I'm sorry about the delay since the last update, but this chapter was rather difficult to complete. I greatly extended it from the original version, but found it difficult to add content without needlessly extending the story without progressing the plot. More is better, but an abundance of words detracts from the quality. I always appreciate feedback and reviews. I typically write fictions that people like, and I know if people like them if they take only one or two minutes to leave feedback. Comments or criticisms are always appreciated. Any ideas or improvements are even better and I encourage readers to let me know what they would like to see.
This chapter is primarily to go into Alora's character a bit more by showing how quickly she can shift from feeling sorry for herself to stepping up to do what's required. I also wanted to give another instance where she goes from being the cold, heartless Sith to actually feeling emotions that she thought had been purged from her soul. I'll try to get the next chapter up soon, but could really go for some ideas that I haven't thought of.
Impotence
Something about Skywalker really struck me as odd. He seemed so much like an innocent child by his warm demeanor, yet he seemed to possess great wisdom and control. Tavion taught me that manners were a tool of the weak, yet I wouldn't have put it past Skywalker to back his skill in diplomacy with a mastery of the lightsaber.
Tavion also told me that my skills in both fighting and the Force were superior to any Jedi, which maybe even she believed. She taught me that I was the best. Even I believed it, but after that battle with Korr... I suddenly felt impudent in the presence of so many Jedi Masters. I didn't have to see any of them in combat to know that they weren't intimidated by me. They looked at me as though I were a disobedient little girl, able to stir up trouble; but ultimately beneath their contempt. It was a most demoralizing experience.
In four years of training with Tavion, I had done very well for myself against Reborn and Cultists. After watching Korr and Katarn slaughter so many of our best warriors, I realized that all my opponents were far inferior to real Jedi. I supposed that went to the credit of their superior training and amazing strength in the Force. Suddenly I felt like I had been reduced from an alpha to something much smaller. It was an unfortunate truth, but I had to accept that I wasn't ever as great as I was lead to believe.
I wished I could say it was a relief, but there was nothing I liked about having the truth forced down my throat. If Ragnos returned, he would have shown no mercy to one such as me. Was it better to die to preserve one's pride, or live in shame for the rest of your life? I couldn't speak for the first, but I had to say the second option wasn't that much better. I hated feeling impotent, and that was how I probably would feel for the rest of my life. All that pride, all that power, all that I thought I was... for nothing.
As I played a witness to events that would ultimately shape the galaxy, not to mention going against everything I've known in the last four years of my life, I noticed a commotion escalating in the background. Sometimes the mistake of a single idiot could compromise the most brilliant strategic designs drawn up by the wisest of people. I couldn't escape the irony of how much easier it was to destroy something than it was to build it in the first place. And it was then that one foolish act nearly changed the fortunes of us all.
In the war room, Skywalker had gathered some of his best Jedi to debate their strategy. There were two Republic admirals in the debate as well, standing upon holographic projectors. They were supposed to be the most worthy of the Republic, aside from the Jedi of course; but even they were not above the pursuit of fortune and glory. Such simplistic and selfish values often came at great expense to everyone else.
Admiral Fogel, unaware of the severity of the situation, told Skywalker that he had already committed his fleet to engage Cult forces on another front. Tavion had dispatched a task force of about nine cruisers and destroyers to act as a diversion so that her lone star destroyer could slip through without opposition. The Jedi saw the plan for what it was; but despite Master Durron's recommendations, Fogel stupidly took the bait and did exactly as Tavion wanted.
"Your fleet's in what system?" Durron shouted.
"This is what you get!" an infuriated Master Horn added. "We told you not to dispatch them!"
"How could you ignore our warning?" Another voiced in protest.
"It's worst-case scenario. We're screwed." Another stated, more disappointed than angry.
I couldn't stand their whining and forced myself into the debate. "Shut up! None of that matters anymore!" I addressed the holographic admiral. "You can discuss your failure later! It's what happened and now we have to deal with it."
The admiral sneered at me. "Who is this? How dare she..."
"Admiral..." Skywalker interrupted, wedging himself between me and the holographic admiral. "What is the condition of your fleet? How long would it take to mobilize an attack on Korriban?"
"I've lost two destroyers, two cruisers disabled: temporarily abandoned, and three others can't achieve hyperspace. The other three... they wouldn't be able to engage even a single star destroyer." he answered.
Luke looked to the other admiral. "Admiral Tejeda, how long would it take if you were to send reinforcements from your sector?"
"Our closest ships would need at least three days to reach Korriban, but that would require pulling them from..." Tejeda tried to answer before being interrupted.
"Do whatever you must to take out the star destroyer orbiting Korriban. We will take full responsibility for whatever repercussions may come about because of this." Luke commanded.
