Seated up against a tree across from the one with the bloody red blotch, Luke sulked silently, not knowing what else he could do at the present moment. With the knowledge that Ben had fully embraced the dark side of the Force and was off who-knew-where, Luke felt truly lost now; he was mentally unable to gather his bearings and was now in a state where he doubted if he could ever care about whether or not he would starve to death on this planet. Everything else now—his responsibilities to the Jedi Order, the ongoing Chiss War—all seemed irrelevant now that he was plunged into a despair greater than any he had suffered before.

That was until he felt a familiar dark Force-presence appear within the fold of Ziost's atmosphere. He looked up into the sky and saw a ship, a JumpMaster 5000, descend toward the Jade Shadow's landing site.

Luke stood up and tried to get a fix on the presence. But as he made his attempt, he felt only an elusive feeling followed by a sentiment that he could only describe as... luring. And it was that sentiment that compelled him toward the new arrival's landing site.

Once he got to the tree-line near where the Shadow was parked, he saw the JumpMaster land next to it. Luke waited for it to cycle down as he warily anticipated the appearance of the mysterious familiar presence.

When the JumpMaster's ramp unfurled, Luke's heart skipped a beat as the presence's physical appearance suddenly coincided with her fully opening her Force-presence up to him.

Shira Brie... or Lumiya, as she called herself.

From the ramp, she silently looked out toward him, her eyes narrowing with unknown intent. Even with her presence opened to him, what she wanted still remained a mystery to Luke.

With slow, deliberate steps, she made her way down the ramp and toward the tree-line where Luke remained in place.

She stopped five meters away from him and said, "Hi, Luke. How's the wife and kid? Oh, wait, that's right; I forgot!" Lumiya's mocking chuckle was light.

That was all it took for Luke to see red before he unhooked and activated his lightsaber from his belt. Immediately, in response, Lumiya had her lightwhip out, active, and lashing out at him.

He dodged the incoming lash before he corkscrewed himself through the air for Lumiya with Force-assistance. However, she leaped off to her right and landed in a crouch-and-roll before she whirled around and lashed out again just as he also landed in his own crouch-and-roll.

This time, Luke brought his blade up so that the whip wrapped around it. But before he could pull it in, Lumiya used her cybernetically-enhanced strength to pull him prone to the ground. Still, he maintained the grip on his lightsaber with more Force-aid before using his free hand to blast Lumiya off her feet. Luke then pulled his lightsaber free of the lightwhip and came charging in for his downed opponent.

But Lumiya unleashed a torrent of Force-lightning from her own free hand, which prompted Luke to stop and deflect it with his lightsaber. This allowed the Sith to reel her whip back to lash out at the Jedi's legs. The latter, however, ducked low so that his blade caught the whip in another wraparound, even as he grimaced to allow his body to take on some of the lightning's power.

Unfortunately for him, Lumiya intensified the torrent's energy output and blasted him several meters back. Upon landing, Luke skidded along the ground as Lumiya leaped to her feet and lashed out for the third time.

The Jedi rolled out of the way of the attack and leaped to his feet. Once he was fully standing, he charged at Lumiya yet again, prompting her to lash out several times over, each strike being unsuccessful as Luke deftly dodged each of them with Force-enhanced reflexes.

In response, Lumiya began to back quickly away to the tree-line behind her. Yet Luke quickened his pace even amidst the Sith's ever-increasing rate of attacks that only served to highlight her newfound desperation in avoiding him.

Just as Luke closed the gap between them, though, Lumiya's next lash managed to knock Luke's lightsaber out of his hand. And before he could Force-call it back, she headbutted him in the nose, prompting him to stagger back as blood gushed from his nostrils.

The Sith took advantage of the Jedi's stunned state to lash out at his artificial hand and slash it free of its place. Luke screamed in pain and reeled back as he grasped at the stump of his right hand.

