Last time: Sasha and Oppie got into an argument, but thankfully made amends in the end.

Now: Op sets off on a new adventure. But a dark force returns.

Chapter 10- Dracul's Back

The swirl of hyperspace dissolved into the black velvet of space pin pricked by millions of stars, and in the viewport before Oppie hung the world of Arbortarum. Last time he'd been here he hadn't seen much other than the inside of the cave. The global desert of the planet laced with a few lush valleys here and there reminded him a little of Ryloth, though.

He had had his pick of ships from the garage, a few sleek fighters, some modified freighters, even a large ship that looked like a cross between a yacht and a warship had sat in the underground hangar next to the Shadow Runner. All ships of the Xiv clan, of which Oppie presumed each had a story to tell about the family and whoever favored which ship. He had taken one of the smaller, more nondescript freighters, and Kyr had smirked when he had picked that ship but hadn't said why. Oppie had said his farewells to everyone, and Kitsu and Illara had also taken that opportunity to leave as well. They mentioned they had a job to get back to. Sasha, Viran and Kyr had stayed at Haven, seeing no need to hurry away and Kyr still needed more time to recover, though Kyr was probably still arguing with Sasha about that.

Oppie had charted a course that left him a few days to travel alone in the quiet of the ship. The solitude had afforded him time to relax and meditate. Folded neatly in the storage cubby of his bunk, the Jedi garb he had inherited waited to be donned again while he wore his usual, less noticeable outfit. Sasha had given him back his jacket, and he had been a little surprised that they had saved his old clothes from before that dark night on Chikara.

He headed in for a landing, using the same spot that the Shadow Runner had first settled in when the others had come weeks earlier. He couldn't help but notice the fresh scars of battle, the darkened wreckage from more than a dozen ships, the pockmarked craters, the scorched earth where many had met their doom while the others had tried to save him. He frowned at what must have been a great loss of life and looked away.

Upon landing, and walking down the short ramp, and took in the dry, dusty air. The scene was quiet, though a few desert dwelling insects buzzed, and he could hear avians calling from the foliage that surrounded the creek like survivors dying of thirst. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, reaching out with the Force. He felt the vestiges of the battle that had been waged so recently, the echos of the conflict still ringing faintly in the valley like the cries of dying men. But otherwise it was still. The Force was strong here, but not overly so. He idly wondered, as he opened his eyes and set down the well packed path that led to the hermit's hut, if it would have felt any different if the portal was still intact.

Walking past the meiloorun fruit trees, into the lushness of the long oasis, he soon saw the dwelling, but he didn't sense anyone nearby. He stopped into the garden, it looked a little unkept, like it had not been touched in weeks. Some plants were worse for wear, like they had not received the water they so needed.

"Hello?" Oppie called out, seeing the flowering plants that were wilting next to the sundial. The door to the hut was a little ajar, and he walked over to it, not sure what he might find inside.

"Is anyone here?" He called out, and still received no answer. He pushed the door open and found nothing. Just a simple hut, a tiny firepit for cooking, some discarded utensils, and a simple set of cups and a pot for tea that had seen years of use. There was no one to be found and after a quick glance around he stepped back out to the wilting garden, feeling like he was trespassing in the small house.

He closed his eyes again, reaching out with the Force, to see what he could sense. Nothing, just the fading echoes of the past once again. He opened his eyes, and his focus returned to the sundial. Such a simple device, the centerpiece of this small garden. Idly he walked over and looked at the primitive instrument and looked at the time. He frowned slightly, and looked more closely at it. It was off, it was saying it was much later in the day than it should be. It wasn't pointing South, like it should be in order to correctly tell the time in this hemisphere. He looked in the direction it was pointing and it just went off into the trees, down towards the steam. He thought for a second, and then followed it, curious if it might lead to something.

