Disclaimer: Anything you recognize belongs to George Lucas/Disney. Anything you don't recognize probably also belongs to them.

Also, to avoid anyone feeling mislead by the listed chapter length, there is an approximately 850 word author's note at the end. The chapter itself is around 5,750 words long on its own.

Justification

"—ke? Are you okay? Luke?!" A panicked male voice filtered and shifted through his scrambled mind until he realized he was Luke, and the voice was talking to him.

"Wedge?" Luke croaked weakly.

"Kriffing hells Luke, are you okay?" the man paused to breathe in harshly, before he continued to speak. "What the hell was that explo—wait… You can talk!" the man exclaimed as he gingerly stepped over… Luke cut off that thought before it could continue and focused on his wingman instead.

"I'm fine…" Luke rasped, and he really could talk. "What did they do to you?"

Wedge grimaced and shifted enough that Luke could see him cradling his right arm against himself. The Darkness whispered memories of…

Pain as something snapped and tore. So much pain. Fear, because they were preparing to do so much worse…

Relief when they ran.

Luke's breath caught in his throat, and he shoved the hungry Darkness back, along with the anger that surged within him at what it had disclosed.

Despite his efforts, he was still comfortably warm, and the realization made his skin turn clammy.

"Luke? Are you sure you're okay?" the man asked in obvious worry, before he hissed in agony when a slight misstep caused his arm to bounce against his side (and the bitter irony that the injured man was the one asking the question made Luke's stomach turn all over again).

Luke heaved in a harsh breath, then nodded, "I'm fine." He forced himself to meet the other man's pained eyes, "Really."

Wedge frowned, but accepted the answer, then collapsed more than sat down beside Luke with a groan as he jostled his injury. He took a moment to gather himself then spoke, "I was able to use the hypospray from my emergency kit for a pain suppressant, an antibiotic, and a coagulant, but I couldn't make a sling." He shifted and pulled the emergency kit out of one of the pockets on his cargo pants, "Could you make one for me?"

Luke nodded and took the kit from him, grateful that the man still had it in the first place.

As Luke opened the small kit, Wedge spoke again, "Do you know what that explosion was?"

Luke fingered the cloth for the sling, uncertain how to answer, before he shook his head. The motion caused him to catch a glimpse of something glistening down Wedge's arm.

"Wedge?" Luke asked, his tone turning severe as his rising anger stoked the warmth in him further. "Why were you bleeding?"

"Hah," the man laughed weakly. "I guess it seeped through." He shifted and grimaced as pain radiated off of him into the Force, "The… the bone punctured my arm when they broke it. I used my belt as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding until I could get the hypospray prepped." He huffed out a helpless laugh, "I just didn't want to worry you any more than you already were."

Luke's anger flared fully to life, and suddenly he didn't regret the broken bodies lying in a circle around him.

They deserved it.

Between one blink and the next the corpses disappeared, and a familiar giggle echoed in his mind even as Wedge gasped in shock.

Luke's skin crawled.

"Well that's two steps down," that childish female voice said in a teasing tone. "Sure was easy enough. Maybe the Master will even reward us," the disembodied voice of the small rodian added in obvious excitement.

She should be dead. He had seen the bodies…

But wasn't it a good thing if he hadn't actually killed them? He hadn't meant to in the first place…

A shudder passed through Luke, and he realized that suddenly it was much easier to keep the creeping Darkness at bay. Coldness began to seep back into his bones as relief crashed through him.

He had wanted to get past them, yes, but never to kill.

"Don't lie to yourself Dark Initiate, you know what you thought," the female snapped in an accusing tone. "You are not nearly so innocent as that."

Luke's emotions twisted again and knotted as he felt the blood drain from his face.

Dark Initiate.

"You used the Darkness human. That took intent and willpower. The Darkness does not submit to weak-willed commands, and you wanted to save your battle-brother no matter what it took. It merely responded to your wishes." Another giggle crawled across his mind uncomfortably, "The best part is that You. Felt. Vindicated."

