3951 BBY, The Tatooine Dune Sea
Vale, nee Eden Valen
Eden Valen had not dreamt since Malachor. Nor had she gone by the name Eden.
These days, she was Vale - just Vale.
The last person to say her true name aloud had cursed it. It was not fair to say that her name was said, as if to imply that it was spoken calmly in conversation. Instead, it was hissed at her – Ede – with mock affection. The voice that uttered it into unbeing belonged to a man who had truly perished before the end of the war itself, a man who had a history of abandoning names and adopting new ones. She hated to admit that it was he who gave her the idea of creating a new one for herself in the first place.
And it was this same man whose legacy she was cleaning up after. Even after all these years.
As responsible as Revan was - for this and for everything, if Vale was feeling vindictive enough - the disarray of the galaxy at present was Malak's doing, and Tatooine was not the only world suffering for it. At least its sands easily soaked up spilled blood and was good at hiding it to boot.
It was because Vale no longer dreamt that she was standing out on the sand dunes before dawn, watching the first golden disc begin its ascent across the empty Outer Rim sky. The hijacked sandcrawler at her back kept the heat from tormenting her, though the day ahead was long and it sure as hell would not be forgiving.
A hand at her shoulder disrupted her reverie, bringing the fragments of her imaginings back to the present, back to being the straw-haired Vale, a freckle-faced introvert with twin-sun savaged skin and a knack for droid parts. Some aspects of Vale were true for the exiled Jedi, Eden, but she hoped there was no one around who could connect the dots.
At her shoulder was Asra Sunfell, all smiles and poise. The Togruta had somehow convinced her that this job was worth the risk, but more importantly that it was worth the money. Aside from water, money was all that mattered on this Maker forsaken rock. Vale didn't care for money herself, and neither did Eden when all her roleplay was considered. What was important was that Vale act as if the money meant something to her, like any other spacer might.
"You ready?" Asra squinted up at her with bright eyes, warm honey yellow irises glowing against her red-orange skin, her mouth set in her trademark perpetual half-smile. Vale nodded, responding with a smile of her own.
"Ready as I'll ever be." Vale heard herself say. Aren't we all?
Footfalls on the ramp behind them drew Vale's attention away from the dunes. Out from the crawler emerged the mercenary heading the expedition, Orex, a man with sand-brown hair going grey and dark skin nearly covered with nicks and healed-over wounds. At Orex's shoulder was his cronie Darek Mal, a tall Zabrak with a well-worn rifle cradled in his scarred arm, like always. Darek nodded at the two women in greeting, but Orex had a look in his good eye that told them he was annoyed to find them here.
His steps stopped where the ramp met the sand. He took a moment to survey the area, his dark eyes scanning the sands before landing on Asra and Vale, looking them up with a curt nod.
"We're heading out." Orex grunted.
Darek waved his blaster about as if it were a means of dispensing Orex's orders. Asra jogged over to the ramp, stopping just before the two men.
"But I thought this was the site?" She asked them eagerly, one hand on her hip, the other casually stroking the holster at her side. Vale wasn't sure that Orex got the hint. Despite Asra's light demeanor, she didn't like being taken for a fool.
"No," was all Orex said before he turned on his heel and disappeared up into the belly of the hijacked beast. Darek remained on the ramp, holding Asra's gaze.
On the other side of the crawler was an abandoned moisture rig and a cave not too far off that smelled suspiciously like krayt dragon. Vale believed this to be the site as well, especially since Orex had chosen to stop the crawler in the middle of the night. Admittedly, Vale felt different once she stepped out onto the sand before the suns rose. She figured it was a means of saving fuel and energy, a way of appearing like any other caravan of Jawa, but maybe there was a reason Orex was playing the part so hard. Maybe someone was watching them.
"We're a couple hundred kilometers off. We'll be there after breakfast," the Zabrak assured Asra. Vale was not entirely sure what had transpired between the two, if anything, but Darek had an unspoken softness for Asra that he kept hidden from Orex if possible, but let slip whenever he wasn't looking. Vale picked up on it, though, and took note. Vale joined Asra on the ramp, taking one last look at desert, and wondered whether the feeling in her gut was something worth heeding or if it was simply the lack of a decent meal.
Darek eyed Vale as she ascended the ramp. Their eyes locked, and Darek nodded, as if in acknowledgment. But Vale recognized the look in his eye, that look of uncertain familiarity, that second glance laden with momentary flashes of thought that said 'Don't I know you from somewhere?'
Vale didn't linger but nodded in return before ducking into the shadow of the sandcrawler.
It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the gloom of the interior despite the still-early morning sun, with Tatooine's second star barely on the horizon. Sandcrawlers were never equipped with decent lighting as it was. Vale figured it had to do with the Jawa, their amber eyes always aglow.
The hold was still full of equipment, the use of which was mostly unknown. Vale had spent a majority of the trip out here to the-literal-middle-of-nowhere studying what she could. She found several repair modules on the upper level, used mostly for quick repairs and diagnostics, but she made sure to upload whatever she could to her personal datapad while she had the time, even machines whose purpose she wasn't sure of yet. Either way, her shop back at Anchorhead could use the specs.
Her eyes darted about the cargo hold before falling upon the common area, where she expected at least Asra and Darek to meet her at the mention of 'breakfast'.
Orex was nowhere in sight, as expected, but Vale found two of the crew already stationed at the makeshift kitchen as the crawler's treads began shifting over the sands again. Asra sat eagerly at a workbench-turned-table with one hand stroking one of her head-tails as Vale entered. The other young woman, known only as Glitch, sat silently, arms crossed, her dark hair veiling her face from view.
