A chuttering sound came from the speeder as Terri began to park it, it was slightly worrying maybe she should check it out later. Terri had some mechanical skill so maybe she could fix it. Lusari had arrived next to her and began parking, her hair was messy and full of small sticks and leaves, Terri wasn't that surprised with the length of Lusi's hair things were bound to get caught in it. She promptly grabbed her satchel and picked out a hair brush, Terri tried to hold in a smirk as Lusari tried her best to a least tame her hair.
As she finished she spoke up "ok we got everything for the ritual" Terri checked her many small bags and pouches for her adventuring gear and sure enough she was kitted out and totally rad.
"cool adventuring gear check, super good flashlight check, awesome lightsaber check, you?" she did think the adventure was super cool, she had always dreamed of being like the adventurers in the archives of the sith academy, she was very pleased to be doing it in a less evil way.
Lusari began riffling through her satchel "let's see ritual components double check, emergency defences check aaaand one very cool holocron check" Lusari displayed her holocron for a second before returning it to the bag. It was cube shaped with triangular corners, the thing was much bigger than most holocrons she had seen but glowing just as sinisterly with a red hue. Apparently it was stuck that way which made sense considering it's content, still that's what they were here for to right that wrong.
Terri snapped out of her accidental daydream and responded to Lusari "alright let's get to it then" she was trying to be more confident in herself and the mission after the talk with Lusi last night, she was hoping it helped.
Lusari nodded in agreement and they headed towards the temple. From what they knew this temple was buried in the side of a mountain but it's entrance was still out in the open and from their scans the interior was still somewhat intact. As they made their way to the cliff edge they very quickly spotted the overgrown temple entrance sticking prominently out of the rock face it was covered in moss and vines and looked more like a cave than a temple. It looked very dark in there and as they moved closer they could hear echos resonating throughout the temple.
"woah that's freaky" Lusari said seeming a little uneasy
"yeah we should stick close together, stay in my light" Terri turned on her flashlight and Lusari moved in close
"thanks Terr I'll be right next to you the whole way" she took Terri's hand and they began to go into the darkness. Terri was a little scared admittedly but she thought anyone would be, this place was spooky. As they moved further into the temple they could see cobwebs lined most of the walls and a huge amount of dust was caught in the ray of Terri's flashlight, the dust levels were so high they were making the back of Terri's mouth tickle. Every now and again they could see a little bit of rubble crumble off the side of the walls, this place would probably collapse within a few months. Terri could also hear a faint dripping sound echoing through the halls, must be water nearby.
Lusari suddenly spoke up "hey Terr do you know the way to the main chamber" Terri was confused the other one had been pretty clear
"no is it different to the last one" Lusi had looked at the maps and planned out most of this ritual, she was the smart one but Terri was defiantly the cool one after her fight with the commander.
"yeah this place is a Labyrinth but I totally solved it, it wasn't even that well made" Lusi sounded a little mad, Terri knew that Lusi loved solving puzzles and she knew even better how she got mad when she saw a bad puzzle, this defiantly matched that tone.
"do you know the way then? are we lost?" Terri didn't realise they could get lost in this creepy temple otherwise she would've been much more careful
"yeah no I'm fine just checking you knew" good thing too she would've just gone in a straight line forever
As Lusari began to lead they heard a creepy echoed voice chuckle. Immediately Terri's hair all stood on end and she started to tremble, she began to turn around looking for the voice
"u-um Lu-lusi d-did y-you here that" Terri thought about igniting her lightsaber but didn't want to draw attention to herself, it wouldn't exactly be covert
"ye-yeah u-um what was that?" oh no Lusi didn't know what it was that was really bad
"I don't know um is it the Lady?" seemed unlikely but maybe it was a test
they were both looking around anxiously in the space "n-no she ca-can't talk while con-contained" Terri kinda already knew that but she didn't want to believe it was something else
"let's uh let's walk back to back y-you know for safety" Terri would feel better if they covered all their bases
"uh huh sure" Lusari backed up to were Terri was and she passed over the flashlight. They began to walk forwards carefully looking around for the source of the noise, Terri was facing backwards and could see little of were they came from without the flashlight but she swore she could see a small glow of blue coming from the end of the corridor. They continued down a few more passageways until they reached a door, Lusari stopped and Terri accidentally bumped into her back letting out a little surprised shriek.
"sorry, there's a door here I need to concentrate" Terri nodded awkwardly and began surveying the chamber to avoid the embarrassment. She looked around the room for a bit before she found a average size moveable piece in the wall, It seemed too simple to be rubble and it may mean there's a mechanism behind it. She closed her eyes and used the force to move the rock but then she suddenly felt a force knock her to the ground, what was that? it felt like a bunch of pipes maybe it was a mechanism. She reopened her eyes to see a Kaleesh skull starring at her, she cried out as she quickly moved the skeleton of her.
"ah oh my god oh my god oh my goood there's a creepy dead Kaleesh here" Terri's heart was racing, she had never been so frightened in her life but more than that she was confused; Kaleesh weren't exactly native to Yavin IV so this was not random. Not only that but there still looked to be meat on his bones, but this place was abandoned it didn't add up. As she looked up though she did see a lever in the hole so at least her wimpy moment wasn't for nothing. She pulled the lever and as she did she saw that Lusi was still deep in concentration, the door began to lift and she opened her eyes.
