Chapter Five: Neglected Legacy

Angela did not bother with finesse. Speed was all that mattered, so she literally carved her way out of the ship. Her lightsaber left molten slag behind her as she clambered up the refuse of the decaying vessel. Full night had fallen, casting eerie, ghostly shadowed into the pit, all of the murky blackness emphasized under the green glow of her weapon.

And the red glow of her foe's.

"Atropos!" she exclaimed in alarm, recognizing the black-shrouded figure standing before her. A tall and once-handsome Twi'lek, Atropos had fallen to the dark side believing that aggression was the only way to win the Yuuzhan Vong war. He lost his arms and legs as a result of his error, but his injuries only fueled his wrath. Hatred at the Yuuzhan Vong evolved into hatred of the crumbling, weak New Republic and the flimsy Federation that took its place. He even turned that hatred toward the Jedi Order that once harbored him. Now a monster stood where a good man once walked.

Atropos held Eve tightly in his cybernetic arm, his other mechanical limb keeping the red blade of his lightsaber near her slender throat. The dark Jedi glared knives at his Jedi enemy. "I see you survived the crash," he growled, rotten fangs flashing in the dim moonlight. "That is most excellent. I would be most annoyed if a simple thing like that robbed me of the pleasure of taking your life."

"Let the girl go," Angela demanded. How could I have let this happen? she berated herself silently. I shouldn't have let her stay by herself—not when Atropos was unaccounted for. "She's got nothing to do with this. Just let her go."

"I think not, Angie," the Twi'lek said in a deceptively caressing tone. He brought the blade a centimeter closer to Eve's skin, and the girl squirmed in fright. "You see, Angela Marshair, I came here looking for you, following you. But look what I found?"

His free hand grabbed Eve's and twisted it open. A green cube fell to the metal ruins. "A Jedi holocron!" Atropos announced gleefully. "An artifact containing the untold lore of the old Order. And indeed, look further! We stand upon the ruins of the infamous Outbound Flight! What glory days are before us, for we have found the holocron of an Outbound Flight Jedi Master."

"Atropos, please, let her go." If nothing else, Angela vowed to herself, I have to save Eve.

"Shut up!" he roared. "You chased me across half the galaxy, Marshair! You took out anyone who so much as talked to me! This is what you've driven me to do!"

"You consorted with dissidents, murderers, and crime lords, Atropos," she replied coldly, while thinking, Keep him talking, Angie, keep him from turning that blade on her…. "You wanted to cause sedition and bring down the Federation. And now you're blaming your own mistakes on me and an innocent girl."

"I swear I'll kill—" He never got a chance to finish his threat. Eve slipped her leading foot behind Atropos' and kicked out. The girl was stronger than the dark Jedi, having spent her entire life working the fields and exploring the Lower Woodlands; Atropos never had a chance to stop her. He fell, his lightsaber going wide, and suddenly she was free.

Angela watched in surprise as Eve kicked out her foot again, knocking the red-bladed lightsaber away, before summarily planting a heel against the dark Jedi's throat.

"An impressive display," the young Jedi praised. "There aren't many who would have dared to move like that against someone like him."

Eve shrugged nonchalantly. "Just because we're farmers doesn't mean we're helpless. We live near the Lower Woodlands, after all. So, what do you want to do with him?"

Suddenly, Atropos wrapped his hand around Eve's ankle and widened his eyes. The girl grunted as she was sent hurtling into the air by a burst of the Force. The dark Jedi hopped to his feet and called his weapon to his hand. Its blood-red blade sent shadows dancing across the metal ruins.

"Eve!" Angela cried, sparing a glance over her shoulder. She let out a sigh when she saw the girl regain her footing with a groan, though she seemed to favor her side. With Eve out of harm's way, the young Jedi focused her full attention on her opponent. She brought her lightsaber into a defensive stance. "We could have solved this in a much more peaceful way."

"Peace is a lie," Atropos growled, coming in fast and hard. But Angela was ready for him. The Twi'lek was a skilled swordsman, there was no doubt in Angela's mind about that, but she knew that his fighting style was deeply rooted in the Jedi tradition—a style that emphasized serenity. To fight in rage was to fight at half-strength. Atropos did not realize that he was digging his own grave. Angela did.

He made three passes, three blinding-fast assaults—but she foiled them all with careful, practiced defense routines. His blurring shape surrounded her and assailed her from every angle, seemingly all at once. But she turned ever so slowly, placing her weapon in just the right place to block. She was standing on a lone pillar of stone amidst a swirling and torrential river. But the stone did not yield to the raging water.

And then Atropos made his mistake. He stabbed for her midsection, which she sidestepped easily—and there was his error, for he had overextended himself, leaving no room to recover. Angela was all over him in a heartbeat. Her green blade seared through his sword-hand, cleaving the cybernetic prosthetic from the rest of his mechanical arm. His lightsaber went with it. A final kick to the backs of his knees had him on the ground, her blade warming his shoulder and neck.

But Atropos was not so easily defeated. He rolled forward, clearing her weapon's range, and came back to his feet. Perhaps he was going to try to choke her with the Force, or telekinetically throw something at her, or something equally violent and retributive. Angela did not give him the chance. As soon as he stood up, she threw a slab of steel at him, knocking the wind out of his lungs and his feet from the ground.

Angela knelt by the fallen dark Jedi and placed her fingers against his forehead. "He's dazed. That should give me the opportunity to freeze his mind."

"You'll what?" Eve sounded confused. She was holding her side gingerly.

