Fate of the Force

by lordtrayus

The death of Jacen Solo and the last war was a disaster. A new force has undone what happened in LotF and given the galaxy a fighting chance against a great evil. By doing so however, the galaxy becomes even more perilous than it was before as the rising power of the dark side and the Sith threatens to snuff out the light of the Jedi, and of the galaxy once and for all...AU

16. Episode II: Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars

Fate of the Force

The beeping comm was responsible for all her troubles. She knew there was someone on the other end but to her very sleep deprived state of mind, it was the comm and the comm alone responsible for whatever new piece of news was about to ruin her night's sleep. She scoffed as she looked at the clock, that was only if half an hour could be justified as sleep.

"Yes what is it?" Releqy demanded angrily.

"Chief Ak'la, you need to come to the communications room. Now." Belindi said before signing off, and cursing the Force she made her way out of bed once again, bitterly cursing her lack of sleep and whatever the new crisis was that was plaguing the Alliance. She wouldn't mind nearly so much but everything these days seemed to be a crisis. Slavers ripping apart the fringes of the galaxy, slave revolts stretching their forces and resources thin, pirates attacking left right and centre, missing task forces, missing supply runs, absent ships and the biggest problem of them all, the civil war that had broken out in Hapes, the entire galaxy seemed determined to implode in the shortest time possible, it was driving her round the twist.

She entered the communications room to see organised chaos, but was immensely relieved when Wynn Dorvan fell into step beside her, forcing a cup of coffee on her.

"You'll need it. And no offence Chief, but you look like you need it too." He said and she smiled slightly.

"I don't doubt. Alright Belindi, what's the latest crisis?" she asked as she took her position around the central display, and didn't fail to notice the nervous looks passing between Niathal and Kalenda.

"There's two new crises, you won't like either of them." Niathal said and Releqy sighed.

"Very well, give me the better of the two first, we'll work up to the bad one." She said and Belindi grimaced.

"A civil war has broken out in the Mandalorian sector. Fett's Mandalorians against Death Watch. Shots have already been fired and the people there are gearing up for war." she said, and Releqy groaned wearily.

"That's all we need, another civil war. Now with the Hapans on one side and the Mandalorians on the other, all the various brush wars and planetary civil wars that we've been in control of will start spiralling out of control and everyone will start leaping on the same bandwagon. If the usual culprits start up again, like the Sepans and the Osarians, can we cope?" she asked and Niathal pursed her lips.

"Only with great difficulty, we're stretched far too thin as it is, policing potential trouble spots will further weaken us, it'll be like saying 'kick us, we're vulnerable'. Although Hapes and Mandalore aren't our fault, people will still blame us for all of this and as soon as the trouble spots hear about Mandalore going up too, then we're scuppered, they'll all want to start settling grudges." She explained and Releqy hissed between her teeth.

"Damn them all. Can we suppress the story?" she asked, and Kalenda shook her head.

"I'm afraid not, it's already gone out, besides civil wars don't keep quiet for very long regardless. Our only option is that we try to help Fett resolve it quickly, perhaps send in a Jedi..."

"Fett won't allow a Jedi on Mandalore, he has no use for them, and even if he did, Death Watch wouldn't listen to them either, remember, Death Watch blames the Jedi for most of their ills. So that option is obviously out. What about the fleet?" Releqy asked Niathal who sagged visibly.

"What with everything else going on you want to mount an invasion of Mandalore?" she demanded and Releqy rolled her eyes.

"No of course not, don't be silly. I'm just wondering if we can help Fett in other ways, if he'll let us, perhaps blockade the sector or something." She said, but Niathal shook her head.

"Not really, we can have the fleet nearby but we won't be able to do much other than that, it's a civil war so a blockade is fairly out of the question. The most we can do is try to keep it spreading beyond their own sector, but even then we hardly have the forces to accomplish that, and the only fleet I could use is Admiral Limpan's, and that has its hands full dealing with pirates and Vong and disappearing convoys to worry much about the Mandalorians." She concluded in irritation and Releqy sighed.

"I shall talk to Fett, see if I can't do anything, even if we just support him with supplies. The Senate will want us to take action on this, technically they're more integrated into the Alliance than the Hapans are, and two civil wars starting in a week is going to make us look very powerless. Where do we stand with the Verpine, what's their part in this?" she asked, and Kalenda passed her a datacard as yet more people ran around them, trying to deal with the various crises plaguing their existence.

"They will support Fett with materiel and supplies but we don't think they will actually get involved in the conflict, however because of where Mandalore is situated, this entire thing could easily blow up. Wayland for example could easily start up a war between the three species settled there. This could get bad very quickly." Kalenda briefed her and Releqy groaned.

"Alright, so that was the good news, what was the bad news?" she asked, and Niathal groaned, this was clearly her piece of news to deliver and judging by the look on her face, Releqy seriously didn't want to hear it.

"Mygeeto has left the Alliance, they've joined the Empire." She said in a rush, and waited for the inevitable blow to fall.

"What? When did that happen?" Releqy hissed, and Kalenda winced.

"Just before we called you, it's why we called you actually. Basically, as far as we're aware the Lurmen were less than happy about the rising pirate and Vong attacks around their world. The Empire, namely Lecersen, were passing through the system and whipped them into a frenzy and as a result they've joined the Empire." She explained and Releqy groaned.

This was the first time the Empire had expanded since the Orinda campaign, and was the very last thing she needed. It wasn't that she begrudged the Empire expanding its borders (not that she would tell the Senate that) she begrudged them expanding under Lecersen's direction rather than Pellaeon. She had tried, after all there had been a time when it had looked as though Lecersen would replace Pellaeon, when she had tried to get on with the man but she just couldn't stand him, she thought he was slimy, untrustworthy and arrogant, and he clearly had his own agenda up his sleeve. And now he had put her and Pellaeon in am impossible situation.

The hardliners in the Senate would obviously declare the Lurmen were coerced and demand retribution, and from the most militant of the lot there would be calls to declare war. The lesser faction would counsel to alienate the Empire and Mygeeto, along with reducing operations in that area of space. On the other hand, the more pacifist ones would counsel caution, urge her to accept what had happened and use the chance to build better relations with the Empire. However while those were problems, there were other things to take into consideration.

The Empire had now expanded, and she had a feeling this wouldn't be a one hit wonder, Lecersen would try again. That meant the Empire would be expanding at a time when the Alliance was struggling to keep itself together. In fact, the Lurmen, with some help from their new imperial friends, could easily begin a cascade of defections from the Alliance into the Empire, which could easily tear the already fragile Alliance apart. It would also make it seem incredibly weak, which might encourage the Hutts to push to keep their own slaves, and would also make it all the more difficult to impose law and order across the galaxy, and would most likely further discourage the Chiss, if they ever decided to talk to them again, which due to the long silence wasn't likely.

And that was just from the Alliance's point of view. On the imperial front, Lecersen's popularity was about to go through the roof, which could easily mean a challenge was in the offing for control of the Empire. It also meant that Pellaeon would be unable to criticise the move, because Lecersen would now be seen as a hero of the Empire, despite his action being technically illegal. In one stroke Lecersen had backed both her and Pellaeon up against a wall.

"Alright, this is clearly going to be a long night. Other people are sleeping, I wonder what that's like. We can do nothing about Mygeeto, they've made their choice and have joined the Empire, so pull out all Alliance related forces from the planet. I need to talk to Pellaeon so someone get me him. Between the Hapans and the Mandalorians I really do not need to deal with the Empire too, but Lecersen has forced my hand. Admiral, see what you can do to bolster our flagging support in the planets closest to the imperial border. Don't arm them per se, just send a few more ships through them at a time, have them use those planets as a base to find out where our other ships keep vanishing too. Mygeeto will not have been an isolated incident, far from it. If Lecersen is driving this speeder, he has bigger goals in mind. We also need to bolster up our support, try and keep as few people as possible from considering any offers he might put their way. Let's go people" Releqy ordered and the room became a flurry of activity once again, and she groaned to herself.

"And could someone bring me something deep fried and smothered in chocolate?" she asked hopefully, because this was going to be a very long week.

XX

"So you can't do anything to stop him?" she asked and Pellaeon shook his head.

"No, and if I'd known what he planned I'd have stopped him before he did it. I swear I had no idea that he was planning to expand the Empire." He said, and Releqy sighed.

"I didn't doubt that you did Gilad. The problem is now at least six other planets are looking at Mygeeto with interest, as in 'we want to follow your lead' interest. In one swoop he's destabilised the entire Alliance, given ideas to countless other planets, made us a laughing stock and further chipped away at our already tenuous power." She grumbled and he nodded in understanding.

"I know the feeling believe me. He's being lauded in the streets, the moffs who I know supported him are worshipping the very ground he's walking upon and now I've got an extra planet to defend when I'm already stressed as it is, I could only get three ships to help Daala and the biggest of them is an Interdictor. With Vong depredations I'm overstretched, the task force I'm preparing for Tenel Ka is taking up a lot and protecting the rest of the Empire is using all my resources, and while he's adding resources he's also stretching them thin." He said, sounding only slightly frustrated and she smiled.

"Though you certainly don't mind that the Empire has just expanded." She said shrewdly, and he smiled back, bowing his head respectfully.

"Perhaps, I certainly won't deny it does my old imperial spirit a bit of good to see us expand for the first time in ages." He admitted ruefully and she sighed.

"To tell you the truth I'm not particularly bothered that the Empire expanded, and while it does annoy me that it was one of our worlds who joined you, it also doesn't bother me that much. What bothers me is that it was Lecersen doing his bit in the limelight and now I'm going to be spending the next six months cleaning up the mess he just made while trying to prevent anyone else from following Mygeeto's lead." She said in frustration, and Pellaeon frowned thoughtfully.

"So you're not opposed to further expansion of the Empire, the Alliance wouldn't act to stop it?" he asked, and she groaned wearily.

"It depends on how you define further expansion. From our worlds, yes, but if unaligned worlds or worlds from other powers want to join you I have no problem with it. And I have a problem if it's Lecersen doing the expanding rather than you, I do not like that man, and he's just proven how dangerous he is. He'll only keep pushing his luck and eventually he'll bite off more than any of us can chew and with the Vong out there, it will only make both sides weaker not just mine." She said worriedly and Pellaeon nodded.

"I see your point my friend. I will try and curb his enthusiastic expansionism but I don't see much chance of it succeeding, I reckon you might be right, this most likely is only the beginning. May the Force be with you." He said, and she repeated the same to him, and shut off the holo, kneading her head with her fingers. It seemed her headache was permanent these days.

Word had already come that shots had been fired on Osarian and in the Sepan system, which meant it was only a matter of time before they all kicked off. So, following the newly fashionable trend of civil wars, combined with the slave rebellions that were now becoming increasingly militant across the galaxy, the Alliance and the Jedi were spread thin. They had more crises than they had diplomats, and when they failed to soothe those crises they became conflicts and frankly they didn't have the ships to deal with them either. Planets were petitioning the Empire for leadership, which she was sure was Lecersen's plan all along, others were apparently looking at neutrality and others were going into isolation. And all through it all, their ability to hold on to what they had was diminishing, ships and task forces were going missing, Jedi were going insane (and she was certain that in her meeting that morning with Hamner and Solusar, Kam had nearly slipped that a couple of Jedi had vanished too) and all around them enemies who should never be able to pose a significant threat such as slavers and pirates were getting stronger, and combined with the obviously returning Vong forces the Alliance was falling apart at the seams, and as far as she could see, it was only going to get worse.

She had promised when she became head of state that she would protect the Alliance, renew it and improve on it. At this rate she would be lucky to keep it in one piece until the end of the month.

"You know Wynn," she said as he entered with a sympathetic expression and a plate of tea and biscuits, "there are days I really hate this job."

XX

"Alliance in chaos, Jedi ill equipped, Vong rising, I should stop reading the news, it only depresses me." Han complained at breakfast the next morning as he read over the recent reports, and Leia hissed between her teeth.

"What the hell is Lecersen playing at?" she demanded and Mara smirked.

"Surely you recognise it Leia, it's called politics. He knows full well the Lurmen were pissed off and that we actually couldn't hold them, and even if we wanted to stop him we couldn't, he won before he even left Bastion. It's simple, piss off your opponent when they can't hit back." She said brightly, and Lumiya scowled as she did the crossword.

"Since when did I enjoy family breakfasts...well that can't be right, Coruscant doesn't have an x in it..." she muttered to herself, and K'kruhk looked at the crossword with her, while Alema blew bubbles into her cup of coffee with a straw.

"You can't spell that's your problem." He said, pointing at the word she had spelt wrong and she cursed as she tried to fix it.

"The Order isn't doing much better, a Jedi has gone missing near the Imperial border." Luke muttered, unfortunately for him, he said it out loud and Lumiya's ever alert ears were now twitching.

"Really?" Jacen asked in concern, pinching a sausage from Mara's plate when she wasn't looking.

"So we're missing Jedi now as well as losing them to insanity? What the hell is going on out there?" Jaina demanded, stealing a bit of bacon from Luke's plate.