But then, just when Lumiya pulled her whip back for a lethal strike, Luke pointed his stump at Lumiya's weapon-wielding hand and, with the Force, broke the servomotors that allowed her to control that arm. And as the lightwhip that fell from Lumiya's grip deactivated, Luke used his natural hand to call his lightsaber back. He then Force-sped right up to Lumiya and swiped his blade right through her artificial kneecaps.

Lumiya emitted a shrill shriek of pain as she collapsed to her back. Luke looked down upon her with lethal intent.

Once the Sith recovered just enough to open her eyes, Luke levelled the tip of his lightsaber up to her neck.

"No! No, please! Luke, don't do this to me! Don't do this to me! I'm sorry, Luke! I'm so sorry! I never meant to hurt you! I love you, Luke! Please, don't kill me!"

With each word she spoke, Luke's anger only intensified. His desire to end this witch's life became that much greater so that his Jedi principles, which told him not to kill an enemy who was already defeated and begging for mercy, were rendered irrelevant.

And so, with Lumiya's pleas falling on deaf ears, Luke raised his lightsaber up, ready to plunge it down toward her.

But when he brought it down, it was right beside her head. The Sith opened her eyes and looked between the blade and its owner in stunned silence.

Luke then deactivated his blade and hooked it back to his belt, his glare upon Lumiya less deathly but more stern.

"Nice try," he said. "But you're not going to have even that victory today. Or ever."

A moment of silence later, Lumiya groaned more in annoyance than in pain as she let her head hit the dirt. "And to think that I was led to believe that Mara's death weakened you."

Luke breathed deeply over the mention of his wife's name. "My powers may have been diminished, but my will hasn't. I've embraced the dark side before, Lumiya, and I won't do it again. Not even here. Not even after all that's happened."

Lumiya scoffed. "No, no. You are weak, Luke. You've always truly been weak. It's why you can't kill me. You're too afraid."

Luke Force-pinned her to the ground, prompting a grunt of pain from her.

"It's not fear or weakness that allows me to let you live," Luke growled.

"Oh, then, what is it?" Lumiya asked mockingly. "Is it some inner strength or the light side or some other poodoo, Luke?"

He shook his head. "No. Something a bit more practical; I'm going to take you back to the Jedi headquarters, and I'm going to make you tell me everything you know about Ben... and Jaina."

Lumiya scoffed again. "What makes you think I know anything about either of them?" Her tone, however, made her bravado seem false somehow.

"Oh, you know. I know that you know. And one way or another, you are going to tell me."

Lumiya chuckled. "Do you really think you scare me, Luke? I've been the Emperor's Hand, same as your wife. I've been through things that would make what you've felt on this world seem like a hokey horror holovid. There's nothing in your repertoire as a pathetic Jedi that you can do to get me to talk."

Now it was Luke's turn to scoff. "We'll see about that." He levitated her up into the air so that they stood eye-to-eye. "But even if you really do resist everything we throw at you, one way or another, you will answer for everything that you've done."

"Oh? And what is it you think that I've done?"

At that last word, her discarded lightwhip Force-flew into her still-working hand and reactivated. Luke, however, managed to bring his blade up in time to swipe right through that hand, eliciting yet another agonized howl from Lumiya as sparks flew from her truncated robotic arm.

Then, with another swipe of his blade, he slashed right through the whip's pommel before he proceeded to levitate Lumiya toward the Shadow.

Mere seconds before they boarded, though, Lumiya recovered quickly enough to ask, "How much... would it hurt... if I told you... that I just... killed Karrde and his people?"

Luke stopped in his tracks and, a moment later, looked back at Lumiya grimly.

"Well, then," he said darkly, "if nothing else, you will answer for that."

He turned back and resumed his trek up the Shadow's landing ramp with a dejected and dismembered floating Lumiya right behind him.

. . .

After Ben's strange ship dropped out of hyperspace, it found itself facing the corridor of planetary debris that was the only way toward or away from the world of Shedu Maad.

Ben, the ship's voice said in his mind.

"Yes?" the boy asked aloud.

After I bring you to this world, I must leave you.

"What?! Why?"

As your servant, I could not deny you from returning to Shedu Maad. But that is where my servitude to you must end; as a vessel of the Sith, I cannot be in the presence of the Jedi. Not on friendly terms, anyway.

