Chapter Five: She danced in the Starlight

„In the shadow of the moon,
She danced in the starlight
Whispering a haunting tune
To the night..."

Blackmore's Night, „Shadow of the Moon"

Dantooine, Khoonda Landing Pad

The first thing they noticed after the fact that it was dark outside when getting off the ship was the silence. It was… all-embracing, deafening. There were no birds singing, no insects humming, not even predators howling in the dark. And most of all no human sounds. Dantooine was presenting itself dark and barren to them.

A wind swept over the Khoonda Plains, and suddenly the rustling of the grass that covered the surroundings could be heard, and they all felt relieved somehow. As if the rustling had been the key to break the spell of death that seemed to have befallen the planet.

"I do not like this. When we were here first… the planet was brimming with primitive life, animals, plants… What I feel now… is just a pale copy of what it used to be.", Visas announced quietly.

Atton swore under his breath. Someone had been faster than them, and that someone had left behind death. Even he could feel the echoes of the life-forms that had been killed here recently. And it hadn't been an easy death. But standing around here and just drinking in the damage didn't do them any good.

"Alright, people. You heard the Lady. Something happened here, and we need to know what. I think it's best if we split up in teams. Mical, you, Visas and Bao-Dur will have a look at the Enclave. Search around for any keys – pieces of metal, blaster scourges, pieces of clothes, I don't care. Just everything that looks useful. And try to look out for any remaining evil. I've got the bad feeling that we'll encounter it faster than we think." The Disciple nodded, looking a little surprised and a little scared.

He didn't move, though. "Dammit, pretty boy, what're you waiting for? Get your asses over there. Now." Mical jumped a little at Atton's harsh request, but did as told. He motioned for Visas – who made a last meaningful turn towards Atton – and Bao-Dur to follow him towards the bridge that led to the Enclave.

Atton turned back to the rest. "Mira, you, me and Mandalore are going to have a look at the Administration Building. Visas said that she still felt a little life here, and I do, too. What about you, Mira?" The former bounty hunter didn't answer, just glared back at him. He groaned in frustration. "Oh, come on, you still angry at me? Look, I… did overreact…"

"Now, look at that. Atton Rand's actually apologizing to someone. You should record that, Mandalore, 'cause this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.", she spat out.

He clenched and unclenched his fists a few time before answering, all the time trying to hold on to Visas' counsel. "Hey, sister, I never said, I was gonna apologize…"

"Oh, but that's the thing you should better do, you know.", Mandalore chimed in, and Atton could hear the slight amusement even through his helmet comlink.

I would refrain from threatening your team members if I were you., Visas' voice from little heart-to-heart resounded in his head, and for a moment he had a hard time actually listening to it. He took a deep breath, steadying himself with it. "Alright. Yes. I apologize. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have jumped at you like that. Satisfied?", he huffed.

She took her time, eyeing him, seizing him up. Then she finally said: "Yeah. Just don't pull a stunt like that again. You're…", she shifted her stance a little and when she continued her voice was a little softer, "you're not the only one missing her. We all do. But we got a job to do, and we won't get anything done when you jump on everyone for looking at you the wrong way. So… stop acting like a jerk towards Mical, too, okay?"

That came as a surprise to him. How come she was defending anyone besides herself? And why Mical of all people? Pretty boy that hung around med-bay all day, probably fantasizing about rescuing her single-handedly and… "Hey, ground crew to Atton. You still with us?" A waving hand appeared before his face and snapped him back to reality.

"Uh, yeah, sure. Let's… uh… head to the Administration Building." With that he unsheathed his blaster and took the lead.

Carefully they made their way towards the building. It still stood, but all the doors were open, and it was just empty. There were no traces of a fight, at least not newer than the last time they had been here. The only thing that was strange was that obviously the complex was powered down completely. There was no computer terminal working, and all the lights were put out. They had to rely only on their light sabers and Mandalore's helmet lamp for light. "Never seen anything so creepy. And I've been in a lot of creepy places.", Mira's voice cut through the unnatural silence and startled Atton.

