Chapter 3: Eyes of Madness

"To and fro. To and fro. Where do we go? To and fro. Unshackle the chains. Throw away your pains. It's easier than you know. Just let it flow! To and fro! To and fro," the black robed figure sang the merry melody again and again laughing all the while as he danced back and forth through the empty chamber.

Deep in the reaches of the Jedi Enclave, the figure bathed in the radiance of death and suffering. Sorrow and pain flowed through him bringing more joy than he had ever known. Laughing and dancing he threw his head back and sang at the top of his lungs. His words echoed back at him, joining him in his gleeful celebration.

So much power! So much pain! All for him with no restrain!

Around him the bruised and battered bodies of the Khoonda militia danced along. They tried to sing, but only garbled hisses and watery calls escaped their lips. Their movements were slow and clumsy, but they sufficed for now, he decided.

It wasn't quite the festival he had hoped for, but more guests would arrive soon enough. Maybe they were lighter on their feet?

Amber irises burning with madness, he continued the dance. He pulled his puppets' strings and brought them along into his macabre ballet. Protruding bones and shattered limbs didn't stop them from following his movements.

"Free to go! Free to know! We swing our feet! To and fro!" he roared with laughter at his clever lyrics.

He had much to do and much to see. It was up to him, after all. He had to prepare the way. They were coming. Not today, perhaps, but soon enough. Or perhaps they were already there? How embarrassing it would be if they were! He wasn't nearly ready for them! There weren't even refreshments!

Oh, but there was time, he supposed. Time to set the table and hang up the decorations. He truly did hope they appreciated his preparations.

Sure sure they asked him not to, but how could he not?

Spinning in circles he passed a spot where a young Padawan had been crushed by falling debris. He stopped for a moment and basked in the sensations, feeling her pain as the ceiling came crashing down on her. The last sound she'd ever heard was the cracking of her skull reverberating through her ears.

How sad that she wouldn't be here to enjoy the festivities.

But he shrugged off the lament and continued along with his enjoyment.

He couldn't stay sad for long with so many helpers at hand! Filled with the power of the dead souls he could spread his joy for all. Oh, they were so boring before he arrived! Dull and bland not a fun one at hand. But now they were all starting to join in. Happy and cheerful as a kinrath over a kill. Fun for all!

The figure grabbed hold of the nearby female and looked into her swollen eyes as he embraced her in his dance. Unable to match his steps, he was forced to drag her around in circles and he spun faster and faster. Her right leg spattered blood from its pouring wounds wherever they went, tracing their path in dark crimson.

Eventually, her body fell limp in his arms as all the life fell out of her. Not slowing in the least, the figure spread his arms wide and smiled at the loud "Plop" her bloodied form made when it hit the hard stone floor. Spinning some more, he laughed at the beauty of it.

"Just let it go! Don't fear it so! We'll dance for joy! It's never slow! To and fro! To and fro!"

Roaring through Hyperspace with all the speed it could muster, a lone freighter soared towards its destination. It carried a strange cluster of passengers, but all onboard had a single goal in mind. Their friends were in danger and they needed to help, no matter the cost.

"It's still not working!" Mission shouted from the Gray Raven's Security Room.

Mira sighed for what must have been the hundredth time in the last hour. She looked over her work again in an attempt to trace back the source of the problem. Picking pieces of the shattered command console as she worked, the former bounty-hunter struggled to restrain her emotions. But it wasn't easy.

When Mira regained consciousness several hours ago she woke to find her console smashed. Add the fact that she had a splitting headache and it was pretty easy to figure out what happened. She'd even managed to cut herself on one of the controls, but Atton's skills in Force Healing stemmed the flow of blood before any real damage could be done.

Atton didn't seem as affected by it – in fact he didn't even lose consciousness – though his pride seemed to be hurt more than anything.

Neither of them knew what to make of the mental attack they experienced. Mira knew it had to come from the Sith she'd seen in her vision, but trying to figure out how he managed to lash out from such a distance made her head spin.

And it was pure luck – pure BAD luck – that when her head met the console she'd destroyed their comm in the process. Now the stupid thing was stuck in some recursive diagnostic loop and they hadn't been able to reroute the damn controls to another terminal. Mission had some skill with computer systems, and so did Atton for that matter, but even working together they hadn't been able to solve the problem.

But the worst of it all was they'd lost three of the seven prospective students in the attack. Strangely the initiates who were strongest inthe Force that died. Mira thought the other four were more at risk, but Mission suspected their weaker connections to the Force were what had saved them.

