At night, the Sith Base, Ben concluded, turned into a haunted crypt. Four brooding walls stood almost halfway up the mountains that surrounded it, putting Ben and Gallai at even point with the wall's peak from where they hid. Even under the white light of the twin moons above, the two Jedi could barely get an outline of the mausoleum past the walls, as if the building itself could only be bathed in darkness alone, but the outline that was visible was enough for them. Gallai stood from behind the cluster of short rocks they found, Ben doing the same and like her being careful to stay in shadow, to keep the guards at the foot of the mountain oblivious to their presence.
Ben opened his mouth to ask how they would get across without detection, and Gallai leapt without a sound from next to him, landing on the wall's edge in a crouch. Rolling his eyes at the gesture, he followed her lead.
The edge was just large enough for their feet, but not much else. Peering down below, Ben's jaw actually fell. A cloud of blackness blanketed the other side of the wall, beginning centimeters down from them and clinging to both the wall and the fortress itself like a web. Suddenly, this didn't seem as simple as Ben first thought.
"How are we going—" Ben was cut off when abruptly, Gallai jumped down, the ends of her robe flapping as she plunged into the heart of the darkness and disappeared a second later.
Ben grimaced. He knew what he would and wouldn't do, and jumping head-first into a field of darkness was one he wouldn't. So instead he crouched down and spun his body around, and calling on the Force, stuck his hands and the ends of his feet against the cold steel and began climbing down. It took him just over twenty minutes to reach the bottom, wincing in pain as with each step the skin of his bare hands stuck to the metal, forcing him to pull them out of the freezing grasp and surely leave a mark, but to him, at least, it was the lesser of two evils.
Whether your eyes were open or shut at the bottom didn't matter. Ben couldn't see the hand he knew was in front of his face, and on the assumption blinked a few times to insure his eyes were still open. Nothing.
An emerald blade of energy came to life in front of him, causing Ben to jump back and release a quiet yelp. When Gallai came into the limited blade's glow, he saw her index finger was in front of her elongated mouth. She then gestured to her right and began walking, with Ben following closely behind to stay in the light. As he did, he looked up at the walls towering around them.
Why was there no light? He thought to himself. Alarms should be blaring, yet nothing has happened. Are these Sith truly that arrogant?
Probably. Gallai came to a stop and a second later, Ben saw why. They had reached the base of the fortress itself, specifically a door. It stood only a few inches taller then him, but spanned several dozen meters off both to his sides. The glow caught against the dark steel, reflecting it back as a dull, viridian light. Gallai approached it, taking a hand off her lightsaber and holding it up, palm open toward the door, just stopping before it. Slowly, her eyes closed and brow furrowed as she concentrated, slightly inclining her head to the right a bit. Ben heard a faint metallic click on the other side and Gallai relaxed, wiping the few beads of sweat from her forehead and straightening herself.
Then taking a quick breath, she resumed her two-handed grip and plunged the emerald blade into the center of the door in one swift motion. A smile touching the corner of his mouth, Ben plucked his own weapon from his belt, activated the blade, and went to help his master.
Viper's heart pounded loudly in his ears as lightning coursed through his fingers, arcing across to the center of the storeroom and slamming into Kane, invoking another terrible cry of pain from the young man as he tried once again to jerk free of his restraints, to no prevail. The bones of his skeleton flashed for a split-second beneath his skin, and Viper clenched his hand in, causing the bolts to dissipate.
He walked out from the shadows, coming into the view of the single light strapped on the ceiling above, throwing its harsh light straight down onto Kane. As he walked, the racks surrounding their sides shook under his weight, wobbling the loose mechanical repair parts on their shelves. He stopped in front of Kane as the tortured boy struggled for air.
"Do not fight it," Viper said, his deep voice echoing a little in the small room. "It is almost over. But before you pass through death's door, tell me, little one: Who are the Jedi you tried to hide so desperately?"
The boy struggled to keep his head up, his swollen eyes barely peaking open in the light. The small cuts across his face that had sealed over reopened as he did, causing small trickles of dark blood to run down his face as leaned back, hesitated a moment, and threw his head forward as spit left his split lip, splashing on the Sith Lord's bald forehead, just above his scar. Wiping it with the back of his gloved hand, Viper clenched his fist in and glared at the boy, who now had the best grin he could muster.
"So be it," Viper growled, the words oozing with disgust.