For a brief moment Luke felt frozen to the core; then his self-hatred roared back to life in barbed claws that sank into him, bringing with it the warmth that he was quickly growing painfully familiar with.

It almost felt like it was trying to comfort him, and wasn't that just disturbing?

"Luke?" Wedge asked uncertainly, and Luke's eyes darted over to the other man's in guilty agitation. As soon as Wedge saw he had Luke's attention he spoke again, sounding shaken, "I don't suppose you have any idea what's going on?"

Luke looked around them at the shadowed floor, and for a brief moment his mind superimposed broken beings. He cringed, and the nightmarish image was gone, but...

He was so messed up. How could he have done that?

Luke returned his attention to the cloth from the kit and started to make it into a sling with shaky hands and spoke with a contrasting steadiness that surprised him, "I don't think they were real Wedge."

"Not... real? They sure as shit felt real, Luke," the man responded incredulously.

Luke gently worked the sling under the male's arm, and secured it around his neck (and if Wedge felt the tremor in his hands he didn't say anything). After he was done he scrubbed his fingers through his hair (when had he lost his hat?) and stood, "This place... it's some kind of really messed up Force anomaly."

"Messed up Force anomaly? You mean like the Dark Side?" Wedge asked hesitantly.

Luke nodded, grateful that he didn't have to say the words aloud, "I had thought maybe it kept them alive all these years, but now I don't know what to think. Nothing here makes sense."

Wedge hissed in distaste, "That's horrible. No wonder this mission has been messing with your head."

"Messing with my..." Luke started doubtfully, but then he really started to think. Sure he had been having issues controlling his emotions, but when had it really started to become a problem?

When did everything begin to truly break down?

"Commander Skywalker, we have a situation at a previous base that we will be discussing tomorrow," Mon Mothma stated formally as Luke sat with the Rogues at breakfast. "Here are the debriefing files. The meeting will take place at 19:00." She passed a data chip to Luke, and he nodded respectfully. Once she walked away he turned the chip around between his fingers curiously, then pocketed it and returned to the conversation with the others.

The next day, he dreamed and awoke to a broken holopad.

Everything was this Force-forsaken place's fault. Luke scowled angrily. The Darkness caressed him, and he wanted to shake it off.

He was supposed to be better than this.

"You might be right, Wedge," he bit out, then he saw Wedge's concerned expression. He dragged his hand through his hair again in distress, and breathed out heavily as he tried to calm his thoughts.

Wedge was injured. He couldn't afford to lose his head right now.

The Darkness backed off willingly for once, and oddly seemed chastised. It was a strange moment, and Luke tried not to think about it too hard as he held out his hand to help the other man stand up again, "We need to find the others. You need medical treatment."

Neither of them mentioned how lost they were.

Luke picked up the flashlight this time, and continued to support Wedge as they moved forward again.

=-.-=

Luke looked around as he and Wedge settled down at the base of a statute to allow the man to rest. The dark-haired male had been weakening steadily as time dragged on, and Luke knew that the situation was grim. Frustration twisted through worry, and the now-constant presence of lingering warmth increased slightly, before he shoved it away as far as it would go.

He shifted uncomfortably and tried to focus on what he could see: statues, carvings...

No matter what he did, the warmth of the Darkness clung to him.

... pillars, some sort of throne...

Laughter echoed around the room, and Luke cursed as he looked around franticly for the source.

"That sounds like..." Wedge began weakly, and Luke hushed him, his expression wild with fear and anger.

The imposter.

Luke stood in front of Wedge protectively, even as fear crawled through his gut. He had no idea if he would even be able to do anything against the man that had stolen his voice earlier, but his anger gave him courage.

"Aye, there's a good lad. Looks like Maru was right, ye do pick things up fast, dontcha?" the male chuckled jovially, then dropped the accent as if he couldn't be bothered to keep it up. "The kids told me it didn't take much."

Luke closed his eyes as the tongues of hot anger-fuelled Darkness flickered against his skin at the memory.

He would be damned if he let Wedge get hurt again.

He shook his head and drew in a harsh breath shakily through his nose, before he opened his eyes.

Calm down. The man was just goading him.

