That morning, the four Jedi along with Rex, Cody, Boil, and Waxer made ready to go through the tunnels of the mountain. They had volunteered to go and find Hunter and to put an end to this 'Kong-Ju' creature. Admiral Jung and Admiral Yularen came to see them off.
"Sir, are you sure you want to go in there?" said Yularen.
"Yes. We have a missing trooper and we don't leave any man behind," said Obi-Wan.
"I advise caution for you all. Kong-Ju is not something that's going to be easily killed. It is fast and deadly, and increasingly not something you want to run into. I would stay in a group of you were to have any chance of killing it," said Jung.
"Thank you Admiral. We'll be back by nightfall," said Anakin. They headed to the entrance of the tunnel, ready to embark on their quest. The tunnel was giving off an eerie silence, as if waiting for them to step in. Around the entrance were runes written in the Elementian language.
"What do they say?" said Rex.
"Go back. This is the mountain of death. Heed traveler, for you are warned. Death awaits in the many-legged form. Turn back," said Taran.
"Sir, are we going in?" said Cody. It took a minute for Obi-Wan to think about it, looking on into the darkness.
"Yes, forward," he finally said. They headed into the tunnel in single file order, Obi-Wan leading in the front, followed by Anakin, Rex, Waxer, Taran, Ahsoka, and Boil. The last thing Jung and Wullfe saw was the white armor of the clone troopers being swallowed up by the darkness of the cave.
The group traveled through the cave, looking around for signs of anything out of the ordinary. Their lightsabers were on and so were the flashlights on the clone helmets. For some reason, the only sound was of their footsteps and the occasional wind.
"Can you spot or see anything boys," said Anakin.
"No sir, nothing in here, and no life readings either," said Rex. They turned around a corner and saw what looked like a massive web. The tunnel was ten feet tall, and this was web hung around it like a silk wrapping. Experimentally, Obi-Wan touched it. It stuck to his hand and wouldn't let him go until it took a combined effort from everyone to pull it off.
"This thing is really sticky," said Obi-Wan. Taran used his lightsaber to cut a hole in the web big enough for all of them to fit in. They all stepped through it, careful not to let the waving strands of the web touch any part of them or their clothing. They continued on, fearful of what could have made a web that big. Whatever it was, it was probably huge.
Pressing on through the darkness they decided to rest for a minute since they had been walking through the catacombs for an hour, or at least it felt like an hour.
"We'll keep going in about five minutes. Get some rest," said Obi-Wan. Everyone sat on the ground or on the wall to relax. Ahsoka sat next to Taran.
"Hey, you okay?" said Taran.
"Yes. Are you?" she asked.
"Yes. This place is giving me the creeps," said Taran.
"Don't worry. The sooner we find Hunter, the better," said Ahsoka.
"If we find him," said Taran. "These tunnels look like they go on forever. We might get lost in here ourselves."
"Taran, are you afraid of this thing?" said Ahsoka.
"Yes entirely. Ever since I was ten I've been arachnophobic," said Taran.
"Taran, you have to let your fears go," said Ahsoka.
"I tried, but everytime I always see those orange eyes glowing back at me. If you were in my position that day you would be having the same fear too," said Taran.
"I was sitting right next to you," she said.
"But it wasn't trying to get you," said Taran. His hand brushed on something that didn't feel like rock. On the contrary, it felt like metal. He looked over and used his lightsaber to shed some light. He was completely dumbfounded when he saw the head of a battle droid unit. He picked it up and examined it. Something like claw marks had scraped at it's head and it looked like it had been chewed on.
"Master, I found something," said Taran. Obi-Wan came near him and looked at the head in his hands.
"Maybe it had something we can look at," he said. Taran placed the head down and opened the rear panel.
"Rex, do you have any wires?" said Taran.
"Here kid," said Rex, handing him the wires. Taran hooked them up to the back of the panel and used his monitor to hack into the system. Once he was in the system he went to the recordings and clicked on the last video. The recording showed everyone the droid's last few seconds.
"Oh my god, don't..ahh!" yelled the droid in the recording. The last thing on it was an image of razor-sharp teeth in rows and a green tongue. Looking through the last recordings, that was all they got.
"That things has some really, big, teeth," said Waxer.
"Let's keep moving. The longer we stay in one place the more likely it can get to us," said Anakin. They all put away their gear and headed down the tunnel, leaving the droid head right where it was. A minute after they had went down the tunnel, a large, hairy leg stepped on the droid head and screamed.
They had been searching for two hours now. Still there was no sign of Hunter, or the creature. They didn't know which way to go. Every tunnel looked the same.
