Star Wars:
Dark Legacy

By:
Myst Dragon

Chapter 5

As the Corellian YT-1930, the Ivory Dream flew through hyperspace, Caitlyn and Lillith stood in the ship's cargo hold. The two Force users eased back into fighting stances, and began to perform a paced series of strikes. Caitlyn had performed the exercise many times with Master Van, and its movements were burned into her mind. The young Jedi began to grow impatient and tried to speed up the pace several times. Each time she was rewarded with a sharp smack to a sensitive spot on her body. As they finished the exercise, she clutched her side and looked at the older woman, her eyes betraying her irritation. "Was there a point to that? I thought you were going to teach me something new! What happened to teaching me a new technique to guard against the Dark Side?"

The redhead sighed, and crossed her arms. "You obviously haven't learned the exercise's lesson. We will have to continue training with it until you do."

"Just what exactly, am I supposed to learn from it?" Caitlyn demanded irritably.

Lillith gave her a wry grin. "You'll know the answer to that once you've learned the lesson. Come now, I need to ready you for the trial I've prepared for you on Nar Shadda." They spent the next several hours repeating the exercise. The twenty-nine year old woman was still amazed by how much the young girl looked like Raven, though Lillith kept such thoughts to herself.

Once each of them had showered, they made their way for the ship's galley. On the way the pair was interrupted by Jak's co-pilot. The little astromech droid gave a series of beeps and whistles, causing Caitlyn to laugh a little as Lillith looked to her datapad for translation. "You know Ten; there are polite ways to actually ask someone to perform routine maintenance on you." It answered with another set sounds. "Keep acting like that and we'll see who helps you when you need it." This time the droid gave an apologetic sound. "Alright then, I'll help you out after dinner." This caused Ten to give off a few high pitch beeps and roll off.

The older woman looked at her with a cocked eyebrow. "And just how did you manage that?"

"Manage what?" Caitlyn asked innocently.

"How did you manage to understand what that droid was trying to communicate?"

"When I was little, Master Van taught me how to reach out with the Force to try to understand what others are saying to me. So far I can only seem to understand droids with it though." At first she smiled at the memory, but her expression soon showed a twinge of sadness as she remembered her loss. "I can't stop missing him."

Lillith held the girl close, empathizing with her. "As long as you hold your memory of him close to your heart; he will always be with you.

Lord Zerak sat in his chamber, meditating as he was surrounded by a small group of battle droids, armed with blaster rifles. The instant they pulled their blaster's triggers, the Dark Jedi had leapt outside of the circle, and cut down two of them in the blink of an eye with his crimson saber. The only defense he employed as he cut down the remaining droids was the speed at which he moved to viscously strike each of them down. It was a simple matter to use the Dark Side to guide his lightsaber. When the last one fell, he took a deep breath and deactivated his weapon. "Report." Only a brief moment passed between the time he gave the simple order, and the moment when the doors to his chamber opened. A man wearing simple clothes stepped in and bowed before him.

The man seemed slightly nervous as he stood before the man who wished to proclaim himself a Dark Lord. "It has been several days since we have heard anything from Kazen or Lillith." He paused as he felt the anger rolling off Lord Zerak. It had begun to seem that any effort to locate the hidden library of holocrons for the Dark Jedi had been cursed.

"Continue." The Dark Lord ordered impatiently.

The man gulped nervously, and did as he was ordered. "Our last report from Lillith stated that she was going to confront the girl in a cave on Zaanrak. The man we sent to investigate found Kazen's ship, but no signs of him, and we found the remains of Lillith's ship several kilometers away."

After a moment, the Dark Jedi no longer appeared angry. "Interesting." He seemed to take a moment to think about the information. "Leave me now; I have much to meditate on." With that the other man bowed once again and left him to his thoughts.

The Ivory Dream had made good time on it's trip to Nar Shadda. As Lillith and Caitlyn finished preparing to leave the ship, the older woman saw Jak checking his blaster. "You'll hardly need that while waiting for us on the ship." She informed him dryly.

He glared at her. "On the ship was one thing, but if you think I'm going to leave you alone with her on this damned moon, then you've got another thing coming."