"Leave Wedge out of this," Luke stated flatly.

"Oh, you earned your voice back? And you're making demands too, are you?" the voice asked, and Luke could sense the sneer behind the tone. The male laughed maliciously, "You're learning Initiate..." the voice trailed off.

"Luke..." Wedge spoke fearfully, his tired voice strained from constant pain.

"But you are not strong enough to challenge your Master yet," the imposter finished.

"LUKE!" Wedge yelped, and Luke whipped around.

He was going to be too slow. Why was he so damn slow?!

For a brief moment he saw Wedge held captive by a massive red-haired male, then the small light that they had been using abruptly shattered.

The room plunged into darkness, and the after-image glowed in his vision.

"LET HIM GO!" Luke shouted desperately, and the sound echoed around the chamber.

Silence.

"As you wish," the man's voice slipped through the blackness like a knife into flesh.

A sickeningly harsh snap cut through the silence, followed by the sound of a collapsing body.

No.

"What did you do?" Luke asked weakly.

"You should have used your anger, boy. Apparently you've learned nothing," the male replied cruelly.

NO.

Fury (lossdespairdenial) tore through him, and the Darkness keyed in on him like a krayt dragon to blood, nearly accosting him in its eagerness, and for once Luke didn't care.

This wasn't real. None of this could be real. There was no kriffing way.

This was just another nightmare.

His fingers tangled harshly in his hair as tears ran down his face, and he laughed.

He was going to kill that man.

"Going to have to catch me first, Initiate," the man taunted, but even in the pitch black of the room Luke found that he could easily latched onto the man's location now. He had become so attuned to the Darkness that it was almost like changing com-channels, because suddenly he could sense the constant pulse of Darkness that the planet was giving off.

In the stones, the sand, the metal, the AIR

It really was no wonder he had been having difficulty. The Darkness here must cloud everything.

And it writhed around the imposter.

Luke lunged for the man, subconsciously augmenting his movements at the Darkness' goading, but even so, the much larger male side-stepped him smoothly.

The man's laughter echoed in the dark room, "You're going to have to do better than that. If only Kas'im were here, he'd teach you a thing or two about technique."

Luke scowled, "Shut up murderer."

At this the male burst out laughing, and for once he actually sounded truly amused, "I've been called many things boy, but murderer and killer were always the most boring. My favourite was always The Marauder."

"I can see why The Marauder likes you."

Luke's fists tightened as he sensed the man's pride in his own violent nature. He wanted to punch in the supposed "Marauder's" smugly amused face so badly he could almost taste it, and he half imagined that he could hear the Darkness sigh wistfully at the thought.

For once, they were in complete agreement.

Luke shot after the man, and the man dodged again, though this time by a narrower margin.

Kill. Kill, kill, KILL the Force-damned murderer.

Luke followed the presence of the man doggedly, growing closer with each attempt as the Darkness sang through his veins and howled against his skin.

His fist connected with a crunch, and instead of feeling sickened as his robotic fist forced its way into the chest cavity of the man who called himself "Marauder," he felt satisfaction.

Revenge.

A laugh wheezed its way out of The Marauder, "It took you long enough." Sickly golden irises glowed against the darkness as they bore into Luke's, "If only you could see your eyes right now."

Luke's stomach twisted uncomfortably.

"The colour of resolve."

The Force shifted wildly, and then the room was lit by torches. Luke squinted as he was nearly blinded, then looked in morbid curiosity at his handiwork.

His stomach plummeted, and he was almost sick all over again.

What.
In.
The.
HELLS.

Somehow. Some-kriffing-how, the body pinned against the wall by his fist had a sling around its bloody and misshapen arm, and a snapped neck, and –

There was no karking way in all of the Universe or its hells that this could POSSIBLY be Wedge.

The heat in his body drained until he was almost cold again - and there was no way that the Darkness would ever feel completely cold to him ever again, because…

He was a monster.

With a gentleness that felt like cruel mockery, he lowered his wing-man's broken body to the ground and withdrew his hand before he moved back and sat on his haunches.

Was this even real? So much of this place had been confusing...

