Disclaimer: George Lucas owns Star Wars

A Shift in the Force: Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Death of Darth Carina

AN: There was so much sass last chapter between Obi-Wan and Carina and I lived for it, so here it is, the finale of Darth Carina.

Warning: brief mentions of sex, nothing graphic


Amateur, Carina thought as Obi-Wan went down and she called the lightwhip to her hand, flicking the crimson tendrils to life amidst the screams. The next two blaster bolts sizzled as they collided with the threads.

She glanced down to the fallen Jedi.

He was alive, but in pain, and the grimace on his face sent a pang to her heart; being around Obi-Wan Kenobi was making her soft.

"You're going to have to do better than that," she sneered as the shooter stepped out from where they'd been hiding. "You were a better shot last time…but then you had a few friends with you, didn't you?"

It was an independent hunter that stepped into view and Carina's lips curled in disdain under her helmet. It would be an independent hunter, wouldn't it? Bounty hunters largely despised independent hunters who always thought themselves better than the bounty hunters that did the jobs they were hired to do without much fuss and, if they were very good, no evidence.

The blaster he was holding must've cost a pretty credit.

"Jay?" she murmured softly. "You there?"

"Yes," the droid replied swiftly.

"Track my location, we're going to make a quick getaway."

"You're making a habit of that," Jay-Seven grumbled in her ear and she ignored it.

"You moved at the last second," the hunter defended himself. He was a young Rodian with a superiority that Carina hadn't seen in awhile, clearly he was trying to make a name for himself, but it wasn't going to work out according to plan if Carina had her way.

She smirked. "I really didn't…you're just very bad."

Carina had anticipated the shots before they'd even come, the threads of the lightwhip twisting through the air to intercept the bolts, and with a flick of her wrist, the blaster was in pieces at his feet, and with another it had wrapped a searing tendril around his throat, burning into his skin before she pulled it taut and the head tumbled to the ground shortly followed by the body.

"You didn't need to do that," Obi-Wan grunted as she helped him sit up, clipping the lightwhip to her side once more before dragging him up by the arm.

"You can bitch later, Kenobi," she said decisively, pulling him with her towards the transport as it appeared over them, whipping the wind around them as the ramp extended without the transport even touching the ground.

She practically hoisted him up onto it. It probably would've been easier to leave him behind, a thought that appeared to constantly plague Carina in regards to the rather troublesome Jedi, but unfortunately she was starting to grow fond of him.

The ramp raised after them and the blast doors closed behind them and Carina let him fall back down to the floor with a muffled complaint and a grimace as she called up to the cockpit: "Jay, chart a course for Tython, take the roundabout."

"Charting a course for Tython…despite uncertainties," the droid replied and Carina rolled her eyes before moving to kneel at Obi-Wan's side.

"Tython?" he repeated. "The lost planet? No one's been able to find it in more than a millennia."

"You sound impressed," Carina said wryly as she pulled the robes at his right shoulder to investigate the blaster burn there. The wound was deep and penetrating, almost like a common knife wound and he hissed when her probing fingers came too close to the injury.

"You'll have to do with bacta for now, besides, I was never that great at healing," Carina admitted as she stood to rifle through a drawer in the wall in order to pull a large bacta patch free. She'd learned after her mishap on Kalla VII that it was a good idea to keep some medical supplies on the ship. "Hold still, this is going to sting."

He gritted his teeth together as she pasted the patch over his injury, and he couldn't help but think that it was a very lucky that Anakin had decided to remain on Coruscant.

"And you can't lay around on the floor forever," she added, "the hyperlane can get pretty turbulent."

"Wonderful," Obi-Wan said, groaning as she hoisted him upright, nodding him towards the ladder that led up to the cockpit. It took a bit of maneuvering, but he managed it and she slipped past him into the pilot seat.

"I don't approve of our passenger," the droid mentioned as Obi-Wan sat down, clearly not even caring that said passenger was sitting right there.

"Noted," Carina said shortly, her lips curling as she fit the pilot headset with a speaker close to the mouth at the sight of a green light on the cockpit dashboard. "Who's hailing us?"

"Gratina Renliss."

Carina flicked a button on the dashboard and then on the headset. "Gratina!" she nearly sang. "You are as lovely as ever."

There was an answering laugh that only she could hear. "You can't see me."

"I don't have to." Carina crossed her legs. "You're always lovely." Beauty wasn't something that only a select few people had, and she couldn't deny the truth that Gratina and Jalindas were very pretty.

"A rare compliment from Darth, I'm flattered." Carina could hear her smile. "Haven't seen you around headquarters for awhile."

