Parting gifts
Mira
After thinking about it, I knew Marai was right. I hadn't intended to kill those men, and while I cried for them, there were some we fought there I shed no tears over. As I had said on Nar Shaddaa when I began this vision quest there are those that do it without even caring. Those men in the tomb; they were the kind that would have put out the stars themselves just so they could boast of doing it.
I went to find Marai, but she was closeted with Master Kavar. She came out, and I rushed over, hugging her. "I can deal with it. But try not to send me into any missions of slaughter, okay?"
She grinned. "Promise. Come, let's get the others."
An Onderoni soldier came up to us saluting. "Jedi, the Queen wishes to speak with you."
We followed. The queen was younger that I was and had the repressed energy of a fusion generator. She was ordering troops around in her own city as if it were a Djarik board. She looked up then signaled. "Bring it." The men left us alone.
"Onderon owes you a debt, and only the debt I myself owe to you is greater. There are still battles as the Sith are hunted down, but by tomorrow it will be done. When I arrive at the council hall flying my own Brantarii all the lies will be dispelled.
"If my worth were in coin, I would give it to you. But know you this. By the debt my people and I owe, ask anything of us and it will be done. I swear it upon my life."
"I ask only that you be the queen your people need, your Majesty. That will be my reward." Marai replied.
"But that is not enough!" She replied fiercely. A man came in bearing an ornate stone casket, and set it on the table.
"This holds relics of our second royal house, formed by that monster Freedon Nadd. They were not unlike those we faced this day. I know little of the Force, but perhaps you can return them to the light." She opened the casket, and brought out a box. Inside it a dozen lightsaber crystals gleamed. "Take them, use them, remember the gratitude of an entire people when your blades strike fire."
I noticed one the color of the grain of my long dead home world. I picked it up, and felt two pairs of eyes on me. I blushed, and made to put it back.
"It seems that a crystal has already chosen one of your followers." Talia laughed.
"Yes." Marai replied levelly. "Now if she only learns how to use a lightsaber-"
"I'll practice." I squeezed the crystal in my hand. "I promise!"
We left the palace, returning to the ship. The Drexl had allowed itself to be sent to the holding pens, and I could feel its contentment. I was going to miss that big ugly thing.
Visas stood at the ramp of the Ebon Hawk. I could see her face, and felt her warring heart. She wanted to run forward, fling herself into Marai's arms. She wanted to touch that face and assure herself that it was still there. Instead she walked over, and smoothly fell to her knees.
"I beg your forgiveness, Marai."
"What for?"
"I sensed the conflict here, the fury of it. I thought..." She looked up. "I feared for your life. You are the spirit of flame itself, and dance in the fire unharmed, but every fire dies and I worried. I was terrified that this time the fire would be too hot for you. I stayed here, unable to come to your aid, for if you had died, I swear I would have followed you into death.
"Onderon no longer bleeds, but it needs much healing, and we cannot be here to help. Wounded things are usually what a predator attacks. Their problems are not yet over.
"I shame you with my weakness."
"Because you care?" Marai knelt beside her. "I fear for all of you as I did for every man I led into battle. We cannot know when it is our time, but trust me in this, when the fire is too hot, I will assure the flames of it do not outlive me to consume others.
"But come, I hear good things of what you did on Dxun."
"The last tie to my evil master has been broken. But you knew that I must break it. I thank you for giving me the chance to confront that challenge. I have found that the more I travel with you, the more answers I have gained, but at the same time, the questions I still have to ask increase. I have learned that a slave must free himself, that no hand no matter how gentle will break that chain. I would have cursed you when we began for leaving me alive. But now I see what you would teach me, and I could not learn as a corpse.
"But I beg you. From this day forward, do not go into danger without me by your side!"
"That I cannot promise." Marai said. "There will come a time when I must go on alone. But I will go knowing that the best part of me will be safe. All of you, you Mira and the Handmaiden. You are my legacy, and I will not chance it when that time comes."
"Then I will accept it when it happens." She said softly.
Enroute to Korriban
Marai
We lifted off, and as soon as we were clear, went to hyper drive. It was only a day or so to Korriban from here, and we prepared again. The crystals that had come from Onderon were installed in lightsabers, and Mira began seriously learning how to use it. I went to find Goto as she began training.
He floated in the communications room, and turned as I came up.
"Before you begin gloating, human, I have already sent the orders. Six tankers will arrive at Telos in the next day or so, and they will have the fuel they need."
"Thank you, Goto, you are an honorable being."
"No thanks are necessary. As much as you seem to think you had me over a barrel, your request merely chose the market for it. The price has stabilized at present, and you have made the first down payment on replacing my yacht."
