After she deactivated the live holographic feed that tracked Horn's progress through the safe house, Acheron swiftly turned away from the refresher's exit to confer with Grendel. She faltered in her step by the unexpectedness of an audible crunch followed immediately by the sound of a body dropping to the floor behind the shower's divider. But when that was done, she hurried in to find that Jeckut lay dead at Grendel's feet, his neck broken, as the male undercover Sith shut off the shower and began dressing himself back into his dirtied clothes; it was apparent that, at the moment, he didn't much care that he was undoing what little washing he'd done for himself.
But since he sensed that there was a Jedi coming for the both of them, he didn't complain.
"What'd you kill him for?" Acheron asked. Her tone clearly indicated that she wasn't uneasy about Jeckut's death; she was only curious.
"If we're to take on a Jedi," Grendel began, "I don't want him reporting back to Thrackan or anyone else about who we really are. But we'll figure out our cover story later; right now, we have a Jedi to kill."
Acheron only nodded. "Our enemy is Jedi Master Corran Horn. I assume that, as a Corellian, you know who that is?"
"All too well. But I know that you tailed around with him when you were a Jedi, so I assume you have some useful info I could use?"
"I do," Acheron replied stoically; she set aside whatever feelings she had for the reminder of her past as Tahiri Veila. "Remember, no energy attacks because he can absorb them and redirect them back to us, and we take him together. And watch out for his dual-phase lightsaber; he likes to use it as a cheap trick on his opponents."
"I'm aware of both of those," Grendel said evenly. "I know that he used that dual-phase mechanic to kill a Yuuzhan Vong commander on Ithor, just before they burned that planet."
"Right. Oh, and, lastly, he might use his ability to conjure up images in your head while you're dueling. They're not Fallanassi illusion levels, but they can get to you if you're not prepared, so make sure you have your mental shields up."
Grendel only nodded in response. Then, without having to say anything more to each other, the two Sith stood side-by-side two meters away from the mechanical door. Soon, a silver lightsaber blade was thrust from the outside at the lower right corner before it gradually made its way upward. Acheron and Grendel stood waiting as they watched the blade's slow progress to the upper right corner. Then it made its way to the upper left corner. And then, finally, it began making its way down to the lower left corner.
Once the blade reached that juncture, Acheron and Grendel combined their Force-push to blow the now-compromised door out upon the wooden catwalk beyond, where it cartwheeled over the railing and plunged down to the first floor below.
But both Sith knew that it wouldn't be that easy. Still cloaking themselves through the Force, they looked at each other, and both agreed, through their hand-signals, that Acheron would take the right while Grendel took the left. And in case Horn was going to try to ambush them from above, they would both have to be on the lookout for that. However, before they stepped toward the vacated threshold, they took off their boots to make as little noise as possible.
Only then did they slowly make their way toward the threshold, their lightsabers in hand but inactive; it was risky, yes, especially if Horn was going to activate his 'saber first, but both Sith knew that it was smarter than just rushing out with their humming weapons swinging.
Once they reached the threshold, Acheron turned the holographic live feed back on, much to Grendel's mild but silent surprise.
Horn was waiting for them on the ceiling above the threshold; he hung by a grappling gun that had its hook wedged through the wood, and his deactivated lightsaber was hanging back upon his belt.
Grendel grinned; then he leaped out through the threshold and, with his free hand, directed a short torrent of Force-lightning up toward Horn.
But the torrent wasn't aimed directly at him, as Acheron would have feared; instead, it struck a spot on the ceiling right next to him. The resultant explosion knocked him back through the air even as he used his energy-absorbing abilities to make sure that he wouldn't be burned by the blast. Nevertheless, in his back-swing, his grip on the grappling gun vanished and he fell toward the first floor. Barely in time, Horn Force-cushioned his landing, but the wind was still knocked out of him as he landed upon his back.
Acheron and Grendel hurried out of the refresher and looked down upon the lying Jedi. A second later, his eyes opened and they narrowed upon the female Sith's.
