Callista sat there, talking over her experience with Andrea. It was an exercise in dealing with her feeling...but was interrupted when she started hearing the sound something ancient coming through the rooms of the house. It sounded like something ancient, but the music that came filled her so much. She wanted to go find the source, but Andrea held her back.

"Where's that coming from?" Callista glanced at Andrea who laid a hand on her arm.

"From the garden," Andrea told her. "Daddy is playing."

"It's beautiful, yet so... sad.." her eyes filled with tears from what she was picking up through the Force.

"It's the way he meditates," Andrea told her. "He lets the Force guide not only his thoughts and decisions, but the music at the same time. Listen closely...you'll never hear this song again."

Nodding, Callista sat back down, sinking into the Force, and just let the music carry her.

"We never disturb him when he's like this," she told Callista. "Even the flute...it was a gift that his mother had given him...made from the center of a liyel tree."

"I've never heard anything so beautiful before, and yet, so...haunting..."

Andrea nodded. "Its different every time."

"He said something about a lesson when he contacted me..."

Andrea shrugged. "I knew he was thinking about one...then he started walking through the gardens. I guess when he decided he needed to meditate...he'll be at the waterfall."

"Alright..." She paused a moment. "I just...feel a little out of place now..."

"Come on," Andrea said with a smile as she led Callista into the study, stopping before the display of the lightsabers that her father kept in the room.

She rose and followed, a look of mild confusion in her face.

"I know my father's big on history, we all are," Andrea said as she pulled one lightsaber off the handel...a sudden twinge on her face as she did so and handed it to Callista. "This one really has a history."

It was one Callista had seen before. "That's Welt's isn't it?"

"Close," Andrea said she gestured to where Welt's lightsaber laid. "The design was similar...this belonged to a man called Mikos Regalla."

"If memory serves, he died fighting the Yuuzhan Vong..."

Andrea shook her head. "He was still on the Jedi Council before my parents were married."

Callista was really starting to show confusion on her face.

"He served on the Council...but in secret," Andrea closed her eyes for a moment. "He was hiding his true identity...as a Sith Lord."

Callista's breath left her in a rush, like someone had punched her, her voice only a whisper. "What?"

"Its something that always concerend daddy," Andrea said as she put it up. "He killed Regalla before I was born, so I only know what he has told me."

"Why would he hide his identity like that?"

"I don't know. That what has daddy concerned about Bane...he's been able to challenge the Order before and escape."

"He mentioned something aobut my skills being needed soon, but he wouldn't say why…

"

"There used to be a saying," Andrea told her. "There were always two Sith...a master and a apprentice...but we've been seeing more of them now. And dad wonders if Bane isn't building things up to how it was thousands of years ago."

She frowned as she tried to understand what it was Andrea was trying to tell her.

"I sense it too...there's going to be a battle..."

"When I was on Korriban, I noticed that there were a lot of Sith warriors."

"Precisely what I was afraid of," a voice said behind them. They turned to see Steffan standing there.

Callista blushed slightly, not having heard him come in. "Good day, Master Karrde."

"I guess you know why I had said those things earlier?" He asked Callista.

She nodded. "I do, Master."

"We're meeting on Coruscant again later on," Steffan told them. "With events the way they are, with the Sith as well as more political matters...the New Republic will be fighting one front of this while the Jedi fight another."

"Sounds familiar..." Callista said, remembering the Clone Wars.

"Aye," Steffan said. "I feel that way myself."

"Why do these things seem to happen in cycles?" she asked.

"History has a habit of repeating itself when people forget it," he told them. "This is just another time where that's happened."

-----------

Steffan walked into the room where Ainar lay, resting.

"Feeling better?"

Ainar looked up from the datapadd he was reading, "Hello Steffan...yes, the bacta healed most of my burns, now it's just up to time and the Force..."

Steffan smiled briefly then pulled up a chair, and sat down opposite him, just as Callista entered the room.

Steffan crossed his legs and leaned back, "Come on in Callista"

Callista walked into the room slowly, her robes hugged tightly around her as she pulled up a chair and sat down.

"I think it's time we hear the whole story, Callista..." Steffan said, "Care to begin?"

Callista nodded and took a deep breath, "I knew there were things that weren't right, after Corellia...I felt drawn to Korriban, like there was something there."

Steffan nodded, then placed his legs on the floor and leaned forward, studying her. "Going alone to Korriban was a foolish move, not many Jedi can pull that off..."

Callista looked down and blushed, she felt ashamed. "I know Master."

"So how many Sith were there when you arrived?" Steffan asked her.

Callista thought, and thought back. "Around twenty I think."

Steffan nodded, then looked back at Ainar, hoping for a different number, "What about you?"

Ainar pushed a button on the bed, and rose up. "Well, when I got there there were four, maybe five guarding the entrance, and another two inside, along with the Sith Lord...so I guess ten tops."

Steffan stood up and paced the room, and stopped by the window. That sounded much like the information the Watchmen had given him, the Sith were leaving Korriban...but where to?

"That Sith Lord, what can you tell me about him?" Steffan asked, turning towards Callista.

"He was strong, physically and in the Force...he blocked my connection and kept me there for days, and brought me out of my cell once a day for 'lessons', " she said, the memories sent a chill down her spine.

"Lessons?" Steffan asked, looking at her as she mentioned that.

Ainar also looked up, puzzled. "Blocked your connection to the Force? Are you sure there weren't any ysalamiri?"

Callista looked at Ainar first, "If there were, I didn't see any."

"It's possible..." Steffan said, turning his gaze on Ainar, "It takes immense focus and self discipline."

Ainar thought on it, closed his eyes and travelled back to that place on Korriban, his memories swirled around him...but he couldn't see any ysalamiri around, plus that would have blocked the Sith.

He made a mental note to look into it later. The archives held much info on the old ways.

"Those lessons you mentioned?" Steffan asked again.

Callista shuddered as she thought back, "He brought me out, and fought me, injured me...tried to anger me to make me lash out in hate, but he failed..and without the Force I couldn't heal myself."

"At least you survived that ordeal.." Steffan said, stroking his chin, then looked at Ainar...and his gaze was filled with intrigue, and mistrust.

"What about you?"

Ainar gathered his feelings close, careful not to give anything away but thinking back to that Sith Lord filled his being with cold, and his head pulsed with ice.

Steffan picked up on his feelings and watched him closely.

"He was powerful, way more powerful than any Sith I've faced, when I got there I killed one of his apprentices, then got into a fight with him...he was strong, and his body, he was half machine, so he had more brute strenght than I did...but I bested him, in the end I got lucky."

Steffan looked at him, gazing down on him like he would a student which wasn't being totally honest. "In my experience...old friend, there's nothing called luck."

Steffan walked away from the windows, and headed for the exit.

"Then I guess it was fate..." Ainar said, almost whispering, but Steffan just kept on walking.

"Care to stay here, Callista? Look after him?"

"A few minutes maybe, I was hoping to get some rest myself, Master," she answered.

Steffan nodded to her, but ignored Ainar, then walked out the door.

Callista walked over to Ainar's bed and stretched her senses forward, scanning his body for injuries, and his thoughts.

Ainar looked up at her and spat out grimly, "Leave me..."

She looked at him startled, then nodded, "Yes Master..." She turned around and walked out into the hallway, leaving Ainar lying on his bed, alone.

What's wrong with him?