PART FOUR: CORRUPTION WITH RAGE AND MELANCHOLY

Merrin woke up with a start, almost in a cold sweat. She brought the blanket closer to her naked chest, and for a moment she felt like a scared little girl. There was a strong, cold presence that seem to watch her, follow her. It did not come from one point of the universe, but rather it was an overwhelming, oppressive force all over the galaxy. As if the energy that surrounded them began choking her.

"I can't escape her," Merrin said, gritting her teeth, and shutting her eyes tightly. There could have been more nightsisters in hiding since the fall of Talzin's clan, or other witch covens across the galaxy that was not solely located in Dathomir. Jerserra could have sought others to rebuild the Nightsisters. But why Merrin? Why her, of all the witches?

A cold creeping dread climbed up her spine. Since landing on the moon Jedha, they instantly knew of each other's presence. They have been bonded, unwillingly, by the Force. They were not master or apprentice, nor were they sisters-in-arms bonded by countless battles. It was not a bond she had with her Ilyana, nor with her Cal. They bonded through a necessity to connect, to restore balance to Force. In the end, they could be the last nightsisters in the galaxy.

The pool of tears began to trickle down Merrin's cheek at the painful reflection of her destiny. She whispered a magic spell under her breath, and the connection between her and Jerserra seemed to have faded. It would not be long until the magick would wear out, and Jerserra could find them again if she wanted to continue pursuing Merrin-and she would, in a moment's time.

Merrin prayed to her sisters, whose souls live one with the Force, somewhere out there. She prayed for their guidance and wisdom, for their voices. Most of the time they would not heed her prayers, but once in the rarest moments they do, although Merrin would rationalize it later that it was mostly because she worked hard to get where she needed to be, not through any luck or coincidence in the Force. For the most part, she prayed to them because she missed them, and wished only to speak to them.

Two roads were laid in front of her. To join Jerserra to rebuild again which is what Mother Talzin would have wanted, or turn her back against that possibility and become the last nightsister.

She sighed and collapsed back into her cot, her hair spread out across the metal floor. A sleeping Cal rested soundly beside her. She counted the scars on his face, both fading and new. Then she counted the scars on his chest, his arms, and the little nooks and crannies of his body that she previously never saw before. It calmed her doing this exercise. It calmed her that she could finally be so close to Cal. She wanted this. They wanted this.

She moved closer to him and nestled against his body, skin touching gently. Cal stirred and lifted his arm to allow for more room of closeness and wrapped it around her protectively once she was comfortable. He promptly went back to his sleep. From here, she appreciated Cal's body, studied the human anatomy at its fullest and barest once more. From her dearest friend and companion, she learned softness underneath all this human toughness.

Merrin listened closely to his heartbeat and sensed closely his inner feelings. She did not have to be defined by her relations with her enemies or her past. She wanted what she had built instead, especially with Cal. She had to look towards building the future.


The ship was grumbling its protest as it continued to speed through hyperspace. Their destination was close, but they seemed to be waysided by an unknown power, trying to stir the ship somewhere else. This overwhelming power wanted to pluck them away from their place in the galaxy into the unknown regions, possibly even in the deepest unknown outside of the universe.

Merrin looked out in the space on the cockpit, lights flashing past her eyes. "What do we do?"

Cal removed his headset and closed his eyes. He held his hand out and began concentrating on the vision he had of the dark world he saw in his dreams, a world almost like a black hole, the world that the Sage Kujet had shown to him. He tried to remember it with as much clarity as possible. If he could just pinpoint it...

There. Through the Force, he felt the Dark side pull him towards them, and he leveraged that invitation to propel the ship into that direction. He would not be afraid of the Dark side if this was where he was meant to go, and if this was his destiny...

They shakily exited hyperspace and were met with the looming blackness of a desert planet, too close for their comfort that Cal was afraid that they were entering a black hole. The gravitational pull of the dark world Ixigul stirred the ship straight to the planet's atmosphere. Merrin began taking emergency maneuvers to seize control of the ship back to themselves, looking into the safest landing zone they could find. No matter where they tried to land, they were being pulled into the ocean. The stardust and red gas in the mesosphere were interfering with their navigation beacons.

The call of the Dark side was strong, stronger than he was very comfortable with, but Cal took a deep breath. This was the way. His answers would be here. He needed to have more faith that he would, and he would not fully succumb to this.

The ship rattled and groaned as they entered the stratosphere and into an ion mega thunderstorm. BD-1 ran from each corner of the ship's control to support Merrin, monitoring damage in the haul, debris, and consolidating information on the ship's atmosphere, oxygen, and fuel supply. Cal gripped the sides of his seat, unknown to the dangers in front of them but feeling the oppression of the air. It was difficult to tell whether it was the storm or it was the Dark side. He could feel the anxiety in Merrin swelling up in her chest.

It was a long tedious minute in a battle of survival. Finally, the ship reached its last legs. All systems have been corrupted by the storm. Fuel had leaked out from haul damage. It cried its last howl before everything succumbed into pitch-black darkness, unresponsive to any controls or commands they tried to input. Now, they were falling straight into the planet like a comet.

Merrin threw down her headset almost violently and raised her hands. Her eyes flared green, and her fingertips seeped green mist. She looked at him briefly. Through power emanating from her, Cal was suddenly back to the memory of Fortress Inquisitorus, of Merrin levitating her power to conceal their ship. It was the first time he had witnessed the capacity of her dark power at this level, and how she was using it for good. "Cal, together."

Cal nodded. He followed Merrin's suit and delved into the Force. He felt the weight of the ship on his back and shoulders. The Force slowed their fall from the speed of a falling star to a ship preparing to land. As he tried slowing the speed of the ship, Merrin stirred it to a place looking for a safe space to crash. BD-1 shook on Cal's back, watching the outside world with utmost uncertainty.

The ship crashed into solid ground and continued to skid through the earth. They all lurched against their seat, sending an almost whiplash in breakneck speed if not for the seatbelts fastened against their chests. Their chairs were ripped from the steel floor of the ship and the cockpit tumbled into chaos, electronics and terminals being crushed by the pressure within the cabin. The smell of smoke and extreme heat started building inside. Something had hit Cal's head and he blacked out.


Cal coughed and flailed around. He was pinned by something large and heavy-likely one of the big mainframes of the ship, and the smell of smoke tickled his nostrils, but it was not overwhelming as he would think. Although, the danger of carbon monoxide poisoning was still lingering if they did not get out of this place soon.

Cal felt more blind in this world than anywhere else in the galaxy. The Light Side of the Force was so weak here. Using his Force senses, he could not sense anything else beyond anything else outside the ship. "Merrin? BD-1?" He called out, moving his arms for something to grab or hold, just something. "Where are you?"

He flailed around in the mess of the cockpit until a hand grabbed his arm. "Are you pinned down?" Merrin said.

"A little. Help me out." Cal began pushing up against the weight of the heavy object. Merrin grabbed underneath it and lifted as much as she could. When enough weight was off his body, he shimmied out quickly underneath it. Merrin let go of with a grunt and a loud thud.