"This is taking too long?" said Cody. "We need to find him now."
"We can't find anything in here. There's nothing else in here so far," said Ahsoka. They had been walking for a long time now, and they wanted to take another respite. But Obi-Wan insisted on them trying to find hunter, and they didn't want to lose hope just because they were tired.
"If this thing is huge, then how come it hasn't shown itself yet?" said Rex.
"Maybe it doesn't want us to know that it's here," said Anakin.
"God this ground is killing me," said Boil.
"And this tunnel is so stuffy. I can barely breath," said Waxer. As they traveled down another tunnel, an unusually large entrance to another one opened to their left.
"Should we go down it?" said Taran.
"Maybe. What do you all think?" said Obi-Wan. Everyone nodded their heads. Taran took a step cautiously in there, but then slipped and tumbled into the dark recess of the tunnel.
"Taran!" yelled Anakin, Ahsoka, and Obi-Wan. They followed in. Taran continued to tumble down until he landed on something soft, yet hard. He looked around to see cobwebs all around the place, and that he was all alone in what looked like a cavern. The All around he saw things that looked like they had been wrapped up and left their. Taran put his hand down to get up and froze when he felt what felt like bone. He looked down to see an old, little corpse of a girl, old flesh still clinging onto the skull. It was grinning horribly at him, the bone, not the skin. Clothing was still around part of the corpse.
Taran backed away from the corpse, still looking at it. He could tell from the shape that it was a small girl. Then he remembered what the old man had said about his daughter last night. To his horror, he had found her. He crawled away from the corpse, only to stumble into another. This one looked a lot older, nothing but bones.
"Help me," said a small voice. Taran looked around to see that it came from the dead little girl.
"Help me break free from this prison," she said, but the bones were not moving. Instead they came on like a loudspeaker in his mind.
"Free us," said another voice. More voices resonated in his head. Taran held his hands up to his ears to block them out, but it didn't work. He got up and tried to walk away. But everywhere he walked were more skeletons saying the same thing over and over again. He couldn't stand the corpses or the voices in his head. It was all too much for him to take on. Finally he broke down and stayed on the floor, tears starting to flow from his closed eyelids. It was either his imagination or it was really happening, but the bodies seemed to come off the ground and try to reach out to him, coming closer and closer. One clutched his hand while the others grabbed his arms.
"Stay away, get off!" he yelled. But they paid no heed and continued to clutch at him. The little girls hands closed around his head, begging him to help her.
"Taran!" she yelled.
"Let go!"
"Taran!" Taran opened his eyes to see Ahsoka's hand on her in the exact same way that the girl was holding him. He also saw Obi-Wan next to him, along with Anakin and everyone else, looking like they were afraid for his life, except for the clones because they were wearing helmets, but he could sense their emotions. Taran hugged her to him, panting on her shoulder.
"There were so many...yelling...screaming," he said silently. They looked around at the bodies of past victims around to see what he meant. They never knew what had went on im his mind, but they knew that whatever it was wasn't something anyone else should see. If it was enough to make Taran break down, then it could make nearly everyone of them do it.
They were walking down another tunnel, this one very much like the same ones they had been trekking through hours ago. Taran was mostly silent, the things he saw in the cavern eating away at his thoughts. Ahsoka had tried to comfort him, but to no avail. He seemed withdrawn a little like he was in another world.
"I swear we came though this tunnel," said Anakin.
"How's that?" said Obi-Wan.
"I remembered I tripped over a rock in the middle of this tunnel. Now I just did it again. We're going in circles," said Anakin.
"I wish this place had a map," grumbled Rex. They came to an intersection down the another tunnel that went in four different ways.
"I think we need to split up," said Cody.
"Remember what Admiral Jung said? Don't separate," said Ahsoka.
"Ahsoka, if we want to find Hunter and get out of here we need to. We can cover more ground and get out if here faster," said Anakin.
"So how will we split up?" said Obi-Wan.
"Rex and Cody will take that tunnel, Ahsoka and Boil down that one, Taran and Waxer down that one, and I'll go with you," said Anakin. The headed down their assigned tunnel, making sure that there was nothing out of the ordinary. Taran's lightsaber was on as well as Waxer's lights.
"So what did you see in that room sir?" said Waxer.
"Something no one else should see when it involves dead people," said Taran.
"Like what?" said Waxer.
"They were coming at me, telling me to free them. I don't want to talk about it," said Taran.
"Sorry sir, I didn't mean to upset you," said Waxer.
"It's okay Waxer, you were only curious and worried," said Taran. They headed down their tunnel until they came to another intersection that split off into two more.