Before Vale could get comfortable, Darek entered, the nozzle of his rifle nudging her in the small of her back. She jerked forward, shooting him a warning glance, but the Zabrak seemed genuinely sorry when her eyes met his. Too caught up with Asra, perhaps, but still unnerving, even if he was clumsy about his bullying. Vale spotted Orex just over his shoulder, having just arrived. His figure hulked in the doorframe, but he didn't budge. Darek slung his rifle up on a nearby hook as he gathered plates, and Vale took it upon herself to unload the rations.
"Mmm, delicious. Straight from the Imperial grade emergency stores." Asra joked, yielding a reluctant chuckle from the depths of Vale's throat as she filled her plate. Glitch made no mention of thanks. Orex didn't move and watched on in silence. Darek nodded appreciatively, at least, and Vale did, too, in turn.
"I take it we're due east?" Vale asked. She was asking Darek, whose expression seemed open, at least compared to Orex, but it was the latter who answered.
Orex grunted in affirmation, finding words beneath him.
Vale saw his good eye glint from the doorway out of her peripheral vision, but failed to actually look him at him straight. There was something about this mission that made her come along, and it wasn't Asra's enthusiasm as much as she would like to take the credit. Something had brought Vale to Anchorhead before she had met any of the crew, and this was her chance to find out exactly what it was. Asra was the one to recruit her. She finally managed to convinced Vale to come along to the cantina after talking her ear off at the shop, and throw back a few drinks before broaching the subject, but it was the way Vale threw back those few drinks that made Orex agree to bring her along. Despite her own reasons for coming, Vale had to admit that she was curious enough to find out why that made a difference.
Speaking of which, Darek had poured several drinks, in addition to the water he had already served.
As if reading her thoughts, Orex grunted again, but with words this time.
"For the nerves."
The second cup adjoining each of their meals was filled with a clear liquid, though somehow clearer than the tall water glasses beside them. Vale forgot the name of the stuff, but knew it to be a popular drink for mercs to test rookies, initiates, or anyone else willing to go on a mission with them if necessary. A captain had to know whether his comrades could be trusted, and apparently the fermented juice of this solitary Tatooine desert flower had the power to divulge such information. Eden – correction: Vale – did not feel what she believed was the intended effect, but instead felt a slight tingling in her limbs that most other forms of alcohol failed to instill in her Jedi-trained body. Even though the Force was mute, her Jedi training made itself apparent in other ways. The faint numbness was nice, and at first she thought it was her ease of spirit that granted her a seat on this expedition, but as she watched Orex now she had a feeling it was something else entirely.
"Drink up," he said.
The crew swallowed their servings in unison.
Vale downed her glass of water afterward, noting that Orex never once touched his food. The rest of them ate in silence. She could tell Asra yearned to speak, as always, but chose to do so only once the others had left. The two of them shared Orex's uneaten rations, exchanging glances.
"I know you didn't want to come along at first," Asra began, taking unapologetic helpings of Orex's uneaten mystery loaf, "I have a feeling it'll be worth it."
Vale nodded as she picked at a piece of hard bread, taking pains to look outwardly assured though not quite feeling it. She met Asra's hopeful eyes before turning away, afraid of looking for too long, of instilling too much hope. Asra needed her assurance. It was the one thing she felt she truly knew about the woman: that she needed this expedition to work out somehow, and to whatever end. Asra meant well, but Vale wasn't so sure about Orex, or what he knew.
Part of her suspected that their expedition leader and his lackey were Mandalorians, or anyone else that might recognize her from the war. Her face hadn't been plastered around as much as Revan and her mask had been, but anyone who fought alongside a teenage Jedi would surely remember their face. Eden was the youngest of Revan's Jedi Generals. She also served as her Left Hand, leading Revan's ground forces from the time she was just nineteen years old. The other soldiers had called her "spitfire", both out of admiration and fear. There was a time when many in the Republic believed that Master Kavar would lead the Jedi to war. Years later, it would be the renegade Revan instead, but it would be Kavar's would-be apprentice Eden Valen that took his place upon the battlefield and scared the Mandalorians beyond words. Rumor had it they had created a new word for her entirely, a word now so ingrained in Mando'an that it was commonplace among the scattered tribes' new traditions and legends, but Eden never heard of it. And Vale was none the wiser.
There had to be a reason why Orex treated her the way he did. There had to be a reason as to why he had okayed Asra's suggestion to take her on and why Derek was so odd around her. Despite her curiosity, Vale needed to find out what was at the heart of this expedition more than anything. After all, it was the reason why she chose to make a home out of Anchorhead in the first place.
She had first come to this planet for the promise of work, not expecting to stay long. That was life on the Outer Rim, for you. You either moved around or never left the place you were born. Rumor had it that that there was an endless supply of salvageable droid-parts that yearned for her expertise to tinker with, parts still worthy of something other than catching the suns' rays and beckoning lone wanderers out onto the sands like a glittering mirage. Like many places on the Outer Rim, Tatooine had a heaviness about it, and though there was a skirmish or two out here before the war was ever deemed "official", the heaviness Vale felt had nothing to do with Revan's war or the mess that followed. There was something older and far more sinister lying in wait beneath its sands.
Vale did not know how she knew - she just did. She had heard that others, non-Jedi so-to-speak, were prone to what they called "gut feelings" and she figured that this was its way of telling her that something was wrong, even if she did not know how or why. With the Force mute, her only means of finding out was looking for herself.