They hugged quietly and tightly in the dark. A muted whirl and beep echoed in the darkness. BD-1 emerged from the smaller bits of rubble in the ship, a small dent on the side of his body, and one of his eyes had a busted light. He wobbled towards the couple, and slowly climbed Cal's legs until he was attached to his back.

Cal and Merrin broke away, and BD-1 jumped into Cal's arms. "I'm so glad you're okay, buddy," he whispered to the droid, petting its dented head. "You're gonna be my eyes in this operation. Once we're in the clear, I'll fix you up a little, okay?"

They cleared away some of the debris and put out the fires within the ship. The lights no longer worked, so Merrin equipped herself with a glowlight stapped against her head, and BD-1 provided another layer of brightness with his built-in one. Cal didn't need any help seeing in the darkness, but he needed guidance constantly through some directions from his friends.

They packed whatever they could salvage in the ruins of the ship, food rations, beddings, bacta patches, working blaster rifles, and a portable oxygen tank. BD-1 managed to grab the Zeffo artifacts Cal had been collecting these years from what remained of his quarters and gathered them at Merrin's feet, to be brought with them just in case. They did not know what time of the day it was, as they were greeted by nothing but the continued thumber rumbling above the skies, dark clouds covering the atmosphere throughout the horizon.

They emerged out of the broken T-6 ship once they had everything ready. The old Republic ship that helped them sail from one end of the galaxy to another, after they have left the Mantis, was in shambles, and there was nothing in this planet-resources, parts, or even scraps of junk-that could bring this ship back to life. This was their final destination.

Cal ran his hand down the ship's debris, paying its last rites. Merrin watched from afar, expressing respect in her way. He returned to her side when he was done and they both regarded the destroyed ship once last time. "We can't let them see or know that we are here," Merrin whispered to Cal. "Jerserra, she will know we are here, sooner or later. We should cover our tracks as best as we can."

He nodded. On cue, both Force users lifted their arms, channelling the power within them. What remains of the ship began growling, and then it slowly sank into the sand. BD-1 watched in dismay as the only way out of the planet disappeared right before their eyes.

Once they were done, Cal patted the droid's head in reassurance. "We have to do this," He muttered, more to himself than to his companions. "There's no going back now." The world of Ixigul was an unforgivable, dark world, its cloud would not allow a single ray of light from even its farthest sun. The air was breathable but dry, and they were surrounded by jagged mountainous regions and deserts, as far as their eyes could see. Cal doubted if there were any shopkeepers or trading posts in this place.

Merrin turned to him and turned his face towards her gently. Carefully, she kissed Cal's closed eyelids, moving a piece of his damp red hair from his forehead back up. A big smile danced on his face. Even if his companion have been raised by the Dark side, her heart was the Light. It wouldn't matter if this was the end of the road. They had each other. They both silently agreed that this was where their destiny ultimately lied.


They travelled on foot for what seemed like days (261 hours since they landed according to BD-1's internal clock), but it could hardly have been one rotational orbit of the planet. BD-1 slowly gathered information of the Ixigul's geography, geology, and atmospheric information, and entered it into an offline database within itself. Perhaps if they could get out of this planet, he could relay it into the galactic databases. Or, if they were to remain here, the next person who would find BD-1 might find the information useful.

The droid ran on solar power, and without any solar energy here, he would not last long on this darkness-covered planet. Merrin managed to salvage a few power packs for him to run for a few more weeks if his current one dies out. Their supplies were also limited. Cal and Merrin agreed to share a small ration pack for each day, and at the direst cases (which was likely to come), they would need to skip meals. Already, Cal was beginning to turn a little thin after several days of travel, and Merrin's eyes had darker circles around them.

They walked as far as they could until their feet hurt. Then, they would set up camp, one would sleep and one would be on the watch. They would take turns in watch duty and resting. They would not camp out in the open, but they would go whenever there was a rock formation that provided a bit of shelter. They would build a better and reinforced makeshift camp within that formation, to protect them from the elements and possible surprises on this planet.

They did not wander aimlessly, but rather with a purpose and drive (or what remains of their will anyway). Where they needed to go, they were following Cal's senses of the Force. The key to the last message of the remaining Zeffo was here, before the survivors, drifted away in shame beyond the galaxy. All Cal needed was to pass the test. Cal wondered if this could be a genuine clue or simply the deception of the Sage Kujet, one last cruelty from the cruel Zeffo ruler beyond the grave. It didn't matter. The quest to find what remained of the ancient Zeffo consumed Cal's purpose for the last two years or so, and he had now forgotten the reason why he had decided to search for them in the first place. He did not dare to think what it would be like for there to be nothing at all after sacrificing so much of his identity, passing all the trials and tribulations that had been thrown out of his way. All of these tests, just to challenge his allegiance to the Light Side.

Cal no longer meditated to keep his connection to the Force and he felt he was at his weakest now, the will of the Force commanded no respect for him anymore. So the Inquisitor had chased him in his dreams to keep haunting him. The dreams were worst here than it was when they resting in Sorgan. The Dark Side ruled the energies of this planet mercilessly, it was in the air they breathed, and the soil they walked. For this reason, Cal felt like the Inquisitor of his mind could emerge from the pitch-black darkness, breaking away from his visions to the real world. And he would not know where he would come, which direction he would attack, because the Dark side was another suffocating blindfold around his already sightless eyes.

Dreams and reality began to meld, there were layers upon layers of meaning in each one. The only thing grounding him from reality was the presence of his friends, their voices piercing through the deception and surreality. And only in his dreams, his sight would be restored but he would receive the same punishment from the Inquisitor over and over again: a deep lightsaber scar across his eyes.

He would have liked for Merrin to appear in his dreams, to save him from the Inquisitor just this once. But he recognized that if she were there, he would have lost reality from his grasp.


At exactly 504 Coruscant hours since they arrived on the dark planet Ixigul, Cal collapsed on his knees. The lightsaber wound was throbbing painfully at his side, the most pain he felt in a long while. BD-1 let out a concerned shrill. Merrin dropped their supplies and rushed towards him, grabbing his shoulder so she could prop him up, and holding his face to see if any of the colours was draining away. "You do not have the strength to keep going," she said, assessing his physical health. "Let us settle for now."

She dragged him towards the nearest cliffside, towards a mouth of a shallow cave. Rain began to fall from the rolling thunderclouds above them, the first time since they arrived on this dry and harsh godforsaken planet. According to BD-1's research, Ixigul's formation of sharp plains and mountains was the result of the harsh gravitational force of the climate.

Merrin settled Cal on a thin woolly mat. She started a campfire from a small pyrostarter tool she salvaged from the ship's survival kit and bits of dried-up wood they collected throughout their journey. Once she had it going, she cast a protective spell around them. Possibly a shield or an invisible spell to keep them concealed. There were signs of advanced civilization in their travels, from paved roads to examining what seemed like ruined stone homes and outposts. But if this world was similar to the Sith world Moraband, brimming with such darkness, then Cal was not testy to seek these outposts even for help.

Cal's breath was shallow and ragged. The air was getting too dry around them, felt like he was breathing evil. Merrin brought out the oxygen tank from one of their bigger bags and connected a long tube from the tank to a mask. She carefully placed the mask over his nose and mouth and tightened the elastic around his head so it was not too tight of a fit.