"I don't know but it's getting worse, between us, the Empire and two civil wars, the entire galaxy's shaking itself apart. Hey, what's the big idea?" Luke demanded as he looked at his depleted plate.

"Has anyone else started shooting at each other yet?" K'kruhk asked, reading the horoscopes, all of which mentioned night which he decided to ignore in case they were an omen.

"Aside from Rhomamool and Osarian and the Sepans beginning to gear up, no. But the more worlds start shooting at each other, the more likely they are to spread and hence more worlds keep shooting at each other." Leia explained as she sipped her coffee.

Han sighed wearily.

"Alright, we need to figure out our next move now we've fixed the ship. Are you sure that Sith friend of yours has gone Lumiya?" Han asked, and she nodded.

"Yes, he wouldn't stay here any longer than he had to, he would risk Krayt's anger if he did so, it would keep three incredibly valuable Star Destroyers away from him, he wouldn't like that. So we must continue with our mission, and we better hurry, your Alliance is falling apart and the dark side is going to be impeding your ability to do your job rather soon." She said, and Luke glowered at her.

"Though it pains me to admit it, she is right. We need to get a move on." Luke said, to K'kruhk's nods.

"You're quite right, Abeloth is growing in strength and power by the day and the last thing we need is to lose Tra, she can't hold out much longer. So we must find out more about Abeloth and her powers, and the information we got from Kesh will be of great use in this regard. I've studied some of the texts we took, as has Lumiya." He said, indicating for the Sith to continue.

"The Sith Lord Dreypa has received a fair amount of documentation from the Tribe's historians due to his imprisonment on the planet. He was one of the Exiles in the Hundred Year Darkness and fled into obscurity following the conflict. However, while he and other ancient Sith such as Karness Muur and XoXaan fought amongst themselves, he also wished to return to wreak his revenge upon the Republic and the Jedi. However, he was scuppered in this and actually wound up on Kesh, where he was eventually freed and he began a blistering campaign against the Tribe, using Leviathans in his campaign. He was eventually killed, however, some of his writings have apparently survived. While Dreypa was all but banished to Kesh, several of his followers who had expected his second campaign against the Jedi to succeed eventually gave him up for dead and created a mausoleum on Ziost. That is where we should go." She explained, and Ben looked at her sceptically.

"Alright, I get that it's interesting, and that we get the stuff from a recently annihilated Sith world, but what's so important about this Dreyba dude?" he asked, and Lumiya rolled her eyes.

"Dreypa, not Dreyba, he was a Hutt painter. Anyway, Dreypa was a powerful Sith Lord, who could control the Leviathans. K'kruhk has a theory that the way a Leviathan works, consuming the souls of its victims is akin to what Abeloth does, and thinks we may find something of interest. Also, Andeddu mentioned Dreypa during our fight with him, so he may have more information on the Demon of the Dark, so we think it's worth a visit." She said, and Han nodded.

"Seems fair to me. Let's get going, get away from this place." He said, getting to his feet after giving Ben a worried look over, and Jacen nodded slightly as the others all left the table, aside from Alema who was now having a staring contest with her reflection in her spoon.

"Lumiya..." Jaina said, pointing to the Dark Jedi and the Sith shrugged.

"She's not harming anyone, it's keeping her occupied and besides, she's your problem in the morning, not mine." She said tartly and Jaina scowled as she made to move the insane Twi'lek.

"You ok?" Jacen asked softly, and Ben nodded a little hesitantly.

"Yeah. Sorry for the other day, it was just..." he said, not meeting his cousin's eyes and Jacen crouched a little so he was looking Ben right in the eye.

"Hey, you have nothing to be sorry for. It was hard for us to feel Kesh being destroyed too ok?" he said gently and Ben scowled.

"Yeah but none of you had a complete breakdown." He said bitterly and Jacen nodded.

"No we didn't. But we weren't babies in the Vong War when we were losing a nearly a planet a month which is why you originally cut yourself off. Mom and the others, all of them aside from K'kruhk were raised during the Civil War, they didn't have to feel the death of planets like you did, and even when a planet was destroyed, they were either too old or too untrained to feel it through the Force like you do, like when mom saw Alderaan get destroyed. You're not weak Ben, you just felt more as a kid than they did that's all, than we did. Jaina and I cried for hours when we felt Carida get destroyed, it's natural to feel the effects of a planet being destroyed." He soothed and Ben did look slightly more cheerful as Jacen left him to the dishes.

A while later, Mara frowned as she sorted through the galley (honestly would it kill Han to clear up after himself? Maybe she should get Lumiya to go all Vader on him until he started clearing up after himself, she was sure Lumiya wouldn't object), noticing that the gelmeat had been ransacked, there was only three tubes of the foul stuff left. Strange.

"Ben, have you gone on a gelmeat binge?" she called, figuring she wouldn't give him a hard time, after all he had felt more keenly than the rest of them the destruction of Kesh.

"No, I've not had any since Kesh, I didn't feel like it." He called back, and she frowned, two things to ponder, disappearing gelmeat and Ben not feeling like gelmeat, that wasn't like him, she'd always believed he could endure the torching of the galaxy provided he had gelmeat. Resolving to speak to him later, she went out, determined to find the missing supplies.

Leia was reading the news again, cursing as more and more worlds drifted to restarting brushfire wars. Han was cleaning an old helmet with a nostalgic expression on his face. K'kruhk was writing a message he planned to send when they left hyperspace, while Jaina and Jacen were doing exercises with her hand. Luke was reading over some of the stuff they had taken from Kesh, while Lumiya was trying to persuade Alema to stop doing practice drills with her lightsaber (more for their own sake than hers she had argued, after all, who would notice another wound on the ravaged Twi'lek). She was curious to see that Ben was trying to meditate, which meant something was still bothering him. She exchanged a concerned look with Jacen who shrugged slightly and she nodded, before addressing the room at large.

"Have any of you guys been eating the gelmeat?" she asked, only to be met with shakes of the head.

"Nah, I'm not allowed any." Han grumbled and Leia wrinkled her nose.

"Damn right you aren't." She muttered under her breath, making their kids grin.

"We can't stand the stuff." Jaina said, to her twin's confirming nod.

"And you know I don't like it, and you don't like me not liking it either." Luke said, and she turned to the others.

"Don't look at me, gives me indigestion." K'kruhk said, and Lumiya shook her head as well.

"No, my body doesn't deal with it properly I feel it sitting there for weeks, nasty stuff. Alema, that's right, here girl, follow my voice back from your own fantasy world you mynock shit crazy dancer, yes you, have you had the gelmeat?" she asked, after patiently waiting for Alema to come out of her reverie.

"It's unbalanced, I won't eat the stuff. How did I do?" she asked hopefully, and Lumiya sighed.

"Alright surprisingly, watch your height though you're not defending high enough." She said grudgingly, and Alema nodded.

"She didn't do very well on the Admiral Ackbar either, that's how she lost her lekku." Leia said tartly, and Lumiya turned away from the fuming Dark Jedi before she saw her grin.

"So, if none of you lot ate it..." she began, a suspicion occurring to her.

All of the food had started going missing since Kesh, drinks and cups had vanished too, but she hadn't thought much of it at the time, but...

"Artoo!" Mara yelled and the little droid, who was up front with Threepio keeping an eye on things abandoned his argument with Threepio and trundled through, whistling at her.

"Scan the ship and tell me how many people are on board." She said, and they all looked at her in surprise.

"You think we have a visitor?" K'kruhk asked, and Han looked outraged.

"A stowaway, on my ship?" he demanded making the women roll their eyes.

Artoo hummed to himself and then twittered something at Mara.

"I knew it, we do have a stowaway. Now, if I were a stowaway on board a beat up pile of junk like this where would I hide?" she asked herself as she headed into the corridor, Han scowling after her.

"Hey do I pick on your ship?" he demanded.

"My ship works." Mara muttered under her breath, making Artoo beep in amusement.

Han then followed her into the corridor, with all the others looking in interest as she stood above the smuggling compartments.

"This is where you hid from Vader?" she asked in disbelief, and Han nodded.

"Yeah, why?" he asked, and Lumiya groaned.

"No wonder we lost." She complained, making Jaina grin as Mara prised open the first of the compartments.

"Oh, hello!" Vestara said brightly, waving nervously up at them from the compartment surrounded by empty tubes of gel meat and drink cans.

Ten minutes later, after allowing her to freshen up, Vestara was all but hauled in front of the entire occupancy of the ship.

"Threepio, what am I allowed to do with stowaways?" Han asked menacingly, looking at the girl as if she had done him some great personal wrong.

"Well in your role as captain you reserve the right over all punishments. You may drop her off on the nearest planet, return her to her home though I don't think that would be advisable, drop her off at the next spaceport, or of course allow her to remain on board." Threepio explained, and Han glared at the girl who looked at him impassively, though Ben suspected there was a slight tinge of disdain to her, something Leia must also have picked up on, after all, she wouldn't hesitate to crush him if he went too far.

"I'll admit to being a stowaway, and seeing as Krayt had my planet razed to the ground, you can hardly blame me for escaping the planet, no matter how I did it." She said coolly, and Ben could feel the pain she felt for the loss of her home broiling beneath the surface.

Ben truly looked at the young Sith girl, feeling her emotions that she worked so hard to control. Her anger and bitterness over what had happened to her home, her pain and fear, her ambition and pride in her abilities, her hopes, all of it, all wrapped up in rather an attractive package, one which was virtually the same age as he was. And while she was a Sith she was clearly sassy and knew her own mind, as she refused to be cowed even when surrounded by three very powerful Jedi and her overall superior.

She then caught his eye and he nodded encouragingly to her, and she sent him an appreciative glance in response.

"Why did you come aboard young one? Did you sense what was about to happen?" K'kruhk asked kindly, giving Han a dirty look, she may be a Sith but his attitude wasn't going to help anyone.

Lumiya didn't breathe, if the girl revealed she had 'suggested' that she come aboard it would only lead to all sorts of difficult questions that she didn't need to answer.

Vestara looked at the Whiphid coolly though respectfully.

"My father sought to trap me on Kesh, he didn't want me to grow in power, so he ordered me to stay at home. Just because he and Krayt are fools doesn't mean I need to be." She responded tartly, and Leia and Lumiya grinned.

"The fact is kid, you're not meant to be here, we're busy, so we'll drop you off..." Han began, but Ben shook his head.

"You can't drop her anywhere." He said, and Jacen and Jaina exchanged part amused, part concerned looks as they looked at their cousin.

"Sure I can buddy, she's a Sith." Han said brightly, and Alema pointed to Lumiya.

"You have her on board, and unless we're missing something, this old banger is a lot more dangerous than this pretty little thing." She pointed out quite reasonably, making Lumiya shoot her a dirty look.

Han came up short, and then he shrugged.

"Even so, having one Sith on board is enough."

"Actually, she may be of use to us. The Keshiri texts we have have evolved from the language of the ancient Sith, which means it takes Lumiya and Threepio rather long to translate anything we read in that language." K'kruhk mused, stroking his chin.

"Which also involves myself and mistress Lumiya spending excessive amounts of time with each other which quite frankly isn't good for any of us." Threepio added, and Lumiya had to agree.

"Yes, I might break your droid." Lumiya grumbled.

"Time is of the essence and she may be a great help to us." K'kruhk said.

"We're also on a tight schedule, so we can't drop out and take her to the nearest port, we can hardly abandon her on Ziost, otherwise we might have her becoming a new version of Krayt," Ben argued, and Luke had to admit, it was a fairly good line of reasoning, "and considering they flattened it we can't take her back to Kesh, she has to stay with us." He finished all too brightly, and while some of it was due to triumph at having outwitted his uncle the rest was him being entirely too cheerful about the prospect of the girl staying on board.

Han looked at Ben and then deflated and Leia looked at her husband.

"Look Han, he's right we don't have the time to go dropping her all over the galaxy, and considering what happened to Kesh she only really belongs with the rest of her people and that's far too risky, we'd be walking right into the hands of the Sith. Here at least we can keep an eye on her, and Lumiya can babysit her." She explained and Lumiya nodded.

"Yes, and she has the added benefit of having more of her faculties than Alema does." She pointed out, as Alema stuck her tongue out at her.

"But..." Han protested and Mara sighed.

"I don't like it either Han but we don't have much choice. We're running out of time to stop Abeloth, she might be helpful. But if you want to cut her loose that's up to you." Mara said, and he rolled his eyes.

"Fine, she can stay." He agreed reluctantly and she bowed her head slightly.

"I bow to your 'superior' wisdom." She said cattily, earning her an indulgent look from Lumiya.

"Not to mention her powers are impressive, fair enough we were dealing with the destruction of Kesh but she still managed to stay hidden from our sensors, from Artoo, from seven Jedi, one Dark Jedi and one Sith Lord all without detection, if she's that good we ought to keep an eye on her anyway." Luke whispered to Han as he sagged down into the seat beside him.

"I'm sorry about the destruction of Kesh." Jaina said kindly as Vestara drifted to Lumiya, and Vestara stopped short, a pang of grief blistering across Ben's psyche as well as her own.

She then turned to look at him in confusion, but their exchange was enough that Jacen had noticed.