It took Vale one trip to the bar to hear the tale for the first time, and upon that first instance of eavesdropping she knew that her gut was trying to tell her something about this. According to Asra, Orex and his crew had been looking for a droid repair technician for a while, but there were several other haphazard crews looking for experts to venture out into the dry unknown in search of a cache that lay near one of the older, long abandoned settlements outside of Anchorhead. Nowadays, no one set up camp anywhere further than maybe five, ten miles away from the hub, but this particular settlement was out there. Really out there. Word around the campfire was that this particular place dated back to when a city other than Anchorhead ruled supreme in these parts, a city now lost to time and fathomless volumes of sand. If anyone knew anything about it, including as to whether any of it might be true, the Jawa or the Tusken Raiders would know - of course, they never spoke of such things, nor cared. Rumor also had it that hundreds of other similar expeditions came out here to this settlement and none had ever returned intact, let alone with any loot.
It was a bit of a legend around these parts, but despite Vale's bad feeling it was commonplace for this planet. Tatooine settlements popped up just as quickly as they disappeared, inhabitants packing up and moving on the very moment the resources were spent. The fact that the old settlement still had anything of value was the unusual part - why would anyone leave? Why would any of it still be there?
Before she could ponder the ominous nature of their purpose any further, Asra's hand reached over and grasped hers. She looked up and met Asra's bright eyes - all fire and excitement. The Togruta's smile was contagious and Vale hoped that something they might find would merit it, for Asra's sake.
Just as Vale's other hand closed over Asra's, confirming her confidence, she felt the crawler slow to a halt. Small sunwashed domes, the typical housing style of Tatooine dwellings, pulled into view. Several dilapidated moisture rigs peppered the scene outside the window, but Darek was already beckoning them out onto the ramp with his rifle from the doorway before they could get a better look.
Orex's silhouette stood sentinel at the bottom of the ramp when Vale and Asra arrived at the opening. Glitch stood beside them, unmoving, though Vale had no idea when the girl had even appeared. Vale figured that going outdoors was a bit of an ordeal for the girl whose skin was far too pale for any Tatooine native, and she wondered what brought her out here at all. Vale's own skin was far darker than her normal tone, and now it was even sprinkled with constellations of freckles she never knew existed before living on this damn planet. She almost looked like a completely different person, and Vale wanted to keep it that way.
That same bad feeling ate away at her on the ramp, amplified now that they were here, and a desolate, deserted settlement stood silently before them.
"Let's move out." Orex grumbled, his voice echoing up the ramp to Glitch, Asra and Vale. The three women began their descent with Vale keeping up the rear.
Her eyes darted, taking in more than her mind could handle. Even after all these years, Vale still found herself relying on that long lost phantom limb of the Force – old habits and all. Moments like these were rarer now, but when they crept up on her, they left a bitter taste in her mouth, lingering with longing and sour sentiments.
The crawler was parked a few hundred feet away from the settlement, so it took a moment for Vale's eyes to adjust to the bright domes that peppered the landscape once they escaped the long shadow of their hijacked vehicle.
Aside from the fact that there was no living thing in sight, Vale could swear that this place hardly looked abandoned. There did not seem to be a sign of a struggle. Not to mention, there was just too much stuff lying about for the place to be so long unused. According to legend, this place had been empty since before Revan came round these parts, and that was nearing on fifteen, maybe twenty years now. Why was this still here? The unlikely nature of the scenario had Vale itching for the shock staff strapped to her back, her other hand hovering over the holster of her blaster rifle.
The group fanned out behind Orex and Darek's lead, who now stood near what appeared to be the ceremonious entrance to the settlement, now left in ruins.
The remains of an archway stood at either side of the party as Orex waited for them all to gather at his back. His head was turned just so, but he did not turn to face them. When Vale's steps came to a stop, Orex waved his arm, beckoning them onward.
Vale shot Asra a dark look, her brows furrowed, questioning. Asra shrugged, but Vale noticed that her hand, too, lingered near her holster.
Without orders, Vale extracted a scanner from her utility belt and powered it on. Even if Orex didn't say otherwise, this was the reason why she was here - presumably, anyway. The bad feeling that possessed her when she first landed on this planet was as pervasive as it had been from the start, but she would at least play the part for now.
Her scanner powered on, calming her with its familiar hum. Asra glanced back at her, but this time wondering if she saw anything of value. Already, it displayed more readings than she could count. Either they would gather what equipment they could once they doubled back, or they weren't here for the equipment at all. Vale's other hand never left the vicinity of her blaster. Its weight against her leg comforted her as they continued on, deeper into the village.
The settlement consisted of maybe ten, fifteen dwellings, but now they were at the center. A large, empty basin stood before them, and Orex finally found it appropriate to turn around and face the rest of them. Vale extended her head slightly as they approached, wondering if she could see the bottom, and found a pile of bones piled loosely at its base along with a thin layer of sand. Vale wondered if the others saw, or if this is what made Orex turn around.
The man glared ahead, not looking at them, but just past them, as if suddenly finding himself in a staring contest with the twin suns at their backs. His good eye squinted while the other remained wide and white, unseeing but still hooded beneath a heavy, weary eyelid.
"You're to follow me." He said, first. Orex remained looking somewhere just beyond the rest of them, failing to make eye contact, though Vale knew he was not avoiding it. "We can collect any exposed equipment afterward, but that's not why we're here."
Vale had a feeling that Orex meant to direct them to what was inside versus outside. Maybe whatever spoils lay strewn about was damaged, sun-exposed and unusable - such was the case with a lot of junk you found out in the desert. The sun, let alone two of them, could do a number on any kind of hardware, though it depended on what it was. Judging by the looks of what was nearby, everything seemed oddly preserved. The sands were known to keep bodies fresh, if the bones weren't licked clean from being too near the surface. Anything with a thick enough layer of sand above it could stand the test of time. Bodies were different from equipment though, and by all means none of this stuff should be here, at least not in the condition that it was. Vale was surprised that a massive sand dune had not already consumed this place and swallowed it whole, but maybe there was a reason for that.
