Abeloth's Planet; 44 ABY
Vestara spat a rather colorful Keshiri curse as she bounded into the sulfurous fog Abeloth had been using to tempt them to drink. Ben had been knocked out, and they were having little success together when they attacked Abeloth. Alone, she had to retreat to the Font to draw on its power.
As she entered its sphere of influence, Vestara could feel the flow of power from the Font. What Ben had said echoed in her mind about what it would do to them, but at this point it was a straightforward choice. Vestara simply didn't have the power to stop Abeloth and she would never allow herself to be taken as a host. She concentrated a virulent blast of violet energy into the Keshiri mass following her, hearing a pitched scream, as if coming from three voices simultaneously, before sprinting up to the Font.
An onyx basin crowned the plateau at the top and two crystalline goblets sat on the floor beneath the Font. Glancing behind her to make sure she wasn't going to be surprised from behind, she saw Abeloth's swirling mass of tendrils still writhing in pain. She grabbed the closest chalice and dipped it below the waters of the Font. The steaming water cooled immediately. Shadowy murk seeped from the bottom, giving the water in her cup a grayish tinge that looked rancid. Without stopping to ponder the change in the water, she drank deeply.
It started with a warmth, contrasting with the coolness of the water itself, filling her toes and fingers. It spread up her limbs and into her core. The warmth heated to a burning, a searing fire that forced her to cry out in agony and drop to one knee. Her cells felt like they were being separated by microscopic razors. The flame seemed to blaze for an eternity until she realized the fire had gone cold, and icy burn that was not unlike that which she felt on Dromund Kaas; fringed with the power of darkness. The cells were frozen back in place, her body seemingly retaking physical form.
She rose onto shaky legs to see Abeloth grinning madly up at her. "Daughter," The swollen mass of lavender tendrils hummed, "You have chosen."
Abeloth didn't even have a chance to react in shock as Vestara curled her hands into claws and hurled an angular chunk of stone from the rubble at her. As it rushed past, the former Sith apprentice supercharged the projectile with electric rage. It stuck like a battering ram, cracking bone and exploding in electric arcs.
Vestara had never before done anything so complicated. She'd heard of Sith Masters doing similar things, but she was so young. Yet, it had just come to her, the power to do it as she'd been told. With Abeloth writhing again at the base of the steps, Vestara moved back to the Font and was shocked at what she felt. It no longer was steeped in dark side energy, it sang with a luminosity that was pure. Summoning the second goblet from the ground, she dipped it into the water, just as she had done before. This time, a shimmering light flowed through the water into the cup, gleaming like a beacon. Holding the cup aloft, she ran down the steps to where she last saw Ben.
Ben was just coming around when he felt it approach, the power of the Font, dark and pulsing. He first thought he was being dragged back, but realized that he wasn't moving toward it, it was moving toward him.
"Ben!" He heard someone call, not seeing over the rocks that had fallen before him. He felt the darkness close in and prepared for the worst. When he saw her, he understood what she had done and it broke his heart.
"Ben," she called in a more quiet voice when she knew he saw her, and drew closer with a chalice filled with a glowing liquid. "Drink, it's okay, it's safe."
Ben focused on the cup and couldn't feel anything but light from within. He couldn't understand how it had lost the rot the dark side had imparted on the Font before. Now, the liquid was far more tempting. It was shadowed by the darkness radiating off Vestara, but the liquid itself wasn't corrupted.
Coughing from lack of water, Ben felt himself on the precipice, his decision would have far reaching consequences, he knew, just not what they would be. Vestara knelt down and brought the cup to his lips, "Drink, and we will stop her. Together."
He chose. Raising his own hand to tilt the chalice back, he felt the strength flow into him. Tepid in heat, the tingly sensation spread over his arms and skin, burning off impurities that had tainted him for years, his anger towards Caedus, the pain and despair from losing his mother, they all cleansed and refortified his stamina. It lacked Vestara's painful sheer from inferno to tundra, how the light could be used to temper the fiery rage and cold fury of the darkness.
Watching through the profane and mystical realms, Vestara could feel the change, it was beautiful. She'd gotten the powers inherent to her, the dark side, while Ben had gained the opposite. Together, they were both Sith and Jedi, arrayed against the upheaval of Abeloth.
Ben nodded, understanding her sentiment, though not realizing that it was not spoken aloud. The sudden change from Jedi to Sith on Vestara's part entirely lost on Ben as his focus was more on the amplification in his own strength. They still had a job to do and now it wasn't such a daunting one. Vestara smiled and lightly brushed her lips against his and hauled him to his feet.
Abeloth was pleased, it had taken a lot more work than she had envisioned, but she could feel it. Both children had drunk, she had them back, her children at last, her family at last. All the machinations and pain and suffering was worth it. They would join her and together they would wreak vengeance on the heretics who dare violate her avatars. True, her Daughter had struck her after the ascension, the change, but it was the nature of children to challenge their parents. The new Son would temper her outbursts.
Pulling back together a corpse was, perhaps, the most painful task Abeloth had underwent since the cursed Luke Skywalker had ripped out part of her essence on Nam Chorios. It wasn't so much the part where she had to stitch back muscle sinew or re-grow shattered bone though force of will, it was doing that while fighting on multiple planes of existence. Her bodies were under siege and this was the only safe one now. Her children would protect her, would become her instruments against the aggressors, sword and shield. She could feel them coming, awash in newfound power, coming to their Mother.
