Peragus

Kreia

When a Jedi chooses her path, the training changes. Sentinels are trained to be listeners, to discern every nuance, see through every subterfuge. They seek for that which others wish hidden, and they find it.

A Consular learns more about social interactions. How to judge the best way to convince someone of the validity of another path. They are the negotiators who try to end any conflict before it can begin.

But when all else fails, there is the Jedi Guardian.

The Guardian is the warrior of the Jedi. Not that the others cannot fight and defend themselves. The Guardians are merely the one trained exhaustively to fight in whatever manner they deem fit. They are pit-wolves trained to track hunt and kill the enemy, but that is balanced by a strong sense of justice and what is right. Any Jedi will go through all the hells man has ever imagined if doing so would save a life. A Jedi Guardian would hunt an enemy through all those hells if there were the minutest chance that he would escape. They save more lives by eliminating such enemies that most people might imagine.

But I must give you the idea that a Guardian is some kind of monster. They are not. It is just that some people are people only in outward appearance. They are monsters within, and the worlds are better for their leaving us.

She was no longer the prickly unsure woman I had met mere hours ago. The woman that stormed toward me was the epitome of Jedi Guardian wrath. She knew who her enemy was, or so she thought. She would deal with him before we went on if I did not stop it here.

"I have felt a disturbance in the Force. Our enemy is here. We must leave at once."

"Enemy." I could tell from the roil of emotions that she was being polite more from habit that any real desire to be polite.

"The one that almost destroyed the Ebon Hawk in my attempt to rescue you. He is here, and if we do not flee this instant he will not let us fly without blood being shed."

"Who follows us." Her gaze was sharp. "You know who it is-"

"It would take too long to explain! We must get to the docking bay before the ship opens its locks, or we are doomed! If we cannot board the Ebon Hawk, we must find somewhere to hide aboard that ship that just arrived."

She nodded sharply. She picked up another sword from a body, and flipped it toward me. "We have to get one more person, and we're out of here."

"Who?"

"A friend."

We reached the Admin center, a young man with flyaway black hair saw her, then looked at me. "What, do Jedi have their own special way of breeding? You leave and now there's two?"

"We don't have time." She pulled a mining laser out of a pouch on her side. "You'll need this."

He looked out the view panels, then at us. "So I'm guessing a Republic frigate is not what you guys expected?"

"I hope your talent for understatement is offset by your skill with a weapon or our brief acquaintance will be even more so." I snarled.

"I'm good with a gun. I can even put on my clothes by myself, Your Majesty." He snapped back. "Besides, they may not be your friends, but that ship is the only way off this rock I have seen so far. Good thing we have a straight run aboard-"

He stopped. A droid was walking toward us from the Maintenance center turbolift. Flanking it were four maintenance remotes. I could detect overpowered systems aboard them. They were not going to just float there, they had been primed to attack us. The droid stopped, shaking it's head.

"Mild threat: Master perhaps I did not enunciate my suggestions clearly when we spoke. I suggested you shut down, stay put, and await our rescue."

Marai stepped forward. I felt a rush of combined joy and fury. This was the one she wished to kill, and she had worried that he might escape. "Tell me HK. Why did you have to murder every person on this station?"

"Correction: First there are two people with you, so I did not murder 'every person'. Second, murder is defined as the unlawful taking of a life. When the miners became a threat to my mission, I had to terminate their hostile actions in the most efficient manner. If anything I am guilty of self defense."

"Spare me your hypocritical tripe! You programmed the droids to attack the miners, and when the Maintenance officer put a voice print ID on the system you imitated his voice to continue.

"You murdered everyone and I want to know why!"

"Indignant denial: Master the miners were intending to sell you to the Exchange. I was protecting your life."

"So you did what; program the droids to think that humans were something to mine for gas?"

"Delight: Yes Master. So good of you have figured it out."

"The Maintenance head figured it out. Only he did too late."

"Since the other crew would have tried to resist if the reason for the deaths of the miners was known, a flawlessly arranged set of explosions was all I needed to herd them all into the dormitories where as painlessly as possible I could end their lives. One of the miners in the Kolto tanks was a conspirator but I was not informed which tank held him, or you. Therefore I used the expedient of administering a dose of sedatives I knew would not kill you but would be lethal to them.