"What is it with Jedi woman and scaring the living shit out of me, huh?", he asked a little grumpily.

"Well, you had that one coming, Rand.", she answered cheerfully, but there was no malice emanating from her. She actually was teasing him. Smiling a little he let it slip.

After ten more minutes they were done investigating the complex and had found nothing. Zero. N'ta. Just plain nothing. Frustrated Atton was about to announce their return to the ship when he suddenly heard a scream right inside his head. Need help. At Enclave! It sounded like Visas on the top of her lungs, and all three of them spun around instantaneously and raced straight for the ruins of the Enclave.

After arriving they could clearly make out the sound of blaster shots and the humming of light sabers coming from the part of the enclave that formerly had been inhabited by the re-evoked council. While they were running Mira and Atton ignited their light sabers, while Mandalore unsheathed a heavy rifle. When they got to the council patio, they were greeted by blinding bolts of lightening shooting through the dark.

And then suddenly the dark side energy hid them like a wall. Mira and Atton both bounced back involuntarily, and even Mandalore drew back a little. Then Visas screamed, and a light blue light saber – obviously Mical's – went down to the ground. Purely following their instincts Mira, Atton and Mandalore charged right into the battle.

At first they had no plan as who they were fighting against but when they had somewhat adjusted to the flickering light of light sabers and blasters cast at the scenery they could make out Sith armor as well as Dark Jedi robes. Atton cursed. That alone would have been bad enough, but soon it became clear that they were outnumbered at almost impossible odds. It seemed as if after every assassin they cut down three more would emerge from the shadows.

One by one his friends tired out, and Visas seemed to take longer and longer to regain enough strength to heal them through the Force. Plus it seemed that the dark energy in the patio seemed to just absorb the energy of every Force attack or armor power they used. Desperation crept into his mind, and made him slow down more and more. They were losing, and he didn't even know to whom… Forgive me, Né…

Just as he was about to finally give up, he suddenly felt his mood lighten up, his vigour renewed. Well… I'll be damned but… "Pure pazaak!", he shouted as he suddenly saw an orange double blade light up atop the wall that was surrounding them.

Khoonda Plains near the Jedi Enclave

Even upon setting down the Shadow on the Khoonda Plains it occurred to her that something was wrong. Horribly wrong. The planet was almost barren, the energy pulsating off it only a faint remainder of what it used to be. But there, just about fifty meters away from her, a big, bad, dark bubble had suddenly emerged. Right after she had felt all those who were bound to her by the Force close. She had singled-out Atton, was just about to tell him she was here… And then Visas had been screaming inside her head, and suddenly there had been this dark bubble right at the Jedi Enclave.

Rushing past T3 without a word she unclipped her light saber and ran towards the Jedi Enclave. Bolts of lightening shot into the sky from one of the patios, which she instantaneously identified as the one where the last council had judged her. She used the force to speed her up and levitated herself on the wall surrounding it. She looked down and for a moment the scenery down in the patio stunned her. It was a flurry of light sabers and blaster fire and Force Lightening and the glow that accompanied Visas' healing powers and…

She took a step forward and was stunned a second time. The dark energy that was surrounding the patio felt like a second and very solid wall. But it was only confined to the boundaries of the patio… There had to be focal point somewhere… A center… She closed her eyes and dipped into the force, swimming through the currents, singling out the dark ones, following them to their source, their point of origin… Her eyes flew open. Down there in the patio… it was right down in the patio. The source… All she needed to find was the source.

But before that she needed to do something else. She closed her eyes again, this time concentrating on herself. Her friends most likely were tired and exhausted by now, and their opponents were still fresh… She opened up, preparing herself for Battle Meditation. Yes, she had never mastered it like Bastila Shan had, but her powers were strong enough for holding out as long as five minutes. She concentrated… hard… And then she was panting heavily, but suddenly feeling the bonds to her friends strengthening again.

As she ignited her double-bladed light saber, she suddenly heard someone exclaim "Pure Pazaak!" like a battle cry from below, and with a grim smile she jumped right into the cannok pit that the patio had become.

