A/N: Ahh, the force. What a lovely bitch it is.

The world screamed and pulsed, moving like a tide.

Or maybe that was the screaming masses fleeing from the firefight.

The smoke is everywhere, and there's almost as much fire.

The banners of the republic are burning, and I have to focus off of the duel for a few seconds as GnAsbfsHmgER shoves me back with a Force Push, and many of the clones in the area take the opportunity, though they are repaid in-kind from my frenzied reflecting or the pinpoint firing of a large, blotchy shadow near me.

There was so much happening, and I just didn't understand why-

A blaster bolt caught my thigh, and I stumbled, hissing in pain, my next deflect-which should have rebounded GnAsbfsHmgER's lightsaber-falling short.

Which was ironic, because the stumble made it go too high, and I watched, surprised, as the saber-stolen though it may be-was sliced cleanly, the metal falling apart and-

The air exploded from my lungs and I stumbled further, collapsing onto my back, wheezing feebly, feeling the burned hole in my stomach with every futile twitch of my diaphragm.

There are two screams of rage and GnAsbfsHmgER goes flying from a Lhengr Bhangm courtesy of the first voice, limbs glowing as they are cut off by the second voice.

Five shadows fall over me, The closest two taking one of my hands. The three above are indistinct, shaky, and their eyes are white orbs that shift and change every few seconds.

Two are more solid, one with multicolored eyes, the other bearing orbs of an azure blue.

They're saying something to me, all five of them at once, but I can't pay attention through the ringing in my ears.

I use the pain to fuel myself, clearing my hearing as…

As…

Something happens, and it gives me just enough strength to turn away from the first shadow, to meet the flickering eyes of the second.

"Was this...a good...death…

...Father?"


"RED!"

I shot up with a gasp, both hands smacking into my stomach, cupping the hole that is no longer there. I shudder as the (dream? Vision? Nightmare? Hallucination?) flees my system.

"Red, I've been trying to wake you up for a while, are you okay?" Ashoka…

"Yeah, I'm fine. Where are we?"

"I let the ship run its course, I'm not sure where exactly, but we're in a system that...I-I don't know, I'm not familiar with it. Its records are sealed from the onboard computer, but...Something about it strikes me as wrong…" She murmured, helping me stand and gesturing to the viewport.

The world was orangish, dusty in the way rocky planets or ones with high pollution and the handful of desert worlds often are.

Something about it felt familiar. Something...something…

"Something about this place, this Morriband, is off in ways I can't describe."

My head snapped to Ashoka fast enough that I actually did feel a moment of whiplash. She didn't notice, thankfully, her eyes were locked on the surface of the world.

I was tempted, in that moment, to hug the shit out of her from that adorably concerned look on her face.

I was equally tempted to go visit the planet before us, but stopping was a terrible idea with the republic likely tracking our every move based on the best jump coordinators they had.

"Come on, let's get to Ryloth."

"What?" Ashoka asked, her eyes finally leaving the planet. "Why Ryloth?"

"It's where I hid my ship. If we're lucky, which I hope we are, it'll still be there. She's an unwieldy thing, but she's mine. If she hasn't drifted into an unstable orbit, that is..." I murmured the last bit under my breath as I sat down, but not quite quiet enough if Ashoka's unsure hum was anything to go by.

Plugging in the coordinates was easy, I knew them by heart. It was easier to watch Ashoka flip a switch and send us into hyperspace. It was...less easy to sit there, knowing we had a few hours journey to reach the Twi'lek home system, and nothing to talk ab-

"So, where did you get your lightsaber?"

-out...leave it to Ashoka to mix things up.

"I stole it." I winced at the audible sound of her violent twitch, unable to look at her.

"You what?!"

"That's how the Sith work! Red crystals aren't just made you know. It's not a color they naturally come in." I explained, flicking over the ship's console even though there was nothing to actually check.

"And yet, here you are," She drawled, "Using one like it's going out of style." I snorted at that.

"Yeah well, it's not a short story, nor a pleasant one."