Cien was overlooking the hologram as her pieces moved into place. She had set out rumors that there was a Jedi hiding on Nikardum. The Imperial network had reacted as she had expected, the rumors had filtered to the top, and an Inquisitor was being sent to hunt down this 'Jedi'. She would arrive, and the only thing she would find was Cien waiting for her, where she would meet her end. If there was one way to draw Vader out, it was to present him with a Force user that could kill one of his inquisitors. Once he arrived he would be dealt with, and he would be out of her way. An urgent comm call came through to her, and she answered it, annoyed.

"Yes?"

"Forgive me, my lady," it was General Varden, "but… Lord Kopesh is here, and he says he has Lord Dracul with him. They are docking as we speak."

She froze. Dracul, back? How? How had Kopesh found them, she had thought he died on Chikara. She felt a wave of fear shiver down her spine as she took the news in. Not only escaped from that realm, not only having returned without her knowing, but here at her doorstep, arriving on the Bloodstorm. He had to know what she had done, not only ignoring his summons all those months ago when he disappeared, but also helping the Jedi to hold him back, to keep him trapped so she could retain control of his forces for herself and never be under his rule again.

She would die, horribly, and soon, and there was nothing she could do. The forces on the ship would default to his command authority and serve his whim. The Bloodstorm was his, now that he was back, and she had nowhere to run, no one to help her.

Well, she thought wryly and a sense of gallows humor, there was one person she could reach out to. A person who deserved to know of his return as it could affect them as much as it would affect her, especially if Dracul went after them for revenge. Not that she cared what really happened to them, if Dracul killed them or made them suffer. But they could be of some use to her, if she was going to take every advantage she could in keeping her power. If nothing else, to ensure that the horrible death that awaited her soon would not be in vain, since they would probably foil his plans as they had thwarted all the plans already.

"The CR-90's have such good performance though." Viran said.

"Well yeah, you stuff eleven engines on the back of anything and it'll go fast." Kyr responded. They were in the kitchen, sitting at the bar enjoying a light lunch. "I love my YT, at least after Tac was able to get the computers cooperating together." He took a sip of his drink, "But Mandal Motors makes some great ships too. I should take you to their yards at some point, I have a friend who works there."

Viran's jawed nearly dropped. "Heck yeah. But don't change the subject," he said with a grin. "Mandal Motors has great stuff, but you can't beat CEC, especially for after market mods"

Kyr had a sour look on his face. "Yeah, try telling that to the guys that installed the VLS tubes on the Shadow. I could have almost bought a new ship for that job."

"To be fair," Viran cut in, "Most customers are just modding the engines or adding shield generators or something, not cutting holes in the hull to turn their ships into mobile firebases."

Sasha sat there, not entirely listening to the conversation between Viran and Kyr. As interesting as ships were, she wasn't really interested in their debate. Instead, she found herself staring off into the distance past their heads as she ate through her lunch. She was mainly eating with her left as her right was wrapped in a gauze wrap from when she punched Oppie's wall in frustration. Thankfully, she didn't break any bones, but she did do some nerve and tendon damage. So the wrap was there to stabilize her hand for at least a week, which it had nearly been.

She thought back to that night about a week ago. Oppie escorted her to the small medical wing of the house to get her a cold pack for her hand. He then examined it with the help of a scanner to learn the extent of the damage. So he had wrapped it for her and they called it a night shortly thereafter. Viran's reaction that night though was less than pleasant. He nearly blew a gasket when he had learned she had busted up her hand. She had tried lying to him about where it came from, but that lasted barely a moment before she told him the truth. That she and Oppie had gotten into a small spat with each other. She explained it to Viran to the best of her abilities. It took a while before he understood and calmed down as he was upset to hear about the two of them arguing. But he was the only one who knew about it. Sasha didn't dare share with the rest of the house. So she told the others it was a sparring incident and they believed it. Or at least she assumed they did. They didn't let on otherwise.

Suddenly, a familiar presence tugged at the back of Sasha's mind. Straightening just slightly, Sasha looked at Kyr then Viran and then at the kitchen as they were still sitting at the bar top. No one else was there. However, she could still feel someone was calling to her in the Force. Glancing back at the two of them, Sasha realized that neither of them seemed to notice her reaction. Turning her head just slightly, Sasha turned her gaze to the opposite wall and focused on the Force, and on the feeling.