"However my calculations were incorrect on how long you would sleep. Easily corrected once I have put you back into the tank."

"Why?" She demanded. "What made me worth enough alive that you were willing to kill a hundred people?"

"Correction: One hundred and seventeen. It is beyond the scope of my programming to determine the reason a client sets the restrictions they do. Suffice to say that you were a difficult and amusing quarry. I had searched for quite a time.

"You wandered the galaxy almost randomly. As if you knew there would be those on your trail. Was it someone like me you feared? Or perhaps the Jedi you betrayed?"

She leaped forward. I leaped at the remote on the left, the young man targeted the one on the far right, and we worked inward.

But by the time we were ready to help her, Marai was standing over the destroyed droid.

"I betrayed no one." She turned, and her eyes stopped at me then went to the man. "Let's go."

Harbinger

Marai

As we charged onto Harbinger I expect a watch officer. Maybe the two Intelligence officers. The Master at Arms and a couple of his beefy boys, or even a Marine Strike team wouldn't have surprised me.

What I got was eerie silence. Every system was running, but...

Kreia put it into words. "There is something wrong...I sense no one aboard."

She was right. I reached out with that newly rediscovered Jedi sense, and there was only death aboard.

"Everyone had been slain. But there is no sign of battle damage. No carbon scoring, or blaster fire. Whatever killed these men did it swiftly, and silently." Kreia went on.

"Then what are we doing here?" Atton blurted out. "It's safer on the station!" He looked at both of us with helpless fury. "Jedi? You two couldn't 'Jedi sense' your way into a cantina!"

"Calm down Atton." I said soothingly. "We need a plan not recriminations."

"If the assassin machine was correct, we cannot reach the hanger bay. Be silent, I must think."

"I have the way." I said. "When the ship docked, a pipe came out at the stern too. The system would have automatically tried to load fuel."

Kreia looked at me. "The fuel pipe leads back into the fuel depot..."

"And there has to be access from that pipe to part of the station we need to get to..."

"Hold on!" Atton was almost screaming. "You want to run down a pipe full of hot fuel? Tell me you're joking!"

"The system would need someone to tell it to begin pumping, Atton." I soothed. "The pipe should be empty."

"Hey I don't want to rain on everyone's thought parade here, but even if we can get through that pipe what about the drift charts? Without them we'll blow ourselves to hell or be smashed!"

I looked at him. "How did this ship dock here then?"

"Oh of course they have a copy."

"Is that a problem from where we are standing?"

"Dammit!" He paused, thoughtful. "Come to think of it, no. All we have to do is find the bridge of this puppy, and download them onto a pad."

"Good." I pointed languidly. "That way."

I led the way. We reached the bridge, stepping over the bodies. No one had been cut or shot that I could see. Everyone had been killed swiftly and efficiently with some blunt weapon, or fist strikes. Atton hurried to the navi-computer, grumbling as he rerouted around damage. Then he slapped his hands down. "Yes, I'm in. Downloading the drift charts-"

"Are there log entries?" I asked?"

"Do we have the time?" He asked sarcastically.

"No. But do it anyway." I handed him a pad. "Download everything from the past week, visual instead of text. The Republic needs to know that one of their ships has gone rogue."

He shrugged, downloading them. I pocketed the pad, and we ran. We picked up anything useful on the way. I found a briefing room, and again, downloaded everything from the week previous.

As I was coming out, I turned, my blade punching into a shadow in the corner. A man appeared, clutching at my hand as he fell. It wasn't camouflage, it was using the Force to conceal yourself. Others came literally from the woodwork. There were three more, and we dealt with them swiftly. Hopefully we had done so before they could contact anyone else. Only speed would keep us alive.

We ran down, and as we started through the crew's quarters, I stopped, staring at a hatch.

"We do not have time for sightseeing." Kreia growled at me.

"This was my compartment."

"Your compartment?" Atton asked.

"I was on Harbinger before I ended up on Peragus." I told him.

Kreia sighed. "We do not have time for lollygagging. Gather what you must, but hurry!"

I dreaded it, but my hand had already touched the lock plate. The door hissed open.

Except for the dead body lying on the floor it looked the same. The quiet smiling Intelligence man was dead. His head had been spun completely around. The HK had done that, I am sure. I walked past him, opening the footlocker.