"If that is the will of the Jedi, then I will dispatch a task force. But the fastest we can hope to reach that system would be at least three days." she answered.
"Do your best, admiral. We'll need all the support you can spare." Luke concluded.
As both admirals acknowledged their orders and cut their transmission , Skywalker put his hand under his chin to meditate on the situation. The other Jedi started debating amongst themselves.
"Idiot! There were no civilians in danger; he just wanted to add another battle star to his record! The jackass may have just handed the Cult their ultimate victory." One yelled.
"This probably was the fault of some senator who was more interested in keeping his merchant ships operating than letting the military do its job." Another suggested.
Skywalker didn't interact with anyone, but instead attempted to move through the commotion and get in front to address everyone. One tried to engage him. "Master Skywalker, didn't they understand the threat they faced before...?"
Luke raised his hand to get everyone's attention. "Quiet down, everyone." Only a few heeded his order, but the arguing continued amongst those who didn't hear him over the bickering. Realizing that his message fell upon deaf ears, he yet maintained a controlled and calm voice. Only noticeably louder did he exclaim so that all could hear. "Quiet down, quiet down! Let's remain calm, people." While moving to the front of the room, he kept silent until he knew he had everyone's attention. "I know that the situation may seem bad, but it's important that we all realize that we're in a far better position to address the Cult threat than we were only a few hours ago. Although they've lured our fleet out of position, we at least know what they're planning. More importantly is that they don't yet realize that we've received outside help, so we may be able to catch them unprepared."
"So with the nearest fleet in shambles, and the other too far away to be of any good... I'm sure they'd be very surprised if we managed to muster any kind of task force." Katarn mocked.
"The Fleet may be out of position, but we're not. And we would attract a lot less attention than would a fleet of cruisers." Skywalker stated.
Everyone in the room, including myself, seemed to know what Skywalker suggested. It seemed like a last resort kind of measure; but if the Jedi were everyone's last hope, then they had to do the job. Still, I didn't like the idea. It would have been so much easier if they could've just destroyed everything from orbit with heavy cruisers.
Skywalker continued, accessing the controls to the holo projector. As the galaxy map came to life and zoomed in to display only the systems in our sector, two of which were highlighted. "We're much closer to Korriban than Admiral Vogel's ships, and our ships are faster. We could make the journey within a day. Rather than an orbital bombardment, we'll have to take the battle to the surface. Undoubtedly they'll have a massive force of Reborn and Force-sensitive Cultists, but we've already demonstrated that our superior training more than compensates for their strength in numbers."
Mara Jade, of whom had been very quiet up until that point, finally spoke up. "Sounds like a plan. And it's probably the best we'll come up with. I say we get going now and once we know what we're up against, we can come up with something better once we get there."
Luke gestured something to her that I couldn't quite make out, although it displayed affection in some way. "We're not taking off just yet. It seems to me that our objectives are twofold: first, we must find Tavion and destroy the scepter, but in the likely event we fail...""
Durron finished his statement. "We locate the tomb first and defend it."
Luke seemed to appreciate having his sentence finished, as it showed a clear understanding of what had to be done. He closed his eyes and made a single nod to Durron.
One of the Jedi there was a male twi'lek, who voiced his opinion as well. "Wait... you suggest we go in and engage their entire garrison by ourselves? There must be thousands of troops. And their dark Jedi have had years' more training than those who were under Desann's command."
I knew exactly what we were going against, which was why I spoke up without being asked to contribute. "That's right. Tavion has over a hundred of her best warriors; these she trained almost as well as any Jedi. The cultists are just pathetic, but those that Tavion had chosen to go with her are not to be taken lightly. In addition, they have surface to air missile emplacements and other air defense measures to prevent such an attack."
Luke didn't address my comment, but instead felt the need to demand more info from me. "Alora, do you have any idea as to how long Tavion would need to unearth the tomb? Can you give us any kind of estimate?"
Everyone's eyes were suddenly on me, including Katarn's. I could tell that he wouldn't believe anything I said, but it didn't really matter in any event. I had no answers to yield. "None. Tavion didn't really share that much with me. All she knew was that the tomb is in the Valley of the Dark Lords. How she learned this, I have no idea."
"Then I'm afraid we can't take any chances. We'll have to prepare one of our largest and most complex operations since the founding of the academy, and we'll have to organize everything as quickly as possible." He turned his head to address Durron. "Kyp, we're going on full alert. I want you to sound the alarm; have every knight and student report to the audience chamber. Tell our support personnel to report to their stations."
"Aye sir." He reluctantly nodded and did as he was told, making his way for one of the control panels in the room.