She'd moved the bodies into the Med-Bay, but Mira knew it wasn't something the others would be forgetting any time soon.

Mission seemed to be the only one of them left unaffected. She was shaken up pretty bad and complained of a minor headache since, but otherwise the attractive Twi'lek was fine.

Fortunately they still had control over the helm so they wouldn't go flying into any planets in the meantime. It was a small consolation, but better than nothing, she supposed.

"Anything?" Atton asked.

Mira looked up at the pilot's seat and shook her head, "I can't figure it out. Maybe if we take the whole system offline and reboot?"

Atton was shaking his head before she even finished, "At this point you'd have to physically disconnect it to do that. And we could risk shorting out the whole ship if we did it from the inside."

"You mean…?"

"Yep," he nodded. "Someone would have to take a stroll on the hull. And that's not something you'd want to do in Hyperspace. Unless you like the whole idea of scattering your molecules over a thousand light-years."

"Gee, wouldn't it be nice if we had some droids right about now?" Mission shouted from the security room.

Atton made a face and grumbled.

Mira sighed again, "So what do we do?"

"We're almost to Dantooine, anyway," Atton shrugged. "We'll just use their comm-systems when we get there. You can fill in the Council from Khoonda."

"I guess we don't have much choice, then," she grumbled.

Mission wandered in with a sour look on her face. Apparently she'd heard their entire conversation. She leaned against the doorframe heavily, obviously drained from her ordeal.

"So how far to Dantooine, poo-doo head?" she asked.

"About another hour or so, rodent," Atton shot back.

The pretty young woman pursed her lips, but didn't say anything else.

"You should try to get some rest, Mission," Mira suggested. Through the Force she could feel the Twi'lek's anguish over the loss of the three initiates. And her headache seemed to be getting worse.

Her lids came down sleepily over her eyes as she nodded her head, "Yeah, okay. Wake me when we get there, though?"

"Will do," Mira agreed.

"Yeah, but don't go chewing on the mattresses to make your little nest, okay?" Atton chimed in.

"I'd chew your head, but it's got poo-doo in it," Mission mumbled on her way out.

Atton chuckled with delight. Mira couldn't help but smile.

"So what the hell do you think that was anyway?" Atton asked when he was sure they were alone.

Mira shook her head, "I don't know. It felt…"

"Felt like what?"

She struggled to find the right words, "I could have sworn it almost felt like that technique Kreia used to use."

"Oh, that old witch?" Atton grumbled.

"Remember how she used to get into people's minds?"

"Do I ever!"

"No, not like that," Mira shook her head. "Remember those bounty hunters on Onderon?"

Atton thought a moment before nodding in remembrance, "Yeah, I wasn't there, but you told me she got two of them to go nutball and start shooting their buddies?"

"Yeah," she nodded.

"Yeah, but this was way beyond that," he argued. "You were up against seven guys and she only affected two of them and they were only a few meters away!"

Mira shrugged, "I didn't say it made sense. That's just what it felt like."

Atton squinted as he mulled over the idea in his head. Mira tried peeking into his thoughts through the Force, but, just like every other time she tried, all she heard was the play-by-play from a pazaak game. He surprised her when he cut the hyperdrive without warning, killed the engines, and swung away from his chair.

"What are you doing?" she asked, obviously confused.

Without saying a word, he walked out of the cockpit and towards the sleeping quarters where the surviving initiates were staying. Mira followed him, curious as to what the hell he was doing.

"Hey, kids," Atton said when the four children looked up at him with fearful eyes.

Sitting cross-legged on the floor with them Mission was trying to say whatever words of comfort she could. Of the four the two girls were the youngest, neither any older than seven or eight. The two boys were nearing ten.

"Are we with the Jedi yet?" the blonde-haired human girl asked. Mira felt bad about not remembering their names, but she never was very good with kids. Atton, on the other hand…

"Not yet, kiddo," he said as he dropped into a crouch next to her, "but we will be soon, okay?"

Barely holding back her tears, the young girl nodded.

"Hey, do you kids want to play a game with me?" he asked, with a smile.

"What kind of game?" the older Zabrak boy asked.

"Do you guys know any songs or nursery rhymes?"

"Like The-Tach-With-The-Berry?"

Atton smiled at the girl, "How does that one go again?"

Smiling back, the little girl recited the song with obvious familiarity, "The tach with the berry is oh so merry, oh so merry, oh so merry. The tach with the berry is oh so merry, all day long!"

"Yeah, that's that a good one isn't it!" Atton declared with a smile and shake of the little girl's hips.