"Then I am happy. You have records of the wars do you not?"
"Yes I do. In fact my agents have even collected all of the written works from the Jedi Archives that have not already been seized or destroyed."
"So that is why you were so well informed about us."
"The problem is, that the holocrons are not so readily accessible. That requires a connection to the Force that I do not have. A great deal of data sits on the ones that I have purchased and I can only look at their crystalline structure and know that there is wisdom still beyond my grasp.
"I also share a love of history such as Mira does. I have read everything about the Mandalorian wars and the Jedi Civil war. While both sides in each case had been incredibly brave, except for two leaders, all of the battles were sub-par."
"What do you mean?"
"In the battle of Dxun, you were not the overall commander. General Trancas commanded the landing you were part of, and Master Kavar the other portion of it. Yet both had weaknesses, and the enemy knew that and exploited them ruthlessly. It wasn't until you took command of what remained of two regiments that suddenly the battle became more fluid and efficient. You have weaknesses as well, but the enemy did not know them yet.
"Revan in her own way was the same. I would love to meet her, she would be a challenging Djarik opponent."
"She was. She almost destroyed the Republic."
"A popular misconception. Revan's actions were aggressive, but aimed at subjugating an operational whole rather than mere destruction. In comparison, Revan was a swordswoman that wanted her enemy to surrender rather than die. Malak who followed her however was a barbarian. He did not care what he smashed as long as doing so convinced others to surrender."
"But she built a massive fleet from the Star Forge!"
"Yes, she did, but consider. First, except for sealed holocrons, there is no record of this Star Forge anywhere except as an aside. According to those same records, she assured that it was destroyed, so no more ships would ever be built from it. From what I have been able to ascertain she could build full sized warships needing only crews in less than a day, yet when she returned to attack, the bulk of the fleet she commanded were ships she had taken with her.
"While she used this source to replenish her ships, she did not build an overwhelming mass of them which was possible considering Malak's later actions. I surmise that whatever powered this 'Star Forge' was an energy source she did not wish to use. That it would be detrimental to life itself if she continued.
"That is why she left so much of the Republics infrastructure intact. She needed the capability, but not from that source."
"But that makes no sense!" I said. "With the Sith under her command, the Mandalorians scattered, there was nothing left to fight if she had taken the Republic."
"That has occupied my attention a great deal. As you say, every known enemy would be under that same banner, so there would be no reason for another war. I believe Revan had data we do not. A threat that at this time is still weak or distant, and she wanted to assure that the Senate would not spend the necessary funds on solid gold toilet seats or something equally stupid. They tried to do that when Revan won the Mandalorian wars, and the slow buildup of the fleet before those wars shows that their own pet projects were more important than mere survival.
"When she returned as a new person, her first act was to destroy that engine of creation. While as I said all records concerning it appear to have been destroyed, with the death of Malak the numbers of ships decreased sharply, and the subsequent collapse of the Sith attacks proves it. Without a strong central leader, the Sith were once again worried more about their specific enemies, each other."
Atton had walked past us toward the cargo bays, and I noticed it in passing. He came back however, almost running, his face bright red. I watched him, then turned back toward the passage. A few moments later, Visas, Mira, and the Handmaiden returned. They all had the 'cat full of cream' look on their face, and gave me an innocent look as they poured tea.
"All right, I asked. "What did you do?"
"Nothing!" The Handmaiden answered with a bland smile. "We were just... practicing in the cargo hold when Atton arrived."
"Practicing what?"
"My lightsaber." Mira commented with a tight grin. "But when he came in, we called Visas, and my battle sister decided we needed to do some hand to hand work."
"Oh dear."
"Both of them have progressed very well, and I was going to introduce them to the third tier today."
"The third tier." I rubbed my forehead. "Where you fight naked."
"Yes."
"So you stripped in front of him."
"No I did not." Visas said. "All of us did."
"Oh dear."
"Then I had a kink in my leg so we had to do a lot of stretching exercises." Mira said.
"Long slow languorous stretches." Visas explained.
I pictured them all. The long lithe Handmaiden, the small petite yet well formed Mira, the middle of the road yet classic beauty of Visas. All nude, stretching like a trio of Twi-lek dancers. I felt my own blush starting to rise.
"Maybe the next time... All four of us?"
They laughed as I flushed even deeper.
I spent time with Kreia. We had not stopped in our headlong flight to get her arm seen to, but she didn't seem to care.
"You are bound for Korriban now." She said. "If you step upon that soil I cannot go with you."
I shrugged. "I must go, Kreia. I must find Vash."
"Have you noticed that of all of them, only Atris knew where the others were? They had flown to the far reaches of the galaxy, yet Atris, whom everyone has been surprised still lives, knew all."