As he did that, Skywalker made a statement to everyone else in the room. "We're going to have to organize this assault into two phases. We're going to dispatch one team almost as soon as we can get our fighters launched. This group's objective will be to reach Korriban as quickly as possible and be prepared to engage the Cult if and when they locate the tomb. That will allow us to take action in as little as 16 hours. The second team will take our remaining ships, which are much slower. Our transport ships can bring all our remaining knights, apprentices, Republic troops, and any additional resources we can provide, almost a day behind them."
As Durron stood ready to activate the intercom system, he waited for Skywalker to finish before sounding the alert. Luke gestured him to hold off for one more moment. "I believe that this is our best course of action, given the uncertainty of our enemy's situation. If our first team should discover that the Cult is still in the process of unearthing the tomb, they can decide how best to proceed. Whether they can slow the progress of their excavation, wait for the bulk of our strike force to arrive, or in directly engaging them, I will support whatever they should decide." He went over to one of his Jedi and spoke directly to him. "I am appointing Master Solusar to plan and coordinate our forces for the first wave of this operation." He then addressed Solusar, speaking to him and not everyone else. "I will leave it up to you to organize the resources and Jedi that you'll need for the first wave of this attack. Whatever ships we have are also at your disposal."
Solusar seemed quite eager to begin, but had reservations about accepting the responsibility he had been given. It was clear from my perspective that he wasn't up to the task of commanding a task force. "Sir, I really think that it should be you leading the first wave. You're a better judge when it comes down to these kind of situations."
Skywalker seemed so passionate about having Solusar go in ahead of him that he placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "But you're the better tactician. If we encounter a worse-case scenario, I need someone who can organize an attack plan very quickly. If you do not believe you're up to the task, I can do it; but someone needs to assemble the bulk of our forces for the second wave. I can't do that while I'm en route and you can't formulate an attack plan if we switch places."
Solusar sighed and nodded. He didn't like the responsibility he had been given, but Solusar seemed determined to do his duty to the best of his ability. "I'll take our fastest ships we have and assemble our best knights. We'll be ready to engage the Cult within a day."
Skywalker nodded and then looked to Durron, who stood ready at the intercom system. He gestured the other Jedi to sound the alarm. "Kyp."
As Skywalker turned his attention back to Solusar, his conversation overlapped with the sound of an alarm blaring throughout the entire Jedi Temple. It was an electronic siren that seemed to pierce into one's soul... it was the call of war. Although it was not particularly loud in the control room, I could tell by the echoes in the hallway just how severe the situation really was.
Although my attention wasn't focused on Skywalker and Solusar, I heard another exchange of words. "Don't engage the Cult if you can wait for the second wave to arrive. By then, we'll have every Jedi knight and over a thousand Republic troops on Korriban in 48 hours."
As the alarm stopped blaring, Durron activated the intercom system. His voice soon filled the halls, as every speaker in the temple came alive with his message. "Attention: this is not a drill. All Jedi and padawans are to report to the audience chamber immediately. Be equipped and ready to depart. All support personnel: we are going on full alert. Hands to action stations."
I found the mood in the chamber to be quite eerie in the moment that followed Durron's announcement. A very brief moment of silence was followed by another three cycles of alarm blaring, only to descend back into utter silence. No one in that room spoke for the duration that the alarm called everyone else into action, as if they all needed to grasp the reality of the situation.
I also had noticed the way many of the displays in that room displayed a symbol that started pulsing red. It was a visual reminder that they were on full alert, and the rhythmic flashing every few seconds seemed to overwhelm one's visual senses while the utter silence proved a sharp contrast to that. Between flashing red lights in my eyes, and my ears completely deprived of any sound... I never quite had a moment like that in my life.
When Skywalker knew he had everyone's attention, he calmly paced his way to the center of the room. "There is likely going to be a lot of fear going around until this situation is resolved. It will be important that we show everyone the confidence we'll need to defeat Tavion or even Ragnos if we have to. Time will not be on our side, but we've been in tighter situations before and succeeded. I know we can do this, but there will be serious time pressure over the next day or two. It will be important that we not rush to get everything done. We must remind them of that." Gesturing to the door, he lead the way. "In the meantime, we're needed in the audience chamber."
What the hell was wrong with me? The last time I was curled up in a ball was before Tavion found me. That's how I was as I sat in the back of the audience chamber. I didn't want to be there, but Skywalker insisted that I be where he could keep an eye on me. Everyone else had been standing in the front of the room as Solusar gathered several Jedi for his task force.
Occasionally being glanced upon, they all seemed agitated by my presence. They all knew that I was in the back of the chamber, but none would turn around for more than a few seconds at a time. They stared at me. Their eyes weren't fixed on the red twi'lek in the back, but they were staring. Those Jedi children just didn't know what to make of me, which was why they couldn't fix their eyes somewhere else.
