EPILOGUE

Darth Arisin awoke with a gasp, filling his lungs with dusty air like a drowning man. The first thing he noticed was intense pain in at least two areas of his back. The next was the unavoidable fact that he appeared to be quite buried. What happened?

"Luke!" He heard his name from somewhere, but it sounded far away, muffled. He could feel the debris on top of him shifting as someone tried to uncover him. Suddenly his senses cleared. He felt fire running through his veins. They'd killed his master; the Emperor was dead! He reached deep inside himself and willed the tons of rubble off in one smooth motion. There was a startled yelp as whoever was on top of the pile was forced out of the way.

Once clear of the debris, the Sith Lord stood and brushed himself off. He surveyed the chamber; the cavern was in shambles. In addition to the entrance being completely caved in, nearly all the stalactites and stalagmites had been wrenched free and tossed about, littering the floor. The cave was still illuminated, but it seemed different somehow. He soon saw why.

"Leia." His sister stood before him holding a glowstick. Her clothes were filthy, leading him to suspect she had been the one digging through the rubble to get to him.

"Luke!" she cried and through her arms around his neck, pulling him in for a tight hug. "You were dead!" she said with a sniffle.

"It's true," said a red-haired woman. Mara Jade, he guessed. She appeared to be crying, too, her tears tracing clean streaks through the dirty smudges on her face. "She sensed it. Just like I sensed—"

"The Emperor," Arisin finished.

Jade nodded and turned back to what she was doing. She was sifting through the debris, probably looking for the Emperor's body.

"What happened, Luke?" Leia asked. Tears rolled freely down her cheeks.

"Katarn," the Sith answered venomously. "He had a Jedi with him. We were trying to stop them from destroying the Nexus. We fought; the Emperor was killed when Katarn shot him through the chest. And I…" he shook his head. "I don't remember. I saw the Emperor go down, I went to go after them, and then I woke up, buried."

"They planted charges," Jade said. She pointed to the entrance tunnel. "They collapsed the tunnel and sealed the chamber after they left." She wiped her nose with her shirtsleeve. "Looks like Breyac escape with them."

"Breyac? Your target?" Arisin asked. "He was here?"

Leia nodded. "His safehouse is built into these hills. He has an escape tunnel that connects to this cave system. This looks to have been his way out."

"I bet he killed you," Mara offered. "Look at where you were and how you were positioned." She pointed to where he'd been laying. "Your back was to the tunnel we came through, the only other tunnel connected to this cavern. He must have come across your fight and hunkered down here, trying to figure out how he was going to get past you. He sees the Emperor go down, sees that your back is to him and you're distracted. He takes his chance and shoots you in the back. You never saw it coming."

Arisin shook his head. "But if I died, if I was really dead, how am I alive now?"

"I think I can answer that," said a weak voice.

Arisin, Leia, and Mara all snapped their heads around to the voice that had startled them. Two Noghri, whom Arisin hadn't seen before, rushed forward with sickle-shaped blades drawn.

"Master Kas'im!" The Twi'lek blademaster had appeared before them, looking very weak and considerably less solid than before.

Leia raised and eyebrow. "You know him?"

The Noghri stopped. "He has no scent," one of them commented. He gave a shudder, as if deeply disturbed.

Kas'im gave a half-hearted chuckle. "No, I supposed I wouldn't. I'm long dead, you silly creatures. Dead and buried thousands of light-years away from here on yet another forgotten and supposedly lost world." He gave Arisin a wry smile. "I think the words 'lost' and 'forgotten' are starting to lose their meaning these days."

Leia looked to her brother for explanation. He held up a hand. "Another time, I promise." He turned back to Kas'im. "Explain. You disappeared during the battle. I can't remember you once you warned us that they were coming. And now you're…fading."

The Sith shook his head. "There was nothing I could do. The more power I exerted, the stronger the orb pulled on me. I was nearly lost when I held the Jedi back as long as I did. I'm afraid that action sealed my fate. The orb's pull was too strong."

"Orb? What orb?" Mara asked.

Arisin's eyes bulged. "The orb is gone! Where is it?"

"When you died, you were being drawn into it. That's what it did; it attracted the Force like a magnet. When you died, your essence in the Force was drawn into it. I was able to intercept you, to repulse the attraction, but at great personal cost." He bent down low to pick up a rock and his hand passed through it like smoke.

"You—"

"I'm nearly gone," Kas'im said with a nod. "It's taking incredible will power for me to linger this much. I haven't a lot of time left."

"But—" started Arisin.