"I've been busy," Carina said mildly, rubbing a hand over her chest. The marks had healed, but the memory remained. "Assassination attempts, you know how it goes, I needed to lie low for a bit."

"Did they end up in pieces?"

"One of them did," Carina admitted, "the others got lucky. It's probably best if I stick to where I am than come back for a visit."

"Sounds very rational," Gratina agreed.

"Let me know how the new HQ hunt is going," Carina said before she severed the connection and pulled the headset off her head.

"I could push him into the cold vacuum of space while he sleeps," Jay-Seven offered Carina, like they were on the same page.

"I can hear you," Obi-Wan's dry tone uttered behind their seats and Carina smirked.

"I could knock him out and push him into the cold vacuum of space while he's unconscious," Jay-Seven amended and it spurred a laugh from Carina's lips, so alike to Sabé's in sound that he had to force his eyes open briefly to remind himself that it wasn't Sabé sitting there with yellow eyes and hair dyed and half shorn short.

Soon they'd have her back and things could go back to normal.


Obi-Wan was asleep by the time they reached Tython, which Carina didn't really mind, of course Jay-Seven still didn't really approve of that either, but Jay-Seven didn't approve of Obi-Wan at all, so that wasn't new.

Carina walked deep into the temple to the edge of the wall that had separated, the rope she had used to go down the first few times was still locked into place. She took it and swung over the ledge and descended slowly until her boots hit water.

Tython was a great place to hide something, especially since she and Jay-Seven were the only ones that had the coordinates to the planet.

The glowrod at her hip gleamed in the darkness as she went further down, until the water was up to her thighs, which was as far as she had ever gone, and she turned on her heel in the water, holding onto the craggy wall in order to keep from tripping over anything hidden under the water.

Her fingers roved over the jagged texture until she found the loose one that she had carved into months ago. She pried it free in order to reach within to pull what was hiding within free.

She replaced the stone and unwound the cloth that was hiding the eerie red glow of the pyramidal holocron.

Its gleam was full of dark intent and Carina drank it in.

It had taken her a few weeks on Korriban to find it after she'd escaped the Rakatas that had been holding her, but Carina thought it was well worth the effort. The holocron had a wealth of knowledge, a knowledge that others would kill for, particularly other Sith.

And Carina wasn't stupid, she knew there was another one, she could sense it, but who it was, she couldn't yet say.

Better to keep it on Tython where it couldn't be found than to take it with her to Coruscant. It was one artifact the Jedi didn't need to get their hands on.

Her brow wrinkled slightly before she re-wrapped the holocron with the cloth once more, carefully replacing it in the hole and stuffing the stone over the hole.

She couldn't imagine anyone actually coming to look for it on Tython, but she'd rather be safe than sorry.


When Obi-Wan awoke, it was to darkness and he had to twist his head in order to see Carina.

They were in a temple of some sort. He could tell because of how the surrounding area was hollowed out, with the walls bearing etches into the stone. There was a series of lights strung up in order to illuminate the cavern.

Carina was sitting on a crate with her back to him, her armor sitting on the ground next to her, leaving her with just a sleeveless shirt and trousers that showcased a few scars on her lower back, only one that Obi-Wan remembered Sabé having, and arms. The scars on her back looked like electrical burns that had broken the skin. There weren't too many of them, probably because her captors –whenever she'd been captured– had preferred to use the same spots over and over again.

Jay-Seven was cleaning a blaster while she flicked through a datapad.

Obi-Wan looked to his side where Carina had left a bag, his interest piqued by the odd piece he saw glittering on top of the bag. It was a gauntlet of sorts composed of five linked plates, each capped with a red gem encased in gold. It was stunning to look at, but Obi-Wan could sense the dark energy roiling around within it.

It was only when he reached out with interest that Carina's voice rang out: "Don't touch that."

She hadn't even looked up from the datapad to warn him, but she turned around once she'd done so in order to give him a cold stare over her shoulder. "That's a dangerous Sith artifact. It doesn't take kindly to Jedi."

"I've never seen you wear it," Obi-Wan mentioned, thinking maybe it was her too that the gauntlet didn't take to, but Carina snorted.

"I don't wear it, because if I did then I'd have legions of pathetic life forms trying to take it from me," she said, rolling her eyes. "It's an incredibly useful item, but I'm not stupid. Wearing something like that in public is just asking to be killed."

"What is it?" Obi-Wan's curiosity couldn't be silenced and Carina stood, dropping the battered datapad onto the crate as she pushed her shirt down where it had ridden up, hiding her scars from view. Obi-Wan didn't think that the move was because she was self-conscious of the scars, Sabé certainly hadn't been and Carina had never appeared that way either, more likely the chill from the rain against her bare skin was what had bothered her.