His hands twitched, then rose and twisted into his hair, staining it with red clumps as he stared blankly at the floor, his eyes burning with unshed tears.

He didn't deserve to cry…

"Commander Skywalker?" a familiar voice called, sounding wary.

Luke turned uncertainly, and then cringed when he saw most of Rogue squadron, and several others from the mission standing in the entrance of the room, "Hobbie..."

When had they gotten there?

"Is that... is that Wedge?" the young male asked hesitantly, sounding very much like he didn't want his suspicions confirmed.

Luke tensed involuntarily, and then nodded.

The group inhaled sharply, and Luke heard several of them curse, before Hobbie spoke again, "What... what happened?"

Luke wrapped his arms around himself and shook his head. He didn't want to talk about that.

"'e has blood all over 'im. Tha conclusion seems obvious enough tah me," another voice spoke, and Luke felt a spark of anger that quickly blossomed into rage. "What do ye have to say fer yerself Lieutenant Commander Skywalker?" the voice of the Captain's imposter demanded.

Luke shook his head furiously, "It wasn't me."

The man clicked his tongue in a patronizing manner, "Interestin', seein' as I have it on good authority that yer current fightin' style leaves exactly this sort o' injury. Not quite as elegant as one o' them laser swords, but just as easy tah identify, yeah?"

Luke tensed angrily and muttered darkly to himself.

"What? Didn' hear ya, lad," the man said with a shit-eating grin that no one but Luke saw, because they were all looking at him with a mixture of expressions.

"I said," Luke bit out, as he stood unsteadily, his hands twitching as the Dark Side writhed around him, "It. Should. Have. Been. You."

Luke lunged for the man, pushing past several of his comrades, before he wrapped his hands around the male's throat in triumph, "You'll pay," he practically snarled.

The man's eyes glinted in amusement, before his face contorted into a mimicry of terror as he yelped, "What's gotten into ya? Let me go! Help!"

Suddenly Luke was being grabbed at by anyone close enough to reach, and Luke howled in anger, "He's a fake! THIS IS ALL HIS FAULT!"

"Stop him!"

"Skywalker!"

"Let him go, damn it!"

"What the hell is your problem?"

"You did kill Wedge, didn't you?"

"How could you?!"

"Murderer!"

"Shut up! You don't know anything!" Luke hissed dangerously.

Why wouldn't they believe him?

Were they in on this?

Luke froze momentarily at the thought, then latched onto it. There was no other explanation.

"Traitors," he growled, and with that the Force exploded away from him, flinging everyone away in a replication of the small bodies flying from him earlier, only this time he only felt satisfaction.

"Traitors are enemies," the Force seemed to whisper soothingly, "and enemies don't deserve pity or guilt."

Luke ignored the sounds of collapsing bodies, and refocused on the male, only to be met with a triumphant grin, "You know, I was hesitant to listen to that bitch Maru, given her past, but apparently she finally got over her stupid reservations." He laughed, "I was never very good at turning Light Siders, but I knew she had the potential. Annoyingly smart that one, and very good at reading and manipulating people."

Luke felt a shift in the Force, and with it, the man's form began to change. Luke's grip weakened as the man's neck grew wider along with the rest of his frame, and Luke found himself with a tenuous grip on the now much taller and massive red-headed male that he had seen for less than a handful of seconds.

Imposter indeed.

"I knew it," Luke hissed victoriously, and readjusted his hands, so that his fingers were digging into the sides of The Marauder's neck despite their obvious height difference. His robotic hand would be strong enough for this, "I knew you were a fake."

The man huffed out a laugh, "Ah, but did you know they were fake? Just look around you, Initiate."

Luke twitched uncomfortably at the label the man insisted on applying to him and glanced around the room warily, expecting a repeat of what had happened earlier with the younglings, but...

"Well... most of them were fakes anyway," Luke distantly felt the man shrug as death echoes abruptly crashed into him, apparently suppressed until that moment. Feeling nauseous, he looked at three broken bodies that he vaguely recognized from the ground troops, as the large man continued, "Of course, they were all being controlled, so their reactions were fake, but you seemed willing enough to dispose of them at the time, so I guess it can't be too much of a loss," he said with a sly grin.

