Chapter 9

Hallie stretched languorously, pulling and tightening muscles that hadn't seen extended use for the last few days. It felt good to move after spending so much time hunched over the desk in her quarters. Repairs of the command center had proven more complex than initially estimated. It looked like she would be here for a while still.

She glanced backwards. A stream of moonlight had snuck through her drapes, gently shining upon her bed and its sole occupant. Lord Andora slept, battered but unbroken, mouthing the sith code in his dreams. He was naked from the waist up, crimson skin painting a stark contrast to Hallie's bland grey sheets. His broad chest rose and fell with rhythmic serenity. Hallie smiled. The fleeting moments after their trysts were some of the only ones she could see ephemeral flashes of contentment in him. She thought it suited the twi'lek, though she doubted he would appreciate the sentiment.

Hallie had grown fond of the Andora over the past few months. It was a relief to see he had recovered enough for some moderate physical activity. By a stroke of luck, Andora had survived two encounters with Vandal Pike, where even Darth Cerber had been slain.

Toes had survived too, but both times he had help. Honestly, Hallie didn't know if he would be able to defeat the bounty hunter - now revealed to be a former Sith and an exiled disciple of Darth Siphon himself - in single combat. Then again, whatever her master might claim, Siphon's forces had indeed suffered heavy losses. With Andora still wounded, Hysteria slain, and most of her allies scattered or killed, Siphon had few options; Tosin was one of few viable candidate for the job.

Of course, these would all be moot points if Pike never showed up...

A day had passed since Tosin put Vandal Pike's warehouses to the flame, twenty-four hours since she had purposefully triggered all the alarms in the building. She and Tosin watched as the guards - both droid and humanoid alike clamored to salvage what was now only wreckage, only to be swallowed by a crumbling building or devoured by fire.

They monitored the situation closely as Imperial investigators arrived on scene and interviewed the survivors, searched through the debris. The investigators' efforts were half-hearted at best. As soon as they judged that the attack had not been committed by Republic or seditionist agents, they departed, content to leave most of the bounty hunter's now ruined secrets to their grave. Their investigation took less than six hours.

Tosin had made a makeshift camp in an abandoned warehouse across the way. From his vantage point, and with Hallie's slicing of other security cameras within the district, they should have been able to detect any approach made on the rubble. Instead, they literally watched as the dust settled around what was supposed to be the hailing beacon inviting their quarry to return.

She sighed, setting aside her work for the moment. If they couldn't capture Pike, she would turn her attentions to another mystery that begged to be solved.

Ever since her encounter with Pike during the attack on Twinspire Keep, his words echoed in her mind insistently. "Her own lover was slain by her own hand! If it weren't for her, there would be no Kaggath!"

The data Hallie had collected seemed to confirm the bounty hunter's claim that Siphon's lover had indeed been Darth Orthas' apprentice, a sith lord by the name of Nyseria. Up until a month ago, both had taken on tasks that had dispatched them to nearby locations. Their absences from military operations coincided too often to be above suspicion. Then, there was the holocam recordings of the pair stealing glances and affection.

Why would Siphon decide to turn on Nyseria?

A lover's spat? A quarrel taken to the extreme? It was not unheard of for Sith lovers to have slain each other in fits of passion, but somehow that didn't seem in character for Hallie's employer. She had known her master long enough to know that much.

Then … why?

With Pike still missing, Hallie took the opportunity to dig deeper into both Nyseria and Siphon's history. The young pureblood woman lived an unremarkable life - for a Sith, at any rate. She passed her trials in the valley of the Dark Lords and made an impression on Orthas, who took her under his wing. He dispatched her to Balmorra where she won a series of victories against resistance fighters under Darth Lachris' supervision and soon ascended to the rank of Lord.

From there, she took part in the Corellian occupation, suffering losses against Jedi liberators that stained her otherwise impressive record. Nyseria returned to Orthas' side after the Emperor's defeat and the Dark Council found itself rife with infighting; her master seemed to sense the climate of turmoil and no doubt wanted to consolidate his power base. Soon after, her trysts with Siphon began.