"The Gauntlet of Kressh the Younger," Carina said shortly as she walked back towards him, pulling his cloak back, and, rather belatedly, Obi-Wan realized his tunic had been removed. She examined his injury with a sort of mild interest that he couldn't really decipher. "A Sith artifact, obviously."

"Well, of course," Obi-Wan said, his tone dulling with a groan as she pulled the thick bacta patch back to look over the injury.

"Healing isn't my strongest suit," Carina conceded, scrutinizing his wound, "and that blaster bolt went deep. I barely made a dent on the injury."

"I'm sure you did your best," Obi-Wan said and Carina pasted the patch back on, casting an odd look in his direction. "What?"

"You are a very agreeable Jedi for someone who got caught in the crossfire," she said, her lips twitching slightly, "it's refreshing."

Obi-Wan was almost flattered. "You don't know many Jedi."

That caused her to smirk. "Well, the last one I knew was pretty fair in bed, so I couldn't really complain."

Obi-Wan positively gaped and it made her laugh. "Quinlan Vos," she explained, "a Dark Jedi is still a Jedi that hasn't taken the final step to become a Sith."

Obi-Wan didn't even want to think what Aayla was going to say when she found out her best friend had slept with her former master.

"You Jedi are a bunch of blushing virgins, I swear," Carina snorted and he saw a bit of Sabé in the glint in her eye. "Of course, most of you have sticks so far up your asses I doubt a quick lay would do much for you."

"I'm going to ignore you now," he said and she smirked.

She was packed, he noticed, like she'd already made her decision. He watched as she lifted the heavy gauntlet from the top of her bag, slipping it over her arm, the red gems gleaming darkly in the half-light, and he couldn't help but wonder what the gauntlet did.

Then she picked up an image-caster. "Jalindas, I have an offer for you."


"I don't approve of this plan."

"You never approve of my plans," Carina pointed out, casting an annoyed glance towards the droid as they took off, Obi-Wan tucked behind Jay-Seven, grimacing with every movement.

"Because your plans are reckless," Jay-Seven said.

"They're also strategic," Carina fired back, grinning widely.

Jay-Seven's silence was grudging agreement of that fact.

"Don't worry, if the Jedi pull anything you can always activate order ten," Carina pointed out as they shot off into hyperspace.

"Order ten?" Obi-Wan asked warily.

Jay-Seven almost twisted his head completely around to peer his optical lights down on Obi-Wan. "It's the order to kill all Jedi in the immediate vicinity."

His mouth went dry. "Isn't that…a bit drastic?"

"Depends on if they try to kill me when we land," Carina said, uncaring. "They're rather famous for killing my kind."

"Sith."

She arched an eyebrow. "That doesn't mean we're not people too, you know."

Obi-Wan could already tell that it was going to be a losing battle. Sabé's thoughts on the matter had always been rather clear: The Jedi made the Sith and then punished them for it. She weighed the two philosophies against each other and found neither more superior than the other. Before her disappearance she had been leaning more towards the grey side of the Jedi.

"You'll be the death of me," he decided.

She turned to cast a wink in his direction. "If you're lucky," she said slyly.

Jalindas was grateful for the suggestion, and she brought it up to her sister as soon as she'd returned to headquarters. Gratina had been a bit more doubtful. A planet with no hyperlanes to it? What were the chances of that?

Still, it did explain where Darth hid out when she wasn't off on assassinations.

"She says we don't have to use the planet –Tython, she called it–, but it's there if we want to," Jalindas said. "She just wanted us not to damage the temples there, or she'll hunt us down and kill us."

Gratina arched an eyebrow. "Serious or not?"

"Well, she's probably pretty capable of killing both of us and not breaking a sweat…so I'd say, yes."

Darth was such an odd person.


Now this was…interesting.

Darth Sidious' eyes gleamed yellow in the light as his tented fingers hid his smirk as he looked over the holo-recording he'd been sent of the bounty hunter he'd paid to have killed, image of Sabé Amidala, yellow-eyed and furious as she whipped around, her helmet pulled free, a crimson 'saber in her hand.

This was a turn of events he hadn't been expecting. Sabé Amidala, a Sith? And here he'd thought she'd been so ingrained in the Light that she'd never consider turning, despite his elderly apprentice Tyrannus claiming different.