The room around her dissolved as she turned her gaze, fading into a dark, ancient feeling war room with a dormant holotable before her. The feeling of the room was odious, like a crypt or a tomb, and the darkness of the place was palpable. Cien was standing there, next to her, off to her left, and facing the doorway of the room. Outwardly calm and collected, but dread and… terror wafted off of her like a veil of fog. Cien glanced at her.

Just watch and listen, girl. Cien's voice said as though she was talking, but her lips stayed unmoving, just don't let him win. And then the Sith turned her attention back to the door. So Cien was alive after all. It honestly didn't surprise Sasha as much as she thought it would. The Sith also had survived a Holocron explosion on Chikara. What did surprise her was Cien's sudden call out to her. Sasha followed her gaze with a silent gulp. She shivered as if a cold breeze just blew by. She wondered why Cien dragged her there, but soon got her answer when the door slid open.

He pushed through another thicket of foliage, and looked behind him to make sure he hadn't stepped off the indicated path. Oppie considered pulling his saber out to cut an easier passage, but thought the better of it, pushing through the thicket, and he saw it. A stone fragment, not like the stelae the others had found at the temple, but just a stone laying in the dirt under layers of leaves and tree needles. It lay on its side, forgotten by time, covered in dirt. He pulled his water bottle out and used it to wash some of the earth away, and he brushed yet more off with his hands. He could see figures carved in the stone, but couldn't make them out yet. He brushed more dirt away, trying to uncover the stone's secret.

After a few moments Oppie's heart pounded as he regarded the carving on the stone. It was in the same style as the stelae. Ancient, worn with time, but it showed him a scene that was hard to mistake. It was like the scene the others had recorded of this place, of Chikara, but it was yet another scene, different from the images they had recorded at any of the other sites.

A dark, familiar figure stood triumphantly before a depiction of a portal. Five other figures were also shown. Four were laying on the ground, he couldn't discern if they were dead. He could, however, discern Kyr's Mandalorian T-visor on the one that was still up, crouched protectively in front of two other figures, one of which had what looked like Sasha's long braids.

It was definitely not showing them victorious.

The door slid open, and the cold chill turned to ice as Darth Dracul stood in the doorway, his black armor and helmet stood as a silhouette from the dim light emanating from the anteroom he was entering from. He regarded his Acolyte for a time, and then strode forward from the hatchway, his footsteps clanging on the ships deckplate like hammer falls. Behind him, Kopesh followed, a disgusting, deathly grin on his face as he looked at Cien with a sneer. Sasha felt her throat tighten as if the air slipped from the room as she stared in horror at him. Beside her, Cien held her composure, though fear wafted from her.

After a seconds hesitation, the Acolyte knelt to the floor. "My Lord." Cien said, with dignified grace, falling to her knees. "You survived."

He stopped a distance from her and regarded the Sith kneeling before him, as if inspecting an insect. "Yes." He stated, his amplified voice ringing through the room like a blade being sharpened. "You should not be surprised by this." He chided, as if toying with her.

Cien continued to kneel, saying nothing, not daring to glance at the presence of Sasha that she projected next to her. Sasha couldn't tear her gaze away from the dark helmeted Sith Lord. She felt herself go pale and numb as she stared at him. She wasn't even physically there and she could feel the dark energy that circulated through the chamber. It made her stomach turn with nausea.

Dracul used the Force to flick on the holotable, and the display of Nikardum and the inquisitors ship information returned to life. "I see you have continued my work." The Dark Lord said, regarding the information displayed. Cien stayed silent, her head still down, and she tried to keep herself from shaking with anger and rage and fear. "You may speak." He added, after a moment.

"Yes, my Lord." She responded, wishing he would just get on with it.

"I find it curious, that with your gifts you did not hear me calling out to you from the void." Dracul said, in a low growl.

