She was an absence of life and a vastness of life,
a nothing within everything.
She had surrendered her identity to the Force, and by doing so had been able to retain it.
She had become part of the Force, yet was still Vergere.
From the unity that was the Force, she kept watch over a traitor.
He was no longer her student or her teacher, for he was no longer Jacen Solo.
Darth Caedus walked along a duracrete path, through a park on the relatively obscure world Koroln. The occasional streetlight marred the simple beauty of the fog-covered landscape, and the peeping of various amphibians inhabiting the large pond was distracting, but the peaceful nature of Koroln was obvious in every inch of the area.
Clad in inconspicuous civilian clothes instead of his usual black GAG uniform, and using the Force to deflect attention away, Caedus had stopped briefly on Koroln to consider his recent decisions.
He currently stood at a crossroads, with two choices remaining. If he renounced the ways of the Sith now, he could still reverse the consequences of many of his actions, and might even be accepted back into the Jedi Order. Or, he could fully embrace the dark side of the Force, continue what he and Lumiya had begun, and attempt to bring about an enduring peace.
"Choose, and act, Jacen Solo. But this I must ask of you, choose not from despair or hatred, but from understanding and love, as you have done so many times before," a female voice told him, sad and incredibly familiar. Caedus glanced about to find the source of the voice, but saw only the pond and a neat row of trees. No... there was something moving in the mist. He turned around to see the spectral form of a diminutive avian, watching him from the edge of the water, feathered crest flattened in disapproval. Slanted eyes blinked away tears to gaze solemnly at him.
"Vergere." he said cautiously. "So you were a Sith all along."
"Am I?" she asked quietly. "I am disappointed in you, Jacen. Jedi, Sith... these are but labels, meaningless. It is what you do that counts, not some self-important title. I had thought you learned that long ago," Vergere continued, her tone harsh now.
Caedus smirked, disregarding her.
"Everything you tell me is a lie, remember?" he replied scornfully, and began to walk away from the pond and his former mentor.
Before he left, Vergere called after him one last time.
"I will not stop you, Jacen Solo. You have chosen your destiny. It is the consequences you must deal with now," she told him, as she had years earlier. "And I fear the consequences will be terrible, for all of us," she murmured to herself.
Vergere's words followed him, but they meant nothing now. Darth Caedus had made his decision, for there had only been one option all along. And as he strode back to his StealthX, he was confident that he had chosen correctly, for Allana, for Ben, for all the children of the galaxy.
The spirit of Vergere watched in silence as her former student left.
Was I wrong? she asked herself, eyes glittering with sorrow and pain. No, she thought, answering her own question. Without my help, he might not have survived at all. He might have fallen anyway.
But if I did right, how could it have come to this? How could it end in such tragedy? For that, Vergere had no answer. Tears fell ceaselessly from her slanted eyes, and she knew that even had she still lived, they could never heal a broken heart.
Did I do wrong? The question echoed in her mind, along with her grief, as the ghost of Vergere faded back into the mist.