Ben stood up from his seat along the ship's deck and looked around with a mixture of confusion and fear. "So you could only serve me to a certain extent?"

Yes.

Ben hung his head in disappointment before he brought it back up to address the vessel. "If you leave me with the Jedi, the next time we meet, we could be enemies."

Perhaps. Or perhaps not. As you know, you are strong in the Force, Ben. And after what you have endured on Ziost, you have emerged stronger with your grasp of the dark side. Maybe, when we meet again, it will be on friendly terms.

Ben looked uncertain. "I don't know... if I could turn on my father, or... my aunt, my uncle, my cousin Jacen... I just-"

You need not worry about that now. I leave the decision for your future in your hands. Whatever you decide, I will be in no position to force. But remember this: the strength you felt on Ziost is but a taste of what the dark side can offer you. And it is something that the Jedi will do everything in their power to stop you from attaining in their own limited ways.

"I'll keep that in mind."

I hope you do.

The ship then sailed forth through the debris corridor for Shedu Maad.

"What will you do after you leave me?" Ben asked as he resumed his seat.

I cannot tell you that.

"Because you think I'll tell on you?"

That is a possibility.

Ben wanted to protest and say that he wouldn't do that to his friend, not after he saved him from Ziost. But after a moment, he just said, "Fair enough."

Though I will say... it is very possible, that, given to whom I am going... we will see each other again sooner than you think, Ben.

Hours later, Ben was set down in a forest about a kilometer away from the Jedi Temple. He didn't have the heart to say goodbye to the ship before it furled its ramp back upon itself and launched for the sky again. Ben waited until the vessel wasn't even a tiny dot above him before he turned and began heading through the trees for where he felt the Temple to be.

As he walked, he took a good look at the foliage that he passed by. They were nothing like his surroundings on Ziost; these trees stood tall, filled with life in their beings, and able to support the nature around them in a balanced ecosystem that could support more life.

Had Ben been more naive, he would have thought that that would have meant this was all inherently good, that this was the benefit of staying put in the light side of the Force, as opposed to the corrupting influence of the dark side that had permeated Ziost. Yet all it took during Ben's walk to dispel even that childish notion from his mind was the sight of a small predatory animal—a kublas, he remembered from his studies—as it soared down from a tree branch from up high to pounce upon a tiny rodent that belonged to a species with which Ben was unfamiliar. Within moments, the kublas had killed the rodent and wasted no time in devouring its prey down to the bone.

Ben couldn't help but stop and watch until the end before the kublas scurried back up the tree from which it came and resumed its previous position in looking for more prey. Only then did Ben resume his trek for the Jedi Temple.

By the time he got to the tree-line, Ben saw Jedi Master Cilghal with two medical assistants—one a male Rodian, the other a female Quarren—rush up to him. That was no surprise since Ben made his Force-presence known to all the Jedi on the planet right around the time the ship that brought him here pierced Shedu Maad's atmosphere.

The Mon Calamari healer knelt by him, grabbed him by his shoulders, and asked, "Ben! Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

He shook his head. By now, the physical wounds that he had sustained under Lumiya's brief abuse and the hunt on Ziost had all but vanished from his body; even with his embrasure of the dark side of the Force, Ben still had the wherewithal to induce within himself some healing techniques to reduce those wounds down to faint scars. And with some help from the strange ship during the trip here, his clothes were washed, even if they still had been tattered and ripped from everything he experienced since Jaina kidnapped him.

"What happened? Can you tell us?" Cilghal asked.

"Where's my dad?" Ben asked.

"Your father? Oh, yes. He's been out looking for you. Look, Ben, we'll take you back and call him up. You can tell us what happened when you're ready."

Standing up to her full height, Cilghal grabbed Ben's hand and began leading him toward the Jedi Temple, with her assistants looking at him warily just in case he should collapse from exhaustion or anything else.

But Ben walked on with Cilghal, his posture stock-straight and his walk confident, as he looked at the Temple with new eyes.