"Left or right?" said Taran.
"I guess left," said Waxer.
"Left it is then," said Taran. Heading down the left tunnel they listened for any sounds. Once again, there was none. It was like the creature was trying to avoid them, or silently hunting them. Either way, it would be bad if they met face to face.
"Why won't it show itself?" said Waxer.
"I don't know, and I sure don't want to go and ask it why," said Taran. Taran felt the earth on the wall to check on everything. He could feel the other's footsteps as the trudged along wherever they were going. He listened for the vibrations of anything with many legs scuttling around. Not a thing was showing up. Taran thought with horror of something. If he couldn't feel this thing's vibrations on the ground, then maybe it wasn't a living thing. Maybe it was a creature from the Spirit World that couldn't be killed. He remembered Aang telling him o about a creature named Hei Bai who could terrorize and destroy things in the real world and not be harmed. What if Kong Ju was one of those creatures.
"Everything alright sir? You're awfully quiet," said Waxer.
"Yes, just thinking," said Taran. Whether or not this thing was a spirit or real, Taran knew he had to defeat it one way or another. He was worried though that maybe, just maybe, that they wouldn't survive and join the rest of the corpses in the room, their souls trapped there for an eternity.
The tunnel they were on started to rise like a slope. The looked ahead to see that there was an opening at the end of the tunnel. Still cautiously walking they headed towards it. When they got there, Taran looked cautiously out to see any signs of anything big or moving. There was nothing. They came into what looked like a room that branched from four other tunnels. Taran let his guard down to look around the room. Waxer turned around and what he saw scared the hell out of him. He got his blaster and shot the thing in the stomach. Taran turned around to look at what he shot at.
Waxer had seen a sculpture of the creature on it's four back legs using it's front legs to rear up into an attack stance. The statue looked worn, but still looked like it was real enough. Strangely, there was a stone table under it that looked like it may have been an altar. There was even what looked like old, dried blood on it. It was disturbing and horrifying at the same time.
"What could this have been used for?" said Waxer.
"I don't know, but I don't want to find out," said Taran. He took another look at the statue of Kong-Ju. It was bad enough that he and the others probably had to face it, but it was even worse when he knew this wasn't the actual size of the it. It was like a sick kind of irony that was playing on him.
"Should we go sir?" said Waxer.
"Yes, the sooner the better," said Taran. They both were about to walk off down another tunnel when they heard something. It sounded like a rock had fall down the tunnel they came from. Then it was like something was moving a big, hulking mass. Taran readied his lightsaber as Waxer readied his blaster. Whatever it was that was coming down the tunnel had stopped and was looking dead at them, but Taran nor Waxer could see it. Taran got an idea. A ball of flame appeared in his hands and he threw it down the tunnel It landed on the ground, making the tunnel glow with light. There was something definitely down the tunnel, and it's clusters of yellow eyes was looking directly at them.
The moment the flames hit the ground, the thing immediately rushed for Taran and Waxer. The light from Waxer showed them all they needed to know. It's yellow eyes formed in two clusters on either side of it's ragged, deformed head. Behind it was a midsection and after that a swollen, stinking mass that was her belly, it being the biggest part of it. It's legs were long and hairy, and it's mandibles in front were gnarled. The thing was all black and grey, but around it's mouth was bits of red and orange. It's teeth were bared to reveal rows of sharp, lion-like teeth and green saliva oozed from it's mouth. One of it's legs put out the flame and for a moment they couldn't see it. It burst into the room, roaring and screaming.
Taran got his lightsaber and was about to swing it when the thing knocked him over. Waxer shot it a few times, but that didn't stop it. It pinned him down with it's two mandibles and hover her sack over him. From out of it came a dagger-like piece of bone that dripped with poison. Before Waxer could break free, it shot the stinger out and it stung him in the chest. Waxer felt as if his body was about to shut off or something. Finally, he couldn't move or anything. The thing seized him in it's mandibles and took him away. Taran had sat there the whole time on horror.
The reason was because when he looked at the creature, it was like he was looking back into the eyes of the purella that almost killed him. Just like then, he was overcome by nothing but pure fear. It was like he was ten again and could do nothing. He had let Waxer get taken away all because of his old fear. He didn't know if he could live with himself for doing that.
When he snapped out of his post traumatic fear disorder (PTFD), he looked around, wondering where to go. He didn't have long because he could hear something scuttling towards him from the same tunnel that the creature had taken Waxer down. Knowing that this was a fight he couldn't win without help, he ran down the tunnel he and Waxer had come out of.
