Sith Meditation Sphere, Ship, Dromund Kaas; 44 ABY
Ben and Vestara stared at the familiar planet through the now-transparent walls of the Meditation Sphere. It was a small galaxy, after all. She didn't think she'd ever have to ever see it again, much less set foot on this wretched planet. Memories of their last trip here, it was almost poetic to have the same group of beings return here as before. Her control slipped and ship started to wobble as it tried to retake control.
"Ves?" Ben laid a hand on her shoulder. He thought of their time here, too, but more of the aftermath spent on the Shadow. "It's going to be okay."
Luke's face filled the wall. "Well, we won't need Ship to pinpoint Cronal," he looked positively glum.
"Why is that?"
"He was one of the Prophets that made the Dark Temple what it is today."
"Déjà vu, anyone?" Ben muttered as they brought the two ships into the humid swamps. They landed where they had before, the same smell of fetid water and decay greeted them as the four met on the marshy ground.
Vestara gestured to the Meditation Sphere and spoke in a demanding tone. "Stay."
"Next, you'll be telling it to roll over," Jaina couldn't resist the jeer.
"It's not as easy as it looks," Vestara said. "Ship doesn't want to be here with us."
Using the Force to keep himself from getting sick, Ben looked up to the towering temple in the distance. Angular and sharp, the citadel's somber radiance now pulsed with something that it had lacked before. Unlike the Sith of the Tribe had when they were here last, Cronal wasn't hiding his presence, more announcing it to them.
"Someone's eager to see us." Jaina quipped.
Luke sent an admonishing look her way. "Don't underestimate him, this will be more difficult than before."
They'd remembered much of their path from their previous visit, but the occasional ysalamiri bubble would slow them down, sinking them into the muddy marsh. Scorpion-like insects fluttered in the distance, but avoided the group. This time around, they noticed a number of stone slabs situated throughout the swamp. The hooded humanoids grasped ornate swords, but were nearly invisible in the grey wetland. They vaguely resembled worn versions of the golden sentinels at the Temple itself. What made them stand out this time, what made the quartet notice, were their glowing eyes.
"Watchers," Luke commented, "The eyes of the Prophets."
Vestara looked thoughtful. "Why didn't they use them before?" She didn't want to actually say 'my father,' but they all knew to whom she referred.
"Dromund Kaas wasn't their home, so they wouldn't know its secrets" Luke shrugged, "and it would have announced their presence, regardless, and ruined their element of surprise."
Ben looked back to the closest statue and noticed something . . . off. "It that one closer than it was before?"
The other three turned to the Watcher, it did look like it was closer, but the muck hid any trail it might have left. They glanced at the other slabs to see they, too, were nearer. "I don't like this," Jaina's hand rested on her lightsaber hilt.
"They can't attack directly," Luke said, having heard of Mara's mission here firsthand, "but they can obstruct us."
"That seems pretty benign," Vestara misstepped into a thigh-deep mud pit. "Yuck."
They were within a stone's throw of the Temple when they heard the growls. Five lightsabers were humming instantly. Three bluish-grey hulks splashed down in the marsh between them and the Temple. Vestigial wings flexed to show shredded skin between them, they'd never take flight on them. The creatures easily stood two meters tall and bulged with muscles. Ben squinted his eyes. "Are—are those Noghri?"
"Sithspawn," Luke corrected.
Vestara found herself disgusted with the three creatures. She'd seen Noghri with the Solos, how they should appear normally. Something truly horrible must have been done to these things to make them as they are. She took a step back to prepare herself for the attack, only to bump into one of the stone-faced Watchers. Her ignited blade grazed the slab, but failed to cut it. While she was off balance, the Sithspawn struck. Their webbed feet let them bound over the mud with an ease that belied their size.
Luke and Jaina dodged their attackers, but Ben took his head-on. A Force Barrier to pause the monster and a quick upper cut split the Noghri in two. Bluish blood splattered Ben's robes, unusual since the blade should have cauterized the flesh. Seconds later, the reason became clear as Ben's outer robes started smoking. He shrugged them off in time to see the viscous substance burn its way through. "Their blood is acidic," he called to his father and cousin.