Of course, from what he had garnered from her mind when he'd broken through her mental barriers several years ago, she did have extensive knowledge of the Sith and the Dark Side of the Force –as well as a romantic attraction to Obi-Wan Kenobi, which he didn't care for– so if she had truly turned, it wasn't as though she didn't have the knowledge to become a Sith in the truest sense.

The Jedi, obviously, wanted her under control, or they wouldn't have sent Kenobi and Anakin to intercept her.

He could see Anakin's growth in how he'd attacked and defended himself against her own moves. He doubted that Kenobi realized just how strong he was. Anakin never spoke negatively of his master, of course, not during any of their meetings, but he was sure he could wean him off Kenobi slowly but surely. Kenobi and Shala. Shala was the more troublesome of the two, hardly out of Anakin's company and almost always frowning when she saw him, like she could sense the darkness within him that not even Yoda could guess of. Shala had more sway over Anakin, she was his best friend, after all…perhaps it would be simpler to kill her, kill her and Kenobi, that way Anakin would be ripe for the plucking, their deaths alone enough to turn him.

He'd have to consider his options carefully…


"Are you going to be using me as a human shield?" Obi-Wan asked when he gave his specific code over the comm in order to be allowed to land in the Temple's hangar bay.

Carina snorted. "I don't need to," she said, motioning with the arm wearing the gauntlet. "But carting you around does have some uses."

"I'm flattered," he said dryly.

"Besides, I have a very imposing figure," Jay-Seven said in what he clearly thought was an assuring manor.

"Maybe you should leave the droid behind," Obi-Wan responded, eyeing the security droid with two holsters for thick blasters.

Carina chuckled. "He's there to make sure that your people don't scramble my brain, and kill them if they do."

"That's…extreme."

Carina didn't smile as she grabbed his arm, hooking it around her shoulder, one of her arms holding him up by her grip on his waist. "Keep an eye out, Jay."

"Of course," the droid sounded miffed as the ramp descended and Carina dragged Obi-Wan down with her and he winced in pain.

"I hope you know a good healer, Kenobi," Carina said flatly, "because you're going to need one."

Talik's face sprung to mind. "I do."

They made it out of the Jedi hangar bay without raising concern, which Obi-Wan thought was a minor miracle considering how many Jedi walked past, but as soon as they entered the main ziggurat that was no longer the case.

Carina's yellowed eyes were rather bright and obvious, and one young Knight yelled an alarm and suddenly everyone was rushing around, several lightsabers lighting.

"A bit skittish, aren't they?" she sneered to Obi-Wan.

"Well, you're not very endearing to them," Obi-Wan pointed out with a hiss as his injury pulled.

"I don't really care," Carina said flatly as someone ran to find a member of the High Council and another with a lightsaber rushed forward to her unprotected side.

That was a mistake.

There was a ripple through the air as the red gems in her gauntlet glowed before releasing a powerful burst of dark energy that shot them back and into the wall, crumpling to the ground, motionless.

Carina appeared nonplussed about the attack, but a creaking sound behind them told Obi-Wan that Jay-Seven was not. "I'm looking for Plo Koon," Carina said loudly, her voice echoing in the silence, "and am I going to have to kill you all to find him?"

There was the murmur of someone using a comm and a few others shared looks of surprise.

"You're outnumbered," another Jedi said.

"If that makes you feel better," she said, uncaring. "I get the feeling you're all going to end up dead sooner or later, whether by my hand or another."

She understood now why her master had been so insistent that she remain away from Coruscant, the darkness was almost overwhelming…and none of them appeared to even sense it. How typical.

Several more Jedi appeared and Carina gathered that these were the members of the High Council, they certainly looked like an older bunch of irritatingly stiff bastards.

"I am Plo Koon," one of them said, a Kel Dorian with a rustic tone, "I believe you're looking for me."

"This one," Carina nodded her head towards Obi-Wan where he was still wincing where he stood, "says you can help with my memories. That's your specialty, yes?"

She put a painstaking effort into ignoring the vast number of Jedi around them.

"Yes," Plo Koon said after a rather stilted moment, "I would be happy to."

Carina's brow furrowed. She could tell that he meant that genuinely, which was a bit odd, in Carina's opinion, because she'd never met him before.

"I should warn you," she added, "if any harm comes to me, my droid with kill every Jedi he sees."

Wary eyes flickered over the tall and darkly metallic security droid.

"No harm will come to you, you have my word," he said and something lavender came in from the side that was pressed against Obi-Wan to keep him upright. Yellow eyes shifted towards them and the figure froze.

She was a young Twi'lek that Carina almost mistook for a security of some sort, with the dark jumpsuit and the sleek silver blaster strapped to her thigh, but the twin lightsabers swinging at either hip gave her away.