As before, Darek waved his rifle about as if to redirect their attention, and in the wake of Orex's lead they were brought to the inner quarters of the first house on the square. It took a moment to adjust to the gloom, but Vale's eyes soon settled on small furnishings, spoiled food, and crates of indistinguishable stuff. It would appear that whoever lived here had simply picked up and left.
"See what you can find," Orex grunted, almost as an afterthought. Vale watched as his eyes scanned the main living area, only briefly glancing into the smaller quarters that branched off. Glitch was already gone, her fast hands taking something apart by the sound of it, and Darek pushed some crates about with the toe of his boot. A lid slid off, revealing its contents, and he nodded at Asra. She inched forward, glancing in, and nodded in affirmation before kneeling down and rifling through the crate. She shook her head, having found nothing of value, and resumed her standing position, hand hovering over her holster again. Vale's scanner bleeped minimally, but detected nothing of value that was not already lying outside.
Judging by the map on Vale's screen, most of the moisture rigs still worked, or could at least dredge up droplets if beckoned to. There might be something in their wells, buried not far below ground, but Vale had a feeling Orex didn't bring her along just to find water.
Glitch emerged from a doorway, her hair askew for just a moment before she adjusted it. Vale had no idea what her specialty was or what she had found, but her utility pack seemed to weigh more than it did before.
Orex nodded and they all moved out.
They repeated this routine twice over before Vale's suspicions began to eat away at her. She had salvaged one droid for most of its parts so far, and the intelligence module of another, but the way Orex carried himself and the way Darek kept looking over his shoulder unnerved her. She watched as the latter's burgundy hands gripped his rifle tighter and tighter, his knuckles slowly growing white.
They approached their third dwelling when she saw it, though Vale was not sure what it was. The hut was almost the same as the others, but this one had no droid, like the first, so she remained idle and waiting, watching as the others scoured every corner. Her scanner did not beep in recognition of anything in close proximity, but Vale's eyes were drawn to a crudely configured trinket sitting beside her on a shelf. The shelf itself was otherwise crowded with other useless things, old spices and empty bottles, a rusted canteen, and miscellaneous scraps now dissolved to dust.
She examined it from the corner of her eye at first, not wanting to draw attention. Its surface was smooth, almost unnaturally so. It was small, but it reflected light like nothing else she had ever seen. Its surface was of the utmost black, and it appeared to absorb the light as if it were drawing energy from it. It must have been a rock, a fragment of onyx or something like that. It was carved into a three-sided pyramid, taller than it was wide, and it stood starkly against the rest of what they had seen so far. Everything else was rough, or at least covered with sand. This trinket, however, looked completely untouched.
Vale pocketed the small pyramid just as Orex urged them onward.
In the following two dwellings, Vale spotted similar pyramids, each one as black as the space between stars, their surface as smooth as the void itself. They varied in size and they were scattered about in seemingly meaningless patterns - that is, until they came upon the next dwelling.
This hut received the least light of them all, and yet there it stood, a glimmering distraction begging Vale's attention from the corner of her eye. Unlike the other objects, this one was mounted to a wall in the main living area. It was larger than the others. Hanging at eye level, Vale figured it was about the size of her head. It did not protrude very far from the wall, but its sleek and alien appearance set it apart from the native Tatooine belongings that surrounded it.
Her eyes were fixed upon its unearthly surface, unsure as to how much time had passed. Everything slowed, including the realization that Asra's hand was absently reaching up to touch the thing.
"Asra..." Vale heard herself say, but the woman did not hear her. "Asra, wait-"
Vale somehow knew that this was not a thing to be touched, and though she was not sure what told her to speak out, it was too late. It was only once Asra's fingers had brushed against the smooth side of the object's pyramidal surface that she looked up at Vale, hearing her a beat too late, her mind not quite in sync with reality. If Vale had access to the Force, it might have told her what sort of devilry bewitched this place and what it was they might find here. All Vale felt was her gut giving way to the uncertainty taking root in her chest.
Asra's warm, yellow irises looked up at Vale, wide and worried, as the pyramid began to sink backward into the wall. Orex turned to her, his good eye flaring, his blaster rifle ready, but he took to watching the wall instead of looking to reprimand either of them for setting off a booby trap...or whatever the hell this thing was.
The rough wall swallowed the pyramid whole, leaving a bare space in its wake, and once it stopped, a small part of the floor began to give way. Sand drained and stairs appeared, step by step, leading downward into an unfathomable abyss.
Vale watched on, unbelieving. Once she regained her senses and overcame her initial disbelief, she looked up. Vale met Asra's eyes again, flashing with the same uncertain sense of surprise.
Orex turned to Vale, as if demanding an explanation. How did you know? He meant to say, but Orex said nothing. Vale's skin prickled despite the heat - how did she know? And why was she able to tell what Orex was thinking?
Orex remained silent. He turned from her and approached the manifested steps with caution, peering into its depths. He tested the first step with his foot, as if afraid that it might dissolve into dust at the touch. It remained solid and Orex looked at them all in turn.
"This is it," he said, to their surprise. He did not elaborate.
Vale and Asra exchanged dark looks. Even Glitch shifted her weight nervously from foot to foot. Darek nodded at Orex and held his gun aloft as usual, but made a point of holding it higher, as if he intended to use it this time. Orex nodded back at them before disappearing into the darkness.