"Ben?" he asked, and Ben looked at her curiously.

"You felt that?" she asked in response to his look and he nodded slightly.

"Felt what, what's going on?" Mara demanded, as K'kruhk leaned forward to inspect them with professional interest.

Ben and Vestara hadn't said anything, they continued to look at each other, as if they were having a silent conversation between the two of them, and when Jacen tried to have a poke he could feel a fast moving current between the two of them, they were having a silent conversation. That was impossible, Ben couldn't even have a silent conversation with him, let alone some girl he had just met. He probed further, feeling her individually, and Ben, but when he took a step back in his mind's eye, it was as if they shone all the brighter as they talked.

"Ben? What's going on?" Mara asked and Ben was about to answer when a suspicious K'kruhk cuffed Ben on the back of the head.

And both he and Vestara yelped in pain.

"Uh oh." He said as both kids glared at him.

"What the hell did you do that for?" Ben demanded irritably and Vestara narrowed her eyes, as if about to go for her lightsaber.

"Calm child, steady yourself. Even a Sith knows patience. Control your anger, there is no need for it here, he didn't attack you." Lumiya counselled and Vestara stood down while K'kruhk looked at Ben worriedly.

"We have a problem." He said, and Jaina, who had been watching Vestara warily, nodded.

"Yeah we have another bloodthirsty Sith on board." She muttered and Lumiya glared at her.

"She is young and impetuous, don't worry your little head Jaina, I will deal with Vestara. However, K'kruhk is right, as she felt his attack on Ben, we do have a problem." She said, and Han looked at her, and then at the oldest Jedi.

"What sort of problem?" he asked and K'kruhk frowned.

"Somehow, a Force bond has been formed between the two of them, they are now connected through the Force." He explained.

"Like me and Jacen?" Jaina asked in interest, and he nodded.

"In a way yes. The two have been bound together through the Force and are now linked, to the extent to which they feel the pain the other feels, a most powerful bond indeed." He said and Vestara looked at Lumiya.

"You mean I'm bonded with Ben?" she asked, not sounding entirely put out by this fact, and her new master nodded.

"Indeed, and in a powerful way, just as he is bonded with you. As of now, your mind is no longer entirely your own, unless you practice keeping him out. He feels aspects of what you feel and vice versa, such as pain as we've already seen, and your bond could be used to influence the other." She elaborated for the Sith girl.

"Simple, Jacen and I teach them how to block each other like we did." Jaina said, but K'kruhk shook his head.

"There would be little point, you felt you had reason to block Jacen and he wasn't concerned enough to care quite frankly. Besides, their bond is too new, we don't know the full extent of it yet so learning to block it at this point would be rather moot." He explained.

"So Ben's now bonded to Vestara? How did that happen?" Mara demanded, looking less than happy, and she was sure Ben was complaining about her to Vestara and she didn't like it one little bit.

"Most likely when Kesh went boom." Alema said, and the casual way she said it earned her a cuff on her remaining ear from Lumiya.

"Crass though she is, she's probably right. Ben's reaction to the destruction was very powerful, as was Vestara's. During such assaults upon one's senses, it's natural to reach out, but rather than find a friendly mind, they found each other, sensed each other as kindred spirits and hence became bonded. And if that is indeed the way they were bonded, then the bond will be significantly powerful." She said, and Luke nodded.

"She's right Mara, bonds created through traumatic experiences are the most powerful, it'll be very difficult to break the bond." He reasoned, making his wife seethe.

"And also another reason to keep her on board." Jacen said reluctantly, and Han looked in confusion at his son.

"How do you figure that out?" he asked, hoping this would be one part of the conversation he could actually follow.

"Force bonds are very powerful, it's how Luke and I and the kids can sense what's happening to the other even when we're half a galaxy away. Because of how Ben and Vestara's Force bond formed, it means they're connected in a somewhat different way. Their bond is new and created through trauma, unlike ours, so if anything traumatic happens to one, the other will feel it. Say Vestara is killed, there's a chance it could kill Ben too." Leia explained with disdain and Han groaned.

"Alright the kid can stay, but only until we break the bond, we've got enough Sith on board as it is." He said, but Jacen shook his head.

"We don't have time to go looking for ways to break Force bonds, we've got a job to do, and it might actually help them. So we keep it, at least for now." He said, and Mara sighed.

"Do we have to?" Mara asked, looking at Vestara suspiciously.

"We can teach them to keep each other out of their heads, just not block them entirely, otherwise it'll drive them both nuts. We can teach them how to block less than savoury feelings from the other." Lumiya explained, and Jacen looked at her.

"So, you'll train Vestara not to corrupt Ben and I'll teach him not to corrupt her. Deal?" he asked and she nodded.

"Agreed."

Mara and Luke exchanged glances. Say what they will, they had a bad feeling about this, an extra Sith on board was bad enough, an extra Sith who was Force bonded with their son and had also attracted his interest for all the wrong reasons was even worse. This could only end in trouble.

"So she can stay?" Ben asked hopefully, and they all nodded reluctantly.

"Yes she can stay." Luke said and he grinned at Vestara, who grinned back.

"Oh brother." Jaina grumbled and she left the room, followed by a resigned Jacen.

"Come my new apprentice, we have work to do." Lumiya said, beckoning to Vestara who fell into step beside her as the two Sith swept out of the room.

Mara frowned after them, suspicion filling her. No matter what the reasons, she knew in her heart, this wasn't good at all.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Mara said, but K'kruhk just chuckled.

"Is that because your son is now bonded to her, or because he is attracted to her?" he asked, and she glared at him as he chortled and walked off.

In the more appropriate confines of the cargo hold where they were stowing all of the Sith holocrons and other materiel they had gathered for their mission, Lumiya took the only chair while Vestara dropped to her knee in front of her.

"I hope I have not failed you master." Vestara said humbly and Lumiya smiled in malicious delight.

"Failed me? Far from it child, you have done brilliantly. Your ambition and knowledge allowed you to see my true intentions, and you acted accordingly. " She said with cold delight and Vestara grinned.

"Thank you master." She said, and Lumiya smiled, surveying her new protégé.

"And your rebellion against your father was most opportune, it saved your life. I'm sorry for the loss of your world, make no mistake, we will make Krayt pay for his wanton destruction, I promise you this." She said and Vestara raised her eyes, still hurt beneath the anger, to face her new master, and growled.

"I will help you crush him master." She said, and Lumiya smiled indulgently, taking Vestara's cheek gently.

"Indeed you will my dear. Tell me child, have you heard of a Hand?" she asked, and Vestara nodded.

"Yes master, they serve their master's will, carry out the most important missions for them." She said, and Lumiya nodded.

"In essence, correct. That is the role I offer to you my dear. You see, Luke and the others will not allow me to take you as a proper apprentice while we are trapped on this trash heap of a ship. K'kruhk's life was ruined by the Rule of Two and Luke's early life was also dominated by the actions of the Sith. As such, they will not allow me to take on a true apprentice right now. However, the day is rapidly approaching when we will be free of this infernal ship, but until the time is right, we must bide our time. Do you accept?" she asked and Vestara nodded.

"Yes master, I pledge myself to your teachings. Krayt's way leads to cowardice and treachery, why else would he attack Kesh? If your Rule of Two allows me to crush him, so much the better." Vestara spat, and Lumiya mused on this, while the girl was indeed a powerful Sith, her ambition and need for revenge may need to be checked lest they undo her plans.

But for now, she had other plans to further.

"Good. You have done well Vestara, casting off the shackles of your old life. However, you did even better. By creating the bond with Ben, you have given me an invaluable weapon to use against our Jedi foes. Intentionally or not, you have just made our job a lot easier. What think you of our youngest Jedi?" Lumiya purred and noted with savage delight the little blush that appeared on Vestara's cheeks.

"He's...intriguing." Vestara said diplomatically, and Lumiya grinned wickedly.

"Indeed he is my dear. And he is very important to my plans. The Jedi's time is coming to an end, and Ben is an essential piece of the puzzle, he will be the weapon with which I will finally destroy that bloated, corrupt and decadent order before returning the galaxy to the dominion of the Sith. However, as you can see, it will be difficult for me to lure Ben away from the protection of his highly overprotective mother, his very stubborn father, and his arrogant cousin. They, along with Leia, Han and K'kruhk delight in watching my every move in order to try and catch me out. But now, with your help, I can begin to accelerate my plans, if you are willing." Lumiya said, and Vestara looked at her with interest.

"You intend to lure Ben to the dark side?" she asked, and Lumiya nodded.

"Indeed I do. And am I right in saying you would be willing to help in such an endeavour?" she asked with cold delight and Vestara looked excited.

"You mean Ben would become a Sith?" she asked and Lumiya nodded.

"Indeed. My eventual successor, the heir to the legacies of the Sith and the Jedi and the new face of the Sith. Do I have your assistance in this?" she asked coldly, and Vestara hesitated, and Lumiya had to suppress a smile, the girl wouldn't even have to pretend to like Ben, she actually did like him. Excellent.

"Yes master." Vestara said, and Lumiya smiled.

"Good. Now, come with me. We need to evaluate your skills, and if we happen to walk into the view of young Skywalker in the process, I'm sure we can cope." She said maliciously and Vestara smiled as she followed her master.

In the galley, Ben was leaning against the table, musing to himself, not unnoticed by Jacen who was making some tea.

"Well, it's not as if we can get rid of her." Ben muttered and Jacen rolled his eyes.

"Vestara I take it?" h asked and Ben nodded, reddening slightly.

"Yeah, I mean she's going to be around for a while, if nothing else Lumiya will see to that, so..."

"Ben, don't go there." Jacen said tiredly turning to look at his cousin.

Then he wished he hadn't, Ben was shooting him a look that basically could be described as one of betrayal. Jacen cursed inwardly, he knew that more than anything else Ben only wanted people his own age to talk to, and a girl his age was something unheard of. Either the people outside the temple weren't interested or too awestruck by him, and the few actually within the temple that were his age were also either awestruck or intimidated by him and his famous family.

"Look, I know she's a Sith, but is it a mortal sin to even talk to her? Or do you really want Lumiya and Alema being the only one she talks to?" he challenged and Jacen sighed and softened his expression.

"Look Ben, I'm not saying don't talk to her, I'm not even saying don't get to know her, but remember she's a Sith. She can't be trusted, your parents certainly won't trust her, she's already been taken on as Lumiya's apprentice which makes both of them even more dangerous to us and what's more, she's bound to you now which makes her very dangerous to you as well." He said, and Ben scowled.

"It's not as if I bonded to her on purpose." He snapped and Jacen sighed.

"I know you never, I never said you did. I'm just saying watch your step with Vestara. Your bond makes you both susceptible." He explained, and Ben sagged slightly.

"Yeah I know it might draw me to the dark side, but doesn't it also apply to her?" he asked miserably, and Jacen grinned slightly.

"Oh no, you truly are your father's son." He said in amusement, and Ben looked at him in confusion.

"I can't tell if you're insulting me or not." He said suspiciously and Jacen shrugged.

"Depends on your point of view. You're getting a cause, just like your dad, he always believed he could redeem people, Vader, C'Baoth, your mom kind of. Now you reckon you can fix Vestara." He said and Ben avoided his gaze.

"Could it work?" he asked softly, and Jacen frowned.

"I'll not insult you and ask if this is purely academic. I don't see any reason it wouldn't but remember the dark side is more seductive than the light, and your dad would shit on me from a great height if you so much as sneeze dark. Ben, look, I know there's more going on here than you pair being bonded through the Force. But be careful, she's a Sith, she's treacherous and she'll be working for Lumiya so just be careful ok. I don't want you getting hurt." He said softly, and Ben looked at him in surprise.

"But you're not telling me to stay well away from her?" he asked in shock, and Jacen shook his head.

"Unlike your parents, I'm a realist, even if you wanted to, which I doubt you do, you still wouldn't be able to stay away from her especially since now you're bonded through the Force. Just be careful ok?" he said, ruffling Ben's hair, smiling as Ben protested.

But as he and Ben entered the main hold to see K'kruhk instructing Vestara in saber techniques in training underclothes, he could basically hear Ben's carefulness flying out the window.

Teenagers.

But as he saw Ben grin slightly appreciatively at what he could see as Vestara trained, he also saw Lumiya taking careful note of Ben's gaze, and the slight glance Vestara sent Ben out of the corner of her eye. So while he wasn't going to outwardly stop Ben and Vestara doing anything (that's what Luke and Mara were for) he would certainly keep an eye on the young Force users. And on Lumiya.

XX

"I don't like it." Mara muttered darkly as she watched Ben, Vestara and Jaina talking together.

"Well give her a break, she tried her best, she's hardly got all her faculties. I thought she did pretty well, despite the fact she burned it, put oatmeal in instead of onions and didn't cook the chicken properly." Luke said as he read the news, and Mara scowled.

"I'm not talking about Alema's dinner, I'm talking about Vestara." She grumbled and Luke sighed.

"Mara what do you want us to do? She's bound to him in a Force bond, which means wherever she is she's a potential danger to him if something happens to her. We can't leave her anywhere, and like K'kruhk said, she might be useful." He said mildly, and she scowled at him.

