Chapter 16
Rend watched, stunned, as a second Siphon approached a fallen first, faces imperfect mirrors of each other: one battered and bloodied in recent battle, the other burned in time long past. It was the first time Rend had ever seen his master unmasked; never had he expected to see what he now saw. His eyes darted between the sight of his own master duplicated, Orthas' corpse, and the unmoving form of Vandal Pike.
The second Siphon - the burn-touched one - gingerly helped the other to her feet.
"Lord Rend. You survived." It was the battered form that spoke, unable to hide the surprise in her voice. As the words parted her lips, her sister glanced to Rend and then immediately jerked him forward through the Force, propelling him from the entrance into the chamber, stopping him only a few meters from Orthas' body.
Still uncertain as to what had happened - what was even now happening - Rend struggled to comprehend and to bring thought to spoken words.
"You … you did it, my lord - lords. You defeated him. It's done, the Kaggath is over!" For a second, glorious relief swept over him with the realization that this pyrrhic war was finally done. Elation engulfed him, the knowledge that he had emerged on the victorious side of this contest almost overwhelming his discovery that his master's doppelganger stood before him unchallenged, uncontested.
Almost.
"Over? … no, my dear apprentice. Not quite."
As the battered Siphon spoke, the marred one moved behind him in a slow circle. Rend's jubilation turned to dread, a trepidation that propagated through his veins. The air smelled of blood; he could taste it on his tongue with every word he spoke, could sense it through the Force - a maelstrom of nihilism that came with the knowledge of one's impending death.
Victory is a lie.
"Who … which of you is my master?" Rend asked.
They laughed together in unison, voices echoing against each other to fill the entire ritual chamber with an imperious harmony. "Darth Siphon is your master, apprentice. And we are Darth Siphon."
"All along, you were sisters? Twins? How did you … how have none known the truth …?"
"What have I always told you, apprentice? Knowledge known only to the select few can be a key to unimaginable power."
Comprehension dawned on him, finally, like a shock of rhime splashed across his face and left to frost over. "This is how you ascended to power. This has been the key to your rise, your victories against all your enemies … this is what Hallie stumbled across. This is why you ordered her execution."
The Siphon behind him spoke, voice barely above a whisper. " … secrets are powerful only when you are their sole keeper. Otherwise, they are a weakness to be exploited."
The Siphon before him spoke, voice cold as ice. "Agent Quen overstepped her bounds. She still does, I suspect. I felt your death in the Force, and yet you stand here before me. You lied to me, apprentice. Who else but she would have bothered to save you? What was it you called her … 'Hallie?' … so it's 'Hallie' now?"
" … are you going to kill me?" Rend asked, his heart as hard as stone, too filled with disgust to let even an ounce of regret in. He did not regret his choice, not now. Not after this.
"What choice do you leave us, apprentice?"
"For this, you would slay your own followers?" asked Rend in disbelief. "Your agents, your apprentices? Is it really worth it to keep this secret at the cost of your power base?!"
The Siphon before him smiled. "We have already arranged for you to be replaced. Lord Astraad will support our bid to fold all of Orthas' assets and followers into our own power structure. The rest of his disciples will fall in line."
These were the 'arrangements' she had spoken of earlier. This was why she held no concern over whether Orthas' disciples would submit to her victory.
It took a minute for Rend to recognize the expression with which both twins now gazed upon him: pity.
"I am sorry, apprentice. But you stumbled upon knowledge that was not yours to possess. You threaten the power of a great and terrible secret, one that we are not yet ready to forsake."
"You lied to us. Over and over with your brother, and now Agent Quen. You have betrayed our trust." The Siphon behind him spat with contempt. "The magnitude of how you have disappointed us - it is incomprehensible. After everything we've done for you … this is how you repay us?"
"Perhaps if you had done as you were commanded, if you had executed your duty, perhaps even had you revealed your failure … this day would not have to end this way."
