where Phineas was curled up on the other side of the desk, coughing and trying to push himself up.

"Isn't that what you said to justify yourself, Phineas? Perhaps you have conveniently forgotten it now that your sister is here to kill you. Perhaps she has forgotten it as well since she cannot accept that she still follows our ways."

There was none of the blinding rage that had been a characteristic of the Sith apprentice she had fought in the caves in Delre. Instead there was an incredibly calm sense of triumph, as if he had already forseen all this and foresaw that he would win.

"You're…a fool, Sakh," Phineas rasped, pulling himself up on the desk. "You've walked yourself straight into your own death sentence. Do you have any idea how much evidence is against you?"

She didn't know how to intervene; how to stop it before it got out of hand. Instead she just kept exchanging concerned looks with Bastila, keeping her eyes on Sakh and making sure she was between him and the path to her brother.

"Evidence I am sure you were helpful in stacking against me. Tell me, Phineas, did you destroy all the evidence against yourself as well? I am sure Revan would be quite interested to know what part she played in your little plans."

His bulky arm rose to try and send more blue flames to lick at her brother. Katrina held up her lightsaber, absorbing them before they even got close to Phineas.

Sakh began to laugh, not the light, airy sound that his former Master had made. His was loud, booming, overwhelming; and it crackled around them as if it could echo forever.

"I will allow you this, Phineas- convincing a former Dark Lord not to kill you could not have been easy. You are a master politician. Perhaps even as great as Abbas was." His gaze was cold now, the triumph replaced with the dead weight of inevitability. "But the favoritism he showed you in life will not help you now in death."

"You will not replace your Master, Sakh," Bastila snapped, lightsaber already in attack position. "The path of the Dark Side ends only in death."

The Sith apprentice smiled. "As you will soon discover, Jedi Bastila."

"You've rounded them all up for me, Phineas." He sounded hungry. "How convenient. I thought I might have to chase them across the galaxy."

She felt rage, but it was not coming from Sakh. It was coming from her brother, mounting and threatening to lash out from his fingers.

"You think you're going to defeat all four of us?" Dustil said, raising an eyebrow.

"I see no weapon in your hands, little Padawan," he taunted, still pronouncing 'padawan' wrong. "Has the death of your Master made you give up your violent ways-"

"Enough,"Katrina said flatly.

Sakh responded by brandishing both lightsabers, one behind him and one in front.

He engaged Bastila first, slamming one blade down towards the lower end of her double blade. The Jedi shoved the upper end towards his face, knocking him backwards.

Katrina took one hand while Bastila took the other, each working on a lightsaber. Sakh operated both as if each was a separate entity, as if he was only holding one weapon instead of coordinating two.

He came down hard upon the handle of Bastila's weapon. The Jedi cried out, falling backwards and grasping her burned hands.

Sakh turned to slam both blades down on Katrina.

"I am unsure as to which of you to kill first." He smiled again. "Would it hurt the great Committee Member Phineas more to watch his sister finally die completely? Or would it hurt him more to watch her fall back to the Dark Side as he dies?"

She said nothing; only responded to the burning behind her eyelids and slashed unmercifully towards his stomach.

Bastila returned to her side, swiping at Sakh's heels. He leapt over each attempt, finally vaulting out of the circle of Jedi that had surrounded him and to the corner of the room where Phineas and Dustil stood.

He flung one of his lightsabers towards the two. Phineas's arm shot out, knocking it out of its intended path. The lightsaber toppled down the three small stairs, sliding across the floor.

Dustil and Sakh both stood frozen for a moment, eying each other.

Then both went diving for the weapon. The Sith apprentice, held out his hand, expecting the weapon to fly into it instantly. Dustil reached out, capturing it smoothly before it could even get halfway there. He extended it, looking like he was trying to contain a smirk.

That's my Padawan, she thought with, in light of the situation, a probably inappropriate sense of pride.

Sakh's resolve began to break down as Katrina noticed the first lines of sweat begin to roll down his forehead. He grasped his remaining lightsaber with both hands and swung towards Dustil.

"Do the Jedi usually use their Padawans as human shields?"

"That's Padawan," Dustil replied, pronouncing it correctly. The two sabers smashed loudly against each other as if they knew the other was its former partner.