Mementos, our past that we carry in physical form. That is what I found. A Ritual Brand I had picked up somewhere; better than the sword I was using. One thing struck me as odd, piercing the heart I hadn't been sure I still even had.

My robes. Why had I kept my Jedi robes? I pulled them out with a trembling hand, and found myself crying. Over 20 years of my life had been spent earning them, a third of my life denied them. Why had I held on to such pain?

I wiped my eyes with them, stuffing them in a bag. As I did a pad fell out of them. I lifted it, keying the screen.

MARAI DEVOS; DUE TO PROBLEMS WITH YOUR IMMUNIZATION RECORD IT IS REQUESTED AND REQUIRED THAT YOU GO TO SICKBAY TO GET BOOSTER IMMUNIZATIONS;

THIS WILL NOT TAKE LONG. MERELY INSERT PAD AND INJECTIONS WILL BE GIVEN AUTOMATICALLY.

MEDICAL OFFICER.

I remembered it. I had found the pad in my quarters the same day I had come aboard. The one thing I have always loathed is medical officers and their peremptory commands. The wording 'requested and required' had struck me as odd because it is the wording usually used for an officer taking command of a unit or ship.

Besides I didn't give a damn how out of date their records were. If you work and travel on a liner like I did for almost two years getting boosters is automatic. I hadn't gone to med bay because I knew my shots record was up to date.

I stuck it in my pocket.

I stepped out into the passageway, and we continued. We reached a passageway with three doors to choose from. One led into medical, the other two at the ends of the passageway had been magnetically sealed. Sighing, I went into medical. There was a console, and out of curiosity, I inserted the pad, asking for a patient report

PATIENT; MARAI DEVOS.

TREATMENT SCHEDULED; 1

TREATMENT GIVEN: NONE

MEDICAL NOTE: SUBJECT HAS SHOWN SEVERE ALLERGIC REACTION TO IRIDIAN PLAGUE VACCINE. IF AFFECTED, PROPER PROCEDURE IS TO PLACE IN KOLTO TANK

Wait a minute. The only thing I was allergic to was Sharidian Beets!

I checked the medicine to be delivered. The same 40mg of irdanrizine the damn droid had used on Peragus. One tank had been earmarked for me, and with dawning suspicion, I checked the tank settings. It had been set to monitor my condition and one thing it would monitor was the level of irdanrizine in my system. It would maintain the dosage at not less than 22 milligrams until the system shut down. He couldn't do the same thing on Peragus. A tank has to be set for whoever is going in, and while you can administer meds, you have to reset the treatment manually and that meant dumping the tank and starting over. Without the Doctor's keypad he had to hope that what he had done would be sufficient on Peragus.

I checked, and the doctor also had logs. I downloaded them and we moved on.

We found the access hatch to engineering, and went through. The hatch directly ahead lead to the ion engines, and we ran that way.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Atton whispered.

"What do you mean?" I asked. Something was wrong, and I could feel it, but how did he?

"Can't you feel it?" He asked. Something is going wrong fast and if we don't move we're dead!"

"But how do you-"

"Listen, you don't survive on the Rim without knowing when it falls in the pot! I can feel when it's going to hell, and the fact that I'm still alive proves I'm right more often than not."

I looked at that face, and nodded. "We will be careful, but we have to hurry. Unless you want to just lock yourself in another cell."

"Don't say I didn't warn you. When it comes to staying alive I've learned to trust this feeling."

I had just opened the hatch and stepped through when I felt a wave of such cold that I found I had spun, sword at guard, and stared back.

Someone had stepped through behind us, and was standing there, looking around as if he were blind. His body was a mass of scars, as if he had been disassembled, put back together, then taken apart again because the one doing it had been unsatisfied. One eye was a milky orb, the other brown.

Kreia stepped forward, hand on my arm. "You are not ready to face this. He is steeped in evil, and blinded to everything but power now. But he cannot kill what he cannot see. Both of you flee while you can." She stepped back through the hatch, shutting it.

I tried the lock, but it wouldn't open. Atton caught my arm. "Hey this is your plan, come on!"

Harbinger

Kreia

I held the sword at guard. Kielan approached. I slid silently to the right, circling into one of the offshoot passageways.