Siphon's own records were much more curious. Baras, self-proclaimed Voice of the Emperor, elevated Siphon to the rank of Darth upon claiming Darth Vengean's emptied seat at the Dark Council for himself. Many questioned whether Siphon would survive Baras' subsequent ousting at the hands of the Emperor's Wrath, but the new Darth proved herself unexpectedly powerful, emerging victorious in three separate challenges to her title by Sith of proven might. Strangely, none of these duels had any witnesses; the only proof that she had won was Siphon's emergency with the body of her defeated enemy.

Even so, Hallie felt a sense of pride knowing that the intelligence she had provided to her sith master had helped Siphon secure victory.

What caught Hallie's attention most of all, however, was that there was almost nothing of Siphon's history recorded before her entry into Baras' service. It was almost as though the false Voice had plucked her from literal obscurity. No records could be found of Siphon's time on Korriban as an apprentice, no details emerged of her efforts in the cold war, nothing on her time as a Lord.

All Hallie had been able to recover was a name: Tallis Fell.

Hallie recognized the markers in the data files; someone had purposefully removed the data from active intelligence networks. There was no doubt in her mind that Siphon had done it herself. The question was again … why?

Pike's warning echoed in her mind once more. " … She will betray you too."

So many unanswered questions. So many dead ends.

Hallie needed a breath of fresh air.

She stepped lightly out to the balcony, careful not to stir Andora from his slumber. Her quarters rested within one of Twinspire Keep's dual towers, overlooking a canyon smothered by snow. Two moons hung themselves heavily in the night sky, painting the pristine canvas below her in shimmering blues and purples.

Hallie liked spending time here at night. It was a refuge of peace, and she found herself better able to come to solutions when pondering them here rather than anywhere else. The unending batches of data from her computer consoles proved overwhelming at times; this was as good a place as any to help her mind sort through the information, filing away the irrelevant pieces while focusing on the pertinent points.

Tonight, however, the pristine scene was marred by the appearance of scaffolding and construction equipment littered across the balcony. Orthas' attack on the keep had damaged the walls. Repairs here mirrored the progress made on the ops center: slowly.

Good contractors were always so hard to find.

After a moment, she reached for her comlink. "Tosin, are you there?"

A groggy " ...yes," came shortly after. It seemed even Sith grew tired of waiting.

"No sign of Pike?" she asked tentatively.

Tosin yawned. "No … just the pile of rubble we left for him. Something the matter? You have news?"

Again, she debated for a moment whether to tell the sith lord about her other investigation. She had debated telling Andora too, but ultimately felt it wasn't worth the risk, both to him as well as herself. Andora was not known for his acting talent, and even had he been willing to overlook the nature of her investigation, she judged it an unnecessary element of uncertainty to have to rely on the twi'lek to maintain appearances.

Then, there was always the chance that Andora would take her suspicions straight to Siphon. Hallie wasn't a fool; she knew how sith politics worked. Whatever any Sith could do to curry the favor of their master, they would do. That included throwing a lover to the wolves to advance their own power and prestige.

Tosin on the other hand … there was something different about him. He wasn't like any Sith she had ever met.

"Hallie?"

She made a split second decision. "Can I ask how you ended up in Darth Siphon's service?"

" ... Why do you want to know that?"

"Please. It's important," she replied.

Tosin paused for a long moment, before finally speaking again. " … she took me in when I had no one left to turn to."

Hallian stayed silent, waiting for him to elaborate. Hoping that he would reveal his story to her.

"Is that all?"

Hallie felt crestfallen. Even half-expecting him to hide his history, she still hoped she had earned the man's trust over the last few days. If he had been willing to share his story, she would have known that there was trust between them. She would have felt at ease sharing the second investigation she had been working on. If only he had been willing to open up ...

" … yeah. Sorry Toes. I guess I just couldn't sleep."

The Sith lord grumbled. "It's fine. Let me know if you find anything new that will help. I'm starting to think Vandal Pike isn't going to return here."

"Of course. Will do."

"Get some rest, Hallie. Don't overwork yourself," said Tosin, yawning again before ending the call.

She sighed. Maybe Tosin was right. Some sleep would help her collect her thoughts in the morning.

Hallie stepped back into her quarters and was at first confused at the sight of her bed, emptied. Had Andora departed so unceremoniously? Her question was answered by the sound of a quiet knock at her door and the twi'lek's waving arm springing out of her closet. Both of them had wanted to keep their private affairs secret; Andora likely didn't want to be judged to have a weakness in a lover, and Hallie - however guiltily - had no desire for it to become common knowledge that she was involved with a Sith many believed to be lacking in cerebral proficiency. After all, however fond of him she had grown, Hallie still had standards.

