Twilight and Dawn
Now Kart finally realised, to his horror, that T'nghal, though the body of his host had been damaged, was still very much alive, and had now taken on an even more powerful form.
It appeared that the Ancient One's vast knowledge had allowed him to unlock a dreadful power that even Zeratul himself was only dimly aware of.
And now as Kart stared up at the blue burning effigy hovering, in all its apocalyptic glory, before him, he realised that he himself knew pitiably little about the powers wielded by the possessed Protoss warrior, much less how to defeat this being.
Yet he had to do something. No matter how terrible the odds were against him, it was important that he destroy the Twilight Archon, else Zeratul would not have pleaded with him to end the Grey Templar's life, as the latter was about to transform.
He held his psi-sabre close to his waist with both hands and pointed it forward at his opponent, focusing what psionic energies he could call upon into its tip. Leaning forward, he high-kneeled, then in a burst of energy, he leapt at the Twilight Archon, as a wolf pounces at a bull, thrusting his weapon forward as the distance between them closed in the blink of an eye.
As the tip of the psi-sabre was a foot from the Archon's chest, there was a blinding flash of light, like that of metal being welded onto metal, and Kart felt himself suddenly knocking into an invisible wall which scalded him and jarred his head.
His impetus lost, Kart collapsed at the Archon's feet, shaking from the shock of the impact.
"That weapon of yours would have penetrated a normal plasma shield, but the psionic prowess of an archon is several times that of a living protoss. I see Zeratul has not told you that." T'nghal said coldly.
Not relenting, Kart flung his psi-sabre up in an attempt to slash at the Archon's waist, only to be stopped by the force of a boulder bearing down on his weapon arm as T'nghal caught the naked burning blade of the psi-sabre in his bare right claw.
The Archon wrenched the weapon effortlessly from the young Jedi's hands, and threw it away while swinging its left claw down at an astonished Kart, who withdrew his legs and rolled back several metres.
Then he stood and stared back, panting, and his body aching all over, at T'nghal. Long thin electrical sparks now danced randomly within the latter's blue fire cloud.
Instinctively, Kart reached out to his psi-sabre through the force, and telekinetically pulled it back into his hands, just as the Archon pointed a clawed finger at him, and a bolt of lightning burst forth from the claw tip to strike at Kart, who attempted to block it with his psi-sabre as he had seen his Master block Sith Lightning with the latter's own light sabre.
Yet this was unlike force lightning, nor laser blasts. It did not merely prick him with sensations of pain, or jolt him backwards. It felt like unseen hands were striking him profusely and savagely with sledgehammers, and he was holding the blows off with nothing but a metal rod. The strain and intense ringing wore him down quickly and he struggled to maintain his footing and keep his mind intact.
Concentrating on the tip of his blade, Kart drew in the Archon's lightning, then spun swiftly to the left, deflecting T'nghal's attack to the ground.
Where the psionic shockwave struck, the floor exploded like the surface of a dark pond through which a large rock had fallen, sending a hail of broken black marble, red glass, and sparks in all directions. The force threw Kart back until he landed near to his unconscious sister, amidst a shower of stone and glass.
Kart picked himself up and stepped in front of Gaya, pointing his psi-blade forward in a battle ready posture. In actual fact he was quite spent. Another blast from the psionic shockwave, and that would be the end of him.
The Archon, unimpressed by Kart's ability to resist a terrible assault that, to it, was nothing more than a flick of a finger, pointed his whole palm forward, and the latter began to glow more intensely.
Barely noticeable to T'nghal or Kart, the debris around the latter shifted, as if blown by a silent breeze, and were lifted into the air, hovering around the young Jedi, swirling, jumping, clumping.
Accompanied by a deafening clap of thunder, a thick bolt of lightning shot forth from T'nghal's open palm towards the hapless Jedi.
Immediately, and seemingly out of nowhere, black stones fell in before Kart and melted themselves together, coalescing into a two metre high ramp, two metre thick at the base, which sloped up in Kart's direction, and down towards the sides.
The monstrous bolt of lightning struck the compressed barrier right in the middle, blowing a metre wide hole on top of it, and creating an even more violent hail of black rock.
Without hesitation, Kart bent down over the limp form of his sister both to protect her and himself. He felt bone breaking, skin tearing pain as the broken, smouldering rocks fell upon and scalded his back.
And then there was silence, and he realised that he was still alive. He looked up at the hole in the barrier, through it at the figure of the Twilight Archon beyond, who was now slowly walking towards them, and then back down at Gaya's expressionless face, and he whispered, "thank you..."
With renewed energy, Kart leapt onto the ramp, standing in the hole and confronted the Twilight Archon, who now stood a metre from the base of the ramp.