She landed right beside Atton, and her presence alone made him forget all about the burning blaster wound on his right arm and ardent cuts all over his body… She was cutting threw the enemy lines like butter, carefully putting them out in a complicated dance of light saber swings and roundhouse kicks. Her arrival had given him a second or two to catch his breath, and he used them completely with staring at her. She was poetry in motion. She was dancing….

"Everyone on me! Ignore the assassins. Just trust me!", she suddenly shouted, and he acted without thinking, making his way towards her half-heartedly cutting down more enemies. As were Mira's red light saber, Visas' violet ones, Mical's blue one… The orange double-blade headed straight toward the very center of the patio. Né suddenly skidded to a halt and held her hand up, sending a Force Wave into a group of assassins that were assaulting her, but instead of hitting them, suddenly a stealth field shimmered and it engulfed a figure in dark robes that held out its right arm and hadn't been there before. I could have sworn…

Before the figure could do anything, Né had cut the right arm off with her light saber.

And suddenly the silence was deafening. Every single Sith trooper and Dark Jedi had disappeared. Every one but the dark figure in the center. "Don't even think about it!", Né hissed at it was about to raise the left arm. With a quick gesture she had taken off the hood with the Force and revealed a very young looking woman with white hair. One of Atris' Echani Handmaidens.

Her face was so contorted by hate that Né involuntary took a step backwards. "So much for Atris surrounding herself only with people blind and deaf to the Force.", she commented sarcastically.

"My mistress discovered my talent only recently and has only begun to train me.", the Handmaiden said, and the sheer amount of arrogance and over-confidence made Né want to strike her pretty face.

But she kept an impassive façade and just said: "Well, that at least was very obvious."

The Handmaiden now was cradling her injured arm to her, but that didn't make her any less arrogant. "She has more power than all of you together. And she has gained powerful allies. Soon you will find yourself at the hand of her mercy. If you let me go… I could try to convince her to let you die very fast and with a minimum amount of pain."

"I think she has made the worst allies she could find. If I were you, I would seek to escape from her grasp as fast as possible.", Né stated, and for just one moment hoped that the Handmaiden grabbed the hand offered to her, but the look on her face told her otherwise.

And there was even more disdain in her voice than before, if that was even possible. "I will never abandon my Mistress. Not betray her like you did. Oh, you may like to wallow in the puddle of denial but you have betrayed her. She offered you a place beside her, power, wealth, everything you liked. But you turned her down for a pathetic religious concept called "the light side"." The Handmaiden was becoming more and more agitated, and suddenly she was shrieking: "I will show you what it means to defy my Mistress. I will…"

She raised her left hand, but as if on cue every member of Né's party had moved to intercept her and after a second the only thing that remained was a bloody corps at the ground.

For a second it was dead silent again, but then everything seemed to happen at once. Né fainted, Atton rushed to her side, Mical's light saber clattered to the ground as he also fainted, Mandalore swore and before Visas or Mira could reach either of the downed Jedi suddenly the patio was filling with people streaming up from a hidden cellar entrance in the back of the patio.

Being the first to regain her senses, Mira coughed loudly and shouted over to Atton who was still cradling the unconscious Né in his lap, obviously oblivious to everything around him: "Oi, lover boy! Stop staring at her for a moment and help us get some order in this place, will you!"

A/N: Oh dear... I'm on a roll again. If I'm lucky I can finish this story in a week or two (one week would be better because by the end of next week I'll have no internet access for an infinite amount of time...). And uh... I'd really love it if there were more than ten reviews before I complete this story :wink wink nudge nudge: Oh, and the first reader to discover something that's different from the other chapters (well, apart from the number, title and content, that is) gets a big e-cookie :)

Vratix - Thank you very much for your encouragement and praise. I hope I can uphold at least the niveau at which I'm writing at the moment :)

Amme Moto - Well, uh, I found Vrook annoying as well, but he had far fewer opportunities to harrass one than Kreia, and that alone improved his status very much. Plus I recently found a LiveJournal titled "Ask Master Vrook" which was one of the funniest I ever read ;)