Glitch followed Orex and Darek respectively, without a word. Asra shook her head as if to ask What the hell? Vale shook her head in response, just as confused and just as unsure. Asra held out her hand and without question Vale took it, following as Asra lead the way, her blaster ready at her hip. Vale unhitched her shock staff, keeping up the rear as she was used to, overcome with the feeling that someone, somewhere, was watching.
Once she reached the bottom, Vale could see the rest of the party up ahead. Orex held a stun baton aloft as a means of precaution as well as a source of minimal light. Asra looked back at her, mouthing wordlessly 'What is this? Where are we?' but Vale could only shake her head.
This is it. This has to be it.
Vale caught a glance of the party ahead of her, their silhouettes crowding behind the feeble light that Orex's stun baton provided, when the light flickered. Orex shook the baton, cursing an inconveniently bad battery before the baton shuddered and snapped, sparks flying. Vale saw Orex duck in the flash, instinctually entering a defense position, before everything went dark.
The air grew thick as the darkness became all-ecnompassing. Asra's fingers tightened around Vale's hand. She didn't notice the adrenaline coursing through her until she reached back for her shock staff, her hand shaking with nervous energy running its course as her thumb nudged the switch on. The air came alive. In the light of her staff, Vale saw that she and Asra were alone. The Togruta looked back at her, her bright eyes wide and white-blue in the light, her brow furrowed. Asra tightened her grip on Vale's hand as she slung her blaster out of its holster and around her finger before holding it steady.
Asra nodded, "Stay with me."
Vale did not need to be told, but she nodded in agreement regardless. Only a moment had passed and the others were somehow missing. Her skin prickled with fear but Vale was not a stranger to the feeling. She had swallowed fear before, and had a feeling it would come for her again the moment she agreed to come here. Vale felt it as early as moment she first stepped foot on the sands of Anchorhead. The last few months led to this moment, and here it was.
Vale and Asra inched down the hall, watching their backs and turning every which way, following the dim light with their weapons at the ready. Without speaking, they knew to keep quiet, their ears eager to pick up any sounds that might lead them back towards their party.
The halls were eerily silent. It was hard to tell where they had come from and where they had yet to venture. The subterranean cavern splintered, creating a labyrinth of paths that were near impossible to navigate without any sense of direction. Every so often, Asra or Vale would pause, believing to have heard something, before shaking their head and moving onward.
Vale knew Asra was teeming with questions, and maybe now she knew what made Vale so uneasy about the expedition in the first place. Vale had no access to the Force, but she did not need it to tell her that this place teemed with darkness - a darkness both familiar and foreboding.
"Revan said you were as good as dead."
Vale spun around, dragging Asra along with her. Asra's blaster clawed along the wall beside her, showering their midriffs in dust and dirt.
Instead of lashing out with anger or annoyance, Asra tugged at Vale's hand, begging that she look at her.
"So how does it feel? Being dead?"
"What is it?" Asra whispered.
"You don't know what you're missing, Ede."
Vale looked at her wide-eyed and silent for a moment before responding, "Did you hear that?"
"Answer me!"
"Hear what?" Asra's face was genuine, concerned. Asra's eyes left hers, zoning out as she strained to hear whatever Vale claimed.
Vale did the same again, too, but the halls were silent again, save for her heavy breathing.
Hearing Malak's voice again, hearing it here, set her skin on fire and her chest felt as if it might burst. She heard his new metallic voice on holovids years ago, long after she had last seen him. It was low, grating, and completely inhuman. But she heard his voice now, his true voice, as if he were standing just beside her, hissing in her ear, his face close enough for her to feel breath upon her cheek.
Shuddering at the thought, Vale shook the idea from her head and whispered, "Nothing, never mind." Asra nodded, knowing that Vale was not telling her the whole truth but did not press the matter further.
They assumed their positions and kept searching, delving deeper and deeper into the maze, as if they were only entangling themselves further into an unending web.
Vale could not shake the dread that gnawed at her gut, fear gripping her more than it ever had since the war. Something was wrong, something was very wrong.
Asra shot her a worried glance, and Vale felt the mirrored anxiety in her stare. She had worked so hard to put up a front, to reshape herself as an indifferent but well-intentioned introvert, and here she was clinging to the single friend she had denied was anything more than an acquaintance until now. Judging by Asra's eyes, she heard something this time.
Asra inhaled deeply, held her breath, and exhaled, her grip tightening on her blaster.
"I've got a bad feeling about this."
Vale nodded in agreement, and held her staff aloft but firmer than before. Without speaking, they both stopped, having sensed that something lurked nearby. Just as their footfalls stilled, a wail pierced the stagnant air, echoing off the walls with an unearthly repetition. There was only one scream, but soon there were thousands, and there was almost no knowing where it had come from. Vale took a moment, her brain having slowed from shock, or perhaps it was something else, because somehow she knew where the noise was coming from despite the dissonance.
Again, without communicating, Asra knew to follow as Vale tugged at her arm, her senses leading her to their destination, to wherever the danger called them. Judging by the pitch of the scream, it was Glitch who called out.
Vale led Asra through the labyrinth, almost as if she had been here before. Her skin prickled with some mysterious familiarity, but the urgency of the scream and the growing unease in her chest kept her moving forward. Adrenaline coursed through her veins at full force until she walked into a dream, suddenly serene.
The once-dark corridors ceased to exist, and Vale did not recall when their shadows had been swallowed. When did they get here? How much time had passed? Had they always been here? Maybe they had come into being and had lived out their existence in this cavern alone, and anything that might be construed as memory were mere figments of their wild imaginations. They were simply here now, and light emanated from everywhere and nowhere at once, but once she was overcome with a wave of unnatural calm, Vale knew again that something was wrong. Very wrong.