"Luke, don't you see where this could lead?" she demanded and he nodded.

"Of course I do, it's been a few eons but I still remember what it's like to be young and check someone out, I'm not blind they've been doing it all day. There's not much we can do if they like each other. I don't trust her, of course I don't I wouldn't trust her as far as I could throw her, but we can't dictate Ben's life, I think that's part of the reason we drifted apart, we had a set idea of what we wanted him to do and Jacen didn't follow it, so we pushed the two of them away." He explained, and she was about to concede when she turned to shoot him an icy look.

"You mean you pushed them away." She said tartly and he rolled his eyes before going back to reading the news.

Mara sighed as she watched Jaina get up to go and distract Lumiya, who was playing dejarik with K'kruhk, yet her ever watchful eyes were keeping an eye on the two youngest party members.

"I just don't like this Luke, the last thing we need is Ben fancying a Sith." She said and Luke nodded.

"I agree. But we're jumping the gun here honey, they've not even done anything yet. But, I wonder..." Luke said, a small smile on his face.

"Wonder what?"

"Well, are you so bothered by Vestara because she's a Sith, or because she's a girl his age that he likes?"

She didn't deign to respond to that one and flounced off to irritate Han, the abused always kicked downwards.

"Are you doing alright?" Ben asked Vestara gently, and she looked at him in confusion.

"Why wouldn't I be?" she asked, bewildered and he shrugged.

"Well your world was just annihilated, I thought you might want to talk about it." He said, catching her short.

Vestara looked at him oddly. It wasn't as it was on Kesh, well, had been before Krayt had destroyed the planet. There, the only people to care what was going on in her head had been her parents, her mother more so than her father. But here he was, actually caring about her well being just because he could, rather than having an agenda. It was quite strange.

"I'm coping." She said, and Ben looked at her earnestly.

"Look I know you Sith aren't ones to dwell on things like that, but if you want to talk, I'll listen. Sith or not, your world was just destroyed." He said, and she looked at him curiously.

"And how would you know how to help? Your world has never been destroyed." She pointed out, and he shrugged.

"Maybe not, but I felt it just as keenly as you did." He said mildly, and she nodded.

"True, but you can't associate it with what happened, not really. The Glass Gardens being turned into slag, my home being wiped off the face of the galaxy, the temple reduced to rubble, you can feel the emotions of it, but you can't associate with them. You felt a world die Ben, I felt my world die." She said and he nodded.

"I know. If you want to talk, I'll listen." He said, and made to get up, but she took a hold of his wrist, stopping him from doing so.

"Perhaps not about Kesh, perhaps you could tell me about the galaxy? After all, I've never left Kesh before this, and I can't really go back now can I?" she asked softly and he grinned.

And as the two apprentices began to talk, they were under ever watchful eyes of parents, masters and Sith.

XX

The Falcon dropped out of lightspeed, and Han, who had been showing Vestara the basics of space flight (if for no other reason than to get Lumiya to stop nagging him) looked up at the newest world where they would be looking for more clues on how to defeat Abeloth.

"Not much to look at is it kid?" he asked, and she shook her head.

"Perhaps not, but it has special importance for the Sith. Our former capital." She explained, as Lumiya entered.

"She's right. The dark side isn't as diluted here as it is on Korriban, which has been watered down by millennia of mistreatment, looting and Jedi intruders. Ziost has no such problems, well not as many anyway." She explained, taking the navigation chair.

"You expect this Dreypa dude is still around like Andeddu was?" Han asked, and she frowned thoughtfully.

"By all accounts he shouldn't be, after all he died on Kesh if anywhere he ought to be there, but that doesn't mean we can't rule it out. The dark side is strong here however, and he is ancient Sith. The Massassi could have left any number of traps for the unwary or the unprepared. Fortunately we are neither." She said, and Han gave her a grimace.

"Does that mean there's a silooth waiting for us down there?" he asked, and she held up a finger to silence him.

"And a silooth is Vestara?"

Vestara smiled, eager to impress her new master with her knowledge.

"A beetle, mutated and warped by Sith alchemy, usually by the ancient Sith Lords. They were a particular favourite of XoXaan, who would use silooths of all shapes and sizes in order to assassinate her opponents in her quest for greater power. They were used to great effect during the Battle of Kalsunor, a planet which resisted Sith advances for some years. Under the leadership of Sorzus Syn they were released a plague and easily conquered as a result." She explained and Lumiya nodded in approval.

"Well done. As to you Han, perhaps, however as he used them on Kesh we'd be much more likely to encounter a Leviathan." Lumiya said grimly and Han groaned, remembering the tales Kyp had told him of encountering that particular Sith monster.

An hour later, the ship had landed, and relying on the best guesses of K'kruhk, they ventured away from the ship towards where they believed the mausoleum to be located. Ziost was a dim, arid and cold world, with little life, little trees, little of anything except a dark side presence that was always in the background, and it was all they could feel as they progressed through the arid landscape, their feet leaving imprints in the ice and snow.

Jacen frowned as they moved through the frigid planet. The dark side was deep and thick here, he could feel that much, but it wasn't causing the same malaise in him as the visit to the Home had. Nevertheless, he still kept close to Ben to keep an eye on him, there was something not right about this world. He could feel it, like eyes, watching them, and it was beginning to make him uneasy.

"Keep up Han." K'kruhk chided, and Han scowled.

"Easy for you to say, we're freezing." He grumbled, and Jaina grinned.

"Use the Force." She teased and he glared at her.

"Funny." Han retorted as K'kruhk chuckled.

Alema suddenly stopped, bringing the entire party to a stop as they traversed the arid, frozen wasteland.

"Alema?" Luke asked, and she tensed.

"Oh she's not going to sing again is she?" Jaina hissed, having been woken up at some early hour by Alema deciding to sing an opera piece.

"Shh, listen." She said, and using the Force they expanded their awareness, and Ben heard it first.

"Animals of some sort?" he asked, and Mara looked at Lumiya.

"Anything you can think of that can make that noise?" she asked, and the Sith shook her head.

"Not really...wait, look, the stones are vibrating." She said, and the braying was growing to such a level that Han could hear it.

It then clicked in Jacen's head exactly what was going on.

"We need to move now!" he yelled and the group of them made for a clump of desolate trees as the ground began to shake and pound beneath their feet.

"A stampede? Something much have set whatever they are off, otherwise we just have really bad luck!" Jaina cursed, leaping into one of the sets of branches beside K'kruhk, who was looking at the rising cloud of dust that was fast approaching with interest.

"Jaina's right. I can sense them, they're frightened, running from something that brings them pain." Jacen said, and Leia looked at him in surprise.

"I thought your connection with animals was long gone." She said, helping Han onto a branch out of the way.

He shrugged, his eyes drawn to the approaching stampede.

"Some of it's come back, I still mostly see voxyn though." He said with disgust, and his mother shot her son's back a sad look as Alema with some difficulty made it into the tree and settled in for the stampede to pass.

"Did we do it when we landed? We might have spooked them." Ben theorised, but Vestara shook her head.

"Unlikely, we've been travelling for the better part of an hour since we landed. Unless they're very slow, I doubt it's them, and if they were that slow they probably would have stopped running by now." She reasoned and Luke had to admit, the girl had a point.

"Pirates perhaps, they've been known to frequent Ziost." K'kruhk mused as the tree began to shake with the approaching beasts impacts on the ground.

Lumiya however was not quite so benign. She had made sure that no pirates dared come here, she had led her fleet in a bloody annihilation of a large local pirate group, and she frequently patrolled against any such return, she didn't want one of the last dark side planets corrupted by incompetent raiders and louts. No, there were no pirates here. However that didn't mean there couldn't be others. She could see Vestara looking at her curiously, wishing to ask, but she discreetly shook her head, promising to answer it later. Before she could do anything however the braying was far too close and she looked up in time to see the first of the animals hurtle over the incline.

Large and furry creatures, all of them, hurtling over the incline at great speed, braying anxiously as they did so, their tusks green around the edges. Their tree shook violently, several smaller branches fell off as a result of the shaking as the massive herd blazed past, braying at the top of their lungs, their heavy feet trampling Ziost as they made their panicked way away from whatever it was that had spooked them. The group held on for dear life as the massive herd thundered past, and K'kruhk quickly stooped to catch Mara when her branch started to fall, leaving her dangling in his hands as the last few creatures thundered past, totally oblivious to their spectators.

"What were they?" Jaina asked in shock as the quaking started to wind down.

"War behemoths, I thought they were extinct." Vestara said, landing catlike on the ground and Lumiya nodded.

"You're right, I didn't expect an entire herd of them to still exist, I thought they'd died out or been hunted into extinction long ago. Apparently not." She said musingly, and Luke landed beside her.

"What could have set them off?" he asked curiously and she frowned.

"Hard to say, they were bred as war beasts, to break down the walls of citadels. Very little should spook them." She said, and Leia shrugged.

"Regardless, they've gone and we've wasted enough time. Let's go." She said, taking charge and the group once more assumed their path towards the mausoleum of Dreypa.

"Master?" Vestara asked, looking for an answer to her unasked question.

"I don't know Vestara, there is a possibility that Krayt or even Vol have forces here and are trying to undo us, but there's no way we can be sure. Do you sense any of your people?" she asked and the girl shook her head.

"No master. I do think we're being watched, and by something clever enough to start a stampede of war behemoths." She whispered and Lumiya nodded.

"Indeed we are. Let's keep this to ourselves, even from Alema, all we need is for her to have an episode and spill the magic beans." She cursed and Vestara nodded.

The group continued on its way, all of them chatting in low voices as they progressed. Something was definitely watching them, and it was making all of them uneasy. K'kruhk searched through the Force, trying to divine the source of their discomfort, but nothing was to be found, all he found was many sets of eyes watching them as they progressed.

"We had best be cautious." He said, and Luke nodded.

"Agreed. Something set those behemoths off, and look at the trees." He said, pointing and the Whiphid saw what he was pointing at, many branches in the briar patch they were now climbing through had been broken off, all of them much too cleanly to be caused by animals.

"Someone else is definitely here." The older Jedi muttered and Luke nodded.

"Yeah, and they're up to something too. I think they want us going on this direction." He said, pointing at Jaina to stop her before she left the patch.

"We're being watched." Mara hissed, beginning to feel the oppressive eyes watching her back.

"Indeed we are. Caution is the best defence now." K'kruhk said, reading his lightsaber.

"Master?" Vestara asked hesitantly, and Lumiya nodded.

"They're right child, we are being watched. But there's a stain in this area, pain..."

"Death." Leia finished, having felt the same thing on Tatooine many years before, at the sight of her father's massacre of a camp of Tusken Raiders.

"So what are we looking at?" Han asked, readying his blaster.

"Bodies." Ben whispered, peering through the briar patch.

"What?" Jacen asked, peering through himself.

"They're all dead. Whoever was watching us are dead, recently too." Ben said, pointing to the entrance to the mausoleum, and K'kruhk gingerly led the way forward, saber ready.

There were indeed bodies, around twelve of them, which also included the smashed up remains of an astromech droid. K'kruhk bent down to inspect them while the others formed a protective circle around them, all of them edgy and wary, alert for anything.

"Strange. All have indeed been killed recently, but not by blasters or lightsabers or anything else. In fact, the weapons used to kill them appear almost primitive." K'kruhk mused in a low voice, looking around at the dead bodies.

A Bothan was among the dead, as was a Rodian and a Chev. A further Klatoonian body was near them, as were four more human bodies, all apparently from the same group as all of them had an identical insignia on their flight suits. Lumiya bent down, inspecting the corpses, as did Luke, while the others looked around nervously.

"He's right, spears or something, maybe arrows were used to kill these people, nothing too extravagant. What could have killed them, there's no native species to Ziost?" Luke asked, and K'kruhk nodded.

"Correct. But look, perhaps a conflict?" he asked, pointing to the other two bodies beside the smashed up droid, and Jaina had to look away from where he was pointing, one of the dead was a young girl of around eight, her chest pierced and red with blood.

"Eight of these guys against the two of them, and the droid?" Alema asked, crouching down to inspect the broken droid, and joined by Jaina to take her eyes off the dead girl.

"Maybe, but look, this two and the droid were dealt with the same way as these guys were, the guy and the girl were killed by weapons, look at the gash in his forehead. Her father do you think?" Leia asked, her voice thick and Mara nodded grimly.

"Looks like it doesn't it? But why would that eight attack a guy and his daughter, and why would they even be on Ziost in the first place?" she asked, and Alema picked up a broken leg of the droid.

"The droid was smashed by sheer brute force, someone much stronger than a robot flattened it." She said, waving the leg around airily, and Jaina nodded.

"Alema's right about that. The droid didn't stand a chance. And judging by the fact that only the Bothan had his weapon drawn, they were ambushed by whatever killed them." She reasoned, and Luke nodded.

"You're right. But who killed them, why, and where are they now? The bodies are still warm, they can't have been dead more than an hour, if that." He said, standing upright and looking around nervously, the dark side was affecting his senses, he couldn't sense anything out there but that didn't mean it wasn't there.

