Chapter 74 – Shroud of Darkness
Author's Note: We're finally getting up to the parts that we've been waiting for most. :D
To Gvm: We only update weekly on Mondays. ^-^
~ Amina Gila
"I'm thinking this planet's not gonna work out as a base after all!" Ezra yells above the sound of clashing lightsabers.
"Seeing that the key part of secret bases is the secret location, no, it will not work out!" Kanan calls back, dodging as Athea nearly takes his head off again. He can still hardly believe this, that his former master – the one who saved his life – is now a Sith. Or Dark Sider at least, but either way, she's their enemy. "Where's Chopper?" They need to get out of here. It's never a fight they're going to win.
"I signaled him!" Ezra calls back, frantically trying to keep the other Inquisitor from beheading him. "He's either lost or ignoring us!"
That answers it, then. "He's not lost."
A Force-shove hits him, throwing him to the ground, his lightsaber falling from his hand. He rolls out of the way as Athea swings for him, trying to call his blade back to him, but he knows in that moment that it's never going to be fast enough.
He frantically rolls out of the way again, and Athea's blade stabs into the ground, barely missing his head. And... there's no way that wasn't intentional. She could have killed him, but she didn't.
He doesn't have a moment to consider it, though, just jumps back to his feet and swings up his lightsaber to block hers. A spotlight illuminates the ground around them, the Phantom finally flying overhead.
"Come on!" Ezra yells and they run for the edge of the cliff, jumping onto the open ramp before it flies away.
It's not until they're in hyperspace that he takes the time to think over what happened. It hurts, knowing that his former master betrayed them, but... she didn't kill him. She had the chance. She had no reason not to. If she cared enough to spare him, though, why is she still with the Inquisitors? Marr had seemed quite conflicted over his last meeting with her, and now, Kanan's really starting to wonder.
Still, what he really doesn't understand is why they keep running into the Inquisitors everywhere they go. It's like they're sensing where they're going, using it to track them down. If this keeps up, they'll never be able to find a base. They'll only keep putting the Rebellion in even more danger.
He needs to talk about this with Marr and Ahsoka, so he messages ahead to Hera, asking for a private meeting away from the rest of the fleet.
He's the last one into the room where they, Ezra, and Vizma already are, and he pauses in his tracks for a moment at the sight of the hologram on the table. Anakin.
He... doesn't know what to think of the fact that he's working for the Empire, too. He knew him, and he can't even imagine something like that from him. He doesn't understand why he would do that, and he supposes that's Marr's point. They don't understand it. And they can hardly judge him for it until they do. Still, that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt.
"What do you say about us doing the hunting for a change?" Kanan inquires, finally.
Ahsoka reaches over, flipping off the hologram, standing up. "For every one we defeat, another replaces them. Who's to say we won't multiply our problems yet again?"
"And there's Vader," Ezra interjects.
"We need to find him," Marr says, quietly.
"And then what?" Kanan asks.
"I don't know. I want to talk to him."
Ahsoka nods, and he doesn't miss the flicker of pain in both their eyes. "We'll deal with that when the time comes."
"The fact still remains that we can't protect our friends from the Inquisitors," Kanan admits, glancing at Ezra, "I can barely protect you."
"I don't need protecting," Ezra mutters.
A heavy silence settles in the room for a few moments. "Mom would help us, if you asked her too," Vizma speaks up.
"I know," Marr agrees, "But I don't think now is the time to involve Mandalore. Not yet."
"Then when will it be time?"
"I don't know. I want to go back home as much as you do, but I don't think it's time yet."
"It's times like these that Anakin and I would turn to someone like Obi-Wan or Master Yoda," Ahsoka interjects. "They always had the answer. Well, almost always."
Now, that gives him an idea. "Then maybe we should ask Master Yoda," Kanan offers.
**w**
It's been so long since Marr last stood in front of a Jedi Temple. This one obviously looks nothing like the one on Coruscant, but it's still a glaring bright nexus in the Force, and it feels like... Almost like coming home.