He reached out and grasped Kane's head in the palm of his hand, slamming it against the hard back of the bolted-down chair. He fought back, of course. But it did no good in the Sith Lord's grip. Worming his way into the boy's mind, Viper began the long, terrible process of ripping thoughts and memories and pushing them into his own head. Despite the hours of pained tortured, the young man still could unleash a horrific scream, and did. The cries continued until minutes later, Viper got what he needed. Grinning, he pulled himself back to the shadows, and watching for a moment as Kane tried to lift his head from its crooked position, raised his arm and the lightning resumed.
Gently placing his palm in the center of the steel door in front of him, Ben reached out with his senses, searching almost desperately for any trace of his brother on the other side. . .
Nothing.
Quietly sighing to himself, Ben pulled his hand away and went down the thin, dark hall, illuminated only by the small control panels next to each door on both sides of Ben's body, coming up behind his master after only a handful of steps. "Anything?" He whispered, trying not to jolt her out of her concentrated state.
Her muscles relaxed a little as her head raised up a little. Her arms, extended outward in opposite directions, almost touching the doors lowered to her sides. Gallai shook her head.
Ben's heart truly began feeling the grief of the situation. They'd been at it for while now, perhaps too long. Despite himself, he found himself thinking of the layout of the base, trying to determine the best way out without running into any of the guard stations. . .
"But," Gallai said, breaking off the thought. "I was unable to get a read beyond that point." She pointed at the door at the end of the hall. Ben's heart raced as he broke into a brisk walk toward it, forcing himself to slow down for his master. He reached the door first, and like before, placed his palm on the cold metal door that spanned from one side of the thin hallway to the other, and stretched out with his senses.
She was right. Within Ben's mind; it was like staring into absolute darkness, like it was on the edge of the wall. He pulled himself out of it, barely, feeling a cold shiver run through his body. As Ben backed up, Gallai stepped forward, unhooking her lightsabers from her belt and igniting the twin green blades with a snap-hiss that echoed through the hall. The Bothan stabbed them into parallel with the top of the door, pushing them off in separate directions and slowly carving an oval shape out of the door. Finishing it, she slammed a quick, but powerful kick into its center and Ben watched as the inner part blew inside the room, only to disappear into blackness and assume from the loud metallic crash that it hit the other side.
Lightsabers still active, Gallai ducked through the hole with Ben following, trying his best to avoid the still-glowing edges.
Ben's insides knotted after stepping into the pitch-darkness, keeping up with his master as he hastily plucked his own lightsaber from his belt and activated it. But the added light did little to help. He could still only see a few meters ahead of him, with the occasional glimmer off what he assumed were speeder bikes and work stations. After letting it process for a moment, he concluded it was a repair shop for vehicles, though judged from how his breaths echoed off further then they should have and the landing struts they passed in the center of the room that it was perhaps at one time been a hanger as well.
"Welcome to my den, Jedi," A deep, powerful voice called out seemingly from everywhere, causing Ben to whip around to nothing. "Though you are too late." Ben strained his eyes, trying to find the source in the faint golden glow of his blade. Again, he saw nothing but darkness. The Padawan found himself backing up as he searched, stopping when his and Gallai's back brushed. Ben glanced back and saw she had already dropped into a combative stance, one saber held high with the other low as her brown eyes looked into the darkness in a silent challenge.
"You seek the one called 'Kane'" The voice continued. "But he is gone, as you shall soon be." Ben waited, heart pounding loudly in his chest.
A moment later, a storm of lightning shot out behind them, slamming into Ben.
He was tossed before his master could react; bouncing off the hard floor and stopping against the wall and loosing grip of his saber. Gallai was moving a second later, only to have to halt as another storm emerged and catch it on her lightsabers.
Ben's body burned as he stared aimlessly up on his back. Kane was dead? He thought to himself, ignoring the booming thunder sounds close by and the familiar strain of a lightsaber. It couldn't be true. It couldn't be. He stretched out, trying to find any trace of Kane's presence, past or present, but the creature attacking them was still blocking that power. There was another boom, followed closely by a bright flash of blue light that illuminated the room for a moment, and Ben's eye caught something odd. Another flash a second later confirmed it.
A network of pipes was imbedded in the ceiling instead of metallic panels, closely knit while connecting and intersecting one another. After lifting his head up to see Gallai fending for her life against the storms erupting from a different spot each time, Ben gathered himself and got to his feet, then, calling on the Force, leapt up and slid his hand through one of the holes and grasped the pipe.