The auburn haired woman sighed, "Please, let's discuss this in the cockpit." She motioned towards the front of the ship with her right hand. The pair walked to the front of the freighter at a brisk pace and as they arrived, Lillith began to carefully slip into the smuggler's mind through the Force. "You must understand that I only have her best interests in mind, and that your presence would only serve as a distraction. You'd only be putting yourself in danger." As she spoke, he couldn't pull his eyes from hers; and as he was about to yell at her, he felt an injector pierce his side. The woman caught him and eased him down to the floor. As she returned to the galley, Caitlyn gave her a curious look.

"Where's Jak?" She asked feeling like something wasn't quite right.

Lillith gave the young woman a relaxing smile. "Don't worry, I managed to convince him to stay on the ship, it's for his own good after all. Now let's go; the one who I've enlisted the aid of isn't known for his patience."

Caitlyn followed her and soon found herself standing in the presence of a Hutt. The young Jedi followed suit as the older woman bowed. "Greetings, mighty Jotan. I trust that what I've asked for has been prepared."

The large creature gave a deep laugh and began to communicate in it's native language. "Everything is as you asked. Karn can guide her."

She smiled. "Good. Well Caitlyn, This Twi'lek can take you to your final test."

The girl seemed nervous. "Just what have you thrown me into?"

Lillith answered her in an ever-playful voice. "Now, now; that would be cheating. It's not much of a test if you know the answers." The woman's words hardly put her at ease as she followed a green skinned Twi'lek. He had one of his head tails wrapped across his throat, while the other hung straight down his back. He soon motioned for her to walk ahead through a doorway. As she passed by him she sensed a need for caution. She found herself in an arena with a fairly large fighter's circle, cut off from the seating by a bubble. She saw Lillith standing next to the Hutt with a sly grin on her face.

Jotan gave another deep laugh that seemed to be so common among his kind. "I've paid good money for you, so if you want to live a long life, you'd better be ready to spend the rest of it entertaining me.

"Goodbye, and thank you for helping me find the Library, this has been very profitable for me." Lillith's words stung, but she had no time to think about them as a group of battle droids and two Gamorreans entered the arena.

She struggled with herself as she did all she could to avoid the stun-sticks wielded by her attackers. She heard a voice in her head, calling to her from deep inside. "You trusted her, and she has betrayed you! Use your full strength to eliminate these nuisances, and teach her why she should be more careful of who she betrays!"

"NO!" Caitlyn yelled as she used the Force to push one of the Gamorreans into a wall, knocking him out! She quickly back-flipped to escape the droids who had encircled her. In mid-air, she pulled her lightsabers to her hands and activated them as she landed. She allowed the Force to guide her as she weaved through the droids, cutting them down, and gave the remaining gamorrean a strong kick to the chest. The alien squealed as it fell, and saw one of her blades coming down for a killing stroke. Caitlyn managed to stop the blade short of his face, and he passed out as she deactivated it. She was angry, but she wouldn't allow that to damn her into needless slaughter. Yes, she felt angry, hurt, and betrayed, but that doesn't mean she has to hurt someone. She looked back up to see Lillith applauding her, and the door she entered through opened.

Remembering her training, the young Jedi took a deep breath and felt out through the Force. She sensed no immediate threats, at least from no one nearby. She attempted to read into the mind of the woman who was roughly twice her age, but the attempt was like trying to grasp a glass ball covered in slick oil. Lillith seemed to have been honest in wanting to help her to foil Zerak, but Caitlyn couldn't help but have her doubts. When she walked back through the doorway, Karn greeted her with a polite bow and motioned for her to follow him. It was at this time that she became aware, that she was still clutching her inactive lightsabers. She quickly returned them to their cradles, hidden beneath the sleeves of her outer robe.

As she entered the main chamber once again, she saw Lillith standing next to the Hutt with a proud smile. "Well done Caitlyn. You managed to resist the Dark Side without suppressing your emotions."

The teen looked at her suspiciously. "Are you so sure that I resisted it?"

Lillith's smile became an amused grin. "If you had fallen, then the droids and gamorreans would have been destroyed in an instant by Force Lightning. There is a difference between fighting when your angry and fighting because your angry. If you fight because your angry, then you've begun to slip to the grips of the dark side. Fighting while you're angry simply means your fighting while being tempted to do more than you should. You did very well not to fall to the pressure I put you under. Just remember that strength. You will need it."

When they returned to the ship, they found Jak sitting in the galley. Even a blind person could see how angry he was. His blaster was aimed at Lillith. "Mind explaining what all this was about?"