Sakh was pushed back against the wall, and he immediately glared at Phineas. Her brother's arms were finally both raised, the position looking as eerily natural as they did folded calmly behind his back.

"You tell me I'm a fool, Phineas," Sakh snapped, stumbling for a moment against the Force wave her brother was sending at him. "But you could easily have me arrested simply by alerting the authorities. The evidence against me is high- and while I could no doubt escape the security measures in place, it would become harder for me to move about freely on Anelli."

Her brother's face grew taut as if there were strings attached to the edges of his face, each being pulled to the limit.

"But you won't do that, will you?" Sakh murmured, laughing again. "Because they would no doubt discover your involvement as well."

Phineas dropped one hand, the other clenching together. Sakh gasped, sputtering and swinging his lightsaber around as if he could stop the Force with it.

"You…you are a coward…aren't you?" he rasped, still trying to laugh.

She felt as though everything she had ever done or experienced could be ruined by this ruddy, dark politician who was laughing as though he had already ruined it, even though it wasn't her hand doing the choking.

Katrina carefully advanced on all of them, Bastila following; on Dustil, standing before Sakh, uncertain and hesitant; on Sakh, still laughing as though it were a game; and on Phineas, who looked like there was no longer anything else in his world except for the gasping politician in front of him.

Sakh shot out an arm, lighting again striking Phineas in the chest. He grimaced, but clenched his fist tighter.

"This isn't the way, Phineas. Would you replace one Dark Lord with another?" Bastila said, batting away Sakh's attempted swings. The Sith apprentice was still staggering towards them, slowed considerably by his heavy breathing, but his attacks no less fierce.

Katrina and Dustil joined Bastila, surrounding Sakh.

"This isn't right,"Katrina snapped.

"He would kill you and your friends," Phineas replied. "And then he would kill me and make my name infamous."

"Which one's the reason you're choking him?" Dustil called out just as Sakh managed to pull his lightsaber out of the Padawan's hands and back into his own.

With a strength that could have only come from realizing the possibility that he might lose, Sakh knocked them all to the floor, breaking Phineas's grip. He panted, looking more like the angry, jealous apprentice that had ruthlessly killed in Ruhol's recording.

"Enough of this talk, Phineas. This is no longer the politician's arena,"the Sithgrowled. "I will see you die, and then I will see Revan die. And I will do what both Abbas and Malak could not." He lunged towards her brother.

There is no death, there is the Force.

Katrina brought her lightsaber up over his back. Sakh whirled around, attempting to bring both blades down upon her.

Bastila blocked one. Dustil blocked the other.

Katrina found that the dark power she had feared; the anger and rage that she had been fearing ever since Malak had opened his mouth and said her name again; and the dread that she could never take that name without the darkness, the anger, and the rage controlling her:

They were nowhere to be found as she slid her lightsaber through Sakh's stomach.

The Sith apprentice's mouth dropped lazily open. He struggled for breath, giving her a strangely confused look, as though he suddenly had no idea how he had gotten himself in this predicament.

He looked exactly like what he was; defeated. She struggled to think of something to say, some meaningful words that might make her less of a former Sith Lord and more of a Jedi.

What she thought of to say, however, was something no Jedi who had never traveled the path of a Dark Lord could know.

"This is the way of the dark side, Malak. All things end in death."

Sakh crumpled lifelessly to the ground. Dead.

Phineas took a few hestitant steps forward to stand over the body of his former colleague; his former rival. He glanced up at her, hands calmly clasped behind him once again.

He looked exactly like what he was; the winner.

"All right," he breathed. "Revan, you have to go now. If you move fast, I can get your ship unguarded long enough so you can escape-"

"The ship's already free," Dustil interrupted. Phineas shot him an annoyed look before continuing.

"Get out of here. I'll do the best I can to erase the charges against you-"

That was running away. And she was not running away again.

"I didn't kill him to help your political career, Phineas." Her brother glared at her.

"Do you know what you're suggesting? You want me to give up my life! You want me to throw away everything I've ever worked for, everything that's gotten me to where I am today!"

Someday when she was a great Jedi, she would come back and make it up to him.

Katrina picked up one of Sakh's lightsabers and placed it in her brother's hand.

"Look at where you are."

He was silent.

"You know what you have to do then," Katrina finished.

Her brother Phineas hung his head, looking from saber to dead man and back to the saber again.

"Yes, I do."