"I expected something a little more..." Vizma trails off.
"Fancy?" Ezra offers.
"They're not built for beauty," Kanan reminds.
"Why don't you two open it?" Marr advises, looking to Kanan and Ezra. Technically, they're the only true Jedi here. He can hardly put that label to himself, even if he never left the Order, and he didn't raise Vizma as one either. Ahsoka isn't one either, even if she still follows their teachings.
They step closer, lifting their hands towards the Temple. Moments later, the structure starts to shift, slowly turning and changing in size. "Hey, where's the door going?!" Ezra exclaims in confusion, as the first entrance continues rising instead of stopping.
Marr chuckles. "I suppose we'll find out."
The Temple keeps shifting, before it finally stops with a new entrance. "New problem, new door," Kanan offers, heading forwards with strict instructions for Chopper to watch the ship.
It's the first time Marr's ever been in a Temple since that day so long ago when he'd gotten the feeling he wouldn't be coming back to the Jedi Temple for a very long time, if ever. And now, he's suddenly inexplicably nervous, but he moves forwards anyway, stepping through the opening.
The entrance way is dark, but a staircase leads down into a large, open room, illuminated by an unseen light. There's a sudden noise, and Marr turns to see the door closing, sealing them inside.
"How are we going to get out now?" Vizma objects.
"There will be a way, when the time comes," he assures her. He can't believe he's really here inside a Jedi Temple again, even if it's not the one he grew up in. It feels like he's confronting another part of his past he didn't realize he missed so much, even if he's not, and never will be, a Jedi again.
"How did you contact Master Yoda here?" Ahsoka inquires, looking around the room.
"Well, he kind of contacted us," Kanan offers.
"I thought I was dreaming when I first heard Master Yoda's voice," Ezra replies.
"And I was meditating."
"Then perhaps that's a good place to start," Ahsoka advises.
The five settle onto the floor in a circle, and Marr closes his eyes, sinking into the Force. He doesn't know how much time has passed, but he hasn't touched only the Light Side for so long. It's just... different here when this is a Light Side nexus. And meditating much the way Sith do would feel... odd when he's in a Jedi Temple.
The scene in front of Marr suddenly shifts, and the next thing he knows, he's in a dark room. The sheer intensity of the Dark Side hanging in the air is almost suffocating. He's in a sitting position on the floor, and he can't shake the feeling that something is terribly, terribly wrong.
A dark laugh rings out, and Marr whips around at the sound of a lightsaber igniting, looking up at the hooded figure standing over him. He recognizes him instantly, even if he's never seen him dressed as a Sith before.
Sidious.
And he's holding a red lightsaber in one hand, and the Darksaber in the other. The blades are crossed only inches from Marr's throat, leaving no room to try and back away.
Icy fear claws at him, but he lifts his head anyway, glaring back at the Sith defiantly. This is a vision he knows somewhere in the back of his mind, but why is he seeing this?
"You thought you could defeat me, Mandalorian?" sneers the Sith mockingly.
"You'll fail eventually," Marr retorts, with far more confidence than he feels. Is this the future? Is this what will happen if he continues going after him? Is he doomed to fail at this?
"Take him away," Sidious hisses, and Marr looks up sharply as several guards approach, dragging him to his feet and shoving him towards the doorway of what he thinks might be the throne room.
A ripple runs through the Force again, and Revan suddenly appears in front of him. "Revan?" Marr asks, "What..." He doesn't know what he wants to say even, past the hopelessness clawing at him. This can't be an indication of how it's going to end. It can't be. He doesn't want to believe it, but –
"There is strength in numbers," Revan states, and Mar blinks in confusion.
"What?"
"If you do this alone, you will be destroyed," he warms ominously.