They strode over the crest of the hill together. Vestara, fists clenched, electric arcs of blue channeling up her arms, on the left. Ben, his own arms glowing a blinding white, on the right. Abeloth realized, belatedly, that she had indeed re-created the Son and Daughter, but only too perfectly. Like the ones of old, they united against her and suddenly her one safe avatar seemed to be the one in most danger.
The first attack had been one they'd spent the minutes it took to walk back charging. Vestara's attack, though backwashing up her arm, was a bolt that stuck from underneath Abeloth, tearing chunks of flesh off and searing the stumps. Ben's assault was secondary, and only after Abeloth's howl of rage. The throng of snake-like tentacles lunged for them—and subsequently crashed into a wall of Force energy.
Abeloth's injuries seemed to be leaking a black tar, but it reversed direction, flowing into her wounds. The ball of tendrils unfurled to show the upper body of the former Sith High Lady, Korelei, skull still split, but shimmering with pent up Force energy. The resulting pulse wave sent a ripple through the air as it compressed. It hit Ben and Vestara like a plasma charge, leaving them collapsed and smoking from the heat.
"You take the gifts I give you and use them against me?" Abeloth spat, voices echoing like a choir of the damned. "You'll both suffer for such insolence. I gave them to you, and I can rip them away."
The Keshiri arm lifted, obviously broken in multiple points, often at contrary angles, but the fingers hooked. The thumb, already broken, sliced through the lavender flesh. The flora of the jungle swelled and flowed at a rapid rate. Vines lashed out and stuck like whips while fungi belched sparkling green mist.
Ben and Vestara stood back to back as the plants closed in, raising a hybrid shield of lightning and light as they fought the voracious jungle attack. Lightning of violet and blue hues burned away the plant matter. Kinetic walls deflected spears of vines. Still, despite the steady defense, the forest grew faster than they could kill it. Their shield soon fell under the shadow of writhing vines with almond thorns ready to rip them apart.
From the courtyard, Abeloth was about to revel in victory over her traitorous children when she felt it. The avatar on Coruscant was slaughtered and ripped to pieces, leaving a gaping hole in her remaining two. Screeching in torment, Abeloth did the only thing she could do, she fled. The facsimile in Beyond Shadows was trapped, unable to run from Skywalker and the man of darkness. If she was to stay potent enough to return within a millennia, she needed to survive here. A duel was too risky, even if she had the upper hand. The lizard woman on Coruscant showed her that reading the future was no longer a sure thing.
Huddled in the shadow of the plants, Ben and Vestara noticed a significant slow in the growth and began to make headway in their attacks. Concentrating together, they blasted a pathway towards the Font of Power, only to emerge and see their target had fled.
They looked at one another briefly, and then ran in the direction the thick Keshiri blood led. The yellow fog had settled on the ground, leaving a thin layer of dust. They could feel Abeloth's trail through the underbrush and made haste to follow. They toppled trees left and right to prevent a repeat of the last time.
Abeloth moved like a snake, slithering through the jungle to flee her pursuers. She just saw the entrance to the Pool of Knowledge up ahead when the blast hit. It sang with darkness and wafted off shadow. It slammed into the Keshiri's upper torso, buckling her ribs inward to where her heart would be, if it hadn't been already taken out in a previous bout. It pinned her to the ground as she felt their approach.
The twisted and broken arms lifted and sent blinding arcs of white lightning at the pair. Ben stepped forward and caught the energy with his hands, channeling it though to Vestara, who sent it careening back into Abeloth with a noticeable amethyst tinge. Abeloth raged and fed her own stream with the pain she was receiving. The three of them were burning though Force energy, the likes of which few vessels could handle, unless they'd drunk from the Font of Power. Still, everything has limits. Ben could feel the effort starting to burn though his cells, feeding his redirection with himself. Vestara caught some of the incoming lightning with her other hand to alleviate Ben's burden.
Abeloth's chorus of screams cracked as she was forced to give up on her attack and focus on defense. Under normal circumstances, she could have outlasted them both in a direct fight, but today was not normal. Korelei's body was broken and maimed to the point where it couldn't fully count as a body any longer. With her avatar lost on Coruscant and the other being ripped and drained Beyond Shadows, her strength couldn't sustain everything at once.
As soon as Abeloth let up, Ben put his full focus on a downward push. Vestara kept up the lightning assault to occupy the Force entity. With a sharp thrust, a column of kinetic energy slammed from the sky like a hammer, indenting into the ground and issuing loud and wet cracks from Abeloth's form. Stunned by the attack, she could do nothing to block, redirect, or in any way lessen Vestara's next attack. Indigo energy grounded itself into the body, sizzling and burning its way though, severing nerve endings and scorching off muscle mass. With that final tether severed, Abeloth's intended scream came out as a gurgle, her consciousness being whiplashed back to Beyond Shadows for her last stand.
Ben and Vestara collapsed where they stood, their strength cut as they were no longer feeding their bodies on Force energy. Breathing deeply, they lay there for a few minutes until they could rise to their haunches. Vestara's yellow rimmed eyes faded as she gave a fleeting look to the cavern up ahead. They both knew what it was: the Pool of Knowledge. They had been here before, but from a different direction. Now it seemed to pull them both, drawing them in. Looking into one another's eyes, they helped each other up to their feet and started picking their way to the cave.
Author's Note: And this part is entirely me. I hope I transitioned it well enough. Just in case anyone is wondering, it is supposed to be spelled 'Font.' Most commonly one would see a font in a church where they keep holy water. The design isn't unique to religious institution, but can be anywhere. It's simply a basin to hold water. In this case, as it was not specifically described, I decided to make it a free standing black marble basin.