She heard an ocean. Calming and soft. Foamy waves lapping on a shore nearby, but not here. It was if she was holding a conch shell to her ear, basking in its sounds, but they filled the cavernous expanse before them. After what felt like an eternity, she came back to herself, knowing that she was under some sort of spell. And for some reason, she thought of rain.
The calm fell away, and Vale felt that urgent heat return to her skin, that feeling of anxiety that takes over when danger was near, lurking unseen but undoubtedly close and on the brink of causing some unknowable chaos.
Asra's hand was still in hers, but she saw that her face was scrunched up, her blaster fallen to the floor as her free hand reached up to claw at her ear, and the others were doing the same. Vale still heard the waves crashing upon that unseen shore, as if she were tuning in to a different frequency by pure luck… luck?
Glitch was hunched over, twitching on her knees. Orex's good eye was shut tight, and Darek was crouched over, swaying forward and back, his eyes wide, trying to get a hold of himself.
Vale froze.
And that's when she saw it.
As the unnatural calm fell further away, unclouding her consciousness as the temporary veil was lifted, she saw where they stood in real time. They stood in a monolithic cavern, gaping and wide. Crags in the sandy rock seemed natural and yet somehow unnatural, too, splintering into intricate patterns that were both rugged and rich at once. Vale's eyes climbed upward in awe, getting lost in a honeycomb of stalactites before finally settling on what stood before them.
Upon a crudely shaped altar carved into the rock wall - carved by water, man, or otherwise, Vale could not tell - was a series of pyramidal crystals, each glowing and glittering with a phantom light that seemed to emanate from within. They were black but bright, sprinkled with what appeared to be space dust swirling within their finite yet fathomless forms. Vale's eyes went wide. She allowed herself a moment before heeding the growing sense of alarm in her chest, warning her that there was something dark here, that there was something wrong.
Everything in the room seemed to slow, as if the air itself were crystallizing before their very eyes. As Glitch shuddered and Darek tried to hold his own, Vale noticed that Orex's eyes were unfocused and faraway as his blaster lowered as if forced against his will. And that's when Vale saw the bodies…
Bones piled high against the walls, and the floor of the cavern was covered in the powder-white dust of skeletons long-dissolved. Weaponry littered the cavern, models from nearly every generation Vale knew of, as well as models she was unfamiliar with entirely.
And then there were the whispers.
They were soft, like the sound of the foamy waves washing upon that sandy shore from a moment ago, an image so distant from the place they were now - so dry, so desolate. The whispers slithered into her thoughts, sowing sentiment without her consent, as if singing a song that would coax her quietly and let her see whatever this energy wanted her to see.
She held onto Asra's hand as tightly as she could, but they were both slipping. There was no sound other than the sound of the soothing waves. She tried to dredge up old Force tactics, but came up blank, the sounds growing louder and louder, now laced with the unearthly sound of static on a radio, growing, growing, growing - and then the signal became clear.
Forfeit your lives to us, the true inheritors of the Universe. Revel in our glory and be reborn in the undying Empire to come.
The voice was fractured, multiplying and echoing off of itself as every syllable was spoken.
We feed the Force and Force feeds us. We control the seeds and tell the roots where to grow.
Images flashed before her eyes, rapid-fire, almost too fast for her to comprehend with any semblance of understanding. She somehow felt entire populations swelling with energy, cities raised and then burned to the ground, planets consumed in flame and entire systems erased within moments of monuments replacing them, monolithic and mesmerizing. It was as if she were watching the birth of the universe unfold before her eyes within the span of a moment, lives lived and stripped away, and throughout it all she felt it again, that familiar thread tugging at the corners of her mind, tingling with energy and light - the Living Force.
Feed our Empire and you may live on forever.
Vale's eyes shot open.
Her fingers were bristling, her skin on edge. Vale's entire body was a waking limb, plagued by pins and needles as she came to. Everything seemed so bright, and moved too quickly, and everything was so loud. She blinked several times, trying to focus. The world around her still swam, but she saw the others beside her.
Asra was at her side, blinking hard as if convincing herself that none of this was real. Her eyes fell on Vale, her worry evident in her expression.
"Did you-?"
"I- I think so…"
But before they could speak about what just happened, Orex grabbed Vale by the collar, forcing her off her feet. "You."
Vale elbowed the man in the neck but missed, still weak from the visions, yet she managed to land her joint forcefully in the space between his collarbone and shoulder. His grip eased as he grunted, coming face to face with Vale's electrified staff thrumming before his eyes, but he remained unfazed.
"You," Orex repeated, "You could help it stop, General."
"What?"
"I know-" he said, out of breath, "that you know - what those are, and what they're made of." Orex advanced on her despite the threat of her weapon. He threw his arm back in the direction of the crystals on the dais, looking at her with an odd expression, mingled with fear and melancholy.
Vale looked toward the altar, immediately drawn to crystals once she did. Her eyesight was still on overload - everything was vibrant and she could see the energy thrumming in everything. Her mind quieted for a moment as the realization dawned on her. No. No it can't be.
"We saw them on Dxun, deep in the jungle, do you remember?"
Orex's voice was still rough with urgency, but there was a tinge of familiarity to it now. Vale looked from Orex to the altar, and back again, unwilling to make the connection because of what it might mean. The rain. The smell of damp earth. And the darkness that pervaded the moon and swallowed it whole, especially when they neared the ancient Temple of Freedon Nadd, where Revan once extended an offer she would ultimately refuse.