That's – that's better than what he was afraid of. He already knew he can't do this all by himself, but maybe he needs to more openly talk about it with someone. Ahsoka, maybe? "What must I do?" he asks, although he knows a question that direct will never get a straight answer anyway.
"Follow the Force," Revan responds, as though he couldn't have figured that out, but he knows how this works by now, "When the past and the future are one."
What does that mean?
He doesn't have the chance to ask anything else, before the scene fades out, and he finds himself back in the Temple, except that he's the only one in the room now.
... okay?
He doesn't move to get up though, his mind still whirling from the implications of the vision. He doesn't understand it really, but... It's obvious he can't try to take down Sidious alone. That much he already knew, but maybe he needs to call on more people than he was initially thinking to help him. Maybe it is time that he takes up the role as the Mand'alor. But he has to do it at a point that they'll be able to take out the Empire with no mistakes, or the planet will be destroyed. He knows it.
And as for Sidious, does he need to look for any other possible surviving Jedi beyond Ahsoka? Really, he can't imagine going to fight Sidious with just the two of them and Kanan. If it was that easy, someone would have done it a long time ago.
Are there any other Jedi out there? Anyone who could help them?
'The past and the future are one...'
Unless that means... something to do with Anakin? People from his past?
If Anakin was on their side, he knows they could do it, with the right planning. But the question is how?
They'd still have to find a time to attack Sidious when he couldn't call literally thousands of troops to his defense, and finding a time when he's off Coruscant is next to impossible.
If they could get the Empire to spread out their forces thinner across the galaxy it would be easier. But they don't currently have the resources to scale massive operations everywhere enough to make a significant difference. That's exactly the problem.
'There are strength in numbers'.
With most of the Mandalorians on his side, it would help massively, but they still need something more, and he doesn't know what.
It's something he'll have to think about more. Maybe something one of the others sees here will help.
**w**
Vizma jumps to her feet, looking wildly around at the scene surrounding her. She's standing in the middle of... somewhere. She doesn't recognize the area but that's not what matters. What does is the bodies everywhere.
And all of them look like Mandalorians.
Panic hits her first, and she wants to run to them, to see if there's anyone here who's still alive, but a part of her is too scared to even try. She doesn't want to know, if these are – if anyone she knows is here. Her friends from Mandalore, or maybe – no, no. She can't think that. She can't lose anyone else from her family. Not after Satine. She can't. She won't. She'll kill every last Imperial in the galaxy if they dare touch one more person in her family.
"Vizma."
She starts, whipping around to see... another Mandalorian? One who's still standing.
Wait, why does he look so familiar? She's seen... statues of him before? Wait a minute, isn't that – "Who are you?" Vizma demands.
"Tarre Vizsla," he replies.
"What?!" she yelps. What's going on here? He died over a thousand years ago!
And wait a second, why is he holding the Darksaber? It belongs to her father now. Although. It was his first, and this is a vision. She thinks. She's never had one before, but she knows her father does quite frequently.
"Why am I here? What happened?" she asks, looking back to the bodies on the ground for a brief moment, unable to suppress how sick she feels at the sight of them. They're Clan Vizsla and Kryze, but she dares not look closer.
"You cannot give up," Tarre says, firmly, "No matter how many fall, there will always be more who stand up and fight. And there will always be more who you need to fight for. You can't stop."
How does he know she was even thinking about any of that? Fear claws at her again, she stares back at his face, refusing to look at the surrounding scene, trying to ignore the voice whispering in her head. If this is the cost, if she'll lose her entire family, then what's the point? It's not until this moment that she realized how much she's scared of that. "It isn't as simple as you make it sound," she replies, finally.
"It is not," he agrees, surprisingly, "But you know death is not the end. No one is truly gone."
It's true, she knows, but it's still hard to accept. She still misses Satine every day, and she knows that she'll see her again one day, but it's... different. It doesn't feel real. It's another plane of existence, one she doesn't much care to think about at this age. She wishes her aunt was still with her now.
Tarre steps closer, holding out the Darksaber. "You must fight," he encourages.