Then without warning, Kart charged down to his left and swung his psi-sabre out to his right.
T'nghal turned and laughed as his plasma shield blocked the young Jedi's vigorous but futile blows.
-
As T'nghal's control over Zeratul's body grew more complete, the Grey Templar found himself shut out from his own physical senses, and was surrounded by darkness, silence and numbness. He sank in despair.
Not over yet.
Zeratul recognised that voice. "Enri !" He cried out mentally
Why do you despair ?
"T'nghal has taken over my body !" Zeratul exclaimed. "Now Kart is fighting desperately to bring down an enemy many times more powerful than he is."
So why don't you help him ?
"I am no longer in control of my own arms and legs. I am helpless. I know you are an Ancient One too. Please stop T'nghal !"
You ... will stop him.
"I ... don't understand."
You are more than your physical form, Zeratul. The real you is more than that.
This rang a bell in Zeratul's mind, but for the moment he could not recall why.
As far as an ordinary Protoss is concerned, you have died...
Silence as Zeratul processed the implications of that.
But here you are aware of yourself and my presence. Do not limit yourself with such terms as 'body', 'arms' and 'legs'. T'nghal has possessed your body, but he has not possessed your mind. With your mind, you will save Kart and his sister.
"How ?"
Focus your attention on him, and you will reach him ...
-
Kart leapt aside to dodge another psionic shockwave that struck the floor where he stood a second ago, and raised his weapon arm to protect himself from the inevitable shower of broken rocks.
Exhausted, he forced himself to stand, and walk away. He had to keep moving. A counterattack against the mighty Twilight Archon was not an option.
"You are surprisingly strong for one of your age, Jedi, but here it ends !"
Kart spun and brought his psi-sabre up just in time to block the downward swipe of a large white four clawed hand.
It was not much of a block. Kart dropped to high kneel, then was forced to sit as the weight of a hill was brought down upon him and threatened to crush him to the ground. He stared up in terror at the cold blue glow of the Twilight Archon's eyes. The latter met his gaze, and time seemed to stand still.
Fear not. The Twilight Archon will be destroyed.
"Zeratul ?" Kart gasped. Of course it was Zeratul. The Protoss warrior had tried to communicate telepathically with him before. It was a feeling familiar to him.
For all its might, the Archons are psionic entities. Their will is their power. Defeat their will !
"But how ? I am but a Jedi and Dark Templar novice !" Kart pointed out.
You are who you make yourself to be.Noone, not Farid, nor I, will define what you are. So do not falter. Make the enemy falter instead, and it will be destroyed !
"But that shield is invincible !" Kart exclaimed.
Not all is what it seems ...
At once, Kart's mind was flooded with various images and sounds. A sudden, rapidly changing vision, and then just as it came, it was gone, and his mind was left clearer than ever. There was no thought other than the thought of finishing what he had to do.
With all his might, he parried the Archon's claw aside and jumped away as it clamped down into empty space. It made deep cuts along Kart's weapon arm, but he ignored the pain and stood up to face his enemy again.
"I shall obliterate you !" T'nghal bellowed. He pointed a hand in Kart's direction and blasted the latter with a bolt of intense psionic lightning, putting a significant portion of his psionic energy behind the attack.
For a second, the entire hall was illumined by a flash of white light and rocked by ear-splitting thunder. Where the lightning struck, a cloud of black and red dust spread out and mushroomed up to the ceiling.
When the dust cloud thinned and settled, it revealed a three metre wide, one metre deep crater. This section of the floor had not just been blown to pieces. It had been vapourised.
T'nghal trodded through the cloud of falling dust and debris towards the crater, then froze as he caught sight of the silhouette of a young Jedi lying within it. The latter convulsed as if seen through the rippling surface of water, then broke up and vanished.
A hallucination.
Before he realised what was happening, the ground beneath him cracked and the area right below his feet sank down while jagged black rocks rose up around him like megalithic pillars and clamped themselves around him.
His plasma shield sparked and hissed as it held off the weight of the sharp boulders pressing down at him.
"Not all is what it seems." The voice of a boy.
T'nghal looked up just in time to see one three metre wide piece of rock with a smooth black base, evidently ripped from the ceiling right above him, smash into the top of his plasma shield.
A flash of white light, like ten steel beams being welded together, and all the boulders around the Twilight Archon fell in, as its shield gradually gave way.
And then its eyes widened in shock as a four metre long psi-blade shot out from somewhere behind him and sliced diagonally through its left shoulder, chest and out the right side of its waist.
"Gotcha !" an exclamation, followed by a few exhausted gasps.