"I'm not going anywhere."

"So you aren't…"


It was cold, on Couresant tonight. The air itself was only mild, but the breeze and lack of sunlight left the roof of the Jedi temple radiating cold-


"You were at the Jedi temple? Why didn't you visit?!"

"Well I didn't exactly have it in mind, I was rather focused on the fact that I was murdering a Jedi master."


I had spent weeks on Couresant watching my prey, and had spent almost three months before that studying his behavioral patterns and hobbies, learning from everything my Master could find on him.


"Your master? Can you-"

"No."

"But-"

"No."

"Oh come-"

"No more interruptions, or instead I'll regale you with stories that are much less interesting."

"Oh...fine."

"Now then, where was I...Right! The night it happened…"


I had timed it perfectly, and if all else failed his room was rigged to explode. I waited patiently, feeling his presence enter the room beneath me, felt as he laid down to sleep perhaps earlier than normal.

If all went according to plan, he would never wake again.

I slipped into the room through the window, though it took a bit of effort to get it pulled open. Any use of the force might have alerted another Jedi, so I had to be quick and do this the old fashioned way. It was hair-raising, to move as quietly as I could in a place with thousands of Jedi at any given time, especially after what I had done and was about to do.

Sneaking up to him left me in a state of constant tenseness. I felt ready to bolt at any given moment. I leaned down, and quietly checked where I hoped his pulse would be, and relaxed minutely at the lack of anything, reaching for his lightsaber.

It was then that he woke up, bucking me off and flipping out of his bed.

I drew a Vibro-blade, prepared to end him with it personally when he stumbled and fell.

I was cautious in my approach, but it was clear to see he was struggling to stay alive, so stumbling and faint was his breathing. I grabbed his lightsaber out of his hands, his fingers were large but weak, and I must admit I smiled.

It was too perfect, the poetic irony too great, I couldn't not say it.

"A Jedi Master, so easily defeated. Oh no no, don't get up on my account, please...here, since you can't talk, let's play a game. Suffer in silence if you want me to take the other saber, too."

He couldn't even muster the strength to glare at me, so I took it, and perhaps foolishly, ignited them, stabbing him with both. I turned and lept from the window, landing in a speeder I had prepared and darting away, chuckling to myself as I hit the detonator, destroying his room...and any evidence that his lightsabers were gone.


"Sheesh...you weren't kidding." Ashoka murmured as we dropped out of Hyperspace, quickly taking the controls as I guided her towards the nearby moon.

I didn't tell her what I said just before I stabbed him, and I probably never will.

I sent The Signal and smiled when it came back, having bounced off my ship's hull.

"I don't get it, you said you had a ship, but there's nothing here…" Ashoka murmured, looking around for any sign of a craft.

I cackled like a gremlin.

"Darling, twenty more feet and we'd be a stain on her hull." I set off the right set of signals through my personal transponder and the Twilight's, turning to watch Ashoka's expression eagerly, because it was always fun to mess with people, with my lovely vessel.

Ashoka's face was a perfect, hilarious picture of shock when the cloaking mechanism deactivated, and a Space Station almost as large as a Venator slowly came into view.

"I...I don't...you said it was…"

"A Ship? Technically the only things necessary to classify a spacecraft as a ship are Thrusters, the ability to maneuver, and a hyperdrive, all of which The Nighthold are capable of."

"But...Cloaking device?"

"Experimental, can't run any other ship systems while it's on."

"I...I see. Before we say goodbye...I know that wasn't your first kill, so that Clone, Ko, did you…?"

"He, uh...he watched over me often when I was a youngling, but Sidious had him and my other guards' memories wiped."

"I see. I'm sorry."

It only took ten minutes after that for us to land in the main hanger, me to hug Ashoka and promise her to keep The Nighthold our secret and wave as she flew off to rejoin her master. I meandered up to the main lift, quiet as the grave, yet unable to help the smirk.


"You'll never hurt anyone else ever again...Pong Krell."

A/N: Surprise!