She stares down at it, trying to look anywhere but at the bodies.
Yes, he is right.
If nothing else, she has to fight in their memory. She has to avenge them. She can't give up just because she's... scared. Mandalorians shouldn't be scared. They're warriors. It isn't herself that she's afraid for – but it's more... living while everyone she knows are dead. She would avenge all of them and never stop, but she knows what her father means when he cautions about getting lost in revenge. No vengeance will bring the dead back.
Slowly, hesitantly, Vizma reaches forwards, hand closing around the saber hilt, right before she jolts back to herself in the Temple.
She's alone all of a sudden, and for some reason, the ground is trembling. Danger nags at her, and... What's going on?
She jumps to her feet, running through the only opening she can find, right as the other four run out of openings of their own. More debris is falling around them already, like the Temple is collapsing.
"What's going on?" she asks, nervously.
"You won't believe what I saw!" Ezra exclaims.
"Talk later!" Kanan orders, bolting for the opening at the far end of the hall. She doesn't waste a moment, and just runs too. Whatever's going on, they need to get out of here.
**w**
Marr has no idea why the Temple is suddenly falling apart, but he runs after the others without looking back – or would have, if something in the Force hadn't suddenly nudged at him, urging him to look back. He pauses in his tracks for a moment, seeing Ahsoka doing likewise, turning around.
At the far end of the hall, a tiny, green, familiar figure sits perched, and for a moment, his breath catches in his throat.
Yoda.
He hasn't seen him in so long that, for a moment, all he can do is stare.
He suspected that he was still alive, but it never fully clicked until this moment. He knows Yoda's not really here, but it's close enough. (Is Yoda one of the people from the past he needs to find to help take down Sidious?)
Yoda raises a clawed hand, both a wave and a gesture for them to get moving.
Marr finally comes back to himself, turning and running to catch up with the others, Ahsoka at his side.
He... didn't realize, until right now, how much he wanted to see Yoda again. He was his first master, after all. He'd been so excited and nervous when the Grandmaster had announced he was taking him as a padawan. All the other padawans – even Ahsoka, honestly – had been so jealous. And he'd just been nervous that he was going to be a serious disappointment.
That's part of why it had hurt so much when Yoda passed him off on Obi-Wan, but Marr's long since moved past those feelings. The Grandmaster was busy, and he understands it much better now. He didn't have time for it. It wasn't anything personal.
And besides, he can only be grateful to Yoda now, because if not for that, Obi-Wan would probably have never taken him. He wouldn't have gotten to know him, or maybe even Anakin. He wouldn't have lived the best years of his life, and he can't imagine such a universe.
He and Obi-Wan had their share of problems, but he can't imagine having had anyone else as his master.
And he could never imagine a world where Anakin wasn't like his brother.
They finally sprint outside the Temple, to see the steadily darkening sky. They were in there that long?
Bright red glowing marks crisscross the ground, and he doesn't take the time to consider what in the world happened to them, but he can feel the Dark Side, and see two familiar Inquisitor's ships.
It's time to get out of here.
Chopper flies overhead, and they scramble inside. The door closes the moment the last ducks inside. "I saw Master Yoda," Ezra announces eagerly, once they make the jump to hyperspace.
"Saw him?" exclaims Kanan. "What did he say?"
"He said to find Malachor," Ezra frowns, "Who's Malachor?"
Malachor?! What? Why would Yoda want them to go there? He, Kanan, and Ahsoka all exchange equally incredulous glances.
"What?" Vizma asks.
"Malachor isn't a person. It's a place," Ahsoka replies.
"I don't know why Master Yoda would want us to go there," Marr murmurs, confused. It doesn't make sense. Jedi haven't gone there in... years.
"What's so special about this 'Malachor'?" Ezra wonders.
"It's an ancient Sith world, forbidden to Jedi," Ahsoka explains. Which is why he's so confused. It's more like something Revan would advise they do, not Yoda.