The red haired Jedi seemed not to notice his weapon. "I simply did what I had to do. I couldn't let you interfere. With our enemy it is critical that she be as strong as she can be when the time to confront him comes."

"From what I can tell, the only person here that's got a reason to give a damn about this Zerak guy is you. As long as we hurry up and find these Holocrons and then pass them off to the Alliance's Jedi, we won't have to worry about him!"

"If you truly believe that, then you are a fool. Our fates are tied too strongly to his; a confrontation is inevitable." Her voice was oddly calm as she spoke.

Not quite satisfied, Jak still holstered his blaster. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kick you off my ship right now."

Her simple answer came faster than he expected. "Because; you need me against our common enemy."

"Jak, I know you have a hard time trusting her, but we do need her against Zerak." Caitlyn spoke up, hoping to ease the tension.

Wanting to get this mess over with as soon as possible, Jak wasted no time getting his ship on course for the world where the library had been hidden. Soon after he'd placed R2-10 in charge of the controls and monitoring the scanners, the smuggler had gone to bed. With both of her companions asleep, Lillith connected her datapad to the ship's communications console and sent out a prerecorded message. She smiled a devious grin as she put her datapad away and walked away from the console.

Days later, they arrived at their destination. As the ship made it's way down a safe clearing, Caitlyn nearly cursed to herself as she felt the powerful waves of Dark Side energy permeating the area. She nearly jumped as Lillith placed a hand on her shoulder. "Be on your guard, I sense he is near. It appears the Force has drawn him here." The girl looked to the older woman, stunned. "Don't worry though; his pride will have brought him alone to deal with us."

Jak walked in to the galley to hear the woman's last comment, and grabbed her by the shoulder, and spun her around. He spoke through mashed teeth. "And just how would he have known to come here?"

Despite the black haired man's rough treatment, her voice remained calm as Lillith answered him. "As I said before, 'our confrontation with him is inevitable."

He glared at her as he spoke. "I'm coming with you, and I'm not falling for any tricks like back on Nar Shadda."

She sighed. "Very well. Just understand that your blaster will be useless against him and you'll only be a distraction, as you were against Kazen.

After trekking through the rough forests for over half an hour, they came to a small clearing, near a cave and saw a blonde haired man wearing black robes meditating near the cave's entrance. His eyes opened as they walked into the clearing. He rose to his feet and looked to Lillith. "You've done very well apprentice." As Jak began to pull out his blaster, he felt something grip his body and hold him in place. Caitlyn could only step back from her, unsure of what to think. The only response to the young woman's unasked question was Lillith's eyes darting from her to Lord Zerak.

"Lord Zerak, do you want me to kill her or would you prefer to end the Tallus line yourself?" Her question made the Dark Jedi grin.

As he examined the young woman, he was somewhat unsettled by her resemblance to Raven, his former master. "I think I'll take care of her, she just might give me a better workout than the droids." His words were meant to disturb Caitlyn, since he new well, she'd have to be skilled to beat Kazen. Caitlyn approached him, willing her sabers to her hands, and activating their red blades. The Dark Jedi activated his own and started his attack by launching several rocks at her and then charging. The girl rolled to the left to avoid the rocks, and barely dodged Zerak's thrust to her chest! He continued to press his attack with thrusts and swings, circling the young Jedi, testing her defenses. The naked aggression of his assault left her unable to do much beyond dodge and parry the Dark Jedi's lightsaber!

She finally caught a moment to break away and performed a back-flip to give her a few meters of separation from Zerak. She began to rush back in to continue the fight, and gasped as she felt an invisible hand grip her throat and lift her from the ground. She struggled to keep from panicking and managed to use the Force to send a large rock flying towards Zerak's head! He had to release her to use his own command of the mystical energy to deflect the rock. Despite the pain she felt in her throat, she wasted no time charging for her own assault. Caitlyn began with a left-handed swing aimed at her enemy's neck, planning to follow through with the saber in her right hand. The Dark Jedi managed to duck her first swing and slashed out at her legs. She abandoned her attack, backing away, but still suffered a painful cut to her right leg!