No. What had he –

The Marauder continued, cutting through Luke's thoughts with a condescending smile, "You'll also be happy to know that your wing-man was never in any danger. We used one of your dead comrades from your fight with the clones as the foundation, and Maru's been busy projecting an illusion over them. Illusions have actually become one of her specialties since she's fallen, along with concealing Force activity."

Fake.

Relief swept through Luke, but it was immediately quashed, because if everything that had happened to Wedge was fake, and the people he had killed were being controlled… then what had he been fighting for? He had allowed himself to listen to the call of the Darkness (had killed his own comrades) for nothing.

Luke felt numb. He couldn't even find the willpower to be angry about being tricked, and coldness started to sink back into his bones.

The air around Luke flickered, and suddenly he was surrounded by at several hundred beings standing in militant lines; some wearing mining equipment, some wearing dark training clothing and ceremonial robes, and some wearing the far more familiar winter-wear of those that had come on the mission with him. Another flicker and he was walled in by clones, and hit by a wave of that familiar raw hate that he had felt before, only this time he could easily identify it as The Marauder's.

Like an adult with a youngling, The Marauder pried Luke's wavering grip free from his person, "I see you've lost your resolve, Initiate. That's pretty dangerous this close to the source of the Nexus. Allow me to rekindle it." He gestured around, "All of the people that you came here with are in this group, but not all of them look like who they are. If you willingly kill half of the group, the ones that survive will go free. Most will not fight back. If you do not do this," he grinned, "I will kill every last one of them for you."

The anger flowed back in as if it had never left, and with it came that glorious warmth.

Yes, he was angry at the man, and the situation, but mostly he was just angry at himself; at his own pathetic weakness.

There was no way to beat the man. He didn't even know how much of this was REAL!

But... if there really WAS a chance to save some of them...

The Darkness pointed out soothingly that it wouldn't be the first time he had been forced to do something terrible to save others.

Luke stood shakily and stepped forward as the clones watched him passively, with their helmets secured under their arms. He could feel The Marauder's hatred pouring off of them in waves, and he smiled grimly. These, at least, were not his people.

The people that he had just willingly tried to kill.

The hatred was too obvious compared to the rest of the beings in the room, which felt clearly neutral; that had to mean that The Marauder's control wasn't as good as the woman he called Maru, and with so little control, there was no way they were also under an illusion. These, he could kill without guilt.

He forced himself not to think about what he would do once he finished with the clones, and the Force hummed under his skin in anticipation.

He hoped they at least fought back.

Don't think. Just move.

Adrenaline pulsed through him and he erupted into motion. Much to his relief, they did fight back and he settled into a rhythm that was similar to the one with Irys when they first arrived on the planet.

Bodies fell around him, and the amount of power he felt surging through him was hypnotic – he wanted more.

Without thought, he turned toward the main group once the final clone hit the floor, and he began to move lithely over the corpses that covered the ground, as the Darkness resonated within him.

Don't think. Just MOVE.

"LUKE!" quite possibly the only voice that might have reached him in that moment called out desperately. A voice that shouldn't have been there.

"L... Leia?" Luke asked in confusion, as his mind floundered wildly in an attempt to catch up. He turned in the direction of the voice, and then flinched at her familiar soft features.

"This isn't the way, Luke," she said, with an expression so full of sorrow that Luke wanted to curl in on himself.

But...

"You should understand Leia! I don't have a choice," he insisted as he shifted uncomfortably under her piercing gaze. "I don't ever seem to."

Her expression softened, "Of course you have a choi–"

"What do you think you're doing, Maru?" the furious voice of The Marauder cut across the large room flatly.

Leia flinched, before her expression firmed, "Stopping you, like I should have done a long time ago." Her form flickered, and Luke found himself staring at a much less bedraggled, but still recognizable blonde female with grey eyes. "Luke. I know I've given you no reason to trust me, but you've got to listen. I can't keep him bound for much longer."

