Chapter 5

Exterior, Twinspire Keep

Twinspire Keep was far from the largest stronghold a Sith Lord had ever commanded, but the two towers of its namesake did soar high into the air. The stronghold itself overlooked a canyon that scarred the icy landscape of Ziost about half a day's shuttle-ride from New Adasta and was well-fortified. It also sheltered a massive ritual chamber located just above its underground operations command center. The circular room was draped in Sith paraphernalia and decorated with ancient artifacts and relics. Large red banners stretched nearly twenty meters from the ceiling to only centimeters off the floor in the periphery, perfectly perpendicular to the circular steps that led up to a similarly round dais at the center of the chamber.

Lord Rend remembered training with Siphon here. The banners were an interesting factor to consider during their exercises; simultaneously useful for scaling to better vantage points, to cloak oneself and mask one's presence, and to serve as a distraction and even weapon against an opponent. This was the first place Rend had learned to use his surroundings to his advantage; a lesson that had not been easily mastered.

Darth Siphon had already taken position at the center of the dais, meditating at the center of four hovering holocrons, each a record of power and prestige belonging to ancient Sith lords. Rend felt the seething hatred emanate off his master as she began her Battle Meditation; already, Rend could sense his own confidence growing and his connection to the Force strengthening. Curiously though, there was something else as well … an overwhelming presence in his mind that made him feel as though his other senses were growing dull, a muted ache that he noticed only because he focused on it.

Rend did not bother to mention this to his master: the battle meditation was too important to the day's efforts to interrupt or to risk losing for a mild headache. Perhaps it was just the proximity to the Siphon's ritual that was causing the slight discomfort; Rend had never witnessed his master employ the ability in person.

He paced quietly for several minutes, careful not to make any sound or become a distraction, though the effort soon became aggravating. It was a sign of trust that the Darth had chosen him as her personal guard - even knowing that Andora likely would have been chosen had he been at full strength - but Rend found the task mind-numbing. He was neither Hysteria nor Andora, but the thrill of combat was still preferable to glorified guard duty.

Without warning, he felt a sudden hollow in his chest, an echo of something familiar dissipating into an ocean, a void that shrieked through the Force; Hysteria had been slain.

"My lord! Orthas' forces are overrunning the courtyard!" came Quen's frantic voice over his comlink. "Orthas, he – he took out Lord Hysteria! General Ravain needs reinforcements, can you assist?!"

Rend's mind raced. If the courtyard was taken, his master's defenses would be hard-pressed to defend the rest of the Keep; it would be a critical blow in Orthas' favor. Then again, if he abandoned his post and Darth Orthas managed to strike at his master through an assassin, all might be lost.

"Lord Rend!"

There was no time for debate. "On my way, agent. Have some of the forces at the courtyard fall back to a defensive perimeter around the ritual chamber. Under no circumstances are they or anyone else to disturb Darth Siphon's battle meditation!"

"As you say!" came the woman's curt reply before the transmission was cut off. Rend glanced back one last time to his master - the masked woman didn't appear to have been drawn out from her trance, at least not yet. Hoping he had made the right choice, Rend raced towards the front gates, his legs powered by the Force to carry him as quickly as they could.

Command Center, Twinspire Keep

"Reports coming in, Watcher! We've suffered 20% casualties at the courtyard, but General Ravain is holding position there."

Lord Rend's arrival had done much to deter the enemy's momentum. "Let's make sure it stays that way," replied Hallie. "What about the enemy?"

"They've taken more losses, but they still outnumber us by three to two."

General Ravain's voice came over the holocom. "Get me a status report on the southern tunnels, we might need Darth Cerber up here too!"

"That would leave the southern tunnels exposed, General," protested Lethe. She had managed to regain her composure, though Hallie would not soon forget the image of her unsettled and clearly rattled face only moments earlier.

"The southern tunnels aren't under attack, Lord! We need to deal with these hounds at our front step, now!"

Lethe neither reacted nor replied to the general's rebuke.

"Lord Rend," directed one of Hallie's agents. "The enemy is attempting a pincer strike on General Ravain's position. Move to reinforce, now."

Hallie didn't have the time to spare just watching the battle, but the sight of Rend in action was hard to look away from even through a holo-feed. With one hand, his lightsaber whirled all about him, deflecting blaster bolts from the side while his other hand captured one of Orthas' pureblood apprentices in a storm of electricity. The pureblood collapsed to the ground, smoke wafting up from his unmoving body. The next moment, Rend had leaped to the general's side, striking down anybody who got too close and sending surges of lightning that leaped from enemy soldier to enemy soldier in a chain reaction, felling four or five at a time.