"see I just needed a little time" she said with a smile, whaaat this was Terri not her she better not take credit. Terri gestured intensely to the lever "oh… right well um nice job" Lusi seemed a little disappointed but Terri felt it was more important to get out of this horror movie waiting to happen. They continued through the corridors eventually reaching the main chamber where Lusi began unpacking her things on the similar tablet in the chamber.
Terri took a defensive position as Lusari set up the ritual but as they prepared they heard the same echoed voice "hmhuhuhuh two little sith flies falling riiiight into my trap" Terri looked around for the source of the voice igniting her lightsaber for extra intimidation factor.
Lusari looked at Terri concerned but they had a job to do "Lusi get on with the ritual I can hold off whatever this is" she wasn't really sure of that but she had to be brave and trust in their plan "show yourself" Terri shouted into the chamber as Lusari sat down to begin the ritual, she was protected like that Terri wasn't sure how.
As her shout echoed around the chamber a blue etherial form materialised in front of her. It was a Male Togruta with a snarl covering his face, his teeth were like fangs and he was covered in some form bone armour. Terri was immediately scared of him what was this guy? an ancient warrior? a crazed zealot? whatever he was he seemed loco
"well well another fool has entered my abode ohohohohoo I'm going to enjoy skinning you" oh no no thank you no skinning, Terri began moving backwards as he talked, what was she supposed to do he was a ghost she couldn't exactly hurt him. Could he hurt her?
her hands shook as she said "stay back I-I know how to use this thing" she was actually pretty good with a lightsaber and probably could take this guy if he was a real person
But in response the ghostly figure just chuckled spitting as he did "go on then I'm dying to see this" Terri tried a proper stab but it just went straight through him, in response he began to laugh in a booming voice
Terri had to regain the upper hand Lusi was counting on her to stall "yeah but you can't hurt me either right…you ghost" it was true right he could only use the force against her and she was good at blocking that.
"oh but my dear I won't be doing the hurting" he began to whistle and as he did Terri could here a aggressive shuffling sound coming from the other end of the temple "you best be prepared my Varactyl haven't eaten in weeeks" oh god oh god what did Terri do she had no idea how to stop this she was going to ruin everything. She could hear the Varactyl coming closer and closer soon they would be here then what would she do, she had no plan and they were counting on her
Suddenly then she heard a familiar echoed voice but this time in her head "Terri get the ghost close to me" close to her what does that mean? close to the holocron, best option she got right now
She quickly shuffled next to the holocron, how was she going to get him over "oh I see how it is not brave enough to fight me yourself, afraid you'll lose" she could see a little twitch in his face, please say that worked she could hear the varactyls howls very close
he began to step forward "believe me missy nothing would make me happier than flaying the skin off of you myself but" he was getting closer, yes! thank the force, stupid monologuing sith so easy to trick "I'm afraid I'm otherwise impa-" as he was talking his words were almost drained away from him and suddenly his form was being pulled towards the holocron with a chilling energy. Oh my god the Lady is saving her she felt so honoured, she heard a snarling coming from behind her, oh no the varactyl she saw them enter the chamber ready to pounce. She was petrified she had no idea what to do she just closed her eyes and trusted the Lady had a plan.
She could here the togruta screaming as she stood there unable to move "noooo, noooo you will never cage me I will destroy yo-" and then silence Terri could still hear the snarling though, she wasn't brave enough she had really tried but now she had just froze. But then she heard them whimpering and as she opened her eyes they were running away.
"oh oh oh my god my Lady h-how did you do that" that was soooo coool Terri was sure she had messed it up but the Lady totally had a plan
The voice resonated inside her head once again "absorbing of a force ghost is defiantly a crude and dangerous way to achieve power but none the less effective" absorbing? so all his power now the lady's? well at least it was with someone who would use it well
"you absorbed him? like all his power and personality wow you're so powerful" Terri hadn't talked to the Lady much before, that was more Lusi's job but she was still very pleased to talk to her
"yes it's actually not a very hard ritual but given to a naive young force user and it can lead to disastrous consequences for the individual trust me" she sounded so smart, Terri knew that the Lady was quite an old being but her understanding of the force was always so baffling
"Thank you so much for saving me from the Varactyls I know you didn't have to" Terri felt like she should at least thank her, she hoped it wasn't rude
"nonsense Terri you're important to the plan just like Lusari, you'll realise your part eventually" whaaaat she did have a part to play? she thought she was just helping out, why hadn't Lusi told her?
"oh um well thank you" Terri felt very giddy after all this praise
"I must return to the ritual I have been away from it too long, Lusari may be getting doubtful" Terri let her go without another word and sat on the wall excitably replaying the events over in her mind. It was dangerous but also so cool not only fighting the commander but a force ghost, her friends would be so jealous. As she sat the room slowly began to glimmer with light, oh yeah she got to watch the ritual this time awesome. As the glimmers became clear she could see many different language symbols all lighting up with a glowing yellow light, as the ritual continued the glowing formed tendrils which branched together all leading into the holocron. The chamber then returned to the darkness it was once in and the room was silent.
Lusari stepped up and turned around "what did I miss" Terri smiled she was gonna be so jealous…