Chapter Nineteen
"You taught me a lot about Nightsister magic and while I was in exile, I discovered that Sith alchemy and Nightsister sorcery aren't that far apart. But of course, the Sith do have some differences I'm going to show you in a couple seconds," Kycina stated. "No matter how powerful you become, daughter, you'll never stop the revival of your grandmother and the annihilation of everything you hold closest to your heart!" Talzin replied before creating an energy orb in front of herself and levitating into the air. As she did this, the skies of Dathomir began to cover themselves with thunderclouds and rain.
KaiSu Lak'Ton could still be seen through all of this and Kycina watched as the green circle Talzin had lit began to grow wider and wider. She knew that if it engulfed the bigger black circle around it, KaiSu Lak'Ton could be revived but didn't know of a way to stop it except to kill Talzin. The old hag made the first move when she used the elements to shoot green lightning down from the sky. "Now I will show you the true power of a daughter of the Snake Goddess, Hecate!" she shouted from above.
"Wow, I'm disappointed already," Kycina replied after deflecting a few bolts of lightning she didn't dodge. Then she made the emerald on her staff glow a bright blood-red before tapping the butt of it against the hard stone ground beneath her. "Darth Zannah employed this magic when she murdered her Master, Lord Bane. Shall we use this to test the truth of whether or not Nightsister shamans are immortal and invincible?" Kycina asked as eight ink-black tentacles emerged from the ground and searched for their enemy.
She guided three towards Talzin in a manner that would direct her to the other five instead of away from them. Then, when her mother had successfully fallen into the trap, she guided them all to converge on her. Kycina knew that those tentacles would slice through anything and melt it away as she had already seen with a few of the pillars at the edge of the platform. But at the last moment, Talzin teleported away from them and back to where she had been when Kycina started her fierce attack.
Angered but not entirely at a loss for what to do, Kycina began to twirl and spin her staff in her hands and as she did so the tentacles began to converge on each other. They tangled and melted into another form until at last, they became one massive ball of death and destruction that Kycina could use at her will. "You were lucky to get out of that trap but let's see if you can escape this!" she shouted before pointing her staff at Talzin and watching as the ball rolled toward her. The witch responded to this attack by engulfing it in green electricity then using the Force to throw it in a whole other direction.
But Kycina saw her intent before she could complete it and directed the ball right back at her shortly after having her arm pulled in that same direction. Talzin teleported out of the way and tried again to push it beyond Kycina's reach but to no avail did it work. Finally, Talzin tried to see if she could destroy it with her typical green lightning but instead, she only pushed it further from herself. Kycina countered by pointing the staff in her direction and pushing it as hard as she could so as to guide the ball right at Talzin.
"Look around you, my brother. Can't you see that it's hopeless to fight the return of the Snake Goddess to this dimension?" Savage asked. "Neither mother nor I will quit so long as we can draw a breath, besides, why the hell would our grandmother share the powers of the Goddess with scum like you?" Maul answered. "Because I served her well and thoroughly whereas you tried to resist at every end possible," Savage replied.
"That's your reason for demanding that she share with you, a man? She hates men and she always will, she only used you because you were too dumb to think for yourself after she used her magic on you. And she only directed you to me so that you could serve her better with the skills I would teach you," Maul snapped. Savage had nothing to say there but continued to switch from the use of both sides of his lightsaber to his skills in Djem So instead.
Darth Maul pressed his attack and even turned to using some of his Soresu knowledge against his brother. It was the only way to keep himself from exhausting without drawing on the same power his brother was attempting to use against him. Though he found it difficult to do so, Maul eventually got the hang of not relying on what he had used all his life to conquer his enemies: the energy of the Dark Side and its promise of eternal nourishment. But nothing in his life, be it training by his master or turning away from the Dark Side, prepared him for what was going to happen next.
Kycina kept pressing her attack on her mother who was slowly beginning to tire and relent in her vicious attacks. Then Talzin did something Kycina never expected of her: she conjured an energy ball of her own and used it to attack the one Kycina had made to destroy her. Both balls met, temporarily locked themselves in a tug for superior power over each other. However, even with both Kycina and Talzin using their willpower to see that their energy weapon won the battle, both balls of Force energy were destroyed in an explosion that lit the skies for several seconds or more.
Talzin dropped from her hover in the sky and panted but Kycina dropped to one knee in further exhaustion than Talzin ever was. "Looks like I win this round my daughter, now die!" Talzin said before using the Force to through her daughter over the edge of the tower and back into the main city. Then she turned her sights toward her grandsons who were still crossing blades fiercely. It was upon sight of Savage's impressive skills that she began to applaud their work.