"She was a librarian after all. The last keeper of the archive of the Main Temple.
"Yet this is not like a battle where you can use transport records to determine the movements of people that are not mentioned. She could not have read in those archives where the others were."
I nodded. "That has puzzled me."
"I also heard through your ears that Goto has the archives thought to have been destroyed. Perhaps I can persuade him to surrender them?"
"For a price no doubt."
"Yes." She considered. "But I believe I have something of great value he will trade for it."
I left, and a short while later, Goto went back to the berthing area.
Korriban
Handmaiden
The planet was a gray dust ball, and it did not look any better when we grew closer. I felt Visas walk up beside me. I had noticed that when she was nervous, she would hold her elbows, pulling her arms in tight against her. "So much pain and suffering." She whispered. "Ten thousand years of agony and misery, and only the fact that there are so few remaining to live here makes it easier to bear."
"A seat of evil. The tomb world of the Sith Lords, as Dxun became for the evil ones of Onderon." I whispered.
"Yet the people of Onderon did not try to live there among such." Visas said. "These people constructed those tombs, buried those evil men, and then settled down to live among them. Even the deaths of all that called this world home seven times or more through that history never taught them to stay away."
"We're getting ready for the briefing." Bao-Dur said. I nodded, and we walked into the mess hall.
Marai was looking at the hologram of the world, Atton was going over the information. He ended with, "...so far we haven't detected any people. I don't even see why a Jedi would come here."
"For the ones who walk in the light, there is knowledge of their enemies to be found. For the evil ones, there is power to be had if you are strong enough to wrest it away and survive it." Kreia said. "The place for such in either case is what remains of the Academy."
"The few that remain hide." Visas whispered. "Especially when the wind blows madness as if it were a dust cloud. No one wants to be in the open air. The spirits of those men still yearn to return to pick up their empires and their dreams, and the weak minded would fall prey to that."
"So we must assure that Atton stays aboard." I said. He sputtered.
Marai chuckled. "But what happened? It seems they fought a great battle here, but there was no record of it I could find."
Kreia sighed. "When the Sith collapsed, the Republic sent a fleet to obliterate their presence here. They found it as you see it now. It was as if without Revan and Malak, they lost what little sanity they had. Thousands of Sith hopefuls died when their masters fought for mastery. The tombs now lay shattered, their secrets buried for all time. Yet there were those that were believed to have fled, masters who even now vie for mastery among what remains of that cult.
"Yet the lure of that power remains. There are lords that would come to grab it if they could, hopefuls that believe the Force is a convenient set of clothing they can put on. Those few that still try to live here."
Marai nodded. "We must move quickly. Master Kavar will be leaving for Dantooine in the next few days, and I want to be there to meet him. Visas, my sister, we go."
We gathered our things, and walked down the ramp. The world was a chill place. There was an oppressive feeling of anger and pain over us. The only bright spot, oddly enough was a tomb Marai reported as having belonged to Ajunta Pall. It was as if someone had lit a candle or incense, and the black anger of the rest of the valley was dispelled near it.
"The Valley of the Dark Lords." Visas whispered.
Marai
Be warned. These ruins hold still to their darkness. Even fallen Sith live here. The Academy is up the narrow defile ahead of you. Kreia's voice whispered. Look at the wonder that remains still. The tombs of the greatest of the Sith plundered and blasted into ruin. The past meant nothing to those that tried to seize this power. Without a strong leader, they fell upon each other.
We walked up the valley. It was a mausoleum filled with dead memories, and all the evil that these men had done in their lives. We climbed the defile, and to one side was a cave.
Visas stopped. "Listen! The wind from the cave speaks of great evil. Evil long buried, and recently awakened."
"The cave itself has a presence. A maw eager to devour all that enter." The Handmaiden whispered.
I felt an urge to walk into the cave. Sally on, my student. You must hurry.
The door loomed ahead, and we stopped. The massive leafs of it stood open before us. "Someone expects us. These door were opened recently, and left open." Visas whispered.
The Handmaiden walked over, kneeling to look at the ground. "There is sign of people recently, perhaps the last few days. This set of tracks," She pointed at ones made by soft moccasin like shoes, "Also showed by the cave, going in, and coming out." She looked at me. "But this person is not alone. I do not think it is the Jedi master we seek."
I nodded. "We have to find out. But be ready to retreat."
We walked in. We opened the inner door, and suddenly the outer doors slammed shut. We were trapped. But no screaming enemy charged at us.
We swiftly searched the building complex. One door had been sealed by a lightsaber, and Visas told us that it had been a woman, but nothing else.