"Shut up and listen, boy!" the spirit snapped harshly. "When I directed your spirit back into your body, I acted against the power of the orb, or whatever has kept the orb here all these centuries. Whatever it was, I shattered the power that contained it and the energy was released. Into you. You were connected to it at the time, and it connected to the Nexus. I believe, through the orb, you have absorbed all the power of the Nexus."

Mara cocked her head to the side. "Yeah, come to think of it, I can't sense that big power at all anymore, and before it was totally overwhelming. It's all in you, just like he said. You got the whole thing." She looked at the Sith Lord as if he had suddenly sprouted an extra head.

"That is not entirely accurate," said a new voice. Huge slabs of rock shifted and moved aside to reveal the Emperor, quite alive and well, save for a nearly healed blaster burn that could be seen through the hole scorched in his clothes. In fact, he looked renewed. They almost didn't recognize him. His skin was a healthy pink and smooth. His facial deformities were entirely gone and his appearance now was as it had been decades ago before his encounter with the Jedi of the Old Republic.

"Master!" Arisin cried out in shock. "But how?" Confusion was written all over his face.

"The same as you, Lord Arisin," Sidious replied, even his voice sounding stronger by the syllable. "Only I didn't require a spirit guide."

"Master!" Jade nearly sobbed. "I—I lost you." Fresh tears welled up in her eyes.

"Stop that!" the Emperor commanded sharply. Mara stiffened at the rebuke. "Do not let your emotions get the better of you, Jade. You are better than that."

Arisin rubbed his forehead, still trying to process exactly what had happened to the two of them. "Master, if you survived the same way I did, then that would mean that—"

"That I was likewise connected to the orb and by default, the Nexus? Yes," Sidious confirmed. "When it shattered, due to both of our efforts," he said to the still fading Blademaster, "the power was split between us. Our bodies became like the orb, drawing in the energies like a magnet. This Nexus is now quite dead," he said. "But we, we are now more powerful than ever!"

"I just don't see why we couldn't have used my ship. It's much more comfortable."

"And a lot shinier, Vigo. Shiny things tend to draw attention to them." Kyle and Breyac were sitting in the passenger lounge of the Klendathu having the same argument for what must have been the fifth time. It had been two days since their escape from Ruusan and the fugitive head of Black Sun had not shut up the entire time.

"But what are you guys so afraid of?" Breyac asked. "I mean, what if he's wrong?" He jerked a thumb over his shoulder to the sealed bridge door, behind which Qu Rahn and his droid piloted the ship. "Those two looked pretty dead to me. Jedi boy even said they were dead. And you blew up the cave pretty good. They couldn't still be alive."

Kyle shook his head. "No," he said defiantly. "He said he sensed them alive right when we got back to the ship. He said he sensed them not only alive, but also more powerful than ever, and that he couldn't sense the Nexus anymore. And I think I may have sensed it, too."

"You think?" Breyac said skeptically. "You either did or you didn't, my friend."

"I'm not sure," Kyle admitted. "I'm not trained in the Force. But I felt something. And he's a Jedi Master. If he says he felt them alive, he must have."

"Yeah, well I felt something, too. Relief," Breyac said. "And now annoyance. Where are we going, anyway? Why can't we at least stop long enough to jack into the HoloNet and see if they're alive or dead?" He sighed and muttered. "On my ship we could check the HoloNet in hyperspace."

Kyle stood and drew his sidearm, which he pointed at Breyac's head. "If I hear one more word about your kreffing ship, I swear I'll part your hair the hard way."

The bridge door slid open with a hiss and Jedi Master Qu Rahn stepped out into the cabin. "What's going on here, fellas?" he asked calmly.

"He's gonna kill me! He's crazy!" Breyac yelled, holding up a seat cushion as a makeshift shield.

Qu Rahn turned his head to look at Katarn. "Kyle, is this true?"

"He was talking about his ship again."

"Oh," Qu Rahn said. "As you were, then." He turned to reenter the bridge. "By the way," he said over his shoulder, "we'll be arriving in ten minutes, so if you make a mess, please clean it up quickly."

Breyac lowered the seat cushion. "We'll be where?" he asked. "I'm going crazy cooped up in here. And so is Trigger over here," he said nodding to Kyle.

"Tatooine," Qu Rahn answered. "I'm meeting with an old friend who may be able to help us. Then we leave for Ossus."

"Ossus? What's on Ossus?" Breyac asked.

Qu Rahn turned around and gave the vigo a hard stare. "The fall of the Empire."

Thank you to all of my dedicated readers! So concludes book 2 of my trilogy. Thanks again for all your support and awesome comments. I hope to see you all back for the exciting conclusion!

-Josh