He stopped, looking around as if his eyes still worked. "I feel you, my old Master. Feel you in the only way I can now." He looked puzzled. "But it is faint...Weak."

"Your senses betray you Kielan. As you betrayed me."

"I am no longer Kielan. I am Darth Sion now. After all that has happened, you still live." There was a touch of exasperated admiration in his voice. "You are like an insect. So hard to kill."

"For one so limited as you, perhaps." I moved to my left. He turned to face where my voice had been. "To have fallen so far, yet have learned nothing from that fall. That is your failing, my apprentice."

"The failing is yours, my master. I no longer have your mental fingers riffling through my brain. No longer hear your whispers in my skull. No longer do I learn teachings that weaken and degrade us.

"Yet as wise as you think yourself, you did exactly what I had anticipated. You ran in search of Jedi. They are all dead you old fool!" He roared. Then his voice dropped to a whisper. "And the one broken Jedi you have found will not stop the darkness that will enfold the Galaxy in night forever."

"Perhaps." I admitted. We shall see." I moved back to where I had first stood. He had turned, giving me his back. I raised the sword-

Harbinger

Atton

We ran into the engine control room, and found the main ion engine controls. The panel had been damaged, but I rewired it. I checked, and the entry into the engine space itself was closed. If they hadn't been, of course, we were already dead.

Ion engines release pulses of energy as they strip the ions out of the fuel. Something like 99.44% gets shunted down the coils for thrust. But it's that pesky .56% or so that is dangerous. The electromagnetic pulse of fuel going from gas to explosion to ions sends bursts of radiation that will fry your brain. Oh not quickly, but still seeing men in med bays that can't remember to even feed themselves because they got a ten minute dose will make you swear never to do what we were about to do.

I opened the access tunnel into the engine space. We ran down the passageway to the final door. I looked at Marai. "Last chance. If the fuel is pumping, we'll be deep fried and served up on a bed of grain."

"We're out of options. Unless you want to go back that way."

"Past sleeps with vibroblades? Do I look stupid? No- don't answer that." I keyed the access to the fuel tank. We climbed down the ladder, headed toward the fueling access tunnel.

Suddenly Marai choked back a shriek of pain, clutching her left wrist.

"What's wrong?" She just held her wrist, gasping as if in agony. I grabbed her arm. "Dammit we have to move! Don't flake on me now!"

"My hand." She gasped. "It feels like it was dipped in raw plasma!"

"You look fine." I didn't know what was happening, but the clock was ticking and radiation was sleeting. "Unless you want to have someone changing your diapers for the rest of your life I'd say move!"

She shook her head, and we stumbled on. A few moments later she was all right.

The tube was big enough to stand in, and thankfully, empty. We ran down it. There was an access panel ahead, and I could see something waiting for us. My blaster was coming up as she caught my hand. "No, wait."

She walked forward, kneeling beside what looked like a T3 unit. She reached in, felt around, and there was a click. It's flat cylinder head spun, and he bleeped at her.

"Yes I know about the maniac protocol droid. We've already dealt with him. How are you?"

It bleeped and burbled for a moment. "When we have time I owe you an oil bath and some maintenance. Don't blame yourself. If it wasn't for you we'd still be on the Admin level." She touched her lips with a finger then transferred the kiss to the droid's top. "Our hero."

Suddenly I felt a surge of jealously. Hadn't I done a lot to keep us alive? But she gives a damn pile of circuits a kiss and not me! "I really hate to break up the romantic love scene, but can we get a move on?"

She looked at me, and the twinkle in her eye let me know loud and clear that she had sensed my jealousy, which caused me to blush.

The droid opened the door, and we found that the HK still had minions. But as I had told her, and she seemed to automatically know, they couldn't hit a fast moving target, and none of us was moving slow. We waxed their butts. We reached the console, but it refused to open. The droid rolled down to a fuel line from the tanks, and opened the door. It bleeped and clicked.

"Clever." She murmured.

"What?"

"The droids planted seismic charges surrounded with small amounts of fuel by the emergency sensors. The control system detected that as a fuel leak, and sealed the way out." She motioned toward a shimmering force field above us. "If someone figured it out, and tried to move the fuel, it would set off the mines and blow real holes in the tank there." Again she motioned. There was another bleeping tirade, and she turned to the console. Above us the field died. "That got it, T3. Move your round little end, we're leaving."