"Maybe that's why we need to go there, then," Vizma realizes, "The Jedi obviously should have been doing something differently for them to be destroyed so easily."
Marr gives her a smile, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Yes. Perhaps on Malachor we can find some... answers." Though he can't imagine about what.
**w**
Locating Malachor was simple enough, although they were gone longer than Marr expected. In the meantime, the rebels found a new base, so they finally have a place to settle down. And it's not a place Marr and the other Jedi can afford to endanger because the Inquisitors keep sensing them. The sooner they leave, the better.
"What are those?" Vizma exclaims, as they stand gathered outside the main structure where the rebels are staying. Enormous, greyish, six-legged creatures are crawling everywhere beyond a fence.
"Spiders," Kanan offers cheerfully, though there's an underlying note of seriousness in his voice.
"They almost overran our base," Hera adds, "But we found a way to stop them."
"Good to hear," Marr replies, "Where's Ezra?"
"Down by the fence," Kanan answers, "I think he's still trying to connect with those things."
"Trying to connect with animals again?" Vizma asks, "He's been doing that a lot lately."
"I'll go get him," Ahsoka decides, heading off. "We should get moving."
Marr couldn't agree more. He doesn't know what's going to happen in this mission to Malachor, but something tells him that it's going to change everything again. He can't really tell if it's in a good way or a bad way, or maybe it's just that he's too nervous to believe that he might actually be sensing something... good. Besides, he's not willing to risk letting his guard down because of that – he knows it will not be an easy journey, regardless of the results.
Their conversation is promptly interrupted at the sound of Chopper beeping loudly as he rolls past, involved in a very animated conversation with some protocol droid. "Haven't seen that one around here before," Marr comments.
BD beeps curiously.
"He's Chopper's new friend," Hera replies.
"... Since when does Chopper have friends?"
BD beeps proudly and starts away to catch up with the others.
"He was a former Imperial droid that he rescued," Sabine cuts in, approaching them, "And he can even out-sass him."
"... that's actually impressive."
Silence settles over them for a few moments as he watches the droids, before Kanan breaks it. "Do you think we'll find what we're looking for?"
"I'm not sure what we are looking for," Marr comments.
Hera frowns, and he can feel her obvious concern and unhappiness. "You going on a mission, and you don't even know what you're doing?"
"Don't worry," Vizma chirps, "This old green guy all Jedi respect for some reason told us to go there, so we'll figure out."
Marr nearly facepalms. Only Vizma would say something like that about Yoda of all people. "I don't know what it is, but we will figure it out," Marr responds. The sun is setting as Ahsoka and Ezra return, and for some reason, it feels fitting. It feels almost like it's... setting on this period of his life again, and everything is about to drastically change.
They leave in the Phantom and settle in the back of the shuttle as it makes the jump to hyperspace. "I sense... something," Marr admits, "I think something is going to happen."
"Of course, something's going to happen," Ahsoka replies, "We're going to a Sith planet." He notices the slight tension in the way she says it, though he doubts anyone else picks up on it. It's only because he knows her so well.
"What?" he asks.
"I don't know what to think about this," Ahsoka admits.
"Master Yoda knows what he's doing."
"I know," she responds, "I just wouldn't have expected him to send us to a Sith planet."
"Hey, I'm half a Sith."
She rolls her eyes. "You use the Dark Side. There is a difference."
"Why does everyone think there has to be labels?" he asks, "There is only the Force."
"I don't think now is a good time to debate Force beliefs," Ahsoka says, dryly.
"Probably not," Marr agrees, "Walking into a death trap isn't usually the best place for that."
"A death trap?" she echoes incredulously.
"For some reason that's the usual assumption when a place is forbidden," he replies. He has to admit that he's worried, though. Maybe he should have left Vizma behind, but she was insisting on coming, and... she does need the experience. He can only hope this isn't going to somehow backfire terribly.
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