"I can't sleep, Merrin," Cal murmured, arm pressed against his eyes, breathing deeply from the filtered but fresh air he hadn't inhaled for so long. His voice sounded canned from the mask. But slowly, he seemed to be regaining the strength he had before he buckled, exhaling all the dark energy out from his system.

"You have to." He was hearing Merrin rummaging around their supplies. "You need to."

"The dreams-"

"-will not hurt you," Merrin finished his sentence. She managed to pull something out from the junk and walked towards him. "Not anymore."

"If that were only true," Cal snapped. He got up gingerly, the tube of the oxygen mask wobbly moving around with each movement he made. "Look at me, Merrin. Look what dreaming has done to me. I can't tell whether what's going to happen to me will be real or not. I'm slowly losing my mind and I don't think I'm strong enough to do this."

Merrin stayed silent, only fiddling with what she had grabbed, peeling something plastic from it. It sounded like she was opening a food ration from their packet.

"I feel as though I have been punished for giving up so much," he murmured, mellowing down from his initial outburst. He slumped against the hard and cold cliff wall. "And I don't know if there is something to show for it. All this...for what?"

"Come and eat," she said, giving the ration, recently warmed from placing it close to the fire.

"Do you want to share?" Cal asked, making a gesture of offering the ration in her direction.

"I think you need it more than I do right now," Merrin said wearily. The tiredness in her voice seeped through for a moment.

"Don't say that," Cal muttered. He put the ration beside him and reached out towards her. She inched closer to him so he could hold her without him moving from his place, not when he was teetered to a tank. He moved his hands down her face carefully. From here, he could feel that her cheeks were a little hollow and her skin was achingly dry, not like the softness he felt when he had gotten so close to her. Merrin let him caress her lips, brushing it with his thumb, and it was flaking a little bit.

Merrin leaned in towards his touch. Cal moved his hands towards her hair, fingers sliding through the strands. It was longer than he remembered, knowing that she had just recently cut it. The tips were touching her shoulders now. But "recently" seemed like...what, two-three months ago? The days in Sorgan and their days here in Ixigul (and the days between dreams and visions) made Cal lose track of time.

"I want to tell you something," Merrin began. "A story. maybe. If you'll eat. All of it."

His head was clearer now, and he felt infinitely better than he was two hours ago. He removed the oxygen mask from himself and closed the tank's valve, reserving what was left of the air in it for future use. Then he picked up the ration on his side and began to eat the textureless and flavourless mush, surely packed with all the galaxy's nutrition in it. It was probably a diet that neither humans nor Dathomirian Zabraks consumed.

"When I was young," Merrin slowly spoke, as she began the story she promised, "My coven and my sisters, before they have fallen, there was one who was destined for greatness, like our Mother Talzin. The one your lost Jedi friend was telling you when he..." Merrin shuffled, and anger emanated from her briefly before she calmed herself down just as quickly. "When he looked into my memories."

The name of this nightsister that Quinlan Vos mentioned briefly escaped Cal. It was right at the tip of his tongue. He nodded to Merrin, giving her a cue to continue, hoping she could jog his memory.

"She was the most powerful of us all, but from the stories of my sisters, she was taken away by lowly criminals. She returned to us many years ago when she was betrayed by her own master-A Jedi-when I was a child but only very briefly. She quickly left when my sisters had all been cut down." Merrin brought her legs to herself, hugging them tightly. Not often did Cal see Merrin display such vulnerability. "She did not know I existed, that I survived. I did not return to our village after I buried my sisters. I know the pain would make me stronger, but there was too much pain for me to bear to fathom staying.

"There was nowhere else for me to go, except to become as powerful as Mother Talzin. But I was surrounded with nothing but bones, death, and lowly servants. No different from this." She made a gesture of their surroundings. "Meeting you had allowed me to experience the galaxy the way she must have. I feel experienced and knowledgeable. I do not know where she is in the Force. I know that she has joined my sisters on the other side, which I can sense. I pray to my sisters for guidance, but I suppose I want her wisdom in particular. She seemed...different from the rest of us. I want to know the rest of her story, such as how she had met the Jedi who was just like you. I want to know the story of her last stand, likely as a warrior."

She sighed. "In the end, I am relieved that there are people like us, Cal." He sensed a smile coming to her face. "Lonely survivors, Jedi and nightsister, finding our way to each other."

"I guess Jedi and nightsisters make great teammates, despite being natural enemies," Cal humoured. "What was her name?"

Merrin mulled around her thoughts for a bit. "Asajj Ventress."

As if by coincidence, thunder rolled in response, paying its respect to the name and to the person it belonged to. Merrin's mood seemed to brighten at this small coincidence. Both the Light and the Dark Side of the Force remembered her.

Cal had finished eating the ration. He meant to save some for Merrin to eat despite her request he ate fully, but he was engrossed in thought.

"It is not much of a story," Merrin said, "but it is something I want to expel from my chest. The galaxy felt...a little smaller after Jedha."

Cal nodded in agreement. "It just seemed like...we've explored all we needed to know from it, and met all the people we needed to meet."

They let the silence rift between them for a while, letting them tune in with the force of this planet.

"Rest," Merrin urged, taking the packaging of the ration away from Cal. "I will keep watch."

Cal's original dilemma persisted. The dreams were his fear. He had Merrin's talisman on him but it would only so far protect him from any further harm that could be caused after the loss of his sight. A tool of the Dark side to protect him from further darkness in his heart. there was a strong irony in that.

Tiredness overtook his mind, and he relented towards the inevitability of sleep, hoping it would be dreamless. He held Merrin's talisman close to his heart.


The paved road they followed for a few days started getting wider and tiled with polished stone, their footsteps slapping down on them sounding like granite. The vast desert emptiness that had mostly surrounded them was now fragmented with ruins and more abandoned outposts. They seem to be approaching a major civilization hub, and it was making Cal a little anxious, to meet the residents of this planet.

BD-1 whirled in excitement, scanning all the ancient monuments they passed whenever he could. The light of his working eye was starting to fade, almost finishing up his current emergency power, and Merrin would have to change it with their last backup power pack. The little droid was still an archeologist in his core despite the difficult road ahead of them.

They did not discover a habituated city much to Cal's relief, but a large monastery compound, the sacred land of temples and mausoleums, enclosed by large sanded fortified walls the size of Ixigul's megamountains. As they entered, on their left and right were the large statues of an unidentifiable species towering over them. It made Cal claustrophobic, feeling its ancient energy and sensing the physical presence of the walls was rattling his bones a little.

Merrin and BD-1 tried casting a light towards the face of the towering idols, bringing their settings to their brightest level but once the light had reached the topmost part of the statues, they discovered they were all smashed, corroded, or beheaded.

Cal wandered towards the nearest statue titan and touched its toe. The surface was inscribed with intricate engravings that tell the story of these giants. He channelled his psychometric powers on his fingertips, trying to sense its rich history, hoping to get a snapshot of the lost culture from these stones.

He asked for a memoir, and he received a millennium. All the memories witnessed by this headless giant sped through his mind. There were too many voices, too much pain, and he spiralled into the limbo the visions of the past tried to pull him in. He saw so much, blood, screaming, pain pain pain, evil concepts he thought were exclusively human amplified in an unlimited capacity. The pain of millions all washed over him. There was no light here.