The two remaining Noghri leapt to the surrounding trees, wings opening in an ineffective attempt to gain altitude. Ben joined his father as they chased their quarry up. Vestara sliced the other trunk in half, forcing the Sithspawn to jump from its perch. Jaina was on it in half a second. Its razor claws no match for her speed and a lightsaber. She looked up in time to see the other Noghri fall to Luke's blade.
"I can't believe I'm saying it, but I liked this place the first time around." Jaina said, avoiding the cobalt liquid leaking from the Sithspawn's wounds.
More Watchers had moved between them and the temple, but their wall was not a solid one. They either slipped through the gaps or just leapt over the stone plates until they reached the Temple steps. Vestara looked around the entrance. "There aren't any bodies . . . "
Luke confirmed this with an inspection of his own. It wasn't impossible for a swamp to consume something that quickly, but the fallen Sith didn't leave any trace behind. It gave him a feeling of disquiet. His past with Cronal taught him that few depravities were below the Prophet's purview. Desecration of the dead was a definite possibility, but he decided to not say it aloud. It would be bad enough if they do encounter such things without anticipating them for however long first. "Be on your guard."
Ben flashed him a look that resembled vague disgust and comprehension, apparently it wasn't much of a secret anymore. "There are ways to reanimate the dead," Luke admitted.
Vestara's pale skin drained of what little blood there was, the possibility of encountering her father's corpse now a nightmarish possibility in the Temple halls. They walked up the stairs, further than they'd gotten on their previous trip here. Luke had wanted them together when they entered before, so they pushed open the carved doors as a group. The golden Watchers on either side flashed emerald and ruby eyes on them as they passed.
Inside, the foyer was of the same colorless stone as the building, but lacked the humid air as the outside. It was only cold here, dry like a tomb. More Watchers, this time sterling silver, lined the inside of the reception chamber, opal eyes casting weak light on them as they entered. Ben shuddered. "Those guys are starting to creep me out."
"There are worse things in these halls," Luke warned.
"Such as?" Vestara asked, mildly annoyed. It got tiring hearing about vague dangers, it helped to have concrete details. The power of this place drowned out any one presence within. Only the pulse of occupancy told them they were not alone. Vestara felt dwarfed by the dark side here, even with her newfound strength.
"Apart from whatever Sithspawn Cronal may be controlling," Luke said. "Some statues can attack if we get too close."
"Like the ice-Jedi on Mortis?"
Jaina looked over to Luke in question. "From what I've been told, yes," he described the frozen sculptures on Mortis and how they had attacked them for Jaina's benefit.
Vestara rolled her eyes. "Fantastic, I wanted an encore with those guys."
They followed the hall deeper into the Temple. There were no windows to let in what little light the outside offered, just an endless maze of miasma. The Watchers and their own lightsabers were their only light source. They heard scuffling ahead, and prepared for the worst.
A pair of stone figures wielding blazing red sabers stepped into the narrow hall. Their face were worn smooth, voids where their features should be. With fluid movements that could only be achieved through alchemy, they lunged at the group.
Jaina's violet blade slashed a swath of light to meet the statues. Blocking the attack with ease, it used its free hand to knock her aside. The stone hand felt like just what it was, solid and uncompromising. Ben stepped over her to engage the guardians himself. The corridor only large enough for one of the to fight at a time, Luke and Vestara helped Jaina to her feet.
Forcing them back, Ben lopped off one of their heads, only to see the body continue just as effectively as before, spinning its saber in an arc of fire, it met aquamarine blue. Amplifying his attack with the Force, Ben smashed his palm into the stone chest. A crack splintered diagonally as it crumbled to rubble. The second one stabbed though the chest of its partner, the blade stopping an inch from Ben's chest. He stumbled back as Luke took the lead. His emerald saber neatly sliced through the second statue's lightsaber and quartered the granite body in two swift strokes.
Panting, Ben indicated to the debris strewn ahead of them. "You're right, the Watchers are looking a lot nicer now."
The hallway spilled out to an open courtyard, the surrounding Temple rose like prison walls, slate-grey and uncompromising. Rolling clouds had darkened the evening light to a twilight. A light drizzle, just enough to slick the ground, fell. Flashes of lightning lit the sickly green moss that claimed the open area. Vestara looked around, there were more than a dozen ways into the surrounding walls, but none looked more promising than the others. "Any ideas where next?"