The knock rapped against her door again, this time more firmly. Who could it be at this hour?

Hallie stepped to the door and opened it a crack … and then swung it wide as her heart leaped into her throat. "D-darth Siphon. To what do I owe the honor?"

The masked figure of Siphon's lithe form sauntered into Hallie's quarters, brushing past the agent with little thought and so quickly that Hallie couldn't even think of an excuse to keep her master out.

"Hello, Agent Quen. Still dressed? Still working?"

"Er … yes, my lord. But I was just about to turn in for the night …"

"Oh?" said Siphon with an obviously false tone of curiosity as she shut the door behind her. "How fortunate I've caught you at just the right time then."

Something was wrong. Hallie could smell it in the air, taste it on her tongue with every word she spoke. What was this about? Andora?

Or … could she know?

"How can I serve, my lord?" Hallian asked, doing her best to keep her voice calm and measured.

"It's come to my attention that there have been attempts to access certain records in various Imperial databases."

Hallie felt her stomach knot. Siphon knew.

She debated her options. She could feign ignorance, protest that the queries hadn't come from her. After all, she had been careful to slice the Imperial archives to mask any trace of her identity in the search. But Siphon was at her door, in her quarters. What were the chances she would be here if she did not already know? The odds that Hallie would be believed now were slim to none.

It was time to come clean.

"My lord, forgive my curiosity. It's just … something Pike said to me trying to take over the ops center … I couldn't help myself."

Hallie wanted to kick herself; even to herself, the explanation sounded feeble and clumsy.

"So … you won't pretend innocence. You have good sense, Agent, that's what I've always liked about you. You always were smart enough to know when you could seize advantage, and humble enough to know when you'd been outplayed."

Hallie swallowed with some difficulty; her throat felt parched and dry.

"I'm afraid though … that I simply can't have my own people sticking their noses in places where they don't belong."

" … m-my lord?"

The surge of Siphon's lightsaber activating echoed in her ears as the energy blade bathed Hallie's room in crimson light, blocking the door.

This isn't happening.

Hallie stumbled backwards, edging away from Siphon with futile despair. "N-no, my lord. Please. I … I made a mistake, it won't happen again. I assure you, I swear!"

"Some things can't be taken back, Agent Quen. No matter how much you want it. How hard you try."

Hallie's hands reflexively went to her hip in search of her blaster pistol; they found nothing. She had left all her weapons at her console, which now stood longingly across the room from her, behind Siphon. There was nothing nearby that she could use as a weapon, nothing she saw that she could use to defend herself, and with every backwards step she took, Siphon advanced, robes fluttering from the breeze that blew in through the open balcony doors.

She felt her back hit the wall.

"I'll make it quick, Agent. In light of your years of superb service."

If only she could escape, could fly from this place. But Siphon had her trapped.

I'm going to die. Just like Nyseria. Just like ...

Siphon raised her blade up high.

Vandal Pike's words echoed in her mind. " … She will betray you too."

She hated that those would be the last words she would ever hear.

"STOP!"

Andora burst from his hiding place, crimson lightsaber flashing in a wide arc to attack his own master. Siphon whirled around to engage her new opponent, parrying the twi'lek's attacks with uncanny ease.

"Two traitors? No matter. You've failed me too many times Andora. Your death will be a fitting punishment and a warning to the rest of the Lords in my service."

"Hallie, run!"

She hesitated for only a moment. Andora screamed at her again: "Fool! Get out of here before it's too late!"

She listened.

Hallie ducked out onto the balcony; behind her, she could hear Siphon and Andora's lightsabers whirling and clashing in violent dissent. Eyes darting across the floor, she found what she had been looking for: a grappling gun. She picked it up and then glanced across the other side of the canyon; it would be just long enough. Hands shaking uncontrollably, she somehow managed to aim and fire the grappling hook into the side of the canyon wall.

She undid her belt and then slipped it over the grapple and then wrapped each end around her wrist as tightly as she could manage. With only a single glance backwards to see Siphon and Andora still fighting, she took a deep breath and then jumped.

End of Part Three