The Twilight Archon's body convulsed, and the blue fire around it thickened, until its body was once again engulfed in a sphere of churning blue flames.
-
Zeratul felt his consciousness expand as it reached out beyond his body to touch everything around it. It crept along the marble floor and felt its smooth texture. It leapt through the air and embraced every dust particle drifting through it. It was aware of anything from the architecture of the hall down to the position of a particular molecule.
And as it spread over his surroundings like an invisible tide, everything it touched seemed to melt into one single fluid substance, until all around him there was nothing but endless black sea.
And he was but a wave on the surface of this infinite ocean, one with all, but still existing as a separate entity in form. And all forms were but manifestations of the one substance.
It was a wondrous feeling, to be merged into everything, realising that he existed as more than what his physical being represented.
And presently, he perceived two taller waves moving beside him, and as all three of them were one, as all things were one, he knew at once who they were.
"O Ancient Ones..."
The one closer to him replied.
Do not bother with epithets.Here you are not First Born, I am not Xel'Naga. We are but thoughts within the Universal Mind.
"Is this what Khas meant ? To see beyond the illusion of material reality ?"
Material or immaterial, all are real. All are one. This principle, even your Sage does not understand clearly, that's why he handed you over to me.
"But he taught the Judicators."
It is one thing to theorise about the Truth, it is another to experience it for oneself. The unenlightened will perceive the true Seer as mad.
"Aldaris saw the Truth towards the end of his life."
He saw, but he was equally confused. So long as we only identify with our physical selves, we are limited. We identified ourselves as Xel'Naga, exalted above all conscious beings, and so we were obsessed with perfection, not realising that there is no such thing as perfect or imperfect species, because all is one. You identified yourselves as Dark Templar, Templar, Judicator orKhalai, and so you viewed the other factions with distrust, not realising that you are all the same.
"The Force, the Khala, the Void ... they all lead to the same thing."
Yes, you are not just one with your brethren, or one with all life. You are one with everything. You are a wave on the ocean of being. You are the water that makes up that wave. You are the energy that causes the wave to arise out of or sink back into the surface of the ocean.
"Thank you. Let us dive below the surface and merge further with our source."
No, you are not ready to go deeper yet. You still have attachments to the physical world.
"I have." Zeratul sighed as the water around him stilled and crystallized into solid objects, or flowed back into him as his consciousness shrank down again.
Go save your brethren.
His senses returned to him, and he felt the cracked marble floor beneath his feet.
He heard a familiar voice call out to him. "Zeratul ?"
Zeratul waited for his vision to resolve itself, and saw Kart, in tattered robes, the right side of which was soaked in blood, standing right in front of him, staring at him curiously.
"Kart ?"
Kart's face lit up, "Zeratul, you are back !"
Zeratul looked around him, and jerked his head in disbelief. The floor, and the walls was covered in craters of various sizes. Some of them sparked and steamed as their creation had resulted in torn electric cables and broken lighting. Large chunks of marble had been torn up from the floor and ceiling and heaped up in the corners. The ceiling was especially covered in precarious cracks, and as he stared, pieces of it fell off and hurtled towards the ground below. He leapt aside as one boulder shattered to pieces where he stood.
"You will explain yourselves before you go !"
Zeratul spun round and stared ahead at the source of the voice. It was Darth Sidious, approaching him from the far corner of the hall where he had collapsed unconscious as the spirit of T'nghal left his body.
Beside him walked Darth Maul, who glared angrily at Zeratul with murderous yellow eyes. "That was a dirty trick you tried on me, renegade Sith ! but the true Sith are not so easily put down !" Darth Maul advanced menacingly, and reached out an open palm, into which flew his lightsabre, which he switched on and pointed at Zeratul. "I shall kill you for that !"
"The bad guys just keep popping up, don't they ?" Kart stood beside Zeratul and raised his psi-sabre, now shortened to its normal length as he was no longer fighting desperately against a powerful adversary.
Zeratul put a hand on Kart's shoulder. "No."
"I can take him." Kart assured. "I am much stronger now."
"Yes, I know you are." Zeratul nodded. "but we don't have time."
Zeratul pulled Kart back just as another boulder smashed into the ground right in front of him.
"Holy Mother of the Force and the Void !" Kart exclaimed. "This place is coming down ! I need to get my sister." With that he turned and ran off to where Gaya lay.
"Ah, I remember." Darth Sidious chuckled and clapped his hands. "I remember !" He shook with hysterical, blood curdling laughter.
"Master, are you alright ?" Darth Maul asked, not out of genuine concern, but out of fear that the elder Sith might do something dangerous.
"So it has come to this ..." Darth Sidious shook his head. "To think, I believed I was in control of my own schemes."