Lumiya cursed as she surveyed the dead Bothan.

"This lot are pirates, the Bothan's name is Byalfin Dyur, I remember the crest. I've had dealings with them in the past, they operate a BFF bulk freighter going by the name of Boneyard Rendezvous. Not much of a threat, all they had was that ship and a couple of TIE fighters, but they still screwed me over once. Can't say he didn't have it coming." She sneered, looking triumphantly down at his body. The Sith always had their revenge.

"Pirates, what were they doing here?" Jacen asked, as they had all turned to look at her curiously.

"No idea, but I sent them here a few years ago to retrieve an amulet for me, the Amulet of Kalara. However he backstabbed me and kept it for himself, and with the Dark Nest crisis I had other things to worry about and I didn't have the resources to get revenge against him. And now he's here, and not long dead either. Lucky for him in a way, I'd have done it myself." She grumbled, and Luke frowned.

"Alright, putting aside the fact that you were looking for what's most likely a powerful Sith artefact," he said, making Lumiya and Vestara roll their eyes, "what would pirates have against this guy and his kid and droid? I mean, pirates usually aren't pleasant, but why kill them?" he asked, and Han shrugged.

"Maybe they were staying here, using it as a base, and the bloke happened across them so they killed him." He theorised, but Lumiya shook her head.

"I doubt it. The man's name is Faskus, a courier. It was he who had the amulet originally, he found it and it was through his attempts to sell it that I discovered it, it raised one of my flags. Dyur and his crew stole the amulet from him and ever since he's been trying to get it back. Perhaps they were about to have a confrontation when death changed the equation." She mused, and Mara scowled.

"So it's your fault they're dead." She growled.

"Perhaps, Dyur would have died anyway had I come across him when we were here but other than him being in possession of a Sith amulet I had no problem with the courier, I was quite content to leave him to his own devices, Dyur was the one who brought him into this."

Before anyone could say anything else, Leia frowned.

"Alright, that kind of explains the stand off position, but it doesn't explain why they're all dead, and all of them dead without the use of any modern weapons." She said.

"Agreed. Something else killed these men. Lumiya, you say this poor chap was a courier, and they were pilots. So, I am wondering, where is the ship?" he asked, and Jacen got out his comm.

"Artoo, scan the area for any ships." He ordered, receiving a beep in confirmation.

Vestara was interfering with one of the pirate's bodies, and Mara was about to tell her to have some respect for the dead when she pulled a small disc from the wound, lifting it up to give to her master.

"Master." She said, handing Lumiya the disc, and she, K'kruhk and Luke studied the weapon and K'kruhk then looked at the apprentice quizzically.

"A lanvarok?" he asked in astonishment and she nodded.

"Seems to be. Whoever killed this lot were strong and primitive, and using an ancient Sith weapon." She explained and K'kruhk frowned.

"It's impossible." He said, knowing where the evidence was beginning to point, and Luke shrugged.

"Not necessarily, I encountered one after the Battle of Yavin." He said, but K'kruhk shook his head.

"That one would only be four thousand years old, and would have been altered by Exar Kun's alchemy, this one would be close to double that age." K'kruhk said, and Mara shrugged, catching on to what they were talking about.

"Stranger things have happened, look what happened to Jaden with that old Sith ship." She pointed out, and Han sighed.

"Look you guys may be up with all this but what the hell are you guys talking about?" he asked, and Luke indicated the bodies.

"They were killed by primitive Sith weapons. We're outside a Sith mausoleum on a Sith world, and considering the surprises Andeddu had, we're wondering if it was Massassi that killed these people." He explained, and Ben looked at them curiously.

"The ones who built the temples on Yavin?" he asked, and Jacen shook his head.

"Not quite. They were the actual Massassi, but they became a subspecies when Exar Kun started messing around with alchemy and altering them. This lot are the ancient Sith people, the ones who the Dark Lords conquered and turned into their empire." He explained and Ben nodded, before looking around, his voice edgy.

"You feel that?" he asked nervously, and Mara nodded.

"Yeah, they're getting ready to attack, they're surrounding us. A lot of them too. They don't feel that primitive. But there's something else, like a presence skirting the edge of our awareness." She said, and Alema nodded, about to light her saber but desisting when Lumiya glared at her warningly.

"There's a mind." She said with certainty, and Jaina looked at her sceptically.

"A mind? Someone controlling them? I thought only a Sith could do that." She said, but to her surprise it was Jacen who shook his head.

"Not necessarily, after all they managed perfectly well before the Exiles arrived and proclaimed themselves Dark Lords. You know anything Vestara?" he asked, and she frowned thoughtfully.

"Perhaps a priest? A member of the Kissai caste, they would basically act as shamans and spiritual guides, making them equal to the clan chief." She theorised and Han nodded.

"Like Ewoks." He said, and Leia smiled slightly.

"Not nearly as cute, and a hell of a lot deadlier by the looks of things." She said as the group started edging towards the door to the mausoleum.

"Tell that to the troops we lost at Endor." Lumiya said and Mara grinned slightly.

"They're approaching. Options?" Jaina asked.

"Into the temple. Where the hell are those ships? Artoo?" Jacen asked into his comm and the droid whistled back in response.

"What do you mean they're still here?" Jacen asked incredulously, there wasn't a sign of a ship in sight.

Luke stretched out with his feelings, feeling a cluster of minds, and reached out, finding the crux and applying the Force, shattering an illusion that had hidden the pirate's freighter and the courier's YT-2400 from them. As they saw the ships, they finally got their first glance at the Massassi, massive hulking brutes with red skin, ancient weapons and evil yellow eyes. And they were inside the cockpits of each ship, glaring out at them, and even turning the ships weapons onto them.

"How the hell can creatures about seven thousand years old work modern ships?" Han demanded, prepared to raise his blaster.

"They've adapted, learned. They encountered a problem and solved it. Look at them, they're working the ship." K'kruhk said in amazement, and Jaina hissed.

"Look I appreciate clever primitives as much as the next chick but these oh so clever aliens are pointing their sodding ship's weapons at us." She hissed, and Vestara, who was now back to back with Ben and prepared to raise her lightsaber at any minute, cast her eyes around the edge of the clearing that marked the entrance to the mausoleum.

"They're coming at us from all directions. And the mind, the mind is inside the mausoleum. And that's not all." She said, feeling a vast swarm descend within the temple, heading for the group.

"What are they?" Ben asked, sensing the same thing.

"If I were a betting chap, I would wager pincer bugs. This lot don't want us here, they sent the stampede, the Massassi, wherever they came from came active due to our presence here and now they want to wipe us out. I think we might be in trouble." K'kruhk said, and Han couldn't agree more, as several more heavily armed Massassi all started hulking out of the trees, just as the ships swivelled their weapons to face them, and the chittering sound of the pincerbugs filled their ears.

"Suggestions?" Alema asked, and Leia felt it a second before it happened.

"Duck!" she yelled as the Massassi fired lasers from both the ships, impacting right above them.

As heat broiled all over them, Luke quickly took the initiative, leaping towards the ships as the Massassi fired another blast at him. Jacen was a second behind him, heading for the courier ship while Luke went for the pirate ship, leaving the rest to deal with the attacking Massassi and pincer bugs.

Jaina and Alema turned as one to deal with the massive swarm of pincer bugs, but before Jaina could even do anything, Vestara shoved her back.

"I'll deal with this, you tackle the Massassi." She said, and Jaina looked at the Sith girl sceptically.

"You think you can take all those blasted bugs?" she asked as the din of battle raged behind her.

"Yes." She said, and simply raised her hands, her lightsaber at her waist.

Turning away from the Sith girl, Jaina barey blocked as a Massassi leapt from on high, his poleaxe going right for her neck. Blocking the attack she realised the entire group was already outnumbered. Mara and Han were alternating their attacks, trying to keep the charging Massassi at bay but to little avail they had only succeeded in bringing down two of them. Leia and K'kruhk were forming a wall of defence, deflecting lanvarok discs with their lightsabers while alternating between fighting off Massassi at the front. Lumiya's whip forced her further out than the others, but despite her attempts to calm them down by speaking Sith and her attacks the Massassi were unstoppable. Alema had leapt to the top of the archway and was using her blow dart, but all it seemed to be doing was annoying the Massassi who were now actually climbing up to take her down. Meanwhile Luke and Jacen were leaping around the clearing, darting from place to place as the Massassi blasted away with the cannons on each ship. Jacen then flipped into the air, trying to come at the ship from above, but as he landed right in front of the ramp, he was suddenly swarmed by lethal and angry Massassi. Luke had little extra luck, while he wasn't swarmed by Massassi as soon as he reached the ramp the ship shunted itself off the ground, floating just above them and giving them more height with which to further blast at them, laser cannons still pounding.

Vestara gathered her power and unleashed a vicious torrent of Force lightning, making Lumiya look around curiously to see as her newest pupil fried the massive swarm of pincer bugs without any assistance whatsoever. Satisfied that Vestara was indeed as powerful and as useful as she had been led to believe, she cracked her whip, forcing the oncoming Massassi back before flipping out of the way of a hail of spears as the brutes pushed forward.

"There's so many, they aren't stopping and we can hardly kill them!" Leia grunted, chopping another disc from the sky.

Since the fight had began, they had killed only four Massassi, and one of them had been a fluke. Large, red and hulking, the beasts were taller even than K'kruhk, covered in thick red spines. Made almost entirely of muscle, they had evil yellow eyed and sharp fangs, and despite their primitive weapons they were more than adequate to kill any of them. Alema was now surrounded and making panicked noises when Ben leapt up to join her, plunging his saber into the back of one of the Massassi and helping her fend the others off.

"Alema, do you sense the mind controlling them?" he asked and she nodded, nodding towards the top of the temple.

"It's up there, that's where I was going when I got swarmed, he must have changed something because I could sense him. Hurry!" she said, twirling through the air like a dancer to try and take the head off another Massassi.

Jacen was surrounded, and he'd been scraped by a couple of the spears and he was now being pushed back by the group he was fighting. Luke was still trying to stop the ship while deflecting the attacks coming from the lanvaroks. The others were all being more and more boxed in, and while they no longer had to deal with the pincerbugs they were still close to being overwhelmed by the sheer belligerence of the Massassi.

Ben leapt up another level, and finally saw the Massassi who was directing all this, clad in a blue cloak, clearly focused on the battle at hand. Ben landed behind him and grinned slightly, he wasn't nearly as big or bulky as the warriors, he was about the same height as Jacen and about as well built too. Ben lunged for the Massassi with his lightsaber but suddenly a tendril of darkness coiled around each wrist and ankle, freezing Ben in place, allowing the Massassi priest to turn to face him, his fangs bared in annoyance. Ben struggled but was unable to move, and the priest moved closer, wicked looking nails raised to deal Ben a deadly blow. Ben looked down to see where his father was about to be blasted by the pirate ship, where Jacen was surrounded and about to be killed by the warriors, and something within him snapped. The others were in just as much danger. Ben closed his eyes, drawing on the Force as he did so, feeling it build within him. In the back of his mind he could feel Vestara stumble, throw her hand up against the wall to steady herself, making a concerned looking Jaina adapt to protect the girl. However, Ben was now immersed in the Force and as he opened his eyes, the Massassi hesitated and with a great heave of effort, Ben broke the dark side tendrils and blasted the priest with a massive Force push, blowing him off the top of the mausoleum. As he sagged to the ground in exhaustion, Ben watched as the priest slammed into the ground, the impact clearly breaking his neck.

And with that, the attack stopped, the Massassi seemed to come to a stop, looking to where their commander had met his demise. And with that, there was then a great warbling and all of them looked to where a massive hulking Massassi come out of the bushes. Luke's jaw dropped in astonishment, recognising the Massassi as the one he had fought with all those years ago, Kalgrath. He gestured towards the pirate ship, and with a great grunt the various Massassi abandoned their killing strokes and headed for the ramp of the pirate ship, which had dropped slightly to accommodate them as they made their way to it. Kalgrath growled at Luke in recognition, slightly inclining his head and he then brought up the rear, climbing up the ramp of the ship. And then, with the astounded group looking on, the two ships shot for space, bearing the Massassi, originally thought to be stupid primitives, to a much wider galaxy.

"Well, didn't see that one coming." Han said, Jacen darting out of sight as he went to retrieve Ben.

"You ok Vestara?" Jaina asked kindly, and the girl nodded weakly.

"Just a little drained." She replied and Mara nodded.

"I'm not surprised, Ben tapped in to your power too, to do whatever he did." She said, wincing as Alema mistimed her jump and fell to the ground in front of them with a heavy thump.

"Ancient Massassi, active in the galaxy after all this time, it's incredible." K'kruhk said in awe, and Lumiya nodded.

"Not only have they learned to survive, they've also learnt self sufficiency, problem solving and are now cruising round the galaxy. But it also leaves a set of problems." Lumiya said, vowing to alert Admiral Wethen and have him hunt down the Massassi so they could get their hands on them before the Jedi tried to kill them.