"Agent Quen!" shouted General Ravain into the holocom. "I need status in the south!"

"Watcher," said one of Hallie's agents, her dread in her voice clearly audible. "I … I can't raise Darth Cerber or Lord Andora …"

"What?"

"Holo-camera feed along the southern wall is being disabled, Watcher!" came another cry. "Something's heading this way!"

Hallie cussed as loud as she could and then leaped over her desk to get at the internal security console. Her agent was right; security cameras were being disabled one by one, on a straight path to their operations center. "Activate internal defense turrets! General, you'll have to make do without Cerber! The keep has been infiltrated!"

She glanced around the room, watching as half her team seemed paralyzed with fear. Pulling out her own blaster pistol and disabling the safety, Hallie addressed the whole room. "We will make it through this. As a team. I could go on about loyalty to our dark master, but that's not what's going to carry us through today. It's going to be loyalty to each other. It's going to be knowing that whatever happens, we all have each other's backs! And it's going to be spitting in the face of the man who thinks he can come into our house and kill us or our friends whenever he wants! Are you with me?!"

The few meager cries of enthusiasm quickly drowned themselves in silence. Hallie sighed; she never was really good at encouraging speeches. Glancing back to her Sith Lord defender, she offered a half-hearted smile of encouragement.

"Lord Lethe … I hope you're ready for a fight."

Courtyard, Twinspire Keep

"Andora and Cerber aren't responding to transmissions. Quen's under attack by … probably by whatever took out Cerber. Hysteria's dead … this isn't going to end well, is it my lord?"

Lord Rend grunted with the exertion of shielding both himself and Ravain from blaster fire, his lightsaber leaving so many trails, he imagined they looked more like a neon sign than anything else. "Now's not the time for pessimism, general. We've managed to hold them back thus far, haven't we?"

But he knew that their success had as much to do with Siphon's battle meditation as anything else. Without it, they would have long since been overrun, the courtyard seized and the stronghold claimed in Orthas' name. His master's efforts provided them all with with a connection to the Force, a confidence in their own ability that made every blaster bolt find its mark, every swing of the blade connect and every surge of lightning as deadly as that of a Darth. That could change in an instant if whoever now invaded the Keep managed to disrupt Siphon's concentration.

Two hours had passed since Orthas had first appeared and his forces had first taken the gate. Most of Siphon's Sith apprentices remained relatively intact, and thanks to Rend's efforts, the Sith ranks in Orthas' number had been significantly reduced. Orthas' forces had suffered more casualties but they still outnumbered Siphon's defenses three to two …

And yet somehow Rend and Ravain had not given ground. Curious. The courtyard was in ruins, they had lost Hysteria and yet Orthas continued to watch from afar, refusing to engage them personally. Neither side had suffered significant losses, even though Orthas could have easily massacred them all - his professed goal since the beginning of the Kaggath - had he wanted to. Curiouser still …

Unless their utter annihilation wasn't the goal of this attack.

"Lord Rend … have you seen Ruinate?"

The question sent a chill down his spine. Ruinate! In the heat of battle, they had somehow lost sight of the traitor.

"Agent Quen, I need you to give me target coordinates on Darth Ruinate!" he shouted into his holocom. "Agent Quen! Quen, do you read me?!"

At first, there was only silence. Then, a stream of static interspersed with screams and Hallian Quen's voice assaulted their ears. "– under attack! He's – think it's Vandal P – Lord Rend, it's – Pike!"

Vandal Pike.

So the bounty hunter had survived. "I knew it. It was too easy," hissed Rend. "General, I'm going to reinforce the command center. Pike's not going to get away a second time!"

"My lord! What about the battle here?"

"This attack was never about destroying us all! This is about removing Darth Siphon's key supporters. Orthas has already done away with Hysteria, who knows what's happened to Cerber and Andora … now he has Pike attacking the command center! I won't let it happen, not while I can still draw breath!"

He didn't wait for Ravain to respond before flying up the stairs in a mad scramble to reach Lethe and Quen. He only hoped he would make it in time.

Command Center, Twinspire Keep

"Fire at will! Shoot him down!"

"Belay that!" shouted Hallie. "You'll hit Lord Lethe!"