"My Lord, had I heard you, I would have come to your aid." She assured him, not sure what else to say.

"Of course." Dracul said, with a pause, and she could hear a faint sneer in his voice. "And when I tried to come through the portal, after the Jedi escaped because his Acolyte heard him?"

Cien said nothing, and stayed frozen, feeling assured she would feel the burn of the red lightning soon. After hearing the screams from its use so often over the years, she did not relish finding out why they were so tortured a sound.

"You may speak." Dracul said, as a command, his voice angered.

"The Jedi intervened." She said simply. Sasha glanced down at her for the first time since he had entered, looking at her with a slight glare before looking back to Dracul.

"Ah, yes. The Jedi." He growled. "So meddlesome to my plans." He said loathingly to his terrified Acolyte. Then he turned his head slowly up, and looked squarely at Sasha. Her heart stopped as he stared at her, "and always seeming to be at the right place at the wrong time." He held his gaze at Sasha for a second longer, and then she felt a kick to her chest.

As suddenly as Sasha had appeared in the chamber in Cien's mind was about as fast as she was knocked right back out of it. The sheer kick to her chest from the Force sent her from her own mind and back into reality. It also managed to knock Sasha completely backwards, causing her and the chair she was still sitting in to topple back. Sasha scrambled backwards, head over heels as she flopped onto her stomach onto the floor. That impact seemed to knock the air back into her as she took a gasping breath as she scrambled to her knees, back against the wall. She clutched her chest to try and calm her rapidly beating heart.

"Sasha!" Viran and Kyr called.

Viran hustled from his seat and to her side in an instant. Kyr moved from around the bar and knelt down on the other side of her. Viran gripped her by the shoulders as if to steady her, but also to get a good look at her face.

"Are you okay?" Viran asked, his voice filled with worry. "What happened?"

"Dracul," Sasha mumbled so softly under her staggered breath that Viran and Kyr exchanged a glance.

"I'm sorry. What?" Kyr asked.

"Dracul!" Sasha nearly screamed, her voice shaking. "He's back." Her voice then lowered till it was nothing but a whisper.

"What?!" Viran asked, shocked as he straightened. "How?! I thought we kept him trapped in the void."

"I don't know," Sasha visibly shook. "Cien… she summoned me to her mind. She showed me what she was seeing. He is back. I have seen him with my own eyes." Sasha finally met his gaze, her eyes full of uncertainty and tears. Her hand tightened around her chest as if she had truly been kicked there. "And he was able to send me away from her mind without me physically even being there." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Just like last time."

Viran was at a loss for words and ran a hand through his hair.

Kyr looked at the other two. "Should we get a hold of Op?"

Sasha felt her breath hitch. "Oppie… Yes, we need to call him, now." She staggered to her feet a little ungracefully and pulled out her commlink to call Oppie.

Oppie sat on the ground, the stone before him as a sense of dread welled up in him and a chill ran down his spine. All the other scenes had happened just as they had shown, but this had not happened yet. A faint spark of hope remained that maybe it depicted something that had happened before, some other time, and this had already passed. Surely there were other Jedi with braids, other Mandalorians.

His comlink chirped, from Sasha. He hesitated for a second, closing his eyes, as his dread grew. He pulled it out and answered. "Hi Sasha."

"Oppie!" Sasha's voice rang with a sense of worry and urgency. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah" He trailed off, "I found something." He stated.

"Op, I'm sorry to cut you off, but this is urgent," Sasha said in a serious tone.

He closed his eyes again. "Don't tell me, Dracul?" He asked.

Sasha gasped. 'What?! How did you know?" She then paused as if she realized how he knew. "The stelae You found a temple…" She paused again. "Oppie… What do we do?" She sounded so afraid.

Oppie looked back at the stone, at the figures that he couldn't tell were dead or not, laying before the triumphant Dark Lord. "I'm not sure." He responded, fear at what the scene meant clutching at his heart. "I don't know." He said softly.

End of part 1.

Oh boy! Cliffhanger! REVIEW!