Luke frowned as Jacen helped Ben down from the top of the temple. While he was very proud of Ben for doing what he had done, effectively saving them all from a group of pissed off Massassi, he could have killed Vestara while doing it. While he wouldn't be against getting rid of the girl, he didn't want her dead, he just wanted to leave her somewhere, but he knew full well that there were too many reasons to keep her around, a nagging Lumiya and a hormonal Ben not being the least of them. However, there was also no denying that Vestara had also earned her stripes, destroying the pincerbugs before they could pose a threat, after all she was the only one among them who could have killed them all at once. Deciding to keep his peace, he headed over to the others, where Han was leaning against the door of the temple.

"I got to tell you, I'm getting too old for this crap." He complained, making Leia smile.

"I did tell you we were. Right, I'm assuming since this Dreypa dude had Massassi guarding his tomb, he had no need for the rest of the delights like shyracks, tukata and the other crap?" she asked and Vestara shrugged.

"Possibly. I'm more intrigued where the Massassi came from." She said, and Jacen, who had supported Ben against the wall similar to how Jaina had supported her, frowned thoughtfully.

"You know, I don't think they were that mad with us. I think it was their last victims they were mad at, they disturbed the mausoleum I reckon and we just got the fallout from their mistake." He said, and K'kruhk looked at him curiously.

"What makes you think that?" he asked and Jacen pointed to the mausoleum.

"The fact that they upped and left, I reckon the pirates just disturbed them. Without the sorcerer around to lead them anymore, they were free to go off and do their own thing, they might have realised they weren't protecting anything since he wasn't buried here." He reasoned, and Han nodded, it seemed to make sense.

"Alright, we've wasted enough time. Are you two alright to go?" Mara asked, and both of them nodded.

"Yeah, just a little tired." Vestara said, and with that the group ventured into the dark mausoleum.

"And you're sure she killed all the bugs?" Han mumbled as he practically had to drag Alema into the darkened mausoleum.

"Hey, Ves?" Ben asked and she turned to face him, unused to her name being shortened.

"I've not been called that before." She said and he went slightly red.

"Sorry, it's just your name is a bit of a mouthful and-"

She held up her hand, stopping his nervous rambling in its tracks.

"no, it's alright, I'm just not used to it that's all." She said and he grinned, falling into step beside her.

"Sorry I drained so much from you, I didn't mean to weaken you like that." He said, and she shrugged.

"It was instinct, and it worked, you saved us from the Massassi, I think I can handle being slightly tired if it means we get to survive another day." She said, and he looked at her curiously.

"How are you doing?" he asked gently, and she was once again struck by his seemingly genuine concern for her, such a strange thing. She thought Lumiya cared for her in her own way but not like this.

"I'm fine thank you, just tired from the fight. You battle well, I was watching." She said and he grinned proudly.

"Thanks. You're not so bad yourself." He said and the two began a contest of one upmanship to see who was better in the fight, making Jacen role his eyes.

"Massassi alive and well today, it's inconceivable." K'kruhk said, and Mara, holding the glowrod, frowned.

"Yeah, but here's a question. Where did they come from? Where they in here and get set loose, did the temple open? Or were they outside all along?" she asked, and Lumiya shook her head sceptically.

"Unlikely. If there was a settlement of Massassi here, they most likely would have been found long ago, remember Hands like us came here every so often, Vader came here a few times, I've been myself a lot over the years, not to mention the local pirates. No, I reckon they were disturbed, the temple opened for some reason and they spilled out." She said, and Jaina, who was walking beside them, agreed.

"Makes sense. Something wakes them up maybe, and after napping for seven thousand years they're seriously grumpy and in dire need of some caf. The pirates and the courier are the first people they see and blame them for opening the temple, so the priest dude Ben killed sets them on him, thinking they're trying to disturb the mausoleum." She reasoned, and they had to admit, it was a good theory.

"Still doesn't explain how they stayed alive for seven thousand years, or where Kalgrath, the big one who led them off, the one from Yavin came from." Luke pointed out, and K'kruhk scowled in irritation.

"This is all so confusing. All of this is uncertainty is getting most annoying. We have to hurry, there's no telling how much damage Abeloth will be able to do if we don't get some more information on her soon." K'kruhk said, leading the way deeper into the heart of the darkened mausoleum.

"Paranoid isn't he?" Alema asked airily as they followed him further into the mausoleum.

Reaching a large stone door, K'kruhk came to a stop, pondering the door thoughtfully.

"Typical, bloody Sith can't design a temple to save themselves, how do you open the silly thing?" he asked, and as he reached out, Alema reached out a hand.

"No, don't." She said, and he turned to look at her.

"Why not?" he asked irritably, and she shook her head.

"There's darkness in there." She said, and he rolled his eyes.

"Of course there is, it's a Sith tomb and there's no lights." He said irritably, unwilling to be dragged into a conversation with the less than sane Dark Jedi.

"No, a proper darkness, a life force." She said irritably, and exasperated, K'kruhk turned to the others.

"do any of you sense anything?" he asked, and Ben nodded.

"Yes, annoyance." He said with a grin and the Whiphid glowered at him.

Luke and Lumiya both closed their eyes, trying to sense behind the doors, and Jacen reached out, trying to get a feel for the room beyond.

"I don't sense anything." Luke said flatly, and Lumiya shook her head negatively as well.

"There is a residue, but I can't get anything more than that. It's probably nothing more than that Alema." He said kindly, and she hissed in vexation.

"Fine, but when you come out looking like me, don't come crying to me." She grumbled bitterly, and Mara leaned close to Leia.

"She does realise we're not Twi'leks right?" she asked in a low voice and Leia shrugged.

"Who can tell anymore?"

Annoyed, K'kruhk then used the Force to pull open the doors, and contrary to their expectations, they entered a well lit room. Mounds of gold, silver and jewels lined the walls, glittering in the torchlight. Statues, ancient lightsabers and other ancient weapons, all of them beautifully adorned, were stored across the room. Furthermore, there were books and scrolls, all of them in pristine condition all stacked around the sarcophagus.

"Whoa..." Han said, reaching to touch a ruby, but Leia slapped his hand.

"Don't touch anything." She warned, pointing her finger at his face, and as she turned away he stuck his tongue out at her.

"Look at all this stuff, why do they need it if they're dead?" Ben asked in disbelief.

"It was an ancient Sith practice, the slaves would put all of their stored wealth in the tomb with them should they need it in the netherworld, as a mark to their testament and power. And also to prevent any of their rivals getting their hands on it." Vestara explained, and Lumiya nodded.

"Quite. Sith were always focused on material possessions and grand tombs in those days, something that experienced a revival during the Sith Wars a thousand years ago." She further elaborated.

"Until that is Bane killed them all. While he still had wealth and possessions, he used them for the good of the Sith and to keep his cover rather than for the sake of having them." K'kruhk continued, peering in interest at the books that lined the shelves.

"A trait that will continue, provided I deal with that usurper Krayt, he will bankrupt the Sith." Lumiya growled in distaste, and Vestara's hand flexed in annoyance at the mention of the Sith who wiped out her planet.

"How come they get to touch things?" Han asked petulantly, and Jaina, who was studying an ancient lightsaber, smiled at her father.

"Because they don't have a habit of breaking things like you do." She said evilly, and he glowered at his daughter.

"Pish. You know that they'll say to me? They'll say 'how did you spend your mid life crisis Han?' And rather than the usual answers, affair, new ship, hair dye, I'll get to say 'I got to go around the tombs of the ancient Sith'." He said and she grinned mischievously.

"I think mid life crisis is a bit generous dad." She said, and he looked at her with a less than impressed expression as she shook with silent mirth.

"You may be a Jedi, but can you walk home to Coruscant?" he asked sweetly, but it did nothing to deter her as she continued to laugh silently.

"Hey look at this." Jacen called from an antechamber, and Jaina, more to escape her father's ire filled glare more than anything else, headed over.

"What's up bro?" she asked and he pointed.

Stasis tubes, all smashed as though from the outside, the glass littering the floor. The walls of the room were lined with large stasis tubes, numbering enough to have hosted the entire group of Massassi that they had encountered. Jaina looked around in shock, that was how they had did it, they had trapped the Massassi in some form of ancient Sith stasis tube, and they had been awoken rather violently and has gone on the rampage.

"Hey, Lumiya!" Jacen yelled, and heard the Sith cursing him as she came into the room, her face transforming from a look of irritation to one of professional curiosity.

"This is how he did it then? The Massassi were in these?" she asked, and Jacen nodded.

"Seems to be. Kalgrath must have gotten in and freed them." He said, but she looked sceptical as she studied the damaged stasis tubes, then looked with interest at a form of gelatinous substance that was on the inside of some of the tanks.

"I wouldn't touch that if I were you." Jaina said nervously when Lumiya moved to pick some up, but she shrugged.

"Actually dear Jaina, you and I are more suited for picking it up than most of the others, if it is dangerous it won't bother our prosthetics." She said idly, scooping some into a small vial she produced from somewhere, stoppering it and putting it in a cargo slot on her leg.

"Alright, I get they were in stasis, but still seven thousand years is a hell of a long time to be in a stasis tube isn't it? Surely it couldn't have held them for that long, it doesn't make sense." Jacen said, and Jaina nodded.

"Not to mention all of them seemed to have survived by the numbers of those we were fighting, surely the way they were broken out would have at least killed a couple? Exposure? Vestara told me earlier that Massassi who made it to Kesh in the Omen died virtually as soon as they got there, what makes this lot so special?" she asked quizzically, and Lumiya tapped her chin thoughtfully.

"Two things I suspect. Ziost is one of their ancestral homeworlds and hence they are more naturally suited to live here than somewhere like Kesh. Secondly, Dreypa was a master of creating things like stasis tubes, his obuilette for example could easily keep someone for thousands of years without interference. I expect they were chosen young and placed into stasis and allowed to grow at a much reduced rate, however something awoke them after their seven thousand year nap and they were alive and well in order to attack us." She theorised, and as the three of them debated the nature of the Massassi, the others were peering curiously around the walls.

"Collect the things we might be able to use over there." K'kruhk said, looking at a book musingly.

Vestara looked around the mausoleum, feeling a malevolence about the place. As she looked around the room, her Force aura growing all the more edgy, she attracted a curious look from Ben.

"Ves?" he asked and she looked suspiciously around.

"The deranged one was right." She said, ignoring Alema as she let out a smug crow of triumph.

"I don't sense anything." Ben said, and suddenly Vestara twirled to face him, feeling a great black presence appear behind him.

Ben turned a split second after her, but far too late to avoid the attack of a pulse of black power, catching him in the chest and sending him spiralling over the room, crashing into a pile of jewels and bringing the entire mound down on top of him. Vestara hissed in vexation, lighting her lightsaber, accompanied by all the others, but the swirling power of darkness was already on the move, a thick tendril knocking Leia and Han into a set of shelves, burying them under ancient weapons. Luke and K'kruhk used the Force, trying to divine their opponent as the twins and Lumiya ran from the antechamber, their own lightsabers and whip glowing. Alema looked at the mass in interest and bowed before it. Caught short by her strange behaviour (well this was strange even for her, she still seemed to have a sense of self preservation), Vestara hesitated and reached out with her feelings, trying to see what it truly was.

And then she felt the nub of power as their attacker was revealed, and she too bowed.

"Lord Dreypa." She said in quiet awe, looking at the tall and well built Force spirit, dressed in black armour, his slightly red face marked by dreadlocks.

The Jedi came to a stop, eyeing the long dead Sith Lord warily as Ben got back to his feet groggily.

"You could not sense me because you are blinkered by the light side boy. Who are you to disturb my tomb?" Dreypa demanded, and Luke stepped forward, and as he did so, Dreypa raised his hand, unleashing a cascade of powerful Force lightning into his chest.

"How dare you try and address me Jedi? I have no use for your kind." He growled, but Lumiya stepped in before he could attack Luke again.

"Lord Dreypa, your hatred of the Jedi is legendary, but at the moment, counterproductive. You asked why we were here within your tomb. We were searching for knowledge, weapons that we can use against a foe greater than any Jedi or Sith." She explained, and Dreypa glowered at her in contempt, as if she were something disgusting on the sole of his shoe.

"You are no Sith either, none of the neophytes running around the galaxy with lightsabers now come anywhere close to a true Sith Lord. You are all gnats compared to our power. Behold my power!" he snarled in fury, and he let loose with another barrage of Force related power. Tendrils of darkness slammed into Han and K'kruhk, making them double over in pain. Arcs of lethal Force lightning coursed over the room, blasting Ben, Jacen and Jaina away from Dreypa's form, sending their screaming bodies hurtling backwards, and dark thoughts and visions suddenly emerged in Leia, Luke and Mara's minds, making them scream in pain and terror as the long dead Sith Lord assaulted their mind. Dreypa sneered in contempt, trying to apply the same trick to Alema however her mind, damaged as it was, gave her an innate immunity against such things. She held her own, as did Vestara, creating a cocoon for herself within the Force, but she knew that should he decide to go after her she wouldn't stand a chance.

"As you can see, you are nothing against my power!" he boasted, and it was then that she struck, blasting a jet of lightning into his spirit and sending him reeling, disrupting his attacks on the others.