The applause became even firmer when she noticed that the black circle in the ground was almost completely engulfed in a green light. "Bravo my grandchildren, bravo. I never dreamed you could make me so proud of you both! Well done, well done," she said. Savage looked at her, deactivated his lightsaber, and asked what she was talking about. "Only one thing she could be talking about: she's been using both you and I as pawns since she learned of our existence; hell, she may be the reason I'm still alive after what Obi-Wan did to me," Maul interjected.
"Yes Maul, you catch on more quickly than your brother in these intricate matters. Through Plagueis, I gave you a serum that would allow you to tap deeply enough into the Dark Side to survive an injury such as that because I still had use for you. I sent Savage after you when the time was right because I sensed that I would be needing your skill in battle sooner than I had hoped," Talzin admitted. "But what about your promise to share the power of the Goddess with me, are you not keeping that promise?" Savage inquired.
Talzin laughed, remembering she had promised that of her youngest living grandson. "Savage, I never intended to keep that promise to begin with. I'm surprised you were idiotic enough to believe my words but I did keep up on my promise that you and your brother had an important destiny to fulfill. The revival of KaiSu Lak'Ton and the destruction of the galaxy was precisely it and for helping me fulfill this, I truly thank you," she replied when she could breath once more.
Savage looked shocked, betrayed even, but Talzin had no interest in how her grandson felt at this point. "Thank you Savage and you Maul for what you've done to help me. Now join your mother in being destroyed by the evils of this city. I'm sure you'll all find it very entertaining just before you are consumed by the damning fires of the ancient inferno this place once was for the galaxy," she added. Then she gathered what remaining power she could use and sent a powerful wave at both of her grandsons, throwing them off the tower along with their mother who had been thrown over the near-completely opposite side of her sons.
"Just wait, wait for the rebirth of the Goddess then I will rule the wasteland this galaxy will become after making what life remains my slave! I will become the galaxy, I will become life and death for every creature here with no one to stop my rise now!" she thought aloud. Then the black in the circle disappeared completely and the whole platform lit up, souls of the Brotherhood oozing their way down to the city as it began to engulf the tower. She decided she would let the weakest ones go to reviving the city as a massive quantity of souls was necessary but the most powerful ones would go to reviving KaiSu Lak'Ton.
While the soldiers of the Brotherhood and lesser Sith lords descended, she channeled the power of the most powerful souls from Kaan to Githany, and then cast them into oblivion. She used their power to create a beam that successfully hit KaiSu Lak'Ton's atmosphere. The result was the return of the beautiful green skies that had been a part of her early childhood as well as a bridge that connected the two worlds and almost began to bring them closer and closer together. Unless Kycina and her children survived and returned here, there would be nothing to oppose the reunion of the two planets and the full restoration of the Goddess' powers.
Talzin's only true worry was that one or both of her grandsons survived and brought their mother to oppose her. If the trio returned, it could mean the death of the Goddess, the destruction of KaiSu Lak'Ton, and her demise. She had lived far too long to allow herself to be defeated by her own scions just because they loved their galaxy too much to let it die for her race to live forever. This path and this path alone was the righteous one to follow and soon even the Jedi and their Sith enemies would know the truth that was the Snake Goddess Hecate.
Dooku was at an impasse: he couldn't find a way around a barrier preventing him from ascending any further but he couldn't turn back either. He decided to meditate and see if there was a weakness he could reach out and exploit just as he heard a noise coming from the balcony behind him. With the hilt of his lightsaber in his hand, he went to investigate what it was. He was baffled to see the unconscious (but living) Asajj Ventress on the ground with both of her lightsabers next to each of her sides.
Scratching his head, he wondered what he should do seeing that Ventress tried to kill him and here she was in this vulnerable state between life and death themselves. As if to answer the question for him, she awoke, rubbed her head and saw him. "What are you doing here, Dooku?" she asked, her lightsabers ready for the offensive. "Why, pursuing you, Savage, and Talzin, of course," he answered.
"You won't be getting past that door if there's a curse on it. Now that I think of it, there should be but details are fuzzy," she said. "Why would they be fuzzy, you were with her the whole way up this wretched thing!" Dooku inquired. "She had me under some sort of spell that would erase my memory of everything that happened if I were ever freed of it," Ventress explained.
"I can't afford to trust you on that, after all, you were willingly in league with her at one point. Why should I believe what you say now?" he asked. "Because after you destroyed my clan on Dathomir, Talzin abandoned me and forced me to find a new life as a mercenary. When I came back here, I tried to find out why and she attacked me and knocked me out cold," she answered.
"I'm feeling generous Ventress: fight and defeat me in a lightsaber duel. If you win, I will believe you and ask what would be the explanation for the curse on the door. But if you lose, you will be under Separatist custody for as long as I command," Dooku said. Knowing she probably didn't have any other choice but to decide, she agreed to his deal and hoped that the duel would help her regain her memories of Talzin's possession over her.