He recoiled away from the statue, feeling the burn of the memories on his hand. The visions stopped flying, and he was back to seeing nothing but the darkness. He covered his mouth holding down the bile climbing up his throat, but he vomited into his fingers. Dizziness overtook him as he stumbled and fell on his back. BD-1 jumped before he would be crushed by the weight of his ailing friend. Merrin was already at his side, patting her pockets to find her water canister.

She let Cal take a swig from the canister, and she checked his hand, which was dripping with his vomit. "What happened?"

"This isn't where the last Zeffos have gone," he said shakily, regaining his breath a little. "This is..."

Merrin looked up from her companion and towards what was likely their last stop. A large building structure that towered among the rest, two wing-like pillars like the structure very similar to the one they went to in Bogano, the tops almost touching the tip of the black clouds above it.

"This is a separate sect," Cal continued, breathing heavily. "The one who chose to stay behind, and embraced the Darkness." He cleaned himself gingerly and got up, knees still wobbling. Would the ancient separatists know where the rest of the factions were? Did these sects go chasing the ones who followed the old ways of the Life Wind, who was likely so far away from the galaxy searching for their meaning? Would it matter to them to follow and fight them as eternal rivals, like of Sith and Jedi?

The answer did not lie in the memories he witness from the frozen giants, but at the temple ahead of them.


The temple entrance was just like the one in Bogano, a portal that seemed to take somewhere deeper into its structure like they were crossing into another dimension. But once in the centre of it, it did not communicate any history in it. It was a plain and unassuming place. That was what Merrin and BD-1 initially thought of it anyway.

Cal thought he was going through severe heart failure, that he was going to die. He probably was at the moment, because his chest was aching hard, and he couldn't feel his skin, his lips, his fingers.

The temple room was a wide and high-ceiling dark cavern. A Zeffo effigy loomed at the northern cavern wall. Life Wind ornaments hung in large chains, attached from the cave ceilings of the temple. At the centre of the ceiling was the only cave opening. There was no moon, only the thunder giving them flashes of light into the room erratically...

The centre though was an enormous meditation circle spanning towards the walls of this temple cave, and the markings were so similar to his own Force circle, save for a few changes in the symbology. It was firmly intact, unlike the similar temples he had seen in the galaxy, where it was smashed, or already faded to oblivion. It glowed faintly in blue light, signalling that it was still functional and usable.

He didn't need to use his eyesight to believe where he was, he could sense it through smell, hearing, and repressed emotions deep in his heart.

Cal dropped to his knees, held his head, and screamed. The cruel irony never missed him, and he was a very humorous guy, knew a lot of jokes and never failed to laugh at the right beat when the punchline was said by the other. But this was the most terrible and poetic running joke and that punchline hurt.

He was where he needed to be in the end. This was his deathbed.

He gulped down his pain, letting a few tearless sobs escape his lips as he heaved more air. Merrin was at his side, a gentle hand on his back, concern deep into the wrinkles of her face.

"This is it," Cal said. Despair was slowly subsiding in his chest, as he slowly grew to accept the inevitable. "It's all in here."

BD-1 beeped worryingly. Merrin seemed like he wanted to say something, from the way her hand balled into a fist on his back. The outburst had startled all of them, and a lot of pain was sensed. But she left him be for now and helped him up.

BD-1 consulted his records of the planet and Zeffo history. He then communicated to Merrin about the Zeffo artifacts they brought with them, and how they should be placed around the glowing circle. The droid rolled the rollable objects with his own two feet and small head, and Merrin placed the other artifacts down with the droid's instructions.

Cal stood in the middle, eyes closed, lost in his thoughts under the light of the thunder above him. He prayed, even though there were no gods in the Jedi way. Perhaps, like Merrin, he wanted to seek the wisdom of the departed Jedi, who were one in the Force. Perhaps he would hear the voice of Cordova himself, the one who had set him on this impossible quest. He wanted to muster every bit of light he could from the Jedi before him.

Once the preparation was complete, Cal and Merrin sat in the middle of the meditation circle. They both shared one last ration they had in their supply. Merrin also changed BD-1's power pack into its last fresh one, and that was it for them. To help clear his mind, Cal utilized the emergency oxygen tank on himself and breathed deeply in it. Not once did Merrin use the machine. Perhaps she thrived in this environment, despite the physical weakness for neglecting her health in favour of survival. She was right, it was probably similar to Dathomir in many ways.

"Here," Cal handed her his lightsaber, Merrin's trinket wrapped around it tightly. "I think you might need this in case of emergencies."

"But you will need this, no?" Merrin said.

"Oh, don't worry. I have my lightsabers right here." He tapped his chest with his finger. "I don't need it physically with me. It's with me, always." It was a cheesy thing to say, but it was the truth. If needed, he could manifest anything in his visions, as long he felt like he had control. His lightsabers were a part of his Jedi upbringing, so he would always hold on to them.

Merrin clipped the weapon at her side. They sat in silence for a while, with Merrin drinking in the details of the temple's cavern. Cal couldn't imagine what she was seeing, it needed no imagination. It almost made him sick to the stomach again thinking deeply about where he was.

"I don't know how long I'll be gone," he said, his voice croaking a little. "It might take hours, it might days. But I have to be here."

"Cal," Merrin began, holding both his hands. He caressed her palms, where the scars of the lightsaber wounds have healed but the bumps that it would be with her forever. He felt her worry. "You have to tell me what's in this cave. This is the place, isn't it? In your visions?"

Cal chose to ignore her comment. "This is the moment I have been telling you about. I'm going somewhere you can't follow me, Merrin."

"You said no more secrets," Merrin persisted. The comment stung a little. There would be no more secrets between them in terms of who they were to each other. But for Cal's quest, he wasn't sure. There was a lot of pain. Pain Merrin probably could bear on top of her own, but pain Cal was not ready to share. Not yet.

"You're right," he said meekly. "I shouldn't be keeping secrets. I owe you this much." This was not unexpected. Merrin knew him so well that he was hiding something, and their closeness has afforded her privileges of calling out behaviours she didn't like.

He sighed. "I see this place every time I close my eyes. It haunts me to death. Now I know why. If I fail this...this test...this is where I'll die, Merrin. If I succeed, I don't know what will happen."

Merrin turned her head away briefly. "I know I cannot follow you. But you must come back, Cal Kestis." Her voice shook. "You must come back to me."

"I...I can't promise to come back, Merrin." His lips quivered. "But I will finish this. And if...anything happens to me, you have to finish what we've started. You have to go without me."

She snapped back. "Do not say that-"

"I don't feel so sure about this as you do, okay?" Cal quickly said, his tone rising. "The only thing that I'm very sure of right now is that I love you, and I want nothing else in the whole galaxy but to be with you." His green, hazy eyes seemed intense in their emotions.

He grabbed Merrin and pulled her towards a tight embrace. Merrin's grip on his clothes and the pressure of her arms around his body meant that his feelings were reciprocated.