Luke looked away from her briefly and saw the massive red-haired male straining against something invisible, his eyes that vile shade of yellow, and his veins standing out from exertion. Luke immediately turned back to the woman, desperate for a solution, "What do I do?"

She seemed to relax marginally at his acceptance, "On the far end of the room is a Sith holocron that I'm currently concealing. A second, far more condensed Nexus was bound to it so that it could be transported. It was brought here before the cult's compound collapsed, and it is what has been strengthening the Nexus here to such a degree. You must destroy it. It has taken over this place, and controls everything." She grimaced, "Under normal circumstances, destroying a Sith's holocron would have been much easier if there had been a way to keep you from allowing the Darkness access to you, but as I said, it is no simple holocron anymore. I wasn't lying when I said you wouldn't survive without your anger here. Not with how untrained you are." At this comment she looked truly mournful, "I'm sorry for your loss. It is possible to recover from, but if you don't have a teacher..."

Luke shifted uncomfortably under her gaze as possessive tendrils of Darkness caressed and clung to him.

Would Yoda even take him back now?

She tensed, and Luke felt The Marauder's Force presence start to break free from whatever it was being restrained by. "Never mind, you need to go. I'm about to release my hold on everything here and focus on restraining him. Prepare yourself. The power of the Nexus will seem overwhelming. You will need your anger until the very last moment. To destroy the holocron you will have to let as much of it go as you can. I know it will be hard, but it is your only chance."

Luke stiffened, and then he nodded resolutely. Within moments the entire room flickered like a glitch in an old holo. The blonde female's form shifted, and then he was looking at Irys, who immediately collapsed to the floor gasping weakly. Time seemed to slow as he took in the dazed forms of the Alliance members dispersed across the large room now that the massive group had disappeared - and damn it, there really were three dead bodies near the entrance to the massive room from the earlier confrontation.

Then the Darkness flared wildly, and it snatched his attention away from them entirely. His head snapped around to a previously inconspicuous end of the room as the temperature seemed to plummet. His teeth chattered from the sudden change.

Not enough anger.

His eyes landed on a softly glowing triangular prism, with sides no bigger than his palm, that rested innocently on an altar. This was the source of the Nexus?

Luke looked at The Marauder, and saw his gaze locked on the small pyramid with a look of obsessive greed that verged on lust in his glowing yellow eyes. Luke shuddered as the tendrils of darkness gouged at him like massive icy hooks.

How could anyone WANT that?

He shivered violently, and took a step forward, but...

The clinging self-hatred wasn't enough. He could almost FEEL his body trying to shut down in shock.

... he missed the warmth, and not just because this was killing him.

For the first time Luke deliberately reached further for that warmth - past the too-weak irritation and the nearly worthless frustration - and sank his mind into his carefully repressed anger like claws.

Heat almost seemed to explode gloriously within him, with how quickly it spread like a flame, and without thought he smiled.

Who WOULDN'T want this?

His mind seemed like a chain reaction as one thought lead to another, spiralling him downward into a whirlpool of fury, and it felt wonderful. The thick Darkness danced against his skin and sang through his thoughts.

How strong was this "Maru" woman if she was able to contain this?

Jealousy twisted through him.

"Focus, Luke," Maru's voice echoed through the air. "Remember, this THING is the source of everything that has gone wrong here."

Luke stiffened irately at the reminder, then nodded in agreement. The Darkness scrambled against his skin unpleasantly, clearly displeased with what he was about to do, but it only succeeded in cementing in his mind the fact that it was just trying to manipulate him.

In what Luke felt was probably the height of irony, his anger at the Darkness only served to strengthen his connection with it, and he began to move toward the altar purposefully.

Within moments he stood before it, with his hand hovering over the misleadingly small anchor of the source, as he shook in barely contained rage.

"You don't want to do that, boy," The Marauder spoke, and the holocron's glow pulsed with his words.

Luke barked out a cold laugh, "Actually, I really do."

"Are you really stupid enough to throw away that much power?" the man demanded, and for a moment Luke doubted himself.

To lose all of this power...