We found Vash crumpled in one of the cages in the punishment room. She moaned softly as I opened it and pulled her free. Someone had shoved a barbed metal blade into her stomach, then ripped it out; and recently. She opened her eyes, and I saw terror.
"Master, We'll try to get you out of here." I said softly. "Help me carry her."
"Marai... No, leave me..." I tried to pick her up, but she caught my hand in a hard grip. "Marai, the council...We did what we thought was right..."
"I know that Master. I hold no anger." I held her up. "I came to find you, not to kill you."
"Regret... the decision... Too much we didn't understand... Found a clue... Led me... here... Thought I was careful... Not careful enough." She spasmed in pain, her hand clawing at me. "He's here... waiting for you... Escape..."
"The door was sealed."
"My name. Enter my name... Run..." She gasped, and I felt her die in my arms.
"Another great Jedi lost." The Handmaiden sighed.
We fled. When we got to the door, I found a datapad balanced on the control panel. We got outside, and I accessed it.
It was the man from the Harbinger. Scarred beyond belief.
'Did you come here looking for answers Padawan Devos? There are none. Korriban still sings it's siren call, but it calls only the dead, and those that soon will be. You are no doubt here because of her. That pathetic teacher you have acquired.
'I have made you a subject to study. I knew you when you went to war. Rode the ships into the fire you ordered on so many worlds. You know the heat of battle, the pain of it, and the fury. Yet you walked away like the pathetic weakling you have become. You are a broken woman that only goes on now out of a foolish desire to give something back after all you have taken. That woman will finish destroying you as she tried to do to me.
'I served on one such vessel at Malachor. If I gave my name you might even remember me. But that name died in the fire at Malachor. I am Sion now. Lord Sion. I threw away my master, the one you call Kreia.' He laughed softly. 'If you were wise you would be shut of her, but you are not wise. I know her well. I know her as an apprentice knows a master, and as a master that has overthrown her. Her only reason for living is hoping that you can be better than those she taught before.
'As for her there will be not even the scintilla of mercy. She must die, but she must see all that she hopes and dreams lie shattered on the ground before that death. But you stand in my way.
'I offer to end this suffering for you. We will not pursue, the bond we share means I owe you that much. Come back into the Academy. Face me. Defeat me, or die. Or run like the coward you are. Those are the only options I offer.'
I stared at the pad. Kreia. Kreia taught this thing? Made him what he was? I slipped it into my pocket.
"Let's go. As long as he will allow us to leave, we will."
We ran.
The tomb
Handmaiden
We ran as if the hounds of all the hells were on our heels. But right before we reached the valley, Marai just disappeared before me. I skidded to a stop, dropping to my knees, looking for her tracks.
There was nothing. It was as if between one stride and the next she had flown away.
"Visas-"
"I can't feel her." She caught my arm, her face desperate, "I can't feel her anywhere!"
Marai
I stumbled to a stop. I was in a corridor. The stonework was ancient. A line of old Sith was inscribed, and I ran a hand along it. Ludo Kreesh. The one that tried to overthrow Naga Sadow thousands of years earlier. His tomb had never been discovered. It was said that among those evil men outside, he was so far beyond them that they had buried him to make sure the tomb would never be found.
"Kreia?" I whispered. There was nothing. Behind me was a solid wall. Slowly I advanced.
There was a swirl ahead of me...
I was in a dining hall. I recognized the room, the great dining hall in the temple on Coruscant. A small group of Jedi was there, standing around the towering form of Malak. I recognized them all. Cariaga Sin, who died in that first wave attack on Dxun. Talvon Esan, who had died at Brantator. Nicotsa, the quiet joker that had been killed when a Mandalorian corvette rammed her frigate at Depereaux. Xaset Terep, who had been in command of one of my ships at Malachor. Bastila Shan, who had not been with us...
This had never happened. Cariaga was from the Echana Academy. Talvon and Nicotsa from the Corellian one. Xaset had been from my own temple, but had come late in the war. Bastila had still been an apprentice from the Dantooine Academy, barely 15 at the time. Malak might have spoken to them all, but never together here.
In answer to an unheard question, Malak spoke. "The Council? Why should we listen to the council? The Mandalorians have just taken three more systems. They grow more powerful every day, and the Republic and those fools in the Senate dither as worlds burn!" He saw me. "Marai, join us! Stand beside Revan and I! Face this menace together!"
"This isn't real." I answered. "This never happened."
He looked directly me, and smiled. "It is said in cosmology that there are worlds within worlds, my dear friend. Who is to say that this did not happen in one of them?"
"It's a test, it's all some kind of sick perverted test!" I protested.
"All of life is a test, and if the Republic is to survive this one, we must be willing to thrust our hands into the fire." Cariaga stood, her ebon hair flying as she walked over to stand with him.