If only he could turn back the time and start over. For a moment, in the corner of his mind, he envisioned the future that he and Merrin could have together. The irrational part of him just wished he could forget about this Zeffo business and start somewhere lowkey. This entire quest was a lap of judgement on his part, marred with mistake upon mistake for continuing the pursue it when all he needed was to sacrifice his Jedi ways to be with the person he loved. And then-jokingly to himself-perhaps the Zeffo from a galaxy far, far away from here would have just given him the coordinates telepathically for choosing the right thing, or something like that anyway.

Nothing mattered now, even the wildest imagination could not be entertained, as it was too late to turn back. No ship to escape to, no chance of survival in this cursed world, and darkness was already eclipsing in him.

They let go and looked at each other deeply. Or tried to anyway, as Cal's eyes still gleamed hazily, sightless. However, he felt the burn of Merrin's gaze, feel the fiery determination in her. "I am not going anywhere without you," she asserted. "I will be here to protect you, and you will come back. I will be waiting for you, here, at this very spot, when you are done. And I will promise you that."

She held his face and kissed him, and it was like he was experiencing this kiss for the first time with her. His heart fluttered, the despair in his heart dispelled for just a second. The moment felt like forever, and it was a forever he happily treasured.

She pulled away, lingered for a moment, and then stood up wordless. She walked to the edge of the circle and watched with arms crossed on her chest. She had left her talisman with him again, on the ground in front of him. He picked it up and held it close to his body.

BD-1 nuzzled Cal's leg. He communicated his brand of reassurances towards his human friend, said good luck and instead of goodbye. Cal patted the droid's head in thanks. He knew that the droid would be by his side to the end as well, no matter what happened. But for now, BD-1 would be with Merrin, and that gave him another kind of reassurance.

This was it. Cal was going to meditate after so long, and he was going to do it possibly one last time. "I have a good feeling about this," he said sarcastically to himself. He closed his eyes and began his usual incantations, trying to relax his body as he entered his meditative state. The Zeffo artifacts hummed, the loudest they had been since he had been doing this. He levitated from the ground, and the artifacts also lifted themselves with him and began to orbit around his body as his concentration deepened. The talisman floated in front of him, rotating but stationary at its place.

He sighed deeply, the thought of Merrin crossing his mind for a second before he was pulled into the void.


The protection spell that Merrin placed between her and Jerserra had faded a week or so ago, and the force bond between them have been reinforced. Merrin had been anticipating this, the coming storm of her destiny. She was mentally prepared for whatever might come their way. She was successful in bringing Cal to where he needed to be, but now they waited.

Merrin and BD-1 watched Cal's meditation circle glow brightly as he sunk deeper and deeper into the inner consciousness, trying to join together with the Force. The Zeffo objects around him levitated peacefully, feeding him energy for his mental journey. Cal's expression was relaxed and concentrated.

Merrin walked around the temple, investigating the security and integrity of its cavern walls, seeing if there were hidden entrances or exits. There was only one way in and one way out, so this was good. After watching Cal meditate for an hour and being partially satisfied that nothing was going to happen (at least in the external world), Merrin stepped out of the temple and back into the harsh landscape of Ixigul. From the top of the temple's staircase, there was nothing impressive to see in this hellscape, except perhaps from where she stood, it gave her a vantage for incoming danger.

And it was going to come. She sensed her entering the stratosphere and it seemed like she caught the planet on a lucky day, as the ion storms seemed to not faze the ship's trajectory towards the direction of the Zeffo monastery, even though it was still thousands of miles away. It was not just one ship, but multiple ones appeared emerging from the gray skies, quite a few of them burning in flames in the middle of the air as they had been struck by lightning. Merrin hoped against hope that perhaps the ship Jerserra would be in have a rough landing or get hit by landing. Not that it would easily end Jerserra's life, no. It would just give her a bad time for a moment on the way here.

This army would not be here immediately. It might take perhaps forty hours for them to arrive here, to where Merrin was standing. She had a bit of time, and she was already ready for anything.

Behind her, she heard the beeping of the small droid. She turned back to see BD-1 standing there casually singing a binary tune. She must have not noticed him attaching himself to her, because Force users were the only ones allowed to pass through the Zeffo gates. She entertained briefly an idea that this droid probably now had some Force-sensitivity in him, after being exposed to Force users for a long time.

"Were you here all this time?" Merrin said. "You must go back there and be with Cal. We have to know if he will be alright."

BD-1 made a defiant noise, moved around that simulated shaking his head.

"Oh? Will you fight alongside me, BD?" Merrin asked.

The droid sang a tune that asserted his bravery, standing as if it was puffing his chest out. Then to further assert his decision, he jumped on her back, attaching himself firmly to her. At this point, Merrin was used to it and learned to make the droid an extension of herself.

She smiled, thankful for the company. Merrin looked back towards the landscape of the world, beginning her watch. She reached behind her back and gathered all of her hair into a bun, tied it up with a string she had with her.

Forty hours was a short time.


Cal opened his eyes, and he was here again. Except there was none of that fog and dreamy haze he was used to seeing in his visions. The cracked floor of the cavern had been replaced by the temple's prayer circle. He was seeing two worlds in one, the real world and the vision, and he took in the cavern's fullest definition.

"You know, you may not be able to come back, but I can," the Inquisitor chuckled and it echoed across the room. He was nowhere to be seen, even in the shadows where he would usually hide. "I can replace you, and be with your Merrin instead."

Cal stood up and felt a little disoriented. The Inquisitor had gotten so chatty since Cal lost his sight. The taunts and jeers about his fighting ability never really fazed him, as long as he held his concentration and resolve. He grabbed the lightsaber from his side and ignited it, the blade humming. This was not real, he was here in the deep of his mind's eye, and he needed to remember that.

"You're holding her back from her true potential, you know that." The voice came beside Cal's ear. "She could surpass her Clan Mother, she could surpass the power of the empire or even the shadow of the Emperor's right hand. She could be more powerful than any Sith lord in the history of this galaxy. And what's standing in the way is you."

Cal swung towards the voice, but there was nothing there. He was tired of the games and the trickery, he wanted to get this over with.

"It must be so nice," the voice taunted, "To touch such supple skin, to caress those breasts, to give in to such desires. I want a piece that, and I just can't wait."

He needed to remain unfazed. With eyes closed, Cal searched the room. An old Force chant seem to creep up back to his mind as he relaxed his tense muscles, a chant he had not heard from since he was still a young Padawan training with the other children in the Jedi Temple. I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me, I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me...

He brought his blade close to his face and took deep breaths. A gentle wind blew behind him, tickling the hairs at the back of his neck. At the tenth exhale, he took his chance by swinging towards his right. The blade made contact with an invisible entity. From the curtains of the beyond, the Inquisitor unveiled himself, clashing lightsabers with Cal. He looked more sickly and hollow than he ever was before, but the golden eyes were more piercing and evil, it added burns to Cal's skin.

"Let's dance, Cal," the Inquisitor sneered, breaking the bind of their weapons, and moving a few feet from his opponent. He grabbed his red lightsaber's hilt with two hands, holding it with such desperation and power that it made Cal waver a little bit. "One final show!"


An army of mercenaries marched towards the Zeffo temple, lined up neatly on the paved road. It was not as bad as Merrin has thought, she counted to something closer to a thousand, but it was bad enough that she would need help. BD-1's working lens whirled, zoomed in and out into the scene as he also tried to drink in the danger.