As Acheron's own gaze narrowed back upon Horn, both her and Grendel's lightsabers activated and they vaulted over the railing to sail down for the Jedi. Horn quickly rolled back over his shoulder and onto his feet, his silver-bladed lightsaber activated again. He first blocked Acheron's strike just as she and Grendel landed before parrying the latter's blade, and from there, he stood his ground as he moved as quickly as he could to block off their attacks.
It wasn't long before the two Sith gradually moved away from each other to circle their opponent and make it more difficult to maintain his position in dueling them. Seeing that they would be directly on either side of him, Horn activated his 'saber's dual-phase mechanic just as it blocked off another of Grendel's strikes, but the latter Sith, prepared for such a move, ducked beneath an attack that would have speared him right through his forehead.
Still, Horn leaped up and over Grendel so that he ended up behind him. He then kicked the male Sith upon the small of his back so that he would have rolled right up to Acheron's feet; but the latter swiftly jumped over her downed colleague and leaped through the air toward Horn.
But the Jedi, even as he shifted his blade back to its shorter silver state, pivoted out of the way and brought his free arm down upon Acheron's weapon-wielding elbow. She collapsed prone to the floor, and before she knew it, her lightsaber—the one that had replaced the weapon that Luke Skywalker had destroyed back aboard the Thrawn's Vindication—was cut into two by Horn's blade. He then turned and began blocking off Grendel's attacks now that he had recovered from the Jedi's kick. Quickly, though, he backpedaled to get as far away from Acheron as possible; she may not have been with her lightsaber, but she could still be dangerous if he remained in place.
Once Horn felt comfortable enough, he stopped at the threshold of the safe house's dining room and chose that spot to stand his ground. And between all of his defenses and attacks against Grendel, he got glimpses of Acheron standing back up and rushing back toward him.
Just when Acheron was a meter away, Horn found an opening in his duel with Grendel that allowed his free hand to grab at the Sith's lightsaber-wielding wrist. Less than a second later, Horn's blade sliced diagonally up and to the left through Grendel's torso, dropping him into two dead pieces along the floor.
But only then did Horn stiffen from the sudden pain that blossomed from his stomach. Acheron's absence before him wasn't even on his mind as he almost casually looked down and saw a vibroblade lodged into his gut.
Before he could think to pull it out, even against his better judgment, a new and deeper pain erupted along his back. He stiffened in place again and finally dropped his then-deactivated lightsaber to the floor.
When he collapsed to his knees, only then did the pain in his back alleviate, if only slightly, before Acheron stepped into view before him; there was a vibroblade in her hand, marked with blood; his blood. And the expression on her face was emotionless, completely devoid of any empathy or humanity.
With the Force, Acheron telekinetically ripped the other blade from Horn's gut, prompting him to scream from the agony that brought him down upon his right side.
Once Horn began to pant deeply as blood started to pool around him, Acheron bent down toward him, her eyes still maintaining their lack of humanity even as her Force-guise dissolved to reveal her withered, deformed face and yellow-red eyes.
"Tahiri," Horn croaked.
"That name no longer has any meaning for me, Jedi," Acheron stated robotically as she levelled one of her vibroblades up to her face.
"It... has... to," Horn said as he tried vainly to stave off the loss of blood with the Force.
And for a moment, in Acheron's mind, the evocation of her previous name did mean something to her. She remembered, in her life as Tahiri Veila, how she had once looked up to Corran Horn, how she had wanted to be his Jedi apprentice... and, for some reason, she even remembered his rhetorical question to her and Anakin Solo, after they kissed over Yag'Duhl, about whether or not they needed a chaperone.
With that reminder of Anakin, her peripheral vision came over Corran, and Acheron saw the boy that Tahiri had once loved standing there, as if he was alive again, and not a Force-ghost.
He didn't need to say anything; the pleading in his eyes said everything she needed to hear.
It was then that Acheron realized that she had reached a point that, should she take it, would seal her fate forever. She had thought she had crossed that line when she killed Alema Rar; even Lord Wyyrlok thought that she was worthy to be consecrated as a Sith with the title of Darth.