Beaming with pride, the young girl grinned back at him.

"Okay, let's all sit down and sing together!"

While she thought the whole thing was extremely sweet of him, Mira still had no idea what in the universe had come over her friend. Still, she restrained herself from asking him outright. Instead she just bored holes into his back with her eyeballs.

Though scattered and disorganized at first, the four children quickly fell into sync with each other and soon enough they were all singing away without a care in the world. After a few minutes, Atton stopped them and redirected their efforts.

"Okay, now let's try something else," he said. "Remember when we showed you how to look at the Force?"

Mira perked up at that.

One by one they all nodded.

"Okay, then," he said, leaning forward. "Now we're going to try singing but not out loud. I want you to sing inside your head. It's okay if you want to sing something else, but to win this game you have to see who can sing the longest in their head without stopping."

What the hell was he up to?

"What do we win?" the other boy, a human, asked.

"If you win," Atton thought about a suitable prize for a moment. "I'll show you a new trick with the Force. One the other Jedi don't know about!"

All of them quickly became excited at the idea of winning the "game."

"Okay, so is everyone ready?"

They all nodded in unison.

"Alright, close your eyes, and say hello to the Force again."

"Hello, Force," the Zabrak boy said.

Mira couldn't stop from smiling.

"Okay, now start singing," Atton instructed them.

For a few moments, Mira watched the strange display. The two girls were humming along to their mental recitals while the boys swayed back and forth. Less than a minute into the "game" she felt a wave of energy through the Force.

"Hey!" "Aw!" "No fair!" "What?" the children all complained.

"Uh uh, that's part of the game!" Atton explained. "You have to keep singing with the Force or you can't win!"

"Ohhhh," they all echoed together.

Again, he drew them into the mental recitals and waited for them to become lost in their game. Then, again, he swung at them with the Force. Two of them lost their focus, but quickly fell back into things.

As she watched through the Force, Mira was amazed to see how the four of them seemed to be working together to maintain their concentrations. One by one she witnessed as their minds became intertwined through the Force and eventually their "song" and even their movements fell perfectly in sync with each other. In her mind she could hear their chanting echo through the Force around them.

Over and over again, Atton tried to break their focus with mental attacks. Each time he failed just a little bit more. Eventually, nothing he could do would disturb them.

Finally, Mira understood. Somehow, by focusing on the nursery rhyme and working together, the children had formed a mental barrier with the Force to shield their minds! While the technique was impressive enough, Mira was blown away by how powerful their barrier was.

"Okay, keep it up, kids," Atton whispered as he rose up. "Remember, whoever wins gets a prize."

When he came to stand in front of her, Mira looked at Atton as if she were seeing him for the first time.

"Where did you…?"

"It's a little trick I picked up back in the day," he said cryptically.

Mira raised an eyebrow, but accepted his words without an argument. It wasn't her place to judge someone's past. Though it bothered her that Atton didn't trust her enough to say, if her friend wanted to keep his secret, then she wasn't about to fight him.

Together they returned to the cockpit with Mission trailing behind them.

"So, pazaak?" Mission asked when Atton sat down again.

"Pazaak," he replied with a nod.

"I'll stick with the kiddos, then," she said and before heading back to the sleeping quarters.

"You can't fall asleep," he warned.

"Got it," she called over her shoulder.

"I don't suppose you know any nursery rhymes?" he asked Mira when they were alone again.

Smiling Mira jabbed back, "None that I can recall."

"Statistics, quantities, anything that comes naturally to you?" he prompted.

"Mine sensor frequencies?" she asked with a shrug.

He grinned but nodded, "Yeah, that'll work. But you have to keep reciting them in your head, over and over. Don't stop or that'll leave an opening."

"You got it," she nodded back.

Satisfied with her answer, Atton turned his attention back to the controls and resumed their course toward Dantooine. A few hours later they came out of hyperspace and into orbit above the planet.

"So where do we land?" Atton asked.

Mira thought for a moment before answering, "We've been so out of touch with everyone it's probably a good idea to check in with Adare first. From Khoonda we can grab a transport to the Enclave."

"Yeah, I'm thinking there's not much chance of beating this Sith to the ruins at this point," Atton grumbled.

With little difficulty he maneuvered the ship towards the Khoonda docks. The second they touched down, Mira felt the taint of the Dark Side.

Goosebumps sprang up all along her body, but the temperature hadn't changed. A powerful feeling of dread bordering on panic kept eating away at her practiced Jedi calm. Mira's breathing started to come in quick, shallow gasps and a strange whisper kept nagging at the back of her mind.