"The council is made up of wise persons, but they also dither. They argue and debate as people die. We cannot merely stand aside and let it happen!" Xaset joined him. "You are all those that feel the call of battle, as I do. The Guardians have always been the least trusted of our kind, even by our own masters. Hounds that must be leashed in, restrained. But the hounds of hell must run, must enter this struggle."
"You're not real! None of this is real!"
"Ah but the war is real, and beyond that door, it rages." He motioned toward the door behind him. "The death toll is real."
"You were always a pompous overblown fool, Malak."
"Fool and pompous I might be. But I am not a coward. The Council will be debating as the skies of Coruscant darken with ships, and fire burns their seats from below them." Nicotsa joined him. "I sense you will join us, Marai, but tell me, why did you go? Was it the glory? Was it the bloodlust?"
"I went because the Mandalorians had to be stopped! They had to be smashed so that they would never do this again."
"Yet why then did you spare the Senate? The Council? The Senate was and is a parasite that drains the lifeblood from their people for things of no worth. The Council were doddering old fools without the fire in their bellies to stand for what they believed in." Talvon and Bastila joined him. Now it was just me, staring into those faces. Malak spoke, and as he did, his lower jaw ripped free, blood pumped from a wound in his neck, yet still he talked.
"I gave of my life, of my body. Of my soul to make sure it would never happen again, Devos." A metal band appeared, wrapping around his throat like a gorget, hiding that hideous wound. "We gave everything. Of us all only Bastila there survived. Her, Revan and you. Do you not owe your own dead anything?"
"I have mourned for them all."
"Yet you never gave back to them for that sacrifice, did you? You did not follow Revan and I to cleanse the Republic." He strode forward, standing over me. "You did nothing. You ran away, hid like a wounded animal.
"Yet you are on that path again now. Do you think we merely woke up one morning and said, 'I'm bored, let's attack the Republic'? Every step of the way, from the high and mighty perch of a Jedi to the command of the Sith we slipped. We did what was expedient, what was necessary. What we felt was right when push came to shove. What is the difference between you and I? Only that you still live."
I drew and lit my lightsaber, catching his as it slashed at my throat. I saw my weapon bite deep, he fell-
I was alone.
I wanted to scream, but the sound wouldn't emerge. I stood there, quivering with both fury and terror. I hadn't known how close I skated to that edge, to falling. Now I did and it terrified me. I found my feet moving forward, and desperately tried to turn and run. Another swirl of the Force whipped before me...
I heard the cough, and dove as the mortar shells arrived. I was hip deep in filth, the jungle rose like a cathedral before me, except for one space barely ten meters wide.
Bloody Pass. When the Corellian Marines add to their hymn, they mention battles like Blood Pass. The place where you fought, but no one in his right mind did so.
About 2000 men were with me at the time. The 4th Coruscanti light infantry had come down in the wrong LZ, and had been surrounded for over a day. General Trancas had ordered that they be relieved, and my units, the 2nd Corellian Marines and the 14th Alderaani Scouts had been given the task. 'Advance to relief' is the military term. But the term ignored that to get from where we were to where those men held to life, we had to go through a narrow defile, and over a thousand troops held it. Sounds like it would be easy, but they had a narrow opening to defend, were dug in. We needed a lot more than this to push through.
A Republic Captain, Sierna I think her name was dived into the mud beside me. "General, we just lost the last heavy transport. Command is telling us they don't have any more. All artillery is committed elsewhere, and we have no air support at all." She wiped the mud from her face. "Without the combat droids, without artillery, we're just going to die." She looked grim. "General, we'll charge, and we'll die. But will it be worth it?"
I lifted my electro binoculars. An attack had been staged, and the 14th had charged in and were now pinned down. They'd lost seventy or eighty men already and would lose more, but there was a minefield between them and the 2nd Marines.
I rolled, and the mortar shell that had stunned me for three days failed to do so this time. The blast threw me into a tree, and I felt my leg snap like a twig. That had still happened.
"General!" Sierna had her hand against her helmet. "Command has ordered us to advance! We have no mine clearing equipment! What do we do?"
In reality I had lay there, stunned, and Mach had led the attack. We'd taken horrific losses, and he'd died trying to stop a company by himself.
I rolled to my knees. "Take me forward." I hissed.
"But General-"
"Dammit, I will not let this happen again!" I screamed at her. "I will not lose a thousand men for nothing again!" I glared at her, then snatched up a rifle some dead man no longer needed. My leg screamed in agony, but I remembered those faces. Men that had died because an incompetent windbag had sent them in uncaring, threatening to shoot them if they didn't move forward.
