The 150,000 credits that were used to pay for Opak the Mandalorian's services weren't the only things that Seek Ryontarr had mind-tricked out of that media mogul on Drescus; he had also taken from him a luxurious SoroSuub pleasure yacht which the Gotal and his followers used to take to the Maw as soon as they learned about Centerpoint Station's destruction. And after several days of travel during which they heeded the Force-call of their beloved Queen of the Stars, Ryontarr and his fellow Mind Walkers had finally touched down on the planet to which they were led.

They landed on the sandy shore of one of this nameless world's continents, and upon stepping out of the yacht, they found a jungle ahead of them with the head of a volcano peeking out of the canopy. Silently, Ryontarr and his followers waited patiently and silently for their charge to come to them.

It took a few minutes, but soon, a fair-skinned woman with golden-blonde hair, deep grey eyes, and a shimmering blue gown stepped out from the tree-line; the smile that she wordlessly greeted them with was the most beautiful thing that any member of the small congregation had ever seen, regardless of their species. Yet they continued to wait in anticipation as the woman whom they knew to be their Queen of the Stars gradually closed the distance between them, but not by walking; instead, she seemed to glide across the sand, and with her feet hidden from view by her gown, she may very well have been.

Indeed, they could all see that she was much, much more than what she appeared to be.

Once their Queen stopped a meter from them, she said loudly, "Welcome, my children! Thank you so much for coming and for freeing me from this dreadful prison! And now to give each and every one of you your reward. Please... bow before me."

Without hesitation, they all did.

"Bow your heads."

Again, without hesitation, they all did.

Several seconds of silence passed before a grey tentacle appeared before each of the followers' bowed faces. A momentary lapse of fear overcame all of them, but none of them had time to scream before the head of each tentacle instantly plunged themselves into their mouths.

And just like that, all of the awe, wonder, and even love that Ryontarr and the other Mind Walkers had for their Queen of the Stars turned into pure and simple helpless fear as they either writhed on the ground or flailed several meters in the air as the tentacles lodged themselves into their esophagi and into their intestines. Muffled cries of agony followed as the rubbery appendages began working a great process within them that would, in time, transform them into something much more than what they already were.

And during this process, several of the Mind Walkers, Ryontarr included, took one final look at their Queen of the Stars; and the beautiful woman had become this grey monstrosity with well-like eyes and needle-like teeth that displayed themselves through the hideously wide grin that she levied upon them all.

. . .

After they had seen the recording of Seek Ryontarr securing passage for himself and his fellow Mind Walkers off of Sinkhole Station, Luke led Jacen and Jaina out of the comm room and sent out an impression through the Force to the rest of the Jedi aboard Sinkhole to meet the three of them back in the station's meditation room.

Once all of the Jedi in the task force to defeat Abeloth had gathered there, Luke turned to Jacen and said, "I need you to teach me how to Mind Walk."

The addressed Knight looked back at him in askance. "What do you hope to find?" Although it had been made clear from the start that Luke had brought the Solo twins onto this mission so that they could potentially find some peace with Mara's death, it was obvious to Jacen that that seemed to be the furthest thing from his uncle's mind at the moment.

"UnuThul told me, at the start of the Killiks' occupation of Centerpoint," Luke began, "that there may be something that could kill Abeloth should she ever get free: the Dagger of Mortis. Unfortunately, not much is known about it, or where it could be. Had the Sith's invasion of the Jedi Temple not taken place, I might have spared some Jedi to look for this Dagger. But as it is, I had been hoping that we could kill Abeloth without it."

"So what changed, Master Skywalker?" Kyp Durron asked.

Luke looked at the subordinate Jedi Master before sweeping his view to the rest of the group. "Can none of you feel it?"

"Feel what?" Octa Ramis asked.

"The dark tentacle," Jacen said grimly. "Yes. It's Abeloth. I felt her, back when I had been among the Aing-Tii, and it had become even stronger when I came here."

All of the other Jedi looked at him in confusion.

"Why didn't you say anything about this before, Jacen?" Kyle Katarn inquired.

"Because I didn't quite know what it was, Master Katarn," Jacen replied defensively. "At the time, I thought it had something to do with this place, or with the Maw in general. But now, after what we've been told about this Abeloth..."

"I hate to interrupt," K'Kruhk spoke up, "but I had discovered that this station is set to detonate at an unspecified period of time. From what I've found through that same discovery, apparently, this may have something to do with Centerpoint Station's destruction. So, Master Skywalker, are you sure it is wise to commit to this Mind Walking technique here?"

Luke directed his gaze at the Whiphid. "You said an unspecified period of time, Master K'Kruhk?"

The alien Jedi Master nodded.

"It has been quite some number of days since Centerpoint was destroyed," Luke pointed out evenly. "If this station was set to explode in conjunction with Centerpoint, then I doubt we would be here, Master K'Kruhk."