It held his weight, barely. Peering down, Ben watched as Gallai caught another blast, and then to his surprise, actually redirected the bolts in a single swing, causing a loud metallic pang as the collected energy hit the wall. Then back-flipped to avoid two more blasts. He watched this dance of battle repeat itself for almost a minute, almost not taking notice of the fact that rarely did the lightning shoot from behind her or at her sides. . .
Calming his mind, Ben reached out and grasped his fallen lightsaber in his mind, sending it spinning around to the east side of the room and having it duck down to narrowly avoid the end of a lightning blast. With a quick nudge, the yellow blade sprang to life as he guided it in a sharp turn that sent it in a course along the wall, its tip almost grazing the plasteel. There was little chance this would work, Ben knew. But if whoever was doing this was where he estimated—
The thought was cut off as a burst of lightning was suddenly stopped mid-way, replaced with a blade of crimson igniting horizontally in time to stop Ben's blade. In the glow of the two sabers, Ben could see the man's hard face, the light reflecting slightly off his shaved scalp with two long scars running down it at different angles, one stopping at the bridge of his nose while the other went to his chin. He stared at the clashing blades.
"Impressive," the man said, his voice less dominating but still as menacing.
The sabers broke contact and Ben released his grip, calling on the Force to cushion his landing and summon the suspended weapon back to his waiting hand. The hilt clasped hard in his palm and Ben rushed to join Gallai in her dash toward the bald man as a second red blade ignited from the other end of his saber.
Gallai got there first, and Ben felt himself hesitating to watch as their blades whipped around in blurs, forming an almost cocoon-like shape with the crackling sound of clashing erupting behind it. But once a hole came, Ben took it. He leapt forward, clearing over his master and stabbing his lightsaber down with a quick jab, but the bald man threw one end of his weapon up and blocked it, leaving Ben to have to shift his weight to catch himself, landing behind the Sith.
Though what little it did for them. The bald man was moving before his feet touched the floor, knocking Gallai away with a single strike and whipping around to him with one hand outstretched. But Ben was ready this time. When the lightning came, he got his saber up, letting the yellow blade take the blunt of the blow and wincing only slightly from the few stray sparks.
The Padawan did not, however, anticipate the heavy boot slamming into his nose, stunning Ben just long enough to catch him unexpectedly in a suspended Force grip and toss him away. The stale, metallic taste of blood coming into his mouth as he flew back, Ben snapped his eyes shut and reached out. . .
Gallai's brow twisted in tense, sweated concentration as she charged toward the bald man, having been just revealed by Ben's lightsaber that not even she sensed coming. Behind her, Gallai could feel her apprentice rushing to her aid, but she knew she couldn't slow down, not while there was still was a chance to take this man by surprise. But that didn't make it any easier to leave him behind.
She reached the man in just a few long strides, and gripping her two weapons until the skin under her brown fur was white, Gallai unleashed hell. There was no finesse in her strikes, not true grace, only unbridled force. But everywhere she struck, one of the bald man's blades was there to block in an oddly calm way, only a hint of aggression in his blows. Her flurry was cut short when she spotted Ben jumping above her and stabbing his lightsaber down in an unsuccessful jab and land out of her line of sight behind the brooding Sith.
He took a quick glance down at her and began to swing around to her apprentice, hitting an emotional cord within. But her attempted dual strike to prevent the turning was rejected in a counter-move that almost ripped her arms out of their sockets as the Bothan stumbled back a few paces.
A bright blue flash appeared behind him after his turn, and Gallai hesitated while having to fight in impulse to call out to Ben. Clenching her teeth, she charged forward, sabers raised and watched the man throw his boot to where she could not see, soon followed by lifting an almost clenched in hand and Ben swinging around into her sight, eyes wide in terror with dark streams of blood trailing down his nose and off his chin, and abruptly tossed away.
She stopped her sprint when he passed over, feeling him reach out. Snapping her eyes shut, Gallai extended her senses toward Ben, trying to slow him down and soften the landing even she knew was imminent.
But her concentration was broken when something slammed hard into her side, sending Gallai across the hanger and slam into the wall next to the door from which they cam in, slumping to the floor and her weapons skidding away, watching faintly as their blades winked out of existence. Her head rang with an almost deafening whine with darkness creeping into the edges of her vision, but she would not allow it to claim her. Gallai forced her eyes open to find the bald man in a full run, but instead of her, he was heading across from her, toward a group of smashed in speeders.