Lethe was their strongest line of defense, after all. She had leaped to engage Vandal Pike the moment he had blown up the western wall to breach the ops center, lightsaber drawn and flashing through the air; the explosion had taken out half her team and destroyed just as much of their equipment. Most of their holocams had cut out and their communications systems were all but unsalvageable. The transmission to Rend was likely the last Hallie could make from this station.

Vandal Pike was alive.

It wasn't possible. She had performed the genetic verification herself, the corpse was a perfect match for all known records of the bounty hunter. Still, there was no denying the armor he wore, the skill he possessed … and the lightsaber with which he now traded blows with Lethe.

This was why Rend had asked about finding lightsabers with the body…

"Watcher, you really think she wouldn't sacrifice us in an instant if she were in our shoes?!"

"That's the problem with the Empire these days," said Pike, voice distorted through his helmet, not at all phased by Lethe's assault. "Not enough loyalty."

Hallie needed to distract Pike, needed to draw his attention so that he would make a mistake and give Lethe the upper hand. "How'd you do it Pike? How'd you fake your death?"

"Not really your concern, agent. Not now, anyway." Pike's lightsaber flashed through the air effortlessly, as though Lethe's attacks barely registered as a threat. "I'll tell you about it if I can convince Orthas to spare your life when this is all over."

Cocky bastard. "How generous of you. What makes you think I'm not the type of woman to go down with her ship?"

"Say it ain't so," lamented Pike, still perfectly countering each of Lethe's attacks. "Orthas has a place for you and your team in his power structure. It's just these false Sith he wants to drown in their own blood."

He paused for a second. "Oh, don't get me wrong, the man's a lunatic and the Empire can't hope to survive if he had his way … but hey, the enemy of my enemy, right? You can survive this, you know. Let me finish up with Lethe and you can come with me to surrender to Darth Orthas."

Lethe didn't blink an eye, but - still crouching from behind her ruined console - Hallie spat with disgust. "You're willing to slaughter your Sith brethren for … what? Revenge? You'd sell out the rest of your Sith brethren just like that?"

"I never claimed to be Sith!" Pike shouted, voice filled with the first hint of anger Hallie had heard. Pike parried another saber strike from Lethe and then let loose a jet of flame from his wrist guard. Lethe flipped back, out of harm's way.

Hallie gave herself a mental pat on the back. Now we just need to seize on the opportunity. "Fire! All agents, fire at will!

Hallie's remaining team popped out from their cover behind ruined consoles and computer stations to unleash a torrent of crimson blaster fire on their assailant. Pike was ready, dropping a ballistic shield in a 180-degree arc in front of himself … but Hallie's team had gained the advantage they needed.

Lethe's strength had never been in melee. If Pike hadn't stormed in with his own blade ready to cut down anything in its path, Lethe might've had more time to prepare whatever Sith sorcery she needed to take this bastard down. Putting distance between himself and Lethe was the worst mistake he could have made. While the energy field protected Pike from Hallie and her squad's blaster pistols and rifles, it would not protect him from the Force. She shot a glance to Lethe, hopeful that the Sith Lord would take the advantage.

Lethe's eyes were golden orbs, the pupils as dark as oblivion; gaze still locked upon the bounty hunter, the sith lord lifted her free arm, fingers slowly curling into her palm, as though she grasped at the bounty hunter's very soul.

Vandal Pike convulsed in a seizure. A horrifying shriek erupted from within his hunter's helmet. Though the ballistic shield protected him from the hailstorm of energy blasts focused on his location, his body shuddered like each shot had found its mark, peppering him from head to toe, forcing his body to twist and contort in a cruel dance.

The shield would last only so long. They had him! "Keep firing!" shouted Hallie as she unloaded another volley of blaster fire. "We're going to take him out once and for all!"

Then, Pike lifted his head.

Forced to his knees by Lethe's mental assault, it seemed to take him all his strength to pull a tech blade from out of his boot. Gaze still locked on Lethe, the bounty hunter lifted the vibranium weapon into the air … and then slammed it into his own thigh.

Hallie gaped, unabashed and wide-mouthed.

The self-inflicted wound broke whatever control Lethe had over the man's mind, just as the ballistic shield went down - but Pike had already taken to the air via jetpack and the barrage of blaster bolts launched by Hallie's team slammed harmlessly into the walls. Before anyone could react, the Bounty Hunter fired a grapple around Lethe's waist; seconds later, electricity surged forward along the grapple.