Blaster bolts shot past me, but I was a war goddess, and this was my element. Mortar shells landed, and I heard men dying behind me, but I knew every eye was on me. I reached the edge of the field, and extended my hand. Then I jerked it sharply and a hundred mines in a corridor twenty meters wide exploded in front of me
There was a cheer and my men leaped up, charging forward to relieve their fellows. I collapsed, staring after them. Without the mine field they had cleared with their bodies over five hundred of them would live this time. I saw a Mandalorian appear from the side. The sally that had caught Mach, but he was with the men charging forward. The Mandalorian saw me there alone and grinned as more men poured out.
I lit my lightsaber. "Come on you bastards!" The first man died as I swung-
I knelt on the floor. Tears ran down my eyes. If there had been a beneficent god, it would have me who died that day. Instead I woke in the MASH unit after they had repaired my leg. Of the 2,000 men I had led, half were dead or wounded. The battle had not saved the 4th. Of the 1500 men that had dropped, 500 hundred had been killed coming in, and of the remainder, we relieved barely 300. A waste.
The swirling came again, and I screamed when it did-
The shuttle slammed into something, then the nosecone blew off. I found myself on my feet, and my men, the remainder of all those I had led since Zagosta followed. It was Malachor, the Barakash all over again. We fought, pushing forward. I cut my way to the deck just aft of the bridge, and signaled. Ramos ran forward, slapping the charge against the bridge hatch. An instant later he was dead as intruder systems blew him into bite-sized chunks. I reached out with the Force, ripping the guns from their mounts, and then I reached out-
"No!" I leaped to my feet. The blocking force down the passageway opened fire as I leaped to that door. I was going to die, but damn it I was not going to murder those children again!
The door was massive. Even a ship's guns would have been hard pressed to penetrate them. But I was possessed. I touched those doors, pictured their structure as blaster bolts slammed into them and whistled past my head. Then I focused the Force, made it a torrent that would have shattered the door by themselves, and pulled.
They moaned, and I felt it trying to pull free of the mountings, but it wasn't enough. Retreat, my mind said, fire the charge. They died already; you can't change that.
"No!" I felt them rip free, saw them fly apart as if they were paper. A face I remembered looked up, his blaster coming up. I stood there, looking into the boy's face and smiled as he fired.
-I was on my knees again. So many times I could have fixed it, so many lost chances. Why was I still alive except as some cosmic joke?
"You are to be commended for making it this far." A gentle voice said. I looked, and a ghostly form came toward me. It stopped, and hands folded beneath the robe. The form solidified. It was a man. "My tomb opens only for the chosen. Those that stand on the brink of betrayal or redemption." He waved around him. "I swore by one master, but when he died, I refused to accept his successor. None in the world was the equal of Marko Ragnos, and Naga Sadow might have considered himself worthy, but I did not accept that." He watched me benignly. "Like you I balanced on the edge of my Jedi blade, and had to decide. Would I honor the memory of the great? Or give honor to one I did not believe great? Decisions, decisions." He paced. "I chose, as you must. Go." He motioned toward a door that appeared before me. "This last test will judge the mettle of your soul."
I started to stand, and in a rush, the door shot past me and suddenly I stood in the tomb again. Ahead of me stood Kreia.
"Ah, you have come at last." She said warmly.
"I spoke with your old student."
"Yes, Sion. I knew you would meet him, and here we judge your progress."
"How?" I demanded. "By putting me through hell?"
"My dear girl, the hell you have been through is all in the past. This is your future. I do not say it will occur, but it could, and like all such things, a little literary license is acceptable."
"Get away from her you monster!" Atton stormed past me, his weapon drawn. "Don't you see, Marai, she's a dark Jedi, more evil that any ever born!"
"Atton this is between her and I." Kreia purred dangerously.
"I don't care what you say! I have been your puppet from the beginning, but this puppet has cut his strings! Either you die or I do!"
"As you wish you pusillanimous fool." A ruby red blade sprang from her
hand.
"What is going on?" Bao-Dur demanded.
"Will everyone listen to me?" I shouted. "Stop this at once!"
"Stay out of this Bao-Dur. He has asked for this and it is what he deserves!"
"Stay out of it?" Bao-Dur raged. "You threaten Atton with a light saber and I'm supposed to stay out of it?"
"And what of us, you old monster?" The Handmaiden asked. Behind her came Visas and Mira. "You have stage managed her life from the instant you entered it, and we have stood by because it was her will, but no more. Either you die this day, or we all do!"
Kreia looked at them, then at me. She gave a small smile. "Well? All of your friends stand against me, Marai. What shall it be? Will you be unanimous? Or will you stand by me?"