Toward Ben.
There was no time to think, only act. Gathering every bit of energy left that she could muster, Gallai threw herself toward him with all her might.
Something was broken, Ben knew, he'd both heard and felt a sharp crack upon his landing against, well, whatever it was he landed on. He'd lost his lightsaber in the toss, so without its glow, Ben could only tell it was hard, metallic, and cold. Despite his plea's, his eyes would not open as he fought the freezing grip of unconsciousness gnawing at his mind. At the edge of perception, Ben could swear he felt something far away slam into something that sent odd, chilling echo's through his young body. Followed by a pang of emotion that Ben had been feeling uncontrollably for the past day now: Fear.
For a few heartbeats, nothing happened, so believing he was not in danger, at least for the moment, he began his process of sealing any wounds on his body, until a horrible cry of agony jolted through his mind and made his eyes snap open as wide as they could.
He saw his master looming over him, her arms stretched out in opposite directions and clutched in like she was bracing against an object that was not there as her grief-stricken face was harshly bathed in crimson from the blade sticking several meters out from her chest, pointed downwardly at him. She mouthed a single, soundless word; run.
Hot tears were streaking down his face and jaw shaking horribly for a moment when Ben realized he was crying. But before he could reach out to help her, the blade was pulled out and Gallai was hefted up from behind and tossed to his right, disappearing into the darkness.
Leaving Ben alone with the Sith. His double ended weapon was still in hand, and the Padawan stared up helplessly as the man stepped closer, a gleam catching off his combat suite and his face illuminated in red light as his master was seconds ago. And those eyes. . .
There was a quick snap, and lights came to life above them, causing Ben to wince from the new, harsh light. His eyes were just beginning to adjust when a boot came up under his chin, pinning him back against the cold metal behind. Ben clawed at it with all he had, but the large foot just would not budge. His double-ended weapon closed down.
"So it's true," The bald man breathed. "It was foolish to come here, Jedi," He glanced over at Gallai, crumpled in front of the entrance. "And she has paid for your arrogance with her life." He brought his attention back to Ben. "Her death was your fault."
A spark of hate flashed through him, letting Ben shove the boot away and throw himself at him, clenching his hand as he did. But his small rebellion was cut short when Ben found himself pushed back again, his head hitting the metal harder. "Anger," The man's lips twisted into a cruel half-smile. "Good, you will find it will drive you from now on."
He leaned in closer, and Ben tried to fight the intangible hold that held him, and failed miserably. "The Jedi are on a loosing side, child. Your numbers dwindle as ours grow. Your warships fall while ours rise. This pointless, eternal war between light and dark will end, and every being will know our power," He extended a hand toward Ben. "Join us, and it will end that much sooner."
Ben's response came in the form of saliva, spitting it down onto the man's boots and lightly armored legs. He stared down at it, his hard face unreadable to Ben. Then looked back up at the boy and without warning, reached out and grasped his throat with his free hand. Ben gasped as he attempted to struggled uselessly against it, being lifted off his feet and meeting the man's weary eye.
"Defiant until the end, young one? Very well. Your mind may be too twisted by lies to see the final truth," He glanced behind him, and Ben saw that there was a door on the other side of the hanger, pushed in between a couple of workbenches. "but your brothers isn't. And unlike you, he is not bared down by the trappings of the Jedi."
He looked back down and relaxed his grip. "If you will not serve, then he will."
Kane's alive? Ben's question went unanswered as the man took the hand still gripping his lightsaber and drove it into the young Jedi's face. As he fell and slumped against the metal, darkness consumed his vision.
Minutes later, he grudgingly awoke, staring up at the blurry ceiling as his head rolled from side to side lazily. It felt as if someone had unplugged Ben's brain from the rest of his body; almost a gift of relief from the burdens of his life.
A sharp hiss of metal pushing against metal caught his attention, turning to face it and resting his head against something hard. At first, the blurred figures that walked across the hanger were hard to make out, but as his vision sharpened little by little, their details were revealed. The bald man was the first of the four he recognized, ahead of the others with a powerful stride that said everything about him. Ben knew a burning hate should have emerged from his gut, but nothing came. No matter how long he lingered on the Sith, his mind remained in a neutral calm. Giving up on it, he moved on and looked back at the two silver armored clad soldiers following, their suites almost reflecting perfectly the light above.