The masters and knights were a bit more mature about it, but even they couldn't help looking back every now and again. One in particular stood out from the rest, a young twi'lek male. He had rich blue skin and something about his eyes that made me want to wring his neck. I hated males of my own kind because they paid absolutely no respect to the fairer sex. They always had this look in their eyes that seemed to portray their dominance. That damned Jedi boy looked as if he were about to cry.
He probably wasn't a boy, but probably was at least five years younger than I was. Probably would have been very handsome to a woman who cared, but I most certainly wasn't attracted. I noticed how his lekku twitched and flexed when he saw me looking back at him... yeah, like he'd think he could ever have me! I played along, pretending I was interested, gave a wink, blew a kiss at him, and it confused the guy. Then I rolled my eyes and gave him an insulting hand gesture.
When he realized that I was only mocking him, the guy looked away, as if I had diminished his more masculine qualities. I almost giggled at how easily one could hurt a man's pride. They thought too much with that thing in their trousers... I just wish the women of my kind would have had the courage to stand up to them.
As Solusar gathered the last of his task force, one of the last knights he selected was right in front of me. The knight, who's name was Kreed, had a padawan at his side. Upon having his name called, Kreed turned to the child and gave his farewell to the girl. She begged her master to come along, but Kreed assured her that the girl was still too young. He also told her that they would see each other again.
As he embraced the little one, watching the two gnawed at my soul. He clearly wasn't her father, yet he treated that little girl as if she were his own child. Kreed behaved as a father... as any real father would towards that child. She was lucky to have someone who cared for her like that. Unlike my own father...
Just as I felt a tear actually stream down my cheek, it seemed to snap me back into the proper mind set. Such feelings were weakness! Crying and temper tantrums were the acts of children; I was above that. Shaking my head, I tried to push those thoughts aside in order to maintain my self-control; but even that wasn't enough.
Wiping away the tear, I buried my head against my thighs to try and shut them out. When I thought it couldn't get any worse, Solusar felt the need to comfort that little girl. As if he felt it was his responsibility to caudal the child for taking her master away on a dangerous mission, he kneeled before the girl to ease her fear. "Tashi... I know that you're afraid for your master, but you shouldn't be. It's the duty of every Jedi; he understands this."
The girl still wasn't satisfied. She sounded as though she were suffering horribly. "But what if he gets hurt? Please don't go Master Kreed."
That little girl just didn't know when it was time to be stoic, which was something I learned before I was five. She had no reason to be whining and they didn't have the time to put up with her pathetic little complaints. It was then that I lashed out at her, standing up and screaming in her face. "Would you just shut up! It doesn't matter what you want; the decision's been made! Live with it!"
Suddenly everyone's eyes were on me, and I felt utterly embarrassed to be in that position. They stared at me as if to wonder whether I were deranged or just foolish. My breathing was erratic, emotional composure had been shattered, and I felt humiliated. If Tavion had seen me like that, she would have killed me without giving it a second thought... and she would have been right to do so.
Kreed had actually positioned himself between me and the little girl while I had been shouting. It was as if he just instinctively moved to protect her from a potential threat... it made me hate that little girl so much more. One so weak as her didn't deserve that kind of protection, yet that's exactly what she had.
The eyes of everyone in that chamber also reminded me of just how alone I really was. Of the dozens of Jedi in that room, I was on my own. The only reason I was still alive was because I wasn't important enough to capture or kill. All that could easily change if I gave them reason to do so.
It was exactly like walking a balance beam over a lava pit... it was easy to cross, yet the slightest loss of control meant certain death. That actually was a challenge that Tavion put me through during my training, which probably served me very well in that moment. Deep in the enemy's camp, I couldn't afford to make the slightest error.
What seemed like an eternity probably only spanned a few seconds. Stunned and terrified, I slowly withdrew from that chamber. Only a few meters away from the entrance and with no one in my path, I slithered my way out of the chamber without speaking another word. I also refused to turn my back to them, maybe to avoid making my retreat appear like I were running away.
Ducking into the hallway, I suddenly felt a huge relief at simply having a wall between me and them. About all the protection a stone wall provided was from their relentless gazing, but that made me feel much better than before. I still had been deep inside their fortress with no hope of ever turning back. I was a traitor to the Cult, an enemy to the Jedi, and I had destroyed everything I had made for myself in the last four years.
The worst part of this whole thing was that I had absolutely no idea what to do next. I left myself without a direction. Disoriented. Derelict. Without purpose. No longer anyone's servant, I was free. For the first time in all my life, I was free to do whatever I pleased... and it was terrible. My entire world had been completely shattered.
After escaping into the hallway, that was about as far as I managed to get. I could not understand why it was so difficult, but I found that I had no idea what to do next. It was like being trapped in a state of utter chaos without a sense of direction or purpose. It probably didn't sound so terrible, but I could honestly say that I regret what I've done.