"We thought they were holocrons," she heard herself say. It was as if she were faraway, outside of herself, looking upon the scene like a specter watching from above. "We sent them to Revan, for research."
Saying Revan's name aloud set her skin on fire. Vale was still managing her senses, which were all dialed to eleven and then some, but somehow the thought of Dxun brought her back - the thought of that dark temple looming in the heavy gloom of the jungle and the fear that seeped into the very soil surrounding it. Orex's face softened, relieved to see her remembering, but his stance remained aggressive, and he ignored the staff still thrust in his face.
Asra was on her feet again, her face foggy as if having just woken up, scrunched up in confusion. "What is going on?"
Looking at the crystals upon the dais now, she could feel it, that same darkness, the invisible pull towards the unseen depths of the galaxy, towards what was so inherently feral and fearful about sentient life, everything that the Dark Side of the Force fed upon. No wonder she had a bad feeling about this.
"The war isn't over, General. It never was."
Asra mouthed the word 'general' after Orex spoke, still confused.
Vale felt the heaviness of Dxun all around her, the rain pounding painfully into her flesh, water dripping into her eyes, the smell of damp, blood-soaked earth, and the many ghosts that still roamed those parts, reluctant to rest as war waged upon its surface once again, and as it always would. She sensed the same phantom ocean there, too, at the temple - she felt the same tempting spell beckoning her to abandon vigilance in favor of blind faith, to give herself over to the Darkness.
Orex's expression faltered, and suddenly Vale remembered: a young man with bronzed skin and shoulder-length, sand-colored braids, and two good eyes, glinting silver in the gloom of Onderon's jungle moon. Just as the image manifested in her mind, it was gone, and the older Orex took its place, but the memory of Dxun remained.
"You don't understand, I don't-" she pleaded, but Orex interrupted her, the past merging with the present.
"I know." Orex assured.
"But, how-?"
Suddenly, she knew.
The stones upon the altar lived off of the Force, and it was eating away at whatever raw energy pulsed within the veins of those beside her, and all those who had come before - but Vale was mute to the Force. It did not affect her. Maybe this was why she was drawn to this place. Somehow, she had always known.
She looked to Orex, wondering what kind stake he had in all of this, before inching her way toward the shrine. The crystals called to her, sitting pretty and idle upon their pedestal. The soothing sounds of the phantom ocean swelled, lapping at the edges of her mind with an all too familiar sweetness, beckoning her closer to the crystal's siren song. If the theory was right, Vale would be able to nullify whatever energies permeated these stones and quell whatever evil had sewn roots here. She glanced back at Orex, wondering how she hadn't seen it sooner. His eyes were focused on her, his brow furrowed, as he stood at attention – but beneath his stare was that sense of silent fear she had come to see in all the soldiers that fought alongside her at Dxun. He must have heard about this place or happened upon it himself, and whatever life he had built after the war came crashing down. And here was Vale, standing before that very same darkness again as it pulled her back towards the death and decay that defined her so long ago on that haunted, jungle moon.
Vale returned her attention to the altar, her eyes creeping upward towards the climbing stalactites that pinpricked the cavern above. Unlike the rest of the rough-hewn stone and sand, this wall looked as if acid had trickled down a well over centuries, eating away at its façade in unnervingly unnatural patterns towards the crystals themselves. For a moment, she heard the whispers again, and she could swear that she felt a pair of eyes on her.
Asra watched on with wide eyes, looking from Vale to Orex and back again, completely speechless. Her hand was locked into the trigger of her blaster even though it remained in her holster, her fingers itching.
The crystals were brighter up close, and their substance even darker than she imagined from across the cavern. The holocrons they had discovered on Dxun were similar, but not nearly as crude. They were of the typical shape, pyramidal and dark, but these had uneven edges and they looked as if they came straight out of the earth. They, too, were pyramidal, but they were not evenly symmetrical. The surfaces were rough, marked by varying gradations of cleavage on each side, the pyramid's apex standing as a cragged spire. How long have these things been here?
"Do you remember how we transported these?" Vale called back at Orex, not so much for her own benefit but to ensure that he knew what to do next as she tried to remember what name he went by back then.
"Glitch has the proper equipment," Orex answered. Vale turned to look at the girl, who seemed to be holding her own now that the waves or the rain, or whatever she had heard, subsided. Darek was also on his feet again, though his face betrayed an unspoken discomfort. If Glitch had the equipment, and Darek was Orex's right hand, then what about Asra? Had Darek convinced Orex to bring her along, or was she meant for something else?
Vale felt eyes on her again, and the feeling didn't come from the expedition party. They watched on as she approached the shrine with caution, edging bones and bits away with her boot, but there was something … else. Her eyes darted about, scanning the other entrances to the cavern, but saw nothing. Perhaps it was the Darkness, or maybe…
Vale's fingers extended as she reached the altar, her heart pounding in her chest. With her other hand, she tore her linen hood away from her shoulders, hoping she could suffer the Tatooine heat until they reached the crawler again. With a gentle hand, she enclosed the first crystal within the rough folds of her hood. She waited. Vale looked back at the others, and Orex nodded. His eyes were wide, waiting at the ready if something were to happen.
There were too many questions to consider just now, but part of her knew that these things couldn't stay here. Where she would send them, she did not know. As much as the Jedi despised her and what she had become in the aftermath of Malachor, they might be her only hope. She could send it to them anonymously, as a good Samaritan.
The hair on the back of her neck stood on end as she plucked the second crystal from its place. Before she enfolded it, her eyes soaked in its surface, somehow bright with a fathomless darkness. Its crystalline edges glowed amber, but its heart was of the deepest black. Before she could ponder any further, she inhaled and wrapped it away.