What about my tight little end? I wanted to ask.

We fought our way into the upper halls, and finally we reached the hanger control room. I ran across, but the door didn't open. "The door's magnetically sealed!" I wailed.

The droid began its little song again.

"The console?" She looked around. "Once you've reinserted the control conduit you can open it? What are you waiting for? Another kiss?"

There was a bleeping, and she laughed. "All right you tease." She transferred another kiss. The little hunk of bolts took off like he was jet propelled.

"How can you understand that noise?"

She looked at me askance. "How can you understand the noise I make?"

"But you're talking."

"So is he. It's really easy." She looked at me again. "If you actually listen. Let's just say that I spent a lot of time around droids during the war. It helps to learn a language instead of waiting for a translation."

"What did he say?"

"HK hadn't been sure he could repair the control conduit for the door if he cut it up, so he removed it and dumped it in the line with our little friend. Once it is back-" The door opened. She waved theatrically. "We can get out of here."

We went through the access tunnels, and I wanted to kiss that beautiful ship! It was old, tired, and looked like it had seen better days, but it was our ticket out of here.

We ran aboard, and I immediately went to the cockpit. The engines were cold. Not surprising, but I know way to jump-start a ship. But it wouldn't move. "What now?" I wailed. The droid came over, stuck its access arm into the slot. then it's head turned to her.

"Say 'Asperatin?" She asked. The panel lit, and I almost shrieked. "We're in!"

"Of course we are. Our brave little friend told me what to code word was."

I didn't say anything. I was just going to find a hyper spanner and do some modification on the little tin can when I got the chance. I was warming the engines when I saw movement.

There were about fifty Sith troopers in armor out there. The com system was up, and I could hear them. "Surrender or die."

"What do we do-" She was already at the gunnery controls. If she was going to use a turret she should have gone down the access way aft. Then she hit a button, the ramp hissing up.

Intruder systems! A gun dropped out of a chin nacelle, and she took control before the damn thing could blow holes in the walls and the tanks beyond. I had never seen such a surgical use of a system in my life! The team fired back trying to disable that gun or the ship, but it would take time they didn't have to kill us, and she killed all of them before they made the time.

The engine light came up hot and ready, and I was in control. I lifted on thrusters and spun to face the force field covering the door.

"We have to wait for Kreia!"

"We aren't waiting for anyone!"

"No need." We both looked back. Kreia was standing there, clutching the empty sleeve of her left arm.

"We had best go before they send more troops."

Marai dropped back into the gunner's seat, and targeted the frame of the entryway. Blaster fire ripped into it, and suddenly the field was down. We shot out under the two ships-

Two? I looked at the scanners. There was Harbinger, floating free of the station another ship was nestled against it, and I recognized a Sith designed Attack Corvette. So that is where the men had come from!

"We had better get a move on!" Marai shouted.

We ran. A blaster bolt seared past the cockpit, and I flinched. "If they hit one of the asteroids-"

"Why?" Kreia asked.

"Some of these asteroids have pockets of Peragian fuel. If they hit one it goes up, maybe the field, maybe the entire damn planet goes up with it. And us!"

"Can we jump to light speed?"

"Inside an asteroid field? Sure. If you don't mind arriving in chunks over the next decade."

"Then get us clear."

Behind us, Harbinger had turned ponderously, and was in pursuit. Her guns were tracking, but whoever was there hadn't started shooting yet. Behind her, the Attack Corvette had gotten un-docked, and was turning to follow as well.

"You do understand that clear of the field also means a clear field of fire?"

"You can set off such a blast yourself, can you not?" Kreia asked.

"Blow up a planet? Destroy the entire economy of the sector?" I dodged an asteroid, spilling her on her ass. "Tell me you're joking!"

"It is either that or die." Kreia shrugged. "Take your choice."

The choice wasn't mine to make. The Attack Corvette launched a spread of missiles. Maybe they thought their targeting systems were good enough, maybe they thought they could blow any of them that targeted an asteroid instead.

We'll never know.

A small asteroid, maybe something the size of a pea, dinged one of the missiles. In an instant it speared into a rock the size of a small ship. One that had a gas pocket. The rock exploded, bowing superheated shards into the rocks around it. I could see the corvette blown on it's side, slamming into the massive rock that held the station, then it was plummeting toward the open core of Peragus II like a missile.