Merrin took a deep breath. Green lightning shot up from her fingertips towards the ground, and they snaked towards one of the giant headless idols nearby. The magick climbed up its toes and expanded through its body, like veins throbbing inside its muscles.

The giant moved, stepping out of its pedestal and crouched, beginning to sweep its hand across the road that led to the temple. One hundred mercenaries had been swatted away. The giant took a casual step forward, and that was another fifty men down. The fighting mercenaries would open fire at it, but it would only discharge chunks and dust from its body, and it didn't slow down at all.

The ones who escaped the giant's wrath continued running towards the temple. Before they could reach the first step on the archway, Merrin blasted them with green magick, and those who managed to come close to her, she dug her nails into their chest and shocked their bones. BD-1 would sometimes jump away from her back and zapped the more naive mercenaries with his built-in electroshock, taking care of the weaker henches, while she busied herself with the more concerning ones. At the back of her mind, Merrin wished she had brought the Nightbrothers with her, an army she would have of her own. She channelled the world's thunderous roar of the earth, siphoning the dark energy surrounding her. She did not survive the wilderness of Dathomir for many years only to be outmatched like this. This place was as close as she could get to being home, and she was going to take advantage of that.

The fighting did not take too long. The living statue had taken out most of the lackeys, and the little ants that managed to move out of its way Merrin took care of that with her fighting. But she was uncharacteristically getting weaker quicker than she would like. She attributed it to her physical weakness. This constant darkness for what seemed like a month had taken a toll on her.

Before she knew it, the army had been culled away as she cut down the last of the mercenaries. A sea of bodies laid before her-lying motionless, or crawling away towards somewhere safe-except for a dark-cloaked figure moving towards her slowly.

"Now, this is much better!" Jerserra gleefully exhaled, arms raised towards the sky in praise. Her voice echoed through the world. She walked casually through the corpse of her followers. "A better planet for both of us, is it not? I could just feel the energy just coursing through me, and it's so exciting."

Merrin clutched her chest, breathing heavily through her mouth. "How many times must I assert that I do not want to be part of your empire?" Merrin shouted from the steps of the temple, swaying a little from the tiredness of battle. Fighting small minions would not break the sweat of her brow, not even a speckle. It was fighting thousands of them while utilizing her magick, that would take quite a toll on her.

Jerserra scoffed angrily. "I am not here to bargain for your help anymore, sister." She stopped walking and looked up at Merrin. "I will rebuild the Nighsisters alone, with my blood and flesh. I am here to wipe out anyone who can threaten my galactic reign. And you are standing in my way." She ignited her red Inquisitor lightsaber at her side and sauntered forward, moving with hot purpose.

The giant made its way towards Jerserra, hands outstretched to grab her. With her other hand, Jerserra shot a bolt of powerful lightning from her sharp fingers towards the giant. The statute exploded, clouds of dust gathered up in the air, and chunks of debris big and small fell all over them.

The stone giant was one less thing Merrin needed help controlling about, freeing up a significant amount of mental energy in her. But she knew fighting Jerserra would take up a lot of energy. She unlatched Cal's lightsaber from her side and powered them on, decoupling them from the middle so she could wield both of them in each of her hands. BD-1 whirled quietly, telling her she got this.

"You don't have your little talisman to save you this time?" Jerserra cackled. "I know you're not strong without it, little Merrin. It was the only thing making you as strong as your Clan Mother. You are nothing without it, not even a lowly nightsister."

She stood at the bottom of the step, while Merrin waited near the top of it. The thunder around them seemed to crack louder and more powerful, matching the energies of the two most powerful Nightsisters alive. The storm was erratic and restless. At the flash of lightning, they both lunged towards each other, blades clashing with the roar of the thunder that followed.


The Inquisitor kicked Cal on the chest, and the latter staggered backwards on his back. Cal quickly moved away as a lightsaber blade seared through the earth where he used to be a millisecond ago. He got up shakily, felt his knees buckling with all the weight of carrying himself.

It was a battle that had been going on for days, the longest he had been in this vision. They found themselves on equal footing, although one blind spot and one missed opportunity would change the tide quickly to one's favour. I know what I need to do. Cal heaved from the kick, clutching his chest. And I need not be afraid anymore to do it. He parried a slash that would have sliced his right arm off. Merrin's talisman, hidden inside his pocket, was growing hot on his side, eager to fulfill its purpose in this vision.

The fight went on for a little bit more, Cal putting in all his concentration to not let his guard down and be significantly hurt at this moment. He threw one of his detached lightsabers around the arena and he charged towards the Inquisitor with his other one. Nothing about these strategies would work on him, it wouldn't even bring a nick to his counterpart's face but it would be enough to distract him even for a moment. And the moment was all that Cal needed.

The Inquisitor dodged the incoming lightsaber that spun around an arc towards him and managed to parry Cal's incoming attack. The uncaught lightsaber fell and skittered in the ground, retracting its blade.

"Are you a child?" The Inquisitor spat on Cal's face. "Doing these little stunts won't get you nowhere. " He sliced Cal's skin across the arm, which made the latter drop his spare lightsaber and hissed at the wound.

The Inquisitor grabbed his neck and lifted him to the ground. "Choke on your dreams, Cal Kestis." The Inquisitor gleefully said. "As this will be your last." He drove the red lightsaber in Cal's stomach. Liquid darkness from the Inquisitor's body armour started travelling up to the weapon and began crawling towards Cal's body.

Cal coughed up blood from his mouth and his ears rang. If this were any other time, he would have pulled away from the vision before the lightsaber blade would have touched his skin, to save himself. But he was one with the Force and the Force was with him. He was not afraid of death anymore.

The Inquisitor ripped laughter across the cavern that chilled the room, his grip on Cal's neck only tightening. In this vulnerable moment, with a flick of Cal's wrist, the uncaught lightsaber a few feet away flew and reignited itself, moving at the speed of sound towards the Inquisitor's back. At the end of the moment, a blue blade cleanly burst itself from the Inquisitor's chest.

Cal let himself smile a little, even when blood was dripping at the side of his mouth. He was not surprised that the Inquisitor's ultimate hubris was to gloat and drink in victory, the opposite of his own unassuming identity. To play into this weakness at the right moment, to not fear death, every piece finally fell into place.

The Inquisitor had not let go of Cal yet, too shocked at what happened. Cal summoned the talisman from his pockets and held it with his hand. The blue lightsaber retracted from the Inquisitor's body, and Cal jammed the talisman at the hole where his weapon had just been.

"Choke on this."

A green explosive light and destruction surrounded them, pierced by the shrill screams of a thousand souls breaking the vision into pieces. The Zeffo effigy crumbled. The Life Wind ornaments cracked and fell from the ceiling. The cavern walls disintegrated into the unknown.

The destruction spun around them and the remains of it would be sucked into the void. The green light would continue to cackle and lash at everything until there was nothing. Then, after a while, the voices stopped screaming, and it was just Cal lying in the dark. The meditation circle remained with him.

The liquid darkness the Inquisitor left on him lazily engulfed his body, creeping up to his face slowly. Soon he would be one with the Dark side. Cal's blood pooled the lines of the meditation circle, turning the faint blue hue to bright red lines.