"We could have shared in the spoils of power, apprentice. You were always our favorite. Your potential surmounted the galaxy."
"But you betrayed us. You betrayed your family, your only family, and for what? Mercy for a friend? A misguided obligation to conscience?"
Rend could not believe what he was hearing. The audacity. The arrogance. They dared to call him a traitor? After everything he had sacrificed? His soul, his true family! He abandoned Hallie to come here, to offer aid, to be a doting and loyal dog to its master, prepared to lay down its life in her defense.
For his trouble, Siphon sentenced him to death. Hallie had been right all along. How blind he had been. How foolish.
His master was not his family. She - they - had stolen that from him long, long ago.
No more.
"Have you any last words, apprentice?"
He did. "Yes. If these are to be my last, then let them be resounding and resolute. I disavow you. You are my master no more!"
Tosin twisted in place, arms stretching outwards in opposite directions, lightning surging forth to attack both Siphons with unmatched ferocity; so intense were the blasts that the energy shined neither blue nor violet, but white: pure and unadulterated, power at its most raw.
The Siphon behind him conjured an absorptive barrier that negated his attack, but he caught the one before him by surprise; weakened by her duel with Orthas, she couldn't react in time to defend herself. The surge of lightning caught her square in the chest; her agonized scream pierced his ears in violent retribution until she collapsed to the floor.
"You dare strike at your master?!" The remaining Siphon howled her fury at her sister's pain, quashing the remnants of Tosin's attack with a savage motion of her hands.
"You call yourselves my master, but you are nothing but hypocrites! Liars! All this time, you have been sheltering each other, protecting each other while you make your disciples tear their families apart in the name of becoming Sith. All the while you hide behind your mask …"
"You think you know anything?! You think you have sacrificed?! We have paid the ultimate price! We offered up ourselves in pursuit of power, in pursuit of ascension! To realize our ambitions, we have become impostors to our own lives, pretenders to our own identities! But our sacrifice bore fruit because we dared to seize what we could take, achieve what others feared to accomplish! Siphon is a name feared because we had what it took to make it so! We won't let an errant apprentice stand in our way."
Siphon launched forward, lightsaber drawn and angled to bisect Tosin with a single decisive stroke.
Tosin was ready. Before Siphon's blade could reach him, he flipped away and then empowered his steps to reach the central dais in the center of the ritual chamber. Quick as lightning, he darted behind one of the Imperial banners that hung low to the ground, and then calmed his breath so that he could focus on listening.
"You want to play games, apprentice? You do realize the cat always gets the mouse in the end!"
"I am not your apprentice!" Tosin screamed, leaping out to fire a jolt of electricity only to find nothing from where the sound of Siphon's voice had emanated. Immediately, he ducked back into the central dais, hidden by the room-length banners; there was no one there but him - Siphon had to still be outside the circumference.
"Still the child. Still seeking to hide from punishment. Pathetic."
Once more, Tosin leaped from his cover, launching a wave of Force outward meant to incapacitate his former master at the source of her voice. Once more, he found nothing and was forced to retreat into the enclosure.
This time, he scaled a banner itself to find advantage in elevation. At the apex, he compelled it to remain still through the Force, so as not to give his position away to Siphon. He listened. He waited for her to make a mistake.
The whirring buzz of lightsabers whirling through the air demanded his attention.
Tosin knew immediately Siphon had thrown them; they spun, end-to-end, all the while moving with incredible speed. One by one, they severed the tops of the banners surrounding the central dais; Tosin had no choice but to fall from his position, landing atop the dais on one bent knee as scarlet tapestries cascaded all around him like waterfalls of blood.
His eyes darted around the room in a 360 degree arc. Where was she? Where was Siphon?
He felt something cold and metallic press against his back.
No.
But then, it was gone, torn away from dealing the deathblow to deflect a volley of blaster fire so rapid it could only have come from an assault cannon.