"Your turn, you b-!" screamed Pike.

Lethe's agonized shriek sent chills down Hallie's spine.

As quick as she could, Hallie pulled out her own dagger, silently praying that all her training hadn't been lost stuck behind a computer all these years. With only a second to ensure her aim, she flung the blade out; almost by a miracle, the blade's trajectory struck true. The grapple snapped in half as Lethe's body crumpled to the floor.

"Not bad. But not enough!"

Pike fired a rocket from his wrist-guard; Hallie jumped out of cover to take position behind a pillar, realizing too late that she hadn't been the target. The rest of her team across the room tried to flee, but there wasn't time. The explosion rocked the room, sending most of her remaining team flying, unconscious or dead. It was only her and Pike now.

She would have to grieve later.

"It didn't have to be this way," said Pike. "You could have walked away from this. You still can. Just surrender. Orthas could use an agent like you."

"Over my dead body," Hallie hissed. She popped out of cover firing her blaster … only to discover that there was nothing in the air above her.

"You can't trust Siphon. You have to know that. Her own lover was slain by her own hand. If it weren't for her, there would be no Kaggath!"

Pike's voice seemed to ring out from all directions; Hallie twisted in place, trying to locate her attacker, the adrenaline coursing through her veins almost drowning out the bounty hunter's words. Almost.

Orthas' apprentice … was Darth Siphon's lover?

The gush of a lightsaber activating in front of her neck briefly drowned her vision in golden light. "She will betray you too."

This was it. It was over.

And then suddenly, Pike was swinging the lightsaber away from her, barely catching the violet lightning that rushed towards them both.

"PIKE! I will end you!"

It was Lord Rend; somehow he had made it in time. Hallie thanked her lucky stars. With Pike's attention occupied, Hallie slammed her elbow into the bounty hunter's side. She doubted the blow would do much damage against his heavy armor, but it did give her just enough leeway to extricate herself from his grasp. Rolling out of the way of Rend's lightning, Hallie grabbed another stray pistol off the floor and jumped up already firing, intent on bringing the bounty hunter down once and for all.

With his lightsaber preoccupied defending against Rend's Force Lightning, Pike had no choice but to swerve and duck in the air with his jetpack. He hadn't attacked yet, and Hallie knew why; he was calculating the odds of him being able to beat them both. Silently, she prayed that the odds were working in their favor.

Then, she saw Lethe's hand move. The battered Sith Lord had recovered, and slowly she was getting to her feet. Pike saw it too; he cussed angrily, and then flew behind another pillar to avoid Hallie's blaster fire, lightsaber still forced to defend against Rend's lightning. Seconds later, she heard another rocket launch towards Lord Lethe, whose hands were already curling into position.

Hallie didn't have time to think, didn't have time to react. She fired.

The blaster bolts struck the rocket in mid-air, exploding in a maelstrom of fire and ash and smoke.

Vandal Pike didn't waste another second. He flung his lightsaber at Lord Rend and then propelled himself out the blown-out wall, out of their sight and into escape. The lord parried the saber throw with his own blade and then moved to pursue Pike's escape route until the General's voice rang out from the last remaining internal communicator.

"The enemy's stopped their attack! They're falling back!"

But why?

A look of dread fell upon Lord Rend's face. "General! Do you have sight on Darth Ruinate?!"

"Outward communications are down, my lord," Hallie "I'll … get on it as soon as I know I'm not about to be killed again."

"Ruinate?" asked Lethe. "He's not with Orthas' vanguard?"

"No. We lost sight of him during the battle. He's a master of stealth, Lethe, we need to get to Darth Siphon, before it's too late."

Lethe nodded. "Agent, you have things in hand here?"

"Go," said Hallie. "I'll tend the wounded and then get started on repairs."

The sith lords parted without another word. Part of Hallie wanted to go with them, to ensure everything they had suffered this day hadn't been in vain, hadn't just been assassinated. If Siphon had been slain, they were all lost. Rend and Lethe were powerful, but ultimately no match for Orthas, that much she was certain especially after he had so easily crushed Hysteria. And that wasn't even considering Orthas' retinue of apprentices and allies.

Without Siphon, they might as well surrender.

She picked up Vandal Pike's lightsaber from where it had fallen. The construction was simple and clean; the hilt had been polished to perfection.

For just a moment, Hallie wondered if she had turned down the bounty hunter's offer too quickly.