There was room on the dias for a third crystal, but the space was eerily barren. Vale's eyes lingered, almost unable to pull away, drawn to the mystery of the missing holocron.
Vale turned to the others.
Glitch was already holding her pack open. It was a square canvas bag slung over her shoulder at first, but as she approached, Vale could tell that the material was more than that. This was military grade. It had the ability to cancel out certain energy fields and other devices, ideal for transporting mines and the like. Glitch stood motionless now, her dark hair veiling her eyes from view, her hand holding the pack open almost invitingly.
As Vale placed her carefully wrapped package into the pack, she saw a sea of spindly onyx spires – Glitch had been collecting trinkets. For what purpose, Vale would ask later, but at least she knew she wasn't the only one to notice them.
Vale nodded once the package was secure to the best of her knowledge and Glitch closed the pack. With a careful arm, she maneuvered the second strap back over her shoulder and nodded in return.
"We should get out of here, as soon as we can." Orex ordered, his voice still gruff but somehow softer than before.
Vale could swear she remembered his name for just a moment, before Asra beckoned her onward, too.
"Yeah, General."
Hurt laced Asra's voice, not disdain, though perhaps the two feelings were not exactly mutually exclusive. She said nothing, but her eyes asked 'I thought I could trust you'. Vale shot her a sympathetic look, promising to explain more later without words. Her eyes trailed over to Glitch's back, lingering there as her hand absently touched Asra's in comradery. Orex glanced at them with dark eyes, and Vale retracted her hand. Since when did I go soft? Orex noticed, and perhaps he wondered the same thing. Soldiers tended to have a softness for one another, but Orex was still swallowing his sympathies.
Without speaking, they reconvened at the mouth of the cave. Darek's face was contorted slightly, as if in anguish, and Vale could tell that he must still hear it, whether it was the whispers or the unseen ocean, or an eerie mixture of both. As for herself, she still thought of rain.
"Grab what you can on our way out of here. I don't know if we'll fetch anything for-" Orex paused, looking at the others, his good eye lingering on Glitch's pack as well, "Just make the most of it."
Orex grunted as he finished his sentence, almost in affirmation of his own statement. Maybe it was more of a nervous tick than anything having to do with intimidation. They exchanged glances before moving onward, and Vale felt the Dxun rain again and its sharp pinpricks against her skin. She also felt eyes on her back as the party gathered and she took up the rear again, as old habits would have it. Vale squared her shoulders and held her palm steady over the shaft of her shock staff.
Vale hoped Orex knew where he was going, given that she did not recall how she had even found this chamber or where she and Asra had come from. Leading the party again, Orex held an emergency flare aloft to lead them out of the maze, seemingly aware of where they needed to go.
Their steps were tentative and slow, as if whatever was in Glitch's pack might blow at any minute. Asra shot Vale concerned looks, but failed to say anything. She was wary, and Vale could not fault her for that. She had been secretive all this time for a reason. Maybe getting friendly now was a mistake.
Their collective boots crunched over the sand in unison as they filed out of the mysterious cave. Vale's ears pricked for any sign of Malak or whatever the Darkness wanted to disguise itself as, but there was nothing and no one. Save for the feeling of eyes on her from the shadows.
Vale occasionally looked back, though found nothing. Before long, they reached the stairs they had entered through. The hairs on her neck alerted her to a separate presence again, to something lurking in the gloom. Once they had emerged into the sunlit hut, Vale stood watching at the entrance, waiting. Asra nudged her elbow, wondering, but Orex shot her a look that spoke of a similar feeling. He edged his chin upward, and Vale nodded in response.
"Grab what you can, but don't linger. We leave immediately."
Orex ducked out of the hut and Darek behind him. Asra shrugged as Glitch tested the weight of the pack at her back and bowed out from the doorway with ease. Vale froze. She was right. Her bad feeling had been right. As unsurprised as she was at the discovery, it was the details that unnerved her: the abandoned settlement out in the middle of the Dune Sea, the cultish artifacts, Malak's voice and the fresh memory of their last meeting, the feeling of the Force trickling through her for the first time in, how many years was it now?
The Council had her connection severed, to minimize the "threat" she posed in the aftermath – as if Revan and Malak were beyond reproach. But, how could this be? Her senses had heightened upon entering the cave, and she knew exactly where Glitch's cries had originated. She even heard Orex's thoughts silently in her mind and somehow knew that her senses were right. And then there was that feeling of an electrical current thrumming just beneath her skin, intensifying as she approached the crystals, her fingers fumbling over what felt like a live battery.
And then there were the voices. Despite the heat, her skin suddenly grew cold. These ancient holocrons were living off of the rawness of the Living Force, silently feeding off of whoever had once lived here and anyone else that came after. Who knows how long these siphons had been sitting here idle, untouched? But they didn't just feed, they relayed a message. Inheritors of the Universe… undying Empire… The words rung clear, imprinted in her memory. Perhaps Revan's ghost had a right to be here, and Vale had every reason to feel strange about this planet, this place. Orex had felt it, too.
Vale didn't bother to power on her scanner, satisfied enough with what droid specs she managed to upload earlier. Instead, her eyes scanned the hut, noting where any remaining trinkets stood. It was all connected, somehow. She knew the Sith had cultured cults before, but they usually surrounded monolithic temples like the one on Dxun. A small town out in the middle of the desert was unheard of. Even the Sith-sacred Korriban was littered with monuments and tombs. Why this? Why here?
Orex was right, the war wasn't over. Vale had known that for a long time. But whose war had they been fighting? And to what end?