The moss-covered ground behind them, for lack of a better word, exploded. A dull grey orb lay in the crater. The bat-winged sphere made another pass and shot a second projectile at them. Vestara gaped when she saw it lit up by a flash of lightning. "Ship? What are you doing?"
If you are no longer Sith, then you are a threat. A third ball bearing projectile smashed into one of the toppled pillars, spraying rocks about. They were about to make a break for the closest entrance, only to be stopped by more mutated Noghri lumbering out, brandishing sharp stone-knives.
"I thought you were controlling it," Jaina shouted over the rain, it was coming down more steadily now.
Vestara reached out, as she had on Kesh, to Ship. This time, however, she couldn't get a mental grip on the Meditation Sphere. It was like its mind had been coated in slick oil. "Something is blocking me," she called back. "Any ideas?"
Ben sent a kinetic blast at Ship, forcing it to weave around the attack. "Run?"
She sent him a scowl. "We can't let it escape with knowledge of the Font."
Luke knocked the charging Noghri back, blade carving carnage in its wake. He tilted his head to Jaina. "Think you can cover these guys? I might have an idea with Ship."
In answer, Jaina pirouetted under a high slash, cutting the Sithspawn off at the thighs in the process. Taking the cue, Luke leapt over to Ben and Vestara, still dodging the projectiles in the center of the open expanse. "How insulated is Ship?" He asked Vestara.
"I don't know, why do you ask?" She deflected one of the slower spheres off to the side. She glanced over to Luke in time to see him pointing up to the sky just as a spear of lightning split the darkened sky.
"Could work," Ben panted. avoiding Ship's eerily accurate attacks were tiring enough, but the rain weighed their cloths down, even if it did clean off the residual mud from the trek in the swamp. "How much time do you need?"
"It'll be harder in this nexus, but I think I can manage it."
Jaina was just taking down the last blue-grey mutant, only to see three of the stone guardians dance into the rain. The drops of water sizzled as they struck the ignited blades. There had to be a small army crammed into this Temple. Rolling under their attacks, she kicked out, only managing to wobble the rock-like leg. A small repulse sent one falling back on the blade of another. With two left, she executed a lightning-fast series of ripostes to cut them down.
In the open expanse, Ben and Vestara weaved up and down the obstacle course of vines and fallen columns. Ship seemed particularly interested in them, all but ignoring the two Jedi Masters. Laser cannons lit up the courtyard, splintering stone artifices and encroaching trees. They could feel Luke drawing on his mastery of the Hassat-durr technique to direct the natural lightning at the rogue Meditation Sphere. Bringing their telekinetic prowess to bear, Ship slowed down to an easier target. This, unfortunately, left them vulnerable to the very thing they were hindering.
The orange globe circled around for another pass, only to be lit up by a number of successive lightning strikes. Grey smoke, black in the darkness, poured from seams in the hull. Vestara sent indigo bolts of her own into the wounded ship as Ben knocked it down out of the sky. It fell onto one of the shattered columns and wrapped around it, the superheated metal molding to the debris.
The four walked up to the ruined Meditation Sphere. Smoke rose from the panels that had been peeled back in the crash. The wings were ripped off and the eye split into eighths. Luke turned to Vestara. "What happened?"
She shook her head. "I have no idea, something was blocking me from controlling it."
Luke considered it. "Or someone."
"Cronal?"
"Probably, this place would only feed him, more so that he knows it so well."
"We need to keep moving," Jaina nodded to the darkened doorway to the right.
They left the Sith ship and ventured further into the Temple. Mazes of carved bas reliefs adored the walls and swirls of obsidian flooring made them feel like they were walking over a river of black glass. They encountered more stone guardians and mutations, but these halls were larger and could accommodate them all engaging at once, leaving the Temple defenses lacking. After a quarter of an hour of wandering, they walked on to another opening to the sky, now truly night in fact as well as appearance. At the center of the clearing lay a pit that descended down to the heart of the Temple. Floating above it was a stone disk, carved much like the flooring had been.