Hallie. The agent strode forward into the chamber, assault cannon aimed squarely at the standing Siphon even as Tosin could tell Hallie was struggling to shoulder its weight.
"I heard everything! The open comlink I planted on you saved me a lot of trouble digging through archives. This ***** sure likes to hear herself talk, huh?"
His hand instinctively went to the back of his shoulder - the place she had touched him earlier - and felt the light and metallic device attached to his robes. "And here I thought you said you wouldn't be around to save me all the time."
Siphon shrieked with unmitigated rage. "You … you dare to spy on us?!"
Before Tosin could react, Siphon slammed him backwards, away from Hallie's position. Then, infusing herself with the Force to move with unbelievable agility, she launched herself into the air, lightsaber held over her head ready to cut Hallie in two.
Hallian unleashed another volley of blaster bolts from her cannon, but - too slow! The agent couldn't bring her unwieldy weapon up fast enough to follow Siphon's movement; the Darth's blade was already moving downward; Tosin pushed himself forward with all his might, but even he could tell he was too far away. Too slow. He wouldn't be able to reach -.
A second lightsaber activated, catching Siphon's attack just in time.
Vandal Pike.
Tosin watched as the bounty hunter glanced between him and Hallie, their faces doubtless ones of disbelief and skepticism, before shrugging as much as he could while still fighting Siphon's blade.
"The enemy of my enemy," the bounty hunter said simply.
"You've risen from the dead for the last time, Vestral!" Siphon screamed her hatred, blasting Hallie aside while closing a fist around Pike's throat through the Force. Tosin leaped forward, propelled by adrenaline, summoning one of Orthas' fallen blades while still moving. It reached his palm and he closed his fist around it just as he himself reached Siphon; he swung the blade downwards to sever her arm, but she was too quick, jumping backwards so quickly, he only saw brief flashes of her body before she came to a stop atop the central dais, no longer hidden by any banners.
Tosin didn't bother checking to see if Pike was alright. Instead, he sent a torrent of furious lightning towards his former master. Moments later, his lightning was joined by a flamethrower's jet of ravenous fire and then by a hail of blaster bolts. Attacked on three fronts, Siphon could only summon the Force to cloak herself in a protective barrier - but Tosin knew she would only be able to maintain it for so long. Even she could not resist them forever. Tosin, Hallian and Pike only needed to press their advantage.
Why then, did Siphon smile?
"About time."
Crimson light erupted from Vandal Pike's chest. He screamed involuntarily, then choked and gasped for air that could not fill a punctured lung.
From behind Pike, Siphon hissed. "We spared you once, Vestral … a mistake we now correct."
Tosin's mind raced. Three against one, and they might have stood a chance. With Pike down and Siphon's twin in play once more, their chances faded with every second. They had to act now if they were to have any hope of surviving.
"Witness the futility of your struggle. Know your predetermined failure. Surrender, and we will make it quick."
Something tugged at Tosin then, lightly, not strong enough to be from Siphon, but … something compelled him to look upon Pike once more. He wasn't sure if it was from the Force at all, though it felt eerily similar; like an echo across a great hall, a shadow that beckoned even as its creator stood still.
Still impaled, Pike glanced down to the lightsaber still hanging from his belt. Then, he glanced back, past Siphon, to the walls behind them. Last, his eyes turned to Tosin, pleading for understanding.
Tosin nodded.
Pike lifted an armored boot. The Siphon behind him watched incredulously, unsuspecting of what was to happen. The bounty hunter activated the rocket boosts in his boots, immediately slamming into the Siphon behind him, crushing her against the wall, pinning her there as even as she scrambled desperately to free herself.
"Tanis!" The other Siphon screamed, trying to launch herself forward but Hallie unleashed another surge of blaster fire, forcing the Darth to refocus on self preservation.
Vandal Pike choked out his last words. "Now, you fools. Do it!"