"I cannot stand by you, Kreia." I said in a soft voice. "You have tried to run my life from the beginning but they are not right either. Even if you were the most evil of people, I owe you a debt, and I would repay it by redeeming you. I cannot let this happen."
I looked at my battle sister, the closest thing I had to a sister in truth. "Put it away my sister. Mira, you don't want to kill, and this will damn you in your own soul, and you know it. Visas, sworn to me as you are, I could order it, but instead I plead. Do not do this.
"Bao-Dur, you already have nightmares of the past, will you add another? Atton. You have hunted and killed enough of us. Killing her will not expiate that sin. Kreia," I turned back to her. "If you have fallen, I will give my life to redeem you. Come back to us."
For a moment, it was a frozen tableau.
I was outside in the canyon. I heard a shriek, and Visas tackled me, hugging me desperately, tears running down her face. I reached up, and the Handmaiden caught my hand. "Next time tell us where you are going." She said, lifting the both of us to our feet. Then she enveloped us both in a hug.
"I am sorry." I whispered. My free arm wrapped around Visas. "I didn't mean to scare you."
We walked in a tight bundle back to the ship
Enroute to Dantooine
Kreia
As we lifted off, I heard Marai coming toward me. So now it comes, I thought. Will she merely condemn? Or will she listen?
"I want answers, Kreia. I want them now, and I want the truth."
"I have never lied to you."
"I met Sion, your student."
I sighed. "A failed student of not that long ago. He cast me aside because in his own view, I was holding him back." I smiled sadly. "The worst part of being a teacher is when those you have nurtured decided that you are too stupid to know better, as if youth gives them omniscience, but age blinds you. The master of your blind one is much worse than he."
"What do you know of that man?"
"If he is still a man, he is the most dangerous. I do not think he can even sense you as yet. While you are gaining in power, you do not have the explosion of the Force that would attract his attention. You are one candle in a sea of them. But as your power grows, you burn brighter."
"What do you mean 'if' he is still a man?"
"There is a power little used among the dark arts. You yourself can manipulate the Force. You can throw a wave of energy before you like a gust front that shatters the homes before the storm arrives. You have used it even to shred a blast door on Citadel station. But you could draw the Force instead into you from the surroundings in such a way that you would need nothing else to live upon.
"It is so dark even the most evil among them knew of it but refused. Because like a body used to a narcotic, you become addicted to it. Normal food and drink will no longer sustain you. It feeds you, but you no longer have a life of your own. From the moment you begin you live a half-life. Your entire existence is nothing but searching for your next meal.
"He slaughtered her entire planet, but your Miraluka was spared. I would be asking why she of all of them survived. Why she became his disciple. Hold his slave close, my student. That knowledge will guide you in defeating him."
"She no longer serves him."
"Believe whatever pathetic illusions aid you. I will not argue."
"So he feeds upon the Force itself?"
"Yes, but another effect of that is that most of creation is now a blank slate to him. He cannot 'see' the worlds, only that which guides his hunger. To him we, all of the living, are merely more food. I had hoped you would not have to stand against him. Frankly I do not know if any can do so and survive. The Council he slaughtered on Katarr was greater than all that survive, and they had no chance.
"Perhaps the death of that one you have suborned will give you the edge that is necessary. A spearpoint that will penetrate his flesh. She might have to die to kill him, but he will die.
"She is like the Handmaiden. She is a pawn in a game you play unnecessarily." I saw her look. "Oh please, don't tell me you think your kind words and actions have overwhelmed a decade of Atris teaching her?"
"She has sworn allegiance to me."
"She has broken her oath once, and what makes you think she will not do so again? However she like Visas has her uses. Atris is your foe. But as she would use her puppet against you, so can we use that puppet against Atris.
"Knowing an enemy is an enemy is strength. You can guide their steps with the proper incentive, and make them an ally if only briefly."
"You speak as if you know her well."
"Not as well as I might have liked. If you mentioned my name to her, she would not recognize it, though she would know my face. Like me she was a librarian and a historian. But I followed that path before she was born."
"You were an historian?"
"At the very Academy where we are bound. I was one of the good kind, rather than the others."
"What?"
"There are three kinds of historian. There are those that are puppets of their nations. The one that paint an enemy as unremittingly evil, but all of yours are saints in comparison. Bao-Dur and Manda'lor are of that type. Both see the evil the others do but tend to ignore what they themselves or their side have done. They want to be judged by a standard the other side does not understand or accept.
"Then there are the self serving ones. The ones who look upon written history, and do everything to 'revise' or 'update' it. The ones that blame all of the Republic's woes on the Jedi are that type. They always begin and end with 'if only the Jedi had not' or 'If the Republic had instead done this'.