"I can—" the girl's words faintly choked as she held out her hands to Obi-Wan, "I can take him, I'm a healer."

Carina arched an eyebrow as she looked over the girl, as if to say that she didn't look like much of a healer. She could feel her surprise, her shock, and her dismay all at once and Carina didn't understand any of it.

But she removed Obi-Wan's arm around her shoulder to hold him out to the girl.


"You're in shock, Talik," Obi-Wan said gently when Carina and her ever-present shadow were lead away to a small and private room for meditation.

Her fingers glowed as they hovered over his injury. "I'm fine," she said shortly as Anakin came up on his other side, worry clear on his face.

"Did she shoot you?" he asked in concern, leaning to Talik's side before she pushed him back in order to see the wound area.

The number of Jedi around had largely dispersed, though not completely, per the masters' orders, many with wonders of why the masters were so lenient? Surely a murderer, surely a Sith should've been stopped where they stood, like Darth Maul? Being Yoda's student changed nothing.

Obi-Wan's heart grew heavy at the accusations, his hazel eyes roving over to the opposite side of the hall where Aayla and Kit were talking in low and furious voices.

"No, a bounty hunter shot me," he said calmly, sparing his padawan a smile, "he happened to be aiming at her at the time."

"She was never very good at healing," Talik agreed, still focusing on his injury.

"Talik," Obi-Wan said gently, "I'm fine, I can walk down to the Halls of Healing."

She chewed angrily on the inside of her cheek, her eyes shining. "She's nothing like her, is she?" Talik asked instead.

But Obi-Wan had no answers.


Carina took off the gauntlet as soon as they walked through the door as a peace offering before descending to sit ungracefully on one of the flat meditation chairs while the droid stood rather mulishly at the door.

"So how does this work?" she asked with annoyance. "Meditation? Combined meditation, or whatever the hell you lot are calling it?"

"Yes, actually," Plo Koon said.

It was so hard to equate the woman sitting before him as Sabé Amidala, as the girl he had once assisted in retraining with her prosthetic limb, as the child he had once held in Theed.

"You have doubts," he surmised.

"No offense, but I don't really trust Jedi," she said rolling her yellow eyes in a way that was almost eerie.

"You trust Obi-Wan Kenobi," Plo Koon pointed out and that made her pause.

She could have left him for dead with a substantial wound to his shoulder like he had, another Sith probably would have. Perhaps there was a bit of Sabé that could still be salvageable after all.

"That's different," Carina said.

"How so?"

The corner of one side of her lips twisted faintly. "He's a good man."

That was an interesting statement. He wondered if that was Sabé's words or Carina's, but he mentioned none of that as he sat down opposite her and extended his hand to her.

She eyed it with disdain for a brief moment, but then her eyes slid shut and her brow creased with focus as she breathed in and out easily.

When Plo Koon opened his eyes again behind his goggles, he found himself in a very familiar place, the High Council Tower. It was empty save for one person, a little girl with brown hair, curled up on the floor, shoulders shaking, tears running over her nose.

"Sabé," he breathed and the girl lurched away from him, crouching on the floor, wild and distraught. Plo Koon didn't think he'd ever seen her give quite a response. "Sabé," he repeated gently, kneeling to her level, "I'm here to take you home."

"No, no, no!" Sabé shook her head violently. "They're –they're all dead, they're all—" Her voice broke and the tears ran like rivers down her cheeks.

"Allow yourself to become familiar with your new limitations and expectations," he said the code phrase as gently as he could manage and still be loud enough for her to hear him.

And then they both faded from the depths of her own mind.


Sabé's head felt like it was going to explode, and she clutched at it, sinking her hands into her hair, a scream of anguish and agony parting from her lips.

Something was cracking, something was breaking, and she was far too delirious to be able to tell if it was her or the room around her.

The warmth of hands on her shoulders, a loud voice trying to speak to her, trying to calm her, but Sabé couldn't see or hear them, like her head was underwater.

The voices were no help, all Sabé could see were the corpses and the blaster burns. All she could see was Talik, Aayla, Kit, Taria, and Etain. All she could see was of a tomb instead of a temple, and all she could sense was the Force's unease and warnings.

"Sabé, Sabé! It's okay, it's all right," a voice said, clutching Sabé tightly before something sharp penetrate her neck, injecting something under her skin, and Sabé could feel her senses dulling almost immediately, her body going limp and her world going dark.

AN: I'm not sure if I'll be able to update again before classes start up again, so this might be the last update for awhile.

As always: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!