As they began circling each other Caitlyn began thinking about her previous duels. Zerak seemed to attack with the same aggression used by Quiyllo, with the exception that every move held some agenda. Like Kazen his manner, was that of a predator, but he didn't seem to be trying to intimidate her as the younger Dark Jedi had. He didn't seem to by trying, but he was intimidating her. His manner of attack, and the difficulty she had reading him made her fear him. Caitlyn began to hear a scornful voice from deep inside her. "There is no need to fear him. You are stronger than him! All you have to do is reach out to him and attack him with the power of your true strength."

She sighed and whispered, "Whatever." An ironic smile appeared on her face as she blocked a downward strike with the saber in her right hand. There seemed to be a change in the young Jedi, which unnerved Zerak. She slashed low with her other lightsaber, and followed him as he attempted to back off to dodge the attack. He grimaced as Caitlyn's crimson blade cut into the inner thigh of his left leg. He was now forced to parry the onslaught of her twin red lightsabers as they came at him from various angles. While he could sense fear and anger built up in her, but he sensed none of it in her attacks. This sixteen year old girl was fighting him as a Jedi would and she was doing well. The indignity of it was infuriating! He called the Force to his left hand and sent her flying high into the air. He grit his teeth as he saw her twist in the air and land with a cat's grace. He grew tired of this game. It seemed inconceivable that he could have underestimated her this much. No Jedi should be able to give him this much trouble. He then noticed her stance and serene expression. She faced him exactly as Raven had faced him when they last dueled. He could tell then, that his former master had turned from the power of the Dark Side. Even then something inside told him that she was still a threat to his plans, and he was glad to have taken the precaution of having her poisoned. Now that he looked at Raven's daughter, Caitlyn, and saw the same thing, his anger boiled over and he thrust out his left hand assaulting her with Force Lightning! She quickly raised her left saber to block the attack, and firmly held her ground as the lightning was drawn to her weapon. "Is this all the power that being weak enough to surrender has given you?" Caitlyn's taunt made him even more blind to everything else around him but the Jedi he sought to destroy! He felt a sharp pain at the base of his neck as a stone struck him from behind. He glanced back to see Lillith with a grin on her face, and turned back to see Caitlyn charging him. He directed his fury into the attack as he slashed at her, but was surprised when she brought one saber down, cutting through his hilt and destroying his weapon. As she caught Zerak reaching out to attempt to strangle her again, she followed through with her attack, spinning around the Dark Jedi and beheading him!

As Zerak's corpse fell to the ground, Caitlyn sighed and returned her lightsabers to their hidden cradles. "Be at piece." She whispered before turning to face Lillith, who had released Jak from the hold she had placed on him through the Force. "And what now? Do you have any more manipulations waiting for me?" Her voice betrayed only a small portion of the pain she felt inside.

The auburn haired woman looked to the young Jedi apologetically. "I'm sorry, Caitlyn, but it had to be done. I admit; I wanted him dead for killing your mother, but I wouldn't have forced this battle on you if I hadn't thought it necessary. Had I not baited him as I had, he may have struck at you in a manner more advantageous to him."

Jak was glaring at her. "And I bet now that you've tricked Cait into doing your dirty work for you, you'll try to take us out and take his place!" He spat the accusation at her, his words full of venom.

Lillith sighed, "I guess I deserve that. If you find that you can't believe I only did what was necessary, then I should leave." The woman looked at Jak for a moment as his expression softened, thinking about her words.

She turned to leave, but stopped as Caitlyn called to her. "Wait, we can still help each other."

She turned back only slightly to look at the girl who reminded her so much of the woman she would have followed anywhere. "I've deceived you in the past, what makes you think I won't do it again?"

Caitlyn smiled and held out her hand. "You had your reasons, and now they're passed. Don't you think it's time to heal?"

Lillith turned to face her fully, with a warm smile on her face. "Master Van did well by you, young Jedi Knight. She took Caitlyn's hand and embraced the young woman. As they parted she looked over to Jak, who still looked at her skeptically. "And what about you?"

Jak ran a hand through his black hair as he thought about the whole mess. "I don't like being lied to and moved around like a dejarik piece, by someone I'm supposed to be working with, but I guess you did have your reasons." He finally admitted, and looked to Caitlyn. "So, what are you going to do once we've dumped these damned holocrons on the Alliance's Jedi?

She smiled, "I'd like to continue traveling with you, if you'll have me."

"Sure. After all, someone's got to keep you from getting in over your head." He chuckled lightly.