Atop the disk stood a flowing vortex of cloud. Crescent head and sliver eyes reminded Luke of the projection Cronal had used during his time as the Imperial Intelligence Director. Instead of a star-lit body, however, the smoke was lit from within by flashing of electricity. "So, you've come to make this your tomb," the apparition rumbled. It raised a hand and shot an arc of lightning at them. Vestara responded in kind and Jaina leapt to the dais, lancing the smoke-covered body in a single stroke. The moment her foot touched the surface, it dropped like a rock, straight down and shattering in the pit floor.
Jaina reached out to the pit's edge and caught Ben's hand. Pulling her up, they all looked down to see, not the body of Jec Tamish, but of a rotted corpse clad in Sith robes, one of the Sith Abeloth had left behind as a trap on their previous trip. Body broken, the undead creature vainly tried to move over the splintered disk. Vestara looked at her companions. "I guess we're going down."
The jump was a short one, four meters at most, not beyond the scope of an initiate. The tunnel down here was lit from overhead, a triangular projection that ran the length of the ceiling. It bore the same carvings as the floor, but these swirls gave off pale light, just enough to make out the dimensions of the hall itself. The path was convoluted, aquariums of crystal blue water and the pale light the only things to differentiate one vestibule from another.
At last they started to started to see the dank and wet corridors give way to more regal décor. The blue of the waters surrendered to the rusted red of old blood. The end of the long corridor dropped off into blackness, but they could feel the heart of the power here centered before them. A grey dais was set below them connected to a stone bridge. On the far end, an identical dais ended the path. They all seemed to be suspended in a void with nowhere left to go. Before anyone could take a step off the disk, Luke raised his arms to stop them. "It's a trap, the path before us is an illusion."
He no sooner finished the warning before the void around them lit up in violet glory. A mass of rotting corpses illuminated the blackness with lightning and four lightsabers were catching the electricity in an instant. They were so intent on the obvious attack that the dropping statues nearly forced them to step onto the bridge before them. The guardians plummeted down onto their platform. Jaina and Luke turned toward the lightsaber-wielding sentinels, but all four knew they needed more room to survive. As they were, they wouldn't last a few minutes. With a couple of Force blasts, Ben and Vestara opened up a foothold in the undead mass below.
As they leapt off the platform, it fell to the ground below, now visible as the calligraphy-lined walls glowed a fiery crimson. The room was a rectangular one, cast in a hellish red that matched well with the cadaverous enemies they were fighting. Jaina threw a glance at the end of the room, the elevated throne that held a rolling thunder cloud atop it. As if sensing her scrutiny, the cloud spat a tendril of swelling smoke at them, a bar of blue plasma the only thing they could see within it.
With Ben and Vestara cutting down zombies in groups and Jaina engaged with the stone guardians, Luke sprang up to intercept the cloud. Impacting bodily with the head, they tumbled onto the far dais. From within the rapidly dissipating cloud, Luke could see the former-Jedi wrenching himself to his feet. "Are you in there, Jec? I don't want to fight you."
"There's only one mind here, Skywalker," Cronal rumbled back, stretching his mouth into a grin. blood dripped down and in-between his teeth contrasting with their whiteness. "This moment has been a long time in coming."
Cronal lunged with blinding speed. Luke had never known just how adept the Emperor's Hand had been with a blade before his death, but raw power was a potent substitute for form. His emerald saber blocking on instinct, Luke drew back and landed a kick in Cronal's chest, knocking him forward onto the bridge. Just as Mara had included in her report, there was nothing there and he fell through. Instead of diminishing into the pit, however, Cronal's form was obscured as his body bled the same oily soot as before, gliding up like a winged demon. Luke didn't have a chance to follow, as the undead swarmed his position, forcing him to weave a defense against the electrical attacks.
Jaina was pulling her blade out of one of the guardian's chests when she turned to find her world covered in smog. Her training had taught her early on, however, not to be taken aback by much, so she met the assault head-on. She slashed low, only to met Cronal's azure saber. Vestara sent a handful of undead back and launched a barrage of lightning at Cronal's back. Ben carried on his assailment, keeping the resilient minions back while Vestara and Jaina worked against the real enemy.