The fourth person was beyond Ben's view, being carried between the two troopers. The group stopped when they reached a door on the other end of the hanger, waiting as the bald man keyed in the small pad on the wall next to it. Suddenly, one of the troopers slipped slightly to his side, and Ben caught a small glimpse of the forth being.
Kane. His hair hung a mess on his face, his features calm and eyes softly closed. But as Ben tried to call out to him, darkness once again consumed him before he could resist.
When he came to moments later, he forced his mind and body to connect. The Force flowed threw Ben's body like water, and with an agonizing groan, he was on his feet, mostly. His vision remained blurred as he swayed and staggered on, always keeping his goal directly in front of him. Halfway there, something bumped against his foot, and after a moment of watching three of the same thing encircle each other, recognized it was his lightsaber.
Risking it, he bent down and scooped up the hilt, grabbing it after only three attempts, but when he got back up, he decided to keep it in hand instead of try to clip it onto one of the five belts he saw swirling about. Ben almost sighed out loud when he reached the door. Thumbing the pad, the door wisped to the side—
And a hot blast of air slammed into Ben, almost knocking him off his feet there and then as the shuttle that took up most the apparent second hanger blazed through the large, opened doors and rose up toward the night sky.
His mind slowly went numb again as Ben slumped against the doorway, staring at the mountains beyond the doors. It was over; he was wounded, his master was dead, and now his brother was lost. He'd failed, in every way imaginable. . .
No, Ben thought as he set his teeth firmly. I will not give up. I can't; for Master Gallai's memory, for my promise to Lexi, and for my brother's sake, I cannot quit.
Newfound energy surged through him as Ben stood in the doorway, and with his vision clearing, jammed his lightsaber onto his belt and walked as far as he could go, his legs growing stronger with each stride. When he reached the edge of a pit that dipped down only a few meters taller then he was, Ben glanced down and saw an array of unorganized speeder bikes directly below, each pointing off in a different direction. Without hesitating, he leapt down to the farthest one of the bunch, booting up its systems the moment he landed and swinging around to the still-open hanger doors. Ben wrapped his hands around the twin throttles after the indicator light went green—
And stopped. He craned his neck back to see the edge of the entrance, his thoughts trailing on Gallai.
There was no telling what they would do with her remains, and he had to fight the urge to run back and take her body with him. It would take at least a few minutes, and every second he stalled was another second that shuttle and Kane could get a little further from his grasp. So Ben pushed the throttles forward and the speeder burst through the open doors, holding back tears as he went into the perils of the mountains.
One sharp hill turn lead to another a half-second later, followed usually by another that should have been impossible to maneuver through, but Ben made it each time with the deadly precision, focus and timing of a man pushed too far. After just over a minute of this, he came bursting out a small crack in the side of the mountain and was almost thrown off as the repulser's under the bike hit hard against the ground, but held strong as he continued toward Blood Bones Grove, pushing the speeder until bright red warning lights flashed all across the small display.
Ben spotted a ship outside its great walls next to the medical teams stationed outside, using large spotlights for a light source—and after recognizing it as the ship Kane had ambushed with— altered his course toward it.
He screeched past the dozens of people without a second glance, and Ben drove the straight up the extended exit ramp and flipped it onto its side, causing the repulser's to slam up against the wall and force it to an abrupt stop. Flipping the kill-switch, the speeder died there on the spot and hit the floor with a loud pang as Ben jumped off and sprinted down the thin hallway next to him and jumped into the chair in front of the console.
His hands danced across the board as the ship rumbled to life beneath him. Grabbing main control yoke, Ben eased it up, watching as little by little the night sky filled his viewport and heard the ramp retract. Within minutes, the life support systems were kicking on when the ship broke through the atmosphere. Ben flipped a few switches on the end of the console, and a small screen on his right turned on.
On the screen, was empty space with twin amber trails of amber smoke going off in the distance toward nothingness. "The trail's still warm," Ben whispered, flipping another pair of switches. The ship swung itself around in a slower-then-usual movement, aligning itself with the trails on the screen as the computer traced the origins and trajectory.
I made a promise, Ben thought as the light flashed green three times. and I intend to keep it. So you just hold on a little longer, Kane. I'm coming to get you.
Pushing up the lever in front of him, the stars pulled back, freezing for a single moment before the ship jumped into hyperspace.