If she let Corran live, then maybe, just maybe, there was hope for her. She could be brought back to the light side of the Force; perhaps she could once again be accepted as a Jedi again. She could, perhaps, help the Order stop the darkness that the One Sith plotted to bring about to the galaxy.
And, more importantly, she could maintain a piece of the past that she had lost; Anakin was forever lost to her, and she could never bring him back, even if she could see him as she did now.
But then, the dark side of the Force offered her something she had scarcely felt in her life before: a sense of self-fulfillment; a way to truly vent her frustrations out to the galaxy, to those who would do evil solely for their own benefits and no one else's, in an avenue that the Jedi Order never allowed her to do.
If she chose to stay on the path of the dark side, she would never again be the weakling who, even at her times of strength, would have still been unable to do what needed to be done. Not for the galaxy, but for herself; to cleanse her own soul of the past that had made her so weak.
If she were to truly cut herself free of the pain that tied her so much to the past, she had to embrace the dark side of the Force.
And if she were to return to the light side, she would forever be burdened by the desire for true self-fulfillment that could never be quenched; she did not want to yearn for it anymore.
Without breaking eye contact with Anakin's specter, Acheron said, in response to Corran, "No. No, that name truly means nothing to me anymore."
And so, as she levelled a determined look upon Anakin's spirit, Acheron—not Tahiri—raised the vibroblade in her right hand. Then, as she looked down into the dying eyes of Corran Horn, she cut deep into his throat.
Almost anticlimactically, he was dead within seconds.
Corran Horn, Jedi Master, Rogue Squadron member, loving husband and father, and heir to a Jedi lineage that went back as far as the Clone Wars, was gone from the mortal realm. Just like that, after everything that he had accomplished in all of his years being those things—helping to bring down both the Galactic Empire and the Yuuzhan Vong—he had been killed like a sick dog by a much younger Sith that he had once known as a bright, bubbly child and love-struck teenage girl.
And just like that, Acheron somehow felt freer than ever.
Even the sudden absence of Anakin's ghost felt more like a breaking of chains than an indictment against her.
Mere moments after she killed Corran, she felt the sorrow of his children, Valin and Jysella, wail through the Force from elsewhere in Coronet. And when they sensed her and her open admission to both of them that it was she who killed their father, she relished the feeling that they had: the anger that was only the start of what could be a dual fall to the dark side of the Force.
But as for what she had just done, Acheron felt no more for that than when she had thrown that brick at that Drall woman's head. Oh, sure; she had no doubt invited the wrath of Corran's remaining family, his squadmates, and, of course, the Jedi Order, but that was just fine with her.
Because if she were to die by any of their hands, just as Corran died by hers, then she would die with the state of completion that she had felt. And there would be no way that anyone could take that from her even if they were to take her very life.
Yes, she thought with more clarity than she ever felt in her life before. She truly was Darth Acheron now.
And with that self-admission, she headed back upstairs to escape the safe house the same way she entered it.
. . .
Unbeknownst to Acheron, or to Grendel or Jeckut before they died, everything that had happened in the safe house on Coronet which had been recorded was not limited to the feeds inside it.
Far above in Centerpoint Station, in the office of Corellian Head of State Thrackan Sal-Solo, he looked at the footage of the duel between the three Force-users in private.
When it was done, and the woman known as Leary Trest, whose face had changed to a hideous wrinkled mess, left the house, Sal-Solo sat back with his fingers steepled beneath his face.
His feelings were mixed, to say the least. On the one hand, he was glad to see that race-betraying bastard Corran Horn go down like the filthy alien-lover he was. On the other hand, Sal-Solo couldn't help but feel a little betrayed, if not somewhat violated, in knowing that he was being played for years by a Jedi—or Sith, or whatever they wanted to call themselves—who pretended to be one of his friends. And the fact that Leary Trest—or whatever her real name was—killed Horn still didn't take away from the distrust that he now levelled upon her.
Sal-Solo switched off the feed from the safe house as he plotted what he was going to do with this Sith.