"I'm going to put him into hibernation so that he won't be a bother." The Jedi closed her eyes and let the Force pour into Atropos, shutting down sensory receptors, modifying his pineal gland, quieting his mind. "There. He'll be asleep for a good long while now. Sorry about all this, Eve. I didn't mean to put you in danger."

The girl waved a dismissive hand. "That's all right. He didn't seem very tough, anyway." She spoke so casually that it made Angela laugh. Eventually, Eve joined in as well. "By the way, Angela, what did you do to him? I mean, it's like you used a spell or something. Are Jedi Knights sorcerers as well as warriors?"

"I guess you could say that. Here, let's find something to tie him up, just in case, and then let me look at that side of yours. And then I'll tell you all about the Force—the source of a Jedi's power."


Angela's hands felt warm and comfortable, and Eve relaxed as tendrils of healing caressed her aching side, mended the cracked bone and strained muscle. The fight with that…what did Angela call it? With the dark Jedi…left her shaken, despite her earlier bravado. She could tell because her fingers trembled slightly. She hoped that Angela did not notice.

"So this Force is just a really big energy field everyone is a part of," the girl summarized. A grin worked its way up her lips. "It's a pretty story and you delivered it better than that one story you told me."

Angela smiled back. "Story or not, you saw firsthand what can be done with it. Atropos used it to hurt you, I used it to throw something at him, and I used it to heal you. Speaking of which, I'm done here. You'll feel a bit sore for a while, but that's only because the Force accelerates your natural healing speed. It taxes the body to repair itself."

"Then I'd better stay off my feet for a little while," Eve surmised. She tried stretching out her flank. It felt taught, hard, and stiff. A groan escaped her lips. "Oh, that feels weird. So, who's this Atropos fellow and what did he do to earn the enmity of the Jedi?"

"A few years ago, my people fought in a war. The Jedi were divided about the conflict, because some of us wanted to be passive, reactive defenders while others wanted to be more aggressive. To a Jedi, aggression is equated with anger, hatred, and other negative emotions that can draw us to the dark side of the Force—the Force's evil aspect. Atropos was one of the aggressors, and surrendered to his hatred as a result.

"He hated the invaders who destroyed his people, raped his lands, and left him a broken an angry man. But when the war ended, his hatred turned to the governments, who he saw as weak and corrupt, who allowed the war to drag out longer than it should have. Finally, he turned his anger on his fellow Jedi for trying to suppress his hatred. This is the result of all that anger."

Eve hugged her legs to her chest, listening raptly to every word. She felt a chill course down her spine. "He sounds like a very evil man. I didn't think such hatred could exist. Everyone in my village is open, kind-hearted—nothing at all like Atropos. Arguments are settled up front before the magistrates or my Papa."

"Your village is a very nice place, Eve. Cherish it, because there are few places like it. But Atropos didn't start out evil. He turned to hatred because he wanted to help people. I know it sounds strange, but there is a saying among my people: the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Eve nodded in understanding. "We have a saying, too: the purest spring can become brackish."

Angela nodded and they were silent for a long while, simply listening to Atropos' soft breathing and the chattering of the forest's night creatures. Finally, Angela asked, "Where's that crystal you found?"

"Oh, right here." Eve picked it up off the ground and handed it to her. Even as it left her touch, she felt the lingering warmth of the cube's surfaces. The chimera of visions danced at the edge of memory, at the edge of consciousness, but vanished when the crystal passed to Angela. "Will it be of use to you?"

"Perhaps. I have to study it."

Eve shifted her weight around nervously. "Um, it's against taboo to take anything away from the pit. They say there's a curse. I don't believe in it personally, at least, not until you came and showed me these wondrous things that you could do with the Force. Now, I think there may be something to the curse."

"Curse, huh? What happens?"

"Well, the legends say that this is unholy ground and that the spirits of the dead will rise if you steal their belongings. What happens to you is the prerogative of the dead."

Angela was thoughtful, her eyes narrowing as she tussled with a thought. "Eve, I might be here a while."

"That's all right. I'll wait. I can explore some more. Atropos will still be unconscious, right? So I won't have to worry."

She stood up, brushed off her bottom of her tunic, and started poking around. She was strangely at peace, despite those terrifying moments in Atropos' clutches. Perhaps it was her dauntless courage, honed from months of exploring the depths of the Lower Woodlands, or maybe it was simply Angela's collected, professional aura that settled the girl's nerves. But Eve did not feel at all frightened now that the debacle was over.

So she went about her explorations with the same innocent gusto she always did. Hours passed and night slowly gave way to day, but Eve, ever the energetic adventurer, barely felt the passing of time. She was glad for the light, though, for it glimmered on a glass cylinder she never noticed before. It was taller than she was and about twice her girth around, with ribbed cables coming out of the top and bottom.

She ran her hands against the smooth, unbroken glass surface, mesmerized by its fine construction. She had never seen anything like it—no glassblower in the village could produce anything like this. Curiosity arrested her in its grasp and she pushed aside pieces of debris with eager relish. Her efforts bore fruit, for she found four more of the strange, man-sized cylinders beneath. All of them were in near-mint condition, miraculously undamaged by time.

"Eve?" she heard Angela call out. "Where did you get off to?"

"I'm over here, Angela. Come look at this!"

Angela's booted feet crunched over metal, a garish sound that cut the stillness of the morning air like a knife. "What did you—by the Core Worlds!"

Eve looked at the Jedi in surprise, noting the abject terror in her voice, a fear clearly painted on her face. "What is it?" she asked. "Do you know what these glass things are?"

Angela nodded stiffly, her face white and her lips ashen. "I do know what they are, Eve. Those are Spaarti cloning cylinders."