The field was blowing around them, and if I didn't hurry-

I slammed the throttle to the stops.

That little ship had a lot of legs, and she leaped forward as if she was a bantha that had been hit in the butt with a shock stick. Behind us it was a fireworks display worthy of the gods themselves. The shards of heated rock hit more, which set off more explosions, which set off more explosions. It was a diorama of a nuclear explosion happening not in microseconds, but in seconds. We reached the end of the field as the explosions blew across Harbinger, and I hit the jump seconds before we would have joined them in death.

Ebon Hawk

Marai

The tunnel of hyperspace looked like a sheet of cylindrical colored glass revolving ahead of us. You don't really travel faster than light, that's a misconception. It's just that in Hyperspace light speed is a lot higher than it is in our normal universe, and every threshold you can reach inside hyperspace has a different speed limit.

We were silent for a long time. Atton checked the controls then turned around looking at us. "All right, we've just destroyed an entire planet more efficiently than the Sith ever did. Mind telling me why? Between killer tin cans and men that like to sleep with active vibroblades, not to mention acting as a target drone for both the Sith and the Republic, I was safer in my cell!"

"The Republic Frigate was the Harbinger. The Sith seized it enroute to Telos. We should have proof enough of that in the records our companion decided to make." I said.

"She was bound for Telos?"

"Yes. To deliver an important cargo. Something they could not let the Sith have. Something the Sith were willing to destroy an entire planet to possess." Kriea looked at me for a long moment. "They were here to capture you."

"Why am I so important?"

"That I can only conjecture upon. But I know that your presence is desperately needed on Telos. A lot of roads lead to Telos in this sector. As does ours."

"Of course they do." Atton snarled. "It's the only system in the Navi computer I can access."

"How did you know that I would be aboard the Harbinger?" I asked.

She shrugged. "As the assassin machine said, you were difficult to find. But coincidence was on our side. The little droid and I had found that you were aboard, and I knew the Sith could not be far behind.

"We intercepted the Harbinger just moments before the same Sith ship we just saw arrived. She was drifting in space, silent. It was a simple matter to board, find where the droid had concealed you, and escape. However we did not know that the Sith had already been aboard. As we made the jump to light speed they were able to damage the ship, though the killer droid seems to have boarded in the interim. We fell out of hyper space accidentally at Peragus."

I shook my head. "First the HK finds me, then you, then arriving at Peragus. That was a very convenient series of coincidence and accident."

"True. However as anyone trained in the Force should know, coincidence is a misnomer. It was the Force that led us to you, rescued you, and delivered you to Peragus."

"But you can't just fall out of hyper space!" I protested. Once you're in it, you have to wait until the generators bring you out of it! We should be drifting there lost even now!"

T3 whistled. Kreia rounded on him. "Be silent! We are having a conversation here!"

Unperturbed, the little droid gave another series of bleeps and clicks.

"Kreia, he was joining the conversation, not interrupting it. He said he and the other droid they found aboard repaired the hyper drive and brought us out there."

"Yeah, right." Atton snapped. "Next he'll take credit for the entire rescue!"

He walked over, glaring at the droid. "All right tin can, you fixed the ship did you? Fine, fix something else!"

The droid whistled, turning on its wheels. The last sound was like a raspberry, and I chuckled.

"Oh yeah?" Atton yelled. "Come back here and say that you toaster!"

I struggled to talk and laugh at the same time. "It seems you do understand a little. Of course, most people learn the curse words in another language first." My mood shifted. "But Kreia, that doesn't explain why I am so important. What is it about me that makes me worth the lives of over a hundred people on the station and almost a thousand aboard Harbinger?"

She stood, holding her arm. "Because you are the last of the Jedi, young one. Once you are dead or among them, they have won this war and the Galaxy is doomed."

"But I am not a Jedi any more!" I shouted. "They threw me out! Took away my powers!"

"Exile or not, powers you now again possess or not, they believe you to be a Jedi in all the glory that suggests and that is all that matters."

"But the last of the Jedi." I almost whispered it. "That can't be true! There must be others!"