It was over. He wondered if he was dying on the temple floor right now. He closed his eyes, waiting for the darkness to overtake him.

Well done, Cal Kestis.

His vision went white.


Cal Kestis was no longer drowning in Darkness, but he was falling in infinity. There was a lot of information, memories, histories he passed in his fall. Species that lived in the galaxy, past and present, flashed momentarily around him. He saw the birth of the galaxy, and then once more with its inevitable death and implosion. Like a lung taking a deep breath and exhaling. This was the domain of the Whills, the all-knowing true keepers of history in the Force.

He landed quietly on his feet, although underneath him was just white. A ghostly whill floated towards him, greeting his arrival with a peaceful silence. It was trying to communicate silently, but Cal was unfortunately too human to understand, did not know what frequency it was relaying its word. The whill did not take a shape or form, but it had a soul, and this whill was not human nor was it any species Cal knew existed in the present time. It had the soul of a Zeffo.

Cal wanted to speak, ask about everything he wanted to ask this soul. He had become such a scholar after a year of archeological expeditions, library deep-dives, and exchanges of stories with the locals. Perhaps if the empire had not taken over the galaxy, the Jedi Order continued and did not fall, and his master was still alive, he would have worked closely with Jocasta Nu and Master Yoda after his apprenticeship. He was a good scrapper too when he worked in the yards of Bracca. He could have followed the footsteps of many people just like Eno Cordova and Jedi historians before him, explored the galaxy and deepened his knowledge of the Force. It would have worked out in the end, if things were different.

He did not have to ask anything to the whill. Instead, the information floated onto his hand. It was the answer to the one question he wanted to ask. It was all the answers to all the questions he had in his heart. Everything he needed, all the year's work chasing ghosts and shadows, finally at his palm. He only said one thing to the whill. Thank you.

The whill lingered for a moment, greeting him goodbye with its signature silence, and disappeared.

Cal smiled. He looked down at the gift of the whills. It swirled and floated closer, entering his body, becoming one with him. Cal only then noticed a white mist on his stomach, where his lightsaber wound was from the Inquisitor. Oh. Right.

His legs started to fizzle away, beginning from the tip of his toes. He had everything he needed right now, but he did not belong here, he was not a whill or a memory. There is no way out of this infinity. Despite his unbelonging, his essence seems to be bonded here. His soul was to be part of this space, both as a reward and as a punishment.

He sat cross-legged and began to meditate for the first time without his circle. He was at peace in becoming one with Light.


Green energy manifested from the base of the Zeffo temple and travelled the two pillar structures up to the sky. As it reached the clouds, a sonic boom moved in the waves and curves of the stratosphere.

Merrin looked up towards the sky, following the wave of magick-undoubtedly magick of the Nightsisters-pulsing across the world. Cal.

BD-1 shrilled, and Merrin snapped back to the fight and found herself looking at red. It was too late for her to dodge or parry Jerserra's incoming blow. However, the droid jumped from her back and into the line of sight in front of her. The lightsaber cleanly sliced BD-1's legs and part of his body off.

Merrin screamed, her heart shattered to a million pieces. After exchanging a couple of lightsaber clashes, she managed to slice an electronic component of the Inquisitor's blade. Now the red blade sputtered as it try to remain ignited, erratic just like the motives of its master.

Merrin looked briefly at where BD-1 fell. The little droid seemed to move slowly, his lens flickering. She would find a time to help him or mourn him, whatever happened next. She moved as far away as possible from her opponent, and commanded large jagged stones and rocks to float in the air, then flinging them towards Jerserra. The latter weaved around the impact of these broken structures seamlessly.

"This is so pathetic of you!" Jerserra yelled, unfazed by the malfunction of her lightsaber. "This is all child's play, sister. You should know better. This is how you play with toys."

Jerserra shot continuous lighting to the ground, just like Merrin did. It travelled through all the statutes lined up on the temple road, going as far as the naked eye could see. The stone giants woke up and stepped down on their pedestals, and began marching towards the Zeffo temple. Jerserra commanded them with such ease, smiled proudly at a replenished army of giants.

Merrin took this all in, quietly contemplating. Distressed crept in slowly. She didn't have time for this. Cal needed her, whatever was happening in the temple. BD-1 needed her, as he lay dying because Merrin was distracted by her weakness.

She was right though. Merrin should know better than throw rocks around. She had many names and many identities. She was a master of the Darkness, and it was ripe with flavour around her. She was a daughter raised and trained under Mother Talzin, feared and awed across the galaxy. She was the last nightsister of Dathomir, keeper of the Dark Side's secrets.

Merrin exhaled green mist out of her system. She unleashed the anger inside her, let it boil on the surface and manifest in her deathly magick. She looked up towards the sky, watching the green energy move like cloth in the wind.

The nearest stone statue lunged at her with its hand outstretched. Without lifting her hand, Merrin stopped it from moving. A flash of lightning struck down from the dark heavens and snapped at the neck of the giant. In a moment, it had been obliterated to mere dust, just like the first one she had commanded.

It did not stop there. Lightning had been particularly violent above the Zeffo monastery than anywhere else in the world. It continued to lash out strongly against the walking statues lumbering down towards the temple as if them being alive and moving was an insult to their living counterparts. It lashed until there were no more stone titans standing, and dust in the wind dancing around in the air.

Jerserra's eyes widened, but she remained particularly unimpressed by the growth of Merrin's power. She marched towards Merrin with purpose, the red Inquisitor blade sputtering widely as if it was untamed fire, not as uniform and elegant as Cal's lightsaber blades. They hummed reliably on Merrin's sides. She gripped them tightly, seeking the comfort of their master.

Green mist oozed from Merrin's body, her eyes shining from warm brown to sharp emeralds. Lifting her arms, lightsabers in hand, she brought the unknown magick of the sky and willed them to come down. It was a slow descent, but it was timely. The entire monastery compound had been embraced by the green fog. Just as Jerserra was right up to Merrin's face with her red blade, the world all of a sudden had been blanketed in pitch-black darkness.

Jerserra cursed, flailed a little by swinging her saber. It was the only light source she had. Then after a moment, the darkness dissipated and she was in Dathomir. Or rather, an illusion of the world. The unmistakable red of its mountains, the sickly flora, the cold and biting fog, and dead skeleton trees dense together forming dangerous forests. However, the bodies of her mercenaries littered at her feet, almost covering the entirety of the valley they were in. Merrin stood farther away from her rival, armed with her lightsabers, feeling right at home.

"You are right, my sister. I do know better." Merrin's voice was larger than life. When she spoke, a monster spoke with her. That was what she was, in the very end of it. "But you do not understand. When my clan fell, I had nothing left, sister. I had nothing but the dead. And now the dead worship me."

She willed the dead mercenaries on their feet to rise. Some had been mangled to nonrecognition due to the stamping about of the headless idols, but they rose with what was left of themselves. Empowered, the undead mercenaries shambled towards their former master, eyes shining bright green due to the magick's possessions. Jerserra fought them off with her malfunctioning lightsaber with ease, hacking them in half and slashing their limbs. But as long as they had will in them, they kept rising, even if they were just bones.