"The last was the kind I was. I did not judge them by a standard of good or bad set by another. I tried to judge both sides by their own standards to throw into contrast what the evil among them did. There were evil or venal men enough on both sides.
"If the rest of the Galaxy had known what was to come, perhaps they would have dug a Rancor pit and dumped all those that would cause so many deaths into it. Then they would have sold tickets as those men fed upon each other to survive. Cassus Fett dumped in with Lord Quintain. Those two alone would have been worth the price of admission!" I shook my head.
"The Jedi have been in existence for almost a thousand years before the Republic. Almost 22 millennia of history, but so little is even looked at by the modern members. From the condemnation of Breia Solo and Sienna Dodonna of that time, to their fight against the order, to their redemption by that order, everything that has happened will happen again if you do not look on it and understand. Only the lucky are doomed to repeat history. The unlucky die never knowing.
"But the first thing you learn by looking that far back is that the high and mighty Jedi Code does not hold all of the truth. Too much has been expunged from it by those who felt others need not know. Too many evil deeds carried out with good conscience erased. The destruction of Uba by the Republic while the Jedi did nothing. The Jedi if they had but known it have done so before, and will again if they do not learn the lesson.
"I found that by creating a contrast, by throwing what is believed into sharper relief, the disparity between what is taught and reality is glaringly obvious.
"But my actions had consequences. Students listened to me, and used my meter to look at what the Council said. They recognized that like the Great Sith War of a millennium ago, the Council had put on blinders until too late. They called for their fellows to act, and those that led them came from Dantooine.
"When Revan and Malak left, I was blamed for those children. That wasn't enough for true punishment, but an indiscretion of my past was more than enough. I was stripped of my titles, cast aside. But think you, girl of one thing.
"When you stood before the council, when they banished you, you thrust your lightsaber into the stone obelisk. You took the word Justice, and divided it into 'seek' and 'truth'. Perhaps what I give you is the unvarnished truth. Something you have been seeking since that moment. It is up to you to decide."
She looked at me. "If the council cast you out, it bothers me that Atris, Kavar and Zez Kai Ell didn't sense you."
"Perhaps they merely considered me of no consequence."
"You're lying."
"Omission is not a lie, but I will accept your definition. There is a little known power of the Force where a person can make themselves small, unnoticed. On those worlds where we have encountered them there is a great upwelling of either life or death that can be used by a wise person to conceal themselves."
"Have you used this on me?" She demanded.
"Frankly, if I had you would not have even noticed. But know this, my student. My words, my actions are what you must use to judge me. I have shown myself as the old saying goes, warts and all, because I want your path to be set not by what I might do, but what you see and understand of my teachings. The path you must follow must be your own without my shoving you willy-nilly. If you take a step, it must be your choice, and yours alone."
"As Revan followed your words into hell?"
"Revan listened to me, but it was not my words that drove her into hell. It was her actions and intentions. She understood the problem. Of all I spoke to Revan was the swiftest at seeing that a lot of the blame had to rest on the time servers in the military, and those creatures that call themselves Senators. She knew even before she went to war that it might end with the Senate replaced by a more responsible body at her hand. Not as an evil usurper, but as a benign act of someone who cared. Once it was done, she would have given herself to the Council to be judged, as you did. As I said, it has happened before."
I turned away. "But there was another influence. One that only I knew of, though I did not know it would become a problem when you bravely went off to war. An evil older than the Sith we know of. One that bequeathed the so called 'Sith teachings' Revan had to take the blame for. Like you, she accepted the blame for something she did not do."
"But her troops fought to save the Republic!" She raged. "Then those same men turned and tried to destroy it!"
"Yes. But when they turned to attack the Republic, they did it at Revan's behest. What kind of power is this? You know it, even if you have refused to
exercise it to it's fullest. What did Atton say to you on Nar Shaddaa? They followed those with whom they shed blood because those Jedi they trusted with their lives. When the Sith teachings began to filter down, they accepted them not because they were right, but because those they trusted gave it to them.
"Slowly, before Revan had even noticed it, they became the very evil they had spent their lives to fight, and like a drug addict, they saw no way to step back into the light.
"You see the Sith has not been a race for over two millennia. The true Sith died fighting against those that saw the Force as a handy tool rather than a precious burden. The Sith you fight are no more the evil empire than the Republic is the bastion of purity."
"And what of Sion?
"Like the other, he embraced what he has become because he gloried in it. When I tried to show him the way, he and another student cast me aside."
"So you knew this force sucking monster personally?"
"Yes." I turned. "I am tired. If you wish to kill me, do so. I am sick of questions."
There was a long moment, then I heard her walk away.