She looked at me, and I could feel the pitying glance. "When you marched off to face the Mandalorians a third of their number went with you and barely a tithe survived. The Jedi Civil War harrowed those that remained. Jedi left the order to flock to Revan, and Jedi hunted Jedi like ravenous beasts. Many fell to their brothers, and those that did not either joined Revan or died. Oh I am sure there are some few left. Perhaps a hundred. But what of it?"

"But the Academies! Dantooine, Corellia, the main temple on Coruscant!"

"The academy on Dantooine is a smoking ruin now, home only to the ghosts of those that had once walked its halls. Corellia was closed not long after you went to war because too many of them followed in your path, and the rest were killed in battles across the Rim. The Main temple..." She hugged herself. "The Main Temple lies vacant, peopled only by memories. The thousand fountains now lay silent and dry in memorial of those that had once been there.

"Those few that might remain blame Revan, blame Malak, blame you for that devastation. If you had listened, the temples would still stand. The Jedi would not have been decimated by that war, or in the war Revan began that followed."

"But there are some still alive. We have to warn them! Even if they kill me for daring to live!"

"What of those pallid remnants?" She asked sarcastically. "They are Jedi in name alone now. Those that had not fought, or joined Revan and Malak, are the cowards too obsessed with their own lives to care if the galaxy stops spinning. Even if they believed, they cannot help you, you cannot trust them, and therefore should not help them."

"Then it's all on me." I whispered. I felt darkness around me. Always before when I had been a Jedi, there had been others that could give me a chance to sleep, to rest. Revan herself had sent me home rather than let me self-destruct. Now I had no support. But from within I felt my fury at people callous enough to kill over a thousand innocents just to get to me. I would face them on my feet, on the stumps of my legs, biting them when they cut away my arms. Damnit someone would pay! "So I have to do it alone. How do I stop them?"

I don't know who was more surprised. I only heard a gasp of dismay from Atton. Kreia looked at me again, and this time I knew she thought me mad. "That..." She paused, struggling to phrase her reply. "That is not an easy question or solution. This threat is greater than you can possibly imagine. I do not believe that any one person can confront it with a chance of survival, let along success."

"That isn't the point. We can run and hide, or we can fight. We are going to fight. Period."

"Look, enough of this 'we' already." Atton put in.

We ignored him. Kreia shook her head. "We cannot hope to triumph against them alone. You will need weapons, allies... And a teacher to bring you back to what you have forgotten. Even with all of that in the end it may not be enough."

"We have no choice. Die on our feet, or live on our knees. I was never very good at kneeling."

"Hey, maybe we should discuss this..." We both turned to glare at him. He held up his hands, backing away. "All right, I'll just... You know...Fly the ship."

Kreia turned back to me, then sighed. "You fought through the Mandalorian Wars and it cost you everything you were before. Are you willing to sacrifice not only all of that again, but everything you might be?"

"There is no choice. I must fight, or I have given up everything already."

"You are not listening! You keep repeating the same tired argument over and over!" She turned away. "This is not like any field of battle you have ever seen or even imagined you fool. You came so close to losing yourself in the last war. If you set yourself on this path there will be no turning back again. You will reach the point where you have nothing left to give, and the battle will demand of you still! Or worse yet, you will reach the end of that battle and want more. You could become worse than Revan, worse than Malak. You would be an engine of destruction!"

"I turned away from war once, Kreia. I can do it again."

"Like so many of your fallen brothers, you hear but do not listen!" She turned. "But we have talked enough, and my wounds pain me. If you have further questions, I will be in the crew quarters. There we can speak more without prying ears."

"Hey don't stop you long boring self-serving rants on my account!" Atton shouted. I was just worried that you'd put me to sleep!"

She stopped, looking back at us. "We will also not have to listen to the prattle of fools and imbeciles."

Atton returned to the console. I hugged myself. I didn't have a choice in the matter, couldn't Kreia see that? As much as I had given, as much as I had lost, I had run away from only one battle, and that was when I faced the Jedi Council. Even if it meant my own death, I could not shirk this. The dead of Peragus, of Harbinger, all those that had died because of what Revan and Malak had unleashed would never let me rest again.

After a long time, Atton clicked his tongue. "Look, it's not like I give a damn about her any anything... But maybe you should help her? Med pacs need two hands most of the time. Like when you open them."

I shook my head. He had a heart, but didn't want anyone to know it. "Sure. Anything to be useful."