Tosin didn't wait. Through the Force, he unstrapped the lightsaber from Pike's belt and then moved it into place swifty, right above Pike - and Siphon's - chests. Through the Force, he unleashed the blade, piercing two hearts in one unstoppable motion. Siphon screamed, and then moved no more. Neither did Vandal Pike, his dying expression one of catharsis.
A shriek burst out from behind him. "NO!"
Tosin whirled around to face his remaining master, but before he could finish the motion, Siphon's scream had swallowed the entire chamber in overwhelming turbulence, wracking the Force with hatred and rage. The Keep tremored, as parts of the already-weakened stronghold began to collapse. Window panes and support pillars crumbled around them, but it was all Tosin could do to remain conscious in the face of Siphon's overpowering assault. He watched as Hallian crumpled to the ground. He watched the corpses of the dead Siphon and Vandal Pike keel over, the blade connecting their bodies deactivated and collapsed to the floor.
It couldn't all end this way, not after everything, all the minor miracles that had kept them alive through everything over the last few months.
He didn't feel fear. He wasn't afraid, not anymore. He took consolation in the fact that he had taken from his Master what she - they - had taken from him all those years ago. In a small way, he had avenged Torio. He had earned his peace.
… But he wasn't ready to embrace it.
Even as his knees buckled beneath him, brilliant sparks of lightning coalesced in his fingers; pushing his hands forward felt like trying to move a mountain, but the electrical energy arced outward towards Siphon nonetheless. At the last second, she caught the twin surges of lightning with a barrier, creating a shield through the Force with which to defend herself.
Tosin responded with renewed vigor, pouring more of his strength into his attack; adrenaline alone powered his efforts now as he felt himself weakening. The brilliance of the discharge magnified with blinding white light as the the tendrils of electricity enveloped Siphon's barrier, clawing at it in effort to find a point of weakness. Tosin could feel Siphon's defenses enervate against his barrage of indignation, could feel the barrier reach its limit, even as he felt himself hurtle ever closer to his own breaking point.
Just as they reached the precipice of their powers, Siphon suddenly reversed the flow of the Force around her. For just a second, Tosin's electric discharge surged into her, filling the area with the smell of burnt flesh and her chilling wail. Even still, Siphon leveraged the momentum of the Force around her to send a spiraling shockwave outwards in all directions, repelling Tosin's attack and sending him flying across the room.
He felt his back slam into the wall behind him. Pain screamed out from his muscles, his bones, his very core … but he was not done. The last of his strength threatened to leave him and still he recovered and leaped towards his former master. He watched as she did the same, expecting her to come at him, to strike at him, but to his surprise, she flew past him and towards her fallen sister. In a flash, she cradled her twin's corpse in her arms.
Before Tosin could even think to object or move to intercept, both of them were gone, fled, escaped out the shattered windows of the ritual chamber.
Siphon had fled.
They won.
From outside, the battle raged on. He didn't know where Siphon fled to, nor did he care. His only concern now was to get Hallie to safety. She had fallen, but Tosin saw her chest rise and fall. She was alive. Relief, pure relief, swept over him in that instant.
She stirred as he limped towards her, coughed heavily as they propped each other up and hobbled towards the back exit. They didn't have much time. The general wouldn't be able to hold off the invaders for much longer now. In their weakened state, they would be no match for anyone else. They needed to escape.
"Hurry," Hallie whispered. "I can get us out of here. We just need to get to the southern exit."
As they reached the south hall, Tosin took one last look around the chamber. A small part of him still felt as though he had abandoned his duty, even after everything that had just happened. Part of him felt his rightful place was still here in this room he had spent so much time in training, learning, being deceived … being manipulated.
He wondered if that would ever go away.
Something caught his eye, glinting in the light pouring in from shattered windows and broken walls. A single golden mask, cracked and chipped, lay beside Orthas' body; it was all the twin Siphons had left behind. Their entire legacy.
Tosin turned away, still leaning on Hallie for support even as she did the same with him.
Together, they left without looking back.
End of Part Five