The Darkness pulsed around him in pleasantly tantalizing waves.

Luke turned, and saw something akin to desperation in The Marauder's eyes. He wondered if that was as close as the man could come to fear, and somehow the thought decided him. Luke smiled with a cruelness that was foreign on his face, "If I can do anything to so much as ruin your day after what you've done to me and my people, then I will."

The man was silent for little more than a beat, "Damn you, Maru, let me go!"

"Hurry, Luke," her voice whispered against his ear as the man writhed even more wildly against whatever was restraining him

Maybe he shouldn't have provoked the red-headed man...

"You're just some weak-willed untrained brat, Initiate! You think you can challenge me?!" the massive man bellowed, and the disembodied female voice of Maru shrieked in agony as The Marauder burst free.

For a moment he stood, catching his breath as Luke stared in disbelief. "You... obviously... didn't learn... the first time," the man said ominously, and Luke darted his hand forward to snatch up the holocron. The man straightened and grinned, "That's okay. Give it your best shot. While you try to do that I'll just be killing off your people. Let's see you try and calm your emotions through that."

Anger churned in Luke's gut, and he cursed.

"Stop! You cannot fight him," Maru's voice pleaded. "He was only toying with you before. If you want to stop him, you must destroy the holocron!"

Luke's hands tensed around the small device, and without much thought, his body half-turned to face the enemy, his muscles coiled and ready to launch him toward his enemy.

"Focus, Luke," she begged, her voice taking on Leia's tone and timbre. "Let go of as much of your anger as you can. It is the only way to save those people."

Luke froze at the reminder of why he was doing this, then nodded resolutely and turned away again. He couldn't watch...

Focus. Let it go.

Screams erupted behind him, and he ground his teeth together as tears began to slide down his cheeks against his will.

It was the only way. Release everything into the Force.

The Darkness bucked against him as his grasp on his anger began to unclench. Sobs and chills wracked his body, and the cold began to tear into him.

So cold. He missed the warmth.

No. Let it go.

Agony and the shock-waves of death rolled across the room now that Maru was no longer hiding them, and Luke gasped and collapsed to his knees. He retched dryly and tasted stomach acid.

Let it go, or it would never be over.

Luke closed his eyes and focused on ignoring his surroundings.

This wasn't revenge. As much as part of him wanted it to be, it wasn't. This was for the sake of everyone. They were going to escape this place, and they were going to go back to Haven.

Anger continued to flicker across his mind, but it was slowly, slowly, decreasing as his core temperature seemed to drop with it.

He was going to return Leia's holo of her mother, and they were going to find a way to save Han. He couldn't afford to be dragged down in his own anger, because too many people were counting on him.

Eventually Luke reached a standstill. He gasped in pain against the chill, but even so, muted anger still wavered at the periphery of his thoughts. It would have to be good enough.

He tentatively reached for the Force, pleading for anything to answer his call, except the Darkness that was swiftly working to shut down his body.

Light came slowly, and tingled painfully against his fingertips, clearly doubtful of his intent, and tentative in its response.

"Please," he said, his voice almost non-existent.

The tingling in his fingertips increased agonizingly, like warmth after a too-close brush with frost-bite. There was none of the easy pleasantness that had come with the Darkness' warmth, but he clung to it anyway, for as long as he could.

The holocron. It had to be destroyed.

Either it read his intent, or the Light simply agreed, because it radiated out of his fingers, before focusing sharply on the small prism.

"NO!" a rage-filled voice echoed from far away, but Luke could only focus on the small device as it pulsed with its own eerie light.

Something wildly angry tore into Luke. A crack appeared on the pyramid, and the glow began to seep out.

"Let the boy GO!" a horrified voice shrieked.

The cracks spread, and something equally wild, but not as angry slammed into Luke's being.

Luke collapsed in agony as the two voices echoed through his mind.

"He's MINE."

"Let him go Kaox!

"NEVER!"

Why can't you JUST FINALLY DIE!?"

The holocron reached its shattering point and exploded outward with a pulse, and the voices cut to silence abruptly.

Pain overwhelmed Luke, and he fell into unconsciousness.