"It could very well be a mechanical error," Jaina spoke up, much to the consternation of everyone else except for Jacen. "Maybe... I could look into it?" Her tone had turned meek under the suspicious and resentful glares of the other Jedi.

Luke allowed for a very uncomfortable moment of silence to pass before he said, "No. You will be coming with us... Jaina."

She bowed her head obediently; it seemed more pathetic than pious, even to Jacen.

"So tell me about what to do with Mind Walking, Jedi Solo," Luke said to his nephew.

The Knight answered, "It will involve the adoption of a... shall we say perverted version of the Jedi Code, Master Skywalker."

"Perversion?" Luke asked.

Jacen nodded. "Instead of the mantra being, 'There is no death; only the Force,' the Mind Walkers believe that, 'There is no life; only the Force.' If you want to Mind Walk, Master Skywalker, you must put aside all notions of what you believe to be true and accept this new mantra with your whole heart." He shrugged. "At least for the time being."

Despite the objectivity in Jacen's tone, and his Force-presence giving nothing of his thoughts away, Luke couldn't help but wonder if his nephew was doing something similar for himself just in addressing Luke; putting aside all notions of what he believed to be true—that the Grand Master of the Jedi Order was not in the right state of mind to be leading a mission like this—and accepting this dynamic for as long as Abeloth was a threat.

"And how do I... solidify this notion in my mind so that I can accept it with my whole heart?" Luke asked.

"It's quite simple, Master Skywalker," Jacen said. "You just have to count each time. From one to six, you say the Mind Walkers' mantra. And by seven, you will have entered the realm beyond shadows."

"How long will this take, Jedi Solo?"

"For as long as it takes for you to accept this mantra, Master Skywalker."

"Is there anything else I must know about Mind Walking?"

"Only that time beyond shadows does not quite align with that of physical reality. You may feel as if years will have been lived when it may only be mere moments here. In any case, Mind Walkers have died staying in this realm for too long simply from either dehydration or starvation."

"Well," Octa spoke up with a wince, "that certainly explains the smells around here. I'm surprised they bothered to get rid of the bodies."

Jacen's lips thinned. "Actually... I got rid of some of the bodies before I left."

Everyone else looked at him curiously now.

"I thought it would be a courtesy," Jacen explained, "both for those who died and those who were trying to die. I convinced Seek Ryontarr that it might do something to help the other Mind Walkers transition much more peacefully into the Force if there wasn't the stench of dead bodies or even waste to stifle their progress. Whether or not it's true, I'm glad to see he took up on my advice to put in some janitorial efforts."

"Well, I guess it's better than nothing," Octa conceded.

"And it's good that we know this now," Luke said, "because I want the rest of you to stay behind in this realm and wait for us to emerge. Should any emergency occur, you will be in the best position to snap us out of the Mind Walking."

"Not really," Jacen interjected. "We would have to come out of it on our own volition. Though I suppose our bodies could be carried out should the need be called for; it won't disturb our time beyond shadows."

Luke nodded. "Very well." He sat himself on the deck beneath him and said, "Then let's begin."

. . .

In the prison cell in which Kam had been placed, Ben watched with an odd dispassion as the Jedi Master—who had been secured via extended stuncuffs to the ceiling above—twitched and spasmed in pain every now and then. Sweat beaded Kam's forehead and stained his clothes, and occasionally, a grunt issued from his lips as he was enveloped in whatever hellish torment that the Sith had subjected him to via the drugs they had injected into his system just half an hour before.

Ben almost didn't hear the door to the cell open up behind him, but when he did, he saw Grand Lord Vol standing there with a curious look on his face and in his Force-presence.

"Why are you here, young Skywalker?" the old man asked.

"I wanted to see, Lord Vol," Ben muttered. "I wanted to see what the Sith were doing to Master Solusar."

Vol shook his head. "He is not your Master anymore, Ben. None of the Jedi are." He stepped into the cell proper just as Kam gave out a brief shriek of pain; Ben looked back at the Jedi still writhing against the wall as Vol sidled up next to the boy and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Does this look like a strong man to you, Ben?" Vol asked. "If he were truly strong, he wouldn't be in this position right now. No Sith would. But the Jedi? Of course one of their own would be in a state like this." The Grand Lord bent down to look the boy in the eyes. "We torment him, Ben, because he is too weak to embrace the dark side of his own volition. Only once he does, like you do now, will he ever be in the position to be a Master of anyone. But when one is unable to master even his own destiny, well..." He trailed off as he waved a hand at Kam's tortured form.

"I understand that," Ben said as he returned his gaze to the drugged Jedi. "I felt that same helplessness on the Errant Venture, in the Home, and on Ziost. I never want to feel any of that again."