K'kruhk growled, hand outstretched towards the recovering Sith spirit, and with a simple wave, he encased the Sith Lord in a spirit field. Dreypa raged, already trying to break out but catching the gist the others all joined in, stopping the Sith in his tracks. They looked up at his spitting, furious visage, incensed that he was being attacked by people he saw as less than himself. Lumiya had recovered and was glaring at him, and then gestured, crushing her hand into a fist in his direction and he howled in pain as she did so, her eyes betraying nothing as somehow, she inexplicably tortured the spirit, making him howl in pain, her face a picture of fury.

"You would do well Dreypa to remember that your time is over. I rule here now, not you. You are nothing more than a long forgotten mage, and the only planet that actually still had any considerable knowledge of you has not long been destroyed by a pretender to my throne. Now, you will do as the true current Dark Lord commands you." She hissed and while he continued to rage, he was held too tightly by the grips of the Jedi and had no choice but to relent.

"You will pay for this heretic." He sneered, and Lumiya shrugged.

"Perhaps, but not by your hands. Now, we need information on the thing that Ajunta Pall discovered deep in the darkness of space, the Demon of the Dark." She said, and Dreypa looked at her sceptically, noticing as well as she did that they were struggling to hold him.

However, upon the mention of Abeloth's alter ego, he stopped struggling as much and looked at them with curiosity.

"Why would you assume I would be of help to you in that regard?" Dreypa asked suspiciously, and K'kruhk, who was having the least trouble keeping the ancient Sith in place, looked around the mausoleum.

"The Leviathans consume the souls, the energy and life essence of their victims. By all accounts she is able to do much the same thing. We need help in learning how to stop her from doing that, circumvent that power." He explained, and Dreypa gave a cold laugh.

"Jedi fool, you seek to defend yourself against her? You are already doomed." He said, laughing derisively, mocking them as he did so.

"Andeddu told us it was a myth, a myth Pall used to try and recruit the Massassi to his cause so he could take over the Sith." Jaina said, but Dreypa only scoffed.

"Hardly. Andeddu always was a full, especially to believe that. Pall may have been trying to make himself the unopposed leader of the Sith but he was no fool. That thing does exist." He said, and Luke glared.

"Well we need to learn more about it so we can fight it, it's lose in the galaxy and threatening us all." He said, and Dreypa laughed.

"Then you are already doomed. The ancient Sith knew of her Jedi fool, and none of us were foolish enough to try to confront her. Andeddu dismissed her as a fairy tale, but the others among us were not quite so blind. In order to scare Pall, this thing must have been powerful. Rumour had it that his lover was driven mad by this creature, the Demon of the Dark. To the Massassi she was something terrible, representing the end of existence, she terrified the soldiers that made up our forces. Of course Andeddu saw that as an attempt by Pall to undermine our control. It's what forced the rest of us, myself, Muur and XoXaan in particular to alter the Massassi, make them less susceptible to his fear mongering." Dreypa explained and as was always the case, every time they heard more about Abeloth, the more scared they got.

The Ancient Sith had obviously known of her existence, and had avoided her like the plague. Over the millennia, it seemed at times of great peril for the galaxy that she somehow managed to manifest herself in some way or other and threaten all of existence, however she had always largely been contained by the power of Centerpoint. However with that gone, she now had millennia of power, anger and frustration and was hungry to take it out on the galaxy, and now there was nothing to stop her.

"She's coming back into the galaxy, we can't hold her back anymore, so we need to know what we can to try and stop her. Which involves you telling us about the Leviathans." Leia said, annoyed by the fact that they didn't actually have anything yet, and the Sith laughed maliciously.

"You are already doomed! Nothing could stop the Leviathans, and this thing, this thing is whispered across the stars. She is the great destroyer, and you puny fools who delude yourself into believing you are powerful will be no match for her. She drains the life, soul and Force out of a being, what chance do you useless and maimed creatures have?" he asked mockingly, laughing derisively at them once again.

"We will destroy her." Luke said defiantly, and Dreypa crowed with laughter.

"You Jedi? You can hardly keep the galaxy together. Do you think I can't feel the rising chaos in the galaxy? The darkness is growing, the galaxy is growing closer to the edge of the abyss and soon now it will all come crashing down. The galaxy is sliding towards a darkness it has never seen before, the darkness of annihilation. The Demon is coming, and soon all will be destroyed by her hunger. You are powerless to stop her." He gloated, at least until Lumiya started to crush his spirit again, making him yell in pain.

"I grow tired of this Dreypa, so tell us what we need to know or you get condemned to the void." She growled menacingly and Dreypa, whose screams were so high they were hurting the group's ears, eventually relented.

"There is a way, but it will do you no good! I will tell you nothing, a true Sith does not share power as you do." He sneered in absolute contempt, and Lumiya raised an eyebrow at him.

"And what gives you the impression that I share power?" she asked dangerously, and he scoffed.

"I can sense them, the Dragon, the Alien and the Aristocrat, all of them vying for your position Cyborg." He sneered and she smiled evilly.

"Yes, but I do not share power. I just need to clean house. And I think I'll start with you." She hissed, but Luke pushed down her hand, interrupting her concentration.

"No he might still be able to tell us something." He said, but Lumiya wasn't paying attention, she was looking at the ceiling above the Sith spirit.

"Lumiya!" Luke snapped, but she shook her head.

"That isn't me." She said in shock and Luke was suddenly getting a very bad feeling about this.

Drepya looked up to see a dark swirling cloud like vortex forming above him. Dreypa looked at it in alarm and then looked at them in furious terror, his eyes wide with fear and fury.

"You see! I warned you, nothing can escape the Demon!" he screamed as a stream of orange light blasted down into the Sith spirit and with a final scream it blew apart into wisps of smoke, annihilated.

And then the entire building began to shake, as out of the vortex a hideous face formed, with glowing red eyes of energy, the face made of smoke and shadow, a wide gaping maw that was filled with razor sharp needle like teeth. And it then gave a furious screaming raw, which was anger, lonliness and love all at once, and with that the face like creature surged forward towards them all.

"RUN!" K'kruhk yelled, already heading for the door, using the Force to gather a few things to his arms as he fled.

The others didn't need telling twice, all of them summoning something (Han picked up a couple of jewels on the way past) as they blazed from the room. All around them the building was shaking, massive cracks were rupturing all along the walls, masonry was falling from above them, dust was falling in waterfalls as they made their way out of the temple, the creature of darkness and shadow still following them. The few torches flared and swirled around the creature, wrapping around it like chains that started cracking like whips, trying to hit the escaping party. Chasms began to open in the floor, the gold and jewels all melted into nothing, the books disintegrated as the creature followed them from the room. Large crunching noises and bangs filled the corridor as they fled as the temple began to implode upon itself, the face barely three inches behind them. Luke seized the initiative and blasted Han with a powerful Force push, sending him hurtling up the corridor and out into safety. Upon landing, Han ran for the trees, hoping that would be enough, before turning back to observe the rest of the group's progress, looking on in terror as the beast snapped at their heels, the red eyes surging in gloating triumph as it got closer.

Lumiya, unencumbered by old age or tiredness, reached the edge first and cracked her unactivated whip, pulling herself to join Han, before using the Force to wrench some trees from the ground and prepare to throw them towards the face. Jacen and Jaina managed to escape next, leaping from the entrance to the temple and copying Lumiya's lead, wrenching some brittle trees in an attempt to hold her off. Ben and Vestara sprang out next, followed closely by Mara and Leia, all of them reaching the relative safety of the trees. K'kruhk then blasted Alema the last of the way, before he and Luke jumped from the temple, and at long last the others threw the trees. The creature grunted in annoyance but with a final roar, the mausoleum collapsed into a pile of rubble, the entire edifice crashing down. The creature roared in fury as the mausoleum collapsed and with a final angry sounding grunt, the creature fizzled out just before it reached the tree line, leaving them in the expanded clearing, all breathing heavily, looking at the shattered remains of the mausoleum.

"Well that was fun." Vestara said after a while, looking at the mausoleum with trepidation.

"Anyone want to explain what the hell that was?" Han asked and Jaina looked at him pityingly.

"Isn't it obvious? It was Abeloth." She said, her voice repressing the fear she felt.

"Her powers are getting stronger. Come, we cannot stay here. I think with Dreypa gone she's lost her conduit but best not to take chances. We ought to leave this place, and I need to check on T'ra." K'kruhk said and he led the rattled group away from the shattered mausoleum.

XX

Back in the safety of the ship, and of space, they were all recovering from the harrowing attempt on their life by Abeloth, and the rest of the repercussions from the planet. As soon as they had gotten back to the ship, Ben and Vestara had zonked out, exhausted by the days events. Luke, with the help of Threepio and Alema had sorted through the items they had taken from the collapsing mausoleum, a few scrolls and books might have been handy, and Lumiya had already claimed one of the two lanvaroks they had taken for Vestara. Leia sent an alert to Alliance command about the Massassi, and Lumiya had also sent orders for Wethen to hunt down the Massassi and capture them for later use. Meanwhile, K'kruhk checked in with T'ra.

"I wondered why I virtually had the afternoon off, maybe she exhausted herself by attacking you. You do realise she just struck halfway across the galaxy? Her powers are getting far out of control, it's a miracle I've lasted this long." T'ra said nervously and K'kruhk nodded.

"Indeed. However with a bit of luck she has tired herself out." He said musingly, and she looked at him curiously.

"The fact remains that she must have had some reason to attack, you think it was Dreypa who lured her there?" T'ra asked and he nodded.

"Yes, simply because I don't want to consider the other option. Which before you ask is the possibility that she may be spying on us and keeping an eye on what we're doing." He said nervously, and T'ra frowned worriedly, her usually impassive face the picture of concern.

"Be wary K'kruhk she may be watching you even now, which I agree is a rather disturbing thought. But how did Dreypa attract himself to her in the first place, he's meant to be a spirit, what could he have done to attract her attention?" she asked and the Whiphid smiled grimly.

"Simple. He escaped." He said, and she looked at him in confusion.

"From where?"

"He was originally killed on Kesh. I suspect when Krayt levelled the place, he was set free and anchored himself to his new home, just in time for us to come after him. He awoke his Massassi and brought about the chain of events on the planet." He explained and she sighed in irritation.

"Why can't the Sith just stay dead rather than coming back in various forms, they're a nuisance. What's your next move?" she asked.

"One of the few books we managed to get before the place collapsed referred to a weapon capable of draining the Force, which would help explain Abeloth's power." He said, and her eyes widened.

"Wait, you think the Dark Reaper might help explain her?" she asked in shock, realising what her old friend was referring to.

He shrugged.

"Well it makes sense to look doesn't it? The Dark Reaper, well the Force Harvester, works by draining the Force from whatever it comes into contact with, hence the attacks at the start of the Clone Wars. Also, from what we know the Ancient Sith had designed the damn thing, though it wasn't until the schism between Ludo Kressh and Naga Sadow that they built it. Abeloth must work in the same way yes? Mind you, we know so little about her we're just pissing in the wind, but the theory seems sound doesn't it?" he asked, and she nodded.

"A good theory I suppose. Very well, good luck old friend. But please hurry, just because she's been quiet today doesn't mean she won't resume our little battle of wills later. Hurry." She implored, and he nodded.

"As soon as we know enough we will be on our way to you." He promised and she gave him a wan smile.

"Let's just hope that its in time." She said, before her holo flickered out, leaving K'kruhk to contemplate in the dark.

XX

The Dreadnaught Schism dropped out of lightspeed, high above the ancient homeworld of the Sith, Ziost. And as Gavar Khai, seated in the captain's chair, extended his awareness, he realised that he was too late. The Millennium Falcon was long since gone, leaving only a light imprint of their presence in their place.

"Curse them!" Khai snarled, slamming his fist into the arm of his chair.

"We will find them Saber Khai. We can't be that far behind." Sazat, his second in command, replied, already typing in the next set of coordinates.

Khai scowled.

"I can feel my daughter, I ought to be happy she survived but she has now thrown herself in with that witch Lumiya. We must track her down before it is too late. Have we any idea where they are heading?" he asked, and Grana Takris finished her calculations.

"By the looks of things they don't intend to leave the space that belongs to us by right, there aren't very many places they could go. Stennes and Thule are the two most likely candidates though." She said, and Khai nodded, processing the information.

Stenness was a desolate world, dark and uninhabitable except by the very dangerous camouflaged predators that lived there such as the Hssiss. As far as he knew, in no conflict had there been a battle on the planet, and no Sith Lord as far as their archives suggested had been buried there, which made it most unlikely that they had headed there. Thule, the site of several battles during several wars, was all the more likely.

"Set a course for Thule." He ordered, and his crew began entering the course.

Over at the navigation terminal, Dredity, the aide to Lord Gaalan, watched their leader intently. After his catastrophic failure to realise what Lumiya was doing at Kesh, she had been assigned to the Schism in order to keep an eye on the Sith Saber. His failure had led to the destruction of their world, and now his daughter, his only living relative, was firmly within the company of the Jedi and worse Lumiya. Her superior, Lord Gaalan, had ordered her on board for two reasons. The first was that he didn't trust Khai to report everything, so she was to be the eyes and ears of the Circle while she was on board, and to report back on what had transpired. And secondly, due to his monumental failure, once he had hunted down and dealt with Lumiya, she was to kill him.