The greater Sith Lord stared ahead at Zeratul with his piercing yellow eyes. "You !" he pointed a hand forward. "You engineered this !"
"Things are not as they seem, Sith Lord." Zeratul crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow, amused at the Sith Lord's mad ramblings. The latter seemed to have mistaken the Grey Templar for T'nghal. Oh well, it would be interesting to play along. "And you call yourself Dark Lord of the Sith ? You are nothing but an old senile fool."
At this, Sidious's eyes widened so much that his gold irises seemed to glow. His skin was beyond pale and he trembled with rage. "You will pay for your insolence, creature." He held out his upraised hand in Zeratul and prepared to unleash, what the latter guessed was a 'high level' Sith Lightning. "Feel the wrath of the Sith !"
One psionicstorm, and he will shut up. Zeratul called forth his psionic energies and directed them at the Sith Lord.
Nothing happened. Really, nothing happened. There was no psionic storm, and no Sith lightning either.
Darth Sidious stood perfectly still, like a statue. His arms did not wobble. His eyes stared ahead, unblinking. It almost seemed like the very air around him had been frozen solid as well.
And indeed it was. A brick size piece of marble dropped down and bounced off an invisible wall near the Sith Lord's head, and still the latter did not move. There was no spark or sizzle as there would be if the stone had hit a plasma shield. It just appeared to roll down an invisible solid surface onto the floor below.
Zeratul froze as well, in astonishment. If he had jaws they might have hung all the way to his chest.
Darth Maul looked at the immobile figure of his Master, and then stared back at Zeratul. "What have you done to him ?"
Zeratul took a moment to analyze the situation, then remembered that he was supposed to be playing the role of an evil Xel'Naga spirit. "You are unable to figure it out ? You are a fool too !"
Darth Maul roared, raised his light sabre and leapt up, somersaulting through the air towards Zeratul, weapon held out ready to slice the Grey Templar to pieces.
Immediately, Zeratul called upon focused his psionic energies at the charging Sith Lord, then leapt back himself in utter bewilderment. "By the gods, what is going on ?"
Darth Maul had been frozen still,
in mid air.
His robes had ceased their flapping. The falling stones and dust around him stopped drifting and tumbling about, and instead hung suspended perfectly still in their current position.
It appeared like what the Terrans would call a freeze frame. Only, this time it was not a captured image. The object itself had ceased all motion.
A perfect stasis.
"Come on, Zeratul, let's go !"
Zeratul turned to see Kart carrying Gaya in his arms and heading towards the exit of the hall.
"Yes, let us make haste." Dodging falling rocks and portholes, Zeratul swiftly caught up with Kart.
As they stepped out of the hall, Zeratul suddenly felt a sharp unbearable pain shoot through this chest. He fell to his knees and took quick shallow breaths. He looked down and saw blue mist gushing out from a large gash in his chest. Yes, the stab wound. Now he remembered.
"Zeratul !" Kart put Gaya down on the floor and rushed to Zeratul's side.
"Go without me." Zeratul muttered. "This body of mine has expired. I have to discard it now."
"No ... no ! Don't say that ! You are going to make it !" Kart was about to bend down to help Zeratul up, but the latter waved a hand at him.
"I have told you, this is a threshold I have to cross." Zeratul's face settled in a calm expression. "I ... die free."
Kart watched on helplessly, then in amazement, as the blue flames turned green, and belched out of Zeratul's wound in massive torrents, engulfing the Grey Templar, Kart, and Gaya behind him ...
-
Master Yoda …
"Hmm… you …"
Time and space mean nothing …
"Right you are…"
It can be bent …
"Be bent it can …"
It can be traversed ….
"Be crossed it can …"
You are my anchor …
Jedi Master Yoda abruptly opened his eyes and felt for the presence that had called out for him.
As if in response, it seemed to shift right in front of him from somewhere far, far away, at the speed of thought.
Yet no one had entered the room. Not even Mace Windu. Yoda preferred to meditate alone, and his colleagues knew that.
Before him there was only the floor. And on the middle of this floor, something sparkled a lime green. It soon grew into a green flame, which blew up until it almost filled the whole room, like a pile of copper was being burnt in its middle.
Yoda held up a hand to shield his eyes from the green glare. As he did so, the fire began to shrink and swirl, like it was being vacuumed back into the middle of the room . Solid shadows condensed within it.
Where there was only bare marble floor, the withdrawing flames revealed a young human woman in black robes. She had red hair and her face was tattooed. She lay unconscious on the floor.
And then, behind her, stood a young man in brown robes, also with red hair, holding a light sabre with an unusual looking blade, and staring into the receding fire.