The sense of danger was overwhelming.

"Oh, my god," she whispered. "It's everywhere!"

"We were just here," Atton echoed her tone. "How could it spread so fast?"

A look through the windows showed a thick fog surrounding the entire area. Even through the hull she could smell the stink of the Dark Side.

"We'd better get to the Administrator," Mira said.

"Yeah," Atton absently agreed.

They checked their gear before heading to the loading ramp. Mira wore her typical green robes - she'd always liked the color for some reason. Atton shuffled into his charcoal grey robes - a color choice that had raised more than a few eyebrows back on Telos, and Mira wondered if that fact had more to do with it than Atton's personal tastes.

"Ready?" Atton asked.

When she nodded he activated the controls to lower the ramp. While the metal platform continued its slow descent to the ground, the two companions fell into defensive stances and scanned the area. Their eyes couldn't see very far, however.

As the thick mist crowded around them, obscuring their vision, Atton turned back and closed the ramp behind them. Punching a few keys into the nearby console he initiated the Gray Raven's lock-down mode, preventing anyone without the proper code from opening the door from the outside.

"Good idea," Mira commented.

Lightsabers in hand, the pair headed off toward the Khoonda Administration building. They took each step tentatively. Every footfall echoed for what seemed like an eternity.

Even with the Force Mira was only able to see a few meters in any direction. The sun itself couldn't seem to penetrate the overwhelming haze that seemed to cover every surface with its taint. In addition, the whisper had turned into a strange humming in the back of her head. It was giving her another headache, but try as she might she couldn't push it away.

"Okay, I've seen vids like this before," Atton joked. "Any second now some guy in a mask is going to come running out of the fog with a big vibrosword. Just remember, as the designated damzel in distress, you're not supposed to do anything except scream and stand still when he shows up."

Mira rolled her eyes, but kept on alert for any masked freaks anyway.

Off in the distance somewhere, she heard a snicker.

They looked to each other for confirmation and quickly realized that they'd both heard it. The two began turning in all directions trying to locate the source of the sound.

"Is someone out there?" Mira called out.

"If they are, are they going to tell you?!" Atton whispered back.

"Yes!" a voice shouted back before giggling hysterically.

"Yes." "Yes." "Yes!" three more voices called to them from different directions.

"NO!" one voice on the verge of hysterics shouted.

"Okay… that… wasn't in the script," Atton said, swallowing hard.

More laughter joined the first cackling cries and before they knew it an entire chorus of insane laughter was moving all around them. They pressed against each other, back-to-back, ready to fend off any attack. Mira struggled to control her breathing as her thoughts and emotions began to race out of control. It almost did seem funny and it was hard not to join in their laughter… and she wasn't too proud to admit, it was scaring the hell out of her.

"We're Jedi," she shouted to the choir. "We're here to help you!"

In an instant, all laughter stopped. Indeed it seemed as if all life simply ceased to exist. All Mira could hear was the sound of her panicked breaths and heartbeat thumping in her ears.

"Aw, why do I feel like that was the wrong thing to say?" Atton grumbled.

"Jedi!" a voice shouted in amusement.

More shouts followed again in all directions. Each more amused than the previous. In the end the voices were openly laughing as they repeated the word over and over again. Suddenly, everything fell silent again.

Mira could hear Atton's labored breathing as he fought to keep control along with her.

As one, all the voices in the mist defiantly proclaimed, "We hate Jedi!"

"Actually, technically, we're only Padawans!" Atton quickly replied.

The distinction didn't seem to matter to them as the massive crowed surged into view from the mist. As they charged in from all around them Mira took notice of their gray skin and tattered rag clothing. While their appearance was disturbing enough, what shook her the most was that she recognized each person. Farmers, militiamen and women, merchants and dock workers all of them.

Arms outstretched, teeth bared, roaring with insane laughter, the people of Khoonda had come to kill them.

Author's Note: Short chapter, I know, but it seemed best to keep things streamlined. Sorry about the long wait, but my PC's main hard drive died on me a couple of weeks ago. It took nearly a week to get everything up and running again, but I'm using a partition from an older hard drive that has a ton of files already on it so I'm quickly running out of space with just the OS. I feel like I'm out in the wilderness with only a pocketknife and a box of matches to keep me going.

I didn't really like the representation the still unnamed Dark Jedi ended up with. The guy's supposed to be a total loon, but I'm not sure if that really came across as well as it could have. I'm open to any suggestions anyone would have.