AN: Now that we have some names to go with the faces of those mystery Force users I can elaborate some more about the setting for this entire Arc. Hooray!

Random Info (and Some History):

- Both Maru and Kaox (The Marauder) are characters from the EU/Legends which I took and expanded on until they became what you see here. I plan to elaborate more on them later within the story, but feel free to hunt them down via google for more information if you're the impatient sort. ;P

- Allyuen itself was a planet that was considered to be in the space policed by (some of you may have guessed it) The Brotherhood of Darkness around one-thousand years before the Battle at Yavin (BBY) during the last decade of what is known as the Galactic Republic's Dark Age.

- For those of you that don't know, The Brotherhood of Darkness was a group of Darksiders founded by the fallen Jedi "Master" (a rank given in poor judgement) Skere Kaan.

At the time of its formation, the Galactic Republic was falling apart as large numbers of Sith Lords claimed territory across the Outer Rim, and had started to infringe on the Core Worlds. Interestingly enough this brought about the existence of Light Lords (something I didn't realize would be a thing given the Jedi's values). These Light Lords also claimed territories and were responsible for defending them from the Dark Lords, feudal style. It was in this climate that the Jedi extremist Kaan was given the title of Master by the Council for political reasons in an attempt to lessen his radical personality (sort of the opposite of Anakin). He (of course) left the Order, because he felt that it was at fault for being too passive in the war against the Sith Empire, and formed the Brotherhood out of like-minded followers. He then proceeded to trick the Jedi Council and the Republic into believing that the Brotherhood would take control of what was left of the Sith Empire in order to help reform the Republic (let us not forget that the enemy of our enemy is not necessarily our friend). Within a period of months the Brotherhood decimated the remains of the Sith Empire and took their territories.

(Un)surprisingly the Brotherhood took their winnings then decided to screw the Republic over and declared war on it. After such a devious plot, the next step was to obviously declare himself a Dark Lord of the Sith (which he did), and he became known as The Dark One. As an ex-Jedi he came up what was considered an unconventional philosophy for the Sith, in which all were considered "equal" in the Brotherhood. By this, my understanding is that they had equal opportunity to rise in the ranks, thus following what was known as the "Rule of the Strong" (a philosophy that is pretty self-explanatory). He split power among himself and two others, and created a Sith Council, much like the Jedi equivalent, in which each member was given the title Dark Lord. Their ultimate evil plan? Take over the Galaxy and rule through a Dark Side Dictatorship (duh).

In order to reach this goal they started to create a massive army. To do this they opened academies across the galaxy to train Force-sensitives, and non-sensitives (though the ones incapable of using the Force were infantry aka cannon-fodder). After nine years they managed to accumulate over twenty thousand Sith (like dayum, there used to be a lot of Force sensitive people). Their opposition created The Army of Light (apparently way back when, the Jedi were far less the pacifists that they eventually became), led by Jedi battlemaster (and Light Lord) Hoth (how familiar). Needless to say, epic long-winded battles ensued, and eventually something had to give.

Enter former Koribban acolyte Bane (yep, that guy), who did what Sith do best, and betrayed everyone through a bit of trickery. After having one of his plans left incomplete because of Kaan's over-confidence (resulting in a weak victory in a battle), Bane decided the leadership and philosophy of the Brotherhood were too weak. As it turns out he really wasn't wrong, because there was apparently a LOT of in-fighting (as is pretty typical for people that are obsessed with power). He convinced a now very paranoid and nearly insane (but still overly confident) Kaan to use a plan that ended up literally blowing up in everyone's face (and by that I mean it killed virtually all of both armies by sucking out their Force presence and locking it in a void).

From there Darth Bane decided to implement "The Rule of Two," which is the legacy we find ourselves dealing with by the time period of the movies. As far as successful longevity, this philosophy worked much better, but it is not what Luke found himself dealing with in the caves of Allyuen… because the Sith Lord Kaox Krul was a loyal (and very powerful) member of the Brotherhood (an extra little tidbit for the people that sat through all of that to make it easier to look him up).