"Of course you don't," Vol said as he rubbed Ben's shoulder comfortingly. "Of course you don't. So don't you forget that we're here to make sure that you don't end up like Master Solusar there." The sarcasm in his tone when he said "Master" was palpable even for a nine-year-old who hadn't gone through what Ben experienced could have gathered.

"I will not forget." Ben repeated that sentence as he looked back at Vol.

The Grand Lord nodded with a happy smile on his face before he gently guided Ben out of the cell by his shoulder.

"Ben!" Kam cried.

Both the boy and the Sith next to him stopped in their tracks before the Jedi screamed, "Don't! Please! You're! Not! Them!" The pain that he was trying to fight through was all too clear in his stilted yet loud speech.

Vol said nothing as he ushered Ben a little more harshly than he intended out of the cell.

"Wait," Ben said just before Vol could have shut the door.

The Grand Lord looked down at him in askance; Ben saw a flash of anger come over his face before his expression settled back to mere questioning.

"I want to say something to him, Lord Vol," Ben said. "May I?"

Vol raised his head so that he was looking down his nose at the boy. "Only if I am allowed to see and hear." It was clear from his tone that he wouldn't give Ben any other option.

"Thank you," Ben replied without hesitation. He stepped back into the cell and went right up to Kam.

"Master Solusar," he said loudly so that Vol could hear even from just outside the cell, "you had failed me. You, Tionne, my dad, you all failed me. I never want to come back to the Jedi Order. My place is here, among the Sith. I am one of them. I am free. And you aren't."

Ben turned back and walked out of the cell; Vol smirked at Kam just before the door slid shut.

. . .

The ships belonging to the three surviving Djalnises and the Killiks—and one Joiner—who captured them and made them agree to go on this mission to kill this Abeloth dropped out of hyperspace and entered an unnamed system in the Maw where, dead ahead, was a nameless jungle world.

Over the comm frequency in which the Djalnises shared, Kolsk retorted to his cousins, "Have I told either of you how much of a bad idea this is?"

"Only the last fifty times you brought it up between each of these dropouts," Mayji countered as she referred to the frequent hyperspace stops that were needed to navigate the Maw.

"Cut it out, the both of you," Sayji interjected. "Our clients are trying to get our attention on the other line."

"And by clients, you mean captors and killers of our kin?" Kolsk muttered accusingly.

Sayji didn't want to go through this again; while Mayji had been quiet on her sister's decision in agreeing to go on this crazy journey with these Killiks, Kolsk couldn't help but bring up the fact that what they were doing went against their family-based values of not working with an enemy, especially not one that had killed members of their bloodline. But as Sayji brought up the first three or four times, Opak and the others died on Centerpoint in the heat of combat while carrying out a mission; they knew what they were getting into just like she, Mayji, and Kolsk did. And it wasn't as if the Killiks were the aggressors in that situation; besides, the bugs were paying them good money, and who were they as Mandalorians to turn down that kind of currency?

So instead of responding to her cousin, Sayji switched to the other frequency. "So this is it, huh?"

"It is," ThurVahk's voice replied grimly. "And if we have any chance of stopping Abeloth, we will have to commence an orbital bombardment."

"Orbital bombardment?!" Kolsk asked incredulously. "Do we look like we're on Star Destroyers?"

"It will take a significant amount of time, yes," ThurVahk acknowledged evenly, "but with what is at stake, we must-"

"Wait," Sayji cut in. "I'm picking something up. It's coming from the surface of the planet."

"Abeloth," ThurVahk said with a great deal of fear. "She's found a way from her prison! We must destroy her at once!"

"Fine by me," Kolsk said irritably. "Sooner we're done with this, the better."

The Mando and Killik ships zoomed forward toward the planet, taking care not to cross the event horizons of any of the nearby black holes in this system, before they came across the SoroSuub yacht that breached the atmosphere. Without preamble or even an attempt to open up communications, the arriving ships opened fire on the yacht. It was peppered with an innumerable set of projectiles that overwhelmed its relatively meager shields and blew up in less than half a minute.

But from the explosion, a set of thirteen beings seemed to have launched from it and soared toward several of the ships, with three of them headed towards the Mando ones.

For Sayji, the appearance of a sandy-blonde human woman impacted upon her viewport. The Mando looked at the woman in both horror and confusion, wondering how this person could possibly survive in the vacuum of space.

Then Sayji's horror rocketed to unfathomable heights as the woman on the other side of the viewport had her eyes turned into deep dark wells and her teeth transformed into sharp razors. One of her arms then became a long, grey tentacle that punched through the viewport, wrapped itself around Sayji's neck, and slithered up into her helmet.

The Mando, like her sister and cousin, soon had her mouth invaded by the tip of that tentacle, and it wasn't long before she, too, became another unit of Abeloth's existence.