Cronal caught the lightning behind his back with his free hand, only to see in his peripheral the Mortis Dagger flying towards him in Jaina's hand. With a growl of irritation, he shot up into the air like a missile. Vestara's lightning arced towards Jaina, and the Jedi Master had to raise her lightsaber to block it.
Ready for the retreating exhaust form, Luke forced the fleeing Prophet down and executed a series of alternating high and low attacks to keep Cronal off the offensive. Ascending the steps to the throne, Luke scored a slice along Cronal's shoulder that elicited an inhuman roar and a massive wall of energy that knocked the Jedi Grand Master into the far wall at a velocity that human bodies were not meant to reach on their own. There was a dull thud and Luke slumped to the ground.
Her anger at their elusive enemy empowering her attacks, Vestara gestured to the half dozen zombies converging on Luke, crushing them into pulpy masses. The handful of remaining animated bodies fell to the three blades in seconds. All that was left was Cronal, hiding behind the opaque smog around the plateau on the far side. Ben crouched to check his father's vitals. "He's alive," Ben called, rising to join the other two. "We need to end this."
The soot congealed around Cronal, forming the same apparition that had been a trap before. Tiny white eyes set in a crescent head leered at them. The clawed hand held his blade aloft in a beckoning gesture. From the waist down, the smoke poured out like a living cloak. Jaina, Ben, and Vestara launched themselves at it.
Cronal's blade caught Jaina's, locking them in a contest of strength. This left Vestara and Ben free to attack. Their blades drawn to stab the cloud, they didn't even have a chance to react as gritty tendrils wrapped around their necks, living appendages of smoke that hurled them back. "Sword of the Jedi, that's what you think you are, child?" The bass voice rumbled over the whipping tornado surrounding them louder than it should have been, almost as if it was inside her head. The pressure on his saber vanished, lurching Jaina forward into the clawed hand waiting. "But a sword is only as effective as the swordsman. Who wields you?"
Vestara rose to her feet to see Jaina's body sail over the masses of undead carnage, straight for the pit in the room's center. Reaching out, she averted the Jedi's path to solid ground. Jaina landed in a crouch and launched herself back at the Prophet. Ben and Vestara copied her tactic, coming at Cronal in a triangle attack, only to have their blades meet one another as he ducked their assault. A whirlwind spin, azure flame at the apex forced them to leap in order to avoid being cut off at the ankles.
As soon as they were in the air, a wall of energy forced them all to fall backwards. Ben angled himself so he could spring off of the wall. Leaping back, Cronal was forced into a close quarters fight, unwilling to force Ben back while the other two were out of range, ready to fill any void he created. Jaina and Vestara came in more carefully, guarding themselves from another Force-powered assault. Ducking and weaving between the three fighters, Cronal seemed to know what they would do just before they actually acted. Jaina used every opportunity she had to drive the Dagger home, but he would always turn slightly at the last second.
They were at an impasse. Ben knew what he would have to do, and it was something he'd vowed never to do again. Cronal's premonitions made him nearly invincible. Though that would burn out his host all the faster, it would be enough to outlast the three of them, or at least until they made a mistake and he cut them down. He sent his mind forward in time by seconds, the techniques the Aing-Tii had taught him that were necessary to flow through time. This time, however, he didn't go backwards, but forwards. He saw exactly where Jaina would attack, where Vestara would lunge, and how Cronal would move to survive. Ben saw it all, reached out, and pushed. Cronal's slit eyes widened fractionally as he was shoved onto the Dagger's blade and was impaled.
Imbedded in his chest up to the hilt, Cronal's shrouded cloud writhed in agony. Smallish faces screamed in the moving canvass for a second before it imploded. Soot no longer held up, it piled on the ground like obsidian sand. All that was left in the center was Jec Tamish. Cronal's rage slowly gave way to a more peaceful expression, Jec's expression, eyes tearing in thanks for being freed from a living nightmare. As he died, the blade slid out, it's power having no hold over the dead. The three of them looked down at the fallen Jedi, Cronal was dead.
Taking a steadying breath, Jaina's hand shot up, the Dagger flying to her grip. With the blade barely pressing on the skin above the collar bone, it was pointed directly at Vestara.
Author's Note: I've never played it (I watched a play-though online), but I heavily used Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith to map out the Temple.