So, now they went to Thule, where they would hopefully encounter Lumiya and her cohort, and then they could destroy her, and she could destroy him and take his place as a senior Saber, if not become a master. She wouldn't fail Lord Gaalan.

Khai watched as his ship leapt to lightspeed. The problem was the ship was a Dreadnaught, which were a fairly slow breed of ship. His prey may elude him before he caught up to them, and that would be simply intolerable. Lumiya had to pay for manipulating him like she had. And even more so, he had to make her pay before she corrupted his daughter.

Or else he may have to make her pay too.

XX

Jaina opened her eyes, fresh from a meditation, a dark shadow having passed over her mind.

"Jaina?" Leia asked, seeing the preoccupied expression on her daughter's face.

"I'm ok mom, I just felt I thought something..." she said, but whatever it was it was gone now.

It felt strange, like someone was stalking them but stopped when they were noticed. Strange indeed.

As Jaina headed off to see if Jacen had felt anything (he was currently schooling Mara in dejarik, to her aunt's great disgust), Ben and Vestara, who had recovered from their energy expenditure, were sitting at the table, with Ben helping Vestara categorise items for Lumiya.

"How can you tell what the words mean? To me they all look like jumbled up letters." Ben complained, passing her a scroll, which she proceeded to scrutinise.

"Hold that thought. Typical, Alema would pick up something useless." She grumbled and he looked at it in interest.

"What is it?"

"An ancient Sith shopping list." She reported, flinging it on to a pile carelessly.

"I presume you have a good reason for throwing around important historical artefacts child?" Lumiya asked in a cold but pleasant voice from the door, and she nodded.

"Take a look at it master." She said, and Lumiya picked up the scroll, then scoffed.

"An ancient shopping list. Why on earth would they leave it in a tomb? Ahh, never mind. We can always sell it to a museum on Coruscant, they'll pay for all sorts of junk." She said, placing it down more carefully than Vestara had before ambling through to annoy Luke.

"Anyway what were you saying?" she asked, and Ben picked up the next scroll.

"Look at this, to me they're all just a bunch of little pictures and squiggles." He said, and she grinned.

"It's simple really. Here..." she said, taking his hand, and guiding it to the first letter of the ancient Sith alphabet.

As she made her way through the alphabet, she could feel Ben's concentration on what she was showing him, but she could also feel the little bit of pleasure he got from her cool hand being laid gently across his warm one. Excellent. Lumiya was right, Ben was attracted to her, very much so. Not that she wasn't attracted to him, but unlike the young Jedi, she could focus on her job first and pleasure later. Lumiya had laid out the details of her plan, and she was now an essential weapon into bringing it to fruition. Ben was smitten by her, something both Sith would use to their advantage, and sooner rather than later.

But this was but one move in a very long game, a game Lumiya had been playing for over thirty years. Only now was she moving towards checkmate. And while her master made her moves, she would focus on Ben. For both business and pleasure.

As she guided Ben to the next letter, she looked up to see Lumiya standing in the doorway, her eyes alight with malice, and her face signifying her approval.

In the hold, Mara cursed as Jacen took out another of her men. This was probably the Force's retribution for battering K'kruhk like she had at Galactic Conquest.

"Any reason why you're here picking on your poor aunt rather than hanging out with your cousin?" she asked, trying to figure out how best to use her three remaining men.

Jacen grinned.

"Two reasons. First of all, it's fun, and K'kruhk asked me to put you in your place. And secondly, Ben's busy hanging out with Vestara." He said, his voice carefully neutral and Mara grinned.

"Do I detect a hint of jealousy there little nephew?" she asked patronisingly, and he gave her a dirty look.

"No!" he retorted, but there was an ever so slight childish whine to his tone which made her grin all the more.

However he was saved from further persecution by his sister.

"Hey, you should know Ben and Vestara are holding hands already." She said cheerfully, and Mara's eyes widened in alarmed rage.

"What!" she yelped, and stormed off making the twins laugh.

"Wait till she finds out Vestara's teaching him how to read Sith, she'll blow like the Death Star." Jaina whispered and Jacen laughed as they heard Ben and Vestara's protestations of innocence as Mara started interrogating them from the next room.

XX

The ship was quiet as they headed to Thule, Ben and Vestara had nearly gotten away with their whole learning to read thing except when Vestara let slip she had been teaching him Sith, which made Mara, who had been simmering down, rile right back up again. Now the only ones awake were the droids, who were carrying out some maintenance, Lumiya (currently trying to find Alema who had vanished again), Alema (the object of Lumiya's search) and Ben, who was watching the Sith tour the ship in a bad mood looking for the insane Dark Jedi while sipping a cup of hot chocolate, trying not to laugh at Lumiya's increasing vexation.

"Oh sod you then, stay hidden for all I care." Lumiya grumbled as Alema once again had used the Force to mess up her perceptions.

"Having fun?" Ben asked, grinning as Alema skipped behind Lumiya, laughing at her as she did so.

"No. Blasted bug-slut. Contrary to popular belief, not all Sith eschew sleep. I quite like the occasional eight hours." She grumbled, getting herself some water.

"Shame." He said unconvincingly, and she looked at him, a slight smile on her face.

"As is your situation." She said, and he raised an eyebrow at her to indicate she should explain herself.

"Oh come on Ben, it may have been a while but I still know what it looks like. The totally unsubtle male look of appreciation when looking at an attractive girl. Yours is much the same as your fathers." She said and he snorted derisively.

"If you think I'm looking at you, you're crazier than Alema." He said and she smiled.

"Of course not, your uncle is the one with a thing for older women." She said, earning her a confused look.

"Anyway, I have seen the looks you've been giving Vestara. You like her." She said, and he scoffed.

"No I don't."

"Please, it's obvious you do. You do know it can never happen though don't you?" she asked and he glared at her.

"i don't see how what Vestara and I get up to is any of your business." He said defensively, and she nodded.

"True, but Vestara is now my apprentice, and I am responsible for her. You do realise nothing can ever happen? You're a Jedi, she is a Sith. Your parents, your aunt, your cousin, none of them will ever allow you to be with her my dear boy." She said casually, and he looked away from her irritably.

"I don't fancy her so it doesn't matter, you're deluded." He said venomously, and she smiled, knowing she was getting to him.

"Of course you do dear boy. She's your age, she's the first girl you've met who doesn't get overcome with awe upon seeing you, she's beautiful, she's exotic, dangerous and a way for you to rebel. She's the complete package, aside from the fact your family will never allow you to be with her. She's the very personification of what your mother would never want you to be with. I know you like her Ben, and she likes you too, I'm sure of it. But alas, it can never happen. Good night." She said, suppressing the triumph as she left a furious and thinking Ben behind and headed back to her room. As she went, she saw Vestara appear in the doorway and stopped.

"Another move master?" she asked in excitement and Lumiya nodded.

"Yes. Ben will pull away from you for a while, don't pester him on it. After all, the heart wants what it can't have, and absence makes the ehart grow fonder." She said, laying her land on Vestara's shoulder proudly and heading to bed, both Sith smiling as Ben mulled over his thoughts in the hold.

XX

The door opened, revealing a large scale medical lab, where the Sith in charge, a female Arkanian by the name of Darth Scientia, her eyes pure white and surrounded by swirling Sith tattoos, watched as her Devaronian assistant, Darth Pharma, completed their latest test.

"Trihexalon Scientia?" Oracle asked as the Bothan strolled into the lab, and the Arkanian turned with a sinister smile on her face to greet the newcomer.

"Lady Oracle, a rare pleasure. Yes, Trihexalon. We've perfected a new strain, capable of eradicating an entire planet in a matter of ours. Over there, we are working on viral spores, to use on planets with high foliage, such as Felucia and Kashyyyk. We must always be prepared to serve Lord Krayt must we not?" Scientia asked and the bothan smiled and bowed her head.

"Indeed we must old friend. However, perhaps we should go for something more...traditional." she suggested and Pharma chuckled as he came over, his horns dyed black in place of tattoos.

"I think not Lady Oracle. Gone are the days of Death Stars, Galaxy Guns and Sun Crushers, these are the weapons of the future." He assured her, and she nodded.

"I agree, I simply wonder if we should totally abandon who we are when it comes to weapons of mass destruction." She said, and before Pharma could say anything, Scientia held up her hand.

"The teachings of ones such as Darth Nihilus are forbidden remember?" she asked and Oracle chuckled darkly.

"Believe me, I didn't mean that sort of thing, all too dangerous. But, there are other ways to replicate such powers." She said, and Scientia's blank eyes widened in understanding.

"You've had a vision, a weapon we can use?" she asked with excitement, and she nodded.

"Indeed I have. The Force Harvester, or at least parts of it since it was destroyed by the Republic during the Clone Wars. We may be able to use it to our own advantage." She said, and Scientia grinned.

"You're quite right, but I would need to study it here, in the lab. Which would mean a trip to Thule to get it I presume?" she asked, and Oracle nodded.

"It would. Which is why I asked my master down here at this time." She said, turning to face her master as she strolled in through the opening door.

"Hate when she does that." Pharma muttered, by Scientia silenced him with a gesture.

Wyyrlok wasn't the only Sith who had entered. Following him was the tall cadaverous form of Darth Fabula, the Muun who served as their archivist. While not contributing in his own field to further their cause, despite his calling as archivist, he was a powerful mental Sith Lord, capable of reducing an entire room to terrifying visions with a flick of his finger.

"Oracle, I have brought Fabula as you requested, but why did you request our presence, and here?" he asked, looking in distaste as the victims locked in plastic cages who Scientia was trialling a new strain of the Krytos virus on.

"I have had a vision master, and it concerns all of our departments. Parts of the weapon, the Force Harvester, remain on Thule, buried, but soon to be revealed. I believe we should act to take it, before the Jedi get wind of it." She said, and Fabula looked at her in excitement.

"You are sure of this? It was thought destroyed." He said, and she nodded.

"It was, but the Jedi, foolishly, simply buried the pieces, believing them to be of no more threat. Lady Scientia here believes we ought to be able to adapt it, or at the very least learn from it. I propose a mission to Thule in order to recover it." She said, and Wyyrlok looked at her suspiciously.

"Why the hurry apprentice?"

She growled softly.

"Because I fear Lumiya is on her way to Thule even now, and the last thing we need is for her to get access to something like the Force Harvester, it could give her an edge we don't want her to have, we would find it incredibly hard to stand against such a weapon when it comes down to a fight between us." She said, and Wyyrlok scowled, knowing full well now she said that he would have to give in.

"Lord Wyyrlok we must investigate, our future may depend on it." Scientia said, and Fabula nodded.

"Not to mention this history we could learn, the information we could gather."

Wyyrlok glared at his former apprentice. He didn't like being backed into a corner like this and she knew it. He also knew he had no choice. She had recruited Scientia and Fabula before he'd even arrived. However, as with all their missions any movement could lead to the Jedi learning of their existence. True, Lumiya had already told the Skywalkers, but...

The Skywalkers wouldn't want to cause a panic, they wouldn't tell anyone on Coruscant about an army of Sith for fear of causing widespread terror. Which meant that now would be a perfect opportunity to stop them, and even better, stop Lumiya, once and for all. However, if he was to do it, he had little time. If Lumiya was on her way to Thule, they must soon be too.

"Very well Lady Oracle. Take the others, take a ship, and see if you can't find us the Force Harvester. And we shall have a discussion when you return."

She bowed, and he swept from the room. It was risky, if anyone else should encounter them, the entire galaxy could discover them and it would be disastrous. However, if the Jedi or their Sith competitors got their hands on the Force Harvester, even the shattered remnants of it, it could spell the end of the One Sith. And with Lord Krayt away, it was down to Wyyrlok to protect the Sith, and he did not intend to fail in that mission. Oracle had left him with no choice but to approve her mission to Thule, and he suspected she had left all of this so late and recruited Scientia and Fabula in order to get off Korriban and test herself. He knew his former apprentice was restless, all of them were. But she had to learn caution.

However, for now she was bound for Thule, and he had no choice but to let them go.

But when she returned, he would remind her where her loyalties lay.

Here we are, at the start of a mammoth Fate of the Force update, I want to finish Episode II of the tale (all being well there is only the next chapter left before we start Episode III) before I go onto my new Supernatural arc, and I've already started the next chapter.

So, the Sith are up to no good as usual, Massassi are loose in the galaxy and the Alliance is falling apart at the seams. And now, with Vestara on board, Lumiya's plan can go into overdrive as she prepares for her next moves. But just what are they? Our heroes are bound for Thule, where Lady Oracle, eager to test herself against the Jedi, awaits. Will the Force Harvester yield anything of use in the battle against Abeloth?

Next time we also see a Jedi with little profiling in the Expanded Universe, the pirates and the Hapans return, as do the Chiss and plots begin to mount on Coruscant

So, until next time, it hopefully wont be long, please read and review!