"This is not fair!" Jerserra shouted. She managed to push away a lackey who found her neck interesting. "You must fight me like a warrior, not like this!"

"We have never fought fair," Merrin called from afar. She spoke quietly, but her voice roared. "We are tricksters and mind-benders just as we are warriors. This is the way of our people."

One manage to grab Jerserra's shoulders and started chewing on her skin. She cried and hacked the undead's head away from her. But this was more than enough time for the rest of them to completely overwhelm her, shredding her skin, digging into their guts with their fingers. She buckled at the weight of the horde and screamed, both in horror and in defiance.

It was a horrifying sight, but one that Merrin was not unfamiliar with as she watched on with a steel heart. Pride and power were common goals of a Nightsister, but it could be their own downfall. For the longest time, Merrin learned to be alone, to not be manipulated. She thought she was impenetrable until she met Talon Malicos, who tricked her to spill the secrets of her clan's magick. That was when she learned how she could still be cheated with her own hubris, her own loneliness. She was alone to survive, alone to grow stronger. But if she remained as she was, she was nothing.

The screams eventually stopped. With a wave of Merrin's hand, the undead dropped in waves and remained motionless in piles.

Jerserra laid on top of the corpses, passing as a corpse herself but she was breathing raggedly. One of her arms had been torn off. One eye had been gouged out, and part of her head had been chewed out, as well as many parts of her body. There was almost a large enough hole in her stomach that if another inch of skin had been shredded, her guts would have spilled out on the floor.

"Look what...loneliness has done to you, sister," Jerserra struggled to say her words. Her voice was rough with an edge, vocal cords barely working as blood filled her lungs and throat. "It had made you...stronger and cruel. Your Clan Mother...would have been proud of you. I am sorry...I doubted you."

She managed to get on her knees, facing the sky upright with pride. "I would like to die...a warrior's death," Jerserra sputtered. "Not pathetically...like this. If you could at least give me that...as a sister."

Merrin silently nodded and moved towards her. Jerserra managed to smile. Her mouth started lining with blood. "Thank you. It is great to be home," she whispered, closing her eyes.

Whether she spoke about the illusion of Dathomir, or if she would be welcomed back to her sisters' arms in the Force, Merrin didn't know. She reignited one lightsaber on her hand and lopped Jerserra's head off.

The illusion of Dathomir faded, and they were back in Ixigul. Their Force Bond had been severed permanently. Merrin retracted the lightsaber and collapsed on the ground, falling unto the dead. After a few breaths, she quickly got up and ran towards where BD-1 lay and carefully scooped up his remains. The droid was functioning, but only barely. She hugged him tightly and cried. "I'm so sorry. I'm with you now."

A small beep of affirmation came from the frail body of the droid, and Merrin fought the temptation to cry more. But she needed to go. She took BD-1 with her and ran towards the temple and entered its gates. The world spun as they transitioned from the outside world to another space within it.

The temple cavern was still intact, with the meditation circle now glowing a faint hue of green. The Zeffo artifacts had fallen on the ground unceremoniously at some point. Her talisman remained, floating up in the air, glowing brighter than she had ever seen it do.

Cal was nowhere to be seen. In the middle of the circle were instead the remains of his clothes.

Merrin ran towards where her friend used to be. She placed BD-1 carefully down and held Cal's clothes. "No..."

BD-1 let out a mournful wail. She searched through her feelings, sensed the energy of this room. He was still here, but he was lost, and there was not much time. He had gone somewhere where he could not be reached, but he was not dead.

She grabbed her talisman from the air and gripped it tightly. She chanted a long spell, and ghostly tendrils began emerging from the meditation circle, moving towards her, building into her energy. This was something she had read in the writings she found by the Dathomirian magick scholars of the past, a magick spell and power that could bring lost souls back into the living world. It had only been attempted once by a powerful Clan Mother many eons ago. Doubt crept into herself about her powers. She had to believe in herself. It didn't matter if she was the most powerful Nightsister alive in the galaxy. She had a promise to keep, and she was going to find Cal Kestis.

When she joined with the Force, she disappeared, and the jump felt like a dive.


Merrin traversed through time and space, breaking through intangible barriers, immaterial objects that have never manifested in the real world. She witnessed things incomprehensible beyond her scope of knowledge. Surrounding her was everything and nothing, speeding through the heart of the cosmos. She ripped through waves of water, swam through deserts. Each challenge she faced, she would be presented with a reward. Immortal life, unlimited power beyond the scope of the galaxy, a loved one to be brought back from the dead. She could easily lose herself in this if she slowed down and looked upon knowledge forbidden for her to learn. This eternity was a temptation in itself. What kept her going with vindication and purpose was her bond with her only friend in this universe. It triumphed above all else in her right now.

This way! The voice of one of her sisters echoed.

Follow me! Another one called. Her voice was the most familiar and sweet, briefly tugging Merrin's heart.

Merrin followed the voices. She felt her sisters beside her as she sped through the unknown and for the first time in a long time she was empowered by their presence. They had never left her, and have always watched over her.

They travelled through more memories, more truths, more pasts, and more futures. Finally, in this intangible space, Merrin felt an invisible wall between her and something-or someone important. With all her might she broke through the space and found herself falling into infinity.

Cal's soul waited in the emptiness, his essence fading slowly. His legs were being engulfed by a white mist, and his hair had turned white. Without hesitation, Merrin charged and grabbed him from the floating space. With the help of her sisters, she shattered through the infinity and back into the halls of the Force.

Time was running out. Merrin moved both her and Cal at the speed of light to charge through this space, mustering all the magick that remained in her. She felt the encouraging push of her sisters, their power coursing through her, her defiance of the laws of this space burning through any obstacles in their way.

Finally, at a speed faster than light, with fire burning in their hearts, Cal and Merrin broke free from the cosmic reality of the Force. Her sisters cheered in triumph, and they faded back into the void. One voice remained, hoarse and sultry from the most powerful Nightsister of them all, greeting them goodbye. May the Force be with you, my sister.


In the emptiness of the cavern, Merrin's talisman exploded in pieces, followed by a destructive blast waving throughout the Zeffo temple and expanding towards all of Ixigul. The temple fell, and whatever was left in the monastery crumbled alongside it, taking the history of the Zeffo with it. Quakes rippled through the earth violently, levelling the mountainous walls that surrounded the smaller temples and mausoleums. From where the Zeffo temple once stood, a bright light shot up towards the clouds and pierced the heavens. It had parted the clouds, and the sun had graced its rays towards Ixigul's surface.

The destruction went on for a long while across the world. Once the earth had calmed, the world remained in darkness, albeit in the quiet. Perhaps, except for the circle of light shining unto the remains of the only evidence of Zeffo history on the planet. Underneath the warm rays of the sun was Merrin holding Cal's body closely, smiling to herself. She laid alongside her friend, compelled towards deep sleep.

BD-1 crawled closer to them, the sole survivor of the destruction. He collapsed beside Cal, and with one last soulful beep, powered off.

Merrin's eyelids began to flutter close. Something was descending from the light above them. It was a...familiar ship. Merrin reached out with her hand towards it as if she could come and hold it, but the fatigue overwhelmed her and she fainted.